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A GUIDE TO THE EARLY

CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE

ANTIQUITIES

IN THE DEPARTMENT OF
BRITISH AND MEDIAEVAL ANTIQUITIES

PLATE I. LEAF OF A BYZANTINE IVORY DIPTYCH : THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL.

(See p. 169.)

BRITISH MUSEUM

-x\ AvftS-'V

A GUIDE TO THE EARLY
CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE
[ ANTIQUITIES

IN THE DEPARTMENT OF BRITISH
AND MEDIAEVAL ANTIQUITIES

SECOND EDITION

WITH FIFTEEN PLATES, A SKETCH MAP, AND
A HUNDRED AND FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES

1921

PRINTED IN ENGLAND

AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY FREDERICK HALL

PREFACE

THE edition printed in 1903 having been exhausted, the
opportunity has been taken of rewriting the old Guide, a
course rendered necessary by the great extension of Early
Christian and Byzantine studies in recent years ; only a few
parts, including the pages on the Greek Church and on Heresies
originally contributed by Mr. Henry Jenner, have been re-
printed as they stood. The principle adopted in the First
Edition of devoting a great part of the space to introductory
matter has, however, been retained, even though within the
narrow limits imposed nothing beyond a bare abstract can be
attempted. There is a real need for a short general survey,
since few among the visitors to the Museum have leisure or
opportunity to master the extensive literature of the subject,
and without some framework of knowledge the collections
lose much of their meaning. Early Christianity penetrated
countries differing widely in culture and tradition, and various
peoples helped in the formation of its art. It is an advantage
to know what the main influences were, and how they are to
be distinguished, before passing to an examination of the
objects in the Cases.

In a great historical Museum, where collections are arranged
according to civilizations and periods, a detached series re-
presenting a cosmopolitan religion introduces a cross-division.
The same object may have importance both from the Christian
point of view and from that of a pagan culture related to
Christianity ; or it may be more suitably placed among

VI PREFACE

antiquities illustrating the arts of a particular country, for
example, those of Egypt. All the objects in the Museum
which interest the student of Christian Art cannot therefore
be brought together in the Christian Room. But the incon-
venience caused by their separation is in great measure
compensated by the gain of seeing them in relation to con-
temporary works of other kinds from the same area ; the
variety of the sources contributing to the formation of
Christian Art is thus more fully realized.

The Guide has been written by Mr. O. M. Dal ton. Deputy
Keeper of the Department, who was also responsible for the
first edition.

The Trustees are indebted to the Delegates of the Clarendon
Press for permission to use the blocks for Figures 15, 54, 71,
88, and 100, and to the Society of Antiquaries of London for
Figures 33 and 34.

C. H. READ.

CONTENTS

PAGE

List of Plates . . . ..... .. . . . . viii

List of Illustrations in the Text ,'• .... '-' . . . ix

INTRODUCTION
PART I. GENERAL SURVEY.

I. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION . . . . . . 2

II. INFLUENCES AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN

ART . . . . . . .'^ .... 13

III. HISTORICAL SURVEY . .' 24

a. From the beginning of the Christian Era to the acces-

sion of Constantine as sole Emperor, A. D. 323 . . 24

b. From the sole rule of Constantine to the Arab Conquests 27

c. From the Arab Conquests to the End of Iconoclasm in

A.D. 842 . . . • . . . ..- . . 40

d. From the End of Iconoclasm to the Fourth Crusade of

A.D. 1204 . . " . .. . . . . . 48

e. From the Fourth Crusade to the capture of Constan-

tinople by the Turks f A.D. 1204-1453) . . .53

PART II. SPECIAL SECTIONS.

I. EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN . . . . . 56

II. THE CATACOMBS, AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY 69
III. CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS . . ... .91

VI. THE ARTS . . . . . . . ... . . 116

APPENDIX.

I. COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS . . . . . . . 152

II. THE GREEK CHURCH . . . . . % . . 157

III. HERESIES, AND GNOSTICISM . . . . . . .159

IV. IMPORTANT DATES ... . . . . . 163

DESCRIPTION OF CASES, ETC.

WALL-CASES . . . . 167

TABLE CASES . . / . . . . . . 183

OBJECTS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE MUSEUM . . . 187

INDEX 189

LIST OF PLATES

I. Leaf of an ivory diptych: the Archangel Michael Frontispiece

PAGE
II. Ivory panels from a casket. Early fifth century (see p. 88) . 20

III. Ivory panel : the Baptism. Sixth century . . .34

IV. Ivory boxes of the sixth century : Daniel in the den of lions,

and the martyrdom of St. Menas (see pp. 169, 170) . 56

V. Byzantine ivory panel : the death of Jacob (see p. 169) . 64
VI. Silver bridal casket of Projecta (see p. 174) .... 80

VII. Top of the silver bridal casket of Projecta : portraits of the

bride and bridegroom 94

VIII. Byzantine silver treasure from Lampsacus. Sixth century

(see p. 175) .106

IX. Byzantine silver treasure from Cyprus (see p. 173) . .116
X. Gilded glasses: Our Lord and a family group . . . 130

XL Gilded glasses : Daniel and the dragon ; a gladiator (see

p. 186) . 142

XII. Bronze ewer and basin from Spain (see p. 172) . . . 146

XIII. Cedar panels from Cairo: the Annunciation, Baptism, and

Ascension (see pp. 171, 172) 154

XIV. Russian enamelled brass cross (see p. 167) . . . . 168
XV. Gilt bronze cross from Abyssinia (see p. 181) . . . . 180

I X

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(The numbers in brackets refer to the Catalogue of Early Christian
A ntiquities, printed by order of the Trustees, 1901.)

PAGE

1. Medallion of Valens, showing the labarum

2. Inscribed stone from a Christian grave, Semirechensk . , 5

3. Tombstone from Spain : fourth century (No. 334) . . . 8

4. Tombstone from Carthage (No. 937) ..... 9

5. Limestone sculpture from Wadi Sarga : sixth century . 11

6. Stand for water-bottles, Wadi Sarga : sixth century . 12

7. Coptic sculpture from Medinet el-Fayurn (No. 944) . . . 14

8. Coptic sculpture from Medinet el-Fayum (No. 945) .• . . 16

9. Bronze lamp on pricket-stand (No. 496) 18

10. Bronze lamp: fifth century (No. 502) . . . . . 19

11. Bronze lamp with sacred monogram (No. 501) .

12. Bronze patera (No. 534) .

13. Silver bowl with cover, Carthage Treasure . . . . 25

14. Bronze steelyard-weight : the Emperor Phocas (No. 485) . 26

15. Lead flask with the Incredulity of Thomas : sixth century . 28

16. Bronze reliquary cross : twelfth century (No. 559) . . .30

17. Painted pottery fragments, Wadi Sarga, : sixth century . . 31

18. Top of the silver casket of Projecta (No. 304) .... 33

19. Section of dome-shaped silver casket, Esquiline Treasure

(No. 305) . 35

20. Pottery lamp with Jonah and the whale (No. 718) . 37

21. Pottery lamp from Syria (No. 835) .38

22. Pottery vase with two faces, Wadi Sarga : sixth century . . 39

23. Design on an earthenware plate from Egypt (No. 926) . . 41

24. Pottery lamp, probably from Egypt (No. 822) . . . . 44

25. Fragments of painted pottery from Wadi Sarga : sixth century 46

26. Fragments of painted pottery from Wadi Sarga : sixth century 49

27. Gilt bronze plaque : St. Theodore : eleventh century (No. 544) 50

28. Gold ring engraved with a fish (No. 48) . . . . • . 52

29. Gold ring engraved with the sacred monogram (No. 28) . . 52

30. Gold ring with openwork inscription (No. 49) . . • .54

31. Gold marriage-ring : fifth century (No. 207) . . . .. 54

32. Gold marriage-ring with designs in niello (No. 129) . . 55

33. 34. Two rings with sacred monogram from Fifehead Neville,

Dorsetshire: fourth century . :v: '••-•••• . . . 58

K LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

35. Early Christian basilica, Silchester ; Church of Celtic plan at

Escomb, Durham 61

36. Plan of seventh-century basilica at Reculver .... 62

37. Plan of seventh-century basilican church at Wing ... 63

38. Stamps with sacred monogram on Roman pewter from the Thames 64

39. Silver chalice of the time of Alfred, from Trewhiddle, Cornwall 67

40. Loculi in the Roman catacombs (after Perret) ... 70

41. A chamber in the Roman catacombs (after De Rossi) . . 71

42. Inscription from the Roman Catacombs (after Marucchi) . 73

43. Front of a marble sarcophagus from France (after Le Blant) . 74

44. Engraved gem : fish, crook, and palm-branch (No. 35) . . 77

45. Engraved gem : a ship (No. 40) 77

46. Engraved gem : anchor, fish, and dove (No. 3) . . . .77

47. Engraved gem : anchor, doves, palm-branch, fish (No. 39) . 77

48. Engraved gem : the Good Shepherd (No. 2) . . . .77
48a. Engraved gem : dove with olive-branch on fish ; sacred

monogram (No. 6) 78

49. Harts drinking from fountain, mosaic from Carthage : sixth

century . . 79

50. Reconstructed labarum (after J Wilpert, Die romischen

Mosaiken und Malereien etc. 1916) 80

51. Pottery flask : St. Menas between camels (No. 860) ... 82

52. Front of a marble sarcophagus of the fourth century : Cupid

and Psyche (British Museum) 83

53. Gilt bronze brooch with sacred monogram : fourth century

(No. 256) .... 85

54. Ivory panel from a book-cover with the Nativity and Adoration :

sixth century ......... 87

55. Engraved gem : the Crucifixion (No. 43) 88

56. Exterior of Old St. Peter's, Rome 92

57. Interior of Old St. Peter's, Rome .... .93

58. Exterior of the Church of the Apostles, Salonika (after Texier

andPullan) . 96

59. Church of Amba Derho, Abyssinia (after J. B. Bent) . . 98

60. Plan of a basilica 101

61. Plan of a Coptic church (after A. J. Butler) . . . .101

62. Bronze hanging disk for lamps (polycandelon) : sixth century

(No. 529) 103

63. Altar with ciborium, Italian : ninth century (after Rohault de

Fleury) 104

64. Glass vessel from Amiens, perhaps a chalice : fifth century

(No. 658) 107

65. Silver chalice, probably from Syria : sixth century . . . 108

66. Liturgical diptych from Egypt: seventh century . . . 109

67. Coptic fldbellum (after Butler) 112

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XI

PAGE

68. Silver censer from Cyprus: sixth century (No. 399) . . .113

69. Coptic Eucharistic bread and spoon (after Butler) . . .115

70. Wall painting from Wadi Sarga: the Three Children of

Babylon: sixth century. . . . . . . .118

71. Head-piece from an eleventh-century MS. in the British Museum

(Harley5785) 120

72. Coptic decorative sculpture : sixth century .... 123

73. Coptic decorative sculpture from Wadi Sarga : sixth century . 124

74. Coptic limestone capital : sixth century 125

75. Marble slab carved on both sides from Miafarqin : 10th-13th

century 126

76. Silver spoon with cross in niello, Carthage Treasure : early

fifth century (No. 364) 128

77. Stamps on the base of the silver censer, fig. 68 ... 129
77a. Monogram and inscription on spoon of the sixth century,

Lanipsacus Treasure (No. 390) 129

78. Pierced gold disk ; centre-piece from an ornament of chains

to cover breast and back : Egypt : sixth century . . . 132

79. Byzantine gold pectoral cross with inscription in niello (Galatians

vi. 14) (No. 285) .133

80. Byzantine gold pectoral cross (No. 287) . : . . . .133

81. Gold bracelet : sixth century (No. 279) ... . . .135

82'. Gold ring : fifth century (No. 190) ....... 135

83. Gold ring : sixth century (No. 189) 135

84. Silver ring worn as an amulet (No. 142) . . . . .135

85. Engraved gem : the Good Shepherd ; Jonah : fourth century

(No. 25) 136

86. Onyx cameo : the Annunciation : eighth century (No. 104) . 136

87. Heliotrope cameo : bust of our Lord (No. 106) . . . .136

88. Byzantine coins : Justin II (A. D. 565-578) to Basil II

(A.D. 975-1025) 138

89. Byzantine bronze pound- weight, with two saints inlaid in silver :

sixth century (No. 483) . . 139

90. Byzantine bronze money- weight : sixth century (No. 453) . 140

91. Glass disk with scriptural subjects, found at Cologne (No. 628) 141

92. Bottle of blown glass, with cross : fifth century . . . 143

93. Glass cameo medallion with bust of our Lord : eleventh century

(No. 686) 144

94. Glass cameo medallion with St. Theodore : c. twelfth century

(No. 693) 144

95. Glass pendant with the Good Shepherd : fourth century (No. 697) 144

96. Byzantine gold ring with cruciform monogram : fourteenth

century (No. 171) . . . 146

97. Byzantine bronze ring with inscription : c. eleventh century

(No. 139) .... .146

Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

98. Gold and nielloed reliquary: lOth-llth century (No. 284) . 146

99. Tapestry medallion on a tunic from a Coptic cemetery

(No. 951) 148

100. Silk textile with mounted figures from Egypt : sixth century 151

101. Coptic tombstone : 7th-8th century (No. 942) .... 153

102. Abyssinian priest at entrance to Holy of Holies (after

J. T. Bent) 155

103. Abyssinian silver chalice 156

104. Abyssinian priest's rattle . . . . . . . .156

105. Abraxas, from a Gnostic gem 162

SKETCH MAP

Showing places of importance in the earlier history of

Christianity 3

INTRODUCTION

PART I. GENERAL SURVEY

No general introduction to the study of Early Christian
and Byzantine antiquities can avoid serious difficulties in
classification and arrangement. There is little agreement as
to the point where the Early Christian period should end or
the Byzantine begin : the very meaning to be assigned to the
latter term raises a fresh problem. Moreover both terms, as
commonly used, tend to exclude the earlier Middle Ages in
the West which succeeded the fall of the Roman Empire.
Yet between the fifth and ninth centuries, to carry the limit
no lower, Early Christian influences, largely from the East,
continuously penetrated the barbaric West, and the period
commonly known as the Dark Ages cannot be understood
unless the penetration is borne in mind. That period, too
often treated as a gulf between late classical and mediaeval
times, should rather be regarded as a bridge connecting the two.

For the present Guide, which retains its old title, the term
Early Christian will be extended to the ninth century, an
extreme limit, but one allowing us better to appreciate the
continuity of artistic influence. In the East, this century
witnessed the beginning of an age to which the name
Byzantine may be more correctly applied than to any pre-
ceding it, an age of which the influence upon the western
world was more closely associated with Constantinople than
before. In the West it marked the growth of the Frankish
Empire under Charles the Great which inaugurated a new era,
though at the time of its birth it was still deriving motives of
its art from earlier Christian sources ; it marked the final decay
of the earlier Christian art of Rome. With the ninth century,
therefore, a division may conveniently be made, and the later
part of the survey will in general be confined to the East.
But in its account of conditions in the Byzantine Empire it
will continue to lay stress on the close connexion between
East and West down to the rise of Gothic art and the dawn
of the Italian Renaissance.

INTRODUCTION

Some such comprehensive treatment as that above indicated
is almost a necessity at a time when exploration has in
a quarter of a century doubled our knowledge of the Christian
East, forcing us to realize, as never before, that throughout
the first millennium of our era the physical unity of the
Eurasian continent found clear reflection in its art. It is no
longer possible without distortion of the facts to cut short the
Early Christian period at the fifth century, or to divide the field
of mediaeval studies at the Adriatic. The area of distribution
is no less continuous than the sequence of the centuries ; and
though both in space and time convenience may demand the
drawing of artificial boundaries, it is essential that the under-
lying unity should first be recognized.

I. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

The study of Christian antiquities must begin with some
knowledge of the manner in which Christianity spread through
the ancient world. (See Sketch Map.)

The East.

Palestine. The Christians of Jewish birth, who formed the
earliest community, soon yielded in importance to men of

other races, because the Jews as
a body remained loyal to their
old religion. When the new town
of Aelia Capitol ina was built by •
Hadrian at Jerusalem, its Christian
population was composed of Gen-
tiles, at first Greeks, then in an
increasing degree Syrians and Ar-
menians. In all Palestine Chris-
tianity was from a very early date
the religion of immigrant peoples.
The first Christian communities
were chiefly found in Greek cities,
of which the principal was Caesarea, -
scattered through a country where
the spoken tongue was for the most part Aramaic (Syrian),
though Greek was the liturgical language. Taking the country
as a whole, it may be said that down to the first quarter of
the fourth century Christians were numerous, but not in the
majority. In the northern part of the Koman Province of
Arabia, down the east side of Palestine and south of the

Fi«. I. — Medallion ofValens,
showing the labarum.

4 INTRODUCTION

Dead Sea, we hear of Christians at Bostra (Bosra) in the third
century, and at Gerasa (Jerash) before A.D. 325.

Syria and Mesopotamia. Here Antioch on the Orontes
was the great centre of Greek Christianity from apostolic
times (Acts xi), the influence of the city extending to the
north-west over Cilicia and Cappadocia in Asia Minor, to
the East, through Syria proper, into regions beyond the
Roman frontiers — North Mesopotamia,, Persia, Armenia, and
even Georgia. In Syria, Aramaic was spoken throughout the
country districts, and the Syrian spirit penetrated the life and
modes of thought even in the Greek-speaking cities. Thus
Greek and Syrian Christianity were closely united from the
very first, and the subsequent influence of Syria in the Holy
Land is easily understood. In Northern Mesopotamia, Edessa
(Urfa) in Osrhoene formed, from the close of the second
century, a great missionary centre. In A.D. 202 the prince
Abgar IX was baptized, and in the third century the city was
the stronghold of Syrian national Christianity ; here the
Scriptures were translated into Aramaic, which now took its
place beside Greek in Christian literature; here, and at
Nisibis not far away, were schools of theology, the influence of
which in later times extended far through the Christian world.
To the missionary zeal of Edessa is due the fact that before
the fourth century the new religion was established farther
north at Amida (Diyarbekr), north-cast at Arbela, in Adiabene
beyond the Tigris, and south-east at Seleucia opposite the
Persian capital Ctesiphon on the lower course of that river.

Armenia and Georgia. The Christianization of Armenia
seems to have begun in the south-west, from the Cappadocian
side ; it was therefore due in the first instance to Greek rather
than to Syrian Christianity, and the immediate source of
influence was Caesarea in Cappadocia ; later, Edessa and
Antioch made their own contributions. There were Christians
in Melitene, south of Lesser Armenia, in the time of Marcus
Aurelius (A,D. 161-80). In Greater Armenia Trdat III (Tiridates)
was converted by Gregory ' the Illuminator ', who had been
trained at Caesarea ; under this king Christianity was adopted
as the State religion about A.D. 300, that it might help to
affirm Armenian nationality against the Zoroastrian Persians
on the south-east. Beyond the Caucasus Georgia followed
the example of Armenia, and was Christianized in the course
of the fourth century.

Persia. The Christian communities of Adiabene and of
Seleucia in the Persian sphere of influence have been already

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

noticed ; there is evidence that the new faith entered the
former region in the second century. Persia itself was
penetrated at the same early period, and both under Parthians
and Sassanians Christianity enjoyed a large measure of
tolerance. It was often the policy of the Sassanian dynasty to
support a religion in disfavour with the Roman Empire ; after

Fro. 2. — Stone inscribed with cross and inscription in a form of Syriac; it
served as a tombstone for a Nostorian Christian. From the neighbourhood
of Lake Issik Kul, Province of Semirechensk : 13th-14th century (p. 168).

the Peace of the Church, there was more persecution, but even
then it was not continuous. In the earlier fifth century, the
heretical views of Nestorius, the Syrian patriarch of Constanti-
nople (p. 159), were suppressed within the Byzantine Empire,
but were allowed to obtain a firm foothold in Persia, where in

6 INTRODUCTION

the sixth century the Nestorian Church grew rapidly and
began to extend its influence farther to the east. It estab-
lished itself in Margiana and Bactria south of the Oxus, with
its chief seats at Merv, Balkh (Bactra), and, further south, at
Herat, Its missionaries crossed the Oxus, and pushed into
inner Asia (cf. fig. 2).

China. In the seventh century they had entered China
through Turkestan, and their progress in that country is
attested by the well-known monument at Si-gnan-fu, with
its Syriac and Chinese inscriptions dating from A.D. 781. The
success of Christianity in China during the eighth century
had been such that it seemed almost likely to become an
official religion. It failed, however, to maintain itself against
the growing opposition of Buddhism and Confucianism, and
by the tenth century it was almost extinct.

India. In this country, the north-western parts of which
seem to have been reached by a much earlier mission associated
with the name of St. Thomas, the Nestorians established them-
selves in the south, in Malabar and in Ceylon. The name of
India seems, however, to have been applied by early writers
to the country of the Himyarites in Arabia Felix (Yemen)
which Pantaenus of Alexandria is said to have visited as a
missionary towards the close of the second century.

Egypt and A byssinia. The introduction of Christianity into
Egypt is traditionally connected with a mission of St. Mark at
Alexandria. Little is known, however, of the progress made
in the first two hundred years, but it must have been rapid,
for by the close of the second century a flourishing Church
was established in the city with Greek schools of Christian
learning. In the third century the converted population was
very numerous, and about the middle of it the Scriptures may
have already been translated into Coptic. The country became
renowned for the number of anchorites living in solitude in
remote parts, especially the Skete Desert, the Natron Valley,
and the Thebaid, and in the fourth century paganism almost
entirely disappeared. In Cyrenaica, to the west, there was by
the third century a Church in relations with that of Egypt ;
the conversion of Nubia south of Assuan began in the sixth
century at the instance of Theodora, Empress of Justinian.
Abyssinia, with its capital Axum, had been Christianized from
Alexandria in the fourth century. The Abyssinian Church
has always maintained relations with the Coptic (cf. p. 154).

A sia Minor was the most Christian territory in the Empire,
for here the new religion had no stubborn or highly-organized

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 7

pagan rival to overcome. The Greek cities of the coastal
region were quickly converted, and the extent to which
Christianity spread in the west of Anatolia is shown by the
letters written to Trajan by Pliny when proconsul of Bithynia
in the second half of the second century. Christianity every-
where fused with the later Hellenism ; Ephesus as a Christian
centre ranks only second to Antioch, and 'Asia' (Lydia, Mysia,
Phrygia, and Caria) contained other towns, Sardis, Pergamon,
and Smyrna, with large Christian populations. Lucian says
that Pontus was full of Christians in his time. In rural parts
of the peninsula like Cappadocia, the fusion with local pagan
belief proved no less easy, and Christians were very numerous
in the middle of the third century. The organization of Asia
Minor in bishoprics was already complete before the conversion
of Constantine. We have seen that in the south-east the
Christians of Cilicia and Cappadocia looked rather to Antioch,
which was accessible to them, than to Ephesus which was far
away.

Eastern Europe.

Moesia and Thrace. The west coast of the Black Sea was
early Christianized from Bithynia on the opposite shore ; in
Thrace and eastern Moesia, corresponding to the modern
Bulgaria with the territory to the south of it, there were
many Churches before the fourth century, maintaining relations
with Asia Minor. But in most parts of the Balkan peninsula
Christian communities were small and scattered before the
foundation of Constantinople. In Macedonia and Greece,
Corinth and Thessalonica (Salonika) had flourishing commun-
ities in the first and second centuries. In Athens, the city
of philosophy, progress was slow, and neither Greece proper
nor Macedonia developed a national Christianity, like that of
Syria and Egypt. In Central and Western Moesia and Pan-
nonia, the regions south of the Danube extending as far as
the Eastern Alps, there were Christian communities in the
third century, and bishops from these parts were present
at the first (Nicene) Council in A.D. 325. The Serbs and
the Bulgarians crossed the Danube into this part of the old
Roman Empire in the seventh century. The former were
converted in the first half of the ninth century, the latter in
the reign of Boris I in A.D. 864. In Dalmatia, Salona (Spalato)
may have been a Christian centre as early as the second
century.

The Greek cities in the Tauric Chersonese in the south of

INTRODUCTION

Russia appear to have contained Christians before the fourth
century: two bishops present at the Council of Nicaea in
A.D. 325 are thought to have come from here. The Goths
in the interior were already in part converted before A.D. 325 ;
they had been brought into contact with the new faith through

FIG. 3. — Tombstone from Spain : fourth century. (No. 934.)

their raids into Asia Minor, especially into Cappadocia. In
A.D. 258 they brought back from such a raid Cappadocian
Christians who in their exile maintained communication
with their native country, and spread the Gospel among their
new masters. The Mesopotamian monk Audius, banished
to these parts shortly before the time of Ulfilas, devoted him-
self to missionary work among the Goths. Ulfilas, ' the apostle

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

of the Goths ', was himself a Cappadocian carried oft* in a raid ;
his labours among the tribe date from the first half of the
fourth century. The above relations between the Goths and
Christians from Cappadocia and Mesopotamia may have their
importance for the spread of artistic forms from East to West
(pp. 32, 33). Slav Russia, which had become acquainted with

FJG. 4. — Tombstone from Carthage : 4th-5th century. (No. 937.)

Christianity in the later tenth century, was formally converted
at its close after the baptism of Vladimir at Kieff.

The West.

Italy. Rome was from the first the metropolis of all the
centre and south. But during the first three centuries the
eastern part of the North Italian plain looked rather to Pan-
nonia and Macedonia ; Sirmium and Thessalonica were at this
time as accessible to them as Rome, which gradually extended
its influence through the north after A.D. 325. This early
outlook towards the Greek Christianity of Salonika should
be borne in mind in connexion with subsequent artistic rela-

10 INTRODUCTION

tionships. In the western part of the northern plain the
expansion of Christianity appears to have been slower than
in the eastern. The first Christians in Rome were largely
Greeks, and Greek remained the language of the Roman
Church until the end of the second century ; the list of Bishops
of Rome down to this time contains few Latin names. This
does not imply an exclusive Hellenization during the whole
period ; for though it was not until almost the middle of the
third century that the Church became predominantly Latin,
there must have been services for the Roman -born quite a
hundred years earlier. The community at Rome grew rapidly
both in numbers and wealth, and the city was divided by
Fabian into quarters or reyiones about A.D. 250. The whole of
Central and Southern Italy, with the island of Sicily, acknow-
ledged the Bishop of Rome as metropolitan. In Naples we
may infer from the existence of the catacombs that there
must have been an important Christian community as early
as the second century.

Gaul. The traditional relations of the south coast with
the Eastern Mediterranean ensured the establishment of Christ-
ianity at an early date in the south of the country (Gallia
Narbonensis and Lugdunensis), where trade was carried on
not only by Greeks and Syrians, but by orientals of various
races and countries. There were Christians in the Rhone valley
by the middle of the second century, and Lyons had a bishopric
before A.D. 177; the first small community at Lyons was
almost certainly Greek, though Irenaeus mentions the con-
version of Celts; Greek probably remained the language of
cultivated people in Gaul as late as the third century. Further
to the north there were communities, but perhaps not bishop-
rics, before Constantine at Clermont, Grenoble, Limoges,
Chartres, Angers, Orleans, Senlis, Metz, Soissons, Toul,
Troyes, and other places. In Belgic Gaul and Germania
the early Church was not numerically important. At Treves
a bishopric was founded in the second half of the third century,
but there seems to have been only a single small place of
worship until after the Peace of the Church ; the city continued
to be mainly pagan through the fourth century. It may be
inferred from Irenaeus that there were bishoprics both at
Cologne and Mayence about A.D. 185. At Cologne, too, there
was only one small church ; and probably in the greater part
of Gaul, except the south-east and the Rhone valley, the
position of Christianity resembled that of Treves. In the
fifth century, with the increase, in the south, of monasteries

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

maintaining regular relations with the East, the progress
of conversion became more rapid ; the Gallo-Roman population
was not Christianized as a whole until about A.D. 450, but
the number of bishoprics was considerable before that time.
In Aquitaine, the Visigoths were Arian Christians (p. 159) ;
and when in the first decade of the sixth century the Franks
displaced them, they too were Christians, but Catholics,
Clovis having been baptized by St. Remy in A. D. 496.

In Armorica (Brittany), there appears to be some evidence
of Christianity at Nantes in the time of Diocletian (A.D. 284-
304), and of a small community in the same place about

FIG. 5. — Limestone sculpture from Wadi Sarga : sixth century.

the middle of the fourth century. But little is known until
after the missions originated by St. Martin (A.D. 372-97).
In the early fifth century the bishopric of Nantes was defin-
itely organized, and another bishopric established at Rennes.
A third bishopric, that of Vannes, was founded about A.D. 465,
at the time of the Saxon devastations which put an end to
the Gallo-Roman Church in this part of Gaul. For the peaceful
invasion of Celtic Britons which followed, see p. 57.

Britain and Ireland. (See p. 56.)

Spain, a country Romanized in pagan times, had Christians
certainly in the second century, and possibly much earlier.
In Cyprian's time (middle of the third century) there were
communities in Leon, Astorga, Merida, and Saragossa. The

INTRODUCTION

holding of a Synod at Elvira, about A. a 300, shows by the
list of attending bishops that Christianity must have been
established in all parts of the country. The invading Visi-
goths, in Spain as in Gaul, were Arians.

Germany and Scandinavia. East of the Rhine, i.e. beyond
the Roman Germania, conversion began in the first half of
the eighth century under St. Boniface, a native of England ;
Prussia did not become Christian until a later time, and
Lithuania not until the fourteenth century. Christianity
entered the Scandinavian countries in the tenth century.

Africa (North- West) must be reckoned with Europe rather

FIG. 6. —Limestone stand for water bottles, from Wadi S;irga : sixth century.

than with its own continent, since in imperial times its mari-
time relations with Rome were much closer than those by land
with Libya and Egypt ; it was the great Roman granary,
and was almost regarded as a part of Italy. From the end
of the second to the end of the third century there was in
this part of the world, especially in its eastern half (Numidia
and the Proconsular Province, corresponding to the modern
Tunisia), an expansion of Christianity comparable to that
witnessed in Asia Minor. The writings of Tei tullian (fl. c. A.D.
190—214) allow us to assume a large community at Carthage.
In its earliest years the African Church seems to have been
Greek, but there were soon many Punic converts; the in-

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 13

digenous Berber element seems to have been hardly touched.
The greatest increase in Carthage and ' Africa ' generally was
between A. D. 211 and A.D. 249, by which time Latin culture
predominated. The imposing ruins of cities in the present-
French colony remain to show what the prosperity was in
Roman times, and the Christian monuments are both numerous
and important, including the remarkable catacombs of Susa
or Hadrumetum (Sousse). In A.D. 429-39 Africa was con-'
quered by the Vandals, who were Arians, and subjected the
Catholic inhabitants to indignity and persecution. In A.D.
535 it was recovered for Justinian by Belisarius, and remained*
a Byzantine province until the close of the seventh century,
when it was subdued by the Mohammedans.

It can hardly be doubted that the centre of gravity during
the early Christian centuries was in the East rather than in
the West. The numerical majority must have lain with the con-
verts east of the Mediterranean, while Asiatic Greeks, Syrians,
and other orientals formed the nucleus of early western com-
munities at Rome, Carthage, and the cities in the south of Gaul.
The superiority of the East in most elements of higher culture,
in letters, science, and art, was even greater ; the possession of
the single city of Alexandria was itself almost enough to
ensure this result, and Alexandria by no means stood alone.

II. INFLUENCES AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CHKISTIAN ART.

It is impossible in the present place to examine at any length
the reasons why Christianity expanded in a few centuries over
so wide an area of the ancient world. It must suffice to say
that it responded better than its competitors to the general
religious needs of the age in which it was born, and that the
conditions surrounding it at its birth were favourable for
success.

The expedition of Alexander the Great (d. B.C. 323) into Asia
had not only removed political frontiers, but had broken down
spiritual boundaries. The Greeks, dissatisfied with their tradi-
tional gods, looked round them in these new fields for fresh
foundations of belief; they sought to bring together the
elements of some universal system which should embrace not
single peoples only, but all mankind. After Alexander the con-
ception of such a system may have been formed by many specu-
lative minds ; but the renewed dissensions of the world clouded

INTRODUCTION

the vision, and it was not until the rise of the Roman Empire
that it again seemed to be brought near. In the long interval
many regions of ethical and religious thought had been explored.
The destiny of the individual soul had moved into the fore-
ground ; men's minds had become familiar with the ideas of
redemption, atonement, union with God, immortality in
a world beyond the present; the universal kingdom seemed
more possible after the rise of the Roman Empire with its

FIG. 7. — Coptic sculpture from Medinet el-Fayum : 5th-6th century.
(No. 944.)

vast extent and its equality for all men before one law. But
the religion which should be at once personal and world-wide
had not yet been found when Christianity appeared in a central
position, under the political supremacy of Rome and the intel-
lectual supremacy of Greece. Polytheism, its most obvious
enemy, was already weakened, and destined to fall by its own
decay. The only serious rivals of the new faith were those
which attempted to solve religious problems in ways more

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRIST I AX ART 15

similar to its own. These were Persian Mithraism, the mys-
tical philosophic system known as Neo-Platonism, and Mani-
chaeanism, another Persian doctrine which assumed the character
of a Christian heresy. Of these three beliefs Mithraism was
the least to be feared. It found little intellectual support,
because it never made progress in the Greek lands; it was
a faith carried westward chiefly by traders and by the oriental
soldiers in the Roman army. Although, by its ultimate
association with emperor-worship, it obtained a head-quarters
at Rome, it was for the most part confined to the stations in
the provinces and along the frontiers occupied by the Roman
garrisons. It has been described as chiefly a religion of the
circumference, rather than of the centre, and \vas therefore
inevitably defeated by one which controlled the great seats
of intellectual life. Both Neo-Platonism arid Manichaeanism
were more formidable rivals. The first had disengaged from
grosser elements the spirit of Greek religion, and blended it
with philosophy, suffusing it with mystic thought, and colouring
it with the emotional feeling of the East ; the second, founded
by Mani, a Persian subject, born in A.D. 21 5, blended a Baby Ionian
dualism with Christian, Zoroastrian (Mazdeist), and Buddhist
elements. Both sought to satisfy the spiritual yearnings which
troubled the world, and both won a great measure of success.
But each had a source of weakness which Christianity was
able to avoid. Neo-Platonism was without a Founder able to
quicken the imagination of mankind at large ; Manichaeanism,
like Mithraism, failed in its appeal to the Greeks, perhaps
because of its austerities, and found bitter enemies among
orthodox Zoroastrians. It was thus too much thrown back
upon the East and too bitterly opposed at home to succeed
in universal conquest ; it became known as an oriental heresy,
and its more permanent successes were confined to the eastern
half of the world.

Christianity, on the other hand, obtained the support of
Greek thought. It rapidly fused with Hellenism, and, finding
in the intellectual and widespread Greek population an
unsurpassed agent of expansion, established itself in the Greek
cities from Seleucia on the Tigris to Lyons on the Rhone. It
obtained in like manner the support of the Syrians, now the
most highly endowed among the Semitic peoples, and, like the
Greeks, traders and travellers; their theological zeal, their
missionary activity, based upon the schools of Edessa and
radiating through the middle and the farther East, with the
commanding influence which they exerted over monastic

INTRODUCTION

thought, made them invaluable allies. Finally, it secured much
tolerance in Persia, partly for the political reason mentioned
above, but also, it can hardly be doubted, because it was able
to share fundamental ideas in Persian religious thought, such
as the eternal dualism of good and evil. Christianity thus
brought itself into intellectual and moral accord with the
three principal peoples in Hither Asia. But the relation was

FIG. 8. — Coptic sculpture from Medinet el-Fayum : 5th-6th century

(No 945.)

not intellectual and moral alone ; it could not fail to be
artistic also. These three peoples all had peculiar creative
gifts ; between them they shared the most active artistic
traditions of the age, and their association with the new faith
insensibly led to results of high significance for the future of
art. It will be well briefly to estimate their several contribu-
tions in this field, beginning with the Greeks.

The Mediterranean Greeks after the time of Alexander had
reacted aesthetically no less than intellectually to their en-
vironment. In philosophical and religious speculation they

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN ART 17

had compressed into single systems, by a process commonly
described as syncretism, elements widely different in origin.
They followed the same course in their art. At the beginning
of the Christian era this was already far removed in spirit and
manner from the Hellenic art of the great periods, and trans-
fused by oriental influences coming to it from the whole area
conquered by the Macedonian arms. Three centuries of such
transfusion had left it still predominantly a figure art, but
profoundly changed in spirit. Though much of the old
idealism survived in centres where the Greek population was
purest, as in parts of Asia Minor, elsewhere, perhaps through
contact with Syrian and Mesopotamian Semites, it had been
largely replaced by naturalism. The tendency to naturalism
was encouraged by Alexandrian science, whicn disposed men
to scientific rather than to emotional vision ; it was from
Alexandria that attempts to develop true perspective were
probably derived.

Another change from the old Hellenic point of view was
caused by the growth of the symbolism prevalent in the
East. This was directly encouraged during the first three
centuries by the repressive action of the Roman government,
which prevented the open representation of Christian subjects.
The paintings of the Catacombs, the manifestation of Early
Christian art long most familiar to us, illustrate the symbolic
tendency in its Hellenistic dress, though in certain elements
not introducing the human figure analogies to oriental
symbolic art have been conjectured (p. 24). A third change
concerned the treatment of ornament. In earlier Greek
times this had been regarded as subsidiary : it now began to
claim independent and substantive existence; and spaces
which the old Greeks would only have allotted to figure
subjects were encroached upon by continuous and diffused
patterns. The new ornament invaded sculpture, which in
course of time gave it an ever readier welcome, adopting the
oriental methods which bring out the design no longer by
modelling in relief, but by light and shadow in a single plane,
and create an impression like that produced by patterned
textiles (p. 127).

Late-Hellenistic art remained primarily a figure art, and by
this its place in the service of Christianity was assured. But it
had become rather an art of cleverness than of sincere feeling ;
it thus creates an impression of superficiality. By itself it
was not qualified to satisfy the needs of the new religion,
which called for more sincerity and force than it was able to

INTRODUCTION

give. But the Greek powers of composition and arrangement
made it indispensable when the time came for the introduction

of a historical art after
the Peace of the Church.
The first historical themes
and cycles were the work
of Hellenistic Greeks, and,
in Italy, of Romans who
had assimilated their style.
The contribution of Syria
to the formation of Chris-
tian art would appear to
have been determined by
the Semitic genius, though
Syrian feeling was shared
by the Copts of Upper
Egypt and by non-Semitic
inhabitants of inner Asia
Minor whose outlook on the
visible world was in many
ways the same.

At the beginning of the
Christian era the Syrians
were the chief represen-
tatives of old Assyrian
and Babylonian traditions.
Their art was naturalistic
and, like that of the Greeks,
concerned with the human
figure. But its spirit was
different from the Greek.
The Semitic mind, as has
often been remarked, is
content with limitation if
it can attain certainty ; it
is dogmatic, and free from
hesitation in matters of be-
lief. It is not reticent in
rendering either fact or

fact it expects the bare
truth, so in feeling it will
not stop short of the full expression. In a story or sequence of
facts it demands all the facts, the homely or the repellent no less

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN ART

than the attractive. Therefore its naturalism was strict and
realistic, disregarding all the Greek ideas of measure and re-
straint. It sought to represent the object, not as a symbol, but
as an end in itself, a clearly defined unity possessing individual
form ; at the same time, though it had an intellectual basis, it
was not experimental or scientific. Semitic art was coloured by
the psychological qualities of the race. But it was also affected
by memories of the ancient civilization in the valleys of the
Tigris and the Euphrates, which had encouraged the growth
of an advanced monarchic system. Under the great ancient

FIG. 10.— Bronze lamp : fifth century. (No. 502.)

monarchies the ideas of the king as a divine being, and of the god
as a being with monarchical attributes, were deeply implanted
in the minds of the people. With the coming of Christianity
these ideas intervened to modify the conception of Christ ; the
carpenter's son of Nazareth, the Good Shepherd of early
symbolism, became the Lord of All and the Supreme Judge.
The hierarchic feeling which permeated Semitic life reacted
upon art in less general ways. Thus the most important
personage in a scene had not only to have the central
position, but a stature exceeding that of secondary persons.
The result is that in Christian art where the Semitic

c 2

20 INTRODUCTION

influence is powerful we have what has been called ' inverted
perspective': the figures in the foreground are smaller than
the central figures, and this not for aesthetic, still less for
scientific reasons, but on purely psychological grounds. In
ornament the Syrians and Copts seem to have developed rather
than invented, transmitting decorative methods and designs
received from farther to the east. Here Syrian art was
already contaminated by Persian influence. Like Hellenistic
art, it absorbed a wealth of formal motives, based upon animal
and vegetable forms, which apparently came into it in large
part from the North Iranian area : such was the formal vine-
scroll enclosing beasts and birds in its convolutions, so common
in mosaics, stone sculpture, ivory carvings, and other works
of art. It also adopted Persian technical processes. Though
representing the culture which gave the world the great
Assyrian reliefs, it seems to have lost interest in figure
sculpture ; Syria, outside Antioch, has yielded no important
figure reliefs and no statues. It adopted the Iranian principle
of substituting for modelled forms delineation by contrasted
light and shade, or juxtaposed flat colour (p. 117). The effects
of these changes were far-reaching when in the fifth century
the two representational arts, the Hellenistic and the Syrian,
were brought into alliance under the domination of the Church.
The foregoing paragraphs have suggested that the Persian
share in the formation of Christian graphic art mainly consisted
in the gift of new decorative principles and designs. In contra-
distinction to the Greek and the Syrian, Persian art was
primarily an art of ornament. The figure-art of southern Persia
which we describe as Sassanian was not indigenous, but
influenced in a representational direction from Mesopotamian
and Hellenistic sources ; its chief aim was the glorification of
great kings after the Assyrian and Babylonian precedent.
The art really characteristic of the country flourished rather
in the northern regions, where Persia came into contact with
the steppes and their nomadic peoples. This art might indeed
include forms of men, animals, or plants. But it did not use
them, like that of the Syrians and pagan Greeks, as ends in
themselves, but as pure symbols, or, more frequently, as
constituent parts of a decorative design ; they were con-
ventionalized and fitted into geometrical pattern. The Iranian
artist did not see things in depth, but in flatness ; as above
noted, he did not carve in high relief ; in painting he avoided
modelling in tone, and applied flat colours side by side without
gradation. Since his field of vision had but two dimensions and

PLATE If. IVORY PANELS FROM A CASKET. EARLY FIFTH CENTURY.

(Seep. 88.)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHKISTIAN ART 21

all was perceived in one plane, he had no concern with true per-
spective ; his flat figures were all brought to the front, and if by
exception degrees of difference in distance had to be supposed,
were placed in zones one above the other, those regarded as
farthest being at the top. He disliked centralized design, prefer-
ring the diffusion of continuous pattern, outlined by opposition
of colour or of light and shade. These characteristics already
appear in the art of the steppes which for convenience we
describe as Scythic, centuries before the beginning of the
Christian Era, and belong also to peoples of Turco-Mongolian
stock ; this fact, and their absence from the pre-Christian art of
Egypt, leads us to suspect that they originally came into Coptic,

FIG. 11. — Bronze lamp with sacred monogram. (No. 501.)

as earlier into Syrian art, from the north. They explain
the probable Persian descent of the wall-decoration by
brilliant colour in various materials which lent the interiors
of early Christian churches so much splendour. In con-
struction Persia may have played a great part in the develop-
ment of Christian architecture through that of Armenia.

