Elizabeth I With Snake

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-virgin-queen-the-serpent-and-the-doctored-portrait-1916496.html

I just found this and thought it was so interesting and charming! I love it. I can see why they put roses over the snake, but I think the symbolism is cool.

Snakes can be an idea of original sin but also, Moses commanded a snake to be raised up for the Israelites to look upon and then they would be healed.

So in a way, it could be a symbol of wisdom, like the author says, or of the connotation that rulers were also sometimes believed to be gifted by God with the power to heal. Maybe heal literally or symbolically.

I always liked my mother's jewelry with serpents and serpents, like insect jewelry, is pretty, I think. My mother had an arm band which I wore until it was stolen and it had green emeralds (or fakes) for little eyes and it coiled around the mid arm. I really like the story of the snake raised up on the staff. That symbol is why there are snakes associated with medicine to this day.

What a fun discovery to make though, no matter what the meaning is. For such a small detail, a lot of work went into that snake. It's beautiful!

I wonder what the idea was. I wonder if it was for wisdom, or a symbol of power in the sense that the ruler could hold it in her hand and not be harmed, or of a sort of staff of healing or symbol of the ruler's designation from God.