The Symbolism of Certain Catacomb Frescoes-I Author(s): Ethel Ross Barker Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs,

Vol. 24, No. 127 (Oct., 1913), pp. 43-45+4750 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/859450 . Accessed: 30/09/2013 22:48
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Early Furniture
arrivedat by a perfectlysimple and straightforward process of carpentry. Such is the genesis of the linen-panel; and such is virtually the primitive type in which it appears,for example, in the west door of Milton Church by Sittingbourne, Kent, or in the domestic panel-work of Wilsley House and the "Barracks", both at Cranbrook in the same county. The precise date of the earliest occurrence of the linen-panel cannot be determined; but it is found as an established ornamental motif by the middle of the 15th century (perhaps first in northern France) and remained in current use down to the close of the 16th century, or even later. For at any rate the first fifty years of its career, it continued to be an abstract ornament: but the accidental resemblance to the folds of drapery having once been noticed, the idea was eagerly seized upon and elaborated with characteristic exaggeration. The single arris of the original plain panel first became multiplied into three, four, five or even more arrises. But this was not enough. Folds to simulatethe appearance of a textile spread out and turned over on itself, were added in increasing complexity as time went on; a further imitative feature being sometimes introduced in the shape of an incised or punched pattern along the upper and lower edges to suggest an embroideredborder,or the selvedge of a textile. But from the purest to the most debased stage of the linen-fold pattern, its one invariablefeature is the central arris; while the treatment of the extremities admits of almost endless variation. The greatest licence in this regard was indulged in by German and Flemish woodcarvers. Sometimes these fantastic elaborations take the form of conventional flowers, fruits or foliage, beyond the extremities of the folds. Very rarely indeed is any extraneous object allowed to intrude itself upon the surface of the folds themselves. Thus the north door of the church of S. Mildred at Canterburyis altogetherexceptional, for there the uppermost row of linen-panels has a Tudor rose in the middle of each, whilst others have a superimposed shield [PLATE, D]. These specimens are thickly coated with paint, but the detail, with five arrises, is nevertheless unmistakably clear. A set of panels, showing three variant forms with a single arris between turnover folds [PLATE, A, B & c] is now made up into stallwork in the chancel of Tisbury Church, Wiltshire. The most striking is one of the narrowerones (9 in. wide) with a peculiarly short arris [c]. The third panel [B] is II1 in. wide, and all three are I ft. 2- in. high, sight measure. The framed panels [E], with a friezeof renaissance character,appear to be of about the year 1525. They no doubt belonged to a hall-screen or some other partition in a situation where they might be seen on both surfaces, for the stiles at the back are finished with carefully executed mouldings. The second and the lowest tiers of panels show the linen-pattern with fanciful leaf-like ornament at the extremities,while the third tier from the top comprises panels of one arris flanked by a somewhat involved series of turnoverfolds. The panels are uniformly 8J in. wide, their height varying from 19 to I9) in. The total height of the combined frame of panels is 7 ft. 6 in. by 4 ft. I in. This example is the property of Mr. F. Clements Harper,to whom thanksare due for his permission to reproduce it.

THE SYMBOLISM OF CERTAIN CATACOMB FRESCOES-I BY ETHEL ROSS BARKER

HE earliest examples of Christian art in Rome-the frescoes of the Catacombs- faithfully reflect something of the complex mind of that cosmopolitan and, in some respects, syncretistic community. A dispassionateexamination of their artistic form and of their inner meaning reveals some characteristics of the primitive Christian rather unlike the popular conception of him. The first fact that we seem to discern in the examination of the forms-literary, artistic,liturgical, doctrinal-in which the spiritual conceptions of Christianity clothed themselves, is the continuity of development, a spiritual evolution, from preChristian to Christian thought. So faras artisticstyle goes, the Catacombfrescoes are Hellenistic; there is scarcely one which would arrest the eye as remarkableif found on the walls of a house in Alexandriaor Pompeii. It is true that the ideas here depicted are very different. The few purely decorative subjects are discreetly selected: sun, moon and river god are seen, and man's toil through the four seasons; doves and peacocks flutter among foliage; Cupids and Psyches play among the flowers; shepherds and fishermen carry out their work in exquisite little pastoralscenes. One of the most beautifulexamples of such decorationis of the Ist century,in the noble Catacomb on the Via Ardeatina, the property of Flavia Domitilla, the niece of Domitian. I cannot forbear noting that last year some more graves were discovered here,and they have been identified, with very little doubt, as those of Narcissus and others mentioned in S. Paul'sEpistle to the Romans. This Hellenism in style is found equallyin Jewish and Christian subjects, among which there is scarcely one that cannot be connected with a

