So, that baby Jesus was really dead...or was he actually sleeping....??

 Dead Baby Jesus and Rock Star Jesus....

I am spending hours looking at these pictures of Jesus and laughing or thinking...I really like this one. So, I come upon this one. I think that baby does not look like he is sleeping...that looks like a dead baby. I am thinking...I will post this one up in my blog and so I decide to look for it again to see the painter. The painter is Giovanni Bellini and one of his paintings is at The High. The following is written about the painting : The painting " Madonna of the Meadow" shows Jesus sleeping in the Virgin's lap.

I think to see this in person....I would cry

 It is a natural pose yet anticipates the Pieta, in which the dead body is laid across the mother's lap. The landscape shows the farmland and the fortified hills of the mainland provinces of Venice. To the left of the Virgin a wading bird, possibly a crane, attacks a snake. This may be the intended to symbolize the struggle of good and evil. The vulture in the tree may be symbolic of death.

a la Wikipedia:  Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He is considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it towards a more sensuous and colouristic style. Through the use of clear, slow-drying oil paints, Giovanni created deep, rich tints and detailed shadings. His sumptuous coloring and fluent, atmospheric landscapes had a great effect on the Venetian painting school, especially on his pupils Giorgione and Titian.

St. Dorothy and the Infant Jesus by Francesco Di Giorgio

To get your mind away from the  "dead baby Jesus" I thought I would include another Jesus.  How about  rock start baby Jesus holding an Easter Basket...the dress...the bonnet...it all makes sense. The information about the picture: The subject is taken from "The Golden Legend", The Christ Child, bearing a basket of roses and apples, is said to have appeared to St. Dorothy as she was being taken to her martyrdom. She asked him to give them to Theophilus, who had scorned her vision, upon which he was converted. The apples in the story have been omitted in this painting.

So who was St.Dorothy. Why is she dressed like the Madonna ? Why does Jesus look like a rock star in his glamorous clothing and lovely long hair ?  Who is this child ?

 The Story of : St. Dorothy
According to her apocryphal (of a story or statement of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true) tradition, she was a resident of Caesarea, Cappadocia, who when she refused to sacrifice to the gods during Emperor Diocletian's persecution of the Christians, was tortured by the governor and ordered executed. On the way to the place of execution, she met a young lawyer, Theophilus, who mockingly asked her to send him fruits from "the garden" she had joyously announced she would soon be in. When she knelt for her execution, she prayed, and an angel with a basket of three roses and three apples, which she sent to Theophilus, telling him she would meet him in the garden. Theophilus was converted to Christianity and later was martyred.
What would I do without Catholic Online ??

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (baptized 23 September 1439 – 1502) was an Italian painter of the Sienese School and a sculptor, as well as being, in Nikolaus Pevsner's terms: one of the most interesting later Quattrocento architects and a visionary architectural theorist; as a military engineer he executed architectural designs and sculptural projects and built almost seventy fortifications for the Federico da Montefeltro, Count (later Duke) of Urbino, for whom he was working in the 1460s, building city walls as at Iesi and early examples of star-shaped fortifications.