Fig. 32.—To Berpius, (or Verpius,) in Peace.
[360] See especially the church of S. Stefano Rotondo, where is a chronological series of martyrdoms, represented in all their direst horrors, from the crucifixion of Our Lord to the reign of Julian. Among other grotesqueries is a picture of St. Dionysius walking in full episcopal robes at the head of a procession, holding his head, streaming with blood, in his hands!
The desire to find martyrs has led over-zealous antiquarians to discover instruments of torture in the implements of trade commonly represented on the gravestones of the Catacombs. The adz and saw of the carpenter are made to do duty in some sensational tale of chopping and sawing of a Christian sufferer, and the baker’s corn measure is transformed into a martyr’s fiery furnace.
[361] See Figs. 122 to 128, and context.
[362] Sac. Art, p. 43.
[364] Such symbols were not peculiar to Christian tombs. There were many pagan examples of a similar character. Thus a cultrarius, or cutler, has knives; a pullarius, or poulterer, a cage or coop of chickens; a tabellarius, and postman, a writing case; and a marmorarius, or mason, a mallet and chisel, on his tomb. Sometimes a shop, with customers bargaining, is shown. A bag or purse signifies an agent; money, a banker; and the like. The ascia or axe, so common on Roman tombs, probably represents a sacrificial instrument. Analogous to these are the sphere and cylinder engraven on the tomb of Archimedes, and the square and compasses on modern masonic monuments. In the Armenian cemeteries a hammer, trowel, last, scales, and shears, indicate the grave of a carpenter, mason, shoemaker, grocer, or tailor. In the Cemetery de l’Est, at Paris, animals acting mark the tomb of the French fabulist, La Fontaine; masks, that of Molière; a palette or brushes, that of a painter. See also the naval and military trophies on the tombs of many distinguished sailors and soldiers.
[365] Fig. 112. This symbol is designated by modern Italians La Navicella di San Pietro—the Bark of St. Peter. From the fancied resemblance of the body of the church to a ship, or from the above allusion, the word nave, applied to that part, has been derived as if from navis, a ship. May it not possibly be from ναός, a temple?
[366] “Arbor quædam in navi,” says St. Ambrose, “est crux in ecclesia.”
[367] Compare the following beautiful passage from Tertullian, in which the metaphor is elaborately carried out: “Amid the reefs and inlets, amid the shallows and straits of idolatry, Faith, her sails filled with the Spirit of God, navigates; safe, if cautious, secure, if intently watchful. But to such as are washed overboard is a deep, whence is no outswimming; to such as run aground is inextricable shipwreck; to such as are engulfed is a whirlpool, where there is no breathing in idolatry. All its waves suffocate; every eddy drags down to Hades.”—De Idol., c. 24.
[368] Compare 2 Esdras ii, 44, 45. See ante, Fig. 18. The palm appears on the coins of Simon Barchocab.
[369] See also Figs. 15, 77, and 82. The figures are often very conventional, and look more like geese or ducks than doves.
[370] See Psa. lxviii, 13. In Mediæval art the soul is represented issuing from the mouth of the dying or flying through the air in the form of a dove. One example bears the inscription—animæ interfectorum—the souls of the slain.
[371] See the common epigraphic expression, ΠΙΕ ΕΝ ΘΕΩ—“Drink in God,” and the language of Augustine concerning a deceased friend—“Jam ponit spirituale os ad fontem tuum, Domine, et bibit quantum potest.”—Con., ix, 3.
[372] See Figs. 60 and 106. “The doves which perch upon the cross,” says Paulinus, “show that the kingdom of God is open to the simple”—
Quæque super signum resident cæleste columbæ
Simplicibus produnt regna patere Dei.
[373] Per columbam Spiritus Sanctus fluit.—Ep. ad Sever.
[374] Contra Valentin., c. iii. Sometimes a gold or silver dove was placed over the altar, (Bing., viii, 6, § 19,) as is still occasionally seen even in Protestant churches. In the Middle Ages churches and abbeys were named from this symbol, as Santa Columba and Sainte Colombe, the church of the Holy Dove. They were also dedicated to the Holy Ghost under the title of Saint Paraclete, Santo Spirito, and Saint Esprit.
