No More Learning

It is still in Rome and in the catacombs that the best connected series
of works of the first three or four centuries of this early art is found.
The great roads of approach to Rome were lined by countless tombs
of every degree of magnificence: rotundas, pyramids, cellae, and sarco-
phagi. Amongst them stood vestibules to underground tomb-chambers
where large numbers were buried in common. Along their walls, tier
upon tier, urns of ashes were packed like vases in a museum. The Jews
and other oriental peoples followed the custom of burying the unburnt
body in subterranean galleries, and appropriate sites for these also were
obtained round about Rome. The Christians, following the same usage,
at first shared such catacombs, and in other cases formed groups of their
own. The catacombs were primarily not places of hiding, however much
they may have been so used. Frequently there was a space above
ground planted as a garden, and made use of as a cemetery. In some
were small burial chapels from which access was obtained to the catacombs
beneath. The ruins of two or three such chapels have been discovered
and described. They agree in having had a central apse and two lateral
apses grouped together at one end.
There were also subterranean chapels, the most famous of which is
the Capella Graeca of the Catacomb of Priscilla. It has, roughly, the
form of a small nave or body, 8 by 25 ft. , ended by an apse with lateral
apses on each side of it. It opens from a long vaulted apartment
or atrium. The walls are decorated with paintings of the usual
subjects—Daniel, and Lazarus, Moses, Susannah, and the Adoration of
the Magi. On the vault over the nave are four heads representing the
Above the central apse is represented the Eucharistic repast.
This recently-discovered Fractio Panis is not only one of the most
interesting, it is also one of the most beautiful of the catacomb paint-
ings, as may be seen in the large photogravure published by Wilpert.
The forms and features of the seven participants are classic and gracious.
It is painted in a masterly way in a few simple colours on a vermilion
ground. The inscriptions on the walls are in Greek, hence the name of
the chapel. In the apse was an altar-tomb. It belongs to the second
century
Another catacomb church is probably of the third century, and a
third, the largest, in the catacomb of St Hermes is probably of the
fourth. The catacombs themselves are complexes of subterranean passages
and galleries excavated for the disposal of the dead, who rested one above
another along the sides. The chambers, more or less square, were
seasons.
CH. XXI.


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600
Christian Paintings
a
roughly vaulted above, and the vaults and walls were for the most part
decorated with painting, and occasionally with stucco reliefs. This
ornamentation was a branch of the ordinary house and tomb decorator's
work of the time, and the painted subjects were clearly executed with
the swift mastery which came of long practice in repeating a limited
stock of ideas. The vaulted ceilings were usually decorated by some
geometrical arrangement of panels, radiating from the centre and bounded
by a large circle. In these panels were little figures, groups, birds and
foliage. The colours were reds, greens and ochres and a little blue, the
whole mellow yet bright.
The subjects of these paintings have been most thoroughly illustrated,
and their chronology analysed, in Wilpert's large work. Under the first
century he groups several schemes of vault decoration in which the
motives consist of the geometrical division of the field, and of little
putti and foliage. One vault is entirely covered with a branching vine.
On others of the same century are landscapes and burial feasts, while
the cycle of Biblical subjects begins with Daniel standing between two
lions, and the Good Shepherd. To the second century he assigns vaults
on which appear the Three Children in the furnace, Moses striking the
rock, the Eucharist, Noah and the Ark, scenes from the story of Jonah,
and subjects from the life and miracles of Christ; the raising of Lazarus,
the cure of the paralytic, the cure of the woman, and the meeting with
the Samaritan. The most noticeable and beautiful is in the cemetery of
Priscilla, and represents the seated Virgin and Child, with a prophet
standing by, and a star or the sun above. This is a small group at the
side of a central composition of the Good Shepherd, from which it is
divided by a flowering tree. This central subject and the trees on either
hand of it were roughly modelled in the plaster before colouring. The
modelling of the tree is but a few swift marks of the tool defining the
trunk, and the leaves and flowers are painted. The Virgin and Child
are beautifully drawn with some remaining tradition of classical feeling.
The figures are only about a foot high, and unhappily the lower part
is much injured. The whole is very like a sketch by Watts. Belonging
to this century are two or three versions of the Baptism. Another
subject is the mocking of Christ; others are symbolical, a ship in a
storm, Orpheus charming the beasts, and orantes who represent souls
rather than persons. One beautiful vault is decorated by a series of
bands, on the lowest of which, on the four sides, are four typical
occupations of the seasons-picking Aowers, cutting corn, the vintage,
and gathering olives—while the upper bands are ornamented successively
with pattern-work of roses, corn, vine, and olive.
Amongst the third century paintings may be noticed Christ enthroned,
the Virgin and the Magi, and Amor and Psyche gathering flowers. In
the fourth century Christ is represented enthroned amidst the twelve
apostles, as in the apses of the early basilicas. In the fifth century the


