Dosso dreams

Portrait of a Gentleman  by Dosso Dossi 16th century Ferrarese artist
 

On Sunday spent 6 hours in the Phildephia Museum of Art and did not see it all and spent 20 minutes of that time in front of this picture. I was unfamiliar with the artist and the room was ill-lit but the division between the world of dark and light was striking. The museum label said:

"The identity of this gentleman is not known, but the picture suggests that his interests included science and the observation of natural phenomena such as unusual weather. He looks at an armillary sphere, an astronomer's instrument for mapping the heavens (barely visible at the edge of the painting), and points to a maze, which symbolizes the course of life on earth. In the background is a stormy landscape in which a bird, smoldering because it has been struck by lightning, lies aback a donkey. This odd scene may record a curious incident the gentleman had observed, but more probably has symbolic meaning that has yet to be explained."

The problem is that the young man is not pointing to a maze but to a labyrinth. The difference  is that a maze has many false tuns whereas a labyrinth is only one path- the way in is the way out. The labyrinth is an ancient symbol of walking intentionally into the center of one's being, finding strength and then walking out to deal with the world while the maze is a mass of confusion needing to be solved.  Christians appropriated the labyrinth walk as part of the floor of some of their cathedrals. All Saints has a labyrinth on its grounds which is open for all for meditation.

The label sees the man trying to find meaning in the confusion of nature. However I saw the pointing to lighted side of his life as his trying to balance his life with a spiritual quest. I saw the lighted half as shedding light on a dream he had of the fear of the once powerful flying stallion, Pegasus, (Dosso had a fondness of Greek mythology) turning into a burned out earth bound beast of burden in a barren landscape in the later half of life while pointing to the prayerful labyrinth as a way to find God's path for himself.

At least that is what I saw but that would be my interpretation if that were my dream What do you see?