Open AccessThe Biota of the Florentine Tondo
Author(s) -
Inácio Schiller Bittencourt Rebetez,
Alcimar do Lago Carvalho
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
revista de história da arte e arqueologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2179-2305
pISSN - 1413-0874
DOI - 10.20396/rhac.v1i1.13693
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , object (grammar) , art , relation (database) , biota , art history , biology , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , linguistics , database
This paper describes and identifies the biological elements depicted in Virgin with Child, Young St. John the Baptist and an Angel by Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522) from the permanent collection of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, which include a bird, an insect, a mushroom and 10 vegetables, seven of which in flowering. Starting with an analysis of the probable symbolic roles of each biological element based on individual natural and biological properties then proceeding to interpret the presence of each vis-à-vis its relation to the others, this article shows the undeniable convergence of each object’s meaning: birth, death and regeneration (or reproduction) likened to the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.