This book deals with the apse as a showcase for images in the early
Christian and early Byzantine periods. Two opposed traditions, harking
back to early imperial times, nourished the invention of the Christian
apse image: on the one hand there were statues in apses of pagan temples
and imperial cult rooms which were venerated during cult ceremonies, on
the other hand, there were apse mosaics in nymphaea where aquatic myths
and figures celebrated the amenities of water. Christian apse mosaics
originated within this context and in spite of the Old Testament
prohibition of the image. The functions and effects of apse mosaics in
Christian cult rooms were explored step by step and invented afresh. The
participants of this delicate process of Christian image inventions were
not only ecclesiastical but also private patrons. Without any qualm,
emperors and representatives of the ruling class decorated their
mausolea (S. Costanza in Rome, S. Aquilino in Milan) and
representational rooms in villas (Centcelles) with Christian images.
Because of the Mosaic prohibition of images, the Church could not
attribute to the image a biblically grounded role, it behaved cautiously
towards the decoration of churches with images during the fourth
century. Only during the fifth century did it relax, and start to invent
high brow theological programs (S. Maria Maggiore in Rome),
understandable only to few believers. Some bishops gave special
treatment to the promotion of aniconic programs (Paulinus of Nola,
baptistery of the Lateran in Rome, Casaranello, church of Paraskevi in
Salonica). Others rejected images in churches categorically (Epiphanius
of Salamis). The Church admitted images and programs representing and
portrayed Jesus Christ as God and as a human being that private patrons
and artists had invented together with theologians; it provoked thereby
a conflict (never really argued out) between the pagan representation of
gods and emperors and the representation of Christ whose image should
never recall images of gods nor of emperors, though points of contact
were unavoidable. Highly original creations of apse mosaics resulted
from this fertile conflict that were never repeated. All early Christian
apse mosaics are unprecedented, one of creations without any succession.
Their treatment as iconographic types is a blind ally. The Church sat
back and watched how mosaics and frescoes in apses of cult rooms
generated very particular effects, evoking in the viewer respect,
admiration, awe and maybe even veneration. The representation of the
Virgin with the child in a large apse evoked something like visual
worship. The capacity of the image to have an impact on the viewer could
not be decreed by the Church, but this was an affair manifested more or
less casually according to the inventive power of the artist. For
several centuries, the Church was not in a situation to create an
official image of Christ. It cared for having apse mosaics not being
adored. But the Church could not prevent images from being adored by
private persons and/or control private concerns, such as setting-up of
ex votos, in official church apses (S. Venanzio in Rome). Private
persons first launched the cult of the Virgin (sarcophagus of Adelphia,
gold glass). From the sixth century on, images - apse-mosaics, frescoes
and panel paintings - were installed for 'cult-propaganda' (SS. Cosma e
Damiano, Hag. Demetrius in Salonica). In some cases, perhaps, images
promoted a devotion on the part of the private believers. This process
was a novelty for the sixth century. But a real cult around an apse
mosaic was never instituted, even though the altar for the celebration
of the Mass was installed in the apse. The early Christian period had no
interest in representing the sacrifice of the Mass in an apse mosaic.
Official ecclesiastical prayers were not addressed to divine figures and
saints represented in apse mosaics. Apse mosaics are never mentioned in
liturgies. Apse mosaics are, therefore, a very specific species which
developed in constant dialogue with other categories of images (icons,
ex votos, memorial images), representing contemporaneously specific
theological issues.
