[333] No example of the former is known before A. D. 312. The nimbus is given to Our Lord in the fourth century, to angels in the fifth, but did not reach its widest application till the seventh. (Martigny, Dict. des Antiqs. Chrét.) It was employed in ante-Christian pagan art, both Egyptian and classical. In Byzantine art it is a symbol of power and of office, and was therefore given alike to Pharaoh, Saul, Herod, Constantine, Judas, the apocalyptic Dragon, and Satan. Sometimes that of Judas is black. (Didron, Iconog. Chrét. in loco.)
[334] Certain Gnostic images will be hereafter mentioned.
[335] Ex. xx, 4. פֶּסֶל is a carved image, from the root פָּסַל, to cut, or carve.
[336] These pictures were generally on smooth white plaster, and in beautiful bright colours, for the most part in spaces limited by lines of vivid blue, yellow, or red, or by bands of Egyptian-like lotus or lily pattern. If on the ceiling, they were in lunettes similarly divided. These bands frequently run around the loculi and arcosolia, and divide the walls into panels. Occasionally the latter are covered with a reticulated or lattice-like pattern in bright opaque colors. The paintings are now often much faded and defaced.
[337] 1 Pet. iii, 19.
[338] The Mediæval conception of Christ’s “Harrowing of Hell” and delivery of our first parents, ruined through the guile of the serpent, is a striking analogue of this myth. Compare also Bacon’s rather fantastic explanation of this legend by the principles of natural and moral philosophy. See his “Wisdom of the Ancients,” chap. xi.
[339] Hom. i, De Cruce Domini.
[340] “La physionomie presque payenne qui offre le décoration des Catacombes de Rome.”—Discours Sur l’origine des types imitatifs de l’Art du Christianisme. Paris, 1834, p. 96.
[341] Sculture e pitture sagre, etc., t. iii, pp. 193, 218.
[342] Le Mystère de Syncrétisme Phrygien dans les Catacombes Roman de Prétextat. (Nouvelle Interprétation.) Paris, 1854.