Another class exhibits representations of the Virgin Mary, generally in the attitude of prayer, either alone, or standing between St. Peter and St. Paul, which position is also often occupied by St. Agnes or some other female saint. More frequently recurring than any other figures are those of St. Peter and St. Paul. They are found on eighty out of three hundred and forty specimens figured by Garrucci, or nearly one fourth of the whole. They appear generally as busts side by side,
without the slightest indication of the superiority of one over the other, Peter being often on the left instead of the right, which, according to the Romish theory of his primacy, he should always occupy. Indeed, their perfect parity in dignity and honour is implied in the single crown sometimes suspended over their heads, or by their simultaneous crowning by Christ, who appears between or above them. Other saints are also represented, who are discriminated by labels bearing their names, as Lawrence, Vincent, Sixtus, Callixtus, Hippolytus, etc. There are also five or six specimens exhibiting Jewish symbols, the ark of the covenant and the rolls of the law. From the technical difficulties in the employment of a rather intractable material, as well as from the general decline of art, the execution is often uncouth and stiff. “The faithful,” says Buonarotti, “desiring to adorn these vases with pious symbols, were forced to avail themselves of inexpert workmen, or even those who pursued other trades.”[617] The accompanying is a characteristic example, from this author, of the
domestic class. It exhibits a husband, wife, and child, with the motto in Latin characters, PIE ZESES—“Drink and live.” Between the faces is an object like an ancient lachrymatory.
Fig. 109.—Domestic Group in Gilt Glass.
It is probable that these vessels were designed not for sacramental solemnities, but for occasions of domestic and social rejoicing, as nuptial, baptismal, and anniversary festivals; and for the celebration of the Agape, or love-feast, after it had lost the religious character it possessed in early times. Hence the selection of a comparatively gay and mundane class of subjects; some derived from pagan art, and others implying a conformity to the fashionable follies and amusements of the world, and indicating a decline of piety and corruption of manners.
Garrucci thinks, from the large proportion of glasses bearing the effigies of St. Peter and St. Paul, that those at least were used in connexion with the feast in honour of these saints, which in the fourth and fifth centuries was celebrated in Rome as a public holiday, with much of the vulgar merriment with which the peasants of the Campagna keep their festa to-day. Mr. Brownlow hints the possibility that the “idea of restraining the potations of the Roman Christians, by depicting figures which could only be seen to advantage when the glass was empty, suggested the use of these gilded cups.”[618]
The festive purpose for which many of these vessels was designed is indicated by the convivial character of the inscriptions they bear. Mr. Brownlow has translated the following examples in this sense:[619] DIGNITAS AMICORVM PIE ZESES CVM TVIS OMNIBVS BIBE ET PROPINA—“A mark of friendship; drink, and (long) life to thee, with all thine; drink, and propose a toast;” CVM
TVIS FELICITER ZESES—“Mayest thou live happily with thine own;” or, more freely, “Life and happiness to thee and thine;” ΠΙΕ ΖΕΣΕΣ ΕΝ ΑΓΑΘΟΙΣ—“Drink and live among the good.”