ANCIENT CHRISTIAN ART. - We still know almost nothing about the origins of Christian art, taken in the double sense of the word, chronological and spatial. One can only presume that its very first creations saw the light during the first half of the 2nd century and, a little everywhere, in the principal communities scattered throughout the Roman Empire. It does not appear that there must have been serious obstacles either on the part of Judaism or on the part of ecclesiastical authority. The Mosaic prescriptions are to be understood in the anti-idolatrous sense, and the opposition to figurative art within the Jewish communities was limited to the rigorist current. Their monuments (the synagogue of Dura Europos, the catacombs of Rome) demonstrate that the Jews of the Diaspora were not hostile to art. Likewise, the opposition within the Christian community itself is easily exaggerated, because here too it was inspired by limited rigorist tendencies or by local circumstances.
A unique example of balance, the religion of Christ, in the reflection of the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Resurrection, did not fear to make its own the taste for figured decorations so widespread in the Hellenistic world and to make use of these, and purifying them, as expression and vehicle of the highest concepts. Moreover, figured representations are not lacking in the most ancient monuments that have come down to us. They go back to the last decades of the 2nd century and the first of the 3rd (the most ancient centers of the catacombs of Priscilla, Domitilla, Callistus and Praetextatus; the Christian chapel of Dura Europos). At a short distance in time follow the first sculptures on sarcophagi.
From its very rise, a. c. a. reveals its fundamentally symbolic nature, and this not only, as was believed for a long time, in the decoration of tombs, but also in that of the places and furnishings of worship. It considers art as a language, as an ideographic expression, whose vocabulary and whose syntax are always those commonly widespread, but which it uses to compose new phrases, now combined into logical and systematic discourse, now juxtaposed like those of the ancient litanies, and often intelligible only to the initiated.
Setting aside certain representations taken directly from profane art (Orpheus, Cupid and Psyche, etc.) and leaving out the symbolic signs, the decorative motifs and the recollections of earthly life, the repertoire of this art is composed of symbolic figures and of historical, allegorical and representative scenes, all of them oriented toward evoking and illustrating Christ the Savior and the work of salvation prepared in the Old Testament, accomplished during the earthly life of Christ, continued after his death by the Church and crowned in the blessed life. Now more, now less, according to the times, the concepts relating to death and to resurrection, both spiritual and corporal, are brought to the fore; to God's intervention in favor of the faithful of all times; to the means of salvation, among which faith, Christian initiation, and the food and drink of immortality hold first place; to the intervention of the interceding Saints, among whom the Princes of the Apostles occupy the place of honor first, and soon the other martyrs; to the triumphal glorification of Christ.
From the very beginning two central figures appear: the Good Shepherd and the Orant, that is, the Savior of souls and the souls saved.
From the primitive Good Shepherd to the majestic figure of Christ which in the course of time would become almost exclusive, one discerns a line of continuity passing through the figurations of Christ as philosopher and thaumaturge. The Orant, originally an abstract figure, intent rather on giving concrete form to the state of the blessed soul, comes to represent the deceased himself conceived in this state, and ends by being replaced by the figures of the deceased received into Paradise.
Among the scenes of the Old Testament, the first are those in which deliverance through divine intervention from the danger of death is most clearly revealed (Noah in the ark, the sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel among the lions, the three youths in the furnace, the story of Susanna and that of Jonah, etc.), but soon the choice broadens with scenes in which such a concept, while always present, is no longer expressed with the same immediacy. Iconographic themes such as those of the creation of man, of the fall of the first parents and of the intervention of the Lógos in their favor, stand directly in relation to the problem of life and death already mentioned, while the various prophecies of the prophets are to be connected with the mystery of the Incarnation.
The scenes of the New Testament are divided into various groups according to the fundamental concepts to which they refer. Besides the Christological ones (Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi and, later, the scenes of the Passion, etc.), and the series of miracles (healings) which have the same function as the paradigms of the Old Testament, one must note the scenes of the Baptism, the resurrections, the multiplication of the loaves and the miracle of Cana with their derivatives; the so-called denial of St. Peter; the conversation with the Samaritan woman, etc.
To be counted among the allegorical scenes are first of all the banquets, among which a first group contains evident references to the Eucharist, while a second group alludes to the refrigerium in the other life.
Even before the peace of the Church the first reflections of monumental art penetrate the sphere of cemetery art, with the first figurations of Christ as teacher among the Apostles, but this iconography truly spreads only in the second half of the 4th century and especially on the front of sarcophagi, with compositions such as the Traditio Legis, the council in the City or in the heavenly Basilica, the acclamation or the homage of the crowns, etc., while the cult of the martyrs leads to their representation as intercessors of the deceased. It is in the same second half of the 4th century and in the 5th that art creates figurations that are allegorical even in form, resorting first of all to lambs and doves to figure Christ, the Apostles and the faithful.
