Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/315

Rh interlaced pearled bands, &.C., of debased Italian embellishment. Sometimes these pilasters seem merely to support funereal torches, or angels, who, with one leg in the air, sustain large heavy medallions inscribed with affected antitheses and enigmatical anagrams. At other times we find a monstrous figure with outspread wings, like those of a bat, holding a kind of fasces, composed of pick-axes and spades; to which are often added the death's-heads and cross-bones so common in the present day, the whole being generally enclosed in a border of tears and lambent flames mixed up with garlands and flowers.

a view also of comparing the style of the representations of the crucifixion now often discovered on our church-walls, we give from the same number of the "Bulletin Monumental" the following abstract of "An account of the first representations of the Crucifix and of early Hieratic Paintings," by the Chevalier Joseph, of the Pontifical Academy of Archæology at Rome.

states that it was not until after the figure of the Cross had been adopted as an imperial ensign by Constantine that it was regarded as an ecclesiastical symbol, and that in very early times it was merely a cross de- void of any representation on it. He asserts also that no part of the passion of our Saviour was ever depicted or any allusion whatever made to it, on any of the walls of the catacombs at Rome or elsewhere, or on any mosaics, or sculptures, or sacred vessels, except in the character of a good Shepherd. He attributes this non-existence of very early crucifixes, 1st, to the expediency of treating with deference the feelings both of Jews and Gentiles as to the horror with which they regarded a mode of death then inflicted only on the meanest slaves and malefactors. 2ndly, to the piety with which the early Christians, and among them artists themselves, venerated their Incarnate Deity. 3rdly, because their faith did not require any such excitement: and 4thly, because the rulers of the Church would not probably have tolerated any exhibition of the Redeemer's sufferings.

proceeds to state that the earliest crucifix he has discovered is a small bronze, once gilt, now in the cabinet of bronzes in the Galleria degli Uffizi at Florence. This crucifix has the head inclined to the right, and is crowned with a kind of mural crown of three battlements. The hair is only indicated by dots, but the upper lip has a decidedly marked mustachio. The chest and legs are naked, the rest of the body being in a tight half tunic, through which the ribs are indicated by engraved lines. The folds of the tunic and of the girdle are respectively represented by a blue and white composition. The face is long, and in conformity with the hieratic type which all Byzantine artists continued to adopt up to the eleventh century. The body is attached by four nails, a practice which is said to have been prevalent during the whole period of Roman-Byzantine art, until the time