It will be seen that there is only one example of Christ crowned with thorns, and in that the harshness is removed by the substitution of a garland of flowers. How different from modern Roman Catholic art, in which the scenes of the passion are endlessly repeated! In pagan sarcophagi we find, instead of these sacred themes, crowded battle-pieces, with processions of warriors, chariots, horses, maskers, mythological groups, vintage scenes, etc. See the sarcophagi of the Empress Helena and of Constantia in the Vatican Museum, and before described.

[567] In ecclesia nullatenus sepeliantur, sed in atrio, aut porticu, aut in exedris ecclesiæ.—Council of Nantes, can. 6.

[568] Chrys., Hom. 26, in 2 Cor.

[569] Numerous Christian sarcophagi have also been found at Arles, Saragossa, Ravenna, Milan, and elsewhere.

The name sarcophagus, flesh-eating, from σάρξ and φάγω, it is well known, was derived from the supposed quality of the Lapis Assius, a stone of Assos in Asia Minor of which they were originally made, of corroding and consuming dead bodies, as ascribed to it by Theophrastus and Pliny.

[570] See especially Figs. 47, 48, 63, 91, 92, 96, 97, and postea 106.

[571] Christian Art, vol. i, p. 42.

[572] Τὸν ἀειδῆ καὶ ἄτιμον φανέντα.—Dial. cum Tryph., 85.

[573] Adeo nec humanæ honestatis corpus fuit, nedum cœlestis claritatis.—De Carn. Christi., c. 9.

[574] Sed species ejus inhonorata, deficiens ultra omnes homines.—Contra Marc., iii, 17.

[575] Si inglorius, si ignobilis, si inhonorabilis; meus erit Christus.—Ibid.

[576] Ἀλλὰ τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῦ ἄτιμον ἔκλιπον παρὰ πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων.—De Nudatione Noe, lib. ii, vol. i, p. 13.

[577] Nisi enim habuisset et in vultu quiddam et in oculis sidereum, nunquam eum statim secuti fuissent apostoli.—Epis. ad Princip. Virginem.

[578] Certe fulgor ipsa et majestas divinitatis occultæ, quæ etiam in humanâ facie relucebat, ex primo ad se venientes trahere poterat aspectu.—Hieronym. in Matth., ix, 9.

[579] Qua fuerit ille facie nos penitus ignoramus: nam et ipsius Dominicæ facies carnis innumerabilium cogitationum diversitate variatur et fingitur, quæ tamen una erat, quæcunque erat.—De Trin., lib. vii, c. 4, 5.

[580] Tableau des Catacombes, p. 164.

[581] Rom. Sott., p. 252.

[582] Hist. Eccl., vii, 18. From this frequent association St. Paul as well as St. Peter was frequently regarded as being both among the original disciples. “Justly do they deserve to err,” says Augustine, speaking of this mistake, “who seek Christ and his apostles, not in the holy volumes, but on painted walls.”—De Consens. Evang., lib. i, cx.

[583] This statue, it has been suggested, probably represented the philosopher Apollonius or the Emperor Vespasian, and the suppliant female figure a personified city or province. Gibbon thinks it impossible that it could be intended for the poor woman mentioned in the gospel. Eusebius mentions the belief as a mere popular tradition. “They say that this statue bears the likeness of Jesus”—Τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ἀνδριάντα εἰκόνα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ φέρειν ἔλεγον.—Hist. Eccl., viii, 18.

[584] Iren., adv. Hæres., i, 25. Aug., De Hærisib., c. viii. The Emperor Alex. Severus, we have seen, had one of these images of Christ in his Lararium, with those of Abraham and Orpheus.—Æl. Lamprid. in Vit. Alex. Sev., c. 29.

[585] Conspectus vultus ejus cum severitate et plenus efficacia, ut spectatores amare eum possint et rursus timere.... In reprehendendo et objurgando formidabilis; in docendo et exhortando blandæ linguæ et amabilis. Gratia miranda vultus cum gravitate. Vel semel eum ridentem nemo vidit sed flentem imo.—Fabricius, Codex. Apoc. Nov. Teste., 1e., pars. 301.

