Early Christian Art Notes Module 6 done

Early Christian Art

  • Early Christian, or Paleochristian, art was created by Christians or under Christian patronage throughout the second and third centuries.

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the influence of Greco-Roman culture on the development of early Christian art

Key Takeaways

Key Points

  • Early Christian, or Paleochristian, art was produced by Christians or under Christian patronage from the earliest period of Christianity to between 260 and 525.

  • The lack of surviving Christian art from the first century could be due to a lack of artists in the community, a lack of funds, or a small audience.

  • Early Christians used the same artistic media as the surrounding pagan culture. These media included frescos, mosaics, sculptures, and illuminated manuscripts.

  • Early Christians used the Late Classical style and adapted Roman motifs and gave new meanings to what had been pagan symbols. Because the religion was illegal until 313, Christian artists felt compelled to disguise their subject matter.

  • House churches were private homes that were converted into Christian churches to protect the secrecy of Christianity.

  • The house church at Dura-Europos is the earliest house church that has been discovered.

Key Terms

  • Syncretism: The conveyance of more than one religion or culture, particularly in visual art.

  • Catacombs: Human-made subterranean passageways used as burial locations.

  • Domus ecclesiae: A term that has been applied to the earliest Christian places of worship, namely churches that existed in private homes.

  • Sarcophagus: A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.

  • Canonical: According to recognized or orthodox rules.

  • Graven image: A carved idol or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

  • Cubicula: Small rooms carved out of the wall of a catacomb, used as mortuary chapels, and in Roman times, for Christian worship.

Early Christianity

  • By the early years of Christianity (first century), Judaism had been legalized through a compromise with the Roman state over two centuries. Christians were initially identified with the Jewish religion by the Romans, but as they became more distinct, Christianity became a problem for Roman rulers.

  • Around the year 98, Nerva decreed that Christians did not have to pay the annual tax upon the Jews, effectively recognizing them as a distinct religion. This opened the way to the persecutions of Christians for disobedience to the emperor, as they refused to worship the state pantheon.

  • The oppression of Christians was only periodic until the middle of the first century. However, large-scale persecutions began in the year 64 when Nero blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome earlier that year. Early Christians continued to suffer sporadic persecutions.

  • Because of their refusal to honor the Roman pantheon, which many believed brought misfortune upon the community, the local pagan populations put pressure on the imperial authorities to take action against their Christians neighbors. The last and most severe persecution organized by the imperial authorities was the Diocletianic Persecution from 303 to 311.

Early Jewish Art

  • Early Jewish art forms included frescoes, illuminated manuscripts, and elaborate floor mosaics.

Learning Objectives

  • Discuss how the prohibition of graven images influenced the production of Jewish art.

Key Takeaways

Key Points

  • Jews, like other early religious communities, were wary of art being used for idolatrous purposes. Over time, official interpretations of the Second Commandment began to disassociate religious art with graven images.

  • The zodiac, generally associated with paganism, was the subject of multiple early Jewish mosaics.

  • An ancient synagogue in Gaza provides a rare example of the use of graven images in mosaics, depicting King David as Orpheus.

  • Dura-Europos is the site of an early synagogue, dating from 244 CE.

Key Terms

  • Haggadah: A text that sets forth the order of the Passover seder.

  • Syncretic: Describing imagery or other creative expression that blends two or more religions or cultures.

  • Tanakh: The body of Jewish scripture comprising the Torah, the Neviim (prophets), and the Ketuvim (writings), which correspond roughly to the Christian Old Testament.

  • Rabbinical: Referring to rabbis, their writings, or their work.

The Second Commandment and Its Interpretations

  • The Second Commandment, as noted in the Old Testament, warns all followers of the Hebrew god Yahweh, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." As most Rabbinical authorities interpreted this commandment as the prohibition of visual art, Jewish artists were relatively rare until they lived in assimilated European communities beginning in the late eighteenth century.

  • Although no single biblical passage contains a complete definition of idolatry, the subject is addressed in numerous passages, so that idolatry may be summarized as the worship of idols or images; the worship of polytheistic gods by use of idols or images; the worship of trees, rocks, animals, astronomical bodies, or another human being; and the use of idols in the worship of God.

