CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: ICONOGRAPHY, CHRISTIAN

Christian Iconography

The science of the description, history, and  interpretation of the traditional
representations of God, the saints and other  sacred subjects in art. Almost from the
beginning the Church has employed  the arts as potent means of instruction and
edification. In the first  centuries the walls of the catacombs were decorated with
paintings and  mosaics (see CATACOMBS), and in all later times churches have lent
their  walls, ceilings, and windows as well as their altars, furniture, and  liturgical
vessels and books, to be adorned with scenes from the Old and the  New Testament,
from the lives and legends of the saints, and even from old  mythologies, modified, of
course, and harmonized with Christian teaching.  (For the details of Christian
iconography see the articles, DIPTYCHS;  IVORIES; METAL-WORK; MOSAICS;
PAINTING; RELIQUARIES; SCULPTURE;  WINDOWS; WOOD-CARVING.)

The object of iconography is to give the history of  these various representations, to note
their prevalence or absence at some  particular time or in some particular place, to
compare those of different  lands and different periods, to explain the personal or
historical, and to  interpret the symbolical. Studied thus, they have an important
historical  and dogmatic interest, as they attest the unity of ecclesiastical tradition  and
the faith of the ages in which they were produced.

Special articles  dealing with subjects of Christian iconography, besides those already
mentioned, are ANCHOR; DOVE; EUCHARIST, EARLY SYMBOLS OF; FISH,
SYMBOLISM  OF; LAMB; NIMBUS. See also ECCLESIASTICAL ART.

Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at placing the
entire Catholic Encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this
worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-mail at ([email protected]). For
more information please download the file cathen.txt/.zip.

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