~Dark Knight~

I am.... I represent the darkside of the Moon, the side in which self-manifistation has allowed me to become One. Equally important as the Light, I use the Darkness for truth. Using these tools as self-evidence has allowed me to reach a higher calling of divinity. Through the Elevation of our Mind we can puzzle together that of what decieves us as a whole. Energy is a major issue to understanding not only our Mother Earth, but also ourselves. If we can get together somehow, and create specific amount of energy, we will build! We better prepare ourselves now by, "Learning from the Past, to Prepare in the Present, to Defend our Future". Truth is what I expose, and Lies are what I unfold. Using incripted messages that are in ancient scriptures, symbols, and secret society's which come from the dephts from where I'm at. Allows me the opportunity to counter attack with the conscious knowledge that is at my grasp. In order to awake and alert those around me, as well as those above and beneath me, I have dedicated myself to the soul creation and re-birth of the New Energy that is before us. (2012) Through the Darkside I will envoke & through the Darkside I have spoke. One!
Offical Message Board: This is the message board towards: decolonization of the mind. Dedicated to the History of people who are badly informed by a society which spoon-feeds you deception until there is no distinction between fiction and reality. No one becomes popular by telling people the truth. History records what happened to the true prophets of the past. I believe with all my heart that God put me in places and in positions throughout my life so that I would be able to deliver this warning to His people. I pray that I have been worthy and that I have done my job.
This Site Is Dedicated To: The Supreme Gran Hierophant Neter Aferti Atum Ra Amun Nubi Ra Ankh Ptah, The United Nuwaupian Nation Of Moors, KRSNA, Enoch, And To All The Supporters Around The World And Beyond, Thank You And May Allah Bring You Many Blessings.
Giovanni di Paolo, The Creation of the World and Expulsion from Eden (detail), I455. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection
According to the book of Genesis, God created the world in six days. He made Heaven and earth-and light, which distinguishes day from night-on the first day, and on the second day, seperated the sky and the waters. On day three, God divided dry land, which he called Earth, from the waters, which he called Sea; then he caused the earth to bring forth seed-bearing plants and fruit-bearing trees. On day four, God created the lights of the sky: the stars and two great lights, one to govern day and another to govern night. On day five, God made the creatures that live in the sea and in the sky, and on day six, creatures that live and crawl on earth. He also created Man-male and female-in his image to rule over all other living beings. Since the Middle Ages, the Creation has been represented in sequential vignettes, although sometimes the six days are grouped into one, the cycle beginning with the Creation of Man. For the artist, the most demanding challenge was to represent the act of creation, accomplished through the word (fiat ex verbo); it is variously depicted as a simple gesture of the hand or accompanied by a throw of stars.
Anonymous French illuminator, The Creation of the World, late twelfth century. Miniature from the Bible de Sougvigny. Moulins, Biblotheque Municipale.
With the creation of Heaven and earth, light was also created. Got seperates life, which he calls night, personified by two distinct disks.
The Creator's Word, visualized as a sort of rainbow, seperates the waters that are below the sky from those above it.
The frequent representation of the Creator in the likeness of Christ, the Word Incarnate, derives from the biblical text, which says that God's act of creation was through the word.
Creation of the stars in the sky: the Creator holds the sun and the moon in his hands; these disks govern day and night.
It is very significant that the gesture of creating is not one of command but rather the liturgical gesture of blessing.
The anonymous artist ends the sixth day with the creation of the animals of the earth, deferring the creation of man to the following vignette.
This composition with multiple vignettes depicting the opening passages of the book of Genesis ends with two key moments in the story: the creation of woman (where that of man is understood to have already occured) and the entry of evil into human history through the original sin.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, I5OO-I5IO. Left Panel (open) of the triptych. Madrid, Museo del Prado.
