Groups of People in Christian Art

Groups of People in Christian Art


Basic Info


Some artworks focus more attention on a group than on a single person. In the New Testament, groups of Jesus’ followers were not yet called Christians but were understood by later Christians as Christians. Gathered Christians are often referred to collectively as “church.” In the Old Testament, groups of people are often mentioned. Those who were committed to God could be referred to as the Hebrew People (referring to the language they spoke), the People of Israel (referring to Jacob’s new name after contending with God), the Chosen People (referring to the covenant between God and the people), or the Jewish people (referring to the southern Kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem, that was taken into exile by the Babylonians in 587). 


Because Christians continued to gather, especially to worship God, long after Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection, artists continued to record the activities of groups of Christians. Artworks that depict lots of people but don’t seem to be related to a Bible story tend to arise in three contexts: heavenly scenes, church-related scenes, and worldly scenes. Heaven is the locus for depictions of the Last Judgment, the Coronation of Mary, and depictions of the Communion of Saints. Church-related scenes tend to include depictions of church buildings, worship events (e.g., liturgical celebrations, sacraments), councils and synods, teaching, preaching, and judicial proceedings and inquisitions. Groups of Christians in worldly scenes tend to emphasize defending the faith (e.g., in the Crusades, against Roman oppression, or against some other heresy) or caring for the faithful physically (e.g., tending the sick or feeding the hungry) or spiritually. Groups can be followers or they can be enemies. A group allows an artist to depict a variety of human qualities that characterizes the type without giving all of those qualities to one person. 


In any given artwork, a group might be subject to interpretation based on the specificity of who is in the group but groups are also sometimes meant to represent types, or categories of people. Jesus’s enemies might be meant to represent all enemies of Christianity. Jesus’s followers in an artwork might be intended to represent all Christians or a sub-category of Christians such as Christian leaders, Christian bishops, Christian women, Christian soldiers, or Christian monks.   


When a group in any artwork is meant to also symbolize the Church, the group will often be depicted with at least some of the four traditional marks of the church, unity, holiness, universality, and rooted in the teaching of the Apostles. The Nicene and Apostles Creeds use the words: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. 


What to Look For


  • Similarities in group members
  • Differences in group members
  • Group member’s relationships to any divine figure or symbol in the artwork (higher, lower, left hand of God, right hand of God, larger, smaller, etc.)
  • Indications of levels or hierarchy (strata or layers, sizes, higher, lower, etc.)
  • Indications of virtues or vices in group members
  • Indications of any of the traditional marks of the church: unity, holiness, universality, links to the Apostles


Questions to Focus a General Interpretation


What seems to be the character of the group? Is it a group of people faithful to God or following Jesus Christ in some way? Is it a group opposed to Christ or Christianity? Is it a mixture? 

What are the characteristics of these followers or enemies?

Does the artwork reflect the oneness, holiness, or universality of the church (community), or its relationship with the teaching of the Apostles? 


Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

What attracts you about the group of faithful people? What repels you about the group of faithful people? Is the group of enemies attractive in some way? Is the group of enemies repulsive in some way? Are you inclined to include yourself among this (these) group(s)? 

Does the artwork identify characteristics that are common in faithful people (or enemies of the faith) today? 


Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation

Who were the enemies of Christianity in the artist’s time and place? Are they reflected or symbolized in the artwork? 

What were the characteristics of the church or church leaders in the artist’s time and place (persecuted, fragmented, new, powerful, immoral, humble, etc.)? How might the artwork be a reaction to those characteristics? 


Subtopics can be explored at these links:




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