SUBTERRANEAN ROME. 



653 



of St. Lucina, he ascribes to tlie second ; while 

 the great bulk of the Biblical paintings he 

 considers the work of the third century. He 

 divides the paintings, generally, into six 

 classes, those that are symbolical being the 

 earliest and largest ; the next, allegorical ; the 

 third, Biblical, depicting histories from both 

 the Old and New Testaments ; the fourth, pic- 

 tures of our Lord, the Virgin, and the saints ; 

 the fifth, scenes from the lives of these latter, 

 or from the history of the Church ; and scenes 

 from the Liturgy being the sixth. There does 

 not appear to be any addition to the known 

 circle of symbols recently discovered, but the 

 instances in which they are associated with 

 one another, interchangeably, and sometimes 

 with the names of the deceased on whose 

 gravestones they occur, make the array large. 

 One gravestone is illustrated, which the fossor 

 inserted in the wall with the name upside 

 down, but upon which the artist sculptured 

 his dove correctly, showing it must have been 

 executed after the stone was fixed in its place. 

 The subjects of the Biblical paintings are lim- 

 ited in number, and are also treated in a sym- 

 bolical manner. "We have Noah in the ark, 

 typical of baptism the ark a small box, with 

 a man in it, and sometimes a woman, as in the 

 instance in which a dead person's name is 

 painted on it, Juliana ; Jonas and the fish, a 

 type of the resurrection the fish being a 

 large-headed dragon with a long neck, per- 

 haps, it is supposed, to keep the representation 

 distinct from the fish, which was so often em- 

 ployed as a symbol of the Saviour ; Daniel in 

 the lions' den, intended either to encourage 

 the persecuted, or as an emblem of the res- 

 urrection, and used for both purposes by the 

 Fathers ; upward of twenty examples of the 

 adoration of the Magi ; Moses striking the 

 rock, whence issued the living water, which 

 was Christ ; and the resurrection of Lazarus, 

 or the Victory over Death ; and Moses taking 

 off his shoes as he approaches the burning 

 bush, typical of the renunciation of the world, 

 the flesh, and the devil. This limited range of 

 subjects occurs over and over again, as though 

 they were current illustrations of the thought 

 of those old times. No real portraits of Christ 

 or of the Virgin have been found, though it is 

 shown that there is always an adherence to 

 certain leading characteristics in the faces of 

 Sts. Peter and Paul in the glasses found in the 

 catacombs, as though from an attempt to 

 maintain a likeness. There are representa- 

 tions of Christ, however, one of which is 

 quoted by Kugler as the oldest portrait in ex- 

 istence, and, in consequence, is eagerly in- 

 quired for by visitors to the catacombs. This 

 is a head and bust in a medallion, occupying 

 the centre of a roof in a cubiculum in the 

 cemetery of Saints Nereus and Achilles. Its 

 claim to the highest antiquity is not allowed 

 by all. The liturgical paintings are very rare 

 quite, in fact, exceptional; they are found 

 in the cuMcula near the papal crypt we have 



mentioned, and belong to the end of the 

 second century. Baptism and the Consecra- 

 tion of the Holy Eucharist are the subjects 

 of representation the first mixed up with 

 Biblical stories and allegories,, and the second 

 still further veiled and complicated by the 

 sign of the fish, and both associated with full- 

 length figures of fossors about to hew with 

 their pickaxes fragments of rock. A man 

 fishing, another baptizing a youth in the same 

 water, and a paralytic carrying away his bed, 

 are painted on one wall. On that which faces 

 the doorway is a three-legged table with bread 

 and fish upon it, with a woman on one side of 

 it and a man on the other. The first is stand- 

 ing with arms thrown up and hands extended, 

 which is called an attitude of prayer ; and the 

 second, partially draped only in the pallium, 

 extends both hands toward the table, which 

 he actually touches with his right. This at- 

 titude has been interpreted by some to indi- 

 cate the act of consecration. Again, seven 

 men sit at a table with two dishes of fish be- 

 fore them, and eight baskets of loaves upon 

 the floor ; and close to them Abraham is pre- 

 paring to offer up his son. These last three 

 scenes, which are painted side by side between 

 two graves, have the figure of a bareheaded, 

 bare-legged fossor on either side of them. 

 The same series of subjects is introduced, 

 slightly varied in details, in the other cubicula 

 in the neighborhood of the papal crypt, which 

 persistence again suggests some familiar hom- 

 ily or teaching. Tertullian's explanation of 

 their meaning is referred to as sufficient for 

 their complete interpretation. 



Gilded glasses were also found in the cata- 

 combs; at the present time there are some 

 examples of them on loan in the South Ken- 

 sington Museum. There are about thirty 

 specimens also in the British Museum, and a 

 few others in the museums of Paris, Florence, 

 and Naples ; but the largest collection is in the 

 Vatican Library. Mr. "Wilshere, the owner 

 of the specimens at South Kensington, pos- 

 sesses about twenty. In all not more than 

 340 examples are known; and De Rossi's 

 twenty- three years of labor in the catacombs 

 have only yielded two fragments. They are, 

 we need scarcely add, generally the bottoms 

 of drinking-cups, with designs executed in 

 gold-leaf between two surfaces of glass, so 

 arranged that the figures and letters were 

 seen from the inside. The cups of which 

 they were the base were stuck in the cement 

 round newly-made graves before it hardened ; 

 but, as they were thinner than the double 

 glass enclosing the gold-leaf and more ex- 

 posed, they have in nearly every instance got 

 destroyed. The subjects depicted upon them 

 are more numerous than those painted on the 

 walls of the catacombs; and are minutely 

 described by the authors of the work from 

 which this summary is prepared. One of 

 those in the possession of Mr. Wilshere has 

 the Apostles Peter and Paul in the centre, 