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The Symbolismof Certain Catacomb Frescoes

similar pagan representation. To mention a few only : the ark of Noah recalls the chest in which DanaEcrossedthe sea with the infantPerseus;Jonah reclines under his gourd in the pose of graceful abandonment seen in the drunken fauns beloved of Hellenistic art; his whale recalls the friendly dolphin of Arion; while the risen Lazaruscomes out of a classic tomb, quite unlike any Christian sepulchre of the period. But this Hellenism penetratesdeeper than mere form,for in the earliest days the Christianadopted for his own and, as we shall see later, interpreted in his own sense, the figure of Hermes bearing the sheep on his shoulders (Hermes Kriophoros) all probability, the fish symbol and the dove, from Syria and India. In this connexion we may note, in passing, how the persistent semi-paganism of the new converts
after the Peace of the Church (A.D.313) is reflected, [FIGURE I]; that of Orpheus with his lyre; and, in

in a temporarypagan reaction,in certain Catacomb frescoes. S. Augustine says :Look how many Christiansare half heathen; they have joined us with their bodies, but never with their heart and soul.'

Just at this period we find in the Catacombs a perceptibleincrease of purely secular subjects in the form of delightful little genre pictures : flowersellers, charioteers, wine-sellers, bakers. More remarkableare the rare mythological representations, different in spirit from the Orpheus and other pagan symbols of the early converts. In a strange syncretistic picture of the judgment after death a woman (Vibia) appears before the tribunal of Pluto (Dispater) and Proserpine (Aeracura). She is introduced by Mercury, the messenger, and Alcestis, while opposite stand the three "divine Fates" The conception, composition and execution are classic, and the names over each person leave no doubt as to the meaning of the picture. The story is continued in the adjoining fresco. Vibia is " introduced" by "a good angel" into the gardens of paradise, where, in properChristianfashion, she is partaking, all in the same picture, of the celestial banquet in the company of those who have been "judged in To return to the more primitivepagan-Christian symbolism. These slight manifestationsof the link in form, and sometimes in subject, with preChristianthought, bearwitness, I think, to a deeper identity ; that of religious consciousness. In some
sense, Paganism was the matrix out of which the jewel of Christianity developed. There is after all a great similarity in religious experience; and we find that man's conception of his relation to some power above himself has ever tended to crystallize itself into a belief in some divine sacrifice in which man shares,-materially and spiritually-by some
1 Serm. 2 in Migne, Patrologia Latina, t. 38, col. 423.

sort of communion, to approach which he must purify himself and by which he obtains immortality. Symbolizing and expressing these conceptions, we find universallya form of baptismor purification by water,some drama of a divine sacrifice, some form of communion-meal. These symbolic acts are then carried out by rites expressive of man's emotions-dance, procession, music, lights, and so on. At all periods the original conception, symbol and ritual are of necessity inadequate, and further liable to all manner of distortions. These universal beliefs were embodied in the worship of Osiris, Mithras, and the rest, at the moment when Christianitydawned on the world. To the primitive Christian convert it must have seemed that his old faiths were not overthrown, but realized and fulfilled. As of old he was baptized; was given, as one new-born, the symbolic milk and honey of the neophyte ;2 took part, year by year, in the divine Passion and Resurrection; and was admitted to Communion by means of the "Hostiam puramn,Hostiam sanctam, Hostiam immaculatam"-the pure, holy, and immaculate Host :-words found to-day in the Canon of the Roman Mass, and already ancient in the 4th century. " Et antiquum docunzentum novo cedat ritui'" rightly explains his attitude; and the Neoplatonic philosopher who knew the uncreated and creative Word-In principio erat verbumn-hadlittle difficultyin accepting the Christianmessage: et verbumn carofactum est. The learned Justin says :3 Justin (martyred about 166) was much occupied by questions of comparativereligion, and while he was wont, as were the other Fathers,to ascribe the numerous errors in paganism to the agency of demons, yet he, Clement of Alexandria (2nd century), and other writers all hold that Orpheus, the Sibyls, the Greek philosophers, had received some measure of the revelation of God. So it is that, at the very dawn of Christianity,we find depicted on graves of martyr,kinsman, or friend, the Good Shepherd, Orpheus, the fish, the dove . . all sacred symbols in pagan worship. These symbols, however, were interpreted in terms of Christian thought. A recognition of this simple fact would prevent some of the wild comparisons drawn between Christianity and paganism. While so much is uncertain, we are here at
least on sure ground; and I think we may say that all scholars who have an intimate knowledge of the catacomb frescoes are in agreement as to their meaning, with the exception of a few As Mgr. Wilpert' and others have subjects. pointed out, the significance of these paintings
Epist. Barnabas, 6; see later. Apol. II in Migne's Patrologia Gracca, t. 6, col. 459. 4 Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms.
2

