Tetramorph

The most common association, but not the original or only, is: Mark the King, Lion; Luke the lowly Servant, Ox; Matthew the Angel; and John the Eagle.

Images of unions of different elements into one symbol were originally used by the Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, and Greeks.

[citation needed] The creatures of the Christian tetramorph were also common in Egyptian, Greek, and Assyrian mythology.

The most common interpretation, first laid out by Victorinus and adopted by Jerome, St Gregory, and the Book of Kells, is that the man is Matthew, the lion Mark, the ox Luke, and the eagle John.

Augustine departs from Jerome's scheme saying, "This latter formulation focuses only on the beginnings of the books and not on the overall plan of the evangelists, which is what should have been examined more thoroughly.

This view takes the creatures as symbols of "not the personal character of the Evangelists, but the manifold aspect of Christ... presented by them severally.

The eagle represents the sky, heavens, and the human spirit, paralleling the divine nature of Christ.

On medieval churches, the symbols of the Evangelists are usually found above westerly-facing portals and in the eastern apse, particularly surrounding the enthroned figure of Christ in Glory in scenes of the Last Judgment.

[27] Generally all four creatures of the tetramorph will be found together in either one image or in one structure, but it is not unheard of to have a single Evangelist dominate the imagery of the church.

Insular manuscripts were very focused on abstract linear patterns that combined Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic influences, the latter mostly traceable from surviving metalwork.

The artists of the period were initially more comfortable with images of animals than humans, so in early Gospel Books the Evangelists were represented as tetramorphic symbols rather than portraits.

Their preferences for abstract, geometric, and stylized art led to a lot of differences in portrayals of the tetramorphs.

Celtic artists would paint the creatures in a relatively realistic fashion, or their divine nature would be emphasised through the inclusion of wings or human traits, such as hands in place of talons or the animal standing upright.

[28] The Evangelists and tetramorphs were highly featured in Ottonian manuscripts as the Gospel books, pericopes, and the Apocalypse were most popular.