firemaiden
euripides said:Interesting discussion.
THE STAR - does anyone else see a fishtail or lobster (ie mis-drawn crab from the Moon) tail sticking out of the water? ....
I see a fishtail sticking out of the water. In fact, I see two. My friend le Pendu refuses to see it, and thinks it's supposed to be a crevasse in the rock. I think he's a dum-dum. (Sorry, Robert). If you look very closely at the wood cut striations in the water, meant to convey the surface of the water, and its movement, you can see a point of entry into the water, carefully delineated around the tail.
It makes me think we ought to consider relevant to the star, Saint Peter and the Fish in Masaccio's The Tribute Money -- see fish detail - where Saint Peter has been instructed by Jesus to collect money for taxes from the mouth of a fish. Of course that just shows a mouth and this a tail (if you agree it is a tail) - still I think the fact of kneeling down by a river of water (is it not a river?) recalls this image, and the fish, well, it just has to have something with Jesus.