Pelican feeding chicks with its blood whose symbol. About the resurrection from the dead. Taking the veil off Christianity. Apocalypse, however! Pelican is a symbol of self-sacrifice
A bird that lives on the water, which, according to legend, loves its chicks so much that it feeds them with its own blood (they tear pieces out of its chest), tearing its chest (it is now known that they take out food supplies from their subbeak sac). (Curl-8).
The fact that nesting adult birds tilt their beaks to their chests and feed the chicks with fish brought in the throat pouch has led to the erroneous conclusion that the parent birds tear open their chests in order to feed the chicks with their blood.
A symbolically significant image of a bird. Sacrificial love (sacrifice), mercy and meekness. One of the most famous allegories of Christ, and it is in this capacity that it appears in the form of the seventieth emblem of Bosch’s “Symbolic Art” (Kerl-32). With the same meaning it can decorate a vessel in a still life.
Attribute of personified Mercy. A symbol of selfless parental love.
Symbol of filial devotion in heraldry.
Antiquity
The pelican is said to be "according to his mercy." For the Romans, charity (pletas) meant honoring one's parents.
Serves as one of the main symbols of alchemy, being in a sense the opposite of the raven.
This symbol also appears in the figurative world of alchemy as an image, on the one hand, of a certain kind of retort, whose “beak” leans towards a pot-bellied bulge, and, on the other, of a philosopher’s stone disintegrated in liquid lead, which melts and dissolves to cause the transformation of lead into gold. Thus, the pelican appears to be a symbol of a selfless desire for improvement.
Freemasonry
As a "disinterested pursuit of ennoblement" it also illustrates the "Rosicrucian" title of the Scottish system of Freemasonry. The “knights of the rose and cross” belonging to it are also called “pelican knights” in the old systems.
Emblematics
It is said that in times of need, it feeds its chicks with its own blood. Therefore, moralists made it a symbol of parental love, religious people - a symbol of the love of our Savior, and poets from the most ancient times resorted to this image to personify the described ideas. (See Figure 5 in Table 61.)
Pelican feeding its chicks.
This bird, which often visits salt and freshwater bodies of water, is extremely voracious and loves to eat fish. Its favorite habitats include the most remote and abandoned forests, where it builds nests and feeds its chicks. From all this it follows that the phrase "desert pelican" is not true. In these remote, forested areas, the pelican brings food for its numerous offspring, for which nature has provided this bird with a wide pocket located next to the throat. If in the past there was a person who would have seen a female pelican feeding her chicks by taking food out of her pocket, he would have doubted that she was feeding the chicks with her own blood. Thus, from an ordinary mistake, the story of this miracle was born, which gullible and diligent ignorance carried through many centuries.
Pay attention like a pelican
To feed your weakened cubs,
They release their blood of their own free will.
Having no other way to save others,
This bird inflicts wounds on itself.
When you see this holy emblem,
Turn your gaze and soul to that
Who died for you.
Christianity
R.hr. writers compared the pelican, feeding its offspring with its flesh, with Jesus Christ, who sacrificed His blood for the salvation of mankind.
R.hr. “Physiologus” - the bird kills its disobedient children (or they are killed by snakes), but after three days it can, with the blood of its heart, awaken them to life, because of which it itself loses life.
The legend tells of how a pelican feeds its young with its blood by piercing its chest with its beak. The earliest bestiary - the anonymous "Physiologist" - states that the female strangled her cub in a fit of love and that the returning male, having pierced his side, allowed the cub to drink his blood. During the Renaissance, this image served as a symbol of mercy and was also a fitting illustration of the concept that the blood of Christ was shed for the salvation of mankind. Dante (Paradise, 25:112) refers to the Apostle John as the one who “reclined with our Pelican and pressed himself to his chest.” This bird can sometimes be seen sitting or nesting on the top of the cross.
The medieval "Bestiary" quotes a forgotten church song with the text "O pelican, full of goodness. Lord Jesus" and mentions the property of a water bird to consume only as much food as is really necessary to maintain life. “In a similar way lives a hermit who eats only bread: he does not live to eat, but only eats to live” (Unterkircher).
The pelican became a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ crucified on the cross, for Christ loved all humanity. In this sense, the pelican also symbolizes holy communion. This interpretation is based on Psalm 101:7, which says, “I am like a pelican in the desert” (an allusion to Christ).
