Wednesday post preview: Why is Baby Jesus holding a goldfinch?
Animals and nature in Christian symbolism
Today was a busy day, and I haven’t got the Wednesday post finished. It’s nine o’clock and I’m going to bed early. But I thought I would send out a post giving a hint, and then finish it tomorrow when I can see straight.
But I want to talk about symbolism in Christian art, and do it in a way we can all relate to. We’ve probably all seen Christian paintings featuring animals. We look at Christian sacred art, all the way through from the earliest frescos and mosaics to the end of the Renaissance and beyond, and we often see animals, plants, flowers, birds, insects and fish and other representations of the natural world. What we might not think about is what these particular elements mean in a given image. In the Byzantine tradition, every single object in a painting of a Christian subject has a specific symbolic meaning, and this tradition carried on throughout the eras of Christian painting. This is why we sometimes talk about “reading” an icon.
As naturalism became more of a feature of western sacred art, diverging from the purely symbolic nature of Byzantine art, these elements were often retained and can be “read” even in paintings of the late Renaissance.
We know about Jonah and the whale, and we may remember the story of the ravens who brought food to the Prophet Elijah.
But why is the great English saint, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, often depicted with a pair of otters resting on his feet?
Why do many images of St. Benedict of Nursia include a raven with a piece of bread in its beak?
And why is the Christ Child often depicted holding a goldfinch?
And why does this stag have a crucifix on its head?
“The thing itself doesn’t have a meaning. A horse means a horse. A stag means a stag. But when we create an image of a horse or a stag, then meaning comes along.”
A symbol is an object, character, figure, or colour used to represent abstract ideas or concepts - a picture that represents an idea. A religious icon, such as the sparrow is an image or symbolic representation with sacred significance.
The biblical authors weren’t too concerned with accurate biological taxonomy. When they talk about birds - which they do a lot - they would use a general term. When we have “sparrows” and “swallows” in English, the Latin text gives us “passer” which really just means any small songbird, buntings, sparrows or finches. Hebrew word is 'tsippor', which properly denotes the whole family of small birds which feed on grain.
A domani.
~
Exspectabo domum meam donec salus aurorae.