Art as Text: The Adoration of the Magi, CollyridianBread Offerings, and Theotokos (original) (raw)
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Visual Apocrypha: The Case of Mary and the Magi in Early Christian Rome
‘Visual Apocrypha: the case of Mary and the Magi in early Christian Rome’, in Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev (ed.), Apocryphal and Esoteric Sources in the Development of Christian and Jewish Traditions (Brill, 2021), 381-408., 2021
Across the Mediterranean during the third and fourth centuries ce, artists began to develop a distinctive iconography to express Christian religious beliefs. According to the material evidence, the bulk of which survives from funerary contexts, artists focused on a small group of stories from scripture that included instances of salvation and divine revelation, along with cases of Jesus performing acts of healing and restoring life to the dead.1 The archaeological record attests that in Rome by the early fourth century, the adoration of the newborn Jesus by wise men from the East (Matthew 2:1-14) was among the most popular stories within this repertoire; and a largely unacknowledged outcome of this popularity was that in that city at that date, Mary the mother of Jesus was the single most frequently appearing female figure in Christian art.2 Among the earliest surviving depictions of the Adoration in Rome is a mural in the Catacomb of Priscilla.3 Painted sometime perhaps in the third or in the early fourth century, it is prominently positioned on a structural arch dividing the cubiculum known as the cappella greca (see Figure 19.1).4 In that
Magi in Motion: the making of an image in early Christian Rome *proofs*
Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, 2020
The story of the Magi who travelled from the east to Judea in search of the Messiah is among the most popular themes in the history of Christian art. A stock image of the men, offering precious gifts to the Christ Child and Mary, had emerged by the fourth century, and scholars are largely in agreement that Roman imperial art provided pictorial models for its creation, and impetus for its circulation across the Mediterranean into the fifth century. Attention has been given to the ways that clothing, posture and gesture were used to present the Eastern identity of the Magi and to emphasise their migration (Mt. 2,9/11). This paper provides a fresh examination of the earliest surviving representations of the story, produced in Rome sometime in the late third or early fourth centuries, to reconsider the questions of how and why their story was first pictorialized. Attention to the emphasis on their movement, specifically of ritual offering of gifts in procession, brings the iconography into dialogue with a broader set of pictorial models and associations than allowed by previous interpretations tethered exclusively to images drawn from imperial art.
The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art
The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art surveys a broad spectrum of Christian art produced from the late second to the sixth centuries. The first part of the book opens with a general survey of the subject and then presents fifteen essays that discuss specific media of visual art—catacomb paintings, sculpture, mosaics, gold glass, gems, reliquaries, ceramics, icons, ivories, textiles, silver, and illuminated manuscripts. Each is written by a noted expert in the field. The second part of the book takes up themes relevant to the study of early Christian art. These seven chapters consider the ritual practices in decorated spaces, the emergence of images of Christ’s Passion and miracles, the functions of Christian secular portraits, the exemplary mosaics of Ravenna, the early modern history of Christian art and archaeology studies, and further reflection on this field called “early Christian art.” Each of the volume’s chapters includes photographs of many of the objects discussed,...
2010
The birth and rediscovery of the Catacombs of Rome Chapter Two-33-Catacomb Archaeology in the 19 th and 20 th Centuries and the 'oldest images of Mary' Chapter Three-55-Depictions of the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi in Catacomb art i Chapter Four-68-A Deconstruction of the Iconography of the Adoration of the Magi Chapter Five-81-From Solium to Cathedra-Wisdom, Mary and the Seat of Power Chapter Six-100-Through a glass darkly-Mary versus the Martyrs Chapter Seven-112-Mary and the Goddess Myth Chapter Eight-126-Ambrosethe Father of Mariology? Chapter Nine-140-Ecclesiae in Conflict and the Gentile Bride Chapter Ten-158-From Virgin to Widow-Mary Re-veiled.
Religions, 2023
This article aims to highlight the rich doctrinal meanings underlying the textual and iconic designation of the Virgin Mary as the gate of Heaven, a highly brilliant metaphor used by writers and artists to symbolize her saving mediation before her divine Son on behalf of humankind. To justify our interpretations of this textual and iconic symbol, we will proceed first by analyzing an abundant set of fragments of medieval liturgical hymns, which designate the Virgin Mary as the “gate of Paradise” (porta Paradisi) or “gate of Heaven” (ianua Coeli) and other expressions alluding to her power to facilitate the eternal salvation of the faithful. In a second step, we will analyze ten sculptural and pictorial artworks that represent Mary as the gate of celestial paradise or the mediator before God in favor of believers to facilitate their eternal salvation
Art in the Early Church: The Empty Cross and Images of Christ
2003
The Empty Cross and Images of Christ The cross or the cmcifix-which is older? Convinced that the representation and veneration of the cross itself is an older, more authentic and venerable tradition than that of the cmcifix, my goal was to trace the evolution of the image of the cross in the context of early Christian art: the first examples ofthe cross, the early images of Christ, and the first depictions of Christ on the cross, This essay considers the historical, social, and theological contexts for snch itnages, and several theories to explain why the cross was for so long represented without Christ upon it It begins with a consideration of early Christian communities and the terminus a quo or first manifestations of Christian iconography, and examines the three centuries before the reign of Constantine: the first two centuries of the post-Apostolic Church that leave barely an artistic trace, and the following centmy that reveals the first evidence of artistic development. The early history of the cross reflects the histmy of the Early Chw-ch. There prove to be many reasons for the absence of representations of Christ Cmcifled in the Early Church: cultural, political, social, artistic, and theological; and the subsequent histmy and development of the cmcifix represent major shifts in theology, religious sensibility, spirituality, and mystical language. It is the cross indeed, unadomed by his corpus, that is the more ancient symbol of Cluist This paper may be duplicated
Religions
This article aims to highlight the rich doctrinal meanings underlying the textual and iconic designation of the Virgin Mary as the gate of Heaven, a highly brilliant metaphor used by writers and artists to symbolize her saving mediation before her divine Son on behalf of humankind. To justify our interpretations of this textual and iconic symbol, we will proceed first by analyzing an abundant set of fragments of medieval liturgical hymns, which designate the Virgin Mary as the “gate of Paradise” (porta Paradisi) or “gate of Heaven” (ianua Coeli) and other expressions alluding to her power to facilitate the eternal salvation of the faithful. In a second step, we will analyze ten sculptural and pictorial artworks that represent Mary as the gate of celestial paradise or the mediator before God in favor of believers to facilitate their eternal salvation.
The Empty Cross and Images of Christ The cross or the cmcifix-which is older? Convinced that the representation and veneration of the cross itself is an older, more authentic and venerable tradition than that of the cmcifix, my goal was to trace the evolution of the image of the cross in the context of early Christian art: the first examples ofthe cross, the early images of Christ, and the first depictions of Christ on the cross, This essay considers the historical, social, and theological contexts for snch itnages, and several theories to explain why the cross was for so long represented without Christ upon it It begins with a consideration of early Christian communities and the terminus a quo or first manifestations of Christian iconography, and examines the three centuries before the reign of Constantine: the first two centuries of the post-Apostolic Church that leave barely an artistic trace, and the following centmy that reveals the first evidence of artistic development. The early history of the cross reflects the histmy of the Early Chw-ch. There prove to be many reasons for the absence of representations of Christ Cmcifled in the Early Church: cultural, political, social, artistic, and theological; and the subsequent histmy and development of the cmcifix represent major shifts in theology, religious sensibility, spirituality, and mystical language. It is the cross indeed, unadomed by his corpus, that is the more ancient symbol of Cluist This paper may be duplicated