Early Christian art and architecture
Early Christian art and architecture (or Paleochristian art) is the art produced by Christians, or under Christian patronage, from the earliest period of Christianity to, depending on the definition, sometime between 260 and 525. In practice, identifiably Christian art only survives from the 2nd century onwards.[1] After 550, Christian art is classified as Byzantine, or according to region.[1][2]
It is hard to know when distinctly
Early Christianity used the same artistic media as the surrounding pagan culture. These media included
Early Christian art and architecture adapted
Early Christian art is generally divided into two periods by scholars: before and after either the
Symbols
During the
The popular conception that the Christian catacombs were "secret" or had to hide their affiliation is probably wrong; catacombs were large-scale commercial enterprises, usually sited just off major roads to the city, whose existence was well known. The inexplicit symbolic nature of many early Christian visual motifs may have had a function of discretion in other contexts, but on tombs, they probably reflect a lack of any other repertoire of Christian iconography.[9]
The dove is a symbol of peace and purity. It can be found with a halo or celestial light. In one of the earliest known Trinitarian images, "the Throne of God as a Trinitarian image" (a marble relief carved c. 400 CE in the collection of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), the dove represents the Spirit. It is flying above an
Christian art before 313
A general assumption that early Christianity was generally aniconic, opposed to religious imagery in both theory and practice until about 200, has been challenged by Paul Corby Finney's analysis of early Christian writing and material remains (1994). This distinguishes three different sources of attitudes affecting early Christians on the issue: "first that humans could have a direct vision of God; second that they could not; and, third, that although humans could see God they were best advised not to look, and were strictly forbidden to represent what they had seen". These derived respectively from Greek and Near Eastern pagan religions, from Ancient Greek philosophy, and from the Jewish tradition and the Old Testament. Of the three, Finney concludes that "overall, Israel's aversion to sacred images influenced early Christianity considerably less than the Greek philosophical tradition of invisible deity apophatically defined", so placing less emphasis on the Jewish background of most of the first Christians than most traditional accounts.[10] Finney suggests that "the reasons for the non-appearance of Christian art before 200 have nothing to do with principled aversion to art, with other-worldliness, or with anti-materialism. The truth is simple and mundane: Christians lacked land and capital. Art requires both. As soon as they began to acquire land and capital, Christians began to experiment with their own distinctive forms of art".[11]
In the
The style of the catacomb paintings, and the entirety of many decorative elements, are effectively identical to those of the catacombs of other religious groups, whether conventional pagans following
There was a preference for what are sometimes called "abbreviated" representations, small groups of say one to four figures forming a single motif which could be easily recognised as representing a particular incident. These vignettes fitted the Roman style of room decoration, set in compartments in a scheme with a geometrical structure (see gallery below).
The depiction of Jesus was well-developed by the end of the pre-Constantinian period. He was typically shown in narrative scenes, with a preference for New Testament miracles, and few of scenes from his Passion. A variety of different types of appearance were used, including the thin long-faced figure with long centrally-parted hair that was later to become the norm. But in the earliest images as many show a stocky and short-haired beardless figure in a short tunic, who can only be identified by his context. In many images of miracles Jesus carries a stick or wand, which he points at the subject of the miracle rather like a modern stage magician (though the wand is a good deal larger).
Saints are fairly often seen, with
-
Moses striking the rock in the desert, a prototype of baptism[33]
-
3rd-century cover for catacomb burial, engraved with the Adoration of the Magi (cast shown)
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Catacomb chamber with (from top): Orants, Jonah and the Whale, Moses striking the rock (left), Noah praying in the ark, Adoration of the Magi. 200–250
Christian architecture after 313
In the 4th century, the rapidly growing Christian population, now supported by the state, needed to build larger and grander public buildings for worship than the mostly discreet meeting places they had been using, which were typically in or among domestic buildings. Pagan temples remained in use for their original purposes for some time and, at least in Rome, even when deserted were shunned by Christians until the 6th or 7th centuries, when some were converted to churches.[34] Elsewhere this happened sooner. Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable, not simply for their pagan associations, but because pagan cult and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods, with the temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, as a windowless backdrop.
The usable model at hand, when
This was the normal pattern used for Roman churches, and generally in the Western Empire, but the Eastern Empire, and Roman Africa, were more adventurous, and their models were sometimes copied in the West, for example in Milan. All variations allowed natural light from windows high in the walls, a departure from the windowless sanctuaries of the temples of most previous religions, and this has remained a consistent feature of Christian church architecture. Formulas giving churches with a large central area were to become preferred in Byzantine architecture, which developed styles of basilica with a dome early on.[36] Within the dome architecture Christian churches used them to venerate icons at a larger than life scale, while Christians remained covered and inside. [37]
A particular and short-lived type of building, using the same basilican form, was the funerary hall, which was not a normal church, though the surviving examples long ago became regular churches, and they always offered funeral and memorial services, but a building erected in the Constantinian period as an indoor cemetery on a site connected with early Christian martyrs, such as a catacomb. The six examples built by Constantine outside the walls of Rome are:
A
Among the key buildings, not all surviving in their original form, are:
- Constantinian Basilicas:
- Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
- St Mary Major
- Old Saint Peter's Basilica
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre
- Church of the Nativity
- Saint Sofia Church, Sofia
- Centralized Plan
- Santa Constanza, built as an Imperial mausoleum adjoining a funerary hall, part of the wall of which survives.[40]
- Church of St. George, Sofia
-
Exterior of theBasilica St. Sofiain Sofia, Bulgaria, 4th century CE
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Exterior of theRotunda St. George, Sofia, Bulgaria, 3rd-4th century CE
Christian art after 313
With the final legalization of Christianity, the existing styles of Christian art continued to develop, and take on a more monumental and iconic character. Before long very large Christian churches began to be constructed, and the majority of the rich elite adapted Christianity, and public and elite Christian art became grander to suit the new spaces and clients.
