CHRISTIAN ART (ESIILY). While it is easy to show when and how Christian art began, it is not easy to say when it ended—if it has ended. In the nomenclature of art history, however, the term early Christian art is gen erally accepted as describing the monuments pro duced under the influence of the Christian reli gion before the year SOO, when Charles the Great was crowned Emperor of the West, an event which may be said to have inaugurated a new period in the history of the Middle Ages. It is. therefore, Christian art before its medieval form was developed, it still retains much of antique tradition. It falls into three divi sions: (1) Pre-Constantinian (-.100-312) ; (2) from Constantine to Justinian (e.312-550) : (31 Justinian to Charlemagne. The first period is mainly illustrated by the Roman catacombs, and shows: art in embryo; the second can be studied principally in the great basilicas and other churches of Italy, though the few examples at'all well preserved in the East show that art was there quite as advanced: the third is illus trated in both East and \Vest, but the decadence which is so evident, so finally fatal to artistic life in the Rest, is far less apparent in the East, whose monument's are more numerous and mag nifieent.
An•ilerEcTilw. There was very little opportu nity for anything characteristic in the archit CP ture of the early Christians. Constantine in :313 gave Christians freedom to erect places of wor ship. All that remains of early Christian art before this date is described in the article on C'amcrovnc.• The style formed in the Fourth Century is called because this name was given to the large churches that were by far the most important monuments erected. Christian architects faced the problem of creat ing a large interior for worshiping multitudes, in contrast with ancient worship, which was in the open air. In pagan temples nearly all the artistic efforts had been concentrated on the exteriors. Christian art neglected the exterior, leaving it of Imre brick, conditioned in its form entirely by the interior arrangement and propor tions. The arrangements of these churehes are elsewhere described. (Sec 13.1simcA; Arse; TRANSEPT; -ATRIUM: NAVE; AISLE; ALTAR: C1101 R : CONFESSION. ) Structurally they were of little importance. No rivalry with the great domed and vaulted halls of the Roman imperial baths was attempted. The interiors were roofed, thin brick walls had simple doors and windows. The general composition was good— columnar vestibule to a encircling wall; square open court or atrium: open porch with three doors leading into an oblong interior divid ed into three or five aisles by rows of columns, supporting either a straight architrave or a line of archcs. The dominant note of the interiors not form, light, and shade, but color, given by mosaic paintings (see Mos:tics) or frescoes (see FnEsco) on the walls and rich hangings be tween the columns. (Sec IlAxotacs.) This is what might be termed the official style, prevalent throughout Italy and in Greek lands, but else where other ideals prevailed. The following schools may he distinguished: (1) lloman—in Rome, Milan, and most Italian cities; in south ern Gaul; and in Rhenish Germany. (2) Grwco Roman—with decided Hellenic and Oriental in fluences, in several cities of Italy, where this element was strong, as in Ravenna and Naples: in the Adriatic province, of Istria and Dalmatia; and in Greece proper and the Balkan Peninsula. (3) Asia Minor; with use of stone and of vault ing, with heavier proportion, and differences in plan. (4) Syria. especially in the ruined cities of the Ifauran, and regions of Antioch and Dania,• sus, where stone styles of great originality were developed. (5) Egypt, where the•Christian Copts drew both from ancient Egyptian and from Hel lenic Christian models. Gil Northern Africa, especially the present Algeria and Tunis, where the French excavations have brought to light a large number of early churches, but all in ruins. In these the earliest works were nearly always the finest, because in the Fourth Century the Roman Empire was still comparatively flourishing, and Imperial funds were lavishly used in building and decorating churches. The Church itself was far fisher than during the barbarian inroads. The early Christian style lasted much longer in the West than in the East or in Grecee, because the decay in the West caused by the barbarian in vasions prevented the developments and changes that were possible in the East, where civilization continued uninterruptedly at a high level. bi Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Germany it ruled far into the Middle Ages, the basilica] type of church prevailing in many parts until the Twelfth Cen tury. But in the Orient, where it never had so uniform a type, it gradually gave way to what is termed the Byzantine style. In Salonica Thessalonica). which dame next to Constanti nople as a Greek centre. the wooden - celled churches eontinued to he built side by side with the dionical ones until the Eighth and Ninth centuries. ]feet elsewhere. as early as the Sev enth Century. the flimsier wooden-roofed style had been entirely superseded by the llyzantine vaulted structures. Thu following, are sonic of the basilieas which remain wholly or in part: In Rome—Santa Maria Maggiore (Fifth Cen tury), San Paolo fuore li 31nri (Fifth), Santa Sabina (Fifth). San Pietro in Vine()li (Fifth),
