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Byzantine art and afchaeolp

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 BYZANTINE
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
Figure of Our Lord on part of a Sarcopliagus from Sulu Monastir, now at Berlin.
(^Kaiser Friedrich Museum.)
 BYZANTINE
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

BY

O. M. DALTON

WITH 457 ILLUSTRATIONS

OXFOKD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1911
 A.?~5^^^^
HENRY FEOWDE
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK
TORONTO AND MELBOURNE
 PREFACE
The purpose of this book is to provide something in the nature of
a general introduction to the art and antiquities of the Christian East,
which, until the publication of Prof. Diehl's admirable Manuel d'art
byzantin, had not been treated in a single volume incorporating the
results of recent investigation.^ The work was almost finished when
the Manuel appeared, and had it not been that the arrangement which
I had adopted was different from that of Prof. Diehl, I might have
hesitated to proceed further. But, upon consideration, it seemed that
there was still room for a volume like the present, in which the attempt
has been made, by means of copious references, to indicate exact sources
and acquaint English readers with the latest Continental research. At
one time I had contemplated including Architecture, the exclusion of which
is assuredly a matter for regret. But, on the one hand, the material most
nearly connected with my own studies alone bade fair to exceed the limits
of a single volume ; on the other, it seemed clear that the Mistress Art
could only be treated in an adequate manner by one brought up in her
tradition or admitted to it in virtue of a wide practical experience. I can
lay claim to neither advantage, and therefore abstain from a task beyond
my powers, hoping that the issue of this book may suggest to some
qualified scholar a volume restating those architectural problems of which
the importance is paramount to the study of Byzantine art.
The bulk of the book consists of plain descriptions based upon the
work of the chifef authorities and intended for reference rather than for
continuous reading. Two introductory chapters have however been placed
at the beginning, and two chapters on special subjects at the end, while
each main division has a short introduction of its own. It is hoped that
these additions may make the contents of the several sections more intelli-
gible, and perhaps mitigate in some degree the austerity of a method
which follows the unbending lines of a directory.
The period covered is that between the fourth century and the close
of the fifteenth; it is, roughly, the duration of the Byzantine Empire.
But the limits have not been very strictly drawn ; many things have been
considered which are not 'Byzantine', some which are not even East-
' M. Ch. Bayet's Art byzantin is farourably known to all students of Byzantine art, but
it is restricted in size and in the number of its illustrations. M. Gabriel Millet's chapters on
Byzantine Ai't in A. Michel's Histoire de I'Art have not been separately printed.
vi PREFACE

Christian in their origin. Oi" the term Byzantine, I have said something
at the beginning of the first chapter ; the word is adopted on the title-
page, and retained in other places, rather by sufferance than by predilec-
tion. For the present it seems almost indispensable, as the one adjective
which is individual and suggestive of an atmosphere ; if it suggests either
too little or too much, it is possible for each to protect his orthodoxy by
his own reservations, and there is so much essential work waiting to be
done, that it seems idle to waste time over a point of terminology. In the
discussion of works of art created during more than a thousand years,
questions arise which are necessarily controversial or unripe for final
settlement. In some cases I have been content merely to state opposing
theories ; where I have taken a side, I have endeavoured to do justice to
the views not adopted. The opinions given on many problems are admit-
tedly tentative, and liable to revision in the light of new research. Such
are those regarding the mutual influence of Byzantine industrial art and
that of Central or Further Asia, which may prove to require modification
when we have before us the full material gathered by the British, German,
and French expeditions to Turkestan. Other questions of pre-eminent
interest to Byzantine studies, though not directly within our scope, have
only received incidental mention ; among these are the genesis and affinities
of the earlier Mohammedan or Saracenic art, a subject fortunately now
in the forefront of inquiry.
Of the numerous defects which mar the scheme of the book as origi-
nally conceived, I am but too well aware. There are shortcomings in
interpretation ; faults of proportion ; sins of omission and commission,
including, I doubt not, inaccuracies meriting hard censure. Complete
success in such an undertaking as the present is for those who are masters
of their time ; who are able to pursue and classify new developments
without delay, and at leisure co-ordinate old and new into an organic
whole. For myself, I soon realized that the ideal of including everything
was beyond possibility of attainment: the multitude of facts was too
great, their mass too ponderous. And yet, compared with others which
could be mentioned, this is a restricted field. The lot of one who in our
time would keep abreast of any progressive subject grows more arduous
year by year; to-day we at least skim a profuse literature; our suc-
cessors to-morrow will employ professional digesters and trained artists
in abridgement— content themselves with the prefaces and titles of the
unnumbered books which shall be written. The tide of printed matter
flows so strongly that only the determined student can make head against
it, happy if no TpiKVjxia from the unknown deep break at the last moment,
and confound the nice order of his argument. For even while a work
 PEEFACE vii

