Early Christian

As Christianity rose in popularity places that used to serve as a place for pagan worship were being turned into a Christian church. One such structure was the Pantheon. Originally it was built as a structure to all the gods but was later converted into a church for a congregation that served only one god. Churches were spectacularly decorated, with mosaics and frescoes covering almost every surface. Colors, materials, and textures varied to create a very dramatic experience within the church. Early Christian started this trend toward spectacular design that increased as more time periods passed.

Another aspect of Early Christianity that I found interesting was there use of catacombs. When I was in Italy I visited some of the catacombs and it was a very chilling experience, in my opinion. I found it very strange to be underground surrounded by rows and rows of tightly packed, almost claustrophobic, tombs. At the same time it was also interesting to consider how they went about building them and some of the engravings on the tombs were really impressive. They were so detailed and the care and time it must have taken to make those was hard to fathom.

Today, a lot of the motifs common back in the Early Christian time period are still popular within Christianity. The cross has come to be the overall symbol of Christianity throughout the world. The cross is represented in wall art, sculpture, and jewelry.

Other motifs that are still widely used are the dove and the "fish," which we actually learned in class was a sort of symbol in early times to determine who was a fellow Christian and who was not. One person would draw an arc in the sand upon meeting someone else and if that person drew a connecting arc then that signified that there were also Christian.