The iconography of Paradise is derived directly from that of the Garden of Eden. In the earliest Christian art, water, either a fountain or a spring, was one of the first defining features of the idea of Paradise. For both the earthly garden and the foreshadowing of heavenly Paradise, water is a fundamental presence: the spring that gushes in the Garden of Eden symbolizes eternal life; it is an inexhaustible fount and a symbol of rebirth. For this reason, the image of Paradise has almost always included either a spring from which the four rivers of Paradise are born or a large basin containing the water of life where animals, symbolizing the faithful, quench their thirst.
With time, the image of a basin or a spring gave way to that of a fountain, depicted in the architectural and decorative style of the time. Thanks also to the popularity of the biblical Song of Songs, the image of the fountain in an enclosed, secluded garden became pervasive from the Middle Ages onward. The popularity of the biblical text also went hand in hand with the custom, especially in convents, of private gardens designed according to specific symbolic requirements.
Boucicaut Master and workshop, The Story of Adam and Eve, ca. I4I5. Miniature from a manuscript by Boccaccio. Los Angeles, J.Paul Getty Museum.
With its human face and its snakelike body coiled around the trunk of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Tempter invites Eve to disobey.
An angel armed with a sword expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise.
Life outside the earthly Paradise, as narrated on the Bible and in the apocryphal Apocalypse of Moses: men and women toil to make a living.
In the center of the Garden of Eden, a simple basin stands for the fount of eternal life.
The painful aging of the first parents emphasizes the corruptibility of life, brought on by sin.
Giotto, The Devil and the Damned in Hell, I303-6. Detail of the fresco The Last Judgement. Padua, Scrovegni Chapel.
The Christian world derived the conception of Hell from the Greek idea of the Netherworld (Hades) and the Judaic Sheol, infernal abodes where souls of the dead wandered. The Christian Hell, seen as a place in the Next World reserved for the damned, was based on the idea of the Final Judgment and a seperation of the just from the wicked that had begun to spread in the second century B.C., thanks in part to Hebrew prophetic texts. The latter would be taken up by Jesus and reported by Matthew and Luke, and by the book of Revelation, where John, writing of Satan's abyss, describes Hell as a pit of fire and sulfer.
The deception of Hell as a place of eternal damnation ruled by Lucifer first appeared in the tenth century in representations of the Last Judgment and was elaborated in the two succeeding centuries. Continuing theological clarifacations, characteristic of the Middle Ages, produced a kind of geographic concept of the Next World, with Hell as the place into which the souls damned for eternity were flung. The artistic imagination filled Hell with all sorts of torments and tortures, which the demons inflicted on the evil souls, condemned to "eternal fire."
Jan van Eyck, The Last Judgment, I425-30. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This is Christ, flanked by Mary and Saint John as in the Byzantine deesis. On the Last Day, he will seperate the good from the wicked.
The resurrection of the final moment of the Last Judgment: according to the book of Revelation, "the sea gave up the dead in it"(20:13).
Death, here portrayed as a giant skeleton, wears a large mantle seemingly made of bat's wings, which neatly seperates the scene into two segments. On top of Death stands Saint Michael with his sword drawn, signifying that one can never come back from Hell.
The damned are plunged into the chasm of Hell
No Satan is depicted in this hell, but the multitude of demons is rendered as hideous animals that pounce on the dammed to quarter and devour them.
Hieronymus Bosch, Hell, I5OO-I5O2. Right panel (open) of the Haywain triptych. Madrid, Museodel Prado.
Hell is truly an incandescent city, but the flames licking the buildings in the distance do not destroy them; rather, they enfold them, sharpening their outline.
A simian-shaped demon bricklayer is busy troweling motar as he builds the walls of the infernal city.
The idea of a tall tower indefinitely under construction calls to mind the tower of Babel.
Pursued and tortured by demons, the souls are devoured by beings that often have monstrous form: here the naked soul of a squanderer is pursued by a red bitch.
Andrea di Buonaiuto, Hell (detail), I367-69. Fresco. Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Chapel of the Spaniards.
