Early Christian and Jewish art from 200-500 CE was influenced by classical Roman styles but adapted to new religious needs. Early Christian art was created secretly in catacombs and featured narratives from the Bible influenced by Roman imperial styles. As Christianity became the official religion, churches incorporated Roman basilica and central plans, and mosaics and frescoes depicted Christ as triumphant. Early Jewish art, like the Dura Europos synagogue paintings, showed limited biblical narratives in stylized fashions unlike realistic Roman styles due to prohibitions on images.

1. Early Christian Art, Early Jewish
Art
200-500 CE

2. THE LATE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE WORLD

3. KEY IDEAS:
•Christianity begins as underground religion
(prohibited). Early works appear in catacombs and on
sarcophagi
•Christian images inspired by classical past but
influenced by Constantinian artwork from the Late
Roman Empire – most subject matter is taken from Old
and New Testaments
•Christian buildings use two forms: axially planned
Roman basilica and centrally planned Roman temple
•Early Jews prohibit a narrative artistic tradition.

4. VOCABULARY:
•AMBULATORY: a passageway around the apse or altar of a
church
•APSE: the endpoint of a church where the altar is located
•ATRIUM: a courtyard in a Roman house or before a Christian
church
•AXIAL PLAN: a church with a long nave whose focus is the apse,
so-called because it is designed along an axis
•BASILICA: In Christian architecture, an axially planned church
with a long nave, side aisles, and an apse for the altar
•CATACOMBS: an underground passageway used for burial
•CENTRAL PLAN: a church having a circular plan with the altar in
the middle
•CHALICE: a cup used in a Christian ceremony
•CLERESTORY: the third (or window) story of a church
•COFFER: a sunken panel in a ceiling
•CUBICULA: small underground rooms in catacombs serving as
mortuary chapels

5. Vocabulary continued…
•LOCULI: openings in the walls of catacombs to receive the dead
•LUNETTE: a crescent-shaped space, sometimes over a
doorway, that contains sculpture or painting
•NARTHEX: the closest part of the atrium to the basilica- it serves
as a vestibule (or loby) of a church
•NAVE: the main aisle of a church
•ORANT FIGURE: a figure with its hands raised in prayer
•SPOLIA: the reuse of architectural or sculptural pieces in
buildings generally different from their original contexts
•SYNAGOGUE: a Jewish house of worship
•TORAH: first five books of the Old Testament traditionally
ascribed to Moses
•TRANSEPT: an aisle in a church perpendicular to the
nave, where the clergy originally stood

6. Being a Christian was rough in 1st-3rd centuries!
• Persecutions frequent
• Most early popes, including St. Peter, were martyred
• Artists who work for government are greatly rewarded
and have art in public places
• Artists who worked for Christians had art in private
church houses and burial chambers (no glory )
• Most Christian art in early centuries survives in the
catacombs beneath the city of Rome
• Christians were poor, underclass
• Artists imitated Roman works, but sometimes in a sketchy
and unsophisticated manner
• Once Christianity is recognized as an official religion,
patronage happened! Christian artists got respect and
then eventually became the most popular artists!

7. Let’s see how folks were buried and look at some
Early Christian architecture…

8. Hundreds of miles of CATACOMBS found under city of
Rome…some five stories deep…millions of bodies
Christians, Jews, and pagans used these burial grounds
because they were a cheaper alternative to aboveground burial.
Christians didn’t like cremation- preferred burial because
it symbolized Jesus’s rising from the dead, body and soul
Poor people placed in LOCULI: holes
cut in the walls – bodies placed
inside – usually bodies folded over
to take up less room

9. CUBICULUM OF
LEONIS, CATACOMB OF
COMMODILLA
Near Rome.
Late 4th century.
Wealthy people
buried in mortuary
chapels called
CUBICULA

10. ARK OF THE COVENANT AND MENORAHS
Wall painting in a Jewish catacomb, Villa Torlonia,
Rome. 3rd century. 3'11" × 5'9”

11. Wealthy people often placed in
extravagant sarcophagi, like this
one dedicated to JuniusBassus
SARCOPHAGUS OF JUNIUS BASSUS
Grottoes of St. Peter, Vatican, Rome.
359 CE
Marble, 4' × 8’

12. ---JuniusBassus was prefect of Rome, baptized just before his death
---Scenes from the Bible in separate niches on the front
---Center top: Christ enthroned like an emperor, feet placed on the sky god, Saints Peter and
Paul on either side – Christ’s position is a symbol of the Christian god dominating the pagan
---Christ wears pallium (philosopher clothes), youthful face like a young Apollo, who may have
served as a model
---Uniform height of figures sitting and standing
---Biblical episodes are mixed, not in order
---Carved on 3 sides, meant to be placed against wall
---Can you seen an influence of Roman architectural
elements and figure style?