It will be pointed out below that from the toleration of
Christianity under Constantine the Church demanded a
historical and dogmatic art, and that in the fifth century the
increasing power of Church and State, and their mutual
understanding, subjected art to a new ecclesiastical and
imperial control (p. 27). At the end of these paragraphs deal-
ing with the three main artistic influences which determined
the course of Christian art, it may be well to point out in

INTRODUCTION

anticipation the natural result of this joint religious and
secular demand for sacred representation.

A compromise became necessary between the two representa-

FIG. 12.— Bronze patera. (No. 534.)

tional arts, the Hellenistic and the Syrian, which were those
most immediately affected. Though for many reasons, above all
for its fervour and sincerity, the Semitic element commended
itself more than the Greek to a church now largely influenced

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN ART 23

by Semitic monastic! sm, it was impossible for more than one
reason to build up a new art on this foundation alone.
Hellenistic co-operation was essential. The Greeks were
better organized, having more trained artists and more techni-
cal knowledge. They bad the habit of composition and a
genius for ordered arrangement ; they were thus more capable
of designing individual scenes and logically ordering them in
cycles. They had a whole repertory of conventional attitudes
and gestures useful for the presentation of ordinary action.
They were without rival in the field of sculpture. Moreover
they enjoyed the support of the Court, and of the more highly
educated classes which were indoctrinated from youth up with
classical tradition. Hellenistic art therefore possessed both
practical qualities and prestige ; it was indispensable at
a period of rapid change. The comparatively untrained Syrian
monastic artist had to copy it and borrow its details ; at a
time of pressure the Church had to give it welcome. But
though Hellenistic talent might contribute largely to form,
Semitic zeal, with all monasticism behind it, was bound to
provide the spirit, and, except in predominantly Greek environ-
ments such as those of Alexandria and other great Greek
cities or at the Byzantine Court, the spirit bent the form to
its will. Persia, whether or not she had shared in the earlier
Christian symbolism (p. 24), lost influence in an art now
openly representational and didactic ; her ornament did not
serve the ecclesiastical need of the moment. The Syrian-Greek
alliance in the representation of the fifth century was an event
of high importance for Christian sacred art, which it was
destined to influence both in East and West for centuries, and
in the East alone down to modern times.

The above account of the chief influences contributing to the
development of Christian art may now be followed by an
outline history of Christian art within the limits suggested in
the opening paragraphs. Although precise classification is
necessarily artificial, and, if regarded as anything more, is
likely to mislead, it yet provides useful stages at which the
mind may rest on a long road. The following divisions are
here adopted as a matter of convenience :

a. From the beginning of our era to the accession of

Constantine as sole Emperor, A.D. 323.

b. From A.D. 323 to the Arab Conquests in the first half of

the seventh century.

c. From the Arab Conquests to the end of Iconoclasm in

A.D. 842.

24 INTRODUCTION

d. From A. D. 842 to the taking of Constantinople by the

Crusaders in A.D. 1204.

e. From A.D. 1204 to the capture of Constantinople by the
Turks in A.D. 1453.

III. HISTORICAL SURVEY.
a. From the beginning of the Christian Era to A.D. 323.

During these three centuries the official attitude of the
Empire towards the new faith checked the growth of Christian
art within its borders. Christian expression, as we find it in
the Catacombs (p. 69), is symbolic in a Hellenistic style which
differs from contemporary pagan art in little but the nature of
the subjects. At the very end of the period, when sculpture
was employed to decorate Christian sarcophagi, the same
treatment continued ; in the Greek cities and in Italy there is no
Christian style to be distinguished from the pagan. The minor
arts followed the same lines ; here too the Christian character
is betrayed only by the subject or by inscriptions. As church-
building was not permitted to develop, Christian architecture
made no real beginning.

We have seen above (p. 4) that long before the Peace of
the Church there were Christian communities in Persian
territory beyond the Roman frontiers ; that Edessa, now under
Roman, now under Persian control, established Christianity in
the early third century during a period of Persian supremacy ;
and that the Armenian royal house made it the state religion
about A.D. 300, some years before it was tolerated in Rome.
In view of these facts, and of statements made in early
chronicles, it seems possible that places of worship may have
been built in Persia before the time of Constantine,in which case
some of them may well have been constructed and decorated
in the Persian rather than the Hellenistic manner ; no actual
remains of this time have, however, been preserved, and the
erection of such buildings is not yet proved. We may perhaps
assume that, if they existed, they were decorated with animal
and floral ornament, or even with hunting and fishing scenes, a
Persian style of decoration ; a correspondence on this subject
between St. Nilus and the founder of a new church shows that
the kind of motives described above had been usual in the
churches of Asia Minor during the fourth century. If, as
has been conjectured, these animal and floral designs had
a symbolic meaning for Zoroastrianism, capable of adaptation

HISTORICAL SURVEY

to Christian belief, there may have been in the East a second
Early-Christian symbolic art of Persian derivation, contem-
porary with the Hellenistic symbolism of the Roman and
Alexandrian catacombs, and possibly even finding some re-
flection in the West. In the first three centuries there was
no powerfully organized Church interested in the control of art.
Local influences were allowed free play ; and the simultaneous
existence of different ornamental or even symbolic styles in
different parts of the Christian world is not in itself improbable.
If the Greeks introduced, as they did, Orpheus and Psyche as
Christian symbolic figures, Persian Christians might equally
well have adapted the formal symbolism of the country in

FIG. 13. — Silver bowl from the Carthage Treasure : 4th-5th century.
(No. 361,)

which they lived, and the usage might have] spread westward
after the manner of other Persian fashions. Future explora-
tion and research may throw more light on these possibilities.
It is interesting to note that while within the Christian
area both in East and West art still remained symbolic, and
the time of Syrian influence had not yet come, the Semitic
spirit was already affecting the late-Hellenistic sculpture of
Gandhara on the North- West frontier of India. This art
of the second and third centuries, devoted to the service of
Buddhism, is narrative and episodic in a manner which suggests
inspiration from Antioch, where the Syrian spirit informed
a Hellenistic art. In Gandhara the forms are Greek, and

INTRODUCTION

venerated persons are directly represented, whereas in Bud-
dhist art before the time of Graeco- Syrian influence they were
suggested only by symbols.

This period witnessed the beginning of monasticism, which
had long existed in India, especially among Buddhists. It
began with the withdrawal of devout persons into remote or
desert places to live the life of hermits. Anchorites, whose

FIG. 14. — Bronze steelyard- weight : perhaps bust of the Emperor Phocas
(A.D. 602-610). (No. 485.)

numbers rapidly increased from the middle of the third
century, constructed their cells within reach of each other ;
they came to form groups, especially in Egypt, where at the
end of this period St. Pachomius established the first organized
community at Tabennisi near Denderah (c. A.D. 315-320), thus
beginning a movement destined to a swift expansion in many

HISTORICAL SURVEY 27

countries, and ultimately exerting a profound effect on the
direction of Christian art.

Resuming what has been said above, we find the first period
marked by two main characteristics: the symbolic character
of its art, and the absence of any central controlling power
giving that art a definite direction. The symbolic art which
prevailed in Italy and the Mediterranean cities was late-
Hellenistic in style, owing its first inspiration, as far as painting
was concerned, chiefly to Alexandria, but in sculpture to
the cities of Asia Minor and to Antioch ; in Rome native
artists adopted the style and learned tp give it their own
expression, so that a Roman Christian art came into being.
Beyond the eastern boundaries of the Empire Christians
living in Persian territory may well have used an Iranian
form of decoration, itself perhaps symbolic, but differing in
character from that which we see in the Catacombs. The
absence of a central ecclesiastical authority controlling the
development of art was favourable to originality and to local
initiative.

6. From A.D. 323 to the Arab Conquests in the first half
of the seventh century.

The toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire essen-
tially changed the position of Christian art. A liberated
Church desired to proclaim its triumph and openly to set forth
its sacred story ; symbolism therefore gave place to a historic
sacred art. In the eastern provinces oriental influence pro-
gressively increased at the expense of the Hellenistic ; partly
because the eastern Christians were numerically powerful and
more fervent than the Greek, partly because the new historic
and dogmatic phase upon which art now entered was attrac-
tive to the Semitic mind. At first, however, for the reasons
mentioned above (p. 23), the Greeks remained indispensable ; in
the earlier sarcophagi, manuscripts, and ivory carvings their
influence is still paramount. We have seen that they had the
technical experience and the practice ; they had numbers of
trained painters and sculptors ; the oriental had much to learn
from them in such matters as composition of figure subjects or
the arrangement of themes in cycles. The Hellenistic artist now
turned from the symbolism with which he had hitherto been
occupied to scriptural history and the illustration of dogmatic
truths. In painting Alexandria seems for a while to have kept
her supremacy ; the designs of a scroll in the Vatican Library,

INTRODUCTION

illustrating the life of Joshua, and reproducing an original MS.
of the fourth century, show how purely Hellenistic much of the
first Christian historical art must have remained. But a Greek
predominance so exclusive as this could not be more than tem-
porary. The Syrians were naturally predisposed to history
and dogma ; they had at the same time the dramatic sense.
Borrowing or adapting from the Greeks all that they needed,
they were soon able to give characteristic expression to their
religious feeling. The fifth and sixth centuries marked the

steady growth of their
importance in religious
art, and a relative de-
crease of Greek influence.
In Italy the encroach-
ment of the East was
less rapid. There is a
continuity between the
sacred art of the cata-
combs and that of the
Roman churches ; a clas-
sical style persists in
the nave mosaics of
St. Maria Maggiore (A. D.
352-366), and may be
presumed in the case of
other early picture- cycles
now lost, for instance in
that of the great Lateran
basilica. In the fifth cen-
tury oriental influence
is apparent in details,
largely as a result of
relations with Ravenna ;
but the tradition of

Roman Christian art survived the troubles of the time, lasting
to the close of Theodoric's reign : the apse mosaics of SS.
Cosmas and Damian were produced in the year of that king's
death (A. D. 526).

Thus although in the East Roman Empire the Hellenistic
element was far from being suppressed, and in secular art
probably survived almost unimpaired at Constantinople, the
whole of this time is marked by a continuous process of orien-
talization. A new Christian religious style now appeared, in
which the eastern factor became preponderant and impressed its

FIG. 15. — Lead flask with the Incredulity
of Thomas. Obtained in Egypt, but probably
made in Palestine : sixth century.

HISTORICAL SURVEY 29

character upon the whole. It was an art fond of episode and
realistic in detail, yet in representations of sacred persons
insisting upon the ancient connexion between God and king,
between the royal attributes and the divine. This suggestion of
the supernatural took its place beside the homely and outspoken
realism in which grace was disregarded and emotion rendered
without restraint. Both were Semitic, not Hellenic tendencies ;
and in proportion as they gained ground the Greek element
was forced into the background. But, like the Hellenistic
expression which it now largely superseded, this orientalizing
art was itself contaminated by Persian influences. It took
over Iranian formal ornament to frame or set off its figures.
Though it accepted Greek help in ordering its subjects, and,
within the subjects, adopted attitudes and gestures which were
commonplaces of Hellenistic practice, it was averse from the
general intellectual trend of late-Greek art, and more especially
from its effort after true perspective and its modelling of round
form. Modelling was reduced to a minimum or abandoned for
the use of flat colours side by side ; where perspective would
naturally be required, and its own inverted perspective (see
above, p. 20) did not suffice, it adopted the Asiatic method of zones
one above the other, the uppermost zone representing the most
distant part of the field of vision. Thus East-Christian art now
became a compromise between two representational systems,
the Semitic and the Greek, each of which, but especially the
former, was modified in certain directions by Persian influence.
The new art was didactic in tendency ; from the ecclesiastical
point of view it was indeed a form of pictorial instruction,
regarded by the Fathers as an important adjunct to oral
teaching. Mural paintings and mosaics, now in great demand,
illuminations, ivory carvings, were all designed to teach and
edify by means of carefully chosen scriptural or other subjects ;
the arrangement was often rigidly systematic, as when the
parallelism between the Old and New Testaments was observed.
Early mosaics of the churches at Kome and Ravenna illustrate
the didactic tendency of the time ; minor works of art preserved
to us suggest that the same influences obtained in the Holy
Land, and the description left by Choricius of Gaza of the cycles
painted in the sixth century on the walls of the Church of
St. Sergius in that city introduces us to an art of which the
spirit is wholly different from that of the Catacombs.

The progress of this new sacred art from the fifth century
onwards was furthered by various causes. The monasteries,
which rapidly increased with the substitution of common life

INTRODUCTION

under a rule for that of anchorites, gradually became im-
portant centres of art and craftsmanship. But monastic learn-
ing was now largely directed from the schools of Edessa and
Nisibis in Northern Mesopotamia, which were under Syrian
control. Monastic art and iconography tended in consequence to
receive a Syrian impress, diffused by the close relations between
the religious houses in different countries throughout the Chris-
tian world. Through such relations the Syrian spirit obtained
the ascendancy in the monasteries of the Holy Land ; it probably
determined the nature of mosaics and paintings in the memorial

churches to which pilgims now
flocked from all parts. It thus
attained a world-wide repute, for
the designs of the mosaics and
frescoes of the Holy Places were
copied in such portable memen-
toes as the ampullae or flasks
(fig. 15) which the pilgrims took
home from their travels. More-
over, since the illumination of
books was chiefly the work of
monks, and since these books
were carried from place to place
to be copied in distant countries,
the orientalizing monastic style
largely inspired the earliest re-
presentational art of mediaeval
Europe. The interesting early
Gospels in the Library of Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge, are
held to be such a copy, the model
being perhaps a sixth-century
illuminated Gospel book like

those preserved at Rossano and in Florence (p. 122). In addition
to monks and pilgrims, traders must have borne their share
in the distribution of minor works of art through the West.
Here again the agency was in great part Syrian, for though that
adjective is used by early writers in a wide sense and includes
other orientals, the Syrians were among the most active of the
commercial peoples settled in the Mediterranean ports. Ivory
carvings of which the subjects are closely related to those in
illuminated MSS. may have passed through traders' hands
with other portable objects in the ordinary way of commerce.
Gregory of Tours, writing in the sixth century, relates that the

FIG. 16. — Bronze reliquary cross
twelfth century. (No. 559.)

HISTORICAL SURVEY

Merovingian king Chilperic was furnished with works of art
by a merchant of oriental birth, a fact which suggests traffic
in such things with the East. Another influence which tended
to the diffusion of art was the exchange of gifts between Con-
stantinople and the
Teutonic courts of
Europe. Sometimes
we infer that the
foreign gift provoked
the emulation of the
barbaric prince. Thus
Gregory tells us that
Chilperic, who had
received presents from
the Byzantine court,
commanded his gold-
smiths to make a
large gold dish to
show what Frankish
skdl could do.

It has been already
stated that the Copts,
though of a different
race, shared the general
aesthetic standpoint of
the Syrians. They
took their share also
in the dissemination of
the new art. But the
Syrians, through the
eminence of their theo-
logical schools and
their monastic influ-
ence, seem to have
assumed a certain con -
trol of sacred art;
Coptic figure art
seems to have had

a less extensive influence. The Copts were relatively more
important as masters of decorative design, which they developed
in a remarkable manner after the fourth century. Like Syria,
and probably through Syria, Christian Egypt derived orna-
mental methods and motives from Iranian sources ; the technical
methods of decorative sculpture (p. 127), for the execution of

FIG. 17. — Painted pottery fragments from
Wadi Sarga : sixth century.

32 INTRODUCTION

which the Copts used with admirable effect the limestone of the
Nile Valley, seem to belong to the art of Asia rather than to
that of ancient Egypt ; while the number of motives common
to Syria and Coptic Egypt favours the hypothesis of Asiatic
rather than Egyptian origin, especially when we remember
that both the formal floral scroll and the vine as ornament
are believed to have come into Egypt from Asia. Coptic
industrial art has enjoyed an advantage over that of Syria
and Persia through the fact that Egypt has long been
available for systematic excavation, and the exceptionally
dry soil has preserved even articles of a perishable nature.
Christian antiquities from Egypt have necessarily outnumbered
those from other places not so favourably conditioned ; and,
not unnaturally, the art of other parts of the Christian East,
less in the public eye, has been in some measure over-
looked. A universal initiative has thus been assigned to the
Copts without sufficient evidence. But this said, it may at
once be admitted that the native Egyptians excelled in all
manner of decorative practice; that they developed designs with
individuality; and that in their tapestries they may perhaps
claim invention. Their production was very large, and in the
wide distribution, by commercial and other means, of objects
made in various parts of the Christian East, Coptic products
are conspicuous. If the silver plate of Antioch has been dis-
covered in the remote East-Russian province of Perm (p. 129),
bronze vessels of Coptic types have been found in Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries. And, in the actual transmission of eastern orna-
mental designs to Gaul and the West, Coptic Egypt may
have borne a greater share than Syria.

But if Iranian ornament penetrated the West chiefly
through the intermediary of Christian Copts and Syrians, it
had enjoyed other and more direct means of access. The style
of gold jewellery set with a mosaic of table garnets or coloured
pastes in cells (orfevrerie cloisonnee, inlaid jewellery) certainly
followed the Goths from the Black Sea region, and it is un-
likely to have been the only artistic importation brought by
this tribe from the Persian borders, and transmitted to other
Teutonic peoples. The wide diffusion and popularity of this
jewellery and of other ornamental methods of like origin
enable us better to understand the reception accorded to the
new sacred art in all countries from the South of Russia to
the West of England. The ground had been already prepared,
the artistic sense of the Goth, the Lombard, the Burgundian,
the Frank, and the Saxon already trained in a Persian school.

HISTORICAL SURVEY

When these tribes received Christian works of art with orna-
ment designed on the same principles as their own, they gave
it a ready welcome. The Irish Celts themselves, who were
without a figure art, at once perceived the interest of new
decorative designs ; this is why the introduction of Chris-
tianity into Ireland was followed by an influx of eastern
ornamental motives, which naturally took their place beside
the spirals and trumpet-patterns of native art.

FIG. 18.— Top of the silver casket of Projecta. (No. 304.)

It is possible that the migrating peoples brought with
them from the East forms of more direct importance to Chris-
tianity than these. It has been maintained that a knowledge
of stone building may also have come in with the Goths;
this people in early days had raided Cappadocia, carrying off
prisoners (p. 8), and was converted to Christianity before the
great westerly movement began. In North Syria and Cappa-
docia, and possibly in Armenia, the period between the fourth

34 INTRODUCTION

and seventh centuries was fertile in architectural experiment :
and certain very early churches still standing in France and
Spain, on soil once Visigothic, are generally admitted to show
oriental features. It is argued that they are early successors
of churches erected by eastern builders entering the West in the
train of the Goths. The question, which is controversial, is
mentioned again on later pages.

Attention has been drawn to the origin of monasticism
at the beginning of this period. The work of St. Pachomius
in Egypt was extended (p. 26), and by the beginning of the
fifth century the monks of his order had become numerous ;
the Skete Desert and the Natron Lakes became an important
monastic centre. But in Egypt the movement began to lose
force towards the close of the century, and its decline was
hastened by the Arab conquest. The common life instituted
by Pachomius was introduced into Syria and the neighbouring
regions early in the fourth century. Probably the eremitic life
had been led in Syria before this date; and even after the estab-
lishment of monasteries its greater austerity continued to
recommend it to the Syrian temperament. But in the second
half of the fourth century St. Basil of Caesarea in Cappadocia
adapted the principles of Pachomius to Greek conditions, and
instituted a rule which for a long time afterwards remained in
the ascendant throughout the Christian East. It discouraged
extreme asceticism, and, like that of St. Benedict, approved
intellectual as well as manual labour. In the West, monas-
ticism had been introduced into Italy after the visit of
St. Athanasius to Rome in A.D. 340. It first developed after
the eremitic fashion of the earlier recluses in Egypt, but the
lack of cohesion which resulted led to the establishment by
St. Benedict, about A.D. 500, of a rule which remained without
a rival in Latin monasticism for several centuries; the great
monastery of Monte Cassino between Rome and Naples was
founded by St. Benedict. Special mention may be made of
the two monasteries at Squillace in Bruttii, founded in the
second half of the sixth century by Cassiodorus, ex-minister of
the Ostrogothic King Theodoric. Cassiodorus was acquainted
with the work of the theological schools in the Christian
East; he specially insisted on the importance of transcrib-
ing manuscripts, and doubtless illumination was also practised.
In Gaul monasteries were erected from the close of the
fourth century. The most famous were those of St. Honoratus,
on one of the islands of LeVins off the south coast; of
St. Victor at Marseilles; that at Poitiers; and those of

PLATE III. IVORY PANEL: THE BAPTISM. SIXTH CENTURY.

HISTORICAL SURVEY

Marmoutier and St. Martin in Touraine ; at Marseilles and at
Lerins there were schools which contributed to the preserva-
tion of classical learning. The monasteries of Gaul were
closely connected with the early Christianity of the British
Isles and of Ireland. The name of St. Ninian is associated
with that of St. Martin ; those of St. Patrick and St. Augustine
with the monastery of LeVins. Gaul was the chief scene of
Columban's missionary work at the close of the sixth century.
The Irish rule of eremitic tendency, introduced by him at
three monasteries in the neighbourhood of the Vosges, was
widely spread by his disciples, but it could not resist the
growth of the Benedictine system, and was almost forgotten
by the time of Charles the Great.

FIG. 19. — Section of dome-shaped silver casket. Esquiline Treasure
(No. 305.)

These centuries embraced the first great period of the
Byzantine Empire, culminating in the reign of Justinian, a
time of activity for all the arts, from architecture and mosaic
to the weaving of silk (p. 150) or the manufacture of jewellery
and silver plate ; in this reign Italy was for a short time
recovered by Byzantine arms, and the city of Ravenna enriched
by buildings still standing to attest the splendour of the age.

The eastern provinces enjoyed a comparative tranquillity until
the close of the reign, and a prosperity enhanced by the intro-
duction of the silkworm from Central Asia. After Justinian the
rivalry of the East-Roman Empire and Persia drew to a head,
and exhausting wars ensued in which the emperor Heraclius
bore a victorious part, avenging the capture of Jerusalem by the

r> 2

36 INTRODUCTION

Persians in A.D. 614, when Constantine's Church of the Holy
Sepulchre was destroyed. The number of works of art surviv-
ing from the sixth century, not only on the large scale in the
form of church buildings with their mosaics, but on the small in
the shape of manuscripts, ivory carvings, textiles, silver plate,
and jewellery, attests the prosperity enjoyed in this period by
Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. But at the time of Heraclius's
death in A.D. 641 the Arabs were already overrunning Egypt
and the loss of the first two of these provinces was imminent.
We have seen that despite certain oriental influences Rome had
preserved the tradition of her earlier Christian art down to
the end of the reign of Theodoric (p. 28). The ensuing war
of more than twenty years between the Goths and the Byzan-
tine armies brought ruin and depopulation to the city, and
a complete end to its old life. Its new inhabitants after the
peace were in great part orientals. A Byzantine governor
lived on the Palatine ; eastern monasteries were established,
and even Gregory the Great, a Roman born, entrusted his own
monastery on the Caelian to Greek monks. From the latter
part of the sixth century began an orientalizing period in
Rome, lasting for about two hundred years. It was precisely
the time when the city, raised by the Popes to the position of
a great spiritual capital, drew to itself more and more the
homage of the western world. This was a coincidence not
without its effect upon the development of European mediaeval
art (p. 43).

In Gaul Roman rule ended in Provence in A.D. 475, the
Visigoths and the Burgundians holding the country south of the
Loire ; the Franks occupied the north-west ; to the north-east
Syagrius maintained his Gallo-Romaii kingdom until over-
thrown by the Franks in A. D. 486. The Visigoths and
Burgundians were already Christians. Both were amenable in
their degree to civilization, tolerant of the Gallo- Roman culture
and themselves practising various arts ; the Visigoths are held
by some to have built stone churches. The tranquillity of Gaul
enabled monasticism to make more progress here than else-
where, and to do much for education : the influence of Gaulish
monasteries was of great importance to Britain and Ireland,
with which countries communications were maintained (p. 35).
The Franks, converted to (Catholic) Christianity in A.D. 496,
were of a rougher mould than the Goths, but they too were
skilled in certain minor arts. In A.D. 507 Clovis, their first
Christian king, defeated the Visigoths, and the Frankish
monarchy soon extended over the whole country. Under the

HISTORICAL SURVEY

descendants of Clovis the land was divided into several king-
doms, and the sixth century was a period of domestic feud and
general insecurity. Nevertheless churches and monasteries were
built, including a new abbey church of St. Martin at Tours, and
there are allusions to paintings with which some of them were
adorned. As related above (p. 31), Merovingian kings were
patrons of national art chiefly in the form of goldsmiths'
and silversmiths' work ; for, as in Constantinople,, workshops
were attached to the royal palaces, in which ornaments,
plate, and perhaps textile
fabrics were produced for
the use of the court.

A great part of Spain had
been held by the Visigoths
before their defeat in Gaul in
A.D. 507, though the Suevi
were established in the north-
west. After that event Spain
became the sole Visigothic
kingdom, though from A.D.
554 to A. D. 629 the Byzantine
Empire held a considerable
region in the south and
south-east. In A.D. 587 King
Recared abandoned A nanism
to become a Catholic, but the
people to a great extent
adhered to their traditional
faith. As in Gaul, the state
of the country was disturbed
by political divisions, and by
strife between the nobles
and 'the kings, but this did
not prevent a considerable
development of the arts. A

great deal of building took place during the Visigothic period,
but though parts of various churches have been ascribed to
Visigothic architects, the limits of their work are ill defined.
Complete churches exemplifying their supposed tradition
actually date from the ninth century and are later than the
conquest of the country by the Arabs. It may be said here
by way of anticipation that while some believe Visigothic
architectural methods to have come directly from the East at
the time of the great migrations, others hold that in a country

FIG. 20. — Terracotta lamp with the
story of Jonah. (No. 718.)

INTRODUCTION

like Spain, where the Latin influence was very strong, they
could not but continue the Roman tradition.

Visigothic minor arts are best known by the gold votive
crowns from Guarrazar enriched with orfevrerie cloisonnee now
in Madrid and in the Musde de Cluny at Paris; they show
that in the seventh century the old Persian style was still
being practised in Spain.

North-west Africa, which had been under direct Roman
influence during the early Christian centuries, was taken by
the Vandals in A.D. 435, and for about a hundred years was

oppressed by the Vandal
kings. The conquest of the
country for Justinian by
Belisarius in A. p. 533 led
to the construction of for-
tresses and public buildings,
but the ecclesiastical archi-
tecture of the country as
a whole seems to have de-
pended chiefly upon Roman
tradition. The Byzantine
government was harsh and
unpopular, and the arrival
of the Mohammedan in-
vaders found the people
ready for a change of
rulers. Thus in A. D. 709 the
last bulwark of Christianity
in Northern Africa was
overthrown by Islam.

For the British Isles
during this period see
pp. 56-61.

We may review the principal characteristics of these
centuries as a period in the development of Christian art.
They witnessed a complete change from the symbolism of the
earlier age to a system of historical and dogmatic representa-
tion. The change came about because the freed Church wished
to employ art to celebrate its triumph and set forth its creed :
the close relations between a centralized Church and the
imperial court led also to the glorification by artistic means
of the imperial power. Under the new conditions the positive
Syrian spirit gained ground at the expense of the Greek,
though for practical reasons it was compelled to accept

KICK 21. — Terracotta lamp from Syria.

(No. 835.)

HISTORICAL SURVEY

Hellenistic aid. There thus arose a new Christian sacred art,
composed of two main factors, Syrian and Greek, the relative
strength of which varied according to environment, the Greek
element being strong in the Hellenistic cities and in the
Byzantine capital, weak in the inland countries and in the

FIG. 22. — Pottery vase with two faces, Wadi Sarga.

monasteries which, intellectually influenced from Edessa and
Nisibis, had commonly some oriental bias. Thus the general
tendency was one of orientalization down to the late sixth
century, at which time the full stream of eastern influence
began flowing into an exhausted Rome. A Syro-Hellen-
istic figure art accompanied by conventionalized ornament,

40 INTRODUCTION

originally, it may be supposed, of Persian descent, was thus
the art which dominated the Europe of the so-called Dark Ages;
it was the missionary art of a monasticism oriental in spirit
and always maintaining relations with the East. Less scientific
and franker in emotion than unmodified Greek art, less con-
cerned also with exact imitation of nature, it appealed to the
barbaric peoples as Hellenic art had never done, partly because,
even in its representation, it was affected by consideration of
abstract design.

It was a definitely Christian art, a new thing. It has some-
times been maintained that Early Christian Art was nothing
but the shadow of classical art, absorbed in the deepening
gloom of barbarism. So far is this from the fact, that the
very time of its presumed extinction marked its emergence
into a vigorous maturity. The error has arisen from too narrow
a limitation of the view, and a tendency to overlook the
dominant part played at this time by the countries east of
the Mediterranean. There may be difference of opinion as to
the quality of this art, but as to its vitality there can be none.
No shadowy survival could have nourished and brought up
the infant art of Europe during several hundred years.

c. From the Arab Conquests to the end of Iconoclasm in

A.D.842.

The period of decline through which the Byzantine Empire
passed after the reign of Justinian was relieved by the victory
of Heraclius over the Persians ; but with the Arab invasion
and the outbreak of the iconoclastic dispute the tide reached
its lowest ebb. North Africa was overrun, and the Eastern
territories reduced by the loss of Syria and Egypt, the two
provinces which had contributed so much to the formation of
Christian art.

Iconoclasm, which in practice signified rather the defacement
or destruction of religious paintings than the breaking of
images, began in A.D. 726 under the Emperor Leo III, and
lasted more than a hundred years. In contrasting their own
humiliation with the triumph of the Arabs, men remembered
that the faith of the victors forbade the representation of the
divine form ; they began to associate their military disasters
with the excessive veneration of ikons which had especially
flourished under monastic influence ; the patriotic were already
indignant at the system which in the hour of danger refused
thousands of able-bodied monks to the imperial armies. Much

HISTORICAL SURVEY

of the strength of the movement was derived from the people
upon the eastern borders, where the Persian dislike for sacred
pictures, approved in general by Armenia, was known and
in great measure shared ; and since this feeling was in the
Iranian region accompanied by a preference for a non-repre-
sentation al art of ornament, aesthetic causes were linked
from the first with religious. The iconoclastic dispute
became a matter of art no less than of religion ; it re-
solved itself into a long struggle to oust representation,
and to substitute for the didactic pictures of Syria the pure

FIG. 23. — A design on a terracotta plate from Egypt. (No. 926.)

ornament of Iran. Thus aesthetic principle was involved
with religious questions throughout the interminable conflict,
and the art which avoided the reproduction of nature seemed
often near to success. But victory finally remained with
picture-worship and writh the Syro-Hellenistic representational
art which was supported by the whole strength of monasti-
cism ; it was left to Islam, which had never known representa-
tion, to develop an art of decoration to its logical extreme.
The end of iconoclasm, in A.D. 842, marked not only a victory
for the Orthodox Church, but for sacred representational art
within the Empire. Yet the defeated side had not fought

42 INTRODUCTION

without effect. A wave of orientalism brought with it new
motives, geometrical, animal, and floral, and many of these
found a permanent place in East-Christian design. The
resemblance between Saracenic and later Byzantine ornament
is often striking, because both come in the main from the
same Persian source ; but whereas the former enjoyed
the fullest independence, the latter was subordinated to
figure subjects. Armenian sympathy with the iconoclastic
struggle is emphasized by the fact that more than one of the
iconoclast emperors were of Armenian descent, and in the
attitude which they adopted probably represented the prevalent
opinion in their native country. The Armenian Church had
indeed accepted a sacred figure art under Syrian influence;
but it would seem that although this found approval among
the clergy, the people in general disliked sacred representation.
Armenians sat on the imperial throne after iconoclasm had
come to an end ; and Basil I, who was of that race, inaugu-
rated in A.D. 867 a new political and artistic period of
Byzantine history, in which Armenian influences can often
be discerned.

The attitude of the Arabs to Christianity in the conquered
provinces varied under different dynasties, but as a rule those
Christians who refused to change their faith were tolerated,
though placed under restrictions as regards dress, the building
of churches, and other matters. Thus monasteries in Egypt,
Palestine, and Syria pursued their existence and maintained
relations with the religious houses still within the Byzantine
Empire; pilgrimage to the Holy Land, though sometimes
interrupted, continued under the Mohammedan rule. For
some time during the first half of the period, the Caliphate
was held by the Uminayads (A.D. 661-750), who represented
the old Arab aristocracy, and were not in full sympathy with
the teaching of Mohammed. These rulers were not fanatical
in religion, and were tolerant of other creeds. Their capital
was Damascus, and they were great patrons of the fine arts,
not refusing aid from artists or craftsmen of any race able
to gratify their tastes, and willing in their buildings to adopt
forms used by Christians; thus the Caliph Abd El-Malek
(A. D. 685-705) rebuilt a church of Justinian at Jerusalem on
basilican lines as the mosque El-Aksa. For the ornamentation
of the interiors they used mosaic, and when, c. A. D. 708, the
Caliph Walid (A.D. 705-15) adapted the pre-existing Christian
church at Damascus for use as a mosque, he asked the Byzan-
tine Emperor for mosaic cubes to carry out the decoration.

HISTORICAL SURVEY 43

In the desert palace of Quseir ' Amra, probably built for a prince
of this line, the walls are painted with figure -subjects, some of
which are Hellenistic in character. With the accession of
the Abbasid dynasty (A.D. 750-1258) the capital was removed
to Baghdad, and Mohammedan art passed more definitely
under Persian control, though the development attained by
the Copts of Egypt was naturally influential in the South.
A period of increased orthodoxy was accompanied by a mag-
nificence of decorative design, such as might naturally be
expected when the capital of Islam was moved within the
Persian sphere. Under the Abbasids, a non-representational
decorative style, chiefly of Persian derivation, was hencefor-
ward typical of Mohammedan expression, as Syro-Hellenistic
representation was typical of Byzantine sacred art. Two
opposing systems were firmly established ; though in the
course of centuries often influencing each other, they remained
severally characteristic of Christianity and of Islam.

While the peaceful development of the Christian East was
interrupted by foreign invasion and internal dispute, the West
was for the most part disturbed by the first cause alone. The
Arabs conquered North Africa and Spain. The Lombards,
driving out the last Byzantine exarchs from Ravenna, harassed
the papacy to such an extent that they brought about their own
overthrow. In A.D. 774 Stephen II, in despair of effective aid
from Constantinople, appealed to Pepin king of the Franks, and
the help then given confirmed relations which resulted in the
final defeat of the Lombards, the coronation of Pepin's son
Charles the Great as Emperor (A. D. 800), and the final severance
of official relations between Constantinople and Rome. But the
West was not drawn into the devastating iconoclastic struggle.
It had not carried picture- worship to the same lengths as the
East ; neither Rome nor the Frankish Kings accepted the
iconoclastic doctrine. The consequence was that in Italy and
the West the development of Christian art proceeded tranquilly
upon the old lines; the Syro-Hellenistic sacred art of the
preceding period was secure in a Rome now full of Eastern
monasteries and ruled by many Syrian popes, from Theodore,
a Greek of Jerusalem (A. D. 642) to Zacharias (A. D. 741). The
mural paintings on the walls of the ruined church of St. Maria
Antiqua below the Palatine Hill, or on those of St. Saba, attest
the continuance of a style introduced after the Gothic wars,
but confirmed by an influx of Greek fugitives from iconoclasm
in A.D. 726, and from Ravenna after the capture of that city
by the Lombards in A.D. 752. The minor arts were influenced

INTRODUCTION

from the same sources, as we learn from the interesting dis-
covery made at the beginning of the present century in the
chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran, the last
surviving part of the mediaeval palace. Here a number of
reliquaries and other objects were preserved in a chest con-
tained within the altar, originally deposited by Pope Leo III
(A.D. 795-816), and untouched since the time of Leo X
(A.D. 1513-21). The contents, now preserved in the Vatican

Library, included several objects of
East- Christian workmanship dating
from before the Arab invasions;
among them were an enamelled gold
cruciform reliquary of the sixth or
early seventh century with New
Testament scenes of which the
iconography points to Syria-Pales-
tine, and fine fragments of figured
silk, one with the Annunciation and
the Nativity of rather earlier date,
probably made at Alexandria, with
other textiles having Persian de-
signs. Such were the more precious
examples of the industrial arts
entering the Rome of the early
Middle Ages. It need not, however,
be supposed that Rome remained
merely receptive. As in the period
before Constantine Hellenistic ar-
tists from Alexandria must have
trained many Italian pupils, as
down to the Gothic wars a Roman
monumental art still persisted, so
in this later Rome the artists from

FIG. 24.— Terracotta lamp, pro- Syria or Egypt must have found
bably from Egypt. (No 822.) Italian followers and rivals: we

seem to mark in some of the Roman

frescoes painted in these centuries, oriental though they are
in general character, a feeling which is not wholly of the
East. It is held by some that an Italian hand may have
produced at Rome the interesting miniatures painted on
the inner surfaces of the diptych of the Consul Boethius now
at Brescia, at the time, perhaps in the early part of the seventh
century, when this secular diptych was adapted to liturgical
uses. The style recalls that of such illuminated books as the

HISTORICAL SURVEY 45

sixth-century Gospels at Rossano (p. 122), and, if the theory
is correct, these miniatures, like the mural paintings, show us
a native Italian art striving to emerge under East-Christian
inspiration. Yet it was probably less as a creative than as a
distributive centre that in these obscure times Rome best served
the interests of Christian art. From this partly oriental city
Augustine set out in A.D. 597 upon his English Mission; from
Rome in the second half of the following century Benedict
Biscop of Jarrow and St. Wilfrid introduced ecclesiastical works
of art into North umbria ; the models for the reliefs on the high
crosses of Ruth well and Bewcastle, though probably themselves
of East-Christian inspiration, may well have reached Britain
through the intermediary of Rome from some more distant
source (p. 66). With Benedict in A.D. 669 Theodore of
Tarsus, an inmate of an eastern monastery in Rome, came
to England to occupy the See of Canterbury. The eighth
century saw the oriental influence at its height, and its
reaction on the West assured by the increasing settlements
in Rome of Lombards, Franks, and Anglo-Saxons. Our
countrymen had a quarter of their own, with a church and
hospice endowed by Ina, King of Wessex, in A. D. 728. When
the papacy was allied to the new Frankish Empire, and
political relations with Byzantium were broken off', eastern
influence began to decline, and for a while it seemed that
a new Italian art might come into being. But Rome was not
yet ready, and the decreasing strength of the oriental element
was not compensated by a vigorous growth of native art.
The Carolingian Empire was divided, and Rome suffered from
the insecurity and confusion following upon its decay. After
the first quarter of the ninth centurj^, her art fell to a depth
which it had never reached before.

In northern Italy the arts continued largely under Teutonic
domination. Enamelling, which the ancient Romans had
practised in the champleve' form, appeared in Italy perhaps as
early as the late sixth century, but in the cloisonne variety
in favour throughout the East ; features of an early example
in the Museum collections (p. 145) suggest that this craft may
have been exercised by Ostrogoths or by orientals working
for them, and may have been handed on in this manner
to the Lombards ; several examples of enamelling in Italy
during the ninth century are preserved (p. 145). The Lom-
bards were in a less advanced state of civilization than the
Goths; but in the two centuries of their dominion in Italy
they developed considerable skill in decorative art, especially

INTRODUCTION

in sculpture, the motives commonly suggesting an Eastern
descent.

In Gaul this period embraces the latter part of the
Merovingian (earlier Frankish), and the earlier part of
the Carolingian (later Frankish) age which began with

FIG. 25. — Fragments of painted pottery, Wadi Sarga : sixth century.

Charles the Great (A.D. 768-814). Here, as in Italy,
Eastern influences were conspicuous. Certain Merovingian
illuminated initials in MSS. ascribed to the eighth century
have capitals formed of birds and fish which find remarkable
parallels in the Christian East ; while the formal ornament

HISTORICAL SURVEY .47

which accompanies or frames the earliest Carolingian minia-
tures probably came with these from Syria and Egypt. The
gospels of the monk Godescalc, in the National Library at Paris,
executed for Charles the Great in A.D. 781-783, have illustra-
tion directly based on the art of Syrian illuminated books of
the sixth century, such as the Gospels now at Edgmiatsin in
Armenia, and the Gospels of Rabula in Florence (p. 122).
A like Syrian inspiration may be observed in other Carolin-
gian illuminated MSS., and it may be recalled that Charles
availed himself of the aid of Syrian monks in his emendation
of the gospel text. The well-known Utrecht Psalter, with its
sensitive line drawings, is, on the other hand, based upon a lost
Hellenistic model of more ancient date and probably of
Alexandrian origin, showing that late Greek art was not
without its appeal to the Western illuminator of this period.
Carolingian ivory carvings naturally reveal the same Eastern
and Hellenistic influences as the manuscripts. Among the
collection in the British Museum (King Edward VII gallery,
Pier Case, Bay XX) is, for example, & pyxis of ivory carved with
New Testament subjects in imitation of earlier work from
Egypt or Syria, like that seen on a pyxis in the same case carved
with the martyrdom of St. Menas. The Victoria and Albert
Museum has an ivory book-cover in which, in the same way,
an East-Christian model is reproduced by a Carolingian artist.
Enamelling, which as above noted had also revived in Italy,
was practised from the close of the early Carolingian period,
not only in the cloisonne*, but also in the champlevl variety.

In Spain the Mohammedans overthrew the Visigothic
Kingdom in A.D. 711. They found in the country an art
which, on its decorative side, had a similar Eastern origin to
their own (p. 38) ; the resemblance between the designs on
fragments of decorative sculpture assigned to the Visigothic
period and Coptic and Syrian ornament has often been
remarked ; decoration showing these affinities and based on pal-
mette or vine motives lasted for a long time in the peninsula,
and outlived Moorish times.

Summing up this period, we find it a decisive epoch in the
history of earlier Christian art. In the East it marked the
restoration of sacred figure art and the rejection of the non-
representational expression which triumphed in the countries
conquered by Islam. If the Arabs had not stopped short at
Asia Minor ; if Charles Martel had not driven them back from
central France in A.D. 732, the style and methods of mediaeval
and later art might have been very different from those which

48 INTRODUCTION

we know ; the condition of European art as a whole might
have approximated in various degrees to that of Spain under
the Moors. As it was, the Byzantine and the Frankish armies
stayed the advance of Islam. In the West the sacred figure
art of Syro-Hellenistic descent (p. 28) was left to provide
models undisturbed for Italian and Frankish artists. At Rome,
which had rejected iconoclasrn, the increased influence of the
papacy was synchronous with the spread of oriental monastic
art. Rome had become a centre of unrivalled importance ; it
contained colonies of Franks and Anglo-Saxons, and was visited
by western ecclesiastics like Benedict Biscop, who took home
with them for their own churches works of art brought to the
city of the Popes from all parts of the Christian world.