Apocryphal texts, narratives of journeys to the Netherworld, and didactic descriptions provided the basis for the medieval subdivision of Hell into nine circles, corresponding to the nine angelic choirs. Artists drew on these sources for representations of Hell, as did Dante. In the Inferno, sinners are cast into nine seperate concentric circles that spiral down into a deep crater to the center of the earth, where the most abominable sins are punished.
Medieval theology popularized the doctrine of the contrappasso (literally, retaliation) according to which the penalty inflicted mirrored the sin. In Limbo, souls are not subjected to corporal punishment because, since they lived before Jesus, they could not receive the Grace of salvation. Although they did not sin intentionally, their torment lies in being deprived of God. Each of the lower circles is divided into smaller rounds that further subdevide each class of sin and its penalty. The worst sinners, who are confined to the bottom of Hell, are the traitors.
Nardo di Cione, Inferno, I350-55. Fresco. Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Strozzi Chapel
The first circle holds the cowardly, forever condemned to run after a weathercock.
The wrathful and the slothful are submerged in the Styx swamp, which the boat guided by Phlegy as is crossing.
In the second circle, Minos tortures the lustful, who are forever being swept away by storms.
Third circle: the gluttons.
The fourth and fifth circles hold the misers and the spendthrifts.
The high walls of the city of Dis.
The heretics are confined to open graves in a large cemetery on fire.
The seventh circle holds the violent.
The eighth circle is subdivided into ten pits.
In the ninth circle, Lucifer devours the traitors: here one of his mouths is biting the head of Judas.
Fra Angelico, The Punishments of the Damned in Hell, I432-33. Venice, Palazzo Ducale.
As in Sodom and Gomorrah, an incessant, all-enveloping rain or fire falls all over Hell.
Sowers of discord: because they caused splits and divisions when alive, they are now quartered and beheaded, hung by their feet or by the head, and disemboweled.
The gluttons undergo the punishment meted out to Tantalus: chained to a sumptuously laid table, they cannot eat.
The wrathful strike at each other and devour their own hands.
The miserly are force-fed melted gold.
JS Monogrammist, Hell (detail), ca. I55O. Venice, Palazzo Ducale.
Fires rise from the battlements of the infernal city, recalling Dante's description of the city of Dis.
A large frog-a diabolical animal linked to lust-sits on a bed occupied by a sinning couple, suggesting what kind of sin is being punished.
Torture on a grill is one of the earliest representations of punishments in Hell. Here one of the damned has been hacked to pieces first.
Bodies waiting to be tortured with fire are laid out atop burning embers.
Jan Mandyn, The Temtations of Saint Anthony, I54O-5O. Geneva, Rau Collection.
Saint Anthony appears in a seemingly drowsy state.
The fire scene in the distance can be a double allusion to 'Saint Anthony's fire," ergotism, a dreaded illness in the Middle Ages caused by poisoning from a fungus, and to the perdition of Hell seen by Saint Anthony in his troubled sleep.
In this one image, several allegories are grouped: Death, recognizable by its decomposing body; Time, by the hourglass; Pride, by the mirror; Love, by the quiver with arrows.
Limbourg Brothers, Angels Lifting Souls from Purgatory, before I4I6. Miniature from the Tres riches heures du duc de Berry. Chantilly, Musee Conde.
Since the earliest days of Christianity, the presence of fire in Purgatory was a subject of debate. It was a temporary fire, different from Hell's eternal fire, though this did not prevent some artists from depicting souls engulfed by flames.
At the end of the purification period, the soul may be lifted up to God: the angels escort the little soul in an image drawn from an older, Byzantine iconography depicting the death of the righteous.
The extremely high bridge that the souls must cross, under which flow fire and pitch, is a motif that Dante derived from medieval texts, including Marie de France's The Purgatory of Saint Patrick (ca. II8O).
The state of the soul in Purgatory was visually interpreted by artists also as one of constant temptation from which purification was necessary: the figure tormented by animals such as the she-wolf and the leopard calls to mind the temtations of earthly life.
