“Even more extraordinary than the ape of the Tura Pieta is the one we encounter in a Crucifixion by the unknown Dutch painter of the last years of the fifteenth century nicknamed the Master of the Virgo inter Virgines. In this panel, one of the treasures of Northern art preserved in the Uffizi, a particularly sinister simian sits near the foot of the cross, but instead of holding an apple he places his hand on a human skull. This, we may be sure, is the cranium of Adam, who according to mediaeval legend was buried on Mount Golgotha. How could the function of the ape as a visual metaphor for the Fall of Man be conveyed more strikingly than that? And here is the detail:”
Not by the Direct Method.: Surprise guest at the Crucifixion
Notes
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Direct Method.: Surprise guest at the Crucifixion
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