DOVE. - A bird among the most frequent in purely decorative compositions, the dove, both in literature and in Paleo-Christian art, forms 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 manifold virtues whose reflections are found in the dove, it can be said that most symbolic speculations, more or less directly, 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 soon made 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 Orans, it appears in biblical scenes such as the Three Children in the Furnace, Daniel among the Lions, Jonah, the Sacrifice of Abraham, the Multiplication of the Loaves, etc., or enters into countless iconographic combinations with other symbols of hope or of heavenly happiness.
Dove – Radiant dove shedding light upon the baptized (15th century). Rome, Cemetery of SS. Marcellino and Pietro.
The appearance of the dove at the baptism in the Jordan created in Christian thought a rich set of concepts related to the Holy Spirit. It is in the form of a dove that the Holy Spirit manifests Himself at the Annunciation, at Pentecost, and in various cases of divine inspiration. Through subtle deductions the dove becomes a symbol of the Logos itself, of His Church, and of individual believers. Already a bird of peace, the dove in this context becomes the bird of light that illuminates the soul, restores it to new life, indeed merges with the soul itself.
All these concepts, often fused together, had their repercussions 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 and is suspended above altars, ending up as the Eucharistic dove. Doves are known as symbols of the Holy Spirit above cathedrae or above volumes of Holy Scripture, or as symbols of the crucified Christ, of the Apostles (twelve in number), and of simple believers. The souls of the faithful, which sometimes leave the body in the form of a dove or are carried on the ship toward the celestial port, enjoying eternal happiness in its various aspects, take the form of doves that drink water from a vessel, peck at grapes or other fruit; or, sharing in Christ’s triumph, hold a laurel branch or a crown in their beaks, or again peck at the berries of the crown upheld by the triumphal cross.