I.

_Imagini Scelte della B. Vergine Maria, tratte dalle

Catacombe Romane._

[_Select pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the Roman

Catacombs, with explanatory text by Cav. G. B. de Rossi._

Rome, Salviucci, 1863.]

The esteem in which the learned on both sides of the Alps and the sea

have long held Cav. de Rossi, dispenses us from the duty which we would

otherwise gladly discharge, of expressing in his regard our humble

tribute of respect and admiration. But as great reputations can afford

to do without small praise, we shall rather establish his claim to our

readers' gratitude by availing ourselves of his remarks in the work

under notice, to the end that we may show how unmistakably early

Christian art bears witness to the veneration paid by the primitive

Church to the ever glorious Mother of God. Living as we are in the

midst of those who revile us for our devotion to our Blessed Lady, it

will be most useful to have at hand, conducted with scientific accuracy,

a proof of the antiquity of the sacred tradition we follow in this most

cherished practice of our religion. Nor is it only among the vulgar herd

of Protestants, or in the ranks of bigoted controversialists, that we

meet assailants on this point. Even refined and graceful hands play at

times, perhaps unconsciously, with weapons which are not the less

dangerous because they come upon us by surprise, and wound us while we

think but of taking our pleasure in the fair fields of art. Many causes

which we will not here recite, have contributed of late years to diffuse

among educated Catholics a knowledge of Christian art; but, among these

causes, the late Mrs. Jameson's works have had a very wide range. From

what table were her books absent? what library was considered complete

without them? Who would think of visiting the Continental galleries

without first making a preparatory course with the aid of Mrs. Jameson's

pages? And upon the whole, all this is a great gain; but it has its

disadvantages as well. We do not now speak of Mrs. Jameson as a critic,

or of her judgments on points of art, or of the accuracy of her

information on purely technical matters, or of some minor mistakes

caused by her ignorance of Catholic usages, as when speaking of the Pax

of Maso Finiguerra, so well known in the history of engraving, she takes

the Pax to mean the Pix, or vessel for containing the Blessed Sacrament.

But in the two subjoined passages there are errors of a more serious

character, and in the latter especially there is much which needs the

correction contained in De Rossi's observations.

"The early Christians had confounded in their horror of

heathen idolatry all imitative art and all artists; they

regarded with decided hostility all images, and those who

wrought them as bound to the service of Satan and

heathenism; and we find all visible representations of

sacred personages and actions confined to mystic emblems.

Thus, the cross signified Redemption; the fish, Baptism; the

ship represented the Church; the serpent, sin or the spirit

of evil. When, in the fourth century, the struggle between

paganism and Christianity ended in the triumph and

recognition of the latter, and art revived, it was, if not

in a new form, in a new spirit, by which the old forms were

to be gradually moulded and modified. The Christians found

the shell of ancient art remaining; the traditionary

handicraft still existed: certain models of figure and

drapery, etc., handed down from antiquity, though

degenerated and distorted, remained in use, and were applied

to illustrate, by direct or symbolical representations, the

tenets of a purer faith".[32]

"The most ancient representations of the Virgin Mary now

remaining are the sculptures on the ancient Christian

Sarcophagi, about the third and fourth centuries, and a

mosaic in the chapel of San Venanzio at Rome, referred by

antiquarians to the seventh century. Here she is represented

as a colossal figure majestically draped, standing with arms

outspread (the ancient attitude of prayer), and her eyes

raised to heaven. Then after the seventh century succeeded

her image in her maternal character, seated on a throne with

the Infant Saviour in her arms. We must bear in mind, once

for all, that from the earliest ages of Christianity the

Virgin Mother of our Lord has been selected as the

allegorical type of RELIGION in the abstract sense, and to

this, her symbolical character, must be referred those

representations of later times in which she appears as

trampling on the dragon, as folding her votaries within the

skirts of her ample robes, as interceding for sinners, as

crowned between Heaven and Earth by the Father and the

Son".[33]

That these statements are very far from the truth, we now proceed to

show.

