I
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 a
 
 *w 
 
 (^' 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 X 
 
 N,
 
 z*" 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 ) 
 
 v 
 
 /*C:^-^ 
 
 THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 
 Laleran Museum, about A.D. 300. 
 
 l-'rontispicce-
 
 SIDE-LIGHTS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 BY THE 1 
 
 REV. EDWARD L. CUTIS, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'a dictionary of the church of ENGLAND," "TURNING-POINTS OF 
 
 CHURCH history," ETC. 
 
 A) 
 
 rUBLISIIED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 NORTHUiMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C ; 
 
 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 
 
 BRIGHTON : I3S, NORTH street. 
 New York: E. & J. B. YOUNG AND CO- 
 
 lS93-
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The special object of this book is to make more 
 widely known the results which the study of the 
 remains of Early Christian Art has attained in 
 throwing light upon the early history of the Church. 
 While making free use of the mass of material 
 open to every student, the writer has exercised an 
 independent judgment, and hopes that he has 
 contributed to put some things in a clearer light, 
 e.g. the externals of the worship of the Churches 
 before the time of Constantine. 
 
 Some care has been taken to show how the early 
 phase of the Church's life links on to the beginnings 
 of our own English Church history. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgments are hereby tendered to 
 the authorities of the Science and Art Department 
 
 I .sr>0070
 
 VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 at South Kensington, for permission to make use 
 of reproductions of the woodcuts of sarcophagi, etc. 
 from its " Monuments of Early Christian Art," by 
 Dr. Appell ; and to Messrs. Hatchette, of Paris, for 
 permission to use reduced copies oi some of the 
 plates of the Count M. de Voguee's important work 
 on the architectural remains of Central Syria.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Definition of '* Christian art " — Early Christian art was Greek 
 art ; in its decadence ; its historical interest — Scope of this 
 
 DOOlC »»» ••• ••■ tt« ••• ••• 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 The Upper Room at Jerusalem reconstructed ; a service in it ; 
 dignity of the room and service ; it was the Church of the 
 Apostles — The first Churches were the Ccenacula or Atria 
 of the houses of wealthy Christians — Examples at Antioch 
 in the Recognitions of Clement ; at Rome in the Acta of 
 St. Pontus ; at Bourges in Gregory of Tours, in the 
 Dialogues of Lucian — Plan of a Grecian and Roman house 
 — These rooms in houses were often given to or acquired by 
 the Church ; and continued to be used as public Churches ; 
 and rebuilt on the same site 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 THE PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 
 
 That the Churches worshipped in the catacombs during the ages 
 of persecution an error —The persecutions partial and brief ; 
 in the intervals the Church living and worshipping freely — 
 First public church in Rome probably in the time of Alex- 
 ander Severus (222-235) — Toleration of GaUienus — Church 
 organization in Rome — Forty public churches in Rome in 
 the time of Diocletian ; in other places — The arrangements 
 of the first public churches derived from the houses in v>'hich 
 the Cliristians had been accustomed to assemble ... 
 
 24
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHArTER IV. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE OF THE PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE 
 CONSTANTINE. 
 
 PAG a 
 
 Churches in the East ; in Central Syria ; in North Africa ; 
 Egypt and Nubia — Description of a Basilican Church— The 
 Church at Tyre — Church symbolism ... ... ... 34 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 Rome no longer the capital of the empire, and not the centre 
 of Christian influence — Constantine's Churches at Rome — 
 Basilicas not converted into Cliurches — Temples seldom con- 
 verted into Claurches ; their materials used in building 
 Churches on their sites — Description of St. Peter's, St. Paul's, 
 and St. Agnes' at Rome — Constantine's Churches in the East ; 
 at " Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Constantinople — Effect of Con- 
 stantine's conversion on Christian art ... ... ... 4S 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 
 
 The colonnades with the Greek architrave ; with the Roman 
 arch ; with an upper tier of columns — St. Clement's, Rome 
 — St. Ambrose's, Milan — Churches of Central Syria : Ba- 
 bouda ; Qualb Louzeh ; Tourmanin — Domestic architecture 
 of Central Syria — Churches at Nisibis ; Thessalonica — The 
 Golden Gate of Jerusalem — Churches of Egypt and Nubia, 
 Thamugas — Ravenna : Tomb of Galla Placidia ; St. Apolli- 
 nare Nuova ; St. Apollinare in Classe ; St. Vitale — Parenzo 
 in Istria — Churches of Gaul: Lyons; St. Martin's, Tours; 
 Clermont — Existing remains of the classical style in Gaul — 
 The dome in Persia ; in Central Syria ; St. Ezra ; Bozra — 
 The Byzantine dome ; Sta. Sophia — Domes in the West — 
 Traces of the basilican style of architecture in Britain, at 
 Canterbury, Frampton, Silchester — The Celtic churches ... 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 
 
 Primitive baptisms — Baptisteries in catacombs — When the 
 Atrium was the Church, possibly the Baptisterium of the 
 bath was the baptistery — Public baptisteries ; of the Lateran ;
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 at Aquileia ; at Nocera dei Pagani ; at Ravenna ; at Deir 
 Seta; in Italian cities — Fonts in churches — Illustrations of 
 the subject in England — Baptistery at York ; Canterbury — 
 Holy wells — Fonts — Chapterhouses ... ... ... 9"^ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 Literature of the subject — Incremation — Columbaria — Roman 
 subterranean sepulchral chambers — Jewish burial customs — 
 The Church adopted the custom of burial — Christian cata- 
 combs — Description of those at Rome — Family catacombs 
 of wealthy Christians put at the disposal of the Church — 
 Burial clubs — Public Christian catacombs became places of 
 pilgrimage — Jerome's description of them — Prudentius's 
 description of them, and of the Confessio of Hippolytus — 
 The removal of relics — The catacombs deserted and for- 
 gotten ... ... ... ... ... "• 101 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 Tombs and monuments at Rome, Jerusalem, and elsewhere — 
 Christian tombs : of Constantia, Helena — Syrian tombs at 
 Kerbet Hass, llass, Kokanaya — Subterranean chamber at 
 Mondjeleia — Twin columns at Sermeda, Dana, Bechindelayah 
 — Pillar stones in Britain — Tombs used for funeral rites 
 — Primitive regard for the dead — Funeral feasts — Confcssio 
 of the martyrs ; in the catacombs ; above ground — Story of 
 Theodotus of Ancyra — Basilica of SS. John and Paul, Rome 
 — St. Alban, his martyrion — Early tombs represented in 
 the paintings and sculptures of the Raising of Lazarus — 
 Abyssinian tomb — Visits to tombs, and names scratched on 
 them — Prayers to the saints ... ... ... ... 130 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAINTINGS. 
 
 Classical paintings at Rome and Pompeii — Christian paintings in 
 the sepulchral chambers and catacombs — In churches — Wider 
 range of Scripture subjects introduced in the fourth century 
 — Canons of Illiberis— Churches at Nola — Pictures of martyr- 
 doms — St. Nilus — Painting in English churches : at Wear-
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 mouth and Jarrow — Scripture subjects in tlie decoration of 
 houses ; testimony of Asterius, Palace of Constantine ; 
 House of SS. John and Paul, Rome — Subjects of paintings 
 at different periods: Symbolical, historical, apocalyptic, 
 Passion subjects, Madonnas — Style of the early Christian 
 school of painting ; of the Byzantine school — Repetition of a 
 narrow cycle of subjects — Originated in the East — The IX0T2; 
 the XP ; the AH — The origin of the emblems : lamb, dove, 
 etc. — Conventional treatment of subjects — The "Guide to 
 Painting " — Came from the East — Clement of Alexandria — 
 The Apostolical Constitutions — St. Ephrem ; St. Gregory of 
 Nyssa ; St. Cyril — Paintings in North Africa ; in Alexandria 159 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE LIKENESSES OF CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES. 
 
 The earliest representations conventional — The statuary group 
 at Paneas; the likenesses by St. Luke ; the Veronica legend ; 
 Eusebius on the subject ; Publius Lentulus's description — 
 The two types of likeness, the classical and the Byzantine — 
 St. Peter and St. Paul — The four evangelists ... ... 186 
 
 ^ 
 
 CPIAPTER Xn. 
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 Emblems: the cross; the crucifix; the "Graffito Blasfemo;" 
 the monogram — Symbolical subjects : the shepherd ; the 
 lamb ; the fish ; a fisherman ; the ship ; anchor ; amphora ; 
 vine ; olive ; palm ; doves ; sheep ; goats ; peacock ; phoenix ; 
 Orpheus ; mount with four streams ; stag drinking ; nimbus ; 
 aureole — Symbolical subjects from the Old and New Testa- 
 ments : their meaning ; Daniel ; the Three Children ; Jonah ; 
 Lazarus ; Noah ; sacrifice of Isaac ; healing the paralytic ; 
 the infirm woman ; the blind man ; the passage of the Red 
 Sea ; giving the Law ; the burning bush ; gathering manna (?) ; 
 seizure of Moses (?) ; striking the rock ; Job ; creation of Eve ; 
 fall of man ; Adam and Eve clothed ; Abel and Cain ; 
 translation of Elijah ; baptism of Christ ; entry into Jeru- 
 salem ; arrest of Christ — Eucharistic symbols : feeding the 
 multitude ; miracle of Cana ; manna ; table with fish and 
 bread ; fish and bread — List of subjects on sarcophagi in the 
 Lateran and Vatican collections — Groups of subjects : on 
 ceilings, gilded glass, arcosolia ... ... .., 195
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER Xlir. 
 SYM UOLISM —coutiiiiied. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The representation of individual persons — Representations of 
 deceased ; oranti ; oranti with saints — The so-called Ma- 
 donna of the Cemetery of Priscilla ; the so-called iVIadonna of 
 St. Agnes — Funeral feasts — Personal emblems: fossors ; 
 sculptor; painter, etc. — Punning emblems: a dragon for 
 Dracontius, etc. — Instruments of martyrdom (?) ... ... 234 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Classical sculpture — Christian statuary : the Good Shepherd, at 
 Rome, Constantinople, and Athens; the St. Plippolytus ; the 
 St. Peter — Sarcophagi : Egyptian, Etruscan, Roman, Chris- 
 tian ; kept ready made — The subjects sculptured on them — 
 Sarcophagi of Empress Helena ; Constantia ; Petronius 
 Probus ; Junius Bassus ; Anicius Probas, etc. — Sarcophagi 
 in Gaul, Spain, etc. — Pagan sarcophagi used for burial of 
 Christians — English examples— Survival of style and subjects 
 in stone crosses and fonts ... ... ... ... 253 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE MOSAICS. J^ 
 
 History of mosaic decoration ; its subjects — Examples: at Rome ; 
 St. Constantia ; St. George Salonica ; Sta. Maria Maggiore ; 
 Sta. Pudentiana ; Vatican ; SS. Cosmas and Damian ; S. 
 Praxedes, etc. — At Ravenna : tomb of Galla Placidia ; the 
 two baptisteries; St. Vitalis; St. Apollinare Nuovo ; in Classe 
 — At Constantinople, etc. — At Aix-la-Chapelle ; St. Mark's, 
 Venice — Fragments in the catacombs ... ... ... 2S3 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IVORIES. 
 
 Consular Diptychs ; Church Diptychs — Diptych of St. Gregory- 
 Chair of St. Maximinus ; of St. Peter — Book-covers — Pyxes 
 and relic-boxes — Caskets and shrines — Doors ... ... 297 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GILDED GLASS VESSELS. 
 
 Where found ; mode of execution ; subjects ; inscriptions— En- 
 
 £C?"aved glasses — '")n' nnnl use: menorial nn lica'ion ... "504
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRII'TS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Earliest books, sacred and profane— Sacred MSS.— The Syrian 
 Gospels of Rabula— Early IMS. in England : the Genesis of 
 the Cotton Library; the C.C.C. Cambridge and Bodleian 
 Gospels— The Irish and Saxon MSS. ... ... ... 312 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER VESSELS— HOLY OIL VESSELS — SACRED 
 
 EMBROIDERY. 
 
 The altar and its canopy ; altar vessels, etc. ; censers ; crosses"} 
 lamps— Holy oil vessels ; their use ; examples at Monza — 
 Superstitions connected with : continued to the present day 
 — Sacred embroidery ; hangings in churches ; clerical vest- 
 ments ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 319 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS IN DOMESTIC USE. 
 
 Religion in daily life— Use of religious subjects in decorating 
 
 houses ; dress ; water-vessels ; wine-cups ; buckles— Lamps 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 
 
 Coin of Severus with Noah's ark ; of Trajan with XP ; of Salonina 
 with EN EIPHNH— Coins with Christian symbols : of Con- 
 stantine, etc.— Medals : pectoral crosses— Gems : primitive 
 use of them with Christian symbols— Clement of Alexandria 
 — Examples in the British Museum, etc. .•■ ••• 33^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 History and character of inscriptions ; prayers for the departed, 
 
 and requests for their intercession ; euphemisms ; examples 348 
 
 CHAPTER XXIH. 
 Some Conclusions ... ... •«• •" ••• 357 
 
 Index ..• #.. ... ••« ••• 
 
 365
 
 all rru raJfaJ inJ raJ \M\ raJ raJ r^T^J raJ Kia raJ raJ raJ raJ raJ ISM raj raJ r^ raJmT 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Good Shepherd, Lateran Museum, about a.d. 300 
 
 Frontispiece 
 Capital of Pilaster supporting the " Triumphal Arch" 
 
 OF the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Diarbekr 35 
 
 Church at Chaqqa, Syria ... ... ... ... 37 
 
 Arch of Constantine, Rome ... ... ... 50 
 
 The Maison Carri&e at Nimes... ... ... ... 55 
 
 The Church of St. Paul without the Walls, Rome. 
 
 After the Fire ... ... ... ... ... 59 
 
 The Church of Bethlehem ... ... ... 62 
 
 Plan of St. Clement's, Rome ... ... ... ••• 67 
 
 The Church of St, Clement, Rome ... ... 68 
 
 Church of Babouda, Syria ... ... ... ••• 7^ 
 
 Church of Baqouza ... ... ... ... 72 
 
 Church of Tourmanin, Syria ... ... ... ... 73 
 
 From a House Front, Central Syria ... ... 74 
 
 Plan of St. George, Ezra, Syria ... ... ... 81 
 
 Church of St. George, Ezra, Syria ... ... 82 
 
 Roman Funeral Urn ... ... ... ■•• ••• 102 
 
 Ambulacrum with Loculi and Entrance into Cubicula, 
 
 Cemetery of St. Cecilia, Rome ... ... ... 109 
 
 A LocuLus closed with Slabs of Stone ... ... "o
 
 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 a loculus partly opened ... ... ... ... ho 
 
 a loculus closed with an inscribed marble slab ho 
 
 The Tomb ok the Empress Helena ... ... ... 133 
 
 Tomb at HAss, Central Syria ... ... ... 134. 
 
 Subterranean Sepulchre at Mondjeleia, Central Syria 137 
 
 A Christian Monument at Prymnessos, Phrygia ... 139 
 Plan of Chapel in the Cemetery in Via Ardentiana, 
 
 Rome ... ... ... ... ... ... 147 
 
 Tomb at Adowa, Abyssinia ... ... ... 148 
 
 The Raising of Lazarus ... ... ... ... 154 
 
 Wall-painting of St, Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, from 
 
 the Cemetery of Callistus, Rome ... ... 157 
 
 Painted Ceiling of One of the Chambers of the Ceme- 
 tery OF St. Callistus... ... ... ... 161 
 
 Ceiling, from the Catacombs ... ... ... ... 163 
 
 Fresco Painting, from the Cemetery of St. Callistus 174 
 Our Lord as the Giver of the Divine Word. Fifth 
 
 Century ... ... ... ... ••• •■• i93 
 
 Wall-painting, from the Cemetery of Pontianus, 
 
 Rome ... ... ••■ ••• ••• ••• ^97 
 
 Wall-painting, from the Church of the Nativity, 
 
 Bethlehem ... ... .■• ••• ... 198 
 
 Scribbling on the Wall, Palatine Hill, Rome ... 199 
 Miniature Painting, from the MS. Syrian Gospels, by 
 
 RABULA ... ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• 202 
 
 Monumental Inscription at Sivaux, France ... 203 
 
 Monumental Inscription in the Roman Catacombs ... 203 
 
 The Sacred Monogram ... ... ... ... 203 
 
 Glass Vessel embedded in the Mortar of a Loculus, 
 
 with Palm Branch ... ... ... ... 208 
 
 Orpheus. From the Cemetery of Domitilla, Rome ... 211 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Callistus, Rome 227 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Marcellinus. An 
 
 Orante clad in Chasuble ... ... ... 235 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Soter, Rome ... 236 
 
 Inscription on Marble ... ... ... ... 236 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. C.^xilia, Rome ... 237
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv 
 
 PAIB 
 
 Painting from the Upper Cemetery of St. Gennaro, 
 
 Naples ... ... ... ... ... ... 239 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Callistus, Romei! 243 
 Orante and Child, the so-called Madonna of the 
 
 Cemetery of St. Agnes ... ... ... 244 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Callistus, Rome ... 245 
 
 The Good Shepherd. Statue in the Lateran Museum 254 
 From a Sarcophagus in the Cathedral, Tortona, 
 
 Fourth Century ... ... ... ... ... 257 
 
 Statue of St. Hippolytus, Lateran Museum ... 258 
 
 From the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, a.d. 359 ... 263 
 
 Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, a.d 359 ... ... 269 
 
 Sarcophagus of Anicius Probus, a.d. 395 ... ... 271 
 
 Sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum, late Fourth 
 
 or Fifth Century ... ... ... ... 273 
 
 Sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum ... ... 275 
 
 Sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum ... ... 277 
 
 End of Sarcophagus of Archbishop Theodorus, St. 
 
 Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna. Seventh Century 278 
 Mosaics in the Apse of the Ancient Church of the 
 
 Vatican ... ... ... ... ... ... 2S9 
 
 Mosaic from the Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna 292 
 
 Upper Gallery, Church of St. Vitalis, Ravenna ... 293 
 
 The Empress Theodora: St. Vitalis, Ravenna ... 294 
 Ivory Diptych at the Cathedral, Monza ... To face 298 
 
 A Pax of the Eighth Century, Cividale, Friuli 300 
 Gilded Glass Vessel, from the PvOman Catacombs. Side 
 
 View ... ... ... ... ... ... 305 
 
 Gilded Glass Vessel, from the Roman Catacombs. Full 
 
 View ... ... ... ... ... ... 305 
 
 Gilded Glass Vessel: " Pompeiane, Teodora, Vi- 
 
 b(v)atis" ... ... ... ... ... ... 306 
 
 Gilded Glass Vessel: "Angne" ... ... ... 307 
 
 Gilded Glass Vessel. Bust surrounded by Twelve 
 
 Figures ... ... ... ... ... ... 30S 
 
 The Ascension : from the Syrian Gospels, by Rabula, 
 
 A.D. 586 (?) ... ... ... ... ... 315
 
 XVI 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Ampulla, at Monza ... 
 
 Water- VESSEL from North Africa 
 
 Buckle of a Belt. Daniel in the Lions' Den, and an 
 
 Orante 
 Clay Lamp, with xp Ornament 
 Coin of Septimus Severus 
 Coin of Constantine the Great ... 
 Coin of Constans 
 Coin of Justin I, ... 
 
 Coin of Licinia Eudoxia, Wife of Valentinian IH. 
 Medallion of the Eighth or Ninth Century 
 St. Paul and St. Peter (Bronze) 
 Leaden Medallion 
 Early Christian Rings ... ••• ... 
 
 PAGE 
 332 
 
 334 
 337 
 338 
 340 
 341 
 341 
 342 
 343 
 343 
 345
 
 : ^F^:t;tit:t Rj^iiiiiJ:iJdiiii+ii;i-+-4; + :fl:4-4-l-I^H 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Definition of " Christian art "—Early Christian art was Greek art; in 
 its decadence ; its historical interest— Scope of this book. 
 
 T may be well to explain, to begin with, 
 that by the phrase Christian art is meant 
 art apph'ed to Christian uses. The 
 Christianity is in the subjects, not in the 
 style. Artists cannot invent a new style to order, 
 or at will. A man must utter his thoughts, how- 
 ever novel they may be, in the language of his time. 
 The Evangelists and Apostles had a new revelation 
 to convey, but they had perforce to express its 
 mysteries in the Greek which was the lingua franca 
 
 B
 
 2 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of their age. So if a man undertake to express facts 
 
 or thoughts in painting or sculpture, it must be in 
 
 the art of his time ; the early Christian artists had 
 
 ito present their subjects in the style of art which 
 
 Kwas then in current use. Language indeed grows 
 
 and changes, but slowly, under certain influences ; 
 
 so does art change, slowly, under the influence of new 
 
 needs, materials, methods of construction, moods of 
 
 thought, and feeling ; and the climax of the history 
 
 of early Christian art is the actual emergence of a 
 
 new phase of art under the gradual influence of all 
 
 these causes. 
 
 f Art all over the civilized world at the time of the 
 
 t Christian era vvasGreek art. The Macedonian con- 
 
 quests had spread Greek civilization and art over 
 
 the East ; the Romans had adopted them from 
 
 I conquered Greece, and carried them forward with 
 less genius of conception and less refinement of taste ; 
 and, beyond the slow process of natural decadence, 
 art underwent no changes in Roman hands. At 
 the beginning of the Christian era this art had 
 already passed its highest point of excellence ; but 
 the architects of the time of Augustus could still 
 decorate the Forum with temples imitated from and 
 hardly inferior to the best of the ancient temples 
 of Greece ; the sculptors produced fine replicas of 
 the great works of earlier art ; and the original 
 statues of imperial and noble persons which peopled 
 Rome had great dignity in the pose, skill in the 
 broad handling of the robes, and especially great 
 power of portraiture. Few examples of the painting
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 \ 
 
 of the period have survived, and those chiefly the 
 less serious works which were used in domestic 
 decoration ; enough, however, remains in the house 
 of Livia on the Palatine, at Pompeii, and elsewhere, 
 to prove that the artists possessed great technical 
 skill and abundant graceful fancy. 
 
 But by the time that the Christian Church needed 
 to employ the arts in its service, the decaSfehCfe of 
 ^ctSssicat''arT'lTa3'TuTI}r^er in,'~1and the decline con- 
 tinued through several centuries. Moreover, the 
 j Christian art work which has survived is not equal 
 j to the contemporary work of heathen art. The 
 circumstances of the early Church made it unlikely 
 that it should obtain, " for love or money," the 
 services of the greater artists who were busy building 
 and adorning the palaces of Roman patricians, and of 
 plundering proconsuls and procurators. So that the 
 early art we have to do with here is poor and 
 debased compared with the earlier classical art, and 
 effete and feeble compared with that of later ages, 
 when Christian civilization had at length wrought 
 
 (out for itself a new style in which to express its 
 mind and soul. This early Christian art, with all 
 its defects, is, however, of the highest interest to us, 
 because it is the autograph record in art language 
 of the history of the Church of those times, its 
 doctrines, worship, manners and customs, hopes and 
 aspirations. And those times were times of especial 
 interest in the history of the Church : first, the three 
 ages before the Church was allied with the State ; 
 then the three ages during which all the great
 
 4 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Doctors and Fathers of the Church taught ; while 
 the Church was still in external unity, and its life- 
 blood circulated freely throughout its vast extension. 
 In the latter part of the period of the decline of 
 classical art the phenomena are not merely those 
 of decline ; there present themselves indications of 
 a new initiative — new modes of treatment, a growing 
 boldness and vigour of originality, new plans in 
 architecture, new subjects in pictorial art, a disregard 
 of the naturalistic conception and treatment of Greek 
 art and in its place the mystic conception and 
 suggestive treatment of the Byzantine art. There 
 is a wide borderland between the two, in the upper 
 part of which Byzantine feeling is making itself felt, 
 and in the lower classical tradition still survives. 
 ,A history of early Christian art is bound to note the 
 rise of the Byzantine school while it pursues with 
 interest the late survivals of the earlier school.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 The Upper Room at Jerusalem reconstructed; a service in it ; dignity 
 of the room and service ; it was the Church of the Apostles — The 
 first Churches were the Cceracula or Atria of the houses of wealthy 
 Christians — Examples at Antioch in the Recognitions of Clement ; 
 at Rome in the Acta of St. Pontus ; at Bourges in Gregory of 
 Tours, in the Dialogues of Lucian — Plan of a Grecian and Roman 
 house — These rooms in houses were often given to or acquired by 
 the Church ; and continued to be used as public Churches ; and 
 rebuilt on the same site. 
 
 HE history of Christian art, i.e. art applied 
 to Christian uses, begins with the birth 
 of the Church, on the great Day of] 
 Pentecost, in the upper room of Mary's j 
 house at Jerusalem. 
 
 Let us try to reconstruct this upper room. A 
 typical Eastern house of the better class is usually 
 built round an open court, which is paved with 
 marble, and has a marble tank or fountain in the 
 middle. Sometimes trees planted near the tank rise 
 to a considerable height, seeking air and sun, and 
 spread out their foliage, giving a pleasant shade ;
 
 6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 round the sides of the court are disposed shrubs in 
 great boxes, or a border of flower beds ; and climbing 
 plants half clothe the walls. In one corner is a kind 
 of room, open on one side to the court, rising through 
 the two stories of the house up to the flat roof, its 
 floor raised two or three feet above the pavement of 
 the court, with a stone or marble bench round its three 
 sides. This is the divan, where the master of the house 
 usually receives visits of courtesy or of business.* An 
 external stone stair along another side of the court 
 gives access to a balcony f at the height of the 
 second story. And from this balcony opens a large 
 room which is the great reception-room on occasions 
 of ceremony or festivity. This is our Upper Room, 
 in Graek virepwov, in Latin cosnaciihim. 
 
 Now Mary, the mistress of the house, apparently 
 at this time a widow, was the sister of Barnabas the 
 Levite. Josephus states at the beginning of his Auto- 
 biography that the priests were the aristocratic caste 
 "of his nation ; the Levites were the second order 
 of this aristocratic caste; and Mary was of aLevitical 
 family. Her brother Barnabas had not only the 
 emoluments of his office, but was also a landowner in 
 Cyprus, and appears from the whole narrative to 
 
 * Our Lord was probably sitting here when they let down the 
 paralytic through the roof above, so that the sick man alighted on this 
 raised platform at the feet of Jesus, between those who sat round the 
 divan and the crowd who stood in the court (Luke v. i8, 19), 
 
 t On the Day of Pentecost the Apostles probably came out of the 
 upper room upon this balcony, and thence Peter addressed the crowd 
 in the court below, and perhaps on the flat housetops around. The 
 fountain in the middle of the court would afford water for the baptism 
 of the three thousand (Acts ii. 14).
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 have been a person of some distinction. Mary, his 
 widowed sister, was probably a person of some social 
 consideration and wealth, for she resided in the capital, 
 and her house was a large one, since its ccenaailuin 
 would contain at least one hundred and twenty 
 persons. Herod the Great, half a century before, had 
 introduced into Jerusalem a taste for sumptuous 
 architecture in the prevailing classical style of art, 
 and the large and lofty reception-room of Mary would 
 possibly be in the prevailing taste ; adorned with i 
 pilasters and cornices, its wall-panels and ceiling 
 ornamented with painting. It would make a very 
 convenient church, as the Royal Chapel at Whitehall 
 did, which was built for a banqueting hall. 
 
 An Eastern reception-room has little more perma- 
 nent furniture than the low bench which runs along 
 one or more of its sides, so that there was nothing 
 to interfere with an assembly of people; and since 
 Eastern congregations always staTidto_worship^ there 
 was nothing lacking for their accommodation. 
 
 Having reconstructed the room, let us go a little 
 further and assist at one of the Christian assemblies 
 in it — the early morning assembly for the Breaking 
 of the Bread. On this occasion some furniture is 
 required ; at least a plate for the bread, a cup for the 
 wine, and a table to place them upon. 
 
 Now, the people of those times did not possess the 
 facilities which we have for investing surplus wealth 
 at interest. The accumulated wealth of well-to-do 
 people was not in the shape of scrip and shares, but 
 of actual silver and gold and gems. But instead of
 
 8 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 keeping all this precious metal and these beautiful 
 stones hidden, it was the custom to use them much 
 more largely than we are in the habit of doing in the 
 form of personal decorations and of ornamental furni- 
 ture. A wealthy household would have a very much 
 larger display of precious vessels in common use than 
 a household of similar- station and means among 
 ourselves. In supplying the vessels necessary for the 
 solemn Memorial of the Sacrifice of the Son of God 
 a natural feeling of reverence would lead Mary to 
 select the best in her possession. We know the kind 
 of vessels in common use at the time, and recognize 
 that the first "paten" and "chalice" would very 
 possibly be a tazza and a cup of silver or gold, perhaps 
 adorned with gems, and made beautiful in form and 
 ornamentation by the best skill of the goldsmith. 
 The tables of the same time often consisted of a 
 marble slab supported by an ornamental frame of 
 bronze ; and such a one would be convenient for the 
 use in question. 
 
 Convenience would dictate that the table should 
 be placed at the upper end of the room. The Apostles 
 would naturally stand behind it^^asjhe ministrg,jUs,»- 
 while the people would stand in reverent order in the 
 body of the room, the men by themselves and the 
 women by themselves ; this was the arrangement 
 directed by our Lord in the miracles of the feeding 
 of the multitudes, which were types of this spiritual 
 feeding of the people. Look at the dress of the 
 Apostles, for it is the earliest authority for "clerical 
 vestments." The usual dress of the higher and middle
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 9 
 
 classes at that time in Judsea, as elsewhere, was the 
 tunic and pallium ; * on occasions of religion and 
 ceremony their colour was white, and the long tunic 1 
 was worn, the sleeves of which reached to the wrists and || 
 the skirts to the ankles. This is the dress assigned to f 
 the Apostles in the earliest pictorial representations, '■'^ 
 even when the successors of the Apostles had adopted \ 
 other fashions of episcopal costume,f and it is highly / 
 probable that it is that which they actually wore ; % 
 it is a costume of such statuesque simplicity of line 
 and breadth of fold, that artists to this day employ it 
 to give dignity to their sacred figures. 
 
 This, then, is the first presentation of Christian art 
 in the Church ; and in the magnitude and architectural 
 character of the place of assembly, in the costly 
 beauty of the sacred vessels, in the habit of the 
 ministers, in the order of the congregation, there was 
 nothing lacking to the dignity of the Divine service. 
 
 We have taken pains to realize this assembly of the 
 Apostolic Church in the upper room at Jerusalem in 
 order to combat at the outset the vulgar error that 
 the early Church affected a studious plainness and 
 informality in Divine worship and its appointments. 
 There is not a word of evidence to that effect in the 
 
 * The pallium was a Inrpe nhlnnir pipr^ (^f nin th, lately come into 
 use instead of the old toga, and was disposed in certain folds about the 
 person. 
 
 t As in the mosaic in SS. Cosmas and Damian at Rome, of the time 
 of Felix IV. (526-530), and in the mosaics of the same century at 
 Ravenna. 
 
 :|: In the "Recognitions of Clement," viii. 6, about 150 A.D., St. 
 Peter is represented as saying, "My dress is what you see, a tunic 
 with a pallium,"
 
 lo HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Scriptures, or in the early Christian writers, and the 
 probabilities are to the contrary. The first Christians 
 were Jews, and had been trained in the principles of 
 Divine worship amid the splendours of the Temple, 
 and continued to attend the Temple worship. Even 
 the synagogues for their " prayer-meetings " were 
 handsome buildings and suitably furnished. But 
 the worship of the Church was the continuation of 
 the solemn liturgical worship of the Temple, not of 
 the prayer-meetings of the synagogue. When the 
 [Churches could do no better they worshipped in the 
 'open air or in a cave, and knew that their worship 
 " in spirit and in truth " would be acceptable to the 
 Most High ; but when they could do better, they 
 thought the best which they could do was only a 
 suitable outward expression of their reverence. This 
 principle of Christian worship is sanctioned by our 
 Lord's approval of Mary of Bethany's act of worship 
 in anointing His feet with the precious ointment, and 
 by His implied rebuke of Simon the Pharisee's neglect 
 of the ceremonious courtesies usually offered to an 
 honoured guest. 
 
 It is highly probable that this Upper Room was 
 the usual place of assembly of the innermost circle of 
 the disciples ; that there the Lord celebrated the last 
 Passover and instituted the memorial of the breaking 
 of the bread ; * there the disciples assembled on the 
 evening of the great Easter Day,t and on the follow- 
 ing Sunday ; % there the election of Matthias to the 
 
 ♦ Luke xxii. I2. t John xx. 19. J John xx. 26.
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. ir 
 
 Apostleship* took place; there the disciples assembled 
 every day after the Ascension in prayer for the coming 
 of the promised Comforter ; f and there, on the day 
 
 /i'of Pentecost, they were baptized with the Holy Ghost 
 
 (I and with fire, and the Church began to be. 
 
 ^^ It is highly probable^'tRat the Upper Room thus 
 consecrated continued to be used for the assemblies ■ 
 of the Church and for its worship ; that it was there 
 "at the house" that the disciples daily broke the 
 bread, that is to say, celebrated the Eucharist ;% that I 
 this was the house which was supernaturally shaken f 
 in answer to their prayers ; § there the Church kept \ 
 up its ceaseless intercession for Peter while in prison ; || 
 there the seven deacons were ordained ; If there the 
 first council was held,** For there is an early tradition > 
 that the house of Mary was at length entirely given *. 
 over to the Church ; and under the name of the 
 Ccenaculum, or of the Church of the Apostles, it \ 
 continued to be the most venerated of the churches | 
 of Jerusalem down to the fourth century and / 
 later.ft -^ 
 
 We meet with other notices in the writings of the 
 New Testament of the use of these upper rooms for 
 Christian assemblies. Dorcas was '"•^'laM^ TTOt:'^ to 
 
 * Ac's i. 15. t Acts ii. J Acts ii. 46. 
 
 § Actsiv. 23-31. II Actsxii. 12, f Actsvi. 6. 
 
 ** Acts XV. 4-6. 
 
 tt St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (a.d. 347), seems to say that the 
 "Upper Church of the Apostles" of his time was this Upper Room 
 ("Catechetical Lectures," xvi. 4). In the group of buildings on the 
 southern brow of Zion, now known as the Ccenaculum, is a large 
 upper room fifty feet by thirty, which is supposed to represent, if not 
 actually to be, this venerable room.
 
 12 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 receive the last honours in an upper room,* very 
 possibly that in which the Christians of Joppa were 
 accustomed to assemble. The Church at Troas was 
 used to assemble in an upper room, on the first day 
 of the week, for the breaking of the bread. f It is- 
 probable that in all the cases in which we have 
 notices in the New Testament of the Church in the 
 house of Such-an-one, what is implied is not the 
 prayer-meeting of a circle of Christian friends, but 
 the general assembly of the Church of that city, 
 regularly held in the house of some wealthy convert.^ 
 For there is sufficient evidence that in the period 
 before the Christian communities were able to erect 
 public churches for their meetings, it was the regular 
 practice everywhere to hold the assemblies for Divine 
 worship in the house of one of the brethren ; usually 
 (as was natural) in the house of a Christian of wealth 
 and distinction, because its large rooms afforded 
 ample accommodation to the Church. There were 
 probably more early converts of the higher classes than 
 is popularly apprehended. St. Paul indeed says § 
 that "not many wise, not many mighty, not many 
 noble," were among the disciples of his time ; but 
 some there" were. At the very first, among those 
 who believed in the Christ were the nobleman of 
 Capernaum, II who is probably the same as Chuza, 
 Herod's steward ; H the centurion of Capernaum ; 
 Joseph and Nicodemus, members of the Sanhedrim ; 
 
 * Acts ix. 37. t Acts XX. 8- 
 
 X Acts xviii. 7 J Rom. xvi, 15 ; I Cor. xi. 18, 22 ; xiv. 23 ; xvi. 19} 
 Col. iv. 15. 
 
 § I Cor. 1. 26. 11 John iv, 46. \ Luke viii. 3.
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 13 
 
 later, the treasurer of Ethiopia and the centurion of 
 Caesarea — one of the patrician Cornelii ; still later, 
 Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, the " most 
 excellent Theophilus " of Antioch, Dionysius the 
 Areopagite, to say nothing of the " chief women " of 
 Thessalonica, and the " honourable women which 
 were Greeks not a few " at Berea ; lastly, members 
 of the noble Roman families, Pudentian, Pomponian, 
 Anician, and others, culminating in " them of Caesar's 
 household," a phrase in which recent discoveries * 
 have enabled us to include Flavius Clemens and his 
 wife Flavia Domitilla, the former the cousin and the 
 latter the niece of the Emperor Domitian. 
 
 Other recent discoveries in the Roman catacombs f 
 have proved that the Manius Acilius Glabrio, who 
 was included in the same indictment and sentence with 
 Flavius Clemens, was also a Christian with members 
 of his family. This family attained celebrity about 
 200 years B.C., when Acilius Glabrio the consul con- 
 quered the Macedonians. Towards the end of the 
 Republic they were established on the Pincian PI ill, 
 where they had a palace and large gardens, and were 
 so greatly esteemed that Pertinax, in the memorable 
 sitting of the senate in which he was elected emperor, 
 declared them to be the noblest race in the world. 
 Manius Acilius Glabrio was consul with Trajan in 
 the year 91 A.D., and in this very year he was com- 
 pelled by Domitian to fight with a lion and two 
 bulls in the amphitheatre adjoining the emperor's 
 villa at Albanum. He survived the combat, and was 
 
 • See p. 115. f See p. 117.
 
 14 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 banished. But four years afterwards, A.D. 95, he was 
 tried, condemned, and executed, together with Flavius 
 Clemens and others, on the charge of having embraced 
 the customs and persuasion of the Jews. 
 
 Recent discoveries have also put it beyond a doubt 
 that Pomponius Gra^cina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, 
 the conqueror of Britain, was a Christian. An inscrip- 
 tion bearing the name nOMnONIOC TPHKEINOO 
 has been found in the cemetery of Callistus, together 
 with other records of the Pomponii Attici and Bassi. 
 Some scholars think that Graecina, the wife of Aulus 
 Plautius, is no other than Lucina, the Christian 
 matron, who interred her brethren in Christ in her 
 own property, at the second milestone of the Appian 
 Way. 
 
 Other evidence of the conquests made by the gospel 
 among the patricians is given by an inscription dis- 
 covered in 1866, in the catacombs of Praetextatus, 
 near the monument of Quirinus the martyr. It is 
 a memorial raised to the memory of his departed 
 wife by Postumius Quietus, consul A.D. 272. Here 
 also was found the name of Urania, daughter of 
 Herodes Atticus, by his second wife Vibullia Alcia, 
 while on the other side of the road, near St. Sebastian, 
 a mausoleum has been found, on the architrave of 
 which the name URAN10E[VM] is engraved. 
 
 Eusebius, in speaking of the martyrs of the Flavian 
 family, quotes the authority of the historian Bruttius. 
 He evidently means Bruttius Praesens, the friend of 
 the younger Pliny, and the grandfather of Crispina 
 the Empress of Commodus. In 1854, near the
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 15 
 
 entrance to the Flavian crypt, was found a fragment 
 of a stone sarcophagus with the name of Bruttius 
 Crispinus, so that the Flavian family and that of 
 their historian were united in the proximity of their 
 villas and tombs and by community of religion. 
 
 There also occur the names of several Cornelii, 
 Caecihi, and ^milii, the flower of Roman nobility, 
 grouped near the graves of St. Caecilia and Pope 
 Cornelius; of Liberalis, 2, consul sujfectiis* and a 
 martyr, whose remains were buried in the Via 
 Salaris ; of Jallia Clementina, a relative of Jallius 
 Bassus, consul before A.D. 161 ; of Catia Clementina, 
 daughter or relative of Catius, consul A.D. 230, not 
 to speak of persons of equestrian rank whose names 
 have been collected in hundreds.f 
 
 The subject of these domestic churches is of such 
 general interest that it is worth while to illustrate it 
 in some detail. 
 
 The " Recognitions of Clement," written soon after 
 the middle of the second century, says that " At 
 Antioch, by the preaching of St. Peter, within seven 
 days more than 10,000 men were baptized, so that 
 Theophilus,t who was more exalted than all the men 
 of power that were in that city, consecrated the great 
 hall of his house for a church,§ and a chair {cathedra) 
 
 ^Elected to supply the place of a consul dying or retiring in his 
 year of office. 
 
 t Lanciani, " Pagan and Christian Rome," ii. 9. 
 
 % The "most excellent Theophilus ' of St. Luke's dedication of the 
 Gospel and Acts; "most excellent" was an official title. Tradition 
 says that St. Luke was a resident in Antioch. 
 
 § '■^Domus stm ingcntem basilicam ecdesice nomine constcraret " (x. 71).
 
 l6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 was placed in it for the Apostle, and the whole mul- 
 titude assembled daily to hear his word." 
 
 The writer of a novel, for such is the nature of 
 the "Recognitions," does not necessarily narrate truths, 
 but he is careful to make his narrative truth-like ; we 
 / infer, therefore, that it was in accordance with the 
 known facts of the history of the Church, that a man 
 of rank and wealth should give up "the basilica of his 
 house " for a church.* ' "" ~^ — -^ ' 
 
 The " Acta " of St. Pontus supplies, in the course 
 of a charming contemporary sketch of Roman life, 
 another_exain2leof thechurch__in_aji^^ 
 It relates that one day, in his boyhood, as Pontus 
 was passing at dawn through the streets of Rome, 
 on the way to his preceptor, accompanied by his 
 pedagogue and a young companion, he heard singing 
 from an upper room of one of the houses which they 
 were passing, and distinguished the words, " Our God 
 is in heaven. . . . Their idols are silver and gold, 
 the work of men's hands," etc. (Ps. cxv.). Seized 
 with a sudden impulse, he knocked at the door of 
 the house. Some looked down from above through 
 a window,t and saw that it was a child who knocked. 
 Bishop Pontianus (A.D. 230-235), who was present, 
 
 * The house would probably be the same building, called by 
 Eusebius o ttjs E/c«A.7/(nas oiKOi, "the house of the Church," in which 
 Paul of Samosata made so much display of episcopal state, and which 
 he refused to give up on his deposition from the bishopric for heresy, 
 until compelled by the intervention of the Emperor Aurelian, A.D, 272. 
 
 t The principal windows of an Eastern house look into the interior 
 courtyard, but there is often a small projecting window overlooking the 
 street, so that the inhabitants can, as in this instance, ascertain who 
 comes and goes and knocks.
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 17 
 
 bade that he should be admitted, " for of such," he 
 said, " is the kingdom of God." Pontius, with his com- 
 panion Valerius (who is the author of the narrative), 
 having been admitted, ascended to the coenaciihnn 
 (the upper room), and seeing that they were cele- 
 bratmg the Divine mysteries, turned aside till the 
 service was concluded ; then Pontianus talked with 
 him, and laid the foundation of his conversion. 
 
 Gregory of Tours relates that the missionaries 
 who planted the church at Bourges in the middle of 
 the third century, when they had made some converts, 
 began to cast about for a place for their assemblies 
 for worship, and sought to obtain possession of the 
 private house of some citizen for the purpose of con- 
 verting it into a church ; but all the senators and 
 wealthier people of the place were still heathen. So 
 they had recourse to one Leocadius, a man in the 
 highest position and related to the family of Vettius 
 Epagathus, who had suffered in the famous persecution 
 at Lyons a century earlier, and offered to purchase 
 his house. He became a Christian, and gave his , 
 I house for use as a church. The existing cathedral 
 
 I of Bourges is the magnificent representative, on the 
 same site, of the atrium of Leocadius. ^ 
 
 The satire of an opponent of Christianity affords 
 us still another example. In the "Dialogue of Philo- 
 patris," which goes by the name of Lucian, but is 
 probably by a later writer, and of date A.D. 363, the 
 time of the Emperor Julian, one of the characters 
 relates that he was persuaded to visit some men, who, 
 he was told, would teach him all mysteries. Pie 
 
 C
 
 i8 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 passed through iron doors and by brazen ways, and 
 having ascended a long roundabout route, he came to 
 a chamber with gilded ceiling, such as Homer tells of 
 the house of Menelaus.* He saw no Helen, however, 
 but only a number of men with pale countenances 
 bent towards the earth. In short, he had been in- 
 duced to visit a Christian assembly. This description 
 of the satirist is no doubt imaginary, but it is better 
 evidence for our purpose than an isolated fact, because 
 his story would certainly be founded upon what was 
 known to be the general custom of the Christians. 
 
 The Christians at Cirta, North Africa, were using a 
 house for their assemblies at the time of the outbreak 
 of the Diocletian persecution. 
 
 The houses of Greece and Rome were built on a 
 different model from the Eastern house which has 
 been described, and in houses of this plan it would 
 be the atrium which would be used for the place of 
 assembly, and it is this atrium which afforded the 
 type of the churches of the first six centuries. . 
 
 In the sketch plan of a Greek or Roman house 
 given in Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman 
 Antiquities," -f* the visitor passes first through an 
 outer court, which is sometimes surrounded by a 
 colonnade, and has a fountain in the middle. He 
 
 * "There was a radiance like that of the sun or moon throughout 
 the huge vaulted hall of renowned Menelaus, . . . the gleam of bronze 
 and of gold, of amber and of ivory" (" Odyssey," bk. iv.). 
 
 t The prehistoric palace at Tiryns (Smith's " Dictionary of Greek 
 and Roman Antiquities") and the first-century houses at Pompeii 
 (Lanciani, "Pagan and Christian Rome," Ii4)jbear witness 'to the 
 persistency of this normal plan.
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 19 
 
 enters into the atrium, the common reception-room. 
 It is always large in proportion to the size of the 
 house, for, as in the halls of our Saxon ancestors, the 
 indoor life of the family was for the most part trans- 
 acted in it. Frequently it was divided into a nave 
 and aisles by two rows of columns, which sustained 
 the roofs. Beyond, it was the tablimim, or supper- 
 room, which was only divided from the atrium by 
 a curtain. The outer court, atrium, and tablinum, 
 formed the principal body of the house ; besides 
 these, were usually a room on each side of the 
 tablinum, some small rooms on each side of the 
 atrium opening from it, and receiving their only light 
 through their doors ; and sometimes a second story 
 of small rooms over these. The houses of Pompeii 
 afford many examples of houses of this plan still 
 standing. 
 
 At Corinth, when St. Paul desisted from his preach- 
 ing in the synagogue, he separated the believers, and 
 formed them into a Church, which " came together 
 into one place" for worship (i Cor. xiv. 23), probably 
 in the house of Justus (Acts xviii. 7). Now, Justus 
 was a Gentile, and the house of a well-to-do Gentile 
 in the lately rebuilt city of Corinth would be of the 
 usual plan and architectural style of the period. The 
 Christian congregation would pass through the outer 
 court into the atrium. The reader may accompany 
 them, and study the place and people. On the further 
 side of the open-air court, by a short passage through 
 the house, he enters the atrium. It is a large and lofty 
 hall ; two rows of pillars support the roof, which is
 
 20 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 open in the middle for light and air ; the walls are 
 divided by pilasters to correspond with the columns, 
 and the wall panels are decorated with paintings, like 
 those in the house of Livia, or in the houses at 
 Pompeii. At the further end, when the curtain is 
 withdrawn, the eye travels into the tablinum,* which 
 is like a chancel ; its table is already conveniently 
 placed for the approaching Breaking of the Bread, 
 the necessary vessels are already placed upon it, and 
 the Apostle Paul and his assistant ministers, Silas and 
 Timotheus, are seated behind it, waiting for the time 
 to begin. The hall would be destitute of furniture, 
 ' and the people would stand, the men on the left 
 hand and the women on the right, the men with their 
 .heads uncovered, the women with the usual head- 
 /veil, which partly concealed the face. Mere con- 
 venience would dictate that the Divine service should 
 be performed in the tablinum, and the sermon 
 preached thence ; the people would come up to the 
 tablinum, and there, standing, would receive the con- 
 secrated food, as they now do in all the churches of 
 the East. Thus naturally grew the plan of the 
 church and the order of its service. 
 
 / 
 
 There is abundant evidence that the Churches 
 continued to assemble for Divine worship in private 
 houses, not only during the ages of persecution, but 
 long after the decrees of Constantine had given 
 
 * This custom of screening the tablinum from the atrium by a 
 curtain was perhaps the oiigin of the custom of the early Church to 
 place a curtain before the apse, which was drawn and withdrawn in 
 different portions of the services.
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE. 21 
 
 universal peace to the Church. It was natural that 
 it should be so. The buildings, as we have seen, 
 whether upper room or atrium, were sufficiently 
 spacious to contain a considerable congregation, 
 sufficiently dignified architecturally for a church, and 
 endeared to the Christian community by long years 
 of the most sacred associations. There, in the 
 tablinum, saints and martyrs had celebrated the 
 Divine mysteries and had preached the Word ; there, 
 in the atrium, this and that illustrious person 
 had stood to worship ; there their parents and rela- 
 tives had worshipped ; there they themselves had 
 first been brought to the assembly of the faithful. 
 No wonder that the place had become to them a 
 sacred place, " none other than the House of God, 
 and the very gate of heaven." It is probable that in 
 some cases the whole house had been given to the 
 Church. We see something like this adumbrated very 
 early in the case of Mary's house at Jerusalem. The 
 owners of the house, ex hypothesi zealous Christians 
 and wealthy people, would be moved by natural piety 
 to feel that a building so long dedicated to sacred 
 purposes should not return to secular uses, and would 
 give it to the Church; or the Church, desirous to 
 retain a building so endeared to them by its venerable 
 associations, would seek to possess it, if necessary by 
 purchase. The place so long used for the assembly 
 of the congregation would still be used as the church, 
 and the rest of the house would afford a dwellins:- 
 place to the bishop, or to some of the clergy, or 
 would serve some similar Church use. Thus there
 
 22 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 is an extant letter of Pius I. (a.D. 142-157), Bishop 
 of Rome, in which he states that Euprepia, a pious 
 widow, had assigned her house over to the Church, 
 "where dwelling with the poor we celebrate the 
 Divine offices." 
 
 The natural sequel would be that, in course of time, 
 these houses would be taken down and larger churches 
 would be built upon their venerable sites. The 
 ancient and credible tradition at Rome is that several 
 of its most ancient churches were thus built upon the 
 sites of houses in which first the Church assembled 
 by permission of the owner, then the owner gave the 
 house to the Church, and lastly, larger churches were 
 built upon the site. 
 
 St. Prisca is traditionally said to occupy the site of 
 the house in which St. Prisca was baptized by St. 
 Peter, and the first church to have been built by 
 Bishop Eutychianus, A.D. 280. The interesting church 
 of St. Clement is said to have been built upon the 
 site of the house of Flavius Clemens, of the imperial 
 family. The Pudens saluted by St. Paul, in his 
 Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 21), is said to have 
 been the distinguished senator of that name, in whose 
 house St. Paul is said to have lived ; and the grandson 
 of this Pudens, Pius I., Bishop of Rome from a.d. 142 
 to 157, is said to have converted part of the family 
 mansion * into a church, of which the existing church 
 of St. Pudentiana is the successor. Its proper name 
 is the Church of Pudens, and it is so called in an 
 inscription on the book held by the figure of our 
 * Part of the house still remains (Lanciani).
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE, 
 
 23 
 
 \;:^ 
 
 Lord in the apse, for the early Christians called their 
 churches after the name of their founder. Part of the 
 Anician Villa on the Via Latina was converted into 
 a church in the fourth century by Demetrias, the 
 daughter of Anicius Hermogenianus, prefect of the 
 city (368-370), and of Tyrrania Juliana, the friend 
 of Augustine and Jerome, The remains of villa and 
 church were discovered in 1857.* 
 
 * Lanciani, "Pagan and Christian Rome." . / ''^ 
 
 \AsA^ 
 
 V(5U
 
 
 i!m\m\mm\mmB^f^}mm\mm\mm\mm\mmm-\m\mm}mm\mmm 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 
 
 That the Churches worshipped in the catacombs during the ages of 
 persecution an error — Tlie persecutions partial and brief; in the 
 intervals the Church living and worshipping freely — First public 
 church in Rome probably in the time of Alexander Severus 
 (222-235) — Toleration of Gallienus — Church organization in Rome 
 — Forty public churches in Rome in the time of Diocletian ; in 
 other places — The arrangements of the first public churches derived 
 from the houses in which the Christians had been accustomed to 
 assemble. 
 
 HERE is a very widespread belief that 
 there were no public churches before 
 Constantine ; that during the first three 
 centuries Christianity was under such 
 continuous persecution, that its adherents were driven 
 to worship in secrecy and concealment in caves and 
 catacombs, or in holes and corners of one another's 
 houses. 
 
 The error has an important bearing upon our 
 subject, for a community in such a condition could 
 have no thought to spare for art. It has a more 
 important bearing upon the whole history of the
 
 PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 25 
 
 Church, for men in the condition supposed, however 
 fervent their personal piety, could have no freedom 
 to embody their principles in institutions, to develop 
 their beliefs and sentiments and aspirations into 
 manners and customs, to express their inner life 
 of thought and feeling, as free human nature 
 will do, in their surroundings. In such a case, we 
 should have had to reckon with two results : first, 
 that the condition of the Church before Constantine 
 could not be accepted as a model of what the Church, 
 freely and fully grown and developed, should be ; 
 and next, that the Church after Constantine would 
 lie under the suspicion of having suddenly developed, 
 not freely and independently, but under the influence 
 of imperial patronage. 
 
 Whereas the truth is that, while Christians were 
 always liable to individual molestation, and local 
 Churches did suffer from occasional persecutions, and 
 while this might serve to keep off the half-hearted 
 and to brace the spiritual nerve of those who really 
 believed, there was not enough of continuous general 
 persecution to warp or hamper the natural growth of 
 the life of the Church. 
 
 There are two points to be noticed — the chronic 
 danger in which all Christians lived, and the special 
 danger of the occasional systematic persecutions. 
 ,/ Christianity was at first a " new superstition," ex- 
 clusive, unsocial, mysterious, which excited suspicion 
 and dislike. Being a religio illicita^ a religion un- 
 recognized by the law, its professors were liable at 
 any moment to be brought before the magistrates
 
 26 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 on that charge. The condition of the Christians, 
 till after the edict of Gallienus (a.d. 260), was 
 always precarious, and there were many examples 
 of suffering for conscience sake in all parts of the 
 empire. Informers sometimes, moved by cupidity 
 or malice, brought the accusation against indi- 
 viduals ; the fanaticism of the people sometimes, on 
 the occasion of public calamity, clamoured against 
 the Christians as atheists, who provoked the anger of 
 the gods against those who tolerated them. But the 
 emperors Trajan and Hadrian issued edicts against 
 these individual delations and these riotous out- 
 breaks ; and the Christians in time lived down the 
 popular suspicion and dislike, and, except in times of 
 systematic persecution, exercised their religion freely 
 and lived unharmed among their neighbours. 
 
 The authorized persecutions were few in number, 
 brief in duration, and occupied in the aggregate a 
 very small space out of the three centuries over which 
 they extended. Nero's persecution in the year 
 64 A.D. was a solitary act of wanton tyranny which 
 did not extend beyond Rome. It is not till halfway 
 through the three centuries that Marcus Aurelius_ 
 ordered the first general procedure against the 
 professors of the new faith, which extended over 
 about twenty years (161-180) of his reign, and ceased 
 at his death. Septimius Severus, about two years 
 before the close of his reign (209-211), provoked at 
 finding men and women of the highest rank becoming 
 Christians, issued an edict forbidding his subjects to 
 become Jews or Christians, and renewed the law
 
 PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 27 
 
 against " close associations ; " but this edict was 
 rescinded by his successor, Alexander Severus (222- 
 235) had a statue of Christ, among those of other 
 great religious teachers, in his private oratory, and 
 favoured Christianity ; and Philip the Arabian (244- 
 249) was so friendly to Christians that he was 
 suspected of being a secret convert. There were 
 partial outrages against Christians under Maximin 
 (235-238). Decius ma-de a serious attempt to destroy 
 Christianity entirely, but his action was directed 
 chiefly against the clergy, and did not continue above 
 a year (251). The persecution was renewed during the 
 last three years and a half of the reign of Valerian 
 (253-260), but on his capture by Sapor (260), his son 
 Gallienus suspended the persecution, and shortly after 
 restored the confiscated buildings and property of the 
 Churches, and gave the Christians freedom of worship ; 
 there is reason to believe that his wife Salonina was a 
 Christian. Diocletian himself during the first twenty 
 years of his reign (284-305) showed great favour 
 to the Christians. Eusebius tells us that of the 
 freedmen whom he employed in the management of 
 the affairs of the empire many were Christians ; he 
 entrusted to Christians the government of provinces, 
 and exempted them from the customary sacrifices 
 which it was their official duty to attend ; his wife and 
 daughter were secretly attached to the faith ; the 
 bishops were recognized and treated with respect by 
 the magistrates of their cities. In short, the Church 
 was looking with hope and expectation for the con- 
 version of the emperor, when, under the influence of
 
 28 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the brutal Gallerius, the last and most dreadful perse- 
 cution began. The first persecutnig edict was issued 
 in 303. The tolerance of Constantius and Constan- 
 tine mitigated the severity of the persecution in the 
 provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, over which they 
 ruled. The persecution lasted in the East till 308, and 
 the last two years were the most prolific of bloodshed. 
 
 /AH fear of persecution ceased in the West with the 
 
 V conversion of Constantine in 312; vexatious pro- 
 ceedings were continued in the East until the final 
 ■ victory of Adrianople (323) made Constantine sole 
 
 1/ master of the Roman world. 
 
 /; If the reader will take the trouble to consider this 
 brief summary he will find that there was no general 
 official action against the Christians till 161, and that 
 it ceased with the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180. 
 From the death of Marcus Aurelius to the reign of 
 Decius the Church had peace for eighty years, with 
 the short interruption of Severus's unfavourable 
 action, which only lasted about two years ; the 
 Decian and Valerian persecutions occupy about eight 
 years (25 1-260) ; and again, from the death of Valerian 
 to the beginning of the Diocletian persecution, there 
 was another interval of forty years of unbroken 
 peace, and during those years the Church was not 
 only tolerated by official indifference but was some- 
 times encouraged by imperial favour.* 
 
 • In times of persecution most likely the Churches met in secret 
 places. Thus Gregory of Tours (lib. x. 31) says that Gatianus, the 
 first Bishop of Tours, in the time of Decius, concealed himself on 
 account of the attack of great men who overwhelmed him with ill- 
 treatment, and celebrated secretly in crypts and hiding-places the
 
 PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTINE, 29 
 
 During these long intervals of peace the Church 
 was freely and independently growing in numbers, 
 wealth, and consideration. The congregations 
 assembled without any secrecy in the houses where 
 their worship was conducted ; and later on they built 
 churches in the cities, and possessed themselves of 
 suburban cemeteries in which they erected chapels 
 and monuments; till at length this great organization, 
 rapidly growing in numbers, wealth, and influence in 
 every part of the world, including all ranks and 
 classes, bound together by a bond of sacred fraternity, 
 possessed of a spirit of self-devotion to the cause, 
 and a burning zeal of proselytism, seemed to Roman 
 statesmen to constitute a serious danger to the State, 
 
 In these long intervals of peace the Churches made 
 free use of the arts and applied them to their require- 
 ments ; while the individual martyrdoms and general 
 persecutions have left their marks upon the art history 
 of the times. 
 
 To return to the special question of Christian 
 architecture before Constantine, it was probably in 
 the interval of peace after the death of Septimius 
 Severus, under the favour of Alexander Severus, 
 that the Christian communities first openly began 
 to build churches. 
 
 In the reign of Alexander Severus (222-235) there 
 was a dispute between the Christians of Rome and 
 the Guild of the Popinarii — the Taverners — about the 
 
 Mystery of the Solemnity of the Lord's Day to the few converts whom 
 he had made.
 
 30 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 possession of a plot of land, on which one proposed 
 to build a church and the other a tavern ; it was 
 referred to the emperor, who gave his decision in 
 favour of the Christians, saying that it was better 
 that God should be worshipped in any form in the 
 place, than that the place should become the scene of 
 the license of a tavern. Tradition says that the 
 church built on this site was dedicated by Bishop 
 Callistus, and is now represented by the Church of 
 St. Maria in Trastavere. 
 
 It is very possible that the persecution of Decius 
 was in part provoked by this growing boldness of the 
 Church, and would check it for the time ; * but the 
 edict of Gallienus, restoring to the Church its property 
 and making its worship lawful, was almost an invita- 
 tion to build places for its worship. It is certain that 
 before the end of the third century churches had 
 been built in many of the cities of the Roman empire, 
 and probably in the eastern countries beyond the 
 boundaries of the empire, in which also the Church 
 was flourishing. Lactantiusf relates that in the 
 empire, " by the time of the outbreak of the Diocletian 
 persecution, the numbers of the frequenters of the 
 churches had so increased that they pulled down the 
 ancient churches and rebuilt them from the founda- 
 tion in all the cities, and these buildings were 
 
 * A passage in the "Apostolic Constitutions" (viii. 34) seems to belong 
 to this period. " If it be not possible to go to the church on account 
 of the unbelievers, thou, O bishop, shalt assemble them in a house, . . . 
 if it is not possible to assemble in a house, let every one by himself sing 
 and read and pray, or two or three together. " 
 
 t " De Mortibus Persecutorum," ch. xii.
 
 PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTJNE. 31 
 
 insufficient to contain the increasing multitudes of 
 worshippers, and in their place more spacious and 
 stately edifices were erected." The publicity of their 
 churches and their architectural character is illustrated 
 by that of Nicomedia, the eastern capital of the 
 empire, which is described as a " magnificent " 
 building, erected on an elevated site in the midst 
 of the other great buildings of the city, in full view 
 from the windows of the imperial palace. 
 
 There are some interesting notices which help us 
 to conjecture the growth of Church organization in 
 Rome. An extant letter of Pius I., Bishop of Rome 
 (142-157), states that Felix, a presbyter, had given 
 a " titulusy * As early as the beginning of the 
 third century Bishop Evarlstus is said to have 
 divided the "titles" among the priests and appointed 
 seven deacons. Fabian (236-251) divided the four- 
 teen (civic) regiones of Rome among the deacons ; and 
 there is reason to believe that each region had its 
 titulus, or " parish church," and its cemetery ; that 
 each cemetery had its chapel^ r basilica : and that 
 there were two priests to each title, one of whom 
 ministered in the chapel of the cemetery. DIonysIus 
 (259-269) is said to have revised this organization ; 
 Marcellus (308-3 10) constituted twenty-five tituli m 
 the city of Rome ; Optatus of Melevia states that 
 there were forty churches in Rome and its suburbs 
 in the time of Diocletian — twenty-five in the city 
 and fifteen in the suburbs. 
 
 * I.e. a permanent church to which priests were appointed, and which 
 might not be abandoned (Ducange).
 
 32 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The provincesof Gaul, Spain, and Britain were much 
 behind the ancient, populous, wealthy, and civilized 
 provinces of the East, and behind Italy ; but that 
 even in those remote and backward populations there 
 were, before Constantine, Christian communities, who 
 had built for themselves churches, we gather from the 
 statement of Lactantius, that the Csesar Constantius 
 did not approve of the persecution ordered by Diocle- 
 jtian, and " while he destroyed the churches in his 
 provinces, which could be rebuilt, the true temple 
 /| which is in men he preserved." That there were 
 public churches and cemeteries in Spain and no 
 hindrance to their free use seems to be proved by 
 certain Canons of the Council of Illiberis (300 or 
 301 A.D.) ; for Canon 21 censures those who should 
 be absent from church for three Sundays ; Canon 36 
 prohibits the painting on their walls of sacred persons 
 or saints ; and Canon 35 forbids women to attend the 
 night vigils in the cemeteries, because it was found 
 to lead to abuses. We have also proof of the exist- 
 ence of churches in Africa in the fact that when Con- 
 stantine became Emperor of the West he gave the 
 clergy of those regions money for the rebuilding of 
 their churches which had been destroyed. 
 
