medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, March 27, 2008, at 9:41 am, I wrote:
> Perhaps Clark called the Santa Sabina image the earliest _certain_
> Western depiction of the Crucifixion or the earliest _reverent_
> Western depiction of the Crucifixion. But it has long been widely
> thought that the earliest surviving Western depiction of the
> Crucifixion is the probably third-century Alexamenos graffito
> discovered on the Palatine in Rome in 1857:
> http://tinyurl.com/2zrsmu
> Other illustrations and brief discussions are here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito
> and here:
> http://tinyurl.com/2yq95k
>
> There have been dissenters, of course, and other interpretations have
> been advanced from time to time. But these have failed to gain much
> acceptance. As far as I can determine, the _communis opinio_ among
> the learned remains that the figure worshiped by Alexamenos is a
> parodic representation of the crucified Christ. That was already the
> view transmitted by the (old) Catholic Encyclopedia at the beginning
> of the last century:
> http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01793c.htm
> and it seems unlikely that Sir Kenneth (at the time of his writing he
> was not yet Lord Clark) or any careful scholar would have been unaware
> of it.
That is, or any careful scholar preparing to inform the public on this topic. A careful scholar engaged in some other activity need not have considered the graffito (or even have known of it).
> For a contrary indication, see the blurb from Ashgate (a learned
> press) here:
> http://christianbookshops.org.uk/reviews/passioninart.htm
> I have not seen Harries' book. Perhaps someone who has a copy can say
> what his take is on the Alexamenos graffito.
Er, the book is from Ashgate but the statement of its contents to which I referred is not (it is by the Revd Sue Groom for Phil Groom's website, _UK Christian Bookshops Directory_). My apologies for the erroneous attribution. Ashgate's own assertion that "Jesus was not depicted on the cross until the early fifth century" is here:
http://tinyurl.com/245czm
Bishop Harries is more circumspect. Concerning the early fifth-century ivory Crucifixion scene in the British Museum
http://tinyurl.com/29z2bl
and the very slightly later carving on the door of Santa Sabina, he says (_The Passion in Art_ [Ashgate, 2004], p. 11):
"But why were the first Christians so reluctant to show Christ crucified on the Cross? This and one on the St Sabina church door are both the earliest we have and the only ones known from the fifth century."
Although by itself that "the earliest we have" could be thought misleading, those words have to be read in the context both of Harries' preceding reference to "the first Christians" and of his opening statement in the Introduction (p. xi): "The focus of this book is the Crucifixion of Christ from its earliest depiction in Christian art through to our own time." The exclusion from that focus of any earlier depictions in non-Christian art relieves Harries of the obligation to take a position on the Alexamenos graffito. And indeed he is silent about it. Not that that silence makes any less problematic the statements by Sue Groom and by Ashgate to the effect that the depiction of Christ's crucifixion begins in the fifth century.
Best again,
John Dillon
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