bas reliefs on
Christian sarcophagi (on which see Raoul-Rochette, Tableau des
Catacombes, c. IV. Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. B. 2, in the
description of the Christian Museum in the Vatican Library). On
another class of Christian representations the reader may consult
Buonarruoti's _Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vetro, ornati
di figure_. We shall rather call the attention of the Christian
antiquarian to the numerous frescoes painted in the chapels of the
catacombs, and illustrated by Bosio, Bottari, d'Agincourt etc.,
the latter of whom attributes some of them to the second century on
account of the similarity of their style to that of frescoes in the
tomb of the Nasones, which is situated on the Flaminian way at a short
distance from Rome; his opinion is confirmed by the fact that some of
them have been broken through, with the view of preparing a place of
burial for the bodies of martyrs slain in _subsequent persecutions_.
A list of their subjects which are _generally_ taken from the old and
new Testaments may be seen in Raoul-Rochette (c. 3, p. 157 foll. ed.
de Brusselles). Of these we may briefly notice in particular some of
the representations of Christ, of the B. Virgin, of the apostles and
martyrs. In them Christ sometimes appears as an infant on the lap
of His holy mother, Who ever pure and modest is always veiled; and
this lovely group is found not only on these paintings, but also on
bas-reliefs and glass-vessels generally anterior to the 4th century,
and consequently to the general council of Ephesus held in 431;
although it is pretended that such figures were first designed after
that period. (Instances are enumerated by Raoul-Rochette c. VI).
Constantina, daughter of Constantine, whose tomb is still preserved
at Rome, begged of Eusebius bishop of Cesarea a likeness of our Divine
Saviour (Concil. Labbe. t. VII, 493 seq): we must have recourse to
the catacombs for His most ancient portraits. See one resembling
the ordinary type of His sacred head and taken from the cemetery of
Calixtus, at the end of Raoul-Rochette's work. This type, repeated
again and again on Christian monuments during the last sixteen hundred
years or more, may suggest the hope that some traces of our Divine
Saviour's features are still preserved among us, notwithstanding
the diversity of His portraits, of which S. Augustine complained, De
Triniti l. 8, c, 4 5. Raoul-Rochette's opinion, that this likeness and
the portraits of the a