#9

This picture is my view from an original angle at the wavy lines of the royal palace stairs in Fontainebleau. In art, stairs symbolize the connection between the earthly and the higher world, because for thousands of years, the biblical Jacob’s ladder is mentioned, by which angels descended to earth or ascended to heaven. Therefore, the image with stairs also shows a person's ability to move to an entirely different circumstance, effort, level of thinking. To make this allegory more evident, I highlighted their distinct hue of the millennial history. I emphasize the massive railings framing the stairs, where each baluster is decorated with the image of the scepter of Hermes, who had the ability to reconcile, which in ancient Rome became an attribute of Mercury, the god of trade. In alchemical symbolism, ascending serpentine energies generate a vortex of energy that transforms the whole person. Since the 19th century, the image has been a symbol of medicine, and in the occult, it is considered a symbol of the key that opens the line between darkness and light, good and evil, life and death. In Christianity, the caduceus becomes an attribute of Our Lady — Sophia, as depicted in Orthodox iconography.

Therefore, the photo, in addition to the usual beauty, exquisite form of stairs and decorations, suggests the human effort associated with the history of our civilization’s and our own earthly development. Our noble efforts are definitely considered “up there.” They do not forget about people for whom angels descend the stairs to the earth to help them climb back up.

© VarrIng