The Charging Bull as a Symbol for Heavenly Father

Signifier: A 7,1000-pound bronze sculpture in the financial district of New York City

Referent: A sculpture of a bull

Signified: Heavenly Father

The semiotic analysis depends very much on the context and background information behind this symbol. The artist who made the Charging Bull, Arturo Di Modica, was a native Italian. Ancient Europe--specifically within Egypt and Greece--has a long history of using the bull as a symbol for diety. Di Modica was not commissioned by anyone to create the work. It was actually a form of guerilla art that he created on his own budget and installed without permission.

Because Di Modica was probably familiar with this ancient symbolic use of the bull, he may have been bringing it over from Europe where it was common to use the bull in this way.

In the Bible the bull is used as a symbol of diety as well. In Exodus when Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai where he was talking with God, he finds that the people had made a golden calf to worship. This wasn't a random decision they made; calves (and bulls) were a symbol for god and possibly in this case the one true God. 

I believe that because of the history that the bull has as a symbol for God, the Charging Bull represents also represents Heavenly Father. Di Modica may have been trying to make an ironic statement about how God should be present in American business practices but is not. Or it could be that by placing the bull in the center of the financial district he was saying that we are worshipping the idol of money, just as the Hebrews worshipped a golden calf instead of the true God himself.