Père Mabillon tells us that one of Christ’s tears has been preserved and peculiarly honoured at Vendôme.

John Damascenus, in the eighth century, records the legend of a miraculous contemporary portrait of Christ which healed Agbarus, King of Edessa, of a mortal disease. It was till recently honoured in the church of St. Silvester at Rome.

The miraculous image known as the Veronica is claimed to be the actual impression of the Saviour’s features made on the veil or handkerchief of a devout Jewess, who piously wiped his brow as he toiled along the way to Calvary. This image she brought to Rome, where it cured Tiberius Cæsar of the leprosy, and was afterwards presented to the Emperor Charlemagne. It is now publicly worshipped in St. Peter’s with the utmost devotion and splendor. The name is probably derived from the label vera icon or icona—a true image—commonly attached to pictures of Our Lord. It was also given to the pious Jewess, who is identified as the niece of Herod. A colossal statue of St. Veronica adorns St. Peter’s fane, and the event is celebrated in sacred art and pious verse. The following, from a MS. in St. George’s Library, Windsor, is a favourable specimen of the latter:

Salve, Sancta facies
Mei Redemptoris,
In qua nitet species
Divini splendoris.
Impressa panniculo
Nivei candoris,
Dataque Veronicæ,
Signum ob Amoris.

Of equally apocryphal character are the Volto Santo, exhibited during Holy Week at St. Peter’s, and the portraits attributed to Nicodemus, Pilate, St. Luke, or to celestial artists. One of the Acheiropoietes, or pictures made without hands, almost blackened with age, and of the Byzantine type, is thrice a year exhibited at the Lateran palace at Rome.

[586] Clem. Alex., Strom., v.

[587] Sacred Art in Italy, p. 212. The Mosaics of this century in the adoration of the Magi at S. Maria Maggiore, before mentioned, is the earliest example of the appearance in art of the figures of angels, those sublime creations that glorify the canvas of the artists of the Renaissance. The winged genii in the Catacombs are rather an imitation of classic types than of a Christian significance.

The symbols of the four evangelists—the angel, lion, ox, and eagle—are unknown in the Catacombs, and first appear in the fourth century. Sometimes these symbols have reference to the four historic aspects of redemption through Christ—the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, as explained in the following monkish rhyme:

Quatuor haec Dominum signant animalia Christum:

Est homo nascendo, Vitulusque sacer moriendo,

Et Leo surgendo, cœlos Aquilaque petendo.

[588] Psa. xcvii, 3.

[589] In the austere drama of Dante Christ receives the title of Sovereign Jove:

O summo Giove,

Che fosti ’n terra per noi crocifisso.—Purgat., canto vi.

In Mediæval art Christ is frequently modeled after the pagan Jupiter Tonans.

[590] In some quaint French verses accompanying one of these pictures Our Lord, in giving an account of his journey, in characteristic accord with the erroneous theology of the times, is made to intimate that he would fain have avoided the unwelcome task:

“Père,” dist Jhésus, “retourné
Suis á toy, et ai consummé
Ce que faire me commandas
Quant jus ou monde m’envoyas,
Dont bien je m’en feusse passé.”
 —Romant des Trois Pélerinages, A. D. 1358.

[591] Tale simulacrum nefas est Christiano in templo collocare, multo magis is corde nefarium est.—De Fide et Symbolo, c. 7.

[592] Nefas habent docti ejus (ecclesiæ Catholicæ) credere Deum figurâ humani corporis terminatum.—Confess., vi, 11. See also Orig. Cont. Cels., 6, and Ambr. in Psa. cxviii.

[593]

Pleno coruscat Trinitas mysterio;
Stat Christus in agno; vox Patris cœlo tonat;
Et per columbam Spiritus Sanctus fluit.

See a valuable note on the doctrine of a Trinity in Classic and Hindoo mythology in Whedon’s Commentary, vol. ii, p. 77.

