Michelangelo, Jonah from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1508-12, fresco painting, The Vatican, Rome, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Prefiguration
(Noun)
The representation of an Old Testament figure as a type or foreshadowing of a New Testament figure.
Michelangelo painted an image of Jonah just above the high altar on the Sistine Chapel ceiling because he prefigures Jesus in that he was swallowed by a whale for three days and then regurgitated much in the same way Jesus was Resurrected three days after his death.