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Sculpture
601
treatment of the figures becomes more rigid and hieratic, while their
costumes are much bejewelled, in a manner distinctly Byzantine. There
is little in the catacomb paintings which has peculiar application to the
grave. The raising of Lazarus or Daniel between the lions belong to a
series of “deliverance” subjects which were in general use in all forms of
“
Early Christian art; when we come to the fourth and fifth centuries
the decoration resembles that which we are accustomed to in the churches
of those centuries, and the decoration of the earlier catacombs would
have been equally according to the general custom of the time when
they were built. That is, the pre-Constantinian churches and earlier
domestic oratories must have been painted in like fashion with the cata-
combs. The ideas underlying the choice of subjects are of resurrection
and salvation, thoughts which are further expressed in the simple epitaphs,
which speak of hope, peace, and eternal welfare. Some of the subjects
chosen have, indeed, been compared with the ancient prayers for the
dying, “ Deliver, O Lord, Thy servant as Thou didst deliver Enoch and
Elias from the common death, as Thou didst deliver Noah from the
Deluge, Job from his torments, Isaac from the Sacrifice, Moses from the
hand of Pharaoh, Daniel from the lions, the three young men from the
furnace, and Susannah from false accusation. . . . So deign to deliver the
soul of Thy servant. ”
The orantes, who were figured with extended arms amidst such
scenes, are types of supplication. They are generally feminine, and are
symbols of the soul in prayer. Thus understood they go far to explain
the scope and meaning of the art of the catacombs.
There is little sculpture in the round extant from our period, but
it is almost surprising that there is any. The examples are three or four
figures of the Good Shepherd bearing the lamb on His shoulder. The
most perfect of these, in the Lateran Museum, is a sweet pastoral figure.
They have been compared with statues of Hermes bearing the ram.
The composition is clearly derived, but the sentiment is very different.
As usual, the Christians were using old symbols in a new spirit.
The early sarcophagi furnish us with a series of relief sculptures
parallel in extent and interest to the paintings of the catacombs. Some
are so little differentiated from late classical art that it is hardly possible
to
say whether they are indeed Christian. Others have quite a collection
of the usual triumph subjects which appear in the catacombs as paintings.
The most noteworthy of all of them is a fragment, now in the Berlin
Museum, which was lately brought from Constantinople. On it appear
Christ and two apostles, standing in niches, separated by columns.
Christ is unbearded and the head has a cruciform nimbus. The figures,
which are about four feet high, are draped in a dignified style like
classical statues of philosophers. This remarkable work has the closest
relation of style with the series of late antique sarcophagi, one of which
is in the Mausoleum Room of the British Museum, another in the Cook
CH. XXI.


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602
Engraved Gems
Collection at Richmond. The Berlin relief probably belongs to the
third century, and had its origin at Constantinople or in Asia Minor.
Another famous sarcophagus is that of Junius Bassus, praefect of
Rome, who died in 359. It has several scenes sculptured on it, amongst
which are, Christ enthroned, the Entry into Jerusalem, Christ brought
before Pilate, and Pilate washing his hands; also Adam and Eve,
Daniel, etc. The sculptures are in panels divided by columns, some of
which are covered with scrolls of foliage among which climb amorini.
This ornamentation is noteworthy, as the columns thus decorated resemble
the celebrated sculptured columns at St Peter's which are usually thought
to be antique. These columns formed a screen in front of the altar of
Constantine's basilica ; they were saved, and re-used in the new church.
The motive of Cupids climbing amidst vines is also found on the mosaics
of Santa Costanza (c. 360) and on many tombs.
Two more most famous sarcophagi must be spoken of— those of the
Empress Helena and of Santa Costanza. Both are of royal porphyry
with sculptures in high relief, and they are now in the Vatican. That
of the Empress is sculptured with a military triumph, that of Costanza
with amorini and the vintage, peacocks and lambs. With the latter
Strzygowski has lately compared fragments of other porphyry sarco-
phagi at Constantinople and Alexandria, and has shewn that they must
all have come from Egypt, the land of the porphyry-quarries and the
place of origin of other porphyry sculptures such as the well-known group
at the south-west corner of St Mark's, Venice.
A class of objects which dates from the time of the catacombs, if
not from the apostolic age, is that of engraved gems. Of these the
British Museum has a good representative collection.
“ The use of
rings as signets or ornaments was as widely spread among the early
Christians as among their Pagan contemporaries. St James speaks of the
man who wears a gold ring and goodly apparel, and the Fathers of the
Church were obliged to reprimand the community for extravagance in this
respect. ” The devices engraved on these gems are for the most part of
a simple symbolic character as befits the small field which they occupy.
In the British Museum collection we have anchors and fish, doves and
trees, sheep, branches of olive and palm, shepherds' crooks, ships, sacred
monograms, the word IXOYC, and the inscription Vivas in Deo. Of
more pictorial subjects we have the Good Shepherd bearing the sheep,
Adam and Eve, Daniel, Jonah, and the Crucifixion.
Two are
especially important. One of them contains quite a collection of the
favourite subjects brought together on its narrow space. The Good
Shepherd with the sheep, Daniel and the lions, the dove with the olive
branch, and the story of Jonah, as well as two trees, fish, a star and a
monogram. The other is probably the earliest representation of the
Crucifixion known, and must date from the third century at latest.
On either side of the Crucified Christ are six much smaller figures, the