[375] According to an apocryphal Gospel, the Holy Ghost under the form of a dove designated Joseph as the spouse of the Virgin Mary by lighting on his head; and in the same manner, says Eusebius, (vi. 29,) was Fabian indicated as the divinely appointed bishop of Rome. According to a singular legend, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove was present at the Council of Nice, and signed the creed that was there framed. In the Arthurian legend a snowy dove accompanied the apparition of the Holy Grail. In the fifteenth century a pigeon which lighted on the tent of Edward III., at Calais, was thought to be a manifestation of the Holy Ghost. (Mémoires de Phil. de Commines, iv, 10.) Seven doves hovering around the head of Our Lord or the Virgin Mary symbolize, in Mediæval art, the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit.
[377] Ep. ad Corinth., § 25.
[378] De Phœnice.
[379] De Resurrec. Carn., c. 13.
[381] Psa. xlii, 1. See Fig. 132.
[383] In later art this figure is used as an emblem of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and is sometimes represented as opening the apocalyptic book with seven seals. The four living creatures of John’s vision, (chap. iv, 6, 7,) the lion, calf or ox, eagle, and man or angel, and the tetramorph figure of that of Ezekiel, (chap. i, ver. 10,) became symbols of the four evangelists, and also of Christ.
In mediæval art uncouth and grotesque figures—“Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire”—took the place of the bright and genial symbols of the Catacombs. To the terrified imagination of the age all nature swarmed with malignant and demoniac beings, which were bodied forth in the dragons and griffins, and monstrous forms and faces that haunt the gothic minsters and abbeys, especially in the northern countries of Europe, where the savageness of nature is reflected in the weirdness of art. Yet even in its distorted grotesqueness, this art proved its moral superiority to the gay and joyous spirit of heathenism. The intense consciousness of sin and evil, and of the mortal struggle of the human soul with the powers of darkness which it manifested, is essentially nobler than the frivolous sensualism of ancient art and life, without hope or fear of the future.
[384] See Job xxx, 1; Psa. xxii, 16; Matt. vii, 6; Phil. iii, 2; Rev. xxii, 15.
[385] Compare the prophecy of Belshazzar’s doom—Dan. v, 27. To this the weighing of the fates of Achilles and Hector in the Iliad is analogous. (McCaul, 49.) Several of these symbols are often associated together. Thus, on a slab bearing date A. D. 400, are crowded the Constantinian monogram, the balance, mummy, candelabrum with seven lights, a house, and fish. On a marble ambo at Ravenna are six series, ten in each, of sheep, peacocks, doves, stags, ducks, and fishes. Whether symbolical or not, the selection is a remarkable parallel to many of the figures of the Catacombs.
[386] Psa. xxiii.
[387] Psa. lxxx, 1.
[388] 1 Pet. ii, 25.
[390] Pausanias, lib. x.
[391] Tibullus, Eleg., ii, 11, 12; Calpurn., Eclog., v, 39.
[392] Isa. xl, 11.
[393] Patrocinabitur Pastor, quem in calice depingitis. A parabolis licebit incipias, ubi est ovis perdita, a Domino requisita et humeris ejus revecta.—De Pudicit., ii and x.
[394] The later Christian poets also celebrated this tender theme. In lines whose lyric cadence charm the ear like a shepherd’s pipe Thomas Aquinas sings:
Bone Pastor, panis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserere,
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere;
Tu nos bona fac videre,
In terra viventium.
Tu qui cuncta scis et vales,
Qui nos pascis hic mortales
Tuos ibi commensales
Cohæredes et sodales
Fac sanctorum civium.
Another Mediæval hymn runs sweetly thus:
Jesu dulcissime, e throno gloriæ
Ovem deperditam venisti quærere!
Jesu suavissime, pastor fidissime,
Ad te O trahe me, ut semper sequar te!
[395] In a distich accompanying an Agnus Dei in the church of St. Pudentiana at Rome, both characters are ascribed to Our Lord:
Hic agnus mundum restaurat sanguine lapsum,
Mortuus et vivus idem sum, pastor et agnus.
“This Lamb restores the lost world with his blood. Dead and living, I am but one; I am at once the Shepherd and the Lamb.”
Paulinus beautifully says: “The same Lamb and Shepherd rules us in the world who from wolves has made us lambs. He is now the Shepherd of those sheep for whom he was once the victim Lamb.”—Epis. iii, ad Florent.
