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Course: Start here > Unit 4
Lesson 5: Christianity- Christianity, an introduction for the study of art history
- The Christian Bible
- A New Pictorial Language: The Image in Early Medieval Art
- The lives of Christ and the Virgin in Byzantine art
- The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art
- How to recognize the Four Evangelists
- How to recognize saints
- Architecture and liturgy
- The audacity of Christian art: the problem with Christ | National Gallery
- The audacity of Christian art: Christ is not like a snail: Signs and symbols | National Gallery
- The audacity of Christian art: Putting God in His place: Here, everywhere, and nowhere | National Gallery
- The audacity of Christian art: Time and eternity: Yesterday, today, and always | National Gallery
- The audacity of Christian art: This world and the next: Christ on earth; Christ in heaven | National Gallery
- The audacity of Christian Art: So near and yet so far: Visions and thresholds | National Gallery
- The audacity of Christian art: Unspeakable images: When words fail | National Gallery
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How to recognize the Four Evangelists
The video explores the symbols of the four Evangelists in Christian art. Matthew is represented by a man, Mark by a lion, Luke by an ox, and John by an eagle. Recognizing these symbols deepens our understanding of the artwork's message. Created by Smarthistory.
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Video transcript
(gentle music) - [Lauren] We're in the Cloisters, which is part of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we're looking at a marble altarpiece from the 15th century in Italy, and we wanted to talk about the symbols of the Four Evangelists, because they appear so
often in art history, it's useful to be able to recognize them. - [Beth] And we thought it would be useful to not just identify them with
their iconographic motifs, but also, to explain how
those motifs developed. - [Lauren] This is a three part altarpiece with Christ in the center,
seated in a mandorla, surrounded by angel musicians
playing music in the heavens, and it's just outside of that mandorla that we see the symbols
of the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors of the four
gospels, the main books, of the Christian Bible. Together, they tell us the story of Christ's life, miracles, and death. - [Beth] And this is why
they are such common symbols in what we call the Middle Ages, for instance, in this image
where they're just outside of this mandorla in which Christ sits. - [Lauren] And so, we have
four winged creatures. - [Beth] From the top left, we have an eagle that stands for St. John, to the right, a winged
man that is Matthew, on the lower left, a
lion that is St. Mark, and then on the lower right we have in ox or what sometimes is described
as a calf, and that is Luke. Each of the Four Evangelists
is holding a book, which is a reference to
the gospel that they wrote. - [Lauren] These derive not
from the Christian Bible, but actually, look back
to the Hebrew Bible, specifically the book
of the prophet, Ezekiel. - [Beth] In his prophecy,
Ezekiel describes these four creatures with
different faces of an eagle, of a man, of a lion, and of an ox. - [Lauren] It's not uncommon
for Christian imagery to incorporate imagery
from the Hebrew Bible, because Christians understood
Christ as the fulfillment of the prophecy that was written
down in the Hebrew Bible. In the 4th century, St.
Jerome codified these symbols for the Four Evangelists, and he does provide a rationale for each. He says that Matthew
appears as a winged man, because his gospel begins
with how Christ's ancestry could be traced back to King David. - [Beth] He describes
there was a shrieking in the wilderness, and this is the lion
that we see for St. Mark. - [Lauren] Luke as the ox, his gospel opens with
an account of sacrifice, and oxen were often animals
that were sacrificed. - [Beth] And with John,
there was this idea of an eagle soaring to
heaven gets the closest God, that is how the eagle comes
to be associated with John. - [Lauren] And there you
have the Four Evangelists. (gentle music)