The power of symbols

Taking a break from the usual lectures, my New Testament professor decided that we visit the Museum of Art (or the "MoA") right here in the campus. Before we came in on Thursday for the tour, he had a woman from the MoA come in to talk to us about the paintings we were to look at at the museum, and most especially, about the symbolism of these paintings and how symbolism itself is a powerful tool in conveying the artist's messages.

She talked about Christian paintings and how the artists put these seemingly minute details in the paintings that actually means something. I am choosing not to give examples this time, but what I want to say here is what I really got out of it. I usually look at paintings just for the sake of looking at it, but I have never really looked at paintings before in a way that I would pay attention to the symbols that they would carry. For me, looking at paintings while paying attention to the symbols give them a more aesthetic value, and, more importantly, we get to see how these painters perceived their subjects.