is in the press, the processes of supersession go on/ and many a book

at the moment of its birth is already in some measure out of date. I
cannot pretend to have always stemmed the flood which pours out of
the European press, but if I must admit a partial failure, I have not
succumbed without a struggle : the references with which the following
pages are loaded bear witness at least to a pertinacity of resistance. I
have availed myself of sources published in all the countries active in
Byzantine studies, not forgetting those Kussian books which are often
of the first importance, but, through expression in a difiicult tongue, too
frequently inaccessible to English students. I cannot pretend to have
seen with my own eyes all the monuments described, but I have made
acquaintance with considerable numbers as my opportunities have allowed.
I have visited the great museums, including those at Constantinople and
Cairo, and many libraries and churches ; by travel in Italy, Sicily, and
Cyprus, I have endeavoured to learn something at first hand of the
mosaic art.
The numerous blocks in the text are intended to show the character
of the monuments and objects discussed in the several chapters. It was
impossible that they should be exhaustive,, or that they should provide
the minute detail which may be expected in a monograph, but they should
enable readers without access to large, libraries to form some notion of
the art which they represent.
My general obligation to contemporary writers must find acknowledge-
ment in the Index of Authorities. The debt to the earlier writers is taken
for granted; their names occur in references in the text, but have not
swelled the proportions of the index. With the exception of Mr. Warwick
Wroth, who has treated the coinage of the Byzantine Empire, British
writers on East-Christian archaeology have chiefly been concerned with
architecture.^ Of scholars in other countries to whom I have owed most,
I may mention: in France, Bayet, Diehl, Millet, and Schlumberger ; in
Germany, Haseloff, Krumbacher, and Wulfi"; in Austria, Wickhoff, Eiegl,
and Strzygowski the most indefatigable of pioneers ; in Italy, Munoz and
Venturi; in Greece, Lambros, Antoniades, and Papadopoulos Kerameus;
in Russia, Ainaloff", Riedin, Schmidt, Smirnoff, and, above all, Kondakoff,
who in a long career has touched all branches of a complex subject, and
none without distinction. The Byzantinische Zeitschrift and the Vizan-
tiesJci Vremennik have throughout been unfailing sources of instruction.

^ To quote a simple instance : M. V. de Griineisen's important boolc on Sta Maria

Antiqua has appeared while the present work was in the press.
2 Especially Prof. W. E. Lethaby, Mr. E. W. Schultz, Miss G. L. Bell, and Dr. E,
Freshfield.
viii PEEFACE

More particular acknowledgements are due to the Trustees of the

British Museum for the use of numerous blocks employed in the Catalogue
of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, and the Guide to the
same subject; to the Society of Antiquaries of London for permission
to make electrotypes from blocks in their Archaeologia and Proceedings ;
to Sir Gaston Maspero, Chief of the Service des Antiquit^s in Egypt,
for the loan of blocks from Prof. Strzygowski's Catalogue Koptische Kunst,
written for the Cairo Museum; to M. Gustave Schlumberger and his
publishers MM. Hachette, for permission to borrow illustrations from
L' Epopee byzantine au X™* Siecle ; to the Imperial Academy of Sciences
at Vienna for leave to reproduce two illustrations, after Herr Mielich's
drawings, in the publication Kusejr ''Amra, by Dr. A. Musil, Prof. Kara-
bacek, and others ; to Mr. N. H. J. Westlake for numerous blocks from
his History of Design in Mural Painting; to Mr. Quibell for the kind
gift of photos from Saqqara ; to Mr. Henry Wallis for photographs made
for him in Rome by permission of the Librarian of the Vatican, of textiles
from the Sancta Sanctorum ; to Dr. J. Hampel for photos of enamels in
the Museum at Budapest ; to Prof. Marc Rosenberg for photos of objects
in the Treasury of S. Marco at Venice ; and to Messrs. Methuen for the
use of several photographs prepared for the illustrated edition of Gibbon's
Decline and Fall. Lastly, my especial thanks are due to the Delegates
of the Clarendon^ Press, by whom publication has been made possible;
to M. Gabriel Millet for most kind assistance in procuring photographs
from the negatives in the Collection des Hautes Etudes, generously placed
at the disposal of students from all countries; and to my colleagues
Mr. J. A. Herbert and Mr. G. F. Hill, the former for reading the proofs
of the chapter on MSS., the latter for going through almost the whole
book, and aiding me at all times by encouragement and advice.
O. M. D.
Beitish Museum,
October, 1911.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Intkoductory : Gteneral CoNsiDEBATiorrs .... . . 1

