NOTES: Jewish and Early Christian Art . Chapter 7

Reminders.... early audience halls became gathering places for Christian worship.

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Audience Hall of Constantius Chorus = Basilica today
The Basilica's large scale illustrated the aesthetic that was large in size, simple and plan and no-nonsense 

Constantine the Great (305 CE
He emerged victorious in 312 CE defeating Maxentius (son of Maximian) in Rome.

According to Christian tradition, "Constantine had a vision the night before the battle in which he saw a flaming cross in the sky and heard these words: "In this sign you shall conquer.""
The next morning he ordered that his army's shields be  inscribed with the XP (chi rho in Latin)

The labarum (Greek: λάβαρον) was a vexillum (military standard) that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, a christogram formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" (Greek: ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, or Χριστός) — Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ). It was first used by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great.

Following his triumph win of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge at the entrance of Rome, Constantine the Great showed his gratitude by ending the persecution of Christians and recognized Christianity as a lawful religion.  He may have been influenced by his mother Helena who was a devout Christian. By 313 CE issued the Edict of Milan, a model of religious tolerance among all.

Constantine becomes the Pontifex Maximus of Rome, thus is the religious leader of the country.

He also reaffirmed his devotion to the military's favorite god, Mithras, and to the Invincible Sun, Sol Invictus

In 324 CE Constantine defeated his last rival, Licinius, and ruled Italy as sole ruler until his death in

337 CE.

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The Arch of Constantine, Rome, the Senate erects the triumphal arch

In scale, the Arch of Titus we saw earlier is dwarfed

"The the Emperor Constantine from the Senate and the Roman People. Since through divine inspiration and great wisdom he has delivered the state from the tyrant and his party by his army and noble arms, we dedicate this arch, decorated with triumphal insignia."

Reliefs were made to narrate the story of Constantine's victory and symbolize his power

The sculptors recycled earlier sculpture - upstart, panels are taken from an earlier monument celebrating Marcus Aurelius over the Germans in 174 CE.

Tondo = a circular relief compositions take from a monument dedicated to Hadrian. Tondi = plural circular reliefs

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Basilica Nova

Built to have multiple functions: administrative building of the imperial government, and provided an  "over-the-top" setting for the emperor when he appeared to speak

Groin vaults, side aisles were covered with lower barrel vaults that acted as buttresses (projecting supports)

Roman Art after Constantine

Constantine baptized at his deathbed in 337, he brought Christianity into Rome as the official religion by the end of the fourth century CE.  Non-Christians had now become targets in Rome.

Not all Romans converted, some remained polytheists (pagans)

*Read about the archeological finding in 1942 by a farmer plowing his field.

The ivory diptych = a pair of panels attached by hinges

triptych = a group of three panels attached by hinges of some kind 

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The Priestess of Bacchus, c. 390 - 4-1 CE served as a type of an on-going writing tablet.

The interior was filled with wax, and with a stylus messages could be written into its soft material.

The receiver of the message would read it, smooth out the wax, and re-inscribe it with a new message that was returned to the originator by servant. 

Here, she wears a wreath of ivy, dedicated to the god Bacchus on her head, like earlier officials before  her to show her devotion to that god.  

Classical subject matter remained attractive to artists as well as their patrons. Christian symbols mixed with polytheist gods and goddesses.  Both stories remained in the secular realm in the late Roman period.

In the East, Classical traditions and styles were cultivated to influence Byzantine art....

-----------------------------------------stopping point for Test #3/5

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The Late Roman Empire and the Byzantine World map

The early spread of Christianity (legalized by Constantine), the Roman Empire still spread around the Mediterranean Sea.

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3 religions dominated the spiritual life of the Western World that arose from the Near East:

Judaism 

Christianity 

Islam 

All 3 are monotheists and believe that the same God of Abraham created the rules of the universe, and hears the prayers of the faithful.