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Symbols
603
apostles, and above is the word IXOYC. M. Brehier in Les Origines
du Crucifix (1904) suggests that the representation was of Syrian
origin and arose in opposition to merely symbolical interpretations. At
South Kensington there are several Early Christian, Gnostic,and Byzantine
rings, some of which are of importance. One is a ship with the XP
monogram on its sail, another has two saints embracing, probably the
Visitation. Another has a symbolic composition engraved on silver
which has been figured by Garrucci and others. Later writers copy it
from Garrucci and seem not to know of its being preserved now at
South Kensington. From a pillar resting on a pyramid of steps spring
branches of foliage above which, in a circle, is a Lamb with the XP
monogram. Below the branches stand two sheep, and two doves fly
toward the tree. It is inscribed IANVARI VIVAS.
The elementary symbols which are found on the engraved rings and
all the other objects of art are so direct and simple, as has been said,
that they are still perfectly obvious and modern. We have the anchor,
cross, crook, ship, light-house, fish and star; the dove, lamb, drinking
harts, palms and olive branches, trees, baskets of fruit, lamps and
candles, chalice, amphora, bowl of milk; the vintage, harvest, sowing
and fishing; the shepherd, the orantes, Eros and Psyche; the Heavenly
Sanctuary, the Celestial Banquet, and Garden of Paradise. Out of this
alphabet ideas were built up by combination. Thus we have a ship
with a cross-mast, and the sacred monogram on its sails; another ship
on a stormy sea approaching a light-house ; still another ship made fast
to land bearing vessels of wine, and with a dove holding a branch of
olive perched on the rigging. Or we have a Lamb lying at the foot
of the Cross, or another caressing an axe. There are combined anchors
and crosses, flowering crosses, crosses with birds perched on their arms,
and crosses rising from a mound from which flow four rivers.
Larger objects in metal work must be mentioned, if only that
attention may be drawn to the celebrated Casket of Projecta and the
excellent collection of bronze candlesticks and hanging lamps at the
British Museum. The silver toilet casket is entirely Pagan in style. On
the top are the portraits of a husband and bride in a wreath supported
by Cupids. On the front is embossed the Toilet of Venus and a lady
seated between handmaids who bring to her articles of the toilet. At
the ends are nereids; and the smaller spaces are filled by peacocks,
doves, and baskets of fruit. The most interesting subject is that on
the back, where the bride is being led to her new home, a house of two
stories covered above by several domes. The inscription, which is in
letters pricked on the plain border, is the only Christian thing about
the work, and it is possible, as in the case of some of the sarcophagi
with Pagan subjects, that it was shopwork, and that the inscription was
added for the purchaser. There are many indications that it was made
in Alexandria.
CH. XXI,


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604
Ivories
&
We have in our English museums a remarkably fine collection of
Early Christian Ivories. At South Kensington there is a leaf of a famous
diptych, inscribed Symmachorum, the companion of which in Paris is
inscribed Nicomachorum; it is not itself Christian, but it can be associated
with other works which are, and it can be accurately dated as of the
end of the fourth century. It is of extraordinary beauty both of design
and workmanship, and is the most perfect existing example of marriage
diptychs. It was made on the occasion of the marriage of Nicomachus
Flavianus with the daughter of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, consul in
A. D. 391, or another marriage between the same families in 401.
Now there is an ivory in the Trivulzio Collection at Milan, sculptured
with a representation of the Holy Sepulchre and watching soldiers, on
which some of the details are identical with the one just spoken of_and
a third diptych of the same class, having exactly similar details, and
inscribed with the name of Rufinus Probianus is now at Berlin. They
are all so much alike in style that it would seem that they must come
from one shop and may even be the work of the same hand.
At the British Museum there are some pieces which formed the sides
of a casket which are sculptured with scenes from the Passion. Some
of the subjects have so much in common with the other ivories just
discussed that they may be assigned to the same school. On these
panels are represented Pilate washing his hands, St Peter's Denial,
Christ bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, Judas hanged, the Women
at the Sepulchre, the Incredulity of St Thomas. Pilate washing his
hands is a fine classical composition which may be compared with the
same subject on the Brescia coffer, which also has the Denial of St
Peter, and the Death of Judas. This coffer is acknowledged to be early
fourth century work, which is further confirmed by the fact that on the
sarcophagus of Junius Bassus the subject of Pilate washing his hands is
treated in a similar manner. The Brescia coffer has often been called
the most beautiful of Christian Ivories. It has been pointed out that
the cycle of subjects from the Passion represented upon it stops before the
Crucifixion, and it has been held that this omission was a matter of
principle, but the London series, and other still earlier treatments of
the Crucifixion which are now known, contradict this view. The Holy
Sepulchre as it appears on the British Museum fragments is identical
with that on the Trivulzio tablet before mentioned, and the curious
costume of the watching soldiers is alike in both. In both the doors of
the tomb are burst open, and in both, on the panels of the doors, is carved
the raising of Lazarus.
These British Museum panels have been assigned by the Museum
authorities to the fifth century, but there can be little doubt that they
should be classed with the other fourth century works they so closely
resemble. They are distinctly earlier in style than the carved doors of
Santa Sabina in Rome which are usually dated about 425.


