§ 111. IMAGES OF MADONNA AND SAINTS. 572
reverence for the saint represented by it, first appears in tlia Greek cliurch in the sixth century. And then, that the unin telligent people should in many cases confound the image with the object represented, attribute to the outward, material thing a magical power of miracles, and connect with the image sundry superstitious notions — must be expected. Even Augustine laments that among the rude Christian masses there are many image-worshippers,* but counts such in the great number of those nominal Christians, to whom the essence of the Gospel is unknown.
As works of art, these primitive Christian paintings and sculptures are, in general, of very little value ; of much less value than the church edifices. Tliey are rather earnest and elevated, than beautiful and harmonious. For they proceeded originally not from taste, but from practical want, and, at least ill the Greek empire, were produced chiefly by monks. It perfectly befitted the spirit of Christianity, to begin with earnestness and sublimity, rather than, as heathenism, with sensuous beauty. Hence also its repugnance to the imde, and its modest draping of voluptuous foi-ins ; only hands, feet, and face were allowed to appear.
The Christian taste, it is well known, afterwai'ds changed, and, on the principle that to the pure all things are pure, it represented even Christ on the cross, and the holy Child at Hia mother's breast or in His mother's arms, without covering.
Furthermore, in the time of Constantino the ancient classical painting and sculpture had gi'ievously degenerated ; and even in their best days they reached no adequate expression of the Christian principle.
In this view, the loss of so many of those old works of art, which, as the sheer apparatus of idolatry, were unsj^aringly destroyed by the iconoclastic storms of the succeeding period, is not mucli to be regretted. It was in the later middle ages, when church architecture had already reached its height, that Christian art succeeded in unfolding an unprecedented bloom of painting and sculpture, and in far surpassing, on the field
' De moribus ecclesiae cath. i. 75: "Novi multos esse picturarum adulate res." The Maiiichaeans charged the entire catholic church with image-worship.
574 THIED PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
of painting at least, the masterpieces of the ancient Greeks Sculpture, which can present man only in his finite limitation without the flush of life or the beaming eye, like a shadowy form fi-om the realm of the dead, probably attained among the ancient Greeks the summit of perfection, above which even Canova and Thorvvaldsen do not rise. But painting, which can represent man in his organic connection with the world about him, and, to a certain degree, in his unlimited depth of soul and spirit, as expressed in the countenance and the eye, has waited for the influence of the Christian principle to fulfil its perfect mission, and in the Christs of Leonardo da "Vinci, Fra Beato Angelico, Corrcggio, and Albrecht Diirer, and the Madonnas of Raphael, has furnished the noblest works which thus far adorn the history of the art.
§ 112. Consecrated G'ifts.
It remains to mention in this connection yet another form of decoration for churches, which had already been customary among heathen and Jews: consecrated gifts. Thus the temple of Delphi, for example, had become exceedingly ricli through such presents of wea})ons, silver and golden vessels, Btatues, &c. In almost every temple of Neptune hung votive tablets, consecrated to the god in thankfulness for deliverance from shipwreck by him.' A similar custom seems to have existed among the Jews; for 1 Sam. xxi. implies that David had deposited the sword of the Philistine Goliath in the sanctuary. In the court of the priests a multitude of swords, lances, costly vessels, and other valuable thinge, were to be seen.
Constantine embellished the altar space in the church of Jerusalem with rich gifts of gold, silver, and precious stones. Sozomen tells us' that Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, in a time of famine, sold the treasures and sacred gifts of the church, and that afterwards some one recognized in the dress of ar actress the vestment he once presented to the church.
' Comp. Horace, Ars poet, v 20. * H. E. iv. 2i).