GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 389 



every part of it, in spite of difficulties and perils of the gravest char- 

 acter : for example, the refusal of his guides to accompany him ; 

 dangers resulting from the intricacy of the passages, from the necessity 

 for clearing the way through galleries choked up with earth which fell 

 in from above almost as fast as it was removed ; hazards arising from 

 the difficulty of damming up streams of water which ran in upon them 

 from above, and from the foulness of the air and consequent difficulty 

 of breathing and preserving light in the lower chamhers ; all these, 

 and many other perils, have been overcome by the honorable perse- 

 verance of M. Ferret, and he has returned to France with a collection of 

 drawings which extends to 360 sheets in large folio; of which 154 

 sheets contain representations of frescoes, 65 of monuments, 23 of 

 paintings on glass (medallions inserted on the walls and at the bottoms 

 of vases) containing 86 subjects, 41 drawings of lamps, vases, rings, and 

 instruments of martyrdom to the number of more that 100 subjects, 

 and finally 90 contain copies of more than 500 sepulchral inscriptions. 

 Of the 154 drawings of frescoes two-thirds are inedited, and a consid- 

 erable number have been only lately discovered. Amongst the latter 

 are the painting on the celebrated wells of Platonia, said to have been 

 the place of interment, for a certain period, of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

 This spot was ornamented with frescoes by order of Pope Damasus, about 

 A. D. 365, and has ever since remained closed up. Upon opening 

 the empty tomb, by permission of the Roman Government, ]\L Perret 

 discovered fresco paintings representing the Saviour and the Apostles, 

 and two coffins [tombeaux] of Parian marble. 



These vast subterranean cavities in the early ages of Christianity 

 served as an asylum for persecuted believers, as a sacred place for the 

 celebration of their holy mysteries, and as the burial place of dead believ- 

 ers. In after times, when the new religion had triumphed, and Christians 

 were able to worship in public, the catacombs continued to be consecrated 

 cemetries, and the piety of the popes and of believers took pleasure in 

 enriching them with monuments and paintings, where the history of 

 Christian art is found reproduced, epoch by epoch, during a long series 

 of ao-es. Bv the discovery and restoration of these monuments, M. 



o ^ * 



Perret connects ancient with modern art, and illuminates certain points 

 of the history of Christianity. For instance, he has been enabled to 

 establish in the clearest manner the origin of the traditional images of 

 Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and a great number of holy 

 personages. In the catacombs of St. Calixtus, upon the Appian way, 

 he has discovered the most ancient paintings known, in which are rep- 

 resented the person of Christ, and subjects taken from the Old and 

 New Testaments. These paintings go back to the first and second 

 centuries. Expiring paganism and the new religion are singularly min- 

 gled together there, and the transition is marked as clearly as possible. 

 The subjects, for instance, are taken from the Old anil New Testa- 

 ments, but the distribution of the groups, the accessories, the whole 

 aspect, and generally whatever appertains to the mode of execution, 

 belongs to the yet flourishing pagan art. Christianity furnishes the 

 subject, paganism the form. From age to age, in proportion as Chris- 



