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The Symbolism of Certain Catacomb Frescoes-I

Author(s): Ethel Ross Barker


Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 24, No. 127 (Oct., 1913), pp. 43-45+47-
50
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Early
Furniture
arrived at
by
a
perfectly simple
and
straightforward
process
of
carpentry.
Such is the
genesis
of the
linen-panel;
and such is
virtually
the
primitive
type
in which it
appears,
for
example,
in the west
door of Milton Church
by Sittingbourne, Kent,
or
in the domestic
panel-work
of
Wilsley
House and
the
"Barracks",
both at Cranbrook in the same
county.
The
precise
date of the earliest occurrence of
the
linen-panel
cannot be
determined;
but it is
found as an established ornamental motif
by
the
middle of the
15th century (perhaps
first in
northern
France)
and remained in current use
down to the close of the 16th
century,
or even
later. For at
any
rate the first
fifty years
of its
career,
it continued to be an abstract ornament:
but the accidental resemblance to the folds of
drapery having
once been
noticed,
the idea was
eagerly
seized
upon
and elaborated with charac-
teristic
exaggeration.
The
single
arris of the
original plain panel
first became
multiplied
into
three, four,
five or
even
more arrises. But this
was not
enough.
Folds to simulate the
appearance
of a textile
spread
out and turned over on
itself,
were added in
increasing complexity
as time went
on;
a further imitative feature
being
sometimes
introduced in the
shape
of an incised or
punched
pattern along
the
upper
and lower
edges
to
suggest
an embroidered
border,
or the
selvedge
of a textile.
But from the
purest
to the most debased
stage
of
the linen-fold
pattern,
its one invariable feature is
the central
arris;
while the treatment of the
extremities admits of almost endless variation.
The
greatest
licence in this
regard
was
indulged
in
by
German and Flemish woodcarvers. Some-
times these fantastic elaborations take the form
of conventional
flowers,
fruits or
foliage, beyond
the
extremities
of the folds.
Very rarely
indeed
is
any
extraneous
object
allowed to intrude itself
upon
the surface of the folds themselves. Thus
the north door of the church of S. Mildred at
Canterbury
is
altogether exceptional,
for there the
uppermost
row of
linen-panels
has a Tudor
rose in the middle of
each,
whilst others
have a
superimposed
shield
[PLATE, D].
These
specimens
are
thickly
coated with
paint,
but
the
detail,
with five
arrises,
is nevertheless
unmistakably
clear. A set of
panels, showing
three variant forms with a
single
arris between
turnover
folds
[PLATE, A,
B &
c]
is
now
made
up
into stallwork in the chancel of
Tisbury
Church,
Wiltshire. The most
striking
is one of
the narrower ones
(9
in.
wide)
with a
peculiarly
short arris
[c].
The third
panel [B]
is II1 in.
wide,
and all three are
I ft. 2- in.
high, sight
measure.
The framed
panels [E],
with a frieze of renaissance
character, appear
to be of about the
year 1525.
They
no doubt
belonged
to a hall-screen or some
other
partition
in a situation where
they might
be
seen on both
surfaces,
for the stiles at the back
are finished with
carefully
executed
mouldings.
The second and the lowest tiers of
panels
show the
linen-pattern
with fanciful leaf-like ornament at
the
extremities,
while the third tier from the
top
comprises panels
of one arris flanked
by
a some-
what involved series of turnover folds. The
panels
are
uniformly
8J
in.
wide,
their
height varying
from
19
to
I9)
in. The total
height
of the com-
bined frame of
panels
is
7
ft. 6 in.
by 4
ft.
I in.
This
example
is the
property
of Mr. F. Clements
Harper,
to whom thanks are due for his
permission
to
reproduce
it.
THE SYMBOLISM OF CERTAIN CATACOMB FRESCOES-I
BY ETHEL ROSS BARKER
HE earliest
examples
of Christian
art in Rome-the frescoes of the
Catacombs-
faithfully
reflect some-
thing
of the
complex
mind of that
cosmopolitan and,
in some
respects,
syncretistic community.
A
dispassionate
examina-
tion of their artistic form and of their inner mean-
ing
reveals some characteristics of the
primitive
Christian rather unlike the
popular conception
of
him.
The first fact that we seem to discern in the ex-
amination of the
forms-literary, artistic, liturgical,
doctrinal-in which the
spiritual conceptions
of
Christianity
clothed
themselves,
is the
continuity
of
development,
a
spiritual evolution,
from
pre-
Christian to Christian
thought.
