«Bilan» de dix années de réactions au livre de Th. Mathews, The Clash of Gods. A reinterpretation of early christian art.

Abstract

Thomas F. Mathews’ Clash of Gods, since its publication in 1993, continually aroused critical reactions. The author’s treatment of the imagery of Christ leads him to deny any influence of the imperial art on the early christian art. This goes with a sharp criticism of what the author calls theory of the « mystical emperor », a phrase which labels Andre Grabar’s reflexions on the transmission of imperial models to christian art during the fourth and fifth centuries. The profusion of reviews makes plain the importance of the question tackled by Mathews and the current need for an assessment of the dispute which it prompted as to the treatment of sources and the theorical preconception. However, Clash of Gods, beyond the works which it analyses, equally poses thorny sets of problems that are proper to the history of art. Now they have been scarcely taken into account by his reviewers : let us mention, for instance, the use of an interpretative framework when analysing such a tricky phenomenon as is the chris...