Sometimes a pelican's nest is depicted on top of a cross, and sometimes in scenes of the crucifixion of Christ.
Represents the human nature of Christ and is the mate of the Phoenix bird.
In Christianity it is the sacrifice of Christ; Christ, according to Dante, is... ???
Illustrations
Pelican in a book, printed from engraved wooden boards. I. Eizsnhut. Regensburg. 1471
At some point in time, we decided to give our information system, which was developing very quickly, a proper name.
After quite a long search, the system received the name IT – PELICAN
I will talk a lot more about the information system, but now about Pelican - why it has such a name.
Pelican is the world's first donor
According to legend, a pelican tore its chest to feed its cubs with its blood.
In some European countries, the pelican has become the most important donor. Of course, as a symbol.
It was not by chance that the pelican was chosen to depict the donor movement. There are so many legends and myths associated with this bird.
There is, for example, such ancient legend of the pelican. The female, in a fit of passionate caresses, killed her own children. Then the male tore his chest with his beak and sprinkled it with blood. And a miracle happened - the chicks came to life.
The pelican, as a character in fairy tales and legends, was often used in stories with blood. Early Christian writers compared the pelican, feeding its offspring with its flesh and blood, with Jesus Christ, who sacrificed his blood for the salvation of mankind. Among Muslims, the pelican is generally considered a sacred bird. According to Muslim legend, the pelican carried stones in a pouch in its throat to build shrines in Mecca.
Thanks to these pathetic stories, the pelican became an image of self-sacrifice and care, and it was immediately declared sacred. And when the donor movement arose in the world, it was the pelican that donated its blood that was chosen as the hallmark of donation.
But first, myths and legends about loving pelican fathers began to be used as pictorial symbols in European heraldry. Here the pelican was also identified with selfless parental love, although a different myth was taken as the basis for heraldry.
In difficult times, when pelican chicks are in danger of starvation, their parents tear open their breasts and feed their offspring with their own blood. Sometimes, while saving the lives of children, parents die. Therefore, the pelican has become a symbol of the highest selflessness and self-sacrifice.
His image became a symbol of blood transfusion services in Holland, Belgium and some other countries.
In Russia, the image of a pelican feeding its chicks served as the emblem of many shelters and hospitals, symbolizing selflessness and dedication. Such emblems have been preserved above the entrance to the courtyard of the former Orphanage in St. Petersburg, on the building of the former Orphanage in Moscow, and on the building of the current children's hospital in Odessa.
Following the example of the pelican, noble people of Europe, having inscribed “feeding his children” on their coats of arms, seemed to take an oath to feed and care for their family forever, passing this oath from generation to generation.
By the way, the modern symbolism of self-sacrifice for the sake of children also echoes ancient heraldry.
For example, in Russia, the best teacher of the year is awarded a special prize - a Crystal Pelican figurine.
The appearance of the pelican, apparently, also played a role in ancient and modern symbolism. At first glance, the pelican looks rather incongruous - it is an aquatic bird with a wingspan of about six feet, it has a very long beak, the lower part of which is widened and forms a pouch for storing fish.
Even to the ancient alchemists, the peculiar beak of the pelican resembled a retort. In their experiments, they even called this laboratory vessel, sometimes filled with blood, a “philosophical pelican.”
The ancient alchemical image became an additional argument when choosing a symbol of donation.
Based on materials from vmdaily.ru, wh-lady.ru
"PELICAN(equivalent to - Tawny Owl)- symbol And emblem self-sacrifice. The image of the pelican became one of the classical concepts of a number of European peoples through Christian literature (authors - Augustine, Jerome, Isidore), which told about the bird Onocrotalus (or pelican), found in the Nile Valley, which saves its chicks bitten by a poisonous snake, by giving them his own blood, drawn from his womb, to drink. The reason for this legend was apparently the fact that pelicans feed their chicks partly with fish that is digested and partly simply stored in their crops. The image of the pelican as a symbol of the love of parents for children, and then the emblem of self-sacrifice, since the Middle Ages, was included in many family and personal coats of arms, as well as in some state emblems of small feudal states (where it meant the care of the highest state power for its subjects).
It is characteristic of the emblematic image of a pelican that it is always turned to the viewer at three quarters, so that one can see how it beak tears his chest, from which blood flows, represented by drops. The color of the pelican is silver (white), the drops of blood are red. The number of chicks should always be odd - three, five, that is, emphatically indivisible, which symbolizes indivisible (undivided) love, compassion, participation, self-sacrifice.”
