Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/235

 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 201 they treat, and are written in an jcsthetical spirit which would do honour to any author. Taking up tlic subject where it was left by M. Didron, in his " Iconouraphie de Dicu," Mrs. Jameson has given us an elaborate account of the various modes in which artists, and especially painters, have treated angels and archangels, evangelists, apostles, the doctors of the Church, the saints and martyrs, both of the Greek and Romish Churches, the various religious orders, and lastly the Madonna ; whilst in the work, the title of which stands at the head of the present article, Miss Twining has regarded the subject from a different point of view, and has collected together, with surprising diligence, a mass of illustrations, arranged in chronological order, of the principal forms that have been used symloUcally in the different periods of art, and endeavouring to teach the uneducated eye to look through the symbol to the thing signified by it. In her introduction, the authoress endeavours to draw a distinction between the words Symbols and Emblems, which, although often used indifferently to express the same meaning, are by no means identical ; "thus, the term symbol may some- times be used for an emblem where the contrary word would not be true ; as, for instance, the Anchor may be either the Symhol or Emhlem of Hope ; but we could not say that the Lamb or the Good Shepherd were Emblems of Christ, since He himself is embodied in or represented by them. They must therofore be distinguished as >Symhols, and the term may be considered as something expressive of the whole being and character, rather than any particular attribute or quality of the person or thing represented. The same object, however, may clearly be considered a Symbol as well as an Emblem, as the Sword is the Symhol of Martyrdom, and the peculiar Emblem of St. Paul." Commencing with the Catacombs of Rome, bas-reliefs on sarcophagi, carvings on grave-stones, and paintings on the walls of ceilino-s, Miss Twining has found therein, and in the mosaics, sculpture, and painted glass of Christian basilicas and churches, in the carved stone-work of medifeval monuments, and especially in the illuminations of MSS., a mass of illustrations extending from the second or third to the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries, "by which latter time almost all the symbolical ideas were but copies of earlier ones, or had become developed into forms of more direct imitation. Symbolical representations had given way to historical facts. " In the ninety-three plates of which the work is composed, the Emblems and Symbols of the Trinity and its several persons, various subjects of the Old and New Testaments, the evangelists and apostles, the Church and her sacraments, death and the soul, the evil spirit and hell, and the various zoomorphic, phytomorphic, and inanimate symbols are carefully represented. Lists are also added of the MSS. which have supplied many of the figures, and of the works upon Christian art to which the authoress has" been indebted for other materials. Amongst other original illustrations is one of a wooden figure painted in colours, which stands at the corner of a street in Exeter, commonly known as "Father Peter," the saint tramplino- the evil spirit under foot. We have also sculptured figures from the early fonts of East Meon, Winchester, Stanton Fitzwarren, Mersebur"- and Ringsted iu Zealand, the pastoral staff of St. Boniface at Fulda, and various monumental brasses and seals. We arc happy to learn that Miss Twining is engaged in collectino- further nnvterials of a similar nature for a continuation of the subject, which is too extensive to be confined to a sintrle volume.