NO. 8 BARTOLOME BERMEJO FRIEDMANN J 



the outdoors. Its head is turned toward the seated bishop as if watch- 

 ing him. Among the objects on the desk, besides the manuscript on 

 the lectern, are a large book, another sheet of manuscript, a bag of 

 dusting powder for drying the ink, and a compass, while still another 

 book, clamped closed, may be seen through the open door of the base 

 of the desk. 



In his study of the legends and descriptions of the birds of the 

 ancient Greek authors, Thompson (1895, p. 152) writes that the por- 

 phyrio was considered a bird of lofty morals and great vigilance. He 

 refers to pertinent statements in the works of Aelian (XXXV, 14), 

 who considers the bird to be very chaste and modest, and notes that 

 the bird was said to be held sacred in Lybia. He also cites Dionysus as 

 another describer of the virtues of the porphyrio but does not mention 

 Aristotle. In the latter's writings (History of Animals, trans. R. 

 Cresswell, 1902, pp. 45, 206 ) I find only that this bird has a long neck 

 and, unlike other birds which imbibe water at intervals, raising their 

 heads in order to swallow each mouthful, it gulps down directly and 

 continuously without lifting its bill from the water. The virtues 

 ascribed to the porphyrio by Aelian, Dionysus, and others could easily 

 apply to a great many saintly individuals serving in high church offices. 

 Of more immediate pertinence to its usage in this painting is the identi- 

 fication of the porphyrio with Pudicitia, representing modesty and 

 chastity, in the famous emblem book of Andrew Alciati (fig. 5), a 

 primary source of concepts and symbols for many artists painting 

 after the middle of the 16th century. This book was hardly completely 

 a personal invention of Alciati's and must have included and reflected 

 the thoughts and emblems that had been current for some time before 

 then. 



Thus, even though Bermejo's picture was painted some decades 

 prior to the first appearance of Alciati's work, it is important to give 

 serious consideration to the concept of chastity as embodied in the por- 

 phyrio in the picture of the episcopal saint. For if, as seems highly 

 probable, the porphyrio does connote chastity, this would cast doubt 

 on the correctness of Ihiguez's assumption that the writing bishop 

 was intended to be St. Augustine, whose difficulties with continence 

 caused him to utter his famous prayer "Lord, give us chastity, but 

 not yet." 



One further point about the porphyrio may be made : Its Greek 

 name Porphyrion, its Spanish name Calamon, and its French name 

 Poule Sultan all refer to its purple color. Aside from its other con- 

 notations, its coloration makes it peculiarly fitting as a companion bird 

 to a bishop, who traditionally has purple vestments as part of his 

 garb. 