So far as artistic
style goes,
the Catacomb frescoes
are
Hellenistic;
there is
scarcely
one which would
arrest the
eye
as remarkable if found on the walls
of a house in Alexandria or
Pompeii.
It is true
that the ideas here
depicted
are
very
different.
The few
purely
decorative
subjects
are
discreetly
selected:
sun,
moon and river
god
are
seen,
and
man's toil
through
the four
seasons;
doves and
peacocks
flutter
among foliage; Cupids
and
Psyches play among
the
flowers; shepherds
and
fishermen
carry
out their work in
exquisite
little
pastoral
scenes. One of the most beautiful
examples
of such decoration is of the
Ist
century,
in the noble
Catacomb on the Via
Ardeatina,
the
property
of
Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Domitian. I cannot
forbear
noting
that last
year
some more
graves
were
discovered here,
and
they
have been
identified,
with
very
little
doubt,
as those of Narcissus and
others
mentioned in S. Paul's
Epistle
to the Romans.
This Hellenism in
style
is found
equally
in
Jewish
and Christian
subjects, among
which there is
scarcely
one that cannot be connected with a
43
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The
Symbolism of
Certain Catacomb Frescoes
similar
pagan representation.
To mention a few
only
: the ark of Noah recalls the chest in which
DanaE crossed the sea with the infant
Perseus; Jonah
reclines under his
gourd
in the
pose
of
graceful
abandonment seen in the drunken fauns beloved
of Hellenistic
art;
his whale recalls the
friendly
dolphin
of
Arion;
while the risen Lazarus comes
out of a classic
tomb, quite
unlike
any
Christian
sepulchre
of the
period.
But this Hellenism
penetrates deeper
than mere
form,
for in the earliest
days
the Christian
adopted
for his own
and,
as we shall see
later, interpreted
in his own
sense,
the
figure
of Hermes
bearing
the
sheep
on his shoulders
(Hermes Kriophoros)
[FIGURE I];
that of
Orpheus
with his
lyre; and,
in
all
probability,
the fish
symbol
and the
dove,
from
Syria
and India.
In this connexion we
may note,
in
passing,
how
the
persistent semi-paganism
of the new converts
after the Peace of the Church
(A.D. 313)
is
reflected,
in a
temporary pagan reaction,
in certain Catacomb
frescoes. S.
Augustine says
:-
Look how
many
Christians are half
heathen; they
have
joined
us with their
bodies,
but never with their heart and
soul.'
Just
at this
period
we find in the Catacombs a
perceptible
increase of
purely
secular
subjects
in
the form of
delightful
little
genre pictures
: flower-
sellers, charioteers, wine-sellers,
bakers. More
remarkable are the rare
mythological representa-
tions,
different in
spirit
from the
Orpheus
and
other
pagan symbols
of the
early
converts. In a
strange syncretistic picture
of the
judgment
after
death a woman
(Vibia) appears
before the
tribunal of Pluto
(Dispater)
and
Proserpine
(Aeracura).
She is introduced
by Mercury,
the
messenger,
and
Alcestis,
while
opposite
stand the three "divine Fates" The
conception,
composition
and execution are
classic,
and the
names over each
person
leave no doubt as to the
meaning
of the
picture.
The
story
is continued
in the
adjoining
fresco. Vibia is
"
introduced "
by
"a
good angel"
into the
gardens
of
paradise,
where,
in
proper
Christian
fashion,
she is
partaking,
all in the same
picture,
of the celestial
banquet
in
the
company
of those who have been
"judged
in
the
judgment
of the
good
".
To return to the more
primitive pagan-Christian
symbolism.
These
slight
manifestations of the link
in
form,
and sometimes in
subject,
with
pre-
Christian
thought,
bear
witness,
I
think,
to a
deeper
identity ; that of
religious consciousness. In some
sense, Paganism
was the matrix out of which the
jewel
of
Christianity developed.
There is after all
a great similarity
in
religious experience;
and we
find
that man's
conception
of his relation to some
power
above himself has ever tended to
crystallize
itself into a belief in some divine sacrifice in which
man
shares,-materially
and
spiritually-by
some
sort of
communion,
to
approach
which he must
purify
himself and
by
which he obtains immor-
tality. Symbolizing
and
expressing
these
concep-
tions,
we find
universally
a form of
baptism
or
puri-
fication
by water, some
drama of a divine
sacrifice,
some form of communion-meal. These
symbolic
acts are then carried out
by
rites
expressive
of
man's emotions-dance, procession, music, lights,
and so on. At all
periods
the
original conception,
symbol
and ritual are of
necessity inadequate,
and
further liable to all manner of distortions.
