Old News
The early Renaissance painter commissioned to do the episode of Eden in his village church is asked about the serpent in his fresco. The patron was asking because he was admittedly confused
The painter looked at him, still holding the palette, his body still turned toward the fresco, as if contemplating the next stroke — as if the man would go away soon.
The patron was almost touching the wet surface of the painting with his pointing finger. “This is the serpent, correct?” The painter nodded, and the patron continued. “Then why does it have aspects of it that are the Beast and other aspects of the unnameable?”
The painter was looking at the painting, with his head tilted back. It was a surly look he might have given someone in an inn who had jostled him.
The patron continued. “The Beast is in Revelations. The serpent is in Genesis.”
The painter was coming to the understanding that he had stopped painting to listen to this, and he is not sure what his patron wanted by all this talk, but he does recognize it when somebody gets saucy. He recognized his own choler rising, so instead of saying anything, he waited for him to explain.
They were looking at the wall halfway covered with this painted image. They shared this one moment with their backs to the rest of the world. His serpent was taking humanoid form in the painting, wrapping its tail around the bottom of the tree. With its multiple appendages, it bore a striking similarity to the details of the Beast, as it is described in the last book of the Bible. And it had horns like you-know-who.
The patron was stating that the three different names pertain to three different entities. The fresco painter was thinking this over. So the Beast is not the Devil? Which one is the serpent then? The patron asked him that if he were not aware of these particulars, how did he expect to get the facts right in the fresco?
The painter thought about this and stated that he was hired to paint a serpent, which means he is painting a large snake. It has to look like a snake, and it has to look evil, like the very devil himself. He knows what a snake looks like, and he’s seen many paintings with the Devil in it. In the church in the next village, there is a spectacular fresco of the snake turning into a fantastical beast. A snake is in fact a beast. So, the patron is not only getting a snake, but Devil and Beast all in one.
And he turned his back to him and continued painting.