Assisted by the art conservator Norman E. Muller, Mathews proposes a revised history of the evolution of panel painting from pre-Christian and pagan art to Christian icons. Mathews explores the dependence of Christian iconography on models provided by pagan paintings depicting gods from a mixed Greek and Egyptian pantheon, produced from the first through the fourth century AD. The driving aim is to show that the cultic use of panel paintings was a continuous tradition from antiquity into Christianity.

 Thomas F. Mathews and Norman E. Muller. The Dawn of Christian Art in Panel Paintings and Icons. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMRC). Review by Harikleia Brecoulaki, National Hellenic Research Foundation