These universal beliefs were embodied in the
worship
of
Osiris, Mithras,
and the
rest,
at the
moment when
Christianity
dawned on the world.
To the
primitive
Christian convert it must have
seemed that his old faiths were not
overthrown,
but realized and fulfilled. As of old he was
baptized;
was
given,
as one
new-born,
the
sym-
bolic milk and
honey
of the
neophyte ;2
took
part, year by year,
in the divine Passion and
Resurrection;
and was admitted to Communion
by
means of the "Hostiam
puramn,
Hostiam
sanctam,
Hostiam
immaculatam
"-the
pure, holy,
and immaculate Host :-words found
to-day
in
the Canon of the Roman
Mass,
and
already
ancient
in
the
4th century.
"
Et
antiquum
docu-
nzentum
novo cedat
ritui'"
rightly explains
his
attitude;
and the
Neoplatonic philosopher
who
knew the uncreated and creative Word-In
prin-
cipio
erat
verbumn-had
little
difficulty
in
accepting
the Christian
message:
et
verbumn
caro
factum
est.
The learned
Justin says :3
All that philosophers or legislators
at
any
time declared or
discovered
aright, they accomplished according
to their
portion
of
discovery
and
contemplation
of the Word.
Justin (martyred
about
166)
was much
occupied
by questions
of
comparative religion,
and while he
was
wont,
as were the other
Fathers,
to ascribe the
numerous errors in
paganism
to the
agency
of
demons, yet he,
Clement of Alexandria
(2nd
century),
and other writers all hold that
Orpheus,
the
Sibyls,
the Greek
philosophers,
had received
some measure of the revelation of God. So it
is
that,
at the
very
dawn of
Christianity,
we find
depicted
on
graves
of
martyr, kinsman,
or
friend,
the Good
Shepherd, Orpheus,
the
fish,
the dove
.
. all sacred
symbols
in
pagan worship.
These
symbols, however,
were
interpreted
in terms of
Christian
thought.
A
recognition
of this
simple
fact would
prevent
some of the wild
comparisons
drawn between
Christianity
and
paganism.
While so much is uncertain, we are here at
least on sure
ground;
and I think we
may say
that all scholars who have an intimate
knowledge
of the catacomb frescoes are in
agreement
as to
their
meaning,
with the
exception
of a few
subjects.
As
Mgr. Wilpert'
and others have
pointed out, the
significance
of these
paintings
1 Serm. 2 in
Migne, Patrologia Latina, t. 38, col. 423.
2
Epist. Barnabas, 6; see later.
3
Apol.
II in
Migne's Patrologia Gracca,
t.
6, col. 459.
4
Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms.
44
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(A)
THE EUCHARISTIC BANQUET.
BEGINNING OF 2ND CENTURY. IN THE CATACOMB OF S. PRISCILLA
(B)
MOSES STRIKING THE
ROCK,
THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES AND
FISHES,
THE
EPIPHANY, ORANTES.
NOAH, LAZARUS, DANIEL, TOBIAS,
AND
THE PARALYTIC. MIDDLE OF THE
4TH
CENTURY. IN THE CATACOMB UNDER THE VIGNA MASSIMO
THE SYMBOLISM OF CERTAIN CATACOMB FRESCOES-]
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The
Symbolism
of
Certain Catacomb Frescoes
to the
primitive
Christian consciousness is
revealed to us in a mass of
contemporary
litera-
ture-patristic writings, epigraphy, liturgy,
and
Acts of the
Martyrs.
In
dealing
with this
large
subject
we will
briefly
summarize the results
obtained,
in a classification of the
subject
matter
of the
frescoes,
and note what further
light
is
thrown by
them on the
mentality
of the
primitive
Christian. We will then discuss in detail certain
of the
frescoes,
as an illustration of the method of
investigation,
and as a
justification
of the state-
ments made in the classification.
We
may
first remind the reader that the Cata-
combs which we are
considering,
about
thirty
in
number,
lie within a limit of three miles from the
Aurelian
wall,
all
along
the roads which radiate
from Rome to the farthest cities of the
empire.
The
comparatively
small
portions
excavated have
yielded many
hundred frescoes of the first four
centuries
(during
which
period
the catacombs
were used as a
place
of
burial);
and a few of the
subsequent
four
centuries,
when
they
were a
place
of
pilgrimage.
It is with the earlier
frescoes
only
we are concerned
here.
The
style
of
representation,
as well as the
primi-
tive method of
interpretation,
is
symbolic, allusive,
allegorical.