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Ivories
605
There are other points which go to shew that these Ivories were
wrought in Rome, although possibly by a school of Eastern ivory-carvers.
A domed building practically identical with the upper part of the Holy
Sepulchre on the British Museum Ivory is found on a fourth century
Roman sarcophagus now in the Lateran. While the Trivulzio tablet
has the symbols of the four evangelists appearing in the sky, which are
remarkably similar to the same symbols in the apse mosaic of Santa
Pudentiana, wrought about 390, these symbols hardly appear in
Byzantine work, but they do in Egyptian wall-paintings. Another
casket at the Museum which is carved with the stories of St Peter
and St Paul has much in common with the one last described. Moses
striking the Rock seems at first an intrusion amongst these subjects,
but it was in fact a favourite Early Christian type of the Gospel,
and is frequently found in the catacombs ; Christ is the Rock, St Peter
is the Moses of the New Law, and the water is that of Baptism. In
some cases, indeed, the name of Peter is written over what appears
to be the figure of Moses. This treatment occurs again engraved on
the glass vessel from Cologne in the Museum. At South Kensington
are sides of a casket sculptured with scenes from the Life of Christ, and
known as the Werdan casket. The subjects comprise the Annunciation,
the Angel appearing to Joseph, the Visitation, the Presentation of the
Virgin, the three Shepherds, the Nativity, the Magi, men going out of
Jerusalem toward the Jordan, the axe laid to the root of the tree, the
Baptism. The Annunciation is represented after a form which appears in
the Apocryphal Gospel of St Matthew, according to which the Virgin was
drawing water at a fountain when the angel appeared. The Ox and
Ass of the Nativity come from the same source, as also does the
Presentation in the Temple. On this casket Christ at the Baptism
is represented as small and youthful as compared to the Baptist.
Mr Cecil Torr has founded on this the conjecture that an account different
from that in the Gospels was followed, but it may be suggested that it
came about through some stylistic formula like that of the old Egyptian
monuments, whereby some persons might be bigger than others.
(Compare three Ivories, 373-5, in Cabrol's Dictionary. ) It is true that
we should expect the Christ to be the dominating figure, but may it
not in this instance be the Baptist's office which is magnified ?
A famous ivory book-cover at Milan has subjects which resemble
those of the Werdan casket so closely that they must have come from
the same shop. Except for slight changes called for by the different
spaces to be filled, the Nativity, the Wise Men, the Shepherds, and the
Annunciation, the Presentation of the Virgin, and the Baptism, are all
practically identical. There is also at the Bodleian an Ivory of the
same school which contains a Baptism.
The Early Christian “Gilt Glasses” (Fondi d' oro) were shallow glass
bowls and other vessels decorated with figures, inscriptions, etc. , in gold
CH. XXI.


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606
Gilt Glasses
leaf, the detail drawing being made out by removing parts of the gold,
and the whole fixed by a film of glass fused over the surface. The
subjects shew that vessels so ornamented were used alike by Pagans,
Jews, and Christians. They have been more particularly associated
with the latter, as a large number of the decorated medallions which
formed the bottoms of the glasses have been found in the catacombs,
where they were stuck in the plaster, probably as one means of the
identification of the loculus. In the fine collection at the British
Museum is a medallion with a figure of the gladiator Stratonicus which,
together with some others, is evidently of Pagan origin, and one
with the seven-branched candlestick and other ritual objects of the
Temple, is Jewish.
In the main the Gilt Glasses belong to the third and fourth centuries of
our era. They were most popular from c. 300 to c. 350 and few were made
after 400. The method of decoration seems to have originated in the
glass-works of Egypt. Many of them are inscribed TIE-ZHCAIC which
on others is found in the corrupt form PIE-ZESES. This suggests
a Greek origin, and there is in the British Museum Christian Collection
a fragment of a glass bowl found at Behnésa in Egypt in 1903 which
bears part of the earlier form in large engraved letters. In the Slade
Collection, in the Glass Room, there are two most beautiful basins with
exquisitely refined classical decoration in gold. These it is said were
“probably made in Alexandria in the first century, and the method of
ornamentation by designs in gold foil enclosed between two thicknesses
of glass is similar to that employed in the case of Early Christian
Gilded Glasses. ” Probably the Christian, Jewish, and Pagan vessels
were sold together in the same shops. Amongst those at the British
Museum, for instance, there is one with profile heads of St Peter and
St Paul, and Christ between, crowning them. Another has a man
and wife with a small figure of Christ offering them garlands, and the
inscription “ Long life to thee, sweet one. " Similar pagan compositions
shew a Cupid or a Hercules between the husband and bride. The Jewish
glass with the golden candlestick also has the popular inscription
“Long Life. ” The vessels were evidently made use of largely as
memorial, anniversary, or wedding gifts, and some were specially made
with personal inscriptions. Volpel, in his thorough study of these objects,
has shewn that where the names of two saints occur on one piece, the
names also come together in the Calendar, as St Agnes and St Vincent
of Zaragoza (21 and 22 January). This goes to confirm the view that
they were prepared for special festivals.
In the British Museum there are also fragments of a larger glass
dish, or paten, decorated with small medallions of such gilded glass which
were made apart and fused into it. Glass patens were used in the Office
of the Mass during the fourth century. At South Kensington Museum
one little medallion, of Christ with the wand of power, is a replica of


