GILT GLASSES AND OTHER OBJECTS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS.
Ever since the re-discovery and exploration of the Catacombs in the sixteenth century they have been a vast treasury from which, as from an inexhaustible mine, have been derived innumerable relics of Christian antiquity, many of them of inestimable value. Among these are a number of gilt glasses of curious design and remarkable interest, lamps, vases, rings, seals, toys, trinkets, and various objects of domestic use or ornament. Collections of these relics are found in most of the great museums of Europe, especially in those of the city of Rome. An account of the more important of them will be given in the present chapter.
Reference has already been made to the numerous fragments of gilt glass found in the Catacombs, which so remarkably illustrate Christian life in the primitive ages. In the last century, Buonarotti described all the specimens then known. The distinguished archæologist, Padre Garrucci, has recently exhaustively treated these remains of ancient art in his elaborate monograph on this subject.[614] They are also profusely illustrated in the magnificent pages of Perret.[615]
These glasses are generally mutilated fragments, apparently
the bottoms of drinking-cups, and occasionally of the dish-like shape of the classic patera. They vary in size from about one to four or five inches in diameter. The design is executed in gold leaf on the bottom of the cup, so as to appear through the glass on the inside, and is occasionally beautifully relieved by a dark purple background. It is protected by a plate of glass, fused upon the lower surface so as to become a solid mass, like the glass paper-weights with enclosed ornamental designs which are so common. The pictures thus hermetically sealed are indestructible so long as the glass is not fractured. These vessels were apparently affixed at the time of burial to the soft plaster of the grave; but the thinner portion, standing out from the cement, has almost invariably been broken, while the thick part, imbedded in the plaster, has been preserved. Sometimes even the solid bottoms of these vessels were fractured in the effort to detach them from the walls, and frequently impressions in the cement indicate where they were affixed. They are rarely found in situ, having been destroyed or carried off by successive generations of explorers or plunderers. The most important collection is in the Vatican Library. In the British Museum are some thirty specimens; in the museums of Paris, Florence, and Naples, a less number; and a few others in various private collections. The entire number extant is only three hundred and forty. In the course of a quarter of a century De Rossi discovered but two fragments of these glasses. This extreme rarity is doubtless owing to their excessive fragility, and probably also to their being destroyed in large quantities to procure the gold they contain. In some of the extant examples portions of this gold has been removed by inserting a knife between the plates of glass. Perhaps
the ingenious avarice of the Jewish “dealers in broken glass,” notorious even in the days of Martial,[616] may have largely contributed to the destruction of these curious remains of Christian antiquity.
It was thought that the manufacture of these glasses was known only at Rome; but in the year 1864 a fragment of a glass plate, with a number of small gilt medallions bearing scriptural representations imbedded in it, was discovered beneath the surface of the ground near the church of St. Severin at Cologne; and in 1866 another of similar character was found, accompanied by some charred bones, in a stone chest near the same place.
Buonarotti regarded these fragments as having all formed part of sacramental vessels; but the character of the designs seems frequently to preclude that idea. Several of these are derived from the fables of pagan mythology, and seem to indicate, if not heathen origin, at least the influence of pagan types. Among them are found the figures of Achilles, Hercules, Dædalus, Minerva, Mercury, the Three Graces, Cupid and Pysche, and other groups still less congruous with Christian thought. Other scenes represent various industries, as men sawing, planing, and carving wood; a ship-builder with his men at work; a tailor, druggist, and money-coiner, in their respective shops. Hunting scenes, men boxing, and charioteers encouraging their horses, also occur. A more numerous series represent domestic groups, portraits of husband and wife, frequently accompanied by their children, groups of children playing, or sometimes a lady in rich costume, with
cupids holding her mirror and other toilet adjuncts. Frequently occurs what seems to be a marriage scene, with the bride and bridegroom joining hands over an altar, above which Christ is often depicted as placing crowns on their heads. Sometimes is expressed in gilt letters the beautiful wish VIVATIS IN DEO—“May you live in God.” In one instance it is a winged cupid that bestows the crown.
The majority of the scenes, however, are of a distinctively Christian character, comprising most of the subjects in the symbolical and biblical cycles already described; but from the conditions of space, which are often exceedingly limited, the design is frequently of a very rudimentary type. In the large patera of Cologne the medallions contain the separate parts of different groups, which are only intelligible as a whole. Besides the ordinary scenes from Old and New Testament history there is a unique example of the triumph of Christ, in which he appears in fulness of glory holding the globe of sovereignty; while opposite to him stands a figure, interpreted by Garrucci as Isaiah prophesying the advent of the Light of the World. Perret also figures one example of Christ on the cross, with Mary and John beside it, which he thinks is later than the sixth century.