State breed of goat

[fivemack]

http://rubens.anu.edu.au is a collection of pictures of art and architecture from the world over.

It is on the copious side; hunting for a picture of the crucified serpent from an earlier entry, I found

http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid1/cdroms/webready/england/oxford/colleges/keble/chapel/interior/mosaics/

and each of the directories above 'mosaics' has several subdirectories; I suspect there are tens of thousands of pictures here, all filed. They're not museum-quality photographs, but my, they are numerous.

http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid1/cdroms/webready/england/oxford/colleges/keble/chapel/interior/mosaics/PC091525.JPG shows the serpent, if anyone wishes to interpret this picture.

Comments

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

Does it not show the serpent (symbol of Satan, see for e.g. Genesis) entwined round the cross, not crucified? Thus presumably the cross is a symbol of Satan's blow against God through the crucifixion of Jesus?

*guessity*

[ellarien]

It looks like the incident in Num 21:4-9, when Moses made a bronze effigy of a serpent on a pole, at which the Israelites could look in order to be cured of bites from a plague of serpents that had been sent to punish them. That would explain the presence of Moses. This incident can be seen as a symbolic, prophetic reference to the crucifixion of Christ (as in John 3:14). I'm not sure about the wings on the small snakes, but these were described as 'fiery serpents', and there are references elsewhere (Is 14:9, Is 30:6) to 'fiery flying serpents', so that, or some traditional symbolism derived therefrom, may have been in the artist's mind.