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Symbolism and Realism in Post-Nicene Representations of the Eucharist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

R. L. P. Milburn
Affiliation:
Fellow and Chaplain of Worcester College and University Lecturer in Church History in the University of Oxford

Extract

Even after Constantine, at the beginning of the fourth century, had laid upon the Church, henceforth no longer a cult suspected of disloyalty and liable to persecution, the duty of acting as the cement which should bind together the threatened Empire, the verities of the Faith were customarily declared in Christian art as much by symbolic allusion as by representations of a fully descriptive character.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1957

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References

page 1 note 1 Apol., i. 66.

page 1 note 2 ii. 57.

page 1 note 3 Enarratio in Ps. ciii, i. 14; P.L., xxxvi. 1348.

page 1 note 4 The oldest example is probably that painted on the ceiling of the double cubiculum XY in the catacomb of Lucina (Wilpert, Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms, plate 25). The date is established as about a.d. 220 (Kollwitz, Das Christusbild des dritten Jahrhunderts, Munster 1953, note 8. Cf. F. Wirth. Römische Wandmalerei, 168.) A notable example of the same theme is provided by the inscription of Beratius. The rough and crude sketch that is scratched on the stone underneath the inscription shows, on the one side a hideous monster swallowing a man, on the other side a roaring lion, while in the midst the Good Shepherd bears on his shoulder a lamb which is thus kept safe from all the dangers that threaten (Quasten, J., Römische Mitteilungen 53, 1938Google Scholar).

page 2 note 1 Justin, Dialogus 8, Clem. Alex. Protrepticus, cxii. i. Tertullian, Apology, xxi. 7 and the frequent occurrence on sarcophagi of Christ represented as a philosopher; e.g. the sarcophagus of S. Maria Antiqua (F. Gerke, Die Christlichen Sarkophage der Vorkonstantinischen Zeit, plate 52).

page 2 note 2 This theme occurs about fifty times in the decoration of the Roman catacombs (K. Künstle, Ikonographie der Christlichen Kunst, i. 388). Cf. the Jonah sarcophagus in the Lateran Museum (F. Gerke, Chrisius in der spätantiken Plastik, plate vii).

page 2 note 3 This theme is found about twenty times in the Roman catacombs: cf. Excavations at Dura, Yale 1934, Report V, plate 50.

page 2 note 4 Kollwitz, J., Das Christusbild des dritten Jahrhunderts, Munster 1953, 19 and pl. 5Google Scholar.

page 2 note 5 Excavations at Dura, Report V, plate 46.

page 2 note 6 Adv. Haer., iv. 18, 5.

page 2 note 7 Ignatius, To the Ephesians, xx, cf. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., v, 2, 2.

page 3 note 1 G. Rodenwaldt in Cambridge Ancient History, xii, 565. The carvings on the Arch of Constantine are given as examples of ‘chronicle-like pictures’ which ‘enliven the symmetrical composition by many new and freshly-observed touches of realism’.

page 3 note 2 The lead towards this narrative style seems to have been taken in and around Antioch. At any rate the paintings in the house-church at Dura, which cannot be later than a.d. 260, are in advance of art-forms in the West.

page 3 note 3 This is the general rule, but examples that may be earlier have been discovered on gems and amulets in Roumania and Egypt (K. Künstle, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, i. 447). The Constanza cornelian is illustrated in O. Dalton's Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities in the British Museum, 1901, plate I.

page 3 note 4 As may be seen on the wooden door of Sta. Sabina at Rome, which dates from about a.d. 430. This is illustrated, with other examples, by L. H. Grondijs, L'Iconographie Byzantine du Crucifié mart sur la Croix (Bibl. Byz. Brux. I), 2nd ed. Brussels 1947; cf. J. Reil, Die frühchristlichen Darstellungen der Kreuzigung Christi, Leipzig 1904. The curious reticence about the Crucifixion, so unlike St. Paul's bold proclamation of the Cross, may have been due in part to fear of mockery from pagans (e.g. Celsus ap. Origen, In Celsum ii, 44; Julian ap. Cyril of Alexandria, Contra Iulianum, vi; P.G., lxxvi. 797), but the discovery of the Magic Square on the walls of houses at Herculaneum (J. Carcopino in Museum Helveticum, 1948) shows that the cross was valued as a protective charm before a.d. 79. Cf. D. Atkinson, ‘The Origin and Date of the “Sator” Word-Square’ in this Journal, ii (1951), i ff.

