Rebecca Schmitt wrote:
And as mentioned before, the man in yellow sitting in the corner is
definitely Joseph. For one, he has no brocaded trim on his gown. Not sure if
yellow is significant (probably!)
Yes to all. Yellow is one of the "Jewish" clues in art of some places
and periods, very likely including this one.
And I still think the red-gowned person is the third Magi, as 1) that is
where the crown is and 2) this person is holding one of the three gifts.
Correct. One of the Magi is routinely shown as a beardless, beautiful
youth, dressed in particularly exotic foreign dress. That's him. The
other two, according to custom, are middle-aged and old respectively, so
they represent the three ages of man.
(In Northern painting, but not so often in Italian, the three are also
typically of different races -- white Western European, swarthy or black
African, and some attempt at Asian or, failing that, Eastern European.
These patterns don't match up consistently with the age distribution;
e.g. sometimes the African is young, sometimes middle-aged.)
Often people look at the gift out of context and think it's the
Magdalen's ointment jar, but that's obviously not the correct reading
here. The entire painting is very formulaic; that's part the artist's
deliberate attempt to make sure the viewer recognizes it. You have
mother, baby, three haloed figures in exotic dress, three crowns, three
gifts, the stable setting; these are the necessary ingredients for the
Magi scene. Positions are pretty standardized also: One of the Magi is
presenting a gift, the others waiting, at least one of them kneeling.
Joseph is in the corner, placed as observer but not participant (look at
the direction of the gazes). And so on.
Artists will sometimes play with the arrangement of a formulaic scene
for artistic purposes. Because people are used to seeing a scene done in
a certain way, making a change can be a way to call attention to some
aspect, e.g. you might direct the Virgin's gaze the position of a donor,
or align the figures to place emphasis on some element of the setting. I
don't think we need to read the young Magus as a woman, though; that
would be beyond the scope of the sort of artistic alteration one sees in
this period. And although this figure has feminine elements, you do see
a *lot* of Italian youths who look feminine to our eyes.
The figures standing around all look to me like male entourage -- lots
of foreign elements in the headwear, etc. I'd like to know more about
the circumstances of the image; there may be a religious order that has
some significance in the representation here.
Lots of stuff going on up top, most noticeably the Annunciation to the
Shepherds.
No idea about that little cloud of praying angels on the stable wall.
> Where is Robin to tell us all how far off we are??? :-)
Robin has been fighting with e-mail trouble all day. If you've tried to
write me and it bounced, keep trying. I'm still yelling at my ISP.
--Robin
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
h-costume@mail.indra.com
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
