Open Collections

A minority within a culture: women in the Christian art of Dura-Europos

University of British Columbia

The painting that is known as the procession of women from the Christian building of Dura-Europos still sparks a lot of debate. The surviving parts of this artwork do not have enough features to provide definite proof for one biblical narrative interpretation or another. Stepping away from the textual interpretations, I seek to demonstrate that it is more important to compare this painting to local art, which would enrich our understanding of not only local culture but also Durene Christianity itself. It is important to examine the Durene Christian building art in conjunction with the cultural mosaic it existed in because the local viewers would have perceived it through the background of the local culture. As such, the procession of women has more in common with the local worship iconography then it does with later narrative or processional Christian art. The unadorned simplicity of this painting, its lack of decoration and distinctive features, is almost in contrast to how women are depicted in other religious settings of Dura. Instead of being showcases, the women in the painting known as the procession are screens that local viewers of any culture, class, or status would have been able to project themselves onto.

Text

2020-12-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76902

Ancient Culture, Religion and Ethnicity

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/