to a little chamber, which, they are told, is the identical studio where the apostle painted with his own hand her likeness; and there is a German "Kunst-Lexicon" in which the biography of St. Luke is given as the first Christian artist. Most of these so-called portraits are, however, considered to have been executed by a monk named Luca, who flourished about the eleventh century, when it became the fashion to paint the Virgin's complexion of the deepest brown or even black, in allusion to the passage in Canticles: "I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem!" It is these black Virgin pictures which always gain the reputation of working miracles.

Ancient types of St. Peter and St. Paul existed in the time of the Emperor Constantine. St. Peter is a robust old man, with a broad forehead and rather coarse features, an open, undaunted countenance, short gray hair, and short thick beard, curled and of a silvery white. "The priestly tonsure is said to have originated in the shaving of his head by the Gentiles, in order to bring him into derision. The keys in his hand appear as his peculiar attribute about the eighth century. He usually carries two keys, one of gold and one of silver-to absolve and to bind."

The portrait or image of St. Paul was known, according to St. Augustine, in the second century. Chrysostom speaks of himself as owning such a portrait, but gives no description of it. But tradition endows him with "a small and meagre stature, aquiline nose, high forehead, and sparkling eyes." He wears a white mantle over a blue tunic. His attribute is a sword, and he commonly carries a book or roll, in allusion to the Epistles.

With the accession of Constantine and the triumph of Christianity, art assumed a grandeur more proportionate to the grandeur of the faith. The Church emerged from the Catacombs, and magnificent basilicas were built, requiring a corresponding style of decoration. Fortunately for us, most of these decorations were in mosaic, and have thus often survived ruin and decay. The materials employed for this work were not merely bits of marbles, but also small cubes of stone and vitrified substances, such as may be examined to-day in the Pope's mosaic manufactory at Rome, where pictures are still extensively prepared. Some idea of the patience required may be gained from the statement that ten men labored for nine years on the mosaic copy of Raphael's Transfiguration, now to be seen in St. Peter's. The earliest, though much-damaged, mosaic remains which have come down to us date from the fourth century, and are discoverable on the vaulted roof of Santa Constanza, Rome, erected as the funeral chapel of the daughter of Constantine. They represent Christ and the apostles, while the ornaments of the arches are vinetendrils with little genii and symbolic signs, on a white ground.

But it is in the churches of Ravenna that we see the most ancient yet satisfactory specimens of the art. The baptistery of that city is peculiarly remarkable. Baptisteries are a special feature in Italian ecclesiastical architecture. They are circular or polygonal buildings, placed beside the cathedrals, and surmounted by cupolas whose vaulting is richly adorned with appropriate subjects. In the Ravenna baptistery is a singular representation of the baptism of our Lord, executed in the fifth century. Christ is standing in the water,

with the lower part of his figure visible through the waves, "while the river Jordan, under the form of a river-god, rises on the left in the act of presenting a cloth." Below the central figure are twelve colossal apostles on a blue background. The mosaics of SS. Nazaro e Celso, also at Ravenna, are extremely interesting; so are those of San Vitale, about A. D. 547, and of San Apollinare Nuovo.

In the new church of St. Paul without the walls, at Rome, are preserved some precious mosaics of the fifth century, rescued from the burning of the old basilica, portraying Christ adored by the twenty-four elders and four beasts of the Apocalypse. Mosaics of the same century, though considerably restored, may be studied at Santa Maria Maggiore. Over the arch of the tribune in the Lateran is a head of the Saviour, surrounded by seraphim. "Below is an ornamented cross, above which hovers a dove, from whose beak, running down the cross, flow the streams which supply the four rivers of Paradise. Harts and sheep flock to drink of the waters of life. In the distance is the New Jerusalem, within which the Phoenix, the bird of Eternity, is seated upon the Tree of Life, guarded by an angel with a two-edged sword. Beside the cross stand the Virgin and saints. All these persons are represented as walking in a flowery paradise, in which the souls of the blessed are sporting, and in front of which flows the Jordan."

But the finest mosaics of ancient Christian Rome may be inspected in the old church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano, near the palace of the Cæsars. There is the figure of Christ which has been called one of the grandest conceptions of primitive ages. He is coming in the clouds of sunset. "Countenance,

attitude, and drapery, combine to give him an expression of quiet majesty which for many centuries after is not found again in equal beauty and freedom."

Most of these mosaics are laid upon a blue ground. The transition to a gold ground gradually leads us to a change of style which marks what is termed the Byzantine period.

CHAPTER III.

BYZANTINE AND MINIATURE PAINTING.

AFTER the establishment of the Byzantine Empire by Constantine, with Constantinople as its capital, a school of painting began to rise, destined to supersede for a time all Roman art, which was apparently falling into premature decay. It was a school which flourished from the fifth to the thirteenth century, and was exclusively under the influence of the early priests and monks, many of whom were themselves artists. Its works display a singular contrast of intense and often extravagant symbolism with the stiffest and most conventional execution. Ecclesiastical art had now rooted itself as a power in the Church; but it was a power not without opposition. The decoration of churches and the growing splendor of Christian services had originated the charge of idol-worship, and roused the zealous anger of iconoclasts. One of the emperors even conceived the idea of entirely abolishing both pictures and statues; and the fierce conflict of a hundred years resulted in the triumph of painting, but the suppression of sculpture. It was regarded as a matter quite important enough for the legislation of general councils; and these councils considered not only whether sacred subjects should be represented at all, but also prescribed, in many instances, the mode of their representation. The Coun