Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/335

 x] ANTIQUE CHRISTIAN PAINTING 317 brought no change in matters apparently irrelevant to the Faith and to the purer social morality demanded by it. Those who were in a servile position continued to live in the establishments of their patrons ; those who were of independent station did not change the style of their houses ; nor did they object to the com- mon modes of decoration, except when containing palpably idolatrous images. The decoration of Chris- tian houses and tombs becomes distinguishable by the omission of these and by the gradual substitution of Christian themes. For example, in the fresco on the ceiling of the lower entrance to the catacombs of S. Genaro dei Poveri at Naples (cir. 100 a.d.) there is nothing to shock the Christian conscience, and yet nothing distinctly Christian.^ Christian themes, how- ever, begin to appear on the somewhat later ceiling of the upper catacombs.* It may be said that the posi- tion of Christians toward art made part of their atti- tude toward matters of this world, and there would be individual differences of opinion.^ vation or damnation), topics from popular mediseval literature were represented in cathedral sculpture; see R. Rosi^res, LUvolu- tion de V architecture en France, Chap. X {Petite Bib. d'art, etc.). Cf. E. Male, L'art religieuz du XIII* siicle en France. 1 Oarucci, II, Tav. 90 ; cf. Schultze, Archaeologie der Altch. Kunst., p. 164. > Garucci, II, Tav. 96 et seq. These paintings are now scarcely visible. « Tertnllian, De Idolatria, VI, Vn, YIII, inveighs against Chris- tians helping to make idols. In Lib. 11, Cap. 22, of Adversua Mar- cionem, he distingnishes between images prohibited by the Mosaic law, catua idolatriae, and those quae non ad idolatriae titulum pertinebantf or which were simplex omamentum. Likewise the PoMiio Mnctorum quattuor coronatorum speaks of these martyrs of Diocletian's time who were artificers, at willing to carve an image