Northern Italian Altar Crucifix with Serpent Vanitas c.1750An amazingly rare example of a highly unusual Northern Italian devotional Altar Crucifix c. 1750 The altarpiece depicts a Memento Mori or vanitas displaying the Devil in the guise of the serpent writhing around the base of the cross upon the hill of Calvary. The serpent holds the apple clutched in his fangs, a reference to the original sin in the garden of Eden. The notion of the Garden of Eden is also represented with tiny intricate shells, vines,