After the establishment of a new Empire by Charles the
Great, East -Christian influence upon Western Europe con-
tinued, but had not quite the same vital importance as in the
early centuries, when the art of a continent under barbaric
dominion owed its development to East-Christian aid : the
peoples of Europe now owed more to their own activities. But
for a long time it still permeated European art ; to its presence
we may ascribe in no small degree the cosmopolitan nature of
the art which we call Romanesque.

d. From the end of Iconoclasm to the Fourth Crusade of
A.D. 1204.

With the accession of Basil I (A.D. 867-886) there began
a period which may more accurately be styled Byzantine than
any which had gone before. The mere reduction of the
Empire, and the loss of Syria and Egypt, with their great
intellectual and artistic centres of Antioch and Alexandria,
increased the relative importance of Constantinople and
Salonika. And during the first two hundred years of the period
the Byzantine arms were once more victorious, overthrowing
the Bulgarian kingdom, and pushing forward in the East into
Armenia and Georgia; as the early movements of the Seljuks dis-
turbed the Caliphate, the prestige of Constantinople increased
while that of the Abbasids weakened. Success quickened
national sentiment and reacted favourably upon all creative
work. At the same time friendly relations were maintained
with the western emperors, one of whom, Otto II, married
a Byzantine princess. Envoys passed between the courts, and
as in earlier times, gifts in the form of works of art were
exchanged ; the East-Roman Empire occupied a great place in

HISTORICAL SURVEY

the world, and its restored prosperity was worthily reflected
in its art. But at the close of the eleventh century the
prospect was again darkened by the battle of Malazgerd
(Manzikert) on the borders of Armenia, in which the Emperor
Romanus was defeated and taken prisoner by the Seljuk Turk,
Alp Arslan, in A.D. 1071. This year may be regarded as

FIG. 26. — Fragments^)*' painted pottery, Wadi Sarga : sixth century.

a turning-point, after which the fortunes of the Empire
declined. As the Turks increased their hold on Asia Minor,
the prosperity of Byzantium was exchanged for comparative
poverty; the arts which had flowered during the expansion
of national life now withered under its depression.

The first century of the two hundred years of success was

INTRODUCTION

marked in Constantinople by a certain renewal of Greek
influence, sometimes called the neo-classical revival. During
iconoclasm the secular art, largely mythological, which had
always flourished in the capital under aristocratic patronage,
extended its scope. The Hellenistic movement profited so

much from the attack
upon pictures that
after the re-establish-
ment of peace in the
Church it was able
for a long time to ex-
tend its influence over
religious art. Many
miniatures in illumi-
nated books and many
ivory carvings of the
tenth century (p. 125)
are distinguished by
a refined and almost
classical style in which
we sometimes seem
to discern a Hellenic
rather than a Hellen-
istic quality. But the
monastic influences
which had won the
victory over icono-
clasm gradually re-
newed their strength ;
ecclesiastical control
was drawn closer ; re-
ligious art was more
intimately connected
with the liturgical
Feasts of the Chris-
tian Year. The icono-
graphy of the Syrian

FIG. 27. — Byzantine gilt bronze plaque : St.
Theodore : eleventh century. (No. 544.)

period, still preserved in the monasteries of Cappadocia,
became once more a source of inspiration ; sacred art, with its
new ritual associations, became graver and more austere in
proportion as the monastic spirit was asserted : thus in the
mosaics of St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis the oriental spirit is
more marked than in those of Daphni in Attica, where
the Hellenistic element is exceptionally strong. In Constanti-

HISTORICAL SURVEY 51

nople Hellenism never wholly lost the position which it had
attained in the tenth century ; through the first hundred years
of what may be called the liturgical period, when Byzantium
produced admirable works of art both on the monumental and
on the diminutive scale, its influence is still apparent. The
churches of this time are distinguished by logical construction
and a fine sense of decorative values, while the architects
brought to perfection the cruciform type (p. 95) best suited
to their own genius and the requirements of their age.
Illumination and ivory carving on the highest level of achieve-
ment attest the notable standard of execution prevailing at the
time ; both arts were instrumental in forming the reviving
sculpture of the West, and thus possessed a significance
out of proportion to the scale on which they worked. In
other minor arts, such as those of weaving and enamelling,
oriental influences are conspicuous, and the silk fabrics are
reminiscent of the Sassanian style ; here again inspiration
was given to the West (p. 150).

Through all this time East-Christian and Byzantine influence
continued to be felt in Italy, south Germany, and France. In
Rome, indeed, harassed by Saracenic invasion and feudal disturb-
ances, art remained at a low ebb until the end of the eleventh
century. But elsewhere in Italy conditions were more favour-
able. The monasteries still played the most important part
in the reproduction and distribution of illuminated MSS. and in
the provision of designs for mural paintings, in both ways
stimulating the native art of the western countries. Eastern
monasticism was actually at home in Italy, especially in
Calabria and Apulia. Here a large community of Basilian
monks, augmented by refugees from iconoclasm, decorated their
rock-cut cells and chapels with eastern frescoes not superseded
by Italian work until a later period in the Middle Ages. At
the beginning of the eleventh century St. Nilus, a Basilian
from the south, founded the abbey of Grottaferrata near
Rome; while the great Benedictine House of Monte Cassino
introduced Byzantine mosaic-workers in the same century.
As in earlier times, commerce, like monasticism, continued to
spread the knowledge of oriental art. Venice became a power-
ful state, and its relations with Constantinople affected the
style and decoration of its buildings. The cathedral of
St. Mark's reproduced the plan of the Church of the Apostles
at Constantinople, and its original mosaic decoration, of which
only parts now remain, was East- Christian in subject, that
of the narthex copying an early Bible of the type of the

K 2

52 INTRODUCTION

Cotton Genesis (p. 122). Other cities, Pisa and Genoa, followed
the lead of Venice as maritime powers; the increase of their
commerce with the Eastern Mediterranean led them in like
manner to adopt oriental features in their art: at Pisa the
arcaded decoration of the cathedral and the baptistery betray
the influence of the East. In German mural painting and
illumination we mark a general permeation of monastic art
by Byzantine influences rather than exact copying of particular
models. This was the manner in which, during these later
centuries, the West absorbed Eastern teaching; the peoples,
conscious of their own powers, were now creative, and a general
guidance began to satisfy their needs.

The conversion of VJadimir in the last quarter of the tenth
century led to the introduction of Byzantine and Armenian
art into the south of Russia; the building of the earliest

FIG. 28. — Gold ring en- FIG. 29. — Gold finger- ring with sacred

graved with a fish. (No. 48.) monogram. (No. 28.)

monastic houses on Mount Athos in the tenth century created
a new centre of East-Christian art in the Balkans, where
the establishment of national monasteries — Greek, Serbian,
Georgian, Russian — made the peninsula a meeting-place for
influences from various countries. In the latter part of the
period the Norman Kings of Sicily decorated churches at
Palermo, Monreale, and Cefalu in the north of the island with
mosaics in the Byzantine style, and introduced silk-weavers
from Greece. The western rulers of Jerusalem employed
East-Christian artists to adorn churches with mosaic, as at
Bethlehem, and illuminate manuscripts (cf. the Psalter of
Queen Melisenda in the Grenville Library, Case 8).

To resume the substance of the above paragraphs : this
period, which includes the reigns of the Comnenian Emperors,
witnessed the rise and decline of a great Byzantine art.
Churches, admirably planned and constructed, were decorated

HISTORICAL SURVEY 53

wiih mosaics equalling in splendour those of the time of
Justinian ; illuminations, ivory carvings, enamels, silk fabrics
set the western world a high standard of craftsmanship from
which it did not fail to profit. The Greek element was
prominent even in the religious art of the capital, though in
Cappadocian and other monasteries the old Syro-Hellenistic
influences remained powerful. The earlier part of the period
is a Byzantine golden age, in which the capital had a more
creative share in the art of the Empire than in the time before
the Arab Conquest, and a greater name in the West of Europe.

e. From the fourth Crusade to the capture of Constantinople
by the Turks (A.D. 1204-1453).

The Latin interregnum of about sixty years beginning with
the seizure of Constantinople in A.D. 1204 was a time of
unsettlement disastrous to art in the capital ; Byzantine
civilization took refuge at Nicaea and Trebizond, and Byzantine
artists in increased numbers seem to have migrated to Venice
or sought the patronage of the now powerful Serbian Kings.
The invasion of Byzantine territory by Western forces
dislocated the organization of the arts; only in remote and
undisturbed monasteries could the old traditions of religious
art be pursued, and many of these were beyond the borders of
the empire, in Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land.

The immediate effects of the Latin occupation were disastrous
to Constantinople not merely through the break in old tradi-
tion, but through the greed and barbarism of the invaders,
who broke and melted down objects of metal, and divided as
spoil the contents of the church treasuries which they had
plundered. In some ways, however, the closer contact between
the Italians and the Greeks may have brought compensations.
The enlarged activities of Byzantine panel-painters in north-
ern and Central Italy is reflected in the art of the earliest
Italian primitives ; on the other hand, something of the fresh
Italian spirit was transmitted to the Greeks, introducing more
grace, breadth, and natural feeling. The work of the Byzantine
painters in Serbia shows signs of this influence, which is also
seen in that of their Serbian pupils.

The restoration of the Greek Empire in A.D. 1261 was
followed by a period of activity in art and letters, quickened by
a last revival of national sentiment, and a desire to assert once
more the Greek culture which had been so rudely interrupted.
The restored Empire was poor ; only by rare exception, as in

INTRODUCTION

the case of the Church of the Chora at Constantinople, now the
Mosque Kahrieh Jami, could costly mosaic be employed. In
the capital, where the Latin interference had been strongest,
there seems to have been a certain incoherence ; an art, forced
to copy models not wholly understood, derived its elements
from incompatible sources and created effects which are

FIG. 30. — Gold ring with openwork inscription. (No. 49.)

picturesque, but result in a confusion of styles. Elsewhere, as
in Mistra, the capital of the newly-constituted Byzantine
province in the Morea, we seem to find the continuity of art
better preserved, perhaps through a more direct association
with the schools of painting which had been developing in
Macedonia and Serbia, Crete, and Venice (p. 119). Though

FIG. 31. -Gold marriage ring. Fifth century. (No. 207 )

ornamental sculpture flourished, figure sculpture is but litile
represented. Some examples, like the relief with angels dating
from this time in the above-named church of the Chora, may
show an influence from the West.

Objects illustrating the minor arts are rarer than in the
preceding period. Costly work, such as that of the enameller
and the goldsmith, was naturally less common ; embroidery

HISTORICAL SURVEY

on silk took the place of fabrics within woven designs. In the
final years, when emperors themselves were reduced to poverty,
there was little patronage and little scope for any arts of
luxury. The conquest of Constantinople in A.D. 1453 closes
the history of Byzantine art in the stricter sense of the term.
But its influence, and that of the East-Christian elements
allied to it, continued in various places long after the fall of
the Empire ; thus its traditions survived in the sacred art of
Greece and the Balkans, Russia, Armenia, and Coptic Egypt ;
they were preserved above all in the monasteries, and notably
in those of Mount Athos, where mural paintings in the style of
the Cretan school were produced during the sixteenth century
(p. 120),

Except in the case of panel painting, the art of this period

FIG. 32. — Byzantine gold marriage-ring with ornament in niello. About
tenth century. (No. 129.)

exerted little or no influence upon Europe west of the Adriatic.
With Cavallini and Giotto, Italian art entered upon a new
career ; with the rise of Gothic, Western Europe began to tread
fresh paths; by degrees the debt owed to East-Christian art
was forgotten. Even to-day there is still a tendency to treat
the whole of our earlier mediaeval art as an independent
growth, for the understanding of which no knowledge of the
Christian East is required. So far is this from being the case,
that during the seven centuries between the fourth and the
twelfth, every country in Europe from Italy to Ireland was
helped by East-Christian models in its effort after artistic
expression, and but for that help our art could not have
developed as it did. The Christian art of the West and that
of the East are parts of an organic whole, nor can they be
studied apart without vital loss. No full appreciation of early
mediaeval art is possible without the recognition of this fact.

56 INTRODUCTION

PART II. SPECIAL SECTIONS

I. EAKLY CHKISTIANITY IN BKITAIBT.

It is probable that there were Christian communities in
Britain early in the third century ; passages in Tertullian and
Origen, both writing in the first half of that century, allow
us to infer this with some certainty. The Greek historians
Eusebius and Sozomen. writing in the fourth and fifth centuries
respectively, further relate that under the government of
Constantius Chlorus, father of the Emperor Constantine and
governor of the Gauls, Spain, and Britain (d. York, A.D. 300),
the Christians in Britain were not persecuted ; Lactantius
(d. A.D. 325) adds that though Constantius spared the persons
of the Christians he destroyed their buildings (conventicula).
Thus the statement of the sixth-century British historian
Gildas that in Roman times Britain had many churches was
always credible, but positive proof was not forthcoming until
the year 1892, when the excavations conducted by the Society
of Antiquaries of London on the site of the Roman town of
Calleva (Silchester) brought to light the foundations of a
church, the Roman origin of which is beyond dispute (p. 61).
Very little is known of British Christians in Roman times ;
the name of St. Alban of Verulam, martyred in A.D. 304, has
come down to us almost alone with those of the bishops
Eborius, Restitutus, and Adelfius, who represented the British
Episcopate at the Council held at Aries in A.D. 314. But it is
clear that the community must have been numerous, for when
St. Germanus and St. Lupus were in Britain between the
departure of the Romans in A.D. 410 and the Saxon invasion
of about A.D. 450, it is related that the concourse of people
coming to hear them was very great, not only in the churches,
but at cross-roads, in the country districts and in remote places.
We infer from Gildas that after the time of Constantine, when
the British church obtained toleration, the stricter observances
of the first three centuries became relaxed, and a certain
reaction set in, as it had done in other countries. This period
of comparative inactivity, only stirred for a while by the
Pelagian heresy, remained undisturbed until a long time after
the departure of the Romans ; the Mission of St. Ninian (c.
A.D. 400), a Briton who had been in Rome and had also come
under the influence of Gaulish monasticism, affected only

PLATE IV. IVORY BOXES OF THE SIXTH CENTURY : DANIEL IN THE DEN OF

LlONS, AND THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. MENAS.

(.See p. 169.)

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN 57

a small area beyond the Roman lines in the country of the
Southern Picts (now Galloway), and may be regarded as an
isolated exception : in Gaul Ninian was probably connected
with St. Martin, to whom he dedicated his stone church at
Whitherne, or Whithorn (p. 62). In the second quarter of the
fifth century an event occurred which was destined to inter-
rupt the quiet life of the Church not only in Britain but
ultimately on the continent ; this was the coming of St. Patrick
to Ireland. St. Patrick, whose original name was Sucat, was
the son of Calpornius, a deacon of the Church, also holding
the office of decurion or local councillor under the Roman
system ; his grandfather, Potitus, had been a presbyter or
priest. At the close of the fourth century, or the very begin-
ning of the fifth, Patrick was carried off by Irish raiders from
his home at a place called 'ad Banna vem taberniae', not
certainly identified : some authorities believe it to have been
Dumbarton, others have suggested Banwen in Glamorganshire.
Sold as a slave in Ireland, he remained in that country six years,
when he escaped into Gaul, studying at Marmoutiers, at Auxerre
under St. Germ anus, and in the great monastic school on the
island of LeVins off the south coast. He then proceeded to
Rome and obtained the approval of Pope Celestine for his
proposed mission to Ireland, which he was able to carry out
in A.D. 437 or 438. St. Patrick at once roused the fervour of
the Irish and introduced among them the ascetic form of
Christianity practised in the monasteries of Gaul. He adapted
the monastic system to the needs of the country, making the
monasteries the centres of religious life, and in many cases
attaching bishops to them so that the bishop was in effect
controlled by the abbot ; it has been said that ' the monastery
with its abbot was for the clergy what the clan with its chief
was for the laity '. But more important than the form of
Irish monasticism were its fervid, ascetic spirit and its mission-
ary zeal, to which we shall almost immediately return.

When in the middle of the fifth century the pagan Saxons
extended their foothold in the south of England, the majority
of the Christian Britons concentrated their strength in the
west under the native Kings of Damnonia (Devon and
Cornwall), most of whom were Christian ; their Church was
organized on Roman lines with diocesan bishops and clergy,
remaining part of the Western Patriarchate. But a large
number crossed the Channel to Armorica (Brittany), a part of
Gaul which had itself been so ravaged by the Saxons that its
previous population was almost wholly destroyed. The British

58 INTRODUCTION

immigrants were reinforced by later groups, and finally became
so numerous that they gradually filled this depopulated region,
making their tongue the language of the country. The settle-
ments began in the western and central parts of the peninsula,
and by the ninth century covered the territory known since
the arrival of the British as Brittany. Clergy and people
came over in large bodies, and territory, once administered, in
part afc least, by the Gallo-Roman Church, was now to all intents
and purposes British.

While this colonization of Brittany was in progress, the Irish
Church under the disciples of St. Patrick began, towards the
beginning of the sixth century, a series of missions to the west
shores of the British Isles, extending from Wales in the
middle to the Scottish coast in the north and to Cornwall in

FIGS. 33, 34. — Two rings from Fifehead Neville, Dorsetshire, with sacred
monogram : fourth century.

the south. Irish missionaries began to pour into the west of
Britain from the Clyde to Cornwall, introducing a new
element into the British Church. Probably the earliest Irish
mission proceeded to Wales, and some of the later missions
active farther to the south may be described as Irish-Welsh
rather than purely Irish. A large part in the new missionary
activity was played by the family which gave Brecon its name,
tracing its descent to the eponymous Brychan Brycheiniog,
son of Anlach Goronog, described in the Welsh Genealogies of
the Saints as ' King of Ireland ' ; this family was connected by
marriage with the house of Cunedda, to which St. David
belonged, and also with the royal house of Damnonia ; the
great monasteries of Menevia (St. David's), Bangor, Iscoed,
Llancarfan, and Llantwit, which influenced British monasticism
so much, are all traceable to its influence. It is probable
also, notwithstanding the legends of St. Joseph of Arimathaea,

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN 59

that Glastonbury owed its real origin to Irish monks, though
whether to Brychan or directly to St. Patrick, as has been
alleged, is not certainly known. The missions to Cornwall were
both Irish and Irish- Welsh. The earliest directly Irish mission
is held by some to have been that led by St. Kiaran,
known in the west country as St. Piran. who seems to have
arrived in Cornwall about A.D. 490, and established his first
hermitage near Perranporth, where the ruined oratory of
St. Piran now stands (p. 64). Missions more important through
the large following which accompanied the leaders were those
of St. Fingar, or Gwinear, and St. la, who at the beginning of
the sixth century landed in north Cornwall, where their names
are perpetuated in those of Gwinear and St. Ives : Gwinear had
already been in Brittany, where he had established settlements
among the British refugees from the Saxon invasion now rapidly
occupying that country (see above). There were henceforward
close relations between the Breton Church and that of Britain,
of which it was practically a part. The monastic institutions
founded by Irish saints in Wales and Cornwall sent out further
settlements : Welshmen from Menevia (St. David's), Llantwit
Major and Llancarfan, from the monasteries of St. David,
St. Illtyd, and St. Cadoc, founded settlements in east and north-
east Cornwall ; among their number were certainly St. Petroc
and St. Sampson, perhaps even St. David and St. Cadoc in person.
Bretons came over from Brittany to the country about the
Lizard, and by the end of the sixth century Cornwall was
filled with Celtic monasteries.

In Scotland the conditions encountered by the Irish missions
differed from those of countries farther south. The northern
Picts were still pagans, for the colony of Irish Scots of
Dalriada had not yet moved northwards to Argyll. Strath-
clyde, the region between the two Roman walls, stretching
from the Clyde to the Derwent in Cumberland, formed part of
the British Church, and from about the middle of the sixth
century witnessed the labours of St. Kentigern or Mungo. It
was not until the year A.D. 563 that Columba,born in Donegal
in A.D. 521, founded his monastery on the island of lona
(Hy) to the west of Mull, and began preaching to the Picts. In
A.D. 574 Aidan became a member of Columba's community,
and after a long sojourn in lona set out in A.D. 635 to evange-
lize Northumbria. Here King Oswald, himself at an earlier
date a refugee in lona, befriended him, and he became bishop
of Lindisfarne or Holy Island. Lindisfarne now became a
great centre of monastic influence, and among the names

60 INTRODUCTION

connected with it are those of Ceadda (Chad), a disciple of
Aidan, afterwards bishop of the Mercians (d. A.D. 672), and of
Cuthbert, another bishop of Lindisfarne (d. A.D. 687). Until
the Danish invasions compelled its removal, the monastery
stood for the Celtic usage against the Roman ; the latter, intro-
duced by Augustine in A.D. 597, found its chief advocate in
the north in Wilfrid of Hexham. As a result of the missions
emanating from Ireland, the Irish monastic spirit now per-
meated the British lands from the Clyde to Brittany. The
effort of these Celtic missions, reacting from the extreme
west of the continent, did not stop in western Britain and
Northumbria. In the period between the sixth and the eighth
centuries it penetrated northern France, Switzerland, South
Germany, and North and South Italy, taking with it a Celtic
art which has left its mark in the illuminations of many
manuscripts painted in the above-named countries. The
movement only ceased when the Rule of St. Benedict proved
too strong for the less highly organized Celtic system.

Two points should be remembered with regard to this return
of Christianity from the west of the continent. The first is that
it represented the more ascetic faith of the old Gallic mon-
asteries whence St. Patrick originally brought it. The second
is that this monastic Christianity was precisely that in which
oriental influence was strongest. Monasticism never forgot
that it originated in the East ; and personal relations between
the Houses of the East and West, frequent in the early
centuries, continued down to much later times. This is one
reason why we find in the decoration of Celtic MSS. and
sculptured stones so many analogies to the ornament of Coptic
Egypt and of Hither Asia.

This changed and reanimated Church confronted the success-
ors of St. Augustine and the supporters of Rome in the north,
like St. Wilfrid, when the Roman mission, once firmly estab-
lished in the first years of the seventh century, sought to bring
the Celtic usage into conformity with that of Rome. Had the
Irish missions never taken place, had the Church in Britain
remained as it was in the fifth century, the difficulties
which even the Synod of Whitby (A. D. 664) did not wholly
overcome might never have arisen. As it was, the branches
of the Celtic Church conformed only by slow degrees on the
principal point in dispute, the keeping of Easter: South
Ireland acquiesced in A. D. 626-8 ; North Ireland in A. D. 692 ;
Northumbria (Anglian, but converted by Celts), in A. D. 664 ;
East Devon and Somerset, comprising the Celts in the King-

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN 61

dom of Wessex in A.D. 705, the Southern Picts in A.D. 710;
the Scots of Dalriada, and the Picts under the influence of
lona in A. D. 716-18 ; Strathclyde in A. D. 721 ; North Wales in
A.D. 768 ; South Wales in A. D. 777 ; Cornwall in the main about
A. D. 850, though perhaps not completely until the early years
of the tenth century. It is held by good authorities that
the high crosses of Ruthwell and Bewcastle (p. 66) were
probably erected in the last quarter of the seventh century,
to commemorate the achievement of the Synod of Whitby. In
estimating the eastern influences affecting earlier Christian
art in Britain, we must not forget that both Augustine and
Theodore came to England from an oriei^alized Rome
(p. 45).

Pearly Christian remains in Britain. The oldest church of
which traces have been discovered is that at Silchester, already

SSCOMB.tRJRftA'M.

\" Y

FIG. 35. Fourth-century basilica at Silchester. Church of Celtic plan at
Escomb. (Archaeological Journal, liii, 1896.)

mentioned (p. 56), excavated by the Society of Antiquaries
of London in 1892. The remains consist of the foundations
of a fourth-century basilica, and show that the building has
a nave and two aisles, a single apse at the west end, and
a porch or narthex across the east end. the orientation of the
building not conforming to the usage which later became
general. The total length of the nave was only thirty feet;
the aisles, five feet in breadth, ended towards the west in
rather wider chambers or quasi-transepts which appear to
have been walled across, suggesting the prothesis and diako-
nikon (p. 97 and fig. 35). Presumably the aisles were divided
from the nave by columns or piers in the manner of the
Graeco-Roman basilicas. The type is thought to have affinities
in the east Mediterranean area. No complete foundations of
any other church dating from the time of the Roman occupa-
tion are at present known to exist; of the stone church

62 INTRODUCTION

built by Ninian at Whitherne (Whithorn) in Galloway
no remains survive sufficient to indicate its plan. Part of
St. Martin's at Canterbury, the chancel rather than the nave,
may have belonged to a Romano-British church restored for
Queen Bertha before the coming of Augustine (A. D. 597) ; the
rest of the church dates from the seventh century. Romano-
British churches may also have stood on the sites of Brixworth
and Reculver (see below), though no traces of them are visible.
The church in the castle of Dover is post-Roman, but the bell-
tower at its west end is the ancient Roman lighthouse, or
pharos, converted to a new use. The nature of the primitive

FIG. 36. — Seventh-century basilica. Reculver. (Archaeological Journal, liii,
1896.)

churches, which must have been erected after the withdrawal
of the Romans, is best known to us from remains of later
buildings erected by the Irish immigrants. The type was
simple, beginning from a rude hut with an altar at
the east side and a small door at the west; to this a larger
chamber was added on the western side to shelter the wor-
shippers, and the communicating door only grew by degrees
into a small arch. In its later development, the Celtic church
consisted of a small square-ended presbytery opening by
a narrow arch into a somewhat larger nave without aisles.

The Graeco-Roman basilican form, with central nave
divided from the aisle by columns, was re-introduced from

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN

Rome by St. Augustine at the end of the sixth century ;•
the first church of this kind built for him was his cathedral
at Canterbury, of which nothing now remains. Some of
the oldest churches erected by the Roman mission of which
parts still survive are of small size, without aisles, though
with apses in the Italian fashion. These are six in number:
St. Pancras and St. Martin at Canterbury; Lyminge and
Rochester in Kent ; St. Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell, Essex ;
and South Elmham, Suffolk. None of these churches was
built later than the seventh century, and more than one may
go back to the last years of the sixth; St. Martin's at

FIG. 37. — Seventh-century basilica, Wing. (Archaeological Journal, liii, 1896.)

Canterbury has been already mentioned as probably having
a chancel of Roman date. Other early basilicas of the Italian
type were built at Reculver, Kent (tig. 36), where only the
foundations remain ; Brixworth in Northamptonshire, where
the aisles are gone and the apse has been restored; Peter-
borough, where foundations of a basilica exist within the
cathedral ; Hexham, Northumberland, and Ripon, Yorks, in
each of which the crypt represents part of the original
basilican church erected by St. Wilfrid ; York, where founda-
tions of a basilica were discovered within the minster ; and
Wing, Buckinghamshire (fig. 37), still possessing a very perfect
presbytery and vaults, and some original walling of aisles
and clerestory. All these churches date from the seventh
century, those of Wing and Brixworth retaining more of the

INTRODUCTION

original work than the rest. The missionary period inaugu-
rated by St. Augustine lasted for about a century from
A.D. 597, the fusion of the Celtic and Roman elements not
being completed until many years after the Synod of Whitby
in A.D. 664; at the close of the missionary period, no more
basilican churches were built on the Italian plan. Though Bede
says that Benedict Biscop's churches at Monkwearmouth and
Jarrow were influenced by the Italian type, the remains of
the original work in both places reveal the Celtic single-
chamber plan, and not the basilican, as in the case of Wilfrid's
contemporary churches at Hexham ; a third church at Escomb,
Durham (fig. 35), is of the same age and type. In all three
the Celtic influence is shown in the simple narrow plan,
though in the interior the Italian fashion may have been
followed in the arrangement of the choir and other particulars ;
the statement of Bede may thus so far be justified. In

Cornwall, the oratory
of St. Madder n at
Penzance, and the
churches of St. Gwy-
thian, and St. Piran
near Perranporth, are
of the simple Celtic
type. Celtic missionar-
ies coming south from
Northumbria brought
with them their nar-
row, aisleless form of church. This ' met and was modified by
the Italian form, but contributed the larger share to the shaping
of the English tradition. Most small English churches are
built on a plan which is purely Scottish (Irish) all through
the Saxon time and beyond it.' (Micklethwaite.)

Lesser monuments of Romano-British Christianity are not
very common, and it may be of interest to mention some of
those now preserved, or known to have existed in comparatively
recent times. A Christian tombstone of the Romano- British
period inscribed with a Latin name was found not long ago in
use as a gate-post between Parracombe and Lynton in Devon-
shire. Another tombstone, also with a Latin inscription, and
known as the Carnsew stone, is at Hayle in Cornwall. The
floor-mosaic of a Roman villa at Frampton in Dorsetshire has
the sacred monogram in its earlier form. A tile from the
corridor steps of another villa at Ched worth in Gloucestershire
is also engraved with the monogram, which is further found

FIG. 38. — Stamps <m R man p wter from
tlie Thames.

s t
g a

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN 65

upon crosses and inscribed stones in Galloway, Wales, and
Cornwall (at least six examples), and one example occurs at Kirk
Maughold in the Isle of Man. Authorities are not agreed
whether all these stones date from the period of the Roman
occupation, but the apparent absence of the monogram in
Ireland is in favour of an early date for those in Britain on
which it occurs. The Galloway stones, five in number, are on
two peninsulas, on one of which, called the Machers, stood
St. Ninian's stone church, known as Candida casa, or white
house. Where the sacred monogram occurs, it is of the second
or upright form (j?), and there seems good reason to believe
that they date approximately from the time of Ninian. The
stone at Penmachno in North Wales has a £ with a Latin
inscription to one Carausius, showing that it surmounted a
cairn of stones above the grave ; it should also date from the
fifth century. A stone at St. Just in Cornwall, with a similar
upright monogram, suggests a like period.

Mosaic pavements of Roman date from Thruxton, Hants
(in the British Museum, North East Staircase), and Horkstow,
Yorkshire, have in their designs crosses by many considered
to indicate a Christian origin, for though the cross as a
Christian symbol is generally later than the time of the
Roman occupation, this is not a universal rule (p. 80). The
cross on the lid of the third-century sarcophagus of the
Roman Valerius Amandinus, at the entrance to the Chapter
House at Westminster Abbey, seems to be mediaeval, though
it has some affinities to work of the fifth and sixth centuries.

Various smaller objects in Great Britain, dating from the •
time of the Roman occupation, bear marks of Christian origin,
though it should be noted that they need not all have been
made in the country. The fine silver treasure found in 1919 -
at Traprain Law in East Lothian, perhaps the hidden spoil of
barbarian raiders, contains several objects dating from about
the end of the fourth century in which the monogram in its
earlier form is seen; one is a silver flask which bears an
inscription, another a spoon, the third a colatorium or strainer
for the consecrated wine (see p. 111). A fourth object in the
Traprain treasure, a silver flagon, has reliefs representing Adam
and Eve, Moses striking the rock, and the Adoration of the
Magi. Two finger rings from Fifehead Neville, Dorsetshire ;
terra-cotta lamps, one in the Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne ;
a vase of Caistor ware at Alnwick Castle ; a lead seal or stamp
from Silchester, now in the Reading Museum — all bear the
sacred monogram. A silver vessel found at Corbridge in

66 INTRODUCTION

Northumberland, engraved with the same symbol, is now
unfortunately lost. In the British Museum Room of Roman
Britain, Table-Case A, are cakes of pewter stamped with the
monogram, found in the Thames at Battersea (fig. 38), and
in Wall-Case 47 a dish, part of a pewter service, found
on the site of the Roman villa at Appleshaw, Hants : in this
service the fish-shaped dish, itself engraved with a fish,
and the chalice-like cup should also be noted. Other minor
objects of the period of the Roman occupation without
monogram or cross, but almost certainly Christian, may be
mentioned. A gold ring from Brancaster in Norfolk has the
acclamation : vivas in Deo, ' live in God '. A ring from
Silchester, in the Reading Museum, has the same inscription as
that from Brancaster ; a fragment of a glass vessel in the same
place and from the same site is engraved with a fish and a palm-
branch; the Reading Museum also possesses a Gnostic gem
excavated at Silchester. The Dorchester Museum has a col-
lection of Roman spoons found with coins dating from
A.D. 360 to about A. D. 400; one of these has a fish rudely
engraved in the bowl, another the inscription : AVGVSTINI
VIVAS. In view of the other Christian objects of Roman date
from the same county mentioned above (Frampton, Fifehead
Neville) these spoons may be regarded as having probably
belonged to a Romano-British Christian, though they may
have been made in the North of France. Other spoons with
similar acclamations have been found in England.

Christian art in the Anglo-Saxon period is first represented in
Anglian monuments of Northumbria and upon its borders dating
from the latter part of the seventh century. The most famous
of these are the two high crosses at Ruthwell in Dumfries and
Bewcastle in Cumberland, mentioned above (p. 61). The fine
tradition manifest in the figure-subjects suggests an immigrant
art, and the models may have been ivory carvings of East-
Christian origin brought from Rome by such men as Benedict
Biscop and St. Wilfrid (p. 64), the former of whom visited Rome
five times to obtain vestments, books, pictures, and other objects
for the enrichment of his churches. These prelates are said to
have imported masons from Gaul, some of whom may have
been carvers in stone. A number of other reliefs in the
Northumbrian region illustrate the persistence of this glyptic
art, and suggest that foreign example soon awakened a native
talent of no mean order; thus the upright slabs of Scotland show
a vigorous figure sculpture practised in the eighth century and
later. Very interesting remains from the sites of the earliest

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN 67

northern monasteries are the small, almost square stone slabs
often called ' pillow -stones ' because an unauthenticated early
account of the discovery at Hartlepool states that they were
placed beneath the heads of skeletons. These stones bear*11
incised crosses, with inscriptions both in runes and Roman
character, and belong to interments of monks and nuns in the
late seventh or the eighth century. Examples from the mon-
astery of Hartlepool. founded in A.D. 640 and probably
destroyed by the Danes about A.D. 800, are exhibited in the

FIG. 39. — Silver chalice of the time of Alfred,
from Trewhiddle, Cornwall.

adjoining Iron Age Gallery (Wall-Case 35). Other examples
have been found at Lindisfarne, Wensley, Billingham, and
Birtley; similar stones occur in Ireland (Clonmacnois, Mon-
asterboice). The wooden coffin of St. Cuthbert (d. 687), dating
from the close of the seventh century, and preserved in the
Chapter Library at Durham, is ornamented with incised figures
of Our Lord, the Virgin and Child, apostles, angels, and
Evangelists' symbols.

Northumbrian Christianity is further illustrated by smaller
works of art very little later than the crosses, two of which,
the Franks Casket (No. 30, Catalogue of Ivory Carvings) and

68 INTRODUCTION

the Lindisfarne Gospels, or Durham Book, are in the British
Museum, the former in the collection of Anglo-Saxon anti-
quities (Iron Age Gallery, in a special case), the latter in
the Department Manuscripts. The casket, which is ascribed
to about A. D. 700, is made of whale's bone, and carved
with runic inscriptions, historical and religious subjects
(Romulus and Remus, the Taking of Jerusalem, the Adora-
tion of the Magi), and scenes derived from northern mythology.
It has no Celtic features, and the nature of the historical
subjects suggests that it may have been partly inspired by
some early illuminated Chronicle of the type first produced
for Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, who died in A. D. 412.

The Lindisfarne Gospels were written by Eadfrith bishop
of Lindisfarne (A.D. 698-721) in honour of St. Cuthbert. The
book is illuminated in the Irish manner introduced into
Northumbria from lona, but contains four full-page portraits
of the Evangelists seated at their desks as depicted in the
Christian East, the earliest known example of the type being
in the Gospel at Rossano (p. 122). These portraits are accom-
panied by their names in the Greek form, but written in Latin
letters (e.g. 0 agius Marcus, for 6 ayios- MapKoy). The method
in these figure-subjects is more naturalistic than in the case
of purely Irish MSS. of the eight or ninth century, like the
Gospels of St. Chad at Lichfield or the famous Book of Kells,
where the figures are treated primarily as decoration. The
most characteristic work in the book, the ornament, is pre-
dominantly Celtic, and the style which it represents has been
described as Hiberno-Saxon.

Anglo-Saxon antiquities with Christian subjects or symbols
from the Midlands and the South of England may be seen in
the Iron Age Gallery. They include the stoup from a grave
at Long Wittenbam, Berkshire, with the sacred monogram,
the Annunciation, Baptism, and Miracle of Cana (Wall-Case
38); the gold rings of King Ethelwulf (A.D. 837-57), with
confronted peacocks on a niello ground, and Ethelswith, Queen
of Mercia (A.D. 855-9), with the Agnus Dei (Table-Case D) ;
a cruciform pendant with coin of Heraclius (A. D. 610-641),
found at Wilton, Norfolk (Table-Case D, Section 2). A re-
production of the well-known enamelled ornament in the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, known as the Alfred Jewel,
is exhibited in Table-Case D. A plain silver chalice, of the
time of Alfred (fig. 39), found in A. D. 1774 at Trewhiddle, near
St. Austell in Cornwall, is also shown in the Iron Age Gallery
(Wall-Case 52).

THE CATACOMBS 69

II. THE CATACOMBS, AND EARLY CHRISTIAN
ICONOGRAPHY.

a. The Catacombs.

The earliest traditions of Christian art are associated with
the subterranean burial-places called catacombs. Different
origins have been suggested for this curious name. One view
is that it is derived from two Greek words Kara and Ku'jix/3?/
meaning 'at or near the hollow or valley', and that it was
first applied to a district near the Appian Way, probably
owing to the configuration of the ground; another derives
it from the same Greek word Kara and the late Latin accubi-
torium, a tomb. It originally referred to the Christian
cemeteries excavated on a certain section of the Appian Way ;
then it was restricted to one of these, that of St. Sebastian ;
finally it came to be used as a general term for all similar
places of burial wherever situated. The word used by the
Early Christians themselves was not catacomb, but cemetery
(coemeterium), the Latin version of the Greek /coi/urjTTJ/nou or
sleeping-place.

The Roman catacombs were not beneath the city, but,
like the pagan tombs, beyond it, along the great high-
ways running from the capital to various parts of Italy ;
Roman law forbade interment within the city walls. The
tufa, forming the subsoil near Rome, is peculiarly adapted
to the excavation of underground galleries, and this circum-
stance proved very favourable to the early Christians, who
naturally followed the oriental custom of burial in subter-
ranean chambers instead of burning their dead. The need
for concealment and the desire to protect the graves of the
departed from profanation were, therefore, not the reasons
which led to the formation of underground cemeteries, although
in times of persecution their dark recesses were naturally
adopted as places of refuge.

It was not until the second half of the first century that
the Christians adopted the system of collective burial on
a large scale. They had previously either shared the Jewish
catacombs already existing near the capital, or had been
buried in small hypogea or crypts united by short passages.
But when once the practice had begun, it spread with great

INTRODUCTION

rapidity, and no less than fifty catacombs are now known
to exist, the earliest of which dates from the period named.
The first large cemeteries were probably extensions of the
tombs of wealthy Christian families, such as that of the
Flavii, which had a legal title to certain plots of land for
sepulchral purposes. These families, which lent their houses
for the services of the Church, in like manner opened their
places of burial to other members of the congregation, and
from these the greater catacombs were developed. At first

1 WPACE.VIXIT.ANNOS.XXXV

; w r^ rrAwT -M \R-ni5, *&m

FIG. 40.— Loculi in the Catacombs (after Ferret).

all cemeteries were thus held by private tenure ; but by the
time of the persecutions, the Church, as represented by her
bishops, had entered into collective possession, and was recog-
nized as owner by the imperial authorities. Whether her
rights were secured through a legal fiction by which Christian
communities registered themselves as burial societies after
the fashion of similar pagan institutions, or whether they
were enjoyed simply by toleration, is a point on which dif-
ferences of opinion exist. Every burial site included a certain

THE CATACOMBS

superficial space (area) often enclosed by a hedge or wall
and planted with cypresses, in which were built small cellae
or memorial chapels, and where sarcophagi might be placed.
Here too the dead were from quite an early period interred
in graves dug from the surface of the ground, as many as ten
bodies being sometimes laid one above the other but each
separated from the next by a slab of stone. Surface interment

Fio. 41 . — A chamber in the Koman Catacombs (after De Rossi).

was [practised concurrently with catacomb burial, and by the
fifth century had quite superseded it.

The catacombs were systems of corridors and small chambers
partially lighted by shafts (luminaria) which opened on the
surface of the soil, and were sometimes cut in several tiers
or storeys, one below the other. As they were frequently
excavated in rising ground, the entrances were often in the
sides of the hills and were approached through a kind of
antechamber or vestibule. Except in the neighbourhood of

72 INTRODUCTION

the shafts, or near the entrances, artificial light was always
necessary, and this was provided by lamps similar in general
character to those seen in the collection (Wall-Cases 7, 8 and
11, 12 ; figs. 10 and 20). Along the sides of the vaulted corri-
dors, which were from two to four feet wide and little more
than the height of a man, were cut horizontal rectangular
niches (loculi) one above the other, in which bodies were laid,
the opening at the front being closed by slabs of marble or
tiles, on which inscriptions were engraved (fig. 40). In the
chambers (cubicula) similar tombs were arranged around
the sides, and there were also recessed tombs opening at the
top, the most characteristic of which, the so-calJed arcosolia,
had a rounded arch above them. Figure 41 provides illustra-
tions of both these kinds of tombs. Stone sarcophagi were
also placed in the niches, but these were not common during
the first three centuries.

Although most of the cubicula were family vaults, some
crypts were apparently constructed for religious services.
One of these, dating from the third century, presents many
of the features of the later basilicas (see p. 91), such as the
apse and presbyterium with the episcopal chair; but some-
times the place of the apse is taken by an arcosolium tomb,
the top of which was evidently used as an altar. These
catacomb chapels were probably used for funeral and memorial
services, especially in the fourth century when the cult of
the martyrs became general, but they were not adapted for
regular public worship ; for this they were too small, as
few of them could accommodate more than fifty people. The
earliest inscriptions of the catacombs are of a very simple
character, merely giving the barest details, with perhaps
a pious formula such as vivas in Deo, pax tecum. Many of
them are in Greek, which was for a long time the language
of the Church, but these cease with the fourth century. As
time went on, more elaborate inscriptions are found and new
formulae were introduced, but as a general rule we learn
little more than the name and age of the deceased, the day
of his death and the relationship borne to him by the persons
who caused the inscription to be set up. The age is often
given with great precision in years, months, and days, though
after the third century there is often a greater vagueness,
and we meet with such statements as 'who lived about
twenty-five years ' ; the simplest early Christian symbols often
accompany the inscriptions (fig. 40), but sometimes symbolical
scriptural scenes such as the Raising of Lazarus occur. It

THE CATACOMBS

may be noted here that the custom of dating by the year of
Our Lord did not exist at the earliest period of Christianity ;
it first arose in the sixth century, but examples are rare
before the eighth. Tombs were generally dated by mention
of the consuls' names, which are found down to the abolition
of the consulate in the time of Justinian; but after the
peace of the Church the names of popes are occasionally
given. Other means of dating were by eras, such as that
of the foundation of Rome, or that of Diocletian, beginning
A.D. 284; or again, at a later period, by indictions, which
were periods of fifteen years at the erd of which taxa-
tion was revised. In very early times Christians had three
names, like the ancient Romans, but this custom was soon
dropped, and by the end of the fourth century only one name

FIRMIAVJCTORAaVEVTXlTANNlS
LXV &

FIG. 42. — Inscription from the Catacombs (after Marucchi).

was usual. About the same time eulogistic epithets and
phrases directly indicating the belief of the deceased were
introduced, and details were added with regard to his station
in life. With the fourth century, too, mistakes in orthography
became common, and we perceive the first signs of the
transition between the old Latin and mediaeval and modern
Italian. The word most generally used for burial by the early
Christians was depositio ; the familiar formula hie jacet begins
with the fifth century. Common formulae were very frequently
abbreviated, IN P or I. P. standing for in pace, and S. T. T. L.
for sit tibi terra levis, 'may the earth rest lightly upon
thee ! ' Many tombs in the catacombs had no name inscribed
upon them, but were simply identified by small objects impressed
in the mortar which fixed the slabs of the loculi in their places
at the time of the interment. The finest inscriptions of
the catacombs are those made by order of Pope Damasus at

INTRODUCTION

the close of the fourth century to mark the tombs of the
martyrs; they are generally metrical panegyrics engraved
on marble slabs in very beautiful characters.