Moskvoretskaya embankment, house 2a. Maternity building of the Orphanage built in the 1910s.
Pelican is a symbol and emblem of self-sacrifice. The image of the pelican became one of the classical concepts of a number of European peoples through Christian literature, which told about the pelican bird, found in the Nile Valley, which saves its chicks, bitten by a poisonous snake, by allowing them to drink its blood, expelled from its womb. The reason for this legend was apparently the fact that pelicans feed their chicks partly with fish that is digested and partly simply stored in their crops. The image of the pelican as a symbol of the love of parents for children, and then the emblem of self-sacrifice, since the Middle Ages, was included in many family and personal coats of arms, as well as in some state emblems of small feudal states, where it signified the care of the highest state authorities for their subjects.
William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin “Dictionary of international symbols and emblems.”
Pelican is a symbol of nobility, self-sacrifice, parental love and mercy. According to one legend, a female pelican strangles the born chicks from an excess of love. Three days later, a male appears in the nest, tearing himself into blood with his beak in order to revive the chicks with this blood. According to another legend, the roles are reversed: the male kills the chicks in anger, and three days later the female appears, tearing open her breasts in order to feed them and thereby revive them. This is how the medieval bestiaries tell it, but St. Jerome, in his commentary on the 10th Psalm, attributes the killing of the pelican brood to a snake.
Blood, which brings the dead back to life, is associated with communion and crucifixion. In connection with these legends, the pelican began to symbolize the resurrection, and from the 13th century - Christ himself. Thus, Dante in the famous verse from “Paradise” of the “Divine Comedy” calls the Savior “our pelican”. The Latin commentator Benvenuto de Imola interpreted it this way: “He is called a pelican because he tore off his breast for our salvation, like a pelican that resurrects dead chicks with the blood of its breast.”
Bagdasaryan V. E., Orlov I. B., Telitsyn V. L. “Symbols, signs, emblems: Encyclopedia.”
And here’s what Doctor of Philology and Theology Leonid Aleksandrovich Matsikh said in the program “Brothers” on “Echo of Moscow” - The pelican is an exclusively Masonic symbol, but the Masons, like many other symbols, also, of course, used the pelican. A pelican feeding its chicks with its own blood and heart signifies the greatest degree of parental or teacher self-sacrifice for the sake of children or students. This is exactly what it means. Sometimes even the pelican was depicted as looking like an eagle in order to give such a royal grandeur to this sacrificial feat. The Masons also have this kind of pelican in their symbolism.
Pelican, as Sergei Pavlovich Karpachev says in the book “Guide to Masonic Secrets,” is a symbol of sacrifice, selfless parental love, selflessness, and the desire for charity.
Ekaterina Glagoleva in her book “The Daily Life of Freemasons in the Age of Enlightenment” says that in London alchemical books were sold in a bookshop called “Pelican”; the bird of Hermes was the main symbol of the Rosicrucian order, but subsequently it appears in the symbolism of the highest Masonic degrees (degrees). The pelican was a symbol of fatherly love: legend claimed that it feeds its chicks with its own meat. The pelican personified the axiom according to which one can only discover what one already possesses, what is hidden within oneself, thus connecting physical research and spiritual quest.
Pelican is the emblem of the Rosicrucian (seventeenth and eighteenth) degrees of the Scottish system; symbolizes Christ saving the human race with his blood, since, according to legend, a female pelican tears her breast to feed her chicks.
Moskvoretskaya embankment, building 7, building 2. The utility building of the Orphanage, built in the 1910s.
Slavyanskaya square house 2/5. The complex of office and hotel premises “Business Dvor” at the Varvarskie Gate, was built by the architect Ivan Sergeevich Kuznetsov in 1911-1913.
Bolshoi Kazenny Lane, building 9. Elizavetinskaya women's gymnasium with the Church of the Righteous Elizabeth. The building was built in 1911-1912, architect - Ivan Ivanovich Rerberg.
Solyanka street house 14a. The Moscow Council of Guardians was located here before the 1917 revolution; the building was built according to the design of Domenico Gilardi and Afanasy Grigorievich Grigoriev in 1823-1826.
The church-bell tower in the name of the Resurrection of Christ at the Rogozhskoye cemetery was erected in 1910 according to the design of the architect Fyodor Fedorovich Gornostaev.
