The Four Evangelists and Their Symbols

The four evangelists were given the four living creatures of Ezekiel's vision and of Revelation: a winged man for Matthew, a lion for Mark, an ox for Luke, an eagle for John. The pairing was fixed by the fourth century and stayed fixed for a thousand years, which is why the creature alone is enough — it appears in manuscript corners, on pulpit panels and in the spandrels of domes with no name attached, and the arrangement still reads.