All that philosophersor legislatorsatany time declaredor discovered aright, they accomplished according to their of the Word. portionof discoveryand contemplation

the judgment of the good ".

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(A) THE EUCHARISTIC

BANQUET.

BEGINNING

OF 2ND CENTURY.

IN THE

CATACOMB OF S. PRISCILLA

(B) MOSES STRIKING THE ROCK, THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES AND FISHES, THE EPIPHANY, MIDDLE OF THE 4TH CENTURY. IN THE CATACOMB UNDER THE VIGNA MASSIMO THE PARALYTIC.

ORANTES. NOAH, LAZARUS, DANIEL, TOBIAS, AND

THE SYMBOLISM OF CERTAIN CATACOMB FRESCOES-]

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The Symbolismof Certain Catacomb Frescoes

to the primitive Christian consciousness is revealed to us in a mass of contemporary literature-patristic writings, epigraphy, liturgy, and Acts of the Martyrs. In dealing with this large subject we will briefly summarize the results obtained, in a classification of the subject matter of the frescoes, and note what further light is thrown by them on the mentality of the primitive Christian. We will then discuss in detail certain of the frescoes, as an illustration of the method of investigation, and as a justification of the statements made in the classification. We may first remind the reader that the Catacombs which we are considering, about thirty in number, lie within a limit of three miles from the Aurelian wall, all along the roads which radiate from Rome to the farthest cities of the empire. The comparativelysmall portions excavated have yielded many hundred frescoes of the first four centuries (during which period the catacombs were used as a place of burial); and a few of the subsequent four centuries, when they were a place of pilgrimage. It is with the earlier frescoes only we are concerned here. The style of representation,as well as the primitive method of interpretation,is symbolic, allusive, allegorical. As an example: the two miracles of the feeding of the multitudes are alluded to under the symbol of seven (occasionally eight or ten) baskets of bread; sometimes the figure of Christ touches one of the baskets with a long rod. Thus these frescoes reveal the mind of the primitive Christian, which delighted in symbolism and allegory. If we exclude a very few subjects at present unexplained, or apparently unimportant, and those decorative and genre pictures referred to above, the remaining frescoes give us, at a very rough estimation, something like fifty subjects repeatedly represented. As regards the dating we may note, in passing, that three of these subjects [PLATE,B]-Noah in the ark, Daniel in the lions' den, the Good Shepherd-appear among the few Ist-century frescoes remaining. Most of the familiar symbols--Orpheus, the fish, the anchor, the dove, the orante -appear very early in the 2nd century; and by the end of the 3rd we have examples of nearly every known fresco. This period, well illustrated too in the literature, is the high-water mark of primitive Christian art. A very large number of
frescoes, but only a few new subjects, belong to the 4th century. The frescoes do not represent a number of disconnected incidents chosen at random, but fall into three definite groups-each being an exposition of some aspect of Christian These subjects continually appear doctrine. arranged in a cycle of perhaps half a dozen selected symbols on some single grave or chapel, and the Christian could read off, in those col-

located symbols, rightly interpreted, the main articles of his faith. These groups consist of:I. Those frescoes dealing with the LIFE OF THE might be expected in a place of the dead, and depict every phase of their existence. In addition to the frescoes to be discussed later,we may place in this group the primitive dove, the anchor, the palm and that oft-repeated woman's (rarely a man's) figure with suppliant hands-the orante-which probably represents the soul [anima, feminine]
DEPARTED. These form the vast majority, as