The name “tawny owl” is found in Old Russian and later in Church Slavonic - “neєѧsyt”, in the Bible (Lev. 11:14, Job 15:23, Ps. 101:7). In the texts of the Septuagint, from which the Slavic translation of the Bible was made, this word in ancient Greek is: “γύψ, γυπός” - “kite”, and in the Vulgate: “pellicano” - “pelican”.
And here my two topics intersected - hatches and pelicans.
Unknown artist of the 18th century. Pelican feeding chicks. Canvas. Oil. Tver Regional Art Gallery.
There is a very interesting description of this painting on the website Pravoslavie.Ru, - The painting by an unknown artist of the late 18th century (oil on canvas, 64.5 x 49 cm, Tver Regional Art Gallery) depicts a pelican feeding its chicks with its blood. On the one hand, the pelican is an ancient symbol of self-sacrifice and parental love, since, according to ancient writers, this bird feeds its chicks by tearing pieces of meat from its own breast. At the same time, multiple biblical symbols are clearly visible in this picture: tablets with the 10 commandments, a cross, a crown of thorns, nails, a chalice and a snake with an apple. The asp entwined around the pelican's nest associates the picture with another medieval legend, in which a snake killed sleeping pelican chicks while the parent was getting food for them. Returning to the nest, the pelican, in grief, tore its chest, and the hot blood that spilled from the wound revived the children. A snake with an apple in its mouth obviously symbolizes the ancient serpent through which our first parents fell and tasted death. And the pelican with the cross is Christ, Who saved our ancestors and ourselves from the power of sin and death, shedding His Blood for us. Another confirmation of precisely this reading of the picture is the image of a church chalice - a chalice - with the Holy Blood pouring into it. A painting from the end of the 19th century, painted in the Annunciation cell of Athos, has been preserved, which not only depicts a similar plot, but also gives its interpretation: “The pelican bird revives its chicks with its blood. A symbolic image of our Lord Jesus Christ, who revived us with His honest Blood.”
Unknown artist. A pelican feeding its chicks with its blood. Second half of the 19th century.
The bird to which I want to dedicate today's issue needs no introduction. This is a Pelican. The true etymology of the word “pelican” is rooted in the Greek expression “hack with an axe,” for the pelican’s beak was often likened to the beak of a woodpecker. His strange figure cannot be confused with anyone, and even small children can easily recognize his images among other birds; he is a favorite hero of children's poems and riddles:"Adult Papa Pelican
Catches fish in your pocket,
And my son is a pelican
He even catches fish in his pocket.”
T. Panova
One of the characteristic features of pelicans is the presence of a huge beak and a large leather pouch under it. Many people believe that birds store food supplies in this bag, like in a string bag. In fact, the pelican bag serves as a net for catching fish. When hunting, birds open their beaks wide and scoop up water. If prey gets there, they cover their beak, then, tilting their heads to the side, pour out water, and only then swallow the fish.
This time I will not dwell in detail on the biological description of the pelican. I propose to immediately move on to its symbolic meaning. The pelican is a symbol found in early Christianity, heraldry, as well as alchemical and Rosicrucian traditions. The early Christian text “The Physiologist” describes a pelican that kills capricious and disobedient children: “The pelican, by its nature, is very child-loving. When the chicks are born and they grow a little, they hit their parents in the face. Their parents beat them and kill them. Later their parents will take pity and mourn for three days the children they killed. On the third day, their mother pierces her side and, pouring her blood onto the dead bodies of the chicks, resurrects them. So the Lord said in Isaiah: “Sons I have begotten and exalted, but they have rejected Me.” The Creator of everything gave birth to us, and we beat Him. How do we beat Him? We serve the creature, not the Creator. Having ascended the tree of the cross, the Savior, piercing his side, bled forth blood and water for salvation and eternal life.”