 When the Church began to erect independent 
 buildings for its worship, it adhered to the plan to 
 which it had so long been accustomed, with such 
 modifications as convenience suggested. Its architects 
 found this modified plan ready to their hands in the 
 basilicas of the Roman magistrates. For the official
 
 PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 33 
 
 basilica was an enlargement of the usual reception- 
 rooms of a Roman house, adapted to the needs of a 
 large public assembly. There the great patrician 
 received the crowd of clients who waited upon him 
 daily to pay their respects or to prefer their requests ; 
 there the Roman magistrate received the crowd of 
 courtiers and suitors, administered justice, and 
 transacted his general public business.* It retained 
 the open court on what we may conveniently 
 call the west. The great hall was divided by its two 
 rows of columns, only instead of the centre of the 
 nave being left open to the weather, it u'as usually 
 completely roofed over. The ancient tablinum was 
 modified into an apsidal tribune, which, for the sake 
 of convenience and dignity, was raised above the 
 level of the hall, and the opening between them was 
 spanned by a lofty arch. The curule chair of the 
 magistrate was placed upon the elevated platform, 
 on the chord of the apse, conveniently overlooking 
 the great hall ; and a stone bench round the curve of 
 the apse afforded seats for assessors, officials, or visitors 
 of distinction. A curtain was drawn before the 
 tribune while the judges consulted. A transverse aisle 
 or transept sometimes separated the tribune from the 
 rest of the hall. Such a basilica was " Herod's judg- 
 ment hall "1 at Csesarea, where Festus, sitting in his 
 chair of office, with Agrippa and Bernice on chairs 
 beside him, and the chief captains and principal men 
 of the city on the bench behind, permitted St. Paul 
 to speak for himself. 
 
 * Compare the basilica of the house of the •' most excellent Theo 
 philus " at Antiodi, p. 15. 
 
 I
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE OF THE PUBLIC CHURCHES BEFORE 
 
 CONSTANTINE. 
 
 Churches in the East ; in Central Syria ; in North Africa ; Egypt and 
 Nubia — Description of a Basilican Church — The Church at Tyre 
 — Church symbolism. 
 
 I HEN the architects were required to build 
 churches for public worship, we have seen 
 that they adopted the basilican plan, which 
 retained the architectual arrangement to 
 which the congregations were accustomed, with just 
 such modifications as made it still better suited to 
 Christian worship. We find the plan almost universally 
 in use from Britain to Nubia, from Spain to Mesopo- 
 tamia, and it continued in use for centuries, and 
 indeed continues, in a modified form, down to the 
 present day. In the thirteenth century it became 
 usual, in England, to enlarge the semicircular tribune 
 into the long square-ended chancel, in order to 
 transfer the choir into it out of the atrium ; but 
 the nave and aisles of mediaeval and modern churches
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE, ^35 
 
 are the old atrium, with Gothic, instead of Grecian, 
 details. 
 
 In looking for the earliest existing examples of these 
 public churches, we do not necessarily turn to Rome, 
 where the people, and especially the noble families, 
 were among the latest to abandon the worship of 
 
 Capital of pilaster supporting the "Triumphal Arch" of the Church 
 of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Diarbekr. 
 
 the ancient gods ; nor necessarily to the empire at 
 all. There are several other countries where we 
 might search with better reason. Tradition indicates 
 a very early acceptance of Christianity by the kings 
 of Osrhoene, and it is confirmed by the fact that the
 
 36 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Abgarus who reigned at Edessa from i6o to 170 
 replaced the old symbols of the national worship on 
 his coinage by the symbol of the cross. The Edessans 
 are said in their chronicle to have had a church 
 {templum ecclesics Christianorwn) which was destroyed 
 by a flood in 202 A.D. A church still exists at Urfa 
 (Edessa) of basilican plan and with details of good 
 classical character.* The Church had been planted in 
 Parthia in Apostolic times, and, sometimes protected, 
 sometimes persecuted by the Great King, it had 
 attained considerable magnitude before the age of 
 Constantine. Two churches exist at Diarbekr f with 
 capitals of fine and pure classical design ; at Nisibis 
 is a basilica of early date and in perfect preserva- 
 tion ; these may be among the earliest existing 
 churches, but we need fuller and more accurate infor- 
 mation about them. Gregory, called Thaumaturgus, 
 is said to have built a church at Neo-Csesarea in 
 Pontus in 258. Gregory the Illuminator caused three 
 churches to be built at Etchmiadzin, about 300 A.D., 
 and under his preaching Armenia had embraced 
 Christianity as the national religion before the age of 
 Constantine ; among the ancient churches of these 
 countries it is possible that some very early examples 
 may still exist. 
 
 The earliest existing examples which we are able 
 with any confidence to claim are in Central Syria and 
 in North Africa. 
 
 In Northern and Central Syria are more than a 
 
 * "Christians under the Crescent," p. 81. 
 t Ibid., p. loi.
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE. yj 
 
 hundred ruined — or rather deserted — cities; for in 
 many of them houses, public buildings, churches, and 
 tombs are so far perfect that a very little labour in 
 replacing fallen stones, putting on roofs and adding 
 doors, would restore them to their original condition. 
 They were built in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth 
 centuries, were deserted probably at the time of the 
 Mohammedan conquest early in the seventh century, 
 have never since been occupied, and remain unaltered 
 by the hand of man. We shall have to return to this 
 
 Church at Chaqqa, Syria. 
 
 interesting series of examples of Christian architecture, 
 but for the present we have only to introduce two 
 of them which belong to the period with which we 
 are here immediately concerned. M. de Vogue * thinks 
 that at Chaqqa to be the earliest, and assigns it to 
 the end of the second or beginning of the third 
 century. It differs from the conventional basilican 
 type. It is 1830 metres from east to west, and 
 1980 from north to south, the height of the fagade 
 • " Syrie Centrale," by Count M. de Vogu^.
 
 38 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 being 8"36. The internal colonnades are not, as usual, 
 of equally spaced columns, but each colonnade con- 
 sists of a wide central arch with one narrower arch on 
 each side. De Vogiie says that there was a gallery 
 on each side over the side aisles. The construction 
 is rude, of stone without cement, except in the facade 
 and pillars. The basilica at Taffka, which has the 
 remarkable feature of a tower at the north corner, 
 is assigned by M. de Vogu6 to the third century. 
 The section across the church shows that the arches 
 of the nave reached to the roof; while the side 
 aisles are divided into two stories, of which the 
 upper forms a gallery. The entire construction is 
 of stone ; the roof, the floors of the galleries, even 
 the shutters of the windows (of which two remain 
 171 situ), are of stone. 
 
 In North Africa there are also ancient cities so 
 far perfect that they are more correctly described 
 as deserted than ruined, as Lamboesis, Thamugas, 
 Theveste, in Algeria, south of the slopes of the Aures, 
 and Sufetulu, in Tunisia ; an account of the remains 
 of the early churches in these countries would occupy 
 a chapter ; their foundations may be traced in nearly 
 every town, and occasionally portions of the super- 
 structure remain. These also are all (or with very 
 rare exceptions) of the basilican type. 
 
 In Egypt, and so far south as Nubia, very ancient 
 churches are found. The church at Ermet in Egypt, 
 and that at Ibrim in Nubia, are, perhaps, of the end 
 of the third or beginning of the fourth century. The 
 fine basilica of Theveste, built not later than the first
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 39 
 
 century, has certainly been a church since the reign 
 of Justinian, but it was perhaps originally built for a 
 civil basilica, and subsequently converted to Christian 
 uses. One of the earliest which we can claim as 
 having been built for a church, is at Djemla, in 
 Algeria. It is a rectangular hall, 92 feet long by 52 
 feet wide, divided by pillars into a nave and aisles, 
 with a lofty square enclosure at the upper end, on 
 the usual site of the chancel. Its floor is covered 
 with a fine mosaic pavement, so purely classical in 
 design as to leave no doubt of its early date. Another 
 very early church at Announa, also in Algeria, is of 
 the common basilican plan, a body and aisles, about 
 95 feet square, with a semicircular apse at the upper 
 end. A basilica at Orleansville, the ancient Castellum 
 Tingitanum, erected, according to an inscription, in 
 252 (probably a local era corresponding to A.D. 325), 
 is 80 feet long by 52 wide, divided by four rows of 
 pillars into a nave with double aisles, and has an 
 apse at the lower as well as the upper end. A 
 church of the usual basilican plan at Oued Gilma, of 
 the fourth or fifth century, has the novel features of 
 external buttresses and small windows in the aisle 
 wa^. 
 
 It is clear, then, that the Christian communities from 
 the first were accustomed to worship in the spacious 
 and handsome upper rooms, or in the stately pillared 
 atria, of the houses of wealthy converts ; and that 
 at a comparatively early period, they built public 
 churches, in which they imitated the domestic build-
 
 40 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 ings to which they had become accustomed, not only 
 in general architectural plan and design, but in the 
 use of marble and bronze, mosaic pavements, and 
 mural paintings. There is reason to believe that the 
 sumptuous appointments of the private houses were 
 also imitated in the furniture of the public churches ; 
 and that the greater churches sometimes possessed 
 considerable wealth in gold and silver vessels for 
 the Eucharistic service, silver lamps, and silken 
 hangings.* 
 
 The following is a detailed description of a basilican 
 church : — 
 
 The court was usually approached from the 
 west by a pronaos or entrance more or less orna- 
 mented. It was a large open area surrounded by 
 a pillared cloister, and in the middle was a cantharus 
 or fountain, at which the people washed their hands 
 as they came to worship. This was the original of 
 jf the holy-water stoop outside the doors of our 
 medieval churches, into which the people dipped 
 their fingers. 
 
 The church presented on the side of the court 
 an unpretending fagade, A low portico, a con- 
 tinuation of the cloister of the atrium, stretched 
 across the front, and sometimes a long narrow porch 
 beyond that called the nart]iex,2,\.Q.xx\\ whose derivation 
 is uncertain. Above the portico were usually three 
 long round-headed undivided windows, symmetrically 
 arranged, and above them a round window in the 
 pediment ; windows of the same kind were introduced 
 
 * See chapter xix.
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 41 
 
 in both side walls immediately under the eaves, 
 which admitted abundance of light. The portals 
 were usually square-headed, and often decorated with 
 sculptured architraves taken or copied from older 
 buildings. The church itself, we have seen, was a 
 large hall divided by colonnades. The pillars often 
 supported an architrave which carried the wall above ; 
 but the arch was more frequent. In either case the 
 structure was not adapted to vaulting, and was roofed 
 with timber ; the rude timber beams which we see 
 in some cases are not necessarily original, it is pro- 
 bable that the original roofs were more ornamentally 
 finished with timbers carved, coloured, and gilded, 
 or sheathed in metal ; we know that the basilica of 
 Ulpia, for example, was roofed with beams of gilded 
 bronze. At the upper end of the nave was placed 
 the choir elevated some feet above the pavement, and 
 enclosed by cancelli from which we get the name 
 of chancel. In the early Oriental churches these 
 cancelli were made of wood ; in the West all the 
 examples which remain are of marble, very generally 
 adorned with that kind of mosaic which is called 
 opus Alexandrinum. On either side of the choir 
 stood the atnbones, or pulpits, the loftier and more 
 richly adorned was usually on the (ritual) north side 
 from which the deacon read the Gospel, the other on 
 the south side from which the subdeacon read the 
 Epistle. From the Gospel pulpit also the Bidding 
 Prayers were read, and the bishop or priest preached ; 
 a small pillar in front of it supported the Paschal 
 candle.
 
 42 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The sanctuary in the larger churches was divided 
 from the nave by the triumphal arch. The altar — 
 there was only one — stood on the raised platform of 
 the apse, on the chord of the apse, or a little before 
 or behind that line, but always well forward from the 
 east wall, surmounted by its tabernacle or baldachino. 
 A stone chair, elevated on some steps against the 
 centre of the east wall, was the throne of the bishop, 
 and the stone bench round the curve of the wall 
 formed the seat of his presbyters. 
 
 We are able to conclude this series of the ante- 
 Constantine churches by a contemporary description 
 of one of them, the earliest detailed description of a 
 church and its furniture which has come down to us. 
 A new church was built at Tyre between the years 
 313 and 332 ; it was built on the site of a former 
 church — though that was not the most advantageous 
 position which could have been found for it — on 
 account of the attachment of the people to the old 
 site. It was built, not by the imperial bounty, for it 
 must be borne in mind that the imperial favour was 
 not extended to the Church in the East till the defeat 
 of Licinius in A.D. 323, but by the voluntary donations 
 of the people themselves, under the pious care of 
 Paulinus, the aged bishop. It is not to be supposed 
 that all churches were of like magnitude and splen- 
 dour, for we are expressly told that this was by far 
 the most noble church at that time in Phoenicia. 
 Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, the well-known historian 
 of the early Church, as metropolitan of the province, 
 dedicated the church, and preached the dedication
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 43 
 
 sermon, and, with a pardonable vanity for which we 
 are very grateful, preserved his sermon in his History; 
 and in his sermon the description of the church 
 occurs. We give a paraphrase * of Eusebius's 
 account as more generally intelligible than the 
 rhetorical and somewhat obscure original : — 
 
 "Eusebius states that the bishop surrounded the 
 site of the church with a wall of enclosure. This 
 wall, according to Dr. Thomson (' The Land and the 
 Book,' p. 189, chap, xiii.), can still be traced, and 
 measures 222 feet in length by 129 in breadth. In 
 the east side of this wall was a large and stately 
 entrance, which gave access to a quadrangular atrium ; 
 this was surrounded by ranges of columns, the spaces 
 between which were filled by net-like railings of wood ; 
 in the centre of the court was a fountain, at which 
 those who were about to enter the church purified 
 themselves {i.e. washed their hands and feet). 
 
 " The church itself was entered through interior por- 
 ticoes, perhaps a narthex, but whether distinct from 
 the portico which bounded the atrium on that side, 
 does not appear. Three doorways led into the nave ; 
 the central of these was by far the largest, and had 
 doors covered with bronze reliefs ; the other door- 
 ways gave entrance to the side aisles. Above these 
 aisles were galleries, well lighted (doubtless by ex- 
 ternal windows), and looking upon the nave ; these 
 galleries were adorned with beautiful work in wood. 
 The passage is a little obscure, but it seems most pro- 
 bable that the passage from the galleries into the nave 
 
 * From the •' Dictionary of Christian Antiquities."
 
 44 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 was protected by a balustrade of wood. The nave 
 was constructed of still richer materials than the rest, 
 and the roof was of cedar of Lebanon. Dr. Thomson 
 states that the remains of five granite columns may 
 still be seen, and that ' the height of the dome was 
 eighty feet, as appears by the remains of an arch.' 
 Nothing which Eusebius says leads to the supposition 
 that there was a dome, and the arch was probably 
 the triumphal arch, through which, as in many 
 basilican churches, a space in front of the apse, some- 
 thing like a transept, was entered. 
 
 " The building having been in such manner com- ) 
 pleted, Paulinus, we are told, provided it with thrones ' 
 in the highest places for the honour of the presidents, \ 
 and with benches according to fitness, and, placing 
 the most holy altar in the midst, surrounded the 
 whole with wooden net-like railings of most skilful 
 work, so that the enclosed space might be inaccessible 
 to the crowd. The pavement, he adds, was adorned 
 with marble decoration of every kind. Then, on the 
 outside, he constructed very large external buildings 
 and halls, which were attached to the sides of the 
 church, and connected with it by entrances in the 
 hall lying between. These halls, we are told, were 
 destined for those who still required the purification 
 and sprinkling of water and of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " It may not be out of place to extract the passage 
 of the sermon in which the preacher makes an 
 elaborate parallel between the material and the 
 spiritual Church of Tyre. 'The exterior wall he 
 compares to the great mass and multitude of the
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 45 
 
 people. The doors, to the ostiaries who admit the 
 people into the building. These he has supported 
 by the four pillars which are placed without around 
 the quadrangular atrium, by initiating them in the 
 first elements of the literal sense of the Four Gospels 
 Then he stations around on both sides of the royal 
 temple, those who are yet catechumens and that 
 are yet making progress and improvement, though 
 not very far separated from the inmost view of 
 Divine things enjoyed by the faithful. Receiving 
 from among these the souls that are cleansed like 
 gold by the Divine washing [baptism], he likewise 
 supports and strengthens those with columns far 
 better than these external ones, viz. by the inner 
 mysteries and hidden doctrines of the Scriptures. 
 He also illuminates them by the openings to admit 
 the light, adorning the whole temple with one grand 
 C\ vestibule (?) of adoration to the one only God, the 
 universal Sovereign ; exhibiting however, as the 
 second splendour, the light of Christ and of the Holy 
 Spirit on each side of the Father's authority, and 
 displaying in the rest, throughout the whole building, 
 the abundance and the exceeding great excellence 
 of the clearness and brilliancy of truth in every part. 
 Having also selected from everywhere and every 
 quarter the living and moving and well-prepared 
 stones of the mind, he has built a grand and truly 
 royal edifice of all, splendid and filled with light 
 within and without. 
 
 " ' And in this temple there are also thrones and 
 many seats and many benches [for the bishop, priests,
 
 46 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 and deacons], and in all the souls in them the gifts 
 of the Holy Spirit reside, such as anciently were 
 seen in the holy Apostles, to whom cloven tongues 
 as of fire appeared and sat upon each of them. But 
 in the chief of all [the bishop] Christ Himself resides 
 as it were in His fulness. In those that rank next 
 to Him [the priests] each one shares proportionately 
 in the distribution of the power of Christ and of the 
 Holy Ghost. The souls of those to whom is com- 
 mitted the care of instruction [the deacons, etc.] may 
 be seats for angels. Nobler and grand and unique 
 is the altar, such as should be, sincere and most 
 holy, the mind and spirit of the priest of the whole 
 congregation [the celebrant]. That great High Priest 
 of the universe, Jesus, the only-begotten Son of 
 God, Himself standing at His right hand, receives 
 the sweet incense from all, and the bloodless and 
 immaterial sacrifices of prayer, with a bright and 
 benign eye ; and with extended hand bears them to 
 the Father of heaven and God over all. He Him- 
 self first adoring Him, and the only one that gives 
 to the Father the worship that is His due, and then 
 interceding with Him for us, that He may always 
 continue propitious and favourable to us.' " 
 
 Notwithstanding a little obscurity of language 
 here and there, we easily catch the meaning of this 
 interesting early example of ecclesiastical symbolism. 
 The preacher reaches his climax when he proceeds 
 to remind his hearers that the material Temple 
 which they are dedicating, is a figure of the universe, 
 and this worship of the Church on earth but a faint
 
 ARCHITECTURE BEFORE CONSTANTINE. 47 
 
 echo of the worship which all His intelligent creatures 
 offer through Christ to God : — 
 
 i '"Such is the character of this great Temple which 
 the mighty creative Word hath established through- 
 out the whole world, constituting this again a kind 
 of intellectual image on earth of those things beyond 
 the vault of heaven. So that in all His creation, 
 and by all His intelligent creatures on earth, the 
 Father should be honoured and adored. But those 
 regions beyond the heavens are also displays of 
 what areliere ; and that Jerusalem above, and that 
 heavenly Sion, and that City of the Living God 
 beyond our earth, in which* are the mnumerable choir 
 of angels, and the assembly of the Firstborn written 
 in heaven, extol their Maker and the Universal 
 Sovereign of all with praises and hymns inexpressible. 
 These surpass our comprehension, neither could any 
 mortal tongue be adequate to express that glory. 
 For eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, 
 neither hath it entered into the heart of man to 
 conceive those things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love Him.' "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 Rome no longer the capital of the empire, and not the centre of 
 Christian influence — Constantine's Churches at Rome — Basilicas 
 not converted into Churches — Temples seldom converted into 
 Churches ; their materials used in building Churches on their sites 
 — Description of St. Peter's, St. Paul's, and St. Agnes' at Rome — 
 Constantine's Churches in the East ; at Bethlehem, Jerusalem, 
 Constantinople — Effect of Constantine's conversion on Christian art. 
 
 HEN Constantine entered Rome, after the 
 victory at the Milvian Bridge (A.D. 312), 
 it was as an avowed convert to Chris- 
 tianity and champion of the Christian 
 cause. He made open profession of his new faith 
 by causing to be placed in the hand of his statue in 
 the Forum a copy of the Labarum, the standard 
 embroidered with the symbolic XP under which he 
 had gained his decisive victory ; and the senate, 
 probably with no very great enthusiasm, decreed 
 / a triumphal arch to the victor. 
 
 The arch of Constantine is in a sense a Christian 
 monument, the earliest of his reign, and the only
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 49 
 
 one which has come down to us unaltered and un- 
 injured, and it is quite worth while to include it 
 among our illustrations, if only as a standard of 
 architectural comparison, and to say a few words 
 about it. 
 
 After the victory of the Milvlan Bridge, which 
 gave to Constantine the Empire of the West, and 
 secured the victory of Christianity, the Roman senate 
 decreed to their new sovereign the honour of a 
 triumphal arch. It was the work of the senate, 
 which was still, and for long afterwards continued 
 to be, conservative of the religion of the gods of 
 Rome ; but it is a monument of the victory of 
 Christianity, and its ambiguous inscription bears 
 witness to the politic compromise which the senate 
 made between their own beliefs and the new religion 
 of the emperor to whose honour it was dedicated. 
 It is sufficiently well known, and the woodcut 
 sufficiently represents its general features to make 
 a detailed description unnecessary. But there are 
 some remarkable features in its construction which 
 illustrate the state of art at the time which we have 
 elsewhere had occasion to mention. Portions of the 
 monument, notably the bas-reliefs and statues which 
 adorn its faces, are of the age of Trajan, and probably 
 belonged originally to an arch dedicated to that 
 emperor ; while others of the bas-reliefs introduced 
 are in a style of art greatly inferior, and are no doubt 
 the \vork of the sculptors employed at this date by 
 the senate. The usual explanation is that the senate 
 destroyed an arch of Trajan, and used the materials 
 
 E
 
 50 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 in the construction of their monument to Constantine, 
 which would be in accordance with the custom ol 
 the time to rifle ancient monuments of their precious 
 materials for the construction of new buildings, of 
 which we find so many examples in the Christian 
 Churches for centuries afterwards, and, in harmony 
 with another custom, to appropriate old imperial 
 
 Arch of Constantine, Rome. 
 
 statues to new emperors by the simple expedient 
 of cutting off the heads of the old statues, and 
 replacing them by new portraits. But we take leave 
 to offer another conjecture which we venture to think 
 more probable. The fine design and pure archi- 
 tectural details of this noble monument seem to be 
 beyond the capabilities of the debased art of the 
 beginning of the fourth century. Moreover it does
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 51 
 
 not on examination give evidence of being, as a 
 whole, a new design worked up out of old materials. 
 The work looks like a fine and homogeneous whole, 
 with a few debased details manifestly added. We 
 suggest that an arch dedicated to Trajan was bodily 
 "annexed" by the senate; a few new bas-reliefs 
 substituted for others which were unsuitable for its 
 present appropriation ; and a new inscription placed 
 over the central arch, which dedicated it to the glory 
 of the new master of Rome. 
 
 The inscription on the south front is as follows : — 
 
 IMP . CAES . FL . CONSTANTINO . MAXIMO . 
 
 P. F. AVGVSTO . S. P. Q. R. 
 
 QVOD . INSTINCTV . DIVINITATIS . MENTIS 
 
 MAGNITVDINE , CVM . EXERCITV . SVO 
 
 TAM . DE . TYRANNO . QVAM . DE . OMNI . EIVS 
 
 FACTIONE . VNO . TEMPORE . JVSTIS 
 
 REMPVBLICAM . VLTVS . EST . ARMIS . 
 
 ARCVM . TRIVMPHIS . INSIGNEM . DICAVIT 
 
 "To the Emperor Csesar Flavius Constantinus, 
 Maximus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, who, by the inspira- 
 tion of the Divinity and the greatness of his genius, 
 together with his army, has avenged, by his just arms, 
 the Republic at the same time from the Tyrant and 
 all his faction, the Roman Senate and People have 
 dedicated this eminent Arch of Triumph." 
 
 Inside the centre arch are also the inscriptions : 
 LIBERATORI . VRBIS, on one side, and on the other, 
 FVNDATORI . QVIETIS. To the Liberator of the City ; 
 To the Founder of Peace. There used to be a
 
 52 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 question whether the words INSTINCTV . divinitatis 
 were not a later insertion, a correction of some 
 allusion to a Pagan deity ; but at the instance of the 
 Emperor Napoleon III., architects and savans were 
 allowed to ascend the arch and make a careful ex- 
 amination of the inscription, and they found that the 
 words were beyond doubt an integral part of the 
 original inscription. 
 
 The popular notion that Constantine proceeded 
 to give basilicas and temples to be converted into 
 churches, and to make Rome the centre of the 
 Christian world, is erroneous. 
 
 Rome was at that time, and continued to be for 
 two centuries longer, the chief stronghold of the 
 ancient religion ; its temples occupied the most 
 commanding situations, and were among the great 
 architectural glories of the city ; their worship was 
 maintained with all its wonted splendour. The 
 great nobles adhered to the old religion as part of 
 the ancient order to which they belonged, and the 
 citizens as a body showed the same attachment. 
 The vast population of the city, drawn from all 
 parts of the world, afforded converts enough to 
 make up the most numerous Church of any city 
 in the empire, but they were chiefly of the lower 
 orders of the people. The Church was over- 
 shadowed in Rome by the dominant State re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Nor was the Church of Rome distinguished among 
 the Churches of Christendom ; it had not yet pro- 
 duced a single name great in theological learning or
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 53 
 
 ecclesiastical statesmanship. The Churches of the 
 East constituted by their wealth, learning, and 
 civilization, the most important part of Christendom, 
 and for many generations to come they looked down 
 upon the comparatively recent, rude, unlearned 
 Churches of the West. Moreover, Rome had long 
 ceased to be the political centre of the empire. 
 The Eastern conquests had made the shores of the 
 Bosphorus the most convenient centre of affairs ; 
 there, on the Asiatic shore, Diocletian had built a 
 new capital at Nicomedia, and Constantine shortly 
 removed it to the western shore at Byzantium ; and 
 the secondary capital of the Augustus of the West 
 had been established at Milan. 
 
 This will explain the fact that Constantine remained 
 less than three months at Rome on this occasion, and 
 did not revisit it again till he celebrated there his 
 decennalia. No doubt the conqueror during those 
 three months showed his good will to his new faith 
 by benefactions to the Church of Rome. Notably he 
 founded two noble churches over the resting-places 
 of the Apostle-martyrs, the founders and patron- 
 saints of the Roman Church, St. Peter's at the 
 Vatican and St. Paul's without the Walls ; and several 
 other churches are, with less certainty, attributed 
 to him. When it is said that the emperor built 
 churches, at Rome and elsewhere, what is meant is 
 that he contributed the necessary funds, but there is 
 direct evidence that he left the design and execution 
 of the work to the bishops of the places, to whom it 
 naturally belonged.
 
 54 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 There is no evidence that he gave any of the civil 
 basilicas in Rome or elsewhere to be converted into 
 churches. It would be difficult to explain why the 
 head of the civil administration of the empire should 
 eject the magistrates from their courts and build new 
 basilicas for them, when it was just as easy to build 
 new churches where they were wanted. There is, in 
 fact, only one known example in which a basilica was 
 turned into a church, and that was at Treves.* 
 
 Constantine did present the Palace of the Lateran, 
 which had come to him through his wife, the Empress 
 Fausta, to the Bishop of Rome, who made it the 
 episcopal residence ; and the basilica of the palace, 
 which was probably larger and handsomer than all 
 the earlier churches, was used as a church — the 
 cathedral church of the city — and it still takes pre- 
 cedence of all the churches of Rome. Bishop 
 Sylvester is said to have added a baptistery. 
 
 Nor did Constantine give up the ancient temples 
 to be used as churches. It was his wise policy at 
 this time to relieve the public mind of any fear of 
 retaliation for the past persecution of Christianity, 
 or of a crusade against the ancient religions. The 
 only temples whose worship Constantine suppressed 
 were some temples of Venus, on account of the im- 
 moralities practised in them, and for like reasons he 
 suppressed the worship of Isis in Egypt. The temples 
 were gradually deserted, until the edict of Valentinian 
 II' (391) put an end to the public ceremonies of the 
 old religions, closed the temples, and appropriated 
 
 * E. A. Freeman,
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 55 
 
 them to various public uses, or left them to gradual 
 decay.* 
 
 The building which is given here as a specimen of 
 the ancient temples is that at Nimes, in France, 
 which is popularly known as the Maison Carrie. It 
 is a gem of architecture. The excellence of its 
 proportions, the beauty of its Corinthian columns, 
 
 The Maison Carree at Nimes. 
 
 frieze, and cornice, and its wonderful preservation, 
 make it the finest example of a classical temple 
 remaining in Northern Europe. The date is disputed, 
 but it is probably of the time of Antoninus Pius. 
 The columns scattered around it are the remains of 
 
 * Jerome (Ep. cvii. I, 2) speaks of the temples at Rome as left to 
 neglect, disorder, and decay.
 
 56 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 long colonnades, which probably formed part of the 
 forum of the ancient city, into the further end of 
 which the temple projected. 
 
 Some of the disused temples of the ancient gods 
 were ultimately converted into churches, but the 
 ordinary plan of a temple was not well adapted to the 
 uses of the Christian assembly. The ancient worship 
 was an outdoor worship. The altar was placed at 
 the base of the porticoed front of the temple. As the 
 people stood assisting at the sacrifice, the pillared 
 facade of the temple formed a background to the altar 
 and an ornamental screen for the cella behind, in which O 
 the deity was supposed to be present. Since the j:ella _j y 
 was not intended to contain a body of worshippers, 
 it was comparatively small and dark. An early 
 church was architecturally a temple turned inside out. 
 It was intended to enclose the whole body of 
 worshippers within its ample area ; its stately colon- 
 nades, sculptured friezes, and marble veneering were 
 all inside, while the exterior presented to the outside 
 world only a mass of brick wall, with hardly any 
 attempt to mitigate its blank ugliness.* 
 
 There were exceptions such as will readily occur 
 to the mind of the reader. The Parthenon at Athens, 
 and the Temple of Jupiter of the Capitol of Rome, in 
 which the senate held its meetings, and others, had 
 a cella large enough to contain a great congregation ; 
 in some other instances, by throwing down the 
 cella and building a wall between the columns 
 
 * The exteriors of the Syrian churches are an exception to thi-s 
 statement.
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 57 
 
 which had surrounded it, a capacious church was 
 obtained.* 
 
 More frequently the temples left desolate by the 
 expiring heathenism, and handed over to the trium- 
 phant Church, were pulled down, and churches were 
 built on the site, and largely out of the old materials. 
 A great number of churches all over Christendom 
 are traditionally said to occupy the sites of heathen 
 temples, and among them St. Peter's, Cornhill, and 
 St. Paul's, London. One of the commonest features 
 of the most ancient churches is that they are largely 
 made up of the spoils of more ancient buildings. 
 The Christian architects had not wealth enough at 
 their disposal to obtain at first hand the shapely 
 monolithic columns of the earlier magnificence of the 
 Roman world, or skill enough to execute the beauti- 
 fully carved capitals of a purer style of art ; but they 
 had taste enough to appreciate them, and they 
 habitually used them in their new buildings. Some- 
 times the columns did not match, and the architect 
 helped a column which was too short by giving it a 
 taller base. In the same way, the Christian artists ^ > 
 used ancient carved ivories to ornament a bishop's /^ 
 chair or form the covers of the sacred books, and 
 ancient gems engraved with classical devices (some- 
 times strangely incongruous) to enrich chalices and 
 
 * The Pantheon and the Church of S. Maria Egiziaca are the only '^.'^ 
 examples at Rome of temples turned into churches (Liibke's " History \ 
 of Art") (the Pantheon at Rome was consecrated as a church in 
 A.D. 610), and the Church of S. Urbano alia Caffarella in the suburbs 
 of Rome (Lord Lindsay), but very few in Italy ; in the East a larger 
 number were thus converted.
 
 58 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 shrines. And in doing this they were perhaps moved 
 not only by the artist's instinct to adorn his work 
 with that which was intrinsically precious in material 
 and beautiful in art, but wiLh something of the spirit 
 of a conqueror displaying in his triumphal procession 
 the riches of the conquered people. These were the 
 Church's trophies of its conquest over the heathen 
 worships and godless luxury of the ancient time. 
 
 X The new churches which were built at this 
 
 period at Rome, the two basilicas — the one on the 
 site of Nero's Circus, in honour of St. Peter, and the 
 other without the walls, on the Ostian Way, in honour 
 of St. Paul — both have ceased to exist. St. Peter's 
 was destroyed to make way for the present magnifi- 
 cent monument of the Renaissance. Of the old St. 
 Peter's, however, drawings exist which give us a 
 very accurate idea of the great church. The plan 
 shows the atrium, 212 feet by 225, entered by a 
 portico with buildings on each side which may have 
 been added in the Middle Ages. It has the usual 
 columned cloister round the sides and the fountain 
 in the middle. The eastern portico, which formed 
 the narthex, is entered by a little porch. The church 
 itself was 380 feet long by 212 wide ; its magnificent 
 dimensions are perhaps best understood from the 
 statement that it covered as large an area as any 
 
 7 mediaeval cathedral except Milan and Seville. At 
 the upper end is a kind of transept, and the apse was 
 separated from the transept by a row of pillars. 
 Over the colonnades of the nave the side walls were
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 59 
 
 divided into a double tier of panels, each of which 
 contained a picture ; above these panels was the cleres- 
 tory from which the building received its light, and 
 a broad cornice of ornamental work supported the 
 wall-plate of the roof. What was the design of the 
 original roof is matter of pure conjecture ; probably 
 it was finished with an ornamental ceiling. The 
 
 The Church of St. Paul without the Walls, Rome. After the fire. 
 
 columns with their bases and capitals were taken 
 from earlier buildings. 
 
 The first Church of St. Paul without the Walls 
 was a small church of the normal basilican plan — a 
 fore court, a nave with aisles, and an apse flanked by 
 two square chambers.* Having been badly built, 
 
 * Lanciani, " Pagan and Christian Rome."
 
 6o HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 it fell into disrepair. The second church on the 
 same site was begun by Theodosius and finished 
 by his sons Arcadius and Honorius on a much 
 larger scale. It was 419 feet long by 217 wide, 
 and the nave 80 feet high ; it had a great court, 
 on the west side of which were five chambers. The 
 noble colonnade was composed of pillars taken from 
 earlier buildings, pillars of the finest and rarest 
 marbles— Greek, Phrygian, and African— some with 
 Corinthian capitals of their own, some with capitals 
 of the time. The two columns of Pentelic marble 
 which supported the triumphal arch were, base and 
 capital included, 45 feet high. 
 
 It was almost an exact counterpart of St. Peter's 
 in dimensions and plan, but there was one important 
 structural difference : the pillars which separated the 
 nave from the aisles were surmounted by arches 
 instead of a horizontal architrave, which was an 
 improvement in picturesque effect as well as an 
 advance in the principles of construction. The 
 woodcut gives a sufficient idea of the grandeur of 
 the general effect. It was partially destroyed by an 
 accidental fire in 1822. From existing drawings and 
 from the portions which survived the fire the church 
 has been rebuilt as a reproduction of the original 
 church. 
 
 Several smaller churches claim to have 'been 
 originally built by Constantine or in his reign. 
 One of these, the Church of St. Agnes without 
 the Wall, has preserved its whole construction with
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 6i 
 
 very little change, and is in this respect one of the 
 most interesting churches in Rome. It consists of a 
 nave separated from the two aisles by sixteen ancient 
 columns — some of them curiously fluted — with good 
 Corinthian and composite capitals. Above rises a 
 second range of columns of smaller dimensions, upon 
 which rests the wall, pierced with windows and sup- 
 porting the roof. Over the aisles and at the west 
 end is a gallery which was reserved for the women. 
 Under the high altar, which has a baldachino, is the 
 " confession " of St. Agnes, where the remains of the 
 virgin martyr are deposited. The square chamber at 
 the east end of the south aisle was probably the 
 ancient sacrarium, and the larger chamber (now used 
 as a vestry) at the north-west side of the building 
 was perhaps the baptistery. 
 
 Among the other churches in Rome traditionally 
 said to have been founded by Constantine are San 
 Lorenzo and Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme. Both contain 
 portions of the original building and fragments of the 
 greatest interest, but they add nothing to our know- 
 ledge of the art of that early period. 
 
 When Constantine had won the Empire of the East 
 he caused other churches to be erected at his cost. 
 One at Antioch for its splendour was called the 
 Golden Church; others were at_^Iamre, at Heliopolis in 
 Phoenicia, and at Nicomedia. When the pilgrimage of 
 his mother, the Empress Helena, had drawn attention 
 to the "Holy Places" of Palestine, the emperor built 
 a church at Bethlehem over the site of our Lord's 
 Nativity, a group of churches on the site of the Holy
 
 63 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Sepulchre, and one on the Mount of Olives, over the 
 supposed site of the Ascension. 
 
 The nave of the church at Bethlehem still remains 
 as represented in the accompanying woodcut. It is 
 the only church of Constantine which still exists ; all 
 the others have been rebuilt or have disappeared. 
 This seems to be a purely unaltered example of 
 the age, with the advantage that all its pillars and 
 
 The Church of Bethlehem. 
 
 capitals appear to have been made for the place which 
 they occupy. The dimensions of the whole church 
 are 215 feet long by 103 across. The choir, with 
 its three apses, was probably added or rebuilt by 
 Justinian. 
 
 The group on the site of the Holy Sepulchre 
 consisted first of a memorial church, of the usual 
 circular plan, round about the rock-tomb which was
 
 THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINE. 63 
 
 believed to be the actual tomb in which our Lord was 
 laid, and to the east of it a basilican church in honour 
 of the Resurrection ; and the two were connected by 
 subsidiary buildings. Constantine's directions to the 
 Bishop of ^lia for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 were that it should excel all other churches in beauty, 
 and that not only the building itself, but all its 
 accessories should be such that they should not be 
 surpassed by the fairest structures of any city of the 
 empire. Eusebius gives an elaborate description of 
 the church, and an account of the grand ceremonial 
 of its dedication, A.D. 335. A full description, accom- 
 panied by plans of the buildings erected by Constan- 
 tine, may be seen in Professor Willis's essay in the 
 second volume of Williams's "Holy City." Mr. Fer- 
 gusson has started the strange notion that the Dome 
 of the Rock on Moriah is Constantine's church ; and 
 another site outside the Damascus Gate has lately 
 been put forward as that of the Holy Sepulchre ; but 
 it is highly probable that the traditional site is not 
 only that which was pointed out to the Empress 
 Helena, but also that it is the true site of the Sepulchre. 
 When Constantine built a new capital for the 
 reunited empire on the west shore of the Bosphorus 
 he made it from the first a Christian city ; not a 
 single heathen temple was permitted within its walls, 
 but fourteen churches supplied the people with 
 abundant provision for Christian worship. The 
 chief of them, dedicated in honour of the twelve 
 Apostles, which came to be more commonly known 
 after his own name as the Ecclesia Constantina, was,
 
 64 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Eusebius says, " vastly high, and yet had all its walls 
 [internally] covered with marble, its roof [ceiling] over- 
 laid with gold, and the outside, instead of tiles, covered 
 with gilded brass," A second great church dedicated 
 to the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia, was finished 
 by his son Constantius. The Church of St. John 
 Studens, commonly said to have been rebuilt after 
 the taking of Constantinople by the Latins, is now 
 believed to have retained its original plan and pro- 
 bably much of the original building, the date of which 
 is tolerably well ascertained as A.D. 363. It is a plain 
 basilica, 120 feet long by 85 wide, divided into a nave 
 and aisles by rows of marble columns, supporting 
 an architrave, frieze, and cornice, upon which stand 
 other columns supporting arches ; the capitals are 
 semi-classical, ornamented with acanthus leaves. The 
 style is rich, and retains much of the ancient classical 
 form and feeling. It has a semi-octagonal apse and 
 an oblong narthex. 
 
 The conversion of Constantine gave a great 
 impulse to the spread of Christianity, especially 
 among the upper class of society, and thereby 
 caused a great increase in church-building and in 
 the employment of all the arts in the service of 
 religion. It would also naturally have the effect of 
 placing at the disposal of the Church the services 
 of the most eminent artists. But this would only 
 ensure that the best of contemporary art would be 
 bestowed upon Christian subjects ; it could not pos- 
 sibly produce any sudden change in the style of art.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 
 
 The colonnades with the Greek architrave ; with the Roman arcn ; 
 with an upper tier of columns— St. Clement's, Rome— St. Am- 
 brose's, Milan— Churches of Central Syria: Babouda ; Qualb 
 Louzeh ; Tourmanin— Domestic architecture of Central Syria — 
 Churches at Nisibis j Thessalonica— The Golden Gate of Jerusalem 
 —Churches of Egypt and Nubia, Thaumugas— Ravenna : Tomb of 
 Galla Placidia ; St. Apollinare Nuova ; St. Apollinare in Classe ; 
 St. Vitale — Parenzo in Istria — Churches of Gaul : Lyons ; St. 
 Martin's, Tours ; Clermont — Existing remains of the classical style 
 in Gaul — The dome in Persia ; in Central Syria ; St. Ezra ; Bozra 
 — The Byzantine dome ; Sta. Sophia — Domes in the West — Traces 
 of the basilican style of architecture in Britain, at Canterbury, 
 Frampton, Silchester— The Celtic churches. 
 
 HE great defect, as it seems to us, in the 
 interior design of some of the early- 
 basilicas was that the columns were too 
 low in proportion to the great height of 
 the wall which they supported, so that the long- 
 drawn colonnades, which ought to have been the 
 noblest feature of the view, looked dwarfed and over- 
 loaded. This was especially the case where the 
 pillars were surrounded by a straight architrave, as 
 in St. Peter's. But it must be borne in mind that 
 
 F
 
 66 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 painting was very largely used in the decoration of 
 interiors, and that this wall space would be divided 
 into panels corresponding with the intercolumnia- 
 tions ; the strong vertical borders of these panels 
 would break up the long wall, and continue the line 
 of the columns upwards ; and the panels would be 
 filled with painted designs, so that the whole wall 
 would be alive with interest and rich with colour. 
 
 The defect of the disproportion of the height of 
 the columns to the height of the wall was greatly 
 diminished by the substitution for the architrave of a 
 series of round arches, as is seen in the interior view 
 of St. Paul's without the Walls (p. 59). The change 
 abolished the strong horizontal line of the architrave 
 which emphasized the defect, and the extra height 
 of the arches increased the proportionate height of 
 the arcades in fact and still more in effect to the 
 eye ; the lines of painted decoration also would 
 naturally follow the curve of the arches and give 
 additional apparent height to the arcades, while it 
 diminished the apparent height of the wall. But in 
 later examples, as we have seen in St. Agnes, the 
 architect frequently got rid of the defective proportion 
 altogether by means of a second tier of columns, 
 which formed what in Gothic churches we call the 
 triforium ; and the Roman designer made better use 
 of this space over the aisle than the Gothic builder, 
 by making it a commodious gallery for the accom- 
 modation of the women. The architrave over the 
 lower arcade found its constructive use as the front 
 of the floor of the gallery, and carried a low parapet
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 67 
 
 wall or screen which formed the gallery front. The 
 sloping timber roof, of low pitch, was covered with 
 tiles ; internally it was often ceiled, but in any case 
 the main timbers were often carved and gilded and 
 the panels ornamented with painting. 
 
 The apses of the aisles were not intended for 
 chapels and had no altars. Paulinus of Nola * de- 
 scribes one of them as the sacristy, and the other as a 
 place where the pious could read the Scriptures and 
 say prayers. There was not more than one altar in 
 a church till centuries later in the Western Church, 
 and in the Eastern Church never. 
 
 The Church of St. Clement at Rome was lone 
 thought to be the original church 
 built upon the site of the house 
 of the Flavian family, and one of 
 the most unaltered of existing Chris- 
 tian churches. Recent discoveries 
 have shown that the original church 
 was filled in, probably in the twelfth 
 century, in consequence of the great 
 rise in the level of the neighbouring 
 ground ; the present church was 
 built on the same site and partly 
 out of the old materials, and the 
 furniture of the old church was re- 
 placed in the present. The result 
 is that the present church does retain a less altered 
 appearance than any other, and that its arrangements 
 give a better idea of the interior of a primitive basilica. 
 
 * Ep. 32. 
 
 rianof St. Clement's, 
 Rome. 
 
 ^C
 
 68 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 It has the only perfect court (a) left in Rome. The 
 chancel (g), the earliest remaining example, was 
 probably removed to its present position from the 
 lower church, and is of the time of John VIII., in the 
 
 The Church of St. Clement, Rome. 
 
 ninth century. The enclosing walls of marble are 
 sculptured with Christian emblems. On the sides of 
 the choir are the anbones or pulpits (f, f). That on 
 the left (looking towards the altar), from which the 
 Gospel was read, is ascended by a double stair, and
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 69 
 
 has a handsome candelabrum of mosaic-work for the 
 Paschal candle ; that on the right has two reading- 
 desks, one towards the tribune, the other towards the 
 nave. The presbytery (i) is separated from the choir 
 by a screen of handsomely sculptured marble panels, 
 evidently of the same period as the choir ; (b) is the 
 narthex ; (l) the altar ; (m) the bishop's throne. 
 
 The Church of St. Ambrose at Milan still retains 
 very much of the plan and design of a primitive 
 basilica. The fine ninth-century court surrounded 
 by a colonnade is perfect. The church, originally 
 built in the fourth century, was renovated in the 
 twelfth, but it retains its ancient plan, and the tribune 
 retains an ancient episcopal throne ; there is a 
 sculptured sarcophagus of the sixth century over 
 which the pulpit is built, the baldachino is of the 
 eighth century, and the gold and silver altar frontal 
 of the Carolingian period. 
 
 As we have had to quote a late example of the 
 chancel, so we have to take a late illustration of the 
 arrangement of the apse. The little church at Tor- 
 cello, in the Venetian Lagune, was originally erected in 
 the seventh century, and was altered and perhaps to 
 some extent rebuilt in the first year of the eleventh ; 
 but it still retains much of the original arrangement 
 and character, and is the best example we know of 
 the ancient arrangement of the apse — the bishop's 
 throne elevated so that it overlooks the whole con- 
 gregation, and the benches of the presbyters arranged 
 like those of an ancient theatre.* 
 
 * Fergusson's "History of Architecture," i. 427.
 
 70 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The exteriors of the older basilicas were usually- 
 very plain in design, and depended upon magnitude 
 and proportion for any dignity which they possessed. 
 Other buildings attached to the church are occasion- 
 ally described, or traces of them found, but the pro- 
 vision of an official house for the clergy does not 
 appear to have formed a regular part of the plan, 
 except in the case of monastic churches. 
 
 The numerous churches of the deserted cities and 
 monasteries of Central and Northern Syria afford a 
 very interesting and valuable series of examples, 
 fairly perfect and unaltered, of the ecclesiastical art 
 of the period from the third to the seventh centuries. 
 Many of them are given in plan, elevations, and 
 details, in Count M. de Vogue's work on the " Archi- 
 tecture of Central Syria." The churches have not 
 usually inscriptions or dates, but some of the houses 
 and monuments have, and by comparison M. de Vogue 
 claims to assign the dates of the churches with trust- 
 worthy accuracy. These Syrian architects, while 
 adopting the universal basilican plan, and using the 
 principles and ornamental forms of the old Greek 
 art, display much artistic vigour and freedom. They 
 had not, as the builders in countries of older civiliza- 
 tion had, the ruins of temples and palaces to furnish 
 them with columns and capitals ready to their hand, 
 and consequently they had not the example of those 
 older works as a constant check upon their own 
 genius. Moreover, the material with which they 
 had to deal influenced their work to some extent
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE, 71 
 
 both in construction and ornament ; for the absence 
 of timber drove them to employ arches to span 
 their intercolumniations and to cover their areas, 
 and the hard character of the stone was unfavour- 
 able for such fine work as Corinthian and Composite 
 capitals, and led them to the use of ornament in 
 low relief. The result is that we do not find their 
 churches — like so many in other countries — made 
 up of interesting but incongruous ancient materials, 
 and we do find original invention in scientific 
 construction and in artistic design. In these 
 churches first occurs the idea of two western 
 towers, which became a characteristic feature of 
 medifeval cathedrals ; some of their apses are deco- 
 rated in a way which found its full development in 
 the Romanesque of the Rhine ; and, lastly, we find 
 here the introduction of the square plan surmounted 
 by a dome, which after- 
 wards developed into 
 the characteristic fea- 
 ture of Byzantine archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 We can only cite two 
 or three examples of 
 special interest as re- 
 presentatives of the 
 characteristics which we 
 
 , , .11 Church of Babouda, Syria. ; 
 
 have described. 
 
 The little church at Babouda, of the fifth century, 
 has a nave witliout aisles, an apse, and a narthex. 
 The western elevation is a charming example of the
 
 72 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 ornate composition of the external designs of these 
 Syrian churches. It will be seen by a study of the 
 elevation that the narthex has an upper story, open 
 to the air westward and to the church eastward, by 
 which the church receives a flood of light ; this upper 
 story forms a western gallery. The roof of the 
 church continues over the narthex. The massive 
 piers and their capitals, the ornamented moulding 
 round the arches, and the shafts which carry the 
 
 Church of Baqouza. 
 
 timbers of the roof are worthy of special notice. 
 The aisles are roofed with horizontal slabs of stone. 
 
 The church of Baqouza, of the beginning of the 
 sixth century, has a nave with aisles, an apse, and a 
 chamber on each side of the apse, a narthex, and two 
 porches on each side. The woodcut gives a view of 
 the striking eastern elevation ; being built on the 
 slope of a hill, this east end stands on a base which
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 73 
 
 gives it additional dignity. The nave is of six bays 
 divided by circular columns with Corinthian capitals, 
 supporting round arches. 
 
 Qualb Louzeh, in remarkable preservation, has a 
 nave and aisles three bays in length, and a narthex 
 flanked by two western towers. The apse is a 
 fine composition, with three windows, ornamented 
 with shafts still more richly than that of Baqouza. 
 
 Church of Tourmanin, Syria. 
 
 One of the finest of these designs is the church of 
 Tourmanin, which consists of nave and aisles of seven 
 bays, an apse with a chamber on each side, and a 
 narthex with two western towers. Like the church 
 at Baqouza, this stands on a site vv^hich gives 
 occasion for a flight of stairs up to the western 
 entrance. It will be seen that here also, as at 
 Babouda, the narthex has an upper gallery, open
 
 74 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 both to the outer air and to the church. The west 
 end is an especially fine composition. 
 
 These Syrian cities give us also illustrations of the 
 influence of Christian feeling in domestic architecture. 
 De Vogiie remarks that the sudden growth of 
 civilization in the district came immediately after the 
 victory of the Church, and that the religious zeal of 
 the people is shown not only in the existence of 
 numerous churches and several monasteries, but in 
 
 From a house front, Central Syria. De Vogue's " Syrie Centrale," 
 
 Plate XLII. 
 
 the fact that on the greater part of the houses 
 Christian symbols are sculptured, and numerous 
 inscriptions of pious sentences and scripture texts, 
 whose choice indicates the general exultation in the 
 recent triumph of the faith. He mentions one in the 
 bourg of Refadi where a certain Christian named 
 Thalasis built himself a house, and on the door 
 engraved his profession of faith : XPIETE BOHeEI 
 EIS eEOS MONOS, "Christ, help ; Thou art the one 
 God." At Deir Sanbit some one has painted on the
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 75 
 
 wall of a house, with red distemper, the sacred 
 monogram of Constantine's Labarum XP with the 
 All, and repeated it, and written over TOYTO NIK A. 
 
 At Nisibis, beyond the Euphrates, is a triple 
 church which retains the mouldings of its doorways 
 and windows as perfect as when they were erected. 
 "They are identical in style with the buildings 
 of Diocletian at Spalato, and of Constantine [?] at 
 Jerusalem " (Fergusson). 
 
 At Thessalonica the Eski Juma, or Old Mosque, 
 is a Christian church probably of the fifth century. 
 It is a simple basilica in plan, with nave and narthex. 
 St. Demetrius is larger, divided into five aisles with 
 internal transept, and accessory buildings. 
 
 The Golden Gate in the east wall of the Temple 
 enclosure at Jerusalem is a fine and fairly perfect 
 work. Fergusson assigns it to Constantine, but it 
 is more probably of the fifth to sixth century (De 
 Vogiie), and a good example of the style as it 
 approached the Byzantine. 
 
 Basilicas of the fifth and following centuries are 
 still numerous in Egypt and Nubia, the oases of 
 the Libyan Desert, and in the waste lands of 
 Algeria and Tunis. They are usually small, with 
 the peculiarity that the apse is included within a 
 square external wall. At Thamugas in the Aures is 
 one with an inscription which states that it was built 
 in 646 — a square building with an apse, divided 
 into nave and aisles by columns of rose-coloured 
 marble.* 
 
 * Colonel Playfair's "Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce."
 
 76 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 As time went on the basilican plan and arrange- 
 ment for an ordinary church were still adhered to in 
 the Western Empire, but the architects — especially 
 where they were not influenced by the use of old 
 materials and the presence of old models — began to 
 work with greater freedom, and to feel their way 
 slowly towards a new style. 
 
 The most important examples are at Ravenna, 
 which Honorius in 404 had made the capital of the 
 empire. His sister, Galla Placidia, afterwards 
 adorned the city with superb monuments, of which 
 her tomb remains. At a later time, when it fell into 
 the hands of Theodoric the Goth, the enlightened 
 conqueror continued the works which he found in 
 progress and built others. The Church of St. Apol- 
 linare Nuova was built in his reign (443-525), and 
 his tomb, with its dome composed of a single stone, 
 is one of the most remarkable of architectural 
 monuments. His daughter Amalasuntha encouraged 
 similar undertakings. When Narses gained the 
 victory over the Goths, Ravenna became the resi- 
 dence of the Exarchs of Justinian. In this reign 
 was built the Church of St. Apollinare in Classe, at 
 the port of Ravenna, about three miles from the 
 city ; it was commenced in 538 and dedicated in 549. 
 
 These two basilicas still remain in their original 
 condition. They show a considerable development 
 in plan and design ; the nave has a tall clerestory 
 above the level of the aisles, an impost over the 
 capitals, arches over the windows, and a tall bell-tower. 
 In St. Apollinare in Classe the exterior has some
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 77 
 
 little relief to the plain side walls of the nave and 
 aisles, in an arcading of shallow pilasters and arches ; 
 but the west wall and the great narthex are as 
 unadorned as they possibly could be, in striking 
 contrast to the elaborate and beautiful architectural 
 design of the interior. A woodcut in Fergusson's 
 " History of Architecture," vol. i. p. 423, of the angle 
 where the nave joins the apse, gives some idea of 
 the grandeur of the design and the richness of its 
 ornamentation. Internally, with its twenty-five Greek 
 marble columns, its richly adorned archivolts, and its 
 grand mosaics (hereinafter described), it is a very 
 noble monument of early Christian architecture. 
 
 The Church of San Vitale, built A.D. 528-547 under 
 Eastern influences, is the first church in the West 
 which shows a strong Byzantine feeling. It is in 
 plan an octagon, forty-seven feet in diameter, with 
 a choir and apse added to it ; massive pillars support 
 the clerestory and dome ; between the piers of this 
 central area are niches, with galleries above ; * the 
 square piers are cased with marble, and the wall-spaces 
 above are adorned with twisted columns and mosaics. 
 
 Another fine example, contemporary with these at 
 Ravenna, is the cathedral at Parenzo in Istria, built 
 by Bishop Euphrasius, A.D. 542. It is a long basilica, 
 with apses to the aisles in addition to the central 
 apse, and retains its atrium ; to the west of which is 
 the baptistery — an octagon within a square ; and to 
 the west of that a tower, square externally and round 
 
 * An arcade of this gallery is given at p. 295.
 
 78 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 internally. Some of the capitals are Corinthian, 
 taken from an earlier building ; others are of a form 
 and ornamentation influenced by the new Byzantine 
 style, which was very shortly to supersede the long- 
 continued debasement of the classical forms of art. 
 For down to this time the sculptors were still 
 imitating the old capitals, architraves, and cornices, 
 rudely and with variations which, with the occasional 
 exception of deliberate copies of old work, departed 
 more and more from the ancient forms. 
 
 Very few examples of the buildings of this early 
 period remain north of the Alps. We know that 
 Southern Gaul was highly civilized, and possessed 
 noble buildings of all kinds, including churches. The 
 basilican plan for the larger churches, at least, was 
 almost universal, and they had marble columns, 
 tessellated pavements, gilded ceilings, glass windows, 
 mosaics and paintings on the walls. Sidonius (Caius 
 Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius), in one of his pleasant 
 letters,* describes a basilica which Patiens, Bishop of 
 Lyons (A.D. 470), built in honour of the popular Gallic 
 saint Justus, for which Sidonius wrote a dedicatory 
 inscription, engraved on a tablet and fixed on the 
 west wall. The church faced " the equinoctial east." 
 " It is light within ; the sun is attracted to the gilded 
 ceiling, and wanders, with its yellow glow, over the 
 gilded metal. Marbles of various splendour enrich the 
 ceiling {camerariiis), the pavement, and the windows ; 
 and through the green glass of the windows, beneath 
 vari-coloured figures, an encrustation, grassy and 
 
 * Liber ii. lo.
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE, 79 
 
 springlike, bends around the sapphire gems.* It has 
 a triple portico (probably along three sides of the 
 atrium), magnificent with Aquitanian marbles, and 
 a similar portico closes the further (eastern) side of 
 the court. A grove of stone scatters its columns 
 far and wide over the interior." It is easy to recog- 
 nize that the church was of the usual basilican type, 
 with court and narthex, handsomely adorned with 
 marbles, mosaics, and gilding. 
 
 Gregory of Tours describes some of the Gallic 
 churches of his time (A.D. 573-594). The new basilica 
 of St. Martin, built by Perpetuus, the sixth successor 
 of Martin in the see of Tours, was 160 feet long by 
 60 wide, and its height to the ceiling, 45 feet ; it had 
 52 windows, 120 columns, and 8 gates. The church 
 which Namatius, the eighth Bishop of Clermont, 
 built, "which is the principal church there," was 150 
 feet by 60, and 50 feet high to the ceiling of the 
 nave ; in front {i.e. to the east) it had a round apse, 
 and on each side stretched aisles of elegant structure, 
 and the whole edifice was disposed in the form of a 
 cross. It had 42 windows, 70 columns, and 8 gates. 
 The wife of the above-named Bishop Namatius built 
 the basilica of St. Stephen, without the walls of the 
 town, and had it painted with paintings which she 
 indicated to the artists out of a book which she pos- 
 
 * The passage is very obscure. Does it describe a pattern of coloured 
 glass in the windows, or the mosaics on the walls ? Here is the 
 original : — 
 
 *' Ac sub versicoloribus figuris 
 Vernans herbida crusta sapphiratos 
 Flectit per prasinum vitrum lapillo? "
 
 8o HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 sessed. Was it a book with miniature pictures, or a 
 book like that which the Greek artists of later times 
 possessed— a directory of subjects for artists ? * 
 The inhabitants of the south and south-east of France 
 long maintained the classical civilization which the 
 Greek colonists had originally planted there ; and 
 the classical style of art survived in their buildings to 
 a late period. The actual remains of this classical 
 style in Gaul are the porch of the cathedral of Avignon, 
 St. Paul aux Trois Chateaux, near Avignon, and other 
 fragments in the Rhone Valley, as the apse at Alet, 
 with good Corinthian capitals and cornice ; the 
 baptistery at Poictiers, the church of the Convent of 
 Roman Motier, on the Jura, St. Trophimus in 
 Aries, St. Gilles in Languedoc, and others. In the 
 north of Gaul the cathedral at Treves claim.s to be 
 of the date of Constantine ; four colossal granite 
 columns with Corinthian capitals, and portions of the 
 original walls, still remain. It had a circular building 
 adjoining it, probably a baptistery, on the site of the 
 present Liebfrauenkirche. The church is remarkable 
 for having an apse at the west, as well as at the 
 east end. This feature has its prototype in the 
 basilica of Trajan at Rome ; it is found in the early 
 basilica at Orleansville, Algeria, already mentioned ; 
 in several other northern churches, e.g. at Bemberg, 
 Rothenberg, Maintz, and Laach ; and perhaps at 
 Canterbury and Lyminge, Kent.f 
 
 * See Miss Stokes' edition of Didron's " Iconographie." 
 t Tlie small parish church of Ileybridge, Essex, also hfis a westerq 
 as well as an eastern apse.
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 8r 
 
 One of the most striking developments of the new 
 style of architecture which was gradually growing 
 up to express the mind of the new Christian world, 
 was the adoption of the square plan, surmounted by 
 a dome, which became the characteristic feature of 
 Byzantine architecture. 
 
 Where that grand architectural feature the dome 
 originated is not known ; perhaps the earliest example 
 which exists is at the palace of Sarvistan in Persia, 
 constructed in the fourth century, B.C.* It was from 
 Persia probably that the energetic and able builders 
 of Central Syria borrowed it. The earliest church 
 in which it appears is the Church of St. George at 
 Ezra, which is certainly one of the most interesting 
 of all the Christian buildings of this region. Finished 
 in 515 A.D., according to an inscription carved on the 
 lintel of the west door, it has 
 come down to us without altera- 
 tion, and uninjured in its es- 
 sential features ; always conse- 
 crated to the offices of religion, 
 for which it was built, and which 
 are still celebrated beneath its 
 venerable vault. 
 
 The plan is extremely simple.f 
 It consists of two regular con- 
 centric octagons, inscribed in a 
 square ; the central octagon supports a drum and 
 cupola. Projecting from the eastern face of the 
 
 
 J I I I M 
 
 Plan of St. George's, Ezra, 
 Syria. 
 
 Ill It 
 
 ' L'Art Antique de la Perse." M. Dieulafoy. 
 t Plate XX., De Vogue's " Syrie Centrale."
 
 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 external octagon is built the choir (flanked by two 
 square sacristies); which terminates in an apse, and in 
 each of the angles of the square is a niche ; there are 
 three doors at the west, and one on the north and 
 south sides of the square. The diameter of the 
 external octagon is 60 feet ; of the interior octagon, 
 35 feet ; the total length of the choir is 27 feet. 
 