[396] Isa. liii, 7.
[397] John i, 19.
[398] Rev. v, 6.
[399] Ibid., v, 12.
[400] “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion.”—Rev. xiv, 1.
[401] Paulinus thus describes a mosaic of this subject at Fondi, (Epis. xii, ad Severum:)
Petram superstat, ipse petra ecclesiæ,
Ex qua sonori quatuor fontes meant,
Evangelistæ, viva Christi flumina.
“Standing upon a rock is He who is himself the Rock of the church, and from this go forth four voiceful streams, evangelists, the living rivers of Christ.”
The Agnus Dei is still often seen on altar cloths and tombstones.
Et quia celsa (crux) quasi judex de rupe superstat,
Bis geminæ pecudis discors agnis genus hædi
Circumstant solium; lævos avertitur hædos
Pastor et emeritos dextra complectitur agnos.
—Epis. xii, ad Sulpic. Sever.
[403] A. D. 234. De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., No. 6. (See Fig. 52.) Of course, there may have been many earlier whose precise date we cannot determine.
[404] In later art, indeed, the figure sometimes occurs on baptismal fonts, in mosaics, and in architecture, but probably as a mere ornament, without any religious meaning. In Byzantine art it is unknown except as a natural representation, for example, of fish swimming in the water, or, in frescoes of the last judgment, as restoring human limbs which they had devoured, illustrative of the passage, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.”—Rev. xx, 13.
[405] Piscis nomen, secundum appellationem Græcam, in uno nomine per singulas literas turbam sanctorum nominum continet ‘ΙΧΘΥΣ,’ quod est Latinè, Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, Salvator.—Optat., Cont. Parmen., lib. iii.
[406] Orat. Const. ad Cœt. Sanct., § 18.
[407] De Civ. Dei, xviii, 23.
[408] Pædag., lib. iii, cap. ii. The symbol also occurs in a Christian Catacomb at Alexandria, and at Cyrene, in Upper Egypt.
[409] The Jewish Christians of that city would be already familiar with this mode of coining significant titles, which is illustrated in the name of their national heroes, the Maccabees, said to be made up of the initial letters, מָכָבִּ ;י, of their battle cry, מִי־כָמֹכָה בָאֵלֹהים יְהֹוָה—“Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?”
[410] Nos, pisciculi secundum ΙΧΘΥΝ nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua nascimur, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus.—De Baptismo, cap. i.
[411] Hic (sc. Christus) est piscis qui in baptismate per invocationem fontalibus undis inseritur ut quæ aqua fuerat a pisce etiam piscina vocitetur.—Epis. Milevitanus. The piscina is now the basin in which the sacred vessels are washed.
[412] See chaps. vi and xi.
[413] Est Christus piscis ille qui ad Tobiam ascendit de flumine vivus, cujus jecore per passionem assato fugatus est diabolus.
[414] Dei Filius, Salvator, piscis in sua passione decoctus, cujus ex interioribus remediis quotidie illuminamur et pascimur.—De Promis. et Prædic. Dei, ii, 39.
[415] ΙΧΘΥΣ, in quo nomine mystice intelligitur Christus, eo quod in hujus mortalitatis abysso, velut in aquarum profunditate vivus.—De Civ. Dei.
[416] Χριστὸς ὁ τροπικῶς λεγόμενος Ἰχθύς.—Opp. ed. Bened., tom. iii, p. 584.
[417] Rom. Sott., p. 210. Probably the aureole of Mediæval art derived its name of vesica piscis from this symbol.
[420] Piscis ... Christus tribulationis igne assatus. Compare the phrase of Augustine—Piscis assus Christus passus.
[421] Plerique septiformis Spiritus gratiam in panibus definitam, in piscibus quoque duplicis testamenti figuram intelligendam putant.—Ambrose, in Luc. ix.
[422] This has been minutely examined by Cardinal Pitra—its discoverer—Kirchoff, Garrucci, Le Blant, and other eminent scholars. The monograph of Marriott, its latest editor, is a masterpiece of epigraphical criticism.
[423] Cardinal Pitra places it about A. D. 250, but the elongated form of the letters, of which there is no early example, forbids the supposition.
