© Getty Images

Religious origins - The Eye of Providence has its origins as a Christian symbol, and its use in religious paintings can be traced back to the Renaissance period.

© Shutterstock

'Supper at Emmaus' (1525) - Pontormo’s ‘Supper at Emmaus,’ for example, includes the symbol. The painting is dated 1525, but it is thought that the symbol was added later.

© Getty Images

'Iconologia' (1593) - The Eye of Providence can also be found in certain editions of ‘Iconologia,’ which was first published by the Italian iconographer Cesare Ripa in 1593.

© BrunoPress

Religious origins - The symbol features in ‘Iconologia’ as a representation of God’s benevolence, and it is commonly accepted that this is what the symbol signifies in Christianity.

© Getty Images

Composite symbol -

The exact origins of the symbol (i.e. who created it) are unknown, but we do know that it is a composite of Christian symbols that existed long before the 'seeing eye' itself.

© Shutterstock

The triangle - The triangle in which the eye appears has long since represented the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In some early paintings, God even has a triangular halo.

© Getty Images

The light rays - The rays of light sometimes featured in the symbol are a pre-existing symbolization of God’s radiance and can be found in many Christian artworks.

© Getty Images

The eye - The reason for the inclusion of the disembodied eye is perhaps less obvious, but in fact the eye as a symbol can be traced back to the third millennium BCE.

© Getty Images

The eye -

Followers of one of the earliest religions, the Sumerians, gave their holy sculptures enlarged eyes to increase the feelings of watchfulness in their viewers.

© Getty Images

The eye - Indeed, the psychological impact of seeing an eye is undeniable. There are even some animals who have evolved with eye markings to scare off predators.

© BrunoPress

The Eye of Horus - But it was actually the Egyptians who first made use of the disembodied eye as a symbol. Indeed, one of their most famous symbols is the Eye of Horus.

© Getty Images

The Eye of Horus - The Eye of Horus is a hybrid of a human and a falcon eye and was used as a symbol of protection. The Egyptians would sometimes carry an 'Eye of Horus' amulet in their pocket.

© Getty Images

The Eye of Horus - The Eye of Horus and other depictions of detached human eyes became common hieroglyphs, which in turn went on to influence Renaissance iconography.

© Getty Images

Hieroglyphs and the Renaissance - But European iconographers failed to understand Egyptian hieroglyphs. They understood them to be mystical symbols rather than the phonetic signs they actually were.

© Getty Images

Hieroglyphs and the Renaissance - As a result, the symbols included in European iconography books such as Ripa’s ‘Iconologia’ were intended to be highly complex, their meaning difficult to decipher.

© Getty Images

Hieroglyphs and the Renaissance - It is for this reason that the Eye of Providence has been interpreted in so many different and conflicting ways over the centuries.

© Getty Images

Diversification of symbolization - Three key examples can be used to show the diverse symbolization of the Eye of Providence. The first is drawn from the time of post-revolutionary France.

© Shutterstock

Post-revolutionary France - Following the French Revolution in 1789, artist Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier painted the full text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

© Getty Images

Post-revolutionary France - Above the title of the text appears the Eye of Providence. In this context the symbol is said to represent paternalistic reason watching over the nation.

© Getty Images

18th-century Britain - In 1794, Jeremy Bentham commissioned an architect to design a logo for a new British prison in which the inmates would be under constant surveillance.

© Getty Images

18th-century Britain - The design produced by the architect, Willey Reveley, had the Eye of Providence prominently at its center to symbolize judicial righteousness.

© BrunoPress

The Great Seal of the United States - Prior to both these examples, the Eye of Providence was featured in the Great Seal of the United States, which was revealed for the first time in 1782.

© Getty Images

The Great Seal of the United States - It appears on the reverse side of the seal, which was designed by Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson and lawyer and artist William Barton.

© Getty Images

The Great Seal of the United States - The 13 levels of the pyramid represent the original states and the Eye of Providence was used in its original, religious sense to convey that God is watching over the nation.

© Getty Images

The Eye of Providence and the Illuminati - Over the years, the Eye of Providence has come to be primarily associated with freemasonry and by extension the Illuminati, who were inspired by the ideas of the Masons.

© Getty Images

The Eye of Providence and the Illuminati - The symbol is a favorite for conspiracy theorists who concern themselves with the idea that the Illuminati are a secret group of elite individuals trying to control the world.

© Getty Images

Conspiracy theories debunked - However, the idea that the Eye of Providence has its origins with freemasonry is false: in reality, the Masons did not adopt the symbol until after the likes of Le Barbier, Bentham, and Barton.

© Getty Images

Conspiracy theories debunked - Accusations that modern artists who use the symbol, such as Madonna, Jay-Z, and Kanye West, have Illuminati links can therefore be considered unfounded.

© Getty Images

Conspiracy theories debunked -

The incorporation of the symbol into these artists’ work should not be considered evidence of any conspiracy but rather of the power of visual design.

Sources: (BBC) (Business Insider) 

See also: Decoding the symbolism of Freemasonry.

© Shutterstock