The origin and meaning of these attributes will be explained presently: meantime it must be borne in mind, that although in sacred Art the Apostles are always twelve in number, they are not always the same personages. St. Jude is frequently omitted to make room for St. Paul. Sometimes, in the most ancient churches (as in the Cathedral of Palermo), St. Simon and St. Matthias are omitted, and the evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke figure in their places. The Byzantine manual published by Didron omits James Minor, Jude, and Matthias; and inserts Paul, Luke, and Mark. This was the arrangement on the bronze doors of San Paolo-fuori-le-Mura at Rome, executed by Byzantine artists in the tenth century, and now destroyed.
On an ancient pulpit, of beautiful workmanship, in the Cathedral of Troyes, the arrangement is according to the Greek formula.[147] Thus—
| S. John B. | J. Christ. | The Virgin | |
| S. Matthew. | S. Peter. | S. Simon. | An Angel. |
| S. Philip. | S. Luke. | S. Bartholomew | |
| S. Mark. | S. Andrew. | S. James. | |
| S. Paul. | S. Thomas. | S. John. |
Here, John the Baptist figures in his character of angel or messenger; and St. Paul, St. Mark, and St. Luke take the place of St. James Minor, St. Jude, and St. Matthias.
The earliest instance of the Apostles entering into a scheme of ecclesiastical decoration, as the consecrated and delegated teachers of a revealed religion, occurs in the church of San Giovanni in Fonte at Ravenna.[148] In the centre of the dome is the Baptism of Christ, represented quite in the classical style; the figure of the Saviour being entirely undraped, and the Jordan, signified by an antique river god, sedge-crowned, and bearing a linen napkin as though he were an attendant at a bath. Around, in a circle, in the manner of radii, are the Twelve Apostles. The order is,—Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Simon, Jude, James Minor, Matthew, Thomas, Paul; so that Peter and Paul stand face to face at one extremity of the circle, and Simon and Bartholomew back to back at the other. All wear pointed caps, and carry the oblation in their hands. Peter has a yellow vest and white mantle; Paul, a white vest and a yellow mantle, and so all round alternately. The name of each is inscribed over his head, and without the title Sanctus, which, though admitted into the Calendar in 449, was not adopted in works of art till some years later, about 472.
In the next instance, the attributes had not yet been admitted, except in the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul.
Mosaic (A.D. 816). Christ, in the centre, stands on an eminence; in one hand he holds an open book, on which is inscribed Pax vobis. St. Peter, with the keys and a cross, stands on the right; and Christ, with his right hand, points to the cross. St. Paul is on the left, with his sword; beyond, there are five Apostles on one side, and four on the other: in all, eleven (Judas being properly omitted). Each holds a book, and all are robed in white; underneath the whole is inscribed, in Latin, the words of our Saviour, ‘Go ye, and teach all nations.’ On the arch to the right, Christ is seated on a throne, and presents the keys to St. Peter, who kneels on one side, and the standard to Constantine, who kneels on the other (alluding, of course, to the famous standard). On the arch to the left, St. Peter is throned, and presents the stole to Pope Leo III., and the standard to Charlemagne. This singular monument, a kind of résumé of the power of the Church, is a restoration of the old mosaic, executed by order of Leo III. in the Triclinium of the old palace of the Lateran, and now on one side of the Scala Santa, the side facing the Porta San Giovanni.
Mosaic, in the old basilica of St. Paul (A.D. 1206). In the centre an altar veiled, on which are the Gospels (or perhaps, rather, the Book of Life, the seven-sealed book in the Revelations), and the instruments of the Passion. Behind it rises a large Greek cross, adorned with gold and jewels. Underneath, at the foot of the altar, five small figures standing and bearing palms, representing those who suffered for the cause of Christ; and on each side, kneeling, the monk Aginulph, and Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, afterwards Nicholas III. On each side of the altar, a majestic angel: one bears a scroll, inscribed Gloria in excelsis Deo; the other, ET IN TERRA PAX HOMINIBUS BONÆ VOLUNTATIS. Beyond these the Apostles, six on each side, bearing scrolls with the articles of the Creed. They are much alike, all in white robes, and alternately with each stands a palm-tree, the symbol of victory and resurrection. This composition, of a colossal size, formed a kind of frieze (taking the place of the emblematical lamb and twelve sheep) round the apsis of the Basilica.
In sculpture, the Apostles, as a series, entered into all decorative ecclesiastical architecture: sometimes on the exterior of the edifice, always in the interior. In our English cathedrals they are seldom found unmutilated, except when out of the reach of the spoiler; such was the indiscriminate rage which confounded the venerable effigies of these delegated teachers of the truth with the images which were supposed to belong exclusively to the repudiated religion!