To know something of the attributes and emblems of general application,
as well as those proper to each saint, is absolutely necessary; but it
will also greatly assist the fancy and the memory to _understand_ their
origin and significance. For this reason I will add a few words of
explanation.
* * * * *
The GLORY, NIMBUS, or AUREOLE—the Christian attribute of sanctity, and
used generally to distinguish all holy personages—is of pagan origin.
It expressed the luminous nebula (Homer, _Il._ xxiii. 205), supposed to
emanate from, and surround, the Divine Essence, which stood, ‘a shade
in midst of its own brightness.’ Images of the gods were decorated
with a crown of rays, or with stars; and when the Roman emperors
assumed the honours due to divinity, they appeared in public crowned
with golden radii. The colossal statue of Nero wore a circle of rays,
imitating the glory of the sun. This ornament became customary; and
not only the first Cæsars, but the Christian emperors, adopted the
same divine insignia; and it became at length so common that we find
it on some medals, round the heads of the consuls of the later empire.
Considered in the East as _the attribute of power only_, whether good
or evil, we find, wherever early Art has been developed under Byzantine
influences, the nimbus thus applied. Satan, in many Greek, Saxon, and
French miniatures, from the ninth to the thirteenth century, wears a
glory. In a psalter of the twelfth century, the Beast of the Apocalypse
with seven heads has six heads surrounded by the nimbus; the seventh,
wounded and drooping, is without the sign of power.
But in Western Art the associations with this attribute were not
merely those of dignity, but of something divine and consecrated. It
was for a long time avoided in the Christian representations as being
appropriated by false gods or heathen pride; and when first adopted
does not seem clear.[7] The earliest example cited is a gem of St.
Martin of the early part of the sixth century, in which the glory
round his head seems to represent his apotheosis: and in all instances
it is evidently intended to represent divine glory and beatitude.
The glory round the head is properly the nimbus or aureole. The oblong
glory surrounding the whole person, called in Latin the _vesica
piscis_, and in Italian the _mandorla_ (almond), from its form, is
confined to figures of Christ and the Virgin, or saints who are in
the act of ascending into heaven. When used to distinguish one of
the three divine persons of the Trinity the glory is often cruciform
or triangular. The square nimbus designates a person living at the
time the work was executed. In the frescoes of Giotto at Assisi, the
allegorical personages are in some instances distinguished by the
hexagonal nimbus. In other instances it is circular. From the fifth to
the twelfth century the nimbus had the form of a disc or plate over
the head.[8] From the twelfth to the fifteenth century, it was a broad
golden band, round, or rather behind, the head, composed of circle
within circle, often adorned with precious stones, and sometimes having
the name of the saint inscribed within it. From the fifteenth century
it was a bright fillet over the head, and in the seventeenth century
it disappeared altogether. In pictures the glory is always golden, the
colour of light; in miniatures and stained glass I have seen glories of
various colours, red, blue, or green.[9]
* * * * *
The FISH was the earliest, the most universal, of the Christian
emblems, partly as the symbol of water and the rite of baptism, and
also because the five Greek letters which express the word Fish form
the anagram of the name of Jesus Christ. In this sense we find the
fish as a general symbol of the Christian faith upon the sarcophagi of
the early Christians; on the tombs of the martyrs in the catacombs; on
rings, coins, lamps, and other utensils; and as an ornament in early
Christian architecture. It is usually a dolphin, which among the Pagans
had also a sacred significance.
The passage in the Gospel, ‘Follow me, and I will make ye fishers of
men,’ is supposed to have originated the use of this symbol; and I
may observe here, that the fish placed in the hands of St. Peter has
probably a double or treble signification, alluding to his former
occupation as a fisherman, his conversion to Christianity, and his
vocation as a Christian apostle, i. e. a fisher of men, in the sense
used by Christ; and in the same sense we find it given as an attribute
to bishops who were famous for converting and baptising, as St. Zeno of
Verona, and Gregory of Tours.
* * * * *
The CROSS.—About the tenth century the Fish disappeared, and the
Cross—symbol of our redemption, from the apostolic times—became the
sole and universal emblem of the Christian faith. The cross placed in
the hand of a saint is usually the Latin cross (1), the form ascribed
to the cross on which our Saviour suffered. Other crosses are used as
emblems or ornaments, but still having the same signification; as the
Greek cross (2), in which the arms are all of the same length; the
transverse cross, on which St. Andrew is supposed to have suffered,
in this form (3); the Egyptian cross, sometimes placed in the hands
of St. Philip the apostle, and it was also the form of the crutch of
St. Anthony, and embroidered on his cope or robe—hence it is called
St. Anthony’s cross (4). There is also the Maltese cross, and various
ornamental crosses. The double cross on the top of a staff, instead of
the crosier, is borne by the Pope only; the staff with a single cross,
by the Greek bishops.
