The depictions have ranged from nearly identical figures that represent the three persons of the Holy Trinity from a dove to a flame.[4]
The Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove, based on the account of the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus at his baptism.[5] In many paintings of the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit is shown in the form of a dove, coming down towards Mary on beams of light, as the Archangel Gabriel announces Christ's coming to Mary.
A dove may also be seen at the ear of Saint Gregory the Great─as recorded by his secretary or other church father authors, dictating their works to them.
The dove also parallels the one that brought the olive branch to Noah after the deluge, as a symbol of peace.[5]
The book of Acts describes the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles at Pentecost in the form of a wind and tongues of fire resting over the apostles' heads. Based on that account, the Holy Spirit is sometimes symbolized by a flame.[4]
There are also depictions of the Holy Spirit in the book of Genesis. In The Vatican Museum in Rome is a carved stone sarcophagus depicting the Holy Trinity as three bearded men during the creation of Eve.[6] The majority of early Christian art depicts The Holy Spirit in an anthropomorphic form as a human with two other Identical human figures representing God the Father and Jesus Christ. They either sit or they stand grouped together. This is used to portray the unity of the Most Holy Trinity.[7][8]
The Holy Spirit is represented in various artistic mediums such as stained glass windows and calligraphy.[9]
1 2 The Holy Spirit: Classic and Contemporary Readings by Eugene F. Rogers Jr. (May 19, 2009) Wiley ISBN1405136235 pages 121-123
1 2 We Believe in the Holy Spirit (Ancient Christian Doctrine, No. 4) by Joel C. Elowsky (Jul 13, 2009) InterVarsity ISBN0830825347 page 14
↑ Early christian art and architecture by Milburn, R., & Milburn, R. L. P. (1988) Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN0520063260 page 68
↑ Three Drawing in an Anglo-Saxon Pontifical: Anthropomorphic Trinity of Threefold Christ? by Rosenthal, J. E. (1981) Art Bulletin, 63(4), ISSN0004-3079 page 546
↑ The Trinity. Touchstone: A Journal Of Mere Christianity by Rublev, A. (2013) Academic Search Complete ISSN0897-327X page 54-55
↑ Christian Century by Huey-Heck, L. (2012)Academic Search Complete ISSN0009-5281 page 47
In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is the third person of the Trinity. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality and influence of the unitary God over the universe or his creatures. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as an agent of divine action or communication. In the Baha’i Faith, the Holy Spirit is seen as the intermediary between God and man and "the outpouring grace of God and the effulgent rays that emanate from His Manifestation".
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is the central doctrine concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons (hypostases) sharing one essence/substance/nature (homoousion).
The depiction of Jesus in pictorial form dates back to early Christian art and architecture, as aniconism in Christianity was rejected within the ante-Nicene period. It took several centuries to reach a conventional standardized form for his physical appearance, which has subsequently remained largely stable since that time. Most images of Jesus have in common a number of traits which are now almost universally associated with Jesus, although variants are seen.
God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first Person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, Jesus Christ the Son, and the third person, God the Holy Spirit. Since the second century, Christian creeds included affirmation of belief in "God the Father ", primarily in his capacity as "Father and creator of the universe".
Andrei Rublev was a Russian artist considered to be one of the greatest medieval Russian painters of Orthodox Christian icons and frescoes. He is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and his feast day is 29 January.
The Holy Trinity is an important subject of icons in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and has a rather different treatment from depictions in the Western Churches. There are two different types of Holy Trinity icons: the Old Testament Trinity and the New Testament Trinity.
Sophia is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism and Christian theology. Originally carrying a meaning of "cleverness, skill", the later meaning of the term, close to the meaning of phronesis, was significantly shaped by the term philosophía as used by Plato.
The baptism of Jesus, the ritual purification of Jesus with water by John the Baptist, was a major event described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament. It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghtas, today located in Jordan.
A halo (from Ancient Greek ἅλως 'threshing floor, disk'; also called a nimbus, aureole, glory, or gloriole is a crown of light rays, circle or disk of light that surrounds a person in works of art. The halo occurs in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and has at various periods also been used in images of rulers and heroes. In the religious art of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, sacred persons may be depicted with a halo in the form of a circular glow, or flames in Asian art, around the head or around the whole body—this last form is often called a mandorla. Halos may be shown as almost any colour or combination of colours, but are most often depicted as golden, yellow or white or as red. Depending on how you define a halo, the earliest extant artistic depictions of halos were in Egypt or Iran.
The Shield of the Trinity or Scutum Fidei is a traditional Christian visual symbol which expresses many aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity, summarizing the first part of the Athanasian Creed in a compact diagram. In late medieval Europe, this emblem was considered to be the heraldic arms of God.
