(5) another source for the outside panels

The idea that a person with a white beard was not necessarily the Creator would have been familiar to anyone old enough, or young enough, to have read the Margarita Philosophica by Gregor Reisch, first published in 1503. In European art it is normally obvious who is who, but in the American codexes imitated in the inside panels, it is not always obvious whether a picture represents a supernatural being or an impersonator.