Giusto de' Menabuoi, Paradise, 1375-76. Fresco. Padua, baptistry.
The red Seraphim, equipped with three pairs of wings and clasping their hands in a clear devotional gesture, are the angelic order closest to God.
Christ is depicted in the central and highest part of this particular image of Paradise, inside the rainbow circle; the circle surrounding him is gold, signifying his divinity.
In medieval representations of the heavenly Paradise, an earthly hierarchy is reflected, arranged according to a precise geometry: after the angels who stand in the sight of God come the saints, recognizable by their iconographic attributes.
The Virgin Mary has a place of honor; surrounded by musical angels, she wears a crown because she is the Queen of Heaven.
Hans Memling, The Gate to Paradise, ca. I472 Detail of The Last Judgment altarpiece. Gdansk, Muzeum Narodowe.
The image of the Heavenly Jerusalem inspired artists to depict the entrance to Paradise as a large gate, here rendered as the portal of a major cathedral; on top of it, musical angels are playing.
The angels assisting Saint Peter distribute washed robes to the elect thronging to enter Paradise, for only so clothed shall they go through the city gates, according to the book of Revelation (22:14).
Standing on the first steps of a crystal staircase, Saint Peter, the custodian of Paradise, welcomes the elect and offers them his hand in a gesture of greeting.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Seven Deadly Sins, I475-8O. Detail of The Last Judgment altarpiece. Gdansk, Muzeum Narodowe.
The resurrected Christ is at the eye's pupil, the "mirror of the soul," in turn placed at the center of the vignettes representing the seven deadly sins. Iscribed around the figure of Christ is this warning: "Cave, cave, dominus videt"(Beware! The Lord is watching).
Gluttony: the sin of excessive indulgence in food.
Sloth is represented by a man sleeping in his chair.
Dissolute pleasures of the flesh are pursued under an outdoor tent.
Pride is symbolized by a woman admiring herself in a mirror; this depiction follows the most traditional iconographic model.
Wrath unleashes violence in an unusual duel where every weapon seems acceptable.
Envy is here compared to a heavy burdon one carries on one's shoulders. The scene also seems to allude to the slander it provokes.
In this death scene, a priest, a nun, and the family gather at the dying man's bedside, while an angel rests on the headboard, a demon lies in ambush, and Death waits behind the door.
The tondo with Hell is typical of the artist's style, with small monsters and demons attacking the damned.
The Last Judgment scene is, appropriately, that of the bodily ressurection: Christ floats in Heaven seated on the sphere of the earth; bodies rise from graves as angels blow their trumpets.
Protected by Saint Michael, the souls of the saved reach the gate of Paradise where Saint Peter welcomes them as angels make music.
Matthias Grunewald, The Temptations of Saint Anthony, I5I2-I6. Colmar, Musee d'Unterlinden.
In the background, a demon's eyes seemingly supervise the efforts to distract the saint from asceticism and prayer.
Of all the diabolical beings tempting and torturing Saint Anthony, this demon with horns and bat's wings comes closest to the popular imagination.
This large, clubwielding bird is not completely the fruit of Grünewald's fancy; rather, it is the painter's revival of images from medieval bestiaries.
The book of the sacred scriptures is the force that helps to fight temptation: for this reason, a demon with the looks of an ugly sprite is trying to steal it from the tempted saint.
The small monster biting the hermit's hand is a basilisk with a cock's body and four legs but no snake's half-body. By the sixteenth century, the image of this fantastic animal had changed considerably from that of the Middle Ages.
Antonio Vivarini, Saint Peter Martyr Exorcises a Woman Possessed by the Devil, I44O-5O. Art Institute of Chicago.
The Devil learning the body of the possessed woman is pictured as a small, hairy monster with bat's wings, horns, claws and a long tail.
Saint Peter Martyr sprinkles holy water on the woman and blesses her, thus exorcising the Devil; a frightened brother assists by holding the pail of holy water.