CHAPTER II
Inteoductoey : Geogeaphical Considerations : The Balkan Peninsula ;
Geeece ; The Islands ; Eussia. The East-Cheistian Woeld :
Anatolia ; Syeia and Palestine ; Armenia ; The East ; Egypt ;
Abyssinia ; Noeth Aeeica. The Western Woeld : Italy ; Sicily ;
Dalmatia ; France ; Spain ; Germany ; The British Isles . . 38

CHAPTER HI
Scttlptuee : Intro dtjctoey Eemarks ; Sculpture now destroyed; Free
Sculpture ; Sarcophagi ; Figure Eeliefs other than those op
Sarcophagi ; Ornamental Sculpture ; Capitals . . . 108

CHAPTER IV
Sculpture : Carvings in Ivory and Steatite . ... 179

CHAPTER V
Painting : Introductory Eemaeks ; Mural Paintings and Panels . 243

CHAPTER VI
Painting : Mosaics : Geneeal Eemaeks. Mosaics in Italy and the
Adriatic ; Mosaics in the Cheistian East ; Mosaic Pavements ;
MiNiATUEE Mosaics ......... 323

CHAPTER Vll
Painting : Illuminated Manusceipts . 435

CHAPTER VIII

Enamel : Inteoductoey Eemaeks : Examples peeseeved ijq^ Vaeious

COUNTEIES . 494

CHAPTER IX

Goldsmith's Work and Jewellery ; Silver Plate . . . . .534

1204 a 3
X CONTENTS

CHAPTER X PAGE
TextilEvS : Introductory Eemarks ; Tapestry ; Silk ; Subjects upon
Silk Fabrics ; Embroidery ; Fabrics with Printed Designs, and
OTHER Stuffs ; Influence of Textiles on the Arts . . . 577

CHAPTER XI

Various : Pottery and Glass ; Metal-work ; Weights ; Coins ; Seals ;

Engraved Gems, etc. .... ..... 606

CHAPTER XII
Iconography : Composition and Scenes ; Eepkesentations of Individual
Figures ; Symbols, etc. ... ..... 642

CHAPTER XIII
Ornament : Motives adopted from Hellenistic Sources ; Oriental
Motives ; Naturalistic Forms ; Geometrical Ornament . . . 685

INDEXES
I. General ...... .... 715
II. Iconographical . 721
III. Museums, Libraries, Treasuries, and Collections . . . 723
IV. Authorities ........... 725
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The locality of the object represented follows the description. The source of the
photograph or drawing is given in brackets.
The abbreviation H. E. signifies the collection of photographs at the ificole Pratique
des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris. Most of them are from photos contributed to that
collection by M. Gabriel Millet, Maitre de Conferences at the School, and wherever the
letters H. E. occur alone the photo is understood to be his. Where a photograph borrowed
from the same collection has been given by another donor, his name follows the letters
H. E. : thus 'H.E. : N. Kondakoff ' means that the photo reproduced is from the collec-
tion of the Hautes Etudes, to which it was presented by Prof. Kondakoff.
B. M. signifies the British Museum.
B. M. Catalogue = British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine
Antiquities, 1901.
B. M. G uide = British Museum, Guide to the Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities,
V. and A. M. = the Victoria and Albert Museum.
K. r. M., Berlin = the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.
The illustrations from objects in the Cairo Museum attributed to the Service des
Anticiuites are borrowed,_.as stated_ in the Preface, from the Cairo catalogue entitled

EREATA

Page 225, fig. 137, underline, for Isaac read Jacob

Page 531, fig. 315, underline, for Gold . . lost read Backs of enamelled gold
medallions