page 3 note 5 Ep., iv. 61 (to Olympiodorus); P.G., lxxix., 577. Very similar remarks are made by pope Gregory the Great in a letter to bishop Serenus of Marseilles (Ep., vii. 11; P.L., lxxvii. 1027): idcirco pictura in ecclesiis adhibetur ut hi qui litteras nesciunt saltern in parietibus videndo legant quae legere in codicibus non valent. The desire to educate was strong enough to overcome the scruples which had found expression at the Council of Elvira, held in 306 or a few years later: picturas in ecclesia esse non debere: quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus ne depingatur (discussed by W. Elliger in Die Stellung der alten Christen zu den Bildern in den ersten vier Jahrhunderten, 1930, 34–38).

page 4 note 1 Ep. ad Theoph. Imp., iii; P.G., xcv. 349. This letter, sometimes included amongst the works of John Damascene, is usually assigned to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. A vigorous appreciation of the educative value of pictures illustrating the courage of the martyrs is given by Gregory of Nyssa, who mentions a church elaborately decorated with a series of representations of St. Theodore's martyrdom (Oratio de S. Theod. mart.; P.G., xlvi. 737).

page 4 note 2 Actio IV. According to Choricius of Gaza, Ad. Marcianum (ed. Boissonade, 1846, 97), the church of St. Sergius at Gaza was decorated in the reign of Justinian with illustrations of the events of Christ's life closely comparable with those mentioned in the letter to Theophilus. The verses of Elpidius Rusticus (P.L., lxii. 543) describe a series of Old Testament events and their New Testament counterparts which were apparently to be seen on the walls of churches in the West towards the end of the fifth century.

page 4 note 3 Genesis xiv. 18. The altar-piece painted by Dirk Bouts for the church of St. Peter, Louvain, about 1465 is a notable treatment of this subject: Vloberg, M., L'Eucharistie dans l'Art, Paris 1946, 36Google Scholar.

page 4 note 4 Genesis xviii. 1–8. This theme became a popular one with Byzantine artists, and occurs on one of the most famous of all Russian icons, that painted by Andrew Rublev about 1410 for the monastery of the Trinity and St. Sergius, near Moscow. P. Muratov, Les Icones Russes, plate III. Cf. the fourteenth-century icon preserved in the Benaki Museum at Athens; Grabar, A., Byzantine painting, Geneva 1953, 192Google Scholar.

page 4 note 5 This is, however, by no means certain. The mosaic, though for the most part in excellent preservation, is somewhat defective here (Anthony, A History of Mosaics, 71 and plate vi). In Wilpert, Die römische Mosaiken und Malereien, plate x, the jar is not shown.

page 5 note 1 Clement of Alexandria, when discussing St. Paul's words (i Cor. iii. 2) ‘I fed you with milk’, likens the Christians to γαλακτφαγοι and declares τ αἶμα το ʛγου πεφανρωται ὡς γλα (Paed., i. 6; P.G., viii. 292 and 297). Later on, Ambrose (De Sacrum., v. 3) connected the words of the Song of Songs (v. 1) bibi vinum meum cum lacte meo with Eucharist.

page 5 note 2 F. Wirth, Römische Wandmalerei, plate xl; Wilpert, Die Malerien der Katakomben Roms, plate lxvi.

page 5 note 3 Passio S.S. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, iv., ap. Knopf, Ausgewählte Martyrerakten (3rd 1929), 37. The Amen is no doubt the Amen which was said or shouted at the end of the Prayer of Consecration (cf. 1 Cor. xiv. 16) while Tertullian (De idol., vii; De or., xiv) bears witness that the elements were received iunctis manibus. Cf. Dionysius of Alexandria ap. Euseb., H.E., vii. 9. Reference may be made to the repeated motif of lamb and milk-pail which occurs four times, in varying form, on a ceiling in the catacomb of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus. Wilpert, Die Malereien, plate xcvi. The connexion between sheep and the Good Shepherd is discussed and richly illustrated by H. Leclercq in D.A.C.L., xxxi s.v. Pasteur.

page 5 note 4 P.G., xcv. 382., cf. p. 4, note 1.

page 5 note 5 Illustrated in Garrucci, Storia della Arte Cristiana, vi. plate lv.

page 5 note 6 In the St. Medard Gospels at Soissons and on a fourteenth-century chalice preserved in the parish church at Naugard only three Apostles appear.

page 6 note 1 P. Muratov, La Peinture Byzantine, plate xxxiv.; D.A.C.L., ii. fig. 2339.

page 6 note 2 Sidonius, Ep., i. 11, 10.

