READING HALLTHE DOORS OF WISDOM |
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THE CHRISTIAN ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS 300-500
CHAPTER XXI.EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
NOT many years ago Greek art seemed to be marked off from Roman, and
Roman from Early Christian by wide intervals. The art of Greece was typified by
the buildings of the Athenian Acropolis, Roman art by those of the imperial
Forum and the Palatine, and Christian art by the catacombs. Unceasing
exploration and fruitful discoveries have since brought to light so many works
of the transitional periods that art history has become rather the account of a
continuous process than of clearly defined epochs and schools.
The art of Rome itself under the new light appears rather as one of the
many later Hellenistic schools, than as purely indigenous. Part of the
transition from Classical Greek may be traced in the art centers of Asia Minor,
and part, again, in the non-Roman city of Pompeii. As to the latter, it is held
that the sequences of style which have been distinguished in its wall-paintings
were probably fashions imported from Alexandria. The covering of internal walls
with thin slabs of rare colored-marbles and porphyries, and the incrustation of
vaults with mosaics of gilt and colored glass, had the same origin.
This process of change in classical art carries us to some point in the
early centuries of Christianity, and many groups of facts show that it was long
continued. Not only did Egypt and the East export their porphyry, ivory, glass,
bronze, and textiles, but craftsmen were drawn to the Roman capital from every
Hellenistic city.
The works used or made by the Early Christians could at first have been
differentiated in no obvious way from the current classical works of the time.
When anything emerges which we can entitle Christian Art, the change is, for
the most part, manifest in a new spirit dealing with old forms. The art was
necessarily shaped externally by the modes and codes of expression of the time.
In many cases new ideas were expressed under old forms; thus the winged angel derives
from the antique Victory; the nimbus is classical as well as Christian; the
story of Orpheus is interpreted as a type of Christ; and Amor and Psyche are
adopted as symbols of the Divine Love and the soul.
In so far as there was novelty it
is clear that, as Christianity itself was from the East, so the changed forms
must themselves have held in them much that was oriental. Early Christian art
is Roman art in the widest sense, purified, orientalised,
and informed with a new and epical content which held as seed the possibilities
of the mighty cycle of Byzantine and Medieval art.
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 sarcophagi. 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 seasons. 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 paintings, 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 colors 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 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 colors 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 analyzed, 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 modeled in the plaster before coloring. The modeling 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 flowers,
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 treatment of the figures
becomes more rigid and hieratic, while their costumes are much bejeweled, 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 catacombs.
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, 0 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 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 sarcophagi at Constantinople
and Alexandria, and has shown 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 IXθYC, 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 favorite
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 apostles, and above is the word IXθYC. 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.
Symbols
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 shop work, and that the inscription
was added for the purchaser. There are many indications that it was made in
Alexandria.
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 AD 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 Sepulcher 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 Sepulcher, 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 o principle, but the London series, and other still
earlier treatments of the Crucifixion which are now known, contradict this
view. The Holy Sepulcher 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.
There are other points which go to show 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 Sepulcher 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 favorite 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. 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 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 show 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 ΠIE-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 Behnesa 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 show 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 shown 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 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, Jonah 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 shows two columns with a lattice between the lower
part, and a lamp hanging above, compared with a figure in Perate’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 shows 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 cup with engraved subjects, no. 625, in our national museum; and others
like it are preserved at Cologne.
Lamps.
Linens
The small terracotta 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 appears 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
show 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 show 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 another shows 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.
Architecture
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 explanation 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 discovered show 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 catacombs,
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 rebuilding the whole of his church from its foundations, together with the colonnaded 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 Sepulcher, the Nativity, and the Ascension. All three are mentioned in 333 as basilicas by a pilgrim from Bordeaux. At the Holy Sepulcher 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 two sacred caves, one church at the scene of the Savior’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 favor 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. Constantine'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
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”. He 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 facade, 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 today. 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 whichdate 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 sidewall, the descent into the
church being by a long flight 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.
Mosaics
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 colored 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 colors fused
into its substance. This was found in London, while similar pieces, now at
South Kensington, have lately been discovered at Behnesa 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 as
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 jeweled 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 color, also, is fair and 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.
Art in
Britain
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 anything 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 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 neighboring 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 shows 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 “some small red crosses in the decoration”. The latter not only has
the crosses, but at the centre is Orpheus playing 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 unrecognized”, 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 Christianized, 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 many 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. Perhaps the most important Christian documents found in Britain are
ingots of pewter found in the Thames at Battersea which are stamped several
times over with the XP monogram
surrounded by the words, Spes in Deo. These look like official marks.
When a full history of Early Christian art in Britain is written it will
be seen that it shared in the great movement of the time, although of course it
was second to Gaul and third to Italy.
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St.Paul Outside the Walls Church |
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BethlehemChurch
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Santa Costanza Basilica |
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sarcophagus of Junius Bassus |
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