Fresco: The Good Shepherd

Fresco: “The Good Shepherd” is an early Christian fresco from the Catacomb of Priscilla (a vast cemetery located underground that served as a tomb for a large amount of early saints and popes). It shows a male figure that is most commonly interpreted to be the Good Shepherd (a distinctive figure that originated around the third century CE from the pre-Christian literary composition known as the “ram-bearer”) with a clean-shaven face and wearing a brown saddle and a short white toga that reaches approximately to his knees; he is standing before a happy and peaceful landscape of a background where two birds sit quietly on opposite branches that hang above each of his shoulders, as a lamb and a ram each stand opposite to each other near his legs,
It shows a very youthful-looking (but not detailed) image of Jesus Christ giving his two students on his left side two pieces of fish and five whole loaves of bread to the two students on his right; these pieces of food are said to be soon multiplied into even more pieces. Also, Jesus (and the disciplines) appear to be floating slightly above the green ground against the very vast and empty golden background. I think this is supposed to symbolize Jesus’ extraordinary powers and abilities (such as multiplying loaves), but the way that he is floating in the air in the mosaic specifically deals with the fact that the bible says that Jesus’ body floated upwards within a surrounding physical cloud to heaven at the expectation of the Apostles (Jesus’ twelve chief students and
The main themes/subject of this book is of how God created the world (alongside the first people to ever walk the earth-a man and a man) and told man to be his loyal and obedient servant; however, man did not listen to God’s words, and, as a result, God punished man-and the world he created-by sending the Flood to destroy him. The world that reappears after the Flood proves to be just as bad as the world before it, but, in this case, God called a man named Abraham to lead it to safety and eternal salvation. The story goes on to talk about how the first religion (Judaism) was created and how the children of Israel (the Jews) narrowly escape slavery and death with God’s help. By the end of the book, God promises his People pure happiness and freedom. I think this is supposed to symbolize how the Christian beliefs portrayed God, that He would judge those who deserved to be judged, how was King to man; this is based on how in the story, God appears to have the power to judge his fellow man like a father would ‘judge’ his son if he did something bad, or as any parent would with their child: punish them. This also shows the great difference between God and man in terms of