The Apostles in Early Christian Art and Poetry

The Apostles in Early Christian Art and Poetry presents the first in-depth analysis of the origins of the representation of the apostles (the twelve disciples and Paul) in verse and image in the late antique Greco-Roman world (250-400). Especially in the West, the apostles are omnipresent, in particular on sarcophagi and in Biblical and martyr poetry. They primarily function as witnesses of Christ’s stay on earth, but Peter and Paul are also popular saints of their own. Occasionally, the other apostles come to the fore as individual figures. Direct influence from art on poetry or vice versa appears to be difficult to trace, but principal developments of late antique society are reflected in the representation of the apostles in both media.

Roald Dijkstra, Ph.D. (2014), Radboud University, is postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at that university. He publishes on late antiquity and co-edited East and West in the Roman Empire of the Fourth Century. An End to Unity? (Brill, 2015).

'This work has much to commend it. It is both ambitious and, as regards a study of early Christian poetry, admirably thorough. It is accompanied by an extensive bibliography, appendices, and 50 illustrations, most in color.'
Robin M. Jensen, University of Notre Dame, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.02.55

'This wonderful, learned book [...] provides a feast for anyone who takes an interest in early Christian literary and material culture, or in the development of apostolic tradition before 400.'
Jane Heath, Durham University, Expository Times 128, 2017.08.407