CHAPTER V.

THEIR PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE.

Primitive Christian art almost a new subject of Christian archæology—Most of the paintings in the Catacombs, and the best of them, belong to the first four centuries—Resemblance between the most ancient specimens and cotemporary works of Pagan art—Pagan forms of ornamentation freely used, but Christian subjects—The Good Shepherd—Peculiarities in the mode of treatment—Symbolical character of early Christian art; examples, the anchor, lamb, dove, fish—Typical representations of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, followed by the Resurrection, in the Sacramental chapels of St. Callixtus—Biblical subjects, Noe, Jonas, &c.—Representations of Christ and His Apostles, and of His Holy Mother—Three successive periods in the development of Christian painting before the age of Constantine—Characteristics of each—Sculpture not so freely used by Christians at first—Subjects carved on sarcophagi 61