The Dura murals are mostly devoid of action, even when the
subject is a narrative theme. The artists told the stories through styl-
ized gestures, and the figures, which have expressionless features and
lack both volume and shadow, tend to stand in frontal rows. The
painting of Samuel anointing David (FIG. 11-3) exemplifies this
Late Antique style, also seen in the friezes of the Arch of Septimius
Severus (FIG. 10-65) at Lepcis Magna and the Arch of Constantine
(FIG. 10-76) in Rome. The episode is just to the right of the niche
(FIG. 11-2,center) that housed the sacred Jewish Torah (the scroll
containing the Pentateuch,the first five books of the Hebrew Scrip-
tures). The prophet anoints the future king of Israel, while David’s
six older brothers look on. The painter drew attention to Samuel
by depicting him larger than all the rest, a familiar convention of
Late Antique art. David and his brothers are emotionless and almost
disembodied spiritual presences—their bodies do not even have
enough feet. The painter, however, distinguished David from his
brothers by the purple toga he wears. The color purple was associ-
ated with the Roman emperor, and the Dura artist borrowed the
imperial toga to signify David’s royalty.
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY HOUSEThe meeting house
(FIG. 11-4) of the Christian community at Dura-Europos was also
a remodeled private residence with a central courtyard (FIG. 11-4,
no. 1). Its meeting hall (FIG. 11-4,no. 2)—created by removing the
partition between two rooms on the courtyard’s south side—could
accommodate no more than about 70 people at a time. The hall had
a raised platform at one end where the leader of the congregation
sat or stood. Another room (FIG. 11-4,no. 3), on the opposite side of
the courtyard, had a font for conducting the rite ofbaptism,the all-
important ceremony initiating a new convert into the Christian
community.
Although the baptisteryhad mural paintings (poorly preserved),
the place where Christians gathered to worship at Dura, as elsewhere
in the Roman Empire, was a modest secondhand house, in striking
contrast to the grand temples of the Roman gods. Because Chris-
tian communities could not obtain the approval of the state, they
remained small in number. Nonetheless, the emperor Diocletianbecame so concerned by the growing popularity of Christianity in
the Roman army ranks that he ordered a fresh round of persecutions
in 303 to 305, a half century after the last great persecutions under
Trajan Decius. As Christianity’s appeal grew, so too did the Roman
state’s fear of its weakening imperial authority. The Christians re-
fused to pay even token homage to the Roman state’s official gods
(which included deified emperors as well as the traditional pantheon
of gods and goddesses). Persecution ended only in 311, when Ga-
lerius issued an edict of toleration, and especially in 313, when Con-
stantine, who believed the Christian god was the source of his power
rather than a threat to it (see Chapter 10), issued the Edict of Milan.
That declaration established Christianity as a legal religion with equal
or superior standing to the traditional Roman cults.The Catacombs and Funerary Art
Very little is known about the art of the first Christians. When
art historians speak about “Early Christian art,” they are referring to
the earliest preserved artworks having Christian subjects, not the
art of Christians at the time of Jesus. Most Early Christian art in
Rome dates to the third and fourth centuries and is found in the
catacombs—vast subterranean networks of galleries (passageways)
and chambers designed as cemeteries for burying the Christian
dead. The name derives from the Latin ad catacumbas,which means
“in the hollows.” To a much lesser extent, the catacombs also housed
the graves of Jews and others. The builders tunneled the catacombs
out of the tufa bedrock, much as the Etruscans fashioned the under-
ground tomb chambers in the Cerveteri necropolis (FIG. 9-6). The
catacombs are less elaborate than the Etruscan tombs but much
more extensive. The known catacombs in Rome (others exist else-
where) comprise galleries estimated to run for 60 to 90 miles. From
the second through the fourth centuries, these burial complexes
were in constant use, housing as many as four million bodies.The Catacombs and Funerary Art 29111-3Samuel anoints David, detail of the mural paintings in the syna-
gogue, Dura-Europos, Syria, ca. 245–256. Tempera on plaster, 4 7 high.
The figures in the biblical mural paintings in the Dura-Europos
synagogue lack volume and shadow, stand in frontal rows, and have
stylized gestures—features also of contemporaneous pagan art.11-4Restored cutaway view of the Christian community house,
Dura-Europos, Syria, ca. 240–256 (John Burge). (1) former courtyard
of private house, (2) meeting hall, (3) baptistery.
The Christian community at Dura-Europos met in a remodeled private
home that could accommodate only about 70 people. The house had a
central courtyard, a meeting hall, and a baptistery.1321 ft.