  • In Judaism, God chooses to reveal his identity, not as an idol or image, but by his words, by his actions in history, and by his working in and through humankind. By the time the Talmud was written, the acceptance or rejection of idolatry was a litmus test for Jewish identity. An entire tractate, the Avodah Zarah (strange worship) details practical guidelines for interacting with surrounding peoples so as to avoid practicing or even indirectly supporting such worship.

  • Attitudes towards the interpretation of the Second Commandment changed through the centuries. Jewish sacred art is recorded in the Tanakh and extends throughout Jewish Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Tabernacle and the two Temples in Jerusalem form the first known examples of Jewish art.

  • While first-century rabbis in Judea objected violently to the depiction of human figures and the placement of statues in temples, third-century Babylonian Jews had different views. While no figural art from first-century Roman Judea exists, the art on the Dura-Europos synagogue walls developed with no objection from the rabbinical authorities who controlled the synagogue.

Sculpture during the Decline of the Roman Empire

  • The Dominate Period, when warring generals controlled Rome, was a time marked by insecurity, anxiety, and a rapid succession of emperors.

Learning Objectives

  • Contrast the Late Antique style with earlier Classical conventions.

Key Takeaways

Key Points

  • Portraits of the soldier emperors reflect the anxiety and fear the men probably felt with their lives in peril. The need to depict oneself as heroic, strong, and firm is also evident.

  • The Crisis of the Third Century saw over twenty-five men claim the title of emperor and assume power over the empire.

  • Sculpture during this time fully develops into the Late Antique style, which derives from second century CE plebeian art. An early instance of its use is seen on the Arches of Septimius Severus.

  • The Late Antique style becomes simple, less realistic, and rejects Classical conventions that focused on naturalism and the proper rendering of the body and clothing in favor of simplicity and heavy, angular lines, squat bodies, and incised details.

Key Terms

  • Praetorian Guard: The force of body guards used by Roman emperors.

  • Adlocutio: An address by a general (usually the emperor) to his massed army and a general salute from the army to their leader.

  • Late antique: The style of art that covers the transition from the Classical world and the civilizations of Greece and Rome into the Middle Ages. In terms of artistic style, it covers the transition from Roman to Medieval and Byzantine art.

  • Parthians: An ancient Persian empire based in the northeast of modern-day Iran.

After Caracalla

  • Emperor Caracalla was assassinated while campaigning against the Parthians in 217 CE. He was quickly succeeded by a member of his personal guard, Macrinus, who ruled for less than a year before his own death.

  • Elagabalus, the grandson of Julia Domna's sister, and his cousin Alexander Severus were the last in the Severan line. Both men managed to maintain control of Rome, and Alexander Severus was even able to improve the economic condition of the empire. Following Alexander's death at the hands of his own soldiers, Rome plunged into a long period of uneasy, rapid successions referred to as the Crisis of the Third Century, a crisis that lasted for fifty years.

Soldier Emperors

  • The first 26 emperors of this period were generals who either proclaimed themselves or were officially acknowledged as the emperor. Their reigns lasted from a couple of months to a couple of years. The fact that they were all generals in the Roman army underscores the military insecurity of the empire at this time.

  • Instead of protecting the border or trade routes, legions of soldiers were often fighting each other in support of one emperor or another. Since Roman power was still centered in Rome, the only building project that succeeded through this period was the building and maintaining of the city's Aurelian Wall, under the emperor Aurelian (r. 270-275 CE).

  • The portraits of Trajan Decius (r. 249-251 CE) and Trebonianus Callus (r. 252 252 CE) serve to illustrate the instability of the period and the need for soldier-emperors to promote an image of strength.

Architecture of the Early Christian Church

  • After their persecution ended, Christians began to build larger buildings for worship than the meeting places they had been using.

Learning Objectives

  • Explain what replaced the Classical temple in Early Christian architecture and why.

Key Takeaways

Key Points

  • Architectural formulas for temples were unsuitable, so the Christians used the model of the basilica, which had a central nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end. The transept was added to give the building a cruciform shape.

