Editing Medieval art (section)

==Early Christian and Late Antique art==
{{Main|Early Christian art}}
[[File:Arco di Costantino (Roma) - tondo lato settentrionale destro.jpg|thumb|[[Arch of Constantine]], Rome, completed 315: The lower long [[relief]], with squat figures of size varying with status, is of that date, while the [[roundels]] are taken from a monument of nearly 200 years earlier, which maintains a classical style.]]

Early Christian art, more generally described as [[Late Antiquity|Late Antique]] art, covers the period from about 200 (before which no distinct Christian art survives), until the onset of a fully [[Byzantine art|Byzantine style]] in about 500.  There continue to be different views as to when the medieval period begins during this time, both in terms of general history and specifically art history, but it is most often placed late in the period.  In the course of the 4th century Christianity went from being a persecuted popular sect to the official religion of the Empire, adapting existing Roman styles and often [[iconography]], from both popular and Imperial art.  From the start of the period the main survivals of Christian art are the tomb-paintings in popular styles of the [[catacombs of Rome]], but by the end there were a number of lavish mosaics in churches built under Imperial patronage.

Over this period imperial Late [[Roman art]] went through a strikingly "baroque" phase, and then largely abandoned classical style and Greek realism in favour of a more mystical and hieratic style—a process that was well underway before Christianity became a major influence on imperial art.  Influences from Eastern parts of the Empire—[[Egypt]], [[Syria]] and beyond, and also a robust "Italic" vernacular tradition, contributed to this process. 

Figures are mostly seen frontally staring out at the viewer, where classical art tended to show a profile view - the change was eventually seen even on coins. The individuality of portraits, a great strength of Roman art, declines sharply, and the anatomy and drapery of figures is shown with much less realism. The models from which medieval Northern Europe in particular formed its idea of "Roman" style were nearly all portable Late Antique works, and the Late Antique carved [[sarcophagi]] found all over the former Roman Empire;<ref>Henderson (1977), 8.</ref> the determination to find earlier "purer" classical models, was a key element in the art ''all'antica'' of the Renaissance.<ref>Hinks, chapters 1 & 2, and Kitzinger, 1955, chapter 1.</ref>

'''Ivory reliefs'''
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Reidersche Tafel c 400 AD.jpg|''[[Ascension of Christ]]'' and ''[[Noli me tangere]]'', c. 400, with many elements of classical style remaining. See [[Drogo Sacramentary]] for a similar ''Ascension'' 450 years later.
File:Françoise Foliot - Ouverture des Jeux du cirque à Constantinople en 506 (cropped).jpg|[[Consular diptych]], [[Constantinople]] 506, in fully Late Antique style
File:Magdeburger Reliefs Heimsuchung.jpg|[[Ottonian art|Ottonian]] panel from the [[Magdeburg Ivories]], in a bold monumental style with little attempt at classicism; [[Milan]] 962–973.
File:Ivory tabernacle Louvre OA2587.jpg|Late 14th century French Gothic [[triptych]], probably for a lay owner, with scenes from the ''[[Life of the Virgin]]''
</gallery>