Late Antiquity and Early Christianity

Early Christianity and The Culture of Late Antiquity: An End or A Begining?

Goals: The term, LATE ANTIQUITY, refers to the period that saw the collapse of the Roman empire in western Europe and the emergence of a Christian culture in the Mediterranean world. Roughly speaking, it spans the third, fourth and fifth centuries.  Against this backdrop of political and cultural change, we will consider the artistic changes of late antiquity, as exemplified by the Arch of Constantine and the mosaics of Piazza Armerina. Then, we will survey representative examples of early Christian art from the catacombs of Rome to illuminated manuscripts and the mosaics of fifth- and sixth-century churches in Rome and Ravenna. We will see how the Christians made the Roman and Jewish past their own by borrowing from Roman imperial art and interpreting the Old Testament as a prefiguration of the coming of Jesus.

Historical Outline and Important Works of Art and Architecture

1.  Crisis of the Third and Fourth Centuries

-Emperor DIOCLETIAN (284-305) established the TETRARCHY through the division of the empire into an eastern and western part, with an emperor (an "Augustus") and an appointed successor (a "Caesar") in each part. This was an effort to guard the frontiers, improve the administration and ensure an orderly succession. 

-Emperor CONSTANTINE (306-337)

  • 312: Constantine's conversion to Christianity was followed by a victory over his rival, Maxentius, at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome
  • 313: the EDICT OF MILAN proclaimed religious toleration for Christians
  • 330: dedication of CONSTANTINOPLE, a new capital in the East
2.  Late Antique Art: The Arch of Constantine and the Mosaics of Piazza Armerina

-The Arch of Constantine was dedicated to Constantine by the Senate after the victory at the Milvian Bridge; the roundels and the large reliefs in the attic were stripped from second-century imperial monuments ( SPOLIA ), while the friezes, the figures of captives and some other elements were carved for the arch in the early fourth century.




Piazza Armerina is the site, in Sicily, of a large villa (a country estate) decorated with pavement MOSAICS, probably of the early fourth century. Subjects include hunting scenes, chariot races, scenes of children hunting and at play, and mythological episodes. The mosaicists may have been from north Africa, and the owner may have supplied animals for the games in Rome.



3.  Factors Influencing the Changes in Late Antique Art

  • The wars and political instability of the third century were a precondition for artistic change. They brought about a breakdown in artistic production in Rome. This allowed new traditions to become important and, thus, favored change.
  • The growing importance of the provinces and of the military forces, largely recruited from the provinces, encouraged the adoption of provincial styles in Rome itself.
  • Under the tetrarchy and in the late Empire, the emperor's role was transformed.  His links with the divine were emphasized, imperial ceremonial grew more elaborate, and the gulf between the emperor and his subjects widened.
  • There was an increasingly otherworldly emphasis in late antique culture; the NEOPLATONIST philosophy of Plotinus gained importance, and religions which promised personal salvation and spiritual benefits to individual believers won adherents.
4.  Early Christian Attitudes Towards the Arts 

-practical constraints on the early Christian use of the arts
  • need for secrecy in the face of periodic persecutions
  • limited resources of the early Christian communities
-ideological reasons for early Christian attitudes towards the arts
  • Old Testament prohibitions: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:4)
  • association of statues with pagan IDOLATRY
  • otherworldly orientation and MILLENARIANISM: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other...Verily, I say to you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." (Matthew 24: 29-31, 34)
5.  Early Christian Art before the Conversion of Constantine 
  • the early third-century painted Christian house church and baptistry at DURA EUROPOS, a frontier town on the Euphrates river where there was also a Jewish synagogue with painted scenes from the Bible.
  • the CATACOMBS in Rome: underground burial places for the early Christians of Rome, with paintings - sometimes in the form of " ABBREVIATED IMAGES" - in the CUBICULA, rooms where wealthier families had their burials

 
  • SARCOPHAGI: carved stone coffins
  • AQUILEIA: a Roman town in northern Italy, the site of a church with pavement mosaics of the early fourth century
6.  Early Christian Symbolism

-TYPOLOGY: Events from the history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament were interpreted by Christians as foreshadowing events in the life of Jesus, in the life of the church and in the Last Judgement.  The story of JONAH is a good example:
  "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matthew 12: 40).
JONAH is represented in catacomb paintings and statuettes , and on carved sarcophagi and pavement mosaics.
-The early Christians adapted some pagan figures for Christian subjects, e.g., the figure of ENDYMION, a mythological figure who was loved by the Moon and granted the gift of eternal sleep, was used for Jonah, as a symbol of resurrection and eternal life.

