The Obscura paintings

The obscura paintings (and engravings) played a big key role in **Tomb Raider - Angel of darkness.** In this special I am analysing the original pictures behind the obscura painting. This was a favor asked by **Dragooncroft**.

So enjoy!

## The Obscura paintings introduction

* PIETER VON ECKHARDT created the five dark images of the Sanglyph or "the blood sign". He was a insane renaissance alchemist and became immortal through the Sanglyph.

* Each painting contains a hidden metallic symbol built into the thick wooden base. These were the source of the paintings' power.

* PIETER VON ECKHARDT power was broken by the LUX VERITATIS, they built Castle Kriegler to keep him confined. The still dangerous Sanglyph paintings were seized and dispersed to widely scattered locations. Whenever it gained control over objects of power the Vatican’s practice was to secrete them away rather than have them destroyed. Despite the urgings of the Lux Veritatis that the objects be destroyed it was decided that the five paintings would be preserved under strictest secrecy. It made no difference that the objects originated from an evil source. The power they contained might be turned and used for good at some future date. And there were no shortages of remote monasteries and strongholds where they could be entombed.

* But the risk of spiritual contamination from these evil works was considered a very real danger. As an extra measure of protection the Sanglyph Paintings would have to be painted over, disguised beneath layers of Christian imagery. No ordinary artisan could be trusted with the task. Someone special, someone dispensable would have to be sacrificed.

* The ideal choice was a reformed heretic, now a monk, who had once been a great painter. He had suffered questioning by the Inquisition and was now a crippled deaf-mute. All he wanted was to be left in peace and forgotten by the world. A deaf-mute monk called BROTHER OBSCURA was designated by the LUX VERITATIS ORDER to paint over the five images of the Sanglyph. But he made forbidden records of the images and hidden symbols which later became three sets of the Obscura Engravings. But Brother Obscura was not well. Confinement with such potent sources of evil had taken its toll on his mind. Two weeks after his return he was found hanging from the rafter beams in his own cell. It was reported that he had taken his own life.

* Castle Kriegler was bombed in the second world war. Pieter van Eckhardt could escape his prison. With the help of a new agency he formed THE CABAL. His first task was to uncover anything related to the Sanglyph.

* MATTHIAS VASILY, a unscrupulous Prague art dealer, comes across a battered manuscript from a ruined monastery in Spain and recognize the OBSCURA PAINTINGS. He knows there are certain parties in Prague who would give anything for artefacts linked to the Eckhardt Sanglyph. He makes discrete approaches to a member of the Strahov Complex governing body, a KRISTINA BOAZ.

* Soon after this, enquiries from a WERNER VON CROY in Paris confirm Vasiley’s suspicions that something really big is in the air. Von Croy is trawling for information but hints that one of the fabled Five Paintings may be somewhere in Paris. They exchange guarded communications. And then Mathias Vasiley’s luck runs out...

(from documentation of Murti Schofield)

## Painting 1; an angel with a sword overlooking a forest

### The angel with the sword

The angel with the sword came from a real painting. The meaning from this section could be the Nephilim, the obsession of Eckhardt.

* Painter: Hans Memling (1430-1494)
* Made in: ?
* Name: Angel with sword

### The castle

The castle and their buildings looks like it was mirrored, like most of the pictures in Angel of Darkness.

* Painter: Jean Fouquet (1420-1481)
* Made in: ?
* Name: Sainte Marguerite and Olibrius, also known as Marguerite Keeping Sheep.

### The forest with the dogs, the king and horse

If you look closely the forest has some dogs, a king with a skeleton and a skeleton riding a horse picking up a woman. These came from two paintings.

The left one:

* Painter: Pieter Bruegel, the Elder (1525-1569)
* Made in: 1562
* Name: The Triumph of the Dead

The right one:

* Painter: the Limbourg brothers (1478-1549)
* Made in: 1405-1409
* Name: Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, the month December

## Painting 2; castle with knights and horses

### The knights and horses

The knights and horses came from an illustrated work.

* Creator: Jean Colombe (1430-1493) & Sebastien Momerot (1418-1490)
* Made in: 1473-1474
* Name: Passages d'outremer

### Church in the background

There is a tiny church on the background with some smoke in the painting.

* Painter: Pieter Bruegel, the Elder (1525-1569)
* Made in: 1562
* Name: The Triumph of the Dead

### Castle

* Creator: Sebastien Momerot (1418-1490)
* Made in: 1473-1474
* Passages d'outremer; Second Crusade (1147-1149): King Louis VII said the Young (1120-1180) taking the cross at Vezelay in the presence of Saint Bernard de Clairvaux (San Bernardo di Chiaravalle) and the eveque of Versailles...

## Painting 3; burning castle and angels with knights

### The burning castle

* Painter: Jheronimus Bosch (1450-1516)
* Made in: 1510-1520
* Name: The hay wagon

The painting of Jheronimus Bosch has three parts or a "Tryptich". This part symbolises the hell.

### The landscape

* Painter: Pieter Bruegel, the Elder (1525-1569)
* Made in: 1562
* Name: The Triumph of the Dead

### The horse

* Painter: Jean Fouquet (1420-1481)
* Made in: 1460
* Name: Charity of St. Martin

### The devils/red angels

* Painter: Jean Fouquet (1420-1481)
* Made in: 1450
* Name: Madonna and Child, left panel of Diptych de Melun

## Painting 4; dead figure and woman holding a book

### Texts

Underneath the paining is text written: **Limoux** and **Vasily**. Together the formed the initials “L” and “V” which stands for **Lux Veritatis**.

The word “Limoux” we see one time in the game in the Vault of Trophies. It is also a city in the southern of France and famous for their sparkling wine. The word “Vasily” is a Slavic male given name of Greek origin and corresponds to Basil. I think it is one of the ancestors of **Mathias Vasily** in Prague.
In the Vault of the Trophies a sign says: “The brothers united…”. It could be natural brothers (Limoux and Vasily) as in a family or people who are “brothers” leaders of a gang called Lux Veritatis. Maybe Karel was shapeshifted into Limoux as he was depicted here as a skeleton. You never know.

### The woman

* Painter: Jean Fouquet (1420-1481)
* Made in: 1450
* Name: Madonna and Child, left panel of Diptych de Melun

### The death figure

* Painter: Hans Baldung (1484-1545)
* Made in: 1517
* Name: Death and the Maiden

## Painting 5; God and his angels in the sky

### Plowing the earth

* Painter: the Limbourg brothers (1478-1549)
* Made in: 1405-1409
* Name: Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, the month March

### Water in the background

* Painter: Jean Fouquet (1420-1481)
* Made in: 1470
* Name: David Learning of the Death of Saul

### The god figure in heavens

* Painter: Jheronimus Bosch (1450-1516)
* Made in: 1510-1520
* Name: The hay wagon

The god figure is present in the paradise scene.

## See also

* https://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?p=8272844

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans\_Memling
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter\_Bruegel\_the\_Elder
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbourg\_brothers
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean\_Colombe
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien\_Mamerot
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passages\_d%27outremer
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter\_Bruegel\_the\_Elder
8. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus\_Bosch
9. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans\_Baldung