Early Christian art developed from Roman art between the 2nd and 7th centuries AD. It was produced for the early undivided Christian church. Notable features include paintings and symbols used in the underground Roman catacombs where Christians buried their dead. Common symbols included the Good Shepherd, the orante (praying figure), the Chi-Rho monogram of Christ, and the fish, which were used to represent Christian ideas covertly in the early persecuted church. After Christianity was legalized, Christian art incorporated these symbols into church art and architecture above ground.

1. Early Christian Art
Mrs. Jennifer Karch,

5. This is the art and architecture
produced for the unsplit
Christian church.
This art extends over the
Late Antique period, from
Roman art and architecture (the
late 2nd - 7th century,
to the Byzantine art and
architecture (from 5th - 7th
century).

7. The Christian belief had widespread
diffusion, to become, after the Council
of Nicea, in 325 AD and the Edict of
Milan in 313, under Constantine the
Great, which made Christianity the
official state religion accepted by the
Roman Empire State.
Before they were restricted to the
decoration of the hidden places of
worship, such as the catacombs and
meeting houses.
Most of the early representations in
Christian painting were derived from
Roman art, stylized to fit into Christian
beliefs.
The catacomb paintings were rich in
images, using iconography and
symbolism to convey the ideas of
Christian resurrection, salvation and
life after death.

9. Starting from the 2° century, in
various Italian cities, there was the
use of underground Christian
cemeteries called catacombs,
formed by a tight networking of
tunnels dug directly into the ground
and only in part completed by wall
works.
The development of the
catacombs of Rome is very
extensive with more than 100 km
of tunnels. They had wall coffins
laid on top of each other in rows,
for the comunal burying of the
dead. After the burning of the
body, they were closed with
flagstones or ceramic tiles, made
with iscriptions or symbols painted
with a layer of paint.

11. In the first century,
Rome's Christians did not have their
own cemeteries. If they owned land, they
buried their relatives there, otherwise
they resorted to common cemeteries,
where pagans too were buried. That is
how Saint Peter came to be buried in the
great public "necropolis" ("city of the
dead") on Vatican Hill, available to
everybody. Likewise Saint Paul was
buried in a necropolis along the Via
Ostiense.Galleria - Area A
© Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia
Sacra

12. In the first half of the second century, as a
result of various grants and donations, the
Christians started burying their dead
underground. That is how the catacombs
were founded. Many of them began and
developed around family tombs, whose
owners, newly converted Christians, did not
reserve them only to the members of the
family, but opened them to their brethren in
the faith.
With the passage of time, these burial
areas grew larger by gifts or by the
purchase of new properties, sometimes on
the initiative of the Church itself. Typical is
the case of Saint Callixtus, along the
Appian Way: the Church took up directly
the organization and administration of the
cemetery, assuming a community
character.
The arcades, where more than fifty martyrs and sixteen pontiffs
are buried, form part of a complex graveyard that occupies
fifteen hectares and is almost twenty km long. This catacomb’s
most ancient parts are the crypt of Lucina, the region of the
Popes and the region of Saint Cecilia, where some of the most
sacred memories of the place are preserved including the crypt
of the Popes, the crypt of Saint Cecilia, and the crypt of the
Sacraments.

14. Dark Rome: Crypts and Catacombs plus Ghosts
Mysteries and Legends of Rome
• Lets go on a dark, creepy, bone and
• Explore on Your Own (If You
Dare)
• https://darkrome.com/rome-tours/rome-
catacombs-night-tour

15. The tunnels had many offshoots
that conducted you through long
hallways, to rooms that were big
and small (cubicola or cublicle),
to serve as mortuary chapels within
the catacoms, isolated or in groups,
often held up by a wall structure
that gave them a certain
architectonic character like a crypt
or small basilica/church.
In the cubicles the bodies were
arranged in compartments that
were covered with pieces of stone
or tile and were covered with an
arch called an (arcosolium), dug
into the wall of stone (tufo) and
decorated with paintings.

16. With the edict of Milan, made by the
Emperors Constantine and Licinius in
February 313, the Christians were no longer
persecuted.
They were free to profess their faith, to
have places of worship and to build
churches both inside and outside the
city, and to buy plots of land, without fear
of confiscation.
Nevertheless, the catacombs continued to
function as regular cemeteries until the
beginning of the fifth century, when the
Church began to bury exclusively above
ground or in the basilicas dedicated to
important martyrs.
Foto della cripta di santa Cecilia
© Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra

17. When the barbarians (Goths and Longobards) invaded Italy and
came down to Rome,they systematically destroyed a lot of
monuments and sacked many places, including the catacombs.
Powerless in the face of such repeated pillages, towards the end of
the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth, the Popes ordered
to remove the relics of the martyrs and of the saints to the city
churches, for security reasons.
When the transfer of the relics was completed, the catacombs were
no longer visited; on the contrary, they were totally abandoned,
with the exception of Saint Sebastian, Saint Lawrence and of
Saint Pancratius. In the course of time, landslides and vegetation
obstructed and hid the entrances to the other catacombs, so that the
very traces of their existence were lost. During the late Middle Ages
they didn't even know where they were.
The exploration and scientific study of the catacombs started,
centuries later, with Antonio Bosio (1575 - 1629), nicknamed the
"Columbus of subterranean Rome". In the last century the
systematic exploration of the catacombs, and in particular of those of
Saint Callixtus, was carried out by Giovanni Battista de Rossi
(1822 - 1894), who is considered the father and founder of
Christian Archaeology.