Nearly all of the catacombs were decorated with mural
painting, for which the stucco walls and roofs of the chambers
afforded an ample field. The style, introduced from Alex-
andria, is that of contemporary pagan art adapted to new
conditions and modified in accordance with Christian ideas.
The earlier work recalls the graceful frescoes of Pompeii; but
after the second century there is a falling-off in execution.

When the attainment of sole power by the Emperor Con-
stantine the Great had made Christianity the official religion of

FIG. 43. — Front of a stone sarcophagus from France (after Le Blank).

the cosmopolitan Roman Empire, the practice of burying in
catacombs began to decline; and interments now generally took
place in superficial cemeteries, where large churches were now
built. It was at this time that sculptured stone sarcophagi
(figs. 43 and 52) were produced in large numbers, for wealthy
Christians had become numerous, and distinctively Christian
subjects could be openly executed in sculptors' workshops
without the risk of interference. The multiplication of these
sarcophagi, which have been found not only in Italy but also in
France, Spain, and other countries, was of great importance to
the development of Christian figure sculpture down to the time
of the barbarian invasions. Inscribed tombstones like those
seen in Wall-Cases 14 and 15, which have been found in large
numbers in provincial cemeteries, especially on the Rhine, in

THE CATACOMBS 75

France, Spain, and N. Africa, also became common in this period.
The earlier inscriptions are simple in character and resemble
those of the catacombs, but the formulae used vary with differ-
ent localities ; the majority date from the fourth to the seventh
century, but in Spain examples in this style are known as late
as the close of the eighth. In spite of the change which Con-
stantine's conversion made in the position of Christianity, cata-
comb burial still remained fairly general until about A.D. 350,
and did not fall into disuse until the first quarter of the fifth
century. At that time the incursions of the Goths and Vandals
began to make the outside country unsafe, and during the siege
of Rome by the Gothic king Alaric (A. D. 410) the first cemetery
within the walls was laid out near the baths of Diocletian.
About a century and a half later interment within the city
walls became the rule, for owing to the great depopulation
of the city the enforcement 'of the old law was no longer
necessary. Down to the time of the Lombard invasions the
bodies of the martyrs mostly remained in the catacombs,
and their tombs were the objects of frequent pilgrimages,
especially in the seventh century ; but in the eighth and
ninth centuries their remains were removed for security to
the churches within the city. During the Middle Ages the
knowledge of the catacombs was gradually lost, and by
the fifteenth century that beneath the church of Saint
Sebastian was almost the only one still accessible to the
pilgrims who came to Rome from the various countries of
Europe. So matters continued until the end of the sixteenth
century, when the accidental falling in of a vault in a vineyard,
by laying bare the frescoes with which the walls were
decorated, excited public curiosity in these long- forgotten
places of burial. Antonio Bosio (d. A. D. 1629), ' the Columbus
of the Catacombs', made the first extensive and systematic
excavations, and since his death each century witnessed the
publication of important books on underground Rome ; the
best idea of the mural paintings may be gained from the great
work of Wilpert.

The Roman Catacombs are naturally the most famous ; but
large underground burial-places of the same kind were created
in other places. The catacombs of St. Januarius (St. Gennaro)
and other saints at Naples, those of St. Giovanni near Syracuse,
and those at Malta are important western examples. In
North Africa, those of Alexandria are decorated in a manner
similar to those of Rome, as was to be expected from the very
close relationship between the art of the two cities. Other

76 INTRODUCTION

catacombs in North Africa are found at Gyrene, and further
west in Tunis (the former Proconsular Province), where those
of Hadrumetum or Susa (Sousse) have yielded interesting
remains of the Early Christian centuries (cf. p. 176). In the
Holy Land there are catacombs in the north part of the Mount
of Olives, where both Christian and Jewish interments have
been found ; the use of rock-cut tombs was customary among
the Jews and other peoples of Asia, whose practice the Christians
followed. Burial chambers cut in the rock are recorded from
Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor.

b. Early Christian Iconography.

The term iconography is derived from two Greek words,
literally meaning the description of images or figures. For
the archaeologist it means the expression in art of persons,
events, and even ideas, and the analysis and comparison of
the types expressed : broadly speaking, it represents subject-
matter as opposed to style. Where large numbers of in-
stances are compared and analysed, iconography may be
expanded to very wide limits; the present section can only
offer a few elementary notes on points of particular or general
interest.

During the first three centuries, when Christianity was not
officially tolerated within the Roman Empire, the indirect
presentation of ideas by means of symbols was imposed by
circumstances upon the artist, and there was no scope for a
historical art. Even when persons were introduced, as distin-
guished from allegorical figures or characters, individuality
was not attempted, but ideal or generalized types sufficed.
A few of the oldest of all Christian symbols may first be
mentioned.

The Fish. This type, perhaps first introduced from Alex-
andria, was among the earliest symbols of the Saviour, for
the Greek name 'l\0vs gave rise to an acrostic which was
known as early as the second century, the five component
letters standing for the initials of the five words 'lyo-ovs
Xpio-ro? @€o£ Tto? StoTrip, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.
As the dolphin is frequently used with this meaning, it has
been suggested that the fish was first adopted on account
of the old classical traditions of the dolphin as the friend
of man and the rescuer of shipwrecked mariners, but the
earliest representations show us another kind of fish more

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY

like that seen in figs. 44 and 46. In rarer and later examples
fish stand for the faithful, and the fisherman for Christ. The
symbolic fish is found upon early Celtic and Teutonic monu-
ments in Britain and France.

The Ship is the symbol of the Church in which the faith-
ful are borne safely over the sea of life to the haven of

L. 0-56 in.

L. 045 in.

Fm. 44. —Engraved
gem: fish, crook, and
palm-branch. (No.
35.)

L. 0-36 in.

FIG. 45.— Engraved
gem : a ship. (No.
40.)

FIG. 46. — Engraved gem :
anchor, fish, and dove

(No. 3.)

L. 0-7 in.

L. 0-56 in.

FIG. 47 — Engraved gem : anchor, doves,
palm- branch, and fishes. (No. 39.)

FIG. 48. — Engraved gem:
the Good Shepherd. (No.2.)

eternity (fig. 45) ; sometimes rowers and steersman are visible,
but at others only the oars are seen. Occasionally it is ac-
companied by other symbols such as the dolphin or the sacred
monogram.

The Anchor (figs. 46 and 47) symbolizes hope, and sometimes
rests upon a fish, to indicate that the Christian's hope is based
on Christ.

The Good Shepherd (fig. 48). The figure of a shepherd

78 INTKODUCTION

carrying a lamb over his shoulders and a crook in his hand
was of obvious application to Christianity. It recalled the
passages in the Gospels (John x. 1-27 ; Matt. xv. 24 ; Luke xv.
4-5 ; John xxi. 15-17), and was perhaps also considered to
symbolize Christ as the leader of souls in their passage to
the other world. Some have conjectured that the motive of
the Good Shepherd was borrowed from the common pagan
type of Hermes (Mercury) carrying a ram, but this view has not
found general acceptance. The Good Shepherd usually holds
a staffer crook (pedum] in his hand, and this is sometimes
used as a symbol by itself, as also are the lambs representing
his flock, one or two of which are usually seen at his feet. In
the fourth century first occur repre-
sentations of the lamb as symbol of the
Redeemer, while on the Roman mosaics
sheep are often used to represent the
disciples.

The Dove usually stands for the soul of
the departed, and often bears in its beak
Fie. 48-.-Engraved the olive branch itself the symbol of
gem : dove on fish, peace, in allusion to the history of the ark

with olive-branch and (fig. 48a).

(Nolni: mon°sram- The Palm-branch is the emblem of

Victory, as in the pagan world.

The above are the oldest and most authentic symbols found
on the monuments. Those which follow were of less universal
acceptation and held to be rather later in date. Such of them
as represent animals, either real or fabulous, had probably
long been known to popular tradition in the East, where the
attribution of moral and mystical qualities to beasts was very
general. Not long after the beginning of our era, and probably
at Alexandria, these traditions were embodied in a work
called the Physiologus or book of Natural History, from
which similar books called Bestiaries, so popular in the
Middle Ages, were in later times derived. From the large
number of these symbols, the following may be selected : the
serpent, generally typifying the Evil One ; the peacock, immor-
tality, either from the fact that it sheds and renews its tail-
feathers every year, or on account of an old tradition that
its flesh was incorruptible ; the fabulous phoenix, reborn from
its own ashes, the Resurrection ; and the stag, the soul thirst-
ing for the water of baptism ; the stag is often represented
as drinking from a fountain or a vase, as on mosaics from
Carthage on the wall of the North West Staircase, to which

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY

a Christian origin is attributed (fig. 49). Among other popular
symbols, the tree, especially the palm-tree when used as an
accessory, indicated that the scene represents Paradise; the
vine, though often purely decorative, has occasionally a
reference to the Eucharist ; the triangle, which has been
found with the palm and a form of the sacred monogram,
appears to indicate .the Trinity.

A few words must now be said on the subject of the sacred
monogram ;£, to which allusion has just been made. It is
formed from Chi and RJto the first two letters of the Greek word

FIG. 49. — Harts drinking from fountain ; mosaic from Carthage in the
British Museum ; sixth century.

Xpurros (Christ — the anointed), and is therefore often called the
Chi-Rho; Eusebius (d. about A.D. 340) relates in his Life of
Constantine that by command of that emperor it was placed in
a wreath at the top of the imperial standard or labarum (fig. 50).
It had various forms at different periods, some of which are
identical with monograms on coins struck before the birth of
Christ ; one of these (£) is used as an abbreviation for the
word Tpfaa\Kov upon coins of Herod I (B. c. 37-B. c. 4). Another,
of later date, (X>), stands for the word dp-^ovros on Phrygian and
Lydian coins of the time of the early Roman emperors. The
use of such monograms as abridgements of words upon coins

INTRODUCTION

was commonest about the period of Septimius Severus (A.D.
193-211), and was thus long anterior to Constantine. For
Christian inscriptions, the Chi-Rho, in the so-called Constaiiti-
nian form, was similarly used as an abbreviation of the name of
Christ in the catacombs as early as the second century, IN £ ,

for example, standing for in Christo.
Its independent use as an actual
symbol of Our Lord is not proved
before the time of Constantine, but
it becomes common in the second
quarter of the fourth century, at
the close of which it is often flanked
by a and w (alpha and omega), the
first and last letters of the Greek
alphabet, in allusion to Rev. i. 8, 11 ;
xxi. 6 ; xxii. 13. About the middle
of that century, however, a new
form was introduced by the addition
of a horizontal line, and this perhaps
formed a transition to the so-called
inonogrammatic cross (J£) which
first became common after A.D. 355,
and continued through part of the
following century (cf. the lamp, fig.
11). Another view as to the origin
of the monogrammatical cross is that
it is a combination of the T-cross
and the letter P. The form had
appeared in isolated cases as early
as the reign of Constantine.

The Cross. The general use of
the cross as a Christian symbol is
later than that of the monogram.
On certain early monuments it is
thought to have been represented in
a veiled manner, as by the cross-
yard of a mast (cf. Fig. 45) or by
the cross-bar of an anchor (Fig. 47),
but in the catacombs at any rate it appears without
disguise in inscriptions of the second century, appearing also
on coins of Constantine, and on monuments of the fourth
century. The tau, so called from the Greek character T, the
St. Andrew's cross (derived at some time from the Latin
numeral ten (X = decussis, whence crux decussata)), and the

FIG. 50. — Reconstruction
of the /alarum (after J.
Wilpert, Die romischen Mo-
saiken und Malereien, 1916).

„, >

I 5-

PQ ^

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY 81

Latin cross with long lower limb, are all found as early as
the second century, and it is shown below that on gems
even the Crucifixion appears at a similar early date (p. 84).
But its open and common employment came in with the fifth
century. At the very beginning of this century it is seen
on the ivory panels in the Museum collection (pi. II) where
Our Lord is seen bearing a cross with long shaft, and crucified
upon the same. The swastika (Ft!), a very ancient symbol
common to Early Greek and Buddhist art and found upon
prehistoric objects in Europe, occurs in the Roman Catacombs,
but was never widely adopted ; it is to be seen on some of the
Celtic pillar-stones in Scotland and Ireland. The use of the
old Egyptian hieroglyph ankh (^) to represent the cross was
confined to the Copts of Egypt. The sacred monogram did
not entirely die out on the introduction of the cross, and it is
found, for example, on rude stone monuments in Scotland and
Wales (see above, p. 65), on seventh-century sarcophagi from
Ravenna, and on Byzantine coins and larger monuments of
even later date.

Symbols of the Evangelists. The representation of the four
Evangelists by means of a winged man, a winged lion, a winged
ox, and an eagle is based on the vision of Rev. iv. 6, read in
connexion with that of the first chapter of Ezekiel. It is
found upon monuments which are claimed for the fourth
century, but does not become general until the fifth and sixth.
It is characteristic of the West, and is not used in East
Christian or Byzantine art until mediaeval times. The
application of the symbols to the particular Evangelists was
not at first as uniform as it afterwards became.

The orans. This is a male or female figure standing full-face
with both arms extended and the palms of the hands raised.
The word means ' one who prays ' ; and this attitude of prayer,
which may be remarked upon several objects in the collection
(cf. fig. 51), is one of the earliest adopted by the Church. The
orans generally represents the soul of the departed in Paradise,
but is thought to have occasionally symbolized the Church itself.

Symbolical Scenes. In addition to individual objects used
as symbols, the Early Christians frequently employed scenes
from the Old and New Testaments, and sometimes even from
pagan mythology, for a like purpose. Of the latter we may
specially mention Cupid and Psyche, typifying the purification
of the Soul ; and Orpheus charming the wild beasts, used as
a type of Christ. Cupid and Psyche are represented on a late-

INTRODUCTION

Roman sarcophagus in the Museum which some authorities
regard as Christian (p. 188 and fig. 52). The Old Testament
being prophetic of the New, scenes from the one were treated
as complementary to those of the other. Thus Noah in the
Ark, Daniel in the lion's den, Isaac led to the altar, Jonah
miraculously preserved from death, the Three Children of
Babylon in the fiery furnace, and Moses striking the rock, all
symbolizing deliverance and redemption by the power of God,
are often associated with the raising of Lazarus, the multiplica-

FIG. 51. — Terracotta flask with St. Menas between two camels. (No. 860.)

tion of the loaves, and the Eucharistic feast. These were among
the earliest of the scenes depicted by Christian artists, and
were followed in the third century by others of a like nature,
among which may be mentioned Moses receiving the tables
of the Law, the Ascension of Elijah, Susanna between the
Elders, and the miracles of Christ, notably the marriage at
Cana and the healing of the paralytic or of the blind man.
The nimbus. This Latin word, meaning cloud, was probably
in its origin conceived as a luminous cloud issuing from and
surrounding the body of a divinity. It is commonly con-

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY

sidered to have come from Egypt or the East, and was
familiar to the pagan world, not only divinities but per-
sonifications of cities being represented with rays surrounding
the whole figure or, more commonly, the head alone. Apollo
and Mercury were thus glorified, as also were some of the
Roman Emperors, while the nimbus is found in the common
Christian form of a plain disk on early Buddhist sculptures
on the north-west frontier of India (examples are seen
in the Buddhist Room, adjoining the Christian Room).
Whatever the primary idea of the nimbus may have been,
it became the mark of dignity, eminence, or power rather
than of sanctity, and with this meaning it is seen on the
coins of Christian Emperors, and round the head of the

FIG. 52. — Front of a marble sarcophagus in the British Museum, with
Cupid and Psyche : fourth century.

Emperor Justinian in the famous mosaics of St. Vitale at
Ravenna ; that this was its true significance may be gathered
from the arch-mosaics of St. Maria Maggiore, where it is given
to Herod. In the West the first authentic instances of
the nimbus in Christian art date from the fourth century,
and among the earliest are those seen on the gilded glasses,
for example on plate XI, where the figure standing behind
Daniel, and considered to represent Our Lord, is nimbed. In
the fifth century we first find the Virgin Mary and various
saints with the nimbus, but for nearly two hundred years
its use in the case of saints fluctuated, and it was not general
as a sign of sanctity until the sixth century. The nimbus
of Our Lord was early distinguished from all others by having
a cross described within the circle, and this variety is known
as the cruciferous (cross-bearing) or, less correctly, cruciform

G 2

84 INTRODUCTION

nimbus : in a few instances the sacred monogram is found
instead of the cross ; the cruciferous nimbus may have been
known as early as the close of the third century, but some
authorities believe it to be later. The aureole or 'glory'
enveloping the whole body, commonly of a pointed-oval shape,
and known in the early Middle Ages as the mandorla or
vesica piscis from its supposed resemblance to an almond or
to a fish-bladder, is first seen in its completeness in the mosaics
of St. Maria Maggiore at Rome (late fourth century).

Before the toleration of Christianity it was the object of
the Church to strengthen and encourage the community in
the face of persecution, and such events as martyrdom or the
Crucifixion were avoided. But it would appear that although
the latter subject was usually treated in a symbolic way, as
for example on a sarcophagus-fragment in the Lateran, where
a veiled T-cross is surmounted by a dove and a phoenix, or
on another sarcophagus in the same place, where a cross bears
the laurel-wreathed sacred monogram, two soldiers sleeping
below, yet in cases where the work was not designed for
general view a more realistic treatment is found as early as
the second century. The Crucifixion-gem from Constanza on
the Black Sea (Table-Case A and fig. 55) affords one instance,
and is not the sole example of its kind ; it is conjectured that
such gems may have been worn or carried secretly for private
devotion at a time when larger representations were not to be
seen. The well-known derisory graffito on the wall of a
chamber in the Domus Gelotiana, the pages' school in the
Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill at Rome, belongs to a
different category ; but it shows that the idea of the crucified
Christ was familiar in the earlier third century.

When the conversion of Constantine (A. D. 313) led to the
toleration of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire the
symbolism of early times was no longer necessary, though
many of its motives survived as ornament. The Church now
required a historical and dogmatic art to celebrate its triumph,
set forth the events of sacred story, and illustrate its dogma.
These needs gradually changed the whole trend of Christian
iconography; and under the Syrian influence now powerful
in the monasteries and spreading with their growth, a realistic
and dramatic spirit transformed the character of Christian art.
This spirit did not shrink from painful details, and it loved to
multiply episode and event. Thus from the fifth century the
idealizing Hellenistic manner, which gives much of the earliest

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY

Christian representational art so classical a character, was often
thrust into the background by a style cruder but more
sincere, and more accurately expressing the sentiment of the
non-Greek peoples inhabiting the Christian East. From the
oriental point of view, no subject connected with the story
was regarded as too insignificant or too painful. The events
narrated by the Evangelists did not suffice for the vivid eastern
fancy, and their number was increased by additions derived
from the apocryphal
gospels. Throughout
the whole period of its
history this oriental
striving for dramatic
expressiveness re-
mained a living force
in East Christian art.
It was most in evi-
dence in monastic
communities in vari-
ous countries, among
which those of Egypt,
Syria-Palestine, and
Cappadocia played the
principal part. Thus
Christian art, which
had begun with sym-
bolism, became realis-
tic and outspoken,
with the result that
its iconography was
enriched by an influx
of new motives. Al-
though Hellenism was
never destroyed, it was
from the oriental
spirit which it now embodied, and from the manner of its
expression, that East- Christian religious art derived its dis-
tinctive character. On p. 104 something is said of the
manner in which subjects were disposed on the walls of
churches; the present section may be closed by notes upon
a few points of general iconographical interest.

The first concerns the representation of sacred persons who
are now characterized and lose their ideal or indefinite quality.

The Portrait of Christ. In the case of Our Lord, the oldest

FIG. 53. — Bronze gilt brooch with sacred
monogram : fourth century. (No. 256.)

86 INTRODUCTION

monuments show us what we should expect from the predomi-
nance of Hellenistic art during the first centuries, a type based
upon a generalized conception of Greek youth. The paintings
of the catacombs introduce the gradual development of the
adult bearded head which has become consecrated by the usage
of centuries. According to Wilpert, the oldest representation
as an adult appears in the first half of the second century ; the
hair, however, still remains short after the Graeco-Roman
fashion, and the face is still beardless. The earliest signs of
a short beard occur in work dating from the first half of the
third century, and this period provides the first instance of
the head with short beard, and hair left long in the eastern
style. The full beard is not seen until more than a century
later, in work of the second half of the fourth century ; this
type is therefore after the time of Constantine. There is
never any fixity of tradition; figures painted by the same
hands on the same walls differ essentially from each other.
' This uncertainty sufficiently shows that the painters of the
Catacombs were not in possession of a portrait of Christ.'
The above points are of interest in connexion with the familiar
legends as to contemporary portraits of Our Lord, such as
that associated with the name of Abgar King of Edessa. There
is no valid evidence that such portraits existed.

Th3 Virgin Mary is generally represented in the catacombs
and on the gilded glasses as an orans, but, as in the case of
Our Lord, there is no attempt at portraiture. The Annuncia-
tion scene is thought to occur in a third-century fresco in the
catacomb of St. Priscilla, and in the same catacomb is a group
held by some to represent the Virgin and Child with the pro-
phet Isaiah ; while the Adoration of the Magi also belongs to
the art of the catacombs. But though this and the Annuncia-
tion are common on the sarcophagi, the wide popularity of
portraits of the Virgin did not begin until after the Council of
Ephesus in A. D. 431 at which her title as Mother of God was
established against the Nestorians (p. 159). It may be added
that the Almighty was usually represented in Early Christian
art by a hand issuing from a cloud (the so-called Dextera Dei
or Dextera Domini) ; and this is the manner in which the divine
intervention is indicated in such scenes as the Sacrifice of
Isaac, the giving of the tables of the law, and the Baptism of
Our Lord (plate III). God appears in human form in a few
scenes from the Old Testament, for instance when receiving
the offerings of Cain and Abel, and giving to Adam and Eve
the ears of corn and the lamb which denote the future toil of

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY

their fallen state. The Third Person of the Trinity is usually
seen in the form of a dove, while the Trinity itself may be
indicated by the symbol of a triangle (see p. 184) or by the three

FIG. 54. Carved ivory panel from a book-cover, with the Nativity and

Adoration : sixtli century. (Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, No. 14.)

angels who appeared to Abraham (Gen. xviii) : the latter is
the general type in East-Christian art of all periods.

Of Saints, the most frequently represented in early times
were the Apostles Peter and Paul, usually found in conjunc-
tion. In their case we find characterization even before

88 INTRODUCTION

the fourth century, St. Peter almost always having thick hair
and a short beard, St. Paul a long beard and bald head. It
may be added as a point of interest that the earliest attribute
of St. Peter is a scroll or a staff with a cross at the end, the
key or keys not appearing until the fifth century ; while that
of St. Paul is also a scroll, the sword not being assigned him
until the tenth. The rest of the Apostles were not char-
acterized by special traits until the sixth century. Among
the Saints most frequently represented in the fourth and fifth
centuries are St. Agnes and St. Lawrence, who are often found
upon the gilded glasses.

The Crucifixion on a large scale, easily seen, is rather later
than upon gems ; we have noted the symbolic style persisting
in the fourth century upon sarcophagi in the Lateran (p. 84).
No direct representation of the scene on a larger scale than

that of gems appears to have survived
from the fourth century ; but a passage
in the contemporary Christian poet,
Prudentius, describes the Crucifixion
between the two thieves, apparently as
a subject adapted for the decoration of
a church. Perhaps the earliest exist-
ing example is the carved ivory panel

FIG 55 _ Engraved from a casket in the Museum Collec-
gem : the Crucifixion. tion (plate II), of which a cast is seen
<No. 43.) in Wall-Case 3 (original among the

ivory carvings in the King Edward

VII Gallery, Bay xx, Table-Case); the work dates from the
very beginning of the fifth century, if not from the last
years of the fourth. On the gems, the figure of Christ
was nude or semi-nude ; here there is a narrow loin-cloth, as
in the Crucifixion between the two Thieves on the carved
wooden doors of St. Sabina at Rome, which are not very much
later than the ivory. The almost nude type appears to have
continued in succeeding centuries, though only in rare examples,
for in the sixth century there seems to have been a feeling
against realistic treatment. The figure of Our Lord is now
often draped, generally in a sleeveless tunic reaching to the
ankles, known as a colobium. This garment is seen on a pendant
for the neck of the sixth century at Monza, in the often-quoted
miniature in the Syriac gospels of Rabula, and in a later mural
painting of St. Maria Antiqua at Rome (early eighth century).
From the ninth century onwards, the colobium is generally
replaced by a broad loin-cloth, though it survives by exception

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY 89

at a later date. The mosaics of the older churches in Rome,
Ravenna, and Constantinople do not include the Crucifixion,
though the above-mentioned verses of Prudentius and the
description by Choricius (A. D. 527-65) of the church of St.
Sergius at Gaza (p. 29) seem to show that the subject was per-
mitted to the mosaicist or the painter. During part of the
seventh century there appear still to have been objections to
realism, especially in the West ; but with the beginning of the
eighth century, as a result of the Council In Trullo, held at
Constantinople in A. D. 692, the subject was formally accepted
by the Church.

Even upon the earliest gems, subsidiary figures are seen beside
the cross. These primitive gems have a row on either side ;
the British Museum ivory shows the Virgin and St. John on
one side, the centurion Longinus on the other. In the Gospels
of Rabula these figures are again seen, with the addition of
the sponge-bearer Stephaton, three holy women, the soldiers
casting lots for the garment at the foot of the cross, the
personified Sun and Moon above the arms. In St. Maria
Antiqua there are again several figures, the Virgin and St.
John, Longinus and Stephaton ; the composition, though less
elaborate, still represents a Syrian type destined to yet
further amplification in the picturesque developments of
Carolingian art which derives so much from Syrian inspira-
tion. After the period of iconoclasm the Byzantine composition
assumed its final form : the Sun and Moon are seen above the
Cross ; to right and left stand the Virgin and St. John ; at the
foot is always the skull of Adam, in allusion to the tradition
that the cross was erected on the spot where the first man was
buried.

In the earliest Crucifixions the figure of Christ stands on
the ground, or upon a foot-rest fixed to the lower limb of the
cross; this latter feature, known as the suppedaneum, is
indicated in the British Museum ivory, and is universal in
Byzantine art after the ninth century. But in the Syrian
type of Crucifixion mentioned above, the feet are nailed directly
to the cross (gospels of Rabula, St. Maria Antiqua). In all this
early work they are side by side, and fixed by two nails. The
crossed feet, fixed by a single nail, belong only to the West,
and are first found at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

At the end of these brief iconographical notes it will be
convenient to say a word on the costume of sacred persons in
Christian art. Our Lord and the Apostles and Saints are
almost always clothed in an ungirded, long-sleeved tunic

90 INTRODUCTION

reaching to the feet, and in a long mantle called a pottiwm,t
one end of which was thrown forward over the left shoulder
so as to reach to the ankle, while the rest was drawn round
the back, under the right shoulder and across the body, the
second end being draped over the left fore-arm (plate II). The
right arm was thus left free, but the left was encumbered, and
the dress was therefore unsuited for active exertion. This
mantle was a Greek garment, once characteristic of philo-
sophers, and was contrasted with the national Roman toga,
which was draped in a different way. In process of time
it was superseded by other outer garments of a more practical
kind such as the paenula or planeta, a poncho with a hole in
the middle for the head, or the lacerna, a kind of cloak
fastened by a brooch over the breast; but it survived as a
ceremonial or official garb in the form of a narrow folded band,
which, according to a very plausible theory, in time became
the Archbishop's pallium of the Roman Catholic Church. In
the upper part of plate II, Our Lord is seen wearing the tunic
and pallium as above described, with the sandals which
usually accompany this costume. The tunic and pallium
likewise form the costume of Angels, who appear as beautiful
youths, and are at first usually represented as wingless,
though with the lapse of time the addition of wings became
the rule : the small nude winged figures which are occasionally
found on objects used by Christians are simply the genii of
Roman art, and used with a decorative purpose ; the child-
angel is the invention of comparatively modern art. Another
outer garment is a long mantle fastened with a brooch upon
the right shoulder so as to leave both arms free though the
left was concealed. This mantle, the usual garb of military
and official persons, is called the chlamys, and may be seen on
plates II, VII, and IX ; it was never adopted by the Church.

Another garment to which attention may be drawn is the
dalmatica, a long outer tunic of wool or linen with vertical
stripes (claw), usually purple, down the front, and other orna-
mental patches (segment a, calliculae), near the lower border
and on the shoulders; it was sometimes worn out of doors
without a mantle, and the popularity of this custom probably
encouraged the growth of elaborate embroidered ornamentation.
Female costume consisted of a long tunic reaching to the
ankles and a mantle similar to the pallium, called a palla,
the end of which, when a veil was not used, was often drawn
over the head like a hood, instead of passing under the
right arm.

EARLY CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY 91

Persons of inferior rank wore shorter girded tunics which,
in the case of orientals, were often drawn up at the waist
so as to form a deep hanging fold concealing the girdle.
Orientals also wore, in addition to a short chlamys, tightly
fitting breeches reaching to the ankles, and the so-called
Phrygian cap. Examples of this are seen in the figures
of Daniel and of the soldier decapitating St. Menas, both
on plate IV. In the early representations of the Adoration, the
Magi wear this costume ; they do not appear as Kings until
mediaeval times. Jews, in Early Christian art, are sometimes
depicted in round caps with flat tops (plate II).

The above secular garments have more than a passing
interest, through the fact that out of them developed ecclesias-
tical vestments, some of which have been in continuous use
from Early Christian times (p. 115).

III. CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS.

(For Early Christian churches in Britain see p. 61.)

a. The buildings. The subject of architecture in the earlier
Christian centuries and its relation to that of the Middle Ages
in the West is too wide and too controversial to be more than
touched upon in the present place. In Italy and the Hellenistic
area comprising the coast-lands of the Eastern Mediterranean,
the first Christian churches took the form of the basilica, a, Greek
word literally meaning ' royal hall '. The earlier assemblies of
Christians had taken place in large rooms in the houses of
aristocratic or wealthy converts ; the chambers or small chapels
in the catacombs, though certainly used for memorial services,
can hardly have accommodated general congregations. In
contemporary Rome the word basilica had been applied to any
large covered hall, but more especially to the basilica iudiciaria
or law-court, which was a development of the old open forum
or market-place. But although the forensic basilica was the
most conspicuous member of the class, it is now generally held
that it was not the immediate prototype of the Christian
building, for it did not regularly combine all the character-
istics by which the earliest Christian churches are marked.
Archaeologists still differ as to the origin of the Christian
basilica, and the number of theories which have been put
forward is too great for discussion in this place. It must
suffice to say that some regard the basilica as derived from

92 INTRODUCTION

Hellenistic sources ; others see in it a development of the central
court (atrium) of the ordinary Roman dwelling-house ; while
others, again, seek its origin in the large halls attached to the
houses of great nobles and officials, in the small catacomb
chapels, or in an extension of the little apsed oratories, cellae
ccemeteriales, erected for commemorative services in the area of
the cemeteries : it is suggested that these cellae, which on one
side had nothing but columns, were also used for regular
services in early times, the clergy standing beneath them, and
the people before them in the open air ; and that after the
peace of the Church a long nave with aisles, the idea of which

FIG. 56. — Exterior of old St. Peter's, Home.

was borrowed from secular buildings, was added for the
convenience of the congregation.

The Roman basilica was a rectangular building with a
timbered roof, consisting of a high nave divided on each side
by a row of columns from two low lateral aisles. Each of
these was itself sometimes subdivided by an additional row of
columns; the nave walls were pierced by rows of clerestory
windows. The roof was covered with lead, or with bronze or
terracotta tiles. But as the church was usually surrounded
by other buildings, the only part of the exterior which needed
adornment was the fa9ade ; even this was partially concealed
by the narthex, forming one side of a court (atrium) sur-

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS

rounded by porticoes, and having in the middle a fountain
(cantharus, phiale) for washing the hands.

In the early centuries of Christianity the practice of immer-
sion at baptism was universal, and a large basin or piscina
was required. As this could not be conveniently placed in the
church, detached circular or octagonal buildings called baptist-
eries were erected, the piscina being sunk in the floor. This
practice was general until after the sixth century ; when it
went out of use, the font was placed first in the narthex and
ultimately inside the church.

FIG. 57. — Interior of old St Peter's, Rome.

Round the sides of early churches there were often a number
of small chapels (cubicnla), sometimes used as places of burial.
Figs. 56 and 57 showing the old St. Peter's at Rome, replaced by
the modern cathedral in the early sixteenth century, illustrate
many of the characteristics of the basilica which have been
enumerated above.

The basilica naturally developed different features in so
wide an area as that comprising the countries round the
Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, and the West in general. These
are too detailed to be enumerated here ; it should be noticed,
however, that where, east of the Mediterranean, the Hellenistic
type penetrated into the interior, as in Syria, parts of Asia

94 INTRODUCTION

Minor, and Northern Mesopotamia, modifications were more
pronounced, and bore a definitely oriental character. Thus
the western fa9ade might have two towers between which the
narthex shrank to a kind of loggia, while the atrium was
generally abolished. In the volcanic district of the Hauran,
south of Damascus, where timber was difficult to obtain but
basaltic stone abundant, the whole building was of stone, long
slabs of stone replacing timber in the construction of the roof

The basilica with timber roof had an area of distribution
ranging from the Greek area in North Syria and Asia Minor
to Great Britain. In Rome, Italy, and the West it remained
continuously in favour 'until the close of the first millennium,
when churches with vaulted roofs became general ; the few
vaulted churches of earlier date are abnormal, and perhaps due
to oriental influence. In the Christian East the basilican plan
ceased to be general after the fifth century, but survived in
exceptional cases.

The most important changes in church architecture resulted
from the introduction of vaulted roofs and the placing of .
domes over square bays. It is still a matter of controversy
where these changes first took place, some holding that the
vault was first used in Christian architecture in Mesopotamia
while the dome came from northern Persia ; others that both
were first applied to Christian use in those parts of Asia Minor
where Hellenistic genius experimented with forms originally
perhaps of eastern origin ; others that the whole system of
vaulted and domed construction came to Christian architecture
through Rome. We need not discuss such controversial matters
in the present place further than to say that the barrel vault,
the first form to be employed, was certainly known long
before the Christian Era both in Mesopotamia and in Egypt,
and that the dome over a square plan was also used several
centuries before Christ in the case of tombs or mausolea. At
present the earliest dated church for congregational use
which had the vaulted roof is one of the ruined churches at
Binbirkilisse in Isauria in the south-east of Asia Minor,
belonging to the fifth century ; but other ruins without precise
date may well go back into the fourth. The dome over a
square bay was incorporated with the vaulted basilica at very
much the same time, the earliest example for which there is
any precise evidence of date being the ruined church of
St. Thekla at Meriamlik near the Cilician Seleucia, ascribed to
the fourth century ; another church at Khoja Kalessi in
Isauria is very probably of much the same age.

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS 95

In addition to long basilican churches, various forms of
centralized buildings were erected from the fourth century
onwards, chiefly, as above noted, for use as baptisteries or
small chapels. These buildings, which in Italy and the
Hellenistic area were round or octagonal in plan, were either
timber-roofed, like St. Stefano Rotondo at Rome, or domed, like
St. Costanza in the same city. Buildings of this type were
less well adapted for congregational use than long churches;
for even in the case of advanced types like St. Vitale at
Ravenna, the piers tend to obstruct the view. The domed
examples are therefore of less importance in the history of
development than aisled churches with domes, to the improve-
ment of which for liturgical and congregational use the
invention of architects was directed.

Cruciform churches were probably intended to affirm the
significance of the cross as a symbol of the faith. The tendency
to suggest the cross in church plans came into prominence in
the fifth century, and is even marked in the form of basilica in
which the ends of transepts project beyond the sides of the nave.
But the regular cruciform churches were of two principal
types : (1) that in which the whole building resembles a free-
standing cross, like the (now destroyed) Church of the Apostles
at Constantinople, built in the reign of Justinian, or St. Mark's
at Venice, which reproduces its plan : this type is derived
by some from a catacomb form ; (2) that often described as
the Greek-Cross church (eglise d croix grecque. Kreuzkuppel-
Jcirche). The former type is of less importance because it
never became very general, and did not win lasting popularity
in the Christian East. It is necessary to say a few words on
the latter, because from the close of the ninth century until
the fall of the Empire it was the characteristic Byzantine type,
and having spread beyond the frontiers, into other countries
of the Orthodox Eastern Church, continued to influence their
architecture down to modern times. The name is at first
sight inappropriate, since at the ground level the church has
the appearance of a square building (see below).

The origin of the Greek-Cross type is not certainly known.
Some authorities derive it from the domed basilica, holding
that the cross-form was produced by the addition of barrel-
vaulted transepts to resist the thrust of the dome on the north
and south sides. Others derive it from pagan buildings in
which two vaulted halls intersect each other at right angles,
for the square bay at the crossing, actually covered by other
kinds of roofing, might easily, they think, have suggested to men

INTKODUCTION

acquainted with domical buildings the substitution of a dome.
The most recent suggestion is that of Strzygowski, that the
Greek-Cross church is of Armenian origin. Armenian church
architecture seems from the first to have employed the dome
over the square bay as its unit, and a development of this unit,
so as to make the dome rest not on the four outer walls, but on

FIG. 58. — Exterior of the Churcli of the Apostles, Salonika (after Texier
and Pullan).

four inner supports, might readily give rise to a plan resembling
that of the Greek-Cross within its enclosing walls. The earliest
Armenian example of which the date is known is the ruined
church at Bagaran erected in A. D. 624 ; and it is pointed out
that the first building of the type recorded at Constantinople
was the Nea or New Church built in the grounds of the Great
Palace for the Emperor Basil I (A.D. 867-86), himself an
Armenian. Whatever the origin of the type, its popularity

CHURCHES AND THEIK CONTENTS 97

dates from the time of Basil, and it ended by assuming a pre-
dominant and almost exclusive position in East- Christian
church building. As already noticed, on the ground level it
presents the appearance of a square building, because the
angles of the cross are filled by four subsidiary chambers,
thrown open on their inner sides, thus providing two aisles,
a prothesis and .a diakonikon, rooms adjoining the bema
(p. 100) to North and South, the first used for preparing the
bread and wine, the second as a vestry. But since these
chambers are lower than the nave and transepts, the cruci-
form shape is visible on the outside above the level of their
roofs ; thus, although the Greek-Cross type in its ground plan
resembles a cross inscribed in a square, in its upper part its
form accords with its name. The central dome did not stand
alone. Others were added, usually over the angle-chambers,
so that the typical Byzantine church has commonly five, of
which that in the centre, in examples of the eleventh century
and later, rises like a tower (fig. 58).

In the West the dome was never popular except for bap-
tisteries and memorial churches until the Renaissance, when
its introduction by Italian architects may have been due to
fresh oriental influences. The earlier domed mediaeval
churches which were erected were due to the imitation of
oriental models. St. Germigny-les-Pre's, near Orleans, was
built in the ninth century, and the cathedral of St. Mark's
at Venice in the eleventh. It remains to notice the domed
churches in Pe'rigueux, where the cathedral of St. Front repro-
duces the plan of St. Mark's and therefore, at second remove,
that of the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople.

Belfries were earlier in the West than in the East, the oldest
known being apparently the round tower of St. Apollinare
Nuovo at Ravenna, built in the second half of the ninth
century : where found in connexion with Byzantine churches,
the belfry may be regarded as a proof of western influence.
Church bells, which probably originated in monasteries, were
commonly used in the West as early as the sixth century;
a well-known passage in Bede's Ecclesiastical History relates
how one of St. Hilda's nuns knew of the saint's death while at
some distance from Whitby by hearing the sound of the passing
bell ; and we learn from Gregory of Tours that in sixth-
century Gaul not only monasteries but parish churches
possessed bells. But in the churches of the East the bell was
not adopted so early ; its place was taken by the simantron
, or simandra, a thick slab either of wood or stone,
H

INTRODUCTION

suspended by a cord and struck by a piece of wood or iron.
The first church bells used in Constantinople were sent as
a gift by Ursus, Doge of Venice, to the Emperor Michael about
A. D. 865. The general employment of the bell did not, however,
come in until after the Latin occupation of Constantinople in
the thirteenth century ; even then the simantron was not
discarded, and it has survived until modern times in Greek
monasteries and in Abyssinian and Coptic churches. It may
be added that church bells seem to have been preceded by hand-
bells (tintinnabula), used at an early date in monasteries, and
by the first missionaries as a means of summoning to service :
the ancient iron bells associated with the names of the Irish
Saints are of this nature.

FIG. 59.— Church of Amba Derho, Abyssinia (after J. T. Bent, The Sacred
City of the Ethiopians).

In conclusion a brief mention may be made of the Coptic
churches of Egypt and those of Abyssinia. The exterior of
the Coptic church, usually obscured by other buildings, has
commonly a number of domes or cupolas, but there appears to
be no definite cruciform plan ; the dark interior with its aisle
and two naves suggests a basilica rather than a cross-church.
It has three apses which are not seen from outside. The
Abyssinian church seems to be of independent development.
It is a circular building with conical thatched roof, the
exterior resembling that of the native hut from which it is
probably derived. Its sanctuary is in the middle, while round
it are two concentric zones separated by walls, that nearest the
sanctuary for priests, the other for the congregation.

Reviewing the above paragraphs in connexion with those
relating to English churches (p. 61), we find that the

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS 99

timber-roofed basilica ranged from Syria to Britain, where the
small example of which the foundations were discovered at
Silchester was built in the Roman city on that site (Calleva)
in the fourth century. The timber-roofed basilica remained
the common form of church in Italy and France until about
the year A.D. 1000, when vaulted roofing came in and the
Romanesque style began. The origin of* roof vaulting in
western Romanesque churches is contested, some ascribing it
to the revival of Roman traditions by the architects of
Lombardy towards A.D. 1000, others believing that the inspira-
tion came directly from the Christian East several centuries
earlier. In England, after an interval caused by the Saxon
invasions, the basilican plan was re-introduced by St. Augus-
tine's Roman Mission, and remains of seventh- century examples
survive (p. 63). But in these islands a simpler single-hailed
type of Celtic origin, pressing down from the north, met and
overcame the basilica, and to this single-hailed type the Saxon
churches in England, as a class, belong (p. 64) : when the
three-aisled basilican plan was re-introduced a second time,
it came in a modified form as the vaulted Norman church. In
most countries circular or octagonal Christian buildings were
built as early as basilicas, and domed examples of the fourth
century survive.

