Judith Couchman ~ Living with Purpose & Passion
  • About Judith
  • Enduring Books
  • Free Resources
  • Contact Judith

The Art of Faith 
 Exploring Sacred Images
Scroll down to read the blog.

xx

Visit the Living on Purpose Blog

3 ~ Early Faith, Mystery Art

7/26/2012

10 Comments

 
Picture
The Donkey Graffiti from Palatine Hill
One of the earliest forms of Christian art wasn’t a painting, a sculpture, or even a catacomb fresco. It was a patch of graffiti on plaster, discovered in the Poedagogium on Rome’s Palatine Hill and dated to around 200 A.D. Imperial teachers used the Poedagogium building to educate the emperor’s staff, and perhaps an idle student etched the crude artwork. The drawing depicted a man with an ass’s head, nailed to a cross. Viewed from behind, the crucified man turned to the left and looked down at a youth with a raised arm. An inscription underneath the cross figure claimed in Greek, “Alexamenos worships his god.”
        
Art historians disagree whether the scrawled words should be interpreted as a Christian’s profession of faith or a pagan’s scorn. On the one hand, Jesus rode on an ass, so this animal became an important symbol for early Christians. From this perspective, some suggest drawing the crucified Christ with a donkey’s head paid
homage to a hailed Savior. On the other hand, most observers recognized the inscription as a taunt from someone who mis- understood the new religion. In early Christianity, a rumor circulated Rome that Christians worshiped the head of an ass.
       
What was the true meaning? Only the graffiti artist knew for sure.
       
During the same era, pagans, Jews, and early Christians carved deep recesses in the soft tufa rock shaping the outskirts of Rome. From the third to fifth centuries, survivors often painted these catacomb walls with images that represented the deceased, and images of a person in prayer, the orans (Latin for “praying”), decorated several catacombs. The orans figure populated Late Antiquity, usually depicted as a standing, veiled woman with her hands outstretched and gazing toward heaven. It’s not always clear, however, whether an orans figure represented a pagan, Jewish, or Christian worshiper. Each religious group used this stance as a prayer posture. 
         
Old Testament Jews spread their hands in prayer. From the desert of Judah, David prayed, “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands” (Ps. 63:4). When a pagan orans lifted up her hands, she expressed “the affectionate respect due to the state, to a ruler, to the family, or to God.” Because early Christians were Jewish, they naturally practiced this stance. The apostle Paul advised the earliest Christians: “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing” (1 Tim. 2:8, NIV 1984), and early church literature recorded the widespread practice of this prayer position. 
        
Consequently, the famous orans in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome doesn’t own a clear interpretation of her origin or beliefs. As much as art historians argue one interpretation or the other, nobody knows for sure.
       
Like the Palatine graffiti and the catacomb orans, some of the earliest years of Christianity and its art linger in ambiguity. Even more mysterious, it doesn’t appear early Christians produced art for two centuries of the faith. As far as we know, with a few exceptions of signs and symbols, Christian art didn’t appear until the early third century. Nobody knows the exact reason for this omission, and at any moment a new archaeological discovery could prove this assumption wrong.
         
Just as we can’t precisely pinpoint why Christian art didn’t exist in the earliest years of Christianity, we don’t know exactly why it appeared around 200 A.D. But when paintings from this growing religion emerged from underground Roman catacombs, Christian art never turned up absent again.  

Some people feel uncomfortable that early Christian art sometimes shared images with other religions. They think this either proves Christianity as a “borrowed religion” or taints its purity. What do you think?
10 Comments
Jeanette
7/26/2012 01:13:50 am

I love that one of the earliest pieces found of Christian art looks like a refrigerator drawing. I love that it pictures a fellow worshipping with the ass with the words that read like a tattle (that maybe he is . . . well, you know . . . one too). I don't know that symbols from other religions make the art, the expression any less powerful. We're all a mix of the mess we come from and the miracle God would make us. We're each on a godward journey, in which God beckons and calls and pulls us like the moon for a moth. Each expression in art of that journey reminds me how much we need him. I love the Psalm of David you mention [“I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands” (Ps. 63:4)], and you make me think, Judy, that even the dumb rocks and still trees reach for God--how Jesus said all would praise him, if we did not (Luke 19:28-40). You're making me think, then, how each expression of art is maybe that: praise offered from what we have, where we are at the moment, and, like us, imperfect but true just the same.

Reply
Judy Couchman link
7/26/2012 04:13:15 am

Beautifully and thoughtfully posted, Jeanette. I think your post is better than mine. :-)

Reply
click this link link
6/9/2013 09:38:05 pm

Thank you for the writing about The Donkey Graffiti from Palatine Hill. It is hard to find writings and paintings of this much age. But I found some English alphabets along with the picture that is strange. No one can predict its true meaning.

Reply
writing a press release for an event link
9/17/2013 07:38:28 pm

Acknowledge you for sharing your info furthermore your blog; this is pure, besides terrific piece moreover visualize this website. I hold perpetual seen, I similar it I retain scholarly something today! Blesss for notify.

Reply
mightystudents link
9/23/2013 01:42:21 pm

If there's one thing I am always reminded by my mom, is to respect every saints that has been giving praise by other people. Respect begets respect.

Reply
personal statement doctor link
9/24/2013 09:05:40 pm

I assume this web website includes some rattling amazing info for everyone . This is an age in which a single cannot locate common sense with out a research warrant. by George Will.

Reply
paraphrase for me link
10/4/2013 08:31:49 am

I really like this post, i enjoy every minute reading it. It's cool, that author decided to write on this theme. I would like to read another post this author with great pleasure. It might be really interesting.

Reply
programming homework help link
10/20/2013 07:00:12 pm

Preference the Palatine graffiti besides the catacomb orans, part of the original years of Christianity plus its vocation dillydally in obscure. Unvarying another mysterious, it doesn’t arrive primordial Christians produced knack for twin centuries of the sect. As widely as we recognize, along a limited complaints of placards also attributes, Christian vocation didn’t arise until the primordial third age. Pipsqueak understands the ceremonious logic for this blank, moreover at some consequence a additional archaeological breakthrough could authenticate this premise unfair.

Reply
https://www.usacheckcashingstore.com/san-diego link
8/5/2017 10:14:33 pm

Online applications make it conceivable to present your credit application whenever for the duration of the day; be that as it may, handling times are speediest amid typical business hours.

Reply
Washington Sex Meetings link
11/22/2022 09:46:16 pm

This is awesoome

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Get The Art of Faith
    blog postings by email.
    Sign up below.

    judith@judithcouchman.com

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Blog Author

    Judith Couchman is an author, speaker, and college art-history instructor. Her recent book release is The Art of Faith: A Guide to Understanding Christian Images (Paraclete Press). Scroll down to view the book cover and video trailer.


    Archives

    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All
    Art Techniques
    Christ's Face
    Cross Images
    Early Christian Art
    Early Christian Artists
    Eastern (Byzantine) Christian Art
    Florence Cathedral
    Icons
    Illuminated Manuscripts
    Michelangelo
    Mosaics
    Painting
    Power Of Images
    Reformation
    Santa Costanza
    Sculpture
    Trinity
    Working With Our Hands


    A Sampling of Books
    by Judith Couchman


    Picture
    The Art of Faith: A Guide to Understanding Christian Images by Judith Couchman. Click on the photo to purchase the book through Paraclete Press.
    Picture
    The Mystery of the Cross by Judith Couchman. Inspirational readings about images of Christ's cross and how early believers used and respected this sign. Click on the photo to purchase from InterVarsity Press.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.