That our Blessed Lady has been from the earliest ages selected as the

type of the Church (not of _Religion in the abstract_, whatever that may

mean), is quite true. The most learned antiquarians recognize her in

this character in the female figure in prayer, which in the very oldest

portion of the catacombs is frequently a pendant to the group of the

Good Shepherd. But this fact, which, though incidentally, yet clearly

reveals the depth of the feelings of veneration towards Mary which

suggested her as a fit type of the Spouse of Christ, is far from

establishing her place in art to be purely symbolical, or her character

as intercessor, etc., to belong to her only as inasmuch as she is a type

of Religion in the abstract. A single glance at the chromolithographs to

which De Rossi's text serves as a commentary, will convince every one

that Mrs. Jameson's statements cannot be for a moment maintained. The

subjects of these exquisite plates are representations of our Blessed

Lady, six in number, selected from the many found in the Roman

catacombs, and selected in such wise as that they constitute a series

from the apostolic era down to the fourth century. The selection has

been confined to works of one class. The Blessed Virgin is represented

in ancient monuments, chiefly in two ways,--seated and with her Divine

Son in her arms, or standing with outstretched hands in the attitude of

prayer or intercession. Of the person represented in works of the first

class there can be no doubt, especially when the other figures of the

group show that it is Mary; the works of the second class are more

obscure, although at times the name of Mary is written over the figure.

Hence it would require a lengthened examination before we could safely

say that a given specimen of this class undoubtedly represents the

Blessed Virgin, and this consideration has recommended the selection of

types of the first class only. In these monuments, Mary is represented

with Jesus in her arms. The subject of the composition is determined by

the Magi, who are generally present, though not in every case. When the

Magi are absent, there are other marks to show that we look on the

Mother of God with the Incarnate Word. Even when other signs are

wanting, the very arrangement of the figures, identical with that

employed in undoubted paintings of the Blessed Virgin, affords argument

enough. The Magi appear standing before her in sculptures on sarcophagi,

not only in Rome, but also in other cities of Italy and of France; in

diptychs, and other ivories; in bronzes of the fourth and fifth

centuries; in the mosaic placed at St. Mary Major's by Sixtus III. in

432. This composition came down from the earliest ages, and is first

found in the paintings of the catacombs. From among these De Rossi has

selected four specimens of various types, but all anterior to the days

of Constantine. Our space will not allow us to describe more than one of

these (tav. I.), but that one shall be the oldest, and under every

respect the most interesting of them all.

On the Via Salaria Nuova, about two miles from Rome, the Irish College

has its vineyard, formerly called the Vigna de Cuppis. In this vigna the

excavation of the famous cemetery of Priscilla had its beginning, and

from this it extended its intricate galleries in all directions, passing

beneath the road, and far under the fields on the other side. The

picture we are about to examine is found over a loculus or grave in this

cemetery of Priscilla. In it is depicted a woman, seated and holding in

her arms an infant, who has his face turned towards the spectator. She

has on her head a scanty veil, and wears a tunic with short sleeves, and

over the tunic a _pallium_. The position of these figures and the whole

composition are such as to convince any one who has had experience of

this kind of paintings, that they are intended for the Virgin and Child.

Indeed, all doubt of this has been removed by the painter himself. Near

the top of the painting he has represented the star which is ever

present when our Lady is described as presenting her Son to the Magi, or

as seated by the manger. To the spectator's left, a man youthful in

appearance, with a sparse beard, standing erect and robed only in the

_pallium_, raises his right hand and points towards the Virgin and the

star. In his left he holds a book. At the first sight of this figure it

naturally occurs to the mind that it can be none other than Joseph, the

chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin, who is represented at her side on

various sarcophagi in Italy and France, in diptychs, and in the mosaics

of St. Mary Major's. Generally speaking, he is described as of a

youthful appearance, and rarely with a beard. But it is unusual to paint

him with the pallium, and with a book in his hand. De Rossi is of

opinion that the figure in question is that of a prophet, it being quite

usual to unite the figure from the Old Testament with the reality in the

New. Besides, in a monument of the ninth century two prophets attired

like our figure stand one each side of our Blessed Lady. He believes it

to be Isaias, who so often foretold the star and the light that was to

shed its rays on the darkness of the pagan world (_Isaias_, ix. 2; lx.

