Christian Art
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Christian Art

Michelle P. Brown

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eBook - ePub

Christian Art

Michelle P. Brown

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About This Book

Explore the rich history and influence of Christian art from Antiquity to the present day.

Michelle Brown traces the rich history of Christian art, crossing boundaries to explore how art has reflected and stimulated a response to the teachings of Christ, and to Christian thought and experience across the ages.

Embracing much of the history of art in the West and parts of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia, Michelle considers art of the earliest Christians to the modern day. Featuring articles by invited contributors on subjects including Icons; Renaissance Florence; Rubens and the Counter-Reformation; Religious Folk Art; Jewish Artists; Christian Themes; Making the St John's Bible, and Christianity and Contemporary Art in North America, Christian Art is an ideal survey of the subject for all those interested in the world's artistic heritage.


•? Comprehensive and authoritative text from the Early Christian period to the modern day
•? Wide international coverage
•? Feature articles on special subjects by a team of experts from around the world

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Information

Publisher
Lion Scholar
Year
2021
ISBN
9781912552566
Topic
Art

CHAPTER 1

THE ART OF THE EARLIEST CHRISTIANS

Judaic and Graeco-Roman Roots
The Middle East was the cradle of monotheistic religion, from the time that the Pharaoh Akhenaten (1353/36–1351/34 BCE) withdrew from Luxor in the second millennium BCE to found Amarna, a city devoted to the worship of one god, symbolized by the sun – the Aten. This led to the development of the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which subscribe to belief in one god whose divine will is revealed to and realized through a common ancestor, Abraham, and his descendants. Many other religions also began in this part of the world, including Zoroastrianism, Mithraism and Gnosticism, and the pantheons of deities of the ancient Egyptians and the Greeks also took shape there. Not surprisingly, aspects of such earlier beliefs and art continued to be reflected in the monotheistic religions, as did those of the Romans, the Celtic and Germanic peoples of Europe, and the less structured animism and nature-cults of rural communities. Likewise, the influence of other great world religions can sometimes be detected within their thought and its visual expression; for example, the symbolic patterns of Buddhist prayer mandalas are recalled in the geometric painted wall panels of the Coptic church at Bawit (now in the Louvre) and in the carpet-pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels from Anglo-Saxon Northumbria.
Some iconographies (images imbued with meaning) were accordingly adapted from earlier art for Christian use, such as the Good Shepherd with a lamb borne upon his shoulders, an antique Roman pastoral motif which was appropriated to represent Christ. Likewise, the head of a youthful hero framed by a sunburst or nimbus might be taken to represent a historical figure such as Alexander the Great, the sun god Apollo, or Christ. Such ambiguity could enable overt signalling of adherence to the Christian faith without provoking official reprisals during times of persecution, for the interpretation lay in the mind of the beholder.

