Seperated at birth? ;-)

So, a couple of weeks ago, I found a nifty article online, about the Quaker painter Edward Hicks, and his "Peaceable Kingdom" paintings (he did about 60 of them). Here's an excerpt, on the symolism:

[Edward Hicks's] own education included ancient concepts of animal symbolism with its references to aspects of human personality. These symbols came into his paintings. The lion was quick-tempered and willful. The wolf was full of melancholy and reserved. The bear was sluggish and greedy. The leopard, buoyant.

So, anyway, here's the version of the Peaceable Kingdom that I grew up with:

(though if that image were life size, there'd be about three inches cropped off the left edge of the original -- and every online picture of that painting is the same; I wonder what's up)
Then, I found a picture of Edward's cousin, Elias, who, in 1827, started a split between the Quakers who wanted to be more evangelical-fundamentalist, and those wanted to be more liberal and universalist.

Is it just me, or do you see a similarity, too?


I'm sorry, this is probably boring as snow on a black and white T.V., for most of you. I just find it amusing.

(If you want to read the whole article [from the February, 2000 issue of Friends Journal], it's here: "Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom")

I also made a new icon. I like this one.