|
Especially in the 15th century, and in the less public form of illuminated manuscripts , there was experimentation with many solutions to the issues of depicting the three persons of the Trinity. The depiction of the Trinity as three identical persons is rare, because each person of the Trinity is considered to have distinct attributes. Nonetheless, the earliest known depiction of God the Father as a human figure, on the 4th century Dogmatic Sarcophagus , shows the Trinity as three similar bearded men creating Eve from Adam , probably with the intention of affirming the consubstantiality recently made dogma in the Nicene Creed . There are many similar sarcophagi, and occasional images at intervals until a revival of the iconography in the 15th century. [10] The depiction was finally formally condemned by Pope Benedict XIV in the 18th century. [11] Even rarer is the depiction of the Trinity as a single anthropoid figure with three faces (Latin "Vultus Trifons"), because the Trinity is defined as three persons in one Godhead, not one person with three attributes (this would imply Modalism , which is defined as heresy in traditional Orthodox Christianity ). Such "Cerberus" depictions of the Trinity as three faces on one head were mainly made among Catholics during the 15th to 17th centuries, but were condemned after the Catholic Council of Trent , and again by Pope Urban VIII in 1628, [12] and many existing images were destroyed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trinity_in_art
|