Dalton, Byzantine Art

Sept. 1911 Face p. X

26
n. i3Tae oi caSKet at xroyes. ^jrxum an ciccLi-vc^pcj
12. Ivory panel, Museum of Ravenna. (Ricci) 24
13. Ivory panel with the Entry into Jerusalem. (B.M.)
14. Leaf of an ivory triptych. (B.M.) 28
15. Ruins and capitals, El-Khargeh. (C. H. Read) . 29
16. Ambo, Cathedral of Ravenna. (Ricci) 30
33
17. Ambo from Salonika at Constantinople. (H.E.) 31
18. Capital, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
19. Capital, Salonika. (H.E.) .... 34
20. Capital, Parenzo. CAlinari) 36
21. Limestone niche, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 39
43
22. Sandstone niche, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 41
45
23. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
24. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
25. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 46
26. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 48
27. Limestone reliefs, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 49
28. Limestone relief, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
29. Limestone gable, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
80. Part of a limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 51
54
31. Carved limestone, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 55
52
X CONTENTS

CHAPTER X PAGE

Textiles : Introductory Remarks ; Tapestry ; Silk ; Subjects upon

Silk Fabrics ; Embroidery ; Fabrics with Printed Designs, and
OTHER Stuffs ; Influence of Textiles on the Arts . . . 577

CHAPTER XI

Various : Pottery and Glass ; Metal-work ; Weights ; Coins ; Seals ;

Engraved Gems, etc. .... ..... 606

CHAPTER XII

Iconography : Composition and Scenes ; Representations of Individual

Figures ; Symbols, etc. . 642

CHAPTER XIII
Ornament : Motives adopted from Hellenistic Sources ; Oriental

Forms ; Geometrical Ornament ., -taw ■■"-""" "'^''

