Biblia Pauperum? Rethinking an Intepretative Paradigm of Late Antique Christian Art.

This paper proposes a reassessment of the interpretative paradigm that understands late antique art as a Biblia pauperum. Such a paradigm presupposes the conception of the image as a surrogate for the written text and implies the cultural inferiority of the audiences who frequented places of worship. Through an analysis of Greek sources (Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Asterius of Amasea) and Latin authors (Prudentius, Paulinus of Nola, Augustine), I will argue that this category proves, at least in part, anachronistic for the fourth and fifth centuries. In the texts under consideration, the image does not appear as a simplification of scriptural content, but rather as an interpretative code no less sophisticated than the verbal one, presupposing a shared visual literacy. It is conceived as a medium capable of arousing emotion, shaping memory, and fostering moral transformation. Even where an explicitly pedagogical intention emerges, as in the case of Paulinus of Nola, art is understood not so much as a substitute for Scripture but as a pastoral device endowed with its own performative efficacy. Far from being a “Bible for the illiterate,” the late antique image thus emerges as a universal medium, capable of engaging both educated and uneducated audiences within a shared symbolic horizon.