18. THE SYMBOLS
The early Christians lived in a mainly pagan and hostile society.
During Nero's persecution (64 A.D.) their religion was considered "a
strange and illegal superstition". The Christians were mistrusted and
kept aloof, they were suspected and accused of the worst crimes. They
were persecuted, imprisoned, sentenced to exile or condemned to
death.
Unable to profess their faith openly, the Christians made use of symbols,
which they depicted on the walls of the catacombs and, more often, carved
them on the marble-slabs which sealed the tombs.
Like the ancients, the Christians were very fond of symbolism. The
symbols were a visible reminder of their faith.
The term "symbol " refers to a concrete sign or figure, which, according
to the author's intention, recalls an idea or a spiritual reality. The main
symbols are: the Good Shepherd, the "Orante", the monogram of
Christ and the fish.

19. The art of the catacombs is also a symbolic art in the
sense that some concepts which are difficult to express
are represented in a simple way.
To indicate Christ, a fish is depicted;
to signify the peace of heaven, a dove is represented;
to express firmness of faith, an anchor is drawn.
On the closing slabs of the loculi, symbols with different
meanings are often engraved.
In some cases, a tool is depicted which indicates the dead
person’s trade in life.
Some symbols, such as glasses, loaves of bread
and amphorae, allude to the funeral meals consumed in
honor of the deceased, the so-called refrigeria.
Most of the symbols refer to eternal salvation, such as the
dove, the palm,
the peacock,
the phoenix
and the lamb.
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20. For the first Christians real and particular
sacred paintings didn’t exist. Even for this, in
the catacombs paintings were found that
represented pagan symbols that were
adapted to the new religion.
The same artists and artisans that
worked for the Christians in the
catacombs were the same who worked
for the pagans. So there does not exist a
distinct discontinuity between Roman art
and Early Christian Art.
In general we can say that the paintings in
the catacombs tend to be a more
naturalistic greek painting tied to the
representation of illusion in a first level,
while encouraged by the tendency to
symbolism, it ends in a more mature phase,
reducing figures and symbols to
comumincate ideologic content.

22. The Good Shepherd with a lamb
around his shoulders represents Christ
and the soul which He has saved.
This symbol is often found in the
frescoes, in the reliefs of the
sarcophagi, in the statues and is often
engraved on the tombs.
In Early Christian art, Christ is often
portrayed as the youthful and loyal
protector of the Christian flock, who
said to his disciples:
“I am the good sheperd, the good
sheperd gives his life for the sheep”.
(John 10:11)

23. Good Shepherd, Roma – WHERE IS IT?

24. Decorative detail of the cubicle of the Good Shepherd.

25. The "orante": this
praying figure with open
arms symbolizes the
soul which lives in
divine peace.
The “orante” raise
their arms in the ancient
attitude of prayer.
The “ Orante”

26. The monogram of Christ is
formed by interlacing two letters
of the Greek alphabet: X (chi)
and P (ro), which are the first
two letters of the Greek word
"Christòs" or Christ. When this
monogram was placed on a
tombstone, it meant a Christian
was buried there.

27. The fish. The first Christians
adopted the fish as a symbol as
shown in the Roman catacombs
where they met. In Greek one
says IXTHYS (ichtùs). Placed
vertically, the letters of this word
form an acrostic: Iesùs Christòs
Theòu Uiòs Sotèr = Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Saviour.

28. Some other symbols are the dove,
the Alpha and the Omega, the
anchor, the phoenix, etc.
The dove holding an olive branch
symbolizes the soul that reached
divine peace.

29. The Alpha and the Omega are the first
and the last letters of the Greek alphabet
They signify that Christ is the beginning
and the end of all things.
The anchor is the symbol of salvation and
of the soul which has peacefully reached
the port of eternity. The anchor was an early Christian
symbol commonly found in the Roman catacombs as a symbol
of the hope we have in Christ beyond this life, and is a fitting
inscription for a Christian tomb. The symbol doubtless comes
from this verse:
"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and
secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where
Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has
become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
(Hebrews 6:19-20)The anchor is found in the first century
cemetery of St. Domitilla, the second and third century epitaphs
of the catacombs, and especially in the oldest parts of the
cemeteries of Sts. Priscilla (about 70 examples in this cemetery
alone), Domitilla, Calixtus, and the Coemetarium majus.

30. There is nothing distinctively Christian about the layout of the vault of the catacomb by dividing it up into geometric shapes:
There is
nothing
distinctively
Christian
about the
layout of the
vault of the
catacomb by
dividing it up
into
geometric
shapes.

34. What did you learn about
Early Christian Art?
Jennifer Karch