ODEST KNOWN IMAGES OF THE APOSTLES FOUND

Picture above from Catholic Online.



Picture above from Examiner.com


From CNN:

The oldest known image of the apostles Andrew and John have been discovered in catacombs under the city of Rome, dating back to the 4th century A.D., archaeologists announced Tuesday.

The paintings were found in the same location where the oldest known painting of St. Paul was discovered last year, the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology said Tuesday.

They are part of a group of paintings around an image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd on the ceiling of what is thought to have been a Roman noblewoman's tomb, experts said.

A painting of St. Peter makes up the fourth member of the group, but older images of him are thought to exist, Vatican experts said.

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H/t to David Clayton over at New Liturgical Movement.

This is interesting. The more evidence dug up of early Christian art the more complete is our picture of the practices of the early Church. I am convinced that in time we will find the Church's art tradition goes right back to the earliest days. Also of interest is that these are images of John and Andrew and it will be interesting to see how they compare to more traditional images.