Christian Sarcophagi Research Articles

Pontius Pilate as a Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Judge – Iconographic Representations

The image of a judge in Late Antiquity is shrouded in mystery as visual artefacts depicting court proceedings are scarce. Early Christian sarcophagi and miniatures adorning early manuscripts help in researching this topic. Illustrations of the trial of Jesus found there fully represent jurisprudence of the 4th and 5th century. Western artists had no knowledge of the hearing held at the beginning of the first century in Jerusalem, in a Roman province, hence they recreated what they knew from experience. The pictures presenting the trial of Jesus are probably the most important iconographic evidence of court proceedings in which a judge and an accused stand facing each other. Based on the iconography analysed, we can see that certain elements are recurrent. They include a curule seat, crossed legs of the judge, a laurel wreath, a table, presence of other persons wearing soldiers’ uniforms and clerks, whose role was probably that of a record taker. The image of Pilate in Late Antiquity is, in fact, a representation of early court scenes.

Doubting Thomas and the Matter of Embodiment on Early Christian Sarcophagi

Doubting Thomas and the Matter of Embodiment on Early Christian Sarcophagi

From Ireland Coming: Irish Art from the Early Christian to the Late Gothic Period and Its European Context ed. by Colum Hourihane (review)

REVIEWS117 This volume is an essential reference on Glastonbury and KingArthur, and those Arthurian scholars and small libraries rhat do not subscribe to Arthurian Literature (where many of the articles originated) will find it a major addition to their collections. Even for large libraries, the convenience of this anthology justifies its purchase. Glastonburystudies are alive and well, and this anthology provides ample testimony to the continuing fascination with this Arthurian locale. STEPHEN STALLCUP University ofNorth Carolina, Greensboro COLUM HOURiHANE, ed., From Irebnd Coming: IrishArtfrom the Early Christian to the Late Gothic PeriodandIts European Context. Index ofChristian Art/ Princeton University Press, 2001. Pp. xviii, 356. isbn: o—691-08825-x. $35. The contributions to this important volume, most ofwhich were presented at a 1999 conference, locate the Irish art-historical heritagewithin the broad context of European art and culture rarher than maintaining an isolationist Insular view. The volume begins with Dorothy Hoogland Verkerk's fascinating discussion of the visual parallels between figurai and narrative scenes on Irish high crosses and carvings on early Christian sarcophagi in Rome. The Irish delegation to Rome in theyear631 remarked onwhat theyhad 'seen' on theirvisir; ongoingIrish pilgrimages to Rome likely resulted in artistic influence on Irish artists, although sarcophagus motifs were adapted to the Irish cultural context. In another study of the high crosses, Colum Hourihane notes how the Irish adapted the motifofthe three children in the fiery furnace (from the Book ofDaniel) depicted on sarcophagi and in later Carolingian manuscripts and painting to stress the protecting wings ofthe angelic figure as symbolic ofsalvation. Kees Veelenturfsimilarly argues that the image of Saints Paul and Anthony receiving bread from a raven on the high crosses owes much to the iconography ofearly Christian Rome, including the sarcophagi. Jane Hawkcs suggests that across-head from Mayo Abbeywith its interlace andstanding figure shows affinities with both early Carolingian Gaul and Northumbria. Roger Stalley continues the interest in European connections in his discussion ofthe Irish round towers, relating them to the cylindrical bell towers oftwelfth-century France and Italy. Adapted to the Irish monasticsetting, theywere, heconcludes, tall enough for their bells to be heard over a large distance, thus drawing a rural community together. Several scholars shed new light on familiar objects. Cormac Bourke reinterprets the Temptation ofChrist scene in the Book of Kells, reading the lower panel as an empty table flanked by the monastery's fasting monks, and tracing this image to models in Northumbrian and Roman art. Mildred Budny's close analysis of Irish interlace in manuscripts places it in the context ofWestern European manuscript design. NiamhWhitfield reassesses dieTara brooch in light ofthe design and purpose of brooches of Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and even Byzantine origin, pointing out that as Irish rravel to Europe blossomed in the sixth century, die Irish encountered more foreign examples of metalwork. On the other hand, Emmanuelle Pirones ll8ARTHURIANA compellingdiscussion ofilluminated Insular Gospel books argues for their distance from Continental models: for rhe newly-literate Irish andAnglo-Saxons, she insists, the Latin Scriptures were exotic, mystically charged visual webs of signs that celebrated 'beyond all words, the central mysteryofdieWord' (279). Susan Youngss detailed analysis of an Irish gilt-bronze mount found in Kent enlarges our understanding ofViking trade in the ninth and tendi centuries. With hisdiscussionofRomanesque art, Peter Harbisonventures into the relatively uncharted territory ofpost-conquest Irish art. Although Cormac's Chapel is now recognized as the earliest example of the Romanesque style in Ireland, Harbison concludes that while borrowing some Romanesque features, twelfth-century adaptations on crosses, metal croziers and shrines remained distinctively Irish and tied to older Celtic models. Tessa Garten's study of human and animal heads in Irish Romanesque sculpture reaches similar conclusions: the Irish adopted the Romanesque style, but infused it with Celtic and Viking features. Susanne McNab stresses thelongevityofancient motifslike the non-realistic interlacedhuman figures, serpents and disembodied heads in much later Irish Romanesque art. The discussion also extends to later periods. Raghnall Ó Floinn examines Irish Gothic metalwork, particularly reliquaries and seals, after the Norman conquest. Heather King's discussion of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century stone crosses demonstrates the importance ofEuropean influences on Irish crosses ofthis period. Maggie McEnchroc Williams's article on the Market Cross atTuam...

