The B. Virgin and Isaias, from Cemetery of St. Priscilla.
Our Blessed Lady appears principally in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi. Two, three, or four of these men (according to the arrangement of the group and the space at the artist’s disposal) stand in their Oriental dress, presenting their gifts to Christ who sits on Mary’s knee. Once or twice also the Holy Child appears in His Mother’s arms, or before her breast, without reference apparently to any particular event in their lives, but either absolutely alone, or standing opposite to Isaias, as though presenting in themselves the fulfilment of his prophecies. One of these paintings in the Catacomb on the Via Nomentana belongs to the fourth century; but for another of far higher artistic merit, to be seen in the Catacomb of St. Priscilla, the most competent judges do not hesitate to claim almost apostolic antiquity; and the claim is supported by many and weighty arguments. We cannot, however, discuss them here, for we have already exceeded the limits we had proposed to ourselves.
The B. Virgin and Magi.
The B. Virgin, from the Cemetery on Via Nomentana.
In conclusion, we will give a slight sketch of the successive phases in the development of Christian art within the limits of the first three centuries; for, thanks to De Rossi’s almost microscopic examination of every accessible corner of subterranean Rome, even this is now possible. As each of these phases was derived from its predecessor by a natural sequence of ideas, it is not pretended that they are separated from one another by strict chronological boundaries which are never transgressed; yet the characteristics of the several periods are, in the main, sufficiently distinct to allow of their being followed as safe guides in determining, at least approximately, the age of any particular class, or even individual specimen of ornamentation.
We have already seen that primitive Christian art sprung out of an alliance of ancient forms with new ideas; in its outward physiognomy it proceeded directly, in point of style and method of execution, from the school of Pagan decorative art, but it was animated by a new life; and therefore it began at once to create a pictorial cycle for itself, taken partly from historical and partly from allegorical materials. At first the allegorical element greatly predominated. The fish and the anchor, the lamb and the dove, the shepherd and the fisherman, may be named as the most prominent examples; and all these during the first, or, as it has been styled, the hieroglyphic or ideographic period of Christian art, were characterised by the utmost simplicity. The principal figure usually stood alone; the fisherman is catching a fish, or the shepherd is carrying a sheep upon his shoulders, and nothing more.
In the second period—i.e., from the middle of the second to the middle of the third century—the Good Shepherd occurs less frequently, and is represented less simply; he carries a goat, or he plays his pipe; he stands amid trees in a garden, or in the midst of his flock, and the several members of his flock stand in different attitudes towards him, marking a difference of internal disposition. Other figures also undergo similar changes; different emblems or different typical histories are blended together, and the result is more artistic; a more brilliant translation, so to speak, is thus given of the same thoughts and ideas with which we have been familiar in a more elementary form from the beginning. This change, or rather this growth, was in truth only the natural result of time and of the pious meditation of successive generations of Christians exercised upon the history of their faith and upon the outward representations of its mysteries, in which their forefathers had always delighted. The bud had expanded, and the full-blown flower displayed new beauties—beauties which had been there indeed before, but unseen. Thus we meet again with the apostolic fisherman, but the river in which he fishes is now a mystical river, formed by the waters which have flowed from the rock struck by Moses. More Bible histories are made use of; or, if not now introduced for the first time, are used more frequently—the history of Daniel and of Jonas, the sacrifice of Abraham, the resurrection of Lazarus, the healing of the paralytic at Bethsaida, and others. And as all these histories have been illustrated in the writings of cotemporary Fathers, the monuments which represent them are of the highest value as an historical expression of what Christians in those days believed and taught. Both the writings and the paintings are evidently the faithful echo of the same doctrinal teaching and tradition.
