How to Read Biblical Paintings: What Different Body Parts Symbolize in Christian Art

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the Christian understanding, the body is always an obstacle to seeing and understanding God. You can recall the Platonic concept of how the physical body of a person prevents him from understanding the divine plan and comprehending the essence of what is happening around him. The reason for this is that the carnal part of the human being is distracted by primitive animal senses. In this sense, depicting biblical figures has always been at least a controversial subject.

Traditionally, when it comes to symbolism, most of the controversy arises around the images of Jesus, his closest disciples and friends. From time immemorial, philosophical, scientific and religious disputes have been conducted to resolve such religious nuances.

As a result, it was possible to achieve some general canons regarding what is acceptable in the depiction of Jesus and other biblical figures, and most importantly, how to do it. Based on this, the body has become a means of representing certain ideals, values and artistic canons that reflect the nuances of how the Church relates to certain moments of artistic art. Moreover, in this case, you can see how the Christian worldview of the West symbolizes patterns of behavior and various “sinful” parts of the body, because of which a person can go astray.

Head

According to the Greco-Roman concept, the head is understood as the focus of the Mind. In Christian iconography, it is portrayed as a place where real union with God takes place, and as a place for a person to decide which way to go … and whether to give up earthly passions for the sake of faith. Likewise, the head is understood as the focus of wisdom and knowledge - which is why it is often depicted with a halo surrounding it. In addition to all this, Jesus is considered the head of the Church, and other “body parts” of the religious institution depend on him.

Hair

There is a wide variety of meanings attributed to hair. They can symbolize both masculine strength and lust and carnal passions, as in the case of Mary Magdalene (who is always depicted with her long red hair loose). This is with regard to physical attributes. Hair is also a symbol of the marital status of women. If their hair is uncovered and loose, then this means that the woman was not married and is a virgin. If the hair is covered with a scarf or tied in a knot, then the woman is already "busy" or married.

Eyes

In Christian iconography, eyes are a fundamental attribute in the representation of a person. This is an obvious connection between the earthly and spiritual worlds of the depicted person: it is through the eyes that light penetrates into the inner darkness. Therefore, many saints are depicted with extremely expressive eyes. An expressive gaze is also important, since it symbolizes the experience that the enlightened have: the experience of a direct connection with God.

Hands

In the case of mortal people

The image of hands is associated with the creative inspiration that God gives to people. Moreover, this is not only about doing something from scratch. Also, it is with the help of hands that a person can convey to the physical world what is happening in the mind, and besides this, hands are a natural survival tool that is characteristic of the entire species. In this sense, hands have a double function in Christian iconography: practical, which is designed to address the basic needs of a person, and ontological, which symbolizes how God brings his designs to the earthly world.

In the case of God

The presentation of the hands of God has sparked controversy in sacred art. First, for an epistemological reason: how to imagine God with some human qualities that would worsen his divine image. To this day, this issue remains unresolved, but certain aesthetic canons were created.

1. The hands of God, descending from above (without a face), reach out to the Earth. Sometimes it is shown how these hands stretch out the Holy Scripture to the Earth.

2. The hands of Jesus blessing people. There are subtleties here, and you need to look exactly how the hand of Jesus is depicted:

- if one finger is raised up at the hand, and the rest are folded in a "ring", then in addition to a blessing, in orthodox iconography this means the name of Jesus in Greek: IHCOYC;

- if two fingers are raised up, and the rest are folded with a pinch, then this is a blessing, which also symbolizes the dual nature of the Son of God: divine and earthly;

- if only one finger is extended to the side, this is just a gesture of preaching Jesus, it does not matter - in front of a large audience or a specific character.

Legs

The feet are tied to the ground they step on. If the portrayed character is shod, it means that he is in contact with the ground, which symbolizes humility and hard work. However, if he is depicted barefoot, it is associated with walking on holy ground or standing in the presence of God. Legs usually symbolize someone who follows the right path in life, or symbolizes the life that he leads on Earth, and which will predetermine whether a person will reach Paradise or not.