The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-07
A PORTRAIT OF CHRIST
DISCOVERY or AN ARCHAEOLOGIsT
ON THE WALL OF AN OLD PALACE.
The Picture Is said to Have Been
and Resembles Later Paintings.

Rome, written by Luigi Ferrari: The ques-
ton of the physical appearance of Jesus
! Christ now seems to be settled for all time
by the recent discovery of Professor Ma
rucchi. This great archaeologist has found
a portrait of the Savior made in His life
time by one who saw Him. 1t a
wall in the palace of Tiberius. who was
| Emperor of Rome at the time of the cruel
fixion. All the evidence points to the con-
clusion that the author was Roman SOL
der, who, while in the service of Pontius
Plate, proconsul of Judea, witnessed the
crucifixion, and then, becoming a Christian,
perpetuated in the palace of Tiberius him.
self his memory of the greatest scene in
devout believer and a competent artist, and
we must, therefore, conclude that it is a
| true likeness Of the Savior.
To-day l visited the ruins of the palace
| of Tiberius in company with Professor Ma
rucchi. Three walls of q chamber have
been uncovered, and on one of these is rep
resnented the crucifixion. 1t is not painted
but craven on the stucco with pointed in
strument 1t is a graffito of the same form
as many found on the walls. 1t is, how
ever, executed with infinite pains and con-
siderable art. IL shows two crosses erected
On one soldier is working with a hammer
Another soldier is mounting it with a
ladder and a plank. Beneath the cross a
soldier is dragging Christ, who is bending
low. Under the other cross are the figures
of PLATE and two soldiers. Their names
are engraved under the figures: "Tertus
! Filetus Eulogus Nestulus PLUS"
Thus, for the first time the names of the
Romans who witnessed the crucihxion are
made known. The name Filetus is taken to
fI.t MI c
Christ the largest in the picture The
entire scene is clear cut. The names of the
soldiers are fifteen centimetres high The
names are written in Pompeiian characters.
| Beneath the entire scene is a Latin inScrip-
ton, BEGINNING with the word "Christus: "
| The rest is not yet deciphered Marucchi
| insists that the scene is the crucifixion de-
picted by an eyewitness. On the two other
| illegible inscriptions, one of which, he says
! reads: Outs que mean futuit rivals
amicam illum secraets montibus ursus
! aedat. Marucchi interprets this follows
! Crestus virgis coesus secret morris super
palum virum fixum.
| These inscriptions were found several
months ago. but the picture only last week
! They CONSIST only of fragments of letters
and will take long for archaelogists to reach
! any full and clear conclusion to their
meaning
Prof Marucchi has imrarted to your cor
respondent all the information that he at
! present possesses on the subject. He be-
| lieyes that the picture is the work of a
soldier or Il slave OF Tfberius. His belief
| is shared by the other archaeologiSts with
whom he has consulted. The painting was
| found in one of the chambers occupied by
! the soldiery and slaves; In further support
| of this theory, Prof Marucchi points out
| that the names of the Roman soldiers sta
toned about the cross are inscribed be-
I meath their figures. Il seems unlikely that
anybody but a soldier would have known
/ these.
No discovery could be of greater interest
! to the Christian world. The Pope is fol-
| lowing the Investigations with the closest
| attention. 1t ends Il controversy that has
| long been waged among archaeologistS and
| artists. Some have maintained that the ac-
| cepted likeness of Christ, it appears in
| the paintings of the great masters. is tradi-
! uCnal and in no way authentic. They have
/ asserted that no portraits of Christ were
| made in His Lifetime or Immediately there
liter because thg splIit OF ms Ion4 4
| finally disposed of by the discovery of Prof.
! Marucchi. The likeness in the palace of ii
/ beriuS resembles that of Christ found in the
| frescoes of the catacombs and also that in
| a medallion in the Vatican, hitherto re-
| garded the Oldest known picture of the
! scented by Raphael and all the great mas
| ters, were derived from these and other
sources of the earliest centuries.
The newly discovered portrait of the Sa-
vior represents Him as possessing broad
| forehead, arched eyebrows. straight nose.
| hair falling upon the shoulders and a parted
| beard. Another artistic theory, a modern
| one. that the Savior should be depicted as
! a characteristic Jewish type, therefore is
disspated.
! prof Marucchi is disciple and successor
! of the great Christian archaeOlogist, Clio
| among the ruins of the Palantine hill, he
| has recently turned his attention to the
! cells which are al that remain of the pal
ace of TibefiuS. In one OF these he made
| his great discovery.
! Tfberius was the successor of Augustus.
! who began the erection of the great impe
! rial buildings on the Palantine hill, which
! covered a space of 1,5OO square feet Tlbe-
/ RUS sooner assumed the purple than he
SGT hon htTiIF a
! underground passage with the Augustus
palace. 1t is in this wing that the discov-
| cry of Professor Marucchi has been made.
! All that now remain of the wing of Ifbe-
rius are the arched superstructures of the
south front with rows of cells. poorly
! lighted and ventilated, and unornamented.
! These long lines of cells are set like the
/ wall of Romulus, on sort of shelf cut in
| the rock They are built against the cliff
! in such a way that the third fourth
story is level with the top of the hill.
| The interest of archaeologists has been
| largely centered IN the granlti, or messed
! inscriptions; that are found cut into the
plaster of the cells. BY meaDs of them we
have had contemporary pictures of Roman
! life. CaricatureS have been found of Nero,
signed with the names of soldiers quartered
there. One of the most remarkable of
these is rude drawing of a crucitied man
with the head of an ASS or jackal, and a
| standing figure, apparently in the act of
alteration, with rudely scratched inscrip-
ships God" Professor Rodolfo Lanciana,
one of the most eminent archaeologists in
| Rome. says: This is blasphemous carl
cature of our Lord Jesus Christ; a carica-
! ture designed only few years after the
preaching of the gospel in Rome by the
! apostles.
! According to Lancani. this caricature
must have been executed shortly after the
crucifxion, for long before the destruction
of Jerusalem GO A. d. the Apostle Paul
had gone to Rome TO organize the Christians
! already there into churches.
! 1t is very probable, then, that this Carl
| cature was drawn by some one of Pontius
/ Pilates men who had returned to Rome.
More than 5000 OF these scratchings done
| with the point of nail. have been found IN
ruins at Rome and Pompeii. but to this day
nothing bearing upon Christianity has been
found except the two things described If
Prof Lanciani is so certain that the carica-
! ture found in these same cells was done
shortly after the crucihxion. is it not prob
able that Prof Marucchi's picture was done
at the same period? 1t is well known that
the early converts to Christianity in Rome
were gathered from the soldiers, slaves and
low-born classes, who found III the new gos-
pei some hope of liberty. Had this engraV-
ing been discovered ON the walls Of that
part of the palace which the Emperor Tibe-
| RUS saw that fact would tend to show that
it could not have been made until after the
| time of Constantine, when Rome was Chris
| tan.