twelve Apostles seated as the rowers, six of them on either side. The fourth and last, d, represents the bark of the individual soul, with its sail set and well filled, shooting into port; while a Pharos on one side shows the way, and secures it from running on the rocks or missing the entrance. A number of varieties of this same design have been collected by P. Garucci, to whose kindness the author is indebted for the specimen here inserted. (See also Boldetti, Osserv. &c. pp. 372,

373).

In the lateral paintings M 2 and M 3, both copied for the author from the Cemetery of S. Callistus, we see a very different ship, the ship of the world. In M 2 the mariners are casting out Jonas, that is, the Christian, into the open jaws of the monster. Jonas, however, is not destroyed by what he suffers, but comes out again by the resurrection; and the corner of land on which he is about to alight is Paradise, to which come the children of the resurrection.

In M 3 we have again the ship of the world, which now, instead of persecuting others, is itself being wrecked and submerged by the waves. The children of this world are seen drowning without hope in the waters, while a hand reached from above, that is, the Almighty mercy of God, catches, as it were, by the hair of the head the elect, who trust in Him and pray to Him, and saves them that they should not perish with the world.

XIII. COMPOSITION N. Of the Sign of the
Prophet Jonas.

HAVING been put forward so emphatically by Christ as a sign, both of his own, and through his own of the general resurrection, the history of Jonas is of very frequent occurrence, both in the early paintings and glasses and on the sculptured sarcophagi. And as it consists of several parts, each suggestive of a Christian application, it is naturally and of itself a composition, whether represented compendiously, as it sometimes is, or at full. This only is to be noticed, that the order of the parts in their Christian application is not the same as in the original history. In the original history Jonas was first cast out of the ship and swallowed by the seamonster: then he was vomited out on dry land; after this he was refreshed by the shade of the gourd; and lastly he was scorched by the sun, and admonished against his selfish impatience. But according to the application made of these passages in the paintings and sculptures of the Catacombs, the Christian is first scorched by the fire of persecution; and refreshed, it may be, by a temporary intermission at length he is cast out of the ship by martyrdom: then his soul rests under the gourd in Paradise and lastly, he comes out of the jaws of the monster by the resurrection.

The principal group of the present Composition, N 1, is from a tomb in the Cemetery of S. Priscilla (Rom. Sott. vol. III. pl. clxxvii.), and has here been selected in preference to other similar groups for the sake of this peculiarity, that it contains at top a painting of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead; another sign of

the general resurrection, reduplicating and interpreting that of Jonas issuing from the jaws of the monster. For below we see in order first, to our right, the ship whence Jonas is being cast out; next, in the middle, a latticed arbour, thickly covered by the leaves of the gourd, with Jonas under it, signifying the refreshment of the souls of the just in Paradise. It is remarkable that, though death is so often and so naturally spoken of as sleep, Jonas is scarcely ever so represented under the gourd that he can be supposed to be asleep: he is almost always "refrigerans," refreshing himself, or enjoying the refreshment, as one may translate the Latin expression. Lastly, in the corner to our left, we see him issuing from the monster's jaws for the resurrection. As regards the form of the monster, it was borrowed by the Christians from the heathen house-painters of Rome; and one sees exactly the same, with other fanciful decorations, in their paintings and mouldings; as, for instance, in the two tombs recently discovered on the Via Latina. The idea is that of a sea-dragon; as hell and death are represented by the form of a dragon, with open jaws, from early ages downwards: and in the hymns of the Greek ritual the fish of Jonas is called Iǹp, έváλios Sǹp, the wild beast or monster, the sea-monster. Of any form at all resembling that of a whale there is no trace.

Of the lateral paintings, N 2, which has been selected for its peculiarity, and represents the Christian as Jonas under the scorching heat of persecution, is taken from Rom. Sott. vol. II. pl. xv. It is from the Cemetery of

SS. Nereus and Achilles.

The opposite painting, N 3, which is from the same Cemetery of SS. Nereus and Achilles, and from the same tomb (but in fact it is identical in many places), may be taken here to represent some temporary refreshment

by an intermission of persecution, the leaves of the gourd on the conventional trellised arbour being only thinly scattered, and very different from the thick foliage of the arbour in N 1, placed there between death and the resurrection.

In general, when Jonas is represented twice over, as he is very often, once as refreshed under the gourd, and once with the gourd withered, these two representations are made to match, and are set one over against the other; the arbour being the same, and the difference in the gourd itself being very slight; its foliage, while still flourishing, being scanty, and when withering being almost the same. Neither is the sun to be seen. Whatever causes may have led to this type, the consequence is, that the paintings of these two subjects, in point of expressiveness, often seem rather defective; more so than the sculptures, where the eye acquiesces readily in a gourd that is merely conventional. But in some instances, as in N 2 of our present Composition and its fellow painting, the full contrast of the two states of Jonas is exhibited. We see the sun darting down upon him fiery rays, while the gourd is completely withered, only the dry stem perhaps, which once curved over his head, or the stem in the ground, remaining. In two points the picture before us is unique, and by its very peculiarity is more expressive of the Christian application designed. The recumbent figure which we have in it, bearded and clothed, hints of itself the Roman Christian as living in the world, while a naked figure under the gourd suggests rather the idea of the soul despoiled of its bodily clothing, and of the body in a state for burial. And in the Christian order of events the fire of persecution comes first, of itself, not through the withering of any preceding refreshment. So, strictly speaking,

the gourd has no place; and in this painting it does not appear. Afterwards, on some remission of persecution, the Christians, like Jonas, may be refreshed; and again, when the persecution is renewed, and the gourd which solaced them is burnt up, they may be tempted with Jonas to be impatient, and to cry out, "O Lord, how long dost thou not avenge us? How long dost thou bear with this cruel and idolatrous city, drunk with the blood of thy saints?" But they reply to their own natural impatience in these their paintings from the story of Jonah, reflecting that God has patience with this great city not without reason, and that they also themselves have reason to be patient, that the example of their faith and patience may concur with the longsuffering of God to bring many souls like those of the Ninevites to repentance.

XIV. COMPOSITION O.-Of Baptism and Burial.

THESE are the subjects of the two lateral groups 0 1 and O 2, in each of which a variety of small representations are arranged symmetrically, while the principal painting O 3, which shonld be seen in the centre, if the size of the paper admitted it, above the other two, is a representation of the Virgin and Child, copied from a tomb in the Cemetery of S. Agnes, and selected here to I close the Collection.

The painting in the centre of O 1, between the trees, is from a Baptistery in the Cemetery of S. Pontian (given in vol. 1. pl. cxliv. of Rom. Sott.), not far from the spot where was once the Cemetery or Catacomb of the Jews of the Transtevere, the source and pattern of all the under