Paintings I Love, Part II

Today deserves a post. Do you know why? Because (a) I have mostly cleaned up the entire apartment after the mess it was in last night, (b) I have finished shopping for the week and planned the menu with extremely low stress, and (c) the smell of chocolate shortbread wafts through the air and inspires me to write. In fact, after this I think I might keep working on the poem I started Sunday. That's how awesome this day is.

By way of paintings, here's a great one for you. It's an unfinished sketch by da Vinci, presumably meant to be turned into a painting, but never prepped or transferred for it. It was stored away and by what anyone can tell basically preserved itself. Thank heavens! It's one of my favorites--one I would love to have hanging in my house somewhere. It's entitled The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant St. John the Baptist.

For those of you who don't know who St. Anne is, you used to be in excellent company, but no longer since I looked it up. :) We don't know much about her except from apocryphal books. Anne was barren, as any good woman in the Bible is, and prayed to God to bless her to conceive. An angel appeared to her and told her God had heard her prayers and that she would conceive a child who would be known throughout the world. Anne vowed that whether the child was son or daughter, she would raise it unto the Lord. The child Anne bore was Mary, the mother of Jesus. (This makes her the great-aunt of John, just in case you missed that.)

I love the pose of the figures. They all strike me as being real and divine at the same time. But perhaps more than Mary and Jesus, I am drawn to Anne and John. They show devotion, concern, and love for Mary and Jesus that is palpable. I can almost hear Anne teaching her daughter as she gestures toward Heaven. Their faces are both beautiful, but Anne's is animated and engaged. John also, leans in toward his younger cousin with an expression that says, "Send me, I'll go." I love it. I just love it. 

I hope that wasn't too cheesy for anyone. I'm not really a sappy person, but this one really gets me.