MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES. - The representation of the miracle of the m. of the loaves and fishes narrated by the four Evangelists (Mt. 14:13-21; Mk. 6:32-44; Lk. 9:10-17; Jn. 6:1-13) was represented very early in primitive Christian funerary art.
The act of the m. is found on the back wall of cubiculum A. 3 in Callisto, from the beginning of the 3rd century; the tripod with the bread and the fish flanked by seven baskets full of bread is found in the adjoining cubiculum A. 2 (Wilpert, Pitture, pl. 38); the chests full of loaves vary in number, for the most part there are seven; in one case twelve (id., ibid., pl. 15,2). There is then a series of representations of symbolic banquets, for the most part with seven persons seated at table, with fish on the plates and chests with loaves, from as early as the mid-2nd century in Priscilla, and in cubicula A. 2, A. 3, A. 6 in Callistus. Christ performs the miracle either by touching the loaves with the virga virtutis, mostly in the cemetery frescoes, or by laying his hands on the loaves gathered in the baskets that are presented to him by the Apostles, as generally in the sarcophagi and in a fresco of the cubiculum known as "of the little sheep," in Callistus, from the end of the 4th century (id., ibid., pp. 276-77, pl. 237, 1). In many sarcophagi Christ lays his hands on one side on the basket of loaves and on the other on the dish with the fish presented to him by two disciples (id., Sarcofagi, pls. 96 and 218, 1); in others, instead, the Redeemer holds the thaumaturgic rod in his right hand and with it touches the baskets that are at his feet, while with his left he blesses the dish of fish presented by a disciple (id., ibid., pls. 104, 6; 111, 1; 128, 2; 180, 2). In yet other sarcophagi he touches with the thaumaturgic rod the baskets of loaves placed at his feet (id., ibid., pls. 127, 2).
(Ist. Alinari)
The crowd gathered at the banquet in the desert is represented in the polychrome fragments of the Museo delle Terme; there are six baskets full of loaves and six guests, among them two young men, one in the act of drinking, the other while receiving a loaf from Christ, who lays his hand on it blessing it; on this loaf the monogram of Christ is partly incised, partly painted (G. Wilpert, I due frammenti di sculture policrome del Museo delle Terme, in Römische Quartalschrift, 35 [1927], pp. 273-85; id., Sarcofagi, p. 343, pl. 220, 1). In non-cemetery art the m. is represented at Ravenna in one of the mosaics of the cycle in S. Martino in caelo aureo, now S. Apollinare Nuovo, ca. 520 (Wilpert, Mosaiken, pl. 98).
As early as 1911 P. Karge had begun archaeological research, later suspended, on the very spot where, according to tradition, Christ had performed the miracle of the m. of the loaves and fishes near the Lake of Gennesaret, distinguished by the name el-tābga from the Greek ἐντάκγιον (Χωρίον), that is, region of the seven springs. In 1932 a complete exploration brought to light a singular basilica with three naves and a transept, 56 m. long, 33 m. wide on the west and only 24.30 m. on the east, owing to the impediment of the nature of the terrain and to the great road of Capernaum. The place corresponds exactly to the description of Paul the Deacon (12th century) derived from that, now lost, of the Peregrinatio Etheriae of the end of the 4th century; there it was indicated that the stone "super quem dominus panem posuit" had become an altar and that pilgrims detached fragments from it as a remembrance and for veneration. The excavation brought this stone back to light, which shows signs of removals and has at its corners four holes for fastening the feet of the altar.
The floor mosaic represents a basket with loaves and a fish on each side; the rest of the decoration is ornamental. The building material and the mosaic technique have been dated to the end of the 4th century with restorations of the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century; the church was destroyed from the wars of 614 onward (A. M. Schneider, Die Brotvermehrungskirche von el-tābga am Genesarethsee und ihre Mosaiken [Collectanea Hierosolymitana, 4], Paderborn 1934).