A well-dressed man with a bird on his hand

[Bert45]

I took the photo in the church of Santa María Salomé in Santiago. I carelessly forgot to make a note of any details. I did a google reverse image search and found an almost identical photo, claiming that this figure was San Julián. On fundacionjacobea.org, I found this: "In the interior [of the church of Santa María Salomé] there is a small chapel next to the presbytery, dedicated to Our Lady and San Joseph, with a vault of the XVI century whose nerves are supported by Renaissance-style corbels. The chapel is presided over by a baroque altarpiece of stipes from the second half of the 18th century dedicated to San Julián. This altarpiece always contains an anecdotal detail: between multiple faces carved in relief and gold, some with aquiline nose and Aztec features, there are two faces of angels wearing spectacles."
I am confused that a chapel dedicated to Our Lady and Saint Joseph (or San José) should have an altarpiece presided over by neither of them, but by San Julián. Let that pass, for now. No description of the saint is offered, but the interweb can supply a 4th-century parricide, known as St Julian the Hospitaller, sometimes represented as "a young man holding a hawk on his finger". There are 12 other canonised Julians, but I doubt that there is another known for carrying a bird on his finger. Those aren't the clothes of a 4th-century gentleman. I'm no ornithologist, but that bird looks more like a dove than a hawk, and ¿don't people hunting with hawks usually have them on their forearm, protected by a leather sleeve, or gauntlet? The story of St Julian does not involve hunting with a hawk. And in his right hand he is holding a blue stick – it looks like a conductor's baton.
In case you are not familiar with 'stipes' (singular, plural 'stipites'), I'll save you the trouble of googling it: it's the vertical beam of a cross used for crucifixion. It looks as though fundacionjacobea.org think 'stipes' is plural.
Can anyone explain the 'hawk', the blue baton, or the clothes?

 

[pelerine]

In art clothes are often painted/sculpted(?) in the style of the era when the artist lived. As to the rest I do not know.

 

[El Cascayal]

Can anyone explain the 'hawk', the blue baton, or the clothes?

It was George Washington on his first Camino.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Can anyone explain the 'hawk',

In my honest opinion the " hawk " is a dove and on this photo it's different and white.

 

[Pelegrin]

Julián el Hospitalario - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

es.wikipedia.org

The saint is Julian el Hospitalero. There is also a version in English " Julian the Hospitaller". I put the Spanish version because in " Iconografia de San Julian el Hospitalero" there is a photo very similar from the church of San Xian de Romai near Caldas de Rei where the baton is a sword. According to the legend, the baton should be a sword also in Santa Maria Bartolomé. The hawk represents hunting in general because he was told by a deer, when he was chasing it, that he was going to kill his parents, what finally did by accident.
This is an European medieval legend, so obviouly the clothes are out of date in both photos.
Ho opened an albergue with his wife and helped a lot of travellers. I don´t know if he is officially´considered the patron saint of hospitaleros. There are a lot of villages named San Xian and San Xiao in Galicia.

 

[Bert45]

In art clothes are often painted/sculpted(?) in the style of the era when the artist lived. As to the rest I do not know.

That seems a likely explanation. The sculptor would probably not have access to books illustrating 4th-century clothes.

 

[Bert45]

Julián el Hospitalario - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

es.wikipedia.org

The saint is Julian el Hospitalero. There is also a version in English " Julian the Hospitaller". I put the Spanish version because in " Iconografia de San Juan el Hospitalero" there is a photo very similar from the church of San Xian de Romai near Caldas de Rei where the baton is a sword. According to the legend, the baton should be a sword also in Santa Maria Bartolomé. The hawk represents hunting in general because he was told by a deer, when he was chasing it, that he was going to kill his parents, what finally did by accident.

The caption for the iconografia on the Spanish Wiki page must be a typo (Juan for Julián). These sculptors don't make life easy, ¿do they? From a hawk (that looks like a dove) on a finger, I am supposed to realise that it refers to a talking deer when he was hunting. I would guess that the statue originally held a sword, but it has been lost, and somebody thought that the blue stick was a satisfactory substitute.

But I think that my questions (clothes, hawk, stick) have been answered. Thanks, forum buddies.

 

[Pelegrin]

The caption for the iconografia on the Spanish Wiki page must be a typo (Juan for Julian)

Juan ?. Maybe yo mean Xian that is Julian in Galego.

 

[Bert45]

In my honest opinion the " hawk " is a dove and on this photo it's different and white.

I think you're right, Peter. The clothes of the man in your photo are remarkably similar to those in my photo. And the sword, if it was ever a sword, has been replaced by a stick or wand as in my photo. You are much more likely to have a dove settle on your finger than a hawk. But perhaps the sculptor had misunderstood the brief, Chinese whispers (¿Am I allowed to say that?) and so on. Or, "I'm not very good at doing hawks, ¿can I do a dove, instead?"
Where was your photo taken?