In the Christian East, the introduction of vaulted single-
hailed or basilican churches is traced by different authori-
ties to Mesopotamia, the Hellenistic area in western Asia,
and to Rome: wherever they originated, such churches
were probably built in the fifth century, or even earlier.
Domed long churches must have begun about the same period,
and were prevalent in the sixth century, when a domed cruci-
form type was represented by the large church of the Apostles
at Constantinople, now destroyed. The cruciform church
known as the Greek-Cross type, characteristic of Byzantine
architecture, became common after the ninth century (p. 95).

The domed long church was not a western form until the
high Renaissance in Italy in the late sixteenth century. It
did not belong either to the Romanesque or to the Gothic
style, which did not roof central towers with domes ; the early
domed cruciform churches which stand on western soil are
abnormal, and due to special eastern influences. In England,
St. Paul's Cathedral, built by Wren at the close of the seven-
teenth century, is the earliest domed long church.

b. Interior arrangement and decoration. The interior
arrangement of a basilica was somewhat as follows. The

H 2

100 INTRODUCTION

altar stood across the chord of the apse. In the early
churches, only the space within the apse, called bema or
presbyterium, was available for the clergy, who sat on stone
benches (subsellia), following the curve of the apse, the bishop's
chair (cathedra) being in the middle at the back, directly facing
the altar, which stood free. Low marble screens (cancelli)
railed off' the apse from the nave. When there was a transept,
as was often the case in large churches, it was separated from
the nave by a massive arch, and the cancelli were brought
forward to the line dividing the transept from aisles and
nave. Where there was no transept, the increased demand
for room for the clergy in some cases necessitated the ex-
tension of the bema beyond the apsidal arch, and often also
the railing-in of the ends of the aisles. At the end of the nave
nearest the altar was a central space reserved for the choir,
which was itself railed in by cancelli ; and within the nave
on one side of this screen, sometimes on both, was an ambon
or ambo, a high stone pulpit used for reading the lections, as
well as for sermons when these were no longer delivered from
the apse. The congregation w#s accommodated in the aisles,
the men and women on different sides, the latter overflowing
into the back of the nave if occasion required ; but where the
aisles had an upper gallery, this was usually reserved for
women. Catechumens were placed at the back of the nave,
and penitents in the porch or narthex (see plan, fig. 60). Greek
and Roman basilicas were chiefly lighted by the clerestory
windows, which were usually filled with pierced stone slabs :
windows were also frequently placed in the apse and over the
door at the opposite end of the building. The walls of the
aisles were blind, but at Ravenna and in eastern churches of
the basilican type, there were windows in the aisles also. In
important churches the larger surfaces of the walls were
covered with brilliant mosaics ; the columns and cancelli were
of marble, with which stone the walls of the aisles were also
faced ; and the floor was usually covered with marble slabs.
The gable roof was hidden by a carved and gilded wooden
ceiling placed just above the clerestory, which, owing to the
nature of its windows, admitted a soft diffused light admirably
calculated to heighten the effect of the mosaics and gilding.
It was upon the interior of the basilica that all the decoration
was lavished ; the exterior was of plain brickwork.

In Byzantine churches of the more sumptuous kind, the
chief splendour, as in the early basilicas, was reserved for the
interior. In the regions where churches were built of brick,

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS

101

the contrast between the comparatively unadorned exterior aod
the inside walls and roofs, rich with ornament and colour, was
even more marked than where stone was the material. But
after the tenth century the contrast between plain exterior and
gorgeous interior was less accentuated : more and more
attention was given to exteriors, which were enriched by the

FIG. 60. — Plan of a basilica.
I. Presbyterium. II. Nave. III.
Aisles. IV. Narfhex. a. Bishop's
chair, bb. Seats for clergy, c.
Altar, dd, ee. Cancelli. /. Choir.
gg. Ambon s.

FIG. 61.— Plan of the Coptic church
of Abu-'s-Sifain, Cairo (after Butler,
Ancient Coptic Churches of 'Egypt'].
a. Patriarchal Throne. bb. Marble
bench for priests, cc. Baikal or sanctu-
ary, d. Altar, ee. Lateral sanctuaries.
ff. Haikal screen, gg. Choir, h. Font.
j. Lectern, kk. Screen. I. Pulpit, m.
Locker for relics, n. Men's division.
oo. Screen. pp. Women's division.
q. Tank in which the priest annually
washes the feet of the poor. rr. Nar-
thex. s. Epiphany tank, formerly
used for baptism at Epiphany, t. Door.

developed use of alternating bands of brick and stone,
geometrical arrangements of brick, recessed window-arches,
and other features. Where ample funds were available the
method of decoration in brick churches was much the same
at all periods. The lower walls were covered with a lining
of coloured marbles, and the upper with glass mosaic, which,
if the church was vaulted, also extended over the vaults. The
columns were of coloured marble, with white marble sculptured

102 INTRODUCTION

capitals; the closure-slabs limiting the chancel and the gal-
leries, where such existed, were also of white marble, usually
carved with conventional designs in low relief. The churches of
poorer communities were covered in the interior with stucco,
on which were painted designs corresponding to those executed
in mosaic in richer buildings. In the East, windows were
not, as in the comparatively gloomy North and West, large
and filled with stained glass, but small, and formed of slabs
of marble or stucco, pierced at intervals with round holes,
often without any glass ; in hot climates, where light was if
anything too abundant, the function of a window was to
admit it only in such amount as to allow mosaics and frescoes
their full effect. .

At night the lighting of interiors was chiefly effected by
pendent lamps with a number of separate lights. These
usually took the form of flat openwork bronze disks with
holes for small glass oil vessels : examples of these polycandela
are shown in Wall-Cases 1 and 2. Though the light given even
by the largest of these objects wrould be dim compared with
that of to-day, they were often employed in such numbers that
their illumination must have been both adequate and beautiful
in effect.

Candles or tapers were doubtless used from the earliest
Christian times : we have mention of them in the catacombs ;
in early churches they must have stood upon altars, and may
have been fixed to the ciboria above them. Candelabra with
three feet are represented in early frescoes, and the candles
seem to have been indifferently fixed either in sockets or upon
upright spikes or prickets. Bronze oil-lamps were also used
upon candelabra, a cavity in the base receiving the pricket.
(Examples of the sixth century in Wall-Cases 1 and 2.)

The interior division and arrangement of Christian churches
had at all periods many common features, though in course
of time variations were naturally developed In Byzantine
churches, and in those of the Orthodox Greek Church gener-
ally, the lema or sanctuary, and the prothesis and diakonikon
(p. 97) are separated from the body of the church not by low
cancelli but by a high screen with three entrances, the double
central doors leading into the sanctuary itself, the other two
doors into the lateral chambers. This screen, known as the
iconostasis, from the fact that ikons or sacred pictures were
fixed to its panels, might be made of any material, and in
important churches was sometimes of carved marble, or even
of precious metals; in the Greek Church it has in recent

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS

103

centuries been of richly carved and gilded wood. The doors
of the iconostasis played their part in the processions of the
clergy, and there is a theory that its architectural form and the
arrangement of its doors were suggested by the proscenium
of the ancient theatre, itself reproducing a palace fa£ade.

FIG. 62.— Bronze hanging disk for lamps (pohjcandelon) : sixth
century. (No. 529.)

The altar was covered, from as early as the fourth century, by
a high canopy or ciborium (cf. fig. 63), which again was often
of costly material, marble or precious metal, with rich columns
between which curtains were hung. In branches of the
Orthodox Greek Church this canopy ceased to be an inde-
pendent structure, and is now a miniature copy, the columns of

104

INTRODUCTION

which do not rest on the ground, but on the altar itself. The
ambon or pulpit was outside the screen in the eastern part of
the nave as in the early basilicas. The galleries, which
sometimes extended across the narthex, were reserved for
women, and were therefore known as gynaecea. It is a pecu-
liarity of Coptic interiors (fig. 61) that the nave is divided into
three parts by two screens additional to that corresponding to
the iconostasis, which encloses the sanctuary or haikal. The
first of these, commonly latticed, but sometimes with pictures

along the top, separates the
choir which is immediately out-
side the sanctuary screen, from
the rest of the nave. The second
divides the body of the nave
into two parts, that nearer the
sanctuary reserved for men,
that beyond it for women.

The kind of subjects or orna-
ment applied to church walls
naturally varied with the views
and fashions of changing times.
When Christianity issued from
the period of suppression to
become a recognized religion,
the old symbolic system of
the catacombs was superseded
(p. 27). The first need of the
Church was now to celebrate
its victory and give visible
form to its history and dogma.
For this purpose it replaced the
allusive and indirect symbolism
of the earlier periods by a

historic and dogmatic art. The events of sacred story could
now be directly set before the eyes of the faithful, and the
Fathers were quick to perceive the assistance which art
could render, not only by quickening the interest of those
who could read, but by giving instruction to those who could
not. At first it was evidently usual in some districts to cover
the walls of churches with paintings, apparently quite secular,
but possibly with symbolic associations of oriental origin (p. 24).
But with the lapse of time and the growing organization of
the Church, this usage, perhaps influenced from Persian sources,
was generally abandoned, and in the course of the fifth cen-

FIG. 63. — Aliar with ciborium :
North Italian, ninth century (after
Rohault de Fleury).

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS 105

tury we find a historical and dogmatic art fairly established,
largely under monastic auspices and the influence of Syrian
theology (p. 28). f he expanses of wall above the nave columns
were painted with scenes fiom the Old and New Testament.
The apse and its arch received subjects derived from the
Apocalypse, representing Our Lord in Glory, surrounded by
saints and martyrs, the Lamb, and other figures suggesting the
glories of the life to come; or, as at St. Maria Maggiore
in Rome, subjects of dogmatic significance. By the sixth cen-
tury, when the imperial power at Byzantium had reached its
height, and State and Church were closely allied, we mark the
intrusion of scenes representing imperial persons into the very
bema, as when, at St. Vitale at Ravenna, Justinian and Theodora
with their courtiers appear in the immediate neighbourhood of
Old Testament scenes typifying the Eucharistic Sacrifice. After
the Persian and Arab wars, iconoclasm interrupted the progress
of church decoration. There was a reversion in some cases
to the secular scenes above described ; these were used in the
nave, while in the apse a simple cross seems to have replaced
the figures of Our Lord or of the Virgin. After the restoration
of sacred pictures, the re-establishment of a strong dynasty
made it possible to reorganize the development of church
painting. This was done under the monastic influence which
throughout the long struggle had championed the cause of
pictures ; a liturgical direction was now given to the scheme
of decoration, and the subjects upon church walls were brought
into an intimate relation to the rite celebrated within them.
The whole arrangement was more strictly ordered ; it was no
longer possible for imperial persons or founders to be repre-
sented on the sanctuary walls ; they were relegated to more
humble places in the body of the building or even in the
narthex. In quite early times different parts of the church
had possessed their own meaning. But now the symbolism
became more precise, and the decoration which each received
more exactly accorded with its meaning. The dome and the
bema represented the celestial world, the rest of the church
the terrestrial. The subjects, whether painted or in mosaic,
were brought into harmony with these ideas. In the crown
of the dome was the figure of Christ Pantokrator, or Lord of
All ; below Him, forming a circle, were archangels, apostles, or
prophets. In the apse of the bema was the Virgin, commonly
with hands raised in the ancient attitude of prayer and
interceding for the world, or seated with the Child on her
knees ; on the walls and in the secondary apses were the

106 INTRODUCTION

antitypes of Christ, subjects representative of the Eucharist,
and Old Testament scenes prefiguring it ; on the vault might
be the empty throne prepared for the second coming, together
with the Instruments of the Passion. In the body of the
building, the upper walls were adorned with Gospel scenes
illustrating the events in the life of Our Lord and the Virgin
commemorated in the Twelve Feasts of the Church (usually the
Annunciation, Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, Baptism,
Raising of Lazarus, Transfiguration, Entry into Jerusalem,
Crucifixion, Descent into Hell, Pentecost, and Death of the
Virgin). Below these, in long rows, were the saints and
martyrs. The ideas underlying the whole scheme were the
pre-eminence of the supersensible world and the central
importance of the rite. Historical sequence was abandoned for
an order exactly consistent with liturgical requirement.

c. Objects of ecclesiastical use. The above short account of
architectural types may be conveniently followed by a few facts
as to the objects used in the services of the church. Chief
among these were the chalice and the paten. The form and
size of the chalice varied in the course of centuries, as did the
material of which it was made. The early chalices naturally
adopted already familiar forms. They were usually but not
always of the cantharus type with two handles, and were
often of glass, sometimes coloured. In the fresco in the Roman
catacombs known as the Fractio Panis, the chalice represented
has two handles, but not the foot which soon became general,
and is seen in the examples of blue glass from Amiens,
probably, if not certainly, used as chalices (Wall-Cases 5 and 6,
fig. 64). Other forms were contemporary with the handled
type. An epitaph from the Roman Catacombs, copied by
Boldetti, was accompanied by a chalice without handles, but
having a knop and comparatively high foot. In early times
there was a distinction in size between the chalices used by
the celebrants and those in which the wine was distributed to
the faithful ; these latter were much larger, and described as
greater, or ' ministerial '. Chalices of silver and gold seem to
have been in use as early as about A. D. 300 ; those of glass
may in general have characterized the times of persecution,
though they were still made in later times : one of the legends
relating to St. Patrick makes mention of glass chalices.
After the Peace of the Church, we read of chalices of precious
metal, enriched by gems, given by Constantine to various
churches, and St. Jerome speaks of others cut from hard
stone, probably onyx or agate ; but in the West the sack of

PLATE VIII. BYZANTINE SII.VEII TREASURE FROM LAMPSACUS.

(Seep. 175.)

SIXTH CENTURY.

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS

107

Rome by the Goths and the impoverishment of the fifth
century led for a time to the general use of plain silver. The
costlier examples at this time were made in the Christian East.
The mosaics and sarcophagi of the fifth and sixth centuries
show the two-handled form of chalice still in favour. It is
seen, for example, on the mosaics of St. Vitale and St.
Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, where in one case a gold
chalice covered with precious stones is depicted. The gold
chalice in the treasure of Gourdon. in France, which has two
handles, and round the upper part a band of foliated ornament
inlaid with turquoise and red stones or pastes, belongs to the
first part of the sixth century, and is either of early Teutonic
workmanship reproducing oriental methods, or, as some think,
itself of East- Christian origin. The two-handled type seems

FIG. 64.— Glass vessel from Amiens, perhaps a chalice, 5th-6th century.

( No. 658.)

to have been obligatory in the time of Gregory the Great
(A.D. 590-604), and chalices now lost, but once in the
treasury of the cathedral of Monza, had this form. Here
again the reproductions which have come down to us suggest
gold and gems, which the barbaric courts of the Goths,
Lombards, and Franks were now able to afford. The type
survived to a later date both in the West and in the East ;
the well-known chalice of Ardagh in Ireland is of the eighth
or ninth century ; that of St. Gauzelin at Nancy of the tenth ;
two-handled examples are also found among the Byzantine
chalices at Venice (p. 110). The other early type with knop
and foot, but without handles, also persisted. An example
belonging to the church of Zamon near Trent appears to date
from the sixth century ; the gold chalice associated with the

108 INTRODUCTION

name of St. Eloi (Eligius), formerly at Chelles, but destroyed
at the time of the French Revolution, was of this form, as
were a bronze example with the name of St. Chrodegand of
Se'ez (d. A. D. 775), now in Russia, and another eighth-century
example at Werden in Westphalia. The silver chalice of
Tassilo Duke of Bavaria, preserved at Kremsmiinster in Upper
Austria, belongs to the second half of the eighth century ; it
bears ornament of the character introduced into Franconia by
Celtic missionaries from Ireland (p. 60), has no handles, an
almost spherical knop, and conical foot. The ninth-century
chalice from Trewhiddle (fig. 39 and p. 68) conforms to this

FIG. 65. — Inscribed silver chalice, probably from Syria: sixth century.

general type. In these early chalices with bowl, knop, and
round foot, we have the prototypes from which the usual
Romanesque and mediaeval types developed.

Among surviving chalices from the Christian East, the two-
handled form is not represented among antiquities of the
earlier Christian centuries, though, as we have seen in the case
of the Ravenna mosaics, it must certainly have been in use.
The oldest existing eastern chalices have a bowl without
handles, a knop, and foot. The present collection contains
a large example of the sixth century with a votive inscription
round the rim (fig. 65) ; it resembles an example at present

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS

109

FIG. 66. — Ivory liturgical diptych fronTEgypt : seventh century ; see p. 114.

110 INTRODUCTION

in Paris, found in Northern Syria in 1910, and engraved
with a consecration formula. Another silver cup, not so
certainly a chalice, forms part of the treasure of Lampsacus
(plate VIII).

The best examples of Byzantine chalices are those in the
treasury of St. Mark's at Venice, whither they were brought
after the capture of Constantinople in A. D. 1204 ; here the
type with large hemispherical bowl, and the two-handled
variety, both occur. But these chalices, which have bowls of
alabaster, onyx or agate, gilt or gold mounts, and rich ornament
of gems, pearls, and enamelled plaques, do not represent the
possessions of ordinary churches but of wealthy or famous
foundations in the capital, and are of an exceptionally
sumptuous kind. Several have the usual words of administra-
tion in Greek round the rim.

The earliest patens were perhaps of glass, like the chalices ;
few of the ' gilded glasses ' (p. 140) are supposed to have been
patens, including, in the view of some authorities, the remark-
able glass disk found at Cologne (Table-Case B and fig. 91).
When chalices began to be of metal, patens naturally followed
suit, and it may be assumed that they were generally circular,
as seen in the mosaics at Ravenna, though this does not
necessarily follow (see below). Nor need they have been
always flat; it is conjectured that the two rather small
shallow bowls in the Lampsacus treasure (plate VIII) may
have been patens.

Early patens were often decorated with a variety of subjects
in relief. An example of the sixth century found in North
Syria has upon it Our Lord giving the Communion to the
apostles; a silver dish of the same date in the Stroganoff
Collection at Rome, by some believed to be a paten, has
a cross flanked by two angels. Patens with such reliefs long
continued to be made in the Eastern Church, as we know
from the eleventh- or twelfth-century Byzantine example in
the cathedral at Halberstadt in Germany, which has the
Crucifixion, with ornamental designs. The Byzantine patens
in St. Mark's are of the same sumptuous kind as the chalices
which they accompany, and are made of alabaster or agate
with metal mounts set with gems, or sometimes with enamelled
plaques ; one has a central enamel medallion representing Our
Lord. On more than one are the words of administration in
Greek characters.

We may note that though the circular paten was almost
universal other forms seem occasionally to have been used.

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS 111

An octagonal paten is said in the Liber Pontificalis 1 to have
been given by Gregory IV to a church in Rome in the ninth
century ; the gold example accompanying the chalice of
Gourdon (p. 107), and decorated with coloured pastes or
stones, with a central cross in the same style, is rectangular,
following a familiar pagan form of Roman and Hellenistic
times. That patens, like chalices, were decorated with gems in the
seventh century we learn from passages in the Liber Pontificalis.

It will be seen from the above that in the early patens much
latitude was allowed in material, subject, and decoration ; and
in this they may be contrasted with more recent western
examples, on which as a rule only the head of Our Lord or
the sacred monogram is found. The early paten was also in
many cases much larger and more massive than the small and
thin patens of the Middle Ages.

Another object used in connexion with the Eucharist, but
not often seen, is the strainer (colum, colatorium) through
which the wine was passed : this instrument, used both in
East and West, is recorded as early as the fifth century, and
an example of about that time found at Traprain Law
in East Lothian has been noted (p. 65). Though the
metal tube (fistula, canna, etc.) through which bishops or
celebrants sometimes communicated appears to have been
known as early as the sixth century, no example is known
to date from before mediaeval times.

The liturgical fan (flabellum, pnt&iov) was used by the
deacons to keep flies from the altar. There is abundant evidence
of its employment both in the East and in the West; but
while the Orthodox Greek Church has retained it to the
present day, in the West it was abandoned by the fourteenth
century. The Greek flabellum is a disk at the end of a straight
handle, usually of silver, with ornament of cherubs' heads
(cf . fig. 67) ; two examples of the fourteenth century at Serres
in Macedonia are enriched with enamel.

The eucharistic spoon (Aa/3is) has been used in the Greek
Church from about the tenth century (fig. 69). It is of small
size made of gold, silver, or silver-gilt ; with it the priest takes
from the chalice a fragment of the steeped bread and gives it to
the communicant. Liturgical documents make no mention of
the use of the spoon in the West, except for placing the bread
upon the paten. Spoons with sacred monograms or subjects,
in museums and other collections, may in some cases have been

1 The Liber Pontificalis, or Papal Chronicle, compiled between A. D. 500 and
880 from Papal archives, makes frequent mention of works of art.

11.2

INTRODUCTION

employed for such a purpose as that last mentioned, but there
is no evidence of this, and the majority were probably for
ordinary use.

The asterisk (lit. star), called by the Copts the dome,
is formed of two arched bands of silver at right angles to each
other, joined where they cross by a rivet ; its purpose is to
keep the veil from contact with the bread upon the paten. The

asterisk was used in the Byzan-
tine Church in the last centuries
of the Empire, but as there is no
certain evidence for its employ-
ment in early times, it may have
been of late introduction ; it is
said to symbolize the star of
Bethlehem, which stood above
the place where the young Child
lay. It is used by the Greek
Church, by the Copts, and by
the Catholic Syrians.

The Holy Lance, in the form
of a small silver spear-head, is
used in the Greek Church to
divide the bread to be used in
the Eucharist. Like the asterisk,
it is not known from early times ;
it has never been adopted in the
West.

The pyx for the consecrated
bread had various forms. There
is evidence that a vessel of
precious metal in the shape of a
dove was used as early as the
fourth century. According to
the Liber Pontificalis. such a
dove was presented by Pope

Innocent I to a church in Rome in conjunction with a ' tower '
(turris, irvpyos) and a paten. The tower is mentioned in other
places as accompanying the dove, but appears also to have
been used alone ; it may be assumed to have had a definitely
architectural form. By the eleventh century a receptacle for
the eucharistic bread of more highly developed architectural
type is represented by two examples in the form of domed
churches, one in St. Mark's at Venice, the other in the cathedral
of Aix-la-Chapelle.

FIG. 67. — Coptic flabellum (after
Butler).

CHUKCHES AND THETB CONTENTS

113

The censer used in Byzantine times was generally either
bowl-shaped, with a round foot, or hexagonal with low foot-
rim or feet (fig. 68) ; in both cases it was generally open,
though covers sometimes occur. One type of censer had no
chains, but was held by a straight handle.

Another object forming part of the usual church furniture
was the Gospel Cover by which the book of the Gospels laid
upon the altar was protected. Examples of plain silver with
the sacred monogram, dating from the fifth or sixth century
and found at Luxor, are now in the Cairo Museum. More

FIG. 68. — Silver censer of the sixth century from Cyprus. (No. 399.)

ornate examples were early in use. One, preserved in the
Treasury of Monza, made of gold with inlaid garnets, may
belong to the time of Gregory the Great. Another, with
a cross and borders of massed garnets, is in the Treasury of
St. Mark's at Venice, with later examples of about the eleventh
century which are enriched with enamels.

Ecclesiastical diptychs of the earlier centuries, used during
the Mass at the Commemoration of the names of patriarchs,
bishops, and benefactors, living or dead, are now exceedingly
rare. As the lists of names were often long, and prayers were
sometimes added, large panels were required, and consular

114 INTRODUCTION

diptychs were sometimes appropriated to this use, as in the case
of the fine example at Brescia (p. 44), where a diptych of the
sixth-century consul Boethius has within, on the sunk surface
originally prepared for wax, lists written in ink in the eighth
century. The example shown in Wall-Case 5 (fig. 66) was
also made to receive wax for writing with a stylus, but the
outer sides of the two leaves are quite plain. The lists, which
are very long, are written in a Greek hand of the seventh
century, and among them are parts of liturgical prayers. The
names show that this diptych must have been used either in
the diocese of Hermonthis or that of Coptos in Egypt, probably
the former, between A D. 623 and A. r>. 662.

Processional crosses are not known with certainty to have
been used before the time of Charlemagne, who presented one
to Pope Leo III (A. D. 795-816). The only examples in the
collection are the remarkable engraved brass crosses from
Abyssinia, which show a western influence of a date later than
the sixteenth century (plate XV, Wall-Cases 27-30).

In conclusion attention may be drawn to a few less conspicu-
ous or familiar objects of ecclesiastical use. Examples of the
thick wooden tablets, placed upon the altars of Abyssinian
churches, are shown in Wall-Cases 26-30 (see p. 181). These
tablets seem to be related to those let into that part of the
upper surface of the Coptic altar on which the elements are
placed, though in Egypt the tablet is flush with the surface
and concealed from view by the altar cloth. The Coptic
tablets are usually engraved with the Greek letters alpha and
omega, and have at the corners the initial and terminal letters
of the Greek words : Jesus Christ Son of God (fC XC YC 0Y).

In Wall-Cases 29 and 30 is seen one of the thick circular cakes
similar in form and in the impressed design to those used for
the Eucharist, but not consecrated. Such cakes are distributed
among the members of the congregation who have not commu-
nicated, and the custom perpetuates an ancient usage in the
Christian Church in which portions of unconsecrated bread
were distributed in this manner, and described as Eulogiai
(Gr. €L>Aoyia. blessing). These cakes are stamped with a diaper
of crosses, and in the consecrated examples the four central
squares are reserved for the priests. Round the edge are
generally stamped the Greek words : Holy is God, holy and
mighty, holy and immortal, though sometimes Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God of Hosts may be substituted (cf. fig. 69).

The metal rattles of the Abyssinian priests, with pierced
disks which jingle upon the cross-bars, deserve notice from the

CHURCHES AND THEIR CONTENTS

115

resemblance of the type to that of the ancient sistrum of
Egypt (fig. 104).

The limits of the present Guide do not permit any full
description of the vestments worn in the early Church : a few
points may however be noticed. Vestments developed out of
garments worn in the early centuries of our era (p. 89). The
long close-sleeved white under-tunic reaching to the ankles
became the alb. The upper tunic or dalmatic, with shorter
and wider sleeves, retained its name, and was the special

FIG. 69. — Coptic Eucharist ic bread and spoon (after Butler).

garment of deacons. The chasuble was originally an over-
garment (casula, planeta, paenula), which gradually became
ornate, and thus required the addition, out of doors, of the
cope (pluviale, cappa), originally a kind of poncho: this, as
its Latin name implies, served for protection not only against
cold, but against rain. Even the episcopal pallium descends
from an actual garment of the same name, corresponding in
the Greek world to the Roman toga. The pallium, at first an
ordinary mantle, came to be folded into a narrow form and
worn over the paenula. For this heavy and manifold band,

116 INTRODUCTION

a single strip was ultimately substituted ; it was worn over
both shoulders, a loop and end hanging to front and back, and
was at first fastened by three pins, one of which was on the left
shoulder. The final development transformed the long pinned
strip into a loop woven in a single piece.

As may be gathered from the origin of vestments in the
ordinary garments of Early Christian times, the distinction
between the two only grew up gradually, becoming more
obvious as secular fashions underwent marked changes, while
the conservative usage of the Church retained the old forms.
The chief ecclesiastical vestments had approximated to their
present form by the sixth century, and down to the ninth
there was no great divergence in shape and fashion between
East and West; the Greek sticharion still corresponds in a
general way to the alb, the phenolion (a word of Greek origin,
variously spelled) to the chasuble, and the omophorion to the
pallium.

IV. THE ARTS.1

Painting and sculpture. It has been stated above that
during the tirst three centuries of suppression art was symbolic,
and chiefly under late Greek influence ; the great centre of
Hellenistic painting was Alexandria, which inspired both the
pagan and the Christian art of Rome. In its late development
the Greek manner was naturalistic, retaining little of the
idealism of earlier times. Art had derived from oriental
sources new principles of ornament and a tendency to luxuri-
ance, but preserved a care for graceful form, and a feeling
for restraint in expression ; modelling was universal and
there was some knowledge of true perspective. This Early
Christian symbolic phase is most familiar to us through the
mural paintings of the catacombs.

When the early centuries of symbolism were succeeded by a
new period of historic and dogmatic expression (p. 27), Greek
and Graeco-Roman art retained its importance, not least in
the composition of themes and cycles, and in Rome itself
influences from the catacombs lasted down to the time of
the Gothic wars (p. 28). But it did not satisfy the need
of the native populations in Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor,
which shared neither the Greek outlook on the world nor
the Greek feeling for restraint and balance. These peoples

1 The following paragraphs are archaeological and historical on y ; they
do not pretend to aesthetic criticism.

PLATE IX. BYZANTINE SILVER TREASURE FROM CYPRUS.
(See p. 173.)

THE ARTS 117

were ready to borrow much from the Greeks and to accept their
aid in practical matters, but were determined that the spirit
which informed sacred art should be their own. Thus arose
a new Christian style composed of Syrian and Hellenistic -
elements, distinct both from the early Alexandrian symbol-
ism of the catacombs, and from the later secular figure art of
Constantinople which continued to reproduce mythological
subjects. We saw that this Syro-Hellenistic style was inspired
by realism and by a vivid dramatic sense, and that its methods
were by no means all Greek. The tendency to use flat colour
with little or no modelling, and the suggestion of receding
distance by bands or zones one above the other, apparently
came to it from Iran, as did some of the ornament which it
employed, such as formal scrolls and diapers, and conventional
animals or monsters. Inverted perspective (p. 20), the frontal
position, and the representation of divine figures in majesty,
like the great kings of the ancient monarchies, were all of
Syrian and Mesopotamian origin. This Syro-Hellenistic sacred
art, representing a compromise between the Semitic and the.
Greek points of view, became general after the fifth century -
alike in East and West, the Syrian element predominating in
work produced under monastic influence, the Hellenistic still
strongly asserted in cities like Alexandria, Antioch, and
Constantinople, where for one reason or another Greek influ-
ences were powerful. In a country like Egypt, where a great
Hellenistic city stood on the coast, while a short way up the
Nile valley the population was Coptic, we can follow a
progressive increase of the native feeling at the expense of
the Greek. Even in the single example of mural painting in
the collection, that from Wadi Sarga (Wall-Cases 16 and 17),
the small inset with the Three Children in the burning fiery
furnace (fig. 70) is nearer to the Hellenistic manner than the
large figures of SS. Cosmas and Damian, where we note charac-
terization and preoccupation with details. In the extensive
wall paintings of Bawit and in other work of the fifth and
sixth centuries it is possible to trace the changing relation of
Alexandrian and native elements. But in all Christian coun-
tries a similar interaction may be remarked; in some of
the mosaics at Ravenna, for instance in the procession of
Saints in the nave of St. Apollinare Nuovo, Hellenistic feeling
is strong; in the ceremonial scenes in St. Vitale in the same
city, representing Justinian and Theodora with their suites,
the eastern influence predominates.

In the period between the seventh and the tenth centuries

118

INTRODUCTION

representational sacred art was threatened at the same time
by iconoclasm and by Persian decorative art (p. 41), and on
the monumental scale little now remains. But in Constanti-
nople iconoclasm was indirectly favourable to a secular
Hellenistic art and to a general strengthening of Greek
influence (p. 50). After the restoration of pictures, this
influence was reflected in religious art, which in the tenth
century shows, in the capital at least, an accentuation of the

FIG. 70. — Wall painting from Wadi Sarga : the Three Children in the
furnace, with Coptic inscription : sixth century.

Hellenistic as compared with the Syrian element. But in
monastic centres like Cappadocia, this was not the case, and
even in Constantinople, as time went on, the oriental element
was reasserted under the monastic influence which, under the
leadership of the Monastery of the Studium, had won the
battle for orthodoxy against the enemies of pictures (p. 50).
Thus from the eleventh century to the Latin occupation of
A. D. 1204 the Syro-Hellenistic style again prevailed, if in a
modified form, Greek or oriental factors advancing or receding
according as Court or monastic influences prevailed. In the

THE ARTS 119

mosaics of Daphni in Attica, for instance, the Greek factor is
more in evidence than in those in the great church of St. Luke
of Stiris in Phocis, a fact which may possibly be explained by
Court patronage in the former case ; the mosaic of the Last
Judgement at the West End of the Cathedral of Torcello, on
the other hand, conspicuously illustrates the oriental methods
of inverted perspective and vertical projection (p. 20). The
illumination of manuscripts is throughout of the greatest
interest and importance for the illustration of these changes and
developments in sacred art ; here the Hellenistic style of the
Court and the eastern tendencies of monastic art can most
conveniently be studied (see below). Ornament in this period
grew, as a whole, uncompromisingly oriental. Floral scrolls
and repeating designs, with conventionalized animal motives,
form the substance of decoration. Nearly all this work was
of Iranian origin, and the beasts in their formal character and
arrangement contrast strongly with the naturalistic types of
the early years when Hellenistic influences were still strong.
During the Latin interregnum at Constantinople painting
and other arts in the capital were rudely interrupted. But
the intercourse with the West, notably with Italy, which took
place in the thirteenth century had interesting effects upon
East Christian art ; Byzantine painting, by contact with the
rising art of Siena, gained somewhat in freedom and grace,
while retaining unaltered its fundamentally eastern character.
This is apparent in mural paintings in the churches of Serbia,
a country in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries under
strong native rulers, where many Byzantine artists at this
time received patronage and were able to train a native Serbian
school. It is also apparent in the small religious pictures in
tempera on wooden panels, the work of Greek painters who
from Venice extended their activities through northern Italy.
But if these immigrants into Italy received much, they pro-
bably gave even more, since their technical knowledge and
their tradition were of great service to the first Sienese
painters, whose work, even down to the time of Duccio, shows
sufficient signs of Byzantine influence. With the fourteenth
century, panel-painters connected with Crete and Venice
formed a school known as the Cretan school, which lasted for
several hundred years, surviving the fall of the Byzantine
Empire ; to its later periods belong many small panel pictures
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, often erroneously
described as Byzantine. The Cretan School was not confined
to painters of ikons, but produced a succession of mural painters,

120

INTRODUCTION

whose style recalls that of the artist familiar with a smaller
scale; it succeeded an „ earlier or Macedonian school perhaps
originally based upon Salonika, the members of which worked
in a broader manner. The greater part of the frescoes upon
Mount Athos, dating from the sixteenth century and later,
belong to the Cretan School.

wmmm

FIG. 71. — Head-piece from an eleventh-century Byzantine MS. in the
British Museum (Harley 5785).

After the restoration of Greek rule at Constantinople
towards the close of the thirteenth century, painting was
affected by the general unsettlement (p. 53). It was a time
in which artists, no longer brought up in a sound tradition,
were thrown upon their own resources, and imitated religious
and secular works of preceding centuries without always under-
standing their several styles. In single subjects they could
produce pleasing results; the absence of training is betrayed

THE ARTS 121

when details and methods borrowed from sources differing in
style are united in a single composition, as in the mosaics of
Kahrieh Jami (the old Church of the Chora) at Constantinople,
where Hellenistic true perspective and oriental inverted per-
spective (p. 20) are found together in the same subject, the
incongruity marring the picturesque and animated effect of
the whole. But in a sense the very want of the old discipline
lends a certain freshness and brightness to much work of the
time ; and perhaps the revival of art fared better than the
contemporarjr revival in literature, since to a certain extent it
had been enriched by contact with Italian culture. The most
coherent work upon the larger scale is perhaps to be sought
not in the capital but in the province of Mistra in the Morea
(p. 54) and in the Balkans.

A very few words may be added upon technical methods.
East Christian and Byzantine painting is almost always in
tempera. Upon walls the colours were applied to plaster already
dry, and a medium was employed, in the form of size, gum, or
white of egg; true fresco, if used at all, was extremely rare.
In the case of panels, a thin layer of tine plaster was first
applied to the wood, and upon this the subject was painted ;
the plaster can be seen in the damaged parts of the thirteenth-
century panels from Egypt in Wall-Case 6. Encaustic painting
upon panels with hot wax applied by metal spatulae, the
method employed in the late-Egyptian portraits of the Fay urn,
survived into Christian times ; a few panels of the sixth century
and later > obtained on Mount Sinai, are preserved at Kieff. In
mosaic, cubes (tesserae) were fixed in cement applied to a base of
stone or brick. In the case of pavements they were generally
of marble or other stone, and of brick ; in the case of wall-
decoration they were almost all of coloured glass; the cubes with
gold are of plain glass with a piece of gold foil upon one face,
covered by a protecting film of clear glass, as in the case of the
larger 'gilded glasses' of the catacombs (p 140). The expense
and labour of covering the upper walls, vaults, and domes of a
whole church was very great, and it is easy to understand that
the practice fell into disuse when the Byzantine Empire grew
poor. A calculation made in connection with mosaic decora-
tion of the church of St. George at Salonika showed that
thirty six million tesserae must have been used for the dome
alone, and each had to be independently fixed in place. Small
panel-pictures in mosaic were made in some numbers between
the tenth and twelfth centuries, probably at Constantinople.
Here the base is of wax applied to the wooden surface, and in

122 INTRODUCTION

this minute cubes of glass, stone, gold, etc., are fixed. An
example is to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

As indicated above, the destinies of manuscript- illumination
obeyed the same general influences which controlled the growth
of mural painting and mosaic. In the first centuries manu-
scripts in the form of rolls in a purely Hellenistic style
provided themes and cycles from which the oriental illuminators
had mucli to learn. Some of the first books (codices) were
also classical in style ; the fragments of the Cotton Genesis in
the British Museum afford a valuable example. With the fifth
century probably began the production in the monasteries of
illuminated books under oriental (chiefly Syrian) influences.
Famous examples of the sixth and seventh centuries survive,
among which may once more be mentioned the Gospels of the
Syrian monk Rabula, in Florence, painted at Zagba in northern
Mesopotamia in A.D. 586, the Gospels at Edgmiatsin in
Armenia, also of Syrian origin, and those at Rossano in Italy,
probably produced in Cappadocia. We have seen how much
was done by books of this kind, transported by travelling
monks and traders, to inspire the earliest mediaeval painters of
the West. Whether they were themselves illuminators, or
worked on the greater scale on church walls, their influence is
discerned in the first illuminations of the Italians and the
Franks ; and in the figure subjects of early Celtic books, such
as the Lindisfarne Gospels (p. 68) ; it was manifest in early
German books, and in short was a general source of inspiration
throughout the West. East Christian and Byzantine illumi-
nated books are represented in the collections of the Depart-
ment of Manuscripts, and examples, chiefly of the Middle
Byzantine period, are exhibited in the Grenville Library
(opening out of the Entrance Hall), Case 1.

We may resume the main points in the foregoing paragraphs.

Beginning under late-Hellenistic auspices, Christian painting
became orientalized after the Peace of the Church under
influences which were principally Semitic (Syrian) ; the result
was a sacred art, described as Syro-Hellenistic, in which a
compromise was effected between Greek and eastern elements.
In the Byzantine capital, the iconoclasm of the eighth and
ninth centuries led to a certain revulsion in favour of Hellenism,
but at the same time to a fresh wave of Asiatic ornament.
But the monastic influences which during the bitter struggle
had at last worn down the attack upon sacred pictures were
now reasserted, and held their own until the Fourth Crusade
of A.D. 1204. The Latin interregnum of about sixty years

THE ARTS

123

broke the tradition of the schools in the capital, and many
painters went abroad. Art came back with the Restoration
freer, and to a greater extent in the hands of laymen, but
without the old consistent discipline. It developed an almost
feverish activity, copying early models of diverse origin ; but
thegeneral impoverishment and
the disaster of A.D. 1453 pre-
vented a healthy growth ; thus

Byzantine painting did not end, & -^SS^^Tfck

as is commonly supposed, in
hieratic stiffness, but rather in
a certain rashness of experi-
ment. It may be added that in
the countries of the Orthodox
Greek Church, religious paint-
ing in the Byzantine manner
has continued to our own day,
often little affected by a con-
temporary secular art inspired
by that of western Europe.

Sculpture in its turn was
exposed to general influences
similar to those which affected
painting. The figure art of the
earlier Christian centuries was
almost entirely in Greek hands.
The Hellenistic cities were the
sources which inspired both
Rome and Constantinople; Asia
Minor seems to have possessed
the chief centres of produc-
tion; here the tradition of
antique sculpture survived in
greater purity, and marble was
accessible. The early sarco-
phagi with high relief, and FIG. 72.-
other examples of marble with sculpture :
figure-sculpture, are of Greek

tradition, whether found in Italy, Spain, or the south of France.
The ceremonial or historical reliefs of the fourth and fifth cen-
turies upon the shafts or plinths of columns, upon arches, or the
bases of obelisks at Constantinople, recall earlier Roman work
produced under similar conditions, but are less accomplished.
Among the oriental Christian peoples only the Copts showed

-Coptic decorative
sixth century.

124

INTRODUCTION

a certain taste for figure-sculpture of Hellenistic suggestion,
chiefly applied to the decoration of buildings, using the readily-
worked limestone of the Nile Valley; their work has often
a pronounced realistic tendency. Syria produced no indepen-
dent major sculpture. After the time of Justinian figure
sculpture on the large scale declined, though statues of
emperors were made down to about the seventh century.
Reliefs, however, survived iconoclasm, and throughout the

FIG. 73. — Coptic decorative sculpture from Wadi Sarga : sixth century.

later periods Our Lord, the Virgin, and saints continued to be
represented ; but the influence of sculpture was never compar-
able in extent or in emotional appeal to that of painting.
The West as a whole was not distinguished for figure sculpture
between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Romanesque
period. The Lombard reliefs are of a rude character ; the
Franks, skilled in ivory carving, where they followed East
Christian models, did not practise the greater art. After

THE ARTS 125

the time of the Northumbrian crosses (p. 66), we have
remarkable hunting-reliefs upon the upright stones of Scot-
land, but here religious subjects are few. The next serious
effort in this field in Britain was made in the South of
England, where the reliefs of the tenth and eleventh centuries
at Chichester, Bradford- on- A von, and Romsey show affinity
to the illuminated MSS. of the Winchester School. On the
continent the revival of sculpture began in the eleventh
century, partly through the inspiration of Byzantine ivory
carvings.

On the smaller scale, sculpture shows more vitality, especially •
in the case of ivory carvings ; in these alone did Syro-Hellen-

FIG. 74. — Coptic limestone capital : sixth century.

istic sacred art find sculptural expression. Ivory carvings
like the panels upon the chair of Maximianus at Ravenna, or
the large book-covers, have their full share in the historical
and didactic expression of the time ; and while some retain
Greek traditions with remarkable purity, others have obvious
oriental qualities in which the respective shares of Egypt and
Syria are hard to disentangle.

