Earliest Known Images of Christ on Display at NYU

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
By Laura Gilbert

Ceiling Tile with Female Face, from the Synagogue, Dura-Europos, ca. 245 CE

NEW YORK - This Friday, the earliest known images of Christ, from the year 240, go on view in New York for the first time, and they aren’t where you might expect them to be. They are part of a remarkable exhibition at the relatively obscure N.Y.U. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a jewel-box of a museum on East 84th Street whose mission, according to exhibitions director Dr. Jennifer Chi, is “to break down preconceived notions of antiquity.” Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos does so with a vengeance, in presenting 77 objects from an excavation in Syria that fundamentally altered the understanding of art, culture and religion in the ancient world. [link]