Motives; Naturalistic
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The locality of tlie object represented follows the description. The source of the
photograph or drawing is given in brackets.
The abbreviation H. E. signifies the collection of photographs at the £oole Pratique
des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris. Most of them are from photos contributed to that
collection by M. Gabriel Millet, Maitre de Conferences at the School, and wherever the
letters H. E. occur alone the photo is understood to be his. Where a photograph borrowed
from the same collection has been given by another donor, his name follows the letters
H. E. : thus 'H.E. ; N. Kondakoff' means that the photo reproduced is from the collec-
tion of the Hautes Etudes, to which it was presented by Prof. Kondakoif.
B.M. signifies the British Museum.
B. M. Catalogue = British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine
Antiquities, 1901.
B. M. G uide = British Museum, Giiide to the Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities,
1903.
V. and A. M. = the Victoria and Albert Museum.
K. F. M., Berlin = the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.
The illustrations from objects in the Cairo Museum attributed to the Service des
Antiquites are borrowed, as stated in the Preface, from the Cairo catalogue entitled
Koptische Kunst.
Fkontispiece : Figure of Our Lord on part of a sarcophagus from Sulu Monastir,
now at Berlin.
PAGE
1. Head-piece from MS., Vatican Library. (H. E.)
1
2. Interior of Sta Sophia, Constantinople. (Sebah) 2
3. Part of the galleiy, Sta Sophia. (Sebah) . 5
4. Capitals, &c.. Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Constantinople. (Sebah) 7
5. Mosaic portrait of Justinian I, Ravenna. (Ricci) 149
6. Bronze steelyard-weight representing the Emperor Phocas (?), B.M. 20
7. Part of a diptych, Halberstadt Cathedral. (Archaeologia)
8. Diptych of the Consul Boethius at Brescia. (Alinari) 12
17
9. Side of the Veroli casket. (V. and A. M.) . 18
22
10.Panel from the same casket
11. Side of casket at Troyes. (From an electrotype)
12. Ivory panel, Museum of Ravenna. (Ricci) 24
28
13. Ivory panel with the Entry into Jerusalem. (B. M.) 26
14. Leaf of an ivory triptych. (B.M.) 30
15. Ruins and capitals, El-Khargeh. (C. H. Read) .
29
16.Ambo, Cathedral of Ravenna. (Ricci)
17.Ambo from Salonika at Constantinople. (H. E.) 31
18.Capital, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 33
19. Capital, Salonika. (H. E.)
20. Capital, Parenzo. (Alinari) 36
21. Limestone niche, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 34
39
22. Sandstone niche, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 41
23. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 43
24. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 45
25. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 46
26. Limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquitds) 48
tes)
27. Limestone reliefs, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 49
28. Limestone relief, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 51
29. Limestone gable, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
80. Part of a limestone frieze, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiqu:
31. Carved limestone, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 55
52
54
Xll LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS
KG.
PAGE
32. Carved wooden chest, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
33. Carved wooden lintel, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 60
34. Relief with Ascent of Alexander, Venice. (Alinari) . 57
35. Carved slabs, Mistra. (H.E.) . .... 62
61
36. Sarcophagus with Adoration of the Magi, Ravenna- (Ricci)
37. Sarcophagus of S. Rinaldo, Ravenna. (Alinari)
64
38. Wooden cross, Cairo Museum (Service des Antiquites)
66
39. Lead ampullae in Monza Cathedral. (H. E.) . . .
40. Silver polycandehnfB.M.. (B. M. Catalogue) 70
41. Restoration of the same ....... 69
72
74
42. Pound weight of the sixth century, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 73
67
43. Bronze weight with name of Theodoric, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue)
44. Bronze weights, B.M. (B. M. Catalogue) .... 75
45. Embroidered dalmatic in St. Peter's. (Mosoioni)
46. Silk tapestry panel, V. and A. M A.M.]
47. Silk textile, Kunstgewerbe-Museum, Berlin. (From a water-colour i and 79
48. Tapestry from a tunic, V. and A. M 81
49. Alabaster chalice, S. Marco, Venice. (Hachette) 85
60. Chalice with enamelled mounts, S. Marco. (Hachette) 87
51. Two-handled chalice, S. Marco. (Hachette)
52. Bowl of a chalice, S. Marco. (Hachette) .... 84
53. Paten with gems and enamel, S. Marco. (Hachette) . 89
54. Crystal paten with gemmed mounts, S. Marco. (Hachette) 90
94
55. Silver dish with monogram, Museum of Nicosia, Cyprus 95
92
56. Nielloed monogram on silver spoon, B.M. (B.M. Catalogue) 96
57. Silver dish : David and the bear, Nicosia, Cyprus 98
58. Silver dish : David and the lion, Morgan Collection .
69. Silver dish : Scene from life of David, Morgan Collection . 101
60. Silver dish : Anointing of David, Morgan Collection . 102
99
104
61. Silver dish : David and Saul, Morgan Collection
62. Silver dish : David and messenger, Nicosia, Cyprus . 105
106
63. Silver bowl and cover, B. M. (Archaeologia)
64. Illuminated head-piece, B. M 108
65. Relief with ifmros, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 109
66. End of sarcophagus at Ravenna. (Ricci) .... 112
114
67. Impost capital, Ravenna. (Ricci) .....
68. Marble capital, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) . 115
69. Marble capital, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) . 116
70. Sarcophagus in S. Francesco, Ravenna. (Ricci)
71. Sarcophagus in S. Francesco, Ravenna. (Ricci) 120
119
72. End of sarcophagus. Ravenna. (Ricci) .... 124
73. Porphyry statue, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 126
74. Porphyry group at Venice. (Alinari) .... 127
130
75. Sarcophagus from Gaul (after Le Blant) . . .
76. Sarcophagus of Helena in the Vatican. (Alinari) 131
134
77. Sarcophagus of Constantia in the Vatican. (Alinari) 137
78. The Pignatta sarcophagus, Ravenna. (Ricci) 139
79. End of the same sarcophagus. (Ricci) .... 140
80. End of a sarcophagus, Ravenna. (Ricci) ....
81. Sarcophagus of S. Barbatianus, Ravenna. (Ricci) 141
143
82. Reliefs from the Hippodrome, Constantinople, K. F. M., Berlin 145
147
83. Base of obelisk of Theodosius, Constantinople. (Sebah) . 148
84. Fragment of an ambo from Salonika. (H. E.) .
85. Wooden reliefs of saints, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS Xlll
150
PAGE

Coptic tombstone, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue)

