Abraham's Sacrifice (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Thessaloniki's Museum of Byzantine Culture (mbp.gr/html/en/) houses early Christian frescoes from the fourth and fifth centuries in tombs that were discovered in a necropolis outside the ancient city walls. These frescoes feature scenes from the Bible, portraits of the deceased, and decorative motifs common to the Roman funerary art of the period.
The example here has deteriorated a bit, but a careful observation shows the figure of a bearded man in the center (Abraham) wielding a knife which he is about to plunge into the neck of a smaller figure (Isaac). He looks to the right corner from which a very large hand (hand of God) emerges with its index finger pointing. A ram stands by the side of the central figure.
In the left corner, the Greek letters "ABPAC" (presumably a form of Abraham?) can be made out. In the center, the Greek word "thusia", meaning "sacrifice", and by the hand the Greek word "fone", meaning "voice" (presumably of God).
The scene of Abraham's sacrifice is commonly found in both Jewish and Christian art of late antiquity. For Christians, the story signified both God's faithfulness to the covenant promises made to Abraham and his descendants, and, typologically, the sacrificial death of God's only beloved Son, Jesus, on the cross.
Follow me on Twitter @arturoviaggia
Abraham's Sacrifice (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Thessaloniki's Museum of Byzantine Culture (mbp.gr/html/en/) houses early Christian frescoes from the fourth and fifth centuries in tombs that were discovered in a necropolis outside the ancient city walls. These frescoes feature scenes from the Bible, portraits of the deceased, and decorative motifs common to the Roman funerary art of the period.
The example here has deteriorated a bit, but a careful observation shows the figure of a bearded man in the center (Abraham) wielding a knife which he is about to plunge into the neck of a smaller figure (Isaac). He looks to the right corner from which a very large hand (hand of God) emerges with its index finger pointing. A ram stands by the side of the central figure.
In the left corner, the Greek letters "ABPAC" (presumably a form of Abraham?) can be made out. In the center, the Greek word "thusia", meaning "sacrifice", and by the hand the Greek word "fone", meaning "voice" (presumably of God).
The scene of Abraham's sacrifice is commonly found in both Jewish and Christian art of late antiquity. For Christians, the story signified both God's faithfulness to the covenant promises made to Abraham and his descendants, and, typologically, the sacrificial death of God's only beloved Son, Jesus, on the cross.
Follow me on Twitter @arturoviaggia