[424] The epitaph of Abercius, a Phrygian bishop of the second century, also contains an allusion to the heavenly Ichthus, and probably to the eucharist, in the lines which we quote:
... Πίστις δὲ προσῆγε
Καὶ παρέθηκε τροφὴν, Ἰχθὺν θείας ἀπὸ πηγῆς,
Παμμεγέθη, καθαρὸν, ὃν ἐδράξατο παρθένος ἁγνή·
Καὶ τοῦτον ἐπέδωκε φίλοις ἔσθειν διὰ παντὸς,
Οἶνον χρηστὸν ἔχουσα, κέρασμα διδοῦσα μετ'ἄρτου.
“Faith brought to us and set before us food, a fish from a divine fount, great and clean, which the holy maiden took in her hand and gave it to her friends, that they should always eat thereof, holding goodly wine, giving with bread a mingled drink.”
The “holy maiden” is evidently, from the context, as Marriott remarks, Faith personified, although Padre Garrucci and Dr. Northcote regard her as no other than the Virgin Mary.
[425] We have seen how Tertullian designates believers as little fishes—pisciculi.
[426] Nomen ipsum crucis absit non modo a corpore civium Romanorum, sed etiam a cogitatione, oculis, auribus.—Cicero, pro Rabirio.
[427] Crudelissimum et teterrimum ... arbor infelix, infame lignum.—Cic., pro Rabirio.
[428] Now in the Museum of the Collegio Romano.
[429] Τὸν ἀνεσκολοπισμένον ἐκεῖνον σοφιστήν.—De Morte Peregr.
Tertullian mentions as a common heathen delusion the idea that the God of the Christians had an ass’s head. He also speaks of a heathen picture of a figure having the ears of an ass, hoofed in one foot, carrying a book and wearing a toga, to which was affixed the inscription, “The God of the Christians, born of an ass.”—Apol., c. 16.
Probably such caricatures were common. On a slab recently discovered in the Vigna Nussiner is a representation of an ass with the inscription, “Hic est Deus Hadriani,” apparently a satirical allusion to that emperor’s favourable disposition to Christianity.
[430] Eph. iii, 18.
[431] Ipsa species crucis quid est nisi forma quadrata mundi?... Aves quando volant in æthera, formam crucis assumunt; homo natans per aquas, vel orans, forma crucis vehitur. Navis per maria antenna cruci similata sufflatur.—Hieronym. in Mark xv.
[432] Apol., i, 72. See also Minuc. Felix, cap. 29.
[433] Ego Christianus ... et vexillum crucis in mea fronte portans.—Hieron., Ep. 113.
[434] Tolle crucem qui vis auferre coronam.
[435] Crucis religiosi.—Tertul., Apol., 16.
[436] Signum Christi, τὸ κυριακὸν σημεῖον.—Clem. Alex., Strom., vi, 11.
[437] Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum et exitum, ad vestitum, ad calceatum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad lumina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quæcunque nos conversatio exercet, frontem crucis signaculo tenemus.—Tertul., de Coron. Mil., c. iii.
[438] Crucis signum est, cum homo porrectis manibus Deum pura mente veneratur.—Minuc., Dial., p. 90. Expansis manibus in modum crucis orabat.—Paulin., Vit. Ambros., p. 12. Hic habitus orantium est, ut manibus in cœlum extensis precemur.—Apuleius.—According to Eusebius, Constantine was thus represented on the coins of the empire.—Ὡς ἄνω βλέπειν δοκεῖν ἀνατεταμένος πρὸς Θεὸν, τρόπον εὐχομένου.—Vit. Const., l. iv, c. 15.
[439] Chrys. in Psa. cxli, 2. Compare Paul’s expression about “lifting up holy hands” in prayer.—1 Tim. ii, 8.
[440] Nos vero non attoleimus tantum, sed etiam expandimus, et Dominica passione modulantes, et orantes Christo confitemur.—Tertul., de Orat., c. 11. Τὸ τοῦ σταύρου πάθος ἐν τῷ σχήματι ἐξεικονίζει.—Aster., ap. Phot., cod. 271. This attitude of prayer was also common to the pagans in their addresses to the Dii Superi, or celestial gods. Hence Virgil represents Æneas as praying with his hands stretched out to heaven—Duplices tendens ad sidera palmas.
[441] See an instance of this miracle recorded in Eusebius.—Hist. Eccles., viii, 7.
