The figure of the Good Shepherd, usually a beard- less youth not over twenty years of age, with lon^ curly hair and a Joyful countenance, gave the most usual tjrpe of the personal figure of Christ, when rep- resented on the sarcophagi and in some of the frescoes of the Catacombs. Many of these sarcophagi are now in the Museum of the Lateran. One of the most in^ tereeting of these youthful figures of the Saviour hi sculptured monuments is that in the tomb of Juniu Bassus (A.D. 859), in the church of St. Peter, at Rome, in which Christ is represented disputing with the doe- ton. This tjrpe of the Saviour as a youth appeared again in some manuscripts, and in other paintings of the eariy part of the Middle Ages.
Quite a diflbrent type, however, predominated at a later period in all Christian art through the entire Middle Ages. The first example of it occun in a tab- let of ivory now in the Vatican museum. The second, and by &r the better example of this type, is a pahit- ing in a chapel in the catacombs of CallistnB. It is considered by recent Roman arehcologisto to be of the second century, but this is not at all probable. It represente the Saviour as about thirty-three years of age, with a somewhat elongated oval foce, beaided, with a grave and somewhat melancholy, but still sweet and benign expression of iigured innocence. The fea- tures are not to be recognised as distinctivdy Greek, Roman, or Jewish, but they are highly ideal. The brow is high ; the beard is sparse, somewhat pointed, and of a reddish hue; the hair paiis in the ntiddle, and flows in abundant curling masses over the shoulders. Of the many varieties of representations of Christ, of which Augustine speaks as existing in his day, tliit type soon gained Uie predominance in the Christian world, and it has held its place till modem timet. In the mosaics of the Basilicas and the Bysantine church- es, in Rome, Constontinople, and Ravenna, it gained an inexpressible grandeur, which was not entirely loft during the decadence of the so-called Byzantine period of painting (A. D. 600-1000). Almost its original pow- er was renewed under the hand of Giotto. It finally reached its highest development in Christ as the Re- deemer in Leonardo's Last Supper, and in Christ tbs Judge in Michael Angelo*s Last Judgment.
In the scenes of the birth, infimcy, and early child- hood of the Saviour, attempto have usually been made
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to infkim into his face indicationB of the divinity of his nature. Tlds reached its climax in the miniatoies of some Grecian manuscripts, in the paintings of tlie pre- Bapliaelites, and especially in the Christ of the Sistine Itadonna (at Dresden). Later in life, even Raphael painted the yontliAil Christ as merely a blooming or laughing child. Other Italian painters, in the deca- dence of morals of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies, painted portraits of beantifU children in the arms of their mistresses as madonnas. Some Flemish and Dutch painters imagined scenes in which Christ, as a dutiful child obedient to the law, was helping his mother in such homely duties as hanging out clothes which she was washing, or as helping his ikiher in his labors as carpenter.
When represented as disputing with the doctors, he is usually placed on a seat above the other figures, with his feet on a stool, as symbol of his high position and authority.
In whatever scene of his life he appeared, he is often represented, after the time of Constandne, with a nim- bus (q. V.) around his head, as a symbol of his heav- enly nature and origin, itis often also included a croeS) or the monogram ]^. He is usually represent- ed larger than the sunounding figures. As indicating his authority and power, the Saviour is often repre- sented with a g^obe— the universe— under his feet ; or as sitting on the c^obe, or the rainboir* or with a wand in his hand, especially while performfaig miracles. The Saviour was usually represented in the early works as wearing a tunic, over which was thrown the jxitftum of the ancients. The tunic often had two bands of purpto or of gold on the breast, and, like the pallium, it was of white cloth. Sometimes a volume, the New Testament, was placed in his hand, or he was placed between two cases of volumes, the Old and the New Testament.
Besides direct scenes firom his own Ufe, or repxe- Bentations indicating his holy mission, the Saviour was, during the first centuries, when symbolism was cairied to a very great perfection, sometimes repre- aented in scenes ftom the Old Testament, as in the fiery flunace with the three worthies, with Daniel in the lions' den, and in the place of Ibtes, when that patriarch was striking the rock.
Besides these extant representations of the Saviour in Christian art, we know that the Gnostics had what they called images of Christ as early as the second century. Raoul Boehette (Tgpea de PArt, p. 9 sq.) says that the cast of features described above as be- longing to the best portraits of Christ was derived from the Gnoetie artists. Compare also Ireneus, ado. Hmr. i, 26, § 6. A century later, the emperor Alexan- der Severus (A.D. 222-285) placed among his house- hold gods figures of Abraham and Christ beside those of the heathen deities.