As an
example:
the two miracles of
the
feeding
of the multitudes are alluded to under
the
symbol
of seven
(occasionally eight
or
ten)
baskets of
bread;
sometimes the
figure
of Christ
touches one of the baskets with a
long
rod. Thus
these frescoes reveal the mind of the
primitive
Christian,
which
delighted
in
symbolism
and
allegory.
If
we exclude a
very
few
subjects
at
present
unexplained,
or
apparently unimportant,
and
those decorative and
genre pictures
referred to
above,
the
remaining
frescoes
give us,
at a
very
rough estimation, something
like
fifty subjects
repeatedly represented.
As
regards
the
dating
we
may note,
in
passing,
that three of these
subjects [PLATE, B]-Noah
in the
ark,
Daniel
in the lions'
den,
the Good
Shepherd-appear
among
the few
Ist-century
frescoes remain-
ing.
Most of the familiar
symbols--Orpheus,
the
fish,
the
anchor,
the
dove,
the orante
-appear very early
in the 2nd
century;
and
by
the end of the
3rd
we have
examples
of
nearly
every
known fresco. This
period,
well illustrated
too in the
literature,
is the
high-water
mark of
primitive
Christian art. A
very large
number of
frescoes, but
only
a few new
subjects, belong
to
the 4th century.
The frescoes do not
represent a
number of disconnected incidents chosen at
random, but fall into three definite
groups-each
being
an
exposition of some
aspect
of Christian
doctrine. These
subjects continually appear
arranged
in a
cycle
of
perhaps
half a dozen
selected symbols
on some
single grave
or
chapel,
and the Christian could read
off, in those col-
located
symbols, rightly interpreted,
the main
articles of his faith. These
groups
consist
of:-
I.
Those frescoes
dealing
with the LIFE OF THE
DEPARTED. These form the vast
majority,
as
might
be
expected
in a
place
of the
dead,
and
depict
every phase
of their existence. In addition to the
frescoes to be discussed
later,
we
may place
in this
group
the
primitive dove,
the
anchor,
the
palm
and that
oft-repeated
woman's
(rarely
a
man's)
figure
with
suppliant
hands-the orante-which
probably represents
the soul
[anima, feminine]
of the
departed (occurring 153 times).
II. Those frescoes
representing
OUR
LORD,
either
more or less
realistically,
or
symbolically.
Some of these are
very beautiful,
but the number
is
surprisingly
few.
Among
them are
repre
sented
:--Orpheus,
who is a
symbol
of our Lord
and the Incarnation
(see later).
This doctrine is
expressed
more
realistically
in frescoes of the Birth
in the Stable
(one only),
the Adoration of the
Magi
(one
being
of the
early
2nd
century)
and the
Madonna and the Child.
(The significance
of
one of these so-called Madonnas
is,
I
think, very
dubious.) Further,
there are
represented
the
actual
Baptism
of our Lord
(from early
2nd
century)
(4 times),
and various miracles of
healing, nearly
every
one of these
interpreted
in a sacramental
sense
(see later).
There is a doubtful
Crowning
with
Thorns,
and a Denial of S.
Peter. Our Lord
is
represented (over
Ioo
times)
as the Good
Shepherd (from
the
Ist century). Chiefly
in the
more literal and
practical 4th century
He is
depicted
as teacher and
law-giver among apostles,
or
evangelists:
also as
judging
the
dead,
and
rewarding
the
martyrs.
Connected with this
Christological group
are the sixteen
representations,
so classic in
execution,
of Adam and
Eve, symbols
of that Fall of Man
("
0 felix
Culpa")
which
caused the Incarnation.
III. The frescoes of the SACRAMENTAL
group
(from
2nd
century) represent, directly,
or
usually
symbolically,
the sacraments of the Eucharist and
Baptism. Among
the eucharistic frescoes
may
be
placed,
with
certainty,
several of those
representing
banquets [PLATE, A].
A few of those
banquet
scenes
represent,
not the
Eucharist,
but the celestial
banquet
in
Paradise;
a few the love-feast
(the
agape);
but the
subject
bristles with difficulties.
Other eucharistic
symbols
are the Sacrifice
of Abraham
(22 times),
and the
Changing
of
water into wine at Cana of Galilee. But the
favourite sacramental
types
are the fish
symbol
(see later), occurring,
either as a
type
of
baptism
or of the Eucharist, very many times; the
miracles of the
multiplication of the loaves
and fishes; and the meal after the Resurrection
by
Lake Tiberias (see later).
