Late Antique Art

- 4 million dead and extend for about 100 miles

- contains the tombs of 7 popes and many early Christian martyrs

- Greek Chapel: named for two Greek inscriptions painted on the right niche; three niches for sarcophagi; decorated w/ paintings in the Pompeian style: sketchy painterly brushstrokes

- Orants Figure: fresco over a tomb niche set over an arched wall (cemetery of a family vault); arms outstretched in prayer; figure compact, dark, set off from a light background; terse angular contours; emphatic gestures; left: painting of a teacher w/ children; right: mother and child (maybe Mary with Christ or the Church)

- Good Shepherd Fresco: restrained portrait of Christ as a Good Shepherd; stories of the life of the Old Testament Prophet Jonah often appear in lunettes; Jonah's regurgitation from the mouth of a big fish is seen as prefiguring Christ's resurrection

- parallels between Old and New Testament stories feature prominently in Early Christian art; Christians see this as a fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures

- named after wife of a Roman consul?

Catacomb of Priscilla

- three aisled basilica; no transepts

- long tall, broad nave; axial plan

- spolia: tall slender columns taken from the Temple of Juno in Rome, erected on this site; statement about the triumph of Christianity over paganism

- windows made of selenite

- flat wooden roof; coffered ceiling; thin walls support light roof

- bare exterior, sensitively decorated interior (covered with marble veneer): representing the Christian whose exterior may be gross, but whose interior soul is beautiful

- as in Jewish tradition, men and women stood separately; men stood in main aisle, women in side aisles w/ partial view

Santa Sabina