Civilization doesn’t transform overnight

KIM SEUNG-JUNG
The author is a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto.

Constantine I, the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, officially recognized Christianity after centuries of persecution and provided a turning point for Christianity to become a religion of the world. He moved the capital to Byzantium — modern day Istanbul — and opened the age of Christianity that continued to the Middle Age.

There is a question my students often ask in regard to Constantine I. Why are monuments and artworks commissioned by him for the first Christian empire still “pagan art,” not Christian art?

There is no Christian aspect found in the monuments erected by Constantine I among the remains of Rome. The visual culture of his time was still expressed in the visual language of traditional Greek and Roman styles.

Moreover, he was a master of putting different things together. For example, the Arch of Constantine, located at the entrance of the Colosseum in Rome, is nothing but a montage of sculptures looted from monuments of former emperors.

What is even more interesting is that he dared to engrave his face on former emperors’ face. He took from great emperors like Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian, making the accomplishments and fame of the ancestors his own.

Then, where are early the Christian arts located? They are hidden beneath. The statue found in the Catacombs, called “Good Shepherd,” is in the traditional 3rd century Roman style in all aspects. The image of Jesus was taken from the statue of Hermes, who carried a mountain goat on his shoulder around a village hit by an epidemic.

The Capitoline Venus, too, was recreated as Eve being expelled. The transformation of civilization does not happen overnight. Or Constantine may not yet have known what Christianity was.