In the centuries after iconoclasm ivory carving, now prac-
tised chiefly in the capital, reached its highest point in the
tenth and eleventh centuries ; it was particularly susceptible
to the classical influences which prevailed in a society brought
up upon Greek literature. Most ivories were now made for

126

INTRODUCTION

purely devotional purposes, and in these objects the last phase
of Hellenism became intimately expressive of religious feeling.
Their merit and their portability combined to make them,
as already noted, effective agents in the revival of western
art, when monumental sculpture in stone aspired once more

FIG. 75. — Marble slab, carved on both sides, from Miafarqin : twelfth
century.

to its rightful place (p. 51). The evidence of a fine tradition
in the figures on the seventh-century high crosses of Ruthwell
in Dumfriesshire and Bewcastle in Cumberland (p. 66) sug-
gests a similar service rendered by ivories of an earlier time ;
these reliefs, appearing in an age when larger sculpture had

THE ARTS 127

sunk to a low level, are difficult to explain except on some
such theory.

Stone sculpture in the Christian East found its most charac-
teristic expression not in figure-carving but in decoration.
This ornament, chiefly devoted to the enrichment of buildings,
was early developed; with the fifth century, the Hellenistic
treatment of palmette and acanthus in high relief, though never
wholly superseded, in most places gave way to a decoration in
a single plane, in which a more highly conventionalized foliage,
now including that of the vine, was treated as if it were textile
ornament, the primary inspiration probably coming from Persia
and Central Asia. The pattern was usually relieved against
black shadow by deeply cutting away the background (cf . fig.
72), or sometimes, as in the case of closure-slabs, by piercing ;
occasionally the ground of a design cut in flat and low relief
was filled in with a dark mastic, to produce a similar effect.
The marble quarries on the island of Proconnesos in the Sea
of Marmora became a great centre of export for richly carved
capitals which were sent as far west as North Africa and
Spain. After iconoclasm and the Arab wars, a conventionalized
beast-ornament of Perso-Mesopotamian origin was added to
the foliate designs of earlier times ; but this too was treated
on similar principles. The animals were not naturalistic, as
in the early centuries under Hellenistic influence, but used
merely as ornament, and carved in flat relief. This decorative
sculpture, both floral and animal, served primarily to enrich
architecture, and is found on capitals, closure-slabs and
window-slabs (cf. fig. 75), lintels and tympana. The greater
part of all this ornament seems also to have owed its
inspiration to Persia, and the relation of the later designs
to those of Mohammedan art has already been noticed (p. 43).
In Egypt there was an admirable development of decorative
sculpture, through which imported motives in time assumed
a local character.

Minor Arts.

Silversmith's work. The earliest Christians belonged to
various classes of the community. As their number grew, they
soon included wealthy persons accustomed to silver plate and
still enjoying such luxuries of their pagan neighbours as they
considered harmless. During the time of persecution, there
were few valuable church utensils, and silver was confined to
personal use ; in the Esquiline Treasure (Wall-Cases 9 and 10) the

128

INTRODUCTION

Museum possesses a remarkable example of such plate (p. 174),
with the sacred monogram and a Christian inscription con-
necting it with the wedding of two members of Roman families.
The great hoard of broken silver vessels discovered at Traprain
Law in East Lothian (p. 65) in 1919, and now in the
Royal Scottish Museum at Edinburgh, the most remarkable
discovery of the kind made in the British Islands, includes
several objects with affinities in form or ornament to the
Esquiline Treasure; among these is a cylindrical toilet-box
resembling those filling the domed casket in Wall- Case 10.
The Traprain Treasure, probably the spoils of a Saxon raid, is
of great interest for the study of Early Christian art, since a
vase included in it has Scriptural subjects in relief — Adam
and Eve, and the Adoration of the Magi. Like the Esquiline
Treasure it appears to date from about A. D. 400 ; some

FIG 76. -Silver spoon with cross in niello, from the Caithage Treasure :
early fifth century. (No. 364.)

silver basins with beaded edges bring it also into relation
with the treasure from Carthage in the present collection
(Wall-Case 12 and p. 175). The lost silver vessel of the period
of the Roman occupation of Britain, from Corbridge in
Northumberland (p. 65), should be mentioned in connexion
with these other early examples, as also the pewter service
from Appleshaw in Hampshire mentioned on p. 66.

Since the Greek craftsmen of the Mediterranean cities led
the way in the arts of luxury, which indeed were introduced
by them into Rome, it is natural that early silver should bear a
Hellenistic or Graeco-Roman character. As in the case of other
branches of art, this is most noticeable in the oldest examples ;
in course of time, though a classical influence persisted, other
influences of oriental origin lent the work a distinctive style.
A larger proportion of the plate dating from the period after
the fourth century has been found in the nearer East, chiefly

THE ARTS

129

in Syria, Egypt, and Cyprus, and most of it seems to have
belonged to monasteries or churches rather than to private
persons. It is often difficult to decide whether the work in
a particular case should be ascribed to Alexandria or Antioch,
which were probably the great centres of production.
Possibly in the sixth century Syrian plate was the more
widely distributed; rather numerous examples found in the
east of Russia, where they were traded for furs, appear also
to have Syrian relationships. Apart from ornament in relief,
this silver plate is enriched with designs in niello, and
from the fifth century has frequently Byzantine control-
marks on the back, which may perhaps be regarded as the
earliest 'hall-marks' in existence (fig. 77). The 'collection
contains one silver cup which is certainly a chalice (fig. 65

FIG 77. — Stamps on the base
of the silver censer, fig. 68.

FIG. 77 a. — Monogram and inscrip-
tion on spoon of the sixth century,
Lampsacus treasure. (No. 390.)

and p. 108), and another, in the Lampsacus Treasure, of unusual
form, but possibly also made for sacramental use : both date
irom the sixth century. With the Lampsacus cup are two
shallow bowls which may have served as patens (p. 110).
Christian silver plate later than the seventh century has not
been preserved to the same extent as that of earlier times,
partly as a result of the Arab and Turkish conquests. The
occupation of Constantinople by the Crusaders at the beginning
of the thirteenth century was the indirect cause of preserving
for us many objects, carried off to the West and now among
Church treasures, which might not otherwise have come down
to our times ; on the other hand, the general plunder of the
churches by these same crusaders led to the destruction of
precious objects in even larger numbers. The combination of
enamel with ecclesiastical silver work in the Christian East calls

130 INTRODUCTION

for some notice. Where it is found, as on chalices and patens
in St. Mark's at Venice, it is not embedded in the substance
of the object, as is generally the case where it is employed in
western mediaeval art ; separate enamelled plaques are applied
to the surface, and in some cases bordered with pearls.

In the Christian East, as in the West, goldsmith's work
was naturally employed on a great scale in the service of
ecclesiastical art. Apart from objects used in churches, and
the plate already described (pp. 106 ff.), we may note that altar-
f rentals and iconostases were enriched with work in the
precious metals and in bronze ; these, with reliquaries, candle-
sticks, crosses, and other objects were produced in fine work-
manship from quite early times down to the fifteenth century,
and continue to be made in the countries of the Orthodox
Greek Church. Since these things are scantily represented in
British collections, only a few general remarks can be made
upon them here.

As in the West, architectural forms controlled the structure
and decoration of many objects; thus the artophorion for
consecrated bread might take the form of a domed church,
and is thus as closely connected with ecclesiastical architecture
as Gothic reliquaries in the West. But in the East forms
changed less frequently than in the West, so that the constant
variety in the types of canopies, traceries, and pinnacles which
diversifies western designs and makes them comparatively easy
to date is not to be found in oriental work.

Jewellery and goldsmith's work. The jewellery, like the
plate, used by Christians could at first only be distinguished
from contemporary pagan ornaments by the presence of
Christian symbols, such as we find, for example, on early rings ;
in its general aspect, it shared the characteristics of the Graeco-
Roman goldsmith's art. In the first few centuries, while
Hellenistic influence was strong, modelling was still found,
but, as in the case of decorative sculpture, pierced work rapidly
gained in favour. As this method produced its best effect on
an extended surface, it was one cause of a general tendency
toward fragility. The jeweller aimed at superficial display ;
and the work of the period between the fourth and seventh
centuries is apt to have more splendour and less solidity than
that of earlier times. The stones chiefly used were root of
emerald (plasma) and sapphire, both of large size, and polished,
but not faceted. The favourite colour-scheme is therefore
blue, green, and gold ; and since the pierced work, with its
contrast of light and shadow, also produces effects of colour,

PLATE X. GILDED GLASSES: OUR LORD, AND A FAMILY GROUP.

THE ARTS 131

this late jewellery diverges both in purpose and result from
that of the ancient Greeks, who considered above all fine
finish, form, and proportion. The stones were often made to
alternate with pearls threaded on gold wires, by means of
which the general richness was enhanced; rows of pearls,
threaded on gold wire passing at intervals through gold loops,
were used to frame different sections. The method of en-
riching gold ornaments by a kind of mosaic of garnets or glass
pastes (orfevrerie cloisonnee, ' inlaid jewellery '), introduced
from the East as early as the fourth century and common
to Byzantine and early Teutonic goldsmiths, is less known
in the Christian East through actual jewellery than through
such objects as Gospel covers and reliquaries. The finest
examples are in the Treasury of St. Mark's at Venice, and
in the cathedral at Limburg-on-the-Lahn, in Germany ; the
oldest at present known is the reliquary at Poitiers, dating
from the sixth century (pp. 145, 147).

Jewellery has survived in greater quantities from the period
between the fourth and seventh centuries than from subsequent
times. Like silver plate, in association with which it has
been often found, it has come to light in various parts of the
Christian East, but notably in Egypt, Syria, and Cyprus.
The tendency to display is often redeemed by the fine quality
of the pierced work, and by the pleasant harmony of the
colours. Enamel (p. 145) was employed at least as early as
the sixth century (cf. ear-rings in Table-Case B), but is not
common on jewellery ; motives are also inlaid in niello. The
sumptuousness of the ornaments worn by imperial persons
is illustrated by miniatures in illuminated MSS., and by such
mosaics as those in St. Vital e at Ravenna, showing the
Emperor and Empress with their suites. Crowns or tiaras
had large pendants of pearls, and pearls were also sewn to the
imperial robes. Though not so well represented by surviving
examples, the middle Byzantine period was also rich in personal
ornaments (see the rings and other small ornaments in Table-
Cases A and B), though the size of individual objects appears
to have been reduced. At all periods gems were mounted
in plain raised settings.

The principal forms in use were collars and necklaces, .
ear-rings, bracelets, and finger rings. Brooches, though worn,
are not frequently found ; in both the above-mentioned periods
pectoral crosses and small reliquaries were suspended on chains
from the neck. Among exceptional objects may be mentioned
parts of regalia, such as the crown at Budapest sent in the

K 2

132

INTRODUCTION

eleventh century by the Emperor Constantine Moiiomachos
to a Hungarian king, where enamelled plaques form the
principal feature of the decoration.

Ear-rings were often large and heavy, with pendants of
gems and pearls ; others were crescent-shaped (lunate), usually
with pierced designs : examples of both kinds are exhibited.

FIG. 78. — Pierced gold disk ; centre-piece from an ornament of chains to
cover breast and back : Egypt : sixth century.

Large gold collars or gorgets were worn in the earlier
period, sometimes formed of a series of finely pierced
plaques set with gems, sometimes tubular, having a kind of
gorget which framed and supported a number of gold coins and
medallions : possibly the latter type, which is unduly heavy
in appearance, may have been worn as a mark of rank or
office. Necklaces were of chain with frequent gems at intervals,

THE ARTS

133

and sometimes with a line of pendants hanging from the front.
The collection contains an unusual ornament in the shape of
an arrangement of chains formed of pierced disks, intended
to cover both breast and back, a larger disk occupying the
central position in each case (p. 186 and fig. 78).

Bracelets were often bread and flat, with pierced designs
and a medallion opening and closing by means of a hinge and
clasp (fig. 81 and Table-Case B). In some cases the whole

FIG. 79.— Byzantine gold pectoral
cross with inscription (Galatians iv. 14)
in niello. (No. ?85.)

FIG. 80. — Byzantine gold pec-
toral cross. (No. 287.)

exterior of a flat bracelet, band and medallion alike, was
covered with gems and pearls ; in others the band was formed
of a rich scroll of vine or other foliage in openwork.
* The class of finger-rings is exceptionally important, since
it includes examples from very early times, some of those with
intaglio gems coming from the Roman Catacombs ; moreover
the ring served other purposes than mere ornament, being used
as a sign of betrothal or marriage and as a signet. Rings

134 INTRODUCTION

as signets or ornaments were as widely spread among the early
Christians as among their pagan contemporaries. St. James
(Ep. ii. 2) speaks of the man who wears a gold ring and
goodly apparel, and the Fathers of the Church were obliged to
reprimand the community for extravagance in this respect.
Tertullian condemns the prodigal use of rings, and Clement
of Alexandria also condemns extravagance, adding a few
interesting details as to the manner in which Christians should
wear their rings, and the subjects which they ought to choose.
The ring, he says, should be placed on the little finger as low
down as possible, and the devices should be taken from the
primitive symbolic subjects, such as the dove, fish, ship, or
anchor. As might be expected, the engraved stones mounted
in the rings have come down to us in greater numbers than
the metal rings themselves, and the visitor should notice that
a large number of the examples in the case have been
remounted in comparatively modern times. The earliest
Christian gems are all engraved in intaglio, which means
that the device is hollowed below the surface of the stone;
cameo stones, with subjects cut in relief, are rarer, and usually
later than the first two or three centuries. The stones most
frequently employed are carnelian, sard, garnet, varieties of
onyx (including the combination of blue and black layers
usually known as nicolo), jasper, and chalcedony ; more valu-
able stones such as emerald and sapphire occur less frequently.
The quality of the engraved work compared with that of the
classical period is generally poor, and some of it is exceedingly
rough.

Designs were also engraved upon the metal of which the
ring was composed, and this procedure, which was far easier
for the workman, became very common in the later centuries.
A ring was a favourite form of gift, and the inscriptions
upon Early Christian rings frequently take the form of
acclamations, or expressions of good will, praying for the
piety and prosperity of the recipient, whose name is sometimes
but not always mentioned. The commonest acclamation is
vivas in Deo, ' may'st thou live in God '.

Rings played a prominent part in connexion with marriage
from the earliest Christian times, and had been similarly
used both among the Romans and the Jews. The ring was
placed on the bride's finger, not, as among ourselves, in the
course of the marriage ceremony, but during the previous
betrothal in her father's house. The outward signs of the
entry into the married state were rather the veil, which, after

THE AKTS

135

the first two centuries, was actually assumed during the
ceremony, and the crowns of gold, silver, green leaves, or
flowers, which both bride and bridegroom wore, and which
were returned to the church after the lapse of seven days.
Marriage-crowns, which were used both by Jews and pagans
in pre-Christian times, are still in use in many countries ;
and in the Eastern Church they are kept upon the altar,
being placed on the heads of the bride and bridegroom after

FIG. 81. — Gold bracelet : sixth
century. (No 279.)

FIG. 82.— Gold signet-ring: per-
haps of the fifth century. (No. 190.)

FIG. 83. — Gold signet-
ring : seventh century.

(No. 189.)

FIG. 84. — Silver signet- ring worn as an
amulet. (No. 142.)

the benediction. One of the gilded glasses (No. 613) should
be noticed in connexion with the custom of crowning, for here
Our Lord is Himself seen holding the wreaths. On three
Byzantine rings (Nos. 130, 131, and 132) Our Lord extends
His hands over the heads of the bride and bridegroom, or
places them on their shoulders, the attitude evidently signify-
ing an act of benediction. In No. 129 Our Lord blesses
only the bridegroom, while the Virgin lays her hand upon

136

INTRODUCTION

the bride. No. 49 (fig. 30) may have been a betrothal ring,
and in examples like No. 207 (fig. 31), where a male and
female bust are seen together, such a destination may certainly
be assumed.

Engraved gems, seals, and coins. The intaglio gem, at first

FIG. 85. — Engraved gem : fourth century : the Good Shepherd, and Story
of Jonah. (No 25.)

much used in rings, seems to have gone out of favour in
the later periods, and such gems as have come down to us

FIG. 86.— Onyx Cameo: the
Annunciation : ninth century.
(No. 10U

FIG. 87. — Heliotrope Cameo : Our
Lord. (No. 106.)

from the eighth century and later are usually cameos on onyx,
or reliefs of cameo size in heliotrope (bloodstone), and softer
stone like steatite : the last-mentioned stone was also used for
yet larger reliefs on the scale of ivory carvings. East-
Christian gems seldom reach a high level, and this branch of

THE ARTS 187

art seems to have been much neglected ; the best cameos date
from the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Documents in the Christian East were sealed during the
Middle Ages by means of leaden bullae pierced to receive the
cords on which they were suspended. Like the bullae and
pendent wax seals of the Middle Ages in the West, they had a
design on each face impressed by a matrix ; the signet-ring,
therefore, largely went out of use, not being adapted for
impressing lead. It is a singular thing that while a very
large number of matrices, chiefly in bronze, have come down
from the mediaeval centuries in the West, not half a dozen
have been found in the East; yet even if iron was the metal
used it might have been expected that many would have sur-
vived intact. The designs on Byzantine lead impressions are
generally figures of Our Lord, the Virgin, and saints; very
often one side is covered by the legend or inscription. The
collection of such lead impressions is in the Department of
Manuscripts.

The coins of the Byzantine Empire have a certain monotony,
and are less finely modelled than those of classical antiquity.
In the later centuries they are often rudely designed and
badly minted, producing almost an effect of barbarism. Yet
by the conventions which they observe, the best designers often
attain results both appropriate and satisfactory, comparing
favourably with much work of our own day. Coins were
struck in gold, silver, and bronze. The obverse of the Byzan-
tine coin usually bore the bust or full figure of the Emperor,
sometimes associated with members of his family, or, more
rarely, with figures of Our Lord or the Virgin placing the
crown on his head. There is greater variety in the case of
the reverse. The Victories or Fortunes of the early centuries
were replaced at the end of the sixth century by a cross
standing on steps, a design of long duration. The bust of Our
Lord is seen on the reverse for the first time on coins of
Justinian II at the close of the seventh century; and, after
the interval caused by iconoclasm, again in the ninth century.
At this time an enthroned type was introduced, which long
continued in use. The Virgin is first seen on a reverse in
coins of Leo VI (A.D. 886-912) ; and the first saint to occupy
this position, St. Alexander, in the reign of the emperor of
that name (A.D. 912-13). The portrait upon Byzantine coins
is conventional ; from the sixth century the profile is
abandoned, and only the facing head employed. The chief
gold coin was the solidus or nomisma, weighing about 70

138

INTRODUCTION

grains ; a half-solid us or semissis and a thii'd-solidus or
tremissis were issued down to the tenth century. The collec-
tion of Byzantine coins is in the Department of Coins and
Medals.

Bronze money-weights or exagia, used for weighing coins,

FIG. 88.— Byzantine coins : Justin II (A. D. 565-578) to Basil II (A.D. 976-
1025.)

are exhibited in Table-Case A; the denominations, usually
inlaid with silver, are accompanied by busts of emperors or
officials ; more rarely, as in the largest example shown, by
figures of saints. The larger weights were for weighing
numbers of coins, seventy-two solidi making a pound. The
letters S. or N. stand for solidus or nomisma. The letters F
are the abbreviation for the ounce (ovytaia) of six solidi. The

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139

characters used are both Greek and Latin, the weights dating
from a time when Latin was still used for official purposes in
the Eastern Empire. Most of the examples come from the
Byzantine provinces, and sometimes have upon them the names
of prefects and officials controlling the standards of weights
and measures, as is the case with Nos. 433, 435, and 436.
Occasionally (as in No. 447), imperial busts occur; and on
No. 444 is the name of Theodoric, showing that these weights
were used in the Gothic dominions of Northern Italy. Occa-

FIG. 89. — Byzantine bronze pound-weight, with two military saints inlaid
in silver : sixth century. (No. 483.)

sionally the surface is elaborately decorated, and in the fine pound
weight No. 483 (fig. 89) two military saints are represented.

Flat circular glass weights (Nos. 660-85) were used in the
Byzantine Empire in the sixth century for weighing coins.
They are usually stamped on one side with a bust or monogram
accompanied by the name of an Eparch or provincial governor.
The majority come from Egypt and Syria.

Glass. The glass vessels used by Christians must in general
have had the same forms, and have been made in the same
manner as that of their pagan contemporaries, examples of
which are to be seen in the King Edward VII Gallery. The
plain glass vessels obtained in such numbers from tombs

140 INTRODUCTION

at Nazareth have no obvious Christian associations, but many
are of a kind which may have been used by Christians.

The glass industry rose to importance in Hellenistic times,
and its chief centres appear to have been Alexandria and
the cities of the Phoenician coast, whence it passed into
Rome in imperial times. Most of the glass for ordinary use
was blown, and examples of cups, bottles, etc., dating from
the third and fourth centuries, have been found in Egypt.
We need only differentiate Christian from ordinary Roman
glass when it has a religious decoration, and here the two
most important classes are engraved glass and the so-called
gilded glass of the Roman catacombs. In the former, Chris-
tian subjects are cut with the wheel, usually in rather rough
fashion; the collection contains an example from Cologne
(No. 65V) with biblical subjects (Wall-Case 6).

The gilded glasses (PI. X and XI) are so
well represented in the collection that they
must be noticed at greater length. They
date from the third to the fifth century,
and are often described by the Italian
name fondi d'oro (gilded bases) from the
fact that the majority are actually the
bottoms of drinking vessels from which
the upper parts have been broken away.
Some of these vessels were shallow saucer-
sixth century. (No. shaped bowls, others more nearly resembled
4530 tumblers ; the great majority were made for

domestic use, and, as the inscriptions show,
given away as presents, probably on the occasion of weddings,
birthdays, and other anniversaries. It is possible that here and
there an exceptional specimen may have been used in the cele-
bration of the Eucharist; such a use has in fact been proposed for
the bowl No. 629, which has been held by some to be a paten.
But there is no conclusive evidence that any of the specimens
now preserved were made for a liturgical purpose, and the
earliest known forms of chalice (p. 106) differ from that of
any of the gilded glasses. Nor is it now considered likely
that these glasses as a group were made for the Agape or love-
feasts of the primitive Christians, because very many of them
date from a period when the love-feast in its primitive form
had been discontinued. The most generally accepted theory
is that the greater part are purely domestic, but that some,
especially those with figures of particular saints, may have
been used at the commemorative feasts held at the tombs

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141

FIG. 91. — Glass disk ('gilded glass') with scriptural subjects, found at
Cologne : fourth century. (No. 628.)

Subjects reading from the top round to the left : two scenes from the
story of Jonah, Daniel in the lions' den, the Three Children of Babylon in
the fiery furnace, the Healing of the young man born blind, the Widow of
Nain, the Healing of the Paralytic, and the Dream of Kzekiel. In the
centre : part of the scene of the Good Shepherd (?).

142 INTRODUCTION

of the apostles and martyrs during the fourth and early fifth
centuries. In favour of this view, it may be mentioned that
the treatment of many specimens is secular and sometimes
pagan, so that the glasses cannot have been collectively
designed for a religious use. De Rossi has shown that it
was a custom among the Early Christians to impress in the
mortar of the freshly-closed loculi (see p. 72) in the cata-
combs all kinds of small objects, such as ivory plaques, combs,
toys, beads, coins, cubes of mosaic, and even twigs. The
object was to identify individual graves, for the name of the
deceased was not always placed upon the front of his tomb,
and even if it was, the objects adhering to the plaster made
recognition easier. Some of these may have been possessions
of the deceased during life ; but many would appear to have
been left behind by friends and relatives who had been present
at the interment. Gilded glasses have been found under the same
conditions, and may thus have served the same purpose. They
have hardly ever been discovered in a perfect state, and their
upper parts may either have been destroyed by accident or
else deliberately broken off in order that they might not
project into the narrow space of the subterranean corridors.
Their disappearance is of less moment, as the designs and
inscriptions were almost always in the bottoms of the vessels.
Some of the disks with smoothly ground edges probably never
formed part of vessels at all, but are thought to have been
made simply as medallions. In addition to the pagan subjects
already mentioned, which are few in number, the favourite
designs are portraits of husbands and wives, with or without
their children, and figures of saints, usually with their names
appended. Especially popular were representations of St.
Peter and St. Paul, who are seen, for example, on No. 636 in
the collection. The most usual inscription, in addition to the
ordinary acclamation vivas, ' may'st thou live ', and its amplifi-
cations, is pie zeses, a Latin form of the Greek words -rue fr/o-at?,
' drink and live, i. e. drink and good health to thee '.

The fondi d'oro usually consist of two layers of glass. To
one of these is gummed a sheet of gold leaf on which the
design is etched with a needle, and a protecting layer of glass
is then welded on by subjecting the whole to the action of
heat. The old Roman glass, which was produced by wood
fires, probably cohered at a low temperature, and the use of
powdered glass (flux) between the layers may not have been
as necessary as it would be in the case of ordinary modern
glass. If the design was applied to a completed bowl it was

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143

perhaps etched directly on foil already applied to the bottom ;
when the etching was finished, the protecting glass was laid
over it, and the bowl was placed in the oven face downwards
until cohesion took place. Some have suggested, however,
that the protecting layer was formed by blowing a film of
molten glass over the surface.
Whatever the exact method
may have been, the style of
ornamentation by means of
gold foil between two layers
of glass is probably of Egyp-
tian origin, as examples of
similar work connected with
that country are in existence
which are older than any of
the catacomb glasses ; among
these may be mentioned two
glass bowls found at Canosa
in South Italy, but probably
made in Alexandria, exhibited
in the King Edward VII
Gallery. The process was still
known, by tradition at least,
in the Early Middle Ages, and
was again practised for small
pictures or panels in Italy in
the fourteenth century. Pic-
tures etched in gold foil on
glass, though without a second
protecting layer, were made
in still later times, and in
Bohemia tumblers with designs
enclosed between two layers
were produced in the eigh-
teenth century. More recently
reproductions in the old style
of the Catacomb glasses have
been attempted, though the
effect is seldom equal to that of the original.

Moulded glass is represented by a bottle with a cross upon
the front (Wall-Case 5 and fig. 92) ; and by small money-
weights and pendants for necklaces (fig. 93) (fourth to sixth
century) in Table-Case A, the former having names and busts
of officials, the latter sacred subjects like the Good Shepherd.

FIG. 92.— Bottle of blown
with cross : fifth century.

glass,

144

INTRODUCTION

^ Coloured glass is best illustrated by the blue vases (fig. 64)
of the late fifth or early sixth century from Amiens (Samaro-
briva), which may have been chalices (p. 106). It may be noted
that a third-century vessel without handles, of dark-blue
glass, obtained in Cairo and now in the Berlin Museum, is
also ornamented with enamel-painting; it has upon it genii
at the vintage and is conjectured to have been a chalice.

The glass of the Byzantine Empire is little known. Plain
beakers and jugs have been found in Sicilian cemeteries with
coins of the Emperor Maurice Tiberius (A. D. 582-602). Later
times are scantily represented; the Treasury of St. Mark's,

FIG. 93. — Byzantine glass
medallion with bust of Our
Lord : eleventh century. (No.

686.)

FIG. 94.— Byzantine
glass medallion with
figure of St. Theodore :
c. twelfth century.
(No. 693.)

FIG. 95.— Glass
pendant with the
Good Shepherd :
fourth centurv.

(No. 697.)

Venice, however, contains chalices, patens, lamps, and other
vessels, some of plain glass, some ornamented with conical or
disk- shaped projections. The most remarkable object claimed
as Byzantine is a cup with gilded and enamelled ornament and
mythological subjects dating from the ninth or tenth century.
This cup is interesting for comparison both with the much
older example at Berlin mentioned above, and with early
; Saracenic ' enamelled glass, of about its own date, illustrated
by examples in the King Edward VII Gallery. ' Cameos ' were
moulded in coloured glass (figs. 94, 95).

Enamel. Byzantine enamel is almost exclusively of the
' cell' or cloisonne' variety, in which the enamel is contained in
cells or compartments formed by strips of gold set on edge and

THE ARTS 145

soldered in position. The metal employed is usually gold,
more rarely silver or copper.

Jewellery with coloured stones fixed in cells in a similar way,
but without aid of fire, was known in Egypt under the ancient
dynasties, and in Assyria, in the steppe regions north of Persia,
and very probably in Persia itself, many centuries before our
era. But the earliest examples of enamels in cells of the same
kind were discovered in Egypt with objects dating from the
time of the Roman Empire. It is clear that, once acquired,
the fashion rapidly spread, and must have been widely known
in the sixth century. The most remarkable example dating
from about that time is a cross-reliquary, probably made in
Syria-Palestine or in Egypt, preserved for many centuries in
the chapel called Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran (cf. p. 44),
and now in the Vatican Library. This cross is enamelled with
whole Gospel subjects, the iconography of which points to
Syria and shows that the enamellers of the period did not shrink
from the most ambitious tasks. It may be assumed that
circular enamels with busts, a type very frequent in later
centuries, were already in existence at this time, since a gold
brooch in the Museum (Iron Age Gallery, Wall-Case 61), dating
from about A. D. 600, contains an enamelled bust, apparently
an Ostrogothic imitation of an earlier eastern model. Between
the sixth and the eleventh centuries cloisonne* enamels on gold
were made in Italy and the West, of which there are examples
at Milan and elsewhere. Though enamels must have been
made in numbers as early as the sixth century, examples are
rare, among the best-known being the reliquary cross sent by
the Emperor Justin to St. Radegund, still preserved at Poitiers.

The great period of Byzantine enamelling lies between the
tenth and twelfth centuries, when the majority of the examples
now in museums, churches, and monasteries were made, for the
most part in Constantinople itself and in Georgia, which was
then connected with the Empire and evidently became an im-
portant centre of production. Cloisonne* enamels were probably
produced in Persia, but some examples with Persian designs,
such as plaques on the Pala d'Oro, or altar-piece, in St. Mark's
at Venice, would seem to be the work of Byzantine craftsmen ;
the well-known ewer in the treasure of St. Maurice d'Agaune
in the Valais has the best claim to a Persian origin. A copper
bowl at Innsbruck, made in Mesopotamia in the time of a
Turkish (Seljuk) prince in the twelfth century, is enamelled
with ' Saracenic ' subjects. The art of enamelling passed from
Byzantine sources into Sicily, and small enamelled plaques are

146

INTRODUCTION

sewn to the ceremonial garments of the Sicilian kings, now
preserved in Vienna. It is generally believed that the Chinese
borrowed the art from the same source in the fourteenth
century.

The metal employed being chiefly gold, the great majority of
enamels are on small plaques which can be combined, if desired,

FIG. 96— Byzan-
tine gold ring : four-
teenth centuiy. (No.
171.)

3 FIG. 97.— Byzantine bronze ring
with inscription : c. eleventh cen-
tury. (No. 139.)

FIG. 98. — Byzantine gold and nielloed
reliquary: lOth-llth century. (No. 284 )

for the ornamentation of large objects, such as the altar-pieces,
book-covers, chalices, patens, reliquaries, frames of ikons or
royal crowns, like that at Budapest mentioned above (p. 131).
As a rule, the figure is fully enamelled, and the. ground is pro-
vided by the gold plaque forming the base. The method adopted
is to beat out of the thin gold plate a cavity giving the contour

THE ARTS 147

of the figure ; the interior details, such as features, folds of
garments, etc., are then filled in by means of soldered gold
strips, and the enamel placed in the compartments thus
formed. Often, however, the whole plate, ground and all, is •
covered with enamel. When this is the case, a vertical strip
round the outer edge contains the enamel used for the ground,
and the whole of each figure in the design is outlined by means
of the soldered gold strips ; the two medallions with busts of
saints in Table- Case B are made by the latter method.

The subjects are in the great majority of cases religious ;
busts or figures of Our Lord, the Virgin, and saints, more •
rarely whole scenes such as the Crucifixion. Occasionally
the design consists entirely of formal ornament such as floral
scroll; this is the case with the early example at Poitiers
(pp. 131, 145). Fine later examples are plaques from an ikon
of the eleventh or twelfth century now in the Metropolitan
Museum at New York.

Pottery for the most part consists of the red and buff •
unglazed wares with moulded, incised, or painted ornament,
illustrated by the lamps, flasks, and domestic utensils (chiefly
broken), which are so numerous in all large collections. Glazed
ware is represented as early as the first century in Egypt ;
but Christian wares as a class do not appear to have rivalled
the productions of the Mohammedan potters, though the
discovery, near Preslav in Bulgaria, of glazed tiles, ascribed
to the tenth century, with figure subjects and ornament
suggesting Mesopotamian inspiration, shows how slight our
knowledge is. Hitherto the only mediaeval glazed pottery
described as Byzantine had consisted of fragmentary bowls,
with designs of animals or monsters supposed to date from the
period between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.

Textiles. The most interesting form of textile, other than
the figured silk described below, is the tapestry work from *
Egypt, preserved through burial with the dead in the dry
Egyptian soil, and brought to light by the excavation of Coptic
cemeteries. This tapestry, which was sometimes used upon
hangings and curtains, served more often to adorn linen gar-
ments with coloured strips, bands, or medallions enriched with
formal ornamental designs or human and animal figures. The
designs were generally executed in dyed wool, though silk
occasionally formed the weft.

During the first three centuries the subjects were Graeco-
Roman in character, chiefly genii and mythological figures
rendered with Hellenistic naturalism. The colours used were

L 2

148

INTRODUCTION

few; but in the fourth century a fuller scale was adopted,
crimson, green, and yellow being now conspicuous, while
Christian subjects took the place of pagan. The effect of
some of the medallions with their elaborate compositions at first
strikes the eye as grotesque ; the persons in a scene or group
are hard to distinguish, and there is no pretence of truth to

FIG. 99. — Tapestry medallion on a tunic from a Coptic cemetery. (No 951.)

nature. But in the first place the colour is admirable, and
secondly these compositions do not aim at the correct repro-
duction of natural forms, but at the satisfaction of aesthetic
feeling for rich pattern and colour. The effect of these designs
with their fine dyes upon a natural flax background seldom
fails to please : the medallion upon the grave-tunic in Wall-
Case 25, apparently representing the Adoration of the Magi
(fig. 99), gives an idea of the nature of this work. At some

THE ARTS 149

time before the fifth century the tapestry weavers learned the
use of the draw- loom, and produced a weave resembling the
twill of Byzantine silk fabrics, which allowed indefinite
repetition of the pattern. It is believed that the makers of the
figured silks made at Alexandria in the fifth and sixth centuries
must have derived their weave from this, and transmitted it
to Sassanian Persia.

Coptic tapestries are poorly represented in the Christian
Room, the above-mentioned grave-tunic affording the best
example, but there is a variety in the Department of Egyptian
and Assyrian Antiquities (Fifth Egyptian Room, Table-Cases
G and H) ; while the series in the Victoria and Albert
Museum at South Kensington is one of the best in existence.
It will be found instructive to compare Coptic tapestries
with those made in Ancient Peru by similar methods,
and exhibited among the collections from Ancient America :
these Peruvian stuffs, with their rich colours and schematized
designs, have many affinities to those of the Copts. The
collection contains no example of the other linen stuffs with
sacred subjects made in Egypt in these early centuries, and
represented by fine examples at South Kensington. Here the
method was to ' reserve ' the design by covering it with wax
before the whole fabric was dyed with purple or red ; after
the dyeing, the stuff was dried, and the removal of the wax
left the subject in natural flax-colour on a purple ground. The
same kind of method is still employed by the natives of
Sumatra, and examples may be seen in the Asiatic section
of the Ethnographical Gallery.

The figured silks of Christian times seem to have been
first made in Alexandria, perhaps in the fourth century.
The silk was apparently brought from Khotan in Chinese
Turkestan ; but though recent explorations in that part of the
world have shown that the Chinese were producing figured silks
during the Han period (B.C. 206-A.D. 220), there is no more
trace of Chinese influence, either technical or artistic, in the
early Alexandrian work than of Alexandrian influence on the
Chinese. About the sixth century the Sassanian Persians,
through whose territory much of the imported silk from China
entered the West, were making silk with the Alexandrian twill
mentioned above, a fact which suggests the inference that Persia
may have learned silk-weaving from Egypt. Persian motives
now became common, such as confronted beasts flanking the
' sacred tree ', or pairs of mounted huntsmen ; and these designs
began to influence Chinese weavers, who by the seventh century

150 INTRODUCTION

reproduced Persian motives, but treated them in a Chinese
manner.

Down to the sixth century the weavers in the East-Roman
Empire had depended upon imported silk alone, and the silk-
worm was still unknown to them. But after the Emperor
Justinian had succeeded in introducing the worm, sericulture
spread with great rapidity, especially in Syria and in Greece.
An imperial manufactory was established in Constantinople,
while Thebes and Corinth were also centres of production.
When the Arabs conquered Egypt and Syria, silks were still
produced in those countries, but the motives now conformed
to the taste of Islam. The basis of the ornament was chiefly
Persian, but the scale was smaller, and Cufic inscriptions often
served as decorative motives.

Textiles ornamented with figures and other designs were
used for altar-coverings, as hangings and canopies and for other
purposes, but their most general use was for garments, which
were not only decorated with simple features, such as bands
or borders, but with medallions or broad strips bearing figure
subjects like those of Coptic tapestries ; Asterius, bishop of
Amasea in Asia Minor in the fourth century, rebukes the
wealthy for wearing such garments, describing persons thus
arrayed as 'walking frescoes'. In the mosaic scene in the church
of St. Vitale at Ravenna representing Theodora with her
suite we see on the broad lower border of the Empress's
mantle the subject of the Adoration of the Magi. A high
proportion of the figured fabrics now preserved formed part
of costume, and, for the earlier centuries, that of lay persons
rather than ecclesiastics.

Byzantine figured silks were famous down to the thirteenth
century, but after that time the industry seems to have
decayed. It had, however, been transplanted into Sicily by the
Norman king Roger, in the middle of the twelfth century, and
thence spread north into Italy. The earliest designs orna-
menting figured silks are mythological and religious subjects
in the Hellenistic style of Alexandria ; of the latter class a fine
example is the Annunciation, discovered in recent years in the
above-mentioned Lateran Chapel (p. 145), and now in the
Vatican Library. Later came the formal, almost heraldic
beasts and birds of Persian descent, eagles, gryphons, lions or
other creatures, alone or confronted, within circles interlacing
with each other. Such fabrics are frequently mentioned in the
Liber Pontificalis and in early inventories ; the description
of birds and beasts enclosed in ' wheels ' (rotae or rotellae)

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151

indicates enclosure in the circles. Of great interest are textiles
inscribed with names of emperors, such as the piece with lions
and the names of the Emperors Romanus and Christophorus at
Siegburg, dated between A.D. 920 and 931, and another piece
with lions, now at Diisseldorf, with the names of Constan-

Fio. 100. — Silk textile with mounted figures from Egypt : sixth century.

tine VIII and Basil II, and therefore made between A.D. 976
and A.D. 1025.

Ancient figured silks have most commonly been preserved •
through having been buried in the coffins of princes or bishops,
or used to enclose relics. Pieces with a design of elephants
and the name of Peter, superintendent of the imperial

152 INTRODUCTION

manufactory at Constantinople, were found in the tomb of
Charles the Great at Aix-la-Chapelle, though they probably
date from the tenth or eleventh century ; some remarkable
pieces, found in the tomb of St. Cuthbert, are now in the
Library of Durham Cathedral ; while many examples are
preserved in continental churches.

When through the general impoverishment of the last
Byzantine period figured silk ceased to be manufactured, its
place was taken by embroidery, a kind of work which had
been used to enrich a plain ground with formal ornament or
figure-subjects from the Early Christian centuries, but during
the time when fine woven silks were made was perhaps
regarded as of secondary importance. Many of the finest
examples which remain are the epitaphioi or coverings for
the ceremonial bier used in the Orthodox Greek Church on
Good Friday. They are embroidered with figures of Our Lord .
in the tomb, and chiefly date from the latter part of the
thirteenth century or even later. The well-known embroidered
dalmatic in the Treasury of St. Peter's at Rome, traditionally
associated with the name of Charles the Great, is now genera
ascribed to the fourteenth century.

APPENDIX

I. COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS.

THE Egyptian Christians are called Copts from Kubt, the
Arabic version of the Coptic form of the Greek word AiyuTmo?
(Egyptian) ; they originally belonged to the ancient Egyptian
stock, and in their general personal appearance still resemble
their forefathers as known to us by the representations upon
the monuments, though their features have been modified by
intermarriage with Arabs and tribes of the Eastern Sudan.
Coptic Christianity was derived from Alexandria, and the
Scriptures were translated from the Greek perhaps by the
middle of the third century (p. 6). In the fifth century
Egypt was distracted by the Monophysite heresy (p. 159),
which was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in the
year 451 ; but the Copts refusing to accept the condemnation,
the schism became permanent, also affecting the Abyssinian
Church, which descends directly from that of Egypt and shares
the Monophysite belief. The Coptic Church was not ex-
terminated by the Mahommedan Conquest in the seventh

COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS

153

FIG. 101.— Coptic tombstone: seventh-eighth century. (No. 942.)

154 INTRODUCTION

century ; indeed its relations with the conquerors were at first
friendly, for the Copts had been so hardly used by their
fellow Christians on account of their heretical beliefs that
the Arab invasion was actually welcomed. But in the eighth
and ninth centuries the Arabs began both to persecute and
make proselytes, so that large numbers of Christians abandoned
their faith and became Mahommedans ; throughout the Middle
Ages the condition of those Copts who did not embrace Islam
was almost uniformly miserable. Nevertheless the Copts have
preserved a sacred art in which East Christian tradition has
been maintained, and during the Middle Ages the visits of
Christian artists from other countries, especially Armenia,
doubtless renewed the sources of their inspiration. The
subjects carved upon the wooden doors from the Church of
Al-Mu 'Allaka at Cairo (Wall-Cases 5 and 6, plate XIII) prove
that there was no rupture in tradition ; at the same time the
panels filled with decorative designs illustrate a strong Sara-
cenic influence in the field of ornament.

Abyssinia, a mountainous country in which the Blue Nile
takes its rise, lies to the south of Egypt and Nubia, and is
inhabited by a mixed population of Hamitic, Semitic, and
Negro blood. It owed much of its early civilization to Arabs
from Yemen, who entered the country before the Christian
era, and were for a long time accessible to Graeco-Roman
influence; its capital was Axum. Christianity had been
formally introduced from Egypt by the fourth century (p. 6) ;
Frumentius, the first bishop, was consecrated by Athanasius,
A. D. 340—346. The Abyssinians joined with the Copts in
adopting the Monophysite belief : the Abuna, or head
of the Abyssinian Church, is still a Copt nominated by
the Patriarch of Alexandria. From the fifth century to the
end of the Middle Ages little was heard of this Ethiopian
kingdom ; but in the early sixteenth century the Portuguese
made it known to Europe, and their missionaries en-
deavoured to convert its inhabitants to Latin Christianity.
Their efforts were, however, unsuccessful, and in the first half
of the seventeenth century the missionaries were expelled
from the country, which was once more to a great extent cut
off from European influences. At the close of the seventeenth
century a new era of exploration was inaugurated by the
voyage of the French doctor Poncet, who was followed in the
eighteenth century by the British traveller James Bruce.

