Christian Art. Christian art is sacred art which uses themes and imagery from Christianity. The central theme is the life of Christ, including the birth, death, and resurrection. Also important is the birth, immaculate conception, and death of the Virgin Mary. There are more than 1000 Christian saints who have been represented in paintings and sculpture. Some of the most depicted are Saint Peter with keys, Saint Paul with a sword; Saint Francis of Assisi with a stigmata; Saint Anthony of Padua holding a book and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with a wheel representing her death. Others are Saint Sebastian pierced with arrows, Saint Jerome with a lion and Saint Agnes with a lamb. Still others are Saint Teresa of Avila in ecstasy, Saint Dominic with a lily, Saint Ignatius of Loyola with a book, Saint Lucy carrying her eyes on a tray, Saint John the Baptist with a staff, Saint Michael the Archangel defeating Satan and Saint Raphael the Archangel with a staff and a fish. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods of iconoclasm within Christianity. Images of Jesus and narrative scenes from the Life of Christ are the most common subjects, and scenes from the Old Testament play a part in the art of most denominations. Images of the Virgin Mary and saints are much rarer in Protestant art than that of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Islam, and Jewish people make far wider use of images than related religions, in which figurative representations are forbidden, such as Islam and Judaism. However, there is also a considerable history of aniconism in Christianity from various periods. Early Christian art and architecture Early Christian art survives from dates near the origins of Christianity. The oldest Christian sculptures are from sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 2nd century. The largest groups of Early Christian paintings come from the tombs in the Catacombs of Rome, and show the evolution of the depiction of Jesus, a process not complete until the 6th century, since when the conventional appearance of Jesus in art has remained remarkably consistent. Until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style and much of its iconography from popular Roman art, but from this point grand Christian buildings built under imperial patronage brought a need for Christian versions of Roman elite and official art, of which mosaics in churches in Rome are the most prominent surviving examples. Christian art was caught up in, but did not originate, the shift in style from the classical tradition inherited from Ancient Greek art to a less realist and otherworldly hieratic style, the start of gothic art. Main article: Medieval art Much of the art surviving from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire is Christian art, although this in large part because the continuity of church ownership has preserved church art better than secular works. While the Western Roman Empire's political structure essentially collapsed after the fall of Rome, its religious hierarchy, what is today the modern-day Roman Catholic Church commissioned and funded production of religious art imagery. The Orthodox Church of Constantinople, which enjoyed greater stability within the surviving Eastern Empire was key in commissioning imagery there and glorifying Christianity.