Although borrowings of motifs such as the
More complex and expensive works are seen, as the wealthy gradually converted, and more theological complexity appears, as Christianity became subject to acrimonious doctrinal disputes. At the same time a very different type of art is found in the new public churches that were now being constructed. Somewhat by accident, the best group of survivals of these is from Rome where, together with Constantinople and Jerusalem, they were presumably at their most magnificent. Mosaic now becomes important; fortunately this survives far better than fresco, although it is vulnerable to well-meaning restoration and repair. It seems to have been an innovation of early Christian churches to put mosaics on the wall and use them for sacred subjects; previously, the technique had essentially been used for floors and walls in gardens. By the end of the period the style of using a gold ground had developed that continued to characterize Byzantine images, and many medieval Western ones.
With more space, narrative images containing many people develop in churches, and also begin to be seen in later catacomb paintings. Continuous rows of biblical scenes appear (rather high up) along the side walls of churches. The best-preserved 5th-century examples are the set of
No panel paintings, or "icons" from before the 6th century have survived in anything like an original condition, but they were clearly produced, and becoming more important throughout this period.
Sculpture, all much smaller than lifesize, has survived in better quantities. The most famous of a considerable number of surviving
- Manuscripts
- Quedlinburg Itala fragment – 5th-century Old Testament
- Vienna Genesis
- Rossano Gospels
- Cotton Genesis
- Late Antique mosaics in Italy and Early Byzantine mosaics in the Middle East.
Gold glass
See also
- Oldest churches in the world
Notes
- ^ a b Jensen 2000, p. 15–16.
- ^ van der Meer, F., 27 uses "roughly from 200 to 600".
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 10–14.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 30-32.
- ^ Jensen 2000, p. 12-15.
- ^ Jensen 2000, p. 16.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 21-23.
- ^ Marucchi, Orazio. "Archæology of the Cross and Crucifix." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Sept. 2018 online
- ^ Jensen 2000, p. 22.
- ^ Finney, viii–xii, viii and xi quoted
- ^ Finney, 108
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. no. 360.
- ^ Graydon F. Snyder, Ante pacem: archaeological evidence of church life before Constantine, p. 134, Mercer University Press, 2003, google books
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 29-30.
- ^ Jensen 2000, p. 24.
- ^ Beckwith 1979, p. 23–24.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 10–11.
- ^ Jensen 2000, p. 10-15.
- ^ Balch, 183, 193
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. no. 377.
- ^ a b c Weitzmann 1979, p. 396.
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. no. 365.
- ^ Balch, 41 and chapter 6
- ^ Daniel 3:10–30
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 15-18.
- ^ Jensen 2000, p. Chapte 3.
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. no. 360-407.
- ^ Beckwith 1979, p. 21-24.
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. no. 362-367.
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. 410.
- ^ Daniel 3:10–30
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. no. 383.
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. 424-425.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 39.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 40.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, chapter II, covers the whole story of the Christianization of the basilica..
- ^ Kuban, Doğan (1987). "The Style of Sinan's Domed Structures". Muqarnas. 4: 72, 93 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, chapter III.
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 69-70.
- ^ Belting, Hans, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art, p. xxii, 1994, Chicago University Press (English trans.), ISBN 9780226042152, google books
- The Art Bulletin, Vol. 77, No. 3 (Sep., 1995), pp. 499–502; RW. Eugene Kleinbauer, Speculum, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 937–941, Liz James, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 136, No. 1096 (Jul., 1994), pp. 458–459;Annabel Wharton, The American Historical Review, Vol. 100, No. 5 (Dec., 1995), pp. 1518–1519 .
- ^ Syndicus 1962, p. 52-54.
- ^ Weitzmann 1979, p. 366-369.
- ^ Beckwith 1979, p. 25-26.
- ^ Grig, throughout
References
- Balch, David L., Roman Domestic Art & Early House Churches (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament Series), 2008, Mohr Siebeck, ISBN 3161493834, 9783161493836
- Beckwith, John (1979). Early Christian and Byzantine Art (2nd ed.). ISBN 0140560335.
- Finney, Paul Corby, The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0195113810, 9780195113815
- Grig, Lucy, "Portraits, Pontiffs and the Christianization of Fourth-Century Rome", Papers of the British School at Rome, Vol. 72, (2004), pp. 203–230, JSTOR
- ISBN 0-13-193507-0.
- Jensen, Robin Margaret (2000). Understanding Early Christian Art. ISBN 0415204542. Archived from the originalon 25 December 2013.
- van der Meer, F., Early Christian Art, 1967, Faber and Faber
- Syndicus, Eduard (1962). Early Christian Art. London: OCLC 333082.
- "Early Christian art". In Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- Weitzmann, Kurt (1979). Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
External links
- 267 plates from Wilpert, Joseph, ed., Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms (Tafeln)("Paintings in the Roman catacombs, (Plates)"), Freiburg im Breisgau, 1903, from Heidelberg University Library]
- Early Christian art, introduction from the State University of New York at Oneonta
- CHRISTIAN CONTRIBUTION TO ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA