Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/359

 In the Catacombs. 329 the portrait of Christ especially differs essentially from the old Greek idea, and is of a purely Christian type. The chief characteristics of early Christian painting as exhibited Fig. 121. —Fresco from the Catacombs of S. Calixtus. in the Catacombs are a simple earnestness and majesty, and a grandeur of composition, but little inferior to the frescoes of the best age of the old Empire, combined with