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The article explores the philosophical and cultural analysis of art symbolism peculiarities of medieval culture in Western Europe. Special attention is paid to the symbiosis of barbarian and Christian images in the works of medieval Western European art becoming the leading feature of that time symbolic motives. It is also mentioned that the animalistic, mythological images come to the foreground displacing the human imagination for rather long period of time, the antique visualizing traditions of the latter being practically lost. Due to the leading meaning of the word itself in the culture of that time Western Europe, the art of designing the handwritten books becomes massively widespread. The article presents the analysis of Roman and gothic art symbolism, specifically gothic architecture, which provides the original peculiarity of understanding and perceiving the light as a demonstration of divine immense essence. The article also states that the deviation from the sacral principles of Byzantine art gradually leads to the displacement of symbolic type of image in favor of realistic one thus being the ground to form the art of Renaissance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is dedicated to the issue of philosophy and culture analysis of visual image symbolism in Saint Augustine concept within the context of Christian Medieval culture. It is specified that magical and symbolic meaning of numbers after Pythagoras of Samos and Plato is seen by Augustine of Hippo as a pledge of inside and outside harmony and world order, but through the prism of Christian wisdom. According to Augustine of Hippo, symbolic and allegoric images are more appealing for the audience as they hold the mystery, lack the clear and obvious solution and urge the soul to look for the answer and cognition of divine truth. It is not by chance that Saint Augustine’s works get symbolic connotation of the divine light idea which is further widely and powerfully expressed in the works of Byzantine theorists of art. Apart from that, he specifies the definition of the sign, distinguishing its types and thus laying the grounds for the future semiotic and hermeneutic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is dedicated to the issue of philosophy and culture analysis of visual image symbolism in Saint Augustine concept within the context of Christian Medieval culture. It is specified that magical and symbolic meaning of numbers after Pythagoras of Samos and Plato is seen by Augustine of Hippo as a pledge of inside and outside harmony and world order, but through the prism of Christian wisdom. According to Augustine of Hippo, symbolic and allegoric images are more appealing for the audience as they hold the mystery, lack the clear and obvious solution and urge the soul to look for the answer and cognition of divine truth. It is not by chance that Saint Augustine’s works get symbolic connotation of the divine light idea which is further widely and powerfully expressed in the works of Byzantine theorists of art. Apart from that, he specifies the definition of the sign, distinguishing its types and thus laying the grounds for the future semiotic and hermeneutic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]