Which of the Following Was a Popular Subject of Early Christian Art?

Mosaics and murals inside the
Chora Church, Constantinople.
Christian Byzantine art of the
early fifth century.

The Ardagh Beaker 8th/9th Century.
Exquisite metalwork and a superb
example of Medieval Christian fine art.

Introduction

This topic concerns Christian art of the early era of Christianity, upward to the establishment of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople, and the plummet of the Western Roman Empire in Rome itself. We and so examine how this nascent religious fine art adult in one item country (Ireland), during the period c.550-1100. We have called Ireland, because it was the only country in Western Europe who kept the flame of Christianity burning during the Dark Ages, while managing at the same time to preserve other forms of ancient art and culture, including elements of Mesopotamian fine art and Greek civilization. If the history of fine art in the Westward is indebted to Christian artworks, the latter in turn is indebted to the efforts of St Patrick, and the traditions and craftsmanship of Celtic art. The revival of Continental Christian culture - originating in the form of ninth century Carolingian fine art and its successor Ottonian art - was due in no small measure to the influence of Irish gaelic artist-monks, and other learned directorate from the Irish Monastic system.

Characteristics of Early Christian Art

Nearly all our knowledge of early Christian culture and artifacts comes largely from archeological discoveries. Sadly, very few sacred artworks or designs survived from the first 3 centuries of Christian faith, by and large considering of persecution and because a high proportion of early Christians were poor people or slaves. Even so, the first examples of this grade of art appeared around 150 CE, well before Constantine's Edict of Milan, legalizing Christianity in 313. Well-nigh all these early Christian artifacts were establish in the West, and were based initially on the pagan forms and conventions of Roman fine art - and Greek art - so in employ: but the themes were different, and only slowly did they become explicitly Christian. Among the earliest examples were practical items such as rings and seals, engraved with symbolic motifs like a dove, an anchor, or a lighthouse. To these innocuous-looking emblems were added images of the "Skilful Shepherd", loaves and fishes, and other designs, all of which appeared in paintings from virtually 200 onwards, many of which were unearthed in Rome from catacomb burying chambers outside the metropolis walls.

Virtually all surviving Christian painting comes from the catacombs. Typically simpler in technique and design than contemporary heathen art, it is frequently ambiguous in its imagery: an prototype of a shepherd carrying a sheep - carved on a sarcophagus, or painted on a catacomb wall - could exist either pagan or Christian, though in retrospect the true meaning is usually unmistakable. The Chi-Rho symbol (used to make a Sacred Monogram symbolizing Christ) often appears, and would exist understood only by a Christian. But some images remain obscure, such as the mural painting of a adult female and child in the Catacomb of Priscilla (c.250). It might be a epitome Virgin and Child, or the Egyptian goddess Isis and her son Horus, whose cult was popular in Rome at the fourth dimension. 1 might retrieve that - because of the links between early on Christianity and Judaism, and Jewish hostility towards images and idolatry, due to the 2d Commandment - that all pictures of Christ and the Holy Family unit would have been banned. However, this Commandment was non strictly enforced within Hellenized Jews of the Diaspora. For case, the 3rd-century synagogue at Dura-Europos (at present Qalat es Salihiye), between Aleppo and Baghdad on the Euphrates, was busy with fresco painting that featured an extensive array of biblical illustration, equally does the Jewish cemetery on the Appian Manner just outside Rome. If Jews were permitted such breadth, information technology is hardly surprising that Christians in Rome (about of whom had never been Jews) were happy to use such imagery.

Fifty-fifty upwards to 313, during the menstruum when Christianity was banned, at that place was no interference with Christian cemeteries, which were legally protected under Roman police force that regarded the burial of bodies as sacrosanct. Burial places were either in individual hands, or belonged to firms established for the purpose, allowing Christians to be cached together. Near early Christian imagery used on sarcophagi and tombs consisted of illustrative Biblical art, such as scenes from the Sometime Testament of the Bible, such as: Moses hit the Rock, Daniel in the Lions' Den, Jonah and the Whale, Noah receiving the Pigeon with the Olive Branch, all signifying the Resurrection or Salvation. References to the Eucharist were likewise widespread, including: a standing loving cup and loaves, loaves and fishes, or even a picture of the rite itself, such every bit the one in the third-century Cappella Greca in the Crypt of Priscilla.

