Christian Marriage in Rome

As identifiably Christian art emerged in the third and fourth centuries, Christians in Rome and its environs commissioned works of visual art decorated with Christian images as objects for their own self representation. The likenesses of these Christian patrons, or more precisely their idealized representations, appear in such monumental works as sarcophagus reliefs and catacomb frescoes as well as such minor arts as glass vessels, domestic silver, gems, seals, finger rings, and belt ornaments, accompanied by biblical motifs and symbols, and occasionally by distinctively Christian inscriptions. A striking feature of these portrayals is the prevalence of married pairs-double-portraits, wedding scenes, and other representations of a husband and wife together.1 Using conventions of Roman art and new iconographic forms, married patrons of the new faith depicted themselves in visual programs that made particular statements about their theological commitments, their religious and social identity in the Roman world, and their hopes for the next world. In all this, these patrons wished to be seen and remembered as married Christians.