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The basis for the Western world's division of time has, since the ninth century, been measured by the advent of the lifetime of the religious and debatably historical figure of Jesus Christ. What was commonly called "A.D." from anno dominum ("the year of our lord") has shifted to "C.E." (for "common era") in modern scholarship, but the division and measuring of time itself from this fixed point has remained identical. For Western civilization, the advent of a Christian era defined virtually every aspect of life and society through the subsequent centuries; to even begin to address those myriad ways is far beyond the scope of this course. Instead, we look at the earliest appearances of Christian artwork, their forms, and nascent iconographies in the early centuries of this "common era" and observe the earliest foundation being laid for what ultimately become the dominant content and style of artwork in the West for the next millennium.This course covers the earliest images of Christianity from signs and symbols to the appearance (and identity) of images of Christ and Mary. We take an in-depth look at artworks from Rome, as well as from the territories of Roman Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, as we trace the development of forms which would become the icons of one of the major religions of the world. The full picture of early Christian art is as much what it is not as much as it is. It is not images of suffering, of the torturous death of Christ, of ghastly and shocking images of violence. It is not images which intend to provoke guilt, frighten, or otherwise emotionally manipulate its viewers. All of that would come out in full force in the Medieval Period, but for the time being, as another historian put it, that would hardly have attracted converts in antiquity.

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