Swoon of the Virgin

[4] By the 15th century Italian sacri monti included shrines commemorating the spasimo in their routes, and an unofficial feast-day was being celebrated by many, especially the Franciscans, and the Vatican was being asked to make it official.

The backlash produced a work of 1506 by the Dominican Thomas Cajetan, then a professor at the Sapienza University of Rome and later to be head of his order and, as a Cardinal, Martin Luther's opponent in dialogue.

Cajetan pointed out the lack of biblical authority and, as described by Nicholas Penny, that "the severe physical weakness following a 'spasimo' as defined by Avicenna would be incompatible with the explicit statement in the Gospel of Saint John that the Virgin stood beside the cross, an act of endurance that would have required exceptional strength.

[6] Official disapproval of the swoon gained ground in the Counter-Reformation and was followed by the authors of guides for the clergy on the interpretation of the short and inexplicit decrees of the Council of Trent in 1563 on sacred images, with minutely detailed instructions for artists and commissioners of works.

One major work to depict the Swoon is The Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden (Prado, c. 1435), in which the body of the Virgin, with eyes closed, is parallel to that of her son just above.