The Haunted Infancy
For some reason I was inspired to scroll down to the bottom of the National Gallery of Art podcast feed, and discovered a wonderful lecture from 2015 that Alfred Acres gave over his book, Renaissance Invention and the Haunted Infancy. Naturally, my local library doesn’t have a copy. Amazon will sell me one for almost $100, or I can (fingers crossed) inter-library loan it from one of the universities nearby that does have it in their collection.
The “haunted infancy” is a reference to imagery used in artwork of the Christ child that alludes to His eventual sacrifice or to Evil. As the gallery website says, “Each represents a kind of absence in the moment pictured: the ultimate death of the infant and an intangible menace resisted by his coming.” Acres made some really interesting points and mentioned lots of little details in religious artworks that hold significant meaning, and I can’t wait to read through the entire book and do a better review of it. In the meantime, if you have any interest in art lectures, this was a good one!
Podcast episode is currently #299 of #300 in the feed, dated 2/24/2015