page 6 note 3 Not necessarily to be interpreted as the prediction of betrayal.

page 6 note 4 Dolger, F. J., IXΘYC: das Fischsymbol in frühchristlicher Zeit, Rome 1910Google Scholar. Ivories and other objects in the shape of fish are illustrated in D.A.C.L., xiv. 1 1249–1250. The pre-Nicene evidence for Christian use of the symbol is summarised by Mathew, G., ‘The Origins of Eucharistic Symbolism’, in Dominican Studies (1953)Google Scholar where reference is made to the Epitaphium Abercii and to the inscription of Pectorius from Autun. See also Rauschen, G., Monumenta minora saeculi secundi, Bonn 1914, 3743Google Scholar.

page 6 note 5 Cyril of Alexandria draws out the comparison between manna and the Eucharist: Comm. in Ioh. Ev., iv; P.G., lxxiii. 561 and 581. The feeding with manna is shown on one of the panels of the door of Sta. Sabina in Rome, but paintings in the catacombs which have been thus explained are less certain.

page 6 note 6 De Baptismo, i.

page 6 note 7 Comm. in Mt., xiii. 10; P.G., xiii. 1120.

page 6 note 8 De Civ. Dei, xviii. 23, after a reference to IXΘYC as an acrostic.

page 6 note 9 xiii. 21 and xiii. 23. The same kind of imagery is found in a letter written about a.d. 397 by Paulinus of Nola (xiii. 11, ad Pammachium), where the Five Thousand are described as being filled with the five loaves and two fishes bestowed upon them by ‘Christ, the true bread and fish of living water’.

page 7 note 1 In Ioh. Ev. tract., cxxiii. 2; P.L., xxxv. 1966. Augustine went on to say ‘Ipse est et panis qui de caelo descendit,’ and added, ‘Propter quod dictum est Afferte de piscibus quos apprehendistis nunc? ut omnes qui hanc spem gerimus per ilium septenarium numerum discipulorum, per quem potest hoc loco nostra universitas intelligi figurata, tanto sacramento nos communicare nossemus et eidem beatitudini sociari.’

page 7 note 2 In Ev. Hom., xxiv. 5; P.L., lxxvi. 1187. Some MSS. read ‘refectionem’ for ‘resurrectionem’.

page 7 note 3 So, in the ninth century, Rabanus Maurus (Hom. in Evang. et Epist., viii.; P.L., cx. 150) writes ‘Quid significare credimus piscem assum nisi ipsum Mediatorem Dei et hominum passum? Ipse enim latere dignatus est in aquis generis humani, capi voluit laqueo mortis nostrae, et quasi tribulatione assatus est tempore passionis suae’. Rabanus took a particular interest in this symbol. He explains the occurrence of two fish thus (De Universo, viii. 5; P.L., cxi. 240): ‘pisces duo coniuncti quinque panibus, duo testamenta legis vel duo caritatis praecepta sive duae personae, regia et sacerdotalis.’ In the same work he refers thus to the parable of the dragnet: ‘et quidem boni pisces, hoc est boni homines, tunc recipiuntur in vasa, hoc est in aeternas ducuntur mansiones.’ Cf. Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Matt., viii. 17; P.L., cxx. 600.

page 7 note 4 Early examples of a Eucharistic meal with fish on the table are provided by the Milan ivory and by the wall-painting in S. Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna. The symbolic use of the fish seems to have been popular in the West before it was known in the East, but it occurs in the picture of the Last Supper in the Athos Gospel (27) now kept in the library at Leningrad. (Photograph in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, lxiv. 129; the manuscript dates from about a.d. 1000) and in certain of the Cappadocian churches, such as Toqale Kilissé (G. de Jerphanion, La Voix des Monuments, 1930, plate 44).

page 7 note 5 D.A.C.L., ii. fig. 1843, taken from Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches, i. fig. 11. It is not, however, quite clear whether the object in Christ's hand is a knife or a loaf of bread.

page 7 note 6 Further examples are given by E. Mâle, L'Art religieux en France, i. 410 ff., and by M. Vloberg, L'Eucharistie dans l'Art, i. 86 f. The carved capitals at Saint-Juan de la Pena and Saint-Nectaire (Puys de Dôme) show an apostle, placed next to Jesus, vigorously grasping the fish by its tail. At Saint-Nectaire the fact that the man is beardless identifies him with St. John.

page 7 note 7 Vloberg, op. cit., 88.

