Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Good Shepherd, Jonah and
orants, cubiculum ceiling,
Catacomb of Sts. Peter and
Marcellinus, Rome
- c. 300
- Jonah and the
Whale
- The Old Testament prophet Jonah disobeyed
God's command. In his wrath, the Lord caused a
storm while Jonah was at sea.
- Jonah asked the sailors to throw him overboard, and
the storm ended. A sea dragon then swallowed Jonah.
- God hears Jonah's prayers, and the monster spat out
Jonah after three days, foretelling Christ's resurrection.
- Christians honored Jonah as a prefiguration
(prophetic forerunner) of Christ
- "Jesus the Good Shepherd"
- Derives from the idealistic landscape prototype presented in vignettes.
- In Early Christian art, Christ is the youthful and loyal protector of the
Christian flock who "gives his life for the sheep"
- The sheep on Christ's shoulders is not a
sacrificial offering, but symbollic of a sinner who
has strayed and been rescued by Christ.
- Orants occupy the compartments between the
Jonah lunettes
- Orants are praying figures, raising their arms in the ancient attitude of prayer.