Historical and Religious Effects in Coptic Art                                                                                              [EN]
Before Christianity appeared the religious state in Egypt and the Roman world included  many religions, such asEgyptian, Greek, and Roman, as well as Judaism, which moved to Egypt at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, and the the Ruler cults, which went on through the Roman period. This mixture of religious and political concepts had its effect on the Egyptian people, as they lost their sense of spiritual faith, justice and morality, which they inherited  from their ancestors of the pharaohs. Religion had become a commodity or weapon in the hands of the colonizers. Colonizing rulers sometimes utilized religion to approach the conquered Egyptian people, and other times as a policy to erase the roots of ancient Egyptian religion. By the advent of Christianity and the coming of Saint Mark to Alexandria, to spread the teachings of the Christianreligions, the Egyptians found in Christianity their sanctuary from the abhorrent Roman rule, especially since it carried and advocated the same principles and values that they had inherited from their ancestors. As a result, the Romans began persecuting Christians and assaulted them, until the Christian religion was fully recognized during the reign of the emperor Theodosius I 391 AD. The Coptic religion  has given us a popular art coming from the Egyptian people. It expresses the religious character of their time, away from the concept of  official or international art, and it became clear on frescoes, wall paintings, and  icons -- the most important products of Christian art.