Picturing The Bible By Spier J. Art Museum, Fort Worth

Picturing the Bible, by Spier J. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 2007. 288 pages. Reviewed by June Cuffner. Picturing the bible explores the tradition of Christian art throughout the third century A.D. Christianity slowly emerged becoming the religion of the Roman Empire. This book is based on Christianity and how the religion was viewed through images. The text has an ere of concepts that ties in the concepts of Christians to the beginning of the start of Christianity. The purpose of this book is to show the readers the difference between how Christian art was represented and how other art was portrayed. I will be giving an overview of what Christianity represents and the art work that it includes. Christian art has never been decorative nor has it been publicized instead it was only represented throughout funerals and devotionals. The bible was a way of picturing the word and how reading it opened the word for the people. Christianity relied solely on imagination and contradicted what art work is considered today which now relies heavily on visual images. In the roman empire the people saw things through mosaics, wall paintings, portraits etc. That is how they pictured their art. They were trying to set up the way art work they believed should be viewed. They had decorations on various monuments, churches, tombs etc. which represented the pagan aspect. They wanted more visual art work whereas with Christianity they visualized through their own mind and instead lived by