Four Evangelists

When represented collectively the saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are especially seen in the decoration of churches. Being four in number they aptly occupy the lunettes or pendentives under the dome. They are often combined with other groups of like number, particularly the four Doctors of the Church, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and Gregory the Great who then stand in relation to them as interpreters of their writings; they are also seen with the four greater prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial and Daniel. The early Christian Church, which made much use of symbolic imagery, sometimes represented the evangelists as four winged creatures: Matthew, a man; Mark, a lion; Luke, an ox; John, an eagle. The source of this convention was a passage from Ezekiel (I :5–14) where the prophet tells of a strange vision of the four beasts. The book of Revelation (4:6–8) describes similar creatures surrounding the throne of God. Hence they are commonly known as the ,apocalyptic beasts', and early on came to stand for the four evangelists. Medieval commentators found explanations for this hidden in the gospels themselves: the man represents Matthew because it is his gospel that begins with the tree of the ancestors of Christ; Mark opens with the voice crying in the wilderness, an allusion to the lion; the ox, the sacrificial beast, is Luke whose gospel begins with the account of the sacrifice of the priest Zacharias. The eagle, of all birds the one that flies nearest to heaven, represents John whose vision of God was closest and distinct from the others'. The apocalyptic beasts are found frequently in mss, in the sculpture of Romanesque churches, and to a lesser extent in Gothic, where they surround the image of God. In this symbolic role they did not survive the coming of the Renaissance. Thereafter they live on merely as attributes that identify the four human figures. Other attributes of the evangelists are a Scroll or Bok. They may be seen in the act of writing while the Dove of the Holy Ghost hovers above, inspiring their words.