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While designs like Madonna with child, the main figures in the foreground of this design, were immensely popular in renaissance art, they have gone out of fashion with the majority of the populace for the past two hundred years ago. Most of this was due to the fact that any sort of clothing item with a depiction of Jesus and Mary on it would have been considered sacrilegious for quite a long period of time, and that, more recently, wearing designs like this would have been considered un-cool, or too establishment.
However, in the last decade or so, many have begun to realize that not only can religious symbolism and art create a great graphic for apparel design, but the fact that they have been out of fashion for such a long time has made them even more fresh and cool today. The idea that religious designs are somehow not appropriate for apparel is something that only came with staunch orthodox religious beliefs, and as these have begun to give way to more lenient, tolerant standards, this sort of issue has slipped away.
This design, entitled, "holy", depicts a colourful and elegant image of the Virgin Mary holding her child. She wears red and blue, and in her hair, a yellow blossom catches the eye. The two figures are set against a background of intense and radiation colour. A starburst of yellow and purple seems to explode out from Mary's head, while her body and the arms holding her child are backed by a leafy green canopy. Outside the circle of colour, a black design that resembles both earthy elements such as branches and leaves and more cosmic ones like stars and stardust seems to spread itself around the loving pair in the centre. This is illustrative of the bond between earth and heaven, between mother and child, and between God and man. A threefold interweaving of elements is symbolized elegantly and in a colourful design that is cool even by today's standards.
The most important thing about this design, however, are the words at the top that read "divine inspiration". These make it apparent to the viewer that the graphic, although depicting symbols from the Christian and Catholic religions, is not limited to such symbolism, but is an illustration of a wider idea of the divine and the spiritual. This makes this design multi-faceted and interesting to those who are and those who are not religious.
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