istic type is well illustrated in the altar-cross at the Klosternenburg, Vienna, A.D. 1181, where the body is collapsed, tlie knees bent, tlie arms WTung, and the head sunk. In the IStli cent, the Crown of Thorns appears, and the feet are laid one over the other, so that the fimire is held by three nails instead of four. The Realistic tendency of the Middle Ages entirely ousted the earlier trium- phant type, and in the 14th cent, only the dead Christ is found upon the Cross in art. The revival of painting at this period led to a further increase of Realism, and the artists who pioneered the Renaissance delighted in the display of their ana- tomical knowledge : none the less there is much majesty of quiet reserve in such Crucifixions as those of Angelico in the 15tli or that of Luini at Lugano in the 16th century. Among the famous examples may be mentioned those of Giotto (at Padua), Mantegna, Perugino (at Florence), Anto- nello da Messina, Martin Schongauer, Hans Mem- ling, Raphael, Tintoret, Veronese, Rubens, and Vandyke, — the later being the more painful. The great Crucifixion by Velasquez, in the 17th cent. at Madrid, illustrates the furthest point which was reached. Westcott truly says that it 'presents the thought of hopeless defeat. No early Chris- tian would have dared to look upon it. ' The same type— a tortured figure hanging low from the hands— continued in the Crucifixes of the 18th cent., thougli the mediajval type was revived in the 19th, and at the present day there is a ten- dency to revert to the earliest Ideal type which showed Christ 'reigning from the tree.' There can be little dispute as to the fact that the mediaeval Crucifix did tend to over emphasize one aspect of our Lord's life, though its constant use in Lutheran churches forbids us to connect it specially with one set of opinions. There would jierhaps have been less feeling on the subject among English people if the Ideal type had been used— the benedictory figure, draped and crowned, which embodies the idea but does not attempt to represent the appearance of our Lord's death.
2. Symbolical Scenes.— As we have seen, the earliest of any representations of Christ is under the form of the Good Shepherd, and occurs before the end of the 1st cent., wliile dose upon this come pictures of Him in lli< Mulhei's arms, and a picture of His Baptism :,ii.l ,,r the Crowning with Thorns in the iiiv-t li;ill ui ihc 2nd century. Before the close of tlic liiul cent, there appear representations of Him in .scenes that are sym- bolical of Christian doctrine ; and the earliest of these are in connexion witli the Sacraments, wliile in the 3rd and 4tli centuries the pictures of Him surrounded by Saints in glory begin to appear.
(a) Sacrament Pictures. — In addition to the Gospel scenes of the Feeding of tlie Multitude, the Miracle of Cana, and the Baptism of Christ, in the Catacombs, there are Sacrament pictures that are purely symbolical.
In the Sacrament Chapels of St. Callistus, whose decorations belong to the second half of the 2nd cent., there is a figure of our Lord, beardless and wearint^- tlie pallium as usual, stretch- ing out His hands in the gesture of consecration over a tripod on which lie loaves and the mystic fish, while .'in ni-ans, typical figure of the soul of the person buri..l In iln/ i.i.i;., iiinlsby. Among other pictures in the same ]t!;i' : i.i n'l - li to re- ' the Seven Disciples at tlu- >■ ' 1 ■ , it-r the
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in baptism, and further stil! Baptism and the Eucharist ^m nexionof the two Sacraments done bv the juxtai)Ositiuii ni whi.-li tli-iv :nv ill il,, I ',,;,, ...I .Striking 11 . l: ■ .....
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CHRIST IN ART
CHRIST IN ART
In the Middle Ages there was a very poimlar form of Sacrament picture, wliich liad reference, however, to the sacriliee and not to Communion, viz. the ' Mass of St. Gregory,' referred to above, where Christ appears upon the altar with the at- tributes of His Passion, wounded, and cro^^■ned with thorns. Tlie modern Eucharistie pictures of our Lord, which are common among both Catholics and Protestants, need only the bare mention here.
(b) Pictures of Christ in Majesty. — There are no pictures of our Lord alone, or of Him as the central dominating figure of a formal group, till tlie 3rd century. Up till then— from as early a period as the end of the 1st cent.— the artists, when they wished to represent Him alone (as often in the centre of a decorated vault), were content to do so under the type of the Good Shepherd. At the beginning of the 3rd cent, there appears in the Catacomb of St. Pretestato the earliest picture of Christ as a solitary figure ; He sits reading the Law ; the face is young and beardless, and the hair is so ample as to give almost a feminine aspect. In the same century pictures occur of our Lord sitting in judgment, surrounded by saints, as, c.//., in the Nunziatella cemetery, where tlie Christ, beardless as usual, but with hair falling over the forehead, holds a scroll of the Law, and in the panels round the vault are four saints alternating with four orantes. There are seven examples in the Catacombs of Christ seated in the midst of the Twelve Apostles, and one of Him with the Four Evangelists, and also nine Iiu>ts, all p.unted in the 4th cent., i.e. the Constant nii;iii .la ; l.esides