Trinity

The doctrine that God is of one nature yet three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, takes its authority from Matthew (28:19) and was expounded by Augustine in the De Trinitate. The absence of the theme from primitive and early medieval religious art is probably accounted for by the reluctance of the Church to represent naturalistically the first person of the Trinity who, being unseen, was unknowable. The Trinity might therefore be represented in the form of an ideogram, such as three interlocking circles. God the Father was depicted originally in symbolic form as an eye, or a hand emerging from a cloud, the latter perhaps holding a crown. The Holy Ghost was most often symbolized by a dove. The typical Trinity, first seen in French and northern Italian works of the 12th cent. and the most usual form in Renaissance and later art, portrays God the Father as an old man, perhaps long-bearded and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular halo. He is placed behind and rather above Christ who is on the cross. He may hold each end of the patibulum, or crosspiece, in his hands; or he holds a book bearing the Greek letters alpha and omega. His feet may rest on a terrestrial globe. The dove is just above Christ's head. Another, less common type that existed side by side with this represents the Trinity as three persons in human form. An alternative, derived from the teaching of the Creed that Christ sits on the right hand of God, shows the First and Second Persons, royally robed, seated side by side, God the Father with a scepter, again perhaps with his feet on a globe, and Christ with a cross. The dove hovers between them. The idea of the Church's supremacy is sometimes conveyed by depicting both figures wearing the papal tiara. Another less common type found in 15th cent. Netherlandish painting depicts the Father, sometimes enthroned, supporting the limp body of Christ, somewhat in the manner of a Pietà.