of the departed (occurring 153 times). II. Those frescoes representing OUR LORD,

either more or less realistically, or symbolically. Some of these are very beautiful, but the number is surprisingly few. Among them are repre sented :--Orpheus, who is a symbol of our Lord and the Incarnation (see later). This doctrine is expressedmore realisticallyin frescoes of the Birth in the Stable (one only), the Adoration of the Magi (one being of the early 2nd century) and the Madonna and the Child. (The significance of one of these so-called Madonnas is, I think, very dubious.) Further, there are represented the actual Baptismof our Lord (fromearly2ndcentury) (4 times), and various miracles of healing, nearly every one of these interpreted in a sacramental sense (see later). There is a doubtful Crowning with Thorns, and a Denial of S. Peter. Our Lord is represented (over Ioo times) as the Good Shepherd (from the Ist century). Chiefly in the more literal and practical 4th century He is depicted as teacher and law-giver among apostles, or evangelists: also as judging the dead, and rewarding the martyrs. Connected with this Christologicalgroup are the sixteen representations, so classic in execution, of Adam and Eve, symbols of that Fall of Man (" 0 felix Culpa") which caused the Incarnation. (from 2nd century) represent, directly, or usually symbolically, the sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism. Among the eucharistic frescoes may be placed, with certainty,severalof those representing scenes represent,not the Eucharist,but the celestial banquet in Paradise; a few the love-feast (the agape); but the subject bristles with difficulties. Other eucharistic symbols are the Sacrifice of Abraham (22 times), and the Changing of water into wine at Cana of Galilee. But the
favourite sacramental types are the fish symbol (see later), occurring, either as a type of baptism or of the Eucharist, very many times; the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes; and the meal after the Resurrection by Lake Tiberias (see later). Other types of Baptism are Noah in the Ark (also a type of deliverance from peril (32); Moses striking banquets [PLATE, A]. A few of those banquet III. The frescoes of the SACRAMENTAL group

the rock: (also, as we see in the liturgies, a

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Frescoes The Symbolismof Certain Catacomb

type of " deliverance from peril" and "'refreshment for the soul of the departed" (68); the Healing of the Blind Man (7) (see later); and the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda (15). The actual incident of Baptism is represented in that of our Lord (4), and of a Catechumen (4) (from 2nd century). It would be difficult to find any other subject in the Catacombs: for the numerous apparently historical incidents taken from those books which became later the Canon of the Scriptures (including Apocrypha, which, of course, is still retained in the Catholic Bible), are all to be interpreted either in a sacramental sense, or as a symbol for the departing soul of the deliverance God ever brought to His servants (see later). These frescoes are at one with the very earliest literature in revealing the minds of these first Christians as much preoccupied with doctrinal questions. The spirit, too, which in a place of burial repeatedly represented the Sacraments, must have held those Sacraments as the heart and soul of their faith. This last fact we might have alreadyforeseen when we consider the relations of Christianityto paganism to which we have referredabove. It is difficult to imagine that the Jew, with his sacrificialsystem, and the Gentile with his need (as revealed in his religions) of a sacramentalsystem, could have been satisfied by a faith which was not based on sacramentalism. It has been remarkedby some writers that in the Catacombs there are no representations of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. To refer to one among a hundred proofs that such a hierarchy existed from Apostolic days, we need only refer the reader to the Teachingof theApostles5of the very beginning of the 2nd century for minute details thereon. In the Catacombs themselves we find numerous inscriptions of bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, readers, exorcists, clerks (notarii) and sextons (fossores).6 After all, we do not depict on the graves of our dead, portraits of archbishop, bishop or parish priest-nor even ordination, nor the marriagerites. Proceeding to the second part of our discussion, it remains now to justify these statements by an examination of a few fresco subjects in the light of the literature contemporary with them, as an illustration of method, and so give a mere indication-a hint--of all that might be said on each subject. First let us consider the origin and significance of the Shepherd bearing the Sheep (of the Ist century and later). This youthful Good Shepherd with the lamb across his conception; its ancestry can be traced at least as far back as the archaic figure of Hermes bearing a sheep - Hermes the producer of fruitfulness in
5 The Didache, ed. Gibson.
* Marucchi, Epigrafia cristiana.

