DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0512
496
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
the task of painting and decorating the Chapel of the
Castel dell’Uovo and the Church of Santa Maria la Nuova.
These painters, mentioned in the Chronicle of the
notary Cresciuolo, are supposed to have been born about
1230, and may have been pupils of their predecessor
Marco Marte. Another name, that of Tesaurus, is also
found and reported in chronicles of ancient date.1
The Chapel and Catacombs of the Badia d’ Ogliara, near
Amalfi.—All recent researches and discoveries confirm
the fact that the best style and the purest design prevailed
in the earliest ages of the Church, when the art of draw-
ing from nature was still practised. Thus in the Catacombs
of Naples a beautiful bust figure of our Lord has lately
been discovered; the portrait has a fine oval face, pale
complexion, beautiful eyes, and finely-moulded features,
agreeing with our conception of the ideal, but yet with
the living expression of a real man. Not a trace of con-
ventionalism is to be observed in this noble image, which
is amongst the earliest recorded, and has been discovered
by a chance search.2
Another most remarkable instance of the superiority of
the design in the primitive Christian Church, when our
Saviour and the Madonna are represented, occurs where
catacombs hitherto unknown have recently been dis-
covered : at the Badia dell’ Ogliara on the coast of
Amalfi between Vetri and Majuri.
We have thus the extraordinary and unlooked-for
advantage of comparing the works of the fourth century
with those of the tenth and eleventh in the body of the
church itself; the latter, though highly curious and
interesting, from their symbolical language and
Byzantine derivation, being far inferior in artistic
merit to the former, which date from the very earliest
Christian times.
1 Consult B. Di Domenici, Vite dei Pittori. See Neapolitan Naples,
1742, p. 17.
2 This beautiful specimen of primitive art, which has been admirably
copied in fine water colours by the Neapoltain artist Autoriel] o, forms
part of the collection of illustrations published by the Cavaliere Sala-
zaro as specimens of ancient art.
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
the task of painting and decorating the Chapel of the
Castel dell’Uovo and the Church of Santa Maria la Nuova.
These painters, mentioned in the Chronicle of the
notary Cresciuolo, are supposed to have been born about
1230, and may have been pupils of their predecessor
Marco Marte. Another name, that of Tesaurus, is also
found and reported in chronicles of ancient date.1
The Chapel and Catacombs of the Badia d’ Ogliara, near
Amalfi.—All recent researches and discoveries confirm
the fact that the best style and the purest design prevailed
in the earliest ages of the Church, when the art of draw-
ing from nature was still practised. Thus in the Catacombs
of Naples a beautiful bust figure of our Lord has lately
been discovered; the portrait has a fine oval face, pale
complexion, beautiful eyes, and finely-moulded features,
agreeing with our conception of the ideal, but yet with
the living expression of a real man. Not a trace of con-
ventionalism is to be observed in this noble image, which
is amongst the earliest recorded, and has been discovered
by a chance search.2
Another most remarkable instance of the superiority of
the design in the primitive Christian Church, when our
Saviour and the Madonna are represented, occurs where
catacombs hitherto unknown have recently been dis-
covered : at the Badia dell’ Ogliara on the coast of
Amalfi between Vetri and Majuri.
We have thus the extraordinary and unlooked-for
advantage of comparing the works of the fourth century
with those of the tenth and eleventh in the body of the
church itself; the latter, though highly curious and
interesting, from their symbolical language and
Byzantine derivation, being far inferior in artistic
merit to the former, which date from the very earliest
Christian times.
1 Consult B. Di Domenici, Vite dei Pittori. See Neapolitan Naples,
1742, p. 17.
2 This beautiful specimen of primitive art, which has been admirably
copied in fine water colours by the Neapoltain artist Autoriel] o, forms
part of the collection of illustrations published by the Cavaliere Sala-
zaro as specimens of ancient art.