13. • The world “makes peace” with Christianity around 313 CE, and
Christian architecture starts booming
• Built BASILICAS with large, groin-vaulted interiors and impressive
naves
• Basilica entrance is on far end instead of the side (as before)
• CLERESTORY = the third story of the basilica or church (always with
windows)
• Clergy occupied the
perpendicular aisle next to
apse – TRANSEPT
• NARTHEX = a transitional zone
in the front of the church
• ATRIUM = in the front of the
building, framing the
façade, this is where
catechumens stayed (people
who wanted to convert to
Christianity but didn’t do it
yet)

14. •
•
Focused attention directly on priest at the ALTAR
(“high place”)
ALTAR was elevated in the APSE
altar
• Male worshippers stood in the long main aisle called the NAVE
• Female worshippers stood in side aisles with partial view ()
• Christians were inspired by gender division in Jewish community
atrium

15. CENTRALLY
Early Christian churches come in two forms,
both inspired by Roman architecture:
CENTRALLY PLANNED and AXIALLY PLANNED
AXIALLY
Forced pagan architectural elements, like
columns, to do service to a new god
SPOLIA = reuse of architectural or sculptural
elements

16. •
•
•
•
•
•
Axially planned buildings had long NAVES focusing on the APSE
NAVE used for processional space
Two SIDE AISLES on each side of the NAVE
First floor had columns lining the NAVE
Second floor decorated by mosaics
Third floor = CLERESTORY (window space)
Early Christian basilicas had wooden roofs with coffered ceilings
Example of AXIALLY PLAN
building
RECONSTRUCTION
DRAWING OF THE
INTERIOR OF OLD ST.
PETER'S, ROME
c. 320-327

17. PLAN of OLD ST. PETER's
c. 320-327; atrium added
in later 4th century.
• Old St. Peter’s used Roman columns
from pagan temples- political
statement of the triumph of
Christianity over paganism. Reuse
of architectural or sculptural
elements = “SPOLIA”
• Exteriors of churches/basilicas
avoided decoration and sculpture
that pagan temples had on facades
• Plain exterior, rich interior:
represents a Christian- plain
exterior but beautiful soul (interior)

18. RECONSTRUCTION DRAWING of
OLD ST. PETER's
c. 320-327; atrium added in
later 4th century.
Approx. 394’ long and 210’
wide.

19. Interior, Old St. Peter’s (no longer standing)
•Large, uninterrupted
interior spaces for a
large number of
Christians
•Grand, imperial feel
that linked Christianity
with its new role as
state religion
•Built on the spot
where it is believed
St. Peter was buried
Old St. Peter’s had a wooden roof and coffered ceiling
•Interior space was
glittering with glass
mosaics (not Roman
stone mosaics)

20. •Domed buildings popular- round
or polygonal buildings topped with
a dome- taken from Roman bath
design- became baptisteries
(baptism was a sacred rite) and
funerary chapels
•Santa Constanza- domed
cylindrical core lit by cleristory
windows, ring shaped ambulatory
Santa Constanza, Rome, c 350 CE

21. ALTAR

22. • Santa Costanza may
have been the
mousoleum for
Emperor
Constantine’s
daughter, Constantina
• Barrel vaulted side
aisles
• Dome above main
central space
• Double ring of 12
paired columns =
symbol of 12 apostles
• Central plan – inspired
by Pantheon
• Mosaics inside

23. • Santa Costanza Mosaics: PUTTI
harvesting grapes and producing wine
• Christian message of wine becoming the
blood of Christ
• PUTTI = chubby male child, usually
nude, sometimes winged- non-religious
(not angels)

24. Mausoleum of GallaPlacidia, 425 CE, Ravenna, Italy

25. •
•
•
•
•
Probably originally a chapel to St. Lawrence
Fusion of central plan AND axial plan
Exterior: brick façade represents the gross exterior of the world
Minimal windows
Cornice runs around building, pediments on all sides

26. • Interior: brilliantly
colored mosaics
• Represent the soul
• Shows a Christian’s
path to detemption
• Victory of eternal
life over death
• Mosaic of Christ as the Good
Shepherd tending his flocks
(more about this later…)
• He holds an imperial staff joined
to the Christian cross- symbol of
combined earth and heaven
• Contains sarcophagi of three
Roman emperors

