Iconographie chrétienne. Histoire de Dieu
Didron's 1843 Paris study of Christian iconography, printed by the Imprimerie royale, is a scholarly catalogue of how God was depicted in Christian art. The pictures are crisp outline engravings of religious scenes: a seated Christ within a Gothic arch ringed by doves, a figure in a cloud mandorla holding a book, and a crucifixion with mourners beside the cross. A designer could draw on their flat linework, halo and mandorla framing, and symbolic arrangement of figures.