DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0093
CHAP. Ill
The First Christian Paintings
73
design of covering the walls of the church with sacred
pictures of an attractive and edifying kind, in the hope that,
as he expresses it, ‘ the forms and colours might seize upon
the astonished minds of the country folk.’ 1 Above the
designs,’ he continues, ‘ are placed their titles, so that the
written word explains what the hand has portrayed. There,
while the whole multitude in turn point out the pictures
one to another, or go over them by themselves, they are
less quick than before to think of feasting, and feed with
their eyes instead of with their lips. In this way, while in
wonder at the paintings they forget their hunger, a better
habit lays gradual hold on them, and as they read the
sacred histories they learn from pious examples how
honourable are holy deeds, and how satisfying to thirst is
sobriety.’1 The passage—a most instructive one for the
didactic element in Christian art—ends with some examples
of lessons to be drawn from supposed pictures of Old
Testament scenes.
In this way the mark of the Church was set upon the
work of the mural painter, who was taught from this time
forward to act up to the profession put by Vasari into the
mouth of an early Florentine artist2 that ‘ by painting
saints both men and women he would thereby render
men better and more devout.’ In this spirit the Church
demanded not only stories from the Old and New Testa-
ment, and from the lives of saints, but also the great scenes
which were to round off the shows of this world and the
fashion of it, the Last Judgment, Paradise, and the Inferno.
The representation of these scenes became a tradition of
Christian art that was fully established by the Italian
Masters at the time of the revival of painting at the close
1 Paulinus Nolanus, Poema.de S. Fel. natal., ix. 541 ff.
2 Vasari, Opere, ed. Milanesi, Firenze, 1878 etc. i. p. 501, Vita di
Buonamico Buffalmacco.
The First Christian Paintings
73
design of covering the walls of the church with sacred
pictures of an attractive and edifying kind, in the hope that,
as he expresses it, ‘ the forms and colours might seize upon
the astonished minds of the country folk.’ 1 Above the
designs,’ he continues, ‘ are placed their titles, so that the
written word explains what the hand has portrayed. There,
while the whole multitude in turn point out the pictures
one to another, or go over them by themselves, they are
less quick than before to think of feasting, and feed with
their eyes instead of with their lips. In this way, while in
wonder at the paintings they forget their hunger, a better
habit lays gradual hold on them, and as they read the
sacred histories they learn from pious examples how
honourable are holy deeds, and how satisfying to thirst is
sobriety.’1 The passage—a most instructive one for the
didactic element in Christian art—ends with some examples
of lessons to be drawn from supposed pictures of Old
Testament scenes.
In this way the mark of the Church was set upon the
work of the mural painter, who was taught from this time
forward to act up to the profession put by Vasari into the
mouth of an early Florentine artist2 that ‘ by painting
saints both men and women he would thereby render
men better and more devout.’ In this spirit the Church
demanded not only stories from the Old and New Testa-
ment, and from the lives of saints, but also the great scenes
which were to round off the shows of this world and the
fashion of it, the Last Judgment, Paradise, and the Inferno.
The representation of these scenes became a tradition of
Christian art that was fully established by the Italian
Masters at the time of the revival of painting at the close
1 Paulinus Nolanus, Poema.de S. Fel. natal., ix. 541 ff.
2 Vasari, Opere, ed. Milanesi, Firenze, 1878 etc. i. p. 501, Vita di
Buonamico Buffalmacco.