CHRIST, PICTURES OF. To represent the form and countenance of C. in a manner that shall even approximate to the latent ideal in the minds of men, is unquestionably the most sublime and the most difficult work which an artist can undertake. It is the highest pictorial effort of the creative faculty. From a very early period in the history of the church, we can trace the growth of the endeavor, At first, indeed, the horror entertained for the idols of the pagans, must have inspired Christians with an aversion to images or pictures of the Savior. Gradually, however, as paganism disappeared, and time removed C. further from his .people, this feeling would subside, and time would arise to possess some representation of him on which the eye might rest with pious delight. When Christian art originated we cannot precisely say; it is usually dated from the time of Constantine. Nevertheless—as lord Lindsay remarks, in his Sketches of the History of Christian Art (Loud. 1847)—" it would be more correct to say that it then first emerged above ground; its earliest efforts must be sought for in the catacombs." In these subterranean excavations, forming a maze of unknown extent and labyrinthine intricacy, to which the Roman Christians had recourse in the days of per secution, are to be found the first traces of Christian sculpture and painting. The sarcophagi of the martyrs and confessors, of the heroes and heroines, of the bishops, and, in general, of those of higher mark and renown, were painted over with the sym bols and devices of Christianity. The parables were the chief source from which these sepulchral artists drew their symbols. C. is painted as the good shepherd in the midst of his flock, or, with " pastoral pipe," seeking the. lost sheep, or returning with it on his shoulders. Sometimes he figures as an ideal youth in the bloom of his years;sometimea as a bearded man in the prime of life, sometimes as Orpheus surrounded by wild beasts cnrapt by the melody of his lyre. Such pictures, however, were only symbolical, and did not satisfy the religious craving for a portrait. The age of Constantine marks the transition from the symbolical to the pseudo-historical picture. We now had C. repre sented in the midst of his disciples, or in the act of performing a miracle; but it is not till about the close of the 4th c. that we actually encounter that type of countenance
which, which certain modifications, continued to rule the conceptions of artists during the whole of the middle ages. To vindicate this type, myths, at a later period, sprang into existence; and we read of a portrait of C. possessed by king Abgarus of Edessa, and imprinted on a handkerchief, and of another miraculously obtained by St. Veronica at the crucifixion; but there is as little foundation for these legends as for that which attributes to the evangelist Luke such a picture. The emperor Alexander Severus (230 A.D.) is said to have possessed in his palace an image of Christ. An antique mosaic, probably of the 3d c., which exists in the 111usen Christiana of the Vatican—where are to be found also some specimens of the frescos of the catacombs—gives an idea of the manner in which the heathen artists expressed their notion of Christ. He is depicted as a bearded philosopher in profile. A letter which Lentulus, the predecessor of Pilate, is declared to have written to the Roman senate, but which is evidently apocryphal, attributes to C. a figure and countenance of manly beauty. Towards the middle of the 8th c., John of Damascus gives a description which he pretends to have gathered from more ancient authors. According to him, C. was tall, had beautiful eyes, but the eye brows meeting; a regular nose, flowing locks, a black beard, and a sandy or straw-col ored complexion, like his mother. Among the most ancient representations of C. which profess to be portraits, are the two paintings in the Calixtine and Pontine catacombs near Rome, and which arc given in Arighi's Roma Subterranea Nara. The Savior is there represented with an oval visage, a straight nose, arched eyebrows, and high fore head. The expression is earnest and mild; the hair is parted on the forehead, and falls over the shoulders in waving locks; the beard is short and scattered. These two busts agree with the apocryphal letter of Lentulus, and the artist or artists who executed them, may possibly have employed it as a model. The majority of the Byzantine and Italian painters, down to the age of Michael Angelo and Raphael, adhered to this type.