The painting “Ancient Serpent” was the final in the list of works of the series “Banners of the East”. Two plot lines mysteriously converged in it – the dragon amid the chaos of the world’s waters and the birth of Aphrodite. The primary sources that Roerich quotes are recognizable. The eastern line, in all likelihood, leads its genealogy from the roll “Dragons and a waterfall among the rocks” of the ancient Chinese master Chen Yung, while the western – from the famous monument of antiquity “Throne of Ludovisi”.
The color scale of the canvas, built on two contrasting beginnings – sunny yellow and dark blue, as if speaks of the confrontation of light and darkness. The archetypical images of the canvas are attributed to the most ancient cult of Asia – the cult of the wife and the serpent, about which Roerich writes in his diaries “Altai-Himalayas”.
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