[Illustration:
(1) (2) (3) (4)]
At first the cross was a sign only. When formed of gold or silver, the
five wounds of Christ were signified by a ruby or carbuncle at each
extremity, and one in the centre. It was not till the sixth century
that the cross became a CRUCIFIX, no longer an emblem but an _image_.
* * * * *
The LAMB, in Christian Art, is the peculiar symbol of the Redeemer
as the sacrifice without blemish: in this sense it is given as an
attribute to John the Baptist. The lamb is also the general emblem of
innocence, meekness, modesty; in this sense it is given to St. Agnes,
of whom Massillon said so beautifully, ‘peu de pudeur, où il n’y a pas
de religion; peu de religion, où il n’y a pas de pudeur.’
The PELICAN, tearing open her breast to feed her young with her own
blood, was an early symbol of our redemption through Christ.
One or both of these emblems are frequently found in ancient crosses
and crucifixes; the lamb at the foot, the pelican at the top, of the
cross.
The DRAGON is the emblem of sin in general, and of the sin of idolatry
in particular; and the dragon slain or vanquished by the power of the
cross, is the perpetually recurring myth, which, varied in a thousand
ways, we find running through all the old Christian legends: not
subject to misapprehension in the earliest times; but, as the cloud of
ignorance darkened and deepened, the symbol was translated into a fact.
It has been suggested that the dragon, which is to us a phantasm and an
allegory, which in the middle ages was the visible shape of the demon
adversary of all truth and goodness, might have been, as regards form,
originally _a fact_: for wherever we have dragon legends, whether the
scene be laid in Asia, Africa, or Europe, the imputed circumstances and
the form are little varied. The dragons introduced into early painting
and sculpture so invariably represent a gigantic winged crocodile, that
it is presumed there must have been some common origin for the type
chosen as if by common consent; and that this common type may have
been some fossil remains of the Saurian species, or even some far-off
dim tradition of one of these tremendous reptiles surviving in Heaven
knows what vast desolate morass or inland lake, and spreading horror
and devastation along its shores. At Aix, a huge fossilised head of
one of the Sauri was for a long time preserved as the head of the
identical dragon subdued by St. Martha; and St. Jerome relates that
he had himself beheld at Tyre the bones of the sea monster to which
Andromeda had been exposed—probably some fossil remains which in the
popular imagination were thus accounted for. Professor Owen told me
that the head of a dragon in one of the legendary pictures he had seen
in Italy closely resembled in form that of the Deinotherium Giganteum.
These observations have reference only to the type adopted when the old
Scripture allegory took form and shape. The dragon of Holy Writ is the
same as the serpent, i. e., personified sin, the spiritual enemy of
mankind.
The scriptural phrase of the ‘jaws of hell’ is literally rendered
in the ancient works of Art by the huge jaws of a dragon, wide open
and emitting flames, into which the souls of sinners are tumbled
headlong. In pictures, sin is also typified by a serpent or snake; in
this form it is placed under the feet of the Madonna, sometimes with
an apple in its mouth; sometimes, but only in late pictures of the
seventeenth century, winding its green scaly length round and round a
globe, significant of the subjugation of the whole earth to the power
of sin till delivered by the Redeemer. On this subject I shall have
much more to say when treating of the pictures of the Fall of Man, and
the subjects taken from the Apocalypse: for the present we need only
bear in mind the various significations of the popular Dragon myth,
which may shadow forth the conquest over sin, as in the legends of St.
Michael and St. Margaret; or over paganism, as in the legends of St.
Sylvester and St. George; or sometimes a destroying flood, as in the
legend of St. Martha, where the inundation of the Rhone is figured
by a dragon emerging from the waters and spreading around death and
pestilence,—like the Python of the Grecian myth.
* * * * *
The LION, as an ancient Christian symbol, is of frequent recurrence,
more particularly in architectural decoration. Antiquaries are not
agreed as to the exact meaning attached to the mystical lions placed in
the porches of so many old Lombard churches; sometimes with an animal,
sometimes with a man, in their paws. But we find that the lion was an
ancient symbol of the Redeemer, ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah:’
also of the resurrection of the Redeemer; because, according to an
oriental fable, the lion’s cub was born dead, and in three days its
sire licked it into life. In this sense it occurs in the windows of the
cathedral at Bourges. In either sense it may probably have been adopted
as a frequent ornament in the church utensils, and in ecclesiastical
decoration, supporting the pillars in front, or the carved thrones, &c.
