Early Christian art and architecture

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The Good Shepherd: Early Christian catacomb art
The Good Shepherd: Early Christian catacomb art

Early Christian art and architecture is the art produced by Christians or under Christian patronage from about the year 200 to about the year 500. Prior to 200 there is no surviving art that can be called Christian with certainty. After about 500 Christian art shows the beginnings of Byzantine artistic style.

Prior to 200 Christians may have been constrained by their position as a persecuted group from producing durable works of art. Since Christianity was largely a religion of lower classes in this period, the lack of surviving art may reflect a lack of funds for patronage. The Old Testament restrictions against the production of graven (an idol or fetish carved in wood or stone) images may also have constrained Christians from producing art. It is also possible that Christians purchased art using pagan iconography, but gave it Christian meanings. If this happened, "Christian" art would not be immediately recognizable as such.

Early Christians used the same artistic media as the surrounding pagan culture. These media included fresco, mosaics, sculpture, and manuscript illumination. Early Christian art not only used Roman forms, it also used Roman styles. Late classical style included a proportional portrayal of the human body and impressionistic presentation of space. Late classical style is seen in early Christian frescos, such as those in the catacombs of Rome.

Early Christians adapted Roman motifs and gave new meanings to what had been pagan symbols. Among the motifs adopted were the peacock, grapevines, and the good shepherd. Early Christians also developed their own iconography, for example such symbols as the fish (ikhthus), were not borrowed from pagan iconography.

After about the year 200 Christian art must be broken into two periods: before and after the Edict of Milan in 313.

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[edit] Early Christian Iconography

As an initially persecuted sect, the early images of Christian art were arcane and meant to be intelligible only to the initiated. Some of these early Christian symbols include the dove, the fish, symbolic representation of the Four Evangelists, the lamb, monograms, the Cross, and the Good Shepherd.

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 empty throne representing God the Father, in the throne are a chlamys (cloak) and diadem representing the Son.

The fish is used as a symbol for Jesus Christ. It represents Jesus' last supper as well as water used to baptize Christians. In Greek, the word 'fish' provides the initials of the title "Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour" and was used as a rebus for Christ's name.

The Four Evangelists are represented as an eagle (John), an ox (Luke), a lion (Mark), and a man (Matthew).

The lamb can symbolize Jesus' crucifixion when bleeding or Christians when there are more than one.

The Chi-Rho monogram, XP, consists of the first two characters of the name 'Christos' in Greek. The Cross symbolizes Jesus' crucifixion on a cross which was not represented explicitly for several centuries, possibly because crucifixion was a punishment meted out to common criminals.

The figure of the Good Shepherd resembles earlier shepherd figures in pagan Classical art that represent benevolence and philanthropy. Additional meaning would have been ascribed to the figure by early Christian viewers in the context of Christ's phrase "I am the shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep," and St John the Baptist's description of Christ as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world."

[edit] Christian Art prior to 313

[edit] Christian architecture after 313

Santa Sabina, Rome, interior (5th century)
Santa Sabina, Rome, interior (5th century)

Main article: Christianising the basilica in Basilica

In the 4th century, Christians were prepared to build larger and more handsome edifices for worship than the furtive meeting places they had been using. 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 backdrop. The usable model at hand, when Emperor Constantine I wanted to memorialize his imperial piety, was the familiar conventional architecture of the basilicas. These had a center nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end: on this raised platform sat the bishop and priests.

[edit] Christian art after 313

[edit] References

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