File:The church in the catacombs - a description of the primitive church of Rome - illustrated by its sepulchral remains (1846) (14595367610).jpg

Identifier: churchincatacom00mait (find matches)
Title: The church in the catacombs : a description of the primitive church of Rome : illustrated by its sepulchral remains
Year: 1846 (1840s)
Authors: Maitland, Charles, 1815-1866
Subjects: Catacombs Christian art and symbolism Church history
Publisher: London : Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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Text Appearing Before Image:
In this fragment of a sarcophagus, the usuallicence of early art is perceived: the mighty fur-nace of the plains of Dura is reduced to a mereoven in three compartments : and the fourth figure, like unto the Son of God, is omitted. The figures of Daniel appear in every degree ofrudeness ; although the subject, requiring, as it wasthought, a knowledge of the nude, presented diffi-culties equal to that of Adam and Eve. Thespecimen annexed is from a Catacomb painting. TBE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN ART. 255
Text Appearing After Image:
The Good Shepherd, a character appropriated byour Saviour, was an emblem not unknown to Pa-ganism. The sylvan deity Pan was ancientlyrepresented by sculptors with a goat thrownacross his shoulders, and a Pans pipe, or syrinx, inhis hand. According to Pausanias, the people ofTanagra worshipped Mercury under the name ofCriophorus, or the Eam-bearer; and Calamis exe-cuted a statue of Mercury with the ram borne onhis shoulders. The yearly feast in his honour waskept by one of the youths bearing a lamb roundthe walls of the city.* The Roman poets alsomake allusion to the custom of carrying a stray orneglected lamb on the shoulders of the shepherd.Calpurnius thus addresses a friend employed in* Pausanias, lib. ix. 256 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN ART. farming: Think it not beneath you, when visit-ing the sheepfolds at night, to bear on your shoul-ders the exhausted sheep, and to carry in yourbosom the trembling young.* Tibullus also: Be not too indolent to carry home in yourbosom the lamb or kid

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