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V. Early Christian Sculpture. (First to Tenth Century.) Christianity in its earliest form was antagonistic to imitative art. The horror of image- worship, and the detestation of the superstitious observances interwoven with the domestic life of every class in the heathen world, led to the discouragement of all attempts at visible repre- sentations of Christ, or of His apostles. Moreover, it must be remembered that the first Christians were brought into immediate contact with the unholy rites of Isis and of Pan, and the graceful worship of Venus and Apollo ; and with heathen temples on every side peopled with ideal forms of beauty representing gods and goddesses, it would have been impossible for Christian artists to clothe Christ in any human form not already appropriated to some ancient idol. Whilst the Greeks and Romans cultivated physical beauty, looking upon a perfect body as the only fitting garment of a perfect soul, the stern believers in a spiritual God to be worshipped in spirit and in truth endeavoured in every way to mortify the flesh, regarding it as an encumbrance to be laid aside without a murmur — a prison-house checking the growth of the immortal soul. This was, however, but the natural reaction from the sensuality into which the antique world had fallen ; and with the decline of paganism the abhorrence of pictures or images of Christ became less intense, the natural yearning of believers for some visible representations of the Object of their love and reverence gradually asserted itself more and more, and Christian art, which reached its highest