326 Weber: 



hundert, wie sie angiebt(i), und zwar da die Bilderstürme dieser Zeit 

 (von 726-840) die Bildwerke der alten Griechischen Kirchen vernichtet 

 haben, nur im Abendlande. Hiebei ist nun zunächst zu bemerken, dafs das- 

 jenige Bild, welches Mrs. Jameson als älteste Darstellung speciell der Ma- 

 donna Lactans aufführt, die Mosaiken nämlich auf der Fa^ade des Portikus 

 der S. Maria in TrastevereC-^), von Fr. Kugler in seinem „Handbuch der 

 Malerei" (2. Ausgabe durch Dr. Burckhardt Berl. 1847) I, 271 erst in die 

 Jahre 1139-53 versetzt wird, somit nicht in das achte, erst in das zwölfte 

 Jahrh. gehört, und dafs ferner alle die übrigen Beispiele der Art(3), welche 



(') „We find — sagt sie [p. 61] — the primeval Byzantine type, or at least the exact 

 reproduction of it, in the most ancient western churclies and preserved to us in the nios- 

 aicsofRome, Ravenna and Capua. These remains are nearly all of the sanie date, much 

 later than the Single figures of Christ as Redeemer, and belonging unfortunately to a lower 

 peiiod and style of art. The true significance of the representation is not however left 

 doubtfal; for all the earliest traditions and inscriptions are in this [pag. 62] agreed, that 

 such effigies were intended as a confession of faith, an acknowledgment of the dignity of 

 the Virgin Mary as the „Sancta Dei Genitrx", as a visible refutation of the „infamous, ini- 

 quitous and sacrilegious doctrines of Nestorius the Heresiarch." 

 Die ältesten Darstellungen der Art nun seien : 



1) the mosaic of the Cathedral of Capua; .... the virgin is seated on a rieh throne, 

 Christ seated on her knee and clothed holds a cross in his left hand: the right is 

 raised in benediction: 



2) the next in date which remains visible is the group in the apsis of S. Maria 

 della Navieella (Rome), executed about 820; . .. Maria on a throne . . the Infant Christ 

 is seated in her lap and raises his hand to bless the worshippers: 



3) [pag. 63] in the Santa Maria Nova (Roine) the Virgin is seated on a throne 

 wearing a rieh crown, as queen of heaven. The Infant Christ Stands upon her knee: 

 she has one hand on her bosom and sustains him with the other : 



4) on the fa^ade of the portico of the S. Maria in Trastevere at Rome the virgin 

 is enthroned and crowned and giving her breast to the child. This mosaic is of 

 later date than that in the apsis, but it is one of the oldest examples of a represent- 

 ation which was evidently directed against the heretical doubts of the Nestorians. The 

 Virgin in the act of suckling her child is a motive often since repeated, when the 

 original significance was forgotten." 



(-) s.Bunsen, d.Basilikendeschristl. Rom. München 1842 pl.XLIV. (s.unsereTaf. IVuo.2.) 



(■"') In der Bibliothek zu St. Gallen (no. 53) befindet sich ein dem Abt Tutilo (f 912) 



zugeschriebenes Evangeliarium mit Elfenbeindeckeln, deren vorderer den thronenden 



Christus, umgeben von Cherubim und den Evangelisten, und unterhalb desselben auf der 



einen Seite eine ihr Kind stillende Mutter in halbliegender Stellung zeigt. Vgl. die Ab- 