[594] Greg. II., Ep. i, ad Leon.

[595] Act 4. Concil. Nicen., 2.

[596] Παραφροσύνης ἄκρας καὶ ἀσεβείας τὸ σχηματίζειν τὸ θεῖον. κ. τ. λ.—De Fide Orthodox., l. iv, c. 17.

Dei qui est incorporeus, invisibilis, a materia remotissimus, figuræ expers, incircumscriptus, et incomprehensibilis, imago nulla fieri potest.... In errore quidem versaremur ... impie rursum ageremus ... si vel invisibilis Dei conficeremus imaginem.—Orat. 1 et 2 de Imaginibus.

[597] Les défenseurs les plus zelés des images ayant condamné celles-ci i. e., de la Trinité ou de la Divinité.—Dupin: Bibli. Eccles., t. vi, p. 154.

[598] Orig. Eccles., bk. vi, chap. viii, § 10.

[599] Northcote’s Catacombs, p. 116.

[600] Rom. Sott., p. 300.

[601] Ibid., 301.

[602] Dissertazioni Archeologiche di Raffaelle Garrucci, (Roma, 4to., 1865,) vol. ii, p. 1.

[603] Dr. Northcote describes a bearded figure standing behind the chair of Mary as a representation of the Holy Ghost. Surely the more natural interpretation is that it is intended for Joseph.

[604] Ezekiel speaks of the manifestation of God by a “hand sent unto him.” Ezek. ii, 9. The inspiration of Isaiah, and the divine judgments inflicted on Ananias and Sapphira, are thus indicated. In a Greek painting at Salamis, executed as late as the eighteenth century, the souls of the righteous in a state of beatitude are represented by five infant figures held in a gigantic hand projecting from the clouds.

[605] Discours Sur les Anciens Monumens, pp. 43, 46. The instance he refers to occurs in a Latin Bible presented to Charles the Bold in A. D. 850. The interpretation, however, is not certain.

[606] Iconog. Chrét., pp. 55, 205.

[607] In a Greek painting of as late date as the twelfth or thirteenth century, Christ, indicated by the letters IC XC, is represented as stretching out his hand over a prostrate figure labeled ΑΔΑΜ Ο ΠΡΩΤΟΠΛΑϹΤΟϹ—“Adam, the first-born,” or rather “the first-formed.”

[608] In one of these a winged head with cruciform nimbus, surrounded by a chaos of stars and planets, utters the word FIAT, and the earth with its inhabitants are called into being.

[609] In France the Supreme Being was generally represented as King, in Germany as Emperor, and in Italy as Pope.

[610] As in an example at the Madeleine at Paris.

[611] We have seen a picture of the creation in which the Almighty was represented as a feeble old man dressed in ecclesiastical robes, with a lantern in his hand.

[612] See a fresco by Andrea del Sarto at St. Salvi, Florence, two of the fifteenth century at Perugia, and an engraving in a copy of Dante printed at Florence in A. D. 1491. In an example given in Ames’ Typography, a triangular jewel is appended to the three-faced head, the inscription on which attempts to explain mathematically the mysterious doctrine of the unity in trinity. This mystery was also symbolized by the shape of some of the ancient monasteries, by the number of their cloistered inmates, by the genuflections of the service and the parts of the liturgy; and even the bell and

“The rope with its twisted cordage three
Denoted the scriptural Trinity.”

Sometimes the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove proceeding from the mouths of the Father and the Son, or even nailed to the cross with Christ.

[613] See on the carved stalls of the Amiens Cathedral, and at Vierrières in the Department de l’Aube, both of the sixteenth century.

