I’m thinking of working up a presentation on the stained glass in our church, and would like a source on symbolism for images of saints. Some are obvious: Mary has a blue mantle, Peter has keys or a rooster, the evangelists hold quill pens, and so on.
But I’d like a more detailed, thorough source, if anyone can suggest one.
Do you know the specific saints, if there’s any in your church that are not in that list Nametag linked? St Katherine for example isn’t listed even though her symbol is among the pics shown, to name one that’s found in many locations (the list includes some fairly obscure ones such as St Quiteria, but there are thousands of saints).
ETA: St Kat is listed… but as St Catherine.
One of the more unusual symbols is that of the martyr Agatha of Sicily, who carries her severed breasts on a plate. Because some people mistook what they were supposed to represent, she is considered the patron saint of bell-founders and bakers (because they were thought to be small cakes or loaves of bread).
I’ve always found the origin of the three gold balls symbol interesting, coupled with the fact that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers.
I remember the quaint statue of one saint, Bartholemew, in the Florence Duomo; who was martyred by being flayed alive, so is shown holding his skin.
There was a common theme to the statues - St Peter was bald with a big beard and curly hair around the sides. St. John the baptist had an animal skin over his shoulder. St John the Evangelist had the eagle (of Patamos?); as a group of apostles, St. John was the pretty boy without the beard. Catherine with a wheel, St. Sebastian with his hands tied and arrows sticking out of him…
Essentially, the decorations of the churches of Europe served as storybook learning tools for the illiterate masses. The cues in the pictures reminded them of the stories they ehar.
Post the puzzlers here: there are at least a couple of pre-modern western art historians on the Dope.
St. Bart is also commonly represented by three knives (flaying knives) for the same reason. I used to attend a St. Bartholomew’s Church and it was a bit challenging coming up with a banner design that wasn’t fairly gruesome.
But then again, your basic cross is also a tool of torture and death, so knives fit the theme.
James Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art is a decent reference guide for such things.
I’m not a pre-modern art historian–my primary field is 19th-century art–but I deal with a lot of religious imagery when I teach survey courses. A big part of teaching medieval and Renaissance art is getting students familiar with saints’ iconography. I like to call it the “Name That Saint” game–inviting students to guess which saint is depicted in a painting based on their “attributes” (the more common term in art history for the symbols associated with a particular saint). I find martyrs to be the most fun. Is that guy holding a gridiron? Must be St. Lawrence. Is he holding stones, or are there stones embedded in his head? Gotta be St. Stephen. Is she holding or standing right next to a miniature tower? That’d be St. Barbara. Is she holding a plate on which human eyes are resting (or perhaps a flower from which the eyes are emerging)? Ah, my favorite: St. Lucy!
Like fellow art historian capybara, I’d like to hear some of the puzzlers so we can all play “Name That Saint.”
A less-technical, but probable more entertaining reference is Saints Preserve Us!: Everything You Need to Know About Every Saint You’ll Ever Need, by Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers.
I put that in the Game Room.