Fac cum vocante somno
Castum petes cubile,
Frontem locumque cordis,
Crucis figura signet.
Crux pellit omne noxium.—Hymn vi.
[443] Endelechius, De mortibus Bovium. In later times the sign of the cross was used in both Greek and Latin benedictions, which were given with many puerile distinctions, and with much supposed spiritual benefit.—See Didron, Iconog. Chrét., pp. 406-410. The cross has also given the name to many famous churches, which were frequently cruciform in shape. In France are over a score of cathedrals or abbeys named Sainte Croix, and in Italy many named Santa Croce. In Great Britain we have Saint Cross at Winchester, and Holyrood in Edinburgh. The cross was also used to mark boundaries, parishes, cross roads; hence the phrase, “to beg like a cripple at a cross.” Of three hundred and sixty wayside crosses once existing in Iona only one remains. This sign was used to mark the beginning and end of books, and as a mark of punctuation. It gave validity to legal documents, and still accompanies the sign manual of ecclesiastical dignitaries.
Crucifixion was abolished by Constantine out of reverence for the manner of Our Lord’s death.
The cross would scarcely have been publicly employed while this shameful mode of punishment was practiced. The earlier examples had probably a baptismal signification as a sign of the faith. Of this character seem to have been those erected or inlaid by Constantine in his baptisteries and elsewhere. Only by slow degrees did it become the symbol of the sufferings of Christ.
[444] De Rossi, Inscript. Christ., No. 39.
[445] Ibid., No. 17.
[446] Ibid., No. 26. With true archæological enthusiasm, De Rossi exclaims, “Scarcely any monument in this whole class is worthy of such observation as this sepulchral fragment. For if indeed this name is that of Gallus, the colleague of Faustus, behold, what I have ever intensely desired, I have at length with joy obtained—to see with my own eyes a certain dated monument which exhibits the celebrated monogram ☧ before the year 312. Would that I could find the part of the inscription that is lost,” he adds, “which, if it bore the name of Faustus, I would esteem more precious than gold and gems—auro contra et gemmis cariorem æstimarem.” But he was not permitted to be so happy, and it is probable that the Gallus referred to is another of much later date.
[447] Rev. i, 8. Prudentius in his ninth hymn paraphrases the same thought:
Alpha et Ω cognominatus; ipse fons et clausula
Omnium quæ sunt, fuerunt, quæque post futura sunt.
In Mediæval art the letters ὁ ὤν are often inscribed on the cruciform nimbus indicating Our Lord, in allusion to the scripture, ἐγὼ εἰμὶ ὁ ὤν—“I am that I am.”
Christus purpureum gemmanti textus in auro,
Signabat labarum, clypeorum insignia Christus
Scripserat: ardebat summis crux addita cristis.
—In Symmachum, vv. 487-489.
[449] Hist. of Christianity, bk. iii, chap. i. From the time of Constantine the monogram became common on the coins of the Empire. Valentinian III. and his wife Eudoxia first wore it on the imperial crown. In later Greek art the cross is generally accompanied by the letters ΙϹ-ΧϹ ΝΙΚΑ, that is, “Jesus Christ is conqueror.” Eusebius describes a statue of Constantine at Rome bearing this monogram. (Hist. Eccles., ix, 9.)
[450] See Fig. 104, chap. iv. Paulinus refers to the bitter cross surrounded by a flowery crown:
Ardua floriferæ Crux cingitur orbe coronæ.
—Epis. xii, ad Severum.
[451] De Rossi, Inscrip. Christ., No. 576. Of course there may be earlier examples which are undated.
[452] In later art ingenuity was exhausted in multiplying varieties of the form of the cross. Besides the ordinary Greek and Latin types, there was the Resurrection cross, a reed-like shaft with a small crosslet, generally bearing a banneret; the Calvary cross, with steps at its foot; the crux gammata, or fourfold repetition of the Greek letter Γ, the crux gemmata, stellata, florida, etc. There were also innumerable minor varieties for which distinguishing names are provided in the jargon of heraldry.
[453] Hist. Christianity, iii, 3. Eusebius is silent concerning this event.
[454] Helena calmed the Adriatic with one of the nails; of another Constantine made a bit for his horse; a portion is annually exhibited at Rome bearing the threefold title of Our Lord in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the first undecipherable.