 The cupola is supported by eight pillars 14 feet 
 high, which carry a drum of 18 feet. The last 
 
 
 Church of St. George, Ezra, Syria, 
 
 two rows of this drum are made of slabs, which 
 transform the octagonal drum first into a figure of 
 sixteen sides, and then of thirty-two sides, and so 
 the octagon passes gradually into the circle, which 
 serves as the base of the cupola. The cupola De 
 Vogue believes to be part of the original structure. 
 Its ovoid form is very unusual, and recalls the monu- 
 ments of Central Asia. At the base of the cupola 
 is a row of small windows, the first example of a
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. Z^ 
 
 method of lighting which finds its full development 
 in Sta. Sophia at Constantinople. Round the apse 
 are seats for the clergy. 
 
 i The inscription seen over the west door is to the 
 effect that the abode of demons is become the house 
 of the Lord ; the light of salvation enlightens the 
 place which the shadows obscured ; the sacrifices to 
 a deity are replaced by the choirs of angels ; where 
 the orgies of a false god v/ere celebrated the praises of 
 God are sung. A man who loves Christ, the notable 
 John, son of Diomed, has offered to God, at his cost, 
 this magnificent monument, in which he has placed 
 the precious relic of St. George, the triumphant martyr; 
 the saint having appeared to him, the said John, 
 not in a dream, but in reality. In the ninth indiction 
 in the year 410 (=: A.D, 515). The church, we gather 
 from this inscription, was erected on the site of a 
 temple to a pagan deity, probably to Theandrites, 
 a divinity especially worshipped at Ezra. 
 
 The cathedral of Bosra is almost of the same date 
 as that of Ezra) and constructed in the same style, 
 but on a much larger scale. The exterior walls alone 
 remain, and in the empty interior a small basilica was 
 subsequently built. The original plan (Plate XXIL, 
 " Syrie Centrale ") of the cathedral was a great circle 
 of 120 feet diameter, inscribed in a square of 125 feet 
 a side, to which was added on the east a choir of 36 
 feet, flanked by sacristies and lateral chambers. The 
 dimensions are exactly double those of the cathedral 
 at Ezra, and an imaginary restoration is easily deduced
 
 84 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 from the latter church, aided by some indications in 
 the existing walls. An inscription states that it was 
 finished under the Archbishop Julian, in 511 of our 
 era, and dedicated to the holy martyrs Sergius 
 Bacchus and Leontius. 
 
 Of the completed Byzantine style the dome is the 
 essential and characteristic feature. Where the build- 
 ing is a square, or octagon, or square carried up into an 
 octagon, one dome covers the whole building ; where 
 the plan is a cross of equal arms, a central dome 
 covers the crossing and minor domes the arms. The 
 other principal features are the mighty arches and 
 broad wall surfaces. Colonnades which were the 
 principal ornamental feature of the basilicas, hold 
 here only a subordinate position, to screen off aisles 
 or support galleries. The friezes, door and window 
 frames, capitals and bases, everything which lends 
 itself to it, is covered with surface ornamentation, 
 classical in suggestion, skilfully wrought, and elegant 
 in design. The internal walls and piers are veneered 
 with marble ; the domes, arches, and niches are 
 adorned with mosaics ; the capitals have a convex, 
 outline adorned with acanthus leaves which sit close 
 to the bell, are, indeed, incised upon it, and have a 
 reminiscence of the old archivolt in a moulded 
 impost. The general effect of the broad spaces over- 
 arched at a great height by the golden hemisphere of 
 the dome is very grand, the sculptured architectural 
 details are original and beautiful, and the mosaics 
 add greatly to the richness and dignity of the effect. 
 
 When Justinian, in the middle of the sixth century,
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 85 
 
 undertook to replace the ruined Church of the Holy 
 Wisdom at Constantinople, originally built by Con- 
 stantine and rebuilt by Theodosius II., he adopted 
 this idea of a square plan surmounted by a dome. 
 The emperor's ambition was to make it the most 
 splendid temple Avhich the world had ever seen. 
 He entrusted the design to the two most eminent 
 architects of the time, Anthemius of Tralles and 
 Isodorus of Miletus. The body of the building 
 was constructed of brick, and the exterior walls, 
 after the fashion of those ages, were entirely destitute 
 of any attempt at architectural adornment. But 
 the interior was as costly and splendid as power, 
 wealth, and art could make it. The world was 
 ransacked for the most costly materials. Eight great 
 porphyry columns, which Aurelian had carried off 
 from the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, and which 
 were worth a great fortune, eight green columns 
 said (erroneously) to have been taken from the 
 Temple of Diana at Ephesus, still adorn the build- 
 ing. The most beautiful marbles from all countries 
 were brought to line the walls. 
 
 On the day of its consecration, Christmas Eve, A.D. 
 568, the emperor ascended the pulpit, looked around, 
 and with outstretched arms cried, " God be praised 
 :[ who has deemed me worthy to complete such a 
 work," and added, sotto voce, " Solomon, I have out- 
 stripped thee." 
 
 The plan is a central square surmounted by the 
 dome, contained within a larger square which forms 
 the aisles. The influence of the original basilica
 
 86 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 plan is seen in a semicircular apse on the east, the 
 narthex on the west, and the western atrium. The 
 sculptured details of the architecture are free from 
 any imitation of the old classical style ; they are the 
 most finished examples of the new style which had 
 been gradually growing up in the East, and of which 
 there are numerous earlier tentative examples in the 
 churches of Syria which have been already described. 
 Santa Sophia was the triumph of the new style of 
 Christian art, and exercised an influence over the 
 architecture of the Greek Church which has survived 
 in full vigour to the present day. The structure of 
 this grand church still remains uninjured, waiting 
 till the decadence of the Turkish empire shall once 
 more restore it to the uses of Christian worship for 
 which it was erected. 
 
 Meanwhile the conquests of the Barbarians had 
 divided the Western Empire from the Eastern. In 
 the West the new nations took the art whose monu- 
 ments they saw around them as the starting-point of 
 the new styles which their fresh energy gradually 
 evoked. There are noble examples of the square 
 plan and dome in the West, but only where some 
 exceptional Greek influence was powerful enough 
 to introduce them. After Justinian's conquest of 
 Italy the Church of St. Vitalis at Ravenna was built 
 on the new Greek plan, and became the model of all 
 those erected in Europe for several centuries. Charle- 
 magne's church at Aix-la-Chapelle is one of the 
 most important of them. Others are the Duomo of
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 87 
 
 Ancona, and St. Fosca Torcelli. St. Mark's, at 
 Venice, is on the same plan, and is an evidence of 
 the extent to which the Eastern associations of that 
 great emporium influenced its art. At the Renais- 
 sance the influence of Byzantine art led to the 
 adoption of the dome as the great feature of the new 
 St. Peter's at Rome, and, later, to Wren's adoption 
 of the dome in St. Paul's. But in the West the 
 Greek idea of square plan and dom.e was always an 
 exotic, and never made its way against the traditional 
 following of the original basilican type. 
 
 Of the churches of this period, we have only slight 
 traces in this country, but these traces are very in- 
 teresting to us. We know, from Bede's history of 
 the re-establishment of the Church in Kent in the 
 sixth century, that there existed at Canterbury, after 
 its conquest by the Jutes, at least two deserted 
 churches of earlier times. One, St. Martin's, was 
 repaired by King Ethelbert for the worship which 
 Bishop Eleutherius and his staff of clergy maintained 
 on behalf of the Christian queen Bertha. The present 
 church is partly built of the old materials, since some 
 of the bricks of the Roman time, easily recognized 
 by their shape and texture, are still visible in its 
 walls ; but there is nothing to indicate its original 
 plan and design. Of the other, which Ethelbert gave 
 to Augustine, nothing remains but a description of 
 it at the time of the fire which nearly destroyed it 
 in 1067; but from this description Professor Willis was 
 able to make out that it was a basilica, having a
 
 88 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 western as well as an eastern apse, like that at Treves, 
 with an adjoining baptistery. The plan of two other 
 early churches has been preserved by foundations still 
 existing. One at Frampton, Dorset, 31 feet by 21, 
 has an apse ; in the tessellated pavement, across the 
 chord of the apse, was a band of circles all filled 
 with scrolls of foliage, except the centre one, which 
 had the sacred monogram XP. Since this symbol 
 seems not to have been used in Rome till about the 
 time of Constantine, the date of this building was 
 probably about the fourth century. The other, at 
 Silchester, Hants (probably the Roman Calleva), was 
 only discovered in 1892. The foundations indicate 
 a nave with apse, two aisles enlarged into quasi- 
 transepts, and a narthex extending along the 
 (ritual) west end. The whole of the nave and 
 apse has been paved with tesserae ; in front of the 
 apse, where the altar would be placed, is a square 
 of finer mosaic, five feet square, in black and 
 white check, with a border of coloured lozenges. 
 There are remains of a tessellated pavement in the 
 narthex. About eleven feet in front of the narthex 
 is a foundation of brick about four feet square, 
 perhaps formerly the base of the fountain in the 
 middle of the atrium. The very interesting church 
 of Brixworth, Northants, is built of Roman brick, 
 and the main walls may possibly be of Roman con- 
 struction, but there is nothing to prove conclusively 
 that it was a Roman church. The church in Dover 
 Castle, also, is partly of Roman work, but so altered 
 in the eleventh century, and almost rebuilt in the
 
 THE CHURCHES AFTER CONSTANTINE. 89 
 
 thirteenth, that its original plan and design arc 
 lost in the subsequent alterations; and, again, there 
 is nothing to prove that it was originally a church. 
 
 The Celtic churches had a plan of their own, the 
 characteristic feature of which is a long square-ended 
 chancel with only a small opening into the nave, and 
 this plan has modified our national type of church. 
 Some eminent Churchmen of the Italian school, like 
 Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop, travelled through Gaul 
 to Italy, and brought back from Rome models for 
 church-building, decoration, furniture, and music ; so 
 that the churches of Wilfrid at Hexham and Ripon, 
 and of Benedict at Wearmouth and Jarrow, were 
 imitations of classical basilicas. The Norman 
 builders also used the circular apse of the old 
 basilican type ; at Norwich Cathedral the traces 
 still exist of the bishop's stone chair and the 
 presbyters' bench at the east end of the original 
 apse.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 
 
 Primitive baptisms — Baptisteries in catacombs — When the Atrium 
 was the Church, possibly the Baptisierium of the bath was the 
 baptistery — Public baptisteries ; of the Lateran ; at Aquileia ; at 
 Nocera dei Pagani ; at Ravenna ; at Deir Seta ; in Italian cities — 
 Fonts in churches — Illustrations of the subject in England- 
 Baptistery at York j Canterbury — Holy wells— Fonts — Chapter 
 houses. 
 
 N the first age, before public churches and 
 baptisteries were erected, we have to infer 
 the details of the administration of bap- 
 tism from the incidental notices of it 
 with which we meet. The mode of our Lord's 
 Baptism by John would be likely to influence the 
 mind of the Church ; and we suppose that the tra- 
 ditional representation of it is correct, that our Lord 
 went down into the water to a certain depth, and 
 that the Baptist poured water, from his hand or 
 from a shell, over His head. It is thus represented 
 in a painting in the Cemetery of Callistus, of the 
 second century ; in a painting of uncertain date, over 
 the font in the Cemetery of Pontianus (Marchi,
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 91 
 
 Plate XLII.); in the baptistery at Ravenna, called San 
 Giovanni in Fonte, A.D. 450 ; in the later baptistery, 
 in the same city, called Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, 
 A.D. 553 ; and in other early works of art. So, 
 probably, Philip baptized the treasurer of Queen 
 Candace in the stream which they came to on 
 their journey. The three thousand who were con- 
 verted on the Day of Pentecost seem, from the nar- 
 rative, to have been baptized there and then in 
 Mary's house, perhaps with water poured over their 
 heads from the fountain in the middle of the court 
 of the house (see p. 5) ; and the jailer of Philippi 
 and his family perhaps in the same way. 
 
 Tertullian observes that Peter baptized his converts 
 in the Tiber at Rome, as John had baptized his in 
 Jordan, and that it makes no difference whether one 
 is baptized in the sea or a lagoon, a river or a foun- 
 tain, a lake or a marsh. In the " Recognitions of 
 Clement" St. Peter is represented as preaching to 
 the people that they might wash away their sins in 
 the water of a river, or a fountain, or the sea ; and 
 the writer describes the actual baptism of some con- 
 verts in certain fountains by the seashore. Justin 
 Martyr seems to say that baptism was usually per- 
 formed outside the church : " All who believe the 
 things which are taught, and promise to live accord- 
 ingly, are taught to pray, with fasting, for forgiveness. 
 Then we bring them where there is water, and they 
 receive the washing of water ; . . . we bring the 
 person to be washed to the bath ijo Xovrpov). After 
 thus washing him, we bring him to those who are
 
 92 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 called brethren, where they are assembled together 
 to offer prayers in common ; " and he goes on to 
 describe the celebration of the Eucharist.* The 
 recently discovered " Teaching of the Twelve 
 Apostles," a document whose date is said to be 
 "far nearer the middle of the first century than 
 the middle of the second," directs, " Baptize in living 
 water \i.e. water not separated from its source], but 
 if thou hast not living water, baptize in other water 
 — in warm, if thou canst not do it in cold. But if 
 thou hast neither [in sufficient quantity], pour water 
 upon the head three times in the name of Christ." 
 This would seem to contemplate baptism in a spring 
 or river, in the baptisterium of a bath, or by affusion 
 only. 
 
 Perhaps the earliest font which still exists is that 
 in the Cemetery of Pontianus, already alluded to. 
 The fossores, in extending its underground galleries, 
 came upon a spring of water, and it was natural that 
 they should excavate a little chamber and cistern in 
 the floor of the chamber to make a reservoir for their 
 own convenience, and for the convenience of any 
 who visited the cemetery. It was quite as natural 
 that, in some subsequent time, those who had control 
 over the cemetery, with their minds full of religious 
 symbolisms, should appropriate the subterranean 
 fountain for baptismal purposes, and convert the 
 chamber into a baptistery. The decorations of the 
 little chamber prove that it was thus used. The font 
 consists of a small cistern, or piscina, between two 
 
 . - • "First Apology," §§6i and 65.
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 03 
 
 and three feet deep, and six feet broad, constantly 
 supplied by a current of water. It is approached by 
 a flight of steps, between the base of which and the 
 water is a level space, about five feet wide, on which 
 the priest may have stood. Above the water is a 
 painting of our Lord's Baptism, and on another side 
 is a painting of a cross, adorned with gems and 
 throwing out leaves and flowers from its stem ; two 
 lighted candelabra stand on the arms of the cross, 
 and the letters Ai2 are suspended from the arms by 
 chains (see woodcut, p. 197). The date of the paint- 
 ings is probably the seventh century, and may be later 
 than that of the excavation of the cemetery. There 
 is something of the same kind in the catacombs at 
 Naples.* 
 
 A careful consideration of all the circumstances, 
 and of these incidental notices, suggests that 
 when churches were in the private houses of 
 well-to-do converts, baptisms were performed in 
 the bath which formed a usual adjunct of such 
 a house ; so that as the atruim and tablimim 
 afforded the type of the future churches, the baptis- 
 teriuin afforded the type of the future baptistery. 
 In the old baths at Pompeii the baptistery is square 
 externally, internally a kind of octagon ; the circular 
 piscina, or basin, in the middle of its floor is 13 ft. 8 in. 
 in diameter and 3 ft. 8 in. deep, coated with white 
 marble, having two marble steps down into it, and a 
 
 * In the catacombs of San Gennaro, at Naples, is a church with 
 three arches, supported by columns cut out of the tufa rock, with an 
 altar, episcopal seat, and baptistery of stone, and in another part is a 
 fountain, which was probably used for baptismal purposes.
 
 94 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 marble bench all round on which the bather could sit. 
 The diameter of the building leaves a broad margin 
 of floor round the piscina ; the roof is vaulted.* 
 The piscina of the baptistery in private baths seems 
 usually to have been circular.f 
 
 When the Church built public basilicas it possibly 
 built baptisteries beside them, but the only one we 
 can mention before the time of Constantine is in 
 connection with the new church at Tyre, already 
 described (p. 43) ; for Eusebius seems to allude to a 
 baptistery when he says that there were spacious 
 exJiedrcB and oeci on each side, attached to the 
 basilica and communicating with it, " for those who 
 require yet the purification and the sprinklings of 
 water and of the Holy Spirit." From the beginning 
 of the fourth century a baptistery is usually found 
 attached to a cathedral church, and in Rome alone 
 to many of the churches. 
 
 From the beginning the baptisteries are built on 
 a certain fixed general design, from which there are 
 only minor deviations. The plan is usually octa- 
 gonal,t or rarely circular, with an inner octagon of 
 eight columns supporting a second story ; the columns 
 surround a piscina, or bath, which is protected by a 
 
 • See plan, p. 254, and interior, p. 279, in Smith's "Dictionary of 
 Greek and Roman Antiquities," article " Balnea;." 
 
 t E.g. that of Pliny's villa at Laurentium (Letter xx. to Gallus). 
 
 X The octagonal form was considered peculiarly applicable to the 
 baptistery — 
 
 " Octochorum sanctos templum surrexit in usus i 
 Octagonus fons est munere dignus eo. 
 Hoc numero decuit sacri Baptismatis aulam 
 Surgere, quo populis vera salus rediit."
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 95 
 
 parapet wall, and support a dome which forms a 
 canopy of honour over the piscina. In some cases 
 the central columns do not form a constructional part 
 of the building, but are smaller shafts fixed in the 
 angles of the parapet wall of the piscina, carrying a 
 light cupola over it. In either case, the shape of the 
 building, the internal circle of columns surrounding 
 the basin, the reflection of the architecture in the 
 still mirror of the sacred bath, must have produced 
 very striking pictorial effects. There was often an 
 anteroom at the entrance of the baptistery, where the 
 catechumens made the renunciation of Satan and 
 confession of faith which formed the introduction to 
 the service ; * and an apsidal recess opposite the 
 entrance contained an altar at which the newly 
 baptized received their first communion. Baptis- 
 teries were also used for assemblies of people, and 
 bishops were not infrequently buried in them. 
 
 The earliest remaining example is the building at 
 Rome known as San Giovanni in Fonte,t or the 
 baptistery of Constantine, which is said to have been 
 built for the baptism of the two Constantias — the 
 sister and daughter of the emperor. It is an octagonal 
 building of brickwork, in the adornment of which 
 the columns and capitals of earlier buildings have 
 been freely used. The central octagon of eight 
 columns, with Ionic and Composite capitals, carries 
 a cornice which runs round the building, and supports 
 
 * In medieval times this vv^as done in the porch of the church, 
 t St. John of the Fonts, i.e. St. .John Baptist. All the Italian 
 baptisteries are similarly dedicated.
 
 96 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 eight smaller columns of marble, which again support 
 the octagonal drum of the cupola and lantern of the 
 roof. It has a portico which was so large as to form 
 an entrance hall to the baptistery. The fabric may- 
 be of the time of Constantine, altered by later adapta- 
 tions and adornments, but Liibke is of opinion that 
 the original structure is of the fifth century. 
 
 There is an example of this primitive period in 
 ruins at Aquileia * octagonal in form, with a small 
 apse at the east angle, an inner octagon of columns, 
 and a hexagonal piscina. 
 
 At Nocera dei Pagani, between Naples and 
 Salerno, is an extremely beautiful circular church of 
 early date almost unaltered, " built undoubtedly for 
 the purpose of a baptistery." An inner circle of 
 doubled columns supports the dome, and forms a 
 circular aisle. The central piscina is twenty feet in 
 diameter and nearly five feet deep, circular within 
 and octagonal without ; two stone steps or benches 
 surround the interior ; it has a raised parapet of 
 marble, ornamented with incised patterns, and upon 
 the angles of the parapet stood eight columns which 
 probably carried a canopy, t 
 
 The most interesting of all the early baptisteries 
 which remain to us is that known as San Giovanni 
 in Fonte, in Ravenna, of the fifth century. It is an 
 octagonal brick building of two stories, very plain 
 externally, but internally richly adorned with marble 
 
 * Engraved in the "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," i. 175, 
 t Plan and section are given in Fergusson's " History of Archi- 
 tecture," i. 433, 434.
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 97 
 
 columns which support a dome ; the walls are lined 
 with marble and the dome with mosaics. It has an 
 octagonal basin, and a stone reading-desk beside it 
 for the convenience of the officiating minister.* 
 
 At Deir Seta, in Central Syria, is a hexagonal 
 baptistery, with a hexagonal basrn, with columns at 
 its angles which probably supported a canopy.f 
 
 There are other interesting baptisteries, all of the 
 same general design, at Bologna, Florence, Torcello, 
 Volterra, Cremona, Verona, Padua, Parma, Pisa, 
 Baveno, etc. The basin was sometimes of fanciful 
 form : in Lusitania it was commonly cross-shaped ; 
 in the " Pontifical of Landulph " it is a quatrefoil in 
 plan. 
 
 After the eleventh century it became the custom 
 for parish priests to baptize children soon after birth, 
 and fonts were introduced into the parish churches 
 for the purpose ; about the middle of the eleventh 
 century. Pope Leo IV. recommended the clergy hence- 
 forth to provide fonts in their churches ; and very io^fj 
 cathedral baptisteries were subsequently built. In 
 some of the Italian cities, however, as Pisa, Florence, 
 and others, baptism continued, and still continues, 
 to be administered only in the baptistery. We can 
 easily understand the strong sentiment in favour of 
 continuing to baptize the whole population of the 
 city in the one font, the same in which the ancestors 
 of the whole people had been baptized for many 
 
 * There are good representations of it in Gaily Knight's " Ecclesias- 
 tical Architecture of Italy." 
 
 t De Vogue, " Syrie Centrale," Plate CXVII, 
 
 H
 
 98 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 generations. The miniature paintings in the " Ponti- 
 fical of Landulph of Capua," which is of the ninth 
 century, represent two scenes within one of these early 
 baptisteries. In one an adult is standing up to the 
 breast in the piscina, and a priest seems to have 
 poured — or to be about to pour — water over his 
 head ; in the other, infants are being baptized by 
 immersion.* 
 
 The plan for the church of St. Gall, which is of 
 early ninth century, shows a circular font within 
 the nave, at its west end, surrounded by a screen. 
 
 In our own country we have some illustrations 
 of these Church customs. Augustine at Canterbury 
 and Paulinus at Catterick are said to have bap- 
 tized their converts in the neighbouring river. We 
 have already had occasion to notice that the 
 Romano-British basilica at Canterbury had a bap- 
 tistery adjoining it. For the baptizing of King 
 Edwin of Northumbria a wooden baptistery was 
 erected over a spring or well, and the cathedral was 
 subsequently built around it, and the well still exists 
 in the crypt. About A.D. 750, Cuthbcrt, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, erected a church east of the cathedral, 
 and almost touching it, to serve as a baptistery and 
 for other purposes {exantinationes jiidiconwi, burial of 
 archbishops, etc.). There are wells in some of our 
 churches and churchyards, which were very possibly 
 used as baptismal fonts. Some of the holy wells are 
 enclosed in a building, and have a screen of columns 
 
 * They are engraved in D'Agincourt's " L'Art par ses Monumens," 
 and in the "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities," pp. 158 and 171.
 
 THE BAPTISTERIES. 99 
 
 supporting a canopy over the water, after the fashion 
 of the old baptisteries ; there is a beautiful example 
 at Holy Well, Flintshire, near Chester.* 
 
 We have no existing baptisteries attached to our 
 cathedrals, and there are no fonts in our English 
 churches earlier than the eleventh century. It is 
 interesting to note that the small parish church 
 fonts retain some reminiscences of the diocesan 
 baptisteries which they superseded, for their most 
 usual form is an octagonal external plan with a 
 circular bowl ; and many of them have, and probably 
 many more once had, a cover in the shape of a 
 canopy of honour. Some of them have the Baptism 
 of Christ sculptured upon them, as at Bridekirk, 
 Cumberland, and Lenton, Notts, On the Norman 
 font at Darenth, "Kent, and those at Kirkburn and 
 Thorpe Salvin, Yorkshire, is a representation of 
 baptism in a font. 
 
 The chapter houses attached to so many of our 
 cathedrals seem to have been derived from the old 
 cathedral baptisteries. Every monastery had its 
 chapter house, but it was an oblong hall, always 
 adjoining a transept of the church ; but the chapter 
 house of cathedrals served by canons was usually a 
 large octagonal building (sometimes of nine sides) 
 with a pyramidal roof, standing alone conspicuously, 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of the church, and 
 sometimes connected with it by a covered way. It 
 would seem that when no longer needed for baptisms, 
 such a building was still wanted for ecclesiastical 
 
 * It may very possibly have been used as a baptistery.
 
 loo HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 I 
 
 assemblies. The modification of its construction by 
 
 the substitution of a central pillar to support the 
 groining of the roof, in place of the old octagon of 
 columns supporting the dome, is an interesting ex- 
 ample of mediaeval felicity ot design.
 
 ^^^^l•l;+•+^t^l^l^f•t^t•fH:+:4H;fiiiili•>;+H•4;+rl:l:4•4;|:+'TH^^ 
 
 :4;^■;4-^^RT^■^■-l■j+;f;4^;^^;+;4^;4^;T^;^i■;+;+it:+:+H■i■^;^^;t:j^}^■;^'^;•|^;^^;^•;■^yl^ 
 
 W 
 
 a 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE CATACOMBS.* 
 
 Literature of the subject — Incremation — Columbaria — Roman subter- 
 ranean sepulchral chambers — ^Jewish burial customs — The Church 
 adopted the custom of burial — Christian catacombs — Description 
 of those at Rome — Family catacombs of wealthy Christians put 
 at the disposal of the Church— Burial clubs— Public Christian 
 catacombs became places of pilgrimage — Jerome's description of 
 them — Prudentius's description of them, and of the Confessio of 
 I^Iippolytus — The removal of relics — The catacombs deserted and 
 forgotten. 
 
 HEIR tombs are often the most important 
 surviving monuments of the existence 
 of the ancient races of mankind, and the 
 contents of the tombs supply the prin- 
 cipal materials left to us for determining what manner 
 
 * On the rediscovery of the Roman catacombs at the close of the 
 sixteenth century the first results were published by A. Bosio (" Roma 
 Sotteranca," 1632). Aringhi, Boldetti, and Bottaii do little more 
 than work up Bosio's materials. D'Agincourt in his " Histoire de 
 I'Art par ses Monumens," 1823, gives the result of additional discoveries 
 up to his time. A new era opens with Padre Marchi's "Monument! 
 deir Arte primitive Cristiane," 1844, followed up by the magnificent 
 works of De Rossi, the "Christian Inscriptions of Rome," and the 
 " Roma Sotteranea." Garucci's " Storia della Arte Christiana " brings
 
 I02 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of people they were. So of the earhest ages of the 
 Church, the catacombs contain almost the only ex- 
 amples left of the painting and sculpture of several 
 centuries, and afford invaluable illustrations of the 
 beliefs and customs of primitive Christianity. 
 
 At the period when the Church began its exist- 
 ence the cremation of 
 the dead had been for 
 some centuries the gene- 
 ral custom throughout 
 the Roman world. The 
 law required that the 
 dead should be disposed 
 of without the walls of 
 the towns and cities, and 
 it was the custom to 
 place their monuments 
 beside the suburban 
 The body was 
 upon a costly 
 pile, or more 
 economically cinerated in a ustritmm — a furnace made 
 for the purpose ; a handful of the calcined human 
 remains was carefully rescued from the heap, and en- 
 together, in its five great folios, photographic representations of all the 
 principal objects of art of the first centuries. T. Roller has illustrated 
 the Roman catacombs and their contents by photogravure, and discussed 
 them from an anti-Roman point of view. J. II. Parker's photographs 
 of the paintings and sculptures of Rome are a very valuable addition to 
 the student's materials. F. Ferret's copies of the paintings are fanciful 
 restorations of what the originals may have been, or ought to have 
 been — of very little archaeological valud The photographs are the only 
 trustw^orthy authorities, 
 
 [hW>. ..'.,<"•> 1 
 
 roads. 
 
 vA."^ ^-^.-..V 
 
 burned 
 
 Roman funeral urn. 
 
 funeral
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 103 
 
 closed in an urn of earthenware, glass, marble, silver 
 or gold, according to the wealth of the deceased. 
 Some Roman cemeteries which have been carefully 
 examined {e.g. at Colchester) indicate that large 
 areas of land by the sides of the principal roads 
 leading out of the towns were appropriated as general 
 cemeteries, each with its own ustrinum ; and that 
 the funeral urns (together with other vessels of glass 
 and earthenware, containing perhaps salt, wine, oil, 
 etc., as offerings to the manes, and personal relics of 
 the deceased, as a necklace of beads or the like) 
 were buried in orderly rows in small shallow square 
 graves ; in many cases four of the large flat Roman 
 bricks lined the grave and formed the sides of a rude 
 cist, while another brick formed the lid, which 
 sufficed to ward off the pressure of the surrounding 
 soil and to preserve the frail deposit uninjured to the 
 present day. Over some of these graves were erected 
 monuments of various kinds, as plain upright stones 
 with an inscription, columns, slabs of stone with an 
 effigy of the deceased sculptured in sunk relief, and 
 accompanied by an inscription. 
 
 * Wealthy families purchased a suburban plot of 
 land, and built a family tomb upon it. A common 
 form of the tomb was a square basement with a 
 round upper story ; the massive walls were internally 
 honeycombed with niches, each of which accommo- 
 dated a funeral urn ; while the chamber afforded 
 accommodation for the funereal rites, and memorial 
 feasts. Place was often found in the tomb for the 
 funeral urns of dependents of the family. The
 
 104 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 external shape of the round tower and its internal 
 rows of niches like pigeon-holes obtained for these 
 tombs the name of cohimharia. 
 
 Some however of the Roman families, especially 
 perhaps those who prided themselves on their de- 
 scent from the ancient Etruscan nobles, adhered to 
 the earlier custom of entire burial. These deposited 
 their dead in chambers hewn out of the sides of the 
 rocky hills, with an architectural facade against the 
 scarped face of the hill ; or they excavated chambers 
 in the rocky substrata of the plain, reached by a 
 perpendicular well or a sloping driftway, the entrance 
 to which was protected by an architectural building like 
 a little temple. Of the former kind is the Tomb of the 
 Scipios in the Latin Way, which consists of a chamber 
 hewn in the hillside, with a Doric front ; and the 
 •Tomb of the Nasos (the family of the poet Ovid) in 
 the Flaminian Way, which is a similar crypt in the 
 hillside, also with a Doric front. Of the latter kind 
 is the group of sepulchral chambers found in recent 
 times on the Latin Way, paved and lined with 
 marble, and adorned with paintings, with the sculp- 
 tured sarcophagi still remaining undisturbed in their 
 recesses. 
 
 The Jewish funeral customs had, no doubt, great 
 influence upon the mode in which the Christian 
 Church disposed of its dead. The Jews clung to 
 the custom of entire burial and laid their dead in 
 chambers hewn out of the rock. The earliest ex- 
 ample is the Cave of Machpelah. The neighbourhood 
 of Jerusalem still possesses examples of these tombs. '
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 105 
 
 The hillsides round about the holy city are honey- 
 combed with sepulchral grottoes. The Tomb of 
 Joseph of Arimathea was one of them, hewn in the 
 rock within his suburban garden. The Tomb of 
 Helena, Queen of Adiabene, a proselyte in the reign 
 of Claudius, has a facade to the scarped front of the 
 rock, consisting of a column and two semi-columns, 
 supporting an architrave, cornice, and frieze ; its door 
 gives access to an entrance hall, and from the hall 
 open a series of small chambers all excavated out 
 of the interior of the hill. The so-called Tomb of 
 St. James is a chamber excavated out of the side 
 of the cliff, with a fagade consisting of two 
 Doric columns and two semi-columns supporting 
 architrave and frieze. The so-called Tomb of the 
 Prophets is a catacomb with a central chamber and 
 radiating and concentric galleries. Individuals of 
 the powerful and wealthy Jewish colonies of Alex- 
 andria, Cyrene, Antioch, and Cyprus, may have con- 
 structed monuments equally important. But the 
 custom of the less wealthy is illustrated in the 
 Jewish cemeteries of the same period in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Rome and elsewhere. They adopted 
 the method of which we have seen an example in 
 the Tomb of the Prophets. They obtained possession 
 of a piece of ground, dug down to the rocky stratum 
 beneath the surface soil, and excavated galleries and 
 chambers, extending them from time to time as need 
 required. Three small catacombs on different sides 
 of Rome have been identified, by the inscriptions 
 and symbols which they contain, as belonging to
 
 ^\ 
 
 io6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the Jews, and one of them is ascertained to be the 
 earliest of all the numerous catacombs around the 
 city.* Another has been found at Venosa in 
 the south of Italy. 
 
 The Church seems at once to have adopted the 
 custom of burying its dead without mutilation. The 
 fact that the nuclei of the Churches were generally 
 groups of converted Jews would naturally incline the 
 Church custom in that direction. The burial of the 
 Lord would afford an influential precedent to His 
 followers. A number of religious considerations, as 
 to the sacredness of the body which had been grafted 
 into the mystical Body of Christ, and had been the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost, and as to the doctrine of 
 the Resurrection, would strengthen the other motives 
 for shrinking from cremation and adopting burial as 
 the custom of the Church. The funeral customs of 
 the early Christians were therefore derived from two 
 sources. The Jewish custom of burial was uni- 
 versally adopted ; but the other circumstances of the 
 interment were largely influenced by the general 
 funeral customs. It must be borne in mind that 
 many of the Christians of these early ages were men 
 and women converted in adult age, who had their 
 ingrained notions and habits ; that no customs have 
 so tenacious a hold upon the popular mind as those 
 which relate to burial ; and that the Church did 
 not set itself against the innocent customs of the 
 people, but rather adopted them, impressed upon 
 
 * Julius Csesar gave the Jews at Rome legal protection for their 
 burial associations and graves.
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 107 
 
 them a Christian character, and utilized them in 
 the service of religion. 
 
 The Christians of Rome appear to have at once 
 followed the example of the Jews of Rome and 
 buried their dead in underground catacombs. There 
 are Christian catacombs in other places besides Rome, 
 indicating that this method of interment was widely- 
 adopted by the Church. There are extensive cata- 
 combs at Naples ; a catacomb at Alexandria only 
 partially explored, at Venosa, Chiusi, Oria, Syracuse, 
 Malta, and other places ;* and subterranean chambers 
 of less extent abound about the deserted cities of 
 Central Syria. 
 
 The Christian catacombs themselves, independently 
 of the paintings, sculptures, and inscriptions which 
 they contain, are an interesting monument of the 
 primitive age of the Church, and demand a careful 
 description. 
 
 The Christian catacombs in the neighbourhood 
 of Rome are not only the most extensive known to 
 us, but they have been the most thoroughly explored, 
 and, what is still more important, the discoveries 
 made in them have, especially during the last few 
 years, been systematically observed and recorded. 
 
 The substrata of the soil around Rome consisted 
 chiefly of three formations. The Pozzolana piira was 
 a stratum of sharp sand which formed excellent 
 material for the making of mortar, and the Roman 
 
 * Some Christian sepulchres were found at Cagliari, in Sardinia, in 
 1892, which have tombs, inscriptions, paintings of Lazarus, Jonah, etc, 
 of the third and fourth centuries,
 
 io8 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 builders had for generations been in the habit of 
 quarrying it by means of driftways {arenaria) carried 
 beneath the soil, wide enough for the passage of the 
 carts which conveyed the sand. Another stratum was 
 of Tufa litoide, which was hard and difficult to quarry. ' 
 A third stratum was of Tufa granolare^ not so hard 
 to excavate as the second, not so soft and crumbling 
 as the first ; it could be easily worked, and yet was 
 firm enough not to crumble and fall in ; it was this 
 last stratum which was selected for the cemeteries. 
 
 Some of the cemeteries are now entered by acci- 
 dental openings where the superincumbent soil has 
 fallen in from the surface, from the arenaria^ and other- 
 wise; but it seems probable that they all had originally 
 one or more formal entrances, and these entrances 
 had probably some architectural approach — a little 
 building containing chambers above ground for the 
 celebration of funeral rites, and protecting the flight 
 of steps which led down to the subterranean galleries 
 and chambers ; or a descending driftway down to the 
 level of the chambers and galleries, with an archi- 
 tectural face to the scarped rock through which the 
 excavated chambers were entered. 
 
 Beyond this entrance the catacomb consists of a 
 narrow gallery (ambulacnim) cut through the rock, in 
 the sides of which are excavated a series of shelves 
 {locidi) like the berths of a ship's cabin, tier above 
 tier, each large enough to contain a single body ; * 
 as each loculus was occupied, it was closed by three 
 
 * In pagan and in Jewish cemeteries, and in that of Alexandria, 
 the loculus is sometimes at right angles to the corridor, so that the 
 bodies were placed in them feet first.
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 109 
 
 tiles or a slab of marble embedded in mortar ; some- 
 times a name was rudely painted along the front, 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 
 in 
 
 S 
 
 o 
 O 
 
 
 o 
 C 
 ci 
 
 c 
 <J 
 
 n3 
 C 
 rt 
 
 <j 
 
 o 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 < 
 
 with some brief words by way of epitaph, which we 
 shall have to read and comment upon hereafter ; or
 
 I lo HIS TOR V OF EA RL V CHRIS TIAN ART. 
 
 a pictorial emblem of some kind alluding to the 
 deceased's religion or secular occupation. Every 
 here and there a larger niche is formed with an arched 
 head (called an arcosolimn), beneath which was an 
 excavation in the rock, like a stone coffin, sometimes 
 
 A loculus closed with slabs of stone. 
 
 A loculus partly opened. 
 
 ,l.»^i-' 
 
 vVIXlT.ANNOSXXX\^, 
 [BVS. JMKrilS 
 
 "(itCSiik- — '_ 
 
 A loculus closed, with an inscribed marble slab. 
 
 large enough to contain two bodies — e.g. man and 
 wife — side by side. Opening out from the ambulacra, 
 like the chambers from the long passages of a modern 
 house, are small sepulchral chambers {cuhiculcs) 
 excavated out of the rock ; they afforded space for
 
 THE CATACOMBS. in 
 
 sarcophagi on the floor, and arcosolia and loculi, 
 excavated in their walls, afforded other burial-places. ; 
 
 The earliest of these chambers are of small 
 dimensions, unprovided with shafts for air and light, 
 not adapted to any other purpose than that of family 
 burial-places. The later ctibiculcE, made about the 
 middle of the third century, are of larger size ; and 
 those still later, of the latter half of the third and 
 early part of the fourth century, are spacious quad- 
 rangular chambers, double, triple, even quadruple 
 {i.e. one opening out of another), with other appen- 
 dages. In the Cemetery of S. Soteris, of still later 
 date, some of these chambers are polygonal, with 
 apses and vaulted roofs, like subterranean mausoleums. 
 
 It will be observed that the narrow passages and 
 small chambers of the " ages of persecution " were not 
 capable of being used as abodes or places of worship, 
 and that it is not till persecution had long ceased 
 that we find these larger chambers, which, like the 
 tombs above ground, were no doubt used for com- 
 memorative services ; tombs of famous martyrs, at 
 their annual commemorations, would be attended by 
 considerable numbers of people, who would wish to 
 visit the sacred tomb, even if the service were held 
 in a more commodious building above ground. In 
 one case in the Cccineterium Ostrianum (commonly 
 known as that of St. Agnes) at Rome, a series of 
 chambers running at right angles to the generai 
 gallery is supposed by some to have been intended 
 for a small church. But this is very unlikely ; if a 
 church was wanted there, there was nothing to hinder
 
 112 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the excavation of a church of the usual plan. In 
 the catacomb at Naples is a church with three 
 arches supported by columns cut out of the tufa rock, 
 with an altar, episcopal seat, and baptistery of stone. 
 The catacomb at Chiusi also has a small church. 
 
 As years went on these subterranean passages 
 and chambers were extended to meet the growing 
 want of room for the dead, and were ramified in all 
 directions to keep them within the area of the estate 
 beneath which they were formed. Additional accom- 
 modation was gained by driving a stair down to a 
 lower level and constructing another story of galleries 
 and chambers ; there are examples of even three, four, 
 and five stories one beneath the other, communicating 
 with one another by flights of steps. One cemetery 
 sometimes communicated with" neighbouring ceme- 
 teries, and thus an intricate network of passages and 
 chambers spread under a very large area of ground. 
 
 The walls and roofs of some of the burial- 
 chambers and the arcosolia were often adorned with 
 paintings, the stone sarcophagi which were placed 
 in their recesses had their fronts carved with bas- 
 reliefs ; and these paintings and sculptures not only 
 afford examples of Christian art, but throw light upon 
 the whole condition of the Christian Church of the 
 period. But before we enter upon these works of 
 painting and sculpture, there is still much which is 
 of great interest to be said upon the history of the 
 Christian catacombs of Rome. 
 
 Of the sixty catacombs known by name in the 
 environs of Rome the greater number took their
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 113 
 
 ancient name from the name of the proprietor of 
 the land under which they were excavated or of 
 their founder. Others were designated by the name 
 of some well-known neighbouring landmark, as the 
 Cceineteriuvt ad Nymphas, ad dims law'as, ad Urswn 
 pileatmn, ad septejn columnas, ad sixtutn Philippic etc. 
 That in which the bodies of the martyred Apostles 
 St. Peter and St. Paul are said to have found a 
 temporary resting-place was known as the Coemeterium 
 ad Catacumbas, i.e. at the hollow ; and it is suggested 
 that, from the general familiarity of the Christian 
 world with this name, all the subterranean cemeteries 
 obtained the general name of catacombs. Some of 
 the cemeteries seem to have been known to Christians 
 from the first by the name of martyrs of the family 
 to which the cemetery belonged, as those of St. Agnes, 
 St. Priscilla, etc. In course of time the primitive 
 name of many cemeteries was superseded by that of 
 some famous saint subsequently buried there ; thus 
 the Cemetery of Domitilla became better known as 
 that of SS. Nereus, Achilleus, and Petronilla, that of 
 Balbinus by the name of St. Marcus, that of Callistus 
 by that of St. Sextus and St. Cecilia. 
 
 It seems highly probable that in the earliest 
 times of Christianity the wealthy converts who put 
 their houses at the disposal of the Church as places 
 of assembly for worship, also allowed the use of 
 their cemeteries as places of burial for the faithful. 
 We have seen that it was common for a great 
 family to allow the funeral urns of their servants 
 and dependents a place in the family columbarium,
 
 114 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 and no doubt when the fashion changed they would 
 still be allowed a loculns in the family catacomb ; it 
 was not unusual also to allow a friend to make a 
 sepulchral chamber for himself and his within the area 
 of the cemetery of a great family ; so that there would 
 be nothing very contrary to custom in permitting the 
 congregation to make for itself a special gallery in 
 the suburban catacomb belonging to the city house 
 where they were used to assemble, and whose clients 
 in a sense they were. 
 
 The principal cemeteries of the first century are 
 those of St. Peter on the Via Cornelia ; of St. Paul 
 on the Via Ostiensis ; of Priscilla (one of the family 
 of Pudens) on the Via Salaria Nova ; Ostriaminiy 
 where St. Peter is said to have baptized, on the Via 
 Nomentana ; and of Domitilla on the Via Ardea- 
 tina, where were buried the martyrs Nereus and 
 Achilleus, near to Petronilla, all three disciples of 
 St. Peter. 
 
 The first has been destroyed by the excavations 
 for the foundations of the basilica of St. Peter ; some 
 sarcophagi found in it have been preserved. The 
 same fate has overtaken the greater part of the 
 Catacomb of Lucina (or Commodilla, both names 
 occur in ancient records), in which St. Paul was buried, 
 and the rest is choked with earth and ruins. Two 
 inscriptions found here are dated respectively by the 
 consular years corresponding to 107 and no A.D. 
 
 The Cemetery of Priscilla is said to have been dug 
 in the property of the family of Pudens, converted 
 by the Apostle. In the middle of it is a chapel,
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 115 
 
 clearly constructed before the system of excavation 
 had been devised. It is not simply a chamber hewn 
 out of the tufa, but is regularly built of bricks and 
 mortar. There are no graves in the walls ; it was 
 intended to receive sarcophagi only, of which 
 numerous fragments have been found. It was beau- 
 tifully decorated with ornamental stucco-work worthy 
 of being compared with the best work of the kind of 
 pagan times, and also with frescoes different from the 
 subjects of Christian symbolism which afterwards 
 became so common. 
 
 The Cocnietermm Ostriammi is on a lower level than 
 that which is known as the Catacomb of St. Agnes, 
 It contains a chamber whose sides are honeycombed 
 with graves, and within it a stone chair said to be 
 that which in the ninth century was believed to be 
 " the chair on which St. Peter first sat." 
 
 The Cemetery of Domitilla, the niece of Vespasian, 
 who was banished to Ponza on account of her 
 Christianity, is on the farm called Tor Marancia, 
 on the Via Ardeatina, and is identified by several 
 inscriptions found on the spot, which bear her name ; 
 in the same neighbourhood is also a monument 
 -S^i^^f some member of the Flavian family who lived 
 and died in the days of Domitian. The original 
 entrance, which still remains, was in the side of the 
 hill. The scarped rock was faced with a front of 
 fine brickwork, with a cornice of terra-cotta and a 
 pediment. Some chambers were subsequently added 
 on each side of the entrance. The fragments of sar- 
 cophagi found here have no subjects carved on them,
 
 1 1 6 HIS TOR V OF EA RL V CHRIS TIAN ART. 
 
 only ornamental figures of dolphins, sea-horses, etc. 
 Other sarcophagi of terra-cotta found buried beneath 
 the ground seem not to be later than the middle of 
 the second century. In the catacombs behind, the 
 first galleries and chambers are also of ancient date. 
 On a second level of excavation is a wide corridor 
 leading by an antechamber to a large chamber, 
 whose walls are covered with the finest stuccoes 
 and then decorated with ornamental devices, bearing 
 so close a resemblance to the decorations of pagan 
 chambers of the same date, that the whole might be 
 mistaken for a pagan monument, were it not for the 
 figure of the Good Shepherd which occupies the 
 centre of the ceiling. The one original arcosolium 
 is decorated with a landscape painting. The roof 
 of the gallery is covered with graceful designs of 
 trailing vine branches, with birds and winged genii 
 among them ; there are also a landscape, two persons 
 sitting at a feast with bread and fish only on the 
 table, a man fishing, a sheep feeding near a tree, 
 Daniel in the lions' den. It might have been the 
 burial-place of the martyred consul Flavius Clemens 
 himself. 
 
 In the Cemetery of St. Priscilla, De Rossi found, in 
 1888, the family burial-place of a Christian branch of 
 the Acilian family.* In exploring that portion of 
 the Catacombs of Priscilla which lies under the 
 Monte delle Grove, near the entrance from the Via 
 Salaria, De Rossi observed that the labyrinth of the 
 galleries converged towards an original crypt shaped 
 
 * " Pagan and Christian Rome," ii. 4.
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 117 
 
 like the Greek letter gamma (r) and decorated 
 with frescoes. On a careful search amoncr the earth 
 which filled the place, a fragment of a marble coffin 
 was discovered with a portion of an inscription to 
 Acilio Glabrioni Filio. Four other inscriptions were 
 found among the dlbris, namely to Manius Acilius 
 . . . and his wife Priscilla, Acilius Rufinus, Acilius 
 Quintianus, and Claudius Acilius Valerius, so that 
 there is no doubt as to the ownership of the crypt, 
 and of the chapel which opens at end of the longer 
 arm of the P. This part of the cemetery resembled 
 the most ancient part of that of Domitilla ; there 
 were no loculi in the walls, but only spaces for 
 sarcophagi ; the walls were covered with white plaster 
 and adorned with paintings. 
 
 In the Cemetery of Praetextatus De Rossi discovered 
 the tomb of St. lanuarius, not merely hewn out of 
 the rock, but built with excellent yellow brickwork, 
 ornamented with pilasters of red brick and cornices 
 of terra-cotta, just like the pagan sepulchres on the 
 Latin or Appian Roads, and similar in construction 
 to many of the latter half of the second century. It 
 had originally been lined with marble ; the vault, 
 which is elliptical, terminates in a square light hole 
 at the top ; it is elaborately painted in fresco on a 
 fine white plaster, in a style not inferior to the best 
 classical productions of the age, with flowers and 
 birds, reapers reaping corn, men gathering olives, 
 men gathering grapes, children gathering flowers ; 
 at the back of the arched recess for a sarcophagus 
 is a rural scene, of which the central figure is the
 
 Ii8 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Good Shepherd. Inscriptions proved this to be 
 the burial-place of St. lanuarius, who was martyred 
 A.D. 162, 
 
 On the opposite side of the gallery was found a 
 crypt, which De Rossi assigned as the burial-place of 
 St. Quirinus, c. 130. The brickwork was mostly of 
 the time of Hadrian, the sarcophagus had no Christian 
 sculpture, the portrait bust which occupied the centre 
 wore the laticlave. 
 
 In another monument in the same gallery the arch 
 of the arcosolium in the side of the gallery had 
 been closed with a slab of marble pierced in a 
 geometrical pattern, and on each side stood a por- 
 phyry pillar ; the opposite wall of the gallery had 
 been recessed into a semicircular apse, designed for 
 the accommodation of visitors to the tomb. 
 
 Messrs. Brownlow and Maitland sum up the 
 characteristics of these earliest catacombs in these 
 words : " Paintings in the most classical style, and 
 scarcely, if at all, inferior in execution to the best 
 specimens of contemporary pagan art ; a system of 
 ornamentation in fine stucco, such as has not yet been 
 found in any other Christian subterranean work ; 
 crypts of peculiar shape and considerable dimensions, 
 not hewn out of the bare rock, but carefully and even 
 elegantly built with pilasters and cornices of brick 
 or terra-cotta ; no narrow galleries with shelf-like 
 graves thickly pierced in their walls, but spacious 
 ambulacra, with painted walls, and large recesses 
 provided only for the reception of sarcophagi ; whole 
 families of inscriptions with classical names and very
 
 THE CATACOMBS. ng 
 
 few distinctly Christian forms of speech ; and, lastly, 
 actual dates of the first or second century." 
 
 When the Church began to build public basilicas 
 it probably at or about the same time began to 
 possess public cemeteries. This could be effected 
 without much difficulty by help of burial clubs. The 
 pagan population generally was very solicitous to 
 obtain proper funeral rites, the absence of which 
 was supposed to entail disadvantages in the next 
 life ; the less wealthy classes provided friends to per- 
 form the last offices, and money to defray the cost, by 
 associating themselves in Collegia Funeraticia, i.e. 
 burial clubs, the members paying a monthly subscrip- 
 tion, all the members assisting at the funeral of one 
 of their number, and meeting for the ferialia, or 
 days of general sacrifice and feasting at the graves. 
 A building for the celebration of these funeral cere- 
 monies, called a Schola, was provided at the cemetery 
 by each Collegium for the use of its members. One 
 of these chambers still exists at Pompeii in the 
 street of Tombs. " Close to the villa called the Villa 
 of Diomedes, is a small enclosure presenting to the 
 street a plain front about twenty feet in length, 
 stuccoed and unornamented, except by a low 
 pediment and cornice. The door is remarkably low, 
 not more than five feet high. Entering we find our- 
 selves within a chamber open to the sky, the walls 
 cheerfully decorated with paintings of animals in the 
 centre of compartments bordered by flowers. Before 
 us is a stone triclinium with a massive pedestal in
 
 I20 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the centre to receive the table, and a short round 
 pillar in advance of it. It is a funeral triclinium for 
 the celebration of feasts in honour of the dead ; the 
 pillar probably supported the urn of him in whose 
 honour the feast was given, which it was the custom 
 to place in some conspicuous position, in view of the 
 guests at the funeral feast. The Funeral Association 
 provided all the necessaries for the feast, from the 
 table service to the festal garments, and they were 
 often kept on the spot," 
 
 These clubs, permitted at first only in Rome, were 
 allowed by Septimus Severus throughout the empire, 
 and became common from the end of the second 
 century. It is obvious that the Christian community 
 of any locality might form itself into a burial club, and 
 thus secure legal possession of a cemetery, and the 
 protection of the law for its funeral ceremonies. The 
 first public cemetery which belonged to the Roman 
 Church as a corporate body was a considerable area 
 on the Appian Way, obtained by Pope Zephyrinus 
 at the beginning of the third century. The law re- 
 quired that each Collegium should have an official 
 agent, who represented it in all legal business which 
 concerned the association. Zephyrinus, as was 
 natural, appointed his deacon, Callistus, to regulate 
 the use of the cemetery, and to transact the neces- 
 sary business with the legal authorities, and thus the 
 cemetery came to be called the Cemetery of Callistus. 
 One of the earliest sepulchral chambers of this ceme- 
 tery was thenceforward till 303 used as the ordinary 
 burial-place of the Roman bishops.
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 121 
 
 The Christian public cemeteries were rapidly- 
 multiplied ; there is reason to believe that in the 
 time of Fabian (236-251) each tituliis {i.e. public 
 church) had a district of the city assigned to it, as 
 what we should call its parish, that each had its 
 suburban cemetery, and that the cemetery had its 
 fabrica, which was probably a chapel for the funeral 
 services and commemorations with other buildings 
 adjoining for the convenience of the officials and 
 mourners. 
 
 In 257 Valerian issued the first edict forbidding 
 the Christians to use their cemeteries. In the follow- 
 ing year, Pope Sixtus and his four deacons were 
 seized in the Cemetery of Praetextatus, and martyred.* 
 Under Numerian, a number of people who had 
 entered one of the cemeteries on the Salarian Way, 
 near the tombs of the martyrs Chrysanthus and 
 Daria (perhaps for worship in one of the chambers, 
 since they had with them the vasa sacra), were 
 blocked in, by the closing of the entrance with a 
 heap of stones and sand, and left to perish. 
 
 The decree of Diocletian, in 303, confiscated all 
 the buildings and property of the Church, including 
 the public cemeteries. It would seem that Pope 
 Marcellinus hereupon obtained permission to use the 
 cemetery of the family of Pudens, on the Salarian 
 Way, for the burial of the Christians of Rome, and 
 that he caused an extensive series of new galleries 
 and chambers to be made at a lower level than the 
 existing catacomb, and there they remain to this 
 
 * See p. 146.
 
 122 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 day, planned and executed with an unusual degree 
 of regularity, as if the work of one mind and 
 hand. 
 
 When Constantlne restored her property to the 
 Church, burial in the old public cemeteries was re- 
 sumed. Pope Melchiades recovered the body of his 
 predecessor, Euscbius, who had died in exile in 
 Cyprus (?), and buried him in the Cemetery of Cal- 
 listus — not in the old crypt of the bishops, which 
 was by this time filled, but in another chamber in 
 the same cemetery, which he had decorated anew : 
 "The roof was painted with a pattern of hexagons 
 and other geometrical figures, containing alternately 
 birds and flowers ; the vaulted roofs of the arcosolia 
 were covered with mosaics, and the white walls were 
 faced with various coloured marbles." Pope Mel- 
 chiades himself was buried in another crypt similarly 
 ornamented. His successors, Sylvester, Mark, and 
 Julius, vv^ere all buried in small cellae, or tombs, 
 built near the entrances to the catacombs, but not 
 within them. Of Mark it is said that he was buried 
 in the Cemetery of Basilius in the Via Ardeatina, 
 in a basilica which he built, and which he constituted 
 a cemetery ; there can be little doubt that this 
 means that he attached a priest to it, and made it a 
 public cemetery of the church. 
 
 Excepting three new cemeteries made by Pope 
 Julius (336-347), it would seem that, from the end of 
 the third century to the end of the fifth, all that was 
 done in the old catacombs was to make accommoda- 
 tion for persons who had expressly desired to be
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 123 
 
 buried in the catacombs, near the resting-places of 
 the martyrs. For this purpose, people made their 
 arrangements with the fossorcs, the professional 
 grave-diggers, and new loculi and arcosolia and 
 cubiculae were made, and sometimes crowded round 
 certain famous graves in a way which has caused 
 much defacement to the original features of the 
 catacombs. About the same period, by cutting away 
 whole blocks of rock with their loculi, space was 
 made for small basilicas, so arranged that the apse 
 should include, or immediately adjoin, the grave of 
 some martyr,* and much damage was thus done in 
 the older parts of the catacombs. This fashion, 
 however, did not last long, and after the date (410) 
 of the invasion of Rome by Alaric, there is scarcely 
 an example of it. 
 
 By the middle of the fourth century began the 
 important change of burial in brick graves, made in 
 the upper stratum of soil over the catacombs, around 
 the basilicas of the martyrs, and this fashion increased 
 when burial in the catacombs ceased before the year 
 A.D. 410. 
 
 When the cemeteries ceased to be used as burying- 
 places, they became the objects of a still more 
 reverential interest. In this and the following cen- 
 turies, much was done in repairing, decorating, and 
 
 • The subterranean basilica of Petronilla, erected by Siricius at the 
 end of the fourth century in the Cemetery of Domitilla, is an example ; 
 and less perfect examples are the basilicas of S. Agnese, S. Sebastian, 
 S. Lorenzo, and, outside Rome, the basilicas at S. Generosa and Bolsena.
 
 124 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 redecorating the chambers which had become objects 
 of special reverence. 
 
 Pope Damasus (366-385) took great interest in the 
 catacombs ; he faced the cubiculae of some of the more 
 ilkistrious martyrs with marble, widened the galleries 
 which led to them, and made new shafts for light 
 and air, put up inscriptions in Latin verse inscribed 
 in large and elegantly formed capital letters,* and 
 thus encouraged the devotional practice of paying 
 visits to the martyrs' tombs. 
 
 The present condition of the catacombs gives an 
 impression of desolation which did not belong to 
 them originally. The long narrow galleries must 
 always have been dark, but the light of the lamp 
 which the visitor carried showed perfect walls, and 
 lighted up a constant succession on both sides, in 
 three or four tiers, of brief inscriptions and Christian 
 symbols, with frequent points of special interest — a 
 glass vessel half standing out from the concrete, 
 with its glittering device on gold-foil, a coin im- 
 bedded in the concrete to mark a date ; here and 
 there an arched recess {arcosoliiini), with a longer in- 
 scription at the back of the niche, which the visitor 
 might pause to read ; at intervals a cubicuhim, into 
 which he would turn to examine with interest its 
 painted walls and ceiling, and the sculptured sarco* 
 phagi, which then suitably furnished the chamber of 
 the dead. 
 
 Jerome,t in a well-known passage, describes the 
 
 * All these poetical inscriptions are on record, and fragments of the 
 original marbles have been discovered in recent excavations. 
 t In Ezech, Ix.
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 125 
 
 custom of visiting the tombs of the martyrs in his 
 time : " When I was a boy being educated in Rome 
 [he went there about A.D. 364], I used every Sunday, 
 in company with other boys of my own age and 
 tastes, to visit the tombs of the Apostles and 
 martyrs, and to go into the crypts excavated there 
 in the bowels of the earth. The walls on either side 
 as you enter are full of the bodies of the dead, and 
 the whole place is so dark that one seems almost to 
 see the fulfilment of those words of the prophet, ' Let 
 them go down alone into Hades.' Here and there, 
 a little light admitted from above suffices to give a 
 momentary relief to the horror of the darkness ; but 
 as you go forward and find yourself again immersed 
 in the utter blackness of night, the words of the 
 poet come spontaneously to your mind, 'The very 
 silence fills the soul with dread 1 ' " 
 
 Prudentius, towards the close of the fourth century, 
 gives a description of the catacombs, and also of one 
 of the crypts which had been sumptuously decorated 
 in honour of the martyr Hippolytus, who was buried 
 in it. " Not far from the city walls, among the 
 well-trimmed orchards, there lies a crypt buried in 
 darksome pits. Into its secret recesses a steep path 
 with winding stairs directs one, even though the 
 turnings shut out the light. The light of day indeed 
 comes in through the doorway, as far as the surface 
 of the opening, and illuminates the threshold of the 
 portico ; and when, as you advance further, the dark- 
 ness as of night seems to get more and more obscure 
 throughout the mazes of the cavern, there occur at
 
 126 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 intervals apertures cut in the roof, which convey the 
 bright rays of the sun into the cave. Although the 
 recesses, twisting at random this way and that, form 
 narrow chambers and darksome galleries, yet a con- 
 siderable quantity of light finds its way through the 
 pierced vaulting down into the hollow bowels of 
 the mountain. And thus throughout the subter- 
 ranean crypt it is possible to perceive the brightness 
 and enjoy the light of the absent sun. To such 
 secret places is the body of Hippolytus conveyed, 
 near to the spot where now stands the altar dedi- 
 cated to God. The same table {inensd) gives the 
 Sacrament and is the faithful guardian of its 
 martyr's bones, which it keeps laid up there in 
 expectation of the Eternal Judge, while it feeds the 
 dwellers on the Tiber with holy food. Wondrous 
 is the sanctity of the place ! The altar is at hand 
 for those who pray, and it assists the hopes of men 
 by mercifully granting what they need. Here have 
 I, when sick with ills both of soul and body, often- 
 times prostrated myself in prayer and found relief. 
 Yes, O glorious priest! I will tell with what joy 
 I return to enjoy the privilege of embracing thee, 
 and that I know that I owe all this to Hippolytus, 
 to whom Christ our God has granted power to 
 obtain whatever any one asks of him. That little 
 chapel {(Bdicidd), which contains the case of garments 
 of his soul [his relics], is bright with solid silver. 
 Wealthy hands have put up tablets glistening with 
 a smooth surface [of silver] bright as a concave 
 mirror ; and, not content with overlaying the entrance
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 127 
 
 with Parian marble, they have lavished large sums 
 of money on the ornamentation of the work." He 
 goes on to describe the crowds who visit the tomb 
 on the martyr's festal day : " No doubt the cavern, 
 wide though its mouth be stretched, is too narrow 
 for such crowds ; but hard by is another church 
 {templuni) enriched with royal magnificence which 
 the great gathering may visit," And then follows 
 the description of a basilica, which is supposed by 
 many to be the original basilica of San Lorenzo in 
 Agra Verano. 
 
 After the capture of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 410) 
 burial in the catacombs ceased, except in some 
 few special cases ; and none of these after A.D. 
 450. After the sack of Rome by Totila (560) burial 
 in the cemeteries above ground ceased. In a.d. 648 
 began the removal of relics of saints from the cata- 
 combs into the basilicas in the city ; in 756 Paul I. 
 removed more than a hundred ; and in 817 Paschal I. 
 removed thousands to Sta. Prassede. After this 
 period the cemeteries, deprived of that which had 
 formed their principal attraction, were soon deserted, 
 neglected, and almost forgotten. At the beginning 
 of the fifteenth century only that of the Catacumbas 
 remained open. It was not till the end of the sixteenth 
 century that the accidental rediscovery of one of them 
 attracted the attention of the students of Church 
 history and antiquities. 
 
 The catacombs at Naples are excavated in the 
 volcanic tufa, on the face of the hill of Capodimonte. 
 The only entrance now open is at the Church of
 
 128 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 S. Gennaro de' Poveri. They form a long series of 
 corridors and chambers, arranged in three stories 
 communicating with one another by flights of steps. 
 In one place is a church with three arches, sup- 
 ported by columns cut out of the tufa rock, with 
 an altar, episcopal choir, and baptistery of stone ; in 
 another place the excavation has broached a fountain 
 which may, of course, have been used for baptisms. 
 Along the walls of the chambers are numerous lociili^ 
 in some of which may still be seen skeletons, and 
 rude delineations of the olive-branch, dove, fish, 
 and other usual early Christian symbols, with here 
 and there a Greek inscription. These loculi were 
 firmly closed by slabs of marble, many fragments 
 of which, having inscriptions, form part of the pave- 
 ment of the Church of S. Gennaro. These catacombs 
 have not been fully explored ; their extent is said 
 to be very great. Burial in these catacombs and 
 those of Sicily continued as late as the tenth century. 
 The Rev. C. F, Bellerman (1839) published good 
 coloured plates of the fresco paintings of the Naples 
 catacombs with text* Their subjects include the 
 usual peacocks, doves, and flowers, anchors, dolphins, 
 a jewelled cross, another with A12, and figures of St. 
 Paul, St. Lawrence, St. Januarius, and oranti. There 
 is an Adam and Eve beautifully drawn ; a picture of 
 three females building a wall, from the " Shepherd of 
 Hermas;" a Christ with nimbus on one of the vaulted 
 ceilings. Some notice of the catacombs at Alex- 
 
 * See also Garucci, " Storia della Arte Christiana," vol. ii. Plates 
 93-101 ; D'Agincourt, " Histoire de I'Art," Plates 11, 9.
 
