The Decorative Sculpture : Vines 283 



the Baptism, and the Crucifixion, besides two horsemen in mortal 

 combat, and, in another place, two men on foot engaged in a duel.^ 

 Hence we have here a similar collocation of genre and Scriptural 

 subjects to that on the Bewcastle Cross. 



II. THE DECORATIVE SCULPTURE 



The decorative sculpture comprises (p. 29, above) vines, chequers, 

 interlacings, and the sundial. 



1. THE VINES 2 

 The vine is the most ancient subject of Christian art,^ since it is 

 figured as early as the beginning of the 2d century in the catacomb 

 of Domitilla. 



There is a vaulted roof, over which a vine trails with all the freedom 

 of nature, laden with clusters at which birds are pecking, while winged 

 boys are gathering or pressing out the grapes.* 



Another example occurs in the catacomb of Callistus,^ of the 3d 

 century, and there is a mosaic with vintage-scenes, birds, and genii ^ 

 in the circular aisle of S. Costanza (4th century). 



Whether or not such vines and grapes, with or without birds, were 

 intended to be symbolical in the earliest Christian art, they were 

 soon invested with a meaning. The vine was associated with Christ 

 (John 15. 1 ff.), and is thus sometimes wreathed around the Good 

 Shepherd or the monogram of Christ, and employed as a decoration 

 on crosses. By an identification of the Promised Land, from which 

 the cluster of grapes was brought back (Num. 13. 23), with the Heav- 

 enly Paradise, grapes were regarded as emblematical of the joys 

 of heaven ; and the doves that fed upon the grapes were interpreted 



1 Venturi 3. 190; Michel 1^. 698. 



2 See pp. 19-20, 22-23, 26-28. 



^ Smith and Cheetham, Diet. Christ. Antiqq. 2. 2018. 



* Ihid. 1. 693; cf. Tuker and Malleson, Handbook of Christian and Eccles. 

 Rome 1. 509: ' The painting is exquisite as art, and has been compared by 

 De Rossi with that of the ViUa of Livia, and with that of the most perfect 

 columbaria of the time of Augustus.' 



^ Smith and Cheetham 1. 698. 



* Handbook 1. 157; Smith and Cheetham 1. 694; Encyc. Brit., 9th ed., 

 16. 852. 



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