It has taken a while but I have finally gotten my arms around religious art, especially the icons of the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Church. For centuries the Bible has been the source of stories throughout the Western world. But until recently only a select few were literate and church services were often conducted in Latin, a foreign language to most people. It was from the religious art that the congregation learned and understood the stories from the Bible; icons in the Orthodox churches and stained glass in the Catholic and Protestant churches.
The main themes, the best-sellers of the time, dealt with the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Virgin and Child, the Holy Family, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Dormition of Mary. To avoid confusion, each image in Orthodoxy - regardless of the iconographer - looked nearly identical even down to the facial features and the position of the hands. The same was true of the myriad of saints; Saint Nicholas always looked like Saint Nicholas.
And it works! Even I, a non-believer, now recognize most of the scenes and can often remember the stories from my Christian upbringing.
