Art as Spiritual Perception

Essays in Honor of E. John Walford

James Romaine

• Publisher: Crossway
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781433531828
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Literature & the Arts in Christianity

Making a critical contribution to the field of art history, this reader covers everything from sixth-century icons to contemporary art from a Christian perspective. Written by experts around the world, this book reflects the work of noted scholars, most especially John Walford and Hans Rookmaaker, as well as the richness of the history of Christianity and the visual arts. This wide-ranging collection of essays will be an encouragement and inspiration to all who love art and love God.

1

NEOFITUS, HE WENT TO GOD
The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

LINDA MØSKELAND FUCHS

The sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, who died August 25, A.D. 359, is one of the best preserved, most finely carved and most iconographically rich examples of fourth-century Christian funerary art.1 As John Walford observed, “Telling stories through relief carving was an invaluable artistic legacy of classical antiquity to the Church.”2 The sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, like much of early Christian art, draws imagery from Old and New Testament narratives for commemorative purposes. Its innovative development and arrangement of subjects imply thoughts of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. It is designed to edify the viewer. The scenes highlight Christ’s glorification and majesty and exult in his victory over death, which offers reconciliation to God and resurrection to each one who follows Christ.

Roman burial customs had begun a significant change near the beginning of the second century: interment in a costly stone coffin began to replace the custom of depositing the deceased’s cremated remains in funerary urns. A sarcophagus (meaning “flesh eater”)3 was prepared by carving out the interior of a marble block and embellishing the exterior with carved imagery and/or inscriptions. The city of Rome became the center for sarcophagus carving in the western half of the Roman Empire, and held this position until the middle of the fourth century. It was from the milieu of Roman wall painting and sarcophagus carving that Christian art developed, drawing on Roman principles of visual organization and some Roman motifs.

Late in the second century, Clement of Alexandria recommended choosing motifs meaningful to Christians when selecting a signet ring in the marketplace.4 Similar thoughtful choices were made in the first half of the third century when some Christians selected sarcophagi with shepherds. Distinctively biblical motifs appeared in catacomb wall and ceiling painting in the first half of the third century before these motifs were carved in stone in the second half of the third century. The horizontal format of sarcophagi (not tall, but wide) and the desire to embellish the space with figures (taller than wide) led to a filling of the space with multiple scenes in lateral succession—inviting rich combinations of episodes for commemorative and/or theological purposes. However, less than ten sarcophagi (or fragments) with multiple biblical themes have been found at Rome and cataloged in the period before the Peace of the Church (A.D. 313).5

Third-century images that were distinctively Christian were drawn primarily from the Old Testament, reflecting an engagement by Christian writers with the broader Roman culture that perceived older, more venerable religious traditions as inherently more valid than newer ones.6 Christian art began as an inadvertently subversive art, for Christianity was not a legally protected religion in the Roman Empire until the Edict of Milan declared tolerance for all religions in A.D. 313.

The second and third quarters of the third century were politically unstable, with many military coups: twenty-six emperors “for life” ruled within fifty years. This instability affected the quantity and artistic quality of some art produced at that time. For Christians, political uncertainly was compounded by occasional threats of persecution in particular locations. The visual motif of three Hebrews in the fiery furnace became a timely encouragement to those who faced a choice between worshiping the one they perceived to be the true God, the maker of heaven and earth, and obeying the laws of their government. In general, early Christian art motifs proclaimed a positive message of hope in the face of death.

The third-century Christian preference for Old Testament images over New Testament images reflects the influence of the contemporary theological climate on creative decisions. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine not only the Bible but also the writings of second- and third-century Christian writers to interpret the figures shown.

Artists of this period reflect ties between the Hebrew Old Test­ament and New Testament writings, including prophetic links. Jesus referred to his own death, time-limited three-day burial, and resurrection as the “Sign of Jonah.” Jonah motifs predominate in Christian art ante pacem (before the Peace of the Church).7 Resurrection is therefore the dominant theme in third-century funerary art, and other motifs should therefore be examined in its light.

This pattern of one thing in the Old Testament standing for another thing in the Christian era—typology—was used not only by Christian writers but also by artists, as a viable image-creation strategy to convey abstract theological concepts through the depiction of material objects and persons.8 Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Isaac, one of the motifs on the Junius Bassus sarcophagus, was recognized by many Christians as a “type” of the sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross.