 THE CATACOMBS. 
 
 129 
 
 andria* will be found at p. 185 ; and of the cemetery 
 at S. Generosa in Garucci's great work mentioned in 
 the note.f At Cyrene are subterranean sepulchral 
 chambers with an architectural fagade like those of 
 the Scipios and the Nasos of Rome. 
 
 * In December, 1S92, Professor Botti, in excavating near Pompey's 
 Pillar, penetrated into the catacombs and found several sarcophagi. 
 t See footnote, p. 128. 
 
 K
 
 ri^f3jffiirPJr^m'4[^r^\^-ir^^\'^&f^v^r^r^r^^^r^r^rsJr^iMii[^ 
 
 rgj] ^ rgj jcDTaj istsi [bJ fBJ raJ r aJ r^J i"-is) raJ r^J rai rgJ pb j tsM faJ raJ raJ rai raJ ilai 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS, 
 
 Tombs and monuments at Rome, Jerusalem, and elsewhere — Christian 
 tombs: of Constantia, Helena — Syrian tombs at Kerbet Hass, 
 Hass, Kokanaya — Subterranean chamber at Mondjeleia — Twin 
 columns at Sermeda, Dana, Bechindelayah — Pillar stones in 
 Britain — Tombs used for funeral rites — Primitive regard for the 
 dead — Funeral feasts — Confessio of the martyrs ; in the catacombs; 
 above ground — Story of Theodotus of Ancyra — Basilica of SS. 
 John and Paul, Rome — St. Alban, his tnartyrion — Early tombs 
 represented in the paintings and sculptures of the Raising of 
 Lazarus — AbyssiniaA tomb — Visits to tombs, and names scratched 
 on them — Prayers to the saints. 
 
 EFORE we apply ourselves to the study 
 of the wall-paintings and the sculptured 
 sarcophagi which the catacombs have 
 preserved beneath the soil for all these 
 centuries, there is something to be said about the 
 tombs and monuments and funeral buildings which 
 once studded the areas of the cemeteries above 
 ground, but of which very few remain. 
 
 Some tombs which immediately preceded the 
 Christian age ought to be mentioned because they 
 formed the model of those which the Christians
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 131 
 
 subsequently constructed for themselves. First, those 
 in the neighbourhood of Rome. The monument of 
 Caecilia Metella, the wife of the consul Crassus, is 
 the earliest of these tombs of ascertained date, 
 and is the largest example of a very numerous type 
 of these monuments. It consists of a square first 
 story, surmounted by a circular second story with 
 a frieze and cornice, and is supposed to have been 
 finished with a conical roof. We find the same 
 type at Pompeii, at Jerusalem, in North Africa, in 
 Gaul, and in Syria. The white marble pyramid 
 of Caius Cestius, containing a small chamber, the 
 sides and ceilings of which were covered with 
 arabesque pa'intings, is an example of another 
 common type. The Tomb of Augustus was a repro- < . 
 duction of one of the most ancient and universal 
 types of the tomb of a great man, an earthen mound ; 
 but in this instance the lower part of the mound was 
 encased with a wall of white marble adorned with 
 columns which supported a cornice and frieze, the 
 upper part of the mound was planted with evergreens, 
 and it terminated in a bronze statue of the emperor. 
 At Madracen, in Algeria, is a mound surrounded by 
 a wall and Doric peristyle, like that of Augustus, and 
 probably imitated from it, by Juba, 'i\iQ protege of the 
 great emperor.* At Jerusalem, the so-called Tomb 
 of Zacharias is a mass of the native rock in situ, cut 
 into a cube, ornamented at the sides with Ionic 
 
 * Luciaii, the satirist, alludes to these monuments and tombs in 
 the " Menippus ; or, Oracles of the Devil : " " Tell me, Menippus, they 
 who possess these costly and lofty tombs upon the earth, and monu- 
 mental slabs, and pictures and inscriptions," etc.
 
 132 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 columns and pilasters, and surmounted by a pyramid. 
 The Tomb of Absalom is formed in the same way 
 out of the native rock, adorned with Ionic columns 
 and pilasters carrying a frieze ; the upper part, built of 
 masonry, is circular, with projecting cable mouldings, 
 and is finished with a concave-curved pyramid, 
 terminating in a finial of palm leaves.* 
 
 Another very common type of monument is a 
 pillar, of which the columns of Trajan and Antoninus 
 are the noblest examples known to us. There are 
 three small tombs of this period still remaining in 
 Gaul — a pillar at Cussi, near Beaune, an obelisk at 
 Igel, near Treves,t and the elegant Tomb of St. 
 Remi.|: 
 
 There are similar monuments in North Africa, e.g. 
 at Kasrin, Tunisia,^ and at Thugga. 
 
 The Street of the Tombs at Pompeii outside the 
 Herculanean Gate gives the most complete existing 
 example of the custom. The tombs are in a con- 
 tinuous line on each side of the road, of various types : 
 the little temple with a portico of Corinthian columns, 
 the square base with round upper story, the cubical 
 cyphus ; the pillar, and the headstone. A common 
 form of headstone has the upper part rounded into 
 the outline of a head, and while the front is nothing 
 but the flat surface of the stone the back is sculptured 
 in imitation of hair. It reminds us of the common 
 modern Turkish headstone whose top is carved into 
 
 * Fergusson's "History of Architecture," vol. i. p. 357. 
 t Ibid., p. 350. J Ibid., p. 349. 
 
 § " Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects for 
 lb.<0," Plate XX. 41.
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 133 
 
 the representation of a turban, and suggests another 
 meaning for the name of headstone than the common 
 one that they are placed at the head of the grave. 
 
 Of Christian tombs the best known are those of 
 the daughter of Constantine, now the church of 
 Costanza, and the tomb of his mother, the Empress 
 Helena. The Tomb of the Empress Helena is now 
 
 The Tomb of the Empress Helena, 
 
 only a ruin of massive brickwork, with a central 
 chamber in which are eight circular recesses ; it seems 
 to have been originally of the common type of a 
 square basement with around upper story, roofed with 
 a dome or conical cap. The Tomb of Constantia is 
 a circular building, 100 feet in external diameter :
 
 134 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 within that a smaller circle (35 feet) of twenty- four 
 pillars, carry a domed roof In a square niche 
 opposite the door stood a costly sarcophagus of por- 
 phyry, which is now in the Vatican Museum. The 
 roof of the aisle is adorned with mosaics of the 
 vintage and scenes of rural life, like many of the 
 pagan tombs ; the vine may or may not have been 
 
 ^^g^^lEnjaf iSi : : 
 
 ...i^^ 
 
 Tomb at Hass, Central Syria 
 
 
 
 ,p 
 
 
 intended to have a Christian symbolism. There is a 
 small portico in front of the entrance. 
 
 The cemeteries attached to the deserted cities of 
 Central Syria contain a large number of monuments 
 and tombs, ranging from the third to the seventh 
 centuries, some like those we have seen elsewhere, 
 others supplying types which are otherwise lost.
 
 TOMBS AND MONU^IENTS. 135 
 
 The illustration ("Syrie Centrale," Plate LXXII.) 
 is a tomb at Hass, restored from the existing remains 
 and by comparison with other tombs. It is of two 
 stories ; the ground floor is divided into two compart- 
 ments with recesses for sarcophagi. The upper stage 
 is constructed with great solidity, three recesses being 
 left in the solid masonry for sarcophagi. Enough 
 remains to restore the angle columns and the pediment, 
 but it is only a conjecture derived from similar tombs 
 that this was finished by a cupola. Another* at 
 Kerbet Hass has a fagade like a little temple. 
 Another at Hass, adorned with columns round its 
 sides, has an inscription in large Greek characters 
 in the hollow mouldings ; only fragments remain of 
 those of the upper story ; the lower story still retains 
 part of a quotation from Ps. cxlviii. 26, 27 ; it has 
 also a Christian monogram on the door. De Vogiie 
 attributes it to the year A.D. 377. 
 
 There do not appear to be any'extensive catacombs 
 about these Syrian cities, but subterranean sepulchral 
 chambers are very common. The simplest form is 
 that of a grave dug down into the rock and enlarged 
 to right and left into a crypt which would contain 
 several bodies ; the opening of the grave being 
 covered by a massive stone ridged like a roof, with 
 antae at the corner, in imitation of the corner tiles 
 of a classical roof. The idea clearly was that the 
 chamber was the last narrow house of the dead. The 
 same kind of ridged cover is used for the sarcophagus 
 lid, and was very common in the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
 * De Vogue's " Syrie Centrale," Plate LXXXIV.
 
 136 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 centuries. An example of it at Kokanaya is the 
 more interesting because it has an inscription giving 
 the name of the person interred in it and the date of 
 his death — 
 
 + 'Elcnfilai + XptffTtavtfi + 
 Ao^a irarpl Koi vTcji /col ayico Tryevjj.oiTi 
 ''Etov ^lU I^V^ ^'^0 K^'. 
 
 "To Euicbius, ■}. Christian. Glory be to the Father, and to 
 
 the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Year 417 the 27 loiis." 
 
 The era 417 of Antioch is equal to A.D. 368-369 
 
 There are whole cemeteries still crowded with stone 
 coffins with covers of this type. There is one near 
 Julia Concordia nel Veneto, of which a photograph is 
 given in De Rossi's " Bullettino," 2nd series, anno 5 ; 
 in several places in Syria ; * and at Aries, in France; 
 and scattered examples are to be found on the sites 
 of Roman cities throughout the empire. They are 
 the types from which our Saxon and mediaeval 
 " stone coffins " were derived. 
 
 Several of the Syrian sepulchres are constructed 
 in the same way as the tombs of the Nasos and 
 Scipios, and the earlier chambers of the Cemetery of 
 Domitilla, at Rome : a sloping road has been ex- 
 cavated down into the rocky soil until the scarped 
 rock in front was sufficiently high for its purpose; 
 then a door has been cut through the front, and a 
 sepulchral chamber, or series of chambers, excavated 
 out of the hill beyond ; finally, the scarped front of 
 the rock has been faced with an architectural design. 
 
 The illustration (" Syrie Centrale," PI. LXXXVIII.) 
 
 * De Vogiie's " Syrie Centrale."
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 137 
 
 represents a sepulchral chamber at Mondejelia hewn 
 in the rock with three recesses for sarcophagi, ap- 
 proached by a sloping way, the entrance ornamented 
 by a portico partly formed of the rock, partly built 
 of stone projecting above the level of the rock. It is 
 probably of the fifth century. 
 
 Over or near to the sepulchral chamber was fre- 
 quently erected a monument, and these monuments 
 
 Subterranean Sepulchre at Mondjeleia, Central Syria. 
 
 arc of various types. One of the earliest, at Sermeda, 
 consists of two tall columns with Corinthian capitals, 
 united at the base by a common plinth, by a cornice 
 at the top, and by an ornamented stone at about 
 three-fifths of their height. Dc Vogue thinks it cer- 
 tain that they supported a statue ; we may suggest 
 further that an equestrian statute would alone 
 fill the cornice and be in due proportion to the 
 rest of the composition. It has an inscription, but un-
 
 138 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 fortunately nothing is legible except the artist's name 
 and the date, which corresponds with April 6, A.D. 132. 
 At Dana there are two tall rectangular pillars 
 similarly coupled, which bear an inscription to one 
 Isidorus and the date October 9, A.D. 222, At 
 Bechindelayah is a single tall rectangular pillar, with 
 a panel towards the summit containing the bas-relief 
 of a man ; an inscription is cut in the face of the 
 pillar beneath this panel, commemorating Tiberius 
 Claudius Sosandros, who died A.D. 134. This pillar 
 adjoins and belongs to an underground sepulchral 
 chamber cut in the rock, with an architectural 
 facade. 
 
 The accompanying woodcut from Professor Ram- 
 say's " Church in the Roman Empire," represents, as 
 the inscription declares, the " Memorion " of Abirkios 
 (Avircius), son of Porphyrios, a deacon at Prymnessos, 
 in Phrygia, and Theuprepia his wife, and their 
 children. If the open declaration that Avircius was 
 a deacon did not point to a date after the Peace of 
 the Church, Professor Ramsay would, from the style 
 of art, assign it to the third, rather than the fourth 
 century. We venture to think that since the Church 
 built public churches and had its special cemeteries 
 in the third century, and its clergy were known to 
 everybody, there was no reason why the sepulchral 
 inscriptions of its clergy should not record their 
 status. The central figure on the monument. Professor 
 Ramsay takes, with great probability, to represent 
 our Lord, and the heads to represent Avircius and 
 Theuprepia. In the latter head the Professor says
 
 \y/,-//f'Mmv^fMW//mmw'Kvm'.'AV/VAV^^^^^^ 
 
 ^ABIPKIO: 
 
 noP4>YPioY 
 
 AlAKU NKA 
 TECKEYACA 
 TOKMOPION 
 EAYTWKAm 
 CYMBimoY 
 
 "IH 
 
 sa^"*; 
 
 MP 
 
 GEYnPL 
 
 "EKN°iL 
 
 
 , = ."a 
 
 A Christian monument at Prymnessos, Phrygia.
 
 143 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 there is an individuality which the engraving in- 
 adequately represents, and which carries with it the 
 conviction that it is a portrait ; and he can hardly 
 imagine it to be the work of a fourth-century artist. 
 But it is certain that fourth-century sarcophagi not 
 infrequently have sculptured portraits of the deceased; 
 and on the whole we incline to assign this interesting 
 monument to that period. 
 
 Short unadorned pillar-stones with an inscription 
 are common everywhere. Of these we have some ex- 
 amples in the Celtic portions of our own island. At 
 St. Just, Penrith, is one inscribed with the monogram 
 XP and an inscription "SENILIS IC lACET." Two 
 others in Cornwall have the monogram XP, one at 
 St. Helen's Chapel, the other at Phillack. One in 
 Wales, in Permachno Church, Carnarvonshire, has 
 an inscription, "CARAUSIUS HIC JACET IN hoc 
 CONGERIES LAPIDUM." In Scotland, in the old 
 burying-ground of Kirk-madrine in the parish of 
 Stoneykirk, are two stones inscribed with the mono- 
 gram XP and AO, and inscriptions — on one, " Hic 
 JACENT SCI ET PRyECIPII SACERDOTES ID EST VI- 
 VENTIUS ET MAVORIUS ; of the other inscription only 
 the name "sc FLORENTIUS" remains. 
 
 The idea that the tomb is the house of the deceased 
 is a very common one. Even cinerary urns are 
 commonly found in Central Italy, and elsewhere, 
 made in the shape of a house, and afford a curious 
 evidence of the general outline of the houses of the 
 period at which they were made. Many of these
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 141 
 
 early Christian tombs are like houses, and their 
 chambers are so commodious and so handsomely 
 painted, and look so habitable, as even to have sug- 
 gested to a recent writer* the idea that they were 
 actually inhabited. It is highly probable that the 
 clergy who fled to the catacombs for refuge in times of 
 persecution, really sojourned in these habitable tombs, 
 and retreated into the mazes of the galleries with 
 which they communicated only in case of a hostile 
 visit to the tomb. Thus St. Cyprian, when his life 
 was first threatened, is said to have concealed himself 
 in the tomb of his family. The Acts of Paul and 
 Thekla, though apocryphal, may be accepted as 
 evidence of the customs of the early age of Chris- 
 tianity. It says that when the apostle was expelled 
 from Iconium, he and the family of Onesiphorus, with 
 whom he had been lodging in the city, spent many 
 days in a tomb on the road which leads to Daphne. 
 That the tombs were frequently visited is certain, and 
 the commodious chambers were intended for these 
 visitations. The heathen, we know, had elaborate 
 funeral rites and were very solicitous for their due 
 performance ; a striking witness to their instinctive 
 belief in a life after death. There was a funeral feast 
 on the occasion of the funeral, which took place in the 
 sepulchral chamber or some chamber adjoining it. 
 The tomb was visited again on every anniversary of 
 death, and on the ferialia when everybody visited 
 the tombs of their relatives ; so that the visits paid 
 to a family tomb in the course of the year would be 
 
 ♦ In J. H. Parker's "Archaeology of Rome."
 
 142 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 numerous enough to make it very desirable to have 
 a convenient chamber for these meetings. 
 
 Christians continued these ancestral customs with 
 clearer faith and a higher intention. The vague 
 instinctive belief of the heathen in a life after death 
 became in these early Christians the profoundest 
 conviction of the continuity of life, and a more vivid 
 realization of the unseen world than is common even 
 with ourselves. The result was that the dead occupied 
 a larger space in religion, and were regarded with a 
 somewhat different shade of feeling. The Church 
 then really knew no more than we do of the details 
 of the condition of the departed, but it drew larger 
 deductions from what it did know ; it was more 
 keenly alive to the truth that the faithful still militant 
 in this life, and the faithful departed resting after 
 their labours in Paradise, were not beyond the reach 
 of one another's sympathies and prayers — that they 
 still formed one Church and had mystical communion 
 one with another in Christ. Christians therefore 
 regarded the bodies of their brethren with reverence, 
 and laid them in their tombs with abundant honours 
 and solemn services, and held a great funeral feast, at 
 which they entertained large numbers of the poor ; 
 and returned again to the tomb at the month's end, 
 and again on their anniversaries, with a firmer per- 
 suasion that they were keeping up a real com- 
 munion with the departed than the heathen could 
 possibly have, and than wc in these days commonly 
 possess. 
 
 Happily in our times a new impulse has been
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 143 
 
 given to a more vivid realization of our abiding 
 relations with our loved ones who have gone before 
 to Paradise by the example of her Majesty Queen 
 Victoria, who, following the instincts of the religion 
 of the heart, has revived the celebration of annual 
 commemorative religious services. To her Majesty 
 also we owe the encouragement of those accessory 
 funeral services by means of which a whole nation 
 in all its churches may assist at the funeral honours 
 paid to its great men, so that the funeral of a Colonial 
 Premier may be virtually celebrated in Westminister 
 Abbey.* 
 
 There is an example of the funeral feast in the 
 case of Pammachius the senator, the friend of Jerome. 
 When his wife Paulina died in 397, he caused it to be 
 proclaimed by sound of trumpet throughout Rome 
 that on the occasion of the funeral a funeral feast, 
 followed by a distribution of money, would be made 
 to the poor in the Church of St. Peter. Crowds 
 assembled. Pammachius himself presided. The long 
 tables spread in the church v^^ere filled again and 
 again with guests. As they departed Pammachius 
 gave to each a new robe and a considerable alms. 
 Jerome, in narrating the incident, remarks, " Some 
 husbands assuage their grief by scattering upon the 
 tombs of their wives, roses, lilies, and purple flowers ; 
 Pammachius bedews this holy dust vi'ith the balm 
 of charity." Pammachius became a monk. It is a 
 valuable illustration of the times which is placed 
 before us when we are told that he took his place 
 * In the case of Lord Macdonald. 
 
 \/
 
 144 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 in the senate in his brown monk's tunic amidst the 
 laughter of his pagan colleagues. 
 
 This reverence for the dead gave rise to a clasa 
 of buildings which became very common in the 
 cemeteries of the early Christians, chapels built in 
 honour of the saints and martyrs. 
 
 The ages of persecution we have left sixteen cen- 
 turies behind, and in the long perspective of history 
 " the noble army of Martyrs " seems to us to stand side 
 by side with " the glorious company of the Apostles " 
 and " the goodly fellowship of the Prophets," three 
 bands of blessed ones, dimly perceived through the 
 halo of glory which surrounds them, far removed from 
 the experiences and sympathies of our daily life. 
 
 But in the three centuries of the Church's gradual 
 growth, through misrepresentation and contempt, 
 through suspicion and opposition, through constant 
 danger of injustice and punishment, through liability 
 to local outbreaks of persecution involving torture 
 and death, through occasional general persecutions, 
 the martyrs and confessors of the Faith were very 
 real persons. They had relations and friends who 
 took a personal interest in their fate. Their relations 
 and friends in the flesh were proud of the dis- 
 tinguished position they had won in the great 
 crusade of Christ against the world ; their descendants 
 were proud of it, as we are of the fame of an ancestor 
 who won the nation's gratitude by some great deed 
 in which he lost life in maintaining his country's 
 cause. Many of these sufferers were the bishops and
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 145 
 
 clergy in whom their Churches felt a special interest. 
 Their constancy under torture and death were so 
 many victories of the faith, so many glorious testi- 
 monies to the ever-present succour of Him who was 
 seen by the first martyr " standing at the right hand 
 of God." 
 
 The Diocletian persecution especially, so general, 
 prolonged, and horrible, made a great impression on 
 the mind of the Church. The people perhaps hardly 
 realized the grandeur and glory of the strife while 
 they were engaged in it. It was only when the last 
 great effort of the emperors to crush the Christian 
 name out of existence had failed, and when the 
 greatest of the emperors had himself embraced the 
 Christian faith, that all men fully realized the magni- 
 tude and conclusiveness of the victory. Then the 
 martyrs shone forth as the heroes and champions of 
 the great campaign, who, like their Lord, had con- 
 quered by dying. The subject is curiously illus- 
 trated by a comparison between a monument which 
 Diocletian had erected in Spain with the inscription 
 "Religio Christianorum deleta," and the dying 
 exclamation of Julian, " O GALILEE, VICISTI ! " 
 
 The whole Christian community felt a personal 
 interest in these Illustrious members of the Church, 
 and delighted to do honour to their memories. Their 
 names were recorded in the diptychs and mentioned 
 at the celebration of the Holy Communion ; their 
 relics (as in the case of Ignatius, c. A.D. 116) were 
 reverently treasured ; and the whole Church visited 
 their tombs, adorned them with evergreens and 
 
 L
 
 146 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 flowers, and took part in the commemorative ser-' 
 vices on the anniversary of what, with a beautiful 
 ^ euphemism, was called their birthday— into the higher 
 life. Monumental chapels were constructed in con- 
 nection with these visits. Sometimes, as we have 
 already seen (p. 123), a space was cleared away around 
 the burial-place of the saint by removing the neigh- 
 bouring blocks of tufa, and a miniature basilica was 
 built in the catacomb itself. Sometimes a chapel 
 was built above ground, over or near the place 
 where the body of the saint rested in the catacomb 
 beneath, and probably in such cases a communica- 
 tion existed or was made between the chapel above 
 ground and the sepulchre below. Such a building 
 V was called in Greek naprvpiov, and in Latin co7i- 
 fessio. Bishop Fabian (236-251) is said to have 
 erected a number of such buildings in the cemeteries 
 of Rome ; and certain little churches scattered ovei 
 the Campagna, which cover entrances to the cata- 
 combs, have recently attracted attention, and are now 
 believed to be examples of these chapels. Northcote 
 and Brownlow give woodcuts of two of these, one in 
 the Cemetery of St. Sixtus and St. Camellia,* the other 
 in that of St. Soter ; each is a rather lofty and very 
 plain building, square in plan with an apse on each 
 of its three sides. The woodcut gives a plan of the 
 first of these, showing the stairs by which it com- 
 municated with the catacomb beneath. It has an 
 interesting history. The decree of Valerian in the 
 ^ middle of 258 ordered bishops, priests, and deacons 
 
 * Compare Lanciani,
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 H7 
 
 to be summarily executed ; persons of rank to loss of 
 dignity and goods, and on their refusal to renounce 
 Christianity, with death ; imperial officials to labour 
 in chains. Xystus or Sixtus was surprised by the 
 soldiers seated on his episcopal 
 chair, surrounded by his deacons 
 and others, in the Cemetery of 
 Praitextatus on the Appian 
 Way, and, according to some 
 of the accounts, he was beheaded 
 on the spot, and the two deacons 
 Agapetus and Felicissimus and 
 others with him. The bishop 
 was taken for burial to the epis- 
 copal sepulchral chamber in the 
 Cemetery of Callistus, the others 
 were buried in the cemetery in 
 which they were slain. Lan- 
 ciani asserts that Sixtus and his flock were assembled 
 in this spot, which was then a schola open to the air, 
 or sheltered by a wooden roof, and that the upper 
 walls and vaulted roof were added at a later period 
 when the building was converted into a chapel. 
 When De Rossi discovered it it was used as a wine 
 cellar. It has again become the property of the 
 Church, and divine service was recommenced in it 
 in April, 1891, 
 
 It is curious to see how ancient forms survive 
 in out-of-the-way places among unprogressive com- 
 munities : here is a modern Abyssinian tomb * of the 
 * Illustrated Loudon NewSf March, 1893. 
 
 de'camclrr r 
 
 t Z i ^ i 6 y B ^ tn 
 1-*«1 — 1 — h-H — I — ( — I — \ — { — t 
 
 Plan of chapel in the ceme- 
 tery in Via Ardentian, 
 Rome.
 
 148 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Abouna Kyrilos (Bishop Cyril) at Adowa, en the 
 model of the tombs of the fourth and fifth centuries. 
 
 There is a very interesting story in the " Acts of 
 Theodotus and the Seven Virgins," * which illustrates 
 
 Tomb at Adowa, Abyssinia, 
 
 many features of the Christian life of the East in the 
 beginning of the fourth century, and among others 
 the existence and uses of these chapels. 
 
 In the beginning of the Diocletian persecution 
 Theodotus, fleeing from the persecution at Ancyra, the 
 capital of Galatia, retired to a place near the village 
 of Malus, about forty miles distant, and there found 
 some other fugitive Christians of Ancyra whom he 
 knew, living in a cave whence the river Halys flowed. 
 " They reclined on the grass, for there was much grass 
 there, surrounded by both fruit-bearing and forest 
 trees, adorned with all kinds of sweet-smelling flowers, 
 enlivened by the chirping of cicadae and the song of 
 nightingales and of all various birds, and, in short, 
 supplied with everything with which Nature can 
 • Ruinait's "Acta Primorum Martyrium," Amsterdam, p. 338.
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 149 
 
 adorn a solitude." During the repast Theodotus 
 smilingly suggested to the priest of the neighbour- 
 ing village, Fronto by name, who had joined them 
 after he had said the office of the sixth hour, what 
 a charming place it was for the erection of a 
 martyrion, and asked why he did not set about it. 
 " Do you supply mc," Fronto replied, " with an 
 occasion to set about such a work and you shall not 
 have to blame me for tardiness ; it is necessary 
 first to have the relics, and then to think about 
 building an edifice." "It is my affair," rejoined 
 Theodotus, " or rather God's, to find you the relics, 
 yours diligently to prepare the sacred house ; there- 
 fore I pray you not further to delay the work, for as 
 soon as you have finished it the relics will speedily 
 come to you ; " and, taking off a ring from his finger, 
 he gave it to the priest, saying, " God be witness 
 between me and thee, that you shall shortly be 
 provided with relics." Theodotus returns to Ancyra, 
 and ultimately meets with a martyr's death. The 
 village priest, Fronto, happens to come to the city 
 that day to sell the wine of his vineyard ; he rescues 
 the body, carries it away secretly, and buries it in the 
 spot which Theodotus had suggested, and a chapel is 
 ultimately erected over it. In the course of Theo- 
 dotus's adventures in the neighbourhood of Ancyra, 
 we read of his going by night to the Confession of 
 the Patriarchs to pray, but finding it blocked up 
 {pbstnictani) * by the unbelievers, he prostrated him- 
 
 * Probably with thorns. Gregory of Tours (ii. 25) says that Euric, 
 the Arian Visigothic king (<r. A.D. 6oo), blocked up the doors of the
 
 I50 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 self in prayer outside near the apse {jiixta concham), 
 and then went to the Confession of the Fathers and 
 found that also blocked up, and prayed there also. 
 
 There is a unique example of a basilica built within 
 the City of Rome over the tomb of a martyr, in the 
 Church of SS. John and Paul in Rome. John and 
 Paul were chamberlains of Constantia, the daughter 
 of Constantine the Great, who on the accession of 
 Julian were killed by his order, and buried in the 
 basement of their own house. Julian's successor 
 directed Pammachius (already mentioned at p. 143) 
 to build a basilica over the place of their martyrdom 
 and burial. The architect seems to have pulled 
 down the upper part of the house to the level of the 
 ground, filled in all the chambers except the scene 
 of the martyrdom, and built the basilica over the 
 site. The lower portions of the present church are 
 part of the work of Pammachius, and recent ex- 
 cavations have disclosed what remains of the house 
 of the chamberlains. 
 
 We have already had occasion to notice that some- 
 times a simple sepulchral chamber of a catacomb, in 
 which some popular saint had been buried, was 
 
 Catholic churches of Auvergne with thorns. St. Eligius (5S8-659) is 
 said to have threatened St. Columb to close the door of his church 
 with thorns so that no one should thenceforth come to render homage 
 to him (" Etudes Historiques," by C. Barthelemy, p. 380). Bishop 
 Ralph of Chichester, in the time of Henry I. ("Diocesan Histories, 
 Chichester," S.P.C.K.), closed the churches of his diocese, barring the 
 doorways with thorns. The custom is alluded to in the *' Ayenbite of 
 Inwit " [c. A.D. 1340), "Stoppe thine earen mid thornes and nehyer not 
 the queade tongen," " Stop thine ears with thorns and hearken not to 
 the evil tongue,"
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 15 1 
 
 enlarged into a subterranean chapel. Sometimes — 
 perhaps usually — the ground was cut away so that 
 the walls of the buildin<^ should enclose the grave. 
 Such is the origin of the greatest sanctuaries of 
 Christian Rome ; the churches of St. Peter on the 
 Via Cornelia, St. Paul on the Via Ostiensis, St. 
 Sebastian on the Via Appia, St. Petronilla on the 
 Via Ardentina, St. Valentine on the Via Flaminia, 
 St. Hermas on the Via Salaria, St. Agnes on the Via 
 Nomentana, St. Lorenzo on the Via Tiburtina, and 
 fifty others. When these graves were not very deep 
 the floor of the basilica was almost level with the 
 ground, as in the case of St. Peter's, St. Paul's, St. 
 Valentine's ; in other cases it was sunk so deep in the 
 heart of the hill that only the roof and upper tier of v^ 
 windows were seen above the ground, as in the basilicas 
 of St. Lorenzo, St. Petronilla, etc. There are two 
 or three basilicas built, or rather excavated, entirely 
 underground ; the best specimen is that of St. Hermas 
 on the old Via Salaria. The damage done to the 
 catacombs by these sunken basilicas is incalculable. 
 
 The violation of the cemeteries of Rome by 
 the Lombards led the Popes, as we have seen, 
 to cause the bodies of the saints to be removed 
 into the city and placed in the churches. The 
 example was followed elsewhere ; and this removal of 
 the bodies of martyrs and saints from the cemeteries 
 into the churches was the beginning of the fashion, 
 which in time became a law, that every church 
 should have the relics of a saint beneath its altar, 
 and of the desire to add sacredness to the church
 
 152 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 by obtaining relics of as many saints as possible ; 
 and this led to the forgery of relics ; and so threw 
 doubt upon the genuineness of any of them, and 
 ended in a natural revulsion of the educated Christian 
 mind against the whole system. 
 
 We Britons have our one martyr of the Diocletian 
 persecution to boast in St. Alban, whose interesting 
 story is told by Bede. What concerns us is that 
 here, as in other countries, when the Church had 
 peace the Christians of Verulam built a martyrion or 
 basilica over the place of the martyrdom on the hill 
 outside the city. When St. Germanus of Auxerre 
 attended the Synod of the British Church at Verulam 
 A.D. 429, he visited the m.artyr's tomb, and enriched 
 it with relics of the apostles and other saints.* A 
 later and less trustworthy, but still probable legend, 
 says that on the approach of the barbarians (Saxons) 
 the relics were placed in a wooden box and hidden 
 underground, Offa (A.D. 793) discovered the site 
 and the relics, and built a monastery there. The 
 Roman bricks and Saxon balluster shafts of the 
 present church are genuine monuments of these most 
 ancient incidents in the history of our Church. 
 
 A very interesting illustration of these sepulchral 
 chapels is found in the representations of the subject of 
 the raising of Lazarus, which are so very frequent in 
 the paintings in the catacombs, the sculptures on the 
 sarcophagi, the mosaics in churches, the gilded glsTss 
 • Constantius's "Life of St. Germanus."
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 153 
 
 vessels, the illuminations in manuscripts, and, in short, 
 in Christian art generally down to the end of the Middle 
 Ages. It must be borne in mind that in the art of those 
 times there was no attempt at antiquarian accuracy in 
 the accessories of a subject ; for example, there was no 
 attempt to ascertain what kind of tomb Lazarus was 
 really buried in, or what was the tomb of his period : 
 but his tomb was represented by one of the period 
 at which the subject was executed. Only this other 
 principle of ancient design must also be borne in 
 mind, that the conventional representation of all 
 scriptural subjects tended to the retention of ancient 
 forms long after they had become obsolete. Bearing 
 these two principles in mind, we have no hesitation 
 in saying that the representations of the raising 
 of Lazarus in ancient art preserve to us illustrations 
 of the sepulchral chapels of primitive Christianity. 
 
 Lazarus is almost always represented, and the 
 examples are very numerous, as folded in grave- 
 clothes and swathed in bandages, almost like a 
 mummy, standing at the door of a little building. 
 This building is of two stories in height, with a 
 stair leading to the door of the upper story at which 
 Lazarus stands ; the door is in the gabled end of 
 the building, and is often flanked by pillars with 
 ornamental capitals and bases ; frequently the 
 building has windows in the upper story, and, 
 rarely, in the lower story also. One of the most 
 perfect representations of this chapel which we have 
 observed is in an arcosolium in the Roman catacombs, 
 figured in vol. ii. Plate 57 of Garucci's " Storia
 
 154 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 dclla Arte Christiana ; " another, equally interesting, 
 is in another arcosolium of the catacombs, figured 
 in the same volume at Plate ']6. Two other ex- 
 amples, from sarcophagi in the Lateran, are given 
 by Garucci, vol. v. Plate 313; two still more clearly 
 defined examples at Plate 339, from a sarcophagus 
 from the sepulchral chapel of the counts of Tolosa at 
 the cathedral of that place, and there is one equally 
 defined from a tomb at Lucq-de-Bearn, photographed 
 in Le Blant's " Sarcophages de la Gaul," Plate ly. 
 
 The raising of Lazarus. From a painting of an arcosolium. 
 
 They might be rough sketches of some of the actually 
 existing buildings figured in De Vogue's "Syrie 
 Centrale ; " they clearly are sketches from memory 
 of the sepulchral chapels with which the artists of 
 the paintings and sculptures were familiar. 
 
 There are some rare but interesting and Instruc- 
 tive varieties in the treatment. In the representation 
 of the subject in the valuable manuscript at Corpus 
 Christi College, Cambridge, of the end of the sixth 
 century, which is probably one of the manuscripts
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS, 155 
 
 which Gregory the Great sent to Augustine of Can- 
 terbury, the tomb is of two stories, the lower story 
 square and the upper circular, covered with a dome, 
 like the Tomb of Helena and other earliest types 
 of Christian tombs. In the Church of S. Celso 
 at Milan the tomb of our Lord is represented as 
 circular, with a conical roof, a reminiscence of the 
 holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.* In the mosaics in the 
 Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, is an example in 
 which, within the sepulchral chapel, a sarcophagus is 
 seen, out of which Lazarus has risen. 
 
 We have seen how it became the custom to remove 
 the relics of a saint from the suburban cemeteries 
 to the great church in the neighbouring city ; and 
 how at length no church was considered to be fully 
 furnished unless some relics were treasured beneath 
 its altar. We see the permanent influence of these 
 early institutions in the customs of the Church for 
 many centuries afterwards. The remarkable crypts 
 at Ripon and Hexham, which are of Saxon date, and 
 in all probability the work of Wilfrid, resem.ble a 
 cubicula with the adjoining galleries of a catacomb, 
 and were very possibly copied from the chamber in 
 the Cemetery of Callistus, in which the bodies of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul were at that time visited by 
 pilgrims. The crypt under the original church at 
 Canterbury is expressly said by Edwin the Chanter 
 (quoted by Gervase in his account of the fire which 
 partially destroyed the church in A.D. 1067) to have 
 been copied from the Confession of St. Peter, "ad 
 
 * Garucci, vol. v. Plate 315.' 
 
 V'
 
 156 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 instar confessionis Sti. Petri fabrlcata." The crypts 
 under our great churches generally are probably a 
 reminiscence of the catacombs ; and the little chapels 
 attached to their aisles are the descendants of the 
 martyrions and family tombs of which we have been 
 speaking. Saints' days we still keep — at least in our 
 calendars ; and the Welsh have retained the ancient 
 custom of visiting the graves of their departed and 
 decorating their tombs once a year on All Souls* 
 Day. 
 
 St. Jerome has recorded how the burial-places of 
 the saints in the catacombs became places of pious 
 pilgrimage, which attracted visitors numerous in pro- 
 portion to the celebrity of the saint. These visitors 
 have left their own historical record in the scribblings 
 {"graffiti") which abound upon the walls in the neigh- 
 bourhood of all the famous graves in the catacombs. 
 These pilgrimages were not mere results of that 
 natural sentiment of interest with which we visit the 
 birthplaces, the haunts, the graves of celebrated 
 people ; and the names which the pilgrims scratched 
 on the rock are not mere records of their visit. 
 There were religious motives for the visit, and for 
 the record of it. The first motive of the visit was 
 to do honour to the saint, and the second was to 
 ask his or her intercession ; the name written near 
 the tomb was not only an historical record, but 
 was intended to keep the writer under the notice 
 of the saint. The illustration is from a wall painting 
 near the tomb of St. Cornelius, who was buried by 
 Lucina in the Cemetery of the Cornelii on the
 
 TOMBS AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 157 
 
 Appian Way in 253. The painting is of much later 
 date, almost Byzantine in style. It is given to 
 illustrate \hc graffiti of the pilgrims to his tomb. In 
 the majority of cases 
 the name alone was 
 held sufficient, like 
 
 leaving a 
 
 visitmg 
 
 card ; in some cases 
 the intention was ex- 
 pressed at full length 
 by the addition of 
 the words " pray for 
 me." We are not de- 
 fending the practice, 
 but it is our busi- 
 ness to record and 
 appreciate it. Very 
 likely their eschato- 
 logy was not very 
 different from ours, 
 but whereas we have 
 learnt by the expe- 
 rience of the past 
 the danger of allow- 
 
 \r\cr sentiment 
 
 \YalI-pa;ntlng of St. Cornelius, Bishop 
 of Rome. From the Cemetery of 
 Callistus, Rome, with the names of 
 pilgrims scribbled over it. 
 
 and 
 conjecture to run 
 into superstition and 
 abuse, they frankly 
 indulged sentiment and acted upon mere conjecture. 
 Nobody really knows whether the departed have any 
 knowledge of what passes in this life or not. We,
 
 158 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 because no one can prove it, refuse to act upon the 
 possibility that they have ; they, since nobody had 
 thought of denying it, assumed it to be true, and 
 acted upon it. i 
 
 In after times the practice developed into strange 
 superstitions ; as when King Chilperic laid a letter 
 to St. Martin on his tomb at Tours with a blank 
 sheet of paper for the saint's answer ; or when, to 
 this day, Italians — and probably others — write letters 
 and place them on the saints' tombs, especially on 
 their commemoration day, stating their wishes and 
 asking for the saints' intercession.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAINTINGS. 
 
 Classical paintings at Rome and Pompeii — Christian paintings in tlie 
 sepulchral chambers and catacombs — In churches — Wider range 
 of Scripture subjects introduced in the fourth century — Canons of 
 Illiberis — Churches at Nola — Pictures of martyrdoms — St. Nilus — 
 Painting in English churches : at Wearmouth and Jarrow — Scrip- 
 ture subjects in the decoration of houses ; testimony of Asterius, 
 Palace of Constantine ; House of SS. John and Paul, Rome — 
 Subjects of paintings at different periods: Symbolical, historical, 
 apocalyptic, Passion subjects. Madonnas — Style of the early 
 Christian school of painting ; of the Byzantine school — Repetition 
 of a narrow cycle of subjects — Originated in the East — The IX0T2 ; 
 the XP ; the Afl — The origin of the emblems : lamb, dove, etc. — 
 Conventional treatment of subjects — The " Guide to Painting" — 
 Came from the East — Clement of Alexandria — The Apostolical 
 Constitutions — St. Ephrem ; St. Gregory of Nyssa ; St. Cyril — 
 Paintings in North Africa ; in Alexandria. 
 
 HE catacombs are interesting in themselves, 
 with their labyrinths of passages, and 
 their sepulchral chambers and chapels, 
 but their interest and value is increased 
 a hundredfold by the treasures which they contained 
 — fresco paintings on the walls, sculptures on the sar- 
 cophagi in the chambers, inscriptions on the graves, 
 and utensils and ornaments of many kinds.
 
 i6o HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 We consider first in this chapter the fresco 
 paintings. 
 
 Of the paintings of classical art, none have come 
 down to us, except a few which were by accident 
 buried in the earth, and so preserved from the wear 
 and tear of time, and again by accident discovered 
 in recent times. The best known examples are 
 the wall-paintings of the so-called house of Livia, 
 which was a part of the palace of the Caesars, 
 of the houses of Pompeii, of the Baths of Titus, 
 and of some of the early sepulchral chambers at 
 
 Rome. 
 
 There are among these no great serious " high-art " 
 pictures ; they are all merely " decorative " paintings. 
 But they are of a very high class of decorative design, 
 clearly belonging to a time of great refinement and 
 appreciation of art. Slight and elegant in style, they 
 produce the decorative effect which was their motive, 
 with a minimum of expenditure of labour. The walls 
 and ceilings are divided into panels and spaces with 
 wonderful ingenuity, and an inexhaustible and grace- 
 ful fancy ; these panels and spaces afford the 
 ground for little sketches of landscapes, pastoral 
 scenes, and subjects from the poets ; well drawn, 
 charmingly coloured, subdued in tone. They give 
 the impression of being the work of a school of art 
 which had produced much grander things, and per- 
 haps was still capable of producing grander things 
 when they were called for, but which had, at the call 
 of its patrons, bestowed great powers upon mere 
 decoration. The walls and ceilings of some of the
 
 PAINTINGS. 
 
 i6i 
 
 earliest chambers of the catacombs * of Rome are 
 ornamented in this school of decoration, and in some 
 cases are good examples of the school. The wood- 
 
 Painted ceiling of one of the chambers of the Cemetery of St. Callistus. 
 
 cut represents the ceiling of one of the chambers of 
 the catacomb of St. Callistus. In the middle is the v 
 Orpheus symbol of our Lord ; this is surrounded by 
 
 * For a description of the paintings of some of the pagan sepulchral 
 chambers, see p. 265. 
 
 M
 
 l62 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 eight panels containing Scripture subjects alternately 
 with pastoral scenes ; the subjects are the striking 
 the Rock, Daniel, the raising of Lazarus, and (perhaps) 
 David with his sling. The angles of the ceiling are 
 filled in with doves bearing olive branches. In this 
 early period there was also a richer method of wall 
 decoration in use, in which the ornamental forms are 
 executed in low relief in stucco and then coloured. 
 Some examples of it exist in the painted tombs in 
 the Appian Way, and there are also some examples 
 in the earliest chambers of the Cemetery of Domitilla. 
 
 But by far the larger number of the fresco paintings 
 in the catacombs are of later date, and in a very 
 inferior style. We cannot compare these with con- 
 temporary secular work, because all other paintings 
 from the second century down to the eighth have 
 perished ; the impression which they make is partly 
 that the art of painting had deteriorated, but 
 especially that we have here only the work of inferior 
 artists.* These rude frescoes have nevertheless a 
 great interest for us, because of the light which they 
 throw upon the history of the early Church. 
 
 The principal part of the painting of the sepulchral 
 chambers now to be found is on the ceiling, which is 
 usually divided by circles and other geometrical lines 
 into panels of various shapes, and these panels are 
 
 • The paintings discovered in the Baths of Constantine (erected 
 A.D. 326), which consist of some historical subjects in the portico 
 and a ceiling, are in a better style of art than any work of the same 
 period in the catacombs ; the figure-drawing is very good, the vine- 
 branches with their cupids are elegant, but no doubt the best artists of 
 the time were engaged upon the work (D'Agincourt, "Painting," 
 Plate IV.).
 
 PAINTINGS. 
 
 163 
 
 occupied by symbols and Scripture subjects ; it will 
 be convenient to describe some of these ceilings 
 more fully when we endeavour to systematize and 
 explain their subjects. It seems probable from the 
 analogy of domestic painting that the walls of the 
 chamber would be divided into a dado below, and 
 
 Ceiling. From the catacombs (Bottari, Plate III. 23). 
 
 panels above ; but we do not find any complete 
 examples of such an arrangement. The arcosolla 
 gave occasion for special decorative treatment. 
 Subjects are often painted on the lunette, the semi- 
 circular space at the back of the recess, on the soffit, 
 the underside of the arch of the recess, and less
 
 1 64 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 frequently on the wall space around at the sides and 
 in front of the arcosolium. There is sometimes a 
 painted frame around a loculus, and sometimes an 
 ornament or symbol on the slab which closes it. 
 Other subjects are placed irregularly on the walls. 
 
 The first conclusion to which we are led by a 
 general survey of the series of paintings before us, is 
 \r that the early Church had no theological objection to 
 painting, whether used for decoration, or for the re- 
 presentation of scriptural subjects and religious ideas. 
 We are so used to the bare walls of our churches, that 
 we are almost unconscious of their cold and unfinished 
 effect ; but with the early Christians it was not so. 
 The Christian congregations were accustomed, in the 
 Upper chambers or the Atria of well-to-do con- 
 verts in which they assembled for worship, to arcades 
 of marble columns with gilded capitals, painted walls 
 and ceilings, and tesselated pavements ; and in passing 
 through the sepulchral chambers of the same " princes 
 of the congregation " to the narrower galleries beyond, 
 they were accustomed to see them decorated, like the 
 rooms of a house, in the elegant taste of the time. 
 When they built basilicas of their own for their 
 worship, and when they prepared sepulchral chambers 
 for their own dead, it was natural that they should 
 continue to use the fashions to which they were 
 accustomed ; only, from the first, subjects which were 
 morally objectionable, or belonged to the heathen 
 mythology, were excluded. People were not indeed 
 in the latter respect puritanically precise ; and they 
 made no scruple to continue the use of certain sub-
 
 PAINTIXGS. 165 
 
 jects which had come to have a merely symbolical 
 meaning. They introduced Oceanus and the Tritons 
 to indicate the sea, and river gods to indicate rivers, 
 the bow of Iris, winged genii, and perhaps other like 
 conventions of pagan art. 
 
 The question at what period paintings of Scripture 
 subjects and sacred persons were first used in 
 churches has been much discussed, and is not free 
 from difficulty. The Council of Illiberis, in Spain 
 (A.D. 301), made a canon which appears to forbid the 
 introduction of pictures into churches : " Pictures 
 ought not to be placed in churches, nor that which 
 we worship or adore to be painted on the walls," 
 from which we do not necessarily conclude that the 
 walls and ceilings of churches before that time were 
 not painted with the common decorations which we 
 find in the chambers of the catacombs, or the usual 
 cycle of symbols and symbolical pictures ; but that 
 there was an objection to the introduction of the 
 figure of our Lord or the saints in any way which 
 would be likely to attract a superstitious reverence. 
 The free introduction of these symbolical subjects 
 in the catacombs leads to the confident conclusion 
 that they were not forbidden in the churches ; while 
 the objection to the introduction into churches of 
 the figure of our Lord, in such a way as to attract 
 devotion to it, is illustrated by the way in which such 
 representations are avoided in the catacombs. The 
 earliest notice of the introduction of a wider cycle 
 of Scripture historical subjects is in the description
 
 i66 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 which PauHnus, Bishop of Nola {circa 395), gives of 
 the paintings with which he had adorned his new 
 church over the tomb of St. Fehx, and the old 
 basilica of the town, and the basilica at Funda. 
 Among the subjects in the first were the creation, 
 the offering of Isaac, the continence of Joseph, the 
 overthrow of Pharaoh, the separation of Ruth and 
 Orpah, In the second he introduced "the two 
 Testaments;" in the apse of the third he placed 
 the symbol of the Passion in the form of a white 
 Lamb crowned beneath a red cross. He explains 
 that his reason for this unusual practice {raro more) 
 was to interest and instruct the rude multitudes who 
 came to the saint's festival. 
 
 Pictures of martyrdoms were not infrequent, 
 especially no doubt in the chapels and basilicas 
 erected over the graves and dedicated to the memory 
 of the martyrs. Gregory of Nyssa {circa 400) describes 
 a picture of the martyrdom of Theodorus, one of the 
 victims of the Diocletian persecution, which seems to 
 have been painted on the wall of the church which 
 contained the saint's relics. The artist, he says, had 
 depicted in glowing colours the heroic acts of the 
 martyr, his struggles, his pains, the brutal forms of 
 his persecutors, their insults, the flaming furnace, the 
 blessed consummation of the soldier of Christ. A 
 painting, he adds, though silent can speak upon the 
 wall and greatly profit.* Olympiodorus {circa 430) 
 
 * Other examples are the martyrdom of St. Cassian (Prudentius 
 Perist., ix. 5); of St. Hippolytus (ibid., xi. 126) ; of St. Felix (Paul- 
 linius, Poem xxv. 20); St. Euphemia (Asterius, ep. 7, Syn. Act. 4, 
 p. 617).
 
 PAINTINGS. 167 
 
 consulted St. Nilus about the decoration of a church 
 erected in honour of the martyrs ; he contemplated 
 covering the walls with hunting scenes and the like. 
 Nilus advised him to place one single cross at the 
 east of the temple, and to fill the holy sanctuary 
 (rov vaov rov (iyiov) with histories of the Old and 
 New Testaments by the hand of a skilful artist, in 
 order that those who are unable to read the Divine 
 Scriptures may, by looking at the paintings, call to 
 mind the courage of men who have served the true 
 God, and be stirred to emulation of their heroic 
 exploits. Augustine bears witness to the custom 
 of painting " Christ and His Apostles" on the church 
 walls in his time, and remarks on the existence of the 
 growing abuse of paying veneration to them. 
 
 There are for four or five centuries no pictures of X. 
 the Passion, no picture of the sacrifice of the cross, 
 no picture of the cross itself; the Christ to be 
 adored is only hinted at by the Good Shepherd, or 
 the Lamb standing on the mount, or later by the 
 cross enthroned.* In short, the mind of the primitive 
 Church seems to have been the same as the mind of 
 the English Church at this day, that the representation 
 of sacred subjects and sacred persons in church is 
 lawful and may be usefully introduced, but that out- 
 ward reverence to these representations is unlawful, 
 and is to be guarded against. 
 
 There is an interesting notice of paintings in the 
 early English Church in Bede's ** Lives of the Holy 
 
 ♦ See p. 201.
 
 i68 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Abbots." He relates that when Benedict Biscop 
 returned from his third voyage to Rome in A.D. 675, 
 " He brought with him pictures of sacred repre- 
 sentations to adorn the Church of St. Peter which 
 he had built (at Monkwearmouth), viz. pictures of 
 the Virgin Mary and of the Twelve Apostles, with 
 which he intended to adorn the central nave, on 
 boarding placed from one wall to the other ; also 
 some figures from Gospel history to adorn the south 
 wall ; others from the Revelation of St. John for the 
 north wall ; so that every one who entered the 
 Church even if they could not read, wherever they 
 turned their eyes might have before them the loving 
 countenance of Christ and his Saints, though it were 
 but in a picture, and with watchful minds might 
 meditate upon the benefits of the Lord's Incarnation, 
 and having before their eyes the perils of the Last 
 Judgment, might examine their hearts more strictly 
 on that account." 
 
 On a fifth journey, about A.D. 685, Benedict 
 brought back, for the church dedicated to the Virgin 
 Mary (in addition to the great church dedicated to 
 St. Peter) in the monastery in Wearmouth, pictures 
 enough of the Divine history to go round the 
 church. For the church of St. Paul at Jarrow he 
 brought pictures arranged in type and antitype, viz. 
 one pair of Isaac carrying the wood for the sacrifice 
 and of our Lord carrying His cross; another pair of 
 the brazen serpent and of our Lord on the cross. 
 
 Another interesting question is as to the use of
 
 PAINTINGS. 169 
 
 Scripture subjects in domestic decoration. We know 
 that the pagan people of those early times used paint- 
 ing very largely in the decoration of the walls and 
 ceilings of their rooms, and that besides ornamental 
 patterns, landscapes, pastoral scenes, and the like, 
 they also introduced subjects from their poets, and 
 historical and mythological subjects. 
 
 We may be quite sure that people did not 
 altogether cease to have their rooms decorated with 
 paintings when they became Christian; the question is 
 whether they did or did not introduce Christian sub- 
 jects into their paintings. Now, the pagan sepulchral 
 chambers of the age were commonly painted with the 
 same subjects as the chambers of their houses. The 
 early Christians probably followed the same fashion. 
 Since then we find Christian sepulchral chambers 
 painted with the old kind of ornamental patterns, 
 only with Christian symbols and symbolical pictures 
 in place of the old figure-subjects, we should infer that 
 the rooms of their houses were painted on the same 
 principles, with the usual ornamental patterns and 
 Christian emblems, and symbolical pictures. Again, 
 from the fact that the early Christians used Christian 
 symbols and pictures on their garments and all kinds 
 of utensils and objects of personal and domestic use, 
 as we shall see in future chapters, we should conclude 
 that they would use the same class of subjects in the 
 painting of their houses. 
 
 The conjecture is not entirely unsupported by 
 positive evidence.* Over the grand entrance to the 
 
 * See quotation from Asterius, p. 327.
 
 I70 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Imperial Palace at Constantinople, Constantino 
 caused to be painted, in encaustic iDainting (a method 
 used by the ancients, in which the pigments were 
 mixed with wax to enable them to resist the rain), an 
 allegorical picture, half religious, half political, which 
 Eusebius describes and explains in detail. Constan- 
 tino himself was represented, surrounded by his 
 children, as a kind of St. Michael, with the cross over 
 his head, and beneath his feet the enemy of mankind, 
 "who, through the agency of impious tyrants, had 
 assailed the Church of Christ, in the figure of a 
 serpent, pierced through with darts and drowned in 
 the depth of the sea ; pointing out in this manner 
 the Emperor's victory over the enemies of Christ and 
 His Church as duo to the force and potency of that 
 salutary trophy which was placed above his head." 
 
 The paintings in the newly discovered house of 
 SS. John and Paul, under the basilica of that name 
 in Rome, confirm the conjecture that in the decora- 
 tion of Christian houses the subjects usual in the 
 chambers of the catacombs were adopted in place 
 of the old mythological subjects. We have seen, at 
 p. 150, that Pammachius took down the house to a 
 certain level and built the basilica upon it, leaving 
 the bodies of the saints in the chamber where they 
 were, which thus became their confessio. Some of 
 the original rooms of the lower portion of the house 
 remain, apparently in their original condition, with 
 the ornamental painting still upon walls and ceiling. 
 The walls of the tablinum have a dado, painted in 
 imitation of marble, and, above that, a frieze of bold
 
 PAINTINGS. 
 
 scroll-work ; the spandrels of the vaulting 
 
 with sprays of vines, and the ceiling of the 
 
 converging panels, which make frames for some of 
 the usual early cycle of subjects: Moses taking ofif 
 his shoes, sheep and goats, etc. Similar symbolical 
 subjects are on the remaining wall of the atrium, and 
 in other parts of the house.* 
 
 When we analyze the subjects of Christian art in 
 the catacombs and basilicas, we find that they may 
 be divided, according to the order of time, into three 
 classes, which reveal the prevalence of different 
 phases of thought and feeling at different periods of 
 the Church's history. 
 
 1. In the first period, extending from the earliest 
 paintings in the catacombs down to the end of the 
 classical tradition of art, the same narrow cycle of 
 subjects is in general use. The central figure of the 
 cycle is the Saviour ; at first in the character of the 
 Good Shepherd, and later as the Healer of the sick 
 and Raiser of the dead, and still later as the Head 
 of the Church, sitting on the mount whence the rivers 
 of Paradise flow, surrounded by His Apostles. 
 
 2. It was probably about the beginning of the 
 fifth century that a new fashion arose in the choice 
 of subjects for mural pictures ; the cycle of sym- 
 bolical Scripture subjects gave way to a new cycle 
 of historical Scripture subjects, intended to put 
 before the eyes of the people the principal events 
 of sacred history and the principal facts of our re- 
 
 * The Rev. S. Baring-Gould, Neivhery Hotis: Magazine, i, 175.
 
 172 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 demption. St. PauHnus of Nola {circa 400) is always 
 quoted as having been among the earliest to intro- 
 duce pictures into his Church of St. Felix, with 
 the motive, which he himself declares, of giving the 
 ignorant people subjects for instruction and medita- 
 tion during vigils and festivals, when no special 
 service was going on in church. 
 
 3. Contemporary with the introduction of Byzan- 
 tine art, comes in a new choice of subjects. The 
 usual subject of the mosaics which adorn the semi- 
 dome of the apse of the churches of this style is a 
 colossal figure of the Lord seated on a throne, sur- 
 rounded by a rainbow, accompanied by the four 
 Living Creatures, the four and twenty Elders, and 
 all the grand symbolism of St. John's vision in 
 Patmos. It may be that the mind of the Church 
 was then full of the triumphs of Christ — His triumph 
 over the classical heathenism, over the philosophies 
 which succeeded it in the minds of the better classes, 
 over the rude paganism of the barbarian races which 
 had conquered the West — of the vast extension of 
 the Church over the further East beyond the bounds 
 of the empire, in Armenia and Persia, into India and 
 China. Later the widely spread opinion that the 
 world would end with the tenth century had set men 
 to the study of St. John's prophecies, and saturated 
 their minds with the mysterious imagery of his lan- 
 guage. And these things together may have led to 
 the predominance of the representation of these 
 apocalyptic subjects. 
 
 Though it carries us for a moment beyond the
 
 PAINTINGS. in 
 
 limits of our present plan, it is worth while briefly to 
 complete this view of the characteristics of Christian 
 art by stating that in a later period the subjects 
 of the Passion of the Lord were the characteristic 
 subjects. Christ upon the cross was the central 
 figure of its pictorial representations. Was it that ^ 
 the idea of the Divine self-sacrifice, as the noblest 
 feature of the life of the Son of man, had taken hold 
 of the mind of the Church } In this period also the 
 walls of the church are covered with historical 
 subjects from the Old and New Testaments, and 
 legendary subjects from the lives of saints ; and a 
 terrifying dramatic representation of the Doom — the 
 last Judgment — is painted on a large scale, in some 
 conspicuous situation. 
 
 About the fifteenth century the Madonna became y^ 
 the favourite subject of Christian art — the representa- 
 tion of the mystery of the Incarnation of Deity. 
 
 In all these phases of the Church's thought and 
 feeling, it is Christ who is foremost and uppermost 
 in the mind and heart of the Church. Whichever 
 symbol was for the time predominant, it included all 
 the others. The Good Shepherd, of a higher order of 
 being than the sheep, is the Incarnate Son of God, 
 who laid down His life for the sheep ; and it was 
 because He was thus obedient to death, even the 
 death of the cross, that God had given Him a Name 
 which is above every name, and had very highly 
 exalted Him. Thus the Incarnation, the Passion, the s^' 
 Majesty, are all included in the idea of the Good 
 Shepherd. The eternal Sonship might be sym-
 
 174 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 bolized by the beardless youth of the representation ; 
 the lannb upon His shoulders symbolized at the same 
 time the lost human race which He redeemed, the 
 
 Fresco painting. From the Cemetery of Callistus, 
 
 Church which was peculiarly His own, and the indi- 
 vidual soul of every sheep of His flock. 
 
 To return to the study of the paintings of the 
 catacombs. The sentiment of the subjects of the
 
 PAINTINGS. 175 
 
 \ 
 
 earliest is peaceful and serene. Vines and flowers, 
 with children and genii sporting among them, land- 
 scapes and pastoral subjects, harvest scenes of corn 
 and vine and olive, all of which, though continuations 
 of the old decorative subjects, are now perhaps used 
 as symbolical of great truths. In the figure-subjects 
 the faces are calm and expressionless, the attitudes 
 are simple and natural, without vehement life or 
 movement ; there is no attempt to affect the senses 
 by impressive representation, no endeavour to idealize 
 the persons represented. The subjects are treated 
 with a view to their symbolical meaning rather than 
 with an aim at dramatic representation of the history. 
 As we get down to the beginning of the new 
 school of Christian art which succeeded this classical 
 style, we do begin to find that the artists endeavour 
 to elaborate facial expression, to idealize the faces of , 
 sacred persons, to give distinguishing individual cha- 
 racter to Apostles, to impress the senses by a skilful 
 use of the resources of art. The characteristics of 
 the two schools are illustrated by the difference be- 
 tween the simple expressionless figure of a Good 
 Shepherd on a ceiling of the catacombs, and the 
 grand, awful, colossal representation of the Lord in 
 Glory, in the semi-dome of a Byzantine basilica. 
 
 Two facts in regard to the selection of the subjects 
 and their representation will at once be apparent to 
 every one who glances through the subjects of this 
 early art. A narrow cycle of subjects is repeated 
 over and over again, all over Christendom ; the
 
 175 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 subjects are always represented in so strictly con- 
 ventional a manner that the rudest sketch is 
 sufficient to identify the subject; even a fragment 
 is enough to enable one who has studied them to 
 pronounce with certainty to which of the subjects 
 it belongs. First as to the selection of subjects. 
 In the selection of subjects from the Old and New 
 Testaments, the first thing which strikes us is that 
 out of the immense number of subjects which were 
 open to the painter's choice, and which find a place 
 in the art of later ages, very few are selected ; and 
 that those which are selected are not those which 
 we should have been disposed to expect. The sub- 
 jects of Moses striking the rock, Daniel in the lions' 
 den, Jonah, and the raising of Lazarus, are repeated 
 with great frequency ; then, but at a considerable 
 distance, Noah in the ark, the sacrifice of Isaac, the 
 three children in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, and the 
 healing of the paralytic. It may be said of all 
 the rest that they are comparatively rare.* 
 
 We submit that the origin of the whole series of 
 y- subjects is to be sought in the East. And first as 
 to the mere emblems. Clement of Alexandria men- 
 tions the fish, anchor, lyre, ship, and recommends 
 them for use as Christian symbols. But perhaps 
 the most conclusive evidence that their symbolism 
 originated in the East is to be found in the two which 
 were the most frequently used, the fish and the XP 
 monogram. 
 
 The significance of the fish is very largely due to 
 
 * Brownlow Maitland.
 
 PAINTINGS. 177 
 
 the fact that the Greek word which signifies "fish" 
 (IXGYS) forms the anagram of the words IHSOYS 
 XPISTOS. GHOY YIOS, 212THP, "Jesus Christ, the 
 Son of God, the Saviour." The allusion in the fish 
 to the waters of baptism materially assisted the 
 symbolical significance, but it may be doubted 
 whether that was sufficiently striking to have made 
 the symbol so popular among people who only knew 
 it by its Latin name of Piscis. When Greek ceased to 
 be the ecclesiastical language of the Roman Church, 
 the fish symbol disappeared from its monum.ents. 
 
