Join the society
Madonna and child between Saints Felix and Adautto and the donor Turtura (detail). Fresco, 6th century. Catacombs of Commodilla, Rome.

Study Days

Early Christian Rome

  • Begins: Wednesday 11 November 2020
    Until: Wednesday 25 November 2020
    (11am-12pm --- NB: Booking closes 48 hours before the start of the event.)
  • Online Zoom Event, link details will be emailed to attendees on the morning of the event
  • Lecturer: John McNeill

Please note that you will need to be familiar with Zoom in order to participate – we do not have the capacity to provide any back-up or advice on the use of Zoom. We recommend that you log on to Zoom 15 minutes before the start time of the event even if you are familiar with the app since the process can take some time if a lot of participants are logging on at the same time. You will receive an email first thing on the day of each lecture with details of how to join the event. If you do not receive it please check your spam/junk mail folder.

Programme
Imperial capital until the early fourth century and home to the papacy, Rome was the city where Octavian was proclaimed Augustus and SS Peter and Paul were martyred. This online study event considers how Rome became a Christian city. The very earliest Christian art and architecture emerged, almost imperceptibly, out of the allusive religious art of the eastern Mediterranean. Its forms often amounted to no more than simple signs and inscriptions, and its monuments were almost invisible to view – an ordinary house front, an underground burial chamber. Constantine’s granting of a legal personality to the Church in 313 changed that. Henceforth, a public monumental Christian art and architecture was possible, and was actively embraced as vast ecclesiastical building projects transformed the city. This online study event is arranged as three one-hour lectures, which respectively discuss the emergence of Christian imagery in the catacombs between c.250 and c.400 AD, the development of ecclesiastical building types such as basilicas, baptisteries and martyria, and the birth of Christian narrative art.

Lectures
Wednesday 11 November 2020, 11am-12pm
The Catacombs: Planning and Painting

Wednesday 18 November 2020, 11am-12pm
Architecture in Rome from Constantine to Pope Honorius I (625-38)

Wednesday 25 November 2020, 11am-12pm
Monumental Imagery: Apse mosaics and the emergence of Narrative Painting c.350-c.650

Lecturer

John McNeill is an architectural historian. He took degrees in art history at the University of East Anglia and Courtauld Institute, and went on to specialise in medieval architectural history, lecturing at Camberwell School of Art, London University’s Extra-Mural department, Birkbeck College and the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. He lectures regularly to the Society and leads tours for Martin Randall Travel. He was appointed Secretary of the British Archaeological Association in 2000, for whom he also subsequently convened and edited conferences on Medieval Anjou, cloisters, medieval chantries, and King’s Lynn and the Fens. He founded the BAA’s biennial series of International Conferences on Romanesque, and is both a member of its steering committee and a co-editor of its transactions. His most recent effort in this field, Romanesque and the Year 1000 is due to be published at the end of 2024. Besides the BAA Conference Transactions, John has published numerous articles and is author of the Blue Guides to both Normandy and the Loire Valley. He is a Vice-President of the London Art History Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Members only

Completed