page 8 note 1 Jn. xiii. 4–15. This connexion is found in a number of French examples. (Mâle, op. cit., i. 420.) The foot-washing was held to prefigure the sacrament of penance.

page 8 note 2 For instance, on Conrad von Soest's famous altar-piece at Niederwildungen (a.d. 1404), Christ is shown in the act of distributing to the apostles pieces of the fish which has been cut up: O. Schmitt, Reallexicon zw Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 39.

page 8 note 3 In view, however, of the rich and widespread use of the symbolism of the fish, it is not necessary to say more than that artists were ready to combine details drawn from several sources in a general ‘Eucharistic picture’ with a fish on the table. On the use of the fish in heretical sacraments, see Goldammer, ‘Der Naumburger Meister und die Häretiker’, in Z.K.G., lxiv.

page 8 note 4 F. Wormald, The Miniatures in the Gospels of St. Augustine, Cambridge 1954, plates i and iv. With, this may be compared such ivories as the late Carolingian Diptych of Aachen: A. Goldschmidt, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der Zeit der karol. und sachs. Kaiser, Berlin 1914, plate xii.

page 8 note 5 See 14 below.

page 8 note 6 About a.d. 1050. R. Hamann, Die Holztür der Pfarrkirche zu St. Maria im Kapitol, Marburg 1926.

page 8 note 7 Journal of the Warburg Institute, ii. 271–6.

page 8 note 8 Usually Christ sits in the middle: only very rarely, as at Neuilly-en-Donjon (Burgundy), does He take his place at the left end in accordance with primitive iconographic tradition.

page 8 note 9 Vloberg, op. cit., 90.

page 9 note 1 Thus Dobbert, E., in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xiv. (1891), 189Google Scholar, suggests that the order of honour corresponds with the date of the call to the apostolate.

page 9 note 2 Jn. xiii. 23.

page 9 note 3 Cf. the position of Benjamin vis-à-vis Joseph as depicted in the seventh-century Ashburnham Pentateuch.

page 9 note 4 Lk. xxii. 8.

page 9 note 5 Jn. xiii. 24.

page 9 note 6 Ammonius of Alexandria (Fr. in Ioh., xiii. 4; P.G., lxxxv. 1481) regarded it as probable that Jesus began the foot-washing with Judas.

page 9 note 7 So in the twelfth-century mosaic in Monreale Cathedral, Sicily, in a nearly contemporary window at Chartres and in the elaborately carved tympanum over the west doorway of Strasbourg Cathedral.

page 9 note 8 W. Köhler, Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, i. 63.

page 10 note 1 A. Haseloff, Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, 1898, corrected in some respects by H. Graeven in Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1900, and by A. Munoz, Il Codice Purpureo di Rossano, 1917. The exact provenance of the manuscript has been disputed: Munoz argues strongly for Asia Minor as opposed to Syria.

page 10 note 2 Haseloff, fols. vi and vii; but better reproduced in the colour plates of Muñoz, vi and vii.

page 10 note 3 Illustrated in D.A.C.L., viii. 807, and xi. 1281 from Venturi's Storia dell'arte Italiana, i. 162.

page 10 note 4 This paten, along with two others, was discovered in 1908 and transferred to the museum at Constantinople: J. Ebersolt. ‘Le trésor de Stuma’ in Revue archéologique, 1911, 407 ff, plate viii (reproduced in D.A.C.L., xxx s.v. Patène).

page 11 note 1 E. Dobbert, ‘Das Abendmahl in der bildenden Kunst bis gegen den Schluss des 14 Jahrhunderts’, in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft (1892), 506 ff. and fig. 45.

page 11 note 2 This Byzantine treatment of the theme of the Communion of the apostles is to be found, with slight differences, in Coptic art; for example, in a Coptic MS. dated a.d. 1173 and preserved at Paris (Fonds copte, 13).

page 11 note 3 G. Bovini, San Vitale di Ravenna, plate iv.

page 11 note 4 M. Mazzotti, La Basilica de Sant' Apollinare in Classe, fig. 58.

page 11 note 5 Patristic commentary on these scenes is supplied by Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, iv. 25: Σαλμ γρ ρμηνεεται εἰρνη ἧς Σωτρ μν ναγρφεται βασιλεὺς, ν φησι Μωυσς Μελχισεδκ, βασιλεὺς Σαλμ, ἱερεὺς το Θεο το ὑΨστου, τν οἰνον κα τν ἄρτον τν γιασμνην δδους τροφν εἰς τπον εὐχαριστας. Cf. Cyprian, Ep., lxiii. (ad Caecilium); P.L., iv, 387: Nam quis magis sacerdos Dei summi quam Dominus noster Jesus Christus, qui sacrincium Deo Patri obtulit hoc idem quod Melchizedek obtulit, id est panem et vinum, suum scilicet corpus et sanguinem? Remarks of a similar nature are found in Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xvi. 22.