Reference has already been made to the numerous fragments of gilt glass found in the Catacombs, which so remarkably illustrate Christian life in the primitive ages. In the last century, Buonarotti described all the specimens then known. The distinguished archæologist, Padre Garrucci, has recently exhaustively treated these remains of ancient art in his elaborate monograph on this subject.[614] They are also profusely illustrated in the magnificent pages of Perret.[615]

These glasses are generally mutilated fragments, apparently the bottoms of drinking-cups, and occasionally of the dish-like shape of the classic patera. They vary in size from about one to four or five inches in diameter. The design is executed in gold leaf on the bottom of the cup, so as to appear through the glass on the inside, and is occasionally beautifully relieved by a dark purple background. It is protected by a plate of glass, fused upon the lower surface so as to become a solid mass, like the glass paper-weights with enclosed ornamental designs which are so common. The pictures thus hermetically sealed are indestructible so long as the glass is not fractured. These vessels were apparently affixed at the time of burial to the soft plaster of the grave; but the thinner portion, standing out from the cement, has almost invariably been broken, while the thick part, imbedded in the plaster, has been preserved. Sometimes even the solid bottoms of these vessels were fractured in the effort to detach them from the walls, and frequently impressions in the cement indicate where they were affixed. They are rarely found in situ, having been destroyed or carried off by successive generations of explorers or plunderers. The most important collection is in the Vatican Library. In the British Museum are some thirty specimens; in the museums of Paris, Florence, and Naples, a less number; and a few others in various private collections. The entire number extant is only three hundred and forty. In the course of a quarter of a century De Rossi discovered but two fragments of these glasses. This extreme rarity is doubtless owing to their excessive fragility, and probably also to their being destroyed in large quantities to procure the gold they contain. In some of the extant examples portions of this gold has been removed by inserting a knife between the plates of glass. Perhaps the ingenious avarice of the Jewish “dealers in broken glass,” notorious even in the days of Martial,[616] may have largely contributed to the destruction of these curious remains of Christian antiquity.

It was thought that the manufacture of these glasses was known only at Rome; but in the year 1864 a fragment of a glass plate, with a number of small gilt medallions bearing scriptural representations imbedded in it, was discovered beneath the surface of the ground near the church of St. Severin at Cologne; and in 1866 another of similar character was found, accompanied by some charred bones, in a stone chest near the same place.

Buonarotti regarded these fragments as having all formed part of sacramental vessels; but the character of the designs seems frequently to preclude that idea. Several of these are derived from the fables of pagan mythology, and seem to indicate, if not heathen origin, at least the influence of pagan types. Among them are found the figures of Achilles, Hercules, Dædalus, Minerva, Mercury, the Three Graces, Cupid and Pysche, and other groups still less congruous with Christian thought. Other scenes represent various industries, as men sawing, planing, and carving wood; a ship-builder with his men at work; a tailor, druggist, and money-coiner, in their respective shops. Hunting scenes, men boxing, and charioteers encouraging their horses, also occur. A more numerous series represent domestic groups, portraits of husband and wife, frequently accompanied by their children, groups of children playing, or sometimes a lady in rich costume, with cupids holding her mirror and other toilet adjuncts. Frequently occurs what seems to be a marriage scene, with the bride and bridegroom joining hands over an altar, above which Christ is often depicted as placing crowns on their heads. Sometimes is expressed in gilt letters the beautiful wish VIVATIS IN DEO—“May you live in God.” In one instance it is a winged cupid that bestows the crown.

Another class exhibits representations of the Virgin Mary, generally in the attitude of prayer, either alone, or standing between St. Peter and St. Paul, which position is also often occupied by St. Agnes or some other female saint. More frequently recurring than any other figures are those of St. Peter and St. Paul. They are found on eighty out of three hundred and forty specimens figured by Garrucci, or nearly one fourth of the whole. They appear generally as busts side by side, without the slightest indication of the superiority of one over the other, Peter being often on the left instead of the right, which, according to the Romish theory of his primacy, he should always occupy. Indeed, their perfect parity in dignity and honour is implied in the single crown sometimes suspended over their heads, or by their simultaneous crowning by Christ, who appears between or above them. Other saints are also represented, who are discriminated by labels bearing their names, as Lawrence, Vincent, Sixtus, Callixtus, Hippolytus, etc. There are also five or six specimens exhibiting Jewish symbols, the ark of the covenant and the rolls of the law. From the technical difficulties in the employment of a rather intractable material, as well as from the general decline of art, the execution is often uncouth and stiff. “The faithful,” says Buonarotti, “desiring to adorn these vases with pious symbols, were forced to avail themselves of inexpert workmen, or even those who pursued other trades.”[617] The accompanying is a characteristic example, from this author, of the domestic class. It exhibits a husband, wife, and child, with the motto in Latin characters, PIE ZESES—“Drink and live.” Between the faces is an object like an ancient lachrymatory.

