Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Fine Arts Quarterly Review: January, 1867
With the final victory over Paganism, under Constantine, many changes take place, for the opposition between Christian doctrines and heathen customs has ceased to be a reality of every-day life. The puritanical dislike to the splendour of out ward appearance vanishes almost entirely with the conquered foe. If the catacombs still hold the relics of the departed, they need not any longer hide the meetings of the living; the old temples are converted into Christian churches; new basilicas, baptisteries, rise everywhere, and the glowing colours of mo s'aics are employed to adorn their walls. Necessarily the circle of subjects must be extended to meet the increasing demand; whilst the figure of the Saviour forms the centre of all pictorial ornamentation, the histories of the Old and New Testaments begin to be represented freely; very soon the figure of the Virgin appears more in the foreground, and the earliest legend ary lives of the saints, added to the other subjects, furnish ample materials. Thus we find that in a comparatively short time nearly the whole territory of Christian art has been mapped out, and to a certain extent cultivated.
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