Christian symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork or events, by Christianity. It invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas.
In Christianity, God is the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe in a monotheistic, trinitarian conception of God, which is both transcendent and immanent. Christians believe in a singular God that exists in a Trinity, which consists of three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Christian teachings on the transcendence, immanence, and involvement of God in the world and his love for humanity exclude the belief that God is of the same substance as the created universe but accept that God the Son assumed hypostatically united human nature, thus becoming man in a unique event known as "the Incarnation".
The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, places a crown on the head of Mary as Queen of Heaven. In early versions the setting is a Heaven imagined as an earthly court, staffed by saints and angels; in later versions Heaven is more often seen as in the sky, with the figures seated on clouds. The subject is also notable as one where the whole Christian Trinity is often shown together, sometimes in unusual ways. Crowned Virgins are also seen in Eastern Orthodox Christian icons, specifically in the Russian Orthodox church after the 18th century. Mary is sometimes shown, in both Eastern and Western Christian art, being crowned by one or two angels, but this is considered a different subject.
The Hand of God, or Manus Dei in Latin, also known as Dextera domini/dei, is a motif in Jewish and Christian art, especially of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, when depiction of Yahweh or God the Father as a full human figure was considered unacceptable. The hand, sometimes including a portion of an arm, or ending about the wrist, is used to indicate the intervention in or approval of affairs on Earth by God, and sometimes as a subject in itself. It is an artistic metaphor that is generally not intended to indicate that a hand was physically present or seen at any subject depicted. The Hand is seen appearing from above in a fairly restricted number of narrative contexts, often in a blessing gesture, but sometimes performing an action. In later Christian works it tends to be replaced by a fully realized figure of God the Father, whose depiction had become acceptable in Western Christianity, although not in Eastern Orthodox or Jewish art. Though the hand of God has traditionally been understood as a symbol for God's intervention or approval of human affairs, it is also possible that the hand of God reflects the anthropomorphic conceptions of the deity that may have persisted in late antiquity.
For about a thousand years, in obedience to interpretations of specific Bible passages, pictorial depictions of God in Western Christianity had been avoided by Christian artists. At first only the Hand of God, often emerging from a cloud, was portrayed. Gradually, portrayals of the head and later the whole figure were depicted, and by the time of the Renaissance artistic representations of God the Father were freely used in the Western Church.
The Hetoimasia, Etimasia, prepared throne, Preparation of the Throne, ready throne or Throne of the Second Coming is the Christian version of the symbolic subject of the empty throne found in the art of the ancient world, whose meaning has changed over the centuries. In Ancient Greece, it represented Zeus, chief of the gods, and in early Buddhist art it represented the Buddha. In Early Christian art and Early Medieval art, it is found in both the East and Western churches, and represents either Christ, or sometimes God the Father as part of the Trinity. In the Middle Byzantine period, from about 1000, it came to represent more specifically the throne prepared for the Second Coming of Christ, a meaning it has retained in Eastern Orthodox art to the present.
The Jesus' name doctrine or the Oneness doctrine upholds that baptism is to be performed "in the name of Jesus Christ," rather than using the Trinitarian formula "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is most commonly associated with Oneness Christology and the movement of Oneness Pentecostalism; however, some Trinitarians also baptise in Jesus' name and interpret it as on the authority of Jesus' name which most of mainstream Christendom justifies as referencing the existence of a Trinitarian Christian deity through the Great Commission among other precepts such as instances in the Old Testament.
For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third Person of the Trinity, a triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each being God. Nontrinitarian Christians, who reject the doctrine of the Trinity, differ significantly from mainstream Christianity in their beliefs about the Holy Spirit. In Christian theology, pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit. Due to Christianity's historical relationship with Judaism, theologians often identify the Holy Spirit with the concept of the Ruach Hakodesh in Jewish scripture, on the theory that Jesus was expanding upon these Jewish concepts. Similar names, and ideas, include the Ruach Elohim, Ruach YHWH, and the Ruach Hakodesh. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is identified with the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, and the Paraclete (helper).
The Trinity is most commonly seen in Christian art with the Holy Spirit represented by a dove, as specified in the gospel accounts of the baptism of Christ; he is nearly always shown with wings outspread. However depictions using three anthropomorphic figures appear occasionally in most periods of art.
Christ the Vine is an egg tempera painting by Victor. Victor was a Cretan painter active during the 17th century. The painter traveled all over the Venetian empire. He eventually settled in Zakinthos. He is one of the most important painters of the 17th century due to the enormous amount of his existing works. His catalog of art exceeds over ninety-five paintings.
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