Ouroboros, Tetramorph, Polycephalos

Back when I was at the Getty in LA a couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of Symbols and Allegories in Art by Matilde Battistini.

I grew up being taken to the Prado in Madrid which houses a fine collection of Renaissance Flemish and Italian art and managed to pick up along the way a lot of the Christian iconography, but this book is a gem.

What today must be studied, memorized, and recognized with a definite “aha!” when spotted in a painting was taken for granted. Just as lot of the allusions in Shakespeare would have been caught by even the hoi polloi at the time. Now, they’re the sign of an elite education and culture.

It’s a bridge, though, between this world and that, and I’m looking forward to reading more. And looking.