 Northcote and Brownlow observe that it is by no 
 means improbable that the schools of Alexandria 
 originated this symbol. The Church of that city was 
 gathered largely out of the Jews, who formed so large 
 and important a portion of its population ; it was a 
 very common practice for the Jews to coin names for 
 their great men by means of a combination of names 
 or by the initials of a legend or a motto which had 
 reference to them. The name of Judas Maccabaeus, 
 for example, is made up of the initials of the Hebrew 
 text, " Who is like unto Thee among the strong, 
 O Lord ? " 
 
 The monogram XP also is Greek ; it consists ot 
 the first two letters of the name of Christ (XPISTOS). 
 Its appearance on the labarum under which Con- 
 stantine conquered, gave it great acceptance through- 
 out the whole world, and it has been used in 
 all the Churches ever since ; but it was a known 
 symbol in the Church before Constantine adopted it, 
 and it is necessarily of Greek origin. 
 
 N
 
 178 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The AO emblem, taken from our Lord's words 
 in the first chapter of the Revelation, may properly 
 be mentioned here, as implying a general familiarity 
 with Greek culture in the early Churches to which 
 the book was addressed. 
 
 Who made the selection of the symbolical Scrip- 
 ture subjects; and how did it commend itself to general 
 acceptance ? It already existed at the date of the 
 earliest literary notices in the East and of the earliest 
 monuments in the West. In the absence of any 
 direct evidence, we hazard the conjecture that it grew 
 gradually in the earliest years of Christianity, and 
 was crystallized by the frequent use of certain sym- 
 bols and subjects as illustrative commonplaces by 
 the popular teachers of the second century. 
 
 John the Baptist began it by making "the Lamb 
 of God " the emblem of the sacrificial aspect of Christ's 
 work for our redemption. The Baptism of our Lord 
 fixed for ever the Dove as the emblem of the Holy 
 Spirit's descent upon mankind. Our Lord Himself 
 established the Good Shepherd as the type of His 
 relation to His Church, and pointed to Jonah as the 
 type of His resurrection. St. Paul's metaphor had 
 made an Anchor the emblem of faith. St. Peter had 
 quoted Noah as a type of the safety of those who 
 would be in the Ark of the Church at the end of the 
 world. Justin Martyr (a native of Palestine, circa 
 A.D. 139) adduced the Ship with its mast and sails as 
 an emblem of the Cross.* And so very possibly one 
 
 * Justin names other emblems of the Cross, as a spade, the figure 
 of a man with ©utstretched arras (Holman Hunt's "Shadow of the
 
 PAINTINGS. 179 
 
 emblem was added after another, and one Scripture 
 subject was suggested and then another ; and the most 
 authoritative and the most striking were at length 
 selected, grouped, systematized, generally adopted 
 into the popular teaching, and so accepted by the 
 artists as the subjects of their art. 
 
 Next, as to the conventional treatment of the 
 subjects. 
 
 This conventional treatment of subjects is one of 
 the characteristics of all ancient art. To limit our- 
 selves to Greek art, from which Christian art was 
 derived. The art of Greece had from an early period 
 settled types of the paintings and statues of its 
 deities, and its conventional representation of the 
 principal subjects of its mythology. Quintilian says 
 of Parrhasius that " he was called the Lawgiver, 
 because the types which he had handed down of 
 gods and heroes were followed of necessity by all 
 other artists." We recognize a statue of Jupiter, 
 Mercury, Apollo, Hercules, as if they were portraits ; 
 a fragment of them is often enough — to a proverb 
 iex pede Herciilem) — for their identification. The 
 general composition of the great subjects of mytho- 
 logical story was equally traditional ; it is a curious 
 illustration of this fact that the discovery of an 
 ancient gem engraved with the group of the Laocoon 
 afforded an authority for the restoration of the 
 missing portions of the famous marble group in the 
 
 Cross "), the face of a man with its nose and brows ; an illustration of 
 the way in which the imagination of the time was seeking for such 
 emblems.
 
 I So HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Vatican which had baffled some of the greatest 
 modern sculptors and critics. 
 
 It is not meant that artists slavishly copied — made 
 mere replicas — of the works of their predecessors ; 
 they adhered to established types of god or hero, 
 followed the conventional composition of a mytho- 
 logical group, but treated them with a certain 
 freedom. "The artists of those times," says Goethe,* 
 " considered themselves as original enough when they 
 felt themselves possessed of sufficient power and 
 dexterity to grasp the original thought of another, 
 and to reproduce it again after their own version." 
 From time to time an artist of more originality 
 would introduce a new passage in the conventional 
 treatment, and if it met with general approval it was 
 followed. At intervals of centuries some great genius 
 would introduce a totally new treatment, with the 
 result that the progressive half of the artistic world 
 would adopt the new type, while the conservative 
 half would adhere to the old ways. 
 - This is the history of the conventionalism of 
 Christian art also. At a very early period, earlier 
 than any of the works which have come down to us, 
 the types of the Good Shepherd, the Daniel in the 
 lions' den, the Moses striking the rock, the raising 
 of Lazarus, the healing of the paralytic, and the rest 
 of the usual subjects, had been established ; and they 
 were adhered to, with a certain freedom of treatment, 
 and occasional bold variations, down to the end of 
 the period of classical art with which we have espe- 
 • Quoted by Rev. C. King, "Antique Gems and Rings."
 
 PAINTINGS. i8i 
 
 daily to do ; then the Byzantine artists introduced 
 new subjects and new treatment ; but a school of 
 artists in the Eastern Church continued to reproduce 
 the old types down to the present day.* 
 
 Who was the Parrhasius — the art lawgiver — of 
 these Christian types we do not know, but we submit 
 that this Christian art began in the East. The fact 
 that the vast majority of the examples known to 
 us are in the West, and especially in Rome, is calcu- 
 lated to mislead us into the conclusion that this art 
 had its origin in Rome. The Churches of Palestine, 
 Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece had been 
 founded before St. Paul and St. Peter had settled the 
 organization of the Church in Rome ; and when the 
 Church was planted in Rome it was for a couple of 
 centuries not an indigenous Church, racy of the soil, 
 but a Greek-speaking colony, deriving its religious 
 ideas from the East. North Africa was the true 
 source of Latin Christianity. 
 
 It is true that we have no actual remaining ex- 
 amples of Christian art in the East earlier than those 
 which the catacombs have preserved for us in the 
 West, but there is literary evidence that the usual 
 
 * M. Didron found in actual use at Mount Athos a sixteenth- 
 century manuscript copy of a " Guide to Tainting," supposed to 'have 
 been compiled from an original compiled by Dionisius the monlc, who 
 had studied the famous paintings of Pauselinos. Additions have been 
 made to it from time to time, and it is still in use as a manual of fresco- 
 painting in the churches of Greece. M. Didron published it under 
 the title of " Manuel d'Iconographie Chretienne Greque et Latin." It 
 contains descriptions how the usual subjects are to be treated, and how 
 they are to be distributed in the difterent parts of the church, but does 
 not give sketches of the subjects. Some such traditional unwritten 
 guide to painting must have existed from a very early age. 
 
 ^
 
 i82 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 cycle of Christian subjects was early known in the 
 East, and that the subjects were treated in the con- 
 ventional way which we know so well ; and " without 
 controversy " in all the early history of Christianity, 
 the East did not derive its religious ideas from the 
 West, but the West from the East. 
 
 St. Clement of Alexandria (a.d. 192),* in a passage 
 which will be more conveniently quoted in connection 
 with another branch of the subject,! is the earliest 
 authority on the use of Christian emblems ; he 
 recommends a usage already existing in the second 
 century. 
 
 The "Apostolical Constitutions," a book which, 
 the Chevalier de Bunsen said, places us in the midst 
 of the (Eastern) Church life of the second and third 
 centuries, has a passage grouping together a number 
 of subjects in a way which indicates that the Eastern 
 cycle of subjects was the same as that which we find 
 in the West. 
 
 V. 7. " He that made Adam out of the earth will 
 raise up the bodies of the rest, etc. . . . Besides these 
 arguments we believe there is to be a resurrection 
 also from the resurrection of our Lord. For it is He 
 that raised Lazarus when he had been in the grave 
 four days, and Jairus' daughter, and the widow's son. 
 It is He that raised Himself by the command of the 
 Father in the space of three days, who is the pledge 
 of our resurrection. For, says He, I am the Resur- 
 
 * Egypt belonged to the Eastern Church, as North Africa did to the 
 Western. 
 
 t See p. 344.
 
 PAINTINGS. 183 
 
 rection and the Life. Now He that brought Jonas in 
 the space of three days alive and unhurt out of the 
 belly of the whale, and the three children out of the 
 furnace of Babylon, and Daniel out of the mouth of 
 the lions, does not want power to raise us up also. . . . 
 He that raised Himself from the dead will also raise 
 again all that are laid down. He who raises wheat 
 out of the ground with many stalks from one grain. 
 He who makes the tree that is cut down send forth 
 branches, He that made Aaron's dry rod put forth 
 buds, will raise us up in glory ; He that raised him 
 up that had the palsy whole, and healed him that 
 had the withered hand, He that supplied a defective 
 part to him that was born blind from clay and spittle, 
 will raise us up ; He that satisfied five thousand men 
 with five loaves and two fishes, and caused a remainder 
 of twelve baskets, and out of water made wine, and 
 sent a piece of money out of a fish's mouth by one 
 Peter to those that demanded tribute, will raise the 
 dead." 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the middle of the fourth 
 century, describes the conventional treatment of the 
 sacrifice of Isaac with great clearness : " Often have 
 I seen in paintings the representation of the sacrifice 
 of Isaac, and I could not contemplate it without 
 tears, so truthfully did art present the scene. Isaac 
 is placed beneath his father near the altar, he is 
 kneeling and his hands are tied behind him. Behind, 
 Abraham places his foot upon the side of his son, 
 with his left hand he turns back the head of Isaac 
 and hangs over his countenance, which regards him
 
 i84 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 with an expression full of sadness. The right hand 
 is armed with the knife ; he is about to strike, and 
 the point of the steel already touches the flesh, when 
 the Divine voice is heard which arrests the stroke." * 
 St. Cyril, in the early part of the fifth century, 
 also describes paintings which show the various 
 scenes of this same history in one picture : " Here 
 Abraham seated on the ass and leading his son and 
 followed by the servants ; there the ass remains 
 below with the servants, Abraham carrying the knife 
 and the fire, lays the wood upon Isaac ; in another 
 place is Abraham laying hold of his son and preparing 
 to strike." f 
 
 The earliest painting known to us still existing in 
 
 /the East is in Cyrenaica.^ It is a Good Shepherd of 
 
 / the usual type : the Shepherd is young and beardless, 
 
 / / clad in a short tunic without sleeves, tied by a girdle, 
 
 |/ with naked legs, and feet in sandals. He carries a 
 
 jf sheep on his shoulders, holding its feet with both 
 
 hands ; he holds a short staff in the left hand. 
 
 There are six sheep about him and trees indicate the 
 
 country. There is one feature which differs from the 
 
 ordinary type — the head wears a garland of leaves. 
 
 Around the subject are seven large and carefully 
 
 diawn fishes. 
 
 In the same region, near Aphrodisias, is a sepulchral 
 chamber with a fresco painting of less ancient date 
 
 * St. Gregory of Nyssa, " De Deitate, Fil. et Sp, Sanct.," vol. iii. p. 
 572 (Migne), 
 
 t St. Cyril's letter to Acacius, Labbe, " Concilia," vii. p, 204. 
 
 X Pacho, " Relation d'un voyage dans la Marmique, la Cyrenaique," 
 etc., 1827, 1S29. Garucci quotes it, vol. vi. 105^.
 
 PAINTINGS. 185 
 
 than the above. It is a branch of a vine loaded with 
 grapes, with geometrical ornaments, one medallion 
 encloses a fish, another a cross ; on another a serpent 
 twined around a cross recalls without doubt the 
 brazen serpent. 
 
 The paintings in the catacomb at Alexandria in- 
 clude the miracle of Cana and the miracle of the 
 loaves united in one design and treated more freely 
 than usual,
 
 [B|iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|i|iiiiiii|ii i|iii|i|i|i|i|i|iTr^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiTrjTTr]iii|i|i|i|i|iii|iM 
 
 ? r|T|T | rrTjr, rp-|T[T7i|i]r7rf, r-i|iii|i|iiiM|ri r |T|i7TniM"nT]T i 7|T[i|i|r7i,r|TjiyTTiT mir|T;i[T]T7[ir|Vi ,.|Ty^.^ 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE LIKENESSES OF CHRIST AND IIIS APOSTLES. 
 
 The earliest representations conventional — The statuary group at 
 Paneas ; the likenesses by St. Luke ; the Veronica legend ; Eusebius 
 on the subject ; Publius Lentulus's description — The two types of 
 likeness, the classical and the Byzantine — St. Peter and St. Paul — 
 The four evangelists. 
 
 OME of our readers will probably wish to 
 learn what is known on the subject of 
 authentic early likenesses of our Lord and 
 of the Apostles ; and it may be a disap- 
 pointment to learn that no such likenesses exist. 
 
 The earliest representations of our Lord — and they 
 are very numerous in these centuries with which we 
 are specially concerned, in fresco - painting and 
 sculpture — are entirely conventional, there is no 
 attempt at portraiture, or at the invention of an ideal 
 face. The statues of the Good Shepherd, for 
 example, offered a special opportunity for portraiture, 
 or at least for the attempt to idealize, but a glance 
 at them is enough to convince the spectator that
 
 CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES. 187 
 
 there was no such intention in the sculptor's mind.* 
 And the same thing may be said of the many repre- 
 sentations which occur in the gospel scenes introduced 
 into the ornamentation of the sarcophagi. 
 
 The first allusion to the existence of such like- 
 nesses seems to be of the fourth century. When the 
 Empress Helena sent to Eusebius of Caesarea to 
 send her a likeness (ajcwv) of Christ, we may con- 
 clude that she had heard of their existence. Eusebius 
 replied, that if she meant an image of the frail and 
 mortal flesh which He bore before His Ascension, 
 such images are forbidden in the Mosaic Law; they 
 are nowhere to be found in churches, and it is 
 notorious that with us alone they are forbidden, 
 "Some poor woman," he goes on to say, "brought 
 me two painted figures, like philosophers, and 
 ventured to say that they represented Paul and the 
 Saviour ; I do not know on what ground. But, to 
 save her and others from offence, I took them from 
 her and kept them by me, not thinking it right in 
 any case that she should exhibit them further, that 
 we may not seem like idolaters to carry our God 
 about in an image." The bishop's answer implies 
 that pious credulity was beginning to invent 
 apocryphal likenesses of Christ and His Apostles, 
 but that no authentic likenesses were known to 
 exist. 
 
 The story that the woman who was healed of her 
 infirmity by touching the hem of our Lord's garment 
 was a wealthy person, and that she caused a bronze 
 
 * See frontispiece.
 
 188 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 group of the subject to be made as a memorial of her 
 gratitude, and erected at Paneas, where she lived, is 
 probably a mere story invented to explain a group 
 of statuary existing at that place in the time of 
 Eusebius ; it is an ingenious conjecture that the 
 monument may have commemorated the gratitude of 
 a province or town to its governor, represented as a 
 suppliant female kneeling at his feet. 
 
 The story of the likeness which St. Luke sent to 
 Abgarus, the King of Edessa, is one of a family of 
 stories of likenesses by St. Luke, the painter, and 
 they are all alike unsupported by evidence. 
 
 The legend of St. Veronica — that when our Lord 
 was on His way to Calvary she lent Him her head- 
 veil with which to wipe the sweat of suffering from 
 His face, and that when He returned it to her a 
 portrait of the sacred features was found to have been 
 miraculously impressed upon it — is very beautiful, but 
 entirely without foundation. It gave rise to, or it 
 arose out of, the existence of a number of faces 
 painted upon linen or similar material, of which ex- 
 amples still remain at the Vatican, at Genoa, and else- 
 where, which seem to be of the period of art which 
 was tending towards the Byzantine school. Copies 
 of some of them may be found in Mr. Heaphy's " The 
 Likeness of Christ," Plates H., HI., IV., V.* 
 
 There is a famous description of the personal 
 
 ■ * For further information on the subject the reader is referred to 
 Mrs. Jameson's " Likeness of Christ." We mention Mr. Heaphy's 
 " The Likeness of Christ " only to show that it has not been overlooked ; 
 it is worth consulting for copies of pictures in Rome and elsewhere, 
 which are not otherwise accessible to the student.
 
 CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES, 189 
 
 appearance of our Lord, which professes to have been 
 written by PubHus Lentulus, a friend of Pilate, which 
 runs thus : " At this time appeared a man who lives 
 till now, a man endowed with great powers. Men 
 call him a great Prophet ; his own disciples call him 
 the Son of God. His name is Jesus Christ. He 
 restores the dead to life, and cures the sick of all 
 manner of diseases. This man is of noble and well- 
 proportioned stature, with a face full of kindness and 
 yet firmness, so that the beholders both love and fear 
 him. His hair is the colour of wine [probably yellow] 
 and golden at the root — straight, and without lustre, 
 but from the level of the ears curling and glossy, and 
 divided down the middle after the fashion of the 
 Nazarenes \i.e. Nazarites]. His forehead is even and 
 smooth, his face without blemish, and enhanced by a 
 tempered bloom. His countenance ingenuous and 
 kind. Nose and mouth no w-ay faulty. His beard is 
 full, of the same colour as his hair, and forked in 
 form ; his eyes blue and extremely brilliant. In 
 rebuke and reproof he is formidable ; in exhortation 
 and teaching, gentle and amiable of tongue. None 
 have seen him to laugh, but many, on the contrary, 
 to weep. His person is tall, his hands beautiful and 
 straight. In speaking he is deliberate and grave and 
 little given to loquacity. In beauty surpassing most 
 men." It is probable that this was written about the 
 beginning of the fourth century, just when there was 
 arising a general interest on the subject of our Lord's 
 personal appearance, and when artists were beginning 
 to aim at an ideal representation of the Great Subject
 
 I90 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 It is, in short, one of the fancy portraits of the period 
 done in words instead of pigments. 
 
 There is one striking fact in the early representa- 
 tions, namely, that there are two conventional types 
 to be found in them. One is a youthful, unbearded, 
 cheerful face, with crisp curled hair, the conventional 
 classical face of a young man, which is the earlier 
 type ; the other is a long, grave, mature, bearded face, 
 which appears in monuments of later date. The two 
 are illustrations of two lines of conjecture, when men 
 began to interest themselves in trying to form an 
 ideal of the sacred countenance. 
 
 One school based their ideal upon the consideration 
 that our Lord, being the Perfect Man, must have been 
 the type of human beauty in person and feature as 
 well as in mind and soul. They found support for 
 their theory in such Scripture texts as, " Thou art 
 fairer than the children of men ; full of grace are Thy 
 lips, because God hath blessed Thee for ever " (Ps. 
 xlv. 2) ; " My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest 
 among ten thousand ... he is altogether lovely" 
 (Cant. V, 10, 16); "Thine eyes shall see the King 
 in His beauty " (Isa. xxxiii. 17). 
 
 The other school based their ascetic ideal upon the 
 consideration of the suffering Messiah, and supported 
 it by such texts as, " He hath no form nor comeliness; 
 and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that 
 we should desire Him. . . . He was despised, and 
 we esteemed Him not" (Isa. liii. 2, 3).* 
 
 * Consult a note at p. 253 of the translation of Tertullian, in the 
 Oxford Library of the Fathers, for a collection of passages from the 
 Fathers on the personal appearance of our Lord.
 
 CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES. 191 
 
 It was not, as we have already had occasion to say,* 
 until the fifth century or later that artists began to 
 give individual character to the chief persons of the 
 Scripture histories which it was their business to 
 portray. The face in the Cemetery of SS. Nereus 
 and Achilleus, of the beginning of the fourth century, 
 which De Rossi quotes as an early fresco of Christ, 
 is considered by Roller to be a portrait of the 
 deceased person there buried. The other famous 
 "portraits of Christ" in the Cemetery of St. Pontianus 
 and the crypt of Sta. Caecilia are the one of the 
 seventh to ninth century and the other of the ninth 
 century at the earliest. The Byzantine artists at 
 length developed an ideal Christ which appears in 
 most of the mosaic pictures — a grave, solemn, awful 
 face, with dark hair and beard, which partook more 
 of the ascetic than of the lovely type, and which 
 continued to be the accepted type of the Christ of 
 art for many centuries. 
 
 We may add briefly, in order to complete the 
 subject, that the Italian painters of the Renaissance 
 introduced a new type, in which'they endeavoured to 
 add to the perfect Humanity some shadowing forth 
 of the Divinity within. They adopted the fair 
 type, which is not the prevalent type of Eastern 
 physiognomy, but which is highly valued when it 
 does appear among them. David was of this excep- 
 tional type, " ruddy and of a beautiful countenance " f 
 and " fair of eyes " (marginal reading), that is, with 
 fair complexion, golden hair, and blue eyes. 
 
 * Page 175. t See l Sam. xvi. 12, 18; xvii. 42.
 
 192 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The illustration of our Lord holding a book with 
 a basket of volumes on each side of Him, is from 
 Bosio's " Roma Sotteranea," p. 475 ; the painting is 
 not earlier than the fifth century. 
 
 There was an early tradition about the personal 
 characteristics of St. Peter and St. Paul, which the 
 artists adopted when they began to endeavour to 
 give individual character to their subjects. It is 
 V seen especially in some of the gilded glass vessels, 
 and in the bronzes, which are described herein- 
 after. St. Peter is represented by tradition, and in 
 the art which follows it, as an elderly man of robust 
 form, with strong, sensible features, crisp curling 
 hair, bald at the crown ; St. Paul as a slight person, 
 with a thin eager face, bald from the forehead back- 
 wards. Of the personal appearance of the other 
 Apostles there were no traditions, except that St. 
 John was the youngest of the Twelve. The artists 
 of the earlier centuries represented them by conven- 
 tional figures. The artists of the Renaissance showed 
 their skill in inventing various types of feature, such 
 as might be supposed to have belonged to the various 
 types of character of those whom the Lord chose 
 as the foundation stones of a world-wide Church. 
 Perhaps this skill of the Christian artist reached 
 its highest point in Leonardo's "Last Supper," at 
 Milan. 
 
 The Four Evangelists are represented in the early 
 classical school of art ; symbolically, by the four rivers 
 of Paradise which flow forth from the mount on which 
 stands the sacred Lamb ; personally, by conventional
 
 
 i^ 
 
 o 
 
 .s 
 
 Q 
 
 o 
 
 J3 
 
 1) 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 
 o
 
 19+ HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 (frequently half-length) figures in classical costume 
 accompanied by one or other of the four living 
 creatures of Ezekiel and the Revelation which were 
 taken to be their symbols ; the angel for St. Matthew, 
 the lion for St. Mark, the ox for St. Luke, and the 
 eagle for St. John ; * in the mosaics of Byzantine 
 art the four living creatures of the Revelation are 
 depicted on a large scale surrounding our Lord in 
 glory. 
 
 * The symbolical creatures are not invariably thus assigned.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 Emblems: the cross; the crucifix; the "Graffito Blasfemo ; " the 
 monogram — Symbolical subjects : the shepherd ; the lamb ; the 
 fish ; a fisherman ; the ship ; anchor ; amphora ; vine ; olive ; 
 palm ; doves ; sheep ; goats ; peacock ; phoenix ; Orpheus ; ox 
 and ass ; mount with four streams ; stag drinking ; hand ; nimbus ; 
 aureole — Symbolical subjects from the Old and New Testaments : 
 their meaning ; Daniel ; the Three Children ; Jonah ; Lazarus ; 
 Noah ; sacrifice of Isaac ; healing the paralytic ; the infirm woman ; 
 the blind man ; the passage of the Red Sea ; giving the Law ; the 
 burning bush ; gathering manna (?) ; seizure of Moses (?) ; striking 
 the rock ; Job ; creation of* Eve ; fall of man ; Adam and Eve 
 clothed ; Abel and Cain ; translation of Elijah ; baptism of Christ ; 
 entry into Jerusalem ; arrest of Christ — Eucharistic symbols : 
 feeding the multitude ; miracle of Cana ; manna ; table with fish 
 and bread ; fish and bread — List of subjects on sarcophagi in the 
 Lateran and Vatican collections — Groups of subjects : on ceilings, 
 gilded glass, arcosolia. 
 
 OR the purpose of a detailed consideration 
 of the subjects of early Christian art it 
 will be convenient to include both the 
 paintings and sculptures in one view, to 
 divide them into various classes irrespective of their 
 date, and to introduce as may be convenient the few 
 observations which may be needed on their chronology. 
 We may divide the subjects into the following classes:
 
 196 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 I. Pure emblems, as the anchor, lyre, etc. 2. Sym- 
 bolical subjects, as the Shepherd, Orpheus, harts 
 drinking at a stream, birds drinking from a fountain, 
 etc. 3. Subjects from the Old Testament history ; 
 and from the Gospel history. 4. Representations of 
 the deceased. 5. Personal symbols. Each of these 
 classes requires separate consideration. 
 
 I. Emblems. 
 
 The CROSS was in constant use by the early Chris- 
 tians as a manual sign. Tertullian (" De Corona," § 3) 
 says, " In all our travels and movements, in all our 
 coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at 
 the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying 
 down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies 
 us, we mark our forehead with the sign of the cross ;" 
 and St. Ambrose* says that it was still the custom 
 in his time : " Christians, at every act, sign the cross 
 on their foreheads." They were quick to see the 
 sacred symbol. Justin Martyr sees it in a ship's 
 mast and sail, a plough, a spade, a man with out- 
 stretched arms, in the nose and brows of the human 
 face, in the banners and trophies of the armies, in the 
 statues of the emperors and gods (whose models were 
 of clay built up on a stake and crossbar), in the four 
 quarters of the heavens (Apol. 55). Tertullian also 
 in birds with outstretched wings.f 
 
 St. Cyril explains at length that the symbol was used 
 as a memorial of the mercies and duties of the cross.| 
 
 * I Apol. 12 and 16; and De Orat. xi. 28. 
 
 t Migne's edit. vol. iii. 327. 
 
 \ De Cor. c, 3 ; Ad. Uxor, ii, 5.
 
 SVA/BOLIS.ir, 
 
 197 
 
 It was not used upon their monuments until a late 
 
 period ; t^^he_pagan mind the cross was associated 
 
 jDnly with ideas of ignominy, as the gallows is with 
 
 us ; it was " unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and 
 
 Wall-palnting, from the Cemetery of Pontlanus, Rome. 
 
 to Gentiles foolishness," and to exhibit it as a religious 
 emblem was to provoke ridicule and insult. 
 
 It first appears, in the form of a plain Greek cross, 
 in an epitaph on the monumental stone of Xene, the 
 wife of Basileo, in St. Lawrence's, Verona (a.d. 407).
 
 198 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 In later sarcophagi * and mosaics it appears, as an 
 emblem of Christ's Person, in a central position, 
 gemmed, crowned, surrounded by a laurel wreath, 
 placed upon a throne. Similar gemmed and foliated 
 crosses are painted in the catacombs. The accom- 
 panying woodcuts represent one on the wall over the 
 
 
 
 
 Wall-painting, from the Churcli of the Nativity, Bethlehem. 
 
 baptistery in the Catacomb of St. Callistus, mentioned 
 at p. 92, and another somewhat similar from the 
 Church 6f the Nativity at Bethlehem. f 
 
 A representation of the actual cross of Calvary 
 appears first on the sarcophagus of Anicius Probus 
 (A.D. 395), p. 271, and the historical subject of Christ 
 led to execution on a sarcophagus of the fourth or 
 fifth century in the Lateran Museum, engraved on 
 p. 273. On the late sarcophagi, where SS. Peter and 
 Paul stand on either side of our Lord, Peter is often 
 represented carrying a cross over his shoulder similar 
 
 * See p. 274. t De Vogiie, " Eglises de la Terre Sainte," p. 72.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 199 
 
 to that above mentioned ; it is, perhaps, an allusion 
 to the fact that Peter " glorified God " by crucifixion. 
 
 A lamb standing in front of a cross, or bearing a 
 cross, is the earliest adumbration of the Crucifixion. 
 
 The earliest representation of the Crucifixion is in 
 the curious caricature here given. It is one of a 
 number of rude scribblings recently disclosed on an 
 
 V 
 
 ^B'No 
 
 Scribbling on the wall, Palatine Hill, Rome. 
 
 ancient wall adjoining the palace of the Caesars on 
 the Palatine Hill at Rome. 
 
 The habit of scratching writings and caricatures on 
 the plaster of walls was exceedingly common in 
 those early times, and these graffiti often afford very 
 valuable insight into manners and customs. In the
 
 200 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 year 1857 some of the walls of the ancient palace 
 on the Palatine Hill, called the Domtts Gelotiana, were 
 uncovered and a number of graffiti were brought to 
 light, which introduce us into the intimacy of court 
 servants of the higher class. It appears from them 
 that after the murder of Caligula the house of 
 Gelotius, which had belonged to that emperor, was 
 used as a residence and training-school for court 
 pages, and the pages practised the usual amusement 
 of scribbling on the walls. One of the rough sketches 
 represents a donkey turning a mill, and the schoolboy 
 legend says, " Work, little donkey, as I have worked, 
 and you will profit from it : " Labora ASELLE 
 QUOMODO EGO LABORAVI ET PRODERIT. The 
 caricature represents a man with the hand lifted in 
 adoration of a crucified figure with an ass's head ;* the 
 inscription explains it: AAEXAMENOS SEBETE 
 GEON (Alexamenos worships his God). Alexa- 
 menos was doubtless one of these court pages, 
 whose Christian faith is thus ridiculed by his com- 
 panions.f The name " Alexamenos the Faithful " is 
 repeated thrice, showing that the Christianity of 
 
 * Tertullian (l Apol. xvi., 198 A.D.) mentions a picture put forth by 
 a certain apostate Jew, with the title "The God of the Christians 
 conceived of an ass ; " which represented "a creature with ass's ears, 
 with a hoof on one foot, carrying a book, and wearing a gown." 
 Tertullian himself explains the origin of this strange notion. Tacitus, he 
 says, in the fifth of his Histories, had related that the Jews in the wilder- 
 ness of .Sinai were saved from dying of thirst by following certain wild 
 asses to the springs which they frequented, for which service they con- 
 secrated the image of the ass ; " and so, I suppose, it was thence 
 presumed that we, as bordering on the Jewish religion, were thought to 
 worship such a figure." 
 
 t It is photographed by Garucci and Lanciani.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 201 
 
 Alexamenos was a favourite subject for jesting. 
 Among other names, that of LiBANius occurs, and 
 beneath it, in another hand, EPISCOPUS, a jest, per- 
 haps, on another Christian page whom his comrades 
 had nicknamed " the Bishop." 
 /~ The full representation of the sacred subject was 
 '/ very slowly approached. Injthe first foui:,^i)r perhaps ^ 
 fivCj^ centuries, there is absolutely nothing to indicate 
 that the crucifix was_everus£d. On one of the oil- 
 vessels sent by Gregory to Theodelinda (590-604) 
 there are all the usual accessories of the Crucifixion — 
 the sun and moon above, two angels at the sides, St. 
 Mary and St. John below ; but the principal figure 
 is entirely left to the beholder's imagination. The 
 picture on p. 202, from the Syriac Gospels of Rabula 
 (a.d. 586), is usually quoted as the earliest complete 
 representation of the scene. The lower part of the 
 picture contains three subjects : in the centre the 
 glory of the rising Lord strikes the Roman soldiers 
 to the ground ; on the left the angel appears at the 
 tomb to the holy women ; on the right the Lord 
 appears to the women. Pope John VII., at the be- i^ 
 ginning of jt he eight h^cerituJiy,^ first represented the 
 Crucifixion in a church, viz. in the mosaics of the 
 ancient basilica of St. Paul at Rome. In the early 
 Crucifixions Christ is clothed, and stands with arms/ 
 horizontally extended, without any attempt at 
 
 naturalistic representation. 
 
 The MONOGRAM XP, formed out of the first letters 
 of the word XPISTOS, is one of the most common of 
 the Christian emblems in the fourth and following
 
 
 202 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 centuries, and has continued in use to the present 
 day. It was the vision of Constantine, and his adop- 
 tion of the emblem on the standards of his legions 
 
 Miniature painting, from the MS. Syrian Gospels, by Rabula. 
 
 and the helmets of his soldiers at the decisive battle 
 of the Milvian Bridge, which gave it a world-wide 
 popularity. It is probable that it was in use among 
 Christians before Constantine's adoption of it, but
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 203 
 
 in spite of diligent search, only a few and ambiguous 
 traces of it can be found.* A coin of Decius, in 
 which it is used in an ambiguous manner, is noticed 
 ^t p. 337. There is a sepulchral stone at Sivaux, in 
 Gaul, on which it appears, together with an epitaph, 
 
 Monumental inscription at 
 Sivaux, France. 
 
 Monumental inscription in the 
 Roman catacombs. " Roma 
 Sotteranea," ii. p. 323. 
 
 I am 
 
 which De Rossi thinks to be of the date A.D. 298 ; 
 but Le Blant, the great epigraphist of Gaul, assigns 
 it to the fifth century. 
 
 The A 12 of the magnificent declaration, 
 A and O, the Beginning and the Ending, 
 saith the Lord, which is, and which was, 
 and which is to come, the Almighty " 
 (Rev. i. 18), was a favourite emblem. It 
 was used generally together with other 
 emblems, especially with the cross ; for 
 example, the two letters were frequently suspended 
 by chains from the arms of the gemmed and foliated 
 cross of the sixth and later centuries. 
 
 • Justin Martyr qii^tes Plato, where he says in the Timoeus that 
 God placed His Son in the universe after the manner of the letter X. 
 "Apol.,"lix.,lx.
 
 204 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 2. Of Symbolical Subjects. 
 
 The Shepherd occurs, probably, twice as often as 
 any other subject, and occurs most frequently in the 
 earliest times ; in marble statues, on the most skilful 
 of the wall-paintings of sepulchral chambers, in 
 bas-reliefs on the sarcophagi, and in rude outlines 
 and mere scratchings on the humbler graves. It is 
 beyond doubt that the most popular idea of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ in the early Church, that which had 
 touched most deeply the souls of the converts from 
 Judaism and heathenism, was that presentation which 
 the Lord gave of Himself to His disciples as the 
 Good Shepherd. In the earliest representations of 
 the subject He is represented as carrying on His 
 shoulders the sheep which had been lost, which He 
 had come down from heaven into the wilderness of 
 this world to find, and bring back to the fold amidst 
 the rejoicings of the angels. Sometimes the Shepherd 
 is represented with His sheep standing around Him ; 
 sometimes as a single figure, with staff and scrip and 
 pipes, without any attempt to idealize its rustic 
 simplicity. 
 
 Another allegorical representation of our Lord 
 is as the Lamb, sometimes standing on a mount 
 and surrounded by twelve other lambs, representing 
 the Apostles ; but this occurs seldom, and in later 
 times, when the mystic imagery of the Revelation 
 was beginning to take hold of the mind of the 
 Church. There is a remarkable instance of this 
 symbol on the tomb of Junius Bassus (p. 269), where
 
 SYMBOLISM. 20S 
 
 a lamb is represented as performing the miracles of 
 the Old Testament and of the New. 
 
 The Quini-Sext Council, A.D. 691, decreed that 
 whereas the traditional manner of representing our 
 Lord was under the figure of a lamb, for the future 
 the Lamb which took away the sins of the world 
 should be represented in the human figure which He 
 wore in the flesh, in order that the people might 
 have their thoughts turned to His passion and saving 
 death, and through His humiliation might learn 
 His glory. 
 
 Of this class of emblems the most remarkable and, 
 perhaps, the most frequently used in one form or 
 other, is the Fisn. And it has a double meaning. 
 First it means the Christian people. When the Lord 
 called His earliest Apostles, He promised them that 
 they should become fishers of men ; in the two 
 miracles in which He bids them cast their nets, He 
 showed them that they should fill the net of the 
 Church. The symbol conveyed an allusion to 
 Baptism, in whose waters men become the fish of the ^i^ 
 Church. Secondly, it was a very recondite symbol 
 of Christ Himself. It was a sign, understood only by 
 the instructed, of a sacred acrostic ; for the Greek word 
 LX9Y2 (" fish ") is made up of the initial letters of the 
 words IH20YS XPISTOS, GEOY YIOS, SQTHP, 
 "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour." * The 
 fish is found less frequently after the first two cen- 
 turies ; even in the first half of the third century it is 
 
 * Tertullian (about A.D. 196) says, "We poor fishes, following after 
 one IX0T2, Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor are we safe except 
 by abiding in the water " (" De Baptismo," c. i).
 
 2o6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 noticeably going out of use, and is extremely rare by 
 the middle of the fourth century. The dolphin occurs 
 frequently after the third century. 
 
 Very often, instead of a fish naturally drawn, was 
 substituted a mere hieroglyphic, a pointed oval, 
 which was supposed to be the shape of the bladder 
 of a fish {vesica piscis), and this vesica became a sym- 
 bolical form in art, widely used and continued to the 
 present day. 
 
 A multitude of little fish have been found in 
 the catacombs, in crystal, ivory, mother-of-pearl, 
 enamel, and precious stones, some of them pierced 
 with holes so that they might be worn by a cord 
 round the neck. 
 
 A FISHERMAN is an emblem of our Lord. The 
 oldest of all uninspired Christian hymns, the ^Tofxiov 
 TTioXiov aSawv, " Bridle of the steeds untamed," attached 
 to the Pa;dagogiie of Clement of Alexandria (a.d. 
 170-220), speaks of our Lord as the Shepherd and 
 also as the Fisher of Souls. It may also represent an 
 Apostle according to our Lord's saying (Matt. iv. 19). 
 
 The SHIP is very frequently found painted on 
 the walls, scratched on sepulchral stones, or sculptured 
 on sarcophagi. Justin Martyr (A.D. 139) adduces 
 it as a Christian em.blem, on the ground that its 
 mast and sailyard make a figure of the cross. But 
 the ship is usually the emblem of the Church. The 
 meaning is derived partly from the ship of Noah, in 
 which mankind was saved from the first great 
 destruction of the ungodly, and partly from the ship 
 * Ecclesiastical and episcopal seals are usually in this form.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 207 
 
 which so often contained Christ and His Apostles 
 sailing over the Sea of Galilee. In this sense it is 
 mentioned by St. Clement, in the passage already 
 alluded to.* Ambrose speaks of a bishop as sitting 
 at the stern of the ship and steering; indeed, it is one 
 of the commonplaces of the Christian writers.f On 
 a sarcophagus is a ship with a figure kneeling in 
 prayer, and a hand stretching down from above which 
 represents the protecting providence of God. The 
 ship of Jonah, which is so frequently represented, very 
 probably conveyed this general symbolical meaning. 
 
 An ANCHOR was a very common symbol, painted 
 on graves, engraved on rings, moulded on lamps, 
 etc. Its stock, or cross-piece, gave it an obscure 
 likeness to a cross ; and it is remarkable that it 
 was the only exhibition of the cross which appears 
 for almost three centuries, though Christians were 
 continually using the manual sign of the cross on 
 all sorts of occasions. The symbol was probably 
 derived from "the anchor of the soul, sure and 
 steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil," 
 and symbolized the Christian's hope fastened upon 
 the immutable promise (Heb. vi. 19). 
 
 An AMPHORA is often incised beside the insci-iption 
 upon a gravestone. It may mean, perhaps, the body 
 out of which the soul has departed, and be equivalent 
 to the epitaph, " Here lies the mortal part of So-and- 
 so ; his soul has departed." 
 
 The VINE, which so frequently occurs, and might 
 pass as a mere ornament, was no doubt intended 
 
 * See p. 345. t See Eusebius's " Sermon at Tyre," p. 44. 
 
 V
 
 2oS HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 to be significant, first of Christ the true Vine, and 
 then of the Sacrament. There are often figures like 
 little genii or cupids among its branches, and birds 
 pecking at its clusters ; these may represent Christian 
 people, with a sacramental allusion. The branches, 
 with their leaves and fruit spreading over a ceiling or 
 the wall of a sepulchral chamber, may represent the 
 bliss of Paradise ; * in this case the genii and birds will 
 mean the departed who now enjoy rest and peace. 
 
 The OLIVE appears on the walls of a chamber in 
 the Crypt of St. Janarius in a series of harvest 
 scenes, the others representing the vintage and 
 wheat harvest. We can only suggest that there 
 is an allusion to the ingathering of ripe souls. 
 
 The PALM BRANCH, borrowed from classical sym- 
 bolism, is of frequent 
 occurrence, probably 
 with the classical 
 meaning of victory. 
 When found upon a 
 loculus it does not 
 necessarily indicate 
 the grave of a martyr, 
 
 ^, , 1, jj J • .u . r but of a Christian 
 
 Cilass vessel embeddea m the mortar of 
 
 a loculus, with palm branch (" Bol- whosC death — like 
 detti,"p. 149). u- T\/r 4- ' 
 
 his Master s — is a 
 
 victory over sin and death. Palm trees occur often 
 
 as adjuncts to Scripture subjects, and sometimes on 
 
 I 
 
 * Cyprian says (Ep. Ixxiii. 9), "The Church expressing the like- 
 ness of Paradise, encloses within her walls fruit-bearing trees, which 
 she waters with four rivers," etc.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 209 
 
 each side of a single figure of Christ, or an Apostle, 
 or an orante, where they may be emblematic of 
 victory or of Paradise. 
 
 Birds, probably intended for DOVES, are frequently 
 introduced, as above, pecking at the clusters of the 
 growing vine or at baskets of grape-clusters. Two 
 birds perched on opposite sides of a fountain, or cup, 
 and drinking from its contents, is an ancient classical \ 
 device, adopted by Christian Art with the symbolical 
 meaning of believers partaking of the water of life or 
 of the wine of the Sacrament. Cyprian, " On the 
 Unity of the Church," v. 8, alludes to the " doves of 
 Christ" meaning Christian people. These doves 
 seem sometimes to represent the departed souls of 
 Christians ; " the names of two or three [departed] 
 Christians so often stand in juxtaposition with the 
 same number of lambs or doves, that it cannot be 
 doubted that the one was intended to stand for the 
 other " (Brownlow Maitland). 
 
 Sheep frequently occur, especially in conjunction 
 with the Shepherd, and obviously represent " the 
 sheep of His pasture." 
 
 Goats sometimes occur where we should rather ex- 
 pect sheep, apparently not with any sinister meaning. 
 
 The PEACOCK was borrowed from pagan symbol- 
 ism. It was let loose from the funeral pyre of an 
 empress, and signified her apotheosis, and so came 
 to be a symbol of immortality. 
 
 The PHCENIX was also a pagan symbol of renewed 
 life. St. Clement, in the first century,* mentions the 
 
 * first Epistle, ch. xxv. 
 
 P
 
 2IO HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 phoenix as an emblem of the resurrection, and tells 
 the story which is more fully given below. Tertullian 
 also gives it,* and others of the Fathers. A passage 
 in the Apostolical Constitutions, on the subject of the 
 resurrection of the dead, tells the curious myth thus : 
 " The heathen can show a resemblance of the resur- 
 rection ; for they say that there is a bird, single in its 
 kind, which they say is without a mate, and the only 
 one in creation. They call it a phoenix, and relate 
 that every four hundred years it comes into Egypt, to 
 that which is called the altar of the sun.f and brings 
 with it a great quantity of cinnamon and cassia and 
 balsam-wood, and, standing towards the east, as they 
 say, and praying to the sun, of its own accord is 
 burnt and becomes dust ; but that a worm arises 
 again out of those ashes, and that when the same is 
 warmed it is formed into a new phoenix ; and when 
 it is able to fly it goes to Arabia, which is beyond the 
 Egyptian countries." 
 
 The Orpheus occurs very early in the ornamental 
 ceiling of a chamber in the Cemetery of Domitilla.| 
 It occurs in three other paintings in the catacombs, 
 on two sarcophagi and on a gem. Lanciani ("Pagan 
 and Christian Rome," ii. 23) gives an engraving of 
 the painting most recently found in 1888 in the 
 catacombs of Priscilla. He is seated on a rock, 
 playing the lyre, surrounded by wild beasts and 
 
 * " De Resurrectione," § 13. ' 
 
 t On, Heliopolis, is perhaps the city where Joseph dwelt, and 
 
 where Joseph and Mary and the Divine Child are said by tradition to 
 
 have sojourned. 
 X See p. 49.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 211 
 
 serpents. The special points of his histqry which 
 made him regarded as a type of Christ are pro- 
 bably his taming the wild beasts, and moving the 
 very rocks and trees with the music of his lyre — an 
 obvious allegory of Christ taming, the passions and 
 moving the rugged hearts of men ; his alleged abode 
 
 Orpheus. From the Cemetery of Domitilla, Rome. 
 
 in Thrace, where he civilized and gave religion and law 
 to its wild inhabitants ; and especially his descent to 
 and return from Hades. It is a curious adoption 
 into Christian use of a Greek myth ; but the story of 
 Orpheus was very popular, and we know that this 
 Christian application of it was familiar, because it is 
 alluded to by several of the early writers of the Church. 
 The introduction of the OX AND THE ASS in the rare 
 and late representations of the Nativity is not merely a 
 picturesque accessory in the artist's conception of the 
 subject. It arose out of Isaiah i. 3, " The ox knoweth 
 his owner and the ass his master's crib," and still 
 more directly out of Hab. iii. 2, which in the Septua- 
 
 ^/^
 
 212 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 gint ran, " Between two living creatures (or two lives, 
 according to the accentuation of ^wwv) thou shalt be 
 made known ; " and in the old italic version was 
 rendered, " Between two animals thou shalt be 
 recognized." The strong feeling ,of the early ages 
 that everything which had been foretold of Christ in 
 the Old Testament had been fulfilled, induced a 
 tendency to amplify the details of the gospel narrative 
 so as to include every supposed prophecy. So we 
 find the pseudo-Gospel of St. Matthew (ch. xiv.) 
 stating that " Mary laid the Child in the manger, and 
 the ass and ox adored Him." 
 
 A MOUNT WITH FOUR STREAMS issuing from it 
 represents Paradise with its four rivers ; it is a very 
 usual subject in the later sarcophagi and the mosaics. 
 Frequently our Lord stands upon the mount or is 
 seated on a throne which is placed upon it, or a 
 lamb stands upon it, or a cross stands or is throned 
 upon it, and the Apostles are ranged on each side. 
 It is perhaps not possible to determine whether this 
 was intended to symbolize the paradise of the re- 
 deemed in the intermediate state, where the saints 
 are "with Christ, which is far better" (Phil. i. 3) ; or 
 the heaven to which Christ has ascended, and of 
 which He said, " I will that they whom Thou hast 
 given Me be with Me where I am, that they may 
 behold My glory" (John xvii. 24). 
 
 The STAG DRINKING at a river is an allegory no 
 doubt derived from the forty-first Psalm, " Like as 
 the hart desireth the water-brooks," and conveyed 
 to the instructed beholder the idea of the spiritual
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 hungering and thirsting after God, on which the Lord 
 pronounced His benediction on the mount: "they 
 shall be filled." It is late and rare. 
 
 A HAND is an emblem of power (Exod. xv. i6; 
 Ps. xvii. 7 ; xx. 6 ; xl. 3 ; Acts iv. 28, 30 ; John x. 
 28, 29, etc.), and is used as a symbol of God, e.g. in 
 the subject of Moses at the burning bush, and 
 reaching down from heaven at the baptism of our 
 Lord, and later at the Crucifixion. In later times the 
 hand is surrounded by a nimbus. 
 
 The NIMBUS is a halo of light, usually round the 
 head of a figure ; it is represented by a circular disc, 
 or by a line which is supposed to define the margin of 
 the halo ; in later paintings the line and the disc are 
 of gold. In pagan pictures the heads of deities are 
 sometimes surrounded by a halo, as in wall-paintings 
 at Pompeii. Christian artists did not begin to dis- 
 tinguish their sacred figures with the nimbus until 
 the fifth century, and it is not universally used as the 
 symbol of a saint till the eleventh century. 
 
 In the ninth century a rectangular nimbus is some- 
 times used about the head of a living person of great 
 distinction, as in the case of Pope Leo and Charles 
 the Great in the Vatican mosaic ; of Pope Pascal in 
 the mosaic at St. Caecilia, Rome ; of Gregory IV. in 
 the mosaic at St. Mark. Divine Persons are dis- 
 tinguished by a cruciferous nimbus; since the Second 
 Person is far the most frequently represented, it gives 
 the false impression that this form of nimbus is 
 exclusively appropriated to Christ. The First Person 
 sometimes is distinguished by a triangular nimbus.
 
 'Ai HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The AUREOLE, a large nimbus of pointed oval 
 shape, enclosing not the head only, but the whole 
 figure, was introduced later than the nimbus ; it is 
 especially used about our Lord in pictures of the 
 Ascension,* and of our Lord in glory. Roller (Plate 
 LXXXIV.) gives a plate of representations of Christ 
 distinguished by a nimbus, probably none of them 
 earlier than the fifth century ; but there is no 
 example in the catacombs, either in fresco or sculp- 
 ture, of a Virgin Mary with the nimbus. 
 
 3. Symbolical Subjects from the Old and 
 New Testaments. 
 
 Subjects are taken about equally from the Old and 
 the New Testaments, indicating an equal familiarity 
 with their contents. In three or four cases out of 
 many hundreds a subject is taken from apocryphal 
 books of the Old Testament, and in two or three 
 cases a treatment of a subject is suggested by an 
 apocryphal Gospel. We very soon recognize that 
 the subjects of the Old Testament are not presented 
 as historical incidents, but only in their symbolical 
 meaning ; and the absence of the great subjects of the 
 gospel history leads us to realize still more strongly 
 that even the New Testament subjects which occur 
 are only given as symbols of truths, and must be 
 regarded in that light if we desire to understand 
 their meaning in this early period of Christian art. 
 Just as the shepherd, the vine, the fish, the Orpheus, 
 the peacock, and the phoenix are used for the purpose 
 
 * See p. 315.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 215 
 
 of representing certain ideas, so the Moses striking 
 the rock, the raising of Lazarus, the paralytic carry- 
 ing his bed, and the rest are used, not for their own 
 sake, but entirely for their allusive meaning. 
 
 Every inquiring mind at once eagerly undertakes 
 the task of studying the exact symbolical meaning 
 with which the oft-recurring subjects are used, and 
 of interpreting the meaning, as a whole, of the con- 
 nected groups of subjects which so frequently occur, 
 for example, on the painted ceiling of a catacomb 
 chamber or on the sculptured front of a sarcophagus. 
 Unhappily, the meaning of many of the subjects is so 
 recondite that the numerous archaeologists who have 
 applied their minds to the study of them fail to agree 
 as to the meaning of the definite symbols, and equally 
 fail to show that the groups of subjects are the ex- 
 pression of a definite and connected line of thought. 
 Unhindered by the general failure, every one who 
 undertakes to treat at all of this subject of early 
 Christian art seems bound to attempt the explana- 
 tion of its teaching ; and we shall venture to make 
 some remarks upon it. 
 
 The first step to be taken seems to be to get a 
 well-reasoned meaning for each of the individual 
 subjects, and then to study them in their groupings. 
 We shall only trouble the reader with our attempt to 
 assign meanings to those subjects which most fre- 
 quently occur, and those which are combined in 
 several of the groups. 
 
 Daniel in the lions* den, nearly always in the 
 attitude of prayer. When we call to mind that he
 
 2i6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 was cast into the lions' den for persisting in praying 
 to his God in violation of the law, we can hardly err 
 in thinking that the subject is used as a type of 
 providential deliverance in persecution. In some of 
 the later representations is introduced an incident 
 from the apocryphal book of Bel and the Dragon, 
 which says that an angel lifted Habakkuk the prophet 
 by the hair, and transported him to the den to convey 
 food to Daniel ; in which we suggest that there 
 may be an allusion to the well-known practice of 
 the Christians to convey food and comfort to the 
 confessors in prison. 
 
 In the representations of the Three Children in 
 the fiery furnace we see a similar meaning. In some 
 cases the history is given in two scenes. In the 
 first, the Hebrew youths are refusing to worship the 
 golden image. The image is represented by a bust 
 set upon a short column ; and we suggest that it may 
 be a reminiscence of the image of Caesar, before 
 which the martyrs and confessors were required to 
 burn incense. ^ 
 
 The history of JONAH Is of very frequent occur- 
 rence. It is usually given in several scenes.* We 
 call to mind that our Lord twice gave it as a sign of 
 His own Resurrection, which might suffice to account 
 for its being a favourite subject. But a little further 
 consideration brings to mind that Jonah was in other 
 particulars a type of Christ. The incident of the 
 disgorging upon the dry land is the type of the 
 Resurrection, but the incident of the casting into 
 
 • See p. 275.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 217 
 
 the sea Is a type of Christ voluntarily giving Himself 
 to death for the salvation of those who were in the 
 ship (read Jonah ii. 11, 12); the incident of his re- 
 clining under the shade of the gourd, which is so 
 frequently added that it is plain it formed an im- 
 portant part of the symbolism, we take to be a type 
 of the repose of Paradise. What was intended by 
 the introduction of the incident of the withering of 
 the gourd we are unable to conjecture. The form 
 of the sea-monster is often borrowed from the classical 
 representations of the deliverance of Andromeda, the 
 scene of which fable is laid at Joppa,* the port from 
 which Jonah sailed. 
 
 The RAISING OF Lazarus (there are only one or 
 two examples of the raising of Jairus's daughter or 
 of the widow's son) must be a type of our resur- 
 rection. Two brief extracts from St. John's narrative 
 indicate the depth of its teaching : " Thy brother shall 
 live again," for " I am the Resurrection and the Life, 
 saith the Lord." Lazarus is always represented as 
 standing, wrapped in grave-clothes, at the door of a 
 tomb, which gives us a very interesting representa- 
 tion of a common type of tomb of the first centuries.! 
 
 Noah in the ark, with the dove bearing the 
 olive branch, is a complex symbol. Justin Martyr 
 saySjJ " For Christ, being the Firstborn of every 
 creature, was made again the beginning of a new 
 race, which is regenerated by Him through water and 
 
 • St. Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of the " whale of death." 
 t See p. 154. 
 
 "Dial, cum Trypho," c. 138.
 
 2iS HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 faith and word." TertulHan says,* " As after the 
 waters of the Deluge, in which the old iniquity was 
 purged away, as after that baptism (so to call it) of 
 the old world, a dove sent out of the ark and return- 
 ing with an olive branch, was the herald to announce 
 to the world peace and the cessation of the wrath of 
 Heaven ; so by a similar disposition, with reference 
 to matters spiritual, the dove of the Holy Spirit sent 
 forth from heaven flies to the earth, i.e. to our flesh, 
 as it comes out of the bath of regeneration after its 
 old sins, and brings to us the peace of God ; where 
 the Church is prefigured by the ark." So Noah in 
 the ark is a type of Christ, the beginning of a new race 
 of redeemed mankind, and of the water of Baptism, 
 and of the ark of the Church, and the dove of the Holy 
 Spirit, bringing the olive branch of peace to those 
 who are in the Church. St. Cyprian says, " The ark 
 of Noah was a sacrament of the Church of Christ." f 
 St Ambrose caused this subject to be painted in his 
 church at Milan, and beneath it these verses — 
 
 " Area Noe nostri typus est, et Spiritus ales, 
 Qui pacem populis ramo prsetendit olivse." 
 
 It is remarkable that the ark is always represented, 
 not as a ship or boat of any kind, but as a square 
 chest with a lid, within which stands the single figure 
 of Noah, or the two figures of Noah and his wife. A 
 coin of the city of Apamea, on the Euphrates, of the 
 reign of Septimus Severus (see p. 337), has^the head 
 of the emperor on the obverse ; and on the reverse, 
 
 • "De Baptismo," vii. f Ep. Ixxv. 16.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 2T9 
 
 just such a square chest, with a single standing- 
 figure, and on the front of the chest the letters Nw, 
 i.e. Noah. There was a local tradition that the ark 
 had rested at this city. It would be obvious to con- 
 clude that the Christian representation of the subject 
 was taken from this coin, but that De Rossi maintains 
 that the paintings of the subject in the catacombs 
 {e.g. in that of Domitilla) extend back to a period a 
 hundred years before the date of the coin. This 
 curious form of the ark remains to be accounted for. 
 
 The sacrifice of Isaac is so striking a type of 
 the love of the Father in giving His only begotten 
 Son, and of the Son in voluntarily submitting Him- 
 self a Sacrifice for sin, " that whosoever believeth on 
 Him should not perish, but should have everlasting 
 life," that we can only account for its infrequency by 
 the general reticence of early art on the subjects of 
 the Passion. 
 
 Among the many miracles of healing, three are 
 specially selected — the healing of the paralytic, of the 
 woman who touched the hem of our Lord's garment, 
 and of the blind. The frequency of the use of the 
 HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC is probably explained 
 by its being the symbol of the great doctrine of the 
 forgiveness of sin. The man is usually represented 
 as carrying away his bed, which directs us to the 
 words of the Gospel, that it was in order that they 
 might know that the Son of man hath power on 
 earth to forgive sins, that He said to the sick of the 
 palsy, " Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine 
 house " (Matt. ix. 6). His carrying away his couch
 
 220 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 was the visible expression of the article of the 
 Creed, " I believe in the forgiveness of sins," 
 
 The special significance of the HEALING OF THE 
 INFIRM WOMAN lies in the fact that it was by touch- 
 ing the hem of His garment that "virtue went out 
 of Him," and she was made whole. " Now, His 
 raiment is His Church," says St. Augustine, in con- 
 nection with this miracle ; " and in a garment, the 
 border is the last and lowest part." * And again, in 
 another place, -|- " the absence of His body and presence 
 of His power " is illustrated in the miracle. And St. 
 Ephrem, the Syrian, says, " Thy garment, Lord, is a 
 fountain of medicine ; in Thy visible vesture there 
 dvvelleth a hidden power." | We gather that the 
 miracle was adopted as a symbol that though Christ 
 is absent, His power dwells in His Church, and that 
 those who come to Christ by faith, in the Church and 
 its ordinances, will find His grace in them, 
 i The BLIND MAN is probably the one whose eyes 
 our Lord anointed with clay, and then bade him " go 
 to the Pool of Siloam and wash " (John ix. 7) ; and 
 it is perhaps a symbol of Baptism, which was in 
 primitive times known by the name of Illumination, 
 " I am the Light of the world." 
 
 ' Moses appears both in the paintings and bas- 
 reliefs in several scenes. The incident of striking the 
 rock appears on almost all the sarcophagi of Italy 
 and Gaul ; other scenes appear more rarely, and 
 perhaps only in the later examples, as the passage 
 
 * " Serm.," xxviii. 78^. t " Serm.," xii. 62^5. 
 
 X " Rhythm," X.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 221 
 
 of the Red Sea, the giving of the Law, the gathering 
 of the manna, and a doubtful seizure of Moses by 
 the rebels. 
 
 The PASSAGE OF THE Red Sea we have St. 
 Paul's authority (i Cor. x. i, 2) for taking as a 
 symbol of Baptism. When we observe in some of 
 the bas-reliefs that the destruction of the Egyptians 
 is rendered with considerable force and detail, we are 
 led to conjecture that it may also have been intended 
 as a symbol of God's deliverance of His people from 
 oppression, and the destruction of the oppressors ; 
 and we are reminded of the tremendous effect which 
 the deaths of the imperial persecutors and the mis- 
 fortunes of their families, at the end of the third and 
 commencement of the fourth centuries, had upon 
 the minds both of Christians and heathens, as is set 
 forth at length in the " De Mortibus Persecutorum " 
 of Lactantius. 
 
 In the GIVING OF THE Law Moses is an obvious 
 type of Christ, the Giver of the New Dispensation. 
 
 In the incident of the BURNING BUSH, God is 
 sometimes represented in human form, sometimes as 
 a hand. In all cases, Moses is in the attitude of re- 
 moving his shoes. We might take it as an allusion 
 to our Lord's mission from the Father ; but several 
 of the ancient writers, e.g. Gregory Nazianzen and 
 Augustine, assuming the Rock-scene to allude to 
 Baptism, take this as alluding to the renunciations 
 preceding Baptism, the putting away of sins. 
 
 The GATHERING OF THE MANNA. There are 
 several subjects in which a figure points with a rod.
 
 222 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 or touches with a rod, a number of baskets before 
 him, which are filled with what at first sight appear to 
 be round loaves, and the scene has been usually taken 
 to be a representation of the miracle of the loaves ; but 
 it has been suggested that it really represents Moses 
 pointing to the manna, and in that case it might be 
 taken as one of the symbols of the Eucharist. 
 
 The SEIZURE OF Moses by the rebels is a 
 doubtful explanation of a scene which is frequently 
 represented in connection with the striking of the rock. 
 Two men, sometimes wearing a peculiar flat-topped 
 cap, hold a man between them by the arms, as if in the 
 act of arresting him ; and these two men, identified 
 by the peculiar cap, in the subsequent scene, are 
 eagerly drinking at the stream of water as it gushes 
 from the rock. It is difficult to recognize in it any 
 scene in the sacred narrative, and equally difficult to 
 conjecture its meaning. See below on the arrest of 
 Christ. 
 
 The STRIKING OF THE ROCK at first sight seems 
 easy of interpretation, but we confess ourselves 
 baffled in the endeavour to arrive at a satisfactory 
 explanation of what the Christians of those days 
 understood it to symbolize. Its introduction as a 
 single subject in the paintings, and in nearly every 
 group of bas-reliefs on the sarcophagi, shows that 
 it was a very favourite symbol and one of the greatest 
 importance. In considering jt, it is necessary to 
 bear in mind that in some of the later examples 
 Peter is represented as the agent in the miracle ; 
 in one instance, on a gilded glass vessel, his name
 
 SYMBOLISM. 223 
 
 PETRVS is written over his head. We must also 
 bear in mind that in the great majority of examples 
 this subject is closely associated with the raising of 
 Lazarus. Another curious version of the subject is on 
 the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (p. 269), where Christ, 
 represented as a lamb, is not only performing several 
 miracles of the New Testament, e.g. raising Lazarus, 
 multiplying the loaves, but also, as the prototype 
 of Moses, receiving the Law and striking the rock. 
 What was it intended to represent 1 We call to 
 mind our Lord's words, in connection with this 
 miracle, at the Feast of Tabernacles : " If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. . . . This 
 spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on 
 Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not 
 yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified " 
 (John vii. 37, 38). Again, we have St. Paul's Eucha- 
 ristic interpretation : " They all drank of that spiritual 
 Rock that followed them : and that Rock was Christ " 
 (l Cor. X. 4). And we cannot overlook its striking 
 symbolism of the piercing of our Lord's side upon the 
 cross, whence flowed blood and water (John xix. 34). 
 On the whole we are disposed to regard the subject 
 as the most popular symbol of Baptism .? * Then the 
 
 * Teitullian says (" De Bapt.," viii. 9), " If Christ be the Rock, the 
 water in the Rock is Christ, and therein we see that baptism is blest." 
 Cyprian says, "The Rock is Christ, and the water from it symbolizes 
 baptism" (Ep. Ixiii. 5). Jerome says (on Isa. xlviii.), "There is no 
 peace for the wicked who have not merited to drink of the Rock, 
 whose side, wounded with the lance, flowed with water and blood, 
 declaring to us baptism and martyrdom." Against its meaning Baptism 
 is the fact that in all the baptisteries, including that in the Catacomb 
 of Pontianus, the Baptism of our Lord is always adopted as the 
 appropriate symbol.
 
 324 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 introduction of Peter as the agent would allude to his 
 bidding the first converts among the Jews to " repent 
 and be baptized" (Acts ii. 38), and to his being the 
 first to admit the Gentiles to Baptism : " Can any man 
 forbid water, that these should not be baptized ? " 
 (Acts X. 47, 48). 
 
