ECCLESIASTICAL
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ECCLESIASTICAL
others beside Christ, for exiimple to Our Lady and
some of the saints. Sculpture again, though in the
catacombs the traces it has left are relatively few, now
for the first time becomes the helpmate of painting in
the service ol the Church. This is the age of the great
Christian sarcophagi so wonderfully decorated with
the figures of Christ and His Apostles and with l)ililical
scenes still full of symbolic meaning. The old ways of
the period of persecution had, it is plain, become not
only familiar but dear to the body of the faithful. The
allegorical iiietliod of representing the mysteries of the
Faith dill not disappear at once. But though with the
triumph of Cunstantine.the outline of the "chrisme",
or the Greek monogram of Christ, ^ was universally
held in honour and introduced 4> into all Christian
monuments and even into the coinage, the crucifix as
a Christian emblem was as yet practically unknown.
For more than a century the memory of the Sacrifice of
Calvary was recalled to the minds of the faithful only
by some such device as that of a plain cross impressed
with the figure of a lamb. The first representations of
the figure of the Saviour nailed upon the Rood, as we
see it upon the carved doors of Sta Sabina in Rome and
in the British Museum ivory, belong probably to the
fifth century, but for a long period after that this sub-
ject is very rarely found, and its occurrence in frescoes
or mosaics is hardly recorded anywhere before the
time of Justinian (527-565).
Mos.\ics AND Other Early Christian Arts. — To find the beginning of the use of colour in the Roman Empire to anything like an important extent, we must look at the Roman pavements composed of myriads of tessera, and representing in a flat and somewhat un- interesting manner mystic beings, extraordinary ani- mals, fruits, flowers, and designs. Between these Roman pavements and one branch of the earliest Christian art, that of mosaic, there is a very close con- nexion. It seems also possible that some of the early efforts of the art of the Christian Church are to be found in the decorations of gold on glass which have been discovered in the catacombs. Upon these glas.ses, dating from the third to the fifth century, are found representations of Christ and of the Apostles, as well as drawings in gold-leaf, partly symbolic and partly realistic, referring to the miracles of Christ, the em- blems of the Seven Spirits, a future life, and the events narrated in the New Testament. Simple and archaic as these are, yet many of them show considerable beauty. The primitive Church included within itself, not only the poor and humble, but persons of distinc- tion, rank, and attainment, and it is clear from an ex- amination of these drawings that some were executed by those who were in possession of considerable artis- tic skill, and who had been trained in a knowledge of Greek and Roman art. Contemporaneous with these, and earlier, are frescoes painted upon the walls of the catacombs, including portraits of the Apostles and of Christ, representations of the martyrs, naive pict- ures of the scenes from Holy Writ, and simple illumi- natory symbolism. Then, between the fourth and tenth centuries, there is a long series of mosaics, in which for the first time strong evidence appears of a sense of colour. A few spccinuns of these mosaics adorned the catacombs, afterwards they are found in the oratories and places of worship of the primitive Church. It was speedily recognized that mosaic decorations possessed certain strong claims to attention, such as other meth- ods of decoration lacked. While the artist himself must be responsible for fresco work, very much of the labour in mosaic decoration could be left to persons of subordinate position, and once the artist had drawn out the pattern and scheme which was to cover, for instance, the apse of the church, the actual manual labour of fitting in the tcssene could be done by work- men. Then, again, there was the quality of imperish- ability; the mosaic was permanent, an actual part of the structure which it decorated; it did not vary in
colour by reason of light or atmosphere, and could be
cleansed from time to time. It was also capable of
strong, broad effects, rendering it peculiarly suitable
to positions at the end of a building, somewhat above
the line of sight, and its colour coulii be made so em-
phatic and so brilliant that the darkest of curves or
hollows could be lit up by its luminous beauty. It is
small wonder, therefore, that from the very earliest
period the Church drew to itself the skilful workers in
mosaic, and employed them, as can be seen by the
wonderful remains at Ravenna, in Sicily, on Mount
Athos, near Constantinople, and notably at Rome, to
decorate the interiors of the basilicas, and to portray
upon their walls the emblems of the Divine tragedy, of
the sufferings of Christ and of His saints, or to repre-
sent in hieratic magnificence the figures of Christ in
glory, or in benediction, so that the scenes might be
well in sight of all the worshippers within the little
churches.
From the representation of single figures at the end of the church, the work speedily spread to more elabo- rate adornment of the walls, and from the simplicity of a single emblem, a single figure, the artistic spirit grew until it represented in pictorial effect the para- Ijles and miracles of Christ, or spread long triumphant processions of virgins. Apostles, martyrs, along the walls of the aisles and transepts of the larger churches. There is no city in Europe in which this earliest Chris- tian art can be so well studied as at Ravenna. The difficulty of approaching the place in its out-of-the-way position has enabled it to retain and preserve the monuments in which it is so rich, and which relate so exclusively to its early history. The baptistery dates back to the last years of the fourth century, and was later ornamented in mosaic. There is in it a represen- tation of the Baptism of Christ, and a circle of the Twelve Apostles; the figures, of surpassing dignity, appear to move round the dome with a swing and grace very remarkable in effect. Another circle of mosaic decorations in the same building represents the four Books of the Gospels open upon four altars, and between them four thrones of dominion with crosses; these mosaics have never been restored, and are in the condition in which their makers left them. The huge font intended for baptism by immersion, which stands below them, is proof of their antiipiity, l)ut the actual inscription of dedication with its date still exists on the metal cross surmounting the building. In the chapel of the archbishop in the archiepiscopal palace are mosaics of the fifth century made tluring the reign of Archbishop St. Peter Chrysologus, while in the tomb of the Empress Galla riacidia are mosaic decora- tions of her period; unfortunately, many of these lat- ter works have been restored. The very finest mosaics in Ravenna, however, relate to the great heresy of Arianism. In the time of Theodoric, the old heresy was beginning once more to make itself felt. Arius had long been dead, Athanasius had fought his cour- ageous battle against the Arian heresy, the Councils of Niciea and Constantinople had been held, and had pronounced against it, and the Nicene doctrine had been confirmed, so that within the Church the heresy could no longer exist, but outside the Catholic Church there were still those who accepted it. When Theo- doric, King of the Ostrogoths, came into power, Arian- ism became once more a force to be reckoned with, and the emperor erected a cathedral and a baptistery at Ravenna for his Arian bishops. It is in the church now called Sant' ApoUinare Nuovo, which was new more than a thousand years ago, that the great rhyth- mic array of saints and virgins alluded to above exists, the greater part of it as it was when Theodoric erected the church fourteen centuries ago. In the baptistery of the Arians, near by, the mosaics upon the roof were put in place practically after the baptistery became Catholic, and therefore date from about 550.
It is not only, however, in mosaics, that Ravenna