The Original Programme of the David Cycle on the Doors of San Ambrogio in Milan

The article is a reconstruction of the David cycle on the wooden doors from the end of the fourth century in the Chiesa di S. Ambrogio in Milan. The work is based on the two extant original panels [1st Book of Samuel XVI, 10 and XVII, 34-35 as well as XVI, 11 and XVI, 13] and five drawings from the mid-18th century in Museo Sacro della Basilica Ambrosiana, as well as copies from 1751 in the present doors. The first drawing [XVI, 23 and XVII, 31; XVII, 32-33 and XVII, 38, as well as XVII, 51] portray the no longer extant originals. The fifth drawing [XVII, 40] is a pendant to scene XVII, 51, which proves that there were also other panels below on the 4th century doors. The copy with scene XVI, 19 can therefore be included in the original cycle. Its no longer extant pendant may have illustrated verses XVI, 14-18 or XVI, 20-22. The logic of the composition requires that two more panels from 1751 [XVII, 55-56 and XVII, 57 as well as XVIII, 6 or XVIII, 27 and XIX, 1] be included in the original. The fourth century cycle would therefore be composed of sixteen scenes. It is the direct continuation of the Itala fragment from Quedlinburg. The problem of the archetype is also taken into account [the pictorial unity of the Ciprian treasure, the Khludov Psalter and the Paris Psalter as well as the ideological sense of the cycle based on the exegesis of Hippolytus of Rome (David-Christ>. Formally connected with early Christian sarcophagi, the cycle symbolically portrayed the victory of Christ over sin and death, much like the decoration of the doors of Christ's Tomb on the plaques at the British Museum and Castello Sforzesco.

Eros and Psyche: Some Versions of Romantic Love and Delicacy

Previous articleNext article No AccessEros and Psyche: Some Versions of Romantic Love and DelicacyJean H. HagstrumJean H. Hagstrum Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 3, Number 3Spring, 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/447904 Views: 25Total views on this site Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Classical Marbles: A Recent Bibliography

The bibliography that follows is the work of the Committee for the Study of Marble and Similar Stones in Antiquity.This committee was established in 1965 to serve as a centre for reference and for the exchange of information between all those persons and institutions who are concerned with the identification and study of the fine building stones and other decorative stones used in classical antiquity. It is sponsored by the International Association for Classical Archaeology, which in 1970/71 and again in 1971/72 has made a generous contribution towards its expenses. The committee's reference collection of quarry samples (seePBSR, xxxiv (1966), 79) is installed at the British School and growing satisfactorily, and several other projects are nearing completion. These include a survey of the Christian sarcophagi in the recently installed Museo Pio Cristiano, the former Lateran collections, now published inRepertorium der Christlich-Antiken Sarkophage ed.F. W. Deichmann, vol. i (1967), and another of the classical statuary currently on display in the Museum at Ostia.

