![[Picture: Heraldic Crest and Symbols of Industry]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Visconti-IlMuseoPioClementino/pages/Vol-VI-000-title-page-detail/Vol-VI-000-title-page-detail-q90-900x462.jpg "[Picture: Heraldic Crest and Symbols of Industry]")
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heraldry, shields, crests, science, symbols, coins, money, nudity, people, cherubs, boys, bare feet, travel, keys, masks, spirit, backgrounds, wallpaper
This heraldic crest is from the title page to Volume VI of the huge book. If you are able to give a formal description of this image I’d love to hear from you; informally, it shows an armorial bearing of a head (probably Zephyr, the West Wind) blowing a flower, surmounted by three stars. The shield is mounted on a shell, and has myrtle branches (or mistletoe?) to eithe side, and two keys above it, with on the very top a helmet or lidded urn surmounted by a cross, perhaps indicating the arms of a pope or cardinal. To the left are signs for commerce and hunting, with a putto (a naked boy, anatomically correct) grasping a bird (a goose?), a cornucpoia of coins, and a rather peterbed-looking mask. On the right is a cornucopia of fruit and vegetables, an Egyptian-style vase, a severed head or bust, and instruments of navigation: calipers for measuring distance on a chart, a square and a book. The whole may signify spoils from plundered distant lands but I am not certain.
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Added by Nan on Mon Jun 4 05:56:43 2012
I think this is a picture showing the spoils of war ... plunder. The conqueror/victor’s prize is dominance over: the birds of the air, the stars in the sky, the winds and the fruits of the land, the seas. The conqueror also receives the sealed urn of history, and the keys (to the gates of heaven?), the severed heads of the conquered foe, their tools and their knowledge. Their homes, their (impregnated) women, their children. The "platter of goodies" is a visual attempt to encompass just about everything that goes with the victory of war when one land falls to another. The flower on the shield (at the very centre) could mark the grave of a fallen warrior. The image as a whole conveys the sense of a hidden secret or message which is pertinent to the conquest. The collection of objects creates a very powerful statement of territorial mastership and dominance.
Added by PCSD on Fri Mar 6 13:07:10 2015
Hello, I stumbled across this image on a google image search and could not help but trying to find out whos coat of arms it was.
Closer inspection reveals the crest of the shield to be a papal tiara with the keys of Peter crossed behind it. This narrowed down the list of ’suspects’ to the 266 popes. A after looking through all of their coat of arms it showed to be nr 250th, Pius VI.
This explains the ornaments around the shield:
“The name of Pius VI is associated with the troubles of the French Revolution and restoration of the splendor of Rome under Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) in the promotion of art and public works; the words Munificentia Pii VI. P. M. graven in all parts of the city, giving rise amongst his impoverished subjects to such satire as the insertion of a minute loaf in the hands of Pasquin with that inscription beneath it.
“He is best remembered in connection with the establishment of the Museum of the Vatican” [Wikipedia]
-PCSD