Other
types
of
Baptism
are Noah in the Ark
(also a
type
of deliverance from
peril (32); Moses
striking
the rock: (also,
as we see in the
liturgies,
a
47
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The
Symbolism of
Certain Catacomb Frescoes
type
of " deliverance from
peril"
and
"'refresh-
ment for the soul of the
departed" (68);
the
Healing
of the Blind Man
(7) (see later);
and the
Paralytic
at the Pool of Bethesda
(15).
The actual
incident of
Baptism
is
represented
in that of our
Lord
(4),
and of a Catechumen
(4) (from
2nd
century).
It
would be difficult to find
any
other
subject
in
the Catacombs: for the numerous
apparently
historical incidents taken from those books which
became later the Canon of the
Scriptures (includ-
ing Apocrypha, which,
of
course,
is still retained
in the Catholic
Bible),
are all to be
interpreted
either in a sacramental
sense,
or as a
symbol
for
the
departing
soul of the deliverance God ever
brought
to His servants
(see later).
These frescoes are at one with the
very
earliest
literature in
revealing
the minds of these first
Christians as much
preoccupied
with doctrinal
questions.
The
spirit, too,
which in a
place
of
burial
repeatedly represented
the
Sacraments,
must have held those Sacraments as the heart
and soul of their faith. This last fact we
might
have
already
foreseen when we consider the
relations of
Christianity
to
paganism
to which we
have referred above. It is difficult to
imagine
that
the
Jew,
with his sacrificial
system,
and the Gentile
with his need (as
revealed in his
religions)
of a
sacramental
system,
could have been satisfied
by
a
faith which was not based on sacramentalism.
It has been remarked
by
some writers that in the
Catacombs there are no
representations
of the
ecclesiastical
hierarchy.
To refer to one
among
a hundred
proofs
that such a
hierarchy
existed
from
Apostolic days,
we need
only
refer the reader
to the
Teaching of
the
Apostles5
of the
very beginning
of the 2nd
century
for minute details thereon.
In the Catacombs themselves we find numerous
inscriptions
of
bishops, priests, deacons,
sub-
deacons, readers, exorcists,
clerks
(notarii)
and
sextons
(fossores).6
After
all,
we do not
depict
on
the
graves
of our
dead, portraits
of
archbishop,
bishop
or
parish priest-nor
even
ordination,
nor
the
marriage
rites.
Proceeding
to the second
part
of our
discussion,
it remains now
to
justify
these statements
by
an
examination of a
few fresco
subjects
in the
light
of the literature
contemporary
with
them,
as an
illustration of
method,
and so
give
a mere indica-
tion-a
hint--of
all that
might
be said on each
subject.
First let us consider the
origin
and
significance
of the
Shepherd bearing
the Sheep
(of
the Ist century
and
later).
This
youth-
ful Good Shepherd
with the lamb across his
shoulders
[FIGURE I]
is
purely
Hellenistic in artistic
conception;
its ancestry
can be traced at least as
far back as the archaic
figure
of Hermes bearing
a
sheep
- Hermes the
producer
of fruitfulness in
the flocks. There is a
gulf
fixed between that idea
and the Christian
interpretation
"
I
am the
good
Shepherd".
There is
scarcely
an
early
Christian
writer who has not meditated on this
symbol,
but
the words of the ancient
prayer
for the dead in the
Gelasian Sacrament' are
surely inspired by
the
actual
fresco,
"
Be merciful to him .
.
. Show
Thyself
to him the Good
Shepherd
and bear him
on
Thy
shoulders ". This
Shepherd bearing
the
sheep,
and often
carrying
a Pan's
pipe
and
standing
between two
other
sheep
in
a little
pastoral
picture
is
closely
related to the
subject
of the
Shepherd
with
pipe
or
pastoral
staff in his
hands
guarding
his flock
-
a
figure
fruitful in
symbolism.
One
interpretation
out of
many
is
found in the
authentic "Acts
of
Polycarp"
(2nd century),
in which our
Lord is de-
FIGURE I
scribed as "the
Shepherd
of the Catholic Church
all over the world".
This
aspect
of the Good
Shepherd
is
emphasized by
the rolls of
parch.
ment often
depicted
in His hand or at His side:
"Jesus
Christ... the Good
Shepherd
and
law-giver
of the one flock
", says
Clement of Alexandria
(2nd
century);
and we find
Abercius, Bishop
of
Hierapolis (2nd century), describing
himself as "a
disciple
of the Good
Shepherd". (See later.)
Somewhat akin to this are the five frescoes of
Orpheus represented,
as in innumerable classic
designs,
in his
long
white
robe,
mantle and
Phrygian cap,
and
bearing
his
lyre.
He is
usually
surrounded
by sheep only,
but in the Domitilla
fresco
(4th century) by
a
delightful variety
of beast
and bird.