[455] Witness the following from the Vexilla Regis, addressed to the material cross: “Hail, O cross, our only hope! give grace to the pious, blot out the sins of the wicked”—
O crux, ave, spes unica!
Piis adauge gratiam;
Reisque dele crimina.
Compare also the following, from the Office of the Invention of the Cross: “O cross, more splendid than all the stars,... which alone wast worthy to bear the ransom of the world! sweet wood, sacred nails, bearing so precious a burden, save this people assembled to-day to sing thy praises.”—O Crux, splendidior cunctis astris,... quæ sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi! dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera, salva præsentem catervam in tuis hodie laudibus congregatam.
This sacred theme has also been the subject of some of the noblest lyrics of the church, none of which, however, surpass the impassioned devotion of the following lines of Savonarola, the Luther of Italy, whose reform, alas! was quenched in his own blood.
O croce, fammi loco!
E le mie membre prendi!
Che del tuo dolce foco
Il cor e l’alma accendi!
La croce e l’ crocifisso,
Sia nel mio cor scolpito,
Ed io sia sempre affisso
In gloria ov’egli è ito!
Cross of my Lord, give room! give room!
To thee my flesh be given!
Cleansed in thy fires of love and praise,
My soul, rise pure to heaven!
Ah! vanish each unworthy trace
Of earthly care or pride;
Leave only graven on my heart
The Cross, the Crucified.
[456] According to this legend Adam when sick sent Seth to the gate of Eden to ask for the healing balm of the tree of life, but the guarding angel replied that ages must pass before that boon could be conferred on man. Seth received, however, three seeds, which he planted by his father’s grave, situated on the site of Golgotha. From these sprang the rod of Aaron, and the tree which gave its mysterious virtue to the Pool of Bethesda, and rising to the surface at the hour of the passion, became the instrument of the crucifixion of Our Lord. After that momentous event it was thrown into the town ditch with the crosses of the two thieves, and covered with rubbish; but at the intercession of Helena the earth opened, divine odours breathed forth, the three crosses were discovered, and that of Our Lord was revealed by its curing an inveterate disease and raising a dead man to life. See also Legenda Aurea, De Inventione et Exaltatione Sanctæ Crucis.
The material of the cross is described in the following distich:
Pes crucis est cedrus, corpus tenet alta cupressus,
Palma manus retinet titulo lætabor oliva—
“The foot is cedar, a lofty cypress bears the body, the arms are palm, the title olive bears.”
[457] Milman, Hist. Christianity, bk. iv, c. 4.
[458] Hist. Christianity, bk. iv, c. 4. One or two apparent exceptions, as in the semi-subterranean chapel annexed to the church of St. Sebastian, by their internal evidence—the drooping head, severe expression, and degraded art—indicate their late origin, Perret thinks of the twelfth or thirteenth century. Bottari figures one (Tav. 190) which may possibly belong to the seventh or eighth century.
[459] Cant. iii, 11.
[460] Northcote’s “Catacombs,” p. 130.
[461] Weiter aber geht diese Reihe nicht; Tod und Auferstehung Christi sind in diesem Bereich gar nicht zur Darstellung gekommen.—Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis, p. 7. Berlin, 1852. Bishop Münter, indeed, asserts that, although it is impossible precisely to determine the first appearance of the crucifix, before the end of the seventh century the church knew nothing of them—Es ist unmöglich das alter der crucifixe genau zu bestimmen. Vor dem Ende des siebenten Jahrhunderts kannte die Kirche sie nicht.—Sinnbilder, etc., p. 77.
[462] Sub cruce sanguineâ niveo stat Christus in agno.—Epis. xxxii.
[463] Agnus ut innocua injusto datur hostia letho.—Paulin., Epis. xxxii.
[464] Christi Dei nostri humana forma characterem etiam in imaginibus deinceps pro veteri agno erigi ac depingi jubemus.—Concilium Quinisextum, Canon 82.
[465] Das sind die ältesten Bilder von dem Ende des irdischen Lebens Jesu und seiner Erhöhung.... Bald darauf kommen sie hin und wieder auch in Abendlande vor.—Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis, pp. 26, 27.
[466] Est et apud Narbonensem urbem pictura quæ Dominum nostrum quasi præcinctum linteo indicat crucifixum.—De Glor. Mar., i, 23.
