§ 84. EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. 309 



was sometimes placed horizontally on the heads of Greek 

 statues, to prevent their being defiled by the birds. But it 

 was not absolutely confined by the early Christians to saints, 

 though that with the cross within it was peculiarly set apart 

 for figures of the Saviour: it was sometimes placed on the 

 head of the principal personage in a fresco, or a mosaic *, as 

 of Justinian and Theodora in the mosaics of S. Vitale at 

 Eavenna. It is even given to Herod at the slaughter of the 

 Innocents in a very early painting in an Egyptian rock- 

 church ; and living persons had sometimes a square nimbus. 



These and many other facts suffice to prove that Christian 

 art followed the general custom of borrowing from a pre- 

 decessor ; and though it was at first of a debased style, this 

 was not because it scorned to copy from Pagan models. It 

 was inferior, because its models were inferior, to those of old ; 

 it copied, or followed, its predecessor ; and did not originate, 

 though it altered and modified what it borrowed, and it was 

 not till afterwards that it created a new type. 



84. Paintings in fresco were more employed by the first 

 Christians than sculpture; and the earliest that remain at 

 Eome are in the Catacombs. The mosaics put up by order 

 of Constantine were executed by workmen instructed in the 

 then existing arts of Pagan Eome, and cannot properly be 

 included in the works of the Christians ; and those of the 

 so-called Baptistery of Constantine have no cross and no 

 Christian emblems. 



The early sculpture of the Christians, which was of rather 

 later date, was mostly confined to bas-relief ; and here we dis- 

 tinctly trace the influence of Pagan models. But primitive 

 Christian art, both in painting and sculpture, derived, as I 



* In a painting at Pompeii (Gcll, PI. xxxix. p. 135) a round shield placed 

 behind Achilles has been thought to perform the same office. See also 

 PL xxxviii. xli. lxxx. vol. i. Inghirami Galler. Omcriea, where the deities have 

 each the nimbus, and they are not of Pagan time. 



X 3 



