tetramorph
Sign in to savethumb|300px|A composition of the Four Living Creatures into one tetramorph. Matthew the man, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, and John the eagle. A tetramorph is a symbolic arrangement of four differing elements, or the combination of four disparate elements in one unit. The term is derived from the Greek tetra, meaning four, and morph, shape.
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
12 sectionsContents
- Origins
- Ezekiel's living creatures
- The four evangelists as four living creatures
- The tetramorph in art
- Representation and symbolism in Christianity
- Depictions in Christian art
- Architecture
- Painting and manuscript illumination
- Other depictions
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|300px|A composition of the Four Living Creatures into one tetramorph. Matthew the man, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, and John the eagle. A tetramorph is a symbolic arrangement of four differing elements, or the combination of four disparate elements in one unit. The term is derived from the Greek tetra, meaning four, and morph, shape.
The word comes from the Greek for "four forms" or "shapes". In English usage, each symbol may be described as a tetramorph in the singular, and a group as "the tetramorphs", but usually only in contexts where all four are included. The tetramorphs were especially common in Early Medieval art, above all in illuminated Gospel books, but remain common in religious art to the present day.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “tetramorph” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.