174 ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTRECCI. 



an urn from which the healing water flowed. From an elegant 

 fluted vase, on a London pavement,* Illustration X., fig. i., 

 flowers are issuing, and we should not doubt that a detail of the 

 Dorchester pavement, fig. 2, is a highly conventionalised treat- 

 ment of the same motif. From an aesthetic standpoint, the 

 large amphora would have been spoilt by any floral contact. 

 But the flowers that would otherwise have issued from its mouth 

 have been transferred, with an artist's licence, to a neighbouring 



field. 



This vessel is shown, Illustration XIV., fig. 2, together 

 with an amphora from a sculptured marble sepulchre that was 

 found in the Etruscan cemetery of Perugia, fig. 3. It belonged 

 to the Velemnas family who had Romanised their name into 

 Volumnius. The inurnments ranged from B.C. 200 to B.C. 48, 

 and this was the latest.f It has a gadrooned body and scrolled 

 handles. But be it noted that birds are feeding from its interior. 

 A closely similar amphora, known as the " Vase of the Doves," 

 appears in the mosaic at the Capitoline Museum, Rome. 



There is an amphora, too, at the base of the cross of the VIII. 

 century already noticed, Illustration VIII., but the birds that 

 find food in it are peacocks. In Christian art the peacock 

 denotes a glorified human being ; whilst the vase on the one 

 hand, and the decussated disc on the other, represent the 

 Eucharistic Species. A peacock feeding from an urn may be seen 

 on the Brading mosaic ; and in the cathedral at Pola, of the VI. 

 century, vine branches issue from a vase, and Christ's monogram 

 is placed between two of these birds. 



Another sign must be dealt with. It is the last, and the least 

 understood. By those who have followed and who have yielded 

 any assent to previous arguments, it will be looked upon, in 

 advance, as a solar symbol. It is an intreccio, but a false one, 

 for it is composed of more than one strand. It is, in fact, an 

 interlacement of four ovals, Illustration VI., fig. 2. A similar 



* Arch, xxxvi., 204. 

 t Art Journal, 1882, p. 21. Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria ii., 437. 



