A PUZZLE on meaning and interpretation
 

The School of Francesco Francia: Saint Roch
The Sinebrychoff Art Museum

Kaisa Kettunen
 

A little girl stands in front of the painting and tells a story about the
painting: "This is a story about a very poor man, who had a dog. He
asked the dog to go to the nearby house to steal some food for him. The
dog went and found some food, but ate it himself, because he, too, was
hungry. The man got mad at the dog and punished it. Just then a kind
man walked by and saw the man hitting the dog. He got mad and took
the dog away from the man. The man had to go on living poor and
having no friends."

A museum educator tells about the same painting: "This is a painting
painted by an Italian painter Francesco Franca. It is telling the story of
Saint Roch. Saint Roch was a preacher, who had given up all that he
owned and traveled around preaching and spreading the message of
Christianity. One day he noticed that he had gotten ill and caught the
plague. He knew that he would get help, food and treatment in the
nearby town. He also knew, that he would pass on the disease to the
people living in the town. He decided to stay outside the town walls and
laid down in the shadow of a tree to wait for his death to arrive. Then a
small dog came and gave him a piece of bread he was carrying in his
mouth. The man ate it and made it to the next day. Then the dog came
again and every day from then on he brought the man some food. This
gave the man strength to make it from day to day and miraculously he
recovered from the disease. The owner of the dog had noticed that his
dog disappeared somewhere with some food every day and decided to
follow it one day. He met St. Roch and heard his story. He had been
saved by the dog and by a miracle of recovering. From then on St Roch
became the patron of all sick people. His story may have given hope to
all the sick."

There are two different stories. Which one is right? Why? Can anybody
make up a story of a painting and say that it is what the painting is
about? Can there be a false interpretation of a painting?