Also basic to understanding Christian art is another principle of biblical hermeneutics, that one should interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. For example, Noah (not featured on this sarcophagus) may serve as a visual cue to concepts rich with abstract resonance, such as baptism, salvation, or resurrection, because Peter named Noah in a discussion of these ideas.9

The need for Christians to present their faith in ways that adapted to the sensibilities of the dominant non-Christian culture diminished after Christianity became a legal religion of the empire in 313, when the administration in power increasingly affiliated with Christian ways of thinking. Accordingly, a shift emerged in the visual repertoire. Jonah scenes were favored in the third century in part because Jonah could represent the resurrection of Christ obliquely,10 but they comprise a small proportion of Christian imagery after the Edict of Milan in 313, when covert images became unnecessary. As Christian sarcophagi began to flourish as an art form in the fourth century, New Testament motifs were increasingly emphasized. The apostles Peter and Paul, visible on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, were considered patrons of the city of Rome, and were portrayed often. Jesus was openly portrayed, and the visual language developed to serve Roman emperors was borrowed to give him honor: magi from the East bow before the infant; Jesus rides into Jerusalem with the welcome due a sovereign, but humbly, on a donkey; Jesus is shown frontally enthroned, as emperors had occasionally mirrored depictions of Zeus; and Christ’s victory over death is symbolized by a round trophy wreath hanging on a cross stand framing his monogram, XP (chi rho, the first letters for Christ in Greek).

Just one generation after Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire, a prominent second-generation government official was buried in an elegant monument that displayed carefully developed Christian theology. This funerary monument visually exalts Jesus Christ, the Savior in whom the deceased, Junius Bassus, placed his hope of resurrection and fellowship in the afterlife.

Junius Bassus was born in 317, a year before his father, Junius Annius Bassus, began lengthy service as a senior official under Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Junius Annius Bassus served as praetorian prefect of Italy (318–331) and as consul when he built a secular basilica on the Esquiline Hill in Rome in 331.11 Junius Bassus the younger became praefectus urbi of the city of Rome under the administration of Constantine’s son and successor, Constantius II. As urban prefect, the responsibilities of Junius Bassus for administration of the city were broad, similar to those of a mayor. It is the sarcophagus of this younger Junius Bassus that remains today the only fourth-century Christian sarcophagus elaborately carved with figures that is also dated by its inscription. As such, it serves as a stylistic benchmark for the dating of other sarcophagi. A lid fragment discovered in the twentieth century, inscribed with an epitaph, suggests that Junius Bassus was given a public funeral, a distinction uncommon for people outside the imperial family, but sometimes used to honor urban prefects who died in office.12

It is unusual to have recovered a largely intact sarcophagus for an official high in the imperial administration. To have a personalized witness to the Christian faith of such a person is rare indeed.

Questions of iconographic design in early Christian sarcophagi remain an issue of debate among scholars. The careful iconographic arrangement and high quality of execution of some sarcophagi, such as that of Junius Bassus, suggest thoughtful planning, while others seem to copy elements of previous sarcophagi with a less coherent plan. Scholars debate the relative contributions of patron and workshop to a finished design. Some Christian sarcophagi with uncarved central portrait faces may have been prepared on speculation in a workshop for any ready buyer.13 Others, such as the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, have unique features that set the work apart as likely to have been specially commissioned.14

The façade of the Junius Bassus sarcophagus features ten scenes in two rows. Across the top row, from left to right, are: Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac; Peter flanked by two unarmed men in knee-length clothing; Christ enthroned above a personification of the heavens and attended by two robed men; Christ standing before Pilate (who is in the next scene); and Pilate seated, washing his hands. Across the lower row, from left to right, are: Job seated on a dung heap and facing his wife; Adam and Eve; Christ’s entry into Jerusalem; Daniel with lions (and two men with scrolls); and the arrest of Paul.

These ten scenes are organized within two stories of columns. On both the upper and lower levels, the outer pairs are enriched by spiral fluting, a common embellishment on Asiatic sarcophagi.15 On the Junius Bassus sarcophagus, the fluting of the outer pairs descends toward the center of the sarcophagus. On the inner pairs of spiral-fluted columns, the direction is reversed, with flutes rising upward toward the center. When repeated on two levels, this generates a sense of movement up and down, appropriate to artwork that deals with concepts of moving from the realm of earth to the heavens. The most elaborately carved columns on the Junius Bassus sarcophagus, the central pairs, are covered with grapevine scrolls inhabited by putti—bare infants that in the broader Roman culture suggest general joy and festivity. The vine scroll columns highlight the central scenes between them, and, within the Christian context, imply Eucharistic associations.

The general format of the Junius Bassus sarcophagus is drawn from column sarcophagi that were first developed in Asia Minor. However, the lavish...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Content
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Neofitus, He Went to God
• 2 Gothic Architecture and "The Pure and Naked Seeing of Divine Reality"
• 3 Heaven Come to Earth
• 4 Academia's "Religious Turn"
• 5 The Shape of Place
• 6 The Perception of Spirituality
• 7 A Localized Providence
• 8 Space, Symbol, and Spirit
• 9 Categories for Art Historical Methodology
• 10 Departing Light
• 11 Remember Thy Creator
• 12 What the Halo Symbolized
• 13 Evolving a "Better" World
• 14 Spiritually Charged Visual Strategy
• 15 The Liberating Myth
• Afterword
• Contributors
• Back