-Passageways are stacked on top of each other -Roman first Style painting –Building up of plaster on the wall to look like marble –Wanted the tomb to look rich and valuable
--5 miles wide -At least 40,000 tombs -Scenes from the old and new testament on the walls
-Catacombs beneath Rome have 4 million dead and extend for about 100 miles -contains the tombs of seven popes and Many early Christian martyrs
Context
--Fifth century -Underground, north of Rome -Where the earliest Christians were buried. -Some would come here to practice beliefs covertly
-Restrained a portrait of Christ as a good shepherd, a pastoral, a motif in ancient art going back to the Greeks
--Symbolism of the Good Shepherd rescues individual sinners in his flock -mystery stories of the life of the old testament prophet Jonah often appear in the lunettes Jonas's regurgitation from the mouth of a big fish is seen in prefiguring Christ's resurrection -Parallels between old and new testament stories feature prominently in early Christian art -Different scenes of the Old and New Testaments -Abraham in the center -Isaac off to the right carrying wood -Sacrifice of Isaac -Abraham's wrists stayed by an angel -Breaking of the Bread -Long table, 7 men behind it -NOT 12 apostles and Christ -7 blankets (3 on one side, 4 on the other) filled with bread
-Martyrdom/inspirational scenes -Divine revelation, worship, and devotion -Embodiment and reinforcement of Christian faith
Context
--Christ represented as the Good Shepard -Not set scenes, the invention of iconography -Christ will care for his followers as a shepherd tends his flock