The possessed woman shows such an exeptional, uncontrollable strength that two stout youths can barely restrain her.
A Dominican friar, Saint Peter Martyr wears the white habit and, because he is outside the convent, a black cape.
Giuseppe Vermiglio, The Last Supper (detail), I622. Milan, Pinacoteca dell'Arcivescovado.
Jesus has announced that one of the Twelve Apostles will betray him: with a gesture, he seems to calm the resulting discussion, pointing to Judas in reply to John, who asks the traitor's name.
Christ's disciples are troubled as they discuss the betrayal that Jesus has just announced.
A lamb is recognizable in the platter in front of Christ: it represents the Jewish Passover dinner, a historically accurate note that also prefigures the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God.
A cat is ready to fight with a dog: this is an allusion to evil, since the arstist placed the animal behind Judas the traitor, recognizable by his money pouch. The cat lays traps to catch mice, just as the Devil does with the souls of sinners.
Giovanni di Piermatteo (Boccati), Crucifixion, ca. I446-47 Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.
Crucified to the right of Jesus, on the "honorable" side, is the Good Thief; just before dying on thye cross, hye professed his faith in Christ, who in turn promised him Paradise.
The Virgin Mary faints from sorrow and is supported by the other women including, according to the Gospel tradition, Mary Magdalene; of the disciples, only John remains.
In the background can be glimpsed Jerusalem in its typical medieval rendition with crenellated walls with towers, tower-houses, and anachronistic churches.
A scorpion is depicted on the armor, the standards, and the shields as a symbol of the Devil and anti-Jewish sentiment.
Hieronymus Bosch, Musical Inferno, ca. I5OO. Right panel (open) of The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych. Madrid, Museo del Prado
In Hell, the harp becomes an instrument of torture. It has been variously interpreted as a sexual symbol, as punishment for sins of the flesh, as a biblical instrument of praise that was refused by sinners when they were living, and as an ancient echo of the harmony of Paradise.
With its deep tones, the bombardon completes the harmony created by the music of the harp-lute and the ghironda. According to the musical theories of John Scotus Eriugena (ninth century), sin is the dissonance within the harmony.
A ghironda is played by a beggar who turns the crank. In the chord formed by the three instruments, the ghironda, here depicted with exceptional realism, has the highest register.
A figure wearing a rich robe and with the snout of a toad, symbol of lust, leads a choir by reading the music printed on the buttocks of a sinner.
Francisco Goya, Sabbat, 1797-98. Madrid, Museo Läzaro Galdiano.
Child abuse was one of the crimes that the witches were suspected of commiting during their sabbats.
Flocks of bats fly in the night toward the sabbat.
The he-goat, with its heavy demonic and lascivious connotations, leads the sabbat and rules over it: the garland of vine leaves atop its horns recalls the ancient orgiastic rituals in horror of the pagan god Dionysos.
The old witch offering a skeletal child to the Devil disguised as a he-goat is the archetypical witch image that has survived in the modern imagination.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Temptations of Saint Anthony, I5O5-6. Central panel of a triptych. Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga.
A musician with a hog's head advances to recieve the sacrilegious communion. The little owl on his head symbolizes heresy.
A black woman-another symbol of heresy-advances bearing a tray with a toad, symbol of witchcraft and lust; the reptile, in turn, holds an egg, suggesting the sacrilegious host.
Crist appears in a small chapel inside a ruined building; he points to the Crucifix, the true sacrifice, that the profane Mass nearby is desecrating.
The necromancer standing to the side and wearing a cylindrical hat seemingly orchestrates all the visions.
Saint Anthony kneels; looking outward, he makes the sign of benediction with one hand while pointing with the other to the chapel where Christ appears.
Through the image of the officiating priest with the hog's head dressed in a torn chasuble from which his bowels are spilling out, the artist is denouncing the Church's corruption and decay.
Unknown artist, The First Temptation of Christ, ca. I222. Miniature from an illuminated psalter. Copenhagen, Der Kongelige Bibliotek.