The lion also typifies solitude—the wilderness; and, in this sense, is
placed near St. Jerome and other saints who did penance, or lived as
hermits in the desert; as in the legends of St. Paul the hermit, St.
Mary of Egypt, St. Onofrio. Further, the lion as an attribute denoted
death in the amphitheatre, and with this signification is placed near
certain martyrs, as St. Ignatius and St. Euphemia. The lion, as the
type of fortitude and resolution, was placed at the feet of those
martyrs who had suffered with singular courage, as St. Adrian and St.
Natalia.[10]
When other wild beasts, as wolves and bears, are placed at the feet
of a saint attired as abbot or bishop, it signifies that he cleared
waste land, out down forests, and substituted Christian culture and
civilisation for paganism and the lawless hunter’s life: such is the
significance in pictures of St. Magnus, St. Florentius and St. Germain
of Auxerre.
* * * * *
The HART or HIND was also an emblem of double signification. It was a
type of solitude and of purity of life, and was also a type of piety
and religious aspiration, adopted from the forty-second Psalm, ‘Like as
the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul for thee, O
God!’
When the original meaning of the lion, the hart, and other emblems,
was no longer present to the popular mind, legends were invented to
account for them; and that which had been a symbol, became an incident,
or an historical attribute,—as in the stories of the lion healed by St.
Jerome, or digging the grave of St. Paul; the miraculous stag which
appeared to St. Eustace and St. Hubert; the wounded doe in the legend
of St. Giles; and the hind which spoke to St. Julian.
* * * * *
The PEACOCK, the bird of Juno, was an ancient pagan symbol, signifying
the apotheosis of an empress, as we find from many of the old
Roman coins and medals. The early Christians, accustomed to this
interpretation, adopted it as a general emblem of the mortal exchanged
for the immortal existence; and, with this signification, we find the
peacock with outspread train on the walls and ceilings of catacombs,
the tombs of the martyrs, and many of the sarcophagi, down to the
fourth and fifth centuries. It is only in modern times that the peacock
has become the emblem of worldly pride.
* * * * *
The CROWN, as introduced in Christian Art, is either an emblem or an
attribute. It has been the emblem from all antiquity of victory, and
of recompense due to superior power or virtue. In this sense the word
and the image are used in Scripture in many passages: for example,
‘Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of glory.’ And in this
sense, as the recompense of those who had fought the good fight to the
end, and conquered, the crown became the especial symbol of the glory
of martyrdom. In very ancient pictures, a hand is seen coming out of
heaven holding a wreath or circlet; afterwards it is an angel who
descends with a crown, which is sometimes a coronet of gold and jewels,
sometimes a wreath of palm or myrtle. In general only the female
martyrs wear the symbolical crown of glory; martyrs of the other sex
hold the crown in their hands, or it is borne by an angel. Hence we may
presume that the crown, which among the Jews was the especial ornament
of a bride, signified the bride or spouse of Christ—one dedicated to
virginity for his sake; and in this sense, down to the present time,
the crown is placed on the head of a nun at the moment of consecration.
Therefore in the old pictures of female martyrs we may interpret the
crown in this double sense, as signifying at once the bride and the
martyr.
But it is necessary also to distinguish between the _symbol_ and the
_attribute_: thus, where St. Cecilia and St. Barbara wear the crown, it
is the symbol of their glorious martyrdom; when St. Catherine and St.
Ursula wear the crown, it is at once as the symbol of martyrdom and the
attribute of their royal rank as princesses.
The crown is also the symbol of sovereignty. When it is placed on the
head of the Virgin, it is as Queen of Heaven, and also as the ‘Spouse’
of Scripture allegory.
But the crown is also an attribute, and frequently, when worn by
a saint or placed at his feet, signifies that he was royal or of
princely birth: as in the pictures of Louis of France, St. William, St.
Elizabeth, St. Helena, and many others.
[Illustration: Four Crowns]
The crowns in the Italian pictures are generally a wreath, or a simple
circle of gold and jewels, or a coronet radiated with a few points.
But in the old German pictures the crown is often of most magnificent
workmanship, blazing with jewels.
