COLOMBA. - One of the most frequent birds in purely decorative compositions, the dove, both in early Christian literature and art, is part of a symbolic complex so rich in interferences that perhaps no other symbol has been the object of so many different meanings.
Without speaking of the many virtues whose reflections are found in the dove, it may be said that most symbolic speculations, in a more or less direct way, draw inspiration from two well-known biblical events: the story of Noah in the ark and the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Indeed, the presence of a dove in both cases would soon make the one appear as the prototype of the other.
Noah's dove, with its olive branch, is the bird of peace. With this characteristic it is often found together with the figures of the Good Shepherd and the Orant, it enters into the biblical scenes of the three youths in the furnace, of Daniel among the lions, of Jonah, of the sacrifice of Abraham, of the multiplication of the loaves, etc., or it enters into combi-
iconographic combinations without number, together with other symbols of hope or of superterrestrial happiness.
The appearance of the dove in the baptism of the Jordan created in the Christian mentality a rich complex of concepts in relation to the Holy Spirit. It will be in the form of a dove that the Holy Spirit manifests itself in the Annunciation, in Pentecost, in the various cases of divine inspiration. Through subtle deductions the dove becomes a symbol of the Logos itself, of its Church and of the individual faithful. Already a bird of peace, the dove in this order of ideas passes to being the bird of light that illuminates the soul, gives it new life, indeed becomes one with the soul itself.
All these concepts, often fused together, had their repercussion in art and explain its mystical sense. Not only in the Baptism of Christ but also in the bath of regeneration the dove sends a ray of light upon the head of the neophyte. Not infrequently the dove appears as an isolated motif in baptisteries or is suspended above the altars, to end by becoming the "eucharistic dove." Doves are known as a symbol of the Holy Spirit above the cathedrae or above the volumes of Sacred Scripture, or as a symbol of Christ crucified, of the Apostles (12 in number) and of the simple faithful. The souls of the faithful which, having sometimes left the body in the form of a dove or been carried on the ship toward the heavenly harbor, enjoy eternal happiness under its various aspects, take on the form of doves that drink water from a vessel, peck at grapes or other fruit; or, sharing in the triumph of Christ, hold the laurel branch or the crown in their beak, or again peck at the berries of the crown supported by the triumphal cross.
Bibliography
Luciano De Bruyne