The Dragon of Putrefactiondetails

The Dragon of Putrefaction

mastodon

Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free stock image for all purposes usage credit requested
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The knight here is fighting rot, or putrefaction, and (we hope) winning.

The dragon stands on the ground in the foreground with its mouth open, tongue extended, tail coiled, wings partly lifted. It faces the bearded knight, in leather armour, who wields a sword over the dragon’s head and holds a shield, a cape flowing behind him. There are trees on either side to frame the woodcut, and in the background a lake and behind that a castle on a hill.

The picture is from a book entitled Lambsprinck: Nobilis Germani Philosophi Antiqui Libellus de Lapide Philosophico, which translates, says Google, into Lambsprinck: A Noble German Philosopher Ancient Book on the Philosopher’s Stone, and is dated 1677, one of several books bound together in the Musæum Hermeticum.

Although i found several Web pages saying there are lots of interpretations of this image, it does have a caption Putrefactio in the book, and although one could ask whether it is the knight or the dragon that’s corrupt, the context means it’s for sure the dragon representing evil or rot. The book overall has a title suggesting that it is about the philosopher’s stone, but as with most occult books of the time, one should not take it at face value, and it may instead be about the personal journey of the reader.

mythgical creatures, dragons, knights, people, men, swords, weapons, shields, allegory, occult, alchemy

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