For the Very Beginner

Click here for an introduction to Christianity and Christian Art

Here are some common questions:

1. What do B.C. and A.D. mean?
B.C. stands for "Before Christ" and A.D. stands for (no, not "After Death"!) Anno Domini, which means "In the year of our Lord" in Latin. For secular abbreviations that mean the same thing, we can use B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era).

2. Isn't it strange that we count time backwards before Christ, and forwards after Christ? Who made up this way of counting time anyway? Isn't it a very Christian-centered way of doing things? It's like dividing all of humanity between those who came before Christ and those who came after. But that's exactly the way the monk who, under Pope Gregory, made up this way of counting time thought about things. There are other initials we can use instead of these, since we live in multicultural world not necessarily centered on Christian belief. We can also use "B.C.E" (Before the Common Era) instead of B.C. and "C.E." (Common Era) instead of A.D. Some people and places that are not Christian use these initials instead of the traditional ones.

3. What happened in 400 A.D. to end the period of Classical Antiquity and begin the Middle Ages? Between 300 and 400 A.D. the Roman Empire falls due to invasions of migrating peoples (remember the Huns, Visigoths and Ostrogoths?) into the empire. There were also pressures from within the empire. Remember that the Roman Empire was enormous, comprising Western Europe, parts of Eastern Europe, North Africa, as well as Palestine). In the early 300s, a Roman Emperor named Constantine converted to Christianity, and soon after that Christianity became the only legal religion in the empire.

4. How was art paid for before the modern era? For artists in the period before the modern era (before about 1800 or so), life was really different for artists than it is now. In the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, works of art were commissioned: that is, they were ordered by a patron (the person paying for the work of art), and then made to order. A patron usually entered into a contract with an artist that specified how much he would be paid, what kinds of materials would be used, how long it would take to complete, and what the subject of the work would be. Not what we would consider artistic freedom, huh? It did have its advantages though. You didn't paint something and then just hope it would sell, like artists do now! Patrons often asked to be included in the painting they had commissioned. When they appear in a religious painting we usually call them donors. 

Getty video: Looking at Paintings