my favorite unknown art history fact to drop on people is that the oldest image of Christ we have might be this piece of graffiti from rome where he has a donkey head captioned “alex worships his god” that some guys probably made to make fun of their christian friend or coworker: 
its called the alexamenos graffito if anyone wants to look into it. think it was only discovered around 1900 so its not really woven into the historical record and most people dont know about it. in my mind it was in a barracks and soldiers made it but i dont think that is 100%.
they can only guess the time period (i think, going from memory here) so it could be crazy early (late 1st century) or up to the 300s (i think). kind of insane that it could be in the same century as the crucifixion, also fits several theological themes like He being mocked etc
i know its not how it works but it would be cool if this guy alex was made a saint
would enjoy that, personally. if it was the 1100s we would probably develop a folkloric tradition about the carvers and their conversion and link it to some other christian carving in another city
would enjoy that, personally. if it was the 1100s we would probably develop a folkloric tradition about the carvers and their conversion and link it to some other christian carving in another city
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