Garrucci thinks, from the large proportion of glasses bearing the effigies of St. Peter and St. Paul, that those at least were used in connexion with the feast in honour of these saints, which in the fourth and fifth centuries was celebrated in Rome as a public holiday, with much of the vulgar merriment with which the peasants of the Campagna keep their festa to-day. Mr. Brownlow hints the possibility that the “idea of restraining the potations of the Roman Christians, by depicting figures which could only be seen to advantage when the glass was empty, suggested the use of these gilded cups.”[618]

The festive purpose for which many of these vessels was designed is indicated by the convivial character of the inscriptions they bear. Mr. Brownlow has translated the following examples in this sense:[619] DIGNITAS AMICORVM PIE ZESES CVM TVIS OMNIBVS BIBE ET PROPINA—“A mark of friendship; drink, and (long) life to thee, with all thine; drink, and propose a toast;” CVM TVIS FELICITER ZESES—“Mayest thou live happily with thine own;” or, more freely, “Life and happiness to thee and thine;” ΠΙΕ ΖΕΣΕΣ ΕΝ ΑΓΑΘΟΙΣ—“Drink and live among the good.”

Sometimes these inscriptions breathe a spirit of pious congratulation and good-will, as the following from Perret: HILARIS VIVAS CVM TVIS OMNIBVS FELICITER SEMPER IN PACE DEI ZESES—“Joyfully mayest thou live with all thine; happily mayest thou live forever in the peace of God.” Augustine, describing in his Confessions the devout celebration of the anniversaries of the saints by his mother, Monica, says she used to bring to the festivals “a small cup of wine diluted according to her own abstemious habits, which for courtesy she would taste.”[620]

Although it is impossible that all these vessels were designed for sacramental purposes, yet it is not improbable that some of them were used as patens and chalices in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Tertullian speaks of the representation of the Good Shepherd on the sacred cup in a manner which seems to imply similarity of material and ornamentation.[621] The Liber Pontificalis states that glass patens were in use in the third century. When these were superseded by gold and silver vessels they would not improbably be placed as memorials on the tombs of departed saints.[622]

It is difficult to determine even the proximate date of these glasses. From the degraded character of their art they are evidently of a comparatively late period. Garrucci and some other writers, indeed, assign them to the third or fourth century; but from the occurrence of the nimbus, and for other technical reasons, Marriott attributes many of them to the fifth or sixth century.[623] Other peculiarities of execution are characteristic of Byzantine art, and a writer in the Revue Chrétienne asserts that there is not a single example of this mode of treatment known to belong to the Roman period. The striking corruption of doctrine and practice indicated is also an evidence of late origin.

Numerous small cups or flasks, known as ampullæ, have been found affixed to the walls or imbedded in the plaster of the tombs, frequently containing in the bottom a reddish deposit. This Bosio concluded was dried blood, and therefore asserted that these cups were irrefragable proofs of the martyrdom of the persons to whose graves they were attached. The Roman ecclesiastical authorities received this theory with enthusiasm, and in the year 1688 issued a decree that, “The Holy Congregation of Relics, having carefully examined the matter, decides that the palm and vessel tinged with blood are to be considered most certain signs of martyrdom.” Eminent Romanist writers have unflinchingly asserted, without the least corroboration of their theory from contemporary evidence, that these cups were filled with the martyr’s blood and affixed to his grave;[624] —another example of the fatal mistake of Rome in fortifying truth with the bulwark of falsehood, and thus shaking our confidence even in that which is real. The Acts of the Martyrs, indeed, mention the collecting of their blood in napkins, sponges, or veils, to keep as a talisman and heirloom at home; but never of its preservation in a cup, or burial beside their graves. This symbol does not occur on the tombs of some who were unquestionably martyrs;[625] and some who have it, from their extreme youth, or from some other reason indicated by the inscription, cannot have belonged to that honoured class.[626] Moreover, as Mr. Seymour remarks, some of these alleged martyr blood-cups are of a form and exhibit designs unknown till long after the age of persecution.[627] In the example on the following page, given by Aringhi, the inscription is unwarrantably translated by Romanist epigraphists, “the blood of Saturnius;” instead of, in analogy with numerous other inscriptions, “the place [locus] of holy Saturnius.”

