The tunic of mortality and the raiment of eternity. The earliest depictions of Christ Crucified in a colobium and a perizoma

Abstract

The article discusses the role of raiment and its colour in depictions of Christ Crucified in early medieval art. It has been shown that the purple colobium predominantly symbolises the humanity of Christ. Whereas the nakedness of Christ is usually a sign of His divinity. Thus, a perizoma in colours resembling light should be interpreted as a raiment of the spotlessness and immortality; a white perizoma – in scenes associated with the Eucharistic context – symbolises a lamb without blemish; and a red perizoma emphasizes the life-giving nature of Christ’s mortal sacrifice.