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On Mon, 20 Mar 2000 13:55:02 +0000 [log in to unmask] wrote: > A practical point on the way Mary holds the infant Jesus. Most women will > automatically hold a baby with the left arm. This is because > (a) this holds the baby against your heart and the heartbeat is soothing: > and > (b) because most of us are right-handed and holding the baby with the left > leaves the right hand free to knead bread, stir soup, type learned articles > or whatever. > So possibly what we are looking at is whether these images were produced by > people who knew how mothers tend to hold babies. > I have somewhere got pictures of monastic seals which i think show the > Throne of Wisdom with Mary holding Jesus on the left and feeding him. (And > I do remember editing a text when my daughter was a baby and typing it all > with the right hand and getting very lopsided in the process because it was > the only way to keep her quiet.) Just to second this: I was wondering about the practical aspects of holding children, and Im sure this plays a part in the creation of some of these images; Gerard David's 'Milk Soup' Madonnas, where the Virgin is feeding the child with a spoon and bowl of milk, have her holding him in her left arm. Makes sense. ---------------------- Susie Nash [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%