The Art of the Catacombs Page 1 of 13 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 11 January 2019 Abstract and Keywords The art of the catacombs was born in Rome between the second and third centuries and is manifested especially in the pictorial decorations of the cubicula and other hypogeal environments. The extremely simplified artistic typology echoes the Second Pompeian style through the use of red and green lines that run across the walls and the faces of the monuments. Initially this grid contained neutral figures selected from the pagan repertoire; later those images were replaced by Christian scenes inspired by biblical and salvific imagery. The art of the catacombs also includes funerary sculpture, particularly sarcophagi, and the so-called minor arts, such as gilded glass, ivory dolls, and mosaic tesserae. The catacombal decorations ended at the beginning of the fifth century, when funerary use ceased in these subterranean cemeteries. Keywords: iconography, funerary art, cemeterial paintings, funerary sculpture, minor arts Fabrizio Bisconti FOR a good two centuries early Christians buried their dead in pagan necropoleis, as demonstrated by the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul located, respectively, in the cemeteries of the Vatican and the Via Ostiense. Throughout this long period, the Christian population seems invisible, in as much as neither funerary structures remain, nor those used exclusively for cult. The faithful moved, lived, prayed, worshipped, and buried their dead as fully integrated members of their society, not so much to imitate it or to escape persecution, but as a natural process in defining their community and their religion. It is clear that while a Christian literature was already flourishing, a properly Christian art had not yet been conceived (Fiocchi Nicolai 2001). The Art of the Catacombs Fabrizio Bisconti The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology Edited by William R. Caraher, Thomas W. Davis, and David K. Pettegrew Subject: Archaeology, Biblical Archaeology, Ritual and Religion, Life and Death, Art and Architecture Online Publication Date: Jan 2019 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199369041.013.12 Oxford Handbooks Online