87. Limestone relief with Orpheus, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites] 152
Marble relief with St. Peter, K. F. M., Berlin . 154
Column of ciborium in S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari) 155
157
90. Marble relief from Constantinople, K. F. M., Berlin . 158
91. Marble relief at Torcello. (Alinari)
92. RelieffromTusla, K.F.M., Berlin 160
93. Bronze plaque with military saint, B. M. (B. ST. Catalogue) 163
94. Sculpture in Kalirie Djami. (Sebah) .... 162
95. Carved cedar panels from Egypt, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 164
96. Closure-slabs in S. Marco, Venice. (H. E.) 166
97. Closure-slab in S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari) 168
Closure-slabs on Mount Athos. (H. E.) .... 170
Closure-slab, Mistra. (H. E.) 169
100. Capitals, S. Demetrius, Salonika. (H. E.) 171
173
101. Capital, Ravenna. (Alinari) 174
102. Capital, Ravenna. (Alinari) 175
103. Capital, Mount Athos. (H. E.) 177
178
104. Capital, Salona. (H. E.)
105. Capital, Salona. (H. E.) 179
106. Illuminated head-piece. (B. M.) 180
107. Bone relief, Egypt, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites)
108. Casket with bone panels, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 181
182
109. Engraved bone, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 184
110. Side of ivory pyxis, K. F. M., Berlin. (From a cast) 183
111. Ivory panel : the Baptism, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue)
112. Ivory panels from episcopal chair, Ravenna. (Ricci M. Guide) 186
113. Ivory pyxides with Daniel and St. Menas, B. M. (B 187
189
114.
Ivory panel from book-cover at Manchester It) 191
115. Side of ivory pyxis, K. F. M., Berlin .
116. First leaf of a diptych in Florence. (Alinari) . 193
117. Second leaf of a diptych in Florence. (Alinari) 194
196
118. Part of a diptych at Halberstadt. {Archaeologia) 198
119. Diptych of the Consul Anastasius, V. and A. M.
120. Diptych of the Consul Orestes, V. and A. M. 199
121. Leaf of a diptych with St. Michael, B. M. (B. M. Guide) 201
122. Front of episcopal chair, Ravenna. (Ricci) 204
123. Ivory panel from episcopal chair, Ravepna. (Ricci) 205
207
124. Ivory book-cover in Bibliotheque Nationale. (From a cas
125. Ivory book-cover at Ravenna. 210
(Alinari) .
126. 211
Ivory panel from a book-cover, B. M. 212
127. Ivory panel at Treves. (From a cast) 213
128. Ivory panel with an empress, at Florence. (Al:
129. Ivory panel, V. and A. M 215
130. End of a casket, V. and A. M. . 216
131. Casket, V. and A. M 217
132. Side of the Veroli Casket, V. and A. M. . 220
133. End of an ivory casket .... 219
134. Ivory panel with St. Michael, B. M. .
135. Ivory panel with Vision of Ezekiel, B. M. . 221
136. Ivory panel from a casket, V. and A. M. . 222
223
Catalogue) 225
137. Ivory panel with Death of Jacob, B. M. (B. M
138. Ivory carving with Emperor Leo VI, K. F. M., Berlin 226
139. Ivory panel, Bibliotheque Nationale. (From a cast) 228
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS
FIG. PAGE
140. Ivory triptych, K. F. M., Berlin ; 229
141. Figure from ivory panel, V. and A. M 231
142. Pierced ivory panel, V. and A. M 232
143. Ivory panel, K.F.M., Berlin 2-33
144. Top of casket at Troyes. (From an electrotype) 234
145. Front of casket at Troyes. (From an electrotype) .... . 235
146. Ivory book-cover, V. and A. M 237
147. Sculpture on Ruthwell Cross . • 238
148. Ivory pyxis, B. M ... 239
149. Carved steatite panel, Toledo. (H. E. : E. Roulin) 240
150. Carved steatite panel, Mount Athos. (H. E.) 241
151. Illuminated head-piece, B. M . 243
152. Mural paintings, S. Maria Antiqua. (N. H. J. Westlake) . . 245
153. Mural painting, Athens. (N. H. J. Westlake) 248
154. Illumination from a psalter, B. M . 249
155. Painting on panel, B. M . .251
