Original scientific paper
Vine Scroll as a Symbol of the Eucharist in the Floor Mosaics of the Eastern Adriatic
Jagoda Meder
; Ministarstvo kulture RH, Uprava za zaštitu kulturne baštine
Abstract
The vine scroll symbolism appeared in Christina art already during the Roman Antiquity. The little putti loading grapes and taking them in cards to be pressed, along with the fishing putti, appear in the catacombs, on sarcophagi, in mosaics. The pagan motifs were integrated into Christian art and endowed with a new meaning and ideological interpretation, merging old, pagan symbolism with that of a newly asserted Christianity. The iconoclast Early Christianity would reduce the ancient content to a language of symbols, and so the allegory of wine and vine scroll express in the omnipresent vases (cantharoi) with vine scroll. The symbolic role of wine culminates, of course, in the Eucharist., the central event of the mass. The internal systematization of the church space is a gradual process developing along with liturgy. It can be followed from the very beginnings, form the domus ecclesiae, the basilica and so on, in the architecture , its furnishings, and also through the program of decoration, in fl oor mosaics in particular.
Keywords
early christianity, mozaics; euharistic; vase; wine gape
Hrčak ID:
147950
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2007.
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