Christian Art

No art is born suddenly out of nothing; continuity has always been an essential of every phase, and it was especially important in early Christian art. All the regions of the nearer East where Christianity was first preached and practiced had something to give, and there has been a good deal of argument as to which of them-Rome, the Hellenistic world, the east Mediterranean lands that were under Iranian influence exercised the principal role.

Three primary styles have been distinguished, but this has involved a good deal of simplification, for the area concerned was large, the races inhabiting it were diverse and the cultures that they favored were far from uniform. But though in a detailed study greater precision would be necessary, the three styles discussed in the following pages were undoubtedly those that were most important in the first centuries of Christian art.

Very great deal has been written about the respective roles of different sections of the pagan world in the establishment and formation of Christian art, and the authorities have argued-and still argue-as to which region played the most important part. Some have taken up the cudgels in favor of Rome , asserting that early Christian art was little more than a development of the pagan art of Italy . Others have urged the claims of the eastern Mediterranean, assigning the main initiative to Syria and Palestine, where, they assert, new ideas were developed in art which penetrated to other areas along with the new faith which was itself first practiced in that area. Others assign a vital role to Asia Minor, where St. Paul preached and where the majority of the early "Fathers of the Church" had their homes and taught their followers. Others have set out the claims of Mesopotamia and Persia , where art of character and quality had been developed in the service of the Persian court and its minor satraps, or of faiths like Mithraism, to which Christianity, in its developed form, owed a certain debt.

Or again a case has been put forward in favor of the aniconic character of the earliest Christian teaching, and it has been suggested that it was not until quite well on in the Christian age that a truly Christian art was first developed.

It is, however, no easy matter to decide whether one should begin a study of early Christian art by mentioning the name of the Hellenistic or that of the Latin world, and cite first the city of Alexandria or that of Rome . Both were of the first importance in the development of art in late pagan times, and both exercised an extensive influence on early Christendom. But as one looks back from a viewpoint established in the tenth or eleventh century-the golden age of early mediaeval art-the debt owed to the Hellenistic world seems perhaps the more considerable. And on that assumption it is to Alexandria that we must first direct our attention.

The immensity of the debt of early Christian art to the pagan world is nowhere better illustrated than in the paintings of the Catacombs around Rome, where are to be found the majority of the earliest of the truly Christian paintings that have come down to us. Unlike the paintings of Boscoreale, which were done for rich, prosperous and sophisticated patrons, however, the paintings of the Catacombs as a whole reflect the tastes of a very different society. Most Christians in early times were poor men and could not afford to sponsor expensive decorations or employ noted artists. But all, rich and poor alike, were moved by new ideas and a new outlook. They were not interested in elegant figures, delightful compositions or lovely decorations, but in the faith which they had adopted and which they sought to serve.

The motif of a vase between two adoring birds or animals thus properly belonged to an old eastern conception where the central motif represented the "hom", or tree of life, adored and revered by nature. In Christian art it symbolised the eucharist, and was taken over along with many another piece of ancient symbolism and was used by Christian artists for many centuries to come.