ECCLESIASTICAL
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ECCLESIASTICAL
illustrates the early art of the Church ; one of its great
treasures, the ivorychair of St. Maximianus (546-556),
made in the first half of the sixth century, has been in
the city since it was first carved, with the exception of
a very short time when it was carried to Venice in
1001. It is perhaps the finest example in existence of
such ivory carving, and was the work of Oriental
craftsmen, who entered into the service of the Church
and carved this chair with its delicate and beautiful
illustrations of the miracles of Christ and the history
of Joseph. The same city can illustrate other branches
of applied art, for the orphreys and textile fabrics
made for San Giovanni in the fifth century, the sLxth-
centiuy altar-cross of the archbishop, St. Agnellus
(556-569), his processional cross of silver, and portions
of his cathedral chair, are still preserved in the cathe-
dral, while the art of carving in marble of the same
period is exceedingly well exemplified by the splendid
stone sarcophagi existing in various churches of the
city. Following the time of Theodoric came the rule
of the Emperor Justinian (527-565), and the epis-
copate of St. Ecclesius (521-534), while the mosaic
decoration in the church of San Vitale, done in the
early and middle part- of the sixth centurj', illustrate
the change from Arian heresy to Catholic truth, and
the exquisite beauty of the mosaic work the Church
was able to make use of at that time. A little journey
outside Ravenna to the church of Sant' ApoUinare in
Classe will enable the student to bring his study of
early mosaic work and early sculpture down to a still
later period, as in that church there is the great mosaic
erected by Archbishop Reparatus c. 671, the carved
throne of St. Damianus (688-705), and the sarcophagi
of various archbishops, extending in date to the end of
the seventh century, and bearing religious emblems of
very considerable importance. Attention should also
he drawn to the pictures on unprepared linen cloth,
executed in a material similar to transparent water-
colour, ascribed to a period antecedent to the third
century. They chiefly purport to be representations
of the features of Christ. The most notable of course
is the one known as the Handkerchief of St. Veronica,
preserved in the ^'atican, and which none but an
ecclesiastic of very high rank is allowed to examine
closely. Although the most important, it is by no
means the only example of such a picture. There is
another in Genoa, a third in the church of San Silves-
tro in Rome, and others in various European shrines.
The metal work executed during the Ostrogothic occu-
pation of Italy was often work commissioned by the
Church for use in the ceremonials of the service, and
figures of Oirist and of the saints, ornaments for copes,
chasses in which to put relics, and vessels for use at the
altar, belonging to this period of primitive art, are the
direct result of the teaching of the Church. As, how-
ever, the religious feeling spread more and more, the
desire arose among Christians to have artistic repre-
sentations of the great events of the P^aith in their
houses, and it is possible that the beginnings of what
we may term portable pictorial work arose in this
way. The very early tempera paintings on wood of
Eastern and Byzantme character, some of which are
actually ascribed to the hand of the Apostle St. Luke
himself, may very likely have been executed, not en-
tirely as decorations for the Church, but that the
wealthier members of the community, at least, might
have in their homes, in the privacy of their own ora-
tories, some cherished representation of the Man of
Sorrows Himself, or of some Apostle or saint from
whom the owner was named, or towards whom he had
some particular affection. In this way may perhaps
be traced the beginning of the history of the icons,
which are so important a feature in the life of the
Eastern Church, and which adorn every house, in
many cases being found in all the rooms occupied by
the various members of the family.
Ecclesiastical Art in the Middle Ages. — Leav-
ing primitive times, the period of the Middle Ages is
one of enormous artistic importance, and it is an era in
which the influence of the Church Ls practically para-
mount. To this period there does not belong any
very long series of artistic objects relating exclusively
to domestic life. There were, of course, articles of
domestic interest marked by artistic skill, there were
objects of personal decoration, and appliances for use
in the home; but the choicest talent and the eff'orts of
the most supreme genius were almost invariably given
to the work of the Church, and even where the com-
missions related to domestic ornamentation, there was
generally a religious element in the decorations and
the use of religious symbolisms. To this period belong
the magnificent works in enamels, executed for church
work. There are the tall pricket candlesticks, superb
chasses and reliquaries, altar-crosses, crosiers, shrines,
censers and incense boats, crucifixes, morses for copes,
and medallions for sacred vessels, triptychs and polyp-
tychs for use on the altar, plaques for book-covers, es-
pecially for the adornment of the Book of the Gospels,
cruets, basins, chalices, and book-binding in metal en-
crusted with jewels. The very first British enamels
were merely a kind of coarse decoration, applied to the
adormnent of shields and helmets, but later on to cups,
vases, and drinking-vessels, but, when mention is
made of the Ardagh Chalice and the Alfred Jewel, it
will be realized that a period in enamel work has been
reached when the Church laid its hand upon the craft.
Concerning the use of the Alfred Jewel, it may be
broadly stated that the most probable theory is that
it was the ornament applied to the head of an ivory
pointer used by the deacon when reading the Book of
the Gospels, and that therefore this exquisite object
now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford is one of the
earliest examples of ecclesia.stical enamel work. The
Ardagh Chalice, of translucent enamels on silver and
gold, is only one of a group of Irish shrines, reliquaries,
missal-covers, crosiers, and crosses, similarly deco-
rated, and it would appear likely that the.se Irish or
Celtic enamels, of which half a dozen adorn the altar
of Sant' Ambrogio in Milan, are perhaps among the
earliest existing examples of the art in connexion with
ecclesiastical possessions. In the first part of the
eleventh century, Byzantium appears to have been
the head-quarters of the work of ecclesiastical enamel-
ling, and the pectoral cross in the South Kensington
Museum may be taken as an example of early Byzan-
tine work. The art of the enameller was also in exists
ence in Germany at an early date, and here also was
applied exclusi\ely to ecclesiastical objects. Towards
the middle of the twelfth century the workers of
Limoges came into prominence, and from that time
down to the end of the thirteenth Limoges was the
centre of production. In Italian enamelling, the won-
derful translucent reliquary, dated 13.38, the work of
Ugolino of Siena, in which is preserved the great relic
of the Holy Corporal at Orvieto, is a masterpiece of
the craft. The altar-frontal at Pistoja belongs to
about the same period, and a little later comes the
reliquary made by the brothers Arezzo, while during
the whole of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
enamellers were kept hard at work in Italy producing
objects intended for Church work in two or three dis-
tinct processes, either that called champleve, or an-
other method, that of floating transparent enamels,
known by the name of bassetnille, or still another pro-
cess called encrusting. At the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and the beginning of the sixteenth, in the era of
the Renai.s.sance, the art left Italy, and, taking a new
form, that of painted enamels, or more strictly, paint-
ing in enamels, had a recrudescence in France, m the
very same place, Limoges, in which the old enamels
had been produced.
In another division of applied arts are the remark- able embroideries which adorned all the sacred vest- ments, representing, in the most wonderful pictorial
