Early Christian art, also called Paleo-Christian art or primitive Christian art,
architecture, painting, and sculpture from the beginnings of Christianity until about the early 6th century, particularly the art of Italy and the western Mediterranean. (Early Christian art in the eastern part of the Roman Empire is usually considered to be part of Byzantine art.) The Christian religion was part of a general trend in the late Roman Empire toward mysticism and spirituality. As Christianity developed, its art reflected the prevailing late antique artistic climate. Except for differences in subject matter, Christian and pagan works looked much the same; in fact, it is possible to show that the same workshop sometimes produced sculpture for both Christian and non-Christian purposes.
The earliest identifiably Christian art consists of a few 2nd-century wall and ceiling paintings in the Roman catacombs (underground burial chambers), which continued to be decorated in a sketchy style derived from Roman impressionism through the 4th century. They provide an important record of some aspects of the development of Christian subject matter. The earliest Christian iconography tended to be symbolic. A simple rendering of a fish was sufficient to allude to Christ. Bread and wine invoked the Eucharist. During the 3rd and 4th centuries, in the catacomb paintings and in other manifestations, Christians began to adapt familiar pagan prototypes to new meanings. The early figural representations of Christ, for instance, most often show him as the good shepherd by directly borrowing from a classical prototype. He was also sometimes depicted in the guise of familiar gods or heroes, such as Apollo or Orpheus. Only later, when the religion itself had achieved some measure of earthly power, did he take on more exalted attributes. Narratives tended at first to be typological, often suggesting parallels between the Old and New Testaments. The earliest scenes from the life of Christ to be depicted were the miracles. The Passion, particularly the Crucifixion itself, was generally avoided until the religion was well established.
The beginnings of Early Christian art date to the period when the religion was yet a modest and sometimes persecuted sect, and its flowering was possible only after 313, when the Christian emperor Constantine the Great decreed official toleration of Christianity. Subsequent imperial sponsorship brought the religion popularity, riches, and many converts from all classes of society. Suddenly the church needed to produce art and architecture on a more ambitious scale in order to accommodate and educate its new members and to reflect its new dignity and social importance.
Churches and shrines were soon being built throughout the empire, many sponsored by Constantine himself. These buildings were usually five-aisled basilicas, such as Old St. Peter’s in Rome, or basilican-plan buildings centring upon a round or polygonal shrine, such as that in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Large-scale sculpture was not popular, but relief sculpture on sarcophagi, such as that of Junius Bassus (died 359), and ivory carvings and book covers continued to be produced. The walls of the churches were decorated with paintings or mosaics to instruct the faithful. The church of Sta. Maria Maggiore in Rome has an extensive mosaic program of Old and New Testament scenes that was begun in 432. Painting also illustrated liturgical books and other manuscripts.
The art of this period had its roots in the classical Roman style, but it developed into a more abstract, simplified artistic expression. Its ideal was not physical beauty but spiritual feeling. The human figures thus became types rather than individuals and often had large, staring eyes, “the windows of the soul.” Symbols were frequently used, and compositions were flat and hieratic, in order to concentrate on and clearly visualize the main idea. Although the art of the period intentionally departed from earlier naturalism, it sometimes has great power and immediacy.