As might be expected from the savage environment of the
country and the long periods during which it remained in

PLATE XIII. CEDAR PANELS FROM CAIKO : THE ANNUNCIATION,
BAPTISM AND ASCENSION. (No. 986.)

(See pp. 171. 172.)

COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS

155

isolation, the Christian belief in Abyssinia lias been much
corrupted by superstitious beliefs and practices, while various
ideas and usages have also been adopted from Jewish and
Mahommedan sources.

The clergy and the monks, who are very numerous, are
almost the only persons in the country with any pretensions
to learning, and their knowledge is chiefly confined to a super-
ficial acquaintance with a book of the Gospels, the Psalms,

FIG. 102. — Abyssinian priest holding crutch at entrance to the Holy of
Holies (after J. T. Bent, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians').

the liturgies, and the lives of saints. The Abyssinian Church
has retained the Christian sacraments and feasts, and the fasts
which are prescribed, but not universally observed, occupy
more than a third of the year. The Abyssinian liturgy belongs
to the same family as that of the Copts, and, like it, is a de-
scendant of the Alexandrian liturgy of St. Mark. Allusion has
already been made to the circular thatched churches, with their
resemblance in type to the native hut (fig. 59), to the wooden
altar slabs upon which the chalices are placed (p. 1 14), and to
the ornate processional -crosses (p. 114, plate XV). We may
here further notice the brass- or ivory-headed crutch (fig. 102),

156

INTRODUCTION

and the rattle, curiously resembling the ancient Egyptian sis-
trum, both used by priests in religious dances (fig. 104) ; the
crutch also serves as a support during the long services, for there
are no church seats. A cross, sometimes with ostrich eggs fixed
on the points, surmounts every church, and hangs in the Holy
of Holies ; in this connexion it may be of interest to mention
that all over Western Asia, as well as in Egypt and Abyssinia,
ostrich eggs may often be seen hanging in churches and

FIG. 103. — Abyssinian silver chalice.

FIG. 104. — Abyssinian
priest's rattle.

mosques, where they are probably placed as symbols of the
creation, recalling a very ancient belief that the world was
produced from an egg. Though here and there European
bells have been introduced, the ordinary church-bells of
Ethiopia are large slabs of wood or slate-like stone suspended
from a bar, and similar to the wooden simantra (see p. 97)
commonly used in the Greek Church. The common symbol
of Christianity is a blue string worn round the neck. The
liturgical language of Abyssinia is Ethiopic or Ge'ez, a

COPTS AND ABYSSINIANS 157

Semitic tongue akin to that used in early times by the Arabs
of Yemen (see above) ; the name, which is in full Lisana Ge'ez,
means ' the tongue of the free ', and the syllabary is written
from right to left. Owing to conquests by Gallas and people
from Tigre', a number of foreign words were gradually
introduced, and new signs were invented to express them ;
eventually the dialect of the province of Amhara became pre-
dominant with the result that Amharic is now the general
language of the country. The manuscript exhibited in Wall-
Case 27 is written in Geez, and the inscriptions on the metal
crosses are also examples of that character.

II. THE GREEK CHURCH.

The Orthodox Eastern Church is practically a federation
of autonomous National Churches in communion with one
another, agreeing exactly in doctrine and almost exactly in
rites, customs, and discipline ; but, unlike the Latin Church,
acknowledging no central authority. In the case of a general
synod, however, the Patriarch of Constantinople would pro-
bably preside.

These National Churches are : —

1. The Patriarchate of Constantinople, consisting of Turkey
in Europe, most of Asia Minor, and Cyprus.

2. The Patriarchate of Alexandria, comprising Egypt.

3. The Patriarchate of Antioch, including all Syria except
Palestine, and having an undefined eastern boundary.

4. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem, confined to Palestine.

5. The Church of Russia, by far the largest and most
important of these Churches.

(5. The Church of Greece.

7. The Church of Serbia.

8. The Church of Roumania.

9. The Church of Montenegro.

10. The Church of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

11. The Orthodox Eastern Church in Austria- Hungary.
The four Patriarchates are governed by Patriarchs, and the

other Churches by their respective ' Holy Governing Synods '
or by some chief metropolitan. Their relations to one another
and to the See of Constantinople are not unlike those of
the Episcopal Churches of England, Scotland, Ireland, the
British Colonies, and the United States to one another and to
the See of Canterbury.

Notwithstanding considerable divergence in rites, customs,

158 INTRODUCTION

and discipline, the Latin Church of the West and the Greek
Church of the East continued in communion with one another
until the year 1054, when a series of disputes extending over
some centuries culminated in a definite schism, which, in spite
of several attempts at reunion, has continued to this day.
The chief doctrinal points of difference are : —

1. The question of the universal jurisdiction of the Roman
Pontiff.

2. The insertion by the Latins of the words ' and the Son '
(Filioque) in the clause of the Constantinopolitan Creed
defining the Procession of the Holy Spirit.

3. The doctrines of the intermediate state of the Departed,
more exactly defined by the Latins than by the Greeks.

4. A question as to whether the consecration is effected
in the Eucharist, as the Latins hold, by the Words of Institu-
tion, or, according to the Greeks, by the EpUdesfa or Invocation
of the Holy Spirit.

On almost all other points, allowing for a greater tendency
to exact definition in the Latin Church, the doctrines of the
two Churches are hardly distinguishable, though the Eastern
Church does not recognize as authoritative the definitions of
any of the Councils, called by the Latins (Ecumenical, which
were subsequent to the seventh General Council in A.D. 787.

The chief differences of outward observance are : —

1. The marriage of the Eastern parochial clergy, celibacy
being only exacted from monks, and from bishops, who are
always chosen from monasteries.

2. The administration of the Holy Communion to the laity
in both kinds by the Easterns.

3. The use of leavened bread for the Eucharist, the Latins
using unleavened.

4. The prohibition by the Greeks of the use of images, as
distinguished from pictures, for purposes of devotion.

5. The use by the Eastern Church of Baptism by immersion
only, Baptism by affusion, the common practice of the Western
Church, being regarded as of doubtful validity. -,

6. The prohibition by the Eastern Church of the use of
musical instruments in divine service.

7. The use in the East of vernacular or quasi-vernacular
languages in divine service.

Nevertheless, all these differences of practice are allowed
to be retained by certain bodies of Christians of the Oriental
Rite, known as 'Uniats', who have placed themselves under
the jurisdiction of the See of St. Peter.

HEEESIES; GNOSTICISM 159

III. HERESIES, AND GNOSTICISM.

Of the various heresies which distracted the Church during
the first three centuries many originated in the East, where
some still count adherents. Most of them, however, soon
died out, and, with the exception of the different sects of the
doubtfully Christian Gnostics, left little or no archaeological
evidence of their existence. It was not until the (Ecumenical
Councils of the fourth century began to legislate for the
Church at large that important separated religious bodies, con-
sisting of those who refused to accept the creeds and defini-
tions of those councils, were formed.

The principal of these bodies were : —

1. The Arians, who denied that the Son is con substantial
with the Father. These were condemned by the First General
Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. Though this heresy at one
time seemed likely to prevail, and though it attracted to itself
most of the newly formed Teutonic nations, it eventually died
out, leaving very few traces behind it.

.2. The Nestorians (p. 5), who, affirming that the Divinity
and Humanity of Christ are not only two Natures ($uo-ets), but
also two Persons (viroorao-cis), refused the title of Theotokos
(Mother of God) to the Virgin Mary. These were condemned
by the Third General Council at Ephesus in the year 431.
Their tenets were adopted by the East Syrian and Persian
part of the Church ; but after a long and successful missionary
career in Central Asia, China, and India, they were over-
whelmed by the conquests of Timur in the fourteenth century,
and are now only represented by a small community in the
neighbourhood of Urumiah, where Persia and Turkey in Asia
meet, and also by the Chaldaean and Malabar Uniats,
who have finally abjured their heresy and joined themselves
to Rome.

3. The Eutychiccns or Monophysites, who hold the exact
opposite to Nestorianism, affirming that the Divinity and
Humanity of Christ are not two Natures but one. These were
condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451. A great
part of the West Syrian Church, the Copts of Egypt, the
Abyssinians, and to some extent the Armenians, adopted this
heresy in its various forms; and so at a later period, after
the Portuguese conquests, did the so-called Christians of
St. Thomas in India, who were originally Nestorians. From
an important leader, Jacobus Baradaeus, the Monophysites

160 INTRODUCTION

were called Jacobites, and at the same period the name Mel-
chites or Royalists was applied to the Orthodox Syrians as
adherents of the party of the Emperor of the East. The
rites of the West Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians and Armenians,
corrected in a Catholic direction, are also used by communi-
ties in Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, Armenia, and in various other
countries who have united themselves to Rome.

4. The Monothelites, who held the orthodox doctrine as to
the one Person and two Natures of Christ, but affirmed that
the Divinity and Humanity had but one Will, the Divine.
They were supported by the Emperor Heraclius, but were
finally condemned by the Sixth General Council, the third of
Constantinople, in A. D. 680. Most of the Monothelites were
eventually absorbed by the Monophy sites, but one community,
the Maronites of the Lebanon, continued to exist as a separate
body until a little before the year 1200 they were united with
the Roman Church, though to this day they retain their own
rites and customs.

This recrudescence of the decaying Roman mythology had
less influence on the course of contemporary Christian thought
than the intrusion of the various Gnostic beliefs a couple of
centuries earlier ; a few words must therefore be said on the
subject of Gnosticism, though the Museum Collection of
Gnostic Gems and Amulets is in Table-Case I of the Egyptian
Room in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities.
Gnostic, an adjective derived from the Greek substantive
gnosis (knowledge), signified one who assumed a superior
knowledge, by which the scheme of the universe and the
destiny of man might be revealed. It has been said of the
Gnostics that they considered the revelation as preached by
the Church a bare minimum of truth, just sufficient for an
ordinary intelligence, but too rudimentary for those who
claimed to know the hidden mysteries of existence. They
held that salvation was to be won not so much by faith or
by works as by mystic knowledge (gnosis), and if their
contention had prevailed, Christianity would have lost its
moral force and become little more than a system of cosmogony.
Gnosticism was older than Christianity, and was a product of
the taste for abstract speculation, common alike to the Greek
and Oriental genius. After the Asiatic campaigns of Alex-
ander the Great, the Greek world became better acquainted
with the principal religions of the East, and thoughtful men
began to hope that by a union of Greek philosophy, especially
Platonism, with the best elements of Oriental beliefs, the

GNOSTICISM 161

problem of man's place in the universe might be solved. The
intellectual movements inaugurated by this hope were based
on a sincere desire to widen and deepen the foundations of
religion, and were already in full activity in Egypt and Syria
when the advent of Christianity opened a new field to pagan
seekers after truth. To the manifold elements of the Gnostic
system originating in Egypt, Syria, Judaea, Mesopotamia, and
Persia were now added others derived from the new faith,
and in proportion as these assumed a predominant place, the
Gnostics were assimilated to the Christian community. This
approximation was at some times far closer than at others, for
they were divided into various sects following the doctrines
of different teachers ; and while some of these lay beyond the
pale of the Church, others incorporated into their scheme of
the universe so many Christian beliefs that they actually
formed sects within the Christian organization. It is impos-
sible in this place to do more than indicate some of the more
prominent theories of Gnosticism, but about the beginning
of the Christian era most of them were ultimately based on
a dualism similar in some respects to that of the ancient
Persian religion. On the one hand there was a Supreme
Being or infinite spiritual existence ; on the other, matter, the
source of all evil. From the Supreme Being issued a number
of emanations called aeons, conceived as Divine qualities —
Reason, Truth, Power, and the like — which together consti-
tuted a World of Light and Divine Fullness known as the
Pleroma. One of these aeons fell under the influence of
matter, and there thus arose a series of intermediate beings,
and finally the human race, in which the higher and lower
elements of spirit and matter are blended. All men are thus in
need of redemption from the grosser element, and their hope
of liberation is greater or less in proportion as the spiritual
element predominates over the material. It is easy to see how
the Christian doctrine of the redemption of the world would
appeal to men holding a theory of this kind, and to imagine how
those Gnostics who were most in sympathy with Christianity
might bring their views into accord with Christian belief.

While the inner or esoteric doctrines of Gnosticism were
due to deep philosophic and religious aspirations, it also had
a more popular aspect which betrays the magical superstitions
of earlier times. The personifications and ideas, which to the
adept needed no visible form, were represented for the benefit
of less subtle minds by symbolic figures of a fantastic descrip-
tion, and were accompanied by mystical words and formulae to

162

INTRODUCTION

which, especially when engraved on particular kinds of stone,
a magical power was ascribed. To produce their full effect
these words of power had to be pronounced by men ceremoni-
ally pure, dressed in a certain manner, and speaking in a
certain tone of voice ; while for the invocation of the greatest
names particular ceremonies were necessary. Most of these
names were formed out of the initial letters of a number of
magical words, and have no intrinsic meaning. The most
widely known is Abraxas or Abrasax, a manifestation of the
Supreme Deity, who is constantly seen upon Gnostic gems and
amulets. He is usually represented with a cock's head, em-
blematic of the sun, a human body, two serpents instead of legs,
and with a shield and whip in his hands (fig. 105). In the field
are frequently engraved the names lao and Abraxas in Greek
characters. The former word has been
identified with the great name of the
Hebrew God Jah, and is often accompanied
on Gnostic gems by two other Hebrew
words, Adonai and Sabaoth (Lord of Hosts),
which also denote the Supreme Deity. The
origin of the word Abraxas is obscure, but
it is generally explained by the fact that
the Greek letters of which it is composed
are also numerals, which, added together,
make 365 — the number of heavens of which
Abraxas was lord; the first part of it is
perhaps related to another magical word,
Abracadabra, which was very popular in the declining years
of the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages in Western
Europe. Another popular Gnostic symbol was the serpent
Khnoubis, derived from Egyptian mythology, and representing
the creative principle personified by the Egyptians under the
name of Khnemu ; while among the names of magical power,
those of angels were conspicuous, especially those of Michael,
Gabriel, Uriel, Salathiel, and Raphael.

Gnosticism, which chiefly flourished in Egypt, reached its
height in the third century, and was sinking into insignificance
in the fourth. It is represented by remains found in these
islands. In 1827 a thin sheet of gold inscribed with Gnostic
charms was discovered close to the Roman fort of Segontium
near Carnarvon, and a Gnostic gem found at Silchester is in
the Reading Museum ; it is possible that the Abraxas gem in
the ring of Bishop Seffrid (A.D. 1125-1151) in Chichester
Cathedral was discovered in England.

FIG. 105.— Abraxas,
from a Gnostic gem.

IMPORTANT DATES 163

IV. IMPORTANT DATES

First Century

A.D.

64. Persecution in the reign of Nero.
70. Taking of Jerusalem by Titus.

Second Century

112. Pliny the Younger, Legate of Bithynia, writes to Trajan as to the treat-
ment of Christians in his province.

117. Hadrian builds the new city of Aelia Capitolina at Jerusalem.
161. Persecution in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

Third Century

202. Abgar IX, Prince of Edessa, adopts Christianity as the State religion.
226. Beginning of the Sassanian dynasty in Persia.
249-50. Persecution in the reign of Decius.

299-300. Trdat (Tiridates) III, adopts Christianity as the State religion in
Armenia.

Fourth Century

313. Accession of Constantino. Toleration of Christianity in the Roman
Empire.

323. Constantino sole ruler. Christianity recognized as State religion.

324. Foundation of Constantinople.

325. First General Council at Nicaea. The Arian heresy condemned.
381. Second General Council at Constantinople.

[395. Division of the Empire under Arcadius (East) and Honorius (West),
sons of Theodosius.

Fifth Century

403. Honorius makes Ravenna his capital.

410. Sack of Rome by Alaric.

The Roman legions abandon Britain.

429. The Vandals invade Africa.

431. Third General Council at Ephesus. Nestorius condemned ; the title
' Mother of God ' recognized.

437-8. St. Patrick begins the conversion of Ireland.

439. The Vandals complete the conquest of Africa by taking Carthage.

449-73. The Jutes establish themselves in Kent.

451. Defeat of Attila, King of the Huns, by Aetius at Chalons.

Fourth General Council at Chalcedon. The Monophysite heresy con-
demned.

455. Sack of Rome by Genseric, King of the Vandals. The vessels from the
Temple of Jerusalem carried off.

476. Fall of the Roman Empire in the West by the deposition of Romulus
Augustulus at Ravenna. The political centre of gravity henceforward
once more at Rome.

481. Clovis founds the dynasty of the Merovingian Franks.

493. Theodoric the Ostrogoth takes Ravenna and founds a kingdom in Italy.

496. Clovis baptized by St. Remy.

M 2

164 INTRODUCTION

Sixth Century

507. Clovis drives the Visigoths from all Gaul except the south-east.

526. Death of Theodoric.

527. Justinian Emperor in the East. (527-565).

533. Belisarius, general of Justinian, takes Carthage and recovers Africa from
the Vandals.

535. Belisarius takes Sicily and begins the reconquest of Italy from the
Goths.

546. Rome taken by Totila, King of the Goths : the city remains empty for
forty days.

549. Justinian's armies invade Spain ; the south-east coast remains Byzan-
tine for sixty years (to A.D. 615).

552. Narses, general of Justinian, completes the reconquest of Italy.

The silkworm brought into the Byzantine Empire, probably from
Khotan in Chinese Turkestan.

553. Fifth General Council at Constantinople.
563. Columba founds his monastery on lona.

578. The Lombards establish a kingdom in the north of Italy.

587. Recared I, first Catholic King of Spain.

597. Augustine, sent by Gregory the Great, lands at Ebbsfleet in Kent.

Seventh Century

614. The Persians take Jerusalem, and carry off the Holy Cross (recovered

by Heraclius in A.D. 629).

634-40. Egypt and Syria-Palestine conquered by the Mohammedans.
651. Persia conquered by the Mohammedans : end of the native Sassanian

dynasty founded in 226 B.C.
664. Synod of Whitby.

668. Theodore of Tarsus, in Cilicia, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.
673-7. Mohammedans besiege Constantinople.
680. Sixth General Council at Constantinople.
692. Seventh General Council (in Trullo) at Constantinople.

Eighth Century

709. Mohammedans take N. Africa from the Byzantine Empire.

711. Mohammedans take Spain from the Visigoths.

717-18. Mohammedans again besiege Constantinople.

725-6. Beginning of Iconoclasm under the Emperor Leo III.

732. Charles Martel defeats the Mohammedans near Poitiers.

750. End of the Ummayad Caliphate at Damascus ; the Abbasid dynasty
begins at Baghdad.

752. Ravenna taken from the Byzantine Empire by Aistulf, King of the

Lombards ; end of Byzantine rule in northern and central Italy.
End of the Merovingian (earlier Frankish) Dynasty ; Pepin, son or
Charles Martel, proclaimed King of the Franks at Soissons.

7^)4. Pepin is crowned by the Pope : he expels the Lombards from Italy.

756. Caliphate of Cordova established by the fugitive Ummayad, Abd. Er-
Rahman.

771. Charles the Great sole King of the Franks.

774. Charles the Great ends the Lombard power.

781. At the request of Charles the Great, Alcuin of York directs educa-
tion in the Frankish dominions.

IMPORTANT DATES 165

787. Second Council of Nicaea authorizes the veneration of images (pictures).

First attack of the Northmen on England.

800. Charles the Great crowned Emperor of the West at Kome. Beginning
of the ' Holy Roman Empire '.

Ninth Century

827. The Arabs begin the conquest of Sicily, not completed for fifty years.
842. End of Iconoclasm ; restoration of images (pictures) in the East.
867. Accession of Basil I at Constantinople.
The Danes conquer Northumbria.

869. Eighth General Council, at Constantinople, the last recognized by the

Western Church.

870. Danish conquest of East Anglia.

871. Accession of King Alfred.

878. Battle of Ethandun : Wessex, Sussex, and Kent remain English, the
rest of England under the Danes.

Tenth Century

904. Salonika sacked by the Saracens.

917-23. Simeon, Tsar of the Bulgarians, defeats the Byzantine armies and
threatens Constantinople.

961. Crete recovered from the Mohammedans by the Emperor Nicephorus

Phocas.

962. Otto I, the Saxon, crowned Emperor.

973. Accession of Otto II, who in the previous year had married Theophano

daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Romanus.
976. Basil II Emperor in the East (976-1025).
983. Otto III Emperor in the West.
c.990. Conversion of the Russians under Vladimir.

Eleventh Century

1009. The Holy Sepulchre destroyed by the Fatimite Caliph.

1014-18. Basil II finally defeats the Bulgarians.

1040-3. The Normans take Apulia.

1053. Final rupture of the Greek and Latin Churches.

1060-90. The Normans conquer Sicily from the Saracens.

1071. Battle of Manzikert (Malazgerd) : defeat of the Byzantine army under

the Emperor Romanus by the Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan.
1076. The Seljuks take Jerusalem.
1099. First Crusade. Recapture of Jerusalem ; beginning of the Latin

Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Twelfth Century

1147. Second Crusade.

c.l 160. The great period of Serbian history begins with the Nemanya

dynasty.

1186. Fall of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1188-92. Third Crusade against Saladin.

166 INTEODUCTION

Thirteenth Century

1202-4. Fourth Crusade. Capture of Constantinople. Beginning of the

Latin interregnum. Baldwin of Flanders the first Latin Emperor.

1261. Restoration of the Byzantine Empire under Michael VIII, Palaeologus.

Fourteenth Century

1326-38. The Ottoman Turks take Brusa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia.
1356. The Turks cross the Hellespont and take Adrianople (1361).
1389. The Serbs defeated by the Turks at Kossovo.

Fifteenth Century

1402. Timur defeats the Ottoman Sultan Bajazet at Angora, thus giving the

Byzantine Empire a reprieve.
1430. The Ottoman Murad II takes Salonika.
1453. Capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II. Fall of the Byzantine

Empire.

DESCRIPTION OF CASES

Wall-Cases 1 and 2.

THE upper part of the cases contains a number of bronze lamps
and other bronze objects dating mostly from the fifth to the
seventh century. Of the lamps, some are suspended, others fixed
on pricket stands (see the fine example, No. 496, fig. 9). The
openwork disks hanging by chains are lamp-holders (potycandela),
with circular holes round the edge which probably contained glass
lamps. Along the top of the slope are several bronze censers
with religious subjects in relief, some with chains (sixth to
seventh century).

On the slope itself are arranged more recent objects of devo-
tional use made, for the most part, for members of the Greek
Church, chiefly in Kussia ; enamelled brass ikons and crosses of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; small devotional
carvings in wood and ivory, including one of the wooden crosses
inscribed with minute designs attributed to Mount Athos ; a lead
medallion with the Death of the Virgin and other objects.
A carved wooden panel signed by Michael Condopidius of Naxos,
representing the illness of St. Francis, illustrates the work of
a Greek under Italian influence.

In order to give a general idea of a Russian enamelled cross
of the seventeenth or eighteenth century, a typical example
has been reproduced (plate XIV). The following account of the
various inscriptions upon it will doubtless be of use to those who
may possess articles of a similar nature. In the upper part are
represented the first and third persons of the Trinity ; at the top
is God the Father, described by the words Lord God Sabaoth, with
both hands extended, the fingers raised in the act of benediction ;
beneath is the dove with the inscription Holy Spirit above it ;
on either side are two descending angels, with the legend Angels
of God on two separate labels, beneath which are two other words
King of Glory (Tsar Slavui).

Above the head of Our Lord are the four initial letters of the
words Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews ; and in the angles of
the cross contained in the nimbus, the two Greek words 6 <5v,
which signify ' The existing ', i. e. the eternal (One). The long
inscription above the arms of Our Lord reads, The Crucifixion
of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of God ; and that

168 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

below the arms : We adore thy Cross, 0 Lord, and glorify thy holy
resurrection, which is a verse from the Troparion (or anthem) sung
at the Stavroproskynesis or Adoration of the Cross on the third
Sunday in Lent and also upon Holy Cross Day. Beyond the
arms of the cross are the first and last letters (1C XC) of the two
Greek words 'Iryo-ovs Xpicrro?, Jesus Christ. Below, on either side of
Our Lord's body and divided in two halves by it is the word Nika,
victory ; the letters K (Kopie) and T (Trost), meaning lance and
reed respectively, which are almost always placed by the side
of these instruments of the Passion, are here by exception absent.
On the foot of the cross are two pairs of letters, the uppermost
M and L signifying Miesto lobnoe or place of a skull, the lower pair
P (R) and B, Haspiat byst, He was crucified. On the conventional
hill from which the cross rises are two further pairs of letters,
the first F (G), A, standing for Glava Adama, * the skull of Adam ',
the second F (G), F (G), for Gora Golgotha, l the Mount of Golgotha '.
In the centre of the mount is seen the skull of Adam, in allusion
to the tradition, commonly reproduced in Byzantine art, that the
first man was buried upon the site where Christ was crucified.
On the back of the upper part of the cross is another inscription,
very commonly placed in this position, reading as follows : The
Cross, the guardian of the whole Universe ; the Cross, the beauty of
the Church ; the Cross, to kings dominion ; the Cross, to believers
safety ; the Cross, to angels glory ; the Cross, to devils wounding ; the
whole being taken from the Exaposteilarion, a sort of anthem
used at Orthros or morning service on Wednesdays and
Fridays.

It will be noticed that, as universally in Byzantine and Greek
representations of the Crucifixion, and also in Western represen-
tations earlier than the thirteenth century, Our Lord's feet are
nailed separately and not crossed one above the other. The cross
with eight extremities, as shown in the plate, is that especially
associated with the JRaskolniks or dissenters of the Russian Church.
But it is also in general use among the Orthodox.

At the bottom of the case are miscellaneous objects ; fragments
of linen tunics from Coptic cemeteries, one with a cross in purple,
the other with H, and a heavy iron penitential crown from the
Monastery of Kieff, of a type formerly worn by Russian ascetics
and represented by examples in the National Historical Museum at
Moscow. The large oval pebble with cross and Syriac inscription
served as a tombstone for a Nestorian Christian of the thirteenth
or fourteenth century in the province of Semirechensk, N. of Lake
Issik Kul (fig. 2). At the back is a board with an edict against
Christians promulgated in Japan in 1682.

MB 1

PLATE XIV. RUSSIAN ENAMELLED BRASS CROSS.
(See p. 167.)

WALL-CASES 1-4 169

Wall-Cases 3 and 4.

Upper Shelves. Casts of some important Early Christian and
Byzantine ivory-carvings in various collections.

a. Ivories in the British Museum1" (originals in the King
Edward VII Gallery, Bay xx, Table-Case and Pier-Case). The
earliest are two well-known sets of plaques from caskets of about
the beginning of the fifth century ; one (No. 292, 8) containing
three panels with two fragments carved with conventional scrolls>
the other (No. 291, 7, plate II) four panels. The first set shows
Moses striking the rock, St. Peter raising Tabitha from the dead,
St. Paul conversing with Thecla, and the stoning of St. Paul.
The subjects of the second set are : (1) Pilate washing his hands.
Our Lord bearing the Cross, and the Denial of St. Peter ; (2) the
Death of Judas, and the Crucifixion ; (3) the Maries at the
Sepulchre ; and (4) the Incredulity of St. Thomas. The Cruci-
fixion scene is among the earliest known (p. 88). The style of
all these casket-panels recalls contemporary sarcophagi. No. 294,
10, plate III, is an early example of the Baptism, perhaps North
Italian work of the sixth century. Conspicuous among the ivories
from the Christian East is the magnificent leaf of a diptych (No. 295,
11) with a figure of the Archangel Michael (frontispiece, plate I).
It belongs to an early period, perhaps going back as far as the
reign of Theodosius (A. D. 375-95), though considered by some
to date from the time of Justinian. At the top is a Greek inscrip-
tion : Receive these gifts, and having learned the cause — , doubtless
continued upon a second leaf, now lost ; this may have borne the
figure of an emperor to whom the angel offered the orb as an
emblem of sovereignty. Written in ink on the sunk surface at
the back, originally intended for the wax, is a prayer in a hand
of the seventh century, of which only a small proportion is legible.
No. 302 a, 20 (plate V) is a remarkable panel from a Byzantine
casket (tenth to twelfth century), representing two scenes from
the history of Joseph. On the left, the patriarch Jacob blesses
Ephraim and Man^sseh; on the right is the death of Jacob.
Worthy of special remark are the 'pyxides' (cylindrical boxes).
No. 297, 12 (plate IV) has the Martyrdom of St. Menas of
Alexandria, in which city it was probably made in the course
of the sixth century. On one side the saint is seen before the
Roman judge ; on the other, he stands, clothed in the long
chlamys marking his rank, at the entrance to his sanctuary
between the two camels (p. 180). No. 298, 13 (plate IV) shows
Daniel in the usual oriental costume standing in the attitude of

1 Where two catalogue-numbers are quoted, the first refers to the Catalogue
of Early Christian Antiquities, the second, in italics, to the Catalogue of Ivory
Carvings.

170 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

prayer (cf. p. 81) between lions, while Habakkuk guided by an angel
brings him food : on the other side is a symbolical scene. No. 289,
3, is an earlier pagan example, probably of the fourth century :
boxes of this kind are known to have been used as reliquaries
in Christian churches. No. 43 in the Catalogue of Ivory Carvings
is a Carolingian copy of an East Christian model, carved with
the Healing of the Demoniac. Other ivories in the collection not
represented by casts in this Case are: a fine central panel from
a book-cover of the sixth century probably carved in Syria, with
the Adoration of the Magi and the Nativity, and on the back,
written in ink, a prayer in a hand of the twelfth century ; a small
square plaque from a Byzantine casket (No. 302, 22\ representing
the Archangel Michael in the scene of the Expulsion from Eden
(tenth to twelfth century) ; a large Byzantine triptych showing
the Crucifixion with Saints, and a panel with the Deesis (Our
Lord between the Virgin and St. John the Baptist), both of the
eleventh century ; a diptych with busts of Apostles, Saints and
Angels (twelfth century), and a side leaf of a triptych of similar
date with a bust of St. John the Baptist and a figure of a bishop
making the gesture of benediction ; a panel (No. 296, 27) with
the Raising of Lazarus, either made in Egypt in the sixth
century, as part of a series ornamenting an episcopal chair, or else
an Italo-Byzantine work of the twelfth century made in the south
of Italy ; two Byzantine panels (ninth to tenth century) with
the Vision of Ezekiel (No. 299, 18), and the Nativity and
Washing of the Infant Jesus (No. 300, 19) ; two Byzantine panels
from a casket with acrobats in the Hippodrome of Constantinople
(No. 301, 16, ninth century) ; a small panel from a casket with
male figures (Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, No. 173, Byzantine,
ninth and tenth century) ; No. 302 b, 23, a panel with the Entry
into Jerusalem. For the Melisenda book-cover see p. 188.

6. Reproductions of ivories of which the originals are not in the British
Museum. Consular and private diptychs: the consul Stilicho
(about A. D. 400) with his wife Serena and their son Eucherius,
in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Monza ; Flavius Taurus
Clementinus (A. D. 513), consul at Constantinople, in the Liverpool
Museum ; Anastasius, consul at Constantinople (A. D. 517), in the
Royal Museum, Berlin ; Magnus (?), consul at Constantinople
(A. D. 518), in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ; Justinianus,
consul at Constantinople (A. D. 521), Trivulzio Collection, Milan ;
Philoxenus, consul at Constantinople (A.D. 525), Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris ; an anonymous consular diptych of the fifth or
sixth century in the Treasury of the Cathedral at Halberstadt.
Mythological subjects appear on the leaf of a diptych of the third
century at Sens representing Diana Lucifera (bearer of light), stand-
ing, with a torch, in a car drawn by two bulls, and below her is
the Personification of the Sea, with marine animals. Aesculapius

WALL-CASES 3-6 171

the physician, with Telesphorus the spirit of healing, and Hygieia
(Health) (fourth century), in the Liverpool Museum ; a muse and
a bald-headed male figure, possibly a poet, (sixth century), in the
Treasury of the Cathedral of Monza. The following have religious
subjects: a diptych at Monza with David on one leaf and
St. Gregory the Great (Pope, A. D. 590-604) on the other, by some
regarded as a consular diptych converted to a religious use ;
diptych with Adam in the Garden of Eden and scenes from the
life of St. Paul, in the Bargello at Florence (fifth to sixth century) ;
another with Our Lord, and the Virgin and Child (sixth century),
in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin ; book-cover composed of
five panels (sixth century) in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
having as the central subjects Our Lord between SS. Peter and
Paul, and the Virgin between two angels ; the leaf of a Byzantine
diptych showing the Crucifixion (thirteenth century), in the
Louvre, Paris ; panel representing Our Lord crowning the
Emperor Komanus IV (A. D. 1068-71) and his consort Eudocia, in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Two panels are of Carolingian (Frankish) origin. The original
of the first forms the ornament of a book-cover in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, the central compartment having Our Lord
trampling on the lion and dragon, and the surrounding compart-
ments Biblical scenes (eighth to ninth century). The other
reproduces one leaf of a diptych of similar origin and date in the
Louvre, with David dictating his psalms, the companion leaf
(not exhibited) representing the Judgement of Solomon. On the
top shelf, with the above-mentioned casts of pyxides in the Museum
collection, is a reproduction of the large fourth-century example
at Berlin, with figures of Our Lord and the apostles, and the
Sacrifice of Isaac, probably carved in Antioch.

Lower part of the cases. A third-century sepulchral cist
containing the burnt bones of a woman, found in 1866 near the
Church of St. Ursula, Cologne. It originally contained the gilded
glass disk, No. 628, in Table-Case B (fig. 91).

To right and left of the cist are reproductions of Early Christian
objects and emblems from Great Britain. Some of the objects
are in the Museum, e. g. the cakes of pewter with the sacred mono-
gram found in the Thames at Battersea (cf. fig. 38), and a pewter
dish from Appleshaw in Hants, on which the monogram is
roughly incised (Room of Koman Britain, Wall-Case 47).

Wall-Cases 5 and 6.

Framed on the wall are ten cedar panels of the thirteenth cen-
tury (p. 154) from a door in the Coptic Church of St. Mary (Al-Mu*
'AUdka), at Cairo, carved with Christian subjects alternating with
scrolls of Saracenic design (No. 986). The subjects are the

172 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

Annunciation and Baptism (plate XIII), Nativity, Entry into
Jerusalem, Descent into Hell, Pentecost and Ascension. On the
right of the large frame is a Byzantine panel-picture probably of the
thirteenth century, from a monastery near the Natron Lakes, north-
west of Cairo : the four scenes are the Annunciation, Nativity,
Baptism, and Transfiguration; the picture belongs to a period from
which little work of the kind has survived. On the left of the
frame is a Eussian ikon of the Virgin and Child in an enamelled
silver frame, both of comparatively modern date.

On the shelf are various objects of early date. The ivory litur-
gical diptych of the seventh century* from Egypt, probably
Hermonthis (Erment), belongs to a class noted above, and the lists
of names and prayers written upon it are remarkably complete
(p. 114, fig. 66). Two fifth-century blue glass vases from Amiens
(Nos. 658-9), represent one of the earliest forms of chalice used in
Early Christian times (p. 106 and fig. 64), and may have been them-
selves chalices. Among other glass vessels are a goblet (No. 652, of
the fourth to sixth century) found at Cologne, engraved with Adam
and Eve, Moses striking the Kock, and the Kaising of Lazarus ; a
globular vessel of similar date, also from Cologne, with a Greek
inscription, Drink and live, cut in relief round the sides ; and a
moulded bottle (fourth to sixth century) with a cross, palm-branch,
and human figure from Syria (fig. 92). The large silver Byzan-
tine chalice with a dedicatory inscription (sixth century) was also
obtained in Syria (fig. 65, and p. 108). On the shelf are also two
Visigothic bronze vessels from Spain, a ewer and basin of the
sixth to seventh century (plate XII), with inscriptions recording
the maker's name and a verse from the Bible (Kev. v. 5) ; and the
glazed pottery bowl known as the Constantino bowl, with an
incised figure of Our Lord and inscriptions relating to Constantine
in the interior: doubts have been cast on the authenticity of
this bowl on the ground of the close similarity of the incised
design to a much later representation. At the back of the shelf
are two circular marble disks from Palmyra in design resembling
the stamps for eucharistic bread used in the Coptic Church. The
Greek inscriptions round the edges are however different.

At the bottom of the cases are three wooden models of churches
inlaid with pearl-shell, made in Palestine, two representing the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, the other, the Church
of the Nativity at Bethlehem.

Wall-Cases 7 and 8.

The top shelf of these cases is occupied by a series of bronze
lamps and other bronze objects mainly from the Christian East.
In the middle is a fifth- or sixth-century bronze seated figure of
the literate type holding a book, and perhaps representing an
apostle.

WALL-CASES 7, 8 173

On the shelf, Case 7, is a silver treasure found at the close of
the nineteenth century near Kyrenia, on the north coast of Cyprus ;
and consisting of a plate, a shallow basin, a hexagonal censer, and
a number of spoons. From considerations of style, and from com-
parison with other examples of Byzantine silver chiefly in Russian
collections, this treasure, which probably belonged to a church
or monastery, may be ascribed to the sixth century. Byzantine
silver plate of this class is thought to have been extensively made
in Syria, whence it was largely exported ; the Russian examples
were traded into the interior of that country in exchange for furs,
and have been principally found in the Government of Perm,
together with contemporary silver dishes of Persian (Sassanian)
workmanship. The large plate with the nielloed cross in the centre
(No. 397, plate IX) is an almost exact parallel to a plate in the
Hermitage Museum in Petrograd. The saint represented in
relief in the centre of the basin (No. 898, plate IX) is St. Sergius or
St. Bacchus, one of two popular Syrian martyrs, who were captains
of the foreign division of the Imperial Body-guard, and are
identified by the peculiar collar worn round their necks as
a sign of their military rank. The censer (No. 399, fig. 68),
which once had a bronze lining, is of an early form, replaced
in later times by a bowl-shaped type with a high foot : on three
of its faces are Our Lord between St. Peter and St. Paul ; on
the opposite three faces are the Virgin between St. John and
St. James (?). The spoons, which were perhaps originally private
property bequeathed at the death of the owner to the Church, may
have been used for entertaining guests or feeding the poor, such a
use of silver spoons in early times having been recorded ; many of
them are remarkable for the animals depicted upon the bowls,
recalling the similar animals seen upon mosaics and sculptures
of the Early Byzantine period. One is punched with the name of
a former owner, Theodore.

An interesting point in connexion with this treasure is the
occurrence on the bottom of the censer and the large plate of
a number of stamps of several 'hall-marks', many examples of
which are known to exist on pieces of Byzantine silver (fig. 77).
Similar stamps may be seen on objects belonging to the contem-
porary Lampsacus treasure, in Wall-Case 11. The shelf of Case 8
contains part of the Esquiline treasure (see below).

At the bottom on the left are arranged small objects, chiefly
bronze, including part of a collection from El Azam, near Siut
(Asyut), Egypt ; crosses, ornaments, toilet implements and disks.
On the right are bronze stamps for marking property, some with
owners' names, others with acclamations, dating from the fourth
to the sixth century ; among them is a bronze relief of a mounted
saint (St. George ?) from Akka, Palestine. In the centre are silver
spoons of the fifth century found in 1886 in the neighbourhood

174 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

of Kome and inscribed with names and monograms inlaid with
niello.

Wall-Cases 9 and 1O.

In these cases and on the lower shelf of Case 8 is exhibited the
silver treasure, dating from the fourth to the fifth century, found in
1793 near the Church of SS. Silvester and Martin on the Esquiline
Hill at Rome. It comprises the toilet articles of Projecta, a Roman
lady of rank, wife of Secundus, a member of the great family of
the Asterii, whose name, with that of her husband, is inscribed
on the lid of the large casket (No. 304) on the shelf in Case 9.
The inscription, which is preceded by the sacred monogram _|?,
runs : Secunde et Projecta vivatis in Chri(sto\ proving that its
owners belonged to the Christian community. The figures on the
body of the casket (plate VI), which was evidently a bridal gift, are
Projecta and her attendant maids ; round the lid is an interesting
scene depicting the first entrance of the bride into her husband's
house, mythological groups representing Venus, and nereids with
tritons and sea-monsters ; and on the top, portrait-busts of the
married pair in a medallion of the style seen on sarcophagi of the
same period (fig. 18). It may be remarked that the old custom
of conducting the bride to her husband's house in a festal procession
with dances and songs was continued by Christians, though the
scene here represented is doubtless purely pagan in character.
This casket, with its mythological subjects, has been quoted as an
illustration of the laxity of Christian sentiment prevailing about
the close of the fourth century. /Other interesting parts of the
treasure are the dome-shaped casket (No. 305) ornamented with
figures of the Muses, and containing silver bottles for perfumes and
essences similar in form to an example recently found at Traprain
Law (p. 65) ; a large ewer (No. 307) bearing the inscription,
Pelegrina, utere felix (' Pelegrina, may good luck attend thy use of
me ! ') ; an elegant flask with embossed ornament (No. 306) ; a
large fluted dish (No. 310), also with affinities to the Traprain
treasure ; two sets of four circular and four rectangular dishes
with inlaid monograms (Nos. 312-19); two ornaments (Nos.
336-7), probably from the arms of a chair, in the form of fore-
arms holding pomegranates : four figures (No. 332) representing
the personifications of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and
Antioch, perhaps serving to ornament the ends of the poles of
a litter ; silver-gilt horse-trappings (phalerae) (Nos. 338-43) ; and
a number of smaller objects, brooches, pins, rings, and charms. The
brooches (fibulae) include examples much older than the treasure as
a whole, and going back to a time before the Christian era.

The miscellaneous nature of the objects comprising the Esquiline
treasure suggests that the whole may have been buried at some
time of danger, such as a barbaric invasion.

WALL-CASES 9-12 175

Wall-Cases 11 and 12.

The collection of bronze lamps and other bronze objects is con-
tinued on the top shelf of these cases. Attention may be drawn
to the lamps in the form of birds (Nos. 509-18). In the middle
is a steelyard weight (fig. 14) in the form of the head of an
emperor, perhaps Phocas (A. D. 602-10). On the shelf, Case 11,
is exhibited a small silver treasure of the sixth century,
found at Lampsacus on the Hellespont. It comprises a tripod
lamp-stand (No. 376), beneath the foot of which are two im-
pressions of an official l hall-mark ' ; a cylindrical vessel with foot
(No. 377), perhaps a chalice (p. 110), two circular shallow dishes
(Nos. 378-9) with monograms, perhaps patens, one having beneath
it more Byzantine official stamps (plate VIII) ; a border for a table (?)
made of beaten silver ; fragments of a folding-stool or stand made
of silver with iron cores ; fragments of a gold necklace and ear-ring ;
and an interesting series of spoons having monograms on the sides
(fig. 77a) and metrical Latin and Greek inscriptions on the handles
and bowls, derived from the Eclogues of Virgil and the traditional
sayings of the sages Solon, Bias, Chilon, and Pittacus. Four
other spoons bear the names Mark, Luke, James, and Peter,
perhaps in this case referring to Apostles, though as a rule the
names found on spoons are those of their owners. All the inscrip-
tions and monograms are or were inlaid with niello.