 

[Bert45]

Juan ?. Maybe yo mean Xian that is Julian in Galego.

"Iconografía de San Juan el Hospitalario" copied and pasted from es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ page: Julián_el_Hospitalario

​

 

[Pelegrin]

"Iconografía de San Juan el Hospitalario" copied and pasted from es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ page: Julián_el_Hospitalario

​

You are right. Thank you

 

[lalaone]

The question is well answered.

Wild, I was just reading about Saint Julian this morning in a different context. I now see he must be one and the same. The following tale comes from Olav Audunssøn by Sigrid Undset (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1928), set around the year 1290 AD and seen through Norwegian eyes of the time. My takeaway was that Julian's life must have been relatable enough to spread all across Europe, with different aspects emphasized at different times/places. I never would have known about the bird and now wish to learn more. Thank you @Bert45

“No, no. You and Ingunn have been my best friends. But I am neither pious nor good. And I often tire of everything. I wished that I could change the way that I am and become a harsh man when I failed to be kind. I wanted to let God judge people instead of doing so myself. There was once a holy man in France, a hermit. On behalf of God, he had taken on the loving deed of offering shelter to folks who traveled through the forest where he lived. One evening a beggar appeared and asked to take lodging with the hermit. Julian was his name, I think. The stranger was covered with leprous sores; he was ravaged by the disease and had a vile and vulgar way of speaking. He did nothing but complain about the kindness the hermit showed toward him. Then Julian helped the beggar undress. He washed and tended to the man’s sores and kissed each one of them before putting the man to bed. But the beggar claimed that he was freezing and ordered Julian to warm him by lying down at his side. Julian did as the man said. Then everything that was unclean and hideous and coarse-sounding slid right off the stranger as if fastened to an invisible cloak. And Julian saw that it was Christ himself he held in his arms.”

 

[Kathor1]

San Xulián, in the given regional context, is a saint with a legend and an imagined biography that is not fixed but fluid. This saint's local legend is sometimes a combination of elements taken from the legends of different saints as known elsewhere. Depending on the local version, San Xulián is said to have lived in France or in Belgium or in Egypt.

Some versions deal only with his life as a hospitalero while in other versions this is combined with erroneously killing his parents when he mistook them for his wife and a lover. He is often depicted as a young man from a wealthy family - hence the expensive clothes. In statues of this saint, sometimes the emphasis is on him having been on a hunt when he heard the prophecy, sometimes the emphasis is on his being a martyr.

The bird does not play a role in the versions of his legend. It can be a falcon because falcons were associated with hunting for the wealthy but it has also morphed into other birds, in particular a dove. In his right hand, he can hold a shotgun (as a hunter) or a palm branch (standard symbol for martyrdom) and it depends on the artist's creativity how this palm branch looks like. If he holds a sword it is sometimes wrapped up - it is most likely that it refers to the killing of the parents although a sword is also a standard symbol for martyrdom when the saint was killed by the sword.

Galicia and France have each numerous villages and towns named after this saint / with him as their patron saint, something like 150 and 80 if I remember correctly.

The statues shown below are from Galicia, showing him, in addition to his other attributes, with palm branch; with colourful bird; with shotgun; with palm branch; with sword; and with another palm branch.

 

[Bert45]

The question is well answered.

Wild, I was just reading about Saint Julian this morning in a different context. I now see he must be one and the same. The following tale comes from Olav Audunssøn by Sigrid Undset (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1928), set around the year 1290 AD and seen through Norwegian eyes of the time. My takeaway was that Julian's life must have been relatable enough to spread all across Europe, with different aspects emphasized at different times/places. I never would have known about the bird and now wish to learn more. Thank you @Bert45

“No, no. You and Ingunn have been my best friends. But I am neither pious nor good. And I often tire of everything. I wished that I could change the way that I am and become a harsh man when I failed to be kind. I wanted to let God judge people instead of doing so myself. There was once a holy man in France, a hermit. On behalf of God, he had taken on the loving deed of offering shelter to folks who traveled through the forest where he lived. One evening a beggar appeared and asked to take lodging with the hermit. Julian was his name, I think. The stranger was covered with leprous sores; he was ravaged by the disease and had a vile and vulgar way of speaking. He did nothing but complain about the kindness the hermit showed toward him. Then Julian helped the beggar undress. He washed and tended to the man’s sores and kissed each one of them before putting the man to bed. But the beggar claimed that he was freezing and ordered Julian to warm him by lying down at his side. Julian did as the man said. Then everything that was unclean and hideous and coarse-sounding slid right off the stranger as if fastened to an invisible cloak. And Julian saw that it was Christ himself he held in his arms.”

And that, m'lud, is the case for the defence.