Lions, Birds, Rabbits, Oh My!

 Aaron Anand, Introduction to Art History 270

Lions, Birds, Rabbits, Oh My!

Animal symbolism has been very influential and rich throughout the history of Chrisitan art, and this is no less true than during the period of the Renaissance in the early 15th century. Take for example the Meditation on the Passion by Vittore Carpaccio. This painting is full of animal symbolism: The lion on the left, the goldfinch in the middle, and the two rabbits on the right. The question is though, how do we know what certain animals symbolize in Renaissance paintings? Through a variety of sources including contemporary artwork, animals are given symbolic status in three distinct ways: as representations of people, spiritual symbols, or symbols of virtue. 

The first way animals are used as symbols in Renaissance art is as symbolic representations of people. Take for example the lion as a symbol of Saint Jerome. According to legend Jerome took a thorn out of the lion's paw, and then proceeded to befriend the lion. Therefore, the symbol of Saint Jerome has become a lion. The second way animal symbolism has been used is as a spiritual symbol. The goldfinch is a bird which tends to make nests out of and eats thorns, so it has become a symbol of the passion of Jesus Christ. This symbol has also been translated to pictures of the child Christ to show the connection between the incarnation and passion of Jesus. The final way in which animal symbolism can work is through promoting virtue. The rabbit, especially the white hare has been taken from pagan symbolism and turned into a Christian symbol of rebirth and resurrection. Though in pagan symbolism the rabbit is meant to show fertility, hence the term ‘mating like rabbits,’ in Renaissance Christian art rabbits are used to show the virtue of purity and rebirth. These are just three ways in which animal symbolism has been used in Renaissance art, and this exhibition shows how these three animals were used to represent three different ideas, whether a person, spiritual reality, or virtue.  

Vittore Carpaccio, The Meditation on the Passion, 1490, Oil and Tempera on Wood, 70x86cm. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Of all the artworks in this exhibition, Carpaccio’s work has the deepest iconography. It includes the lion, bird, and rabbits. The lion is situated on the left hand side right behind the figure of Saint Jerome. The bird is flying above the crucified Jesus, helping to symbolize his soul leaving him as he dies. Finally, the rabbits on the right side help to show the dichotomy between good and evil on the right and left side, as they with the weasel next to them show fertility, rebirth, and resurrection. This painting includes all three ways in which animal symbolism was used in Renaissance art 

Giovani Bellini, Saint Jerome reading in a Landscape, 1480-5, Oil on panel, 46.8x33.8cm. In The National Gallery, London.

This image from Bellini, who was a contemporary of Carpaccio, shows how the lion was used as a symbol of Saint Jerome. In this painting we see Jerome sitting in the middle reading, then off to the bottom right hand corner we see a lion looking directly at Jerome. The lion almost looks as if it is watching over Jerome, because according to legend the lion had been healed by Jerome taking the thorn out of its paw. The lion is the only animal in this painting which emphasis its connection to Jerome, and it also looks very similar to the lion used in the Carpaccio painting, 

Master of the Murano Gradual, Saint Jerome Extracting a Thorn from a Lion’s Palm, 1430-1460, Detached Leaf, 16.5x21cm. In the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

This work, made a few decades before the Carpaccio and Bellini, shows the origin of the legend of Saint Jerome and the lion. In this leaf Jerome is seen taking the thorn out of the lion's paw, the event in which Jerome would forever be symbolized as the lion. Though both Jerome and the lion looks very different from the representation by the later Renaissance artists, this painting is helpful to show how Jerome came to be associated with the lion, and how this symbol developed over time into later works by Carpaccio and Bellini. 

Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child, 1510, Oil on Wood, 34.3x27.6cm. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Though the goldfinch can be represented in the death of Jesus as in the Carpaccio piece, in this work here by Bellini here we see the child Jesus holding a goldfinch. This portrayal of not only the crucified Jesus being symbolized by the bird, but also the child as well helps to connect the incarnation to the crucifixion and what Jesus would go through in his life. The goldfinch has a drop of red on its stomach as well, which has been taken to symbolize a drop of Christ's blood. The bird has come to be seen not only as the soul of Christ which flies upward after his death, but a symbol of the passion itself with the child Jesus holding a symbol of what would happen to him later in his life. 

Jaume Cabrera, Compartment from an altarpiece with the Virgin and the Child and angel musicians, 1400/25, Tempera on Wood, 123.5/75.5cm. In Museo Episcopal de Vic, Vic Spain

In this earlier work from Cabrera, we see again the child Jesus being overshadowed by a bird to emphasize his eventual passion and death on the cross. Unlike the Basaiti piece where the child Jesus is directly holding the bird, this piece shows the bird hovering over Jesus similar to the Carpaccio work. The bird flying overhead is just another example of the spiritual reality which awaits Christ: his eventual death and crown of thorns which the goldfinch helps to bring to life. Though there are musicians playing and Mary is seen wearing a crown, there is still the reminder that Jesus will die thanks to the goldfinch which flies overhead. 

Titian, Madonna of the Rabbit, 1525-1530, Oil on Canvas, 71x87cm. In the Louvre, Paris. 

The final way in which Renaissance used animals as symbols is to promote some kind of virtue. This was shown in the Carpaccio with the rabbits as symbols of rebirth and resurrection, and it is shown similarly in this work by Titian to show Mary’s purity and fertility, as well as a symbol of the incarnation itself. The reader in this work is supposed to see Mary’s purity and virginity in the birth of Jesus Christ, and marvel at the way in which the incarnation was accomplished through the virgin Mary. 

Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading, 1505, Oil and Linden on Panel, 47x37.5cm. In the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C

The final piece in this exhibition once again emphasises the way animal symbolism promotes the virtue of rebirth, resurrection, and purity through the use of the rabbit. In this picture we once again see the figure of Saint Jerome reading, and again we see a lion sitting right next to him. The lion, however, is not our focus for this painting's emphasis but the two rabbits in the middle of the painting. The rabbits here are emphasizing the purity of Saint Jerome, as well the resurrection which Jerome could have been reading and writing about. Some have also offered that they could symbolize the rebirth and vitality of the city of Venice which is in the background of the painting.