## p. 607 (#637) ############################################

Lamps. Linens
607
one of those on the British Museum paten. With the latter may be
mentioned two beautiful plain blue glass chalices in the Slade Collection.
The Biblical subjects which appear on the Gilt Glasses resemble for the
most part those popular in the catacombs : Adam and Eve, Jongh and
the Whale, Daniel, and so on. Some of the fragments at the British
Museum may be restored by a comparison with other objects. One
interesting piece which shews two columns with a lattice between the
lower part, and a lamp hanging above, compared with a figure in Pératé's
Manual is seen to have been, when complete, a deceased person in the
attitude of prayer before the heavenly sanctuary. The inscription, IN
DEO, confirms this view. No. 615, which shews the golden candlestick
in the lower half, the upper being lost, must have had the Ark and the
Cherubim in the upper part like another figured by Garrucci. None of
these Gilt Glasses are known to have ever been found in Britain, but
fragments of engraved glass, almost certainly Christian, were found at
Silchester. The fashion for engraved glasses seems to have followed
that for those decorated in gold. Cologne was an important centre for
the production of this glass. The paten above mentioned, and another
ornate Gilt Glass, were found there. So also was the
So also was the cup with engraved
subjects, no. 625, in our national museum; and others like it are preserved
at Cologne.
The small terra-cotta lamps decorated with a cross, monogram, dove,
vine, or other symbol, can here be only mentioned. But a small shallow
bowl of glazed ware in the British Museum must be referred to as one
of the most important of Early Christian works of art. On it
Christ having a cruciform nimbus, and the face bearded, the earliest
example of the kind, which may be compared with heads of the more
youthful type on some of the Gilt Glasses in the same gallery. On the
bowl there are heads also of Constantine and Fausta on either hand of
the chief figure, they are named in an inscription around the rim and
shew that it must have been made before the death of Fausta in 326.
Following the analogy of the Gilt Glasses where a figure of Christ is
placed between the portraits of a husband and wife, may we not suppose
that this vessel was made for Constantine himself? Recently Wilpert
has argued against its authenticity, but Strzygowski, who formerly
doubted, is now entirely convinced. It is generally agreed that it was
of Egyptian origin. Most of the objects preserved in our museums shew
how freely the Early Christians of the time following the Peace of the
Church made use of various materials in ornamental art. A bishop
indeed, complained that the weavers rivalled painters in representing
animals, flowers, and figures on their stuffs. Of late years great stores
of early textiles have been found wonderfully preserved under the sands
of Egypt, and a fine collection has been brought together at South
Kensington. Some of the earliest figured linens seem to have been
printed. Two of these, at the Museum, are of the Annunciation, and
On it appears
CH. XXI.


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608
Architecture
another shews some scenes from the miracles of Christ, and also Moses
receiving the Law. These stained linen clothes were sometimes figured
with pagan subjects. On the staircase of the Egyptian section at the
Louvre there has recently been exhibited an important piece on which
is depicted the story of Dionysos. In this classical piece we have the
same characteristics of style: big eyes, flowing draperies, inscriptions
associated with the figures and even the large nimbuses.
We must now turn from these smaller objects to the beginnings of
Christian architecture. The first meeting-places of Christians were the
private houses where they came together for the breaking of bread. In
the Recognitions of Clement (second century) it is told that while
St Peter was at Antioch, Theophilus, a leading citizen, turned his house
into a basilica, that is, a place of assembly. Some of the early acts of
the martyrs tell how they left their houses to the Church, and so it came
about that certain churches were associated with the names of their
founders, as the churches of Clement, Pudens, and Cecilia in Rome.
Basilica was a word in very general use, very much like our word
Hall, and there is no direct relation between the basilicas of justice and
Christian churches. More true it is that the greater private houses had
triclinia and halls which were themselves called basilicas, and it is probable
that these were actually used for assemblies of Christians. It is possible,
further, that there may be some sympathetic relation between the
developed church plan and the basilica of justice, for the scene of the
Heavenly Temple in the Apocalypse appears to be cast into the form of
such a basilica.
The origins of church fabrics have been worked out in great detail
in regard to the possible prototypes found in private dwellings, but so
far as architectural arrangement goes it is looking for elaborate explana-
tion where but little is required. The “ basilican” type was the
appropriate and popular plan for any place of meeting. It is found in
temples as those of Apollo at Gortyna, which had an apse and internal
pillars. In the isle of Samothrace was the temple of the Cabiri ; this
was of rectangular plan, it had a portico with an atrium, the interior
was divided into three aisles and at the end was a semicircular niche.
In Rome itself the temples of Venus and Rome are of the same form
except that there is no subdivision of their interiors, and they were
surrounded entirely by the enclosure instead of having an atrium. The
temple at Jerusalem and many Hellenistic temples were in the same way
isolated in a court surrounded by a colonnade. Several of the Christian
churches built after the Peace of the Church were also surrounded by
similar colonnaded courts entered through an outer portico. Orientation
certainly derives from temple arrangement, and many of the earliest
churches were built with their entrances facing the East, as was Herod's
temple. Again, the foundations of several synagogues which have been


