latest
representation discovered, from the Catacombs of Priscilla (1888).

[Illustration: The Four Seasons, from the Imperial Palace, Ostia.]

The belief that the sibyls had prophesied the advent of Christ made
their images popular. The church of the Aracoeli is particularly
associated with them, because tradition refers the origin of its name
to an altar--ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI--raised to the son of God by the
emperor Augustus, who had been warned of his advent by the sibylline
books. For this reason the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine
sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar.
They have actually been given the place of honor in this church; and
formerly, when at Christmas time the _Presepio_ was exhibited in the
second chapel on the left, they occupied the front row, the sibyl
pointing out to Augustus the Virgin and the Bambino who appeared in
the sky in a halo of light. The two figures, carved in wood, have now
disappeared; they were given away or sold thirty years ago, when a new
set of images was offered to the _Presepio_ by prince Alexander
Torlonia. Prophets and sibyls appear also in Renaissance monuments;
they were modelled by della Porta in the Santa Casa at Loretto,
painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel, by Raphael in S. Maria
della Pace, by Pinturicchio in the Borgia apartments, engraved by
Baccio Baldini, a contemporary of Sandro Botticelli, and "graffite" by
Matteo di Giovanni in the pavement of the Duomo at Siena.

The images of the Four Seasons are not uncommon on Christian
sarcophagi. The latest addition to this class of subjects is to be
found in the church of S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane. Four medallions of
polychrome mosaic, representing the _Hiems_, _Ver_, _AEstas_, and
_Autumnus_, discovered in the so-called imperial palace at Ostia, were
inserted in the pavement of this church by order of Pius IX. Galenus
and Hippokrates, manipulating medicines and cordials, were painted in
the lower basilica at Anagni, Hermes Trismegistos was represented in
mosaic in the Duomo of Siena, the labors of Hercules were carved in
ivory in the cathedra of S. Peter's. Montfaucon describes the tomb of
the poet Sannazzaro in the church of the Olivetans, Naples, as
ornamented with the statues of Apollo and Minerva, and with groups of
satyrs. In the eighteenth century the ecclesiastical authorities tried
to give a less profane aspect to the composition, by engraving the
name of David und