This study aims to shed light on the emergence of a recurrent medieval iconographic motif: the representation of the four “Holy Animals” or “Living Creatures”, also known as the Tetramorph. Biblical and literary texts are brought together with images to determine the reasons and circumstances surrounding the birth of this imagery. This article will retrace the aesthetic and symbolic sources of the motif, which seems to reach full maturity and “stabilize” in the Byzantine art of the fifth and the sixth centuries…