the flocks. There is a gulf fixed between that idea and the Christian interpretation " I am the good Shepherd". There is scarcely an early Christian writer who has not meditated on this symbol, but the words of the ancient prayerfor the dead in the Gelasian Sacrament' are surely inspired by the actual fresco, " Be merciful to him . . . Show Thyself to him the Good Shepherd and bear him on Thy shoulders". This Shepherd bearing the sheep, and often carryinga Pan's pipe and standing between two other sheep in a little pastoral picture is closely related to the subject of the Shepherd with pipe or pastoral staff in his hands guarding his flock - a figurefruitful in symbolism. One interpretation out of many is found in the authentic "Acts of Polycarp" (2nd century), in which our FIGURE I Lord is described as "the Shepherd of the Catholic Church all over the world". This aspect of the Good Shepherd is emphasized by the rolls of parch. ment often depicted in His hand or at His side: "Jesus Christ... the Good Shepherdand law-giver of the one flock ", says Clement of Alexandria(2nd century); and we find Abercius, Bishop of Hierapolis (2nd century),describing himself as "a disciple of the Good Shepherd". (See later.) Somewhat akin to this are the five frescoes of Orpheus represented, as in innumerable classic designs, in his long white robe, mantle and Phrygian cap, and bearing his lyre. He is usually surrounded by sheep only, but in the Domitilla fresco (4th century) by a delightful variety of beast and bird. Eusebius8 gives the Christian interpretation; namely, that the Orpheus-Christ is a type of the Incarnation:with his .. that
lyre Orpheus Greek fables relate tamed the wild beasts, and with the charm of his song drew the oak-treesafter him. Wherefore the all-wise and Word of God jthe Logos], when He healed all-harmonious with divers remedies the minds of men corrupted with manifoldiniquities,took in His hand a musical instrument fashioned by His own wisdom, even His human nature, and on it played a bewitching music; not, as Orpheus,to the brutes,but to minds endowed with reason. And He tamed alike Greeks and barbarians, and healed with the medicine of celestial doctrinethe fierce and brutalinstincts of their spirits.

shoulders [FIGUREI] is purely Hellenistic in artistic

7 Muratori, Liturgia Romana vetus, I, p. 44o, ed. 176o. in Pat. Grcac.t. 20, col. 1409. 8 De Laud. Constan., XIV.,

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The Symbolismof Certain Catacomb Frescoes

Eusebius is apparentlyonly developing Clement of Alexandria(2nd century),who calls the Logos-the Word Incarnate-" the musician harmonizing all things, the singer of the new song". Again, the FISHas depicted in the Catacombs is no longer the symbol of some oriental fish deity, but, as we shall see, an image of Christ Himself as revealed in Baptism and the Eucharist. As a type of Baptism the Fish-sometimes resembling a dolphin in form-is representedalone; or, as in a fresco of the Chapel of the Sacraments (2nd century) in S. Callixtus, as being drawn by a fisherman out of water flowing from a rock: in that water is depicted the Baptism of Christ. Let us see what the fathers have to say on this
point. return. Later, Paulinus, bishop of Nola (353-431), writes to bishop Delphinus as follows :-"n

To the Eucharistic idea in this hymn we will

I remember that I am made the son of the dolphin

There is, I think, an identificationin the writer's mind between bishop Delphinus, the dolphin (as a symbol of Christ), and Peter, as preeminently Baptism. There is no real confusion of thought in representingChristas at once Fishermanand Fish. Again Optatus of Milevis (4thcentury)interprets the fish which little Tobias carried and which healed his father Tobit of blindness, as symbolic of Christ.'1 This explanation of the symbol of the fish is in harmony with the earlier fathers, but it is in contradiction to the actual story of Tobias, who was saved by God from being devoured by a monstrous fish : and so Tobias (represented three times in the Catacombs) becomes one of the innumerable types of deliverance in time of peril which we shall consider presently. This explanation of Optatus implicitly connects the fishsymbol with Baptism, since one of the effects of Baptism was illumination, as explained by Justin Martyr 1
-" and that washing of baptism is called illuminathe " fisher of men ". The whole passage refers to

(Delphinus) that I might become one of those " fishes which pass through the paths of the sea" [Psalms]. I remember you are not only my father but my fisher [non pater sed Peter]. For you have put your hook into me to draw me forth from the deep and bitter waters of the world, that I might be made captive unto salvation. But if I am thy fish I should bring in my mouth the precious denarius, shining, not with the image and superscription of Caesar, but with the living and life-giving image of the eternal King, namely, faith and truth (fidem veritatis).

