Picturing The Bible: The Earliest Christian Art

Museum exhibit featuring ancient religious artwork

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When and where were the first illustrations of the Old and New Testaments created? It had long been believed that there were no Jewish illustrations of the Old Testament in ancient times, in observance of the ban on idolatry (Exodus 20:4, "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image..."), but the discovery in 1932 of the richly decorated narrative frescoes in the third-century synagogue at Dura-Europos (Syria) dramatically changed scholars' views. Subsequent discoveries of figural mosaics in synagogues in Palestine and studies of probable Jewish sources for illuminated Bibles suggest the existence of an extensive tradition of illustrating the Old Testament, perhaps dating back to the Hellenistic period, although nothing now survives from such an early date.

Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art brings together a wide range of material in an attempt to help clarify the questions of how Christians and Jews in the Greco-Roman period illustrated their religious beliefs. It is especially the formative, early period (roughly the third and fourth centuries) that is the focus of the exhibition, although later Byzantine works are included when they provide evidence for an earlier tradition of illustration, such as the seventh-century silver plates in New York with scenes from the life of King David, and illustrated biblical manuscripts from the fifth and sixth centuries (the earliest known). The range of objects includes marble sarcophagi and small sculptures, silver, ivories, gold glass, pottery, gems, coins, and books.

The exhibition is organized by the Kimbell Art Museum, and is guest-curated by Dr. Jeffrey Spier of the University of Arizona.

Information from veneu's website

Event posted Nov. 13, 2006
Last updated March 22, 2007