Focus on Madonna of the Magnificat and analyze the Madonna as a female writer.
Conventionally, the Madonna is depicted as a reader rather than a writer. In this painting, Botticelli made the decision to depict her as a writer. Following common Humanist rhetoric, this shift from reading to writing raises more questions. Traditionally, the Magnificat was believed to be an oration by Mary, rather than a written document. This depiction of the Virgin as a writer, however, employs what may be a "rhetoric of impossibility." There is a concept that the literacy and ability to compose writing in women is a "miracle," as no other woman has the ability to obtain the factors that make the Virgin who she is; the virginal, noble figure that is highly revered by all who follow the Bible in a Christian setting. While at first glance, this may appear as a feminist statement about humanist female authors and scholars at the time, it can be analyzed as a backhanded compliment, disregarding the movement towards female literacy and using this "rhetoric of impossibility." Botticelli further intensifies the Virgin's position as a woman writer, juxtaposing her roles as a mother and as an author. The Madonna is simultaneously portrayed as a maternal figure, softly tending to the Christ child, and as an author, exemplifying the aforementioned "rhetoric of impossibility."
Humanist Magnificat