| The human mind remembers primarily through impressions because images leave impressions on an individual’s memory. Beginning from Megiddo, dated to around the year 70 to primitive paintings that were found in the Catacombs around Rome to icons seen at St.Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai, early Christianity saw the emergence of pictorial representations as human beings experimented primarily with religious symbolism as a means of expression in their artistic works. In the 3rd century A.D. an emergence of Christian Art and culture evolved and from that point on, various art forms began to surface. These art forms grew in their religious symbolism and were undertaken as a means of propagating religious teachings enabling the parables of Jesus Christ to gain significance in cultural traditions and giving way to personification. Symbols such as the fish denoted Christianity and the lamb denoted the innocent Jesus Christ. Graffiti paintings were the basic art forms that were used during this time period.
The central theme of these early paintings were images that were focused on the life of Jesus Christ, images depicting His birth, crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead. Stations of the Cross and the Virgin Mary became more common. It is through these paintings that the stories related to Jesus Christ were beautifully presented to the culture at large. Scenes from the Old Testament were also painted by many artists during the early period of Christianity and were a major part of these paintings straight through to the beginning stages of the Renaissance period and into the protestestant movement which gave way to secular artistic works.
In mid stages of the Renaissance period the emergence of secular artistry as compared to the prominent religious themes were dominant factors. Artist’s switched to secular genres such as portraits, landscapes paintings etc., and strange subjects from classical mythology gained more importance than religious subject matters. The modern era saw diverse experimentation in the form of realism, impressionism, and cubism in paintings, sending the iconic religious symbols to the background. Although art forms may come and go, the end of the 20th century experienced somewhat of a revival of these themes.
A revival of the early religious symbolism can be seen in modern paintings. A trend to re-establish art with themes that revolve around faith, Christ, God, the Church and the Bible has been rekindled in the 21st century. Artists such as Gary P.Bergel, Carlos Cazares, Makoto Fujimura, Bruce Herman, Deborah Sokolove, and John August Swanson are working towards the revival of this art form.
With such a saga and legacy behind Christian Art Paintings, every lover of art and Christ will feel innately inclined towards these paintings. |
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