The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus
Author: Elizabeth Struthers Malbon
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1400861306

Carved for a Roman city prefect who was a newly baptized Christian at his death, the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus is not only a magnificent example of "the fine style" of mid-fourth-century sculpture but also a treasury of early Christian iconography clearly indicating the Christianization of Rome--and the Romanization of Christianity. Whereas most previous scholarship has focused on the style of the sarcophagus, Elizabeth Struthers Malbon explores the perplexing elements of its iconography in their fourth-century context. In so doing she reveals the distinction between "pagan" and Christian images to be less rigid than sometimes thought. Against the background of earlier and contemporary art and religious literature, Malbon explicates the relationship of the facade's two levels of scenes depicting stories from the Old and New Testaments, the connection between the scenes on the facade with those on the lid and ends of the sarcophagus, and the integration of pagan elements within a Christian work. What emerges is a carefully constructed iconographic program shedding light on the development of early Christian art within late antique culture. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Clash of Gods

The Clash of Gods
Author: Thomas F. Mathews
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2022-09-13
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0691246998

Between the third and sixth centuries, the ancient gods, goddesses, and heroes who had populated the imagination of humankind for a millennium were replaced by a new imagery of Christ and his saints. Thomas Mathews explores the many different, often surprising, artistic images and religious interpretations of Christ during this period. He challenges the accepted theory of the "Emperor Mystique," which, interpreting Christ as king, derives the vocabulary of Christian art from the propagandistic imagery of the Roman emperor. This revised edition contains a new preface by the author and a new chapter on the origin and development of icons in private domestic cult.

Understanding Early Christian Art

Understanding Early Christian Art
Author: Robin M. Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135951772

Understanding Early Christian Art is designed for students of both religion and of art history. It makes the critical tools of art historians accessible to students of religion, to help them understand better the visual representations of Christianity. It will also aid art historians in comprehending the complex theology, history and context of Christian art. This interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking approach will enable students in several fields to further their understanding and knowledge of the art of the early Christian era. Understanding Early Christian Art contains over fifty images with parallel text.

Early Christian & Byzantine Art

Early Christian & Byzantine Art
Author: John Lowden
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Total Pages: 458
Release: 1997-04-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780714831688

An authoritative account of early Christian and Byzantine art.

Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art

Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art
Author: Robert Couzin
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2021-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004448713

Robert Couzin’s Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art provides the first in-depth study of handedness, position, and direction in the visual culture of Europe and Byzantium from the fourth to the fourteenth century.

Let the Reader Understand

Let the Reader Understand
Author: Edwin K. Broadhead
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2018-03-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567684164

This book honors the extraordinary contribution of Elizabeth Struthers Malbon to biblical studies. In the opening chapter, Werner Kelber places Malbon's work within the larger context of critical reflection, from antiquity to the modern era, on the role and function of discourse. Kelber locates Malbon's approach squarely within the framework of modernity and concludes that her “supremely creative achievement has been the employment of modern, narrative critical tools with a view toward uncovering the fecundity of the gospel of Mark.” Drawing from and conversing with Professor Malbon's extensive publications, each of the five sections engages a theme from her works, focusing particularly on the Gospel of Mark. This tribute includes meaning as narrative, issues in methodology, studies in characterization, narrative readings of specific texts, and aesthetic and political readings. Contributors include: Werner H. Kelber; R. Alan Culpepper; Kelly R. Iverson; Mikeal C. Parsons; David Barr; David J.A. Clines; Robert C. Tannehill; J. Cheryl Exum; Heidi Hornik and Richard Walsh.

The Language of Art

The Language of Art
Author: Moshe Barasch
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1997-04
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780814712559

The argument moves from the art and civilization of ancient Egypt to that of modern Europe and effortlessly reveals a full and surprising range of language in art - from the magical to the impious, from the ambiguous to the didactic, scientific, and propagandistic.

Rome the Cosmopolis

Rome the Cosmopolis
Author: Catharine Edwards
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2006-11-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780521030113

A collection of essays exploring key aspects of the relationship between Rome and its empire.

The Traditio Legis

The Traditio Legis
Author: Robert Couzin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Art, Early Christian
ISBN: 9781784910815

This monograph engages in a close reading of the traditio legis, highlighting its novelty and complexity to early Christian viewers. The image is analyzed as a conflation of two distinct forms of representation, each constructed of unusual and potentially multivalent elements.

Jesus the Magician

Jesus the Magician
Author: Smith, Morton
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2014-08-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 157174715X

"A twentieth-century classic, uncannily smart, incredibly learned."--from the foreword by Bart Ehrman This book challenges traditional Christian teaching about Jesus. While his followers may have seen him as a man from heaven, preaching the good news and working miracles, Smith asserts that the truth about Jesus is more interesting and rather unsettling. The real Jesus, only barely glimpsed because of a campaign of disinformation, obfuscation, and censorship by religious authorities, was not Jesus the Son of God. In actuality he was Jesus the Magician. Smith marshals all the available evidence including, but not limited to, the Gospels. He succeeds in describing just what was said of Jesus by "outsiders," those who did not believe him. He deals in fascinating detail with the inevitable questions. What was the nature of magic? What did people at that time mean by the term "magician"? Who were the other magicians, and how did their magic compare with Jesus' works? What facts led to the general assumption that Jesus practiced magic? And, most important, was that assumption correct? The ramifications of Jesus the Magician give new meaning to the word controversial. This book recovers a vision of Jesus that two thousand years of suppression and polemic could not erase. And--what may be the central point of the debate--Jesus the Magician strips away the myths and legends that have obscured Jesus, the man who lived.