Eusebius8 gives
the Christian inter-
pretation; namely,
that the
Orpheus-Christ
is a
type
of the Incarnation:-
Greek fables relate .. that Orpheus with his
lyre
tamed the wild beasts, and with the charm of his song
drew the oak-trees after him. Wherefore the all-wise and
all-harmonious Word of God jthe
Logos],
when He healed
with divers remedies the minds of men
corrupted with
manifold iniquities,
took in His hand a musical instrument
fashioned
by
His own wisdom,
even His human
nature,
and on it
played
a bewitching music; not,
as
Orpheus,
to
the brutes, but to minds endowed with reason. And He
tamed alike Greeks and barbarians, and healed with the
medicine of celestial doctrine the fierce and brutal instincts
of their
spirits.
5 The Didache,
ed. Gibson.
*
Marucchi, Epigrafia
cristiana.
7
Muratori, Liturgia
Romana vetus, I, p. 44o,
ed.
176o.
8
De Laud. Constan., XIV.,
in Pat.
Grcac.
t. 20, col. 1409.
48
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The
Symbolism
of
Certain Catacomb Frescoes
Eusebius is
apparently only developing
Clement of
Alexandria
(2nd century),
who calls the
Logos--
the Word Incarnate-" the musician
harmonizing
all
things,
the
singer
of the new
song".
Again,
the
FISH as
depicted
in the Catacombs is
no
longer
the
symbol
of some oriental fish
deity,
but,
as we shall
see,
an
image
of Christ Himself as
revealed in
Baptism
and the Eucharist. As a
type
of
Baptism
the Fish-sometimes
resembling
a
dolphin
in form-is
represented alone; or,
as in a
fresco of the
Chapel
of the Sacraments
(2nd
century)
in S.
Callixtus,
as
being
drawn
by
a
fisherman out of water
flowing
from a rock: in
that water is
depicted
the
Baptism
of Christ.
Let us see what the fathers have to
say
on this
point.
First Tertullian
(16o-240)
writes:--9
But
we, little fish, are born in water
according
to our
Fish (IXOTN) Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere we find:-
The elect are the celestial race of the divine Fish : they
are the little fish born in the water which flows from that
rock which is
Christ,
formed in his
image, drawing
from
the
quenchless
source the
knowledge
of eternal wisdom.
Besides
Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen (both early
third
century)
and others
repeatedly explain
the
story
of Moses
bringing
water from the
rock as a
type
of
Baptism;
and the
subject
occurs in the Catacombs no
less
than
sixty-
eight
times. Moses himself is a
type
of
Peter,10
as
is testified
by
several of the earlier fathers. More-
over,
on one or two of the
gilded glasses (vetri)
found in the Catacombs the scene of Moses strik-
ing
the rock is
depicted,
but the word PETRUS
is inscribed over Moses. I am inclined to think
that the curious frescoes
representing
Our
Lord
touching
the
water-pots
with a
long
rod
(a
symbolic representation
of the miracle at Cana of
Galilee)
indicates the
symbolic identity
of Moses-
Peter-Christ,
and further that this method of
representation
knits
together
the sacraments of
Baptism
and the Eucharist in the
person
of Christ:
an idea which seems to
appear
in the double
significance, baptismal- eucharistic,
of the fish
symbol,
as we shall see.
Clement of Alexandria
(2nd
century)
refers to
the fish and other
pagan symbols (all
of which
we find in the
Catacombs)
in his directions to
Christian women as to what
rings they may
suit-
ably
wear.n11
But let our
signet rings
bear a
dove,
or a
fish,
or a
ship
.
.
. or a
lyre [symbol
of
Orpheus]
.
.
. or an anchor
...and if there is a fisherman on it, remember the
apostle (Peter) and his (spiritual) sons who are drawn forth
from the water.
And in his
hymn to "Christ the Saviour"
(op.
cit.
III, 12) we read :-
S.
.
Fisher of Men who are saved; Who dost feed
with sweet life the holy fishes saved from the perilous wave
of the sea of vice
...
To the Eucharistic idea in this
hymn
we will
return.
Later, Paulinus, bishop
of Nola
(353-431),
writes to
bishop Delphinus
as follows
:-"n
I remember that I am made the son of the dolphin
(Delphinus) that I might become one of those "
fishes which
pass through the paths of the sea" [Psalms]. I remem-
ber
you
are not
only my
father but my fisher [non pater
sed
Peter].
