Christianity and the Transformation of Ancient Art I

monotheism vs. polytheism

Christ as the Good Shepherd, ca. 300-350 CE, marble, height: 3’ 1/4”

Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-5) You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Knidos, marble, Roman copy of a marble statue of ca. 350–340 BCE. Leochares (?), Apollo Belvedere, marble, Roman copy of a Greek original of ca. 330 BCE

Christ as the Good Shepherd, ca. 300-350 CE, marble, height: 3’ 1/4”

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11

Calf bearer, from the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, ca. 560 BCE, marble

Contrapposto

Christ as Sol Invictus (“Invincible Sun”), mosaic from the so-called Mausoleum of the Julii under the church of St. Peter in Rome, late 3rd century CE

Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome

Painted ceiling of a cubiculum in the Catacomb of Sts Painted ceiling of a cubiculum in the Catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, Rome, early 4th century CE

The Good Shepherd, the story of Jonah, and orants. Painted ceiling of a cubiculum in the Catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, Rome, early 4th century CE

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:38-40

TYPOLOGY In Christian theology, the recognition of the concordances between events, especially between episodes of the Old and New Testaments.

Emperor Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337)

BASILICA In Roman architecture, a public building for legal and other civic proceedings, rectangular in plan, with an entrance usually on a long side.

Basilica at Leptis Magna, Libya ca. 200 CE

Plan of a typical Early Christian basilica

St. Peter’s, Rome

Old Basilica of St. Peter, Rome, begun ca. 319 TRANSEPT

TRANSEPT MARTYRIUM: A shrine to a Christian martyr.