From the clouds above the nave appears the hand of God, reaching down and blessing the great work of Edward's life, the newly completed Abbey of Westminster, dedicated to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles.
The Hand of God, or Manus Dei in Latin, also known as Dextera dei, the "right hand of God", is a motif in Jewish and Christian art, especially of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, when depiction of Jehovah or God the Father as a full human figure was considered unacceptable. The hand, sometimes including a portion of an arm, or ending about the wrist, is used to indicate the intervention in or approval of affairs on Earth by God, and sometimes as a subject in itself.It is an artistic metaphor seen appearing from above, often in a blessing gesture.
In later Christian works it tends to be replaced by a fully realized figure
of God the Father, whose depiction had become acceptable in Western Christianity,
although not in Eastern Orthodox or Jewish art. Though the hand of God has traditionally
been understood as a symbol for God's intervention or approval of human affairs,
it is also possible that the hand of God reflects the anthropomorphic conceptions
of the deity that may have persisted in late antiquity.
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