Good Shepherd, Story of Jonah and orants.
Imagery
- Each semicircle is depicts a part of the Story of Jonah.
- On the left- shows sailors throwing Jonah overboard
- On the right- shows Jonah coming out of the whale.
- On the bottom- shows Jonah on land, thinking of the miracle that had happened to him.
- Orants - Figures showing prayer gestures, of all ages and genders.
Story of Jonah
Representation
Painted Ceiling, in a cubiculum in the Catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcellinus.
Rome, 4th Century.
The Catacombs are made out of a soft rock called Tufa.
Painting represents resurrection of Christ.
- Christians buried their dead in Catacombs, which shows the significance of using this particular scene showing the resurrection for a specific place for the dead. therefore Jonah was a very popular subject to use for funerary purposes because his story represented Christ resurrection.
- The fresco was preserved so well, which explains the importance of religion and tradition during the period, to the people.
- Jonah (prophet) goes against God's command to go to Nineveh and preach repentance (“to change one’s mind”). Instead he gets on a ship to Tarshish. God punishes him by sending a storm to the ship's way and while the people in the ship try to figure out why, Jonah confesses and is later thrown overboard. Jonah gets eaten by a whale (large fish) and after 3 days and 3 nights of praying to God, he is vomited out, and later does what he is commanded to do.
- Being swallowed by the whale represents the death of Jonah, and the praying and leaving the whales body unharmed represents the resurrection of Jonah.
Symbolization
- The overall design shows a large circle in the center with a cross around it, symbolizing Christianity. Basically showing a young Christ and his sheep (center circle).
- They show Christ as a Shepherd because it was illegal to practice Christianity. The image represents Christ as someone who is willing to take care of his people, as well as willing to put his life at risk for his people, explaining idea of sacrifice and Crucifixion.
- The significance of the images were very influential because it was an adaption of imagery of existing contemporary Roman and Jewish traditions. Also, because most people could not read, therefore it was a way to describe something visually. This is called Graphe-Siaposa, which means describing visual culture in early Christianity.
Thank you!