The Dove's Revenge

Last night was one of those random evenings when the Uffizi is open late, but hardly anyone knows.  So I took the chance to scoot around at 9pm taking photos of the really famous paintings where crowds normally make photography difficult.  I'll have to go back later to spend more time with them.

Anyway one painting that particularly intrigued me was Verrochio's 'Baptism of Christ'

It is famous as the first identified work of Leonardo da Vinci.  He was a pupil of Verrochio and is believed to have painted the angel on the left and various other bits.

My dad used to endlessly tell the story of the 'apprentice's pillar' at Roslyn Chapel (once owned by a richer branch of the Sinclair family).  The story goes that while the master mason was away on holiday, his apprentice carved an incredibly ornate pillar.  On his return the master was so overcome with jealousy at the apprentice's skill that he murdered him.

Legend has it that Verrochio's more passive response to da Vinci's brilliance was that he put his brush down and never painted again.  On the other hand if you pay attention to Verrochio's angel - if looks could kill....

 

But what fascinated me most was another unusual bird appearance.  While every art critic I've ever come across concentrates on the da Vinci bits, no-one comments on the bird flying off into the trees top right.

 

Its clearly a sparrowhawk, which we might expect to see attacking a dove.  But here he's fleeing for his life, closely pursued by one of the divine shafts of light emanating from the Holy Spirit.  The dove it seems has turned the tables on the sparrowhawk, just as Jesus, through baptism, is turning the tables on sin.

I think I can see a book on birds in Christian art emerging from this Sabbatical??