Only in the 4th century did explicit images of Christ become mutual, probably because of a lingering concern nearly making an prototype of the Deity. An early on instance of a portrait of Christ was a bust flanked by the alpha and omega, found in the 4th-century Catacomb of Comidilla. A half-figure with the gesture of an Orant, thought to portray the Virgin Mary, was institute in the Coemeterium Maius on the Via Nomentana. The Orant, an image of a adult female standing with her arms upraised in prayer, representing faith, or the triumph of the Church building, is a very mutual motif in Christian paintings from the tertiary century onwards. During the quaternary century, scenes illustrating the mission and miracles of Christ became common. They included: the Samaritan Woman at the Well, the Raising of Lazarus, Christ blessing the Loaves at the feeding of the five thousand, the Wedding at Cana, and others.

Historical Note: As Barbaric activity increased during the quaternary century, the Western uppercase of the Roman Empire was moved from Rome to Milan (and so Ravenna 402-476), while the Eastern capital was established at Nicodemia, Asia Minor (then Constantinople c.330-1450). (Despite these changes, Rome retained its status as capital letter of the ancient world, and remained the home of the Pope, who - until the 4th century - was known simply as the Bishop of Rome.) Constantine'south Edict of Milan (313) gave equal rights to all religious faiths, including Christianity, and restored holding confiscated during the widespread persecutions of the previous decade. Although technically, the Edict favoured no particular sect, Constantine initiated a articulate bias in favour of the Christian Church which he saw as a political ally every bit it spread across the Empire.

Early Christian Architecture

Early ecclesiastical compages reflected the needs of both clergy and congregation. The bones departure between a Christian church and a infidel temple, is that the latter was designed to be the abode of the God/Goddess in question, and the place where priests of the cult might offer suitable sacrifices and hold ceremonial rites. It was a sacred place, to which ordinary devotees of the cult were not allowed entry, no matter how large information technology was. (Come across also: Greek architecture.) In contrast, a Christian church was designed as a place of worship for the local congregation.

To begin with, the minor groups of persecuted Christians sought inconspicuous anonymity. They worshipped in hugger-mugger house-churches or similar meeting-places, which were entirely devoid of any external architectural blueprint or decorative art. (Ane of the earliest surviving examples is the 3rd century house-church building excavated at Dura-Europos.) But equally Christian communities expanded, following the Edict of Milan, they required larger churches, capable of hosting growing congregations and increasing numbers of clergy. This was achieved during the 4th century, when the basic church building design were established, based on the Roman public edifice chosen a Basilica. Typically, it consisted of a large oblong-shaped bedchamber with doors at the w end, and an apse at the east finish which housed the altar. (If a basilica is dedicated to a martyred saint, the latter's remains are ordinarily enshrined below the chantry in the confessio.) The central nave of the hall had aisles along the walls on either side, separated past a line of columns. The nave walls rose above the aisles, allowing the hall to receive light from windows in the clerestory. Sometimes the basilica would have a transept betwixt the nave and the apse, but this only became a common feature during the 5th century when clergy required more space nearly the chantry. Variations of the design included the Hellenic type, the Transverse Basilica and the later Hall-Church building.

Virtually early Christian church architecture is located in urban areas, equally Christianity was essentially an urban organized religion, due to the fact that pagan beliefs were usually far more ingrained in rural areas. Where space permitted, split up Baptisteries were built, designed around a circular or octagonal central program, to host various rites, notably baptism, since non-baptized converts were non permitted to enter the basilica itself. Up until the 6th century, however, baptisteries were generally limited to cathedrals only.

Equally Christianity grew in popularity and official esteem, the liturgy of The Mass non but became more uniform just also increased in solemnity, to reflect the role of the emperor equally the earthly representative of Christ the Heavenly King. As it did so, adjustments were made to the architectural design of the Christian basilica, to accomodate the growing ceremonial complication.

