Читать книгу Jonah Through the Centuries - Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer - Страница 13

Jonah is used in a similar typological way in much of Christian art. Such a ‘Jonah cycle’ consists of three main scenes:

1 Jonah is tossed overboard by the sailors and swallowed by the fish.

2 Jonah is vomited out of the fish (Jonah 2:11).

3 Jonah reclines under the kikayyon (Jonah 4:6–7).

The iconography thus concentrates on those elements that convey the central Christian message; these three motifs are selected because they represent key Christian tenets of faith. The tossing of Jonah overboard and his subsequent re-emergence carry the dual function of symbolizing Jesus’s own death and resurrection and, by extension, also Christian baptism whereby a Christian is understood to die and rise with Christ. In contrast, the repentance of the people of Nineveh, such a prominent theme in Christian texts (see above), seldom appears in graphic form. Michelangelo’s depiction of Jonah, in the Sistine chapel, offers a formidable example of Christian Jonah symbolism. The fish represents Jesus’s triumphant resurrection, whereas the plant in the background stands for the cessation of the Old Covenant.