Early Christian Art Research Paper

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Early Christian art and architecture is the art produced by Christians or under Christian patronage from the earliest period of Christianity to, depending on the definition used, sometime between 260 to 525. In practice identifiably Christian art only survives from the 2nd century onwards. After 550 at the latest, Christian art is classified as Byzantine, or of some other regional type. Early Christians used the same artistic media as the surrounding pagan culture. These media included fresco, mosaics, sculpture, and manuscript illumination. Early Christian art not only used Roman forms, it also used Roman styles. Early Christians adapted Roman motifs and gave new meanings to what had been pagan symbols. Early Christians also developed their …show more content…

The sixteen centuries of its existence, as pagan monument, Christian church and Moslem house of worship, have left their trances on it. The building stood in a spacious precinct that ended at east and west in an exedra. It has a unique for Greece, circular shape. The cylindrical wall which is 6.30 m thick up to the base of the dome, was constructed of rubble masonry, strengthened at intervals by wide zones of brickwork. Its internal diameter is 24.50 m and height 29.80. The dome and arches are built solely of brick. On the projection of its axis on the floor there was a drainage well to lead off rain-water. The roof is articulated on three levels. The building has heavy, unarticulated exterior, while the interior is relieved by a large number of …show more content…

In 1493 the Turks converted it into a mosque, leaving to the Christians part of the Roman baths to the north-west of the church.The church of Ayios Dimitrios was restored to Christian workship after the liberation of Thessaloniki from the Turks in 1912. It was destroyed almost completely in the fire of 1917 and rebuilt between 1918 and 1948.The church, dedicated to the patron saint of Thessaloniki, is one of worship and is renowned for its mosaics that survived the great fire of 1917. The basilica of Ayios Dimirtios is a five-aisled church with a three-aisled transept at the east. From the long, renctangular narthex, we procced to the central aisle through the luxurious tribelon, while two arched openings at the ends of the narthex lead to the side aisle. The nave is divided into five aisles by means of four long colonnades. Beneath the transept of the Church is the Crypt, which, in the Late Byzantine Era, was the centre of the Saint’s miraculous myrrh production. It currently houses an exhibition primarily consisting of Early christian and Byzantine sculptures. The monastery of Hosios David The Church of Hosios David is a late 5th-century church in

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