 Job is represented in paintings in the cemeteries 
 of Domitilla, Callistus, and others, on the Tomb of 
 Junius Bassus, and on several Gallic sarcophagi. 
 Martigny says that it is because he was the prophet 
 of the Resurrection — " I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth," etc. (Job xix. 25)— and notes that his pro- 
 phecy occurs in the most ancient manuscripts of the 
 Antiphonary of Gregory the Great, on the Tomb of 
 Bishop Flavian (c. 550), and in inscriptions at Naples 
 and Rimini.* 
 
 Other subjects which are not so difficult of inter- 
 pretation are — 
 
 The CREATION OF EvE out of the side of Adam, 
 a symbol of the creation of the Church out of the 
 side of Christ. ■ 
 
 The FALL OF MAN represented by a tree with a 
 serpent coiled round it (often with a human head), 
 with Adam and Eve standing on each side. 
 
 The new covenant with man is typified by Adam 
 and Eve being clothed with the skins of the first 
 sacrifices, and therefore reconciled to God in Christ 
 Jesus. Adam is often represented holding a spade, 
 and Eve a spindle, symbolical of the new life of 
 labour to which they were sentenced. 
 
 • Martigny, "Dictionaire des Antlqiiit^s Chretiennes : " Job,
 
 SYMBOLISM. 225 
 
 The SACRIFICE OF Abel AND Cain, a type of 
 the sacrifice of Christ ; and a symbol of the worship 
 of the Church and of the heathen. 
 
 The TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH, a type of Christ's 
 Ascension. 
 
 The BAPTISM OF OUR LoRD is a common subject, 
 and its meaning obvious ; it is the one subject repre- 
 sented in painting or mosaic in all the baptisteries, 
 and the dedication of all the baptisteries is to St. 
 John of the Fonts. 
 
 The TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM is not 
 infrequently found, the symbol of Christ's entry into X 
 heaven with all His saints after the judgment. 
 
 The Arrest of Christ. The subject of two 
 men holding a third between them by the wrists as 
 if arresting him, has already been noticed as occur- 
 ring in connection with Moses striking the rock. 
 It is also found on some sarcophagi in connection 
 with the denial of Peter, and in Leofric's Missal at 
 Rouen, in connection with the betrayal of Judas. 
 This plainly indicates that the subject is the arrest 
 of Christ in the garden ; and this identification is 
 confirmed by a picture in the Book of Kells, which 
 illustrates Matt. xxvi. 30. 
 
 We remark the absence from this list of the sub- 
 jects of our Lord's Passion, and we do not know 
 how to account for it. The narrative of them fills a 
 very large space in all the Gospels, and their pictorial 
 representation occupies the prominent place which 
 seems natural to us in the ecclesiastical art of a later 
 period ; but in the art of these early ages these sub-
 
 226 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 jects are "conspicuous by their absence." We call to 
 mind that in the preaching of the Apostles, recorded 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, there is a similar reserve ; 
 the subjects of those preachings are the Resurrection 
 and Ascension of the Lord and the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost, and the fulfilment in these great events of 
 ancient type and prophecy ; and in the Epistles, 
 which are addressed to Christian people, though 
 there are many allusions to our Lord's Passion and 
 death, there is no detailed presentation of the moving 
 incidents so fully described in the Gospels, by way of 
 appeal to their affections. This unemotional preach- 
 ing of the early ages is in harmony with the fact 
 which we have noted in the cycle of subjects treated 
 in early Christian art. Neither do the historical 
 series of the events of our Lord's life — except the 
 Adoration of the Magi — find the place we should 
 expect in early art : the Nativity, the Baptism, Christ 
 before Pilate, are rarely found and on late sarcophagi. 
 There are numerous symbols of the Eucharist, 
 and they are of very frequent occurrence. The most 
 common are the miraculous bread and fish of the 
 FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND, and the mira- 
 culous wine of the marriage feast at Cana. 
 Another, which seldom occurs, is the Old Testament 
 miracle of the MANNA. There are one or two other 
 subjects which may be Eucharistic : A small THREE- 
 LEGGED TABLE WITH FISH AND BREAD upon it ; in 
 one example a man stands on one side the table as 
 if blessing the bread, and a female in the attitude 
 of prayer on the other side. A FISII BEARING A
 
 SYMBOLISM. 1127 
 
 BASKET OF BREAD Oil his back, and De Rossi says 
 that in the middle of the basket is an indication of 
 a glass vessel of red 
 wine. A phrase of 
 Jerome affords a curi- 
 ous illustration of the 
 picture ; speaking of 
 
 Exuperius, Bishop of Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Calllstus, 
 rr. 1 ,1 Rome. 
 
 ioulouse, he observes, 
 
 "Nothing can be richer than one who carries the 
 Body of Christ in a basket made of twigs, and the 
 Blood of Christ in a chalice of glass." 
 
 The late Dean Burgon, in his interesting letters 
 from Rome, took the pains to compile a list of the 
 subjects which appear on the sarcophagi in the 
 Lateran Museum, and to record the number of times 
 they appear. Professor Westwood has added the 
 number of times the same subjects appear on those in 
 the Vatican collection. The following list gives both 
 these enumerations in the order of their frequency : — 
 
 1. History of Jonah, various incidents, 23 in Lateran, 
 II Bosio.* 
 
 2. Moses, occasionally Peter [?], striking the rock, 
 21, 16. 
 
 3. The miracle of loaves and fishes, 20, 14. 
 
 4. Apprehension of St. Peter [.? of Moses], 20, 14 ; 
 soldiers or Jews in peculiar flat caps. 
 
 5. The cure of the blind, 19, 11. 
 
 * Bosio's plates, as given by Northcote and Brownlow, are from 
 Forty-eight sarcophagi, thirty of which were found in the crypts of the 
 Vatican.
 
 228 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 6. Miracle of Cana, 16, 8. 
 
 7. RaisingofLazarus — a mummy-like figure, "bound 
 hand and foot in grave-clothes," standing at the door 
 of an ^dicula or chapel-tomb, 16, 14. 
 
 8. Christ with the cock [and St. Peter, the warning 
 of Peter], 14, 8. 
 
 9. Daniel in the lions' den,sometimes with Habakkuk 
 bringing food (Bel and the Dragon), 14, 7. 
 
 10. Cure of the paralytic, generally bearing a kind 
 of sofa-bed, 12, 7. 
 
 11. Creation of Eve, 11, 2. 
 
 12. Sacrifice of Isaac, 11, 9. 
 
 13. Adoration of the Magi, 11, 8. 
 
 14. The temptation and fall, often a tree and ser- 
 pent, often Adam with a sheaf of wheat and Eve with 
 a fleece (" When Adam delved and Eve span "), 10, 14. 
 
 15. The woman with the bloody flux, 8, 9. 
 
 16. The Good Shepherd, 6, 9. 
 
 17. The entry into Jerusalem. 
 
 18. Noah in his square chest, or area, with the 
 dove, 5, 6. 
 
 19. Our Lord before Pilate, the latter generally 
 washing his hands ; a second figure is sometimes 
 present who may be Herod. 
 
 20. Adam and Eve receiving the wheat-sheaf and 
 lamb from (?) the Second Person of the Trinity, 4. 
 See also No. 14 in this list. 
 
 21. Moses receiving the Law, 4, 6. 
 
 22. The " Three Children " with Phrygian caps, 4, 3. 
 
 23. Christ bearing His cross. Three times in the 
 Lateran.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 229 
 
 24. Moses at the burning bush, 2, 2. 
 
 25. Translation of Elijah, 2, 3. 
 
 26. The Nativity, with ox and ass, i, 4, 
 
 Other rarely represented or highly interesting 
 subjects are — 
 
 a. Our Lord on the holy mount, whence issues the 
 four rivers of Paradise, attended by His disciples. 
 Not infrequent. 
 
 b. " Thou shalt go on the lion and adder." Youthful 
 Christ on a sarcophagus, at St. Niccolo, Ravenna. 
 
 c. A feast — semicircular table, with crossed cakes 
 of bread ; (?) an allusion to the Holy Eucharist, or 
 the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, or a funeral feast. 
 Parker's photos, 2928, 2930. 
 
 d. The vision of Ezekiel on two or three photos, 
 2921. The Saviour standing in the act of raising 
 small (apparently shrivelled) dead figures. 
 
 e. Daniel and the dragon (Parker's photo, 2920). 
 
 f. Susannah and the elders — doubtful. 
 
 g. Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea (photo 
 
 2933)- 
 
 //. Offerings of Cain and Abel (photos 2908, 
 
 2910). 
 
 /. The woman of Samaria (Bottari, pi. 137 ; Arlnghi, 
 1. 297 ; Dagincourt Sculpt., Plate VHI. Fig. 9). 
 
 j. The Baptism of our Lord (Parker, 2677, 2919; 
 Bottari, Plate 193). 
 
 k. The daughter of Jairus raised from a sarcophagus 
 (Parker, 2919, 2920 ; Bottari, Plate 193). 
 
 Our next task is to study these individual subjects 
 in their groupings, and to endeavour to discover
 
 230 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 some scheme of symbolism, some connected lines 
 of thought, in the various groups. 
 
 One of the most elaborate of these groupings of 
 Old Testament symbols is in the painted ceiling 
 of a chamber in the Cemetery of St. Callistus, of the 
 third or fourth century. It is geometrically divided 
 by a combination of circle and octagon, into many 
 panels, which form concentric circles. In the centre 
 is a Good Shepherd. The first circle of subjects is 
 an ornamental row of couples of birds pecking grapes 
 out of eight baskets ; the next circle consists of Old 
 and New Testament subjects which surround the 
 Good Shepherd. They are : The paralytic carry- 
 ing his bed ; the miracle at Cana ; the raising of 
 Lazarus ; Daniel in the lions' den ; Jonah swallowed 
 by the sea-monster ; Jonah cast ashore by the 
 monster ; Moses striking the rock ; Noah in the 
 Ark, with the dove. 
 
 Why this cycle of subjects ? why these eight out 
 of all the Old and New Testaments ? Why in this 
 order ,'' As to the order, since they are arranged 
 in a circle, any one may be first in the series, except 
 that the two incidents in the history of Jonah must 
 be taken in historical sequence. 
 
 There are five Old Testament subjects and only 
 three New Testament, and we find nothing like the 
 juxtaposition of type and antitype of which the 
 artists were so fond in a later age. If we take them 
 in the order in which we should read the inscription 
 of a medal, beginning at the bottom and going round 
 by the left hand we get Jonah (our Lord's Resur-
 
 SYMBOLISM. 231 
 
 rection) ; the stricken rock (Baptism) ; Noah (the 
 Church) ; the Paralytic (forgiveness of sins) ; Cana 
 (the Eucharist) ; Lazarus (the resurrection of the 
 dead) ; Daniel (deliverance in persecution). There 
 does not appear to be any natural sequence of 
 thought in this — or any other — order. 
 
 In another circular ceiling given by Garucci (ii. 24), 
 of a cubiculum in the Cemetery of St, Caecilia, Christ 
 sits in the centre, with five Apostles, a casket of manu- 
 script Vohimina at His feet. Around this centre are 
 five larger and five smaller radiating panels. The 
 larger panels contain these subjects : The stricken 
 rock; Moses pointing to the Manna; sacrifice of 
 Isaac ; Three Children in the furnace ; Noah in the 
 Ark. On the smaller panels, elegant foliage, with 
 peacocks. Again we fail to see any scheme of 
 selection or grouping. 
 
 Some of the gilded glass vessels found in the 
 catacombs,* have their ornamentation arranged in a- 
 manner which resembles the designs of some of these 
 ceilings, and afford additional groups for study. 
 One in the private collection of Mr, Wilshere has in 
 the centre the portrait of a man and his wife, with the 
 usual inscription PIE, ZHSES ("Drink, long life"), 
 surrounded by the following Scripture subjects : 
 Adam and Eve (creation) ; sacrifice of Isaac (redemp- 
 tion) ; Paralytic (forgiveness) ; Lazarus (resurrection). 
 
 Another in the same collection has St. Peter and 
 St. Paul in the centre, surrounded by the following 
 subjects in six radiating compartments : The Three 
 
 * Page 309,
 
 J32 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Children ; a man standing in front of a symbolic 
 figure of the sun (Isa. Ix. 20) ; a woman in the 
 attitude of prayer ; Isaiah being sawn in two ; the 
 brazen serpent ; the stricken rock. 
 
 The arcosolia present numerous examples of smaller 
 groups of subjects arranged in the lunette at the back 
 of the recess, on the soffit of the arch of the reces?, 
 and on the wall beneath, which is really the front of 
 the tomb itself Perhaps the motive of the selection 
 of the subjects in these groups may, in some cases at 
 least, be more easily conjectured. We briefly indicate 
 the subjects of several of the groups, and their ar^ 
 rangement. 
 
 1. In the lunette, a portrait of the deceased ; on 
 the soffit, three subjects— a Good Shepherd in the 
 middle, between Daniel and the stricken Rock. 
 
 2. In the lunette, Jonah reclining under the gourd ; 
 on the soffit, a Good Shepherd between two oranti. 
 
 3. In the lunette, three figures — man, woman, 
 and child — probably representations of the deceased 
 buried there ; the soffit divided into three com- 
 partments — in the centre a Good Shepherd between 
 the usual four scenes of the Jonah subject, on the left 
 the Three Children refusing to worship the golden 
 image, on the right the Adoration of the Magi. 
 
 4. In the lunette, the Good Shepherd ; on the soffit, 
 an orante between Jonah and the stricken Rock. 
 
 5. In the lunette, Jonah disgorged; on the soffit, 
 the stricken rock, between Jonah sitting under the 
 gourd, and Jonah reclining under the gourd. 
 
 6. In the lunette, an inscription ; on the soffit, the
 
 SYMBOLISM. 233 
 
 Good Shepherd, between Daniel and the Three 
 Children. 
 
 7. The lunette is divided into three vertical com- 
 partments — in the middle an orante, on the left a feast 
 with five persons present, on the right the five Wise 
 Virgins ; on the soffit, the Good Shepherd between 
 Adam and Eve and Daniel. The front of this tomb 
 is also painted in three vertical compartments— in the 
 middle an orante, between the Three Children and 
 Jonah in three scenes — swallowed, disgorged, and 
 reclining. 
 
 8. Is a very elaborate arrangement. The lunette 
 is divided into three vertical compartments by two 
 trees — in the middle a Good Shepherd with two 
 figures (probably the deceased) kneeling at His feet, 
 between Lazarus and an orante. The soffit is divided 
 into five compartments — in the centre Daniel, at the 
 ends the three Magi before Herod and a male orante ; 
 the intermediate compartments have a subject within 
 a subject — in one, the paralytic between Adam and 
 Eve ; in the other, Noah between two sitting figures. 
 
 These may suffice as examples ; it is only in the 
 simplest groups that we can venture to hope that we 
 understand the motive for the selection of the subjects. 
 
 There is the same difficulty in understanding the 
 grouping of the subjects sculptured on the sarcophagi, 
 but it will be more convenient to reserve the few 
 additional sentences which we have to say about 
 them until we have the subjects more immediately 
 before us in a later chapter.
 
 ImijriJJiTimiJiumiJniJTUmiin^ 
 
 jliunufniJTiiJTiinunTiJTii'T^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SYiMBOLISM — contimted. 
 
 The representation of individual persons — Representations of deceased ; 
 oranti ; oranti with saints — The so-called Madonna of the 
 Cemetery of Priscilla ; the so-called Madonna of St. Agnes — 
 Funeral feasts — Personal emblems : fossors ; sculptor ; painter, 
 etc. — Punning emblems : a dragon for Dracontius, etc. — Instru- 
 ments of martyrdom (?). 
 
 HE Representation of Individual 
 Persons is the fourth class into which 
 we have divided these subjects of early 
 Christian art. Some are conventional 
 figures of the men, women, and children there buried, 
 who are sometimes identified by the inscription of 
 their names. Some of the later figures seem to make 
 an attempt at portraiture. 
 
 In these representations of deceased persons there 
 is a remarkable omission, considering the actual life 
 of the Church during those ages, of all allusion to the 
 sufferings of the faithful at the hands of the perse- 
 cutors. We know from other sources of information 
 that the Church took the profoundest interest in the
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 255 
 
 conflicts and triumphs of its martyrs and confessors. 
 At a very early period the acta of the martyrs were 
 carefully recorded in the fullest detail ; the relics of 
 martyrs were eagerly collected and treasured ; their 
 burial-places were honoured ; their memory was kept 
 fresh in the mind of the Church by the record of their 
 names in the diptychs, and by annual celebrations of 
 their birthdays, i.e. the days of their birth into the 
 nev/ life ; but we find no attempt to represent their 
 martyrdoms on their graves,* no record of them in 
 inscriptions. Was the omission in the same spirit in 
 which St. Peter, speaking to Jews (Acts iii. 17), apolo- 
 gized for the acts of their rulers who killed the Prince 
 of Life: "I wot that 
 through ignorance ye did 
 it, as did also your rulers," 
 and omitted all allusior 
 to the agency of Pilate in 
 his address to the Roman 
 Cornelius and his friends ? 
 In this class we have no 
 hesitation in placing the 
 vast majority of figures 
 standing with outstretched 
 
 arms, to which the Roman wall-painting, Cemetery of St. 
 antiquaries have given the Marcellinus. An orante clad 
 
 , , . in chasuble. 
 
 convenient title of oranti — 
 
 praying people. They are found in great numbers 
 
 painted on the walls of the catacombs, sculptured on 
 
 * The common subjects of the Three Children in Nebuchadnezzar's 
 furnace and of Daniel in the lions' den may be allusions to them.
 
 236 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the sarcophagi, in mosaics as at Salonica, on the gilded 
 glass vessels ; lastly, on every page of the Menologia ; 
 and have been the subject of much controversy. 
 
 c^ •; 
 
 ■^v^>^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^n^lONYSAS 
 INP/^CE 
 
 '«!«««««« irm 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Soter, Rome. 
 
 The example on p. 235 is a male orante of early 
 date clad in the chasuble, which afterwards, when it 
 
 Inscription on marble. 
 
 went out of lay use, was retained as a clerical vest- 
 ment. It is from a wall-painting in the Cemetery of 
 St. Marcellinus.* 
 
 * Bosio, p. 377.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 m 
 
 The next, from the Cemetery of St. Soter, Rome, is 
 one of four persons in a garden full of flowers and 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Cxcilia, Rome. 
 
 fruits, in the midst of which are birds of various kinds, 
 representing Paradise. It is of the third century.* 
 
 The third is an . interesting design on a marble 
 slab published by Boldetti, p. 329. 
 
 • De Rossi, " Roma Sottcfanca," ii. 9.
 
 238 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The fourth is a wall-pahiting of Byzantine style, 
 from the Cemetery of St. Cascilia, Rome, 
 
 The attitude was that of prayer among Jews and 
 Gentiles.* The early Christians continued to use 
 the same attitude. Tertullian describes it, " looking 
 up, with hands spread open, and head uncovered," 
 and further remarks that the position of the praying 
 Christian represents Christ upon the cross.f The 
 attitude among the early Christians was as univer- 
 sally the posture of prayer as kneeling Vv'ith joined 
 hands is among ourselves.^ 
 
 We find male and female oranti, separately, to- 
 gether as man and wife, and sometimes children 
 associated with them in a family group ; not infre- 
 quently their names are inscribed over their heads or 
 by their sides. § Thus on the lunette of an arcosolium 
 at Naples is a half-length male orante between two 
 candlesticks with lighted candles, and the inscription 
 " HIC REQVIESET PROCVLUS ; " |1 and a group of man, 
 woman, and child, inscribed " ILARIS VIX AN.XLV. 
 THEOTECNVS VIX AN.L. NONNOSA VIX AN.II.MX," in 
 
 the lunette of an arcosolium in the Upper Cemetery of 
 San Gennaro, at Naples.Tf There can be no doubt that 
 
 * The hands of Moses were extended in prayer during the battle of 
 Amalek (Exod. xvii. 12). See Ps. xxviii. 2; xliv. 20; cxliii. 6. 
 ^(Eneas is described by Virgil, Dnplices tcndens ad sidera palinas. 
 
 t I Apol., XXX. 
 
 X It has been suggested that the puzzling word wepiaaaTe at the 
 commencement of the anaphora in the AiSaK-fi is a direction to the 
 faithful to spread out their arms in this striking attitude ; it is im- 
 mediately followed by the further direction, "Lift up your hearts." 
 
 § Roller, Plate XLVIII. 
 
 II Garucci, vol. i. Plate loi. 
 
 IT Appell, "Monuments of Early Christian Art," p. 67.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 239 
 
 in these cases we have representations of deceased 
 persons in the attitude of prayer, just as in the case 
 of the mediaeval effigies lying with joined hands 
 
 Painting from the Upper Cemetery of St. Gennaro, Naples. 
 
 upon their altar-tombs, or, at a later period, kneeling 
 at a prayer-desk. 
 
 Figures in this attitude of prayer are not uncommon 
 in early Celtic art. See curious examples at Llan- 
 hamllech, and at Llanfrynach, Brecknockshire,* 
 
 Some of the female oranti are represented in such 
 a way as to have given ground for the theory that 
 they represent the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the 
 Church. 
 
 In the Chapel of Sta. Felicitas, at the Baths of Titus, 
 is a colossal female figure f — with hands outstretched 
 over smaller figures on each side of her, and over her 
 a head of Christ amid clouds — which certainly looks 
 
 * Engraved in "Early Christian Symbolism," J. Romillv Allen, 
 p. 128. 
 
 t Garucci, " Storia della Arte," vol. iii. Plate 154.
 
 240 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 
 
 very much like a Blessed Virgin interceding with the 
 Divine Son for the votaries around her ; but the in- 
 scription shows that the figure is intended for Sta. 
 Felicitas, in whose name the chapel is dedicated, and 
 the smaller figures are contemporary saints, whose 
 names are inscribed over their heads. 
 
 There are several examples of a female figure 
 occupying the central place in the sculptured front of 
 a sarcophagus, with Apostles on each side of her, 
 or standing between St. Peter and St. Paul. That 
 this is not the Virgin Mary, but a figure of the 
 deceased person whose remains were laid in the 
 sarcophagus, is established by two pieces of evidence. 
 In some cases the name of the orante is inscribed 
 over her head, as "FLORA" between SS. Peter and Paul 
 on a Spanish sarcophagus, figured by Roller ; * in 
 other cases,t the face of the orante has been left 
 unfinished, exactly as in the case of the medallion 
 portraits mentioned at p. 264, and for the same reason 
 — that the portrait of the deceased might be added 
 after the purchase of the sarcophagus. 
 
 This fashion of placing the effigy of a deceased 
 person among saints or between two Apostles is 
 easily explained. The effigy was not so much a 
 portrait of the person during lifetime, as a representa- 
 tion of the spirit after death. To sculpture it in the 
 midst of the saints was a striking way of conveying, 
 in the language of art, the common epitaph, aun 
 Sanctis, " So-and-so is with the saints." To place this 
 departed spirit between SS. Peter and Paul was to 
 * "Catacombes de Rome," vol. ii. Plate XLI. t Ibid.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 241 
 
 represent the Princes of the Apostles as introducing 
 it into Paradise, just as in the mosaics at SS. Cosmas 
 and Damian and other churches, SS. Peter and Paul 
 are presenting the founder of the church, or the donor 
 of the mosaic, to our Lord in glory. That the dis- 
 embodied spirit was represented in early art by a 
 human figure is shown in the martyrdom of St. 
 Stephen in the sculptures of the great doorway at 
 Aries, and in that of St. Lawrence, on the medal at 
 p. 343, where the dying martyr is breathing forth his 
 spirit in this form. So in mediaeval pictures of the 
 Crucifixion, the painters often represented the souls of 
 the dying robbers. This idea of the apotheosis of a 
 departed Christian is found in mediaeval times in the 
 modified form of two angels bearing upward the 
 soul — in the form of a small nude human figure — in 
 the hollow lap of a long sheet. 
 
 Among the gilded glass medallions are some in 
 which there is a female orante between two men, 
 and all three have their names inscribed over them — 
 " PETER, MARIA, PAVLVS ; " but that does not imply 
 any peculiar distinction of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
 over all other saints, since there are similar groups on 
 other medallions, inscribed " peter, PAUL, AGNES," 
 and " CHRISTOS, AGNES, LAWRENCE ; " on another 
 medallion are two female saints, inscribed " anne 
 (= AGNES), MARIA;" there are several of Agnes 
 alone. 
 
 In short, there is not In the art of the first five 
 centuries an example of a representation of the 
 Virgin Mary, except as a necessary figure in the
 
 242 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 representation of the Annunciation, the Nativity, and 
 the Adoration of the Magi. She is never put forward 
 prominently, as the Apostles, for example, are con- 
 stantly put forward, as persons of special distinction in 
 the Church. Still less is she put forward as concentrat- 
 ing the spectator's attention upon her personality, and 
 implying some special cult. There are many indica- 
 tions that in the fourth century St. Agnes, the virgin 
 martyr of the Diocletian persecution, was the popular 
 saint — her name is still retained in our English 
 Prayer-book ; the real claims of the Blessed Virgin 
 to special reverence were hardly recognized until the 
 discussions which terminated in the decision of the 
 Council of Ephesus (a.d. 431) called attention to 
 them. 
 
 There are two or three examples which seem to 
 contradict the assertion in the preceding sentence. 
 In the Cemetery of Priscilla, in an inconspicuous 
 position among other subjects, over an arcosolium,* 
 there is a picture of the Virgin holding the Child in 
 her arms ; in front of her is a male figure, pointing 
 to a star above and between them ; De Rossi suggests 
 that it is a pictorial allusion to tTie prophecies of the 
 Nativity. In De Rossi's " Bulletino di Archaeologia 
 Christiana" for 1844-45, ^'s a photographic repre- 
 sentation of a recently discovered fragment of a 
 sculptural group, with woodcuts of Dc Rossi's con- 
 jectural restoration of it. The principal portion of 
 the subject is a female figure, seated with a child on 
 her lap, facing to the (spectator's) left — no doubt, the 
 
 * Roller, Plate XV.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 243 
 
 Blessed Virgin and the Divine Child. There are plain 
 hidications on the (spectator's) left of an angel looking 
 towards the Virgin. On the right, behind the Virgin, 
 are indistinct traces of a standing figure ; and above 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Callistus, Rome. 
 
 the Virgin's head is a hand pointing upwards : De 
 Rossi's conjectural restoration combines these into a 
 male figure pointing to a star. The sculptured subject 
 may be fairly compared with the wall-painting 
 noticed above, and may be interpreted as an alle- 
 gorical representation which combines the conven- 
 tional "Annunciation" with the conventional allusion 
 to the prophecy of the " Star," presented in the wall- 
 painting. The so-called " Madonna of St. Agnes " is 
 an orante and her child painted in the lunette of an 
 arcosolium.* In the Cemetery of St. Valentine, on the 
 Flaminian Way, there is an undoubted " Madonna " 
 
 * Sec Roller, Plate LXXV.
 
 244 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of the mediaeval type ; both the Virgin and the Child 
 are nimbed, and there is an inscription, " SAC DEI 
 GENETRix," but it is of late date.* In the famous 
 
 P-C- 
 
 Oi'ante and child, the so-called Madonna of the Cemetery 
 of St. Agnes. 
 
 Rabula manuscript f is a representation of an 
 Ascension (see p. 315), in which a female figure | 
 occupies the centre, with an angel on each side of her, 
 each addressing a group of six Apostles, who fill up the 
 picture. In the same manuscript is a representation 
 of the Day of Pentecost, in which again the Virgin 
 occupies a central and conspicuous place ; and this 
 rendering of the two subjects continued in use 
 throughout the Middle Ages. One of the earliest 
 representations of the Madonna is in the Early 
 Church (crypt) of St. Clement at Rome, where is also 
 an assumption of the Blessed Virgin, but these 
 decorations are of the eighth century. 
 
 In the mosaics in St. Agnes in Rome, Is the 
 earliest {circa A.D. 630) instance of the patron saint 
 occupying the central place in the apse instead of 
 that of our Lord ; and in the Church of St. Maria in 
 
 * Garucci, vol. ii. Plate 84, i. t Ibid., vol. iii. Plates 139, 140. 
 
 X In the West the Blessed Virgin Mary was seldom represented in 
 the attitude of an orante ; in the East she was, and is, frequently.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 
 
 245 
 
 Dominica (a.d. 820), for the first time the Blessed 
 Virgin occupies this prominent position. 
 
 The suggestion that some of these oranti represent 
 the Church has, perhaps, still less evidence in its 
 favour. It is not till we come to the fifth century 
 that we find, in the basilica of Sta. Sabina, at 
 Rome, an undoubted example of this symbolical 
 representation of the Church ; there are two female 
 figures, each holding a book, one inscribed " Ecclesia 
 ex Circumcisione," and the other " Ecclesia ex Genti- 
 bus." Eve, and Sarah (Gal. iv. 22-end), and the 
 Bride of Rev. ix. i, are obvious types of the Church, 
 but the idea does not seem to have been included 
 in the cycle of the early symbolism. 
 
 Another subject which occurs very frequently in 
 the wall-paintings of the catacombs is A GROUP OF 
 PERSONS SITTING OR RECLINING AT TABLE, which 
 is usually of horseshoe shape, and upon it are a fish 
 
 Wall-painting, Cemetery of St. Callistus, Rome. 
 
 lying in a dish, and a few round loaves, which are 
 usually marked with a cross. Three suggestions have 
 been made as to the meaning of this subject: (i) 
 That it represents the Last Supper ; (2) the funeral 
 feast ; (3) the happiness of Paradise.
 
 246 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 We incline to think that these pictures in the first 
 instance represent the Funeral Feast. It needs some 
 acquaintance with ancient manners to appreciate the 
 importance of these funeral feasts. From very early- 
 times, we know from the " Iliad," the holding of a 
 festival at the tomb was an indispensable part of the 
 obsequies, and the custom continued in full force at 
 the period of the introduction of the Christian 
 religion ; and Christians, while adopting burial in 
 place of cremation, made little other alteration in the 
 funeral customs of their time. 
 
 We have seen (p. 119) that the common existence 
 of burial guilds afforded the Church facilities for 
 obtaining and managing its cemeteries under sanction 
 of the law. One of the customs of these funeral 
 guilds was that all the members assisted at the 
 funeral of a member, and attended the funeral feast, 
 met again at his tomb at the expiration of a month, 
 and held an annual commemoration of his death, the 
 meeting always concluding with a feast. In the 
 series of chambers of the most ancient part of 
 the Cemetery of Lucina, this subject is repeated, 
 with some minor variations of treatment, because 
 (we suggest) those chambers were used for funeral 
 feasts, and therefore the subject was an appro- 
 priate one for the decoration of their walls. In 
 some examples of this subject the names of 
 the guests at the feast are painted over their 
 heads, leaving it beyond question that the paint- 
 ing is a record of an actual funeral feast of some 
 person buried in the chamber on the wall of
 
 SYMBOLISM. 247 
 
 which the painting appears, or in the neighbouring 
 gallery. 
 
 The festivals celebrated in honour of the saints 
 enrolled in the calendar are funeral commemorations 
 on a large scale, Sidonius describes the festival of 
 Justus, the popular Gallic saint in the latter part of 
 the fifth century. These funeral feasts were often 
 abused. St. Augustine says, " In North Africa I know 
 many who hold luxurious drinking-bouts over the 
 dead, and, setting dainty meats before corpses, bury 
 themselves [in intoxication] above the buried, and 
 make their own voracity and drunkenness a matter of 
 religious observance." St. Ambrose in Milan speaks 
 of "drunken revels in the crypts," and exclaims 
 against the folly of men who thought drunkenness 
 could be a part of sacrifice. Canons were made to 
 restrain the licence of the assemblies at the vigils 
 and festivals of the saints. The custom continued 
 throughout the subsequent ages, and has not even 
 yet disappeared. The large attendance of relations 
 and friends at a funeral in the northern counties ; the 
 attendance of the members of a benefit society at the 
 funeral of one of their fellow-members ; the custom 
 of returning to the house after a funeral and partaking 
 of refreshments ; — are survivals of the customs which 
 we trace back to the prehistoric ages. 
 
 It is very possible that this subject had also, in the 
 minds of people who were so accustomed to sym- 
 bolism as the early Christians, a symbolical meaning, 
 but we doubt whether that meaning was directly and 
 primarily Eucharistic. The fish and loaves on the
 
 248 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 table are in accordance with such a meaning, but in 
 mediaeval representations of feasts of all kinds fish 
 and bread are very often found as the only viands 
 upon the table. There is in these pictures no hint 
 of a central person distributing the food to those on 
 each side of him. Eucharistic symbols abound, and 
 we have noticed some of them, but these are not 
 of them. 
 
 We commonly accept a representation of the Last 
 Supper as having a Eucharistic meaning, but it is 
 doubtful whether it was used in early and mediaeval 
 art with that intention. The Ccena Domini of the 
 Middle Ages meant primarily the marriage supper 
 of the king's son, i.e. the happiness of heaven.* At 
 the close of the Nicenc Council, when the assembled 
 bishops, representatives of the whole Church, dined 
 with Constantino, Eusebius says it was like an image 
 of the kingdom of Christ. In the seventh-century 
 Gospels of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a 
 representation of our Lord and eight of His Apostles 
 sitting at table, and the picture is inscribed " CCENA 
 Dni." The paintings of "The Last Supper" by 
 Leonard da Vinci and others are not on the reredos 
 of the altar of the church, but on the wall behind the 
 high table in the refectory. No doubt every Christian 
 meal, consecrated with prayer, is quasi-sacramental, 
 or at least symbolic of the Sacrament ; and very pos- 
 
 * The lunette of an arcosolium (figured by Roller, ii. Plate LXXXIII.) 
 is painted with a representation of the subject of the Parable of the 
 Ten Virgins. Our Lord stands in the middle ; on His left are the five 
 foolish virgins at the closed door ; on Ilis right the five wise virgins 
 seated at a banquet at a semicircular table in the conventional manner.
 
 SYMBOLISM. i^i:^ 
 
 sibly to minds so trained to see the mystic meaning 
 of all things, the funeral feast suggested not only the 
 feast of fat things, of wines on the lees, well refined, 
 which the Lord will make in His holy mountain when 
 He has swallowed up death in victory (Isa, xxv. 6), 
 but also that anticipation and foretaste of it which 
 He gives to His people here at His holy table ; but 
 we think the primary intention of these paintings in 
 the catacombs was to represent the funeral feast. 
 
 5. Personal Emblems. 
 
 The use of the characteristic instruments of a 
 man's occupation as a symbol of the man must 
 necessarily go back to primitive times and be of 
 universal adoption ; it is a kind of natural hiero- 
 glyphic language, and it largely survives among 
 unlettered populations. It is to be found specially 
 in two applications — as a sign outside a man's door 
 to direct those who need his services, and means, 
 here lives a baker, a blacksmith, or whatever he 
 may be ; and on his gravestone to mark his resting- 
 place — here lies a baker, or blacksmith, or what 
 not, whose work is done. The sign of the Chequers 
 indicated a house of public entertainment in Pompeii 
 in the first century, just as it does now in Ports- 
 mouth in the nineteenth ; it was the mechanical 
 help to cast up the reckoning. One of the most 
 curious monuments of Rome is that of Eurysaces 
 the Baker, which is partly built of the stone mortars 
 in which bread was kneaded, and has a frieze of 
 bas-reliefs representing the operations of the baker,
 
 250 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 from the carrying of corn to the mill to the final 
 weighing and distribution of the bread. 
 
 So among the expedients adopted for identifying 
 a particular loculus among the many which presented 
 themselves along the walls of the galleries of the 
 catacombs, numerous trade signs appear. Among 
 the most interesting, perhaps, are those v/hich relate 
 to the catacombs themselves. In several of the 
 catacombs are several paintings of fossorcs* mem- 
 bers of the guild of artisans whose business was 
 the excavation of the catacombs ; the effigy of the 
 fossor is surrounded by the implements of his calling 
 — the picks with which he worked at the rock, and 
 the lamp by whose light he worked. 
 
 At Urbino is a sarcophagus f which represents a 
 sculptor and his studio. It has an inscription : AFIOG 
 eEOCEBEC EYTPOniOC EN IPHNH (The holy 
 pious Eutropius in peace). His men are represented 
 at work upon a sarcophagus, and one of the methods 
 of the ancient sculptor is shown in the use of the 
 drill worked by a cord and bow. On another 
 sarcophagus, on a panel between dolphins, is inscribed 
 his own name EYTPOniOS. We recognize that the 
 sculptor had designed his own tomb and had it 
 executed in his lifetime, and had emphasized its 
 memento mori by causing his name to be carved on 
 the pictorial sarcophagus, EYTPOIIIOS. 
 
 In another catacomb | is a painting which com- 
 memorates one of the decorative artists who painted 
 
 • Roller, Plate VI. t Garucci, vol. vi. Plate 488, fig. 25. 
 
 X Ibid., fig. 19.
 
 SYMBOLISM. 2Si 
 
 the walls and ceilings of the sepulchral chambers, 
 representing him as actually engaged in laying out 
 the geometrical pattern of the ceiling of a chamber. 
 The fossor lies at last in the gallery which he 
 excavated, and the sculptor in the sarcophagus which 
 he sculptured, and the painter under the ceiling 
 which he himself designed.* 
 
 The emblems on the loculus of a painter are a pair 
 of compasses, a crayon, and two paint-brushes. The 
 forceps of a dentist are found on another, A case 
 of surgical instruments (engraved by De Rossi, 
 "Bulletino," 1864, p. 36) indicates a professor of the 
 healing art. Among others are found the pincers and 
 hammer which symbolize a blacksmith ; a leather 
 apron (a skin) is inscribed on the tomb of another 
 who is described as FABER, a blacksmith ; the saw, 
 adze, and chisel of a carpenter, the comb and shears 
 of a wool-comber, the carpenter's adze and the mason's 
 plumb-line, occur on sarcophagi at Aries. 
 
 It is maintained that in some cases these tools 
 are the instruments of martyrdom inscribed on the 
 loculi of martyrs. Martigni, after reciting some of 
 them, says, " We have not full confidence, sometimes 
 in their authenticity, sometimes in the interpretation 
 put upon them, but enough remains to establish the 
 fact that it was customary to represent the instruments 
 of their torture and death upon the tombs of martyrs 
 in the primitive Church ; " but this is very doubtful. 
 
 Another curious class of symbols of which a 
 few examples occur are punning symbols, like the 
 
 * Garucci, " Storia," etc., vol. vi. Plate 48S.
 
 252 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 mediaeval "canting heraldry." The tomb of one 
 Dracontius has a dragon ; that of Onager, an ass ; 
 that of one Leo, a lion ; of Doliens, a cask {dolmni) ; 
 of Porcella, a pig ; of Caprioles, a goat ; of Jugas, a 
 yoke. 
 
 There are evidences of representations of martyr- 
 doms at the tombs of the martyrs. For example, 
 the painting of the martyrdom of St. Theodorus 
 mentioned by St. Gregory of Nyssa, and a sculptured 
 representation of the beheading of St. Nereus found 
 near his tomb ; * but these were works of a later date 
 when the tombs had become places of pilgrimage. 
 
 * See p. 1 66,
 
 
 o;c ir o:y yr^ C i.^ / .S?rfn??:'>T^'?? !'^t ^«' '^ tOt0*^'!i: ^ -j»^^ SJ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Classical sculpture— Christian statuary : the Good Shepherd, at Rome, 
 Constantinople, and Athens ; the St. Hippolytus ; the St. Peter — 
 Sarcophagi : Egyptian, Etruscan, Roman, Christian ; kept ready 
 made — The subjects sculptured on them — Sarcophagi of Empress 
 Helena ; Constantia ; Petronius Probus ; Junius Bassus ; Anicius 
 Probus, etc. — Sarcophagi in Gaul, Spain, etc. — Pagan sarcophagi 
 used for burial of Christians — English examples — Survivals of 
 style and subjects in stone crosses and fonts. 
 
 HE art of sculpture had, at the beginning 
 of the Christian era, decHned from that 
 height of perfection to which the great 
 Greek artists had attained in the time 
 of Phidias and Praxiteles years before ; but Greece 
 and all the countries to which the Greek civiHzation 
 had extended were still full of noble examples of it. 
 The Romans could appreciate these treasures, and 
 victorious generals and plundering proconsuls 
 brought them in great numbers to adorn the 
 temples and public places and palaces of Rome ; 
 and it is probable that replicas of favourite ex-
 
 254 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 amples were executed by Greek sculptors for Roman 
 patrons. 
 
 In the time of Augustus there were sculptors, 
 both Greek and Roman, capable of executing grand 
 and noble designs ; but after that splendid age the 
 decline of the art set in. Its works seem soon to 
 have been limited, as with us at the present day, 
 to the execution of portrait statues and busts 
 and the decoration of buildings. There was a 
 temporary revival of the art in the period of the 
 Antonines ; after that no great works were executed 
 — at least, none have come down to us. For seven or 
 eight hundred years the art is represented by the bas- 
 reliefs of the sarcophagi, ivory carv- 
 ings, and a few bronze articles of 
 furniture and ornament. In the 
 thirteenth century the art revived 
 and grew until it reached another 
 climax of excellence at the Renais- 
 sance. 
 
 Of works in the round which we 
 can claim as belonging to early 
 Christian art, the number is lament- 
 ably small, and they are not of any 
 great account as works of art. The 
 The Good Shepherd, earliest and best of them is a small 
 Statue in the La- marble figure of the Good Shepherd, 
 
 teran Museum. ° '■ ' 
 
 now in the Lateran Museum, pro- 
 bably of the second or early part of the third century, 
 of which a photograph is given in the frontispiece. 
 It is a standing figure, clad in a short tunic fastened
 
 SCULPTURE. 25 s 
 
 round the waist, the legs below the knees in cross- 
 banded stockings and boots, a scrip suspended from 
 the right shoulder. The head is uncovered, the face 
 youthful; there is no attempt to idealize it. The sheep 
 lies on his shoulders, and its legs are held in front 
 with both hands.* We only recognize it as a symbolical 
 figure of the Good Shepherd from its likeness to the 
 figures which are so frequent in the wall-paintings 
 of the catacombs, and from the absence of any such 
 subject in pagan art. Some writers, indeed, allude 
 to mythological sheep and goat-bearing figures f as 
 if they might have been the type from which the 
 Christian symbolical figure was derived, but a glance 
 at them is enough to show that the two have no 
 relation to one another. 
 
 A naked Good Shepherd, which looks as if it had 
 been suggested by one of these classic examples, 
 occurs on a late Gallic sarcophagus,J at Vienne. 
 
 The heads are all conventional ; so much so that 
 in glancing through the hundreds of them which exist 
 on the sarcophagi, a head with any "character" at 
 once attracts attention. For example. Roller gives 
 a photogravure of a finely designed sarcophagus § in 
 which are several heads of our Lord strikingly like 
 the modern type ; but on inquiry it turns out that 
 all these heads are the work of modern restoration. 
 
 * Engraved in Perkins's "Tuscan Sculptures," vol. i. Plate XLTTT., 
 and photographed in Parker's Series, 2901. 
 
 t The statue by Calamis, or of his time, called Hermes Criophorus, 
 or the Ram-bearer. See it engraved in Seaman's " Gotter und Heroen," 
 sub nomine. 
 
 * Le Blant, p. 23. § Plate LXXXI. fig. 3.
 
 256 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 A second ancient statue of the Good Shepherd, of 
 inferior workmanship, two feet high, is also in the 
 Lateran Museum. The figure is young and beardless, 
 clad in a short tunic girded round the waist, loose 
 knitted stockings, and short boots. His left hand 
 supports a long staff, and his right hand grasps the 
 four feet of a sheep, which he bears on his shoulders. 
 
 A third statue of the same subject, of poor 
 workmanship, is in the Kircherian Museum of the 
 Collegio Romano. 
 
 Another, with the legs broken off short, of the 
 end of the third or beginning of the fourth century, 
 has been recently found near the Ostian Gate of 
 Rome, and is photographed in De Rossi's " Bulletino" 
 
 for 1887. 
 
 There is still another small example of the same 
 subject at Seville, which is probably of the fourth 
 century. 
 
 M. Bayet * mentions a damaged statuette in the 
 Museum of St. Irene, at Constantinople, which is of 
 the usual type of the Good Shepherd, and, he thinks, 
 of about the third century. Also at Athens, among 
 the fragments of sculpture in the museum of Patissia, 
 is a portion of a marble statuette of the Good Shep- 
 herd, of inferior workmanship, which is not later than 
 the fourth century. The resemblance between these 
 two is striking. A bas-relief at Athens, which seems 
 to be earlier than the fourth century, represents a 
 shepherd of the type described above, but it has a 
 
 * C. Bayet, " Recherches pour servir a I'histoire de la peintv.re et 
 de la sculpture."
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 !57 
 
 nimbus round the head which docs not occur on 
 Christian monuments till later, and which docs 
 appear on pagan monuments of earliar date, e.g. in 
 the paintings at Pompeii ; behind, a second person, 
 
 From a sarcophagus in the cathedral, Tortona. Fourth century. 
 
 bent towards the earth, holds a sheep in his arms ; 
 beside him is a tree with a serpent coiled round it. 
 Among the sculptures with which Constantine adorned 
 the public places of his new capital Eusebius mentions
 
 25 8 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the Good Shepherd and Daniel with the lions, which 
 were of bronze covered with plates of gold. 
 
 On the preceding page is a woodcut of a Good 
 Shepherd in low relief from the end of a sarcophagus 
 of the fourth century in Tortona Cathedral. 
 
 A portion of a marble bust, with locks of hair 
 hanging down on each shoulder, probably intended 
 
 for our Lord, found in 
 1888, is engraved in the 
 " Melanges de I'Ecole Fran- 
 ^aise do Rome" (1888), 
 Plate IX. It seems to be a 
 work of the fourth century. 
 A life-size marble figure 
 of St. Hippolytus seated in 
 his episcopal chair, in the 
 Lateran Museum, is a fairly 
 good work of art. It is 
 identified as that of Hippo- 
 lytus by the fact that the 
 " Pascal Canon " of which 
 „ , ,. ,,,,.«. he was the author is in- 
 Statue of St. Hippolytus, Latcmn scribcd on one side of the 
 
 Museum. ^^^^j^^ ^^^^ ^ jj^^ ^^ j^j^ 
 
 works on the other. The saintly bishop lived in 
 the third century, and the chair and the lower part 
 of the figure may be of that date, but the upper 
 part of the figure is said to be a restoration of the 
 sixth century. Roller suggests that an earlier work 
 representing some philosopher has been appropriated 
 and converted into a St. Hippolytus.
 
 SCULPTURE. 259 
 
 The famous bronze seated figure of St. Peter in 
 St. Peter's at Rome, with the right hand raised in 
 blessing, while the other holds the symbolical keys, 
 is an imitation of the antique portrait statues. It 
 is believed by some to be a statue of Jupiter taken 
 from the Capitoline Temple furnished with a new head 
 and hands. There is a tradition that Pope Leo I. 
 had the Capitoline Jupiter recast into a St. Peter ; 
 this would make it a work of the middle of the 
 fifth century. Signer Lanciani, who has had special 
 opportunities of examining it, says with great decision 
 that it is a complete and unaltered casting [Mr. J. H. 
 Parker says in bell-metal], that " the head and hands 
 are essential and genuine details of the original 
 composition. The difficulty, and it is a great one, 
 consists in stating its age ; " the keys, he says, are 
 of comparatively modern form. Roller's judgment 
 is that, far from being an ex-Jupiter of the best 
 period, it is a stifi" and misshapen product of the 
 seventh or eighth century. 
 
 The sculptured sarcophagi are by far the most 
 numerous examples of the sculpture of these early 
 centuries, and they are of the greater importance in 
 the history of art because they are the only existing 
 works, either pagan or Christian, which represent the 
 art of sculpture for several centuries. 
 
 Some two hundred of them have been preserved, 
 chiefly in Italy, the south of France, and Spain. By 
 far the largest collection is that in the Vatican and the 
 Lateran, of those found in the neighbourhood of Rome.
 
 26o HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The custom of preserving the dead bodies of 
 illustrious persons in sarcophagi is coeval with the 
 earliest civilization. We are all familiar with the 
 grand granite sarcophagi of the Egyptians, with their 
 sides sculptured with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and 
 the calm, solemn ^'i^%y of the deceased in high relief 
 on the massive cover. The custom passed, together 
 with the Egyptian civilization, into Eastern Europe. 
 The Etruscans, whose power was dominant in North 
 and Central Italy before the might of Rome sup- 
 planted them, used sarcophagi of stone and terra 
 cotta, and placed them in sepulchral chambers hewn 
 out of the rock and adorned with paintings. The 
 Romans, or at least certain families of them of 
 Etruscan descent, continued these ancestral usages. 
 From the beginning of the third century pagan Rome 
 began to disuse the practice of cremation, and by the 
 end of the fourth it had almost entirely ceased ; and 
 as a consequence sarcophagi became more numerous. 
 Christians from the first buried their dead unmuti- 
 lated ; but it was only Christians of wealth and 
 station who used the costly sarcophagus, and con- 
 sequently sarcophagi known to be Christian in the 
 first three centuries are rare ; indeed there is not 
 one of the second century and hardly any of the 
 third. Unless, indeed, some early Christians, like 
 some of later times, were buried in pagan sarcophagi. 
 This idea finds support in the fact that some sar- 
 cophagi have a strange mixture of pagan and Chris- 
 tian subjects. Martigny mentions one in the Villa 
 Medici with a Cupid and Psyche and a Jonah; the
 
 SCULPTURE, 261 
 
 Psyche may be used as an emblem of the soul. 
 Another in the Vatican, figured by Cancellari, has 
 a Bacchanalian scene with a Christian inscription. 
 Some of those which have only a central bust and 
 strigillated panels may be the tombs of Christians. 
 
 The larger number of sarcophagi sculptured with 
 bas-reliefs of Christian subjects belong to the fourth 
 and fifth centuries, though they continued in use to 
 the seventh century ; after that the stone coffin was 
 retained throughout the Middle Ages, but its shape 
 and ornamentation were modified. 
 
 The most usual type of sarcophagus of the early 
 centuries of our era is a rectangular stone chest, of 
 not superfluous dimensions, covered with a single 
 block of the same stone, which was usually ridged 
 like the roof of a house. 
 
 The ornamentation was most commonly limited 
 to the front of the cofifin, but frequently extended 
 to the ends, to the back, and to the lid. The 
 most simple design was a medallion in the middle 
 of the front, in which was sculptured the portrait of 
 the deceased, while the rest of the front was covered 
 with a strigillated pattern, ie. a series of shallow 
 parallel channels, diagonal in their general direction, 
 with an O.G. curve ; forming altogether a simple but 
 elefjant decoration. In some the front is divided 
 into panels by shafts bearing round or straight-sided 
 arches, each arch containing a figure or a subject. 
 In others the subjects are all in one long panel 
 without any division. But perhaps the most common 
 design is that in which the front is divided by a
 
 263 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 horizontal line, and contains two series of subjects 
 without any divisions between them. 
 
 It is well known that both the Greeks and Romans 
 sought to accentuate the effect of sculpture by the 
 application of colour ; and there are indications that 
 some of the sarcophagi have been thus treated.* 
 
 The artistic merit of the sculpture on these monu- 
 ments varies greatly. The majority of them have 
 this advantage that, having been hidden and preserved 
 from the wear and tear of time and accident for so 
 many centuries, they have come down to us in a 
 perfect state of preservation, and represent the art of 
 their time more fairly than the contemporary faded, 
 battered, and sometimes restored frescoes. The great 
 mass of those which are ornamented with Scripture 
 subjects are not without merit ; the general effect of 
 the front covered with bas-reliefs is rich and pleasing ; 
 in the several subjects the story is told with naivete, 
 but with effect. One common defect is that the heads 
 of the figures are disproportionately large ; it arises 
 probably from the comparative lowness of the panel 
 into which a large number of figures had to be 
 crowded, leading the artist to sacrifice the proportion 
 of his figures to bringing out of his heads. In the sub- 
 sequent style of art, by a natural reaction, the ten- 
 dency is to make the figures disproportionately tall. 
 
 Some of the bas-reliefs are of very creditable work- 
 manship, some even astonish us with unexpected 
 excellence. On the next page are two subjects from 
 the tomb of Junius Bassus, A.D. 359, carefully drawn 
 
 * Roller.
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 263 
 
 
 (f ij'iiiii'i^Vs'iti,, 
 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 'S 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 rt 
 
 Ph 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o
 
 X 
 
 2 64 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 to a large scale in order to give some idea of the merit 
 of the sculpture. Some of the medallion portraits* 
 are very well executed. 
 
 There is one very curious feature in some of these 
 monuments. In several cases the medallion in the 
 centre of the front has the usual design of the busts 
 of a man and wife, her arm round his shoulder; but 
 the faces of the figures are only roughly shaped out, 
 and have never been finished. In one case there is an 
 orante in the middle of a row of Scripture subjects 
 whose face is left in the same unfinished state, t This 
 reveals the interesting fact that sarcophagi were kept 
 ready made at the sculptors' studios, so that "the 
 person who had the management of the funeral could 
 go and select from the number ; and would find one 
 with a medallion bust of an ordinary citizen, another 
 of a dignitary in appropriate costume, needing only 
 that the rough-hewn face should be sculptured into 
 a portrait at the last morhent, and this would pro- 
 bably be copied from a bust already sculptured in 
 lifetime. In the cases mentioned some accident or 
 oversight had hindered the completion of the portraits. 
 
 So in later times, in the case of the effigies engraved 
 on brass plates, which were so common from the 
 fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the plates 
 were kept " in stock," and it was only necessary to 
 order a brass of a knight, or a lady, or a knight and 
 lady, with or without canopy ; there was very rarely 
 
 * See photographs in the South Kensington Museum of sarcophagi 
 in the Vatican, by Macpherson, 402 — 71763, 71757, and 71 761. 
 t See p. 240.
 
 SCULPTURE. 26; 
 
 any attempt at portraiture in them ; only the narrow 
 fillet which carried the inscription and the shields of 
 arms had to be en<Travcd at the last moment. The 
 brasses were sent down to the local stonemason, who 
 cut the proper matrices in a slab of marble, and in- 
 serted the brasses in their places. We find brasses of 
 which the costume had gone out of fashion, turned over 
 and engraved with a more modern effigy on the other 
 side. In the cases where these mediaeval effigies were 
 sculptured on the marble slab itself, we constantly 
 find evidence of a freer handling and inferior skill in 
 the design, because it was executed by a local artist. 
 
 The subjects painted on the walls of the pagan 
 sepulchral chambers and sculptured on their tombs 
 may be studied with a view to the motive of the pagan 
 artists in their choice of funeral subjects, in the hope 
 of obtaining a suggestion as to the motive of the 
 Christian artists in the choice of their cycle of subjects. 
 The burial-vaults of the Tarquinii are ornamented with 
 symbolical paintings of a very interesting character. 
 The soul is led away, lamenting, by dark yet beautiful 
 figures, genii or Eumenides, its white guardian angels 
 interceding ; there are chariots of Day and Night, 
 the Seasons, and various other serious symbols. But, 
 on the other hand, the wall paintings of the famous 
 tombs on the Latin Way are chiefly taken from the 
 Trojan war, as the Judgment of Paris, Achilles at 
 Scyros, Ulysses and Diomed with the Palladium, 
 Philoctetes at Lemnos, Priam at the feet of Achilles, 
 Jupiter and the Eagle, Centaurs hunting lions and 
 panthers, etc.
 
 266 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Some of the subjects of the sculptures on pagan 
 tombs probably have reference to the occupation or 
 character of the deceased ; a battle scene may allude 
 to his vocation as a soldier, or to some particular battle 
 in which he won reputation ; scenes of the chase may 
 indicate his favourite pursuit; a portrait of thedeceased 
 with a book in his hand accompanied by the Muses 
 probably shows that he was an author. The Cavaliere 
 Visconti * thinks that some of the mythological sub- 
 jects, are symbolical ; the subject of Pluto carrying 
 away Proserpine, which occurs in many sarcophagi, 
 of the death of a girl in the bloom of youth ; the 
 subject of Niobe, which occurs on several funeral urns, 
 of the grief of parents bereft of their children ; the 
 Labours of Hercules he takes to be an allegory of 
 the triumph of Virtue; the Seasons to be an allusion 
 to the ages of human life ; he even suggests that the 
 Baccanalian scenes, which are, perhaps, more common 
 than any others, indicate that the deceased had been 
 initiated into the mysteries of Bacchus. But the 
 majority of the subjects seem to be taken from the 
 poets, as the fables of Adonis, of Phcedra and Hippo- 
 lytus, of Bacchus and Ariadne, etc. 
 
 We confidently conclude that, in the great majority 
 of cases, the subjects painted on the walls of the 
 pagan chambers and sculptured on the sarcophagi 
 within them are such as were chosen for the decora- 
 tion of the chambers of a house, and of its furniture, 
 and had no funereal allusion or individual signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 • J. H. Parker's "Archeology of Rome."
 
 SCULPTURE. 267 
 
 Perhaps the earliest Christian sa.cophagus of ascer- 
 tained date is that of Helena, the mother of Con- 
 stantine, who died A.D. 328. It is of very large size, 
 of red Egyptian porphyry, which has been repoHshed 
 in modern times, to the enhancement of the splendour 
 of the precious material, but probably to its dete- 
 rioration as a work of art. We know that the 
 empress-mother was a devotee, who, by her personal 
 example, encouraged the fashion of pilgrimages to 
 the Holy Land, and the cult of sacred relics, but 
 the ornamentation of her stately sarcophagus has 
 nothing distinctively Christian in it. The body of 
 the sarcophagus is ornamented with warriors on horse- 
 back, driving captives before them, or triumphing 
 over them, without any representation of ground, so 
 that they appear to be marching in the air. On the 
 front and back, at the upper angles, are busts of 
 Helena and Constantine ; and on the lower are lions 
 reposing, wreaths, and winged genii. The tomb of 
 Constantia,* the daughter of Constantine, has in 
 front a heavy festoon within whose three convolu- 
 tions are clumsy genii gathering grapes from a vine ; 
 at the ends, two vines enclose genii treading out 
 grapes ; the ends have Good Shepherds, vines, and 
 genii. Another large sarcophagus, among the oldest 
 examples known,f has women and genii gathering 
 grapes; with three figures of the Good Shepherd 
 (bearded) in the centre and at the corners. 
 
 In Sta. Maria Maggiore is a sarcophagus which is 
 
 * Photographed by Parker and drawn by Roller, Plate XLIV. 
 t South Kensington Photos, portf. 406, No. n.
 
 268 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 supposed to be that of Petronius Probus, who was 
 consul in A.D. 341. It is an example of an ex- 
 tensive series in which the portrait busts of the 
 deceased are introduced in the middle of the front 
 ground within a scallop shell or a circle. In this two 
 busts of men past middle life are enclosed in the 
 central shell, the remainder of the front is divided 
 into two rows of Scripture subjects. In the upper 
 row are the raising of Lazarus ; the denial of St. 
 Peter ; Moses receiving the Law ; the sacrifice of 
 Isaac ; Pontius Pilate on the judgment seat about to 
 wash his hands, and Herod with him. In the lower 
 row, a subject which has not yet been deciphered ; 
 Daniel in the lions' den, and Habakkuk * bringing 
 him food ; another group, the principal figure of 
 which is an aged man reading a scroll, not identified ; 
 healing the blind ; and the blessing of the loaves and 
 fishes.-f- 
 
 At S. Francisco Perugia is a fine sarcophagus with 
 a youthful classic figure of Christ supposed to be 
 about the middle of the fourth century. 
 
 In excavating the new crypt of St. Peter's was found 
 the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, which is usually con- 
 sidered one of the best works of Christian sculpture. 
 Its date is given in its interesting inscription, which 
 is thus translated — 
 
 " Junius Bassus, who lived forty-two years and two 
 months, in the very year in which he was Prefect of 
 the city went to God a neophyte, August 25, A.D. 359." 
 
 • See Bel and the Dragon, v. 34. 
 t No. 2900 of Parker's photographs.
 
 270 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 It has two rows of subjects in panels, arranged as 
 follows : — 
 
 Sacrifice of 
 Isaac. 
 
 Job. 
 
 Peter's 
 denial (?). 
 
 Our Lord 
 
 between 
 
 SS. Peter 
 
 and Paul. 
 
 Adam and 
 Eve. 
 
 Our Lord's 
 triumphal 
 entry into 
 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Christ before 
 Pilate. 
 
 Daniel in the 
 Lions' den. 
 
 Pilate 
 
 washing his 
 hands. 
 
 The arrest 
 of Moses (?). 
 
 A very curious feature of the design is that over 
 the lower canopies are introduced a number of 
 " vignettes," so to call them, of small size, in a 
 sketchy style, in which our Lord is represented under 
 the symbol of a Lamb ; and to Him are attributed 
 the miracles of the Old Testament as of the New. 
 The subjects, beginning at the spectator's left hand, 
 are the Furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, the Striking the 
 Rock, the Manna (?), the Baptism of our Lord, the 
 Giving of the Law (?), the Raising of Lazarus. 
 
 The sarcophagus of Anicius Probus, several times 
 consul and pretorian prefect, who died A.D. 395, is also 
 specially interesting because the person buried in it 
 and the date of his burial are known. In the centre, 
 beneath a rounded arch supported by twisted columns, 
 Christ is represented standing on a small mound, 
 from which flow the four rivers of Paradise; He holds 
 a tall gemmed cross in his right hand, and in his 
 left hand an open scroll. On his right stands St. 
 Peter with upraised hand, and St. Paul holding a 
 book on his left. On each side of the central arches
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 271 
 
 CO 
 
 =1 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 S 
 o
 
 272 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAX ART. 
 
 are two other arches, under each of which stand 
 two Apostles. In the spandrels of the arches arc 
 birds picking grapes in baskets. Each end of the 
 sarcophagus continues the design of the front, having 
 three arches, under which are Apostles. On the back 
 Probus and his wife are represented standing hand 
 in hand (though his wife was buried elsewhere), a 
 disciple stands on each side, and the intervening 
 panels are of striated pattern.* 
 
 In the Lateran Museum is one of the most simple, 
 and at the same time one of the most excellent in point 
 of workmanship. The front is divided into seven 
 compartments by eight beautifully carved columns 
 upon which foliage and flowers are represented. In 
 the centre is the youthful Christ seated between two 
 disciples — probably Peter and Paul, beneath His feet 
 is a youthful figure holding a large veil over His 
 head, which is probably a symbolical representation 
 of the sky. Four other disciples stand near. At the 
 left end of the front is the sacrifice of Isaac ; the two 
 right-hand spaces are filled by Christ standing before 
 Pilate, who is washing his hands. The figures are 
 admirably designed and excellently sculptured in 
 high relief. The two ends of the coffin are differently 
 treated, so much so as to lead to the suspicion that 
 they are of a different date or, at least, by a different 
 hand. They are carved in very low relief; at one 
 end is Christ predicting St. Peter's denial, at the 
 
 * Figured by Bosio, p. 49, etc. ; Aringhi, i. 281, etc. ; Bottari, i. 
 Plate XVL, etc. ; D'Agincourt, "Sculpture," Plate VI., Figs, 12-15; 
 Appell, p. 12 ; Parker, photo. 451 B,
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 (L> 
 O 
 
 «3 
 
 3 
 .O 
 
 rt 
 
 
 <u 
 
 3 
 tJ3 
 C3 
 
 Ci 
 
 o 
 :-• 
 c5
 
 274 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 other the healing of the woman who touched the 
 hem of Christ's garment, and they have an archi- 
 tectural background including a basilica and detached 
 baptistery of great interest. 
 
