Christian art

A mosaic from Daphni Monastery in Greece (ca. 1100), showing the midwives bathing
the new-born Christ.
Christian art is sacred art which uses themes and imagery from Christianity. Most
Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong
objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods of
iconoclasm within Christianity.
Images of Jesus and narrative scenes from the Life of Christ are the most common
subjects, and scenes from the Old Testament play a part in the art of most
denominations. Images of the Virgin Mary and saints are much rarer in Protestant
art than that of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Christianity makes far wider use of images than related religions, in which
figurative representations are forbidden, such as Islam and Judaism. However, there
is also a considerable history of aniconism in Christianity from various periods.
History
Beginnings
Main article: Early Christian art and architecture

Virgin and Child. Wall painting from the early catacombs, Rome, 4th century.
Early Christian art survives from dates near the origins of Christianity. The
oldest Christian sculptures are from sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 2nd
century. The largest groups of Early Christian paintings come from the tombs in the
Catacombs of Rome, and show the evolution of the depiction of Jesus, a process not
complete until the 6th century, since when the conventional appearance of Jesus in
art has remained remarkably consistent.
Until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style
and much of its iconography from popular Roman art, but from this point grand
Christian buildings built under imperial patronage brought a need for Christian
versions of Roman elite and official art, of which mosaics in churches in Rome are
the most prominent surviving examples. Christian art was caught up in, but did not
originate, the shift in style from the classical tradition inherited from Ancient
Greek art to a less realist and otherworldly hieratic style, the start of gothic
art.
Middle Ages
Main article: Medieval art

12th-century Byzantine mosaics of the Hagia Sophia showing the image of Christ
Pantocrator.
Much of the art surviving from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire is
Christian art, although this in large part because the continuity of church
ownership has preserved church art better than secular works. While the Western
Roman Empire's political structure essentially collapsed after the fall of Rome,
its religious hierarchy, what is today the modern-day Roman Catholic Church
commissioned and funded production of religious art imagery.
The Orthodox Church of Constantinople, which enjoyed greater stability within the
surviving Eastern Empire was key in commissioning imagery there and glorifying
Christianity. As a stable Western European society emerged during the Middle Ages,
the Catholic Church led the way in terms of art, using its resources to commission
paintings and sculptures.
During the development of Christian art in the Byzantine Empire (see Byzantine
art), a more abstract aesthetic replaced the naturalism previously established in
Hellenistic art. This new style was hieratic, meaning its primary purpose was to
convey religious meaning rather than accurately render objects and people.
Realistic perspective, proportions, light and color were ignored in favor of
geometric simplification of forms, reverse perspective and standardized conventions
to portray individuals and events. The controversy over the use of graven images,
the interpretation of the Second Commandment, and the crisis of Byzantine
Iconoclasm led to a standardization of religious imagery within the Eastern
Orthodoxy.