[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.19,0:00:11.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We're in St Peter's Basilica and we're looking at a famous early Christian sarcophagus.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:11.69,0:00:14.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's the tomb of Junius Bassus.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:14.22,0:00:20.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now it's a little complicated because what people generally see is the copy that the Vatican has
Dialogue: 0,0:00:20.09,0:00:24.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in their museum but we're in the Treasury and this is the actual sarcophagus.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:24.89,0:00:31.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so Junius Baccus was a Roman prefect in around the mid-fourth century.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.34,0:00:34.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Right, we know that he had his position in 359.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.15,0:00:38.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So we're looking at a very early moment, soon after Constantine has made it
Dialogue: 0,0:00:38.90,0:00:41.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,legitimate to be a Christian in the Roman Empire
Dialogue: 0,0:00:41.92,0:00:48.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Constantine is in the process of making Christianity or leading towards Christianity becoming the
Dialogue: 0,0:00:48.34,0:00:52.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,official religion of the Roman Empire which will happen in the end of the 300s.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:52.37,0:00:59.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So this is an early example then of a kind of openness and really magnificenct rendering of
Dialogue: 0,0:00:59.04,0:01:01.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the iconography of the Christian tradition.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.34,0:01:05.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Right, and what's really interesting is that it doesn't look the way we expect it to, in a way because
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.85,0:01:13.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Christ is here in the center represented with probably Peter and Paul, the two figures on either side of them--
Dialogue: 0,0:01:13.23,0:01:15.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It looks likely to be Peter and Paul, yes.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.26,0:01:19.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But he looks very youthful, like a young philosopher teacher.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.94,0:01:22.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He's even holding a scroll in his hand--
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.26,0:01:29.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And he's seated and frontal, though not entirely frontal. So I guess what I'm saying is that things
Dialogue: 0,0:01:29.30,0:01:34.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we normally associate with representations of Christ where he looks like an emperor, he's older
Dialogue: 0,0:01:34.10,0:01:38.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and he's got a beard. Here he is represented very youthful,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.30,0:01:44.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,although he's seated and frontal, he does have a kind of naturalism and movement to his body,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:44.25,0:01:48.02,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,his left leg comes forward a little bit, his head is slightly turned.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.02,0:01:51.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And he's got his foot above an image of a river god
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.57,0:01:54.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Which is interesting because it shows Christianity surmounting the old
Dialogue: 0,0:01:54.79,0:01:57.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Polytheistic traditions of ancient Romans--
Dialogue: 0,0:01:57.09,0:02:05.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Using the iconography of the ancient Roman, pagan, art in a new Christian context.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.35,0:02:12.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I really am interested by the point you made earlier about Christ not fulfilling the physical attributes
Dialogue: 0,0:02:12.18,0:02:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we come to expect. And this is so early that in a sense, those traditions hadn't yet developed--
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.00,0:02:18.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Exactly.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.94,0:02:23.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,--they hadn't yet really been constructed and accepted so this is a very flexible moment.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:23.89,0:02:28.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Right, this iconography is being developed. And here he looks like pagan figure in a way.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.27,0:02:34.39,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's certainly true because of the classical garb that he wears. And it's interesting stylistically
Dialogue: 0,0:02:34.39,0:02:38.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because this sculpture is really showing a pretty highpitched naturalism
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.64,0:02:43.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in terms of the rendering of the bodies, the contrapposto that we see the figures standing in,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:43.94,0:02:47.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and even some of the emotional attributes of the figures.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.32,0:02:53.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is a kind of naturalism although we see the beginnings of a kind of early Christian style.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.06,0:02:59.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There are some hints of what's to come. The heads are a little bit too large for the bodies.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:59.84,0:03:04.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The bodies are starting to be a little bit on the stubby side.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.56,0:03:06.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So it's a very interesting transitional moment.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:06.82,0:03:11.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We see some other scenes from the bible and we're seeing early expressions of it
Dialogue: 0,0:03:11.06,0:03:16.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,here but these are ways of representing these scenes that will become very familiar to us.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:16.72,0:03:19.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We have Adam and Eve on the lower register--
Dialogue: 0,0:03:19.75,0:03:26.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and also other Old Testament scenes that would've prefigured the events in Christ's life.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.47,0:03:32.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So that idea of saying that events in the Old Testament such as the sacrifice of Isaac prefigured
Dialogue: 0,0:03:32.61,0:03:40.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Christ's own sacrifice for the salvation of mankind so that way of saying that Christ's life
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.34,0:03:45.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is a fulfillment of the prophecy and the events of the Old Testament.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:45.13,0:03:51.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What we're witnessing here is the invention of a new iconography, the invention of a new visual language
Dialogue: 0,0:03:51.49,0:03:54.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for the tellling of these critical stories.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.22,0:03:59.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What I'm also noticing is just how deeply carved it is. It is essentially a relief sculpture
Dialogue: 0,0:03:59.60,0:04:05.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but the figures are in very, very high relief. Some of them seem to be separate from
Dialogue: 0,0:04:05.76,0:04:12.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the marble ground. And I love these columns with capitals and bringing together of the
Dialogue: 0,0:04:12.80,0:04:15.46,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,classical and the beginnings of the Christian.