I have seen a real silver crown placed on the figures of certain
popular saints, but as a votive tribute, not an emblem.
The SWORD is also either a symbol or an attribute. As a symbol it
signifies generally martyrdom by any violent death, and, in this sense,
is given to many saints who did not die by the sword. As an attribute
it signifies the particular death suffered, and that the martyr in
whose hand or at whose feet it is placed was beheaded: in this sense it
is given to St. Paul, St. Catherine, and many others. It is given also
to the warrior-martyrs, as the attribute of their military profession.
Other symbols of martyrdom are the AXE, the LANCE, and the CLUB.
ARROWS, which are attributes, St. Ursula, St. Christina, and St.
Sebastian.
The PONIARD, given to St. Lucia.
The CAULDRON, given to St. John the Evangelist and St. Cecilia.
The PINCERS and SHEARS, St. Apollonia and St. Agatha.
The WHEELS, St. Catherine.
FIRE and FLAMES are sometimes an emblem of martyrdom and punishment,
and sometimes of religious fervour.
A BELL was supposed to have power to exorcise demons, and for this
reason is given to the haunted St. Anthony.
The SHELL signifies pilgrimage.
The SKULL, penance.
The ANVIL, as an attribute of martyrdom, belongs to St. Adrian only.
The PALM, the ancient classical symbol of victory and triumph, was
early assumed by the Christians as the universal symbol of martyrdom,
and for this adaptation of a pagan ornament they found warrant in
Scripture: Rev. vii. 9, ‘And after this I beheld, and, lo, a great
multitude stood before the throne clothed with white robes and with
palms in their hands.‘... ‘And he said to me, These are they which
came out of great tribulation.’ Hence in pictures of martyrdoms an
angel descends with the palm; hence it is figured on the tombs of early
martyrs, and placed in the hands of those who suffered in the cause of
truth, as expressing their final victory over the powers of sin and
death.
The sensual think with reverence of the palm
Which the chaste votary wields.
[Illustration: Four palm fronds]
The palm varies in form from a small leaf to the size of a palm branch,
almost a tree. It is very small in the early Italian pictures, very
large in the Spanish pictures. In the Siena pictures it has a bunch of
dates depending from it. It is only in late pictures that the palm,
with a total disregard to the sacredness of its original signification,
is placed on the ground, or under the feet of the saint.
The STANDARD, or banner, is also the symbol of victory, the spiritual
victory over sin, death, and idolatry. It is borne by our Saviour
after his resurrection, and is placed in the hands of St. George, St.
Maurice, and other military saints; in the hands of some victorious
martyrs, as St. Julian, St. Ansano, and of those who preached the
Gospel among infidels; also in the hands of St. Ursula and St.
Reparata, the only female saints, I believe, who bear this attribute.
The OLIVE, as the well-known emblem of peace and reconciliation, is
figured on the tombs of the early martyrs; sometimes with, sometimes
without, the dove. The olive is borne as the attribute of peace by the
angel Gabriel, by St. Agnes, and by St. Pantaleon; sometimes also by
the angels in a Nativity, who announce ‘peace on earth.’
The DOVE in Christian Art is the emblem of the Holy Ghost; and, besides
its introduction into various subjects from the New Testament, as the
Annunciation, the Baptism, the Pentecost, it is placed near certain
saints who are supposed to have been particularly inspired, as St.
Gregory, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Hilarius, and others.
The dove is also a symbol of simplicity and purity of heart, and as
such it is introduced into pictures of female saints, and especially of
the Madonna and Child.
It is also the emblem of the soul; in this sense it is seen issuing
from the lips of dying martyrs, and is found in pictures of St. Eulalia
of Merida, and St. Scholastica the sister of St. Benedict.
The LILY is another symbol of purity, of very general application.
We find it in pictures of the Virgin, and particularly in pictures
of the Annunciation. It is placed significantly in the hand of St.
Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, his staff, according to the
legend, having put forth lilies; it is given, as an emblem merely, to
St. Francis, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Dominick, and St. Catherine of
Siena, to express the particular purity of their lives.
The UNICORN is another ancient symbol of purity, in allusion to the
fable that it could never be captured except by a virgin stainless in
mind and life; it has become in consequence the emblem peculiarly of
_female_ chastity, but in Christian Art is appropriate only to the
Virgin Mary and St. Justina.
The FLAMING HEART expresses fervent piety and love: in early pictures
it is given to St. Augustine, merely in allusion to a famous passage
in his ‘Confessions;’ but in the later schools of Art it has become a
general and rather vulgar emblem of spiritual love: in this sense it is
given to St. Theresa; St. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, a Florentine nun;
and some of the Jesuit saints.