page 12 note 1 Diehl, Manuel d'Art Byzantin, 513 ff. where illustrations are given, drawn from Kondakov, Russian Antiquities, iv.

page 12 note 2 E. Dobbert, ‘Das Abendmahl Christi in den bildenden Kunst’, in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xv. 518 ff., fig. 51.

page 12 note 3 A kind of fan which, according to Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 12 was used by deacons in order to mitigate the heat and scare away flies. A good example is preserved in the Museo di Bargello at Florence.

page 13 note 1 Diehl, La Peinture Byzantine, plate xliv, and Manuel d'Art Byzantin, ii. 809–11. Cf. the fresco in the church of Negoricino (Serbia): in Diehl, La Peinture Byzantine, plate liii.

page 13 note 2 De sacro templo, cxxxi; P.G., clv. 340.

page 13 note 3 Exodus xxviii. 2.

page 13 note 4 See J. D. Stefanescu, Iconographie de la Bible, 21, and Vloberg, op. cit., i. 50.

page 13 note 5 The Alinari photograph is frequently reproduced, e.g. in Schotmüller, F., Fra Angelico da Fiesole, Leipzig 1924, 141Google Scholar.

page 13 note 6 L. Dussler, Signorelli, 139.

page 13 note 7 xxvi. 23.

page 13 note 8 xiii. 26.

page 14 note 1 This does not occur in the Rossano codex and appears first to have received artistic expression in the eighth or ninth century.

page 14 note 2 Haseloff, op. cit., plate v; Muñoz, op. cit., plate v. A text drawn from Jn. xiii. 21 is inscribed above the picture.

page 14 note 3 G. Millet, Icongraphie de l'Évangile, fig. 272 and p. 290.

page 14 note 4 Judas's gesture might, however, be explained as raising the hand in excitement while he asks ‘Is it I, Lord?’

page 14 note 5 For instance, a twelfth-century Evangeliarium (Harl. MS. 1810) in the British Museum.

page 14 note 6 Perhaps the oldest are in the church of Santa Sophia, at Kiev.

page 14 note 7 G. de Jerphanion, La Voix des Monuments, Paris 1930, ch. xii. ‘Le Cycle Iconographique de Sant'Angelo in Formis’, where reference is made to the earlier works of Kraus (in Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xiv (1893)) and Dobbert (in the same periodical, xv (1894)).

page 14 note 8 Bettini, S., Mosaici antichi di San Marco a Venezia, Bergamo 1946, plate xivGoogle Scholar.

page 15 note 1 Jn. xiii. 22.

page 15 note 2 L. Weber, Einbanddecken, Elfenbeintafeln, Miniaturen, Schriftproben aus Metzer liturgischen Handschriften, plate xxii.

page 15 note 3 Cod. MS. Theol. 231. P. Clemen, ‘Studien zur Geschichte der Karolingischen Kunst’ in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xiii. 130.

page 15 note 4 A. ii. 52. Dobbert, in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xviii. 352.

page 15 note 5 E. T. Dewald, The Stuttgart Psalter, Princeton 1930.

page 15 note 6 Jn. xiii. 27.

page 15 note 7 Other examples include a boss in the nave of Norwich Cathedral (C. J. P. Cave, Roof Bosses in Mediaeval Churches, 31) and wall-paintings at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, and Friskney, Lincolnshire.

page 15 note 8 G. McN. Rushforth. Mediaeval Christian Imagery, 57 ff.

page 16 note 1 The paschal lamb, in place of the fish, occurs first perhaps in Italy, in the work of Duccio (C. Brandi, Duccio, Florence 1951, plate 61) and his successors of the Sienese School such as Barna, whose picture at S. Gimignano is reproduced in M. Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena, Princeton 1951.

page 16 note 2 The survival of the fish emblem may have been partly due to the fact that medieval artists thought of the Last Supper as taking place in Lent, when fish would be the appropriate food (Rushforth, op. cit., 61).

page 16 note 3 In the second version of his series of the Seven Sacraments (1647): illustrated in Friedländer, W., Nicolas Poussin, Munich 1914, 222Google Scholar.

page 16 note 4 Westcott, , The Epistles of St. John, Cambridge 1886, 353Google Scholar.