flesh was
brown, the shadows green-tinted, giving an unhealthy look to the
faces. Add to this the gold ground (a Persian inheritance), the gilded
high lights, the absence of perspective, and the composing of groups
so that the figures looked piled one upon another instead of receding,
and we have the style of painting that prevailed in Byzantium and
Italy from about the ninth to the thirteenth century. Nothing of a
technical nature was in its favor except the rich coloring and the
mechanical adroitness of the fitting.

EARLY CHRISTIAN PAINTING: The earliest Christian painting appeared on
the walls of the Catacombs in Rome. These were decorated with panels
and within the panels were representations of trailing vines, leaves,
fruits, flowers, with birds and little genii or cupids. It was
painting similar to the Roman work, and had no Christian significance
though in a Christian place. Not long after, however, the desire to
express something of the faith began to show itself in a symbolic way.
The cups and the vases became marked with the fish, because the Greek
spelling of the word "icthus" gave the initials of the Christian
confession of faith. The paintings of the shepherd bearing a sheep
symbolized Christ and his flock; the anchor meant the Christian hope;
the phoenix immortality; the ship the Church; the cock watchfulness,
and so on. And at this time the decorations began to have a double
meaning. The vine came to represent the "I am the vine" and the birds
grew longer wings and became doves, symbolizing pure Christian souls.

It has been said this form of art came about through fear of
persecution, that the Christians hid their ideas in symbols because
open representation would be followed by violence and desecration.
Such was hardly the case. The emperors persecuted the living, but the
dead and their sepulchres were exempt from sacrilege by Roman law.
They probably used the symbol because they feared the Roman figure and
knew no other form to take its place. But symbolism did not supply the
popular need; it was impossible to originate an entirely new figure;
so the painters went back and borrowed the old Roman form. Christ
appeared as a beardless youth in Phrygian costume, the Virgin Mary was
a Roman matron, and the Apostles looked like Roman senators wearing
the toga.

Classic story was also borrowed to illustrate Bible truth. Hermes
carrying the sheep was the Good Shepherd, Psyche discovering Cupid was
the cur