IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST the dove symbolized a link between divinity and love. In this drawing, after an old Syrian cylinder seal impression, the goddess of love [Astarte] bares herself to the storm-god. “A dove, which flies from her toward him, symbolizes her love for him and her readiness to make love.” See Davide’s Notes by Davide Salomoni.

THE ANCIENT GREEKS USED the dove in a variety of contexts, to symbolize the goddess Juno, to accompany the goddess of a city, or on grave markers to symbolize eirene, or peace. Here eirene meant the eternal rest of death. This marble relief from c. 450 BCE is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

THE ROMANS shared any of the ancient world’s notions of the dove as a symbol of the divine, or of earthly plenty and prosperity: the peace that comes from a harmony with nature and the fulness of creation. They also carried on the Greek symbolism of human and divine love.

IN JEWISH TRADITION the dove was both the human messenger sent out by Noah after the flood and the divine messenger that returned with an olive branch, symbolizing Yahweh’s reconciliation with humanity and the faithfulness of the covenant, an advance in the concept of peace. This fresco is from the Roman catacomb of SS. Marcellino e Pietro.

IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY the Dove was a symbol of several things: retaining Jewish notions of forgiveness and reconciliation, of the presence of the divine (as at Christ’s baptism); incorporating Greek and Roman notions of eternal peace, found on many grave markers and sarcophagi. As here, it is sometimes accompanied explicitly by the word eirene or pax, peace. View a small gallery from Sta. Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

THIS NINTH CENTURY ivory from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna shows Gregory the Great composing the reformed version of the liturgy. The dove hovering over his shoulder represents both divine inspiration and, possibly, the monastic, internal peace and concord his Rule and his reformed liturgy would bring.

IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY mosaics of San Marco, Venice, the dove retains its Jewish and early medieval association with Moses and the Ark. The web site Isidore-of-Seville.com has many interesting and valuable images

THE VIETNAM ERA revived Picasso’s dove to express the active and well-organized opposition to the war. This graphic was used to  advertise the March 17, 1967 march on the Pentagon.

BY THE LATE MIDDLE AGES the dove had also come to be associated with the rituals of peace and reconciliation embodied in the liturgy of the Eucharist and in other Christian rituals of reconciliation. This copper piece from c. 1215 is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE the dove was used to symbolize the reconciliation of the divine with the human. Christ’s baptism and his reconciling the divine with human nature became the key focus on visualizations of peace. This detail is from Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ, now in the National Gallery, London.

IN THE EARLY AGE OF PRINT the dove continued its medieval associations with the Ark of Noah. This example is taken from a hand-tinted woodcut in De Bibel Int Carte (Antwerp, 1516) in the Library of Congress Jewish Virtual Library.

IN THE BAROQUE ERA of the nation-state and absolutism the dove, like notions of peace in general, became internalized and spiritualized. Rubens’ Vision of St. Teresa of Avila of c. 1614 in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, offers a good example.

THE COUNTER REFORMATION used the dove as a symbol of divine inspiration, and of the earthy power that that inspiration granted. Gianlorenzo Bernini’s massive stained-glass dove behind the altar (1656-66) in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome sets the theme.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT secularized the Judeo-Christian symbol of the dove and made it into a lofty ideal of peace brought about through treaty and an international system of nation-states governed by reason. This detail is from a 1768 painting of Venus and Mars by Joseph Marie Vien, now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

IN THE AMERICAN COLONIAL ERA the dove with the olive branch had widespread use, on currency and other symbols of government, as on this North Carolina £2 note from 1771.

MODERN INTERNATIONALISM saw the dove of peace as a secular symbol of the system of treaties and alliances that would preserve peace as order and prevent war. This image is taken from the March 26, 1919 (vol. 156) issue of Punch Magazine.

THE POST-WAR PERIOD saw the rebirth of the dove of peace. Pablo Picasso was commissioned to create this graphic symbol for the 1949 International Peace Congress meeting in Paris.

THE 21st CENTURY saw the dove as the logo for Americans for the Department of Peace formed to advocate passage of the federal Bill that is now in Congress to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace, through citizen education, grassroots activism and spiritual commitment.