For
you
have
put your hook into me to draw
me forth from the deep and bitter waters of the world,
that I might be made captive unto salvation. But if I am
thy
fish I should
bring
in my mouth the precious denarius,
shining,
not with the
image
and
superscription of Caesar,
but with the
living
and
life-giving image of the eternal
King, namely, faith and truth (fidem veritatis).
There
is,
I
think,
an identification in the writer's
mind between
bishop Delphinus,
the
dolphin
(as
a
symbol
of
Christ),
and
Peter,
as
preeminently
the " fisher of men ". The whole
passage
refers to
Baptism.
There is no real confusion of
thought
in
representing
Christ as at once Fisherman and Fish.
Again Optatus
of Milevis
(4th century) interprets
the fish which little Tobias carried and which
healed his father Tobit of
blindness,
as
symbolic
of
Christ.'1
This
explanation
of the
symbol
of the
fish
is in
harmony
with the earlier
fathers,
but it
is in contradiction to the actual
story
of
Tobias,
who was saved
by
God from
being
devoured
by
a
monstrous fish : and so Tobias
(represented
three
times in the
Catacombs)
becomes one of the
innumerable
types
of deliverance in time of
peril
which we shall consider
presently.
This
explana-
tion of
Optatus implicitly
connects the
fishsymbol
with
Baptism,
since one of the effects of
Baptism
was
illumination,
as
explained by Justin Martyr
1
-"
and that
washing
of
baptism
is called illumina-
tion."
Indeed,
the
healing
of the blind
man, as
related in the
Gospels,
was considered a
symbol
of
baptism by
Clement of
Alexandria,
Ambrose and
Augustine,
and the
subject
is found seven times
in the Catacombs. If there were
any
doubt about
this
implicit allusion, Optatus
continues
:-
He is that Fish
who,
at
baptism, by
invocation is
plunged
into the
waters,
so that that which was
simply
water is called piscina from
piscis
[fish]. And the name of
that Fish in Greek contains in one word a host of holy
names,
for it is in Latin Jesus Christus Dei Filius Salvator.
Piscina,
of
course,
is
merely
an old classical
word for a
fishpond
i
The so called
Sibylline
acrostic
(a
set of verses
in which the
thirty
initial letters of the lines
formed,
in
Latin,
the words
JESUS CHRISTUS DEI
FILIUS
SALVATOR) existed, probably
as a Christian
forgery,
possibly
as
early
as the 2nd
century.
The fact
that,
in the Greek, this acrostic itself formed a
second acrostic,
IXOYO
(fish), was also
early
observed. We find this play on the word in the
2nd-century Greek
inscription
of Autun, to be
considered later: it becomes a
commonplace in
the fathers of the
4th
and
5th century.
It seems
probable,
but by no means
proved, however, that
the
symbol of the fish was
adopted either as
being
9
De Baptis., I, Pat. Lat., t. I,
col.
1198.
10
Macarius
of
Egypt,
Horn. 26, c. 23
in Pat.
Gr., t. 34,
col.
690.
1 Pced.
III,
II,
Pat.
Gr.,
t.
8,
col.
634.
12
Ep. XX,
Pat.
Lat.,
t.
61, col. 249.
13
De schis, Donat., III. 2,
in Pat.
Lat.,
ii
(cf. Apocrypha,
Book of
Tobit).
14 Apol. I, 61,
in Pat.
Gr.,
t.
6, col. 422.
49
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The
Symbolism
of
Certain
Catacomb Frescoes
a sacred
pagan symbol,
or on account of the
Gospel
associations with fish and
fishermen;
and
that the
presence
of the divine name discovered in
the word was
only
an additional
consecration,
and not the
origin,
of the
symbol.
In the next article we will discuss the fish as
a Eucharistic
symbol.
[The
illustrations are
reproduced, by permission,
from "Le Pitture delle Catacombe
Romane", by
Mgr. Guiseppe Wilpert.]
REVIEWS
ADMONITIONS OF THE INSTRUCTRESS IN THE PALACE. A
Painting
by
Ku
K'ai-Chih
in the
Department
of Prints and
Drawings,
British
Museum, reproduced
in coloured woodcut. Text
by
LAURENCE BINYON, Assistant -
keeper
in the
Department.
London: Printed
by
order of the Trustees of the British
Museum.
THE scroll ascribed to Ku
K'ai-Chih
is the
greatest
measure of Chinese
painting
in this
country.
Acquired
at a small
price
in
1903 merely
as an
ancient Chinese
painting,
its
authenticity
as the
oldest known
painting by
a
great
Chinese master
has
gradually
been confirmed and established so
that it now takes rank as one of the most
important
monuments of Chinese
painting
in existence.
