An Angry Rabbit?

Parmigianino portrays an angry rabbit

At the circumcision of Christ — no

Two rabbits, the other scuttling

Away. Little Lord Jesus awaits

His sacred mutilation with forebearing,

Blondie Virgin mom staring sternly.

Enraptured, the mohel raises his blade,

Manicured fingernails at the ready. . .

Fagiolo dell’Arco saw a dead rat

In a Parmigianino portrait from 1523.

He took it for an alchemical symbol.

Actually, it's a tiny antique statue—

"Revelatory detail" leads the eye astray.*

But who knows what a mind might see!

Parmigianino, The Circumcision (1523). Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit.

*James Elkins, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles ? On the Modern Origins of Pictorial Complexity (New York: Routledge, 1999), 204. Elkins quotes Daniel Arasse, Le Détail: Pour une histoire rapprochée de la peinture (Paris: Flammarion, 1992), 266.

Thursday, March 12, 2026