Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/478

 CATACOMBS

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CATACOMBS

namely representations of characteristic tools to indicate the rank in life or trade of the dead, e. g. for a baker, a grain measure; for a joiner, a plane; for a smith, an anvil and hammer. If the dead had borne in life the name of an animal, Leo (lion), Equi- tius (from equus, a horse), a picture of the particular animal was also cut on the tombstone. From the time of Constantine the monogram of Christ was a favourite symbol for use on gravestones.

IV. Paintings. — The paintings of the catacombs conveyed pictorially the same ideas as the incep- tions. These frescoes adorn the spaces between the single graves, ornament the arched niches above the arcosolia, and are employed to decorate the walls and ceilings of entire burial chambers. It is true that the paintings are not so easily understood as the inscriptions or epitaphs, but while the oldest epitaphs afford little instruction, since they are limited simply to the names of the dead, the paintings, of which the number is very large, give information concern- ing the beginnings of Christianity. Certain fixed types are repeated in manifold forms, so that one explains another. In the course of time new types of pictures and new conceptions were developed which throw a stead- ily increasing light on the belief and the hopeof the primitive Christians in regard to death.

The heathen " who have no hope" might stand dis- consolate by the grave of the de- parted, they might adorn the ceterna domus (the eternal home) of the dead

with gay pictures of Early Chr stian Epitaphs n

ordinary life. The Laterak

Christians in these

paintings of the catacombs conceived the souls of the dead as Oranti, or praying female figures, in the bliss of heaven. The Good Shepherd Who lovingly carries the lamb on His shoulders to the flock that are pastured in Paradise signified to the Christian the reason for his hope of eternity. The representations of baptism and of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves are allusions to the means of grace by which heaven is attained. After favour- able judgment is pronounced, the saints, the advo- cates or intercessors, lead the souls into the joys of heaven. To depict the belief of the early Christians in a future life the art of the catacombs generally chose episodes from the Old and New Testaments, episodes to which many allusions still occur in the prayers for the dying. If death is represented as having entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve, the escape from death is indicated in pic- tures from tlic (lid Testament showing the rescue of Nor from the Deluge, the preservation of Isaac from the sacrificial knife of his father Abraham, the rescue of the Three Bebrew Children from the fiery furnace, the escape of Jonas from the belly of the great fish, Susanna's deliverance with the aid of Daniel from false accusation. From the New Testament the rais- ing of Lazarus is use, I as the ty] E the resurrect inn

from the dead; the miracles of the Saviour, the heal- ing of the blind, the cure of the palsied man, are all taken as proofs of the omnipotent power of I he Son of God over sickness and death. The Wise Men from

the East having been the first called out of heathen- ism, were regarded by the Christians of the catacombs as their predecessors in the Faith, as security for the hope that they too might, at some time, adore the Son of God above. The Mother of God is never sep- arated from the Divine Child; one of the oldest paint- ings of the catacombs, painted under the eyes of the pupils of the Apostles and found in the cemetery of Priscilla, represents the Virgin holding the Child on her lap, while the Prophet Isaias, who stands before her, points to the star above the head of the Mother and Child. In the frequent pictures of the Wise Men the Virgin is seated on a throne accepting in the name of her Child the gifts which the Magi bring. A fresco of the third century in the cemetery of Priscilla represents the Annunciation; a painting of the fourth century in the ctrmeterium ma]us shows the Virgin as an Orante, before her the Divine Child, who is clearly indicated to be Christ by the monogram of the name Christ painted to the right and left of the figure. The enthroned Saviour surrounded by the Apostles, the dead, who are being led by the saints before the Judge to receive a gracious verdict, the Wise Virgins at the heavenly wedding feast, all these form the last links in the chain of heavenly hopes that bind to- gether earth a n d heaven, time and eternity.

The themes de- picted in the purely decorative painting of the burial cham- bers, especially that of the ceilings, are largely taken from conci pts peculiar to Christianity: the ith Monograms and Figures, dove with the olive-

Moseum branch ot peace, the

peacock that in springtime renews its gay plumage, the lamb, taken as a symbol of the soul, all these continually reappear as allusions to the consoling hopes cherished in this place of death. When the artist paints family life, e. g. a picture of a husband, wife, and child, who occupy a common grave, he represents the three as Oranti standing with raised hands absorbed in the contem- plation of God. There are some purely secular paintings in the catacombs, e. g. a fresco in the ceme- tery of Priscilla representing vine dressers carrying away a large cask: in the cemetery of Domitilla, corn- merchants superintending the unloading of sacks of grain from ships; and in the cemetery of Callistus, a market-woman selling vegetables.

Special reference should be made to the represen- tations of the Eucharist in connexion with the multiplication of the bread when the Lord fed the multitude with the loaves and fishes. Since from the second century the Early Church regarded the live letters of the Greek word for fish LX6T2 (ichthys) as the first letters of the words making up the phrase IH20T2 XPI2T02 6E0T TI02 2QTHP (Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour), bread and fish, the food

With which Christ had fed the multitude, were in themselves an allusion to the Eucharist ic meal. Thus in the catacomb of Domitilla a man and his wife arc

represented reclining on a cushion, before them a

small table holding loaves of bread and fish: in the

cemetery of Priscilla the presiding officer at the si mi circular, table breaks for the guests the round loavesof