Recommended Books For Those Who Want to Learn About Christian Symbolism In Sacred Art

I was recently asked for resources on learning about the symbolism traditionally used in Christian sacred art. These are the books I recommended she read, which might also be of interest to some of you. I would be happy to learn about any other good sources you can recommend.

If you are after books on the symbolism in Christian art, I would go for the following, starting with foundational references and progressing to more specialized liturgical and narrative sources:

First, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art by George Ferguson—that lists individual symbols, e.g., the lily represents purity. Next, the Getty Museum has published a series of excellent books. These are particularly valuable because they focus on particular images and explain the content—for example, paintings of particular saints or feasts of the Roman liturgy.

Another resource is the Golden Legend, or Legenda Aurea, which is a medieval compilation of 153 hagiographies of saints, written around 1260 by Jacobus de Voragine, a Dominican friar and later Archbishop of Genoa (a modern publication of this by Princeton University Press has an introduction by Eamon Duffy). Intended to edify and encourage devotion, it combines historical accounts, legends, and moral lessons, becoming one of the most influential and widely disseminated books of the Late Middle Ages in Europe and a huge influence on popular piety. Some of the details from the lives of the saints are contested by contemporary historians, but provided you are not concerned about contradicting the judgements of those who doubt tradition and promote the historical-critical method (like me), then there is much of value here. Given the year that it was written, the most recent examples will be saints of the era of St. Francis of Assisi.

Third, I would go for Festal Icons: History and Meaning by Aidan Hart. This focuses on the main twelve feasts of the Byzantine Rite Churches, giving scriptural sources for the imagery. For example, here is my commentary on the nativity icon, which is based directly on that which appears in Aidan’s book.

The Nativity Icon, by Aidan Hart

Finally, I often pray the Canons and Troparia of Morning Prayer (or at least sections of them), which are hymns sung in Orthros, Morning Prayer, in the Byzantine Churches. You can start by looking at these books, called the Festal Menaion and the Sunday Octoechos. The Canons, for example, are poetic commentaries on the Old Testament canticles that relate to the feast being celebrated. They were written around the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, and reflect earlier commentaries and homilies of the Church Fathers. Contained within them are many Old Testament prototypes for Mary and Christ. These reflect the basis of much traditional imagery across all Christian churches, Roman and Orthodox. For example, I wrote an article on the Marian imagery embedded within the icon of the Hospitality of Abraham, and Mary as the Tree of Life, which Bears the Sweet Fruit, which were derived from my praying of these canons.

The Hospitality of Abraham, by Cuban Iconographer José Garcia Cortés

I find allegories and symbols described in these hymns for which, as far as I am aware, there are no images currently, but which could become images in the future. For example, I wrote an article on one, Mary, as the Untilled Field That Bears the ‘Wheat Divine’.