27. •Images in paintings are VERY narrative- from various books of New
Testament
•WHY do you think Christianity had to be narrative?
•No written accounts of what people in the Bible looked like- artists
recreate episodes using their imagination
•New Testament episodes depicted through intense narrative:
The Annunciation (angle
Baptism of Jesus (Jesus’s
Gabriel tells Mary she’s Jesus’s ministry begins when John the Palm Sunday (Jesus enters
mother)
Baptist baptizes him in the
Jerusalem in triumph)
The Visitation (Mary visits
Jordan river)
Last Supper (Jesus eats final
cousin Elizabeth, who is
Calling of the Apostles (Jesus meal with Apostles- body and
pregnant with John the
gathers his followers)
blood from bread and wine)
Baptist)
Miracles (Jesus uses his
Crucifixion (Jesus sentenced to
Nativity (birth of Jesus)
divinity to multiply loaves and death and dies on cross)
Adoration of the Magi (three fish, resurrect the
Deposition/Lamentation/Ento
kings present gifts to Jesus) dead, change water into
mbment (Jesus’s body
Massacre of Innocents (King wine, etc.)
removed from cross and
Herod kills male babies)
Giving the Keys (Jesus gives buried in a tomb)
The Flight into Egypt (Jesus’s Peter key to heaven- Peter
Resurrection (On Easter
family escapes Herod’s plan) becomes first Pope)
Sunday, Jesus rises from the
Transfiguration (Jesus
dead and goes to heaven)
transforms into God)

28. Portraits of Evangelists
(writers of New Testament gospels)
Gospels are arranged in order in which it was believe they were
written: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We’ll see a lot of them in
Medieval and Renaissance art. But let’s meet them now!
MATTHEW: symbolized as angel or a man
MARK: symbolized as a lion
LUKE: symbolized as an ox
JOHN: symbolized as an eagle

29. Catacomb paintings in SAINTS PETER AND MARCELLINO
4th century, Rome
•Not random imagesthere is an artistic
program with intent
•Jesus is always
central/dominant
• Grouped around him
are Old and New
Testament images
•Framed figures in
niches or LUNETTES
(crecent-shaped
space, sometimes over
a doorway, that contains
sculptures or paintings)
•Figures have arms
outstretched in prayer

30. THE GOOD SHEPHERD, ORANTS, AND THE STORY OF JONAH
Painted ceiling of the Catacomb of SS.
Peter and Marcellino, Rome. Late 3rd-early 4th century.

31. GOOD SHEPHERD
4th century fresco, Rome
from Catacomb of Saints Peter and
Marcellino
•Part of Rome’s extensive catacomb
system (4 million dead, 100 miles)
•Restrained portrait of Christ as Good
Shepherd
•Symbolic- Jesus is like a shepherd
who cares for his flock – rescues
individual sinners who stray from the
flock
•A pastoral metaphor like this would
have been easy for common people
to relate to
•Roman influence – look at the
sketchy painterly brushstrokes – like
Pompeian painting

32. Remind you of anything?

33. GOOD SHEPHERD mosaic from the Mausoleum of GallaPlacidia, 425, Ravena, Italy
•When Christianity was recognizes as the official religion of the Roman empire in 380 CE, Christ
takes on a more imperial image (no more humble, common-looking Good Shepherd image)
•His robes become the imperial purple and gold, his crook becomes a staff, halo around head

34. •Regal version of Christ in lunette
•Golden cross shows victory over death
•Rich landscape
•3-D figures that cast shadows
•Balanced group of sheep
•Refers to parable of the lost sheep

35. EARLY JEWISH ART
•Today’s Jewish temples usually don’t have
imagery, but ancient Jews interpreted the 2nd
commandment in a way that made some images
valid (2nd commandment: no worship of other
gods/idols)
•Example: Old Testament has God ordering Moses
to install two cherubim above Arc of the Covenant
in the Holy of Holies (in Exodus)
•Ancient Jews living in Greco-Roman world were
influenced by the narrative art around them

36. SYNAGOGUE OF
DURA EUROPOS
245-256 CE
Frescoes
now at the National
Museum, Damascus
*A limited number of Jewish works
survive because pictorial tradition
was usually banned
•Originally a private home
•Converted into SYNAGOGUE:
any large room where the
Torah scrolls are kept and read
publicly
•Old Testament stories
illustrated
•All Bible figures represented
except God (appears as a hand)
•Torah niche in the center
•Paintings not in narrative
order

37. •No action, very “posed”
•No classical illusionism
(perspective, etc.)
•Stylized gestures
•Expressionless faces, huge eyes
•Frontal arrangement
•Outlined figures
•Some hierarchy of scale (that
again?!)
•Figures lack volume and shadow

38. she hands him to a nurse (actually his
own mom)
she wades nude into water to
save him
princess sees Moses
The Finding of the Baby Moses (in Dura Europos)
•Vivid depiction of events follows the Roman tradition of historical narrative
•Static, 2D figures float against neutral background
•Moses’s mother sends Moses down the river in a basket to protect him from pharaoh’s decree
that all Jewish infants be put to death (this is in the Book of Exodus)
•Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and claims him as her own child (how ironic!)
•Narrow foreground space