The tempting Devil is here depicted according to the earliest model that became popular in the Middle Ages: he is dark-skinned, wears a short skirt, and has animal traits, such as horns, tail, and webbed feet; instead of the pitchfork, he carries a book, a frequent instrument of torture in the Middle Ages.
The book Jesus holds reverently in his hands in a ritual gesture (touching the book with the edge of his mantle and not with his hands) suggests that it contains the Word of God, the nourishment that man needs to drive back the temptations of the flesh, in accordance with the answer that Jesus himself gave to the Tempter: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4).
The Devil points to three large stones: tempting Jesus, he asks him to turn them into loaves of bread.
Master of the Legend of Saint Catherine and Master of the Legend of Saint Barbara, Scenes from the Life of Job, I48O-9O. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.
According to the prologue to the book of Job, "when the days of the feast had run their course,"Job would send for his seven sons and three daughters and offer purification rituals (Job I:5).
God's pact with the Devil is at the root of all of Job's trials. Here one of the demons is portrayed as a dark-skinned hideous creature conversing with a Christlike figure.
The three camels and the many other animals suggest Job's wealth.
After losing his children and his assets, Job falls gravely ill. His wife urges him to renounce goodness, curse God for this last trial, and put all of it behind by letting himself die.
The agony of Job's illness suggests the Devil's ultimate power over this man. Depicted as a monster with a dreadful face and mouths all over his body, the Devil and his monstrous retinue rage against Job.
The musicians called to sooth Job's suffering are not in the Bible, but they are in the apocryphal Legend of Job.
Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Saint George and the Dragon, ca. I560. St. Petersburg, Hermitage.
The feats of Saint George, a knight from Cappadocia, are the product of medieval legends. Here he rides a horse to defeat an insatiable dragon.
The walls represent the town that lived in terror of the ravenous beast, which demanded victims in exchange for sparing the townspeople.
Before the dragon could devour its victim, Saint George attacked the creature and tamed it by threatening it with the sword. He tied the beast to a leash attached to the princess's waist and took it to the town, where he killed it. As a result, the king and all the townspeople were converted.
The king's daughter had been selected to be the dragon's next victim. According to the legend, when Saint George arrived, the princess was waiting for the dragon by the shores of a lake (which is usually not represented).
Michael Pacher, The Devil Holds the Missal for Saint Augustine, ca. I48O. Detail of the Fathers of the Church altarpiece. Munich, Alte Pinakothek.
Saint Augustine is portrayed in his bishop's attire; the crosier identifies him as a shepherd of souls.
The imaginative artist has drawn the Devil with anthropomorphic features (the slim arms and part of his chest) and bestial ones, such as the goatish hooves, tail, and deer's antlers. These and other traits, especially the dragon's wings and amphibian scales, are typical of medievil iconography. The small flames shooting out of his large ears and a second face on his lower cheeks add further fiendish details.
According to the Golden Legend, the book that the Devil shows to Saint Augustine contained all the vices and failures of men: on the saint's page was written his failure to recite the compline prayer.
The Devil is enraged because Saint Agustine, who had prayed for forgiveness of his sin of omission, has caused his page to be erased from the Book of Sins.
Hieronymus Bosch, Death of the Miser, ca. I49O. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art.
The crucifix from which issues a beam of light expresses the possibility of salvation for man even on the point of death; the miser does look at it, though his gestures are still at it, though his gestures are still all focused on his wealth.
The Devil lays his last ambush from the canopy of the miser's bed, ready to snatch the soul that rejects salvation.
Death is drawn as a skeleton shabbily covered with a sheet: holding an arrow, she peeks from behind the door, poised to strike her victim.
The guardian angel does all he can to plead on behalf of the dying man, trying to bring his soul to Christ, but the man's refusal is explicit as he turns his back on the angel.
In a last, unrepentant gesture, the miser stretches his hands to grasp a bag of money offered by a devil.
