art app

• Christianity and the Roman Empire

  Christianity and art
• Christianity and the Roman Empire

  1. Augustus Caesar and the Roman Empire

  2. Rome evolved from a republic to an empire

  3. Consolidated territories conquered by Julius Caesar

  4. Time of peace, maintained by a disciplined army and Roman governors and magistrates

  5. Cobble roads link colonies to Rome

  6. Products were abundant from colonies

  7. Greek culture is dominant

  8. Also maintained by force and taxes

  9. Governor/ Procurator, oversees a colony

  10. Legion, 3 000 – 5 200 soldiers, backs a governor

  11. Cohort, 360 soldiers

  12. Centurion, leads a smaller unit of 80 men

  13. Medicus, doctor

  14. Venator/ hunter, hunts game

  15. Praefectus castrorum, in charge of maintaining a camp and supplies

  16. Armors, cooks, other servants

  17. Castrum, a camp surrounded by a palisade wall, origin of the organizing principle in colonies
• Roman Religion


  • Based on the Greek Olympian gods
  • Worshipped in temples with offerings
  • Fanum, temple
  • Templum, grounds surrounding the temple
  • Pontifex, priest
  • Pontifex maximus, highest ranking priest
  • Cella, houses the image of a god
  • Ceremonies are held outdoors
  • Lares, familial gods, worshipped privately at home
  • Divus/ genius, spirit guide
• Mysteries


  • Religions brought to Rome with secret rites/ doctrines available only to members
  • Mystes, initiates
• Judaism and Christianity


  • Monotheists
  • Palestine
• Christianity


  • 1st century AD
  • Jesus
• Early Christian Church


  1. Rome is watchful of Judea and Palestine, sporadic revolts erupts

  2. Passover is especially watched

  3. Roman governors would go to Jerusalem

  4. Christian and Jews saw Christianity as a reformed branch of Judaism

  5. Persecuted by Orthodox Jews

  6. Christianity effectively separated itself from Judaism

  7. AD 70

  8. Destruction of the temple

  9. Jews fled Jerusalem

  10. Non-Jews and gentiles were converted

  11. First appealed to the poor and marginalized, message of liberation

  12. Later to the elite
• Early Christian Church


  • Early Christian house church
  • Catacombs
• Persecution of Christians


  1. Nero, AD 64, blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome

  2. Sporadic and Local, perceptions like cannibalism, incest, ancient gods would not be appeased

  3. Decius, AD 250, ordered the obligatory offering certified by a libellus

  4. Methods of martyrdom vary

  5. Continued until AD 313

  6. Edict of Milan, allowed the free exercise of religion

  7. Christianity, benefited the most, Constantine and Helena converted to Christianity
• Frescoes


  • Clandestine and hidden
  • Roman gods used as substitute to keep Christians away from persecution
  • Animal symbols used by Romans, adopted by Christians
  • Symbols, used to mark their presence
• Division of the Roman Empire

  1. Rome is difficult to be ruled

  2. Central power was divided

  3. Tetrarchy, established by Diocletian, four emperors

  4. Capitals, Rome in the west, Byzantium in the east

  5. Power struggle ensued

  6. Constantine, united the empire

  7. Byzantium, was made the capital and renamed Constantinople

  8. Helena, travelled to Judea and Palestine to locate places associated with Jesus

  9. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Papal Basilica of Saint Peter were built
• Church and Empire


  1. Christianity slowly becomes a world religion

  2. Church is not yet organized

  3. First church is a federation of communities

  4. Episkopos, oversees the federation

  5. Ecclesia, church, community, founded and guided until stable by the apostles and preachers

  6. Presbyteros, elders, axuiliaries to the overseers

  7. Deacons/ deaconesses, attends to the temporal needs of the community

  8. Council of Jerusalem

  9. The church learned the importance of tight organization

  10. Pentarchy, five major episcopal sees/ patriachs

  11. Decretals

  12. Council of Nicea
• Splendor of Byzantium


  Church ceremonials
• Architecture


  • Roman basilica
  • Byzantine church
• Visual Arts


  • Iconography/ icons
  • Minor arts
• Dome


  Became a signature of Eastern orthodoxy, evolved to become taller, onion shaped
• Christian mosaic icon


  • In the Hagia Sophia
• Jesus


  • Assumed the vesture and posture of Greco-Romans
• Byzantium


  Icons and mosaics flourished
• Iconography/icons


  • Image made in mosaic/ painted on panel/ textile using tempera and gold leaf then varnished
  • Depicted Catholic personalities and events
  • Small, for home and private devotion
  • Big, for churches
  • Independent or integrated in a screen called iconostasis
  • Follows a strict rule of composition
  • Identified by a Greek text
  • Avoids the illusion of depth to avoid idolatry
  • Values conservatism, orthodoxy
  • Enjoyed popularity until the Ottoman conquest
• Iconography/icons


  • Russia
  • Copts, Coptic language, own liturgy and music
  • Ethiopian, Underground churches, naif style
• Minor arts


  • Ivory bas-reliefs
  • Jewelry
  • Metal crosses
  • Sacred vessels
• Cloisonne


  Figure is created by welding metal > filling with sand/ silica > fired in a kiln > creating colored glass presenting figures
• Nuemes


  • Notes that are recorded on a four-line staff, free timing
  • Allowed extending of a single note
  • Allowed singing of biblical verses in uneven lengths in different languages
• East, depending on the rite followed
• West, Gregorian chants accompanied worship
• Church has tight control on music
• Popular music still developed
• Music notation


  • Allowed music to spread
  • Made singing easier
• Organum


  Plaincahnat supplemented at fixed intervals by another melodic line
• Motet


  More sophisticated, sacred at first, common theme is courtly love
• Instrumental music


  • Flutes, recorder, pan flute
  • String instruments, lute, madore, gittern, citole, psaltery
  • Dulcimer, initially plucked but later struck by tiny hammers
  • Lyra, urghun, salandj
• • Church systematized chants
  • Singers were sent around the Holy Roman empire to teach chants
  • Regional liturgies were standardized
  • Ambrosian, Mozarabic retained

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• Dance hardly figured in church worship
• Folk dances


  • Ring, dancers form a circle
  • Chain, dancers are linked by hand
  • Carole/ carola
  • Rondet/ rondel/ reigen, dancers form a ring, a leader directs singing, the rest sing in refrain
• Greco-Roman plays persisted but later denounced
• Church drama


  • Late middle ages, churches started dramatizing biblical scenes
  • Quem quaeritis?, earliest known drama, about the resurrection
  • Everyman, about death
  • Ordo virtutum, struggle of the human soul against the devil
  • Played twice at most per year
  • 12th century, emergence of street plays
  • Laypersons now play roles
• Theatre guilds


  • Product of development
  • English kings, maintained small acting troupes
  • Mystery, common theme
  • Locals became actors
  • Pageant wagon, type of mobile staging
• Religious plays declined, Greco-Roman plays reemerged, Monarchy now finance plays, Creative storytelling, new staging options, Comedy, gaining popularity
• Iconoclasm


  • Church was rocked by iconoclastic controversy
  • Iconoclasts, prohibition of icons
  • Iconodules, defender of icons
  • John Damascene/ of Damascus
  • Artistic consequence, destruction of many icons