[467] Crux benedicta nitet Dominus qua carne pependit.—Carm., lib. ii, 3.
[468] The earliest example of a dead Christ is in a MS. of date A. D. 1059. The oldest mural picture of this awful theme, now so common throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and which was prescribed as necessary for every altar by Benedict XIV, 1754, is the Church of Urban at Rome, and bears the date A. X. R. I. MXI.—Anno Christi 1011. Few of those in the Italian churches are older than the fourteenth century.
[469] The inclination of the apse from the axial line in some churches is said to represent this drooping of the head.
[470] Didron, Iconog. Chrét., pp. 226, 505.
[471] Die also dem Morgenlande entstammen, says Professor Piper.—Ueber den Christlichen Bilderkreis, p. 27.
[472] The Council of Constantinople, A. D. 754.
[473] Hemans, Sacred Art in Italy, p. 534.
[474] See the reliefs upon the marble pulpits of Pisa and Sienna.
[475] See one at Lucca, ascribed by tradition to the workmanship of Nicodemus, which was so famous as to be sworn by in the oath, a favourite one with the Plantagenet kings, “by Saint Vult of Lucca.” Hemans, Sac. Art, p. 534. Another at Naples is said to have spoken in approval to St. Thomas Aquinas. Perhaps the most revolting extant representation of Our Lord is one in the Cathedral of Burgos, in Spain. It is a stuffed human skin, with a wig of false hair and a crown of real thorns. Elsewhere are Ecce Homos in wax with enamel eyes, and other puerile and unartistic modes of treatment of this solemn theme.
[476] Refrigerante mundo, says the Roman office for St. Francis’ day.
The “Circlo Biblico,” or Biblical Cycle, of the Catacombs, as De Rossi has called it, partakes of the same symbolical character as their other art-creations. It has, for the most part, a twofold object: first, the literal presentation of certain historical events; and, second, a typical or allegorical reference to the spiritual truths of Christianity, especially to the cardinal doctrines of the sacrifice, resurrection, and ascension of Our Lord. The range of this art cycle comprehends the grand drama of redemption, from the fall of man to his restoration through the greater Man, Christ Jesus; with the careful avoidance, however, of the scenes of the passion, which are nowhere exhibited except under the veil of allegory or symbol. These numerous and varied biblical representations imply a remarkable familiarity of the primitive Christians with the holy scriptures, in striking contrast with the prevalent ignorance of these sacred books in the papal Rome of to-day. Indeed, these storied crypts must have been a grand illustrated gospel, impressing upon the mind of the believer the lessons of holy writ, and probably furnishing to the catechumens of the faith and recent converts from paganism a means of instruction in these sacred themes. The execution may often be coarse, and the drawing uncouth; but to the devout mind this primitive Christian art is invested with a profounder interest than all the triumphs of genius in the galleries of the Vatican.[477]
In consequence of its symbolical purpose this hieratic series is rather eclectic than cyclopædic in its character. Of the great variety of available topics, the number selected for art-presentation was comparatively limited; and the artist, in the treatment of these, frequently contented himself with the constant and unvaried reiteration of the same types, which were often of the rudest and most conventional form. “The incidents that exemplified the leading doctrines of the faith,” says Kugler,[478] “were chosen in preference to others.” Hence the very fixedness of these doctrines imparted somewhat of their own character to the pictorial representations employed.
Subjects from the Old Testament are more numerous in proportion to the whole than would have been anticipated. This is also a result and illustration of the allegorical nature of the series. “Rome,” says Lord Lindsay, “seems to have adopted from the first, and steadily adhered to, a system of typical parallelism—of veiling the great incidents of redemption, and the sufferings, faith, and hopes of the church under the parallel and typical events of the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations.”[479] We can refer in detail to only the more striking of these biblical scenes. For convenience of treatment we will include here those sculptured on the sarcophagi as well as those painted on the walls. The temptation and fall of our first parents is a frequent subject, and meets with considerable variety of treatment.[480] They are generally shown as standing by the tree of knowledge, around which the serpent coils, and receiving from him the fruit
“Whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe.”
In the following example from the Catacomb of Callixtus, the fig-leaf aprons with which they try to hide their guilty shame indicate that the act of disobedience has been already consummated.