Remember your baptism

This relief was in the Chapel at Duke. I think it must be Jesus baptizing, since the figure pouring water from a scallop shell is holding a cross. Iconography is an interesting pursuit. Paul is always carrying a sword; Peter is followed by a rooster; Mary Magdalene cavorts with her alabaster jar. I think John the Baptizer carries a lamb - or it could be I'm conflating that from the Isenheim altarpiece, where John is pointing at christ on the cross and the lamb underneath is bleeding into a cup, or I could be conflating that from van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece. I think John has a lamb in Sint James painting of John the Baptist in the wilderness. Iconography makes things complicated: imagine a space where Catherine is with her wheel, Barbara with her tower, and St. Lawrence with his grill and St. Jerome with his lion all crowd together in a line at Kroger, with their buggies filled with food and odd items like batteries. Catherine, as usual, doesn't quite have exact change. It's about time for Jerome's lion to go to work.
Today we're in need of new iconography. Lions, wheels, swords - these symbols have lost their charge; plus other people need iconographic programs to trail along after them, wayward thought balloons. I propose a project for a revised iconographic emblemata for a new millennium.