As we move toward an understanding of the transition from martyrdom to the veneration of martyrs we can do so through an understanding of the iconography of the martyr-hero in terms of feast, image, heroa, and dome. Here ...

Balaam is pointing to the star above Mary's head, Catacomb of Priscilla. A reference to Numbers 24:17.

Jesus at the well talking to the Samaritan woman

Inside the Sistine Chapel, the lower range of frescos. The fresco of the temptation of Christ painted by Botticelli contains the façade of the hospital of Santa Spirito.

Below Christ enthroned as lawgiver, four local martyrs stand around a second representation of Christ as the lamb who stands upon a mountain from which flow rivers of living water. The image, Biblical in origin, emphasizes ...

Fresco of Christ talking to woman at the well.

In New Testament images, Pierre Du Bourguet suggests that the pose of this mother and child in antiquity was always with the infant Jesus but may be compared with that of Isis and the infant Horus. Mother and Child/ Mary ...

Fresco of Christ enthroned with book of the law.

That vision of rule is enlarged so that Christ is seated on a throne surrounded by the apostles Peter and Paul. Fresco in the catacomb of Pietro e Marcellino, Christ as lawgiver enthroned.

It was simply no longer popular for a Christ who is greater than Caesar to be portrayed as a humble shepherd. The motivation has now changed, for it is now an imperial faith which stands above, or at least in league with, ...