Quinten Massys, Triptique de la confrerie Saint-Anne a Louvain

[mmcnealy]

This is such a cute picture from the Triptique de la confrerie Saint-Anne a Louvain by Quinten Massys

The little boy has obviously gotten a hold of an adult's bag and is "helpfully" taking all the books and papers out of it. He's got a beautiful book of hours on his lap and is 'studying' a sheet of notes. The embroidery on the bib is gorgeous, and the spiral lacing of his gown that you can see is pretty neat.

You can almost see what's coming next, when the baby decides to see how sweet knowledge is and put some teeth marks on the binding, then nibble the papers.

*Sigh* I'd guess he's about 18-20 months old.

Comments

[katanubis.livejournal.com]

The embroidery looks like Assisi work. It's nice to see such a religious emblem on a secular garment. So often it's assumed that such a motif would be for religious use.

I'm wondering if the little one took out the sheet he's examining, except that it doesn't look illuminated like the book. What a great find!

[mmcnealy.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about the loose sheet too. There are a couple of loose devotional leaflets scattered about, so I wonder if it was a sheet of notes stuck in the book as a bookmark?

Its just such a cute picture.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Some of these painters were clearly well acquainted with *real* babies! I'm just waiting to find a painting of the Virgin and Child with a rosary where the Holy Infant is putting the beads in his mouth.... ;)