 The largest sarcophagus in Rome recently found 
 at the basilica of St. Paul-without-the- Walls has a 
 portrait bust in a medallion. In the upper row, the 
 Trinity creating woman ; the fall and expulsion (angel 
 giving Adam a spade, and Eve a fleece) ; Christ turning 
 the water into wine ; blessing the loaves and fishes ; 
 raising Lazarus. In the lower row, Adoration of 
 Magi ; healing blind ; Daniel and Habakkuk ; warn- 
 ing of Peter ; Moses arrested (?) ; the stricken rock. 
 
 One of late fourth-century or early fifth-century 
 date here given has several features of special interest. 
 It has several Passion scenes, which are very rare at 
 that period — Christ bearing His cross and crowned 
 with thorns, in two panels on the left ; on the right 
 Christ before Pilate, and Pilate washing his hands ; 
 in the centre panel a symbolical Crucifixion, in which 
 Christ is represented by the XP monogram surrounded 
 by a garland. The stem of the P is lengthened to 
 form the upright staff of a cross, on either side of 
 which arc St. Mary and St. John.* 
 
 Another sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum 
 presents great originality of treatment. The principal 
 subject is Jonah in three scenes — cast into the sea, 
 disgorged, and under the gourd. The face of the 
 stone is filled in with other usual subjects — the Raising 
 of Lazarus, the Striking the Rock, three figures in 
 
 * Photo at South Kensington, portf. 406, No, 33. Compare p. 324.
 
 a 
 
 3 
 rt 
 
 o 
 o
 
 i-j^i HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the usual attitude of the Magi, with two figures lying 
 on the ground, perhaps gathering manna, a shepherd 
 and sheep at the door of a building ; in the lower part 
 of the design, two men (subject unknown), Noah and 
 the dove, and a fisher. 
 
 The sarcophagus represented on p. 277 from the 
 Lateran Museum has only two subjects — the Adora- 
 tion of the Magi and Daniel in the Lions' Den. In 
 the latter subject Habakkuk is introduced bringing 
 loaves ; and the two men bearing rolls of parchment, 
 here and in the same subject on the tomb of Junius 
 Bassus, are supposed to be the accusers of Daniel. 
 
 The're are numerous examples at Ravenna ; in 
 the Chapel Tomb of Galla Placidia are those of 
 Constantine III., A.D. 421, Honorius, A.D. 423, and 
 Galla Placidia herself, A.D. 420. It adds an interest- 
 ing fact to our general knowledge of the subject 
 when we learn that Theodoric summoned from Rome 
 a certain Daniel, who was famous for his skill in 
 sculpturing marble, and gave him the privilege of 
 supplying sarcophagi to the people of Ravenna. 
 The Ravenna designs belong to the rising school 
 of the mosaic artists rather than to that of the sarco- 
 phagus sculptors of the previous centuries. 
 
 There are examples at other places in Italy, at 
 Verona, Tortona (with a mixture of heathen and 
 Christian symbols), and Milan, described by Dr. 
 Appell, photographed in the South Kensington 
 Museum, and engraved in numerous works. In 
 Southern France there are considerable numbers ; 
 Aries is especially rich in them. It is to be noted
 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 '■77
 
 278 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 that many of these seem to have been executed by 
 native artists, and that in forming a judgment of 
 their date it must be borne in mind that the 
 fashions of Italian sepulchral subjects seem to have 
 begun almost a century later in Gaul. The Gallic ex- 
 
 End of sarcophagus of Aichbishop Theodouis, St. Apollinaro 
 in Classe, Ravenna, seventh century. 
 
 amples are engraved and photographed in Le Blant's 
 great work, " Les Sarcophages de la Gaule" (1835). 
 Others in various towns of Spain are described by Dr. 
 Appell, in his " Monuments of Early Christian Art." 
 The necropolises of Salone have supplied a certain
 
 SCULPTURE. 279 
 
 number of inscriptions and of bas-reliefs. Among 
 the latter a sarcophagus is ornamented with the sub- 
 ject of the passage of the Red Sea, with an orante on 
 another of its sides. Another sarcophagus has in 
 the centre a Good Shepherd of the bearded type ; in 
 another part of the decoration is a group of five 
 persons, man, wife, and children, grouped around a 
 door decorated with lions' heads. On the right and 
 left of the Good Shepherd are two novel subjects ; 
 on one side twenty-eight figures, male and female, 
 of different stature, are grouped around a person who 
 holds a scroll in his hands ; on the other side a group 
 of small figures of more equal height and youthful 
 countenances surround a female of ripe age. M. Bayet 
 conjectures that they are a cleric — priest, deacon, or 
 lector — and his deaconess-wife. 
 
 The classic school of figure sculpture in stone and 
 marble died out on the continent of Europe with the 
 discontinuance of these elaborate sarcophagi ; the 
 sculptor's skill was directed to the execution of 
 smaller works, of which the carved ivories remain 
 as the best examples of the art for several succeed- 
 ing ages. 
 
 There are examples of pagan sarcophagi which 
 have been used over again for the burial of Christians, 
 
 Recently, in digging in the crypts of the Vatican 
 for the foundations of the new sacristy, was found a 
 sarcophagus v/hose bas-relief represents a bachanalian 
 scene, with an inscription stating that " this vessel of 
 ancient workmanship had been used for the sepulchre
 
 28o HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 of two Christians." The most striking anomaly, per- 
 haps, is in a sarcophagus found in the Cemetery of St. 
 Agnes, Rome, whose ornamentation is a Bacchus 
 surrounded by little naked cupids and by the genii 
 of the Seasons, whose inscription states that it 
 was used for the burial of a young female, by 
 name Aurelia Agapetella — " ancilla dei " — which pro- 
 bably means a Church virgin. 
 
 Two handsome sarcophagi, on one of which is 
 represented the rare and curious subject of the Forge 
 of Vulcan, enclosed the bodies of St. Victor and of 
 St. Mauron, bishops of Marseilles. The body of St. 
 Honorat, Bishop of Aries, was buried in an ancient 
 Roman coffin. And, lastly, the sarcophagus in which 
 rested the feet of the sitting body of dead Charlemagne 
 in the crypt at Aix, is an ancient Roman coffin, 
 ornamented with a bas-relief of the Rape of Proserpine. 
 Roul-Rochette mentions several later examples. 
 
 There is an English example which shows how 
 such things were likely to take place. When Ethel- 
 dreda's body was translated into the church of Ely 
 (a.D. 660), the monks made a voyage across the fens 
 to find a stone large enough for a coffin ; "and 
 coming to a small abandoned [Roman] city called 
 Grantchester [near Cambridge], they found near the 
 city walls a white marble coffin most beautifully 
 wrought and neatly covered with a lid of the same 
 sort of stone, and having washed the virgin's body, 
 and clothed it in new garments, they carried it into 
 church and laid it in the coffin that had been brought, 
 where it is held in great veneration to this day" 
 Bede, " Ecclesiastical History," chap. xix.).
 
 SCULPTURE. 281 
 
 We have no examples in Britain of this sculptured 
 t3'pe of Christian sarcophagus. And their absence is 
 perhaps to be taken as one among other indications 
 that while Britain was a province of the empire 
 the Church included few members taken from the 
 wealthier classes. One example of a Roman sarco- 
 phagus found in London and now preserved in the 
 British Museum * has a medallion portrait of the 
 deceased, and the rest of the panel striated, and at 
 the end is a basket containing loaves or fruit. There 
 is nothing to indicate that it was a pagan monument, 
 and nothing to prove that it was Christian. 
 
 Fragments of another found at Barming, Kent, 
 have patterns something like a combination of palm- 
 branch and cross, roughly incised upon them, f 
 
 Another sarcophagus was found in 1869 in the 
 ground outside the north of the nave of Westminster 
 Abbey. On the front, enclosed in a panel with 
 moon-shield shaped ornaments at each end, was the 
 following inscription : — - 
 
 " MEMORIAE . VALER . AMAN 
 DINI . VALERI . SVPERVEN 
 TOR . ET . MARCELLVS . PATRI . FECER." 
 
 The inscription and the panel are both conclusive of 
 a Roman date, probably not later than the end of 
 the third century. The cover was of the same kind 
 of shelly oolite, which must have been brought from 
 a distance ; a cross is rudely sculptured on its whole 
 length and width, with expanded upper limbs and 
 
 * C. R. Smith's " Roman London," Plate IV. 
 
 t C. R. Smith's "Collectanea Antiqua," i. p. 1S3.
 
 282 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the lower limb terminating in a fleur-de-lys ; the 
 design is of late character, perhaps as late as the 
 twelfth or thirteenth century. The whole suggests 
 the idea that a Roman sarcophagus has been re-used 
 at a later period for Christian burial, and the original 
 coped cover cut down to its present form. 
 
 When these sculptured scenes of Scripture History 
 were no longer in use on the continent of Europe, 
 we find them still surviving in Ireland on the high 
 crosses, and in England on the tympana of 
 church doors in the tenth and eleventh centuries. 
 They are more rudely executed than in the ex- 
 amples of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, but 
 they are the same cycle of subjects treated in the 
 same conventional manner. Some of these even 
 appear on tympana and fonts of the eleventh and 
 twelfth centuries.* For example, the cross of Muire- 
 dach at Monasterboice, has the following subjects : 
 The Temptation and Expulsion of Adam and Eve ; 
 the Adoration of the Magi ; Christ seized by the 
 Jews ; the Sacrifice of Isaac. 
 
 The cross of St. Patrick and Columba, at Kells, 
 has the Sacrifice of Isaac, and the Three Children. 
 The churchyard cross at Kells has the expulsion 
 of Adam and Eve, the Baptism of Christ, and 
 Noah. On the font at Lenton, Notts., are the Baptism 
 of Christ, the Crucifixion, the raising of Lazarus, and 
 the Maries at the Sepulchre. 
 
 ♦ For these and other medixvr.l examples, see "Early Christian 
 Symbolism," by J. Romilly Allen,
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE MOSAICS 
 
 . * 
 
 History of mosaic decoration ; its subjects — Examples : at Rome : St. 
 Constantia ; St. George Salonica ; Sta. Maria Maggiore ; Sta. 
 Pudentiana ; Vatican ; SS. Cosmas and Damian ; S. Praxedes, 
 etc. — At Ravenna : tomb of Galla Piacidia ; the two baptisteries ; 
 St. Vitalis ; St. Apoliinare Nuovo ; and in Classe — At Constanti- 
 nople, etc.— At Ai.\-la-ChapeIle ; St. Mark's, Venice— Fragments 
 in the Catacombs. 
 
 HE use of tesserae of different coloured 
 marbles and other materials for the 
 production of ornamental patterns and 
 pictures upon a ground of red clay 
 tesserae, in the pavements of their houses and public 
 buildings, had existed in Greece and Rome long 
 before the Christian era. The same method of 
 decoration, almost exclusively in ornamental patterns, 
 had also been applied to small spaces, such as 
 
 * Garucci devotes vol. iv. of his " Storia della Arte Christiana " to 
 the mosaics. J. H. Parker has published photographs of the principal / 
 mosaics of Rome and Ravenna; the Constantinople mosaics are in ^ 
 W. Von Salzenberg's Monograph. A complete list of mosaics and their 
 subjects is published by the South Kensington Museum in its Universal 
 Art inventory.
 
 284 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 spandrels and niches in the walls of houses. Pliny 
 describes a mosaic picture of two doves drinking 
 
 V^ from a vase, executed as early as 200 B.C. 
 
 In the course of the fifth century the art received a 
 sudden impulse from an invention which placed a vast 
 addition of new material in the hands of the artist. 
 The old tesserae were chiefly different coloured 
 marbles, hard stones, and terra-cotta of different 
 colours ; the new invention was of cubes of vitreous 
 pastes artificially coloured, which supplied the artist 
 with every possible colour, in a material easily broken 
 to any form which his design might require ; at the 
 same time gilt tesserae were invented for the back- 
 ground of the pictures, composed of a film of gold 
 leaf between two plates of glass, which were mounted 
 on a tessera of earthenware, and the whole vitrified 
 by heat into a solid cube. 
 
 I It is remarkable that there are no examples of the 
 use of this new method of decoration in the great 
 
 ^ civic buildings of the empire ; but it was at once 
 largely adopted for the decoration of churches, and 
 accompanied a great change in the style of pictorial 
 art ; so that mosaic-painting may be considered a 
 characteristic Christian mode of decoration. It came 
 into use at a time when the artists were introducing 
 a new choice of subjects. The mind of the Church 
 had been directed to the mystic grandeur of the 
 scenes of St. John's visions, narrated in the Book of 
 the Revelation,* and the artists turned to them for 
 their principal subjects. The usual subject for the 
 
 * See p. 172.
 
 THE MOSAICS. 285 
 
 decoration of the semi-dome of the apse of a church 
 became a solemn figure of superhuman size of the Lord 
 seated upon a throne, or upon a rainbow, surrounded 
 by a halo of glory, sometimes attended by apostles 
 and angels. The patron saint of the church and its ' 
 founder were sometimes added. On a lower band of 
 decoration, round the base of the dome, it was very / n 
 usual to represent the Lamb standing on the mount, 
 from which issue the four rivers of Paradise, and on 
 either side six sheep, types of the Apostles, and so of 
 the whole body of believers. The wall space over 
 the arch of the apse is usually filled with other scenes 
 from the same Book — a jewelled cross placed upon 
 a throne, the Lamb on an altar, the seven golden 
 candlesticks, the Book with the seven seals placed on 
 a throne, the four angels commanding the four winds, 
 the four living creatures, and the four and twenty 
 elders. On the side walls were often subjects from 
 Scripture history, especially from the Old Testament. 
 The treatment of the series of mosaic paintings 
 executed in the fifth century, leads to the supposi- v; 
 tion that, with the adoption of a new material and a 
 new series of subjects, the artists sought an improved 
 style, by going back to earlier works of classical art 
 for their models. The works of a century later, the 
 sixth, are still in the classical style, but inferior in .^ 
 conception and drawing. In another century, the 
 seventh, the characteristics of the Byzantine style 
 are fully developed, in the ninth it began to decline 'vC 
 till the end of the tenth, and was partially revived in 
 the twelfth.
 
 286 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The material lends itself to — almost necessitates — 
 breadth of treatment. Its durability makes it a 
 specially valuable method for the decoration of 
 monumental buildings, it is " painting for eternity." 
 The general effect of the mosaics is grand and 
 solemn ; a certain religious dignity is given to the 
 figures by exaggerating their height, by posing them 
 in statuesque attitudes, and by giving a severe gravity 
 to the expression of the faces ; the colouring is like 
 that of a crimson and purple sunset ; and the back- 
 ground of gold tesserse, reflecting the light at all 
 angles, gives to the whole the gorgeous brilliancy in 
 which the taste of the time delighted. 
 
 There are some small works of this class in the 
 catacombs, which have a special interest from their 
 locality, but the most important examples are found 
 in the churches of Rome and Ravenna, Constanti- 
 nople and Thessalonica, and later examples in St. 
 Mark's, Venice, the royal chapel at Palermo, and the 
 cathedrals of Monreale and Cefalu in Sicily. 
 
 The earliest considerable example of the mosaic 
 decoration of a sacred building is that of the Church 
 of St. Constantia. The mosaic pictures decorate the 
 bays of the roof of the circular aisle of the building. - 
 They are on a white ground, in the style of the early 
 mural paintings ; for example, one bay, a central 
 half-length figure, which might be a portrait {e.g. of 
 Constantine), but is probably a Good Shepherd, is 
 surrounded by a flowing vine pattern, with naked 
 genii and birds among the branches ; at the four 
 corners are vintage scenes, carrying the grapes in
 
 THE MOSAICS. 287 
 
 a cart drawn by two bullocks, treading out the 
 grapes, etc.* 
 
 The cupola of the church of St. George at Salonica, 
 (whose erection is assigned by Texier and Pullan to 
 A.D. 323), is decorated with extensive mosaic pictures, 
 which are probably not later than the middle of the 
 fourth century ; they consist of a series of repre- 
 sentations of sacred edifices in a fantastical style of 
 classical architecture, with figures of local saints 
 introduced. 
 
 The mosaics in the vaults of the chapels of St. 
 John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist of the 
 Lateran baptistery are of the fifth century, and still 
 retain the feeling of the early school of Christian art. 
 
 The extensive series of mosaic pictures in Sta. 
 Maria Maggiore are remarkable as being in a distinct 
 style of art, different from that of the early Christian 
 period which we have been studying, and equally 
 difterent from the Byzantine style which succeeded 
 it. They were executed by order of Sixtus III. 
 (432--440), and his artists seem to have taken the 
 sculptured bas-reliefs of an earlier and better art, 
 especially those of the columns of Trajan and 
 Antoninus, as their models. At the apex of the 
 arch of the apse they placed some usual Christian 
 symbols, the throned roll with seven seals ; and over 
 it a gemmed cross and crown, supported by St. 
 Peter and St. Paul with the evangelistic symbols on 
 each side ; below are five rows of subjects from the 
 
 ♦ There are full-size fac-similes of these mosaics in the South 
 Kensington Museum,
 
 288 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 New Testament In one of the rows of subjects are 
 introduced the conventional holy cities, Jerusalem 
 and Bethlehem, and the sheep ; on the north and 
 south walls are double rows of pictures from the Old 
 and New Testaments, but treated in a manner so 
 different from the conventional method of the period 
 that we have difficulty in identifying them. 
 
 The mosaic in the apse of the Church of Sta. 
 Pudentiana at Rome is usually said to date from the 
 first reconstruction of the church by Siricius, A.D. 390, 
 but it seems to have been skilfully restored at a 
 much later period. The principal subject is our 
 Lord throned in the midst of His Apostles with 
 an architectural background, designed with much 
 freedom in the classical style of art ; while the 
 upper part of the semi-dome is occupied, with very 
 incongruous effect, by the symbolical figures of the 
 Byzantine school — a gemmed cross upon a mount, 
 and large figures of the four living creatures, sym- 
 bolizing the four Evangelists. 
 
 The example which we are able to give here is from 
 the semi-dome of the apse of the ancient Vatican. The 
 design is divided into three portions. In the principal 
 portion the central figure is our Lord in glory, seated on 
 the throne of heaven, holding the Book (of Revelation 
 or of Life) in the left hand, the right hand raised in 
 the attitude of benediction. The starry background 
 represents heaven ; and above, at the central point 
 of the apse, is the hand of God, surrounded by rays 
 of glory. On each side of the Saviour are the standing 
 figures of St. Paul and St. Peter, the patron saints
 
 THE MOSAICS. 
 
 289 
 
 of the Roman Church, Their names are inscribed 
 beside them in Greek and in Latin, . DAYAOC SCS 
 PAVLVS, and . HETPOC SCS PETRVS. The 
 figures are flanked by two palm trees. Beneath 
 the throne is the mount of Paradise with its four 
 rivers, and the two stags drinking. Some other 
 
 Mosaics in the apse of the ancient Church of the Vatican. 
 
 figures on a small scale appear upon the same plat- 
 form, the meaning of which it is difficult to determine, 
 unless they represent the souls in Paradise. The 
 second portion of the design consists of a broad band 
 running round the lower part of the semi-dome. In 
 the centre is an altar bearing a cross, and " in the 
 
 U
 
 290 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 midst of the altar a Lamb as it had been slain," 
 according to the description of St. John in the 
 Revelation. From the foot of the altar flow the 
 rivers of Paradise, whose source we see above. 
 Approaching the altar from each side are two pro- 
 cessions of sheep, one of which issues from a building 
 inscribed "Jerusalem," the other from a building 
 inscribed " Bethlehem ; " they represent the faithful of 
 the old and new dispensations. The background is 
 ornamented with trees ; the figures on each side of 
 the throned cross probably represent the bishop and 
 the emperor of the time at which the mosaic was 
 executed. The third portion of the design is a 
 narrow border, which bears the inscription in Leonine 
 verses — 
 
 "SuMMA Petri sedes est wmc sacra princtpis 
 ^DES. Mater cunctar. decor et decus ec- 
 
 CLESIAR. DEVOTUS CIIRISTO QUE TEMPLO SERVIT 
 IN isTO. Flores VIRTUTIS CAPIET FRUCTUS Q. 
 SALUTIS." 
 
 Other mosaics in Rome of this early style are in 
 the apse of the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, 
 built by Felix IV. (526-530) In the centre of the 
 apse is a colossal figure of Christ ; on the left St, Peter 
 introduces St. Cosmas; on the right St. Paul intro- 
 duces St. Damian ; on the extreme left is St. Felix 
 the founder, and on the right St. Theodore carrying 
 his crown; the whole composition is enclosed between 
 tv.^o palm trees. Beneath is a frieze with the usual 
 subject of the central Lamb standing on the mount 
 of Paradise with the sheep proceeding towards Him
 
 THE MOSAICS. 291 
 
 from the two holy cities. On the east wall of the 
 nave above the arch of the apse is the Lamb 
 enthroned, surrounded by the seven lamps, four 
 angels, the eagle of St. John and the angel of St. 
 Matthew. 
 
 In the later mosaics which still remain in the 
 Roman churches we see a gradual transition in 
 style. The mosaics above the arch at SS. Nereus 
 and Achilleus (796) are remarkable as representing 
 historical scenes instead of the usual Apocalyptic 
 subjects. On the face of the Arch of the Tribune are 
 the Transfiguration, and on either side the Annun- 
 ciation and the Virgin with the infant Saviour. Those 
 in the Church of St. Praxedes (820) are copied from 
 those of SS. Cosmas and Damian, but in an inferior 
 style of art. The last instance in the Roman series 
 is that of the church originally called S. Maria 
 Antiqua (858), in which the art is poor, and the /^ 
 execution rude, but it is interesting for the evidences 
 of the introduction of a new idea and of ornamental 
 treatment. The principal figure is the patron Saint, 
 the Blessed Virgin Mary, now for the first time 
 crowned, with the Holy Child on her lap, and the 
 founder. Paschal I., kneeling at her feet ; attended 
 by saints, each under an arch of a continuous arcade, 
 with tabernacle work spreading over the upper part 
 of the design. 
 
 The ecclesiastical buildings of Ravenna still retain 
 the mosaics with which they were originally deco- 
 rated, and they are especially interesting as com- 
 plete examples of the application of pictorial design
 
 292 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 and colour to the purpose of architectural ornamenta- 
 tion. These Ravenna mosaics are of different dates. 
 The earliest are those which decorate the lower part 
 of the orthodox baptistery {c. 430), and those which 
 cover the whole interior of the Tomb of Galla Placidia 
 (now known as the Church of SS. Nazaro and Celsus, 
 c. 440). Like those which have been mentioned 
 
 Mosaic from the Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna. 
 
 above, they are classical in style and feeling, and 
 possess much merit, both in the elegant forms of 
 the merely ornamental design and in the drawing 
 of the human figure. The domes of this orthodox 
 baptistery and also of the Arian baptistery {c. 553) 
 are a century later in date, of the same school of 
 classical art, but of inferior merit. 
 
 A third mode of treatment is seen in the mosaics 
 of St. Vitalis and of St. Apollinare in Classe {c. 549).
 
 THE MOSAICS. 
 
 293 
 
 To describe them without the aid of illustrations 
 would be tedious to the reader. We are able to 
 give a specimen of their beautiful effect in the 
 accompanying illustration of the front of one of the 
 upper galleries of St, Vitalis. The subjects from con- 
 temporary events in these Ravenna churches are 
 very worthy of notice : for example, the important 
 
 Upper gallery, Church of St. Vitalis, Ravenna, 
 
 historical pictures in St, Vitalis of Justinian and 
 his court, with the Bishop Maximinus (546-562) 
 and his clergy, and the corresponding picture of 
 Theodora and her attendant ladies. The walls of 
 St. Apollinare in Classe are covered with whole rows 
 of mosaic pictures. Christian symbols, portraits of 
 archbishops, and scripture histories. The grand 
 processions of male and female saints which decorate
 
 294 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the wall-spaces over the nave windows of St. Apolli- 
 nare Nuovo and lead up to the throned Saviour, 
 attended by angels, in the apse, are also very 
 noble examples of Christian art. 
 
 Of these frescoes at Ravenna, those in the build- 
 ings of Honorius and his sister were executed under 
 the influence of Western Christianity ; others, in the 
 buildings of Theodoric, under the influence of Gothic 
 Arianism ; others, in the buildings of the reign of 
 Justinian, under the influence of Eastern Christianity. 
 
 The Empress Theodora : St. Vitalis, Ravenna. 
 
 The decoration in all these buildings is fairly com- 
 plete and perfect, so that they present a remarkable 
 testimony to the prominent ideas of the Christianity 
 of the period which they cover ; it is very interesting 
 to observe that the art teaching is perfectly scriptural 
 and orthodox. Our Lord is the one Person pre- 
 sented to the adoration of the people ; no special 
 prominence is given to the Blessed Virgin ; the 
 saints are treated as historical persons ; not a single 
 doctrine or opinion contrary to those held at this
 
 THE MOSAICS. 295 
 
 day by instructed members of the Church of England 
 finds expression. 
 
 There are some less important examples of mosaic 
 of the early part of the fifth century in the churches 
 of St. Lawrence and St. Ambrose at Milan, and 
 {c. 543) at Parenzo in Istria. 
 
 St. Sophia at Constantinople still retains its original 
 magnificent mosaic decoration, though in the Jnterior 
 it is covered with whitewash ; during the temporary w/ 
 removal of this covering they were drawn by Von 
 Salzenburg, and are published in his great work on 
 the ancient Christian architecture of Constantinople. 
 The mosaic in the exterior of the narthex, which 
 represents the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus kneel- 
 ing before our Lord throned, is of rather later date. 
 The illumination of St, Dunstan kneeling at the 
 feet of St. Gregory m a Saxon manuscript in the 
 British Museum is clearly taken from this. Another 
 grand example of the early part of the sixth century 
 is the cupola of St. Sophia, Thessalonica. There are 
 other mosaics at St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, Mount 
 Athos, Daphne near Athens, and St. Luke in 
 Livadia, and there is no reason to doubt that similar 
 works were common in the churches of the East. 
 
 The church at Aix, built by Charles the Great, y 
 was decorated with mosaic. In the centre of the 
 design of the apse is our Lord throned ; seven small 
 figures of the elders rise from their thrones and cast 
 their crowns at His feet. The Church of St. Mark's, 
 Venice, is a fine example of the revival of the art in ^^ 
 the eleventh 'century. There are also in Rome '
 
 :g6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 examples of the revived art of the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries. 
 
 The art has been again revived in our time by 
 Salviati at Venice ; the best examples which we 
 possess at present are the spandrels of the dome of 
 St. Paul's, London ; small applications of mosaics 
 to the decoration of reredoses and the like are not 
 infrequent. 
 
 There are traces in scattered tessera: of the use 
 of mosaics in the ornamentation of tombs in the 
 catacombs. The only works which have survived 
 are two. Marangoni mentions (Act, s.v., p. 99) 
 the tomb of an infant, named Tranquillina, sur- 
 rounded by a mosaic of white stones and coloured 
 and gilded glass, upon which the epitaph is worked 
 in the same materials. Marchi figures (v. tom. xlvii.) 
 an arcosolium, in the crypt of SS. Protus and Hya- 
 cinth, decorated in this style with some of the usual 
 subjects, Lazarus, Daniel, the paralytic, etc.
 
 ^^^pjesiBt:ssr:MF:js^Dm^ 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IVORIES. 
 
 r' 
 
 Consular Diptychs ; Church Dlptychs — Diptych of St. Gregory — 
 Chair of St. Maximinus : of St. Peter— Book-covers— Pyxes and 
 relic-boxes— Caskets and shrines — Doors. 
 
 N the early ages of our era, people used 
 to carry memorandum tablets of ivory, 
 like a little book with two leaves, called 
 a diptych. Consuls, and perhaps other 
 Roman magistrates, used to make presents of such 
 tablets, on their election to office, and for new-year 
 gifts, with their own effigies in official robes and in- 
 signia, sculptured on the exterior sides. The earliest 
 existing example is that of Stilicon, attributed to 
 A.D. 405. Many of these classical diptychs have 
 been preserved through the accident of their having 
 been used for the covers of the Gospels and other 
 sacred books. 
 
 The early Church preserved lists of those whom it 
 held in special honour — as saints, founders, bishops, 
 benefactors, etc. — inscribed in similar diptychs, which
 
 298 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 were placed upon the altar at the time of the cele- 
 bration of the Eucharist. The exteriors of these 
 ecclesiastical memorandum-books were sculptured 
 in relief, like those above mentioned, but with 
 Christian subjects, such as representations of our 
 Lord, of saints, and of scenes from the Old and New 
 Testaments. 
 
 When the sarcophagi cease to afford us examples 
 of the best art in sculpture, these ivory carvings 
 happen to come in to continue the series. The 
 subjects of them are the same as those on the 
 sarcophagi, are composed in the same conventional 
 way, and executed in the same style. 
 
 The woodcut represents the exterior faces of an 
 interesting diptych at Monza, whose date and subject 
 are matter of dispute. It is said to be one of the many 
 pious objects which Gregory the Great sent as presents 
 to Theodelinda, the orthodox queen of the Lombards; 
 Martigny says that it was originally a consular 
 diptych, and that Gregory had caused one of the effigies 
 to be retouched in the face and hair, the robe, and the 
 staff, so as to make it a representation of himself, and 
 caused his name " SCS GREGR " to be inscribed over it ; 
 while the inscription of " REX DAVID " over the other 
 effigy appropriated it to King David. Professor 
 Westwood, however, says that, after careful examina- 
 tion of the ivories, with a view to this point, he comes 
 to the conclusion that there has been no retouching 
 of the original carving, and that the two names are 
 certainly not palimpsest. He points out that this 
 differs in design from all consular diptychs, and
 
 V 
 
 
 77^^ 
 
 Ivory diptych at the Cathedral, Monza. 
 
 {To face ^. 298.
 
 IVORIES, 299 
 
 maintains that it is a genuine ecclesiastical work. The 
 assigning of the title sanctus to Gregory would in- 
 dicate that it is later than his lifetime, and therefore 
 not one of his presents to Theodelinda. The ivory 
 covers now contain a'/' gradual " of St. Gregory, written 
 in gold and silver letters on vellum, and the subjects 
 of the cover — David the psalmist, and Gregory the 
 reformer of psalmody — suggest that the cover may 
 have been expressly made for its present use. 
 
 The celebrated episcopal chair of Maximinus, 
 preserved in the Cathedral of Ravenna, is decorated 
 with a number of ivory plaques, representing subjects 
 from the Old and New Testaments of the middle of 
 the sixth century. The frieze of vine-scrolls with 
 lions, deer, peacocks, etc., is full of freshness and 
 spirit. It is the most magnificent work in ivory \/ 
 which has come down to us. The so-called Chair 
 of St. Peter at Rome is ornamented with ivory 
 carvings of the Labours of Hercules. 
 
 The woodcut on p. 300 represents a pax, probably 
 of the eighth century, formed by a central plaque of 
 ivory, sculptured with the Crucifixion, mounted in a 
 frame of silver-gilt enriched with precious stones ; it 
 is preserved in the church of Cividale, in Friuli, and 
 is probably the earliest remaining example of a pax. 
 
 A book-cover in the Cathedral of Milan, of the 
 sixth century, is ornamented with scenes from the 
 life of Christ, in which " the groups are finely arranged 
 and in many respects savour of antique treatment." 
 
 The other examples of this early style of art 
 (though their date is a little uncertain) catalogued
 
 zoo HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 by Professor Westwood are four plaques of red- 
 stained ivory with scenes from the life of Christ, 
 in the British Museum. Two sides of a book-cover 
 in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, with scenes 
 from the life of Christ. Two tablets of the sixth 
 
 A pax of the eighth century, Civldale, Friuli. 
 
 or seventh century in the Kunst Kammer, Berlin, 
 identical in design with the central portion of the 
 last named, but more skilfully executed. Two leaves 
 of a diptych in the collection of M. Carraud, with 
 scenes from the life of St, Paul. Two leaves of a
 
 IVORIES. 30 r 
 
 diptych of the sixth or seventh century in the 
 collection of Mr. Bateman, with subjects from the 
 life of Christ. The front of a book-cover in eight 
 compartments, of the sixth or seventh century, in the 
 Public Museum of Ravenna, with subjects from the 
 life of Christ. The front of a book-cover in the 
 Vatican Library, sixth to eighth century, one of 
 the most important and admirable specimens of early 
 Christian art : at the top, two angels support a circle 
 containing a richly gemmed cross ; in the centre, an 
 admirable figure of a youthful Christ tramples on 
 the lion and asp, under a round arch resting on fluted 
 columns with Corinthian capitals ; at the bottom is the 
 Adoration of the Magi. 
 
 There are in the South Kensington Museum a 
 considerable number of casts of round boxes of 
 carved ivory, which are described in the catalogue as 
 Pyxes. Some of them were perhaps used to contain 
 the reserved Eucharistic bread ; others were probably 
 reliquaries — one when found contained a fragment of 
 cloth such as was frequently treasured up as a relic 
 from having wrapped, or at least touched, the body 
 of a saint. One, of the fifth or sixth century, at the 
 Vatican is carved with some of the miracles ; another, 
 of the sixth to the eighth century, in a private collec- 
 tion, with the healing of the demoniac ; one, of the 
 fourth or fifth century, in the Kunst Kammer, Berlin, 
 has the sacrifice of Isaac, and Christ with Apostles. 
 A very remarkable one is of the sixth to the ninth 
 century, with a figure of St. Mennas, which probably 
 contained a relic of that popijlar Alexandrian saint.
 
 302 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, 
 
 There is a very large collection of fac-simile casts 
 of ancient ivories in the South Kensington Museum, 
 including those above mentioned ; and Professor 
 Westwood's " Fictile Ivories," a Catalogue raisoim^ of 
 the collection, gives photographs of some of the more 
 remarkable examples.* 
 
 Ivory caskets and shrines are a numerous class 
 of objects upon which the best art of their time 
 has been bestowed, but few of them come within 
 this early period to which we arc restricted. The 
 earliest and the most beautiful of these is the casket 
 preserved in the Bibliotheca Quiriniana at Brescia, 
 which is of the sixth or seventh century. The panels 
 are sculptured with some of the usual subjects of 
 the early classical school of Christian art — the Good 
 Shepherd ; Christ amid the Doctors ; the woman 
 washing Christ's feet with her hair ; the raising of the 
 daughter of Jairus ; the raising of Lazarus, and the 
 healing of the blind ; Ananias and Sapphira. 
 
 Another casket in the British Museum, though 
 below the limits of our period, is of so much interest 
 that we shall be pardoned for introducing a notice 
 of it here. It is made out of the bone of a whale, 
 and has its sides and ends carved with historical and 
 scriptural subjects. In front on the right-hand side is 
 the Adoration of the Magi ; the inscription over it is 
 the word " Magi." The inscription in front of the box 
 relates, in Runic characters, the name of the North- 
 umbrian hero who killed the whale and caused this 
 casket to be made out of its bone in memory of the 
 * See also " Ivories, Anient and Modern," W. Maskell.
 
 IVORIES. 303 
 
 exploit. It may be classed with the quaigh found at 
 Long Wittenham * as interesting survivals of the 
 classical school of Christian art in our own country. 
 
 Intimately related to these ivory panels, in choice 
 of subjects and style of treatment, are the ornamental 
 doors, of which the earliest examples are the doors 
 of St. Sabina at Rome, of the sixth century. They 
 are divided into panels which bear some of the usual 
 cycle of Scripture subjects.-f- The famous bronze 
 doors of the Baptistery at Florence, by Ghiberti 
 (fifteenth century), are a revival of the ancient style. 
 
 * See p. 332. 
 
 t Garucci, " Storia della Arte Christiana," iv. 499.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GILDED GLASS VESSELS. 
 
 Where found ; mode of execution ; subjects ; inscriptions — Engraved 
 glasses — Original use : memorial application. 
 
 |MONG the objects of early art is a series of 
 glass vessels which seem to have come into 
 use about the end of the third century, and 
 to have ceased to be manufactured after 
 about the end of the fourth. They have been found 
 only at Rome and at Cologne ; the larger number have 
 been found in the Roman catacombs. About 340* have 
 been published, and the British Museum is fortunate 
 enough to possess a considerable number of them. 
 Very few of them are perfect. They have been stuck 
 into the wet plaster cementing the slabs or tiles with 
 which the loculi were closed ; and the greater part of 
 them have been broken. Some appear to have been 
 shallow bowls, others tazzi or salvers, the greater 
 number drinking-cups of various shapes — some like 
 
 * Buonarotti's "Ossereazioni," etc., is the first adequate publication 
 of these vessels. They are all figured in Garucci's " Storia della Arte 
 Chrisiiana,"
 
 GILDED GLASS VESSELS. 
 
 305 
 
 egg-shells, one like a horn. Their great feature of 
 interest is that the bottom of the vessel is ornamented 
 with a circular medallion, which is a work of pictorial 
 
 Gilded glass vessel, from the Roman catacombs. Side view. 
 
 art. It was executed in the following way : a round 
 piece of glass of the size of the bottom of the bowl 
 had a leaf of gold fixed upon it with some kind of 
 
 Gilded glass vessel, from the Roman catacombs. Full view. 
 
 cement ; a pattern was traced upon the gold with 
 a pointed instrument ; the glass medallion was then 
 fixed to the bottom of the vessel externally by the 
 
 X
 
 3o6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 application of heat, so that the ornamentation was 
 seen through the glass when in use. Silver leaf 
 and colour were, very rarely, used instead of gold. 
 
 Some of the medallions have a subject in the 
 centre, with an inscription over; the subject is 
 frequently a marriage, with the names of the man 
 and woman inscribed over their heads, which sug- 
 
 Gilded glass vessel: " Ponipeiane, Teodora, vib(v)atis." 
 
 gests that the vessels were wedding presents ; chil- 
 dren sometimes accompany the adult figures. The 
 figures of our Lord and of Apostles often occupy 
 the centre, with their names inscribed over them ; 
 by far the most frequent are St. Peter and St. Paul 
 in whole length, half length, or busts ; another 
 which very frequently occurs is St. Agnes ; others
 
 GILDED GLASS VESSELS. 
 
 307 
 
 which occur singly, or in pairs, or in threes, are 
 
 Peter, Paul, Timothy, Simon, Luke, Judas ; and 
 
 saints, as Hippolytus, Laurence, Vincent, Callistus, 
 
 Marcellinus, Ciprianus, 
 
 Sixtus, Justus, Florus, 
 
 Mary, Pcregrina, Liber- 
 
 nica, etc. Sometimes 
 
 the central subject is 
 
 from the Old or New 
 
 Testament, and the 
 
 most commonly found 
 
 are those which we 
 
 have seen were most 
 
 frequently used in the Gilded glass vessel : "Angne." 
 
 paintings and sculptures : Adam and Eve, Noah, the 
 sacrifice of Isaac, the stricken rock, Moses and the 
 brazen serpent, the spies with the grapes of Eshcol, 
 Daniel, Jonah. Our Lord appears as the Good 
 Shepherd, between St. Peter and St. Paul, seated 
 with lambs on each side, raising Lazarus, in the 
 miracle of the loaves, and of the wine at Cana, and 
 of the healing of the paralytic. It is notable that as 
 the series of wall paintings includes three apocryphal 
 subjects, that of Habakkuk bringing food to Daniel, 
 and that of Susannah and the elders, and the ox 
 and ass at the Nativity, so on these glass vessels 
 there are Tobit and the fish,* and Daniel giving the 
 balls of pitch to the dragon. f 
 
 A more elaborate design is exhibited in some 
 
 * Tobit vi, 3. 
 
 t B?U and the Dragon, 27.
 
 3o8 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 examples, which reminds us of the painted ceilings 
 of the catacomb chambers, where a central subject 
 is surrounded by a number of others arranged out- 
 side, and sometimes radiating from it. Here is one 
 
 Gilded glass vessel. Bust surrounded by twelve figures.- 
 
 of them, which, at first sight, looks like a bust of 
 our Lord surrounded by full length figures of the 
 twelve Apostles ; but, on examination, the central 
 bust might be that of a female, and there is nothing 
 to indicate that the other figures are Apostles 
 except their number. The name PETRVS, which 
 catches the eye over the figure at the top of the 
 design, turns out, on the reading of the whole in- 
 scription, to be that of the person to whom the vessel 
 was to be presented. The inscription is of the usual 
 convivial type, ELARE PIE ZESES PETRVS 
 CVM TVIS OMNES ("Drink joyfully, long life, 
 Peter, to you and all yours"). The groups of sub- 
 jects from two examples have already been used
 
 GILDED GLASS VESSELS. 309 
 
 in studying the symbolism of the art of the catacombs 
 at pp. 231, 232. The design on another represents 
 a heap of coins, among which are those of Caracalla 
 and of one of the Faustinas. 
 
 Some of these vessels seem to be Jewish, from 
 the subject of their designs, as the seven-branched 
 candlestick, which is used in the Jewish catacombs, 
 and the ark containing the rolls of the Law. Others 
 have subjects from the old mythology, as Hercules, 
 Achilles, and pagan deities. Others represent secular 
 subjects, as hunting, chariots, a carpenter surrounded 
 by scenes from his occupation. 
 
 The inscriptions are all of the same character, as, 
 PIE, ZESES, TT/'e 6)(Tr,c (" Drink, long life"); DIG- 
 NITAS AMICORVM PIE ZESES CVM TVIS 
 OMNIBVS ("A token of friendship, drink, long life 
 to' you and yours"). 
 
 There are a few examples of these bowls in 
 which the ornamentation is executed by engraving 
 upon the glass without any gold-foil.* One, in the 
 shape of a truncated horn found at Cologne, and 
 now in the British Museum, is incised with the 
 subjects of Adam and Eve, and the stricken rock ; 
 another of similar shape, figured by Perret, is orna- 
 mented with a bird in a cage, and palms. One found 
 at Podgoritza, in Dalmatia, has a series of Scripture 
 subjects : in the centre the sacrifice of Isaac, and 
 round it Adam and Eve, Lazarus, Moses-Peter 
 striking the rock, Daniel, the Three Children, 
 Susannah, Jonah. The subjects all have inscriptions. 
 
 * See Garucci, vi. 464,
 
 3IO HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The inscription to the stricken rock is, " Petrus 
 virga perqod sit fontes ciperunt quorere," intended 
 for " Petrus [? petram] virga percussit, fontes ceperunt 
 currere," " Peter struck [or he struck the rock] with 
 a rod, the fountain began to flow." {^o\.q., fontes is 
 the technical word for the baptismal font.) In the 
 British Museum is also a plain glass beaker from 
 the Roman catacombs.^ 
 
 Various conjectures have been made as to the 
 original use of these vessels, and the intention with 
 which they were affixed to the graves. 
 
 As to their original use, the sacred subjects with 
 which they are ornamented by no means imply 
 that they were intended for sacred uses ; such 
 subjects were commonly used for the adornment of 
 objects of ordinary domestic use, as lamps, buckles, 
 dress, etc. On the other hand, the inscription tti'e 
 ^Tjo-r/e seems to be sufficient proof that they were 
 intended for domestic use. The common formula 
 seems to indicate a custom of drinking healths ; the 
 Teutonic " Drinc heil " of Geoffrey of Monmouth's 
 story of Vortigern and Rowena is the exact equivalent 
 of the Tr/e ^jjo-jIc of these cups ; while the fact that the 
 formula is in Greek, even where Latin words are 
 found with it, as feliciter ciivi siiis, indicates that 
 the custom came from the East. 
 
 As to the intention with which they were affixed 
 to the graves, it has been suggested that they con- 
 tained the blood of martyrs, that they were chalices, or 
 had been used at the funeral feast. In favour of the 
 theory that they contained the blood of martyrs, are
 
 GILDED GLASS VESSELS. 311 
 
 the arguments that the faithful are known to have 
 dihgently caught the blood of the martyrs and to 
 have preserved it as relics ; that a brown encrustation 
 at the bottom of one or more of these vessels has 
 been analyzed and pronounced to be blood ; that 
 scratched in the damp plaster beside two of them are 
 the inscriptions Sa Saturnu and Sang Sa. On the 
 other hand, it is replied that the way in which the 
 blood of the martyrs was preserved was by spreading 
 cloths to catch it before the fatal blow was struck, as 
 in the well-known case of Cyprian, or soaking cloths 
 in it afterwards, which was the more usual way ; that 
 the result of the analysis spoken of is not considered 
 conclusive by those who have examined the subject ; 
 and that the inscriptions mentioned are proved by 
 the character of the letters and by the formula used 
 to be forgeries of later date. It is especially a 
 forcible argument that some of these vessels are 
 accompanied by monograms which were not in use 
 till after the last persecution was over, and some are 
 actually dated, by the names of consuls, from A.D. 350 
 to 400. We hesitate to accept any more recondite 
 explanation than that they were intended to identify 
 the graves, just as we find coins and shells and such- 
 like things impressed in the wet plaster of tombs, 
 with the same intention. The great majority of the 
 known examples have been published in Garucci's 
 " Storia del Arte Christiana."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 Earliest books, sacred and profane — Sacred MSS. — The Syrian Gospels 
 of Rabula — Early MS. in England : the Genesis of the Cotton 
 Library ; the C. C. C. Cambridge and Bodleian Gospels — The 
 Irish and Saxon MSS. 
 
 [N treating of the art of painting as exhibited 
 in written books, it is necessary to dis- 
 tinguish between merely ornamental forms 
 of writing and pictures introduced into 
 the text as illustrations. 
 
 The earliest books which remain to us depend 
 upon the size and form of their letters for their 
 beauty ; in the sixth century, sometimes initial letters, 
 or words, or lines are written in red pigment. In 
 some early books the vellum leaves are stained of a 
 purple colour, and the writing is in gold or silver ; 
 the intention seems to have been to do honour to the 
 imperial or royal person for whom the book was 
 written, rather than to the subject of the book. 
 
 The oldest manuscripts of the sacred Scriptures 
 which have come down to us are the "Codex
 
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. 313 
 
 Sinaiticus " and the " Codex Vaticanus," both of the 
 fourth century, and the " Codex Alexandrinus," of 
 the early part of the fifth century, which is in the 
 British Museum ; but none of these have either 
 ornamental writing or illustrative pictures. Some 
 very early secular books, enriched with pictures, 
 have survived. A Virgil in the Vatican, with pictures, 
 may be as early as Constantine the Great. A Roman 
 calendar in the library at Vienna, with beautifully 
 drawn figures of the months, has been thought to be 
 as early as Constantine II., A.D. 338 ; but Professor 
 Westwood's mature opinion is that it is a compara- 
 tively modern copy of a classical original. Probably 
 the earliest sacred book with miniatures is a Greek 
 manuscript of Genesis, written on purple vellum, with 
 forty-eight pictures, in the same library, of the fourth 
 or fifth century, engraved by D'Agincourt (IV., xix.), 
 and still more satisfactorily by Garucci (" Storia della 
 Arte Christiana," iii. 1 12-123). A history of Joshua, 
 of the seventh century, is also a valuable monument 
 on the history of the art (D'Agincourt, IV. i. 23 ; 
 Garucci, iii. 157-167). 
 
 One of the most remarkable and valuable of illus- 
 trated manuscripts is the Syrian manuscript of the 
 Gospels preserved in the Laurentian Library at 
 Florence. It was written in the year 586, by Rabula 
 (as he himself records), a scribe in the Monastery 
 of St. John, in Zyba, a city of Mesopotamia. The 
 whole of these miniatures are given by Assemanni, 
 in his Catalogue of the Laurentian Library, and still 
 more accurately and beautifully by Garucci (vol.
 
 314 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 iii. pp. 128-140). Many of the pictures, and the 
 Eusebian canons, are placed under arches, which 
 are sometimes of horseshoe form ; the arches and 
 columns which support them are ornamented with 
 chevrons, lozenges, nebules,quatrefoils, zigzags, flowers, 
 fruit, birds, etc., many of which strikingly resemble 
 those found in the early Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, 
 especially in the columns supporting the Eusebian 
 canons in the purple Latin Gospels in the British 
 Museum (Reg. I, E, 6). There is, however, none of 
 the interlacing of the patterns so characteristic of the 
 Irish and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Some of these 
 arches, and their columns and capitals, are exactly 
 like the Norman doorways which still remain in 
 many of our churches ; for example, that on Plate 
 128 of Garucci, beneath which stands a fine and 
 dignified Virgin and Child. One feature of the 
 work is the introduction, in the margins of the 
 elaborate principal subjects, of very charming vig- 
 nettes of the usual cycle of early Scripture pictures, 
 treated with a certain originality, and sketched in 
 with great firmness and skill, as the Annunciation, Bap- 
 tism of Christ, massacre of the innocents, Nativity, 
 healing of the woman, the paralytic, miracle of Cana, 
 Jonah, entry into Jerusalem, Betrayal, Judas hanging 
 from the top of a palm which bends with his weight 
 (very clever and ghastly). The Crucifixion, Resurrec- 
 tion, Ascension, descent of the Holy Ghost, in a differ- 
 ent style, occur on spare leaves at the end of the book. 
 The woodcut represents the Ascension of our Lord, 
 and if the date, A.D. 586, be correctly assigned to it,
 
 ILL UMINA TED MANUSCRIP TS. 
 
 315 
 
 it is the earliest representation of the subject The 
 aureole round our Lord is supported beneath by the 
 mystic living creature of Ezekiel (chap, i.) and St. 
 John (Rev. iv.), and by two angels at the sides ; two 
 
 The A=.cension: from the Syrian Gospels, by Rabula, A.D. 5S6 (?). 
 
 Other angels present crowns ; the sun and moon are 
 symbolized in the upper corners of the picture. 
 
 Beneath this scene in the clouds (not given in our 
 woodcut) are the Apostles gazing upwards. In the 
 middle is the Blessed Virgin Mary standing in the 
 orante attitude, and on each side of her an angel de- 
 livering our Lord's message, " Ye men of Galilee," etc. 
 An account has recently been published by Dr. 
 Josef Stryzgowski, of a manuscript of the Gospels at 
 Etchmiadzin, which is bound in ivory plaques, and 
 has miniatures at the beginning and end of the vol. 
 The manuscript itself is dated A.D. 989, but the editor 
 is of 6pinion that the ivory carvings and the minia- 
 tures are additions of Syrian origin, and probably of 
 the sixth century.
 
 3i6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The libraries of our own country possess some early 
 manuscripts, which are valuable both as examples of 
 caligraphy and of miniature painting. The Genesis of 
 the Cotton Library,* in the British Museum, probably 
 of the fourth century, is, or rather was, illustrated 
 with pictures, for only fragments of it have survived 
 the fire of 1731, which consumed so many treasures. 
 There is also in the British Museum a fragment 
 of a manuscript of the Gospels, written in large fine 
 silver letters on purple-stained vellum (Titus, cxv.), 
 which is, perhaps, the oldest manuscript of any 
 portion of the New Testament now existing. 
 
 In the course of the "Life of St. Gregory the 
 Great," written by John the Deacon, it is recorded 
 that Gregory sent to Augustine, among other things, 
 many books. In the "Annals of St. Augustine and 
 Christ Church, Canterbury," compiled by a monk of 
 St. Augustine, in the reign of Henry V., several books 
 then in the library, and always regarded as having 
 belonged to Augustine, are described. Two of these 
 books are believed still to exist — one in the library 
 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the other in 
 the Bodleian Library, Oxford. They contain Anglo- 
 Saxon entries now a thousand years old, which 
 connect them with the monastery of St. Augustine. 
 The Cambridge manuscript is of the Gospels, 
 written in fine Roman uncials, and probably of the 
 fifth century. It has pictures of the Evangelists at 
 the beginning of the several books, and has some 
 small square pictures of scenes from the life of 
 • Engraved in the " Vetusta Monumenta," i. Plate LXVII.
 
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. 317 
 
 Christ, brought together on separate pages and in- 
 serted ; these bear traces of the conventional classical 
 designs, but are treated rudely, and with a certain 
 degree of freedom. They are the most ancient 
 monuments of early Christian painting existing in 
 this country. The Bodleian Manuscript is also of 
 the Gospels. The text is ornamented with red 
 letters in the first line of each Gospel and in some 
 other places, but it has no pictures. 
 
 Another manuscript of the Gospels, which also 
 belonged to the Monastery of St. Augustine, Canter- 
 bury, and is now in the British Museum (Royal I, E), 
 may be of the seventh century ; it is written on purple- 
 stained vellum, with ornamental initials, etc., of the 
 Anglo-Saxon school of art, and with pictures of the 
 Evangelists of the Byzantine school. 
 
 The MS. Add. 11695 in the British Museum con- 
 tains rude copies of paintings of much earlier date 
 — horseshoe arches, and interlaced ribbands, which 
 recall the Rabula Manuscript ; a large cross with 
 the AO suspended from its arms ; at fol. 229 the 
 Three Children in the Furnace in oranti attitude, 
 with angels spreading out hands and wings over them. 
 
 The MS. Galba A XVIII. in the British Museum, 
 of the eighth century, has an Ascension of the same 
 type as that in the Rabula Manuscript. 
 
 From the sixth century the political troubles of 
 the empire seem to have interrupted the work of 
 the miniature-painter on the continent of Europe, 
 until the revival of art by Greek artists in the time 
 of Charles the Great. But in the seventh and eighth
 
 3iS HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 centuries the monasteries of Ireland, the Hebrides, 
 and of Northumbria were producing books written in 
 letters of a grand form, profusely ornamented with 
 fanciful figures of birds, beasts, and lacertine creatures, 
 and interlaced work, with borders and initial pages of 
 ornament ; * but the attempts at the drawing of the 
 human figure in them are childish. In the Psalter of 
 Athelstan we first see the revival of art in England, 
 in miniatures which are clearly copied from ancient 
 originals ; the Ascension is so much like that in*the 
 Syrian manuscript of Rabula, as to raise the question 
 how far our English art was indebted to Eastern 
 sources.f 
 
 It is pleasant to be able to add that while the 
 early English Church was indebted to more learned 
 countries for books, in one instance at least a manu- 
 script of the same Church is at this day one of the 
 treasures of the Western Church. A huge and 
 magnificent manuscript of the whole Bible, which 
 Abbot Ceolfrid had written in A.D. 17 16, either at 
 Wearmouth or Jarrow, as a present to the Bishop 
 of Rome, is accounted as one of the two manuscripts 
 from which the text, as Jerome left it, may be best 
 determined ; it is known as the Codex Amiatinus, as 
 having belonged to the convent of Monte Amiata ; it 
 is now in the Laurentian Library at Florence. 
 
 * For which see Westwood's " Palxographia Pictoria Sacra." 
 t The scribes of the East Syrian (Nestorian) Christians are to this 
 day writing books in large bold minuscule characters, and ornamenting 
 them with frontispieces of interlaced work, in the style of the Irish 
 and Saxon manuscripts of the eighth century. It is a very curious 
 survival of ancient art.
 
 li^raJrmJraJr^|gtali^ra raJmJraissraraf^[ gjgJigg[igj TBj|^i^ra^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 GOLD AND SILVER VESSELS— HOLY OIL VESSELS- 
 SACRED EMBROIDERY. 
 
 The altar and its canopy ; altar vessels, etc. ; censers ; crosses ; lamps 
 — Holy oil vessels ; their use ; examples at Monza— Superstitions 
 connected with : continued to the present day— Sacred embroidery : 
 liangings in churches ; clerical vestments. 
 
 N the time of Constantine — and how much 
 earlier we do not know — the altar in the 
 more stately churches was overshadowed 
 by a kind of canopy, which in Constan- 
 tine's Church of the Holy Wisdom was a semi-dome, 
 carried on four pillars with silver capitals. Two 
 centuries later, when pictures and images were com- 
 monly used in churches, the presence of the Holy 
 Ghost was represented by a silver dove hanging over 
 the altar, and another over the font in the baptistery. 
 Even in primitive times the altar vessels, as chalices, 
 patens, lamps, were of precious metals, and we cannot 
 doubt that vessels of silver and gold would be wrought 
 according to the use of their time. We have seen 
 that in the upper room of Jerusalem it is probable
 
 320 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 that this was the case ; that it was so in later times 
 we learn from several incidental notices. Tertullian,* 
 in the latter part of the second century, speaks of 
 the symbol of the Good Shepherd on the Eucharistic 
 cup, from which we infer that the chalices and pro- 
 bably other sacred vessels were sometimes orna- 
 mented with the symbols and pictures which the 
 piety of the time so freely lavished. Bishop Zephy- 
 rinus (a.d. 203) prescribed that the chalices should be 
 of gold or silver. Urban I. (227) bestowed sacred 
 vessels of gold and lamps of silver upon various 
 churches. Part of the crime for which St. Laurence 
 the Deacon suffered martrydom under Valerian {c. 
 A.D. 253) was that he refused to give up the golden 
 vessels in which the sacred mysteries were celebrated, 
 and the golden lamps used in the night assemblies, 
 which were under his charge as deacon. In the 
 Diocletian persecution, Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage, 
 when (a.d. 303) ordered to Rome to be tried, left the 
 gold and silver vessels of his church in the custody of 
 the priests, and an inventory of them in the hands of a 
 deaconess, with a charge that if he did not return she 
 should give it to his successor. What this inventory 
 contained may be inferred from another of the same 
 period of the sacred vessels given up by Paul, Bishop 
 of Cirta, to the persecutors ; it enumerated two gold 
 cups, two silver cups, six silver water-pots, a silver 
 cumelitcm (probably a flagon or bowl), seven silver 
 lamps, etc. When emperors and kings became the 
 " nursing fathers " of the Church, they lavished trea- 
 * Oxford translation, p. iii.
 
 GOLD AND SILVER VESSELS. 
 
 sure upon the fabrics and their furniture. To take 
 the Basih'ca of St. Peter as an illustration. The doors 
 were overlaid with silver plates, the pavement before 
 the crypt was of silver. Besides the precious materials 
 used in the construction of the Confessio for the 
 relics of the Apostles, and the golden-plated vaulting 
 of the apse, there was a cross of solid gold, an altar 
 of silver gilt, adorned with four hundred precious 
 stones, white, green, and blue ; a golden paten with 
 a cover of pure gold and a dove upon it (patenam 
 auream cum turrem ex auro purissimo cum colum- 
 bam), similarly adorned with jewels, together with 
 five silver patens ; three golden jewelled chalices and 
 twenty silver ones ; two golden and five silver aince, 
 apparently flagons for receiving oblations of wine 
 from the faithful. Also a golden jewelled censer ; 
 four brazen candelabra, ornamented with silver 
 medallions of Scripture subjects, and a golden 
 corona — these stood before St. Paul's shrine ; thirty- 
 two silver fara, or pendants for light, in the nave 
 and thirty in the aisle. The Lateran Basilica was 
 still more splendidly furnished. 
 
 The furniture and vessels of Justinian's Church of 
 Sta. Sophia were not less sumptuous. The altar was 
 encrusted with gems set in gold ; the baldachino over 
 it had a cupola of gold and a cross of gold weighing 
 75 lbs., adorned with precious stones. The throne of 
 the patriarch and the seats of the presbyters were 
 of silver gilt. The pulpit had a dais of gold, with a 
 cross of gold lOO lbs. weight, ornamented with car- 
 buncles and pearls ; the golden candelabra weighed 
 
 Y
 
 322 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 6000 cwt, and the doors were of cedar, ivory, and 
 amber. The sacred vessels of various kinds, which 
 / numbered 42,000, were of gold, and the chalices were 
 ornamented with pearls and other gems. The cata- 
 logue reminds us of the list of the gold and silver 
 vessels of Solomon's temple (i Kings vi. and vii.). 
 
 The use of incense is mentioned in the Apostolic 
 Constitutions not later than the early part of the 
 fourth century, which implies censers of some kind. 
 By the seventh century crosses of silver and gold, 
 and adorned with gems, were placed upon the altar, 
 and censers of precious metals were used in the 
 service, since Chosroes gave such ornaments to the 
 Church of Jerusalem {c. A.D. 616). 
 
 None of these v/orks in the precious metals have 
 come down to us. But we shall not err in taking 
 for granted that they resembled, in their general 
 forms, the secular cups and tazze and lamps whose 
 forms we know from actual examples * or from 
 pictorial representations. 
 
 Holy Oil Reliquaries. 
 
 Another interesting class of objects affording 
 Y examples of early Christian art is that of the vessels 
 to contain oil taken from the lamps which burned 
 before the shrines of the martyrs. The custom 
 belongs to that region of popular religious sentiment 
 which so easily runs into superstition. Pilgrims to 
 
 * For example, those which have been found at Herculaneum and 
 Pompeii,
 
 HOLY OIL RELIQUARIES. 3:3 
 
 the shrines used to carry these oils away as relics. 
 At first, perhaps, they were not regarded as any- 
 thing more than relics, but at an early period it 
 began to be believed that the " holy oil " possessed 
 miraculous properties, especially in the cure of 
 disease. No doubt the foundation of this belief 
 was the primitive practice of anointing the sick 
 with oil, alluded to in Jas. v. 14. Septimus Severus 
 was believed, in his early years, to have been cured 
 of a sickness by a Christian who anointed him with 
 oil. Ephrem the Syrian, who died circa 370, asserts 
 that anointing with " oil wherewith the lights of the 
 martyrs are kindled " would give spiritual healing ; * 
 so that the superstition dates back to the later years 
 of the fourth century, and continued for many cen- 
 turies afterwards. At all the famous shrines which 
 were places of pilgrimage these holy oils were sold 
 to the pilgrims. Probably a little of the oil from the 
 lamp of the shrine was mingled with other oil. A bit 
 of cotton wool was dipped into it, little flasks of 
 glass, or metal, were made expressly to contain this 
 relic ; they were usually round and flat, about the 
 size of a modern watch, with a short neck, and were 
 usually ornamented with sacred symbols, or with 
 the effigy of the saint, and had an inscription running 
 round the edge or horizontally across. 
 
 In the latter half of the fifth century, among the 
 
 pious articles which Gregory the Great sent as 
 
 presents to Theodelinda, the orthodox queen of the 
 
 Lombards, was a collection of these holy oils. Abbot 
 
 * Oxford Library of the Fathers, translation, p. 229, note.
 
 324 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 John, by the bishop's direction, collected sixty-five 
 from the principal Roman shrines ; and the vessels 
 which contained them, or some of them, still exist in 
 the treasury of the Cathedral of Monza, together with 
 a catalogue of them written on papyrus. Our wood- 
 cuts represent two of them. One has in the upper 
 portion of the design a very curious shadowing forth 
 of the Crucifixion. Instead of the cross of Calvary 
 
 Ampullse, at Monza. 
 
 is a small jewelled cross with two persons kneeling 
 at it ; and instead of Christ hanging upon the cross 
 is a head of Christ in glory. But the other usual 
 accessories of the scene are there — the two thieves in 
 the attitude of crucifixion, but with the crosses 
 omitted ; Mary and John ; and the symbols of the sun 
 and moon above. The lower subject is the sepulchre 
 and the angel appearing to the Marys. The other
 
 HOLY OIL RELIQUARIES. 3^5 
 
 has the Adoration of the Shepherds and of the Magi 
 combined in one scene, with an inscription beneath, 
 EMMANOHA ME9 YMON O GS ("Emmanuel, God 
 with us "). Both have round the margin the in- 
 scription, E.VEON ZYAOY ZflHS TON AriQN XPI2T0Y TOnnN ("Oil of 
 
 the wood of life and of the holy places of Christ "). 
 The flat sides form medallions which are orna- 
 mented with subjects of Scripture history, as the An- 
 nunciation, Salutation, Nativity, Adoration of the 
 Magi, Baptism of Christ, Crucifixion, Ascension, the 
 sepulchre with the Marys and angel, the cross, heads 
 of the twelve Apostles, Christ and the Apostles. 
 Similar vessels which contained oil from the shrine 
 of St. Mennas, also exist. Such vessels were brought 
 from all the great shrines, not only of Rome, but of 
 Jerusalem, of Egypt, and probably of all the great 
 saints of Christendom.* 
 
 Mr. J. Romilly Allen f points out that the'treatment 
 of the subjects on these vessels marks the transition 
 between the art of the sarcophagi and that of the 
 Saxon manuscripts and later works down to the 
 
 * Garucci ("Storia della Arte Christiana," vol. vi. Plate 443) figures 
 several others of these vessels. 
 