Judaism and the Aniconic Tradition

One religion that did not exert as great an artistic influence upon the early visual symbolism of Christianity as might be expected was that from which its scriptures were descended – Judaism. For such imagery did not enjoy great favour within a religion concerned with the implications of idolatry contained in a commandment given to Moses and his people by the Lord in Exodus, ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth’ (Exodus 20:4). The question of whether it was permissible to depict the divine would preoccupy Judaic, Christian and Islamic religious authorities throughout succeeding centuries, as we shall see. Consequently, at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman General (and later Emperor) Titus (70 CE), Jewish sacred art was minimal and figural images were eschewed. However, the Hellenistic Jewish communities of the Diaspora absorbed the artistic conventions of the Graeco-Roman societies within which they lived and increasingly adopted plant, animal and figural motifs, and by Late Antiquity human figures were widely depicted in the synagogues of Palestine (although Judaism would soon deny the power of images). Synagogues were often adorned with depictions of the Temple implements, such as the seven-branched candlestick (the Menorah), the ritual ram’s horn (shofar) and the ark containing the Torah scroll, and might also house images of scenes from the Hebrew Bible. There is a particularly striking mosaic floor in the main aisle of the synagogue at Hammat Tiberias in Palestine in which the Ark of the Torah, the implements of the Judaic faith and the lions of Judah are depicted alongside a roundel bearing the signs of the zodiac around a central depiction of the sun, Helios, shown as a youthful deity with a sunburst halo. Such iconographies would all soon be adopted and adapted by Early Christians.
The early artistic traditions of Judaic, Christian and other faith groups living within the Roman empire all absorbed and reflected those of society in general, and consequently share certain motifs and ornamental repertoires. In third-century Roman Dura Europos (modern Qalat es Salihiye) on the Euphrates, between Aleppo and Baghdad, mainstream temples to Roman gods, those dedicated to local deities, Jewish synagogues and Christian churches were all decorated in similar fashion, the synagogue housing some forty to fifty panels illustrating scenes from the Hebrew Bible. Accordingly, it would be difficult from the symbolism and style of the imagery alone to determine the faith-specific context of the mosaic gracing the floor of the main hall of the synagogue at Hamman Lif (Naro), with its vine scroll tendrils framing animals, birds and baskets of fruit, its dolphins and other fish swimming in a river flanked by palm trees framing a cantharus (chalice), upon which perch two peacocks and from which springs the fountain of life.
Jews and Christians both tended to eschew statuary, owing to its particular associations with the brazen images worshipped by the Israelites and condemned by Moses, and also because of its extensive use in the cults of pagan Graeco-Roman deities. Other images were less obviously contentious, however. The use of icons (Greek eikōn) by some Christians can be traced back as far as the second century – panel paintings of saints and even of Christ, based upon images of pagan heroes whose status was signalled by the triumphal halo or nimbus, a ring of light framing the head (with painted panels of nimbed military deities surviving from Egypt and Syria). During the fourth century Eusebius wrote disapprovingly of them: ‘I have examined images of his apostles Paul and Peter, and indeed of Christ himself, preserved in colour paintings; which is understandable, since the ancients used to honour saviours freely in this way following their pagan custom’.1 In a letter to the sister of Constantine he states further that ‘these are excluded from churches all over the world’.2 He also confiscated a painting of Christ and St Paul, depicted as philosophers, which a woman brought to him – although he did not destroy it but kept it in his own home, probably recognizing that it was not images themselves that represented an idolatrous threat, but the way in which people regarded them during their prayers: was the icon the subject or the object of devotion? Public pagan cult figures tended to take the form of statues, while domestic deities and the ancestors and emperors (the lauraton) venerated in the home were often painted. Despite the misgivings of the Church Fathers, Christians continued to feel the need for images as a focus for contemplation and the icon was destined to play a major role in the development of Christian devotional art, especially within the Orthodox Churches.