San Lorenzo (Sixth, old part I. Sant' Agnese (Seventh), Santa -Maria in Cosmedia (Eighth), Santa Prassede (Ninth), San Martino di Monti (Ninth ). In Ravenna—San reodoro Fifth). San Francesco (Fifth), San Apol linare Nuovo (Sixth), San Apollinare in Chasse. In Spolet.)—San Agostino. In Perugia—San l'ietro. Also on the Adriatic basilicas: in Parenzo, Pola. Grath), all of the Sixth In Con st a ntinoide—Sa int John ( Fifth ) . In Betide hem—Chureh of the Nativity. In Salonica Saint Demetrius. In Syria, such a multitude of churehes. from the Basilica of Shagg.a. in the Fourth Century. to the Church of Saint Simeon, in Kalat in the Sixth Century, that enumeration would be impossible. in nearly all these buildings. and in many others of less im portance or poorer preservation, the one official type (see BASILICA ) is followed. The differences are mainly in the common use by Greek and Eastern churches of the gallery for women over the side aisles. of double capitals over the col umns, of polygonal apses, and of a modification of the old Corinthian and ionic orders that led up to Byzantine ornament. In fact,. from the beginning. architecture in the East was tending toward the Byzantine. If one were to select a half-dozen out of all the remaining early basili cas as the finest and best-preserved examples of the style, these would be: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem: Santa Maria \laggiore. Santa Sa bina. and Santa Prassede, Rome: the two San Apollinares in Ravenna; and the cathedral in Parenzo. They have preserved a great part of their original decoration, as well as their archi tecture. There was another important class of early Christian buildings, the baptisteries, chap els. sacristies. mausoleums, and other religious structures, that were built not on an oblong, but on a concentric plan—that is, buildings that were circular, polygonal, or even equilaterally cruciform. These buildings are of course com parable to Roman structures like the Pantheon, the Temple of Vesta or Minerva Modica, or the vaulted halls in the baths; but they were never so bold or on so large a scale. At first even ehurches were sometimes built in this form (Antioch; San Stefano Rotondo, Rome: Saint George, Salonica) : but this was found im practicable for liturgical reasons, and it was thenceforth confined to other religions and funer ary structures. Some were square externally and octagonal internally, by means of niches, like the two baptisteries in Ravenna and that in Kalat Siman ; some purely circular, like Saint (]gorge in Salonica. In these eases the dome rests upon the outer wall, hut in the more developed and monumental examples it rests upon a row of columns, and is surrounded by a concentric aisle imitated from the straight aisles of the basiliea, and covered by a lower roof. Sometimes both dome and aisles are of masonry, as in Santa Costanza in Rome and S•ina Maria Maggiore in Nocera—both of thorn of circular plan; at other times, with lighter walls and higher proportions, the coverings are of wood, as in the Lateran baptistery in Rome, which is octagonal. and San Stefano Rotondo, which is circular and with two aisles. The type with dome and vaults of stone, brick, or tile in the hands of Eastern architects connects in the sixth Century with the early stages of the By zantine style, especially when the dome is placed on a square plan, and thus, mid by means of an p-e added at one end, a hbrtil is produced easily used as a chureh. This is the case with the Cathedral of Ilozra and Saint George in Ezra in Syria. and with Saints Scrgius and Bacchus in Constantinople. Some of the buildings have galleries (ATI' the aisles.
For civil buildings of this period, we must go to the Syrian cities, where there remain thou sands of houses, halls, colonnades, sepulchral monuments, all well built in stonework, and telling us as much of contemporary life as Pom peii does for the previous centuries.
In so far as materials of construction are con cerned, bricks were the common material in the West. including the Greek provinces. and this precluded sculptured decoration, because no mar ble facing was used. But in the Orient, espe cially in Syria, local stone replaced brick, and there is a great deal of good sculptural detail. Pere also the normal types of the classic orders, slavishly followed further west, are varied by many new which are not only connected with Persian and Byzantine ornament, but seem to foreshadow Romanesque and Gothic foliage and ornament. It is in Syria also that the greatest lariety and inventiveness of architectural plan, composition, and form are shown. The master piece of the school is the monastery of Saint Simeon in Kalat-Simau.
IlEammatarit Y. For systema tic treat ment: flolizinger, Die ultehristliehe Arehitektur (Stutt gart, ISS9) ; Dehio and Von Bezold, Die kireh ache Buukunst des A bend/a/ides ( St uttgart, ISS4) ; Essenwein, Der ehristliche Kireltenbau ( Frankfort-on-the-Main, 'SSG) ; Kraus, Geschich te der ch•istliehen Kunst (Freiburg. 189(1) ; and for plates; 11fibseh, Die ultehri8tlichen Kirehen (Karlsruhe. 1859-63) ; also French edition, Monu ments do rarehitecture ehraienne ( Paris, ISfi0) ; for Syria: De Vogiii2, .eyrie Centrale (Paris, 1865).