 The author of "Mademoiselle Mori " says that it is still the custom 
 in Italy to dip a bit of cotton wool into the oil of the small lamp burning 
 at the altar of the Virgin, and to use it as a charm in cases of sickness. 
 He adds that, in the Middle Ages, it was the custom, after the cele- 
 bration of the saint's day at the Roman churches, for an acolyte to dip 
 a piece of tow in the oil of the lamp which burnea before the shrine, 
 and to carry it to the pope, saying, " To-day the station took place in 
 such a church, and the saint salutes you ; " and that these locks of tow- 
 were carefully kept to form a pillow on which the pontiff's head might 
 rest in the grave. 
 
 t "Early Christian Symbolism," p. 52. 
 
 y
 
 326 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 twelfth century. The thought suggests itself that it 
 might be the dissemination of these and such-like small 
 portable objects, by the hands of traders and pilgrims, 
 which helped to carry the conventional designs of 
 ancient art over the length and breadth of Christen- 
 dom, and afforded authorities to the native artists 
 of every country. 
 
 A very similar custom was common in our own 
 country in the Middle Ages. Pilgrims to St. Thomas 
 of Canterbury, our Lady of Walsingham, and other 
 great shrines, carried away holy water, in which the 
 relics of the saint had been dipped, in small leaden 
 ampullae of the same general form as the earlier 
 vessels, only that the ornaments upon the flat sides 
 were pictures of the saint, or of his shrine, or initials 
 of his name.* 
 
 Sacred Embroidery. 
 
 From St. Jerome we learn that, in the fourth centur\', 
 hangings embroidered with sacred subjects were be- 
 ginning to be used in churches, and that the bishops 
 did not all approve of it; for John, Bishop of Jerusalem, 
 took down a hanging, " representing Christ or some 
 saint," in a church of Palestine, giving it for a winding- 
 sheet for the poor, and replaced it with one from 
 Cyprus.f 
 
 In the fourth century Asterius, Bishop of Amasia, 
 
 * /ournal of the Archaological Association, v. 124 ; Archceological 
 /oitnial, vol. vii. p. 400 ; xv. 156; xvii. 68. 
 
 t Jerome, Ep., 51. This was perhaps the hanging which at certain 
 times of the service screened the chancel from the rest of the church.
 
 SACRED EMBROIDERY. 327 
 
 informs us that the rich people of his time had not 
 only the walls of their houses decorated with pictures, 
 but also their tunics and pallia ; and the more pious 
 of them, both men and women, chose scenes from 
 the Gospels. " One sees there," he says, " Christ 
 with His disciples, and each of His miracles as the 
 history relates it ; the marriage feast at Cana, and 
 the water-pots ; the feeding of the multitude, with 
 the baskets of bread ; the paralytic carrying his 
 bed on his shoulders ; the blind man cured with a 
 little clay ; the woman who touched the hem of the 
 Saviour's garment ; the sinner at the feet of Jesus ; 
 Lazarus recalled to life from his grave." * There is 
 an interesting contemporary illustration of the custom 
 in the mosaic portrait of the Empress Theodora, in 
 St. Vitalis, Ravenna, in which the hem of her* robe 
 is adorned with the subject of the Adoration of 
 the Magi. 
 
 During the first three centuries the dress of the y 
 clergy, both in ordinary life and in their ministra- 
 tions, was that which has been already described at 
 p. 9, viz. the long tunic and the pallium. In the 
 fifth century new fashions of male costume seem to 
 have come in, and gradually become general, which 
 differed from the dignified simplicity of the old 
 classical dress. The prestige of the ancient habit 
 and its artistic merits caused it to be retained,' as 
 being more grave and dignified, by the officials of 
 the empire and by the clergy. When civil digni- 
 taries abandoned it, the clergy still used it in their 
 * "Homiiia de Divite et Laz."
 
 328 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 ministrations, and thus the tunic — under the name 
 of the alb, because its colour was always white — and 
 the pallium became distinctively clerical vestments. 
 The new upper garment which superseded the 
 pallium in general use was a circle of cloth, of 
 larger or smaller diameter, with a slit in the middle 
 through which the head was passed, and it fell in 
 folds round the person. When this went out of 
 fashion in civil use, it was retained by the clergy 
 as the original of the chasuble, which has continued 
 in use in the Western Church to the present day. 
 The great dignitaries of the empire wore a richly 
 embroidered pallium. And it was probably the 
 presentation of such embroidered robes by em- 
 perors to the great dignitaries of the Church which 
 led to the more common use, by bishops and priests, 
 of such ornamented vestments. The figure of St. 
 Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, represented at p. 157, is 
 in the episcopal vestments of probably the sixth 
 century. The figure of St. Gregory the Great, opposite 
 p. 298, represents an embroidered vestment of about 
 the same period.
 
 mJr^ii^rsj[^\m:^r^i^fsj[^r^j^Ss\r^mJm^mirsJ\mir^r^r^r^m i\ 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS IN DOMESTIC USE. 
 
 Religion in daily life — Use of religious subjects in decorating houses ; 
 dress ; water-vessels ; wine-cups ; buckles ; huir-pins — Lamps. 
 
 N order to understand the profuse use of 
 Christian symbols at times and in places 
 where our modern taste would regard 
 them as incongruous, we must call to 
 mind that, in the view of primitive Christianity, the 
 Christian is a consecrated person, a member of the 
 Body of Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit ; his 
 life is a religion, and every act of it is done to the 
 glory of God. As, according to the testimony of 
 TertulHan, the primitive Christians, "in their coming 
 in and going out, in putting on their shoes, at the 
 bath, at the table, in lighting their candles, in lying 
 down, in sitting down, marked their foreheads with 
 the sisrn of the cross : " so in later times Christians 
 saw no incongruity in sculpturing religious symbols 
 over the doors of their houses, and painting Scripture 
 histories on the walls of their rooms, embroidering 
 them upon their garments, engraving them upon their 
 
 V 
 
 •/
 
 330 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 seals, impressing them upon every article of personal 
 and domestic use. 
 
 Among the miscellaneous objects of ancient 
 Christian art which may be mentioned in this place, 
 are secular vessels used for containing beverages. 
 
 The two woodcuts represent a leaden vessel found 
 in the Regency of Tunis, the use of which is deter- 
 mined by the inscription, ANTxVHCATE YAOP MET 
 V EY^POCYNE ("■ Drink water with joy "). The figures 
 cast upon it are a mixture of pagan and Christian 
 subjects, and were perhaps chosen at random, out of 
 the moulds which the maker had in stock, merely 
 for ornament without any intention to convey a 
 meaning. A mythological nymph mounted on a 
 sea-horse, corresponds with the Christian symbol 
 of the two birds drinking from a vase. The Good 
 Shepherd is placed between a gladiator and a palm 
 tree, an orante is between a palm tree and a 
 mythological victory. The Christian symbol of the 
 cross, on a mount from which flow the rivers of 
 Paradise, with two stags drinking, is repeated ; a 
 vine pattern forms an ornamented frame. 
 
 Vessels, like small buckets of wooden staves 
 mounted with metal, were intended apparently as 
 receptacles for water or wine, or perhaps for ale or 
 mead. One of these was found in a Merovingian 
 grave at Miannay, near Abbeville, in France. 
 
 Later examples are one in the Duomo of Milan, 
 and another in Mr. Attenborough's collection, one 
 made for Otho II. (a.d. 973-978), and the other for 
 Otho III. (born 9S0), of which there arc casts in
 
 RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS IN DOMESTIC USE. 331 
 
 Water-vessel from North Africa.
 
 332 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the South Kensington Museum. These also are 
 ornamented with Scripture subjects. 
 
 A curious English illustration of the use of 
 Scripture subjects in the ornamentation of objects of 
 domestic use, was found in a Saxon grave at Long 
 Wittenham, Berks ; together with a spear, a bronze 
 kettle, and an iron knife. It is a drinking-vessel, 
 formed of staves and hoops, such as is not infrequently- 
 found in Saxon graves, and is still in use in Scotland, 
 where it is called a quaigh.* The example in question 
 had the following Christian subjects repoiiss^e on the 
 metal plates with which it was ornamented ; the 
 X P ; and the A O within a circle ; the Miracle at 
 Cana ; the Baptism of Christ, inscribed IQANNHC ; 
 the Annunciation. The Greek form of the name of 
 
 Buckle of a belt. Daniel in the lions' den, and an orante. 
 
 the Baptist suggests the quarter from which came 
 the designs of this vessel, if not the vessel itself. 
 
 Buckles for belts of bronze, in some cases plated 
 with silver, have been found in the Jura, Switzerland, 
 
 * In the Mayer Collection at Liverpool, engraved in C, Roach 
 Smith's Catalogue, and in the " ArchKologia," xxxviii. 327.
 
 RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS IN DOMESTIC USE. 333 
 
 and Savoy, which are probably not earlier than the 
 sixth century, ornamented with Scripture subjects. 
 Daniel in the lions' den seems to have been the most 
 popular subject; figures in the attitude of prayer, 
 and crosses, also occur. 
 
 Two objects found in England are worth mention 
 here : in London a metal hairpin with a medallion 
 at the top bearing a helmeted bust with a cross 
 on its breast looking upwards towards a cross in 
 the air ; clearly an allusion to the vision of Con- 
 stantine* (compare it with the gold coin described at 
 p. 338) ; and a bone hair-pin at Colchester with a cross 
 on the top.f 
 
 Lamps. 
 
 From the time of the Apostles downwards some of 
 the most popular services of the Church were held in \/ 
 the evening, vigils lasted through the night, and the 
 Eucharist was celebrated very early in the morning 
 (Acts XX. 8). This involved the use of lamps ; and 
 these lights seem from the earliest times to have 
 been regarded as having a symbolical meaning. 
 Christ called Himself the Light of the world ; St. 
 Simeon called Him the Light to lighten the Gentiles; 
 one of the names applied to baptism was ilhiminatio ; 
 again, oil was one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit. 
 This will account for the lamps being reckoned 
 among the sacred vessels of the churches, and for 
 their being made of the precious metals. 
 
 ♦ " Roman London," C. R. Smith, p. 128. 
 t ' ' Historic Towns : " Colchester, p. 49.
 
 334 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 At an early period, certainly within three centuries, 
 the lamps were lighted before Vespers with certain 
 appropriate prayers and psalms or hymns ; and the 
 ceremony gave to the Vesper service the name of 
 'ETTiXuxvfoi^ or in Latin Liicernarium. 
 
 Even in domestic use, when Christians lighted 
 . their lamps in the evening, Tertullian says they were 
 N\ accustomed to make the sign of the cross, and in 
 
 later times they sang a hymn. The Greek hymn 
 $wt: i\ap6v ay/ae So4'?c (" Gladsome light of holy 
 glory"), the thanksgiving at lamp-lighting, was old in 
 St. Basil's day (a.d. 370). 
 
 We have seen that Christians ornamented all kinds 
 of articles for mere domestic use with Christian sym- 
 bols and subjects ; the symbolical meaning which 
 they attached to light, and the religious ceremonies 
 connected with it, would lead them especially to the 
 use of such symbols on their domestic lamps. Ac- 
 cordingly, in many countries are found in great 
 numbers lamps of earthenware and metal ornamented 
 in the style with which we are familiar. 
 The ornamentation of the clay lamps 
 was most commonly on the circular top, 
 which formed a medallion, and con- 
 sisted of figures of the Good Shepherd, 
 a lamb, a bird, Jonah, the cross, the 
 Clay lamp, with XP, ctc. Metal lamps arc sometimes 
 
 XP ornament. i • ^i i r i.* 
 
 made m the shape of a ship or a 
 church, and the handle is often fashioned into a 
 medallion ornamented with the same kind of figures 
 as appear on those of clay.
 
 RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS IN DOMESTIC USE. 335 
 
 Earthen lamps have been found in our own country 
 — at Newcastle, ornamented with the XP monogram ; 
 at London, with pahn branches ; and at Colchester, 
 •with the Good Shepherd and other early subjects.* 
 
 Garucci gives two plates of illustrations of mcta! 
 lamps, and three plates of earthenware.f 
 
 * " Dictionary of Christian Antiquities : " Lamp. 
 t Vol. vi. riates 469, 471, 473, 474, and 475.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 
 
 Coin of Severus with Noah's ark ; of Trajan with XP ; of Salonina 
 with EN EIPHNH— Coins with Christian symbols: of Con- 
 stantine, etc.— Medals: pectoral crosses— Gems : primitive use of 
 them with Christian symbols — Clement of Alexandria — Examples 
 in the British Museum, etc. 
 
 HE conversion of Constantlne introduced 
 the symbols of the Christian faith upon 
 the coinage of the empire, at first in 
 symbols sparingly introduced as mere 
 accessories of the old-established types, then by 
 allegories more plainly setting forth the faith, and at 
 last by direct introduction of the effigies of sacred 
 personages occupying the whole field of the coin. 
 
 There are, however, exceptional types of coins 
 before the time of Constantine which are interesting 
 enough to require notice. 
 
 Certain coins of Septimus Severus, which have the 
 subject of Noah's ark on their reverse, must be noticed, 
 if only to say that we do not claim a Christian origin 
 for them. These were all coined at Apamea on the
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 
 
 337 
 
 Euphrates, and are connected with that city. The 
 city was called (KtjSwroc) Cibotos, and KtjSwro'e is the 
 word used in the Septuagint and in the New Testa- 
 ment for the ark of Noah. Of the ancient legends 
 
 Coin of Septimus Severus. 
 
 of the Flood, one had taken root at Apamea, and 
 thus the ark is adopted on the coin as a hieroglyph 
 of the name of the city.* 
 
 A medallion of Trajan Decius (249-251) struck at 
 Metonia in Lydia has on the reverse the inscription 
 En . AYP . A-I-riANYO B . A XP . A . TO . B . CTE- 
 . I. ANH . (etti AvprjXiov ^ Acjxpidvov ^\g ap\ovTeQ ayojvodeTi 
 TO BevTspov Gte(pavr}(j)dpov). The engraver has contracted 
 the PX in the word apxovreg, so that it forms exactly 
 the usual Christian monogram XP, and the monogram 
 occupies a very conspicuous place at the top of the 
 coin. It has been suggested that a Christian moneyer 
 introduced this symbol of his faith upon the coin ; 
 and if so it would be valuable as one of the scanty 
 evidences that the monogram was in use before 
 Constantine. 
 
 * See p. 218. 
 
 Z
 
 338 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 V 
 
 We have already had occasion to mention the 
 coins of Salonina, the empress of Gallienus, with 
 the inscription, EN EIPHNH, "in peace," which is 
 beHeved to be an exclusively Christian legend, 
 and usually to have a funereal meaning ; and there- 
 fore it has been assumed that the coins were struck 
 on the death of the empress, and that ;;he was a 
 Christian ; but some coins with the inscription which 
 were struck during the lifetime of the empress, have 
 thrown doubt upon this conclusion.* 
 
 The cut shows a coin of Constantine the Great 
 with the monogram upon his helmet. Another coin 
 
 of the same emperor 
 shows on the reverse the 
 Labarum between two 
 soldiers. The monogram 
 and the Labarum in vari- 
 ous forms are the com- 
 monest of the Christian symbols of the coinage of this 
 reign. A more important coin, both as a work of nu- 
 mismatic art and as a monument of Christian history, 
 is an aureus presenting the emperor's head with 
 eyes uplifted, and no legend round, executed in the 
 very highest style of which the age was capable ; its 
 reverse always has reference in type and legend to 
 triumph : as, GLORIA or VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AUG. 
 The motive for this striking innovation in medallic 
 portraiture is given by Eusebius.t " How great was 
 the strength of the Divine faith which was the founda- 
 
 * See " Dictionary of Cbristlan Antiquities : " Money, 
 t "Vita Const.," iii, 15. 
 
 Coin of Constantine the Great.
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 339 
 
 tion of his soul may be estimated from the considera- 
 tion that he devised how his own portrait should be 
 represented upon the gold coins in such a manner as 
 to appear to be looking upwards, stretching himself 
 aloft towards God, in the action of one praying. Now 
 the pieces thus stamped are in circulation over the 
 Roman world. Moreover, in the palace itself, at cer- 
 tain of the entrances, upon the pictures placed over 
 the gateways, he had himself painted standing up- 
 right, looking towards heaven, and stretching forth 
 his hands in the attitude of one in prayer." 
 
 There exists a scarce medal of CONSTANTINVS 
 MAX AUG. Coronated bust to the right. Rev.: SPES 
 PVBLICA, Labarum with three o o o on the banner and 
 XP at the top of the spear, below is a serpent trans- 
 fixed by the spiked end of the staff. The reader may 
 remember that this enters into the subject of the great 
 painting over the entrance of Constantine's palace at 
 Constantinople, described in a former chapter.* 
 
 Lastly we may m.ention the medal struck in 
 memory of Constantine's apotheosis. Down to his sj 
 time the eagle bearing the emperor aloft is the 
 established symbol of an apotheosis. In this medal 
 a symbol clearly adapted from the horses of fire and 
 chariot of fire of Elijah is adopted. For the emperor 
 is seen standing in a chariot of four horses going at 
 full speed, whilst the hand of God issues from the 
 heavens, to which the emperor raises his eyes and 
 hands. This interesting medal belongs to the mints 
 of Alexandria, Antioch, and Carthage alone, but 
 
 * See p. 170.
 
 340 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 must have been issued to a large extent, considering 
 the numerous examples which remain to the present 
 day. 
 
 Coins of the Emperor Constans have on the 
 reverse a soldier holding the Labarum in his left 
 and a little figure, perhaps a phoenix or a victory, in his 
 
 Coin of Constans. 
 
 right The same reverse is found on coins of Con- 
 stantius Magnentius and Constantius Gallus, A 
 medal of Constantius II. shows that prince holding 
 a standard emblazoned with the Christian monogram, 
 the legend being "IN HOC SIGNO VCTOR ERIS," "Under 
 A this banner thou shalt be victorious ; " probably the 
 real words which Constantine saw in his dream, 
 translated by Eusebius tovti<^ ^'X"- 
 
 The monogram of the Saviour's name between 
 the letters An, with the legend SALVS AVGVSTI, is 
 frequently the exclusive device of a medal's field 
 under the two sons of Constantine. 
 
 During many reigns the usual reverse of the coins 
 bearing the legend VICTORIA AUGUSTI was a figure 
 of the emperor holding orb and Labarum and setting 
 his foot upon the neck of a crouching barbarian. In 
 the coins of Valentinian, Satan, in the form of a 
 serpent with angel-head, is substituted for the bar-
 
 COIN'S, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 
 
 341 
 
 barian. In the time of Majorian an angel \s substi- 
 tuted for the figure of the emperor : this continued 
 as the usual reverse of the solidi from 450 to 575, 
 the workmanship becoming more and more rude and 
 careless. The reverse of a coin of Flacilla, the wife 
 
 Coin of Justin I. (518 A.D.). 
 
 of Tlieodosius, has a winged figure — a victory — hold- 
 ing a shield marked with the monogram. In a coin 
 of Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius holds a cross 
 in the shape in which it first appears upon the 
 sarcophagi. 
 
 Justinian II., on his recovery of the empire, placed 
 a full-face bust of the Saviour on his solidi, holding 
 
 Coin of Licinia Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III. (425-455 a.d.). 
 
 the Gospels in the left hand and giving benediction 
 with the right. On the obverse is a full-length figure 
 of the emperor grasping with one hand the cross 
 planted on Calvary and holding in the other the 
 
 I
 
 342 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 mappa or roUed-up napkin with which the emperor 
 .gave the signal in the hippodrome, which was a badge 
 of sovereignty. The coin is a great improvement 
 upon those of the previous reigns. The Saviour's 
 head is said to be a copy from the older statue over 
 the palace gate, and that to have been copied from 
 some antique statue. The portrait of Christ, with 
 intervals of disuse, continued to appear on the coinage 
 until the first capture of Constantinople. On the coins 
 
 Medallion of the eighth or ninth century. 
 
 of Basil the Macedonian appears a full-length figure 
 of the Saviour seated on a throne. His son Leo 
 the philosopher introduced a bust of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, front face, with hands palm upwards, 
 and not badly executed ; over the head " MARIA " and 
 on each side ME 9Y, mother of God. For many 
 generations following this the Madonna seems to 
 have been appropriated to the coinage of a female 
 sovereign. 
 
 Some MEDALS exist, generally of bronze, of the 
 third and later centuries, often pierced for suspension. 
 On a large medal drawn by Buonarotti, but whose 
 present whereabouts is not known, a Good Shepherd 
 stands in the middle, bearing the sheep on his
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 
 
 343 
 
 shoulders ; the rest of the field is divided into four 
 horizontal lines ; on the first are Adam and Eve, and 
 on either side Noah and Jonah under the gourd ; on 
 the second Daniel and the lions and the sacrifice of 
 Isaac ; on the third the healing of the paralytic and 
 the smitten rock ; on the fourth Jonah sxi'allowed 
 and disgorged. Other medals exist which bear 
 some one of the usual cycle of early subjects, as 
 the sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel, etc. 
 
 St. Paul and St. Peter (bronze). 
 
 Leaden medallion. 
 
 The remarkable bronze medal which presents the 
 heads of St. Peter and St. Paul with unusual origi- 
 nality and great vigour is said to have been found 
 in the Catacomb of Domitilla, and is considered 
 by De Rossi to be of the third century. 
 
 The subject of the next example is the martyr- 
 dom of St. Laurence. It is remarkable as, perhaps, 
 the earliest picture of a martyrdom ; probably of 
 early fifth century date. The figure in the attitude 
 of prayer represents the soul of the dying martyr; 
 
 X 
 
 (
 
 344 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 the hand stretched down from above is a symbol 
 of God — it is prepared to give the martyr's crown. 
 The legend upon it is "SUCCESSA ViVAS" — Successa 
 being the name of the person for whom the medal 
 was made.* Roller (Plate XLIV.) gives drawings 
 of several medals, two of which represent the 
 Adoration of the Magi, in which the Holy Child 
 is distinguished by the nimbus, but not the Virgin 
 Mother. They are not of earlier date than the 
 fifth century. 
 
 At Carthage have been found moulds for casting 
 little devotional medals and crosses ; one of the 
 medals has a XP in a circle, another a cross with AW 
 suspended from the arms.f 
 
 Gems. 
 
 In ancient times men used a seal where we use an 
 autograph of our name, and in Eastern countries they 
 do so to this day. This made it necessary for every man 
 to possess a seal, which, for convenience of carriage 
 and safety of custody, was often in the shape of a ring. 
 Thus Clement of Alexandria discourages the wearing 
 of rings as ornaments, but allows one signet ring as 
 almost a necessity. "A man," he says, "should not 
 wear the ring on the finger-joint, for this is effeminate, 
 
 * Smith's" Dictionary of Christian Antiquities." See "Early Chris- 
 tian Numismatics," by the Rev C. W. King ; article Nutnismattque, 
 in Martigny's " Dictionary ; " Money in " Dictionary of Christian 
 Antiquities ;" figures of coins in Garucci, " Storia," etc., vi. 4S0, 381. 
 
 t " Revue de I'Art Chretien," 1890, vol. i. liv. 2. For a bronze of 
 Peter and Paul, and other very similar designs, see De Rossi's " Bulle- 
 tino de Archreol. Christ.," fourth series, fifth year, Plate X., 1887.
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 
 
 345 
 
 but upon the little finger, as low down as possible ; 
 for the hand will thus be more free for action and the 
 ring less likely to slip off, as being guarded by the 
 larger joint. But let our signet devices be a dove, or 
 
 Early Christian rings, 
 
 a fish, or a ship coursing against the sky, or a musical 
 lyre which Polycrates employed, or a ship's anchor 
 which was the seal of Seleucus, or if it be a fisher- 
 man it will remind us of an Apostle, and of boys 
 saved from water." A number of precious stones 
 engraved with such devices, which probably were 
 mounted in rings, have come down to us.* Several 
 precious stones, probably of the third and later cen- 
 turies, are engraved with the Good Shepherd ; others 
 with the fish, dove, anchor, etc. ; one with an episcopal 
 chair with IXY0 (for IXGYS) on the back, and a 
 monogram, probably of the name of the owner of 
 the seal, on each side of the chair ; gems engraved 
 with the sacred monogram are numerous. Mr. 
 King specially mentions and gives engravings of the 
 following : — 
 
 A fine large sapphire with monogram of Christ. 
 
 * Some are figured in the Rev. C. W. King's " Antique Gems and 
 Rings," and others in the " Dictionary of Christian Antiquities."
 
 346 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 A fine emerald, quarter inch square, set in a gold 
 hexagonal ring with monogram. 
 
 Another in red jasper with legend IHCOYC OEOY 
 YIOC IHPE, "Jesus, Son of God, keep me." (All 
 three are in the British Museum.) 
 
 The ship is frequent on gems of the Lower Empire; 
 for cargo the ship generally carries a monogram 
 XP ; or cock with palm. A palm branch occurs on 
 many signets with the name of the proprietor. 
 
 The Good Shepherd is engraved on a large carnelian 
 from the north of India with I.X.9.Y.C. round the 
 lamb, and on the reverse XPIGTE CGZE KAPIIIANON 
 AEnOTE (sic), "O Christ, save Carpianus for ever." 
 The same figure of earlier and better work on a red 
 jasper. A third in the British Museum represents 
 the Shepherd in the middle of a landscape with dogs 
 looking up to him, inscribed ECIYKEY = " Kurie 
 Jesu." 
 
 There are two intagli in the British Museum in 
 green jasper, one with Christ's entry into Jerusalem, 
 and the other with a Madonna and Child with angels 
 (" Gnostic of the beginning of the third century "). In 
 the same case two camei which cannot be later than 
 St. Helena, one with John Baptist, the other with an 
 Annunciation and the inscription OXAPETICMOC 
 TABPIHA, "The salutation, Gabriel." 
 
 A Gnostic gem, Good Shepherd with two sheep, and 
 inscription I AH; (iv. Plate 9, Fig. 9). A martyrdom 
 of a female with XP over her head (ix. Plate 8), and 
 under ANFT ("Annum novum felicem tibi," a new 
 year's piesent).
 
 COINS, MEDALS, AND GEMS. 347 
 
 In the French collection of gems the following 
 specimens which have been the signets of Persian 
 (Nestorlan) Christians are noticed by Chabouillet. 
 No. 1330, the sacrifice of Isaac; 1333, the fish in 
 the middle of the Christian monogram ; 1331, Virgin 
 and sacred Infant seated, with a Pehlevi legend ; 
 and lastly (without number) the bust of Christ in 
 profile beardless, the fish below, and then the legend 
 XPICTOY. Chabouillet considers all these earlier 
 than the great persecution by Sapor II., A.D. 340.* 
 
 Innumerable other objects have been found in and 
 near the locuH, chambers, and galleries of the cata- 
 combs, terra-cotta and bronze lamps, with monograms 
 and symbols, vases of terra-cotta and other materials, 
 unguent boxes, glass pastes, medals, rings, fibulae, 
 personal ornaments and utensils, ivory dolls, and 
 playthings. 
 
 * King, " Anlique Gems and Rings ; " " Rings of the Early Christian 
 Period," by C. D. E. Fortnam, copiously illustrated ; Arch. Joiiri: , 
 xxvi. p. 139.
 
 CHAPTER XXII, 
 
 INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 History and character of inscriptions j prayers for the departed, and 
 requests for their intercession ; euphemisms ; examples. 
 
 JHRISTIAN epitaphs of the first six cen- 
 turies exist in large numbers in all 
 Christian countries ; they have been col- 
 lected and annotated in many volumes, 
 and form a special branch of archaeological literature.* 
 It will be enough for our present purpose to give a 
 brief sketch of their general characteristics and some 
 examples, and to note a few whose contents have a 
 special bearing upon our subject. 
 
 * De Rossi has published two volumes, and has material for four or 
 five others, of the Christian inscriptions of Rome earlier than the 
 seventh century ; the Abbe Guzzara has published those of Piedmont ; 
 Mommsen those of the kingdom of Naples ; Le Plant those of Gaul ; 
 Waddington those of Central Syria ; Renier those of Algeria. The 
 early Christian inscriptions in Great Britain of the Roman period are 
 in Haddan and Stubbs's "Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents," 
 i, 39, 40 ; ii. p. xxii. and 51. 
 
 See the articles on the subject in Martigny's " Dictionaiy of Christian 
 Antiquities," and in Smith's "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities." 
 See also Dr. McCaul's "Christian Epitaphs," and " Britanno-Roman 
 Inscriptions." Roller gives photographs of some hundred and fifty 
 or two hundred of the more interesting inscribed stones as they are 
 classified and arranged on the walls of the Vatican Museum.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS. 349 
 
 During the first three centuries inscriptions are 
 comparatively rare. As to their art, some are 
 incised on the slab which closed a loculus, with all 
 degrees of care, from the elegant caligraphy of the 
 poetical epitaphs with which Pope Damasus dis- 
 tinguished the graves of his predecessors, down to 
 very rude and illiterate scratchings ; some are care- 
 fully carved upon the front of a rich sarcophagus. 
 As to their contents, with few exceptions the earlier 
 epitaphs are brief and simple, and without a date. 
 Recent discoveries in the Cemetery of St. Agnes show 
 that ninety-six out of a hundred of the earliest tombs \'^ 
 are entirely without inscriptions, in contrast with the 
 wordy elegies upon pagan sepulchres of the period. 
 In the third century inscriptions became common, 
 but are brief and undated. From the fourth century 
 and onward they become more complex and ornate, 
 and are carefully dated. Sometimes the day of the 
 month of death is given, because that was the day on 
 which the annual commemoration was to be held, but / 
 not the year ; that was of little importance to those A, 
 whose thoughts were of eternity. One characteristic 
 which no doubt existed from the earliest times, but 
 is only brought out by the language of the later 
 inscriptions, is the existence of a strong feeling of 
 family affection. In the open-air cemeteries epitaphs 
 in verse abound ; but formal eulogies and inscriptions 
 are rare after the sixth century. 
 
 The briefest and commonest of the epitaphs is 
 So-and-so EN IPHNH, or IN PACE. Brief as it is, it ^ 
 has two meanings ; it is either an assertion that the
 
 350 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 departed rests in peace, or an aspiration or prayer 
 that he may rest in peace, which latter meaning is 
 brought out more clearly in some epitaphs, as " DoRME 
 IN FACE," " Sleep in peace ; " " Semper vive in pace," 
 " Live always in peace ; " " ViVAS IN PACE," " Mayest 
 thou live in peace." Many consist of an affectionate 
 word of farewell on the part of the living to their de- 
 parted relation : " FAX TECUM," "Peace be with you ;" 
 " QuiESCE IN PACE," "Rest in peace;" "AccEPTA 
 SIS IN Christo," "Mayest thou be accepted in 
 Christ ; " " ^Eterna TIBl LUX IN xp," " May eternal 
 light in Christ be with you ; " "Pax TECUM PERMA- 
 NEAT," " May everlasting peace be with thee." 
 
 The principal symbols which appear on the in- 
 scriptions are the fish, dove, lamb or sheep, phoenix, 
 cock, horse, stag, barrel, anchor, ship, lighthouse, 
 cockle-shells, etc. Towards the end of the fourth 
 century, or more surely at the beginning of the fifth, 
 the cross begins to appear on the inscriptions at Rome. 
 
 Of requests for the departed to pray for the 
 living, De Rossi says that among the inscriptions 
 of the first three centuries the forms " PETE pro 
 NOBIS," and " PRO PARENTIBUS," and "PRO CONJUGE," 
 and. " PRO FILIIS," and " pro SORORE," occur ; but Dr. 
 McCaul adds that these are comparatively rare 
 am.ong the thousands, and that anything beyond 
 these requests of the surviving relations to the 
 departed to pray for the members of his family, is 
 of extreme rarity. On the other hand, of requests 
 to the living to pray for the departed, Dr. McCaul 
 says that he only recollects, in the first six centuries,
 
 INS CRIP TIONS. 3 5 i 
 
 two of the addresses to the reader for his prayers 
 which are so frequent in mediaeval times. 
 
 The euphemistic phrases in which the heathen 
 spoke of death, with a natural shrinking from the 
 realization of its sadder features, are continued in 
 Christian epitaphs with the strong faith which their 
 religion gave them in the unbroken continuity of 
 life and the certainty of a joyful resurrection. 
 " RECESSIT DE S/ECULUM, De S/ECULUM exivit," 
 "he departed this life;" " FuiT IN s^liCULUM," "he 
 ceased to be of this life;" " VixiT IN S^CULUM," 
 "he ceased to live in this life" — S.-ECULUM being 
 always used by Christianity of this present life ; 
 " Reddit," or " Reddidit," viz. " debitum vit/e," 
 "he restored his life to God who gave it;" "Abso- 
 LUTUS DE COR PORE," "he was freed from the body," 
 "Depositus" is the word for buried, which has the 
 meaning of a treasure placed in safety. 
 
 Here are a fev/ examples of epitaphs which have 
 some special feature of interest.* 
 
 From Orleansville, in Algiers, Renicr, n. 3701 — 
 
 "HIC REQVIES 
 
 CITSANCTAE MEMO 
 
 RIAEPATERNOSTER 
 
 REPARATVS E. P. S. QVIFE 
 
 CIT IN SACERDOTIVM AN 
 
 NOS Villi MEN-XI-ETPRE 
 
 CESSIT NOS INPACE 
 
 DIE VNDECIMV . KAL 
 
 * From Dr. J. McCaul's " Christian Epitaphs of the First Six 
 Centuries." Toronto, 1869.
 
 352 HISTORY OP EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 AVG PROVNC . CCCCXXX 
 ET SEXTA." 
 
 " Here rests our father of holy memory, Reparatus 
 the bishop, who passed in his priesthood nine years 
 eleven months, and went before us, in peace, on the 
 eleventh day before the Calends of August, in the 
 436th year of the Province \i.e. July 22, A.D. 475]." 
 
 A lengthy inscription, recently found at Narbonne, 
 recording the reparation of the church in A.D. 445, 
 tells of another married bishop, "RUSTICUS EPISCOPUS 
 EPISCOPI BONOSI FILIUS " (Le Blant, u.s. n. 489). 
 
 From the Cemetery of St. Agnes * — 
 "PRyESBYTER HIC SITVS EST CELERINVS NOMINE 
 DIC[tus] 
 
 CORPOREOS RVMPENS NEXVS QVI GAVDET IN 
 ASTRIS 
 
 DEP Villi KAL IVN FL SYAGRIO ET EVCERIO." 
 
 " Here has been laid a Presbyter called by the name 
 of Celerinus, who, breaking the bonds of the body, 
 rejoices in the stars \i.e. in heaven]. Buried on the 
 ninth day before the Kalends of June, in the Consul- 
 ship of Syagrius and Eucherius \i.e. May 24, A.D. 381]." 
 
 From the Cemetery of St. Paul, in the Ostian 
 Way t— 
 •'GAVDENTIVS. PRESB. SIBI. 
 
 ET CONIVGI SVAE SEVERAE CASTAE IIAC SANG 
 [tissimae] 
 
 FEMINAE QVAE VIXIT ANN. XLII. M. III. D.X. 
 
 DEP III. NON. APRIL. TIMASIO ET PROMOTO." 
 
 * De Rossi, n. 303. t I^id-, n. 376.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS. 353 
 
 " Gaudentius, a Presbyter, for hiniself and his wife 
 Severa, a chaste and most holy woman, who Hved 
 forty-two years, three months, ten days. Buried on 
 the fourth day before the Nones of April, in the 
 Consulship of Timasius and Promotus [i.e. April 2, 
 A.D. 389]." 
 
 To a deacon's wife and children : 
 
 " Levitae conjunx Petronia forma pudoris . 
 HIS mea deponens sedibus ossa loco. 
 
 Parcite vos lacrimis bulges cum coniuge 
 natae . viventem que deo gredite flere nefas. 
 
 dp in page iii non octob. festo vc gonss 
 
 HiC REQUIESGIT IN PACE PaULA CLF. DULCIS 
 UENIGNA GRATIOSA FILIASS 
 
 DP VII KAL SEPT T NANTO VC CONSS 
 
 HiC REQUIESGIT DULCISSIMUS PUER GORDIANUS 
 ULIUS SS 
 
 DP ID SEPT . SYMMACHO VC GONSS 
 HiG REQUIESGIT ^MILIANA SAG . VG . DPV . ID. 
 DEC. PROBINO VC GONSS." 
 
 " I, Petronia, the wife of a deacon, the type of 
 modesty, lay down my bones in this resting-place. 
 Refrain from tears, my sweet daughters and husband, 
 and believe that it is forbidden to weep for one who 
 lives in God. Buried in peace on the third day 
 before the Nones of October, in the Consulship of 
 Festus, a most distinguished man \i.e. October 5, A.D. 
 472]. Here rests in peace Paula, a most distinguished 
 woman, the sweet kind gracious daughter of the 
 above mentioned ; buried on the seventh day before 
 the Kalends of September, in the Consulship of 
 
 2 A
 
 354 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Venantius, a most distinguished man \i.e. August 26, 
 A.D. 484]. Here rests a very sweet boy, Gordianus, 
 son of the above mentioned, buried on the Ides of 
 September, in the Consulship of Symmachus, a most 
 distinguished man \i.e. September 1 3, AD. 485]. Here 
 rests ^miliana, a sacred virgin, buried on the 5th before 
 the Ides of December, in the Consulship of Probinus, 
 a most distinguished man \i£. December 9, A.D. 489]." 
 
 "Levita" is used for " Diaconus," because the latter 
 word is unsuitable for hexameters. De Rossi's com- 
 ment upon it contains a most ingenious and con- 
 clusive argument that Gregory the Great was a 
 descendant of the persons named in this epitaph. 
 
 In the basilica of St. Alexander, in the Nomentine 
 Way, is an inscription to Appinnus, a subdeacon, 
 who died in his thirty-fourth year, April 1 1, A.D, 448. 
 The following is from the crypt of the Vatican* : — 
 
 " Locus Marcelli Subd. Reg. Sexte concessum sibi 
 et pos 
 
 teris ejus a beatissimo Papa Joanne ^ 
 
 que vixit ann plm Ixviii dep pc basili vc ann xxli 
 ind. xi. undecimu Kal. Januarias." 
 
 " The place of Marcellus, a subdeacon of the sixth 
 Region, conceded to him and to his posterity by the 
 most blessed Pope John, who lived sixty-eight years, 
 more or less. Buried in the twenty-second year after 
 the Consulship of Basilius, a most distinguished man, 
 in the eleventh Indiction, on the eleventh day before 
 the Kalends of Jan \i.e. December 22, A.D. 563]." 
 
 From St. Agnes (De Rossi, n. 1185) is an inscrip- 
 
 * De Rossi, 1096.
 
 INSCRIPTIONS. 3^5 
 
 tion to Abundantius, an acolyte of the fourth Region, 
 of the Title of Vcstina, who died at the age of thirty. 
 Opinions differ as to the date. De Rossi thinks it of 
 the sixth or seventh century. 
 
 From ^clanum (Mommsen, " I. N.," 1293): an 
 inscription to Ca^lius Johannes, an exorcist, buried 
 December 6, A.D. 5 1 1. 
 
 From the Cemetery of Callistus and Pretextatus 
 (De Rossi, n. 48) : to Equitius Heracleus, a Reader 
 of the second Region, who died in his twentieth 
 year, Febuary 7, A.D. 338. 
 
 From the crypt of the Church of ^clanum (Momm- 
 sen, 1299) : to Cselius Laurentius, Reader of the Holy 
 Church of ^clani, who died about 48 years of 
 age. May 9, A.D. 494. 
 
 From St. Paul (De Rossi, 10S7) : to Decius, cus- 
 todian {Cnbiciilariiis) of the basilica, A.D. 534. 
 
 From the Church of the Holy Trinity, Ticinum 
 (Muratori, 424, 426) : Theodora, a Deaconess, aged 
 48, died July 22, A.D. 539. 
 
 From the Cemetery of Calistus (De Rossi, 497) : 
 Praetiosa, a virgin of only twelve years (ancilla Dei 
 et XRl), died May 31, A.D. 401. 
 
 From St. Paul (De Rossi, 739) : Gaudiosa, a most 
 illustrious woman, a virgin (Clarissima fe iiina, Ancilla 
 Dei), who lived 40 years and 4 months, and was 
 buried September 22, A.D. 447. 
 
 Roller gives inscriptions from the Roman cata- 
 combs to Dionysius, Presbyter and Physician ; to 
 Emmanius Opas, Lector of the Title of Fascicola, 
 a friend of the poor, A.D. 377 ; to Prunus an Exorcist,
 
 3S6 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 to Secundius a Church Administrator, both probably 
 of the fourth century ; to Church Virgins (ancillae 
 dei) ; to Neophytes and Catechumens, 
 
 Inscription found in an arch of an ancient cemetery 
 at Autun. Probable date latter part of fourth century :* 
 
 " Offspring of the heavenly Ichthus, see that a heart 
 of holy reverence be thine, now that from Divine 
 waters thou hast received, while yet living among 
 mortals, a fount of life that is to immortality. 
 
 "Quicken thy soul, beloved one, with ever-flowing 
 * waters of heavenly wisdom, and receive the honey- 
 sweet food of the Saviour of the Saints. Eat with a 
 longing hunger, holding Ichthus in thine hands. 
 
 " To Ichthus . . . Come nigh unto me, my Lord [and] 
 Saviour ; [be Thou my Guide] I entreat thee, Thou 
 Light of them for whom the hour of death is past. 
 
 "Aschandus, my Father, dear unto mine heart, and 
 y^ thou [sweet mother, and all] that are mine ... re- 
 member Pectorius." 
 
 The inscriptions scratched by pilgrims upon the 
 walls and stones in and about the objects of pilgrimage 
 have been briefly noticed at p. 157. 
 
 In the fifth and following centuries It became 
 the fashion to put inscriptions upon new churches 
 and other buildings, recording the date of their 
 foundation. 
 
 Many of the mosaics have inscriptions recording 
 the name of the donor. 
 
 W. Marriott, " Vestimenta Sacra Antiqua."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 SOME CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 T may be useful to put together a summary 
 of some of the conclusions which have 
 been arrived at in the preceding chapters. 
 The " Church of the Catacombs " is a 
 beautiful myth. The assemblies for worship of the 
 primitive Church were not held in caves and cata- 
 combs, except during the infrequent occurrence of 
 general or local persecution, but in the upper rooms 
 and halls of the houses of wealthy Christians. 
 
 Public churches were built probably as early as the 
 first quarter of the third century, and were numerous 
 throughout the'empire by the end of the century. 
 
 The churches were built on the plan of the houses 
 in which the congregations had been accustomed to 
 assemble, with the modification of the apse suggested 
 by the civil basilicas. 
 
 Of the Christian art of the primitive Church 
 nothing has come down to us which can with any 
 certainty be assigned to the first century^ except a 
 few insignificant inscriptions. 
 
 /
 
 35S HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 To the er.d of the first and the second century belong 
 
 the early chambers of the cemeteries of Domitilla, 
 Priscilla, Pretextatus, and Lucina, at Rome, before 
 those family burial-places were opened to the use of 
 the Church. We find in their wall-paintings the 
 Symbolical subjects of the vine, the fish, the dove, the 
 anchor, the Good Shepherd, the baptism of Christ, 
 Jonah, the stricken rock, Daniel in the lions' den, the 
 agapas, and the orantes, the resurrection of Lazarus, 
 and a few others of the cycle of symbolic subjects ; 
 and De Rossi thinks the Virgin and Child with the 
 man and star in the Cemetery of Priscilla, not later 
 than A.D. 150. Others assign it to a much later date. 
 The inscriptions are few, brief, and simple. 
 ,_^ In the third century the preceding subjects de- 
 
 velop, and others are added. The fish is often a 
 dolphin, which is sometimes wreathed round the 
 stock of the anchor ; the ship of the Church appears. 
 The water from the stricken rock forms a river, from 
 which the fisherman draws out the mystic fish. In it 
 Christ is baptized ; it widens into a sea on which the 
 ark floats, and which is the scene of the history of 
 Jonah. We find new subjects in the wall-paintings : 
 the sacrifice of Abraham, the miracles of Cana, of the 
 paralytic, and others. Eucharistic symbols, as the 
 tripod with loaves and fish, the fish with a basket 
 of loaves and (?) a vessel of wine on its back, Or- 
 pheus, the peacock, and other symbols appear. 
 
 The inscriptions express aspirations on behalf of 
 the departed : that they may be in peace, may be 
 with the saints, may be refreshed, may enjoy bliss.
 
 SOME CONCLUSIONS. 359 
 
 Friends offer for them to God the sacrifice of thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 The peace of the Church at the beginning of the f. 
 fourth century naturally leads to a great extension 
 of Christian Art. The sculptured sarcophagi become 
 very numerous, and are the most important existing 
 monuments of the Christian Art of this and the fol- 
 lowing century. On these and other monuments 
 we find all the old cycle of Christian subjects con- 
 tinued, with little or no change in their conventional 
 treatment, with some new subjects, as our Lord 
 before Pilate, and Pilate's declaration of His inno- 
 cence ; other Passion subjects begin to be intro- 
 duced ; the Nativity, with the legendary ox and ass, 
 and the Adoration of the Magi, are more frequently 
 found. The symbol of the cross is not at first openly 
 put forward, but gradually the XP monogram takes 
 the form of the cross, with the curl of the P attached 
 to its upper limb ; before the end of the century the 
 cross is openly portrayed. The nimbus appears round 
 the head of Christ before the end of the century. 
 
 A great development, due probably to the recent 
 general persecution, has been given to the reverence 
 paid to the departed. We find explicit prayers for 
 the dead, and requests for their intercession : pray 
 for such a one, be favourable to such a one, have 
 such a one in remembrance in thy prayers. The 
 inscriptions which Bishop Damasus caused to be 
 placed over the tombs of his predecessors, in the 
 Callistine Cemetery, mark the point at which prayers 
 for the intercession of the saints came in. 
 
 <
 
 J 
 
 Co HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 Chapels begin to be made in the catacombs en- 
 closing or adjoining the graves of saints and martyrs, 
 and commemorative services are said there ; a saint's 
 tomb is sometimes used as the altar. Pilgrimages 
 to the tombs of the martyrs become common ; the 
 pilgrims inscribe their names, invocations, and 
 prayers upon the walls. 
 
 The Ix^iiQ symbol gradually goes out of use, and 
 the lamb becomes a popular symbol of Christ, of the 
 Apostles, and of the Christian flock generally. 
 
 In the fifth centtLvy Christ is presented as the 
 great Teacher of the Church, seated and delivering 
 rolls (books) to the Apostles. Christ, standing or 
 seated in the middle, with Apostles on each side of 
 Him, is a very common subject ; no special emblem 
 distinguishes one Apostle from another. Sometimes 
 tv.'o Apostles, no doubt St. Peter and St. Paul, are sepa- 
 rated from the rest, and placed prominently on each 
 side of our Lord, as the Principes AroSTOLORUM.* 
 
 * Bishop Leo I. (440-461) speaks of these two Apostles as those 
 "whom the grace of Christ had raised to such a height among all the 
 members of the Church, that they were as the two eyes of the body 
 of which Christ is the Head, so that we ought not to think of them as 
 differing in merit, since He made them equal by election, alike in 
 labours, the same in their death" (Serm. Ixxix.J. St. Ambrose 
 (374-397) says the primacy of Peter is in faith, not of order (" Ue 
 Incarn.," c. 4) ; and, in another place, "neither was Paul inferior to 
 Peter" ("De Spirit Sanct.," ii. 13). St. Augustine, speaking of St. 
 Paul, says he is the head and prince of the Apostles (Migne's edition, 
 iii. 2313). Pope Vitalian, in his letter to Otway of Northumbria (a.d. 
 665), exhorts him to "continue in all things delivered by the blessed 
 Apostles Peter and Paul, whose doctrine daily enlightens the hearts 
 of believers, even as the two heavenly lights, the sun and moon, clearly 
 illumine all the earch." The heads of the two Apostles appear on the 
 seal of Ihe See from the earliest period ; they were the joint founders 
 and patron saints of the Roman Church.
 
 SOME CONCLUSIONS. 361 
 
 Prominence begins to be given to St. Peter, but 
 he is not yet represented with the keys. He is 
 represented as Moses striking the rock, an allusion, 
 perhaps, to his admission of Jews (at Pentecost) and 
 Gentiles (Cornelius and his friends) to baptism. In 
 the eighth century Art bears witness to the de- 
 velopment of the papal idea in the mosaic * of the 
 tribune of the greater triclinium, in the palace of the 
 Lateran, where the principal subject is Christ with the 
 Apostles, in which Peter is distinguished by the keys 
 and a cross of two bars ; in the spandrels, on each side 
 of the principal subject, are, on the left, Christ giving 
 the keys to Peter and the banner to Constantine ; on 
 the right, Peter giving the pall to Pope Leo and the 
 banner to Charles the Great. Peter and Constantine 
 have the circular nimbus, Leo and Charles the square 
 nimbus. The representation of the cross becomes 
 usual and replaces the XP monogram, but the 
 crucifix does not yet appear. The use of pectoral 
 crosses and medals with sacred subjects becomes 
 usual. 
 
 The crucifix does not appear till the sixth century, p 
 and there is no attempt at realism. Christ stands 
 in front of the cross, with arms extended horizontally, 
 and is always clothed in a tunic. The miniature at 
 p. 202 shows the sixth-century, and the ivory plaque 
 at p. 300 shows the eighth-century modification of 
 the subject. 
 
 The Byzantine epoch is the point from which a Q 
 number of new ideas begin to appear in Christian Art. 
 * Bunsen's "Die Basiliken des Christ. Roms.," Plate XLIII.
 
 362 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 The monuments of the Christian Art of the early 
 centuries prove the non-catholicity of certain me- 
 dieeval and modern doctrines and practices, and their 
 silence with respect to others is a protest against 
 them. 
 
 It is interesting to realize how different the ex- 
 ternal aspect of the civilized world had become 
 during the latter part of the period which has been 
 under consideration, from that which it wore in the 
 earlier part of the period. 
 
 Then the great architectural ornaments of every 
 city were the colonnaded fagades of its temples ; the 
 subjects of art— statues, bas-reliefs, bronzes, paint- 
 ings — were taken from the heathen mythology and 
 the stories of the classic poets ; every action of 
 common life was attended by some superstitious 
 custom ; at every meal they poured out a libation to 
 the gods ; they beaded the thread of their discourse 
 with frequent oaths: "by Jupiter," "by Hercules," 
 and " by Bacchus." 
 
 Now the churches were the great public buildings 
 of every city ; the subjects of all art were taken 
 from the Holy Scriptures; over the doorways in 
 the streets were sculptured Christian symbols and 
 sacred monograms ; the public fountains in the 
 squares were bronzes of the Good Shepherd and 
 Daniel in the lions' den ; the interiors, not only of 
 the churches, but of the houses also, were covered 
 with paintings of the cycle of symbolical and Scrip- 
 ture subjects with which we are familiar; the very
 
 SOME CONCLUSIONS. 363 
 
 dress and personal adornments of the people, and 
 the utensils for common household use, were orna- 
 mented with Scripture subjects ; the gestured sign 
 of the cross hallowed every action ; the whole ex- 
 ternal appearance of life was Christian ; the common 
 talk, the popular songs, were of religion.* Arius 
 popularized his views in Alexandria by songs 
 adapted to all classes, and Ambrose wrote popular 
 hymns to fortify his Milanese against the prosely- 
 tizing efforts of Justina. Jerome tells how, at Beth- 
 lehem, psalms and hymns were the ballads of the 
 ploughman and the vine-dresser. In Chrysostom's 
 time the favourite topic of the street and gossip of 
 the market was the contemporary doctrinal con- 
 troversy. It had become a Christian world ; and 
 not unfittingly, during the first half of the fifth 
 century, the reigning empress, Pulcheria, was a 
 Church virgin ; in her palace the religious exercises 
 and discipline of a monastery Vv-ere maintained ; and 
 out of the midst of this seclusion the imperial nun 
 ably and successfully administered the affairs of the 
 East for nearly forty years. 
 
 Finally, there is nothing in the history of early 
 Christian Art to discourage us — but rather the con- 
 j-rary — from frankly and fully using the Arts in the 
 service of Religion. The aesthetic side of our nature, 
 which recognizes the noblest aspect of things 
 in the actual world and in ordinary life, and deals 
 with human aspirations and ideals, is akin to the 
 religious sentiment. Our English religion has long
 
 364 HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 
 
 jbeen cold and unlovely, to a degree which ought 
 not to exist in a true representation of Christianity, 
 not only by reason of some popular doctrines not 
 really belonging to it, which shock the heart, but 
 also owing to its repression of the imagination and 
 taste. The Arts will receive a new impulse when 
 Religion shall give them scope for works of the 
 highest character for the adornment of its temples ; 
 and the Arts will repay Religion by teaching its 
 lessons with a force with which mere words cannot 
 teach, and by bringing out its poetry and beauty.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ancyra, tombs of martyrs there, 
 
 149 
 Anicius Probus, sarcophagus of, 
 
 A.n. 395, 271 
 Apostolic worship, 8 ; vestments, 9 
 Apse, modification of the tabli- 
 
 num, 33 ; western, So 
 Architecture of early churches, 65, 
 
 66, 70, 76 ; Byzantine, 81-86 
 Art the handmaid of religion, 363 
 Atrium, description of, 18 
 
 Baptism, mode of administering, 
 
 90-92, 97, 98 
 Baptisteries, early, 93 ; design of, 
 
 94 
 Basilica in the house of Theo- 
 
 philus at Antioch, 15 
 Basilican church, description of, 40 
 Benedict Biscop, introduced 
 
 Christian art into Northumbria, 
 
 i6f 
 Bethlehem, church at, 62 
 Buckles ornamented with sacred 
 
 subjects, 332 
 Byzantine architecture, 81-86 
 
 Catacombs, a hiding-place from 
 persecution, 141 ; violated by 
 the Lombards, 127, 151 
 
 Catacombs at Rome, 107-123 5 
 Naples, 127, 128 ; Cyrene, 129 ; 
 Alexandria, 129 ; description of 
 their original state by Jerome, 
 125 ; by Prudentius, 125 ; dis- 
 used for burial, 127 ; deserted, 
 127 
 
 Cemeteries, at Colchester, 103 ; 
 family, 103; public, 119 
 
 Chair of St. Peter, 299 ; of Maxi- 
 minus, 299 
 
 Chapels in the catacombs, 122, 
 151 ; in churches, 156 
 
 Chapter houses, 99 
 
 Christian art, definition of, I ; 
 historical value of, 3 
 
 Churches, in houses, 1 1-23; public, 
 first built, 29, 35 ; numerous 
 before Constantine, 30, 31 ; 
 plan of, 32 ; description of, at 
 Tyre, 42 
 
 Church, the, represented as a 
 woman, 245 
 
 Ccenaculum, 6 
 
 Coins with Christian emblems, 
 
 336-341 
 Coiifessio, 146 
 Constantine, arch of, 49 ; churches 
 
 of, 53,61-64 
 Constantinople, churches at, 63, 85
 
 366 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Conventional treatment of ^sub- 
 jects, 179 
 
 Crucifixion, 199, 202 
 
 Crypts, reminiscences of the cata- 
 combs, 155 ; at Ripon and 
 Hexham, 155; Canterbury, 155 
 
 Curtain between atrium and tabli- 
 num, 19 
 
 Cycle of scriptural subjects, 182, 
 214-233 
 
 Deceased persons, representations 
 
 of, 235, etc. 
 Dome, introduced, 81-84 ; in 
 
 Europe, 86 
 Drinkinj-vessels, 332 
 
 Emblems, 196 ; cross, 197 ; mono- 
 gram XP, 231 ; A and n, 203 
 
 Emblems, personal, 249 
 
 England, early churches in, 87 ; 
 paintings in, 167 ; sarcophagi 
 in, 280, 281 ; illuminated manu- 
 scripts in, 316, 321 ; reliquaries 
 in, 326 ; lamps in, 335 
 
 Funeral customs, classical, 102 ; 
 
 Jewish, 104; Christian, 106 
 Funeral feast, 141, 143, 245, 
 
 246-248 
 Funeral rites, heathen, I41 ; 
 
 Christian, 142 
 
 Gaul, churches of, at Lyons, 78 ; 
 Tours, 79 ; Clermont, 79 ; 
 Avignon, Alet, Poictiers, Ro- 
 man Motier, So ; Aries, St. 
 Gilles, Treves, 80 
 Gaul, sarcophagi of, 27S, 2S0 
 Gems with Christian subjects, 344 
 Gilded glass vessels, 304 ; their 
 original use, 310; secondary 
 use, 311 
 Glass vessels, 309 
 Gold and silver vessels, 8, 320 ; 
 of St. Reter's, 321 ; of Sta. 
 Sophia, 321 
 
 Greek art, 2 
 
 Good Shepherd, 254-257 
 Graffiti, 156, 199 
 Groups of subjects, 227-233, 268- 
 276, 307 
 
 Hippolytus, statue of, 258 
 House, the early Churches as- 
 sembled in, 10-23 ; Christian 
 symbols on exterior of, 74 ; de- 
 scription of Greek and Roman, 
 iS 
 
 Illuminated manuscripts, 312 
 Incense, 321, 322 
 Inscriptions, 348, et seq., 359 
 Invocations of the saints, 156, 
 
 157, 358 
 Irish examples of early school of 
 
 sculpture, 2S2 
 Ivory carvings, 297 
 
 Jerusalem, churches at, li, 63 
 Jesus Christ, representations of, 
 
 1S6 
 Junius Bassus, sarcophagus of, 
 
 A.D, 359, 269 
 
 Lamps for sacred use, 322, 323, 
 333 ; for domestic use, 334 
 
 Lazarus, raising of, an illustration 
 of early tombs, 152-155 
 
 Martyrs, honours paid to, 145, 
 
 146 
 Medals with Christian emblems 
 
 and subjects, 342 
 Milan, Church of St. Ambrose, 69 
 Monumental stones, 137; at Prym- 
 
 nessos, 139 ; in England, 140 
 Mosaic,' manufacture of, 284; 
 
 designs of, 284 
 
 Oil from the lamps of the saints, 
 
 323 
 Oranti, 235-240
 
 INDEX. 
 
 367 
 
 Painting, classical, 160, 265 ; 
 Christian, 161 ; of different 
 periods, 171 ; descriptions of, 
 by ancient authors, 166, 183 ; 
 in houses, 169, 329 ; Christian, 
 early use of it, 165 
 
 Parenzo, church at, 77 
 
 Pax of ivory, 300 
 
 Persecutions, 25-29 ; Diocletian, 
 
 145 
 Pilgrimages to the catacombs, 
 
 125, 156, 323 
 Pillars, monumental, 132, 137 
 Pompeii, the street of the tombs, 
 
 132 
 Pyxes of ivory, 301 
 
 Rabula, Syriac manuscript of, 232, 
 
 313,315 
 
 Ravenna, churches at, 76 ; sarco- 
 phagi at, 276, 278 ; mosaics at, 
 291 
 
 Relics removed from the cata- 
 combs, 151 ; placed in churches, 
 
 151. 155 
 Reliquaries of ivory, 301. ; of 
 
 metal, 323 
 Rings with Christian subjects, 344 
 Roman art, 2 
 Rome, St. Peter's Church, 58 ; 
 
 St. Paul's, 59 ; St. Agnes, 61 ; 
 
 St. Clement, 67 
 
 Salone, sarcophagi at, 278 
 
 Sarcophagi, 259-281 ; pagan 
 used for Christian burial, 279- 
 2S1 
 
 Sarvistan, palace at, 81 
 
 Scribblings on walls and tombs, 
 156, 199 
 
 Scripture subjects on sarcophagi, 
 227 
 
 Sculpture, classical, 253 j Chris- 
 tian, 261 
 
 Sepulchres, subterranean, at 
 Rome, 104; Syrian, 136 
 
 Sextus, Bishop of Rome, martyred, 
 
 147 
 
 SS. John and Paul, house of, 
 150, 170; church of, 150 
 
 St. Alban, 152 
 
 St. Gregory the Great, his pre- 
 sents to Theodelinda, 298, 323 ; 
 to Augiistine, 316 
 
 St. Peter and Paul, palron saints 
 of Rome, 360 
 
 St. Peter, statue of, 259 
 
 Symbolical subjects, 204 ; Good 
 Shepherd, 204 ; lamb, 204 ; fish, 
 
 205 ; Ichthus, 205 ; fisherman, 
 
 206 ; ship, 2o5 ; anchor, 207 ; 
 amphora, 207 ; vine, 207 ; olive, 
 208 ; palm, 208 ; birds, 209 ; 
 sheep, 209 ; goats, 209 ; pea- 
 cock, 209 ; Phoenix, 209 ; Or- 
 pheus, 210; ox and ass, 211 ; 
 Mount of Paradise, 212; stag, 
 212 ; hand, 213 ; nimbus, 213 ; 
 aureole, 214 ; from the Old and 
 New Testaments, Daniel, 215 ; 
 three children, 216 ; Jonah, 
 216 ; Lazarus, 217 ; Noah, 217 ; 
 sacrifice of Isaac, 219 ; paralytic, 
 219 ; infirm woman, 220 ; blind 
 man, 220; Red Sea, 221; 
 Moses in various scenes, 221- 
 
 224 ; Job, 224 ; Eve, 224 ; the 
 Fall, 224 ; Abel and Cain, 225 ; 
 Elijah, 225 ; baptism of our 
 Lord, 225 ; triumphal entry, 
 
 225 ; arrest of Christ, 225 
 Symbolism, came from the East, 
 
 176 ; its growth, 178 
 Symbols of the Eucharist, 226 
 Syrian churches, 35-37, 70-73 
 
 Temples, classical, 55 ; converted 
 
 into churches, 56, 57 
 Thessalonica, churches at, 75 
 Thorns, blocking church doors 
 
 with, 150
 
 368 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tombs, classical, at Rome, etc., 
 131 ; Jerusalem, 132 ; of St. 
 Helena, 133 ; of Constantia, 
 133; at Hass, 134 
 
 Torcello, bishop's throne at, 69 
 
 Upper classes, converts of the, 
 
 12-15 
 Upper room, at Jerusalem, 6; 
 
 Joppa, 12; Troas, 12; Rome, 
 16; of Mary at Jerusalem, 
 service in it, 8 ; the Church of 
 the Apostles, 10 
 
 Virgin Mary (supposed representa- 
 tions oQ, 239-244, 315 
 
 Water-vessels, 330 
 
 J- 
 
 
 >- 
 
 y^ 
 
 
 A" 
 
 .\y- , 
 
 y 
 
 V V) 
 
 ^^\ r 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES» 
 
 ^ 
 
 X.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 
 7
 
 N 7832. C983H 
 
 3 1158 00014 9871 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACI 
 
 AA 000 261 694 4