All the figures are on a gold ground, about six inches in height, very finely conceived, though, as is usual in Byzantine Art, formal and mechanical in execution. They look like small copies of very grand originals. The draperies are all classical; a pale violet or brown tunic and a white mantle, as in the old mosaics; the rolls in their hands corresponding with the number of their writings.

IV. THE TWELVE APOSTLES

NEXT to those who recorded the Word of God, were those called by Christ to the task of diffusing His doctrine, and sent to preach the kingdom of heaven "through all nations."

The earliest representations of the Twelve Apostles appear to have been, like those of the Four Evangelists, purely emblematical: they were figured as twelve sheep, with Christ in the midst, as the Good Shepherd, bearing a lamb in His arms; or, much more frequently, Christ is Himself the Lamb of God, raised on an eminence and crowned with a cruciform nimbus, and the apostles were ranged on each side as sheep. Instances are to be met with in the old Christian bas-reliefs. In the

old Roman churches (S. M. in Trastevere, S. Prassede, S. Clemente, S. Cecilia) we find this representation but little varied, and the situation is always the same. In the centre is the lamb standing on an eminence, from which flow the four rivers of Paradise; on one side six sheep issuing from the city of Jerusalem, on the other six sheep issuing from the city of Bethlehem, the whole disposed in a line forming a sort of frieze, just below the decoration of the vault of the apsis. The church of S. M. Maggiore exhibits the only exception I have met with; there we find a group of sheep, entering, not issuing from, the gates of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in this case, however, the sheep may represent believers, or disciples in general, not the Twelve Apostles. Upon the great crucifix in the apsis of San Clemente, at Rome, are twelve doves, which appear to signify the Twelve Apostles.

The next step was to represent the Apostles as twelve men all alike, each with a sheep, and Christ in the middle, also with a sheep, sometimes larger than the others. We find this on some of the sarcophagi. (Bottari, Tab. xxviii.) Again, a little later, we have them represented as twelve venerable men, bearing tablets or scrolls in their hands, no emblems to distinguish one from another, but their names inscribed over or beside each. They are thus represented in relief on several ancient sarcophagi now in the Christian Museum in the Vatican, and in several of the most ancient churches at Rome and Ravenna, ranged on each side of the Saviour in the vault of the apsis, or standing in a line beneath.

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But while in the ancient Greek types, and the old mosaics, the attributes are omitted, they adhere almost invariably to a certain characteristic individual representation, which in the later ages of painting was wholly lost, or at least neglected. In these eldest types, St. Peter has a broad face, white hair, and short white beard: St. Paul, a long face, high bold forehead, dark hair and beard: St. Andrew is aged, with flowing white hair and beard: St. John, St. Thomas, St. Philip, young and beardless: St. James Major and St. James Minor, in the prime of life, short brown hair and beard; both should bear a resemblance more or less to the Saviour, but St. James Minor particularly St. Matthew, St. Jude, St. Simon, St. Matthias, aged, with white hair. The tablets or scrolls which they carry in their hands bear, or are supposed to bear, the articles of the Creed. It is a tradition, that, before the apostles dispersed to preach the Gospel in all lands, they assembled to compose the declaration of faith since called the Apostles' Creed, and that each of them furnished one of the twelve propositions contained in it, in the following order: - St. Peter Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, creatorem coli et terræ. St. Andrew: Et in Jesum Christum Filium ejus unicum, Dominum nostrum. St. James Major: Qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine. St. John Passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus et sepultus. St. Philip: Descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis. St. James Minor: Ascendit ad cœlos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis. St. Thomas: Inde venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos. St.

Bartholomew: Credo in Spiritum Sanctum. St. Matthew: Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam; sanctorum communionem. St. Simon: Remissionem peccatorum. St. Matthias: Carnis resurrectionem. St. Thaddeus: Et vitam æternam.

The statues of the apostles [by Orcagna] on the shrine of the Virgin in the San Michele at Florence exhibit a fine example of this arrangement. I give the figure of St. Philip, holding his appropriate sentence of

the eagle, as I have observed, belongs to him properly only in his character of Evangelist.

St. Thomas, a builder's rule: also, but more seldom, a spear. St. James Minor, a club.

St. Philip, the staff or crosier, surmounted by a cross; or a small cross in his hand.

St. Bartholomew, a large knife.

St. Matthew, a purse.

St. Simon, a saw.

St. Thaddeus (or Jude), a halberd or lance.

St. Matthias, a lance.

The origin and meaning of these attributes will be explained presently meantime it must be borne in mind, that although in sacred Art the Apostles are always twelve in number, they are not always the same personages. St. Jude is frequently omitted to make room for St. Paul. Sometimes, in the most ancient churches (as in the Cathedral of Palermo), St. Simon and St. Matthias are omitted, and the evangelists St. Mark and St. Luke figure in their places. The Byzantine manual published by Didron omits James Minor, Jude, and Matthias; and inserts Paul, Luke, and Mark. This was the arrangement on the bronze doors of San Paolo-fuori-le-Mura at Rome, executed by Byzantine artists in the tenth century, and now destroyed.

On an ancient pulpit, of beautiful workmanship, in the Cathedral of Troyes, the arrangement is according to the Greek formula.1 Thus

S. Bartholomew.

S. James.
S. John.
An Angel.

Here, John the Baptist figures in his character of angel or messenger; and St. Paul, St. Mark, and St. Luke take the place of St. James Minor, St. Jude, and St. Matthias.

The earliest instance of the Apostles entering into a scheme of ecclesiastical decoration, as the consecrated and delegated teachers of a revealed religion, occurs in the church of San Giovanni in Fonte at Ravenna.2 In the centre of the dome is the Baptism of Christ, represented quite in the classical style; the figure of the Saviour being entirely undraped, and the Jordan, signified by an antique river god, sedge-crowned, and bearing a linen napkin as though he were an attendant at a bath. Around, in a circle, in the manner of radii, are the Twelve Apostles. The order is, Peter, Andrew, James,

1 The churches in the eastern provinces of France, particularly in Champagne, exhibit marked traces of the influence of Greek Art in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

2 A. D. 451. Ciampini, Vet. Mon. p. 1, c. iv.