Early Christian Symbolism

Nonetheless, the periodic attempts by the Roman authorities to suppress the subversive Christian cult meant that overt signs of faith had to be avoided. Christians therefore tended to signal their belief by clandestine symbols. The most popular of these was the fish, a creature imbued with sacred significance since ancient times, the Greek term for which – ichthus – formed an acrostic, its letters being expanded to form the phrase ‘Īe sous Christos Theou Huios Sō tē r, Jesus Christ Son of God our Saviour’. (Its meaning was expounded by Tertullian during the early third century in his De baptismo.) This symbol was used because of its connection with the apostolic role as fishers of men, with the feeding of the five thousand, with the Eucharistic feast, and with Old Testament episodes interpreted as prophesies relating to Christ, such as Jonah and the whale – Jonah’s sojourn in the great fish’s stomach presaging Christ’s entombment and resurrection. Another favored symbol was the chi-rho – an X with a P superimposed upon it, based on the Greek letters chi, ‘X’, and rho, ‘P’ – a contraction of the Greek word Christos, ‘the Anointed One’. From this derived the chrismon, a symbol resembling a cross with a hook to the right of its upper arm. Others included the marigold, symbolic of rebirth in the ancient world; the lamb, the Agnus Dei, the sacrificial victim; the dove, symbol of peace, which came to symbolize the Holy Spirit; the peacock, whose flesh was thought not to putrefy, making it an ideal symbol of resurrection; the cantharus or wine chalice, signifying the cup of salvation – the chalice used at the Last Supper; the Eucharistic vine scroll (adapted from the Graeco-Roman symbolism of Dionysius, and often inhabited by the birds and beasts of creation which it sustains), and the Tree of Life.
The earliest Christians would have been found among the circle of the apostles, their followers and the early faith communities that they founded. Their beliefs would have been disseminated to those who came into contact with travellers bringing news of novel Eastern cults. Some would themselves have been merchants, or their servants, based in busy provincial trading outposts, such as Oxyrhynchus, or metropolitan centres, such as Antioch, Alexandria and Rome. The Christian message contained hope for the poor and the oppressed and was eagerly embraced by them, but the very nature of their circumstances precluded their leaving much in the way of material possessions, let alone artistic expressions of their faith. Artefacts found across the Roman empire carry such motifs and may betoken Christian ownership, but this was, of necessity, discreet. Many of these are portable articles, such as strap ends, rings and pottery lamps, which were easily stolen or lost during travel, and their find-spots do not necessarily reflect the geographical spread of Christian belief. There are also, however, more static Christian artefacts related to places of worship, such as mosaics, architectural decoration and inscriptions, funerary monuments, and a series of shallow lead tanks bearing chi-rhos, identified as possible baptismal tanks or containers for holy water. For many baptisms were of adults and the usual rite was one of affusion, in which holy water was poured over the catechumen’s head as they stood within a baptismal pool or foot tank, rather than by immersion.

The Spread of the Mystery Religions

The essential basis of religious observance under Roman imperial rule was materialism and the desire for individual physical and financial well-being. Emperor worship and the pantheon of gods mirrored these limited human concerns. During the third century the urban and military classes began to adopt Christianity in greater numbers, as one of a number of exotic belief systems that caught on as social and political instability led people to search for more spiritual, mystical meanings to life. People looked to the afterlife to compensate for the shortcomings of the present and sought a superhero to secure their salvation. Mithraism was one of several mystical religions that gained popularity at this time, all of which were of Eastern derivation and involved complex ritual practices and a belief in an afterlife. These have become collectively termed the ‘mystery religions’. Mithras, the bull-slayer, was a Persian deity descended from the Indian and Iranian gods of light – the Mitra-Varuna of the Vedas and the Mazda of Zoroaster – who upon passing into Europe acquired an astrological connotation. He was either depicted wrestling with a bull, its shed blood ensuring the fertility of creation, or as a winged, lion-headed deity, enclosed in a serpent’s coils and covered with zodiacal symbols. He was sometimes equated with Aion, god of Time, believed by many to be the Creator, and the symbolic blood-letting of the cult led to it sometimes being confused in the public consciousness with Christianity. The invincibility of the sun and the strict moral code demanded of the soldier of the faith ensured its appeal to the military, by whose agency it spread around the empire from the first century CE. The venues for their mystic ceremonies, or mithraeums, might be found as far afield as Carrawburgh on Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain.
Another popular cult was that of Isis, mother of the god Horus, who together with her husband, Osiris, formed an influential trinity of deities from ancient Egypt. She is often depicted enthroned, suckling or holding Horus, in an iconic pose later adopted by Christian artists when depicting Mary and Christ. When the Christian Copts occupied the ancient Egyptian temples they did not redecorate, but rather relabelled and reinterpreted some of the ancient iconography they found there. Eclipsing the other Egyptian goddesses, Isis became equated by the Greeks with Aphrodite and was the goddess of fertility and of the dead. She was termed by the Romans the ‘star of the sea’ (a forerunner of the Marian epiphet ‘stella maris’) and patroness of travellers – the cult of Isis was carried to northern Europe by sailors, soldiers and slaves. The third of the great mystery cults that swept across the empire during the third century was Christianity.

