Transcript Chapter 9 - HCC Learning Web

Power and Faith
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Baths of Caracalla—set within a 50-acre walled park
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Three bathing halls with a combined capacity of 1,600
bathers, two gymnasia (exercise rooms), a
barbershop, a hair salon, libraries, painting galleries,
and outdoor areas for sunbathing or exercising in the
nude
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To many citizens of the time, such material excess
signaled an atmosphere of moral depravity. By the
4th century CE, Christians forbade visitation to the baths
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Pharisees—a scribal group associated with the masses.
Considered the Jerusalem Temple to be polluted and
its priests, particularly the Sadducees, to be corrupt
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Sadducees—priests and high priests associated with the
aristocracy
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Essenes—most conservative. Banned women from their
community and moved outside of Jerusalem to Qumran
so that they might live a life or celibacy and purity.
Probably the group that produced the so-called Dead Sea
Scrolls, the oldest extant version of the Hebrew Scriptures
The Second Temple was enlarged by the Roman client king, Herod the Great (r. 47-4 BCE). Today only
the Western Wall survives; for centuries it has been known as the Wailing Wall
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In 63 BCE the Romans, led by Pompey, conquered Judea
(modern Israel)
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Rome became less and less tolerant of the Jewish faith.
In 66 CE, the Jews revolted. In 68 CE, the Romans
destroyed Qumran. In 70 CE, they sacked the temple in
Jerusalem
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In 135 CE, after yet another Jewish revolt, the emperor
Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman city, which Jews
were forbidden to enter
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Jesus of Nazareth born about 4 BCE
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After his followers identified him as the Messiah, or
Savior—he did not make the claim for himself—both
conservative Jewish leaders and Roman rulers were
threatened
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An enemy of the state, Jesus was crucified in about 30
CE outside the city walls on a hillside known as
Golgotha, now the site of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke believed to have been
written between 70 and 90 CE
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke synoptic gospels—“seeing
together.” They tell the same stories, in the same
sequence, often using the same words, although they
differ in their details. All three focus predominately
on Jesus’s last days
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John written sometime between 90 and 100 CE. Omits
materials found in the first three books and provides
new material
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Very little early Christian art survives, and most of
what we do have dates from the third and fourth
centuries from paintings decorating catacombs and a
few sculptures
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In almost all these works it is not so much the literal
meaning of the image that matters, but rather its
symbolic significance
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Two of the most common of the symbolic
representations are the story of Jonah and the image
of Christ as the Good Shepherd
Jonah Swallowed and Jonah Cast Up
Marble, 20 5/16" and 16“
Probably 3rd century
SWALLOWED—CHRIST’S DEATH
REGURGITATION—RESURRECTION
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Over the course of the first 200 years of Christianity, before
freedom of worship was legalized, Christians developed
many symbols that served to identify them to each other
and to mark the articles of their faith
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Fish—Greek word for fish, ichthys, is a form of acronym,
a combination of the first letters of the Greek words for
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”
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The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and
omega, symbolize Christ’s presence from the beginning to
the end of time. Alpha and omega often flank the initials
I and X, the first letters of Jesus and Christ in Greek
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By the end of the third century, the Roman Empire
included about 5 million Christians, nearly a tenth
of the population
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In 312 Constantine I (r. 306-337) won a decisive
battle after claiming to have seen a vision and then
having his troops decorate their shields with crosses
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In 313 he issued the Edict of Milan, which granted
religious freedom to all, ending religious persecution
in the Roman Empire
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Constantine’s victory was celebrated in the usual
Roman way with the construction of an impressive
triple arch
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The arch’s reliefs provide insight into the profound
changes in the art and culture of this period that the
Christian faith inspired
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Naturalism no longer an important aim of art as the
symbolic function dominates
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The last of the great imperial buildings erected in
Rome
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Constantine added an imposing entrance and an
apse, a rounded extension
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This basilica plan, with the apse as its focal point,
would exert considerable influence on later Christian
churches
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Begun under Constantine in 320 on the site of Peter’s
crucifixion and tomb in Rome
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Consisted of a narthex, or entrance hall, and a nave with
two aisles on each side
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A traverse aisle, or transept, crossed between the nave
and the apse
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The nave was two stories high, the aisles one story,
allowing for a clerestory, a zone with windows that lit the
length of the church
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Initially conceived as a mausoleum for the daughter of
Constantine, Constantia, a devout Christian who died in 354
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Circular structure topped by a dome
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A double ring of paired columns separates the circular central
space from the barrel-vaulted ambulatory, the walkway or
passage around the outside
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Later Christian churches would adopt this ambulatory to
encircle the apse
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As the early Christian churches developed from existing
Roman plans, the religion itself incorporated many Greek
and Roman traditions—a practice known as syncretism
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From the cult of Bacchus (Roman Dionysus) came the
idea of sacrifice (a bull) with the promise of “reborn for
eternity” for whoever received the bull’s blood. This
ritual occurred near the beginning of the Christian
Easter season
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From the cult of Isis came the image of a mother and
her child (Horus), possibly an inspiration for the Virgin
and Child theme in Christian art
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Cult originated in Persia and became very popular with the
Roman troops in Palestine at the time of Christ
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Appears to have been based on the teachings of Zoroaster
(born between 1000 and the early 7th century BCE)
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Birthday of Mithras celebrated each year on December 25
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Shares many ritual practices with Christianity: baptism,
periods of fasting, a communal meal of bread and wine,
sacrifice for the good of humanity