The image of the miser mirrors the life he led until his last day, always bent on accumulating wealth, advised by diabolical characters. He conceals his money while only perfunctorily holding a rosary in his hand.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Triumph of Death, 1562. Madrid, Museo del Prado.
Two skeletons have spread a wide net into which men and women who were trying to escape the cavalcade of Death have fallen.
Riding a nag and carrying a long scythe, Death chases the crowd into a giant coffin. Around it, skeletons holding tall white coffins like shields line up in guard-of-honor style.
In the background, armies of skeletons advance sowing destruction and death in a landscape filled with gallows, torture wheels with decaying corpses strung on them, and burning ships.
Next to a ruined building reminiscent of a church, some skeletons stand behind a balustrade; covered with white shrouds, they blow their trumpets of the Last Judgment.
A king in armor, wearing the crown and an ermine cape and holding the scepter, has fallen to the ground: behind him, Death is showing him the hourglass.
Distracted by the music, two lovers are oblivious to all, though just behind them a skeleton is playing-a gruesome omen.
A few soldiers try to face Death by fighting, to no avail.
Juan de la Abadia, Archangel Saint Michael, ca. I49O. Barcelona, Museu d'Art de Cataluna.
The commander of the heavenly armies, Saint Michael is portrayed wearing armor.
Assisting Saint Michael is an angel standing next to a kneeling soul already wearing the garb of the elect.
Adog-faced, scaly demon with dragon's wings tries to snatch from the scales a soul, which turns pleadingly to Saint Michael.
Hubert and Jan van Eyck, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, I425-29. Central panel of the Ghent Alterpiece. Ghent, Cathedral of Saint Bavo.
Some of the angels worshiping around the altar carry instruments of the Passion, such as the cross, the spear, the crown of thorns, the nails, and the scourging pillar. Others simply kneel in adoration; still others sprinkle incense with the censer.
Blood flows from the breast of the Lamb on the altar and is collected in a chalice. The cross-shaped halo reveals that this is the Mystic Lamb of the apocalyptic vision.
The women gathered in Paradise are virgin martyrs: they wear garlands of flowers, crowns of glory, and they carry palms of martydom. Some have attributes that identify them as being among the fourteen auxiliary saints.
The group of martyrs and holy confessors, some of whom hold palm fronds, is compact in size and partially hidden by the blooming vegetation of Paradise.
The great patriarchs are in the crowded group of the blessed from the Old Testament that worship the Lamb.
Behind the apostles are representations of the Church hierarchy: popes, bishops, deacons, and other clerics. The kneeling figures holding open books in their hands are probably prophets. The first who kneel to adore the Lamb at his left are the apostles. The Fountain of Grace is one of the elements that identify this locale as Paradise.
Albrecht Durer, Eve, I5O7. Madrid, Museo del Prado.
This portrayal of Eve with the long, blond tresses recalls a northern beauty, though her proportions betray Durer's knowledge of the "golden ratio," which he studied in the works of Euclid and Luca Pacioli.
This splendidly rendered snake is the result of painstaking observation of nature and masterly painting skills.
The artist has inscribed his name and the date of the painting on an elegant card that hangs from a small branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Caravaggio, The Rest during the Flight into Egypt, ca. I599. Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilj.
Recent studies have deciphered the music sheet that Saint Joseph holds in his hands: it appears to be a Franco-Flemish motet composed by Noel Bauldwjin, who put several verses of the Song of Songs to music.
The image of the sleeping Virgin, portrayed with reference to the key text of the painting, the verses from the Song of Songs in which the bride is described as a maiden with red hair.
The violin depicted here is a modern instrument perfected only at the close of the sixteenth century.
The violin-playing angel is a double representation, being at once an apparition to Joseph and a symbol of the redemptive power of heavenly music.
Giovanni Baronzio, Baptism of Christ, ca. I33O-4O. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art.
Saint John the Baptist is depicted wearing a tunic made of animal skins, in accordance with the Gospel's decription.
