[584] Iren., adv. Hæres., i, 25. Aug., De Hærisib., c. viii. The Emperor Alex. Severus, we have seen, had one of these images of Christ in his Lararium, with those of Abraham and Orpheus.—Æl. Lamprid. in Vit. Alex. Sev., c. 29.
[585] Conspectus vultus ejus cum severitate et plenus efficacia, ut spectatores amare eum possint et rursus timere.... In reprehendendo et objurgando formidabilis; in docendo et exhortando blandæ linguæ et amabilis. Gratia miranda vultus cum gravitate. Vel semel eum ridentem nemo vidit sed flentem imo.—Fabricius, Codex. Apoc. Nov. Teste., 1e., pars. 301.
Père Mabillon tells us that one of Christ’s tears has been preserved and peculiarly honoured at Vendôme.
John Damascenus, in the eighth century, records the legend of a miraculous contemporary portrait of Christ which healed Agbarus, King of Edessa, of a mortal disease. It was till recently honoured in the church of St. Silvester at Rome.
The miraculous image known as the Veronica is claimed to be the actual impression of the Saviour’s features made on the veil or handkerchief of a devout Jewess, who piously wiped his brow as he toiled along the way to Calvary. This image she brought to Rome, where it cured Tiberius Cæsar of the leprosy, and was afterwards presented to the Emperor Charlemagne. It is now publicly worshipped in St. Peter’s with the utmost devotion and splendor. The name is probably derived from the label vera icon or icona—a true image—commonly attached to pictures of Our Lord. It was also given to the pious Jewess, who is identified as the niece of Herod. A colossal statue of St. Veronica adorns St. Peter’s fane, and the event is celebrated in sacred art and pious verse. The following, from a MS. in St. George’s Library, Windsor, is a favourable specimen of the latter:
Salve, Sancta facies
Mei Redemptoris,
In qua nitet species
Divini splendoris.
Impressa panniculo
Nivei candoris,
Dataque Veronicæ,
Signum ob Amoris.
Of equally apocryphal character are the Volto Santo, exhibited during Holy Week at St. Peter’s, and the portraits attributed to Nicodemus, Pilate, St. Luke, or to celestial artists. One of the Acheiropoietes, or pictures made without hands, almost blackened with age, and of the Byzantine type, is thrice a year exhibited at the Lateran palace at Rome.
[586] Clem. Alex., Strom., v.
[587] Sacred Art in Italy, p. 212. The Mosaics of this century in the adoration of the Magi at S. Maria Maggiore, [before mentioned], is the earliest example of the appearance in art of the figures of angels, those sublime creations that glorify the canvas of the artists of the Renaissance. The winged genii in the Catacombs are rather an imitation of classic types than of a Christian significance.
The symbols of the four evangelists—the angel, lion, ox, and eagle—are unknown in the Catacombs, and first appear in the fourth century. Sometimes these symbols have reference to the four historic aspects of redemption through Christ—the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, as explained in the following monkish rhyme: