Christianity Art/Artistic Expression
Christian art is considered to be a sacred art. The most common definition is that religious art is that which depicts biblical themes. Christian art uses themes and imagery from the Christian religion itself. The most common subjects on art were images of Jesus or scenes in which Jesus was involved in. In Roman Catholicism, images of Virgin Mary and saints are much more common.
While not directly representing the innermost Christian images, the theme of death and resurrection was represented through a series of images, many of which were derived from the Old Testament that echoed the themes Christianity uses way more visual representation than it's related religions such as Islam and Judaism where images of the sacred ones are forbidden. As Christianity gained converts of the religion, these new Christians had been brought up on the value of images in their previous cultural experience and they wanted to continue this with their Christian experience. Christian art originated around the same time Christianity arose. One of the oldest surviving Christian paintings are from Megiddo. This is located in Israel. And one of the oldest Christian sculptures are from sacrophagi, which is located in Egypt.A depiction of Jesus did not exist until the 6th century. Since then, the artistic appearance of Jesus in art has remained the same. From artist to artist, Jesus was always depicted as a white man with brown long hair, and these glorious, sparkling eyes. |