  • A Christian basilica of the fourth or fifth century stood behind an entirely enclosed forecourt that was ringed with a colonnade or arcade. This forecourt was entered from the outside through a range of buildings that ran along the public street.

  • In the Eastern (Byzantine Empire), churches tended to be centrally planned, with a central dome surrounded by at least one ambulatory.

  • The church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, is a prime example of an Eastern, centrally planned church.

Key Terms

  • Lunette: A half-moon shaped space, usually above a door or window, either filled with recessed masonry or void.

  • Presbytery: A section of the church reserved for the clergy.

  • Theophany: A manifestation of a deity to a human.

  • Prothesis: The place in the sanctuary in which the Liturgy of Preparation takes place in the Eastern Orthodox churches.

  • Fascia: A wide band of material that covers the ends of roof rafters and sometimes supports a gutter in steep-slope roofing; typically, it is a border or trim in low-slope roofing.

  • Basilica: A Christian church building that has a nave with a semicircular apse, side aisles, a narthex, and a clerestory.

  • Cloister: A covered walk, especially in a monastery, with an open colonnade on one side that runs along the walls of the buildings that face a quadrangle.

  • Mullion: A vertical element that forms a division between the units of a window, door, or screen, or that is used decoratively.

  • Triforium: A shallow, arched gallery within the thickness of an inner wall, above the nave of a church or cathedral.

  • Diaconicon: In Eastern Orthodox churches, the name given to a chamber on the south side of the central apse of the church, where the vestments, books, and so on that are used in the Divine Services of the church are kept.

  • Clerestory: The upper part of a wall that contains windows that let in natural light to a building, especially in the nave, transept, and choir of a church or cathedral.

Early Christian Architecture

  • After their persecution ended in the fourth century, Christians began to erect buildings that were larger and more elaborate than the house churches where they used to worship. However, what emerged was an architectural style distinct from classical pagan forms.

  • Architectural formulas for temples were deemed unsuitable. This was not simply for their pagan associations, but because pagan cult and sacrifices occurred outdoors under the open sky in the sight of the gods. The temple, housing the cult figures and the treasury, served as a backdrop. Therefore, Christians began using the model of the basilica, which had a central nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end.

Early Christian Sculpture

Key Takeaways

Key Points

  • Early Christians continued the ancient Roman traditions in portrait busts and sarcophagus reliefs, as well as in smaller objects such as the consular diptych.

  • Such objects, often in valuable materials, were also the main sculptural traditions of the barbaric civilizations of the Migration period. This may be seen in the hybrid Christian and animal-style productions of Insular art.

  • The Carolingian and Ottonian eras witnessed a return to the production of monumental sculpture. By the tenth and eleventh centuries, there are records of several apparently life-size sculptures in Anglo-Saxon churches.

  • Monumental crosses sculpted from wood and stone became popular during the ninth and tenth centuries in Germany, Italy, and the British Isles.

Key Terms

  • Diptych: A pair of linked panels, generally in ivory, wood, or metal and decorated with rich sculpted decoration.

  • Sculpture in the round: Free-standing sculpture, such as a statue, that is not attached (except possibly at the base) to any other surface.

  • The Early Christians were opposed to monumental religious sculpture. Nevertheless, they continued the ancient Roman sculptural traditions in portrait busts and sarcophagus reliefs. Smaller objects, such as consular diptychs, were also part of the Roman traditions that the Early Christians continued.

Small Ivory Reliefs

  • Consular diptychs were commissioned by consuls elected at the beginning of the year to mark his entry to that post and were distributed as a commemorative reward to those who supported his candidature or might support him in the future.

  • The oldest consular diptych depicts the consul Probus (406 CE) dressed in the traditional garb of a Roman soldier. Despite showing signs of the growing stylization and abstraction of Late Antiquity, Probus maintains a contraposto pose. Although Christianity had been the state religion of the Roman Empire for over 25 years, a small winged Victory with a laurel wreath poses on a globe that Probus holds in his left hand. However, the standard he holds in his right hand translates as, "In the name of Christ, you always conquer."