Judaism - believe that God made a covenant with the Hebrews as God's chosen people. They await the coming of the Messiah "the anointed one."

Christianity - believe that Jesus of Nazareth was that Messiah (the name Christ derived from the Greek term meaning Messiah) - Jesus is the son of God, was crucified and ascended to Heaven after establishing the Christian church.

Islam - Muslims accept Hebrew prophets and recognize Jesus as divine individuals, but believe that Muhammad to the be the last and greatest prophet of God (Allah). Muhammad is thus messenger of God through whom Islam is revealed 6 centuries after Jesus' lifetime.

All three religions are "religions of the book," meaning that each religion has what is accepted as the written records of God's will and words: The Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible (includes Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament and the New Christian Testament) and the Muslim Qur'an, which is believed to be the Word of God as revealed in Arabic directly to Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel. 

First image we see in chapter 7...

Roman catacomb = underground cemetery. Saint Peter, it is said to have converted his fellow prisoners, but needed water to baptize them. Miraculously, a spring gushed .... 

Saint Peter is considered the first bishop of Rome in Christianity.  

Cubiculum of Leonis, Catacomb of Commodilla, Near Rome, Later 4th century CE

- Star studded, the head of Christ floats on the ceiling with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet -- alpha and omega.  Symbolic of completeness - the beginnings and the end of time. Christ portrayed as a scholar, a philosopher with long beard and hair.  

Halo that circles his head indicates importance and his divinity.  This is a symbol appropriated from the stylized conventions of Late Roman imagery of emperors, where haloes appeared around their heads - symbolizing imperial art

Two major directions occurs in early Christian art that continue throughout Christian art:

The Narrative Image - recounts an event from St. Peter's life, which in turn evokes the establishment of the Christian Church and the rite of baptism.

The Iconic Image - Are symbolic of core concepts and values of the Christian tradition. Offers a tangible expression of an intangible concept.  Like the head of Christ flanked by alpha and omega.

By using both, meaning is understood only through the viewers' knowledge of Christian stories and beliefs.

(Stokstad:) This art then, was not to teach non-readers new stories and concepts, but rather to remind faithful viewers of the stories.

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Both Judaism and Christianity existed within the Roman Empire, many religious buildings excavated today are found in modern day Syria at abandoned Roman outposts. 

The Jewish people trace their origins to the Semitic people called Hebrews, known from the 2nd century CE - by their Roman name Palestine, located along the Mediterranean Sea.  According to the Torah - first five books of the Hebrew Bible - God promises Abraham that Cannan would be the homeland for the Jewish people (Genesis 17:8). This belief remains pivotal in Judaism today.  

Sequential Art -- both are Moses

a wall painting showing different times in the story

Note: red hands appearing from top frame -- this becomes a convention that is used throughout Christian art as well. 

According to Exodus, the second book of the Torah, the prophet Moses leads the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land of Canaan.

Jewish law forbids the worship of idols - thus representational arts, especially sculpture are problematic.

Artists working for Jewish patrons depicted both symbolic and narrative Jewish subjects and drew inspiration from Near East and Classical Greek and Roman art. 

The First Temple in Jerusalem

10th c. BCE - Jewish King Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem to become the Ark of the Covenant.

The location of Canaan becomes part of the earlier Roman Empire. 

In 586 BCE, the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem, destroying the temple, exiled the Jews.

The Second Temple

Cyrus the Great of Persia conquers Babylonia in 539 BCE permitting the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple (Second Temple).  Herod the Great restores the Second Temple.  

In 70 CE Roman forces led by Emperor Titus destroys the Second Temple and all of Jerusalem -- the campaign is illustrated on the Arch of Titus (return to the last chapter as your reminder!)

The Second Temple site, the Temple Mount, is also an Islamic holy site, the Haram al-Sharif, which is now occupied by the shrine called the Dome of the Rock. 

Jewish Catacomb Art in Rome

Date to the Hellenistic and Roman periods - 1 - 4 CE

wall painting with Jewish themes. 