Elsewhere we find:-

But we, little fish, are born in water according to our Fish (IXOTN) Jesus Christ.

First Tertullian (16o-240) writes:--9

The elect are the celestial race of the divine Fish : they are the little fish born in the water which flows from that rock which is Christ, formed in his image, drawing from the quenchless source the knowledge of eternal wisdom.

Besides Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen (both early third century) and others repeatedly explain the story of Moses bringing water from the rock as a type of Baptism; and the subject occurs in the Catacombs no less than sixtyas eight times. Moses himself is a type of Peter,10 is testified by severalof the earlierfathers. Moreover, on one or two of the gilded glasses (vetri) found in the Catacombsthe scene of Moses striking the rock is depicted, but the word PETRUS is inscribed over Moses. I am inclined to think that the curious frescoes representing Our Lord touching the water-pots with a long rod (a symbolic representationof the miracle at Cana of Galilee) indicates the symbolic identity of MosesPeter-Christ, and further that this method of representation knits together the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist in the person of Christ: an idea which seems to appear in the double significance, baptismal- eucharistic, of the fish symbol, as we shall see. Clement of Alexandria (2nd century) refers to the fish and other pagan symbols (all of which we find in the Catacombs) in his directions to Christian women as to what rings they may suitably wear.n11
But let our signet rings bear a dove, or a fish, or a ship . . . or a lyre [symbol of Orpheus] . . . or an anchor ...and if there is a fisherman on it, remember the apostle (Peter) and his (spiritual) sons who are drawn forth from the water.

tion." Indeed, the healing of the blind man, as related in the Gospels, was considered a symbol of baptism by Clement of Alexandria, Ambrose and Augustine, and the subject is found seven times in the Catacombs. If there were any doubt about this implicit allusion, Optatus continues :plunged into the waters, so that that which was simply water is called piscina from piscis [fish]. And the name of that Fish in Greek contains in one word a host of holy names, for it is in Latin Jesus Christus Dei Filius Salvator.

He is that Fish who, at baptism, by invocation is

Piscina, of course, is merely an old classical word for a fishpond i The so called Sibylline acrostic (a set of verses in which the thirtyinitial lettersof the lines formed,

And in his hymn to "Christ the Saviour" (op. cit. III, 12) we read :S.. Fisher of Men who are saved; Who dost feed with sweet life the holy fishes saved from the perilous wave of the sea of vice ...

col. 690.

9 De Baptis., I, Pat. Lat., t. I, col. 1198. 10 Macarius of Egypt, Horn. 26, c. 23 in Pat. Gr., t. 34, 1 Pced. III, II, Pat. Gr., t. 8, col. 634.

observed. We find this play on the word in the 2nd-century Greek inscription of Autun, to be considered later: it becomes a commonplace in the fathers of the 4th and 5th century. It seems probable, but by no means proved, however, that the symbol of the fish was adopted either as being 12
13 14

SALVATOR) existed, probablyas a Christianforgery, as possibly early as the 2nd century. The fact that, in the Greek, this acrostic itself formed a second acrostic, IXOYO (fish), was also early

in Latin, the words JESUS CHRISTUS DEI FILIUS

Book of Tobit).

Ep. XX, Pat. Lat., t. 61, col. 249. De schis, Donat., III. 2, in Pat. Lat., ii (cf. Apocrypha, Apol. I, 61, in Pat. Gr., t. 6, col. 422.

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The Symbolismof Certain Catacomb Frescoes

a sacred pagan symbol, or on account of the Gospel associations with fish and fishermen; and that the presence of the divine name discovered in the word was only an additional consecration, and not the origin, of the symbol. In the next article we will discuss the fish as a Eucharistic symbol. [The illustrations are reproduced, by permission, from "Le Pitture delle Catacombe Romane", by Mgr. Guiseppe Wilpert.]

