Christian art

Christian art is sacred art which uses subjects, themes, and imagery from Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, including early Christian art and architecture and Christian media.

Images of Jesus and narrative scenes from the Life of Christ are the most common subjects, and scenes from the Old Testament play a part in the art of most denominations. Images of the Virgin Mary and saints are common in certain denominations of Christianity, including Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Evangelical Lutheranism. They are less common in other branches of the faith, such as Reformed Christianity.

Christianity makes far wider use of images than related religions, in which figurative representations are forbidden, such as Islam and Judaism. However, there are some that have promoted aniconism in Christianity, and there have been periods of iconoclasm within Christianity.

Early Christian art survives from dates near the origins of Christianity, although many early Christians associated figurative art with pagan religion, and were suspicious or hostile towards it. Over time, this lessened. But large free-standing sculpture, the medium for the most prominent pagan images, continued to be distrusted and largely shunned for some centuries, and virtually up to the present day in the Orthodox world. The oldest Christian sculptures are small reliefs from Roman sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 2nd century. The largest groups of Early Christian paintings come from the tombs in the Catacombs of Rome, and show the evolution of the depiction of Jesus, a process not complete until the 6th century, since when the conventional appearance of Jesus in art has remained remarkably consistent.

Until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style and much of its iconography from popular Roman art, but from this point grand Christian buildings built under imperial patronage brought a need for Christian versions of Roman elite and official art, of which mosaics in churches in Rome are the most prominent surviving examples. Christian art was caught up in, but did not originate, the shift in style from the classical tradition inherited from Ancient Greek art to a less realist and otherworldly hieratic style, the start of gothic art.

Much of the art surviving from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire is Christian art, although this is in large part because the continuity of church ownership has preserved church art better than secular works. While the Western Roman Empire's political structure essentially collapsed after the fall of Rome, its religious hierarchy, what is today the modern-day Roman Catholic Church commissioned and funded production of religious art imagery.

While the Byzantine Empire continued to focus on the creation of Christian art, in Denmark and Norway, the Vikings would see a surge of Christianity. Christianity spread to the Vikings through pillaging, missionaries, political pressure, and trading with other peoples of Europe. Rune stones with Christian imagery were used as grave markings, promotion, or a demonstration of faith. King Harold Bluetooth's rune stone, also known as The Great Jelling Rune Stone, is credited with marking the shift to Christianity in the Viking Era. Gravestones would also display prominent Christian imagery. The Rathdown Stones are the most well-known of these Viking gravestones: granite stones with tablet or cross-like designs mixed with traditional Viking styling. Driftwood crosses have been found around other churches and graveyards.

Named for their strong foundational pillars, Stave Churches were another popular display of Christian Viking art. These churches displayed engravings of Christian and Nordic beliefs, with animal-like depictions appearing on walls and entrances. The cross is also a prominent image in Christian Viking imagery. Vikings would be marked with a cross as a sign that they had been baptized abroad or during a venture. Viking Nordic myths and symbolism can be seen engraved into stone and wooden crosses. German and English influence can be found in some distinct examples of these crosses, with choices to use Doric capital ends, believed to have spread throughout Scandinavia in the 12th and 13th century.