Representation of the menorah, one of the precious objects looted from the Second Temple, used as an icon keeping the memory of lost Jewish treasures alive. 

Synagogues - place of worship and study of the Torah, considered a form of worship.  

A synagogue can be any large room where the Torah scrolls (Roman form) are kept and read.  

Some synagogues were even in private homes, while later larger buildings were built with a number of things in common:

1. a large assembly hall and benches along the walls

2. a niche where the Torah scrolls were kept.

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Early Christian Art

At the age of 30, a Palestinian Jew named Jesus gathered men and women together and performed miracles of healing and preached the love of his God, forgiveness of sins and the promise of life after death.  Christian faith holds that after Christ's ministry on Earth, he was executed by crucifixion and after three days rose from the dead....

The Christian Bible divided into two Testaments - The Old, and The New.

The life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth were recorded between 70 and 100 CE in the New Testament Gospels written by the four evangelists (Greek meaning good news):

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

The New Testament includes the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles (21 letters of advice and encouragement written to Christian communities in Greece, Asia minor and other parts of the Roman Empire). The final book in The New Testament is Revelations (Apocalypse) a series of prophecies and visions of the end of the world.  This book was written in 95 CE. Thus in a matter of about 30 years the New Testament was completed. 

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Earliest surviving Christian art goes to the early 3rd century CE and derives its imagery from Jewish and Roman visual traditions. 

Syncretism - is a process that artists (and cultures) use by assimilating images from another culture and giving them new meaning.

Orant - who are the worshippers with outstretched arms - can be seen in pagan art, and Judaism traditions. 

The image of the Good Shepard - in pagan art he is Apollo / or Hermes - the shepherd among the the animals or Orpheus, and the personification of philanthropy.  Such examples illustrate that such images do not have stable meaning. 

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CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE
When Constantine issues the Edict of Milan in 313 CE - granting all people in the Roman Empire the freedom to worship what ever god they wish, new architecture began to be built, and heavily.

Not only were a few worshipping in the Christian faith, but now whole communities, thus, churches had to get bigger.
Entire communities gathered.  Beginning in the age of Constantine, pagan basilicas were modeled into Christian basilicas, providing for the congregation to be housed, tombs to bury their dead.  

OLD ST. PETER'S  can hold some 14,000 worshipers!
Remained the largest Christian church in the western world until the 11th century. 

This was a new piece of architecture that was built on order of Constantine. It is one of our earliest examples that serves as a model for churches to follow even today.

VIDEO: Khan Academy - Location of St. Peter's in Rome
Saint Peter's Basilica begun 1506 completed 1626, Vatican City

ESSAY: Kahn Academy: Architecture under Constantine  

An atrium = courtyard in front of the basilica, provided a place for people who had not yet been baptized.

5 doorways - a large, central portal into the naive and two portals on each side.

Nave = central part of a church building where the congregation sit. It is traditionally rectangular facing the alter, has a step or railing that separates the congregation to the alter.  Adjacent of the nave are aisles with pillars.

Running parallel to the nave is a second row of columns that create double side aisles. The roof is supported by wooden rafters.

Sarcophagi and tombs lined the side aisles and graves were also dug under the floor.

Transept =  two parts forming the 'arms' of the cross shape, perpendicular to the nave. 

Apse = a semicircular recess in a church, arched with dome roof, typically at the eastern end. The Apse contains the altar. 

At the apse end of the nave, Constantine's architects added an innovative transept -- a perpendicular hall that crosses in front of the apse.  This space is devoted to the clergy serving the church.  

Clerestory - the expanse of wall between the arcade and the clerestory were donned with paintings and mosaics of biblical scenes.

Ambulatory - a church with a tall rotunda (circular area) with barrel vaulting passageways is called this.

Putti - naked cherubs

VIDEO: The Vatican of St. Peter's Church  -- the rebuild 16th century building