TJ Clark 10 February 2000 The Sight of Death p. 81-2 The snake itself has never struck me as a very convincing particular reptile (hence my facetious 'anaconda'): it is somehow too rubbery and glistening - like a nightmare of entrails exposed and twitching peristaltically. I doubt Poussin had ever seen a snake this long. The creature is a kind of casing or armor for the corpse it feeds on - intimating the body's three-dimensional structure. I don't know why this is as obscene as it is. But I'm sure that what the running man is steadying himself to take stock of is not simply death, but something more disgusting - an inside coming out.