7.  Christian Art After the Conversion of the Emperor Constantine 

-the development of a Christian architecture
 -BASILICA (e.g., OLD ST. PETER'S, Rome)
 -CENTRALLY PLANNED CHURCHES (MARTYRIA, baptistries, palace churches), e.g., STA. COSTANZA, Rome (the mausoleum of Constantina, the daughter of Constantine), the BAPTISTRY OF THE ORTHODOX , Ravenna
-changes in the figural arts (painting, mosaic and sculpture)
 -the appropriation of imperial iconography, e.g., the apse mosaics in Roman churches (Sta.  Costanza and Sta. Pudenziana) and the SARCOPHAGUS OF JUNIUS BASSUS (c. 359);  compare the images of the GOOD SHEPHERD in the catacombs with the later mosaic in the  fifth-century imperial MAUSOLEUM of GALLA PLACIDIA in Ravenna
 -the revival or survival of classicizing styles - more three-dimensional and more lifelike images, e.g., four panels from IVORY DIPTYCHS : the SYMMACHUS IVORY, the Munich ivory of the RESURRECTION and ASCENSION, the ST. MICHAEL IVORY

8.  Artistic Programmes in early Churches: Two Examples Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome 

     This church was built and decorated with mosaics under Pope Sixtus III (432-40).  In the nave, the mosaics are set in square panels along the upper walls; they tell stories from the Old Testament, and their artists were influenced by the narrative scenes on Trajan's column and those in early illuminated manuscripts.  At the east end of the nave, the last scene shows MELCHISIDEK offering bread and wine to ABRAHAM (Genesis 14: 18-20).  Christians interpreted this incident as a foreshadowing of their own offering of bread and wine in the mass, the Christian worship service.
     On the arch that frames the apse, the mosaics were arranged in rows, and they appear to combine Old and New Testament figures.  Here, the symbolic meaning of the figures and scenes is emphasized, and the rows of scenes resemble those on Roman triumphal arches, like the Arch of Galerius in Salonika.  Throughout the church, the architecture and mosaics imitate works of Roman imperial art, and send the message that the popes have replaced the emperors as holders of power in Rome, and, for the people of Christian Rome, the Bible has taken the place of Roman history.

San Vitale, Ravenna

     By the choice and arrangement of subjects, the mosaics on the walls surrounding the altar offer a symbolic commentary on the central act of the Christian mass: the offering of bread and wine by the congregation in commemoration of Jesus' offering of bread and wine at the Last Supper, and the mystical transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus in commemoration of his sacrificial death on the cross.
     Above the altar, angels support the vault of heaven, and a LAMB, the animal of sacrifice in the Old Testament, symbolizes Jesus' sacrifice. On the upper part of the side walls, the EVANGELISTS , the authors of the four GOSPELS (the New Testament accounts of the life of Jesus), are placed above figures from the Old Testament (Moses, Isaias and Jeremiah). This reflects the Christian view that the New Testament completes or fulfills the history and prophecies of the Jewish people, as presented in the Old Testament. Scenes from the Old Testament on the side walls represent offerings: Abraham's offering of his son Isaac, Abel's offering of a lamb and - on the same altar - Melchisidek's offering of bread and wine.
     In the apse, the theme of offering is extended to more recent events in the history of the Christian church.  In the lower part of the apse, the emperor, JUSTINIAN, and the empress, THEODORA , offer bread and wine, as if taking part in the ceremony in the church itself.  In the half-dome of the apse, the martyr, St. Vitalis, receives a crown for his offering of his life, and bishop Ecclesius offers Jesus a model of the church he had begun. In this way, the planners of the program and its artists express the continuity of Christian history, from the history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, through the life of Jesus and the growth of the Christian church, to the continuing commemoration of those events in the Christian liturgy and the Christians’ hopes for eternal life.


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