Origins of Christian Art, Part I

One of the difficulties with creating icons or works of art depicting Jesus is that we don’t really have any eyewitness drawings or paintings from people who actually saw him while he was alive. 

Legend has it that Saint Luke was commissioned to paint a portrait of Mary and the Christ Child and that was the first eye witness portrait of Jesus.

We know that early Christian art had to be symbolic because until 313 when Constantine legalized Christianity, Christians were being killed and persecuted for their faith so it was dangerous to be carrying or sharing images of Christ.

Ancient Panel paintings derived from the Egyptian panel paintings of gods and goddesses, therefore, the very early Christian panel paintings have similar compositions and figures replacing images of Egyptian gods with Christian imagery . As Christians found NEW WAYS OF VISUALIZING THE DIVINE, specifically in mosaics, Icons, and mural paintings for monasteries, icon panel paintings began to flourish.

The theological significance that Christians gave to their icons was in many ways more exalted than the ancient Egyptians had given to their sacred images.  As the Christian movement spread, naturally, each culture depicted Jesus as looking like them. To the Chinese, he looked Chinese, to the Indians, he looked Indian, to the Africans He is black, and so forth. The icons of early Christianity were expressions of beliefs and Biblical stories.

Early Christian artists were concerned with representing Christ, God made man.  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only son of the Father.  Early Christians had faith that they saw God through Christ.

The early panel paintings of Roman Egypt, and through them, the early icon panels, are the seeds of the development European painting.  This influence can be seen as late as post Renaissance artists like Michelangelo, Raphael, and a whole host of more modern artists like Rembrandt, El Greco and many more.  

 While Icons exemplified a new understanding of the liturgy, with the central focus on the Eucharist, this not something you could say about religious paintings after the renaissance. Part II of this blog will cover sacred art and icons from the 7^th century onward.

In the fourth century there was a move away from statuary. Icon painting, illumination, and mosaics  became the primary methods of representing the Divine.  Icons proliferated at this time, with many different styles of depicting Christ.

The fifth century is the age of great visions in Church decoration, and by the end of the century, Icons were impacting church decoration in a major way. At this time there arose many versions of Christ on portable panel paintings and evidenced in the Church of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul,

CHRIST IN GLORY.  In the image of Jesus we have a vision of Christian spirituality and the universal, the human, the life of the spirit.

PANTOCRATOR The image of Jesus bridges worlds, between the human and the divine, between heaven and earth.

GOOD SHEPHERD– A long lasting Symbolic image of Christ

Sacred Geometry

Sacred Geometry:   Greek artists and mathematicians believed the golden ratio to be the unifying principle of the universe and to be responsible for the beauty within design and sound.  It’s a deep subject that I won’t go into here, but I have written about it in more detail in my book, “Eyes of Fire”, for those who are interested. 

For now, I will tell you that the golden ratio produces an order of such great intelligence that it was considered sacred by those who knew it.  An important aspect of the golden ratio is that it has an integrated relationship with unity.  The circle, often found in nature, is many times used in art to represent God. It is a form without beginning or end.

Iconoclasm

By the seventh century, theological debate arose over the belief that the icon was incarnational- its holiness deriving from the fact that because God had assumed physical matter, the icons could be a valid representation of God’s presence also. The iconoclastic controversy arose at this time with heated debate and at times whole sale destruction of icons if they were perceived to violate the second commandment. It requires the second council of Nicea in the ninth century to resolve this issue. Icons were intimately connected with the origins and growth of Christianity itself.

A lot has been written about this period of iconoclasm, and it is a controversy that seems to repeat itself in the Reformation in Europe in the 1500 and 1600’s.  For the 6^th and seventh century destruction of religious images preceded the split between the Eastern and Western churches, each of whom developed a unique approach to religious art from that period onward.  The Roman Church preferred statuary and romantic paintings as church decoration and the Eastern Church developed a flattened, symbolic use of visual images in the Icons.

It’s interesting to note that the Celtic Church in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany also had an ultimately disunifying encounter with the steady movement forward of the centralized Roman Church by the 7^th century. Monastic life under the rule of St. Columba was much more stringent than the Rule of Saint Benedict and became increasingly unpopular.  The Synod of Whitby in 664 sought to resolve the conflict and this resulted in a steady decline of the Celtic church.

I’m not a historian by any means, and I only study history in relation to the development of art and culture, but the simultaneity of these two conflicts is interesting.  Please comment below with perceptions or redirects that may make a contribution to our understanding of the conflicts involved in creating religious art.  Many of you are from Russia, Ukraine, Greece, and other countries with perhaps a different perspective of the history of Christian art.  It would be fascinating to pool together our knowledge and perceptions over the course of time and be able to share that with our communities and coming generations of sacred artists.

Next month will be Part II, moving forward from the Nicean Council and Saint John of Damascus’ brilliant defense of icons to  present day developments in religious imagery that builds up the church.  I feel that a thorough understanding of the history of Christian art will be an invaluable aid to those of us creating icons and religious imagery today.

I have written and published a book called “Eyes of Fire”, How Icons Saved My Life As An Artist” available on Amazon that also brings together knowledge and understanding of art and the Art Spirit through the ages, with a bias towards Byzantine iconography.

That’s all for this month, May God continue to bless the work of your hands and give you holy inspiration to create icons and religious paintings that build up His holy church.

Christine Hales