The BOOK in the hands of the Evangelists and the Apostles is an
attribute, and represents the Gospel. In the hand of St. Stephen it is
the Old Testament; in the hand of any other saint it may be the Gospel,
but it may also be an emblem only, signifying that the saint was famous
for his learning or his writings; it has this sense in pictures of
St. Catherine, the Doctors of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St.
Bonaventura.
A CHURCH placed in the hands of a saint signifies that he was the
founder of some particular church: in this sense St. Henry bears the
cathedral of Bamberg; or, that he was the protector and first bishop
of the church, as St. Petronius bears the cathedral of Bologna. I must
except the single instance of St. Jerome; the church in his hands
signifies no particular edifice, but, in a general sense, the Catholic
Church, of which he was the great support and one of the primitive
fathers; to render the symbol more expressive, rays of light are seen
proceeding from the portal.
The SCOURGE in the hand of a saint, or at his feet, signifies the
penances he inflicted upon himself; but in the hand of St. Ambrose, it
signifies the penance he inflicted upon others.
The CHALICE, or Sacramental Cup, with the Host, signifies Faith; it is
given to St. Barbara. The Cup, with the Serpent, is the attribute of
St. John.
The SHIP.—The Ark of Noah, floating safe amid the Deluge, in which all
things else were overwhelmed, was an obvious symbol of the Church of
Christ. Subsequently the _Ark_ became a ship. St. Ambrose likens the
Church of God to a ship, and the Cross to the mast set in the midst
of it. ‘_Arbor quædam in nari est crux in ecclesia._’ The Bark of St.
Peter tossed in the storm, and by the Redeemer guided safe to land,
was also considered as symbolical. These mingled associations combined
to give to the emblem of the ship a sacred significance. Every one who
has been at Rome will remember the famous mosaic of the ship tossed by
the storms, and assailed by demons, called THE NAVICELLA, which was
executed by Giotto for the old Basilica of St. Peter’s, and is now
under the Portico, opposite to the principal door. I believe that in
the pictures of St. Nicholas and St. Ursula the ship had originally
a sacred and symbolical significance, and that the legends were
afterwards invented or modified to explain the emblem, as in so many
other instances.
The ANCHOR is the Christian symbol of immovable firmness, hope,
and patience; and in this sense we find it very frequently in the
catacombs, and on the ancient Christian gems. It was given to several
of the early saints as a symbol. Subsequently a legend was invented to
account for the symbol, turning it into an attribute, as was the case
with the lion and the stag. For example: to St. Clement the anchor
was first given as the symbol of his constancy in Christian hope, and
thence we find, subsequently invented, the story of his being thrown
into the sea with the anchor round his neck. On the vane of the Church
of St. Clement in the Strand, the anchor, the parish device, was
anciently placed; and as in the English fancy no anchor can be well
separated from a ship, they have lately placed a ship on the other
side,—the original signification of the anchor, as applied to St.
Clement the martyr, being unknown or forgotten.
The LAMP, LANTERN, or TAPER, is the old emblem of piety: ‘Let your
light so shine before men:’—and it also signifies wisdom. In the first
sense we find this attribute in the hand of St. Gudula, St. Geneviève
of Paris, and St. Bridget; while the lamp in the hand of St. Lucia
signifies celestial light or wisdom.
FLOWERS and FRUITS, often so beautifully introduced into ecclesiastical
works of Art, may be merely ornamental; Crivelli, and some of the
Venetian and Lombard painters, were fond of rich festoons of fruit, and
backgrounds of foliage and roses. But in some instances they have a
definite significance. Roses are symbolical in pictures of the Madonna,
who is the ‘_Rose of Sharon_.’[11] The wreath of roses on the brow of
St. Cecilia, the roses and fruits borne by St. Dorothea, are explained
by the legends.
The apple was the received emblem of the Fall of Man and original sin.
Placed in pictures of the Madonna and Child, either in the hand of the
Infant Christ, or presented by an angel, it signified Redemption from
the consequences of the Fall. The pomegranate, bursting open, and the
seeds visible, was an emblem of the future—of hope in immortality.
When an apple, a pear, or a pomegranate is placed in the hand of St.
Catherine as the mystical _Sposa_ of Christ, which continually occurs,
particularly in the German pictures, the allusion is to be taken in the
scriptural sense: ‘The _fruit_ of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.’