Christianity and the Roman Status Quo

Christian teaching was radical and socially transforming and, fearing for the political status quo, the Roman authorities resorted to censorship, persecution and state-sponsored genocide in an attempt to eradicate it. Following Nero’s initial lead in the generation following Christ’s death, systematic persecutions were implemented under the emperors Septimius Severus in the early third century, Decius and Valerian in the mid-third century and Diocletian in the early fourth century. Many Early Christians died for their faith; many more lived for it, moulding their lives to the image of Christ’s teaching. They would probably have felt little need to express this in the conventional artistic trappings of pagan religions.
The practice of the Christian religion became easier, however, following the edicts of religious toleration that followed the victory of Emperor Constantine in 312 CE, vouchsafed by his vision of the cross. Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman empire during the late fourth century, and by the time that the empire began to fragment, during the early fifth century, most Roman citizens would probably have given their religion as ‘Christian’ without actively practising it or living out its doctrines – as many people do today – while in rural areas pagan practices remained entrenched. As had been the case for millennia the new religion probably merged, for many people, with pre-existing beliefs. Some prehistoric and Romano-Celtic shrines continued in use; others were abandoned or destroyed, while others were replaced by Christian churches, ensuring continuity of worship reinterpreted in the light of the revelation of the New Testament. In north-western Europe a proximity to nature developed into a distinctive appreciation of its value as a visible manifestation of God’s bounty and beauty, while, as elsewhere, the plethora of minor deities whose role was to intercede for the daily needs of humankind was gradually replaced by a myriad of local and international saints who assumed their functions. Thus Sts Cosmas and Damian, the Christian twin physicians, usurped the traditional healing roles of the Greek Hippocrates, and the Roman god Mars and the Celtic goddess Brigid metamorphosed into the Christian saint and founder of Kildare.

Foxes Have Holes: Early Christian Places of Assembly and Burial

Prior to the fourth century most Christian communities were forced to meet clandestinely, in discreet house churches, coming together for acts of worship and fellowship in private homes, sometimes in concealed rooms. Other relatively safe meeting places were the houses of the dead – the underground warrens of passages lined with sepulchral niches known as the catacombs – although their use by Christians is now thought to be more an extension of existing Roman burial practices than the clandestine meetings of an underground sect during times of persecution. Particularly important Christian catacombs have been discovered in Rome and Thessaloniki. Some individual chambers and gathering places used for Christian meetings and worship are adorned with particularly fine painted frescoes and ceilings depicting canthari, peacocks, birds, fish (including the popular dolphin motif), vine scroll and chi-rho symbols. Other frescoes portray fishing scenes, such as the miraculous catch of fish, or fishers of men, and feasting scenes that could simultaneously represent funerary meals – the agape, or feast of love, celebrated by pagans as a symbol of reunion with their dear departed and by Christians in recollection of the Last Supper, source of the Eucharistic feast. This feast was also observed in Arab communities and perpetuated within early Islam. A fine depiction of such a meal was chosen to commemorate those who rested (for the Early Christians sometimes referred to their tombs as ‘sleeping places’ where they awaited the resurrection) in a fourth-century Christian tomb (the Tomb of the Banquet) at Constanza in Romania. The broken sherds of tableware used in funerary feasts (recalled in the survival of the Irish wake) can be found in many such tombs, where they were eaten to celebrate the passage of the soul. The frescoes adorning the remarkable North African necropoli such as Tipasa, and the catacombs of Rome and Thessaloniki, where Constantine constructed an important harbour, include still-life paintings of fruit, flowers, fish, prepared meat and other foodstuffs, recalling the ostentatious display of urban plenty likewise celebrate...

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