The Cup of Knowledge

As a continuation of a tradition begun with Jesus Christ in the famous nighttime episode in the Garden of Gethsemane, where moments before being betrayed and arrested an angel presented him with the Bitter Chalice, the official heir, the beloved disciple, the young John, was also distinguished with this apparent symbol of martyrdom and sacrifice.

John, who at the time of Jesus Christ must have been a prepubescent adolescent, chosen not as a star pupil for his wisdom, but because he was still at that age of purity and reverie, open to first impressions and therefore to a better understanding of his surroundings and their mysteries, inherited, at least in the imagination of the artists throughout the ages who depicted him, this legendary chalice.

A chalice, open, moreover, to numerous hidden codes, where serpents and dragons, representatives of evil, of poison, but also, in a skillfully subtle way, of the wisdom and pain that have always come with bearing something valuable, such as knowledge, are combined with another related symbolism, rarely considered, such as color.

Thus, in various representations alluding to its golden and martyred legend, where no poison offered could disturb its destiny, small serpents or small dragons of specific colors appear, indiscriminately, emerging from the primordial waters of that cup, which we could well consider as the primordial waters: those very waters that give you life, but can also take it away.

Understood in this way, Art also becomes a phenomenal invitation to accept the ticket to humanity's greatest adventure: the adventure of Knowledge.

NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and are therefore subject to my copyright.