iosity of Eve, Ulysses closing his ears to the Sirens was the
Christian resisting the tempter. The pagan Orpheus charming the
animals of the wood was finally adopted as a symbol, or perhaps an
ideal likeness of Christ. Then followed more direct representation in
classic form and manner, the Old Testament prefiguring and emphasizing
the New. Jonah appeared cast into the sea and cast by the whale on dry
land again as a symbol of the New Testament resurrection, and also as
a representation of the actual occurrence. Moses striking the rock
symbolized life eternal, and David slaying Goliath was Christ
victorious.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--CHRIST AND SAINTS. FRESCO. S. GENEROSA,
SEVENTH CENTURY (?).]

The chronology of the Catacombs painting is very much mixed, but it is
quite certain there was degeneracy from the start. The cause was
neglect of form, neglect of art as art, mechanical copying instead of
nature study, and finally, the predominance of the religious idea over
the forms of nature. With Constantine Christianity was recognized as
the national religion. Christian art came out of the Catacombs and
began to show itself in illuminations, mosaics, and church
decorations. Notwithstanding it was now free from restraint it did not
improve. Church traditions prevailed, sentiment bordered upon
sentimentality, and the technic of painting passed from bad to worse.

The decline continued during the sixth and seventh centuries, owing
somewhat perhaps to the influence of Byzantium and the introduction
into Italy of Eastern types and elements. In the eighth century the
Iconoclastic controversy broke out again in fury with the edict of Leo
the Isaurian. This controversy was a renewal of the old quarrel in the
Church about the use of pictures and images. Some wished them for
instruction in the Word; others decried them as leading to idolatry.
It was a long quarrel of over a hundred years' duration, and a deadly
one for art. When it ended, the artists were ordered to follow the
traditions, not to make any new creations, and not to model any figure
in the round. The nature element in art was quite dead at that time,
and the order resulted only in diverting the course of painting toward
the unrestricted miniatures and manuscripts. The native Italian art
was crushed for a time by this new ecclesiastical burden. It did not
entirely disappear, but it gave way to the stronger, though equally
restricted art that had been encroaching upon