Yesterday I saw Leonardo da Vinci’s
Madonna Litta along with five other
paintings of the baby Jesus with a goldfinch or similar bird:
My research into this much neglected
Christian symbol has included learning how a legend from Pseudo-Matthew (an Apocryphal
book telling stories of Mary & Jesus’ early lives) may be one source of
inspiration for the artists using these birds.
The story tells how as a four year
old boy, Jesus one day started making model sparrows out of clay. Unfortunately it was the Sabbath and some of
his playmates (who would presumably would grow up to be Pharisees) told their
parents about this ‘work’ Jesus had been doing.
In response Jesus breathed on the twelve model sparrows and they came to
life – so the evidence of his Sabbath breaking flew away! Renaissance artists were certainly familiar
with this story and may have used it as a resurrection symbol. If that all sounds a bit far-fetched then
consider that the same Pseudo-Matthew is the source of the ox & ass being
present at the nativity (you won’t find them in the Bible). So all those people campaigning to ‘keep the
school nativity play’ are presumably fans of Pseudo-Matthew.
(Ghirlandaio's Nativity in Santa Trinita, Florence)
Anyway, today I visited the
Russian Museum and came across this delightful piece by a C19th Russian sculptor Fiodor
Kamensky:
The young boy is making birds out
of a clay brick:
I especially like the discarded
head that looks like a cross between Morph & Angry Birds!
The boy wears an Orthodox cross
round his neck and nothing explicitly makes a link with the Jesus story. But then a little internet digging reveals
that Kamensky was abroad when he made this sculpture – in Florence of all
places. Perhaps he too heard the stories
surrounding the paintings produced in that city half a century earlier?
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