The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art

Robin M. Jensen, Mark D. Ellison

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317514176
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art surveys a broad spectrum of Christian art produced from the late second to the sixth centuries. The first part of the book opens with a general survey of the subject and then presents fifteen essays that discuss specific media of visual art—catacomb paintings, sculpture, mosaics, gold glass, gems, reliquaries, ceramics, icons, ivories, textiles, silver, and illuminated manuscripts. Each is written by a noted expert in the field. The second part of the book takes up themes relevant to the study of early Christian art. These seven chapters consider the ritual practices in decorated spaces, the emergence of images of Christ's Passion and miracles, the functions of Christian secular portraits, the exemplary mosaics of Ravenna, the early modern history of Christian art and archaeology studies, and further reflection on this field called "early Christian art." Each of the volume's chapters includes photographs of many of the objects discussed, plus bibliographic notes and recommendations for further reading.

The result is an invaluable introduction to and appraisal of the art that developed out of the spread of Christianity through the late antique world. Undergraduate and graduate students of late classical, early Christian, and Byzantine culture, religion, or art will find it an accessible and insightful orientation to the field. Additionally, professional academics, archivists, and curators working in these areas will also find it valuable as a resource for their own research, as well as a textbook or reference work for their students.

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1

INTRODUCTION

Early Christian art

Robin M. Jensen

Historians generally agree that first- and second-century Christians left behind few material artifacts that historians could recognize as specifically theirs. Adherents to this new faith evidently began to decorate their tombs, places of worship, and even small domestic objects with iconography that reflected their distinct religious identity only in the late second or early third century. Scholars have offered various explanations for this seemingly late emergence of Christian pictorial art. Some suggest that Christians did not possess the numbers, social status, or economic resources to commission objects that depicted scenes from their own sacred stories or reflected their particular beliefs about God, salvation, or the afterlife.¹ Others, arguing for some degree of common culture as well as a more fluid set of religious identities in Late Antiquity, argue that Christian art may be a misnomer when historians too hastily try to distinguish among artifacts probably produced in common workshops for various religious groups.² Thus, they see more continuity than discontinuity in the material record. Recently, one scholar even proposed that the supposed absence of Christian art in the first centuries is resolved by regarding Christian art as Jewish art.³

An older, but still circulating, argument argues that Christians regarded the pictorial arts and divine images of their polytheistic neighbors as idols and, faithfully obedient to the prohibition of graven images in the Mosaic Law, avoided making or possessing any of their own.⁴ Historians have now largely repudiated this by demonstrating that while ancient Christians may have disapproved of images or statues of the Greco-Roman gods (and the honors bestowed upon them), they did not reject representational art as such.⁵ Moreover, the little surviving documentary evidence for critique of images takes aim primarily at practices rather than at objects, denouncing only idolatrous reverence for created things of nature or human craft, while presuming that Christians might properly make and own images. For example, Clement of Alexandria, one of the most severe critics of such misplaced veneration around the turn of the third century, nevertheless made concrete suggestions for what Christians should engrave on their signet rings:

And let our seals be either a dove, or a fish, or a ship scudding before the wind, or a musical lyre, which Polycrates used, or a ship’s anchor, which Seleucus got engraved as a device; and if there be one fishing, he will remember the apostle, and the children drawn out of the water. For we are not to delineate the faces of idols, we who are prohibited to cleave to them; nor a sword, nor a bow, following as we do, peace; nor drinking-cups, being temperate.⁶

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Clement’s suggestions of images deemed appropriate for Christian seals suggests that, in fact, Christians did wish to differentiate themselves from their non-Christian neighbors, to some extent through the images they chose to decorate items they used in their daily life. Consequently, scholars are able to classify certain motifs as Christian, whether or not they were made for or used exclusively by self-identified members of that group. Notably, many rings or gems have survived that display such designs (Figure 9.4).⁷ Hence, much early Christian art usually is demarcated by its subject matter—in other words that it bears what could be regarded as typically Christian symbols or biblical narrative scenes (both Old and New Testament). However, because other religious groups might have used similar iconographic conventions and Jews might also have chosen to represent certain biblical subjects, the setting or context of these objects can be decisive, as well as their overall composition and practical function. Consequently, historians have urged that clearly defined classifications can be dangerous. What looks like a Good Shepherd to one set of eyes could be regarded as a representation of Hermes as the ram bearer to another. An image of Sol Invictus, Apollo, or Orpheus could be adapted to a Christian iconographic purpose in order to relay the idea of Christ as bringer of light into the world or a tamer of souls, without necessarily verging on religious syncretism.⁸ This is especially vivid in a late third- or early fourth-century mosaic of Christ in the guise of the sun god found in the Vatican necropolis (Figure 6.1).

Corresponding to Christian apologists who elucidated the faith for their learned audiences by reference to accepted philosophical ideals or who drew upon the stories of the gods for the sake of comparison in words, artisans likewise used the pictorial vocabulary of their surrounding culture, especially when relaying an aspect of their Savior or tenet of faith that had resonance with pre-Christian myths.⁹ This is not a case of syncretism so much as the effective deployment of images for communicating meaning in visual rather than verbal language. Yet, the language is not necessarily precise, insofar as it could convey different messages to different viewers, depending on attitude, expectations, socialization, or experience. This may be its most characteristic and—depending on one’s point of view—its most valuable quality.

Moreover the materials, manufacturing techniques, and even style of works classified as Christian are often quite similar to those presumed to be Jewish or polytheist objects. Motifs like the personified four seasons evidently were inoffensive enough to be acceptable for a variety of religiously identified patrons (Figure 1.1). The fact that artisans were trained similarly, and that workshops followed prevailing fashions and used the same types of tools, meant they presumably catered to different kinds of clients, most likely customizing pre-made objects as needed.¹⁰ For this reason, many art historians choose to describe early Christian art as a sub-category of Roman art.¹¹

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Figure 1.1 Seasons sarcophagus with menorah, fragment, last quarter of the third century. Origin unknown. Now in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Inv. no. 67611. Photo: Robin M. Jensen.

Yet, while early Christian iconography often bears some similarities to non-Christian art of the same place and period, distinctions between them are not altogether absent. Early Christian wall paintings were executed in a sketchy, impressionistic style and were framed with colored borders similar to—although not usually as carefully executed as—those produced for contemporary Roman tombs and domestic interiors (Figures 2.4, 2.7, 2.9–11). Friezes carved on fourth-century stone coffins (sarcophagi) tend to display an almost random assortment of biblical characters, overlapping and often crowded onto a single panel rather than the more carefully composed reliefs of their non-Christian counterparts (Figures 3.3, 19.3, 19.7).¹² Moreover, an evolution of motifs or narrative themes can be discerned. In general, Christian art proceeds from being primarily symbolic, to illustrating biblical narratives, to presenting certain dogmatic developments, and finally to embracing iconic, or portrait, types as it proceeds from domestic and funereal settings to monumental, ecclesial spaces. These distinctions in content or even style do not presuppose the existence of workshops catering exclusively to Christian clients, but they do suggest an attention to particular religious identity.

Based on stylistic analysis...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction: Early Christian Art
• Part I Media
• Part II Themes
• Index