A list of their subjects which are _generally_ taken from the old and
new Testaments may be seen in Raoul-Rochette (c. 3, p. 157 foll. ed.
de Brusselles). Of these we may briefly notice in particular some of
the representations of Christ, of the B. Virgin, of the apostles and
martyrs. In them Christ sometimes appears as an infant on the lap
of His holy mother, Who ever pure and modest is always veiled; and
this lovely group is found not only on these paintings, but also on
bas-reliefs and glass-vessels generally anterior to the 4th century,
and consequently to the general council of Ephesus held in 431;
although it is pretended that such figures were first designed after
that period. (Instances are enumerated by Raoul-Rochette c. VI).
Constantina, daughter of Constantine, whose tomb is still preserved
at Rome, begged of Eusebius bishop of Cesarea a likeness of our Divine
Saviour (Concil. Labbe. t. VII, 493 seq): we must have recourse to
the catacombs for His most ancient portraits. See one resembling
the ordinary type of His sacred head and taken from the cemetery of
Calixtus, at the end of Raoul-Rochette's work. This type, repeated
again and again on Christian monuments during the last sixteen hundred
years or more, may suggest the hope that some traces of our Divine
Saviour's features are still preserved among us, notwithstanding
the diversity of His portraits, of which S.
Pages:
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175