Durand
The Time is at Hand 1993
Private Collection

Durand
The Time is at Hand (detail) 1993
Private Collection

Durand
Ganymede 2003

 

SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST, THE BELOVED APOSTLE

St. John the Evangelist is a disciple of Christ; he followed Jesus after the miraculous draught of fishes on the Sea of Galilee and was with him at the most important moments. At the foot of the Cross, he supported the failing Virgin. After the Apostles scattered, he traveled to Asia and settled in Ephesus with the Virgin. There he was arrested and thrown into burning oil, but was unhurt. Under Emperor Dominitian he was exiled to island Patmos, where in the company of an eagle he wrote the Revelations. After an amnesty he returned to Ephesus, where he composed his Gospel. There he survived an ordeal set by the high priest of Ephesus: he was unaffected by a beverage concocted from snake’s venom, when offered a chalice, St. John blessed it, and the venom in the form of a snake, was miraculously drawn from the liquid. A legend also says that he was lifted up in an Assumption by an angel. He is the patron saint of booksellers. In Christian art he is often depicted with an Eagle, symbolizing the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel book (Gospel or Revelation), a snake or dragon emerging from a cup or chalice.

 

SYMBOLISM OF THE EAGLE/AQUILA

The Eagle has always been a bird of kings, and is found frequently on heraldic signs, shields of warriors, banners and flags. Aquila was Jupiter's bird, the one that can rise highest of all and has carried out many a difficult task for Jupiter. It was the Eagle who swooped down upon Ophiuchus and killed him with one of Jupiter's arrows. It was the Eagle who had assisted Zeus in his battles with the Titans. Jupiter ordered Aquila to fly down to Earth and select the most handsome youth he could find to serve as cupbearer and wine-pourer to the gods. Aquila sailed down from the Olympus and noticed Ganymedes (Ganymedes is associated with Aquarius), the son of the King of Troy, who was peacefully tending his father's herds. Aquila hovered overhead and then with great skill dived down, lifted Ganymedes in his talons, and flew back to Olympus. So Ganymede was promoted from a royal shepherd to a celestial waiter of the gods of Olympus, where he was accepted as their equal and pleased the eye of all by his manly beauty. Under Aquarius, the Water Carrier is the story of how Jupiter eternalized Ganymedes in the stars of Aquarius, which are located just below the stars of the Eagle.

The eagle is solar and a symbol of all sky; the meridian sun, the spiritual principle, ascension, inspiration, release from bondage, victory, pride, dignity, contemplation, royalty, authority, strength, height, the element of air, warriors, courage, keen vision, tenacity, fearlessness, the symbol and agent of apotheosis after death (divine transformation). Reckoned to be able to fly up to the sun, gaze unwaveringly upon it and to identify with it. This looking at the sun without blinking is symbolic of Christ gazing on the glory of god. The soaring eagle is the liberated spiritual part of the prima materia in alchemy. An attribute of Jupiter and as his lightening-bearer clutches Jupiter’s thunderbolts in his talons. In all cultures the eagle is always representative of the highest gods and greatest heroes. The eagle is also the collective symbol of the father and all father figures. As with all symbols, the eagle has its dark, malign and sinister aspect, an exaggeration of its qualities, the perversion of its strength and its inordinate self-exaltation. In dreams and visions, the eagle like the lion embodies lofty thoughts and its significance is almost always positive. Applied to Christian tradition in art the eagle symbolizes the sudden impulse and devouring spiritual passion.

 

 

Benvenuto Cellini
Ganymede, 1545-47
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Peter Paul Rubens
The Four Evangelists c.1614
Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany

CHRISTIANITY: THE FOUR EVANGELISTS

The Christian tetra morph, as a symbolic arrangement of four differing elements is a good example of how syncretism or the combination of different religious beliefs occurs in religious symbolism and art.The most developed of all foursome or four nesses in religious symbolism in Christianity is the tetra morph of the four evangelists. It originated from the Jewish prophet Ezekiel who whilst in exile in Babylonia circa 550 BCE used the symbolism of Babylonian astrology for his own prophetic purposes. Ezekiel describes his vision in which the likeness of four living creatures came out of the midst of the fire thus: As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 1:10.Ezekiel’s vision is based upon the astrology of the ancient Babylonians. The symbol of Aquarius an angel, Leo the Lion, Taurus the Bull and Scorpio the Eagle are represented in the Throne of God Himself and are also known astrologically as the Fixed Cross (with the substitution of the scorpion, a creature little known outside the Mediterranean basin and which was replaced early on by the winged eagle).These four animal figures are also depicted in the early Christian evangelist Saint John’s book of the Apocalypse, the last book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation in which the events of the end times are revealed. Saint John alludes to Ezekiel’s vision thus: And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.  Revelation 4:7.

 

Chichester Cathedral
Sussex

 

 

 

 

St. Richard and Spire
Chichester Cathedral
Sussex

 

CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL: THE SPIRE

It is odd that Church spires around the world point upwards, as if heaven was up there somewhere. In fact, a church spire in the northern hemisphere points in the opposite direction to a church spire in the southern hemisphere. And a church spire on the equator just spins 360 degrees at 1,670 kilometers per hour with the earth's rotation every day. The ancients, of course, believed that the earth was flat and the symbolism of a spire continues a strong Pagan belief that heaven is physically up into the light. Early Christians followed the ancients by looking up at the Sun god, yet believed that heaven actually is in a completely different dimension and that the design of a church building is wholly incidental.

The lofty spire of Chichester Cathedral was struck by lightning during a terrific storm in 1721, and for many years the question of the advisability of removing it was frequently raised, though a survey satisfied the architects that there was no danger to be anticipated. In 1813 it was reported safe, but during the next forty years things changed, and the condition of the spire demanded immediate attention. Then came the crash. It was in 1861, when the work of restoration had already been started. With hardly any warning the spire swayed, and the tower crashed into the choir, nave, and transepts, the spire itself falling across the roof, and broke on one of the flying buttresses. So much for one description, told in vivid detail in the Builder of the day; though one claiming to have been an eye-witness declared that the “spire and tower sank out of sight with little noise into the centre of the building.” The present spire, built immediately after the debacle of 1861, and finished in 1866, is an exact replica of the old one. For those to whom figures make an appeal, Chichester spire is 271 feet high, the third highest of the cathedral churches in England.

 

Design by Idea Fine Art, Autumn 2006

 

Photographs © Durand, 2006

Saint John the Evangelist in situ, Colin Mills,
www.stellarphotographic.co.uk

Colourman, Michael Harding, www.michaelharding.co.uk