2, 3, 19; _cf._ _Luc._, i. 78, 79). On one of the painted glasses

explained by F. Garnieri, Isaias is represented as a young man. We have

here, therefore, in the heart of the catacombs an undoubted

representation of our Blessed Lady.

We now proceed to determine the age of this painting--a matter of the

greatest importance to our present purpose. What canons of judgment

ought to be followed in such an investigation? First, we should attend

to the style of the painting, and the degree of artistic perfection it

exhibits in conception and execution; secondly, we should confront the

results of this first examination with such information as we may be

able to collect from a close study of the history, topography, and

inscriptions of each subterranean apartment, such a study being

admirably calculated to assist us in fixing the date of the painting. To

do all this in any given case, is not the work of a few pages, but of a

bulky volume. As far as our painting is concerned, all the tests above

mentioned serve to prove its extraordinary antiquity. "Any one can see",

says our author (_page_ 15), "that the scene depicted in the cemetery of

Priscilla is treated in a manner altogether classical, and is a work of

the best period of art. The very costume employed therein suggests a

very remote antiquity; that is to say the _pallium_, without any under

garment, the right arm bared in the figure of the prophet, and still

more the short-sleeved tunic on the Virgin. The beauty of the

composition, the grace and dignity of the features, the freedom and

skill of the drawing, stamp this fresco as belonging to a period of art

so flourishing, that, when first I saw it, I thought I had before me one

of the oldest specimens of Christian painting in the Catacombs. I spoke

of it to my master, the late celebrated P. Marchi, who proceeded to

examine it in company with the illustrious Professor Cav. Minardi, now

member of the Commission, of Sacred Archaeology, and both pronounced it

to be a wonderful specimen of the very earliest Christian art. The

learned and the experts in the study of Greco-Roman monuments who have

seen this fresco, have declared it to be not later than the time of the

first Antonines, and perhaps even prior to that epoch. It remains

therefore to collect such proofs as may fix as closely as possible the

age of this remarkable monument, which all admit to belong to the first

years of Christianity. To this end I will first compare it with other

paintings of more or less certain date, and then confront the results of

the comparison with the history, topography, and inscriptions of the

crypt". He then compares our fresco first with paintings in the cemetery

of Callixtus, which it is admitted belong to the days of Popes

Pontianus, Anteros, and Fabian, and finds that it is far superior to

them in style and execution, and consequently belonging to an older and

more classical school. He next compares them with the ornaments of the

square crypt, discovered last year in the cemetery of Pretextatus, and

belonging to about the year 162. These ornaments, better than the last

mentioned, are still inferior to our fresco. Finally, in the cemetery of

Domitilla, there is a _cubiculum_ adorned with the finest stucco, on

which a pencil more skilled in pagan than in Christian painting has

drawn landscapes and figures that remind you of the houses at Pompeii

and Herculaneum, rather than of the paintings of the catacombs. Compared

even with these, our fresco loses nothing, but, if anything, surpasses

them in composition and design. "Hence", concludes our author, "the

painting in the cemetery of Priscilla, compared with those paintings,

the date of which is more or less determined, is found to be as

beautiful and valuable as the very oldest of them, or even more so; and

allowing that some portion of its merit belongs to the artist and not to

the period, we must still conclude that it is cotemporary with the very

origin of Christian painting, or at least very little distant from it.

In a word, the painting belongs to the period of the Flavii and of the

preaching of the Apostles, or to that immediately following, namely, the

period of Trajan (A.D. 98), of Hadrian (A.D. 117), and at the latest of

the first Antonines" (A.D. 138). The truth of this result is confirmed

on the application of the other tests mentioned above: by the style of

the other ornaments of the place, which being in relief are never found

in a crypt of the third century; by the history of the cemetery, which

is clearly proved to have been the place of burial of the Christian

family of Pudens, the first of whom were cotemporary with the Apostles;

by the topography, for the spot where the painting exists was the very

centre of the excavation; by the style of the inscriptions around it,

which are of the most ancient form, and almost apostolical. All these

arguments, taken together, are invincible, and prove beyond a reasonable

doubt that this beautiful painting of our Blessed Lady was traced almost

beneath the eyes of the Apostles themselves.