 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture John is certainly right about the Alexamenos image. As far as ascertainable Christian usage is concerned, the Crucifixion does not appear until the 5th century in images like that on the wooden doors of the Church of S. Sabina in Rome, and an ivory relief, part of a Passion narrative, in the British Museum. Before that, it was overwhelmingly Christ's Resurrection that was important, beginning in the early 3rd-century bapistery of the house-church at Dura Europos. An intermediary image, however, began to appear in the 4th-century on Christian sarcophagi, in a limited sequence of Passion images, once again, but instead of the actual Crucifixion, what is shown is the cross, with a bust-length image of Christ in a wreath or clipeus, perched on top of the Cross, while soldiers sleep below it, thus combining elements of both the Crucifixion and Resurrection in a largely symbolic image that undoubtedly emphasizes, as does the Resurrection, Christ's victory over death, rather than his death per se. This combination continues in the 6th and 7th centuries, in images of the Crucifixion represented immediately above the Resurrection, as on the Holy Land pilgrim ampullae in the treasuries at Monza and Bobbio. I find it interesting that the Crucifixion only begins to appear on its own at a time of heated Christological debate over his dual nature, when such heretical splinter groups such as the Monophysites are denying Christ's human nature. What better way to stress that human nature than by showing him on the cross? Cheers, Jim Bugslag On 27 Mar 2008 at 9:30, John Dillon wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and > culture > > Pn Wednesday, March 26, 2008, at 5:37 pm, Tom Izbicki wrote: > > > The earliest Western depiction of the Crucixion is supposed to be - > > yes I got that from Kenneth Clark's Civilization on TV the wooden > > carving on the doors of Santa Sabina in Rome - early 5th century: > > > > http://www.bstorage.com/Rome/Sabina/ > > > > It is unusual among the religious pictures of early date I have seen > > on several trips to Rome. The cross appears, but not much in the > > line of > > > > the Passion. > > > > 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. > > 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. > > Best, > John Dillon > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it > to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the > message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order > to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] For further information, > visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html