## p. 609 (#639) ############################################

Churches
609
а
discovered shew a division of the interior into three or five aisles with
three entrance doors in the façade. A description of the synagogue
at Alexandria calls it a basilica, and speaks of its colonnades ; it probably
had an apse as well.
The earliest special places of assembly were the holy sites and the
burial chapels of the martyrs. The subterranean chapels in the cata-
combs, already mentioned, belong to this class. Probably the first
specifically Christian buildings were Martyria—tomb chambers, usually
round, which were practically memorial churches. During the course of
the third century a large number of churches were built in Syria, Asia
Minor, Armenia and North Africa. An ancient church at Edessa is
said on good authority to have existed before 201; but Edessa was then
a Christian city. A document of 303 mentions“ the house where the
Christians assemble,” together with its library and triclinium, at Cirta in
North Africa. And another document of 305 says that, as the “basilicas”
had not been repaired, the bishops met in a private house. An episcopal
election, however, was held in area martyrum in casa majore.
An inscription from the tomb of Bishop Eugenius of Laodicea
Combusta has lately been published. He held the see immediately
after the cessation of Diocletian's persecution and speaks of re-building
the whole of his church from its foundations, together with the colon-
naded court which surrounded it. Eusebius speaks of such rebuilding as
general, but says that the new churches were larger and more splendid
than those that had been destroyed. Of the churches built after the
imperial adoption of Christianity only a few of the most famous can be
mentioned here. In and near Jerusalem three churches were built in
association with the sacred sites of the Holy Sepulchre, the Nativity, and
the Ascension. All three are mentioned in 333 as basilicas by a pilgrim
from Bordeaux. At the Holy Sepulchre there was a memorial above the
tomb called the Anastasis; and a basilica called the Great Church, or
Martyrium, both included in a precinct called New Jerusalem. According
to Eusebius Constantine first adorned the sacred cave, the chief point of
the whole, with choice columns and other works. The Great Church rose
high within a large court surrounded by porticoes. It was lined within
with marble, the ceiling was carved and gilt woodwork, the roof was
covered with lead. The body of the church was divided by rows of
columns into five aisles. It was entered from the east by three doors;
and opposite to these, continues Eusebius, was the Hemisphere, the
crown of the whole work, containing twelve columns bearing bowls
of silver (probably lamps). This “ Hemisphere” would seem to be the
dome-building over the tomb, which first was spoken of as the chief
point of the whole. That the anastasis and basilica were separate
buildings is made clear by the account of Etheria (formerly known as
St Sylvia) who, about 380, described the sacred sites. The churches
at Bethlehem and the Mount of Olives were, says Eusebius, built over
39
C. MED. H. VOL. I. CH. XXI.


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610
Churches. Jerusalem
.
two sacred caves, one church at the scene of the Saviour's birth, the
second on the mountain top in memory of His ascension; these two
beautiful edifices were dedicated at the two holy caves. At Bethlehem
a noble basilican church still exists which many hold to be the original
edifice, although there is some conflicting evidence that it was either
rebuilt or repaired by Justinian. It is 180 feet long, by 85 feet wide.
The head of the church over the grotto of the Nativity is cruciform,
and the nave is divided into five aisles. The columns are marble with
Corinthian capitals having crosses upon their abaci. The walls above
are carried by level beams instead of arches. To the west was an
extensive atrium. A point in favour of the antiquity of this great
church is that the historian Socrates says that the church at the grotto
of the Nativity was not inferior to that of the New Jerusalem. Con-
stantine's church on the Mount of Olives is generally understood to be
the circular edifice which is known from later descriptions and which
occupied the site of the present church. The pilgrim Etheria, however,
says that the church was at Eleona, “ on the Mount from which the
Lord ascended, and in which church is that cave (spelunca) in which
the Lord taught the apostles. ” From thence pilgrims ascended with hymns
to the Imbomon, the actual place from which the Lord ascended. Now
Eusebius, although he speaks of the church as on the summit, says that
in it was the cave where Christ taught His disciples the sacred mysteries.
St Eucharius, a later pilgrim, about 440, says that there were upon the
Mount of Olives two celebrated churches, one where Christ taught,
and the other on the site of the Ascension. The cave site is known
to be below the summit, and remains of buildings have been found there.
From this it seems that Constantine built a church at the cave, and
probably a memorial on the summit. He also built large churches as
martyr memorials at Constantinople, where that of the Apostles is
described as high, covered with marble, and adorned with gilding, and
situated in a court having porticoes all round and chambers opening
from them. It was completed about 337. As rebuilt by Justinian
it was a pronounced cross, and there seems to be no doubt that it had
this form from the first. Gregory of Nazianzus speaks of the earlier
building as “the splendid Church of the Apostles divided in the four
parts of the arms of a cross. ” The account of Eusebius, that it was
very high and was covered above with gilded brass which reflected
the sun to a distance, suggests a dome or a tower at the crossing. That
this church was cruciform in shape is confirmed by the fact that the
church of the Apostles built by St Ambrose in 382 at Milan was also
a cross. It has been rebuilt and is now St Nazario Grande, but it is still
cruciform. An existing building which may represent the whole series
is the little church of SS. Nazario and Celso, the Mausoleum of Galla
Placidia at Ravenna, which has four equal arms and a tower in the midst.
At Antioch Constantine rebuilt the metropolitan church, which Eusebius
a


