On Fish and Art

Walking along the Tiber a few weeks ago I noticed the swirls of activity in the water - the fish were swimming alongside each other, playfully rising to the surface and then diving deeper - when I realized that I was witnessing the mating games of the fishes, I couldn't help but break into smile - there was such life affirming,joyful ring to that sight. An older gentleman stopped by, and asked, "Quie pesci?" "Si, sono innamorati," was my, probably a bit odd, answer. As I was going away I saw him still standing there, filming.

 Walking along the Tiber yesterday I saw a lot of fish floating belly up. It was so strange and such a contrast to the greenery of leaves, the chatter of seagulls, the movement of people jogging. The memories of the silvery dance that I enjoyed watching so much not long ago, and the picture of the lifeless bodies - didn't want to align.
Later my husband reminded me that some species of fish travel a long way to their breeding grounds, don't eat during their migration and simply die of exhaustion after mating. Quite literally from “la petite mort" to " le sommeil éternel.

Fish and its natural habitat always have certain fascination for me. Watching water and, if lucky, fish swimming in it, always has been  a very calming and relaxing activity for me. (I dearly miss my long walks along the ocean that was part of my routine while living in the Bahamas).

A lot of cultures view fish as an auspicious symbol of happiness, freedom, fertility and abundance. I remember that orange carps, the fish sacred in the Oriental cultures, were prominent features in Beijing where they swam in the ponds in the parks and also in water basins near the entrances to the shops or private homes.

It is said that if a woman sees a fish in her dream - she is to expect a child, and if a man sees a fish – something equally fortunate comes his way. There are fairy tales about fish granting wishes - most famous ones are by Brothers Grimm "The Fisherman and his Wife" and by A. Pushkin "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish"/"Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке"

A lot of written and pictorial sources show that from the earliest times of Christianity the fish was a symbol of Christ. The Greek word for fish “ichthys”/ ΙΧΘΥΣ is considered  an acronym for the words "Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ"/ Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter/Jesus Christ Saviour Son of God”

Since the water baptism was practiced by immersion, it established a parallel between fish and converts, and  the early Church Fathers often called their faithful "pisciculi" /little fish (" piscina" = lat. for fish) In fact, the Latin word for the vases in which water for baptism was stored is piscina, literally a fish pond, the same word as the swimming pool in modern Italian language.

And let’s not forget that fish has been a food staple for centuries and centuries. No wonder that fish are being widely depicted in art, and is also a popular motif for various household items. In religious paintings it usually closely connected with Christ and often appears on the table alongside wine and bread, and in genre paintings  are simply celebrating fish as a food and one of nature's creations.

Seven Fish Carpet fragment

The Fishmonger Vincenzo Campi, ca.1580

Still Life with Cat and Fish Jean-Simeon Chardin, 1728

Christ in the House of Simon, Dirck Bouts, 1445-50

Tavern Scene, Diego Velazquez, 1618

Young Tobias and the Angel, Francesco Botticini, 1470

There is a painting by Rafael that is called Madonna Del Pesce/Madonna with Fish, which he created around 1514.

Madonna Del Pesce,
Rafael, 1514

What is interesting in this particular painting aside from its beauty that it clearly shows the use of the attributes as a way of recognition who is who in the painting. It was customary in religious paintings to show the participants wearing certain colours, having a certain object in his/her hands, being accompanied by the certain animal. Those features were connected either with their life, or deeds, or martyrdom, and acted as name tags. Here Madonna can be easily recognized by her central position and the blue of her dress, the child on her knee doesn't need an introduction. The bearded man reading a book is St. Jerome whom the viewer can identify by the tamed lion at his feet, (The Golden Legend says that St. Jerome removed the thorn from the lion's paw while living in the monastery and the animal remained with him) On the other side of the throne is Archangel Rafael and a young boy holding a fish in his hands. The same young boy is on the painting above and there he is also carrying a fish.  The fish in his hand is a part of his story - he caught it with archangels' Rafael help and use its entrails to cure his father's blindness.

And so, from the sights of the morning walk to yet another  Madonna - one track mind, what can I say...

The Word of Images

Perhaps, you are familiar with the famous "The Treachery of Pictures" by Rene Magritte. The one that states under the image of a pipe, that is not a pipe. One can't really argue here because it is indeed not a pipe but a painting of a pipe. Would we think of this if the words wouldn't be there, and what would be the impression if there would be just words without the image? What Magritte's paintings tend to do for me and hopefully for many others is renewing the link between the ordinary objects, semantics and our expectations.

The Treachery of Pictures, 1929
Rene Magritte

 In the similar vein the lowly reading glasses, akin to those displayed below can be seen as a helpful instrument, the sign of aging,  promotion of reading, a display of personal aesthetics and quite a lot of other things. 

But let's take a leap roughly 500 years back and see what the image of glasses represented there. We will take a look at the  "Death of the Virgin", the painting of Hans Holbein the Elder, done in 1491. He was the leading painter of the rich merchant city of Augsburg at that time, and specialized in portraits and altarpieces. The subject of the painting was common for 15th century and its representation followed the certain rules derived from the stories of Mary's death.It was said that after the Crucifixion of the Christ his mother lived with the Apostle John. She did revisited many of the places associated with the life of her son, but was getting increasingly lonely. Finally, she prayed to be delivered from life and was visited by an angel who promised that within three days she should enter Paradise where her son awaits her. The angel presented her with a palm branch sent from Heaven as assurance of victory over the corruption of death. Mary requested the presence of all the apostles at the time of her death. And that is what we see looking at the painting - all the apostles are gathered around Mary and participating at the sacrament of Last Rite.

Death of the Virgin, 1491
Hans Holbein the Elder

Despite the fact that Mary is shown as a middle class woman from Augsburg (even her halo is discreetly hidden behind the bonnet) she is impossible to miss - all the gestures and glances direct our eyes towards her. The scene of her death most always would contain the palm branch mentioned above, which usually will be in the hand of St. John (according to the legend Mary gives it to him), there would be a candle (here St. John gives it to the Virgin Mary) which symbolizes the heavenly light coming to her, there would be the scene of the Assumption painted somewhere in the painting ( we see it here above the bed), there would be an apostle with holy water, and an apostle with incense, some of the apostles would be praying and some - reading scriptures. Here though at the foot of the bed there is an interesting figure - an apostle wearing a pair of spectacles. He is the only one, aside from Mary, who is facing the viewer; he is also the closest to a picture frame, sort of a bridge between the painting with its religious subject and a real world. In fact his image looks like a painting in its own right - a portrait of a young man. (It surely showcased Holbein's skills as a portraitist). But why the only apostle who wears glasses positioned in such a manner?

Apparently, during the last quarter of the 14th century and first quarter of the 16th century, a lot of paintings of the Dormition of the Virgin from Northern Europe had an apostle holding or wearing glasses. Why?
 If we think of the main function of the glasses, it is of course to enlarge, to amplify or - using a less familiar word - to magnify something.It is said that the Canticle Hymn of Mary was sung at the time of her death. The other name of that hymn the Magnificat (My soul magnify) echoes the most famous line of it, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, ” And thus those spectacles is a reference to the Magnificat and a reminder of an archaic meaning of the word "magnify" - to praise, to exalt or to extol. At the same time the glasses with their primary function of "making something to appear larger" emphasizing  the metamorphoses of Mary’s role - from an ordinary woman she became  the Mother of God, and from the Mother of God with her death - she is becoming the Queen of Heaven.

 So, slightly paraphrasing  the famous line of Rene Magritte - those glasses aren't just glasses...