medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
It is interesting, also, to see how early Christian beliefs appeat to
be combined in the third century mosaic of Christ as a sun god in the
ceiling mosaic of the tomb of the Julii, in the necropolis under St.
Peters, Rome. The triumphant Christ/god is in his chariot and has
rays shooting from his head aas he is pulled aloft by two rearing
horses. Vines in the background suggest a Dionysian connection. yrs,
t. ault
On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 18:12:04 -0600
Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>culture
>
>> I came across an interesting footnote (where, gosh, where?!!! -
>> Harnack??? Peterson??) which stated that the earliest pictures of
>>the
>> Christ were modelled on Alexander the Great's image.
>
>Dear George,
>The earliest pictures of Christ, in the 3rd-century catacombs, for
>example, are
>intentionally generalized images embedded in narratives. They were
>not modelled
>on any prestigious precedent but, rather, are indistinguishable from
>the way other
>figures are represented. I don't know where this "Alexander the
>Great" theory
>comes from either, but it was meant to apply, I imagine, to such
>4th-century images
>as the Christ in the Traditio Legis on the sarcophagus of Junius
>Bassus.
>>
> Then it seems just natural that
>> the image was changed from Alexander's to Zeus' well known depiction
>> from the Iliad, with long locks and beard, taken as guidance by
>> Pheidias himself
>
>Since much of this transformation took place (so far as is
>ascertainable from what
>survives) in or around Rome, I'm not sure that these Greek models
>would be
>germane. Roman images of Jupiter, the father of all the gods, may
>have been
>modelled on Greek examples such as you mention, but it was in the
>context of the
>newly expanding phase of Christianity within the Roman Empire after
>the Peace of
>the Church that direct, iconic images of Christ and/or God began to
>appear. The
>"horizon of expectation" was thus that of Roman religion in general.
> Nevertheless,
>at some later point, Pheidias' cult image of Zeus from Olympus was
>taken to
>Constantinople, I believe.
>>
>> Is this silly and/or completely speculative?
>
>It is certainly not silly, but a great deal of our interpretation of
>the development of
>Early Christian art is, necessarily, speculative. A pair of works
>you may want to look
>at in this respect are two small apse mosaics in the Church of S.
>Costanza in Rome,
>which was probably originally built as the mausoleum of Constantine's
>daughter
>Constantia in c.350. These apse mosaics are in terrible condition,
>but it is generally
>considered that they were probably added in the early 5th century,
>when other
>potentially Trinitarian images of God begin to appear (e.g. the apse
>mosaic of S.
>Pudenziana in Rome). One of these apse mosaics depicts the Traditio
>Legis and
>features the young, beardless figure of Christ. The other probably
>depicts God
>handing down the law to Moses and features the more mature, dark
>haired and
>heavily bearded image of "God". There certainly appears to be some
>intended
>connection here between iconography and doctrine.
>Cheers,
>Jim Bugslag
>
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