The worst thing about the saints' paintings in not usng their symbols. Thats how they are usually identified and I decided early on not to, just to do the portraits.
Might have to change this stricture - or I end up with a bunch of heads. With texts.
Stilll struggling with St John of Beverly whom I like so much I am reluctant to part with (that is, finish ...)
Hacking away at St Ann, mother of BVM. In the day she was shown as triumverate - her, holding Mary and JC. Very like a female balance to the trinity sculptures. Her emblem is, of all things, a door. Enticing! Though it stands in, I think, for the archway under which she and Joachim (?or whoever) met and 'recognised' that she was pregnant.
Beautifully under-documented; crops up on the Protoevangelium of James,( regarded as 'unreliable' by 4 Popes so can't be all bad - ) I only knew her as the woman who taught Mary to read which must have been a remarkable thing at that time. It waas only the artists that carried on that tradition.
...custom and tradition. Thats what Im looking for. The Magdalen fits the brief...
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