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 we find this representation but little varied, and the situation is always the same. In the centre is the lamb standing 64 1 didd 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, some 1 Rome. S.M. in Trastevere. S. Prassede. S. Clemente. S. Cecilia. times larger than the others. We find this on some of the sarcophagi.' 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. 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 cæli 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 à mortuis. St. James Minor: Ascendit ad cælos, 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 pec : 1 Bottari, Tab. xxviii. catorum. St. Matthias: Carnis resurrectionem. St. Thaddeus: Et vitam æternam. The statues of the apostles on the shrine of the Virgin in the San 65 Orcagna. Michele at Florence exhibit a fine example of this arrangement. I give the figure of St. Philip holding his appropriate sentence of the Creed on a scroll (3.). In later times, the Apostles, instead of being disposed in a line, are grouped round the Saviour in glory, or they form a circle of heads in medallions as statues, they ornament the screen in front of the altar, or they are placed in a line on each side of the nave, standing against the pillars which support it. From the sixth century it became usual to distinguish each of them by a particular emblem or attribute borrowed from some circumstance of his life or death. Thus, taking them in order, according to the canon of the mass, St. Peter bears the keys or a fish. St. Paul, the sword: sometimes two swords. St. James Major, the pilgrim's staff. St. John, the chalice with the serpent; some times the eagle also: but 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. Thus— 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. 2 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. 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, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Simon, Jude, James Minor, Matthew, Thomas, Paul; so that Peter and Paul stand face to face at one extremity of the 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. circle, and Simon and Bartholomew back to back at the other. All wear pointed caps, and carry the oblation in their hands. Peter has a yellow vest and while mantle; Paul, a white vest and a yellow mantle, and so all round alternately. The name of each is inscribed over his head, and without the title Sanctus, which, though admitted into the Calendar in 449, was not adopted in works of art till some years later, about 472. In the next instance, the attributes had not yet been admitted, except in the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul. MOSAIC (A.D. 816). Christ, in the centre, stands on an eminence ; in one hand he holds an open book, on which is inscribed Par vobis. St. Peter, with the keys and a cross, stands on the right; and Christ, with his right hand, points to the cross. St. Paul is on the left, with his sword; beyond, there are five apostles on one side, and four on the other in all, eleven (Judas being properly omitted). Each holds a book, and all are robed in white; underneath the whole is inscribed, in Latin, the words of our Saviour, "Go ye, and teach all nations." On the arch to the right, Christ is seated on a throne, and presents the keys to St. Peter, who kneels on one side, and the standard to Constantine, who kneels on the other (alluding, of course, to the famous standard). On the arch to the left, St. Peter is throned, and presents the stole to Pope Leo III., and the standard to Charlemagne. This singular monument, a kind of resumé of the power of the Church, is a restoration of the old mosaic, executed by order of Leo III. in the Triclinium of the old palace of the Lateran, and now on one side of the Scala Santa, the side facing the Porta San Giovanni. MOSAIC, in the old basilica of St. Paul (A.D. 1205). In the centre an altar veiled, on which are the Gospels (or perhaps, rather, the Book of Life, the seven-sealed book in the Revelations), and the instruments of the Passion. Behind it rises a large Greek cross, adorned with gold and jewels. Underneath, at the foot of the alter, five small figures standing and bearing palms, representing those who suffered for the cause of Christ; and on each side, kneeling, the monk Aginulph, and Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, afterwards Nicholas III. On each side of the altar, a majestic angel: one bears a scroll, inscribed GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO; the other, ET IN TERRA PAX HOMINIBUS BONE |