REVIEWS
ADMONITIONS OF THE INSTRUCTRESS IN THE PALACE.

by Ku K'ai-Chih in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, reproduced in coloured woodcut. Text by LAURENCEBINYON, Assistant - keeper in the Department. London: Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum.

A Painting

THE scroll ascribed to Ku K'ai-Chih is the greatest measure of Chinese painting in this country. Acquired at a small price in 1903 merely as an ancient Chinese painting, its authenticity as the oldest known painting by a great Chinese master has gradually been confirmed and established so that it now takes rank as one of the most important monuments of Chinese painting in existence. Hitherto it has been reproduced only partially and in black and white; the fullest account of it being that by Mr. Laurence Binyon in The Burlington Magazine, January, 1904. It was, therefore, a felicitous idea on the part of the Trustees of the British Museum to have the present admirable facsimile executed. In colour reproduction by means of woodcut the Japanese are indubitably supreme, and the Trustees have done well in confiding the work to the Kokka Company, through whose marvellous reproductions we in Europe gain most of our ideas of the masterpieces of Chinese art. The Japanese artists have accomplished this task with their usual skill and fidelity. So fastidious, indeed, is their connoisseur's reverence for an ancient masterpiece that they have given to their work almost the appearance of an original copy by some artist of the Ming time rather than of a mere reproduction. They have been so careful to avoid anything of the crudity of a modern reproduction, to preserve as far as possible the patina of extreme age that they have tended if anything to understate the sharpness and accent of the original. The result is not only a remarkable record and reminiscence of the original, but a work which in itself has the seductive charm of an exquisite bibelot. The reproduction has been made, in short, in the spirit of the great Imperial connoisseur, Ch'ien Lung, who used to pore so reverently over Ku K'aiChih's handiwork in the Lai-ch'ing pavilion, and who "at an odd moment in summer sketched in ink aspray of Epidendrum as an expression of sympathy with its profound and mysterious import". And indeed the work itself is well fitted to arouse such a connoisseur's reverence as that of Ch'ien Lung and of the modern Japanese reproducer. And herein lies the marvel of the work and the explanation of the almost certainly illfounded scepticism with which its attribution to the 4th century of our

era was at first received. Who would have thought that China had at that date arrived at this pitch of subtlety and refinement, had already conceived the spirit of the i8th century? But the doubts of its authenticity being now silenced-and Mr. Binyon's lucid and impartial statement of the case in the text of this work leaves little room for hesitationwe must make our conception of the development of Chinese art fit with this surprising fact. Indeed "I8th centuryness" seems to have been endemic in China. Confucianism was full of it, and Taoism, though it started with something too mystical and passionate to accord with that principle, adapted itself in process of time to this prevalent tone of Chinese civilization. Only the irruption of Buddhism for a time swept it away and gave us the profoundly spiritual art of the Wei and T'ang dynasties. We see then in the Ku K'ai-Chih an art of complete self-consciousness, with a delicate, almost ironical understanding the niceties of manner and of the subtleties of facial and bodily expression. It is like the work of some more sensitive, more sophisticated Carpaccio. And yet there comes through here and there-most definitely in the drawing of the utensils in the toilet scenesomething of that great primitive sense of style and form which represents the other element in Chinese art, the element opposed to Chinoiserie and "18th centuryness." It was this other element which was destined to supplant all the delicate fine-spun sophistications of Ku K'ai-Chih's art and replace it, in little more than a century, by the impressive and rugged intensity ofthe works at Li Lung Mien. This wasclearly one of the great revolutions in the history of art, a revolution which we may some day be able to trace in detail. At present we can only note the great gulf that has to be bridged between the Admonitions of the Instructress, perhaps one of the latest works of its kind, and the great imaginative work of the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries. There is much that is difficult to explain in the art of the period preceding Ku K'ai-Chih. One would naturally infer from an examination of the Admonitions that it was the result of a long tradition of such exquisitely refined illustration, and indeed some of the figurines in black earthenware which belong even to the pre-Han or very early Han periods show an extraordinary likeness to the elegant court ladies of Ku K'ai-Chih's scroll. And this would lead us to suppose that a similar delicate art persisted throughout the whole Han period. On the other hand many of the figures which are attributed to

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