figure wore only a cloth round the loins and the

Church. The altar crucifix was generally of gold and silver, adorned with pearls or precious stones"."

Christ, the good Shepherd, carrying a lamb on His

Art Journal.

Y

shoulders, is of very frequent occurrence on the lamps, the glass vases, and the fresco paintings: sometimes, as in the instance here selected, He is surrounded by bunches of grapes.

"The lamb was used to designate the meek and

faithful Christian; twelve such, in regular procession,

Italian sculpture, xth century

represented the Apostles: and a thirteenth, more exalted than the rest, adorned with a nimbus, was our Saviour;" this generally carried a cross, or banner, and was called the Agnus Dei, in reference to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world;" it is also the emblem of purity. This illustration (see preceding page) is from Italian sculpture of the tenth century. The figure of the cross in each limb of the cross of the nimbus is worthy of remark.

As the Greek word for a fish, IxerΣ, contained the initials of the name and titles of Christ, ̓Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς, Σωτὴρ, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour, the figure of a fish was one of the earliest Christian symbols". M. Didron contends in his Iconographie Chretienne, that

IHCOYC
Ο

XPEICTOC

this emblem on the tombs in the catacombs of Rome, only signified that the person buried there

was a fisherman; this may have occasionally been the case, but we cannot agree in its being an invariable rule, indeed, many of the illustrations we give, prove the contrary. The rough outline of the fish, formed of two curves meeting in a point at their ex

d For other examples see Calendar, pp. 98-9.

tremities, was also used as bearing the same signification, under the name of vesica piscis. This was subsequently used to enclose the figure of our Saviour in His glorified

state, the Father, the Holy Trinity, the blessed Virgin, or the patron Saint, and displayed in the pediments, or over the porches of Churches, as objects destined to call forth the recollection of these holy personages. Fishes are also emblematic of Christians generally, in allusion to the call of the Apostles, (Matt. iv. 19,) or to the supposed meaning of the mi

raculous draft recorded in Vesica, from Ely Cathedral. John xxi.

果

The monogram of the name of Christ, formed of the two first letters of the word in Greek, X and P, is the celebrated sign which appeared in the sky at noonday to the Emperor Constantine and his troops, and was afterwards adopted by him on

his standard and his coins, and called the

Labarum. It is also continually found on rings, lamps, &c., in the tombs of the early Christians. "Ears of corn and bunches of grapes were frequently used as typical of the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist:

the processes of

the vintage were
also exhibited to
denote the holy

works of Christians in the vine-
yard of the faith. The vine, and

a vine-leaf, with a bunch of grapes, were another emblem of Christ the true Vine, (the grapes sometimes symbolize the disciples, John xv. ;) the crown of thorns and the instruments of the crucifixion were likewise common decorations; and a palm-branch was often placed in the hands of a saint, or martyr, to mark the triumphs of the cross. Stags approaching a vessel of water, stand for the souls of the faithful thirsting after the living waters, in allusion to Ps. xlii." The palm-branch signifies also victory over death, and was in later times especially, given only to martyrs of the Church. Rev. vii. 9. The stag approaching, or drinking at a stream, also symbolized the soul longing after God, or for the waters of baptism; a hart by itself sometimes means a leader of the erring.

e See also pp. 98-9, and account of Constantine, p. 209.

See pp. 52, 162.

Hope's Architecture.