Current historical research points to the fact that there was no unequivocal break between the mentality, habits and, consequently, the artistic tastes, of the Roman citizens during the first four centuries of the millennia, be they Christians, pagans or believers of any other religion.

Initially Christianity brought a fundamentally ideological transformation to the preexisting art forms. Often the only change was in the spiritual content of images which had a prior ancient tradition.

Animals such as the fish, the lamb, the dove, the phoenix, the cock, the deer or the serpent; iconographic elements such as the palm, the crown, the anchor, the boat, the river or the cross; characters and stories from the Old Testament which allude more or less directly to those of the New Testament. These are repeated again and again on tombstones, sarcophagi, mosaics and in paintings and they form an highly symbolic graphical language.

These symbols underwent a change from the middle of the fourth century. Side-by-side with an iconography that transmits a collective spiritual desire for happiness in the next world, images begin to appear representing the religious community and the church as the path to salvation. This is the moment of the triumphal church, with a whole set of images depicting the divine origin of that institution.