Early Christian Art

Early Christian Art

Early Christian art came about towards the end of the second century and started of the third century. The Old Testament has significantly prohibited the aspect of graven images (Finney, 2017). Thus, it becomes paramount to understand why Christian art came about in the first place. The emergence of ideas in Christianity has a close relation to the essential position images had in Greco-Roman culture. As there was an increase in converts, the new Christian had prior knowledge of the essentiality of pictures in their former cultural experiences (Jensen et al., 2018). Hence, they wanted to carry on with these practices in their Christian experience. For instance, there was a shift in burial activities within the Roman context as they changed from cremation to inhumation. Along the city walls of Rome, catacombs were shovelled to bury those that died (Finney, 2017). Christians also embraced the practice as a way of burying their dead.

Consequently, sarcophagi that entailed Christian imagery were accepted amongst more affluent Christians. For instance, Junius Bassus, who was a government administrator, was included in the caskets after his death in 359 C.E (Jensen et al., 2018). The first Christian representation came about as symbolic. Within Christianity, the aspect of wine and bread led to the emergence of Eucharist. In the third and the fourth century, Christians started to embraced pagan prototypes and translated them to new meanings. For instance, the early representation of showed him as an excellent shepherd, which was directly drawn from a classical prototype (Finney, 2017). Christ was also illustrated concerning familiar gods such as Orpheus. It was after religion garnered a higher earthly attribution that Christ became highly exalted.

Besides, the first aspects to be depicted on the early life of Christ was significantly related to the miracles He performed. The Crucifixion aspect was highly ignored until religion had gained roots across the world (Jensen et al., 2018). The beginning of early Christian art came about after 313 when the region was significantly modest and highly prosecuted. After 313, Constantine the Great declared an official tolerance to Christianity. After this declaration, many people converted to Christianity (Jensen et al., 2018). As such, it became paramount for a church to come up with art and architecture, to contain and educate its new members, and illuminate social essentiality.

In conclusion, the walls of churches were illuminated with paints and mosaics to guide the faithful. In Rome, Maria Maggiore comprises of a prolonged mosaic program of Old and New Testament scene that started in 432 (Finney, 2017). Paintings also had a reflection of ritualistic books amongst other articles.

References

Finney, P. C. (Ed.). (, 2017). The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of early Christian art and archaeology. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company https://www.academia.edu/26217858/The_Eerdmans_Encyclopedia_of_Early_Christian_Art_and_Archaeology

Jensen, R. M., & Ellison, M. D. (Eds.). (, 2018). The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art. Routledge. . https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Early-Christian-Art/Jensen-Ellison/p/book/9780367734398