Constantine launched an official building plan of Christian churches in Rome and the Holy State, which focused on sacred sites. (See too: Roman Architecture.) Such sites included the place where a christian had been martyred, often already commemorated by the construction of a martyrium or cella memoriae. Thus Constantine built Saint Peter'due south Basilica (322-29) on the traditional site of the martyrdom of St Peter, in Rome. The basilica was huge - well-nigh 390-anxiety in length, and some 200-feet broad. Information technology had a transept marked by a triumphal arch, and colonnades separating aisles and nave. At the front of the church, running the unabridged width of the building was a narthex, reached through a big atrium, surrounded by a roofed colonnade. The large size of St Peter'southward was dictated by its office as a pilgrimage church, designed to accomodate thousands of visiting pilgrims. Thus, for the same reason, the entire building was in fact arranged like a giant martyrium. The tomb of St Peter was situated in the apse below a baldacchino supported by four columns, to allow pilgrims to become shut to the apostle's relics. As a event, the altar was placed either in the transept or at the showtime of the nave. St Peter'southward Basilica was - in both size and organisation - quite unlike the Bishop of Rome's Lateran Basilica, which was founded for Roman worshippers alone. The Lateran was built by Miltiades (Pope 311-314) on a piece of land adjoing the Lateran Imperial Palace in Rome, following the gift to him of both the palace (as an official residence for him as Bishop of Rome), and the country, past Constantine. The cathedral, known equally the St John Lateran Basilica (San Giovanni Laterano), has a huge nave flanked past double aisles, and an apse at the western end (simply later was the apse was placed at the eastern end, following the Byzantine tradition).

2 other early Christian basilicas were constructed in Rome: The Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls (Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura), and The Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore).

The Papal Basilica of St Paul was built past Constantine over the reputed burying identify of Saint Paul, replacing the memorial erected after the Apostle's execution. Paul'southward beheaded body is interred in the Basilica'due south catacomb, some v-anxiety below the chantry. His head is supposedly cached at the St John Lateran Basilica. The Basilica of St Paul was the first major church to accept the alcove in the east. The Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Sta Maria Maggiore), the largest Catholic Marian church building in Rome, was constructed during the reign of Pope Sixtus III (432-440), when Rome was seen as the centre of the Christian earth. Built to commemorate the decision of the Council of Ephesus (431), that Mary was the Mother of God, the basilica is busy with a series of outstanding mosaics, depicting scenes of her life and that of Christ, besides as scenes from the Old Testament.

Despite the close links between Ravenna and Constantinople, Early Christian art and architecture in Italy was quite different from that which emerged in Byzantium (the old name for Constantinople) during the catamenia c.400-600. This creative difference grew up even though Ravenna (and also Venice) were influenced past Byzantine art, notably in the field of mosaic fine art and, to a lesser extent, architecture.

Early on Christian Mosaics

Early basilicas and other churches were by and large decorated with mosaic fine art, as exemplified by the series of mosaics in Sta Costanza, a domed circular structure supposedly used every bit the burial chapel for Constantine's daughter. A huge prophyry sarcophagus, now on display in the Vatican Museums, is supposed to have been her tomb. The mosaic imagery is ambiguous in its symbolism and meaning; some of the Greco-Roman ceiling pictures are merely Christian because they later on caused Christian significance. The mosaics (c.375) lining the apses of the chapels past the ambulatory, depict the traditio clavium - Christ giving the keys to Saint Peter - and the traditio legis - Christ giving the Constabulary to Saint Paul. The apse mosaic of Sta Pudenziana (c.375), is the well-nigh hieratically straightforward, and has the clearest Christian message. Christ, shown as both teacher and lawgiver, while enthroned in majesty, is seated before a colina, symbolizing Golgotha, with a jewelled cantankerous rising from it. The cantankerous is flanked by the four symbols of the Evangelists - the tetramorph - while on either side of Christ himself stand up the Apostles: Saint Paul in the position of honour to His right, and Saint Peter on His left. To the rear are ii females: a Roman adult female backside Paul, representing the Ecclesia ex gentibus, because Paul'southward mission was to the Gentiles, and Rome was Gentile. The female person figure behind Peter represents the Ecclesia ex circumcisione, that is the Jewish people taught past Christ Himself. Backside the figures stand the churches pertaining to the two Ecclesiae: the Rotunda of the Anastasis or Resurrection in Jerusalem for Saint Paul, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for Saint Peter.

