Falsehood

Of all these small panels, this is the one that carries the painter's own name, worked into the stone base at the figures' feet. The scene is strange even by the standards of its set. A man twists his way out of a large shell, gripping a snake, and lunges toward a hooded old man who seems to stand for wisdom or good counsel. The shell, the serpent and the ambush together spell out falsehood, the kind of deceit that keeps its true shape hidden until it strikes. It was painted in Venice around 1490 as one of a group of allegories meant to be puzzled over rather than glanced at. The meanings of these little pictures were argued over even then, and this one, with its coiled snake, is among the few whose message reads plainly.