[608] In one of these a winged head with cruciform nimbus, surrounded by a chaos of stars and planets, utters the word FIAT, and the earth with its inhabitants are called into being.
[609] In France the Supreme Being was generally represented as King, in Germany as Emperor, and in Italy as Pope.
[610] As in an example at the Madeleine at Paris.
[611] We have seen a picture of the creation in which the Almighty was represented as a feeble old man dressed in ecclesiastical robes, with a lantern in his hand.
[612] See a fresco by Andrea del Sarto at St. Salvi, Florence, two of the fifteenth century at Perugia, and an engraving in a copy of Dante printed at Florence in A. D. 1491. In an example given in Ames’ Typography, a triangular jewel is appended to the three-faced head, the inscription on which attempts to explain mathematically the mysterious doctrine of the unity in trinity. This mystery was also symbolized by the shape of some of the ancient monasteries, by the number of their cloistered inmates, by the genuflections of the service and the parts of the liturgy; and even the bell and
“The rope with its twisted cordage three
Denoted the scriptural Trinity.”
Sometimes the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove proceeding from the mouths of the Father and the Son, or even nailed to the cross with Christ.
[613] See on the carved stalls of the Amiens Cathedral, and at Vierrières in the Department de l’Aube, both of the sixteenth century.