Art for the Citadel of the Triple Satan

[Collimatrix]

Can't sleep, dinking around on teamspeak, looking for good artwork for the Citadel of the Triple Satan channel.

 

According to Darren Oldridge in The Devil: A Very Short Introduction, there was a medieval school of thought that held that the dragon, the seven-headed beast and the two-horned beast of Revelation formed a sort of anti-trinity, being Satan, the Antichrist and the Evil Spirit respectively.  The Antichrist would be born in an anti-nativity, in some traditions to a dissolute priest and nun (hmmmmm...), or perhaps to an evil spirit and a prostitute.  The idea of a disembodied, evil spirit attempting to obtain a prostitute is pretty funny.

 

Sadly, this anti-trinity appears to be a theological conception that was rarely, if ever, illustrated in art.  Oh sure, there are woodcuts galore of sinners being fed into Hell, dragons with various numbers of heads with whores riding on them and all kinds of other really metal content, but no illustrations of the Dragon, the Seven-Headed Beast and the Two-Horned Beast.  Which is just the sort of thing that the channel needs, obviously.

 

So, instead I went with this:

 

 

This being Eric Armusik's portrayal of Jesus' temptation in the desert by Satan.

 

I just stumbled upon this via GIS, but this is a wonderful piece of art.

 

As Oldridge's book notes, the artistic tradition of religious art is somewhat independent of the theological understanding of religion, and so they are sometimes slightly at odds.  Armusik's painting, however, is a superb distillation of the story of the temptation of Christ.  The feeling of loneliness and vulnerability that the story implies is well-conveyed here.  The ravens are an interesting touch.  Are they representations of the desolation of the desert?  Evil spirits that accompany Satan?  Or are they a nod to the implicit parallels between this story and the story of Elijah in the Book of Kings being fed by ravens?  Perhaps the ravens are the angels that minister to Jesus (Mark 1:13) after the ordeal.

[Priory_of_Sion]

"Evil Spirit" what the hell is that? It is the false prophet dude. 

 

You should look up Damien Kempf. His Twitter is full of these images and he has a fairly cheap book that I'll get eventually. 

 

I'd wager my soul on the prospect that the anti-trinity would be located in that book if it was anywhere. 

 

Anyway, here is a depiction of Satan with some of his "ministers"