More Than the Bible
Most European images before 1700 are Christian. Their sources go well beyond scripture alone:
- The canonical Bible: the Latin Vulgate.
- The Apocrypha and infancy gospels: details like the ox and ass at the Nativity, or the childhood of the Virgin.
- The Golden Legend: saintly lives compiled around 1260 by Jacobus de Voragine.
- Liturgy and hymns: patterns that shaped visual emphasis.
- Devotional literature: texts like the Meditationes vitae Christi that prompted vivid imagery.
You will not find the ox and ass in Luke; they come from the Apocrypha. A painting reflects what a culture believed rather than pure scripture alone.
Common pitfall: looking only in the Bible for the source of an image.
Typology
Typology reads Old Testament events (types) as prefigurations of New Testament events (antitypes). This theological link unites both Testaments into a single narrative.
| Type (Old Testament) | Antitype (New Testament) | The link |
|---|---|---|
| The sacrifice of Isaac | The Crucifixion | A father offering his son |
| Eve from Adam's side | The Church from Christ's side | Born from the side of the man |
Illustrated books like the Biblia pauperum paired these scenes. They were copied across Europe for church programmes.
The saints
The Golden Legend is the core text for saintly lore. Artists used it as their direct reference. Identifying an attribute usually means tracing the story in Voragine.