Why are there paintings of God the Father and Holy Spirit but I never saw a statue of Them?

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If we can depict what God the Father and Holy Spirit in religious paintings, why not don’t we have statues of the Holy Trinity, all together and seperate?

Yes, I know Jesus is One with both.

Thank you-
 
mommy_k said:
If we can depict what God the Father and Holy Spirit in religious paintings, why not don’t we have statues of the Holy Trinity, all together and seperate?

Yes, I know Jesus is One with both.

Thank you-
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God the Father started to be depicted only quite recently. In the Middle Ages, He was usually depicted as the “Hand of God”
 
anon67074017 said:
Maybe because it would look like there are three gods.
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I believe this is a wise point. It is easier to depict a Jesus in His human Nature, but how would you make a statue of a Spirit? I see little point in making a statue that could not possibly incorporate even one of the many attributes of God the Father or the Holy Spirit. Too little too far.
 
Petaro said:
I believe this is a wise point. It is easier to depict a Jesus in His human Nature, but how would you make a statue of a Spirit? I see little point in making a statue that could not possibly incorporate even one of the many attributes of God the Father or the Holy Spirit. Too little too far.
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I saw a picture in a book of The Holy Trinity with The Father,Jesus and the Holy Spirit on their Thrones in heaven-. The Holy Spirit was depicted as a dove. I thought this would be a nice statue.
 
mommy_k said:
I saw a picture in a book of The Holy Trinity with The Father,Jesus and the Holy Spirit on their Thrones in heaven-. The Holy Spirit was depicted as a dove. I thought this would be a nice statue.
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It might be dangerous to craft a statue of the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, Israel, in a period of weakness, crafted a statue of a golden calf and started offering sacrifices to it. When Moses saw the calf, he become wrathful toward Israel and toward Aaron, who initiated the idolatry to begin with.

The golden calf was supposed to represent God, but God himself didn’t seem to happy about it, as shown when Moses, his faithful friend, ordered the execution of around 2,000 or 3,000 persons.

I imagine a similar scenario happening should statues of Doves, representing the Holy Spirit, be built and presented. Some Catholics might end up falling into idolatry, such as animal worship.

🤷
 
In 2008, I lived in Taiwan. Right next to the plant I worked in was a Tsoist temple. The temple celebrated gods of the world, and a Chinese friend thought I would like to see it.

In the center of the temple were three huge statues (probably each over twenty feet tall), of old white haired men, the biggest of three was a Caucasion old man with long white hair and flowing beard.

He asked if I knew who they were. I wasn’t sure, so he told me. One was Confucius, one was Buddha, and of the temple god in the center, he told me, “That’s God the Father”…the god of your people." He was surprised I didn’t recognize my own God!

Also interesting was a picture of a man on horseback that hung on the wall…I will not name the town where this temple was, because that picture, if the wrong people knew about it would not be good. I was told it was a painting of Muhammad.
 
There is a statue of the Trinity in the parish church in Guenroc, in Brittany…
 
larsont7 said:
Here are a couple pictures of statues I found doing a Google search depicting the Holy Trinity:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Detail_of_statue_of_Holy_Trinity_in_N%C3%A1m%C4%9B%C5%A1%C5%A5_nad_Oslavou.jpg

123rf.com/photo_13940711_a-statue-representing-the-holy-trinity-on-display-in-marsa-malta.html
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Right. Just because we may not have seen such a statue doesn’t mean there aren’t any. 😉

I don’t see why paintings would be okay but statues would not be. It seems it would be that either both are acceptable or neither are acceptable.
 
Only Jesus took on human flesh. The Father and the Holy Spirit remain pure spirits. How do you depict a pure spirit in a statue? You can’t.
 
Faxero said:
It might be dangerous to craft a statue of the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, Israel, in a period of weakness, crafted a statue of a golden calf and started offering sacrifices to it. When Moses saw the calf, he become wrathful toward Israel and toward Aaron, who initiated the idolatry to begin with.

The golden calf was supposed to represent God, but God himself didn’t seem to happy about it, as shown when Moses, his faithful friend, ordered the execution of around 2,000 or 3,000 persons.

I imagine a similar scenario happening should statues of Doves, representing the Holy Spirit, be built and presented. Some Catholics might end up falling into idolatry, such as animal worship.

🤷
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-They sell dove pins for confirmation at the Catholic store, as well as picture frames with doves-all depicting The Holy Spirit.
 
Joe_5859 said:
Right. Just because we may not have seen such a statue doesn’t mean there aren’t any. 😉

I don’t see why paintings would be okay but statues would not be. It seems it would be that either both are acceptable or neither are acceptable.
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Yes- this is what I was thinking either both or none.

So my question will be rephrased-why are these statues so rare?
 
The altarpiece in San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice has a beautiful sculpture depicting the Holy Trinity. I took a few pictures of it myself when I was there, since we don’t have anything like that (to my knowledge) in the US.
 
I’ve seen a dove depicted in stained glass windows and figure of a dove hanging over altars in Catholic Churches.
 
mommy_k said:
I saw a picture in a book of The Holy Trinity with The Father,Jesus and the Holy Spirit on their Thrones in heaven-. The Holy Spirit was depicted as a dove. I thought this would be a nice statue.
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You can get statues exactly like that from AUTOM.
 
Petaro said:
I believe this is a wise point. It is easier to depict a Jesus in His human Nature, but how would you make a statue of a Spirit? I see little point in making a statue that could not possibly incorporate even one of the many attributes of God the Father or the Holy Spirit. Too little too far.
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You can’t make a statue of a spirit without having them take the form of flesh.
 
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