Sadly, the mosaic was hideously mutilated in 1588, as a result of misguided "improvements" during refurbishment, and later on "restored". Similar mosaic decorations take been found in later Roman works including: the apse of Saints Cosmas and Damian (c.530); the Chapel of St Venantius in the Lateran Baptistery (c.615); the group prototype of Christ with Saints in the apse of Sta Prassede (7th century); and the mosaic (c.980) formerly in the atrium of St Peter's Basilica, at present located in the Vatican Grotto.

The most all-encompassing early Christian mosaics in Rome are on the triumphal arch and the walls of the nave in the Basilica of Sta Maria Maggiore (c.432-40). The curvation decorations show the Flight into Arab republic of egypt, while the nave is decorated with Former Testament stories more often than not from the Books of Exodus and Joshua. Other important mosaics include those in the Chapel of St Venantius (c.640, Lateran Baptistery). These feature a pantocrator flanked by angels in a higher place the apse, while beneath is a Virgin orans with three saints and an ecclesiastic on either side of her. More figures can exist seen beyond the arch of the apse. The resemblance between the Virgin hither and the Virgin in the Rise in the famous Rabbula Gospels of c.586 indicates that the mosaic, too, may correspond an Ascension. In addition, the figures of the saints bear a noticeable resemblance to those in the San Vitale mosaics, in Ravenna. For more details, see: Ravenna Mosaics (c.400-600). The mosaic showing the Oratory of Pope John Seven in St Peter'due south (c.705) was lost during the rebuilding of the Basilica during the 16th century. But some of its fragments - a Nativity and a Virgin and Child - accept survived in the Vatican Grottoes, while a greater than life-size Virgin is now an altarpiece in San Marco, Florence.

Early Christian Sculpture

Similar many paintings from the period, early Christian sculpture - for tombs and sarcophagi - features figures or designs which are ofttimes ambivalent in their meaning. In office, they may be considering the sculptors were almost all heathen, and many sarcophagi were part-sculpted in provincial workshops and dispatched to Rome to be finished according to the customer'due south requirements. Some wait equally thought they were clearly made for Christian clients, and their use of traditional pagan forms is no more than surprising than the use of pre-Christian building designs, or pagan mosaic motifs. A sarcophagus was the most expensive form of burial, and thus its occupant would have had a higher position in club than someone cached in the cubicula of the catacombs. But a clear line of evolution can exist traced in how the imagery of the stone sculpture changes, though 1 should notation that but a few sarcophagi are dated. Ambiguity occurs where the casket is decorated with the graceful SSS of strigil decoration, sometimes with a figure of a Genius and an upside down torch at either cease - a traditional mourning figure - and a central relief sculpture of a shepherd with a sheep on his shoulders, or an Orant, both quite unspecific in meaning. Examples of such carved sarcophagi can be seen in the Terme Museum, Rome.

