CHRIST IN ART. The representations of the person of the Saviour which for a suc CeSsion of ages have constituted one of the most important subjects of Christian art, and have occupied the highest genius of Christen dom, are all ideal. The attempt to represent the personal appearance of the Saviour can hardly be traced back further than the age of Constantine. The origin of Christian art, in ideed, has been traced to the •catacombs of Rome, and is not to be considered as springing directly from Pagan although the great Italian masters of the Middle Ages may have derived much instruction from classical models; byt the painting and sculpture of the early Christians were chiefly allegorical, representing the moral of the gospel parables or similar symbolic representations of Christian doctrine, without regard to historical accuracy of por traiture. At a later period legends arose of various likenesses of the Saviour having been preserved by miraculous means. For example, King Abgarus of Edessa had a napkin sent him by the Saviour himself, in which he had caused his likeness to be miraculously impressed by placing his face in it. A portrait is said to have been similarly impressed on a handker chief of Saint Veronica, and Saint Luke is said to have taken one himself. An apocryphal letter of Lentulus, the predecessor of' Pilate, ad dressed to the Roman Senate, contains a descrip tion of the person of Jesus. One of the earliest
professed portraits of the Saviour is in the Calixtine Catacomb near Rome. He is repre sented with the hair parted on the forehead, and falling over the shoulders in long waving locks. In regard to this common representation it may be observed that when Saint Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians there were probably many Christians scattered over the world who remembered the personal appearance of the Saviour, and if this representation of it had been correct he would hardly have written to a Christian church that it was contrary to nature and a shame for a man to have long hair. The great painters of the Middle Ages, to whom we owe the ideal representation of Christ, probably founded somewhat upon these early notions. A Christ of the 4th century with an oval face, Oriental features, parted hair and a short straight beard is said to have been the model 'for the Byzantine and Italian painters •till the time Michelangelo and Raphael.
Consult Jameson, Mrs., (History of Our Lord, as Exemplified in Works of Art' (2 vols., Lon don 1883) ; Kraus,