Noah Sends Out the Dove

1180
Mosaic
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Monreale

The inscription in the image is noe misit columbam / et rediit cum ramo olive, "Noah sends out the dove, and it returns with a branch of olive." At the windows behind him are his three sons, their wives, and his wife – the "eight souls" of 1 Peter 3:20. Stretched out in the water are bodies of those who perished in the flood.

Read more about images of Noah.
For the baptismal significance of images like this, see the page on the right apse of St. John's, Taufers.

Source: Web Gallery of Art