Snakes, Skulls, and More: The Language of Symbols in Art

Feature image: Georgia O'Keeffe, Red Hills with Flowers, 1937 © Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York via The Art Institute of Chicago

Symbols have always shaped the way people view and interpret art. A single image can hold meanings that shift across cultures and centuries. Artists use symbols to connect with their viewers on a deeper level, layering ideas of faith, morality, mortality, or beauty. When we examine a painting with symbols in mind, we interpret it like a text filled with coded ideas. Students, collectors, and casual viewers alike benefit from recognizing recurring motifs that appear throughout history.

The snake has one of the most complex symbolic lives in art. In Christian tradition, it appears as a figure of temptation, often winding its way through depictions of Adam and Eve. Medieval manuscripts painted snakes as dark, twisting forms that warned readers of sin. At the same time, in ancient Egypt and Greece, snakes symbolized renewal and protection, linked with medicine and wisdom. This duality also carried over into modern art. Gustav Klimt used golden snakes in his allegorical work Hygieia to symbolize health and eternity, while Frida Kahlo painted serpentine forms that carried connotations of danger and transformation.

No symbol is more direct than the skull. In Renaissance and Baroque Europe, the skull became a central image in the vanitas tradition. Artists created still lifes filled with decaying fruit, extinguished candles, and skulls to remind viewers of the fleeting nature of life. Pieter Claesz painted skulls beside luxury objects, urging reflection on the balance between wealth and mortality. Hans Holbein included a stretched, hidden skull in The Ambassadors, offering a memento mori amidst a grand portrait. In modern times, Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God, a diamond-encrusted skull, reimagined the old vanitas theme with contemporary spectacle, showing how the symbol continues to evolve.

The dove has carried peaceful and sacred meanings for centuries. In early Christian art, the dove often represented the Holy Spirit, particularly in Annunciation scenes. Its gentle form became a universal symbol of purity and divine presence. By the twentieth century, Picasso’s Dove of Peace had transformed the image into a global emblem of hope following war. Today, the dove appears in art as both a sacred and secular symbol, conveying the message of unity and reconciliation in various contexts.

Dogs frequently appear in portraits throughout history, often symbolizing loyalty and fidelity. In Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, a small dog stands between the couple, emphasizing faithfulness within marriage. Titian’s Venus of Urbino includes a relaxed dog at the feet of the goddess, blending sensuality with domestic comfort. Beyond symbolism, artists themselves often painted their pets as extensions of their own lives. The presence of dogs in portraits connects human figures with devotion and companionship, making them some of the most endearing symbols in art.

Flowers bloom across every artistic tradition, yet their meanings shift with context. Dutch Golden Age still lifes filled canvases with tulips, roses, and lilies, offering both a celebration of beauty and a reminder of decay. Petals fading alongside ripe fruit and skulls became part of vanitas imagery. In other contexts, flowers have represented purity and spiritual devotion, as seen in Marian symbolism, where lilies are often featured. In the modern era, Georgia O’Keeffe painted flowers with bold colors and magnified forms, transforming them into modern meditations on life and sensuality. Across cultures, flowers carry the cycle of growth, bloom, and decline, making them a timeless symbol of human experience.

Eyes often appear as mystical symbols in art. In ancient Egypt, the Eye of Horus symbolized protection and healing, imparting protective power to both the living and the dead. In Western traditions, the all-seeing eye became associated with divine watchfulness, appearing in religious paintings and later in secular imagery such as the American dollar. Surrealists embraced the disembodied eye as a dreamlike and uncanny image. René Magritte painted floating eyes against the sky, while Salvador Dalí placed eyes within distorted, dreamlike landscapes. The eye continues to fascinate artists who use it as a symbol of presence, vision, and inner truth.

The cross is one of the most powerful and enduring symbols in art history. It became central to Christian art as a sign of Christ’s sacrifice and humanity’s salvation. Early Byzantine mosaics presented jeweled crosses that symbolized triumph over death. During the Renaissance, artists like Raphael and El Greco filled their canvases with dramatic crucifixions, emphasizing both physical suffering and spiritual transcendence. Modern and contemporary artists continued to return to the cross. Marc Chagall painted floating crucifixions surrounded by scenes of Jewish persecution, while Salvador Dalí’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross reinterpreted the image with surreal perspective. The cross remains a global icon of faith, struggle, and redemption.

The persistence of these symbols across time reveals their power as a shared language. While meanings may shift, the core associations remain recognizable. Snakes may suggest danger in one culture and wisdom in another, yet both readings rely on the animal’s otherworldly qualities. Flowers may symbolize beauty or mortality, but both interpretations depend on the cycle of growth and decay. The cross may represent suffering to one viewer and salvation to another, yet both interpretations point to its profound spiritual significance.

Symbols form the vocabulary of art history. They allow viewers to connect across centuries, from ancient myth to modern commentary. Recognizing snakes, skulls, doves, dogs, flowers, eyes, and crosses enriches our experience of art. By paying attention to these recurring images, we enter into dialogue with the artists who placed them on canvas or carved them in stone. Symbols ensure that art speaks not only through form and color but also through ideas that endure.

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