Fig. 132.—The Baptism of Our Lord.
Immediately over the font in the Catacomb of Pontianus is the elaborate fresco of the baptism of Our Lord, figured above. He is represented standing in
the river Jordan, while John pours water upon his head, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. An angel stands by as witness of the rite, and in the foreground a stag, the emblem of a fervent Christian, is drinking at the pure stream.[894]
Fig. 133.—Baptismal Scene.
In a very ancient crypt of St. Lucina is another partially defaced baptism of Christ, attributed to the second century, in which St. John stands on the shore and our Saviour in a shallow stream, while the Holy Spirit descends as a dove. On the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus Christ is also symbolically represented as baptized by affusion. The annexed rude example from the Catacomb of Callixtus, probably of the third century, also clearly exhibits the administration of the rite by pouring.[895] It is accompanied by a representation of Peter striking water from the rock, an emblem, according to De Rossi, of the waters of baptism sprinkling the sinful souls that
come thereto. A similar example also occurs in the cemetery of St. Prætextatus.
In ancient sarcophagal reliefs in the Vatican are representations of small detached baptisteries of circular form, crowned with the Constantinian monogram. These were necessarily of sufficient size to accommodate the number of persons who were baptized at one time, generally at Easter,[896] and were placed outside of the basilica to indicate the initiatory character of baptism as the entrance to the church of Christ.[897] In the early mosaics representing baptismal scenes, the rite is invariably administered by affusion, as in the baptistery of San Giovanni at Ravenna, in the beginning of the fifth century, in Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, at Ravenna, in the beginning, and in the ivory relief on the episcopal chair of Maximinus, at the end, of the sixth century.[898] So,
also, a later example in the Lateran basilica represents Constantine kneeling naked in a laver, and Sylvester pouring water on his head.[899] This is also the method indicated in several medals, bas reliefs, frescoes, and mosaics, in almost every century from the fourth, through the Middle Ages, indicating a continuous tradition, even when immersion may have been practised, of a different mode of baptism.