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contrary_mma_hipster ago

Holy shit - great write up, but that's not a vulture in the Walton Ford painting, that's a chicken hawk!

Factfinder2 ago

Yes. It's a red kite as noted on the painting itself: https://imgoat.com/uploads/3f390d88e4/67681.jpg

Here's the story of Leonardo DaVinci's earliest childhood memory that obviously inspired this painting (scroll down a little to Earliest Memory section): http://leonardo.wikia.com/wiki/Leonardo's_Childhood

It was Sigmund Freud's interpretation of that memory that brought in the vulture mistranslation and sexual connotations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci,_A_Memory_of_His_Childhood

Freud's analysis: https://biblioklept.org/2012/04/24/freuds-psychosexual-study-of-leonardo-da-vincis-vulture-fantasy/

Piscina ago

I didn't realise it was a chicken hawk. That makes it even grosser and sicker.

realityisinsanity ago

It goes back to Phoenix worship throughout the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. The Canaanites I believe worshipped it.