Understanding Early Christian Art (review)

Robin Margaret Jensen. Understanding Early Christian Art. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Pp. xii + 221. $25.00.

This is the book I wish had been available when I first started to pursue an interest in early Christian art. Here in one manageable and accessible volume is what it took me years to learn on my own and much more besides (since I remain very much an amateur in the field).

Jensen combines the methods and data of text historians and art historians. Considering the visual art and the contemporary written documents synoptically is surely the right approach. Art does not give historians access to a "popular" or "unofficial" expression of the Christian faith but was itself "a highly sophisticated, literate, and even eloquent mode of theological expression" (3). The visual is a counterpart to the verbal and served many purposes: decorative, illustrative, didactic, exegetical, symbolic, liturgical, and iconic. Early Christian art did not provide idols for worship nor attempt to represent the divine essence.

After an introductory chapter on the problems of the enterprise, Jensen organizes the material according to basic iconographical motifs that to some extent roughly correspond to the chronological development of themes in Chris-tian art. Chapter 2 considers symbols drawn from classical, pagan prototypes adapted to express aspects of Christian faith (orant, Good Shepherd, Orpheus or Helios, philosopher, fisher and fish, meal scenes, harvest of grain and grapes). To the discussion of Christ as Sun or Light (43) reference might be added to the early hymn Phos Hilaron and to the parallel between Christ and the sun in the fragment of Melito's On Baptism. The marking of a cross or plus sign on bread (53) resulted from scoring the loaf for baking and seems to have had no religious significance, for it occurs in non-Christian art and is still used on round loaves of bread in Greece. The "Fish of the Living" (plural--p. 51) may refer to the "living waters" (as in the quotation from Paulinus on p. 54), or "Fish" may be the acrostic and so may be read as "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior of the living ones." Jensen notes that some of these images may reflect biblical texts, liturgical practices, and expectations for the afterlife (61)--either one or all of these possibilities. Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria represent a parallel literary development in emphasizing similarities and continuity between Christian teachings and Hellenistic philosophy (62).

Chapter 3 considers biblical narratives that serve as pictorial typologies and visual exegesis. Old Testament scenes predominate. The depiction is often con-densed to the bare minimum necessary for the scene to serve as a symbol, but non-biblical details are often added to emphasize a certain meaning. To the possible liturgical sources for the scenes chosen might be added the readings and instruction in catechesis--Aimé-George Martimort, "L'iconographie des catacombes et las catéchèse antique," Rivista di archeologia cristiana 25 (1949): 105-14. There are certainly multiple layers of meaning in many of these scenes. The aspect of deliverance is often viewed as the common motif, but this may have been understood as spiritual salvation instead of deliverance in persecution. Jensen, in considering the sacramental associations, discusses baptism but not the eucharist. I note that Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 3.11.5 associates Jesus's miracles of multiplying the loaves and turning water into wine with "the food and drink for these last times" (the eucharist).

Chapter 4 turns from the metaphorical and narrative references to Christ to direct "Portraits of the Incarnate God." As a minor point, contrary to the assertion that no healing iconography associated with Asclepius has been found (123) there is a votive relief in the National Archeological Museum in Athens showing Asclepius healing a patient by placing a hand on him.

Chapter 5, on "Images of the Suffering Redeemer," points out that although depictions of crucifixion come late in Christian art, there were early indirect references (anchor...