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Other Churches
611
He
describes as unique in size and beauty, and built in the form of an
octagon. It was very high and decorated with a profusion of gold so
that it came to be called the golden church. Around it was an enclosure
of great extent. The great church of Tyre was also built within a large
walled enclosure (peribolos), having a great fore-gate (propylon), toward
the east. Within the atrium was a fountain, and the church was
entered through three doors, the centre one of bronze. The pavement
was marble, and it was roofed with cedar. The interior was divided into
aisles by rows of columns (stoai), the altar-place (thusiasterion) was
screened by lattice-work.
Other churches were erected at Nicomedia, and at Mamre. The
former is described as great and splendid. Such, says Eusebius, were
the most noble of the sacred buildings erected by the Emperor. He
only refers to those at the Holy Sites, at the Emperor's “own city” of
Nicomedia, and in the city “ which was called after his own name. "
does not mention even his own metropolitan church of Caesarea, nor
does he mention the churches in Rome, much less those that arose by
hundreds all over the Empire. One of these is that of Bishop Eugenius,
referred to above, and further evidence as to them is frequently being
brought to light. Wiegand has lately uncovered the foundations of
an early church at Miletus which may be of Constantine's time.
The Bishop of Rome built the great basilica of St Peter over the
tomb of the apostle. The interior had five avenues between colonnades
crossed at the end by a transept from which opened the apse raised high
above the crypt which contained the apostle's tomb. Screening the
apse were twelve most beautiful columns of spiral form carved on the
surface with amorini climbing amidst vines. In front of the entrances,
which were at the east, was the fine atrium with a fountain in the
centre. The outer gates and the façade, as well as the apse and the
triumphal arch of the interior, were subsequently adorned with mosaics.
The church of St Paul outside the walls was also of the Constantinian
age ; but the first church was not of the great scale of that one which
still exists in a restored condition to-day. Its foundations were exposed
in 1835. It was so small that the length of the church was almost
exactly the same as the width of the present transept. It had its
entrances towards the east and the atrium abutted on the Ostia road.
When the great basilica was built later its orientation was reversed,
but its altar, as is usually the case, yet stands over the site of the older one.
There are still three buildings in Rome which date from this early
period; the Lateran Baptistery, the basilica of Santa Agnese, and the
attached tomb-church of Santa Costanza. Santa Agnese is a most beautiful
type of church having arcaded galleries within, around the two sides and
the end opposite the apse. It is sunk into the ground to the level of
the catacombs in which the saint was buried, and these are entered from
a door in the side wall, the descent into the church being by a long flight
>
CH. XXI.
3942


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612
Mosaics
of steps. The church is nine bays long, and the columns are of marble.
The
apse is lined with marble and porphyry, and in the midst is the
bishop's throne. Above, in the conch, is a fine mosaic, but not so ancient.
Close by, but at the higher level of the natural ground, stands Santa
Costanza, built about 354. It is circular, with an inner ring of columns
which supported a dome. The diameter is about 76 feet, and the
columns are only about 18 feet high. They are mostly of grey granite.
The walls were sheeted with marble and the annular aisle has its vaults
covered with mosaic, chiefly of pattern-work, but in some places there
are vintage scenes with amorini gathering the grapes and making wine.
The most splendid feature of the early churches was the mosaic
work which from the Constantinian age adorned their vaults and
especially the conches of their apses. Such mosaics were generally formed
of small cubes of glass variously coloured and gilded. At the same time
mosaics of marble of the more ordinary Roman kind were used for floors.
The glass mosaics and even gilt tesserae had been employed under
the Roman Empire. Glass is found so far West as Cirencester where
small parts of a floor are of that material. Gold mosaic has been found
on the vaults of the Baths of Caracalla, and of the Palatine Palace; also
in North Africa. Quite recently a mosaic having gilt cubes has been
found at Pompeii. It is next to certain that, like the vessels of gilded
glass, this kind of mosaic came from the factories of Egypt. There is
in the British Museum a small glass plaque, decorated with a flowering
plant of several colours fused into its substance. This was found in
London, while similar pieces, now at South Kensington, have lately
been discovered at Behnésa in Egypt. The earliest existing Christian
mosaics are those of the vaults of the round church of Santa Costanza
in Rome. Besides the mosaics mentioned above there are two small,
much injured, conches which display figure subjects. In one of them
God the Father gives the ancient Law to Moses, and in the other
St Peter receives the new Law from the hand of Christ. The whole of
the central dome was once covered with mosaic, but of this only a slight
drawing is now preserved.
The next mosaic in point of date, but more interesting and beautiful
a work of art, fills the apse of the basilica of Santa Pudentiana.
This church, not far from the better known Santa Maria Maggiore, is
deeply sunk in the ground, itself a mark of a primitive foundation.
The apse mosaic forms part of a work undertaken about 390. On it
Christ sits enthroned in the midst of a semicircle of apostles, while
behind St Peter and St Paul stand two female figures robed in white
and holding crowns; these are interpreted as the Churches of the
Circumcision and of the Gentiles. Behind Christ on a mountain stands
a vast jewelled cross, and on the sky are the four symbolic beasts. This
noble work still retains much of classical grace, the fixity characteristic
of Byzantine art is entirely absent. The colour, also, is fair and
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## p. 613 (#643) ############################################

