scholarly journals CHRIST THE PHILOSOPHER FIGURES IN LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ART

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (77) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient Society ◽  
True Knowledge

Late Antique and Early Christian Art designates the idiosyncratic content and style of the art which was produced during the Christianity transition process of the Roman society which was nourished mostly by the ancient Greek culture. In this transition process in which the border lines were blurred and the Christian iconography was not standardized yet, the pagan elements were included to the Christian narration or the visual images which were needed by the Christians were articulated into the pagan narration. This process which was lasted between the third to sixth centuries ended by the dissolving of pagan culture into Christianity. After Christianity constructed its own content and image discourse, pagan elements disappeared except rare personifications and mythological premises of some Christian scenes of which their geneological roots cannot be settled down easily. In this period, the philosopher image, one of the prestige indications of the ancient culture, was used for Jesus depictions frequently. In ancient society the notions of morality, culture, education and philosophy were perceived as honourable and closely interrelated with each other. The philosopher figure who possesses these virtues is an educated and restained person, a wise teacher who guides the people around him by the way of his attitudes, his own life and his lectures. In relation to this perception, in Late Antique and Early Christian Art, especially on sarcophagi, Christ is depicted in the image of philosopher/teacher who leads the person to the true knowledge both in life and after-life. Christian theology has created its own sphere and conceptual framework, consequently the identity between the virtuous life and philosophy is abandoned at the end of Late Antiquity. In this milieu philosophy losts its importance, even starts to define an anti-theological sphere for Christians. The philosopher image is no longer appropriate for the ones who identify it with the pagan and hence religionless Greeks of the ancient times. By losing the previous value of the philosopher’s image in ancient society, Christ the Philosopher figures have disappeared from the representations. Key Words: Late Antiquity, Early Christian Art, Iconography, Christ the Philosopher

Early Christian Art

Art History ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Marsengill
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Art History ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
Christian Art ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Art And Architecture

Early Christian art history encompasses a range of material loosely dated from the first known appearances of Christian art in the late 2nd or early 3rd century and continuing through the 6th, 7th, and sometimes even into the early 8th centuries. Early Christian art history, however, has proven to be an inchoate term, often overlapping with, or including, Early Byzantine art history. In previous divisions of the field, Early Byzantine art tended to be too politically confining when one considers cities such as Ravenna before and after its inclusion in the Eastern Byzantine Empire. On the other hand, Early Christian art implied only the earliest centuries, usually through the 4th or mid-5th centuries, and usually centered on Roman art. Thus, many scholars today favor the term Late Antique in order to integrate the study of art and architecture of the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire as well as to understand Christian art in dialogue with Jewish and pagan art. In terms of dating, scholars generally acknowledge the genesis of Christian art and architecture around 200 ce, although some pursue theories that Christians participated in visual culture in the early 2nd century, if they had not yet developed a distinctly Christian visual language. In terms of geography, the eastern and western Mediterranean, Palestine and the Near East, and sometimes even northern Europe and Britain are all included. One result of this large geographical span has been the separation of Early Christian art in Rome, the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East, and so on. In the last decade or so, however, scholars have generally recognized a more cohesive Mediterranean world and a more fluid transition from Late Antiquity to medieval art and culture. Questions of continuity between these periods have ultimately made dating the end of “Early Christian” or “Late Antique” difficult, if not impossible. Most scholars see the end of Late Antiquity as coinciding with the death of Justinian I or, for the convenience of a rounded date, the year 600. Others argue the end of the period occurred at the beginning of the 7th century with the spread of Islam in the Near East and across North Africa. Byzantinists sometimes recognize the beginning of the iconoclastic controversy in 730 as the end of Late Antiquity. Accordingly, “true” Byzantine-era art begins after iconoclasm in the 9th century, what some refer to as the Middle Byzantine period, which marks the beginning of a distinguishable Byzantine state and extends until the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204, then followed by the Late Byzantine period (until 1453). Those who assert the continuity of Late Antique traditions in early Islamic art have recently broached the year 800 as the cut-off point.

