Late Antique Visual Culture

Much Early Christian imagery developed out of pre-Christian types and utilized the earlier meanings of images. For example, the composition of a man in Greek poet or philosopher garb, seated at a desk, continued to represent Hellenistic ideals of intellectualism and learned culture whether it appeared in a Christian, pagan, or non-religious setting. However, certain images and forms took on very different new meanings. Popular motifs in Roman art were swiftly transformed for Christian usage: grapes and vines which were representative of the god Dionysus, who enjoyed an active cult worship in Ancient Rome, were appropriated by Christ, the True Vine, the Vine of Life.

Building types underwent the same type of process. The ubiquitous Roman basilica was adopted in the fourth century to house the growing congregations of Christians. The open, rectangular building provided sufficient space for the meetings of entire congregations. Christians re-oriented the buildings from the configuration popular in antiquity by placing the entrances at the short ends thus emphasizing the dramatic liturgical processions, and channeled the focus of the building to a single point, the altar in the apse and the relics that it often enshrined. The familiar building type, associated with the Roman Emperor's public works, when slightly modified, came to express the inclusiveness of the Christian faith and the rituals of the liturgy. Over centuries, the medieval basilica developed other associations: the Heavenly Jerusalem awaiting the believers after the Second Coming and the journey of a Christian soul, through terrestrial and finally heavenly existences.

Early Christians used the basilica only for one part of their worship, developing other building forms for different aspects of their practice. Generally, two kinds of round buildings were used: the baptistery, often attached to a basilica, with a large font in the center for the immersion-type baptisms of adults that early Christians underwent, and another sort of round shrine for the commemoration of holy dead that has come to be called the martyrium. Round buildings had been used since the Bronze Age for funerary structures; in Rome, the Mausolea of Augustus and Hadrian were both round structures with domed roofs. The structure oscillates between a protection of the body from the elements and a sort of temple or shrine, glorifying the dead person. The form of the building itself carries the weight of this association, and we must imagine that when it appears in Early Christian art, it evoked ideas of holy death and commemoration of the dead.

Image:
St. Peter's (palimpsest) before the demolition of Paul V (1605) from the manuscript of Giacomo Grimaldi, Vatican Library, Cod Barb. Lat. 2733)