Art in Britain
613
extremely beautiful, gold being used to illuminate the high lights of
the draperies and other parts, but not in broad fields as in the later
mosaics.
It is desirable to include here some account of Early Christian art in
Britain. The discovery, about twelve years ago, of the perfect plan of a
small early basilican church at Silchester makes more certain than any-
thing else had done the existence of recognised Christian communities
in British cities. The Silchester church occupied an important position
near the civil basilica, but in itself was quite small. It had a nave
about ten feet wide and aisles five feet; the length, including the apse,
which was at the west end, was about thirty feet. The aisles had a
small additional projection at the end next the apse, which made the whole
plan cruciform. At the east end was a narthex, and in front of that a
court with a fountain in the centre. The position of the altar in the
apse was marked by a square of pattern-work in the mosaic floor. This
pattern, of the chess-board type, is in quarters, what heralds call
quarterly. A very accurate model of this important relic is now in the
Reading Museum.
It is well known that the XP monogram appeared on a mosaic floor
found about a century ago at Frampton, and figured by Lysons. The
monogram occurred in the centre of a band of ornament which separated
а
an apse from a square compartment. Lysons thought that the general
style of the ornaments of the apse seemed“ inferior to that of the square
part," and spoke of the monogram as “inserted. ” The last writer on
Christian antiquities in Britain, in Cabrol's great Dictionary, says that
the monogram must have been “ inserted” at some time not earlier than
the middle of the fourth century. Lysons tried to suggest, being
interested in the Roman art point of view, that the pavement was pre-
Constantinian, but he himself remarked that the pattern on a neighbouring
area occurred also on the vault mosaics of Santa Costanza at Rome, a
work of the second half of the fourth century. This is, probably, the
date of the whole of the Frampton mosaics, and a consideration of the
sequence of the turns of the scroll ornament in the middle of which the
monogram was found shews that the scroll-work and the symbol certainly
formed part of one design. The only other subject figured on the floor
of the apse, excepting patterns, was a single vase or chalice in the
middle. At the Roman villa at Chedworth again the XP monogram
has been found cut in the foundation stones of some steps. In the
museum on the site there is also a small plain stone cross.
Mr Romilly Allen suggested that “two other Roman pavements
found in this country may possibly be Christian ";—that at Harpole
which has a circle in the middle divided into eight parts by radial lines
so as to resemble one form of the monogram of Christ, and that at
Horkstow which has 66 some small red crosses in the decoration. ” The
latter not only has the crosses, but at the centre is Orpheus playing
CH. XXI.


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614
Art in Britain
9
the lyre, a subject frequently found in Early Christian art. The writer
in Cabrol's Dictionary has independently come to the conclusion that
this mosaic is Christian. “ It has passed unrecognised,” he says, “ but
we have no doubt of its Christian origin. ” Now, if this mosaic with
the catacomb subject of Orpheus and the beasts is Christian, is it
not probable that the several other British mosaics which display the
same subject are also works of Christian art ? All these mosaics
probably date from about 350, when the Church must have been a
recognised institution in every city, and it is difficult to think that the
subject, once Christianised, should have been employed in another sense.
An Orpheus pavement was found at Littlecote Park, Ramsbury, at the
centre of a triapsidal apartment resembling the Roman Christian burial
chapels. Yet another pavement, at Stourton, had a quartered design
practically identical with that of the altar space of the Silchester
basilica? The subject of Orpheus is known to have occurred four
times in the catacombs, but none of these appear to have been later
than the third century, and it has indeed been suggested that the
subject was taken over in profane art, especially in Gaul and Britain,
but this is unproven, and in any case we get the Christian influence.
Several British pavements are known in which ornamental cross-forms
appear. It has been said that these cannot be Christian, as the cross
symbol did not come into general use at so early a time. But the
instances which have now been found contradicting this view reopen
the question. With those Roman objects having crosses which have
been found in England may be mentioned the chain-bracelet with an
attached cross. A comparison with fig. 1606 in Cabrol's Dictionary
makes it almost certain that it is Christian.