The beginnings of any historical movement are bound to be mysterious. So it is with Christianity, and so it is with Christian art. Into the ordered world of late classicism came the arresting voice and disturbing gaze of men "heavy with conscience" for whom art was only a medium for higher truth. André Grabar traces the emergence of this art from its pagan background and shows the social and spiritual forces that governed its growth. "Early Christian Art" covers a vast area (from Spain to Syria) and a vast theme (since content and meaning are inseparable from expression). Chapters are devoted to painting and sculpture during the persecutions, to the great Roman basilicas and Old St. Peter's, to the mosaics of Saint Costanza and to the haunting and still too little known sarcophaguses of the 4th century. The book also includes a section of ancient texts relating to art, a chronological table and a glossary-index, and the whole work is the fruition of a great scholar's life-work. -- From publisher's description.