The Magazine of Art. January. (Cassell and Co.)—The chief interest
of this number is the article by Sir Wyke Bayliss on the face of Christ. The author asserts that portraiture was com- mon in the Roman Empire at the time of our Lord, and he also uses the glass medallions of the Vatican to enforce his belief that the traditional face is founded on an actual portrait. The argument comes to this. There exist in the Vatican some glass medallions found in the catacombs, which are engraved with lines filled with gold. One of these shows two figures with the names of Paul and Peter written behind the heads. Between these beads is the figure of Christ with an aureole, about to place a crown on the heads of Paul and Peter. The figure of Christ has no name written beside it, and it has the traditional face. These medallions, we are told, are demonstrably of apostolic times, and the writer says :—" At that early date the One who awards the Crown of Life or gives the martyr's palm bears the likeness we know to-day. And the artist who thinks it necessary to write the names of Paul and Peter and Timothy and Justus over their portraits does not think it necessary to write the name of Christ. Why ? Because His face is so well known that no Christian amongst them can mistake it."
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