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
The Relationship

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti’s visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.

scholarly journals Private piety or collective worship in early Christian martyria: Late antique Naissus case study

Zograf ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Olga Spehar
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Simple Explanation ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Real ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The People ◽  
Historical Role

Explanation of the purpose of early Christian martyria as places of collective memory is a complex of many different circumstances and meanings and must be observed in accordance. First of all, martyria are architectural monuments dedicated to the martyrs, historical evidences of the martyrial death of those who suffered for Christ - this is a simple explanation of their real meaning. Yet, their social role is even more important than their historical role - martyria continuously transferred an idea of Salvation among the people, becoming thus the places of collective memory. But what happen when the martyr?s relics are ?usurped? by one wealthy family? This paper aim to shed some light on what could have been the real purpose of one such example, the martyrium attached to the basilica on the necropolis in Jagodin Mala in Naissus (modern Nis).

The Comparative Study of “Scholasticism” in Late Antique Mesopotamia: Rabbis and East Syrians

AJS Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam H. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of

Now is an appropriate time to reconsider the historiographical benefit that a comparative study of the East Syrian (“Nestorian”) schools and the Babylonian rabbinic academies may offer. This is attributable both to the recent, rapid increase in scholarship on Jewish–Christian relations in the Roman Empire and late antiquity more broadly, and to the return by some scholars of rabbinic Judaism to the issues of a scholarly exchange of the late 1970s and early 1980s about the nature of rabbinic academic institutionalization. Furthermore, over the past twenty years, scholars of classics, Greek and Roman history, and late antiquity have significantly added to the bibliography on the transmission of knowledge—in lay person's terms, education—in the Greco-Roman and early Christian worlds. Schools continue to be an intense topic of conversation, and my own recent work on the School of Nisibis and the East Syrian schools in general suggests that the transformations and innovations of late antiquity also occurred in the Sasanian Empire, at a great distance from the centers of classical learning, such as Athens, Alexandria, and Antioch. The recently reexamined East Syrian sources may help push the conversation about rabbinic academic institutionalization forward. However, the significance of this issue is not simply attributable to its bearing on the social and institutional history of rabbinic institutions. Such inquiry may also reflect on how we understand the Babylonian Talmud and on the difficult redaction history of its constituent parts. Furthermore, I hope that the discussion offered herein will contribute to the ongoing analysis of the late antique creation and formalization of cultures of learning, which were transmitted, in turn, into the Eastern (i.e., Islamic and “Oriental” Christian and Jewish) and Western Middle Ages within their corresponding communities.

scholarly journals Closure and Penetration: Reflections on the Pola Casket

1970 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 183-227
Author(s):  
Jaś Elsner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Art

In this paper, I examine one of the great surviving objects of early Christian art and conduct a conceptual archaeology of its visual and iconographic sources. I hope in this way to honor the memory of H.P. L’Orange, one of the greatest experts of late antique art from the twentieth century, whose particular strength lay in his ability to interpret late ancient materials in the light of the Classical tradition that had developed beforehand.

Setting the Scene for an Environmental History of Late Antiquity

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Adam Izdebski
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Actual Experience ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
New Framework

Abstract Environmental history is a well-established discipline that until recently focused mainly on the modern era and was dominated by historians. Numerous scholars agree today that this needs to change: a focus on Late Antiquity can help this happen. To make it possible, we should concentrate our efforts on three parallel projects. First, make late antique studies more interdisciplinary, i.e. joining the efforts of historians, archaeologists and natural scientists. Second, look at Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages as a source of case studies that are relevant to the central themes of environmental history. Third, use environmental history as a new framework that has the potential to modify our vision of the 1st millennium AD, by getting us closer to the actual experience of the people who lived this past.

scholarly journals Peacock as a Sign in the Late Antique and Early Christian Art

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 231-248
Author(s):  
Jelena Anđelković ◽  
Dragana Rogić ◽  
Emilija Nikolić
Keyword(s):  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Art
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