The World's Debt to the Catholic Church

At the beginning of Christianity there seems to have been some little feeling of suspicion as to the employment of sculpture in Church decoration and some discouragement of its use in connection with religion. The Jews who had been converted to Christianity still retained the objection that had been created in them by the prohibition of graven images, while pagan converts were deterred by their remembrance of the use of sculpture in their temples and the abuses connected with the worship of these. Recent research, however, has revealed the fact that in the East much more than in the West sculpture was cultivated in connection with Christianity, though unfortunately the iconoclastic movement of the early Middle Ages destroyed many precious monuments of this kind which would have served to illustrate the influence of Christianity on the sculptors of the early Christian time. There are but few examples of the statuary of the first two or three Christian centuries, but among these are a really beautiful _Pastor Bonus_ which may be seen in the museum of the Lateran and a "Christ" in Berlin. Sculptured works in relief, however, were very common, especially in connection with sarcophagi, and a number of these in the fourth and fifth centuries show that Christianity was not only not discouraging but on the contrary was affording opportunity for the development of sculptural genius. The sarcophagi of Ravenna are particularly interesting in this regard and very definitely related to Byzantine art.

While life size sculpture did not flourish to any extent in early medieval Western Christianity, the artistic carving of smaller objects in other materials besides stone or bronze was cultivated very interestingly under the influence of the Church. Sculpture in wood is illustrated in the doorway of the basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome, and there were a number of book covers, book stands and other objects in connection with Church services that were beautifully carved. Ivory came to be a favorite material for sculpture in the earlier Middle Ages and flourished particularly in France. The use of the precious metals for the making of altar vessels afforded another opportunity for plastic art that was taken very finely. Collections of Merovingian art work show that some of the best specimens were made for Church purposes and that there was a real artistic spirit manifested in their creation. The French sculpture in ivory was declared by Kleinschmidt to "approach the creations of the early Renaissance in delicacy of execution, in rhythm of line and in well considered observance of the laws of composition."