Early Christian Art

Most scholars agree that Christian art first appeared around the end of the 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd century. Among these earliest examples are the wall paintings and epitaphs found in the Roman catacombs. At first the iconography was primarily simple and symbolic (e.g., doves, anchors, boats, and praying figures). More complex images included the Good Shepherd with his sheep and representations from the Hebrew Bible, including Jonah, Noah, Daniel, and the Three Youths in the fiery furnace. By the end of the 3rd century, Christians had begun commissioning sarcophagi with relief carvings that depicted narrative episodes from the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. Following the legalization of Christianity and the imperial support that following the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, Christian art was dramatically transformed in style, technique, context, and motifs. From the mid-4th through the end of the 6th centuries, Christians built and decorated churches and baptisteries; designed and made liturgical vessels; produced private devotional objects in gemstones, pottery, glass, ivory, fabric, and precious metals; painted panel portraits of their holy men and women; and began to illustrate their sacred texts. Older types and motifs, such as the Good Shepherd and Jonah, were gradually replaced by new iconography that emphasized the glory and triumph of Christianity over the traditional Roman gods. Along with the iconographic changes, new media emerged, in particular polychrome glass mosaic for walls, apses, and domes of church buildings.

II.—A Set of Elizabethan Heraldic Roundels in the British Museum

In the year 1880 Mr. R. W. Binns of Worcester exhibited a painted panel of arms belonging to the Hadley Bowling Club. Mr., afterwards Sir Wollaston, Franks made some remarks on the arms which will be found in Proceedings, viii, 259. At the end of his remarks Mr. Franks called attention to a set of roundels or counters in the British Museum bearing the arms of peers of the reign of Elizabeth of about the date 1587, which corresponded nearly exactly with those on the Hadley panel, which it has been suggested was painted to commemorate the queen's visit to Worcester in 1575. Mr. Franks remarked of these roundels that he did not know of any similar set, and up to the present time none such has been noted, so that for the time being they may be spoken of as unique. No representations of the panel nor of the roundels were published in the Proceedings. By permission of the Keeper of the Medieval Department photographs of the counters have been taken and are now exhibited.