The legend that served as the basis for the creation of this image has no basis in reality. Pelicans have a peaceful character and their daily life proceeds according to one, once established, order. In the early morning hours they hunt together; At about 10 o'clock in the morning, everyone is already full and settles down to rest on sandbanks or on trees and begins to work on bringing their plumage into proper shape. What could serve as the basis for such a terrible legend? According to one version, it could be based on the fact that male pelicans (which are mostly white) develop pinkish feathers on their chests during the mating season. Perhaps, when the bird fingered (cleaned) its “robe” with its beak, the pink feathers became more noticeable and reminded a person of traces of blood. There is another version of the origin of the legend: the parent pelican (usually the mother) feeds its chicks with semi-digested fish from its stomach. At the same time, he deeply grasps the chick's head in such a way that the cub's beak ends up in the esophagus, after which the food regurgitates and enters its stomach. In fact, the pelican “feeds the children with itself,” which could serve as a source for the legend. By the way, according to ornithological research, there is one bird in nature that feeds its chicks with “bird milk” consisting of 23% blood, this is the pink flamingo. But I will write about this amazing bird and its symbolic meaning some other time.
The pelican is considered a sacred bird among Muslims and there is a strict ban on eating its meat. An ancient Arab legend says: “When the Kaaba (a Muslim shrine in the form of a cubic structure) was being built in Mecca, water had to be delivered from afar, and a shortage of porters was soon discovered; but Allah did not want this to interfere with the sacred building, and sent thousands of pelicans who brought water to the workers in their throat bags.” The pelican is considered in the east a symbol of nobility, self-sacrifice, parental love and mercy.
In Scottish Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, the “Knights of the Rose and Cross,” cultivating in themselves the qualities of sacrifice, mercy and beauty, called themselves “Knights of the Pelican.” In Masonic symbolism, the blood of the pelican signifies the Secret Work by which a person “rises” from the slavery of ignorance to the freedom granted by wisdom. In the sacred mysteries of secret societies, the pelican symbolized the stage of “raising the candidate from the dead.” This symbol also appears in alchemy as the image of the philosopher's stone disintegrating in liquid lead, which melts and dissolves to cause the transformation of lead into gold. Thus, in occult and secret societies, the pelican is a symbol of a selfless desire for ennoblement, an example of the feat of self-sacrifice in the name of new life and eternal transformation. Unlike the Phoenix, which is simply reborn anew - a symbol of the rebirth of life in new and new physical forms. Pelicans are often found in modern church symbols; for example, its image can be seen on tabernacles. In Scandinavia, a pelican is featured on the donor emblem.
The history of the origin of the coat of arms of the modern competition “Teacher of the Year in Russia” is interesting. In 1763, Catherine II issued a manifesto “On the establishment of the Moscow educational home.” This idea was given to her by the illegitimate son of Prince Trubetskoy, Ivan Betskoy, an extraordinary person in Russian history. By decree of Catherine, the foundlings abandoned at the gates of the Orphanage were not only given food and a roof over their heads, but they also tried to develop in them an inclination for science and art, and were often sent to study abroad. The emblem of the Orphanage was the image of a Pelican feeding three chicks. A stamp depicting a pelican with the inscription “He feeds his chicks without sparing himself” was placed on playing cards, and the proceeds from stamping the cards went to benefit the Orphanage. Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Paul I, considered the collection insufficient to replenish the budgets of charitable institutions, so the pelican appeared on the uniform of officials of charitable institutions. Their uniforms were decorated with gilded buttons depicting a noble bird. Thus, when crystal pelican figurines became the award for a teacher’s competition, this not only paid tribute to history, but also called teachers to show self-sacrifice and mercy towards their students and pupils. The Herzen St. Petersburg Pedagogical University became the modern successor of the Orphanage and the image of a pelican feeding chicks is placed on its coat of arms and the arched central gate of the front yard. The university anthem contains the words:
“Oh, wonderful, glorious, sweet, warm Home!
In everything you are faithful to the sign of the Pelican.
You don't keep the truth locked away,
You serve the Light selflessly, zealously.”
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A medieval legend says that in difficult times, when pelican chicks are in danger of starvation, their parents tear open their breasts and feed their offspring with their own blood. Sometimes, while saving the lives of children, parents die.
Leonardo da Vinci told a very beautiful legend about this. It is included in the book "Tales, Legends, Parables" (Leningrad, 1983):
“As soon as the pelican went in search of food, the viper sitting in ambush immediately crawled, stealthily, towards its nest.
The fluffy chicks were sleeping peacefully.
The snake crawled close to them. Her eyes sparkled with an ominous gleam - and the reprisal began.
Having received a fatal bite each, the serenely sleeping chicks never woke up.
Satisfied with the evil she had done, the villainess crawled into hiding to enjoy the bird’s grief to the fullest.
Soon the pelican returned from hunting. At the sight of the brutal massacre committed against his chicks, he burst into loud sobs, and all the inhabitants of the forest fell silent, shocked by the unheard-of cruelty.
