the straight nature of the falling hair, the regular suc cession of the curls of a small beard, the semicircular curves of the brows and eyelids and the breadth of dark outlines. The brow was still open and fair, the nose straight, the neck broad; but the eyes had already an un pleasant gaze, the lower lids being distant from the iris and the upper unnecessarily arched. An effort in fact had thus been made to render the idea of power by inspiring the spectator with terror. 1 Long before this time, however, the painters had ceased to conceal themselves in the catacombs, and the higher orders of the Italian clergy had resolved that Paganism could not be eradicated with greater ease than by the multiplication of pictures. The curious may study Paulinus, Gregory and the partisans of images to acquire an insight into the mo tives which led them to adorn the old basilicas and newly erected churches with biblical subjects. The mosaics with which the holy edifices were adorned, had no other character than the paintings of the catacombs, nor is the influence of classic forms less visible in them than it was in the ruder or more hasty works of the early wall painters. Critics have been long deceived by a so called mosaic in the Christian Museum of the Vatican into the belief that the Saviour was represented in the earliest times in the green tunic, long hair and beard, and 'the classical forms of a Greek philosopher. 2 A latin inscription vouches for the truth of a theory which analysis entirely overthrows. The celebrated ikon is but a plaster imitation of mosaic, and may have been a copy of an old classic portrait. 3 1 Catacomb of S. Ponziano 6 th or 7 th century. The figure is co- J lossal. The nimbus is here adorn ed for the first time with the Greek cross. A star is painted at each side of the head. Al though the type is declining, the technical execution of colour re mains the same as before. The surface of the wall is very rough and the execution hasty. 2 „ Icon vetustissima Domini j nostri Jesu Cristi, in parentinis sacrorum eae materiorum Roman® urbis speciem exhibens musivi operis antiquis“. 3 The able and critical Rumohr who pitilessly overthrows great structures of fable, when records assist him in his task, is often helpless when forced to decide by artistic judgment.