A traditional motif of Roman tomb sculpture consisted of a row of arches enclosing figures - typically a primal effigy (philosopher/lawgiver) flanked by others. Christian sculptors readily adjusted this pagan motif: the primal effigy became Christ the lawgiver or judge, while the subsidiary ones were converted into Apostles. This could exist effected with complete discretion - run into, for example, caskets in Ravenna, San Francesco, and Arles Museum. Sometimes the carvers employed symbols, instead of a central effigy, such as a Chi-Rho flanked past Apostles, a combination which appears on a sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum, Rome, although an additional relief depicting the guards watching over the Holy Sepulchre is explicit confirmation of the fact that the Chi-Rho is Christ. Many dissimilar Biblical stories, from both the Onetime and New Testaments were depicted past this form of relief sculture during the early Christian era. Pairs of incidents were oft featured as types and antitypes: thus the Cede of Abraham was often twinned with Christ before Pilate; Judas'south Betrayal of Christ with the Arrest of Saint Paul. A especially ornate sarcophagus is the massive two-tier catafalque made for Junius Bassus, Prefect of Rome (359, Museum of St Peter's, Rome). Information technology features a full of ten Bible scenes, with (in the middle of the upper tier) a Traditio Legis of Christ with Peter and Paul, flanked by the Sacrifice of Abraham and the Abort of Saint Paul on one side, and with Christ earlier Pilate on the other, and (on the lower tier) a centralized Entry into Jerusalem, flanked on the left past Adam and Eve, plus Job and his Comforters, while to the right are the depictions of Daniel in the Lions' Den and Saint Paul Beingness Led to Execution. When analyzed this strange mixture becomes an obscure sequence of the historical, the symbolic, and the typological, which is augmented by the tiny lambs, set out in the spandrels of the arches of the lower tier. The Christian iconography represented by this complex work clearly demonstrates that as early on as the 4th century the basic narrative of the bible was existence invested with multiple levels of meaning.

Ivory Carving

Most no Christian statue or sculpture in the circular has survived from the early menses, almost certainly because of a strong reluctance to create anything that resembled a pagan idol. The few works that have survived include statuettes of the pagan prototype of Hermes Kriophorus (a unimposing model for the Expert Shepherd, and philosophers (discreet images of Christ in the Traditio Legis). Invariably, Christ is portrayed as the Skillful Shepherd, or every bit a lawgiver, never as Himself. Other notable early on Christian sculpture includes numerous examples of ivory carving, typically used for the embellishment of useful objects, or as the covers for Gospel texts, and devotional diptychs. Notable examples include the etching of the Archangel Michael (c.330, British Museum, London); the Consular Diptych of the Consul Severus (470, Leipzig); the Diptych with Vi Miracles of Christ (c.480, Victoria and Albert Museum, London); the Maries approaching the Angel at the Sepulchre (c.385, Milan); the Maries at the Sepulchre and the Ascension (c.400, Pinakothek, Munich). In improver, two ivory coffins have survived: the Brescia box and a catafalque in the British Museum, London (c.430), decorated with four small panels depicting scenes from Christ'due south Passion. including Christ condemned by Pilate, and Judas hanging from a tree next to what appears to be the earliest explicit picture of the Crucifixion. Another panel portrays the Resurrection, and shows soldiers sleeping next to a tomb with an open door, approached past the Holy Women, as well equally Jesus appearing to the Disciples and doubting Thomas touching the wound in Christ's side.

Metalwork

Other early Christian artworks include several examples of goldsmithing and ecclesiastical metalwork, equally exemplified by some remarkable silver objects, including: the Antioch Chalice (now identified as a lamp non a chalice) (c.530, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); and a gold reliquary busy with 4 reliefs, reputedly sent by Pope Damasus to Saint Ambrose (c.382, Milan Catholic Treasury); and the ceremonial silver dish known as Missorium of Theodosius I (c.387, Existent Academia de la Historia, Madrid).

Illuminated Gospel Manuscripts

The history of Illuminated Manuscripts shows very few illuminations from the Early Christian period. Important exceptions include: the famous Ethiopian Garima Gospels (c.487-88, Garima Monastery, Ethiopia), the world'southward oldest illuminated gospel text, whose 28 pages of illuminations are designed in the early Byzantine way; the Vienna Genesis (early on 6th century, National Library of Austria, Vienna), the oldest well-preserved, illustrated biblical codex, produced in Syrian arab republic during the first half of the sixth Century; the Rossano Gospels (Codex Purpureus Rossanensis) (sixth century, Rossano Cathedral, Italy) 1 of the oldest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the New Attestation, written after the reconquest of the Italian peninsula by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. The codex is celebrated for its preface containing miniatures of scenes from the Life of Christ; the Syrian Rabbula Gospels (c.586 CE, Laurentian Library, Florence) and the Saint Augustine Gospels (6th century, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), produced in Italian republic, and sent by Pope Gregory to Saint Augustine in Canterbury England, in 601.