On the right, Case 12, is a silver treasure of the later fourth
century found on the Hill of St. Louis, Carthage (Nos. 356-75).
It consists of two hemispherical dishes without Christian character-
istics, but with pastoral and animal scenes, human masks in relief,
and pearled edges: one has a figure-subject on a medallion at
the bottom : these dishes show analogies with similar objects in
the Traprain treasure (p. 65) ; two dishes, one having%i inscription
with the sacred monogram and a reference to the Crelconii, a well-
known family in North Africa in the fourth and fiiifh centuries,
another an inscription, loquere feliciter (speak under good omen),
with the sacred monogram between alpha and omega; a shallow bowl
with long handle, and in the centre in high relief a frog, sometimes
regarded as a symbol of resurrection (cf. the lamps, p. 181) ; three
low hemispherical bowls, one with a cover, in the centre of which
is a high rim serving as a foot for the lid, which may have been
used as a separate dish ; six spoons with deep circular bowls and
short handles, a panel between handle and bowl bearing in each
case a nielloed cross between scrolls ; two complete spoons and a
fragment, with pear-shaped bowls, on the backs of which is leaf-
ornament like that upon the spoons from Cyprus in Wall-Case 7 ;
and a spoon with a shallow circular bowl in which is engraved
the sacred monogram (£\ between alpha and omega. Included in
the treasure are personal ornaments ; a gold necklace with a lion's

176 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

head at each end, a necklace of pearls alternating with precious
stones, a pair of ear-rings, a gold finger-ring ; two intaglios with a
head of the type of Hercules and a figure of Fortuna respectively,
and an onyx cameo with the head of Minerva.

The bottom of the cases is occupied by a large capital from
Memphis, with a channel on each side, perhaps to receive the ends
of screens, presented by the British School of Archaeology in
Egypt ; a cast from a figure of the Good Shepherd incised on a
marble slab in a catacomb at Sousse (Hadrumetum) in Tunis
(third to fourth century) : here the bearded type should be noted, as
well as the lamb, which apparently belongs to the fat- tailed African
species ; a marble panel with bust in relief from Carthage ; archi-
tectural fragments from the Wadi Sarga Collection (p. 177).

Wall-Case 13.

On the floor of this case is a richly- carved limestone Coptic
tomb-stone (seventh to eighth century) ; in the upper part is
a monogrammatic cross between columns, and an inscription in
Greek commemorating a lady named Sophrone ; in the lower part
is a bird (dove or eagle) with a medallion round its neck and a
cross in its beak (No. 942, and see fig. 101).

On the shelf is a Coptic medallion of limestone carved with a
similar bird holding an olive-branch in its beak.

It should be noted that an interesting series of Coptic tombstones
is to be seen in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Anti-
quities (Second Northern Gallery, Room V).

Wall-Cases 14 and 15.

On the main shelf are exhibited a number of tomb-stones
(No. 931, etc.) from Carthage, Gaul, and Spain (fourth to sixth
century). Two of them (Nos. 931 and 935) are from the graves of
children, one eight years, the other three months old. The earthen-
ware slabs (No. 932 and No. 934, fig. 3) with the sacred mono-
gram and inscriptions should be noted. On the front part of the
shelf are various carved fragments of limestone or marble. The
marble fragment (No. 941), in the shape of two right hands holding
a table engraved with the sacred monogram, is of interest, as having
been probably broken from a sarcophagus sculptured with the
Traditio Legis, the scene in which Our Lord gives the Law to St.
Peter. On the topshelf and floor are tombstones with Coptic inscrip-
tions (seventh to eleventh century) from the Wadi Sarga Collection
(see p. 177), commemorating monks. On the floor is also a tomb-
stone (eighth century) from Memphis with a Greek inscription : In
tJie name of the Father, the Son, and the Jloly Ghost.

WALL-CASES 12-17 177

SERIES OP OBJECTS FROM WADI SARGA,
NEAR Sifrr (ASYUT), EGYPT.

(Mostly in Wall-Cases 11-23.)

This site was excavated by Mr. K. Campbell Thompson in the
winter of 1913-14 for the Committee of the Byzantine Research
and Publication Fund, by which the antiquities discovered were
presented to the Museum. The place is about fifteen miles south
of Siut (Asyiit), and is situated in a cleft of the hills formed by an
ancient watercourse. The walls of many ruined buildings still stand,
built of unburned brick on stone foundations. In the limestone
cliffs are large quarry-caves in which evidence of a pre-Christian
occupation was found ; but the chief feature of interest in the main
cave was an apse with a mural painting representing the Com-
munion of the Apostles. A painting on stucco from the ruins of
a villa about two miles north of Wadi Sarga is exhibited in Wall-
Cases 16 and 17.

During the excavations various sections were cleared on the slopes
where the houses had been built close together. In some houses
were found capitals of limestone columns, fragments of pottery and
glass, small objects of bronze, wood, clay, leather, and basket-work
with fragments of woven tapestry of papyrus and a number of
inscribed potsherds (ostraka), now transferred to the Department of
Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. Limestone funerary tablets
(Wall-Cases 14 and 15) were fairly common, as were fragments
of ornamental sculpture (Wall-Cases 16-19).

The finds made at Wadi Sarga seem to show that the place was
occupied by poor and industrious people ; sections cut in the
neighbouring cemetery yielded no objects of exceptional quality.
The bronze coins discovered date mostly from the reigns of Jus-
tinian (A. D. 527-65) to Maurice Tiberius (A. D. 580-602) ; one is
a Mohammedan coin of the Early Ummayad dynasty (about A. D.
670-750). The date suggested for most of the objects is thus the
second half of the sixth century, a period with which the character
of the antiquities is in accord.

Wall-Cases 16 and 17.

On the wall of the case is a mural painting taken from the ruins
of the above-mentioned villa in the neighbourhood of Wadi Sarga.
It represents the Three Children of Babylon in the burning, fiery
furnace with the ' angel ' behind them in the flames (fig. 70) ; the
two great medical saints SS. Cosmas and Damian stand on each side,

178 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

and their three brothers Anthimos, Leontios, and Euprepios below.
First under the Three Children is a Coptic inscription which reads :
The threescore martyrs of Siut : their day the twelfth of MeKheir.
Hourkene the little, my brother Mena the little — Jesus Christ.

The Three Children appear to be by a different hand from that
which executed the other figures, though probably not much earlier
in date ; the subject is on a separate square of plaster : round this
a second artist seems to have painted the larger figures which were
unfortunately damaged and are much restored. Perhaps all the
work was executed within the limits of the sixth century.

On the slope are the coins mentioned on p. 177, and fragments
of pottery with boldly painted human heads and animal figures.
Two large fragments are painted with representations of combats
of men and beasts in a Hellenistic style. On the bottom are
architectural fragments with characteristic acanthus-ornament, and
a limestone stand for water-bottles elaborately carved on the front
(fig. 6).

Wall-Cases 18 and 19.

On the shelves are Coptic architectural fragments, mostly from
Wadi Sarga. Particularly fine is the treatment of the formal
leaf-design in the example shown in fig. 72 ; presented by the British
School of Archaeology in Egypt ; here the method of relieving the
design against a background of deep shadow is well illustrated
(cf. p. 127). Those illustrated in figs. 73 and 74 should also be
noted, as also the portion of a frieze in the centre of the lower shelf
(fig. 5), on which the series of pottery fragments with painted
animal figures is continued. The pottery doll and small birds
should also be noticed.

At the bottom of the case are further architectural fragments :
two capitals, one from Wadi Sarga, another from Memphis, and
fragments of tomb-stones with Coptic inscriptions.

On the wall at the back of the case are two water-colour sketches,
from photographs and coloured tracings, representing the general
appearance of the frescoed quarry-cave.

Wall-Cases 20 and 21.

On the shelves is a series of Coptic pottery vessels from Wadi
Sarga. These include the large urns with painted linear and
conventional ornament, vases, bowls, cups, jugs, plain or painted,
with one or two handles. Attention may be drawn to the broken
vase with two human masks in relief on the neck (fig. 22).

On the wall of the case are several photographs of Wadi Sarga,
one showing the cave with mural paintings.

WALL-CASES 16-24 179

At the bottom are a limestone capital and the base of a column
from Wadi Sarga, and a fine marble foliated capital of early date
from Haram-esh-Sherlf, Jerusalem.

Wall-Case 22.

On the top shelf are various fragments of two-handled pottery
vases (amphorae] painted with letters and marks. On the slope is
a series of pottery fragments from Wadi Sarga with painted
geometrical and conventional designs ; above these are two dishes
of red earthenware from Memphis, each with a Cross in the centre ;
a framed fragment of an amphora, with a military saint painted in
outline, from Oxyrhynchus (Behnesa), Egypt ; some miscellaneous
objects from the Wadi Sarga Collection, including a bronze lamp
and a bronze lid of scallop form.

In the bottom of the case are different sculptured architectural
fragments, the base of a column from Wadi Sarga, and clay seals
for wine-jars with monograms.

Wall-Cases 23 and 24.

On the top shelf are various architectural fragments : pilaster-
capitals from Wadi Sarga ; two portions of cornices from Shurifat ;
two fragments carved with foliage, a lion, bird, and human head
from Medinet el-Fayum (figs. 7 and 8); a stucco female head,
a piece of moulding, and a floriated capital from Memphis, given
by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt.

On the slope are exhibited a selection of pottery lamps and
pilgrims' flasks (ampullae). The lamps fall into two main groups :
one, chiefly from Carthage, Sicily, and Italy, represented almost
entirely by the type shown in fig. 20; the other, comprising
more varied forms, obtained in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and
Asia Minor. The greater part of these lamps date from about
the sixth century, and their forms differ from the older Roman
types, examples of which may be seen among the Komano-British
Collections in the Room of Roman Britain. Lamps of this kind
were used for ordinary domestic purposes, but were also deposited
in or near the tombs of the dead and kept burning at shrines of
martyrs. The majority of those in the collection were obtained
from excavations at Carthage, which was a great centre of their
manufacture ; these are mostly made of a rather bright red ware,
distinct from the buff-coloured pottery which usually characterizes
the lamps of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, while the designs upon
them are more finely executed. On the other hand, the majority
of lamps with inscriptions come from the latter countries. See
examples at the bottom ; and in the Sixth Egyptian Room on the
lower shelves of Wall-Cases 273-9.

N 2

180 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

Attention may be specially drawn to the following lamps : No.
718 (fig. 20), Jonah and the monster ; No. 720, Daniel with an
angel and Habakkuk; No. 721, Our Lord trampling upon the
dragon ; No. 727, the Spies with the grapes of Eshcol ; to the
various animals represented in Nos. 728 to 753, among which the
dove occurs most frequently ; to the various forms of the sacred
monogram, Nos. 758 to 781 ; and to the crosses on the succeeding
numbers : and to the mould (No. 804), with intaglio designs, for
the upper half of a lamp (top row of slope, Case 24) : the top and
bottom halves of these lamps were made separately, and stuck
together before being placed in the furnace.

The terracotta flasks (ampullae) were connected with the
shrines of saints or other holy places. It was the custom
of pilgrims, especially about the sixth century, to carry away
flasks of this kind filled with the oil used for the lamps kept
burning before the shrines of Saints and Martyrs ; the most
famous examples, which were made of lead, are those sent from
the Holy Land to Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards, in the
early seventh century, and still preserved at Monza in Italy. The
majority of the terracotta ampullae come from Egypt and bear
representations of St. Menas or Mennas, an Egyptian martyr of
the military or official class, decapitated during the persecutions of
Diocletian's time. The legend relates that the saint's body was
placed upon a camel which was let loose to follow what course it
chose ; and that in the place where the camel stopped, some miles
from Alexandria, a grave was made and a shrine subsequently
built. In allusion to this legend, St. Menas is constantly repre-
sented as standing between two camels (fig. 51), though the animals
are often of so fantastic a form as to be very difficult to recognize.
This subject is commonly found on one side of the flasks, the other
side generally having a Greek inscription meaning ' the blessing
of St. Menas '. In many examples, e. g. Nos. 886-92, a head of
negroid appearance is seen, possibly representing a Libyan. The
martyrdom of St. Menas is represented on the ivory box in
Wall-Cases 3 and 4 (No. 297, plate IV).

At the bottom of the cases are two Jewish ossuaries or repositories
for the bones of the dead, of the Roman period, from Palestine, and
a number of lamps, mostly from Egypt, which could not be accom-
modated on the slope. These ossuaries were made to contain the
bones from loculi in Jewish catacombs when, in process of time,
space became scarce and the loculi were required for fresh inter-
ments. The ornament commonly found upon them, 'rosettes,' con-
centric circles, arcading, etc., includes both oriental and Hellenistic
elements such as we might expect to find in a country with no
individual art of its own and receptive of various artistic influences
from abroad. Other ossuaries are shown at the bottom of the next
two Wall-Cases.

PLATE XV. GILT BRONZE CROSS FROM ABYSSINIA.

(See p. 181.)

WALL-CASES 23-30 181

Wall-Case 25.

On the wall of the case is a linen grave-tunic from Egypt, possibly
from Akhmim (Panopolis) with tapestry ornament in the form of
stripes and medallions (clavi, orbiculi) ; among the designs may be
recognized the Virgin and Child, and, in the larger medallions,
the Adoration of the Magi (fig. 99). On the shelf are framed
tapestry fragments from El Azam, between which is a fragment
of the sixth century, probably from Akhmim, with a woven design
representing a mounted figure, and the word Zacharias in Greek
characters, perhaps the name of the weaver who produced it in
Alexandria (fig. 100). A few fragments of tapestry from Wadi
Sarga are also exhibited.

On the bottom of the case is an ossuary of the type mentioned
above, from Jerusalem, with a series of pottery lamps of the fourth
to the sixth century from Ehnasya, Egypt, illustrating the de-
gradation of a design composed of a frog (cf. p. 175) and two ears of
corn. There are also a few ampullae which could not be accom-
modated in Wall-Cases 23 and 24.

Attention may be drawn to the ossuary with incised designs in
the bottom of the adjoining Wall-Case (26). It was found in a
burial cave on the Mount of Olives, on land belonging to John
Gray Hill, Esq., by whom it was presented. It bears at the top
of one end incised inscriptions in Greek and Hebrew, stating that
it contained the bones of Nikanor ' who made the gates '. This
Nikanor is mentioned both in the Talmud and by Josephus, and
the gates were those in the Temple of Herod called by his name.
The character of the inscriptions points to an early date in our era.

Wall-Cases 26-3O.
Upper Fart, including the shelves.

Objects relating to the Abyssinian Church (cf. p. 114). The
thick wooden altar-tablets are used to support the model tabernacle
called tabut, supposed to copy the Ark of the Covenant brought
from Jerusalem by Menelek I, son of Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba ; the example in the middle of the shelf, Case 26, should be
noted. In Cases 27-8 is a silk altar-cloth with woven figures ;
and Cases 27-3O contain an interesting series of brass processional
crosses, among which attention may be called to the fine example
in Cases 27-8, engraved with religious subjects (plate XV). Other
objects worthy of notice are the silver chalices and paten and
a silver chalice (fig. 103) : bronze and silver censers ; two silver
ornaments from tops of ceremonial umbrellas, one with a painted
medallion of St. Michael; a manuscript upon skin (p. 156) in
Ge'ez, the liturgical language of Ethiopia ; objects used in the
religious dances which form an important part of Abyssinian

182 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

services, notably the priests' rattles (sistra) shaken to accompany
the dancers. On the wall of Case 26 is a modern religious painting
in vivid colours with the Virgin and Child, angels, and a mounted
saint transfixing a dragon. The bronze patera (No. 534, fig. 12) is
stated to have come from Nubia.

Bottom of the Cases.

Case 26 contains the inscribed ossuary noticed above (p. 181).
In Cases 27 and 28 are various objects almost entirely from Egypt :
fragments of flat pottery dishes of red ware impressed with
Christian designs ; a pottery lamp with inscription ' 0 God, the
Father Almighty ', and an ostrakon bearing a Greek receipt for
taxes dated A. D. 135 found with it on the island of Elephantine,
near Assuan, by Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener; other pottery
lamps which should be studied in connexion with those in Cases
23 and 24 ; plaster seals (Nos. 958-68) from wine-jars with
religious subjects, the sacred monogram, or inscriptions (fourth to
seventh century) ; inscribed pottery tiles ; limestone stamps ;
crutch used by Abyssinian priests as a support during long
services or for beating time in religious dances (cf. fig. 102).

The lower part of Cases 29 and 3O is mostly occupied by small
objects from Egypt : bone panels carved with floral designs and
human figures, in the Hellenistic style of Alexandria ; pectoral cross
and two pendants, each with a rudely carved figure of St. George and
the Dragon; two carved wooden panels, one with an inscription;
two wooden stamps (Nos. 981, 982) ; a wooden comb with Arabic
inscriptions found at Akhmim ; two circular cakes with Greek
inscriptions used in the Coptic Church (p. 69) ; ivory fragments,
possibly parts of a casket, with incised and painted ornament ;
a pair of Coptic gilt leather slippers, a pair of sandals, etc.

On the south wall of the gallery above Cases 17 and 18 is a large
Abyssinian religious picture upon canvas with the Crucifixion,
obtained by Mr. J. Theodore Bent in 1893 and presented by him
to the Museum. Like the engravings upon the metal crosses, it
shows traces of Western (Portuguese) influence in the treatment of
the central subject ; for instance, the feet of Our Lord are pierced
with a single nail, whereas in Eastern Crucifixions and in the
West up to the thirteenth century, the feet are nailed separately.
The picture was found cast on one side, because the colours were
somewhat faded, in the Church of the Saviour of the World at
Adowa ; but it cannot be of any great antiquity, as many of the
accessories of costume and equipment are similar to those in use
in Abyssinia at the present day. Bound the principal subject are
grouped smaller scenes representing events in the history of Our
Lord ; among these are the Flagellation and Entry into Jerusalem.

TABLE-CASE A 183

Table-Case A.

The east side of the case is devoted to small objects, mostly of
hronze, and money-weights of bronze and glass (see p. 138). Atten-
tion maybe specially drawn to the intaglio plaque No. 543, represent-
ing a figure, possibly an emperor, riding into a town (sixth century) ;
to the Byzantine bronze-gilt plaque of St. Theodore (No. 544,
fig. 27) ; bronze relic-crosses (c. twelfth century), chiefly found
in Egypt and Asia Minor (Nos. 558 ff.), the example, No. 559,
fig. 16, being specially worthy of notice. Nos. 425-84 are exagia
or standard money- weights (p. 138), with their denomina-
tions usually inlaid in silver on the upper surface. Many of
the examples, which chiefly date from the fifth and sixth
centuries, have on them the names of prefects and officials control-
ling the standards of weights and measures, as is the case with
Nos. 433, 435, and 436. Occasionally imperial busts occur, and on
No. 444 is the name of Theodoric, showing that these weights
were used in the Gothic dominions of Northern Italy. Sometimes
the surfaces have inlaid busts, and in the pound-weight (No. 483,
fig. 89) two military saints are represented. The adjoining small
circular glass money- weights (Nos. 660-85) are of the same period.
They are usually stamped on one side with a bust or monogram
accompanied by the name of an Eparch, or provincial governor ;
the majority come from Egypt and Syria.

Among other objects in the case should be noted the lead flasks
or ampullae, the most interesting of which is the example (sixth
to seventh century), from El Azam, Egypt (fig. 15), probably made
in the Holy Land and brought home by an early pilgrim. On one
side are the Maries at the Tomb, on the other is the Incredulity of
St. Thomas : such ampullae are believed to reproduce as far as
possible subjects depicted in the memorial churches at the Holy
Places (p. 30).

On the west side are engraved gems, cameos, carvings in precious
stones, rings, fibulae (brooches), etc.1

The earlier gems with symbolic subjects in the style of the
period of the Catacombs are in the upper rows, and comprise
examples of the Good Shepherd, the anchor with doves and
dolphins, the palm-branch, the dove, the ship or galley, and the
sacred monogram. Nos. 25 (526) (fig. 85) and 26 (527) deserve
especial attention on account of their size, and because they are
engraved with composite subjects, each combining the Good Shep-
herd with the History of Jonah. Attention may be also drawn to
Nos. 11-16 (512, 513, 1, 2, 514, 515) which are engraved with accla-
mations, Nos. 12 and 14 bearing also the names of the recipients,

1 Where two catalogue-numbers are quoted, the first refers to the Catalogue
of Early Christian Antiquities, the second, in italics, to the Catalogue of Engraved
Gems.

184 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

Deusdedit (God-given) and Eogatus ; to No. 10 (511) which repre-
sents a triangle, perhaps symbolic of the Trinity ; to No. 43 (544)
(fig. 55), which is a very early example of the Crucifixion (see
p. 88) ; and to No. 48 (540) (fig. 28) not later than the fourth
century, which has a fish engraved in intaglio upon the emerald
of its bezel.

Below the gems of earlier type are arranged others of rather
later date, including three (Nos. 93-5) with early Byzantine
monograms of about the sixth century, and a sapphire (No. 96)
with a cruciform Byzantine monogram of similar date, perhaps
representing the name Thomas. There are also a few cameos of
Byzantine workmanship ; No. 105, 7, of about the eleventh cen-
tury, represents St. John the Baptist ; another (No. 104, 6, fig. 86)
has a very exceptional treatment of the Annunciation, the Arch-
angel Gabriel being represented in the form of a winged genius in
the classical style. Next to these are several larger cameos, or
rather carvings, in heliotrope, jasper, and steatite, some of them,
such as the bust of Our Lord (No. 106, 8, fig. 87), considered to
date from the eleventh or twelfth century, others being probably
later.

Among the collection of rings without gems are a number of
Early Christian and Byzantine examples of bronze, silver, and
gold. No. 49 (fig. 30) is a remarkable ring, perhaps of the fourth
century, with an openwork inscription, Accipe dulcis multis annis
1 Accept (this present), sweet one, (and may it be yours) for many
a year ! ' showing that it was once a gift and perhaps a betrothal
ring. No. 50 has engraved on it in Latin, Arborim, may si thou live
in Christ/ with the sacred monogram between Alpha and Omega ;
and the next few rings and bezels 6f rings, some of which are
engraved with portraits in intaglio, are inscribed with acclamations
of a similar character. No. 60 has a monogram with a cross, and
No. 77 the later form of the sacred monogram (4?) in openwork.
The lower rows contain Byzantine rings, some of which, like Nos.
190 (fig. 82) and 207 (fig. 31), are of very fine workmanship and
go back perhaps as far as the fifth century, while others like
Nos. 120, 168, and 189 (fig. 83) are only a century or so later. Nos.
171, 177, and 178 have typical cruciform monograms (cf. fig. 96),
and No. 143 has the Greek inscription common on Byzantine rings :
0 Lord, preserve the wearer. No. 129 (fig. 32) is a fine example of
a well-known class of Byzantine gold and nielloed marriage-rings
of about the tenth century, to which the succeeding numbers also
belong. Upon the bezel may be seen Our Lord blessing the bride-
groom and the Virgin blessing the bride, while below, in Greek, is
the word Concord ; on the sides of the octagonal hoop are repre-
sented scenes from the history of Our Lord. No. 121 has on the
bezel the Annunciation with ' Hail, thou art highly favoured ' (St.
Luke i. 28). On the bezel of No. 130 Our Lord stands between

TABLE-CASE A 185

the bride and bridegroom with His hands upon their shoulders,
the inscription being Concord, as before ; round the hoop is a further
Greek inscription, part of St. John xiv. 27, 'My peace I give unto
you '. Nos. 131 and 132 have almost identical subjects. No. 133
differs in having only the busts of Our Lord and the bride and
bridegroom upon the bezel. The silver ring, No. 142 (fig. 84), has
a Medusa-like face upon the bezel, with seven radiating serpents,
showing that it was worn as an amulet for protection against
disease or accident, the design being commonly employed for this
purpose. Round the hoop is the inscription noticed above: Lord,
preserve the wearer, which also occurs upon the adjoining numbers
(fig. 84). The gold rings, Nos. 171 (fig. 96) and 172, afford a good
example of the commonest form of Byzantine monogram, the
letters of the name being distributed on the extremities of a cross.
This type of monogram is especially frequent between the eighth
and tenth centuries. The large gold ring, No. 210, the hoop of
which is moulded to represent two hares, has for bezel a coin of the
Emperor Marcian (A.D. 450-7), and can thus almost certainly be
assigned to the fifth century. No. 211 belongs to the sixth
century, the coin which forms the bezel bearing the effigy of
Justinian.

The gilt bronze buckle and belt-plates with classical figures in
relief (Nos. 258-61) may date from the third or fourth century.
They were found on the site of the Tombs of the Prophets at
Jerusalem with the fibula (No. 257) bearing a cross, which is
perhaps of the late fifth century, and the rock-crystal spindle-
whorls (No. 262 and 263), which resemble similar objects found
in Early Teutonic graves in northern Europe.

Table-case B.

The eastern half of the case contains the collection of gilded
glasses. Nos. 608-10, 612, and 613 show portraits of husbands
and wives with names and acclamations, No. 608 being pagan in
character with a figure of Hercules in the centre, No. 613 having
in the same position a small figure of Our Lord holding a wreath
over the two heads (see above, p. 135) ; No. 610 (plate X) includes
a little girl named Lea who stands between her parents, the field
being occupied by the sacred monogram, a wreath, and the in-
scription. No. 615 is an example of a Jewish subject, showing
the seven-branched candlestick, the ram's horn (shofar), the citron
(ethrog), and bundle of branches (luldb), all objects used at Jewish
feasts ; and No. 619 (plate XI) represents Daniel destroying
the dragon of Bel with the cake, as related in the Apocryphal
History of Bel and the Dragon, verse 27. Nos. 630 (plate X)
and 631 are examples of the youthful and ideal portraits of
Christ characteristic of the first centuries of Christian Art (see

186 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

p. 86) ; No. 636 represents St. Peter and St. Paul, in this case
both alike, and not showing the usual differences mentioned on
p. 87 ; No. 605 is a portrait of an official or scribe holding a scroll,
and with a case of styli for writing near his head ; and No. 603
(plate XI) shows us a gladiator (retiarius) named Stratonicus, with
his trident in his hand, and an inflated skin for practising boxing
in the background. The box with a glass top contains the
remarkable flat glass disk No. 628 (fig. 91), covered with
designs etched in gold foil, and heightened by colour, found in
1866 in Cologne in a cist containing the burned bones of a woman
(see Wall-Cases 3 and 4). Though it probably had a protecting
glass, the designs have suffered much from exposure and attrition.
The surface is divided into eight compartments with Biblical
subjects. Reading from the top round to the left, these are: two
scenes from the Story of Jonah, Daniel in the lions' den, the Three
Children of Babylon in the fiery furnace, the Healing of the young
man born blind, the Widow of Nain, the Healing of the paralytic
and the Dream of Ezekiel. In the centre was probably the Good
Shepherd ; remains of an inscription round this scene include the
word Dulcis, and it was probably an acclamation to a departed soul.

Other Early Christian glass, not gilded, includes a fragment of
a bowl with part of the motto drink and live in Greek characters ;
a fish of blown glass, No. 654 ; and a fragment from a cup, No. 655,
with a fish in relief. The six large bone rings, No. 988, are
from the Catacombs, and are said to have been impressed in the
mortar of the loculi, like the gilded glasses. Above the disk
are the fragments of a bowl of transparent glass (No. 629), also
found at Cologne, studded with small blue and green medal-
lions with Scriptural subjects. Among these may be mentioned
Adam and Eve, the sacrifice of Isaac, the Three Children in the
fiery furnace, the Story of Jonah, and Daniel with the lions.
Beneath are a number of medallions once forming part of
a similar bowl. Of the subjects which they represent will be
found : Jonah and the Monster, Daniel, Lazarus in his tomb,
and Our Lord carrying the rod or wand which is assigned to him
in Early Christian Art as the emblem of miraculous power. The
case also contains a number of fragments, one or two modern
attempts at the reproduction of gilded glass in the old style, and
two medallions, one representing a boy, the date of which is
uncertain.

In the western half of the case are jewellery and other ornaments
with reproductions of coins. The coins reproduced, which range
from the reign of Constantine I (about A. D. 314), to that of Valens
(about A. D. 368), illustrate the cross, sacred monogram, and the lab-
arum(p. 79) ; the original of the medallion of the Emperor Justinian,
now lost, was formerly in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. The
jewellery includes a necklace, ear-rings, and a pierced disk (fig. 78),

TABLE-CASE B 187

from a large chain covering breast and back (sixth century) found
in Egypt (probably at Antinoe) and given by Mrs. Burns ; a
bracelet of the same period (No. 279, fig. 81) with pierced designs
and a bust of the Virgin on the ' clasp, from Egypt or Syria ;
gold buckle-plates with imperial busts in niello, found with coins of
Constantius in Asia Minor, and dating from the fourth century
(Nos. 253-4), a small reliquary of the tenth century, with a nielloed
representation of the Nativity on the front, a cross with monogram
on the back and an inscription showing that the contents were
relics of SS. Cosmas and Damian (No. 284) ; two gold pectoral
crosses, one (No. 285, fig. 79) with an inscription (Galatians vi. 14),
the other (No. 287, fig. 80) with nielloed figures of Our Lord, the
Virgin in the attitude of prayer between two angels, and
a military saint (St. Theodore or St. George) transfixing a dragon
with a spear ; a cross-bow shaped fibula (No. 264), perhaps of the
fifth century, with a Greek inscription : The Grace of God ; various
gold ear-rings, including examples of the lunate type, also found in
barbaric graves in Hungary (sixth to seventh century) ; and a later
jewelled and enamelled pectoral cross (eleventh to twelfth century).
The ear-rings (No. 267) may be specially remarked for their early
cloisonne enamel -work, in the form of birds and rosettes.

(

Objects outside the Cases.

In the north-east corner (above Wall-Cases 4 and 5) is a Coptic
limestone capital of the sixth century from Tell esh-Shurafa near
Heluan, Egypt ; in the south-east corner (above Cases 12 and 13)
is part of a slab of grey stone carved with a cross in relief within
a circle ; in the south-west corner is the capital of an engaged
column carved with two figures ; in the north-west corner is a grey
stone cornice with arcading and a cross in high relief.

Standing on the floor in the south-west corner is a marble slab
carved on both sides in oriental style (p. 127, fig. 75) with animal
and other designs, including the double-headed eagle and the foun-
tain of living water surmounted by the pine cone. It is said to
have come from a church at Miafarqin, north-east of Diyarbekr, and
dates from the period between the tenth and thirteenth centuries.

Objects in other parts of the Museum.

Iron Age Gallery (adjoining). The Franks Casket (p. 67) is ex-
hibited in a special case between the Table-Cases. Enamelled
brooches (cf. p. 145) and the Anglo-Saxon royal rings (p. 68) are
in Table-Case D. The so-called * pillow-stones ' from Hartlepool
carved with crosses (p. 67) are on the shelf in Wall-Cases 34-5.
The silver chalice from Trewhiddle, Cornwall, is in Wall-Case 52,
the stoup from Long Wittenham (p. 68) in Wall-Case 38, the

188 DESCRIPTION OF CASES

gold cross with coin of Heraclius in Table-Case D, and the
Ostrogothic enamelled brooch in Wall-Case 61.

Room of Roman Britain. The Eoman pewter service from
Appleshaw, Hants (p. 66), is exhibited in Wall-Case 47. The
metal ingots from Battersea stamped with the Sacred Monogram
are seen in Table-Case A.

Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. Koom V,
Second Northern Gallery, contains an important collection of
Coptic antiquities, including a number of sculptured tombstones
and capitals.

In the Fifth Egyptian Koom are Coptic textiles (Table-Cases
G and H) and Gnostic gems (Table -Case I).

King Edward VII Gallery. The ivory carvings (described above,
pp. 169, 170) are exhibited in Bay xx, Table-Case and Pier-Case A, B,
and C.

North-west Staircase. On the walls are several pavement mosaics
found at Carthage, of which some are Christian. No. 7 (probably
fifth century) is covered with semicircles rising from chalice-
like vessels, with peacocks and other birds in the field and
in one part a hart and a hind drinking from a fountain of four
streams with the word FONTES (streams) ; another (fig. 49) has
also harts drinking from a vase ; crosses are seen in other parts of
these mosaics.

Mausoleum Basement (Department of Greek and Roman Anti-
quities'). A late-Koman sarcophagus (No. 2320, fig. 52) has on the
front a representation of the marriage-feast of Cupid and Psyche.
The subject was one of those adopted in Christian art, and the general
restraint of the treatment, with various iconographical details,
such as the fish on the table in front of the couch, and the peacock,
emblem of immortality, have led some authorities to regard the
sarcophagus as Early Christian.

Department of Manuscripts. Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
belonging to this Department are exhibited in the Grenville
Library, Cases 1 and 8. The latter case contains the twelfth-
century Psalter of Melisenda, wife of Fulk, Count of Anjou
and King of Jerusalem, with fine carved ivory covers of the same
date (Nos. 28, 29, Catalogue of Ivory Carvings).

INDEX

Abraxas (Abrasax), 162.

Abuna, 154.

Abyssinia, 6, 98, 154-7, 181, 182.

Adiabene, 4.

Africa, 12, 13.

Alpha and Omega, 80.

Altar-cloth, Abyssinian, 181.

Altar-tablets, Abyssinian, 114, 181.

Ambon (ambo), 100.

Amida (Diyarbekr), 4.

Ampullae, 179, 180, 183.

Anchor, 77.

Anchorites, 6, 26.

Anglo-Saxon antiquities, 68.

Animals, symbolical, 78.

Arikh (crux ansata), 81.

Antioch, 4.

Appleshaw, pewter from, 66, 128, 171,

188.

Arab Conquests, 42, 43.
Arabia Felix, 6.
Archangel, diptych with, 169.
Architecture, 91-9.
Arcosolia, 72.
Arians, 159.
Armenia, 4.

— influence of, 42.
Armorica, see Brittany.

Art, influences on Christian :

Late-Hellenistic, 17, 18.

Syrian, 18-20.

Persian, 20, 21.
Arts, 116-52.
Asia Minor, 6, 7.
Asterisk, 112.

Athos, Mount, 52, 55, 120, 167.
Augustine, St., 60.

Basilica, 91-4.

— interior of, 99, 100.
Battersea, pewter from, 66, 171, 188.
Belfries, 97.

Bells, 97, 98.

Bema (presbyterium) , 100.

Bewcastle, cross at, 61, 66, 126.

Bracelets, 133.

Brancaster, ring from, 66.

Britain, Early Christianity in, 56-68.

Brittany, 11,57,58.

Brooches, 183, 185.

Bulgaria, 7.

Cameos, 136, 184.
Cancelli, 100.

Carthage, 12.

Carthage treasure, 175, 176.

Casket of Projecta, 174.

Cassiodorus, 34.

Casts of ivories, 169-71.

Catacombs, 69-76.

Cathedra, 100.

Cedar panels, Coptic, 154, 171, 172.

Cemeteries, 74.

Censers, 118, 167.

Chalices, 68, 106-10, 129, 172.

China, 6.

Christ, portrait of, 85, 86.

Churches, English, 61-4.

Churches, models of, 172.

Ciborium, 103.

Cist, sepulchral, 171.

Cloisonne :

Enamels, 45, 144, 145, 187.

Jewellery, 131, 145.
Coins, 137, 138, 178, 179.
Colatorium, 111.
Cologne, 10.
Constantine bowl, 172.
Consular diptychs, 170.
Coptic Churches, 98.
Copts, 31, 152-4.

Corbridge, silver vessel from, 65, 128.
Costume, 89-91.
Cotton Genesis, 122.
Cretan School, 121.
Cross, the, 80, 81.
Crosses :

Pectoral, 131, 187.

Processional, 114, 181.

Relic-, 183.

Russian enamelled, 167, 168.
Crown, penitential, 168.
Crowns, marriage-, 135.
Crucifixion, 88, 89.
Crutch, Abyssinian priest's, 155, 182.
Cupid and Psyche, 81, 82.
Cuthbert, St., coffin of, 67.
Cyprus treasure, 173.

Dates, list of, 163-6.

Dating, system of, 73.

Dextera Dei (Domini), 86.

DiaJconikon, 97.

Diptych, ivory liturgical, 114, 172.

Diptychs :

Consular, 170, 171.

Ecclesiastical, 113, 114.

190

INDEX

Disk, gilded glass, 110, 171, 186.
Dome, 94.
Dorsetshire, 65, 66.
Dove, 78.

Ear-rings, 132, 133, 187.
Ecclesiastical use, objects of, 106-16.
Edessa, 4, 30.
Egypt, 6, 31, 32, 152-4.
El Azam, 173, 181, 183.
Embroidery, 152.
Enamels, 45, 144-7.
Encaustic painting, 121.
Esquiline treasure, 127, 128, 174.
Ethiopian manuscript, 181.
Eutychians(Monophysites), 159, 160.
Evangelists, symbols of, 81.
Exagia, 138, 183.

Fan, liturgical, 111.
Fibulae, 183, 185.
Finger-rings, 133-5.
' 76.

Fish

Flabellum, 111.

Fondi d'oro, 140-3, 185, 186.

Franks Casket, 67, 68.

Fresco, 121.

Gandhara sculptures, 25.

Gaul, 10, 11, 36, 46.

Gems, engraved, 136, 183, 184.

Georgia, 4.

Germany, 12.

Glass, 139-44.

Glasses, gilded, 135, 140-3, 185, 186

Glass vessels, 106, 144, 172.

Gnostic objects in England, 66, 162.

Gnosticism, 160-2.

Goldsmith's work, 130-6.

Gospel Covers, 113.

Gospels :

Edgmiatsin, 122.

Lindisfarne, 68, 122.

ofRabula, 122.

Rossano, 122.

Greek Church, 157, 158, 167, 168.
Greek-Cross churches, 95, 96.

Hadrumetum, 13, 76, 176.
Baikal, 104.

Hand-bells in churches, 98.
Hartlepool, 67.
Heresies, 159-62.

Iconoclasm, 40-2.
Iconography, 76-91.
Iconostasis, 102.
Ikons, 102, 167, 172.

Illuminated manuscripts, 122.
India, 6.
Indictions, 73.
Inscriptions, 72-5.
Intaglio gems, 134, 136.
Interiors of churches, 99 ff.
Ireland, Christianity in, 57-9, 60
Italy, 9, 10.
Ivories and casts :

in British Museum, 169, 170.

in other collections, 170, 171.
Ivory carving, 125, 126.

Jacobites, 160.
Jewellery, 131 ff.
Justinian, medallion of, 186.

Labarum, 79.
Lamp-holders, 102, 167.
Lamps :

Bronze, 167, 175.

Pottery, 179, 180.
Lampsacus treasure, 175.
Lance, Holy, 112.
Liber Pontificalis, 111.
Lindisfarne, 59.
Lindisfarne Gospels, 67, 68.
Liturgical diptych, 114, 172.
Lombards, 43, 45.
Long Wittenham, stoup from, 68,

187.

Mandorla, 84.

Manzikert, 49.

Marriage-crowns, 135.

Marriage-rings, 134, 135.

Maximianus, chair of, 125.

Melchites, 160.

Melisenda, Psalter of, 52, 188.

Mesopotamia, 4.

Moesia, 7.

Monasticism, 6, 26, 34, 35, 51.

Money-weights, 138, 183.

Monogram, the sacred, 79, 80.

Monophysites (Eutychians), 159, 160.

Monothelites, 160.

Monte Cassino, 34, 51.

Mosaics, 78, 121.

Mural paintings, 104, 105.

— from Wadi Sarga, 117, 177, 178.

Narthex, 92, 100.
Nestorians, 159.
Nimbus, 82, 83.
Nisibis, 4.

Northumbria, 59, 66.
Nubia, 6.

INDEX

191

Orans, 81 .
Orpheus, 81.
Ossuaries, 180-2.
Ostraka, 177, 182.

Painting, 116-23.

Paintings, Abyssinian, 182.

Paintings, mural, 104-6.

Pala d'Oro, 145.

Palestine, 2, 4, 30.

Palm-branch, 78.

Panel-picture, 173.

Panels, carved cedar, 154, 171, 172.

Pantokrator, 105.

Patens, 110, 111, 129.

Patera, bronze, 182.

Pebble, inscribed, 168.

Perigueux, 97.

Persia, 4, 15, 20, 24, 32, 43.

Pewter, stamped, 66, 128, 171, 188.

Pilgrims' flasks, 179, 180, 183.

Pillow-stones, 67, 187.

Polycandela, 102, 167.

Pottery, 147, 178-182.

Presbyterium (bema), 100.

Projecta, casket of, 174.

Prothesis, 97.

Pyx, forms of, 112.

Pyxides, casts of, 169, 170.

Rattles, Abyssinian priests', 114, 156,

182.

Ravenna, 28, 97, 117, 125.
Reculver, 62, 63.

Rings, Anglo-Saxon royal, 68, 187.
Rings, finger-, 133-5.
Romano- British antiquities, 61-6.
Rome, 9, 10, 28, 36, 43-5.
Russia, 8, 9, 52.

Russian enamelled crosses, .167, 168.
Ruth well, cross at, 61, 66, 126.

Saints, representations of, 87, 88.
SS. Cosmas and Damian, 117, 177,

187.

St. Mark's, Venice, 51, 95, 97.
St. Menas, 169, 180.
St. Peter's, Rome, 93.
SS. Sergius and Bacchus, 173.
Sarcophagi, 74.
Scandinavia, 12.
Scotland, 56-7, 59,61,65.
Sculpture, 123-7.
Seals, 137.
Seleucia, 4.
Serbs, 7, 53.

Shepherd, the Good, 77, 78.
Ship, 77.

Sicily, 52.

Silchester, 56,61,65, 66.
Silk, 149-152.
Silk- worm, 150.
Silversmith's work, 127-130.
Simantron, 97.
Spain, 11,12.37,47.
Spoon, eucharistic, 111.
Spoons :

Inscribed, 174, 175.

Ornamented, 173.
Stag, 78.
Stamps :

Bronze, 173.

Limestone, 182.

on Byzantine silver, 129.
Steelyard- weight, 175.
Strainer (colatorium) , 111.
Subsellia, 100.
Swastika, 81.
Symbols, 76-84.
Syncretism, 17.
Syria, 4, 18, 23, 28, 117.

Tapestry, Coptic, 149, 181.

Tempera, 121.

Textiles, 147-52, 168, 181.

Thames, stamped pewter from, 66,

171, 188.
Thrace, 7.
Tiles, 182.

Tombstones, 74, 75, 176.
Traprain silver treasure, 65, 111, 128,

174, 175.
Treves, 10.
Trewhiddle, chalice from, 68, 108,

187.

Triangle, 79.
Tunics, fragments of Coptic, 168.

Ulfilas, 8, 9.

Vaults, 94.

Venice, 51.

Vestments, 115, 116.

Victoria and Albert Museum, 47,

122, 149.
Vine, 79.

Virgin, portrait of, 86, 87.
Visigothic bronze vessels, 172.
Visigoths, 36, 37, 38, 47.

WadiSarga, 177.

— Mural painting from, 117, 177,
178.

— Objects from, 176-9.
Wine-jar seals, 182.

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