In the medieval period, images were central in the creation of a common culture, of a shared language that could embrace and overcome differences found in actual language, geographical distances, theological incompatibility, and political preferences. The legibility or the ability to identify certain types of images—an Anastasis, a scene of the Seven Sleepers, the healing of the paralytic—would have been part of that commonly held visual literacy.

Although it is possible to interpret stories and scenes—why they were chosen, how they moved, the message they could convey—it is far more difficult to interpret the role or meaning carried by style, by the form of an outline or the stroke of a brush. Style is malleable and, as such, a tricky signifier. It is difficult to assign meaning to a particular or unique detail. How much should we attribute to a “dynamic” fold in drapery, the curly-cue of garment, the size and shape of a hand, the outline of an eye? The benefit of seeing similar patterns or particular styles is that we can identify certain preferences and possibly the movements of certain workshops of artists. But even then, this assumes that all artists working in those groups shared the same training and that they repeated the same habits and preferences throughout their careers. Although we do not know much about the artists of this period, it would seem safe to say that they were capable of responding to their environments, to the demands of their patrons, and to the shifting preferences of their patrons and viewers. They would have had the ability to shift gears stylistically when they needed to. As they moved, as new members joined their workshop or as they interacted with different artists and saw different images, new ideas were introduced, new styles were shared, and their own database of styles expanded.

The styles of artistic periods are not uniform. Just as we should not attach artists to a single style, we should not assume that a certain time period, patron, or even a church has one particular look. The churches from the early medieval period, from the seventh to ninth centuries—Sant’Agnese fuori le mura, Santa Maria in Via Lata, San Saba, Santa Maria Secundicerii, the lower church of San Clemente, and S. Maria Antiqua—all show a wide range of styles with fully compatible visual imagery.