The Iconography of the Sarcophagus in S. Ambrogio. Hope for Salvation through the Word of Christ

The sarcophagus in the church of S. Ambrogio in Milan is dated to about 390. The lid of the sarcophagus shows scenes and symbols connected to the New Testament. On the front and rear sides, we find Christ represented among the Apostles. Figures from the Old Testament are shown on the two short sides. In this way, the narrative scenes are well arranged, and the arrangement differs from other early Christian sarcophagi in which scenes from the Old and New Testament are places together without any apparent connection between the scenes. Rows of city-gates run around all four sides, forming the background for the reliefs. The city-gates invite the beholder to read the images not as isolated scenes, but as parts of a connected whole. In this paper, I will argue that the iconography of the sarcophagus can be interpreted as a complete programme. The programme emphasizes the teaching of Christ and the Apostles’ teaching-mission given by Christ. Taking into consideration the monument’s funerary context, the programme of the sarcophagus focuses on the Word or the teaching of Christ as the way to salvation.

Some Remarks on Ancient Chinese Bronzes

The methods of studying the ritual vessels of the Chinese bronze age are basically the same as those applied, for example, to the study of Greek vases or Early Christian sarcophagi. Stylistic analysis and epigraphical considerations must be combined.

Columnar Sarcophagi in the Latin West

In a previous article1 I have demonstrated the existence in Italy in the second half of the fourth century of a group of Christian sarcophagi showing such strong Asiatic influence and so clearly distinguished from the work of the ordinary Latin sculptor that the conclusion is inevitable that they were made by Asiatic workmen whether manufactured in Italy or imported. The purpose of the present study is to discover whether a similar group or groups existed in Gaul; how far Gaul was the center of production of columnar sarcophagi; whether workshops in either Gaul or Italy can be isolated and dated; and, finally, whether columnar sarcophagi of other types are as direct descendants of pagan Asiatic sarcophagi as the city-gate group or whether they could have come from Western imitations in the pagan era.

The Authenticity of Early Christian Silver

THE ART BULLETIN for December, 1926, contained an article by the famous Roman archaeologist Joseph Wilpert, in which after making valuable contributions bearing on the authenticity of the Early Christian sarcophagi of Rome and related sculpture he turned to the consideration of small objects from the East. Despite his recognized, if somewhat over ecclesiastical, authority in matters Roman, Wilpert has long seemed ill disposed toward non-Roman material, and in this case his conclusions appear less cautious and reserved than the scholarly character of The Art Bulletin would seem to demand. In my Altai-Iran und Völkerwanderung I emphasized the difficulties presented by the study of the treasures discovered in the East, into which, with purely Roman equipment, Wilpert has plunged so hastily. As I had occasion in 1910 to respond to his criticism of my publication of the Golenisheff Chronicle1 so I now feel the necessity of questioning this article, and some of what I then wrote could practically be repeated verbatim to-day. It is still a question of the Orient or Rome, still a matter of his arguing in a way that seems to me unworthy of his scholarship.

The Early Christian Sarcophagi of the Lateran Museum and Their Historical Suggestiveness

In the Lateran Museum at Rome perhaps the largest and most interesting collection of ancient Christian sarcophagi in the world has been gathered together. It is hard to say just how many different specimens are represented. At least thirty-eight are more or less complete; and there are, besides, numerous fragments of others, some of which have doubtless been reckoned in the larger estimates sometimes given. A few were found in the various catacombs which like the encampments of a besieging army encircle the walls of Rome. The majority came from the early basilicas, which sprang up so rapidly after Constantine's Edict had proclaimed that the victory of these Christian hosts had indeed been won. It would be difficult to assign an exact date to many of these sarcophagi; but in general it may be said that they represent the fourth and fifth centuries, with a few specimens from still earlier generations, and a few others which reach forward into the sixth century.

Early Christian Sculpture: Its Restoration and its Modern Manufacture

IN an article published two years ago1 I devoted a few words to the present generally deplorable condition of Early Christian sarcophagi. All those in the catacombs, if they happened to be in places which were conspicuous and of easy access, were already reduced to pieces in antiquity.2 The barbarians known generically under the name of Getae, before they undertook the assault and sack of Rome, penetrated into the sacred cemeteries and sacrilego verterunt corde sepulcra. These are the words of Pope Vigilius in the commemorative inscription which he composed about 550, recording the damage done and his own efforts at repair, since he hostibus expulsis omne novavit opus.3 From this “renovation” are however to be excluded the broken sarcophagi which were never re-made or restored.