Early Representations of Christ

 

Photo: https://smarthistory.org/early-christian-art/

As the Roman Empire fell into decline, early Christian art came to popular the Roman area because in times of hardship, this new religious practice gave the people the faith and assurance they so desperately needed. The previous art of the Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks had us in way, focused on sculptures. The old testament prohibited the creation of art in relation to religious imagery. Early Christians found a way around the old testaments' prohibition of creating religious imagery. Instead they prohibited only sculptures, or any 3D image that would represent a god, making paintings, relief sculptures and other mediums okay with a relation to religion. 

    The image above comes from the Catacomb of Domitilla, and the Catacombs were a late practice to the Roman culture when they started burying their dead instead of cremation. The early Christian converts wanted to use the same practice with the deceased. The catacombs gave us our first look at early christian art because these catacombs were decorated and had many images associated with them. The earliest forms of art we see are Frescoes, and the Frescoes painters layed quick brush strokes on top of each other with no blending, giving the painting more of a impressionistic touch rather then a realistic look. We get many popular images from the early Frescoes such as the well known; The good Shepard, the dove, the fish, and the phoenix from the catacomb walls. The picture above, the most famous image from the catacombs, shows Jesus himself teaching his ten disciples. The clothing they are wearing,the scroll Jesus holds, and his other hand raised in such a manner,(known as the ad locutio gesture), is a direct relation to the Romans. Classic roman symbolism is so strongly related with Jesus to communicate his elegance and wisdom to people already familiar with the imagery. This image often gets confused with the last supper, but this image does not tell such a story, it portrays the idea the Jesus is a true teacher.

    It is easy to see how the Roman touch to Jesus' image, was imperative to have this new religion resonate with the people beginning to convert to Christianity. We also see touches of Greek, and even Egyptian art, all blending together to create the christian image that would grow to dominate the world.



    - Dr. Allen Farber, "Early Christian art," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 18, 2020,

- Farber, Allen. “Early Christian Art (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 18 Sept. 2020, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/early-christian-art/beginners-guide-early-christian-art/a/early-christian-art. 

Comments

  1. Jake, of "Jake Writes a Blog"September 19, 2020 at 10:36 PM

    Marcus, this post is so well done. I really appreciated the detail you gave as I read. It really felt like a fully formed thought instead of just surface facts. This fresco really is so incredible. Your detail on how these frescoes were impressionistic instead of realistic was a great addition. I've always been fascinated with catacombs and artworks that have been found inside of them. I would really like to look further into these artworks after reading this. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lily EdgingtonSeptember 24, 2020 at 11:20 PM

    This was so interesting to read! Thank you for including such detail and facts into your writing!

    ReplyDelete

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