Early Christian Art and Architecture

I

Introduction

Early Christian Art and Architecture, works of art and buildings created for the Christian Church in approximately the first 600 years after the time of Christ, and particularly in Italy and the western Mediterranean area (see also Conversion of Europe). The period, generally taken to be of artistic significance between about ad 300 and 750, overlaps the Late Antique period—Roman art and architecture of the late 2nd to the 7th century—as well as the first three centuries—5th to 7th century—in the development of Byzantine art and architecture. Until the Edict of Milan (313), by which Emperor Constantine the Great made Christianity one of the official religions of the Roman Empire, thereby putting an end to the persecution of the Christians, Christian art was restricted to the decoration of the hidden places of Christian worship, such as catacombs and titulae, private houses used for secret religious meetings. Most early Christian art in the form of painting and sculpture was derived from Roman art, appropriately adapted to suit the spiritual nature of the religion. An iconography, through which Christian concepts were given visual expression, developed. For example, Christ was symbolized by a fish, a cross, or a lamb, or by the combined Greek letters chi and rho (ΧΡ, the first two letters of the Greek spelling of “Christ”) as a monogram. Christ the Good Shepherd was often shown as a beardless young man, derived from pagan Roman embodiments of Apollo, an image that persisted into the 6th century in Italy.

II

Architecture

Under imperial sponsorship, Early Christian architecture flourished throughout the Roman Empire on a monumental scale. Christian religious buildings were of two types, the longitudinal hall, or basilica, and the centralized building, frequently a baptistery or a mausoleum.

A

The Basilica

Christian worship, being congregational, requires a hall, and the Roman basilica—a civic hall—became the model for both large and small churches. In Rome the principal pagan shrines became the sites of enormous timber-roofed basilicas, all erected in the 4th and 5th centuries—Old St Peter’s (replaced in the 16th century), St Paul’s Without the Walls, and Santa Maria Maggiore, among others. The plan often included an atrium, or forecourt; a narthex, or porch; a long nave (central hall) flanked by side aisles; a transept hall crossing the nave; and a semicircular or polygonal apse (eastern end of a chapel, reserved for clergy) continuing the axis of the nave beyond the transept. In front of the apse, the altar was set directly over the shrine. Building materials—columns, decorative panels, masonry, and bronze roof tiles—were pillaged from imperial buildings and incorporated into the new structures. Smaller churches on the basilica plan were built in large numbers; Sant’ Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna and Santa Sabina in Rome (both 5th century) are two notable examples.

B

The Centralized Building

Baptisteries, mausoleums, and martyria (shrines dedicated to martyrs) were built in centralized form. They were either circular or polygonal, so that the focal point—the baptismal font, the sarcophagus, or the holy place—would be visible to the faithful from the cloister or aisle circling the site. A typical baptistery is that found next to St John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome, parts of which date from as early as 313. The elegant circular building is constructed entirely of reused materials; the massive bronze doors and the font (a huge porphyry basin) both came from the Baths of Caracalla. The domed, circular church of Santa Costanza (4th century) in Rome is a typical early Christian mausoleum. It was built as the tomb of Constantia, daughter of Constantine the Great; her magnificently carved porphyry sarcophagus, now in the Vatican Museum in Rome, stood under the dome. Mausoleums, such as the famous Tomb of Galla Placidia (5th century) in Ravenna, were also built on a plan in the form of a Greek cross. The most famous martyria are the domed Church of the Holy Sepulchre (4th century; numerous rebuildings) in Jerusalem, and the octagonal shrine of the Church of the Nativity (4th century; rebuilt 6th century and later) in Bethlehem. Both have adjoining basilicas to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims.