Early Christian Symbolism and Iconography

Religious Values and Institutions in British Culture January 2009 Early Christian Symbolism and Iconography SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR DR. IOANA GOGEANU M.A. STUDENT, 2ND YEAR, MIHAELA CELMARE (AVRAM) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………3-4 EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS AND ICONOGRAPHY………………4-12 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS…………………………………………………13 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………….14 INTRODUCTION The aim of the present paper is to illustrate the way the pre-Christian symbols developed into icons as a deep perception of the sacred in order to educate and induce knowledge. The beginning of Christianity means the beginning of civilization including cultural differences and interpretations. Such is the case of Roman Britain whose religious culture transformed from pagan to Christian in five centuries, as Christianity came to the island through many webs and its conversion went close with the Roman Empire’s rise and decline. Images allow a twofold value: they have a mythical and a ritual or religious function Tristan, Frederick, Primele imagini crestine, De la simbol la icoana secolele II-VI, p.8. Pre-Christian symbols and, later, icons, should be regarded through “mirrors” Ibidem of certain origins: Palestinian, Greek, Coptic, Roman or Gaelic. In a period in which there was any fixed dogma and each image, either symbol or icon, could be interpreted in different ways, according to the political, economy or social history, as each influences human thought and behavior. For a solid understanding of the phenomenon one needs to take into account the history of ideas as it explains the emerging and spreading of Christianity, especially Jewish-Greek philosophers such is Aristob and Philo from Alexandria Petuchowski J. Jakob, Thoma, Clmens, Lexiconul Herder al intilnirii iudeo-crestine,p.86. People thought that the early Christian frescos and stones in the catacombs belong to the first century while the Christian sarcophaguses from Fayum or Rome belong to the second century. Others thought that the first Christian frescoes were from the second century and the funeral carved stones were from the third century. It is to be mentioned that the main part of the early frescos and painted stones in catacombs cannot be exactly dated. Obvious may be the fact that beliefs and customs of several cultures intermingled Euphrosyne Doxiadis,The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, p.45 all over the Roman Empire when Christianity spread in the western and eastern part of Europe. On the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon pagan world developed its local religious values as the archeological sites prove a syncretism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_polytheism between the Celtic and Roman gods as well as in the Roman Egypt where converts belonged to a multi racial Hellenized society. EARLY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS AND ICONOGRAPHY The first Christian images are in fact Jewish symbols discovered in Hebron, Nazareth and Jerusalem starting with 1953 Tristan, Frederick, Primele imagini crestine, De la simbol la icoana secolele II-VI, p.17. They show the vine, palm branches, the Jewish thaw and the fish; later these Jewish-Christian symbols are found among the Roman catacombs. The vine is associated with the grapes standing for the wine, representing the Promised Land, the happiness and life of the future; it is the emblem of the Holy grace as well as the water of life. It expresses the regenerative function of water and wine, in the same time,; water proceeding from outside and the wine operating from inside Ibidem, p.40 as in the Ecclesiastes is mentioned in I, 16.” "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge." Then in Proverbs, 9, “Wisdom has built her house; … Let all who are simple come in here! ... Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. As ”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The Holy Bible, p. 715, 687 Although the Druid art produced anomalies Lloyd and Jennifer Laing, Art of the Celts, p.9, it is remarkable that the Druid’s symbol for knowledge from the other world/side, is the fish http://www.pretanicworld.com/Animals.html the bull stands for fertility, virility and strength and the horse represents maternity and female fertility. It is obvious that Celtic Christian art intermingled, in a certain extent, with the Christian Symbolism. In the beginning of the I-st century the symbols of the messianic societies adopted by the Jewish-Christians and then by the pagan-Christians decided on symbols as emblem for Christianity, spreading into the Mediterranean shores Tristan, Frederick, Primele imagini crestine, De la simbol la icoana secolele II-VI, p.45 gaining new meaning according to the local faith of the time. Saint Peter, the first founder of Christianity, travelled to Antiohia, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Athens, Ephesus returned to Palestine, then to Caesarea, left for Rome, where he was beheaded in 64/66. He spread the new faith and the symbols, because in the Tell Hum (Capernaum) synagogue one notice the Christian symbols such is the palm trees, crowns, the bunch of grapes, menorah (the seven arms chandelier) together with other figurative elements: the lions and the eagles, dating from the third century. Next to these Jewish-Christian symbols these are Greek or Roman influence such is the dolphin, the centaur, sea horses, Cupids with garlands, winged individuals, a Medusa head and a fragment from a zodiac. In 150 B.C. the Jewish community in Rome hollowed out catacombs; here there are messianic signs, such is the palm branches, the grapes, etrog, lulav, (amphora and pot for oil, wine and water), a bird pecking up grapes, hogs and bulls. In the first century enormous catacomb on Via Appia (Vigna Randanini) there have been discovered messianic signs such is the dove, the chicken, a cockfighting, a hog’s and bull’s head. The same Jewish-Christian signs are found in the catacomb of Monteverde (Via Pontuensis) and Via Appia Pignatelli there is a fish surrounded by palm leaves and flowers. In the catacomb of Villa Torlonia (Via Nomentana) there is the chandelier, the pot for oil, the citron, the lulav, the pomegranate, together with the sacred objects from the synagogue: the hog’s horn, the sacred cupboard, Law’s rotulus and a knife for circumcision Frederick, Primele imagini crestine, De la simbol la icoana secolele II-VI, p.47. What is remarkable is that the vault of a funeral chamber is painted while in its middle there is a chandelier with seven arms and a dolphin with a trident in the four cardinal points and a pomegranate in each corner of the chamber. There is to be mentioned the presence of the pagan symbol, such as the dolphin, combined with a Christian symbol, such as the trident, the symbol of sea power and the emblem of Neptune; it is an element of ancient Minoan civilization which, later, becomes the symbol of Britannia Mark O’Connell and Raje Airey, The Complete Encyclopedia of Signs& Symbols, p.247. In Rome there were two kinds of religious communities: the Jewish/the collegia funeraticia/tenuiorum and the Christian community that took the former as a model; cemeteries and catacombs were used by these as meeting places and service for the dead, especially for the dies natalis. It was said that many Cultores/communities believing in Diana, Hercules became Christian communities. Remarkable remains Saint Peter’s tomb in Commodilei Cemetery where there is an old inscription from the end of the II-nd century decorated with the Christian symbols: two breads and two fish; the fish being present in the Celtic symbolism, too. Christians were forbidden to gather and the catacombs had been taken from them during Valerian, between 258-260 and then, during Diocletian, between 303-310. Actually, the authorities were afraid of rebellion. The symbols of Christianity were engraved on the individual tombs of marble or bricks and later these were decorated on wall paintings or mosaics. Sarcophaguses were scarcely present in catacombs. They were made of burnt peat or of stone or marble, sculpted and prepared for wealthy Christians bearing Christian symbols. (…) The early Christians from Roman Egypt were converts deriving from multi-racial Hellenized society Euphrosyne Doxiadis, The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt, p. 45. After Cleopatra’s suicide, Egypt became a Roman province and the image of pharaoh was replaced by that of a prefect; the image of the Roman emperor gradually deified appeared on the temples. In 332 after Alexander the Great conquered the country, a great number of Greeks settled in Egypt together with a other immigrants such as Asians, Jewish, Syrians, Libyans, Greek and others. Greeks and Jewish inhabitants of Roman Egypt led luxurious life but lesser privileged than the Romans. Beliefs and customs intermingled. The Septuagint was translated in Alexandria while Philo was a Jew philosopher so the Jews were assimilated into Hellenic world. The Jews in Judea rebelled against Rome in 70 A.D. while those from Egypt remained loyal. But, Jewish privileges were undersized and a revolt burst in 115-117 in Egypt. In the II-nd century, the Gnostic philosopher group from Alexandria, followers of Carpocrates of which we are told that: “Having secretly made icons of Jesus and Paul and Phytagoras and Homer, in their honor he burst incense and worshipped them”. One century later Origen’s presence is distinguished in the Christian community as one of the Fathers of the Church. From the IV-th century we have the funerary stele that reflects the various elements of the Graeco-Roman Egypt. Next to the Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for ascension we see the Greek columns with palm tree tops; it is the early Christian syncretism. In the catacombs we size a “significant” art. Paul Evdochimov, Arta icoanei, o telogie a frumusetii, p.153 Its purpose was to educate the illiterate masses showing the redemption through symbolical elements. These may be divided in three categories: the first is related to water, such is Noah’s ship, Iona, Moses, the fish and the anchor; the second is related to bread and wine, such is the multiplication of the bread, the grains of wheat and vine(yard), the third refers to redemption, such is the image of young men in the oven, Daniel in the lion’s cave, the Phoenix bird, Lazarus, the returned from the dead or the good Shepherd. These three categories helped the painter to express through image short but energetic uttering concerning redemption thorough baptism and eucharist. There is a single interpretation which is emphasized: there is no everlasting life without Christ’s secrets. The graffiti in the catacombs reveals the passing through death by means of the water of baptism to life. Christianity spread in Roman Britain by the 4th /5th century through St. Patrick in Ireland, followed by the “dove of the church” or Colum cille/ St.Columba, in the Pictish land, namely, in Scotland, as Bede mentioned that “Columba came into Britain… and he converted that nation to the faith of Christ Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, p.223”. If there are scarcely any icons on wood, there are mystical elements of Celtic origin interwoven with early Christian themes and symbols spread, especially, through the illuminated manuscripts as well as Celtic crosses in stone. In The Book of Kells, Irish/Scotish illuminate manuscript of the 8th century in which one may size the Christian insular art in connection with Celtic mystical elements; such is the animal figures: the lion as the symbol of Christ’s resurrection The Book of Kells, p.54, or the symbolical animal representation of the evangelists: Mark- the lion, Like- the calf, John- the eagle but Mathew – the man, according to Ezekiel’s vision. Christ’s presence is associated with different symbols, including the fish, the peacock, the lion or the snake. Each portrait in the manuscript assumes the fine decorations and vibrant colours of the Celtic insular art. There are decorated letters/litera historiata, fine decorations with zoomorphic initials, fresh colour symbolism, calligraphic flourishes, elaborated borders as well as pictorial narrations accompanying the text. Typically insular is the representation of Luke 16:3 words, folio 235v: “no servant can serve two masters” forming letter N two men were puling each other’s beard to represent the two masters The Book of Kells, p.66 or the oblique suggestion to the parable of the seed and the sower in folio 67r where there are drawn a cock and two hens. If the fish is the 2nd century symbol of Christ, the snake is the 4th century Celtic symbol of Christ’s resurrection due to its shed skin. Remarkable is the fact that lions occur throughout the text pages of the manuscript standing for both Christ and Mark Ibidem, p.54. The peacock, widely used in early Chrstian art, symbolizes Christ’s incorruptibility as its flesh does not putrefy. Above Christ’s head, in folio 32v, is placed a cross and flanked by two angels and two peacocks whose feet are entangled in vine scrolls which grows out of a chalice. Most of the animals are native species such is the otter, the moth, the cats and the mice playing a symbolic role; another symbolic animals are the hound and the hare, a she goat, a lizard, the wolf and the stag. It is said that stag stands for Christ confronting the devil in the guise of a serpent. Along the proximity animals of the monk, the artist, there are legendary animals, such as the griffins Ibidem, p.77, an elongated bird, a man with a fish’s tail and fins and foetal-like quatrupeds. He griffin represents the two evangelists carrying a double association of the eucharist, the bread and the wine Deutoronomy 29:6 You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. There is to be mentioned the Virgin and Child page where the angels have feminine appearance as well as in the representation of Lot’s wife (Luke 17.32) where one may size a feminine face to illustrate the return from the sepulcher of the women who had come with Christ from Galilee (Luke 24.9). In the 6th century, the southern insular Christianity originated in the Mediterranean monasticism through Theodore but guided by abbot Hadrian lest the former would introduce Greek perversities into the teaching of his church Sir Frank Stenton, Anglo Saxon England. That is why Roman Britain and Greek influence combined with the Celtic World in a very original way through a synthesis of symbols. In St. Catherine monastery on Mt. Sinai there are partially preserved mural paintings and icons from the 6th century which shows the abundant iconographical demand of religious worship as many of the portable icons were executed by monk-painters of the monastery. The themes focused on the depiction of the Buring Bush, when Moses received the Ten Commandmennts from God’s Hand, St. John Climacus, Ambraham’s sacrifice Justinian’s chapel bore the green cross-hatched pattern, decorated with green birds and red-brownish rosettes. There is a large Greek cross decorated with red and green precious stones ended in gold chains Euphrosyne Doxiadis, The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt, p. 69. The combination of symbolical birds, rosettes and stones may express the presence of the Holy Spirit and the precious sacrifice and life attained through the golden holy cross. The symbolical colours used here are deep blue, turquoise and in a lesser extend red, white, azure, green, black, yellow and pinkish-mauve. These are Latin and Greek calligraphic inscription and crowned engraved fleures-de-lys, the latter standing for the French origin of the gift brought to the monastery in the 14th century, during the time of Charles VI “the mad king” Ibidem, p. 267. The word icon comes from the Greek eikon meaning image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon. It illustrates, generally, a religious work of art, commonly a painting. It depicts a face, an edifice or a public personality recognized for certain qualities standing, thus for a symbol. The icon represents, through figurative meaning linked to religious, cultural, political or economic distinction, a cult, an adoration of a dear person (or persons) whose function was that of a sacred object of worship. Remarkable is that in the IV-th century the icon appeared as a living art of Christ: the liturgical vision of the mystery turned into image Paul Evdochimov, Arta icoanei, o telogie a frumusetii, p.154. The Paleo-Christian “portrait” is defined by its functions and we have to analyze the main factors: the rank or social position of the portrayed person and the use for which it was destined. Certainly, that time, there were Christian and non-Christian portraits. The public portraits functioned to identify the person as a member of a group such is administration, magistrates, offices, emperors, generally placed on a tomb. Then the portrait goes beyond the simple physical representation of the person as it happens in the private portraits and takes into account the greater number of co-ordinates such is accessories, costumes, space, landscape, gestures, dramatic actions Grabar, Andre, Christian Iconography, A Study of Its Origins p.62. These portraits may be grouped according to its function: with religious, political or social. The portrait of an emperor has a juridical value and bears the signs of a ruler through size, position, gesture, traits (the shape of the beard) and royal accessories. The Christian portraiture attested in a few literary testimonies related to the very early portraits disappeared but in the apocryphical Acts of the apostle John there is an account from the II-nd century related to the circumstances in which John’s portrait was executed. Lycomedes, John’s disciple , had a friend which was a painter who was asked to make John’s portrait, without the latter’s knowledge. Lycomedes took the portrait and crowned it with flowers above his bed. The garlands, candles and an altar set before the portrait. Lycomedes was still living in heathen fashion. John mentioned that that portrait “is childish and imperfect: thou hast drawn a dead likeness of the dead”. Eusebius, (Historiae eccesiasticae VII vviii) depended on earlier sources, described a scultored group which created what it was considered a representation of Christ curing the Haemorrhoissa Grabar, Andre, Christian Iconography, A Study of Its Origins p.63. “They say that the statue is a portrait of Jesus” and Eusebius added “we have learned also that the likeness of his apostles Paul and Peter, and of Christ himself, are preserved in paininting…the antient being accustomed …to pay this kind of honour indiscriminately to those regarded by them as deliverers Ibidem”. But, the early hagiographic stories tell us that the image of a Christian saint appeared in the dream or a vision Ibidem,, p.62. During the II-nd, III-rd until the IV-th century, the portraits of the apostles extended. At first on the commemorative of martyrdoms on bronze medallions, especially the apostle Peter and Paul grouped together, according to the Roman fashion of commemorative cult. They were sold to Christians who venerated the memory of Peter and Paul. Jesus’s image appeared quite early in evangelical scenes but not alone. It may be possible that the first generation of Christ may have conceived His physical appearance recorded as the commemorative image was an extremely modest piece. The image of apostles was prior that of Christ and then the order reversed. St. Peter is an example of the great official art as he is shown enthroned as a philosopher bearing the monogram of Christ and the cross. On the sarcophagus, St. Peter is shown as the Good Shepherd with the lamb on his shoulders. In II-rd/IV-th century commemorative portrait was accepted for the apostles but not for the Saviour. It is to be mentioned that on the sarcophagus there is a representation of the Passion of Christ. Once the transition from the Imperial triumphal model to Christian replica the Christian creations bear an iconographical language with various human, animal or abstract symbols Grabar, Andre, Christian Iconography, A Study of Its Origins p.48, including colours and precious metals or stones. The first images were initially based on both the Roman style of representation and on the Jewish Christian legend; such is the case in Moses’s miracle of obtaining a spring out from a rock. The image is transferred then to the 3rd century to represent St. Peter doing the same thing. The portrait of Christ, alone, appears after the Peace of the Church, except the first century recorded in the Gnostic’s texts lest it might have been suspicious of idolatry. Amazing is the discovery of a bust of Christ at Ostia whose resemblance goes to the 5th century, to the period of Theodosius I. The portrait bust shows Christ with long hair and beard in a gesture of benediction as He is depicted on in the fresco of a catacomb in Commodilla. Christ portrait appeared on the walls of catacombs or sarcophagus facades or in the apse of church, after the edict of tolerance. We notice a slight shift from collective portrait to individual ones on one hand, and from profane portraits taken as models, to sacred portraits taken as a healing for soul. On Mt. Sinai it the portrait of Christ and the apostles around their master appears enclosed in individual medallions “as if on shields hung against the walls” Ibidem, p.73 bearing the name of imagines clipeatae forming a 4th century composition. The small portraits, called Imago clipeata, was a pagan art from the beginning of the Christian imagery and present in the funeral portrait art, were found on the Roman sarcophagus within a circular disk or shell. Another image on amulets or flasks of the Holy Land is that of Christ and the apostles encircling the cross as a symbol of the Christian religion they were preaching. In the 7th century on wood portrait of St. Basil the Great is found on Mt Sinai and suggests that portraits were reproduced from the originals easel paining to the copies on the walls of a church. The fourth type of the portrait common in Christian art is that of the subject front standing having his two arms symmetrically raised in a gesture of prayer; this type of portrait originated from the orant portrait first used allegorically deriving from the symbol of piety; this shows a clear shift from symbol to portrait, from the symbol of piety to the portrait of pious man. This kind of portrait is present in St Agnes’s church in Rome, in St. George’s and St. Demetrius’s in Salonika. The Virgin Mary appears as an orant portrait symbolically depicted as the church on earth on a flask in Jerusalem, whose gesture of prayer signifies the Incarnation and the Redemption. Mother of God’s portrait received several symbolic interpretations known in iconography as Annunciation and Ascending. Another type of depicting Christ is that of universal sovereign enthroned majesty directing from heaven while the Christian prince is His lieutenants on earth and secures victory for him. Both the portrait of Christ and of the Virgin Mary originated in the official effiges of the sovereign, so called sacrae imagine of the Roman Empire. On Mt. Sinai was discovered a diptych showing Christ as emperor, the Virgin as the empress, St. John as second consul; this type of representation originated in the consular diptychs of the 6th century made in Rome or in Constantinople for the consul to be represented in his official loggia at the Circus presiding the games; his image represented in ivory, wood or metal panels. This image confirmed that imagery was influenced by the iconography of the magister. The Greek representation used the three ancient types of portrait: standing, full-length and bust. These iconographic formulae served as models for Greek icons in the Middle Ages. It is the case of Mt. Athos’s monasteries that contain such icons of immense help for the monks and pilgrims starting with the 12th century. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS The early Christian symbols appeared through the association with pagan world in a tendency to replace the polytheistic pagan religion with the monotheistic Christian religion. The Roman Empire played a crucial part in spreading Christianity and unity of the church as well as the scattering of Roman civilization together with the filtered new religion. There is an obvious shift from symbols to icons and from the official portraits to sacred portraits. The icon represents a visual theological history through symbols guided by perceptions and revelations as God’s presence is universal. The icon as a symbol is beyond art because it surpasses the physical dimension and attains the insightful dimension of human existence in a dialogue with the sacred. Bibliography: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, edited by Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford, 1969 Bibly, the Holy, New International Version, New York International Bible Society 1978 Doxiadis, Euphrosyne, The Mysterious Fayum Portraits, Faces from Ancient Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, 2000 Evdochimov, Paul, Arta icoanei, o telogie a frumusetii, Editura meridian, 1992 Grabar, Andre, Christian Iconography, A Study of Its Origins, Princeton University Press, 1961 Laining, Lloyd and Jennifer, Art of the Celts, Thames & Hudson, London, 2000 O’Connell, Mark and Airey, Raje, The Complete Encyclopedia of Signs& Symbols, Hermen House Petuchowski J. Jakob, Thoma, Clmens, Lexiconul Herder al intilnirii iudeo-crestine, Humanitas, 2000 Tristan, Frederick, Primele imagini crestine, De la symbol la icoana secolele II-VI, Arta si religie, Editura Meridiane, 2002 Wainwright, Geoffrey, Esterfield Karen B. Tucker, The Oxford History of Christian Worship, Oxford University Press, 2006 http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=bread+AND+WINE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_polytheism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon http://www.pretanicworld.com/Animals.html PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 1