Dear Sofia - -
I may not know where to find the Blessed Diapers, but I do know what they
look like, so that wins you half the battle right then and there.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art displays a most marvelous triptych by my dear
good buddy Gerard David, entitled, "Nativity with (Donors and) Saints Jerome
and Leonard", 1510-1515. I included the parenthesis there because sometimes
the donors part is excluded from the title.
When I saw it this past month for the first time, it left me in near-shock,
for it seems to me to be clearly didactic in a novel sort of way. First of
all, the manger you asked about, is a sort of wicker woven basket with a
wooden base, about a meter long, and clearly portable.
Then, curiously displayed in a most prominent position in the foreground are
both the Holy Hay, very neatly wrapped and ribboned with some strands of
hay; and in very chic tightly-woven basket (somewhat like a fisherman's
basket), and even with a hinged top(!), we can appreciate the neatly
rolled-up Swaddling Clothes.
To me, it seems inescapable that the painting was conceived to explain just
how these sacred relics got to whatever church they got to (and perhaps,
somewhere near where this triptych originally hung, before it came to rest
at the Met) --
Well, it was planned that way, by God - - Which is why He saw to it, amid
everything else He had to tend to (herald angels, keep the ox and ass out of
the hay, direct the magi, etc) that night. that the Blessed Diapers would be
neatly rolled into a fine woven basket for safekeeping until St. Helena, or
whomever, happened by....
The painting is reproduced in several Met publications - although no one has
made mention of my assertion (so let's keep it a secret) - - they only make
some yawning reference to the hay and the Eucharist - - and you can search
it up on the Met's website at:
http://www.metmuseum,org/collections
and then going to the "European Paintings" collection; hitting "Search" and
typing in "Gerard David" and "Nativity" in the proper spots; then when the
painting appears, you can request "enlarge", etc (I'm sure you know how to
do this better than i).
Let me know what you think.
jmichael
> If anyone knows of any other Holy Swaddling Clothes,
>I should be very interested to hear from them off the list (as I am
>still in e-limbo).
>
>With many thanks in advance,
>
>Sophie Oosterwijk
>------
>Dr Sophie Oosterwijk MA
>Dept of the History of Art
>University of Leicester
>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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