on disfavor in which statuary was held did not extend in early times to the bas-relief, and by far the greater pro portion of early Christian sculpture is to be found in the reliefs carved on the front and the ends of the marble sarcophagi executed by artists of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. These interesting works were found in great numbers in the catacombs and in the aboye-ground cemeteries, and arc of every degree of artistic excellence, according to the period, and also whether they were to be the resting-place of a noble Roman like Junius Bassus or of a citizen of low degree. At first Christians were often obliged to use sarcophagi made in pagan workshops, as they had none of their own; but soon their intense aversion to making use for so solemn a purpose of objects which were sometimes carved with mythological subjects led them to free themselves from this dependence, and then there arose, in the fourth century, a regular school of Christian sculptors whose works may be found scattered throughout Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, hut whose great centre was Rome.
Sarcophagus- f Junius fine example is given in Figure 2, which reproduces the front of the white marble sarcophagus of Junius Ilassns, prefect of Rome, who died in 359 A. D.; this, now in the crypt of St. Peter's, is one of the richest, and at the same time most artistic, of the sarcophagi. We are at once struck by the symmetry of the whole, by the beauty of the architectural decoration, and by the artistic group ing of the figures. In the upper row a rich cornice is supported by colonnettes of the Corinthian order ; below, similar eolonnettes support alternate shell-like semicircles and pointed gables. The subjects of the compositions enclosed in these architectural frames are taken from both the Old and the New Testament, but all either typify Christ or are incidents of his life on earth. Christ is the central figure in each row, but the arrangement of the scenes is not successive, though for convenience we shall name them in order, beginning at the left. Up per rozo: (t) Sacrifice of Isaac; (2) Arrest of Peter; (3) Christ enthroned between Peter and Paul, to whom he is giving the book of life; (4) The arrest of Christ; (5) Pilate washing his hands. LOWer (I) Job and his wife; (2) Adam and Eve, the tree and the serpent; (3) Christ entering Jerusalem; (4) Daniel in the lions' den; (5) Paul led to execution.
One of the peculiarities of many Christian as distinguished from pagan sarcophagi is this division into small separate compartments; whereas in the classic relief a single uninterrupted composition is made to cover the entire front. The figures of Christ on this sarcophagus are youthful and beardless—similar, in fact, to those seen on most of the sarcophagi of this period, when as yet no personal type of the Saviour had been cre ated. In the middle scene above, Christ is represented enthroned in heaven with the earth as his footstool, which is typified by the half-figure of a man holding over his head a garment of semicircular shape. The love of sym metry is shown, for example, in the group below, in which Daniel stands with outspread arms in the attitude of prayer. Of the two figures placed on each side of him, one may represent the prophet who visited him, but the other was evidently added for artistic reasons. The scene where Pilate
is about to wash his hands is perhaps the most remarkable of the series, both for the beauty of the figures and for the good rendering in Pilate's expression and attitude of the doubts that tortured him. Over the lower arcades are some charming scenes of which the drawing gives but the faintest outline; their especial interest lies in the fact that the figures are all lambs and show the symbolic character of these early sculptures. A lamb stands in the fiery furnace in the place of the three youths; a lamb (Moses) strikes water from the rock, receives the tables of the law; a lamb (Christ) multiplies the loaves and the fishes, performs baptism, raises Lazarus. Another fine example is given in Figure I (pi. 19).
Character of Early Sculpure.—The subjects above enumerated give a general idea of those represented in early Christian art; it is unnecessary to present here a more complete list, especially as this will be done to some extent in the chapter on the paintings of the catacombs. It may be interesting to acid that a careful study shows the subjects carved on the sarcophagi not to have been chosen at random from the sphere of Christian art, but to have had an intrinsic relation to their use, being generally expressive of personal Christian faith, of submission to the divine will, and of confidence in a future life. Throughout, this art was strictly symbolical and suggestive to the Christian of thoughts and aspirations transcending the subject itself.
Pr:anti/re . fri.—Toward the close of the fourth century the decadence in artistic excellence becomes apparent, and increases in the fifth century. Of the latter period, some sarcophagi at Ravenna are good examples. The art of these sarcophagi is strictly Roman, but were there not in the East during this period artists whose works we should know ? Most certainly. But at first there was no difference in style, and throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire—in Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and Greece— there flourished an art characterized by more or less uniformity. Very soon, however, as the political breach between the Eastern and Western empires increased, the artistic difference became more apparent, and already in the fifth century we can trace the genus of what is termed Byzantine art. But the aversion among Christians to the use of sculp ture was far more intense in the East than in the West, and consequently there are but few examples of Eastern sculptures of any size; they can be found only in the smaller branches of carving—namely, in the industrial arts, and especially in MI/el:v.—Although carving in ivory did not at any time call forth the efforts of the best artists, it is still the most interesting branch of sculpture during the early and medkeval periods, because it furnishes the historian and the critic with numerous works in every century during this entire lapse of fourteen hundred years, and from it a most valuable comparative study can be made for epochs like that between 500 and moo A. D., for which few other specimens of the sculptor's skill remain. Dur ing those dark centuries we still find the carvers in ivory incessantly ply ing their trade, making consular and ecclesiastical diptychs, book-covers, pyxes, and reliquaries.