Symbols and images in art have hidden meaning

Posted by Suzanne Hill Aug 1, 2006

Since the Church was a huge patron of the arts, it's no surprise that many of the symbols relate to Christian ideals. A candle symbolizes light in the darkness of life, or more deeply, holy illumination or the spirit of truth. Flames represent hell. A cave symbolizes the origin of life or resurrection, since Christ was born and buried in a cave.

So symbols become icons representing meaning that is not immediately obvious. In other examples, an owl stands for knowledge or great learning, black birds are symbols of death or rotting flesh, fruit symbolize sexual pleasures.

During medieval times and the early Renaissance, everyone would have known about these symbols and their intended meaning. Not everyone could read, so the imagery conveyed what words could not. The pictures created a basic visual language. Everyone could follow along with the intended meanings of the paintings on display.

I can't help but think how the meanings of many of these once-common art symbols have become lost. Instead today we have a host of symbols that relate to our advertising age: the golden arches represent McDonald's hamburgers, the picture of an apple stands for a brand of computers, an icon of a hamburger on a cash register button denotes "$1.99."

Certainly many art symbols remain. Eggs symbolize fertility, chains represent slavery, a circle connotes perfection or eternity. And we can't deny that the female nude itself represents "fine art." I'll grant you that in a postmodern world, subjected to a century of rejection of feminine and "overly-sentimental" values like domesticity, intimacy, charm, or pleasure in small family details like baby's first step, perhaps the nude female became difficult subject matter. It's been charged with hostility and accused of sexism. But I can't deny it: the image of a female body hung on the wall of an art gallery is an enduring symbol for art itself.