. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. atus and Nereus andAchilletis there are ])aintings of the second and third centuries, but they are not of reli-gious subjects at all, and might as well be the decoration of a Pagan tomb as of a catacomb. Tliey are tlu* Cultivation of the Vine in Pretextatiis, and the Four Sea-sons in St. Xereiis. . There are no religious subjects before the time of Constantine,au«l during the fourth and fifth centuries the ])aintings are confiiud entirely to scriptural ciiiasriAN AIM 111 11,( I
. A history of architecture in Italy from the time of Constantine to the dawn of the renaissance. atus and Nereus andAchilletis there are ])aintings of the second and third centuries, but they are not of reli-gious subjects at all, and might as well be the decoration of a Pagan tomb as of a catacomb. Tliey are tlu* Cultivation of the Vine in Pretextatiis, and the Four Sea-sons in St. Xereiis. . There are no religious subjects before the time of Constantine,au«l during the fourth and fifth centuries the ])aintings are confiiud entirely to scriptural ciiiasriAN AIM 111 11,( I ri;K those chambers was (liscjoveiod hy Dc Kossi, in 1857, in what lias Hineebeen presumed to bo the cemetery of l*rctextatus. He (lescribes itas a hir<;e sipiarc apartment, with walls of excellent brickwork, whichhad been lined throughout with (rreck marble, — the ceiling being ahigh elliptical vault terminating in a sipiarc luminarium. The wholesurface of the vault was covered witli a fine; white plaster and de(;o-rated with bands of floral ornament in fresco of great delicacy and. Fig-. 2. Cubicula arranged as a Church. beauty. One side wall was pierced by an arched recess for a sarco-phagus, and an inscription here enabled the explorer to identify thechamber as the tomb of St. Januarius. The wall of the tomb towardsthe corridor from which it opened was of yellow brickwork, and the subjects. There is not a figure of a saint or martyr before the sixth century, and very fewbefore the eighth, when they become abundant. Catacombs, p. xi., introd. The vaults were generally divided ixito geometrical compartments or panels separatedby ornamental bands, with a circular or polygonal panel in the centre. The panels in-closed pictorial subjects, generally classical in character and treatment; often symbolic,as. The Vine, The Fish, The Good Shepherd, etc., etc. The walls, especially the wallunder the arch of the arcosolium and often above the arch, were sometimes decorated ina sim
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectarchite, bookyear1901
