CATACOMBS
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CATACOMBS
and still more from the great variety of new subjects
which were introduced into the domain of Christian
art. When Adam and Eve air shown, it is not, as in
the frescoes, merely with the tree and the serpent;
in sculpture the second Adam, Christ, is represented
Standing between the first pair, offering to Adam a
sheaf of grain and to Eve a goat, symbols of labour
in the field and household occupations. While in
the frescoes Moses stands alone when he smites the
rock with his staff that the- water may gush out, the
sculptured relief includes the Jews quenching their
thirst. The same difference is evident in the repre-
sentation of the raising of Lazarus; whereas in sculp-
ture the two sisters and some witnesses of the miracle
fill out the scene, in the frescoes the figures are lim-
ited to the chief personages. The range of subjects
is increased by the addition of other incidents from
the Old Testament, e. g. tie' passage of the Israelites
through the Red Sea, symbolic of baptism, and the
gram of Christ enclosed in a victor's wreath; or
Christ is represent..! seated on the throne of His
heavenly glory in the midst of scenes from His Pas-
sion. The subjects chosen from the Passion are the
prediction of the denial of Peter, the washing of
the feet, the crowning with thorns, Pilate's judg-
ment, the carrying of the Cross; of these scenes the
one most frequently selected was Pilate's judgment,
with the Old Testament prototype of the sacrifice of
Isaac as contrasting relief. The manner in which
the Church of the fourth century regarded the office
ot Peter is plain from the preference shown for repre-
sentations of the traditio Ugis in which Peter, as the
.Moses of the New Covenant, receives from the hand
of Christ (Dominux legem dot), the New Testament,
the Lex or law that he was to proclaim and explain
to Christians. The different scenes of the reliefs were
separated from one another by arcades, or perhaps
by trees, or, frequently they 'followed one another
Bronzi Medallions 01 Bis l' ind Paul
ru or Third Century. 2. Fourth I
vision of Ezechiel. intended as an allusion to the
resurrection of the body; more especially, however,
by fresh scenes from the life of Christ. The carvings
representing the manger, the scenes from the I'
and the prominence given to the position and office
of Peter in the Christian scheme of salvation, have no
parallel in the paintings of tie- catacombs. Only
once in the catacombs i- the birth of Christ taken as
the subject of a painting, and this is a fresco of a very
late .late in the catacomb of St. Sebastian. The re-
liefs on the sarcophagi show the little Child lying in
the manger with the virgin sitting near by on a knoll ;
behind her stands Joseph while the ox and a-- are
placed to one side, and above shines the star that
guides tl.e Wise Men. The Virgin is often repre
seated sitting on a throne and holding the Child
forward on her hand I .ration of the
Magi. As regards scenes from tic Passion, chris- tians preferred, during the centuries of persecution, to represent the Saviour as the Son of God, full of mirac- ulous power, as the conqueror of death an., sur- rounded by His heavenly glory, rather than in His Bufferings and deatl I A- Christianity
advanced, however, in its COnqUesI of heathenism,
the faithful turned their attention more to the suffer- 1 Christ. Still, although sculpture ventured
■ .in i hi isl s Pa --ion. Bis b tion was always accompanied by an allusion to Hi- glory; at the fo.,1 of the empty Cross sleep the watchers by I bove the Cross is the mono-
dircctly, the numerous incidents carved on large
sarcophagi were often arranged in two rows,oneover the other. In this disposition plastic art followed
the model set by the mosaics in the great basilicas.
Although single scenes carved on the sarcophagi
are not difficult to explain, yet where the composition
is more complicated it is often not easy to discover
the leading thought, as the artist was apt to run her. An example will make this clear. On a sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum the follow- ing scenes succeed one another from left to right: the es of Cain and Abel; Peter led to execution; the triumph ..f the ( ross; the beheading of Paul; Job. The question arises as to why the figures are thus arranged. In the death of Abel the judgment pro- nounced on the whole human race in Paradise was executed for the first time-, while Job is th.
herald ..f the Resurrection: "I know that my Re- deemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of ith. And I shah be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall -..■ m\ i,.„l" i\i\. 25).
The fulfilment of this hope i- shown by the two \p..-ii, and the glory of the risen Saviour. On many ..t the arcophagi, however, especially
Ofi to the period of the decline of Home, the
compositions lack a central thought and are arranged either according t.. the fancy of the sculptor or ac- cording to the command and desire of the purchaser. Outside of the sarcophagi the most important early Christian sculpture i i statue of St. Hip-