Hitherto it has been
reproduced only partially
and
in black and
white;
the fullest account of it
being
that
by
Mr. Laurence
Binyon
in The
Burlington
Magazine, January, 1904.
It
was, therefore,
a
felicitous idea on the
part
of the Trustees of the
British Museum to have the
present
admirable fac-
simile executed. In colour
reproduction by
means
of woodcut the
Japanese
are
indubitably supreme,
and the Trustees have done well in
confiding
the
work to the Kokka
Company, through
whose
marvellous
reproductions
we in
Europe gain
most
of our ideas of the
masterpieces
of Chinese art.
The
Japanese
artists have
accomplished
this task
with their usual skill and
fidelity.
So
fastidious,
indeed,
is their connoisseur's reverence for an ancient
masterpiece
that
they
have
given
to their work
almost the
appearance
of an
original copy by
some
artist of the
Ming
time rather than of a mere
repro-
duction.
They
have been so careful to avoid
any-
thing
of the
crudity
of a modern
reproduction,
to
preserve
as far as
possible
the
patina
of extreme
age
that
they
have tended if
anything
to under-
state the
sharpness
and accent of the
original.
The
result is not
only
a remarkable record and remi-
niscence of the
original,
but a work which in itself
has the seductive charm of an
exquisite
bibelot.
The
reproduction
has been
made,
in
short,
in the
spirit
of the
great Imperial connoisseur,
Ch'ien
Lung,
who used to
pore
so
reverently
over Ku
K'ai-
Chih's handiwork in the
Lai-ch'ing pavilion,
and
who "at an odd moment in summer sketched in ink
aspray
of
Epidendrum
as an
expression
of
sympathy
with its
profound
and
mysterious import".
And
indeed the work itself is well fitted to arouse such
a connoisseur's reverence as that of Ch'ien
Lung
and of the modern
Japanese reproducer.
And
herein lies the marvel of the work and the
explana-
tion of the almost certainly illfounded scepticism
with which its attribution to the 4th century of our
era was at first received. Who would have
thought
that China had at that date arrived at this
pitch
of
subtlety
and
refinement,
had
already
conceived the
spirit
of the i8th
century?
But the doubts of its
authenticity being
now silenced-and Mr.
Binyon's
lucid and
impartial
statement of the case in the
text of this work leaves little room for hesitation-
we must make our
conception
of the
development
of Chinese art fit with this
surprising
fact. Indeed
"I8th centuryness"
seems to have been endemic in
China. Confucianism was full of
it,
and
Taoism,
though
it started with
something
too
mystical
and
passionate
to accord with that
principle, adapted
itself in
process
of time to this
prevalent
tone
of Chinese civilization.
Only
the
irruption
of
Buddhism for a time
swept
it
away
and
gave
us
the
profoundly spiritual
art of the Wei and
T'ang
dynasties.
We see then in the Ku K'ai-Chih an
art of
complete self-consciousness,
with a
delicate,
almost ironical
understanding
the niceties of
manner and of the subtleties of facial and
bodily
expression.
It is like the work of some more
sensitive,
more
sophisticated Carpaccio.
And
yet
there comes
through
here and there-most
definitely
in the
drawing
of the utensils in the toilet scene-
something
of that
great primitive
sense of
style
and
form which
represents
the other element in Chinese
art,
the element
opposed
to Chinoiserie and "18th
centuryness."
It was this other element which was
destined to
supplant
all the delicate
fine-spun sophis-
tications of Ku K'ai-Chih's art and
replace it,
in little
more than a
century, by
the
impressive
and
rugged
in-
tensity
ofthe works at Li
Lung
Mien. This
wasclearly
one of the
great
revolutions in the
history
of
art,
a revolution which we
may
some
day
be able to trace
in detail. At
present
we can
only
note the
great
gulf
that has to be
bridged
between the
Admonitions
of
the
Instructress, perhaps
one of the latest works
of its
kind,
and the
great imaginative
work of the
6th,
7th
and 8th centuries. There is much that is
difficult to
explain
in the art of the
period pre-
ceding
Ku K'ai-Chih. One would
naturally
infer
from an examination of the Admonitions that it was
the result of a
long
tradition of such
exquisitely
refined
illustration,
and indeed some of the
figurines
in black earthenware which
belong
even
to the
pre-Han
or
very early
Han
periods
show an
extraordinary
likeness to the
elegant
court ladies
of Ku K'ai-Chih's scroll. And this would lead
us to
suppose
that a similar delicate art
persisted
throughout the whole Han
period.
On the other
hand
many
of the figures which are attributed to
50
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