In a few later examples the only symbolical attribute retained is a pair of wings. The next figure (58) is from a curious set of Evangelists, of a minute size, and exquisitely engraved by Hans Beham: they are habited in the old German fashion; each has his book, his emblem, and in addition the expressive wings.
These animal symbols, whether alone or in combination with the human forms, were perfectly intelligible to the people, sanctified in their eyes by tradition, by custom, and by the most solemn associations. All direct imitation of nature was, by the best painters, carefully avoided. In this respect how fine is Raphael’s Vision of Ezekiel! how sublime and how true in feeling and conception! where the Messiah comes floating along, upborne by the Four Creatures—mysterious, spiritual, wonderful beings, animals in form, but in all else unearthly, and the winged ox not less divine than the winged angel![103] Whereas in the later times, when the artist piqued himself upon the imitation of nature, the mystic and venerable significance was wholly lost. As a striking instance of this mistaken style of treatment, we may turn to the famous group of the Four Evangelists by Rubens,[104] grand, colossal, standing or rather moving figures, each with his emblem, if emblems they can be called which are almost as full of reality as nature itself:—the ox so like life, we expect him to bellow at us; the magnificent lion flourishing his tail, and looking at St. Mark as if about to roar at him!—and herein lies the mistake of the great painter, that, for the religious and mysterious emblem, he has substituted the creatures themselves: this being one of the instances, not unfrequent in Art, in which the literal truth becomes a manifest falsehood.
In ecclesiastical decoration the Four Evangelists are sometimes grouped significantly with the Four Greater Prophets; thus representing the connexion between the new and the old Law. I met with a curious instance in the Cathedral of Chartres. The five great windows over the south door may be said to contain a succinct system of theology, according to the belief of the thirteenth century: here the Virgin, i.e. the Church or Religion, occupies the central window; on one side is Jeremiah, carrying on his shoulders St. Luke, and Isaiah carrying St. Matthew; on the other side, Ezekiel bears St. John, and Daniel St. Mark; thus representing the New Testament resting on the Old.
In ecclesiastical decoration, and particularly in the stained glass, they are often found in combination with the Four Doctors, the Evangelists being considered as witnesses, the Doctors as interpreters, of the truth: or as a series with the Four Greater Prophets, the Four Sibyls, and the Four Doctors of the Church, the Evangelists taking the third place.