I would like to accompany you to Florence. This time it is to
tell you about a painting that is neither famous nor particularly
beautiful, but is very suggestive.
The painting is hanging in a
little room on the top floor of the Palazzo Vecchio, where
one of the most prestigious museums in all of Tuscany and
of all of Italy is housed. It is circular in shape and its
dimensions are approximately 1 meter in diameter. Its frame
is wooden with gold inlay and it forms an elegant motif of
flowers and fruit (popular in the mid 1400s). It is
attributed to a sphere of private purchasers. The figures
are: the Madonna (Mary), Jesus and St. John which are inserted
into a rural landscape with two shepherds, a dog and a small
flock of sheep. Up until this point, there is nothing unusual
about this painting. Hundreds of these types of paintings
were created during the 1400s in Florence to adorn the
homes of merchants, bankers, nobles and the clergy of Tuscany.
But yet, there is something strange
about this painting:
What are the shepherd and his
dog observing? In the sky far above them, a strange, lead-colored,
oval flying object appears. It seems to be in
movement and it has a sphere-shaped crown under it. On the
top, its loaded with pointy projections, similar to
antennas. A UFO?
At the time that the painting
was created there were certainly no machines capable of flight
in existence (even though it wouldnt be long before
Leonard da Vinci 1450-1519 would begin to design them!). Nonetheless,
we can exclude the idea that the artist of the painting (possibly
a student of Filippo Lippi) could have had an idea of what
a UFO was. Actually, we can almost be certain that in those
times no one could have hypothesized the existence of extra-terrestrials.
However, it seems just as impossible
that the flying object could be related to the general subject
of the painting. What could possibly link the sacred group
of Mary, Jesus and St. John to the strange event taking place
far above them? The curiosity and the gestures of the shepherd,
who is placing one hand above his brow to see better, dont
seem to be consistent with a mystical and religious event.
But even if it were, that is, if the mysterious object did
represent a metaphor of a sacred background, how is it possible
that an artist of the 1400s could have chosen to also
include the curious expression of the dog?
The painting has been analyzed
several times in Italy and in the U.S. It has not undergone
any touch-ups or other interventions, so it is not a hoax.
In 1978, an architect was the first to notice the strange
flying object in the painting. Since then the UFO-ologists
have adopted it as an emblem that the sightings of UFOs
did in fact take place even in past epochs while the skeptics
have remained unconvinced. The first group maintains that
the painter wanted to reproduce an extraordinary event that
had happened to him previously or that the same painter, who
some identify as Filippo Lippi, was so extravagant that he
inserted capricious objects in his artwork. These theories
do not hold up. First of all, because Filippo Lippis
style is not present in this painting, possibly that of his
student. But theres also another reason- in the 1400s
all of the paintings were commissioned very precisely, and
usually the purchasers were very refined and always demanding.
They were the ones who indicated what was to appear in the
painting to the artist. No artist would have taken it upon
himself to insert an element as bizarre as a flying object
into his painting.
If we really wanted to entertain
ourselves with the possibilities, we would need to ask ourselves
about the purchasers. Lets imagine a rich merchant in
the 1400s who finds himself in an open field with his
dog- maybe during a hunt- observing a dark flying object.
The bright light of the sun is so blinding that he has to
place his hand above his brow to block it out. Lets
imagine then that once he returns home with his heart in his
throat, convinced of having assisted in a divine manifestation,
he goes and tells the story to a great painter and asks him
to create a devotional piece with Jesus, Mary and St. John
(who is also the patron saint of Florence), and in which the
transcendent event also appears. This way, he will not be
able to forget it- like a deferred photograph.
It could have happened like
this or in a thousand different other ways. Nevertheless,
I believe, that the key of the enigma lies in the hand of
the purchaser of the painting. Unfortunately, a silence of
more than 500 centuries separates us from the truth. In the
end maybe its better this way. Whether or not it is
a UFO or a meteor, and whether or not the extra-terrestrials
did or didnt arrive in Tuscany in the 1400s, we
will certainly never know. But one thing is for certain- without
that strange flying object, the painting would have never
had its excellent restoration and it would probably not be
displayed in a room in the prestigious museum of Palazzo Vecchio.
Lastly, I would not have been able to tell you about it...