Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/480

 CATACOMBS

424

CATACOMBS

(sarcophagi) or, when cremated, in funerary urns in a subterranean vault or hypogceum. The freedmen and clients of the noble family to whom the tomb belonged were buried in graves made in the upper stratum of the earth of the area monumenti, or plot of ground or garden in which the tomb stood. These graves were indicated by stelce, or stone slabs, which gave the names of the dead. Those who were first converted from heathenism to Christianity were in- terred in a similar manner. This is evident both from the hypogceum of the Flavian family, which has horizontal niches to the right and left for the sar- cophagi, and from the stelce with symbols or inscrip- tions that are Christian in character, although, as is easily understood, such stehe are not numerous. The example of the Jews, however, led very early to the excavation, in the enclosure of the area monumenti, of

strigili came together, or else Christian symbols were carved on the labella insert ptionis, i. e. the fiat slab closing the grave in which the epitaph was cut. A Christian stone-mason, probably, cut these Chris- tian emblems on sarcophagi made in heathen work- shops. The oldest sarcophagus showing Christian emblems carved in relief is one found in the Vatican quarter and now in the Lateran Museum; it has in excellent work, between two scenes of family life, an Orante, symbolical of the person buried, and the Good Shepherd. Another sarcophagus, also belong- ing to the time before Constantine and in the same museum, has as its chief decoration the story of Jonas; around this scene are grouped representations of Noe, the raising of Lazarus, Moses smiting the rock in the wilderness, a pastoral scene, and purely secular fishing scenes.

ophagus of Junius Bassus, Christian Prefec Christ in glory giving the Law to His Apostles. Panel: Christ's Entry into Jerusalem

subterranean galleries or passage ways, the walls of which offered ample space for single graves or Inculi. From the beginning burial in sarcophagi was, on ac- count of the expense, a privilege of the rich and of people of rank; this is also one reason why Christian sculpture developed later than Christian painting. As the Christians were obliged at first to buy sarcophagi from heathen stone-masons they avoided purchasing those with mythological scenes. They preferred such as were ornamented with carvings of scenes from pastoral life, the harvest and vintage; at times they selected sarcophagi merely ornamented on the front with wave lines (strigili), as for example, the sarcophagus of Petronilla, a relative of the impe- rial Flavian family, which was found in the cata- comb of Domitilla. The only decoration of this sarcophagus, outside of the wave lines, were figures of lions at the corners; on the upper edge of the sarcophagus was the inscription

Will UAK. PETRONILLAE. FILIAE. I>\ I.- CISSIMAE.

"To Aurelia Petronilla. sweetest daughter". There are still in tin- catacombs of Priscilla, Domitilla, and Pnetextal us :i number of sarcophagi, the most an- i iont of which show no Christian sculpture.

It was not until Inwards (he end of the third cen- tury th' 1 ( hri inn sarcophagi were ornamented with

sculpture; at first the carvings were small figures of

the Good Shepherd or an Orante placed where the

Christian sculpture on sarcophagi was not fully developed until about the middle of the fourth cen- tury; two sarcophagi of this period, that of Junius Bassus in the crypt of St. Peter's, and another similar in style, in the Lateran Museum, are the finest ex- amples of early Christian carving. When it became customary, in the vicinity of the great basilicas, to build mausoleums or mortuary chapels, in which the sarcophagi were either sunk in the ground or ex- posed along the walls, sculpture as a Christian art developed rapidly. The growth was perhaps too rapid, for the comparatively small number of Chris- tian sculptors could only meet the constantly in- creasing demand by over-hasty or half-finished work. To this period which extended from the second half of the fourth into the first decades of the fifth century belong by far the greater part of the sarcophagi found, most of which are in the Lateran Museum. The terrible misfortunes that befell Rome after it had been conquered and plundered by the Goths in I Hi checked and finally put an end to carved decoration on Christian sarcophagi.

Naturally, the reliefs of the sarcophagi show the same fundamental ideas as are expressed in the

Eaintings of the catacombs, and they an- conveyed y the presentation of the same Biblical scenes. Plastic art. however, followed its own course in the development of the themes. This is evident from the large number of figures employed for the scenes,