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Lot Essay
This tender depiction of the Virgin and Child with the Parrot is a reversed copy after an engraving by Sebald's brother Barthel (see Pauli 8). The two brothers seem to have worked closely together. The motif appears already a generation earlier in an engraving by Martin Schongauer.
In Sebald's version the Virgin is seated on a stone ledge, with the nude Christ child standing next to her leaning on her right shoulder. She holds a pear with her left hand and a parrot on her right; the pear would have been understood as a symbol of divine love, while the parrot embodied eternal life and truth. The charming yet unassuming little scene thus functioned as a reminder of the Virgin's love and of Christ's sacrifice for the salvation of mankind.
In Sebald's version the Virgin is seated on a stone ledge, with the nude Christ child standing next to her leaning on her right shoulder. She holds a pear with her left hand and a parrot on her right; the pear would have been understood as a symbol of divine love, while the parrot embodied eternal life and truth. The charming yet unassuming little scene thus functioned as a reminder of the Virgin's love and of Christ's sacrifice for the salvation of mankind.