Talk:Haller Madonna

Image from this article to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Madonna Haller.jpg and File:Albrecht Dürer - Lot's Flight - National Gallery of Art.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on 9 October 2018. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2018-10-09/1. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. Thanks  — Amakuru (talk) 10:52, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Picture of the day

The Haller Madonna and Lot and His Daughters are a pair of oil paintings on two sides of the same canvas. They were painted by Albrecht Dürer, and date to between 1496 and 1499. They are in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

The painting on the obverse depicts Mary and an athletic-looking Jesus, with a window looking out to a distant view. This scheme is similar to that of Giovanni Bellini's works, which Dürer had seen in his first sojourn in Venice (1494–95). It features coats of arms in the lower corners, both representing prominent families from Dürer's home town of Nuremberg, Germany. The left-hand arms are those of the house of Haller von Hallerstein, while the right-hand arms are for the Koberger family.

The reverse of the painting features a picture known as Lot and His Daughters, showing a Biblical scene of Lot's flight from Sodom, with a landscape including explosions of fire in the background. Since the two scenes are unrelated, it has been suggested that the paintings are intended as private devotional images, each depicting one example of a just life and God's grace.Painting: Albrecht Dürer

"Athletic-looking ... Jesus"?

Really?

Whoever came up with "athletic-looking" and I have an entirely different idea/definition of what "athletic" is.

I see no six-pack abs, no defined musculature. I only see a "jowly," pudgy, borderline fat/obese infant.

Or am I missing something? 2600:8800:785:1300:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 02:33, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

A weight-lifter in the making? Johnbod (talk) 03:05, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

A bizarre description, but that's how the National Gallery of Art describes him. Iapetus (talk) 08:37, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

It's quite funny really  — Amakuru (talk) 11:31, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

I think the description refers to the pose of the figure rather than it's physique. the actual wording from the NGA is "athletic christ child", in this case using the word "athletic" as a description of a common element in religious paintings, namely the "christ child". 16:34, 9 October 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnmarkaurelius (talk • contribs)

"The pose"? I see nothing "athletic" about the pose.

In fact, the baby looks like a miniaturized Charles Laughton giving the finger with its right hand. And there was nothing athletic about Laughton!

Or, again, am I missing something. 2600:8800:785:1300:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 21:54, 9 October 2018 (UTC)