To study well the repertory of cemetery art, one must distinguish between paintings and sculptures, because not only were more or less independent traditions followed in the two fields, so that the catalogue of subjects turns out to be even richer in sculpture, but moreover, the areas to be decorated and the very nature of the materials and tools that were used imposed their own laws which had an effect both on the formal execution of the works of art and on their iconographic conception and their relative distribution in larger complexes. It does not seem, however, that the Christian religion had immediately visible repercussions on style as well; the first Christian painters and sculptors made use of the technique and style of the moment, and it will be only with the passage of time and with the slow dying of pagan art that one will be able to speak of a Christian "style." Certain innovations that appear fairly early, such as, for example, eyes raised toward heaven, belong to questions of content rather than of style.
After the peace of the Church, Christian art developed freely also in monumental compositions in the direct service of the liturgy and of the education of the faithful. The technique of mosaic assured it a splendor that lasted for centuries. Even while being fully conscious of its new task, it does not however disown its fundamental primitive character, and remains essentially symbolic. Both in baptisteries and in martyria as well as in basilicas, its cycles of biblical scenes, apparently only narrative, reveal ever more clearly that the choice and distribution of their scenes obey symbolic or typological laws. They thus form a natural transition between the primitive symbolism of the catacombs and the true concurdances of the Old and New Testaments, as the Middle Ages would know them.
The baptisteries, reserved for Christian initiation, also follow an iconography partly independent of that of the basilicas and insist first of all on the starry heavens in which the monogram of Christ appears, on the figure of the Good Shepherd and on the Traditio Legis. The other scenes allude to the water of life, to the resurrection, to the victory over death and to the Eucharist. The figures of the apostles and the symbols of the evangelists, alternating with motifs and compositions of an allegorical character, allow for well-varied complexes. Examples: Dura Europos; S. Costanza; St. John in Fonte in Naples; the Lateran baptistery; that of Ravenna, etc.
In the basilicas, on the other hand, one must distinguish the various parts of the building. While the apse and the triumphal arch receive compositions oriented toward the glorification of the Lord and of the whole mystical body, on the side walls of the nave there unfolds one or another part of the history of the chosen people, and on the inner entrance wall there appears, at least as far as we know from a couple of examples, the historical record of the foundation of the temple. The ancient examples still preserved are too few to allow generalizing the rules that were followed. In the apses, the majestic figure of the Lord is surrounded by the Apostolic College and by the Princes of the Apostles, the titular saints and the founders of the temple, all of them included in the ideal picture of the heavenly Jerusalem or of Paradise. At the base of the composition an allegorical frieze evokes the glorification of the divine Lamb. The triumphal arch, with the symbols of the Evangelists surrounding the throne or the bust of Christ, with the seven lampstands, the twenty-four elders and the two allegorical cities, commonly draws its inspiration from the vision of the Apocalypse. A wholly particular place is occupied by the arch of S. Maria Maggiore, in memory of the proclamations of the Council of Ephesus. The historical cycles on the walls usually set a series of events of the Old Testament against one of the New. In the two basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, they were accompanied by medallions containing the portraits of the Supreme Pontiffs. And with the evolution of art, the representations first of the martyrs and then of the other saints of both sexes would become ever more numerous in various parts of the sacred building.
The mosaics and frescoes portraying sacred figures or figured scenes found their logical complement in stucco decorations in the upper parts of the building and in marble incrustations in the lower ones. Unfortunately, the witnesses that have come down to us are few. Both in the baptisteries and in the basilicas, the floor mosaics contributed together with the rest of the decoration, and this not only with geometric compositions or of a purely ornamental character, but also with symbolic figurations. The architectural sculptures, also polychrome in the friezes, capitals and furnishings, completed the ensemble.
In the domain of the minor arts, ancient Christian art carried on its activity as elsewhere, resorting to the most diverse materials. Clay objects, engraved or gilded glass, ivories, utensils in precious metals, gems, textiles constitute so many fields in which the religion of Christ left its traces. Precious above all are the illuminated manuscripts, among which the principal ones that may be cited are the Vienna Bible, the Joshua Roll, the purple codex of Rossano. Worthy of mention, finally, are the carved wooden doors, whose principal representatives are those of S. Sabina in Rome and of St. Ambrose in Milan. - See Plates V-VII.
For the origin of the iconographic types and related questions: v. ICONOGRAFIA CRISTIANA.
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Luciano De Bruyne