CATACOMBS
423
CATACOMBS
broad; thr> wine-cup with handles stands ready near
bread and fish; baskets on either side holding the
miraculously multiplied loaves and fishes indicate the deeper meaning of the scene. Both paintings belong to the earliest Christian art. There is in the cata- comb of Callistus a painting of a large fish; close be- fore or above the fish is a woven basket on the top of which lie round loaves of bread; the front pari oi the basket lias a square opening in which is seen a glass containing red wine. In the six so-called Chapels of the Sacraments of the same catacomb various representations of the Eucharist appear in combination with pictures of baptism, the raising of Lazarus, a ship, rtf. Bread and fish are shown lying on a table; on one side stands Christ. Who stretches a hand in blessing over the food; on the other side is an Orante, the symbol of the soul, which in this meal
there are for the paintings, as for the inscriptions, in-
dications which serve as clues. The artistic value of
the pictures increases the closer they approach the
golden age of profane art. In the second and third
centuries the pictures were lightly sketched and
Eainted in transparent colours on a carefully prepan d ackground of plaster. During this period the artist did not follow set patterns, but was under the neces- sity at first of devising forms in which to express his new Christian ideas. As secular art fell into decay Christian art experienced the same decline. Another aid in determining the age of a fresco is given by the site in a catacomb where a picture has been painted, whether in the oldest part or in a later addition. As time went on the painter's range of artistic concep- tions enlarged; thus in the third and fourth centuries scenes were depicted which were foreign to earlier
Fresco in the Catacomb of St. Prxscii la
receives the pledge of the heavenly otic. The op-
posite picture represents the sacrifice of Isaac. In a
third picture, placed between these two, guests sit
around a table on which are bread and fish; in the
foreground stand the baskets holding the miracu-
lously multiplied loaves. These and similar pictures,
all belonging to the first half of the third century, are
based upon the thought that the Ku diarist ie meal has
I for us by the Saviour as the pledge and
type of the heavenly one.
Catholic writers have at times found a richer dog- matic cont. 'lit in the pictures of tin- catacombs than a strict examination is able to prove; but Protestant scholars go to the other extreme when they claim that the "dogmatic results" obtained from the early Christian pictures are exceedingly small. Although
it is willingly acknowledged that non-Catholic writers
have occasionally placed a picture in a proper light, it is nevertheless necessary to protest against tie- attempt to eliminate from the early Christian me- morials all dogmatic proof for the faith of the Catholic Church.
Just as it is of importance to settle the dates of inscripl essential to determine as
nearly as possible when paintings were executed;
Christian art. When in the fourth century the newly-
erected basilicas were ornamented with mosaics, the
same form of decoration was also introduced into the
catacombs; this is shown in a mosaic depicting as an
Orante a person who had died. The ornamentation
of the places of interment came to an end with the
above-mentioned cessation of burial in tin- cats
combs; in lieu of this the graves oi the martyrs were
now decorated, generally with pictures of the saints,
who are represented grouped around the Saviour,
These paintings form a class apart from the other
pictures of tin' catacombs on account of tic constant
decline in the artistic execution an. I because of the
subjects of the composition. The last pictures pa int.. I
in the catacombs an ed in ■the ninth cen-
tury in the crypt of St. Cecilia. Si. Cecilia herself is represented a- an Orante in the garden of heaven;
there is also preserved in this crypt a bust. fresco of Christ in a niche, next to which is a picture of Pope St. Urban who buried the martyr. St. Cecilia.
V. Sarcophagi. — In ancient Rome citizens of rank built for themselves family tombs on the great
military roads; the structure above ground \monu-
adorned with statues and inscriptions,
while the bodies were deposited in stone coffins
