Early Christian art

Early Christian art describes painting, sculpture, and architecture from the beginnings of Christianity until the sixth century. Also known as Paleo-Christian art and primitive Christian art, this artwork was most prevalent in Italy and the Western Mediterranean.

The blossoming of Christian art reflected the growing acceptance of Christianity as a valid religion. In 313CE, after Emperor Constantine the Great officially declared toleration of Christianity, the Church started to produce grand art and architecture, to both reflect the religion’s social importance and to educate its new converts.

The earliest artwork began to appear in the second century CE, in the form of ceiling and wall paintings in Roman catacombs. In the following centuries, the Church and its followers built elaborate churches and shrines throughout the Roman Empire. Relief sculptures, mosaics, and paintings decorated the churches. Early Christian art was influenced by the classical Roman style, but eventually it came to be defined by an abstract expression of art that evoked spiritual feelings.

Brief History

The first evidence of Christian art can be traced to the end of the second century. As Christianity became popular, and it evolved from a hidden to an open religion, the extent of its art grew drastically.

Before Emperor Constantine the Great’s acceptance of Christianity in 313, Christians were persecuted. Christian Roman art was part of an underground culture, and Christianity was a secret society whose images could be recognized and understood only by the select few who had been initiated.

Once Christianity was permitted legally, scores of new churches were built, most of which based their design on the Roman basilica. The interiors of these churches were decorated with mosaics and murals. Sculptures were forbidden, but relief sculpture (sculpture that projects from the wall while still belonging to the wall) was prevalent.

Initially, Christian art leaned toward symbolic images. For example, early artists drew pictures of bread and wine to signify the Eucharist, or a picture of a fish to represent Jesus. Between the Old Testament’s prohibition against the production of graven images, and Christianity’s role as a secret society, no pictures or sculptures of people appeared.

Christianity’s attitude toward graven images altered through the following centuries. In the third and fourth centuries, as Christianity’s growing popularity drew masses of pagans to convert, Christian artists adapted common pagan images and made them religious. Christianity gradually adjusted to accommodate the needs of the new Christian converts, who had been raised in Greco-Roman cultures where images were highly valued.

The new converts not only wanted images like the Romans, they also wanted to imitate Roman burial practices. Instead of practicing cremation, they wanted to bury their dead above the ground. To accomplish this, they dug catacombs outside the walls of Rome and painted them with religious art. Wealthier Christians commissioned sarcophagi that featured Christian imagery.

Early Christian sculptures and paintings used motifs from Roman and Greek art. During the third and fourth centuries, Jesus was exalted through depictions as a pagan icon, such as a good shepherd, or as the Greek mythical god Apollo. As Christianity became more firmly established, in the fourth and fifth centuries, art began to emphasize religious significance, depicting the Passion and the Crucifixion. Realism’s importance was downgraded, and standardized symbols began to trump realistic color, light, and proportions.

Overview

Early Christian art developed from the second century to the early sixth century. As Christianity became widely accepted, its art adjusted to meet the needs of its followers. Christian art of the third century is marked by the absence of the imagery that later became a hallmark of Christian art. In this early period, while Christianity was still a religion shrouded in mystery that was accessible to only an elite few, the stories of the Crucifixion or the Resurrection were not openly depicted. In the original paintings, symbols such as vines, fish, and palm branches were prevalent.

Most of the existing bank of early Christian art is found on the catacombs that are under modern-day Rome. The purpose of the catacombs’ mosaics and paintings was to educate the illiterate masses of people by teaching them about the redemption.

The themes of death and Resurrection were commonly used in paintings on catacombs and sarcophagi. Artists accomplished this by illustrating stories from the Old Testament whose themes reflected those of Jesus’s stories. They drew images of Jonah in the whale, Daniel in the lion’s den, Moses striking the rock, and the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace. These coordinated with Jesus’s stories because early Christians saw Old Testament tales as allegories to Christ’s death and Resurrection. For example, the story of Jonah, who was swallowed by a large fish, remained inside for three days and nights, and was then spit out, was viewed by early Christians as emblematic of Christ’s own death and Resurrection.

Through these paintings, the Christians were, in essence, asking God to save them, much as he had saved the characters in the Bible story. The subject of salvation is a main narrative in the life of Christ, much as personal salvation is important to Christians.

Another widespread theme of early Christian art was that of Christ as the true teacher. In the Catacomb of Domitilla, the figure of Christ was painted as dressed in classical garb, holding a scroll in one hand and stretching out his other hand in a movement typical of orators. Recent converts to Christianity appreciated concepts from the Greco-Roman culture, so the artists represented Christ as a Greek philosopher who was surrounded by his pupils.

Starting from the third century, Christians began building massive numbers of churches as houses of worship. The Roman basilica, a center of civic administration and justice, was upheld as the model for many churches. Basilica churches typically featured a central nave, which is the main body of the church and leads to the high altar. There were one or more aisles at either side of the nave, and a semi-circular apse sat at one end of the church. The bishop, priests, and altar sat on a raised platform. Alternately, some churches were built in the style of a five-aisled basilica.

From the beginning of its existence, the Christian church used different types of art to establish its identity. After the period of early Christian art had ended, Christian art advanced throughout the centuries to claim its own unique style of architecture, sculpture, painting, decorative art, and illuminated manuscripts.

Bibliography

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