I have no life without you now! - the father lamented, looking at the dead children. - Let me die with you!
And he began to tear his chest right at the heart with his beak. Hot blood gushed out in streams from the open wound, sprinkling the lifeless chicks.
Losing his last strength, the dying pelican cast a farewell glance at the nest with the dead chicks and suddenly shuddered in surprise.
Oh miracle! His shed blood and parental love brought the chicks back to life, snatching them from the clutches of death. And then, happy, he gave up the ghost."
Such is the legend. But even today in the Volga delta, in the Azov region, in Azerbaijan and other places in our Motherland, as well as in southern Europe, you can see these magnificent birds sitting on their nests. True, only rare observers manage to discover their nests and get close to them to watch how the pelican feeds the chicks. Having caught a fish, he brings it to the nest in the throat pouch, from where the chicks get food themselves. Hungry, strong and impatient, they sometimes injure the parents who feed them. The sight of a snow-white bird with a bleeding chest, to which the chicks are drawn, apparently gave rise to the legend, which later served as the basis for the creation of the donation emblem.
The pelican has become a symbol of the highest selflessness and self-sacrifice. Kozma Prutkov included aphorism 24 in “Fruits of Thought”: “A diligent doctor is like a pelican.” And Shakespeare in the fifth scene of the fourth act of the tragedy “Hamlet” says through the mouth of Laertes:
I will embrace his friends and, sacrificing my life like a pelican, I will give them my blood.
The image of a Pelican with a gaping wound on its chest and chicks drinking the blood flowing from the wound became a symbol of blood transfusion services in Holland, Belgium and some other countries. This symbol was depicted on postage stamps of Belgium and Holland, as well as on a special “first day envelope”* issued in 1956 in Belgium, with the inscription in French and Flemish: “Honor to those who give blood.”
* ("First Day Envelopes" are postal envelopes collected by amateurs with drawings and stamps on the same theme. On the day the stamps are put into circulation, they are affixed to such envelopes and canceled at the post office with a calendar stamp. Sometimes a special stamp is used in honor of some outstanding events, historical memorable dates, etc.)
In Russia, the image of a pelican feeding its chicks has been depicted since the beginning of the 19th century. served as the emblem of many shelters and hospitals, symbolizing selflessness and dedication. Such emblems are preserved above the entrance to the courtyard of the former Orphanage in Leningrad, on the building of the former Orphanage in Moscow, on the building of the modern Children's City Hospital No. 4 in Odessa. The hospital building was built in 1847 with private donations from the Empress Maria's Department of Charitable Institutions specifically as a shelter for children. A significant part of the donated money came from the famous Hungarian composer and musician Franz Liszt, who was then touring in Ukraine. In the “Odessa Bulletin” for August 6, 1847 it was reported: “Liszt provided the military governor with a thousand silver rubles from the proceeds from the concert given for charitable purposes for the benefit of the local Alexander Orphanage.” This amount was slightly less than what all the merchants of Odessa gave for the construction of the shelter.
The image of a pelican on the envelope and postcard of the “first day of cancellation”. Belgium
An interesting discovery in the field of art history is associated with the emblem depicting a pelican feeding its chicks. Several years ago, Muscovite collector F. Vishnevsky, founder of the Tropinin Museum, donated to the museum a portrait of an unknown person with the Austrian Order of Maria Theresa. The portrait was signed by V. Tropinin and dated 1828. It was suggested that this is a portrait of A.V. Suvorov’s adjutant - S.S. Kushnikov, on the basis that he was among the persons awarded such an order, and that, as it was it is known that his portrait was once painted by V. Tropinin. However, the emblem on the buttons of the man’s uniform helped finally resolve the issue. It was examined by the head of the museum, G.D. Kropivnitskaya, who said that some kind of bird with its head turned to one side was visible on the buttons. "I have been looking for buttons with such a design for a long time. By chance I came across a deck of cards of the 19th century, issued by the Moscow educational institution. And on the cards - this bird is a pelican, tearing its chest and feeding its chicks. It turns out that the person depicted in the portrait is shown in the uniform of an educational institution Houses". The similarity of the appearance with the already known images of S. S. Kushnikov, the order, the uniform - everything proved that this was his portrait, especially since S. S. Kushnikov in 1820 was appointed honorary guardian of orphanages and educational homes.