A Vine—also in allusion to the Church. Ps. lxxx. 8. Isaiah v. 1.
An Olive branch, as a sign of peace.
A Palm branch, as a sign of victory and martyrdom. Rev. vii. 9.
Allegorical and Biblical Representations.
Of these The Good Shepherd requires an especial notice from the importance which is given to it and its frequent introduction in catacomb art, both in sculpture and painting.
"By far the most interesting of the early Christian paintings is that of Our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, which is almost invariably painted on the central space of the dome or cupola, subjects of minor interest being disposed around it in compartments, precisely in the style, as regards both the arrangement and execution, of the heathen catacombs.
"He is represented as a youth in a shepherd's frock and sandals, carrying the 'lost sheep' on his shoulders, or leaning on his staff (the symbol, according to St. Augustine, of the Christian hierarchy), while the sheep feed around, or look up at him. Sometimes he is represented seated in the midst of the flock, playing on a shepherd's pipe,—in a few instances, in the oldest catacombs, he is introduced in the character of Orpheus, surrounded by wild beasts enrapt by the melody of his lyre,—Orpheus being then supposed to have been a prophet or precursor of the Messiah. The background usually exhibits a landscape or meadow, sometimes planted with olive-trees, doves resting on their branches, symbolical of the peace of the faithful; in others, as in a fresco preserved in the Museum Christianum, the palm of victory is introduced, —but such combinations are endless. In one or two instances the surrounding compartments are filled with personifications of the Seasons, apt emblems of human life, whether natural or spiritual.
"The subject of the Good Shepherd, I am sorry to add, is not of Roman but Greek origin, and was adapted from a statue of Mercury carrying a goat, at Tanagra, mentioned by Pausanias. The Christian composition approximates to its original more nearly in the few instances where Our Saviour is represented carrying a goat, emblematical of the scapegoat of the wilderness. Singularly enough, though of Greek parentage, and recommended to the Byzantines by Constantine, who erected a statue of the Good Shepherd in the forum of Constantinople, the subject did not become popular among them; they seem, at least, to have tacitly abandoned it to Rome."—Lord Lindsay's Christian Art.
"The Good Shepherd seems to have been quite the favourite subject. We cannot go through any part of the Catacombs, or turn over any collection of ancient Christian monuments, without coming across it again and again. We know from Tertullian that it was often designed upon chalices. We find it ourselves painted in fresco upon the roofs and walls of the sepulchral chambers; rudely scratched upon gravestones, or more carefully sculptured on sarcophagi; traced in gold upon glass, moulded on lamps, engraved on rings; and, in a word, represented on every species of Christian monument that has come down to us. Of course, amid such a multitude of examples, there is considerable variety of treatment. We cannot, however, appreciate the suggestion of Kügler, that this frequent repetition of the subject is probably to be attributed to the capabilities which it possessed in an artistic point of view. Rather, it was selected because it expressed the whole sum and substance of the Christian dispensation. In the language even of the Old Testament, the action of Divine Providence upon the world is frequently expressed by images and allegories borrowed from pastoral life; God is the Shepherd, and men are His sheep. But in a still more special way our Divine Redeemer offers Himself to our regards as the Good Shepherd. He came down from His eternal throne into this wilderness of the world to seek the lost sheep of the whole human race, and having brought them together into one fold on earth, thence to transport them into the ever-verdant pastures of Paradise."—Roma Sotterranea.
Other biblical subjects are:—from the Old Testament (those of Noah, Moses, Daniel, and Jonah being the only ones at all common)—