Eyes that seek the Unseen
June 13th was Lisbon’s municipal holiday – and that day coincides with the date of birth of the painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992). There was a celebration at the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva museum and in Amoreiras Garden, in front of the museum. As I passed by I noticed a group of children watching a puppet show.
It’s nice to see children looking at a something alive instead of being mesmerized by a screen…
Enjoying a walk in the Botanic Tropical Garden, in Lisbon, I was surprised by this unnusual statue of a woman breast-feeding an adult male.
I looked for information about this sculpture. This baroque statue was made in Rome by Bernardino Ludovici in 1737, and brought to Lisbon by king Joao V. “Roman charity” is a classical greco-roman theme, and it is based on the story of a woman trying to save her own father, condemned to death by starvation, by secretly breast-feeding him.
As you can imagine, a variety of interpretations of this subject can be found, some of them very creative…
João Avelar images 