Christian Art in Ireland (c.550-1100)

Unlike United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and Continental Europe, Ireland was never colonized past Rome. Equally a result, traditional Irish Celtic art was neither displaced by Greek or Roman art, nor buried in the ensuing "Dark Ages". Indeed, one of the defining features of Irish culture between the cease of the Iron Age (200-100 BCE) and the gradual emergence of Christianity in Ireland from the third century CE onwards, was its unbroken tradition of Celtic culture influenced only marginally by Roman art. In the process, Irish culture retained its own oral historical and mythological traditions, as exemplified in the Lebor Gabála Erenn (Book of Invasions). Note that in 400 CE, the population of the land was between half a million and 1 million people.

From the 5th-century CE onwards, Irish culture underwent a gradual but significant renaissance, resulting (subsequently about 650 CE) in an outburst of Hiberno-Saxon style or Insular fine art. This cultural renaissance was due to 3 factors. The first, was the spread of Christianity throughout Ireland, a procedure attributed to St Patrick, which led to the foundation of numerous monasteries across the island - the ground for the resulting monastic Irish art. The 2d, was the appearance of the first written Irish, or Ogham script, which offered a new means of artistic activity and expression. The third factor, was the increased cultural contacts between Celtic Republic of ireland and the Germanic Anglo-Saxons.

But the impact of Christianity on Irish fine art should not be underestimated. The foundation of a tightly-knit network of monasteries throughout Republic of ireland, Uk (particularly Northumbria) and parts of Europe, all acting as centres of learning and artistic craftmanship as well as places of religious devotion, provided the perfect medium for a renaissance in religious art. Indeed, most insular art came about because of the patronage of the early Christian church.

Irish Gospel Manuscripts

The high signal of this Insular art of the early Christian era was the cosmos of a series of illuminated manuscripts, notably of gospel texts.

Monks carefully copied Christian Bible texts such as the Gospels, embellishing them with fantasy-filled ornamentation: run across, for case, the extraordinary Monogram Folio in the Book of Kells. Most of the abstruse forms (including spiral marker, knots, and tracery) which appear in these decorations, derived from traditional Celtic designs, replicated on many unlike objects including brooches and buckles. Other examples of artistic embellishment include: historiated letters, figurative miniatures, rhombuses, crosses, trumpet ornaments, also equally stylized images of animal and human heads, plants and birds, all drawn in bright colours. Further decoration was added through the utilize of ornamental metalwork in silver, golden and precious gems.

The earliest illuminations are the Cathach of Colmcille (c.610-20), the Book of Dimma (c.625), and the Durham Gospels (c.650), while the earliest consummate insular illumination is the Book of Durrow (c.670). Just the most famous of all illuminated texts is the Book of Kells (c.800; also called the Book of Columba), which is considered the apogee of Western calligraphy. It includes the four Gospels of the Bible, in Latin, together with introductions and explanations all embellished with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations.

Other famous Christian manuscripts illustrated with Celtic designs include the Cathach of St. Columba (early on 7th century), the Lindisfarne Gospels (c.698), the Echternach Gospels (c.700), and the Lichfield Gospels (730). See also: Making of Illuminated Manuscripts.

Metalworking

The influence of the Celts is too evident in a range of crafts, including jewellery art, and goldsmithery. Examples of this Celtic metalwork art include masterpieces such as the Derrynaflan Chalice, the famous Ardagh Chalice, the Moylough Belt Shrine, likewise every bit famous processional crosses such equally the Tully Lough Cantankerous and the Cross of Cong.

High Cantankerous Sculpture

From about 790 to 1100, a new genre of freestanding stone sculpture - known as "High Cross Sculptures" - began to appear in Ireland. Busy in carved relief, either with abstract patterns or various scenes from the bible, this fine art reached its zenith during the early tenth century, as evidenced by Muiredach's Cantankerous at Monasterboice, Canton Louth, and the Ahenny High Cross in Tipperary. The influence of Viking fine art on early on Christian culture in Ireland can be seen towards 1100, when Irish artists began to follow the Nordic Ringerike and Urnes styles, as in the Cross of Cong, in County Mayo and the crosses at Cashel.

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Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/cultural-history-of-ireland/early-christian-art.htm

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