The chemist Leibnitz analyzed the red deposit in these vessels, and found that it was composed of organic matter, but does not hazard the assertion that it is blood. It has been suggested by Röstell, with whom Rochette agrees, that these cups were sacramental vessels, and that the sediment was the lees of wine, which would yield a similar organic residuum. The desire to express fellowship with the departed in the celebration of the Agape, or the Eucharist, which often took place beside their graves, may have led to the custom of affixing these vessels to the tombs and replenishing them with wine. We know that this yearning of the human heart led in course of time to the offering of the sacrament to the dead, and the burying it in their graves.[628]

The occurrence of the palm branch engraved or painted on the tomb was also, as we have seen, declared by the Congregation of Relics to be a certain sign of a martyr’s tomb. But this was a common symbol of victory both among the pagans and Jews, and therefore was naturally adopted by the Christians in token of their being “more than conquerors” through Christ, without any reference to martyrdom. It is found, moreover, on graves posterior to the times of persecution, on those of children, and even on a tomb which a man had prepared for himself while yet alive. Muratori, who gives this example, though a devout Romanist, says the palm was by no means a sign of martyrdom.[629] Other criteria of martyrdom were also adopted, as the occurrence of the laurel and the olive crown, and the appearance of oranti on the tombs; but the former are also common to paganism, and in Christian epigraphy adorn the graves of very young children, and the latter frequently occur on the sarcophagi after the age of persecution had passed.

It is remarkable that so few allusions to martyrdom occur in the Catacombs. In the whole range of the inscriptions, as before observed, only five, some of which may be spurious, commemorate martyrs, or less than one in two thousand. The pictorial representations of this event are less frequent still. In the cemetery of St. Priscilla was discovered a terra cotta bas relief of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, but evidently of late date: the soldiers are armed with cross-bows, and are clad apparently in mediæval plate armour. This subject has at all times been a favourite theme of Italian art, and this relief may have been left at the shrine of the saints by some pious pilgrim of the Middle Ages. In the Catacomb of Callixtus is a painting of two Christians standing before the tribunal of a Roman magistrate. This is probably of the early centuries, but how different from the gross and bloody martyr-pictures in the church of S. Steffano in Rotondo in Rome. On one of the gilt glasses, executed long after the days of persecution, is a group supposed to represent Isaiah sawn asunder, and in one of the Catacombs is a scene thought to indicate the martyrdom of Hippolytus. The pictures of Daniel and the three Hebrews indicate rather the triumph than the trial of God’s saints.

The martyrs left no outward memorial of their sufferings, nor was any needed, for their intrepid spirit animated the whole Christian community. D’Agincourt says he found in thirty years’ exploration only one picture, and that of late and barbarian design, portraying martyrdom.[630] Those who themselves stood in jeopardy every hour did not magnify the merit of the faithful confession of Christ, whom they considered alone deserving of the title of “Faithful and True Witness.” No sacred litany entreated St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and all holy martyrs, to pray for them; nor is any such inscription found in the whole range of the epigraphy of the Catacombs.[631]

In the following rude representation, from a slab in the Lapidarian Gallery, Romish imagination has discovered the outline of a furnace, or of a caldron of boiling oil in which Victorina was immersed. A comparison with other similar figures indicates that it is intended for a corn measure filled with grain, the sign of the trade of an ancient meal merchant.