Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/794

* CHRIST IN ART. 696 CHRIST IN ART. the mosaics of Santa Costanza (e.330). Santa I'udeutiana (e.440), Santa Maria ^laggiore (e.4;{(>), and Saint Paul (c.4o(, all in Konie, show how the visions of Saint John acquired more and more inlluence, until the culmination is reached in the twenty-four elders casting their crowns before a radiant bust of Christ in a medallion, with the four living creatures on either side. While this spiritual clement was being developed, art was beginning to construct, also under tireek inlluence. a complete series of pictures of the life of Christ, in three main groups: (a) Infancy: (b) iliracles ; (c) Passion: beginning with (1) the Annunciation; (2) Adoration of the Magi; (.3) Massacre of the In- nocents ; ( 4 ) Presentixtiim in the Temple ; ( 5 ) Fliglit into Egjpt, etc. The collection of sarcoph- agi in the Lateran iluseum in Kome give the best series of subjects illustrating tlic miracles — • the wooden doors of S.anta Sabina (Fifth Cen- tury), and the mosaics of San A]X)llinare. Raven- na, the most detailed scries of the Passion scenes, which were still without any element of suffering. Christ even here was the triumphant King. In the Santa Sabina reliefs is the first known por- trayal of the Crucifixion. The San Apollinarc series of ciOO admirably ilhistrate their trans- itional age. In the thirteen scenes fronn the Miracles, Christ is the beardless youth of the Christian sarcophagi (Fourth Century); in the thirteen scenes from the Passion, He has the later more majestic bearded type of the heavenly ajid triumphant Christ. The favorite scene in the apse of the basilicas is Christ on a throne or a globe, His head surrounded by a niml)us, holding a book in His left hand and blessing with His right, accompanied by angels and saint-s. who replace the apostles of the Fourth Century, except oc- casionally, though Peter and Paul are often re- tained. Sometimes — as at Saint .lohn Laternn, Saint Paul, and San Venanzio — only a bust of Christ appears in the clouds. Until the Ninth Century the popularity of the .A.pocalypse and the scenes from the Heavenly .lerusalem caused the lamb to be retained as an emlilem of Christ, even after a council of the Cliuvch had forl)idden such pictures. The period from e.500 to 800, therefore, wliile it witnesses the creation of a positively individual type of Christ, and gives artists the liberty of portraying all the events of His life — even those of the Passion — lays but little stress on the humanity and the sufferings, much on the divinity and triumph, of Christ. The Carlovingian Age "(800-1000) inaugurated the idea of the terror - striking Christ. The .pocalyptic scenes were partly replaced by re- alistic Last .Judgments. The story of the I)ainter-missionary Methodius terrifying the Bul- garians into conversion 1)V such a painting is t'pical. .-Vt the beginning of the period it is not universally so — witness the beautiful mo- saics of Santa Prassede in Rome. The type of Christ, also, still breathes majestic sweetness and calm. Byzantine art probably invented at this time some of its most beautiful types of Christ, handed down since by tradition — Christ winged as the Angel of the Divine Will, or as the High Priest. The illuminated nianiscripts of this period, both Byzantine and Carlovingian, give the most varied material for study. . favorite new composition is Christ crow-ning the Emperor (or Empress) of the Fast or West. In the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries Christ becomes more and more the severe Judge, with whom the Virgin and John the Baptist act as intercessor, though He is still surrounded by the four dieru- bim evangelists, the twelve apostles, and some- times the twenty-four elders. But He no longer appears seated on a glol>e or e throne with a lew saints in the celestial sphere — He is almost always brought into immediate contact with human ali'airs. The frescoes of Ferentillo. San Tommaso in l')rniis, San Pietro in Grado. in Pisa, the mosaics of Torcello. and imiuiiierable other works of the Eleventh and Twelfth cen- turies, show the increasing emphasis of the se- vere side of Christ's character, and the theolog- ical and dogmatic tendency. The growing asceti- cism (if the type of Clirist is shown also in By- zantine art, which, however, retains much beauty and serenity, which it does not lose until the Twelfth Century. The mosaics of San .Marco in enicc, of the cathedral of Cefalil, of Mon- leale. and the Capella Palatina in Palermo, are among the most important series of scenes and types of Christ. The Byzantine conception, as expressed in the Greek Guide to Paiitliiig, edited and translated by Didron and Durand, should be read in the presence of such mediaeval works, to show how traditional and carefully taught were all representations of the Saviour, as to type, age, garments, color, attitude, grouping with other figures, etc. Tile devotional idealism and realism of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries disputes the field with the [Kjwer to recreate a spiritual ty])e of Christ. In Italy the teiulcncy was to give prominence to the sufi'erings of Christ. This is painfully evident in those Crucifixions of the Berliiighicri, of Maigaritime. Cavallini. (iiovanni Pisano, and other jia inters and sculptors. The emaciated and distorted body, the drawn face, the gaping wounds arc intended to excite a sen- timental piety. French Gothic art was more se- date. The Christ carved for the cathedrals was the Divine Teacher. The statue of the Beau Chri.st of Amiens is typical of a large class, to be met with in Chartres, Rheims, Paris and elsewhere. Comparing the art of the West, both in its works and in such literary treatises as that of Durand [Halionale Diviiiuniiii OjJlcioTum), it is evident tiiat the West is comparatively narrow in its range of representations, and that it lays in- creasing emphasis on the psychological, even the jiathological side of Christ's life — a side very lightly liuichcd upon in the East. At the same time representations of the three persons of the Trinity became common in the West for the first time, often strangely imagined. For the first time, also, the scene of the Virgin and Child is often repeated. Not that it was entirely un- known in earlier times, but its sudden popularity accords with the humanitarian and psychological period. We are now met with two important facts: first, the death of the Christian (Byzan- tine) art of the East, which removes the most original and spiritual element in representations of Christ; second, the revival of painting under Giotto and his successors. While painters con- tinue, in their choice of subjects, to live on earlier traditions, they not only show the effects of the times by aliandoning dogmatic representa- tions of the Saviour for scenes of the Mother and Child and the Crucifixion, but they show it also by the attempt to give physical charm to the portraiture of Christ. While adhering in broad