Monuments of the early church . re frequently figured. The commonest animal symbolsare the fish, the dove, the lamb, the hart, the hare, the fowl, and the peacock. ^^ IS but rarely foundin the Egyptiangraves. It was,however, a very an-cient art; it wasmuch used in Romeunder the Empire,and just subse-quent to our periodit was in frequentuse in the decora-tion of the greaterbasilicas. In par-ticular, the crosswhich ornamentedthe centre of thealtar cloth — thatis, of the frontal —was often workedin gold, and some-times embellishedwith pearls. Earlygold embroidery(as we learn fromthe few fragments
Monuments of the early church . re frequently figured. The commonest animal symbolsare the fish, the dove, the lamb, the hart, the hare, the fowl, and the peacock. ^^ IS but rarely foundin the Egyptiangraves. It was,however, a very an-cient art; it wasmuch used in Romeunder the Empire,and just subse-quent to our periodit was in frequentuse in the decora-tion of the greaterbasilicas. In par-ticular, the crosswhich ornamentedthe centre of thealtar cloth — thatis, of the frontal —was often workedin gold, and some-times embellishedwith pearls. Earlygold embroidery(as we learn fromthe few fragmentswhich have beenpreserved) was wrought with fine threads of pure gold; later,recourse was had to the method which is now common — wrap-ping a stout linen thread with strips of parchment or papercoated with gold-leaf. Gne gets an idea of the rich and heavycharacter of Roman embroidery in gold from the representa-tions of the toga picta upon the consular diptychs. The special interest of all these textile designs lies in the. Fig. 1T6. Curtain in the Victoria Albert Museum, Lon-don. Perhaps third century. CUBTAIXS AXD ALTAR CLOTHS 377 fact that they do not represent merely the local traditions andthe local art of a little town in Upper Egypt, but the cosmo-politan art and custom of the Empire (see p. 2). There ishardly anything which reveals more clearly the unity of cus-tom under the Empire than the fact that the same garmentswere worn and the same patterns prevailed in the heart of theEmpire and in its extremest provinces. The factories ofAchmim were doubtless intended to supply more than a localtrade; they must have received orders from Kome, and withthe orders the Classical patterns which were to be is this which explains the uniformity of textile workthroughout the Empire, and the subversion — as we see in thecase of Egypt — of the traditions of local art. Among all theEgyptian textiles there is hardly anything of a purely Egyp-tian character. The Orient
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