In Sweden today, the first Sunday after the holiday of Epiphany is dedicated to the Baptism of Jesus. This event is recorded in all the Gospels. However, researchers agree that the oldest gospel is Mark, and I quote the text from Mark 1:9-11 here: At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
A dove might well be reality at the time, but if it was the holy spirit or not is open to interpretation. The voice from above might also be artistic license, some believe it was real and some do not. I choose to respect both opinions.
But I do accept that Jesus was a real person, and that the baptism of Jesus was and is a significant episode in our culture. In order to create a suitable image to commemorate a significant holy day in January this was a very suitable episode to pay tribute to.
The image is an attempt to recreate the scene two thousand years later, so we have little information of the environment and surroundings. But the baptism obviously required water, so a serving dish filled with water in the foreground serves as a symbol of the water used. Another fact revealed in the text is that Jesus was a grown man at the time, so it was what is now called a credo baptism.
The exact location for the baptism of Jesus appear to have been lost to time, and we have at least two sites venerated as the place for the baptism of Jesus. They are called Al-Maghtas nd Qasr el Yahud. Acording to Wikipedia But both are in the lower parts of the Jordan River, close to where it flows out in the Dead Sea. The soil was therefore more likely to be clay rather then sand. Sand fall to the bottom of the river faster than clay particles, and hence the lower parts of a river tend to be surrounded by clay and it shifts to sand when you proceeds further upstream.
The figurine is therefore placed on a clay sculpture of a clay riverbank, surrounded by some stones. Clay might be deposited on a site where there were stones previously, but most of the stones will be found at the bottom of the clay bed.
Large parts of Israel and Jordan are desert and semi-desert, but the water of the river Jordan turns the Jordan River Valley into a river oasis. As such the area is lush, with a lot of plants and trees. Many of the wild flowers and plants are local to the area, and not available as potted plants or artificial flowers. However, one plant is: Chrysanthemum. The plant in the background is in fact an artificial flower, and not proportional to the rest of the scene. However obtaining a proportional plant is not possible, and the oversize plant works nicely as a reminder of how lush the area is.