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 ECCLESIASTICAL

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ECCLESIASTICAL

illustrates the early art of the Church ; one of its great treasures, the ivorychair of St. Maximianus (546-556), made in the first half of the sixth century, has been in the city since it was first carved, with the exception of a very short time when it was carried to Venice in 1001. It is perhaps the finest example in existence of such ivory carving, and was the work of Oriental craftsmen, who entered into the service of the Church and carved this chair with its delicate and beautiful illustrations of the miracles of Christ and the history of Joseph. The same city can illustrate other branches of applied art, for the orphreys and textile fabrics made for San Giovanni in the fifth century, the sLxth- centiuy altar-cross of the archbishop, St. Agnellus (556-569), his processional cross of silver, and portions of his cathedral chair, are still preserved in the cathe- dral, while the art of carving in marble of the same period is exceedingly well exemplified by the splendid stone sarcophagi existing in various churches of the city. Following the time of Theodoric came the rule of the Emperor Justinian (527-565), and the epis- copate of St. Ecclesius (521-534), while the mosaic decoration in the church of San Vitale, done in the early and middle part- of the sixth centurj', illustrate the change from Arian heresy to Catholic truth, and the exquisite beauty of the mosaic work the Church was able to make use of at that time. A little journey outside Ravenna to the church of Sant' ApoUinare in Classe will enable the student to bring his study of early mosaic work and early sculpture down to a still later period, as in that church there is the great mosaic erected by Archbishop Reparatus c. 671, the carved throne of St. Damianus (688-705), and the sarcophagi of various archbishops, extending in date to the end of the seventh century, and bearing religious emblems of very considerable importance. Attention should also he drawn to the pictures on unprepared linen cloth, executed in a material similar to transparent water- colour, ascribed to a period antecedent to the third century. They chiefly purport to be representations of the features of Christ. The most notable of course is the one known as the Handkerchief of St. Veronica, preserved in the ^'atican, and which none but an ecclesiastic of very high rank is allowed to examine closely. Although the most important, it is by no means the only example of such a picture. There is another in Genoa, a third in the church of San Silves- tro in Rome, and others in various European shrines. The metal work executed during the Ostrogothic occu- pation of Italy was often work commissioned by the Cliurch for use in the ceremonials of the service, and figures of Oirist and of the saints, ornaments for copes, chasses in which to put relics, and vessels for use at the altar, belonging to this period of primitive art, are the direct result of the teaching of the Church. As, how- ever, the religious feeling spread more and more, the desire arose among Christians to have artistic repre- sentations of the great events of the P^aith in their houses, and it is possible that the beginnings of what we may term portable pictorial work arose in this way. The very early tempera paintings on wood of Eastern and Byzantme character, some of which are actually ascribed to the hand of the Apostle St. Luke himself, may very likely have been executed, not en- tirely as decorations for the Church, but that the wealthier members of the community, at least, might have in their homes, in the privacy of their own ora- tories, some cherished representation of the Man of Sorrows Himself, or of some Apostle or saint from whom the owner was named, or towards whom he had some particular affection. In this way may perhaps be traced the beginning of the history of the icons, which are so important a feature in the life of the Eastern Church, and which adorn every house, in many cases being found in all the rooms occupied by the various members of the family. Ecclesiastical Art in the Middle Ages. — Leav-

ing primitive times, the period of the Middle Ages is one of enormous artistic importance, and it is an era in which the influence of the Church Ls practically para- mount. To this period there does not belong any very long series of artistic objects relating exclusively to domestic life. There were, of course, articles of domestic interest marked by artistic skill, there were objects of personal decoration, and appliances for use in the home; but the choicest talent and the eff'orts of the most supreme genius were almost invariably given to the work of the Church, and even where the com- missions related to domestic ornamentation, there was generally a religious element in the decorations and the use of religious symbolisms. To this period belong the magnificent works in enamels, executed for church work. There are the tall pricket candlesticks, superb chasses and reliquaries, altar-crosses, crosiers, shrines, censers and incense boats, crucifixes, morses for copes, and medallions for sacred vessels, triptychs and polyp- tychs for use on the altar, plaques for book-covers, es- pecially for the adornment of the Book of the Gospels, cruets, basins, chalices, and book-binding in metal en- crusted with jewels. The very first British enamels were merely a kind of coarse decoration, applied to the adormnent of shields and helmets, but later on to cups, vases, and drinking-vessels, but, when mention is made of the Ardagh Chalice and the Alfred Jewel, it will be realized that a period in enamel work has been reached when the Church laid its hand upon the craft. Concerning the use of the Alfred Jewel, it may be broadly stated that the most probable theory is that it was the ornament applied to the head of an ivory pointer used by the deacon when reading the Book of the Gospels, and that therefore this exquisite object now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford is one of the earliest examples of ecclesia.stical enamel work. The Ardagh Chalice, of translucent enamels on silver and gold, is only one of a group of Irish shrines, reliquaries, missal-covers, crosiers, and crosses, similarly deco- rated, and it would appear likely that the.se Irish or Celtic enamels, of which half a dozen adorn the altar of Sant' Ambrogio in Milan, are perhaps among the earliest existing examples of the art in connexion with ecclesiastical possessions. In the first part of the eleventh century, Byzantium appears to have been the head-quarters of the work of ecclesiastical enamel- ling, and the pectoral cross in the South Kensington Museum may be taken as an example of early Byzan- tine work. The art of the enameller was also in exists ence in Germany at an early date, and here also was applied exclusi\ely to ecclesiastical objects. Towards the middle of the twelfth century the workers of Limoges came into prominence, and from that time down to the end of the thirteenth Limoges was the centre of production. In Italian enamelling, the won- derful translucent reliquary, dated 13.38, the work of Ugolino of Siena, in which is preserved the great relic of the Holy Corporal at Orvieto, is a masterpiece of the craft. The altar-frontal at Pistoja belongs to about the same period, and a little later comes the reliquary made by the brothers Arezzo, while during the whole of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the enamellers were kept hard at work in Italy producing objects intended for Church work in two or three dis- tinct processes, either that called champleve, or an- other method, that of floating transparent enamels, known by the name of bassetnille, or still another pro- cess called encrusting. At the end of the fifteenth cen- tury, and the beginning of the sixteenth, in the era of the Renai.s.sance, the art left Italy, and, taking a new form, that of painted enamels, or more strictly, paint- ing in enamels, had a recrudescence in France, m the very same place, Limoges, in which the old enamels had been produced.

In another division of applied arts are the remark- able embroideries which adorned all the sacred vest- ments, representing, in the most wonderful pictorial