4. EMBLEMS OF THE SAVIOUR. Christ, the good Shepherd, carrying a lamb on His shoulders, is of very frequent occurrence on the lamps, the glass vases, and the fresco paintings. An exceedingly beautiful instance, taken from an early fresco on one of the Catacombs, is here engraved; and in plate xli., No. 26, a similar figure will be seen represented on a lamp, the border of which is surrounded by bunches of grapes. Lambs are symbols of the meek and faithful Christians: a series of twelve represents the Apostles; amongst which a thirteenth, raised on an eminence and crowned with a nimbus, is our Saviour; this generally carries a cross, or banner, and is called the Agnus Dei, or "Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world;" it is also the emblem of purity. The illustration in plate xli. (No. 23) 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. The medallion marked No. 24 is from stained glass existing in Merton College Chapel, Oxford. It will be observed also that in this both the cruciform nimbus and the cross are introduced. As the Greek word for a fish, Ixerɛ, contained the initials of the name and titles of Christ, Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Deoû Yiòs, Σwτηp, 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 Chrétienne, that 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 allow that it was so invariably, since many examples seem rather to prove the contrary. The rough outline of the fish, formed of two curves meeting in a point at their extremities, was also used to express the same symbolical meaning, under the name of vesica piscis (No. 29). 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. It eventually became a very common form of ornament in Gothic work. 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 miraculous draught recorded in John xxi. There are three examples of the introduction of the fish given on the accompanying Plate. No. 25, besides giving the sacred name IESOUS CHREISTOS, exhibits an anchor with a fish on either side. No. 27 shews the three fish so combined as to represent a symbol of the Trinity. Both the above are from the tombs in the Catacombs. In No. 28 the two fish are placed side by side on a lamp, on the handle of which occurs the symbolic , pointing probably to their Christian interpretation. |