Some associations that spring to mind (excuse the rambling!):
A winged man in red and carrying a sword is a standard depiction of
the archangel Michael. The beast he is treading on brings to mind the
passage from Revelation 12 7-9
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the
earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The lamb with a halo is a traditional depiction of Christ.
So the red figure could be Michael holding up Christ over the body of
the beast he has slain.
The heads of the eagle and man bring to mind the Four Holy Creatures,
the Chaioth ha Qadesh, symbolised by the man, lion, eagle and bull (or
ox). For example, here are some notes from a student of qabala:
"The angel orders of Binah, Chokmah and Kether can be derived
directly from the vision of Ezekiel. In the Biblical text,
Ezekiel describes successively the Holy Living Creatures, the
great wheels within wheels, and lastly the throne-chariot
(Merkabah) of God. The vision of Ezekiel had a great influence on
early Kabbalah, and it is no coincidence that the angel order of
Binah is the Aralim, or Thrones, the angel order of Chokmah is the
Auphanim or Wheels, and the angel order of Kether is the Chiaoth
ha Qadesh, or Holy Living Creatures. The forms of the Chiaoth ha
Qadesh - lion, eagle, man and ox - have survived to this day in
many Christian churches, and can be found on the "World" card of
most Tarot packs."
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/nok/q10.txt
In qabala, there are 10 spheres which reflect the different energies
that lead to manifestation, or, to put it another way, symbolise the
action of the ten names of God. Kether is the sphere of the Prime
Source, from which everything comes. The angelic order of Kether is
the Chaioth ha Qadesh.
In the system of esoteric correspondences, the four holy creatures are
linked to the prime energies behind the four elements, the elements
are linked to the four quarters, the quarters are linked to the four
archangels, etc etc, which gives:
man - air - east - Raphael
lion - fire - south - Michael
eagle - water - west - Gabriel
ox - earth - north - Uriel
It struck me, looking at the picture, that if you take north as "up"
and south as "down" as on most printed maps, the man and eagle are in
their "correct" places in the east and west. So this could be a sort
of composite form of the
Chaioth ha Qadesh, bringing through the power of the Primal Source in
order to raise the Christ (and therefore his church) in triumph over
the forces which would oppose this.
Of course, going by this scheme, the top head should be that of an ox,
but this could have been too "way out" to depict at that time!!!
Also, it implies that the person who conceived the painting did have
some knowledge of the qabala. |