"Jesus and the Strangel"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The reason for this image being in the collection is the "thing" between Mary's head and the girl-angel's face on the left.
What is that? "An owl." Is the spontaneous reaction of most I ask. But the longer most people look, the more uncanny the whole image becomes.
I myself have started to go through the usual suspects that appear in a motive like this. Who was there? Joseph: no, he looks different. The oxen: No, an oxen looks different. Donkey: nope, a donkey looks completely different. A lamb: a bit big for a lamb, don't you think? One of the two kings: They may have come from abroad but probably didn't look like that.
Now, an owl seems to be the best explanation but what kind of role could an owl have in this motive? In none of the images I have you can see an owl.
Maybe the painter liked owls. Maybe he wanted to draw a third angel and something went wrong. Reason enough for me to get the image and make it part of the project. Simply because it brings Jesus in combination with an element not present in other images: the uncanny.
"JESUS AND THE STRANGEL"
VIEW A LARGER VERSION ON flickr.
MEASUREMENTS: 68,5 x 88,5 cm (w x h)
SIZE: 0,606 m²
BOUGHT ON: November 28th, 2007
IN: Weitingen
AT: ebay
PRICE PAID: 1,- Euro
DISTANCE TO STUTTGART: 55,8 km
TOMMI BREM © 2008