Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/354

 290

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io u. v. APRIL M. IDM.

Antiqua au Forum ; mais elle ne fut pas de tres longue duree, car une fresque de St. Clement, du temps de Leon IV. (IX e siecle), represente de nouveau le Sauveur nu."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

In Crowe and Cavalcaselle's * History of Painting in Italy,' new edition, 1903, vol. i. pp. 49-51, occur the following passages :

" It is known to antiquarians that the gates of the church of Santa Sabina at Rome contain very old illustrations of gospel subjects in carved wood, and it is stated that they were set in their present places by order of Innocent III., about A-D. 1198. But it is easy to perceive that the panels of which the gates are composed are no longer in their natural order, and that the wood in which they are carved is older than that of the framings which keep them together. Some subjects, not unlike those of the fifth century at Santa Maria Maggiore, alternate

with those of more modern character But the

tendency to ascribe these curious and interesting carvings to a very early period is checked by the conviction that one of the panels, representing Christ crucified between the two thieves, can only have been composed about the close of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh centuries, when the same subject appears to have been treated, in the wall paintings of Sant' Urbano alia Caffarella by a painter of the year 1011. [A foot-note adds that it appears that the panels were originally twenty- eight, of which only eighteen remain.] For some time after painting came to be thought an incentive to piety amongst Christians, a jealous supervision exercised by the clergy prevented the treatment of subjects illustrating the Passion. As time sped on the feeling of the masses in this respect underwent a change. Scenes from the Passion soon followed episodes from the earlier history of Christ. But till very near the eleventh century the ignominy of death on the cross prevented Christians from accepting delineations of the Crucifixion, which, in the first period of Christianity, had been multiplied to some small extent by pagan scoffers. When Christian feeling had overcome its long aversion to the most fearful of all the incidents attendant on the Redeemer's suffering, an excess of ingenuity was shown in the effort to make manifest the absolute insensibility of Christ to torments. In the gates of Santa Sabina this in- genuity is displayed in the representation of Christ crucified, but living, serene, and open-eyed. The cross is barely indicated near the ends of the fingers, though the nails are seen where they penetrate the hands. The stature of the Saviour greatly exceeds that of the two malefactors at His side. He is without a nimbus, and of antique build and proportions ; antique, likewise, are the three gables of the architecture behind Him."

A. R. BAYLEY.

The Rev. G. S. Tyack, in 'The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art' (1896), says :

"The Greek Fathers at the Council of Trullo, in A.D. 692, decreed that, instead of the Lamb [as heretofore], the Lord Jesus Christ shall be shown hereafter in His human form " ; and he adds : "the earliest crucifix in the Catacombs dates from the seventh and eighth centuries. Pope John VII

n A.D. 706, dedicated the first mosaic example of ,his subject in St. Peter's at Rome. Benedict Biscop, Abbot of J arrow (who died A.D. 690), Drought, from the latter city, the first picture of ,he Crucifixion, of which there is record, to the ^orth of England. St. Augustine, advancing with lis monks to his first conference with King Ethel- Dert of Kent (A.D. 597), was preceded by a silver cross, and a Crucifixion painted upon a panel."

The Rev. R. St. John Tyrwhitt, in 'Art Teaching of the Primitive Church,' gives an llustration of a clothed Christ crucified be- tween two semi- nude thieves, taken from an xisting Laurentian MS. and dating from A.D 586; but he asserts: *'It is impossible to determine which is the earliest representa- tion of the Crucifixion or crucifix now in existence." He records that the first and second known examples were said by Angelo Rocca to be the workmanship respectively of Nicodemus and St. Luke. But the figure on the one attributed to the latter is prac- tically naked (the waistcloth being of con- tracted proportions) ; hence it suggests a much later treatment than does the former.

The 'Santo Volto,' or ' Vultus de Luca,' is fashioned in cedar, and is attributed to Nicodemus. Tradition says that, being re- duced to poverty, he when residing at Ranla, procured some wood of the trees growing in Lebanon, and started carving this identical figure. But, not being a practised crafts- man, he at last, in despair, gave up the hope of ever completing it satisfactorily, when one night an angel, out of pure compassion, visited him and finished the task. This crucifix, after divers experiences, is said to have been miraculously conveyed to Lucca, where it has undoubtedly been since A.D 782. In that year it was landed at the mouth of the river Magra, in the Gulf of Spezia, and Beato Giovanni, then Bishop of Lucca, placed it in the church of S. Frediano in the latter city. Giovanni died A.D. 800. Later (A.D. 930), the carving was removed to a cathedral then standing near the site of the present one (dedicated to St. Martin), which appears to have been built A.D. 1070; and since the erection of the latter it has remained there. It is probably of sixth-century work- manship ; certainly one of the earliest crucifixes in existence. It represents our Lord crowned as king, and vested in a long pontifical robe, as priest. It is guarded with great jealousy in a chantry situated upon the north-east of the nave, and is only exhibited, for the veneration of the faithful, upon seven or eight days in the year. Of these, Good Friday and the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross (3 May) are two. I saw it there many years ago, but a