Wanting to make visible the words that were heard as Jesus was baptized, the artist has represented God the Father appearing in Heaven inside a starstudded rainbow.
During the baptism, the dove of the Holy Ghost alights on Jesus, who is immersed up to the hips in the waters of the Jordan River.
Two angels wearing precious robes wait on the shore, holding Jesus' garments.
Raphael, Saint Michael and the Dragon, I5O5. Paris, Musee du Louvre.
In this scene, monsters and frightful animals surround Saint Michael's battle with the Devil: in the dark background, the bright eyes of a birdlike demon stand out.
A fortified city lit by fires may suggest the infernal city of Dis.
Figures of condemned men and women are grasped and held by coiling snakes.
An enormous insect that resembles a fly makes its appearance to assist the nonetheless defeated Devil.
The Devil is shown as a dog-faced, horned dragon with large, partially feathered wings. Starting in the sixteenth century, some Italian artists seemed to prefer the monster image to the anthropomorphic one.
Perino del Vaga, Saint Michael Pierces the Devil, I54O. Celle Ligure, Parrocchiale di San Michele.
With an elegant gesture, the Archangel Michael moves the scales away from the Devil's paws. On the two plates of the scale, two small figures representing souls look to Michael for their salvation.
With his clawed foot the Devil tries to hit the large wings of the archangel.
Goatlike horns and beard, faun's ears, and frightening eyes popping out of his head complete the Devil's semihuman face. Joachim Patinir, Landscape with Charon's Boat in the River Styx, I52O. Madrid, Museo del Prado.
Angelic figures stroll in a lush landscape painted with cool hues. A crystal edifice rises in the distance. These are the Elysian Fields of classical antiquity.
The fires visible behind the high walls of the city of Dis indicate that Hell's landscape is the opposite of that of the kingdom of the elect with its vast horizons and never-ending views.
At the center of the composition, in the middle of the River Styx, Charon ferries a soul on his boat: he is headed not only to the pagan Netherworld, but also to Hell where, according to Christian belief, the damned are punished.
A monstrous, threeheaded dog guards Hell: it is Cerberus.
Guariento di Arpo, One of the Dominions, I354. Padua, Museo Civico.
With a scepter in one hand and a globe in the other, the crowned angel represents perfect control, detached from base elements and directed toward the supreme power of God.
The throne signifies the ability to control: according to Gregory the Great, those believers who can control within themselves all possible evil impulses can approach the choir of the Dominions.
Denys Calvaert, Saint Michael Archangel, I582. Bologna, San Petronio.
Michael is depicted with wings, wearing armor, and holding a sword or a spear with which he defeats the Devil; sometimes he holds the scale that he uses to weigh souls.
Michael is mentioned in the book of Daniel as the first prince and custodian of the people of Israel. In the New Testament, he is identified as an archangel in the Letter of Jude, while in the book of Revelation he leads the other angels in the battle with the dragon, which represents the Devil, and defeats him. The image of this archangel-whether because of the devoted cult that rapidly became attached to him or because of his iconography-is taken directly from the passages in Revalation. Based on this text, encomiums were written dedicated to Michael that hailed him as a majestic being with the power of weighing the souls just before the Judgment. Byzantine art preferred to portray Michael as a court dignitary rather than as a warrior battling the Devil or as a weigher of souls, both of which became popular in the West.
Gerard David, Saint Michael Defeats the Seven Deadly Sins, ca. 1510. Vienna, Kunsthistoriches Museum.
The weapon that Saint Michael uses in his battle to defeat the Devil is an astylar cross-a rare but meaningful iconographic detail.
Michael's shield bears the image of the cross; like the standard of Christ's Resurrection, it is a sign of victory of Good over Evil.
In the background the heavenly army is battling the rebel angels-the Devil's angels-and casting them to the ground.
Several monsters representing the Devil and the evil he brings into the world are crushed under the archangel's feet.