The Pelican in Her Piety

The story

The medieval bestiary's pelican was believed to kill its own chicks in a fit of temper, then, three days later, pierce its own breast and revive them with its blood — a legend read throughout the Middle Ages as a direct allegory of Christ's Passion and the Eucharist, the pelican-in-her-piety becoming one of the most widespread symbols in Christian art, still found on church vestments and heraldry today. This miniature belongs to the Bird Book of Hugh of Fouilloy bound into a Getty manuscript alongside a bestiary proper, rendered in tempera, pen and ink, with true gold leaf catching the page's light exactly where the artist wanted the eye to land. Look for the careful red modeling at the breast wound, the moment the whole legend turns on. It is the bestiary's single most theologically loaded image, natural history entirely in service of devotion.