156. Miniature from a psalter, B. M 253
157. Miniature from a Gospel, B. M 254
158. Miniature from MS. of Oppian, Venice. (H. E.) 256
159. Miniature from MS. of Simeon Metaphrastes, B. M 259
160. Miniature from MS. of Simeon Metaphrastes, B.M 262
161. Miniature from a Gospel, B. M 265
162. Eusebian Canons from a Gospel, B.M 267
163. Mural painting, Brindisi. (N. H. J. Westlake) 269
164. Mural painting, S. Urbano alia Caifarella. (Moscioni) 271
165. Mural painting, S. John, Cafaro. (N. H. J. Westlake) 272
166. Mural painting, S. Urbano alia Caffarella. (N. H. J. Westlake) . 274
167. Mural painting, Trebizond. (H. E.) . . 275
168. Mural paintings, Palmyra. (N. H. J. Westlake) 277
169. Column, Bethlehem. (Byzantine Research and Publication Fund) . . . 278
170. Mural painting, Kuseir 'Amra. (K. K. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna) . 280
171. Mural painting, Kuseir 'Amra. (K. K. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna) . 281
172. Mural paintings, El-Khargeh. (C. H. Read) 283
173. Mural painting, Saqqara. (J. E. Quibell) 284
174. Mural painting, Saqqara. (J. E. Quibell) . .... . 285
175. Mural painting, Saqqara, (J. E. Quibell) 287
176. Mural painting, Saqqara. (J. E. Quibell) 288
177. Mural painting, Athens. (N. H. J. Westlake) -290
178. Mural painting, Athens. (N. H. J. Westlake) . . .... 291
179. Mural painting, Athens. (N. H. J. Westlake) ... . 292
180. Mural painting, Mistra. (H. E.) . . 294
181. Mural painting, Mistra. (H.E.) . 295
182. Mural painting, Mistra. (H.E.) . 297
183. Mural painting, Mistra. (H. E.) 298
184. Mural painting, Mistra. (H. E.) 300
185. Mural painting. Mount Athos. (H. E.) 303
186. Mural painting, Rome. (N. H. J. Westlake) 305
187. Mural painting, S. Maria, Antiqua. (N. H. J. Westlake) . . . 306
188. Mural painting, S. Maria, Antiqua. (N. H. J. Westlake) 308
189. Mural painting, Brindisi. (N. H. J. Westlake.) .... . 310
190. Mural painting, S. Biagio, Otranto. (H. E.) 312
191. Mural paintings, S. Angelo in Formis. (N. H. J. Westlake) .... 314
192. Mural painting, S. Angelo in Formis. (N. H. J. Westlake) .... 315
193. Painted wooden reliquary, Rome. (After P. Lauer) 318
 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS XV
FIG.
PAGE
194. Panel picture, Uffizi, Florence. (B. Gabinetto, Florence . 320
195. . 321
Panel by Duccio, Siena. (Alinari) .
196. . 323
Illuminated head-piece, B. M. .
197. Mosaics, Cefalu, Sicily. (N. H. J. Westlake) . 324
198. Mosaic, S. Demetrius, Salonika. (Byz. Research and Publ. Fund) . 326
199. Mosaic, Daphni, Attica. (H. E.) . . . . 327
200. Mosaic, Daphni, Attica. (H. E.) . 329
201. Mosaic, Kahrie Djami. (Sebah) . 330
202. Interior of S. Costanza, Rome. (Alinari) . . 334
203. . 335
Mosaics of S. Pudenziana, Rome. (Alinari)
204. Mosaic wreath, St. George, Salonika. (H. E.) . . 337
205. . 339
Interior of S. ApoUinare Nuovo, Ravenna. (Alinari)
206. Mosaic ornament, S. Sophia, Constantinople. (After Salzenberff . 341
207. . 343
Apse of the Cathedral, Parenzo. (Alinari)
208. Mosaics of Catholic Baptistery, Ravenna. (Ricci) . 345
209. . 349
Mosaic, Mausoleum of Plaoidia, Ravenna. (Ricci
210. . 351
Mosaic, S. Apollinai'e Nuovo, Ravenna. (Ricci) . 353
211. Mosaic, S. ApoUinare Nuovo, Ravenna. (Ricci)
212. . 354
Mosaic, S. ApoUinare Nuovo, Ravenna. (Ricci) . 356
213. Mosaic, S. Vitale, Ravenna. (Ricci)
214. Mosaic, S. Vitale, Ravenna. (Ricci)
215. Mosaic, S. Sophia, Salonika. (S. E.) . 361
216. 359-
. 363
Mosaic, S. ApoUinare in Classe, Ravenna. (Ricci)
217. Mosaic, S. Luke in Phocis. (H. E.) . . 366
218. . 368
Mosaic, S. Luke in Phocis. (H. E.) .
219. Mosaic, Cathedral of Parenzo. (Alinari) . 371
220. . 373
Mosaic, Cathedral of Parenzo. (H. E.)
221. Mosaic, S. George, Salonika. (H. E.) . 375
222. Mosaic, S. Sophia, Salonika. (H. E.) . 378
223. Mosaic, S. Sophia, Salonika. (H.E.) 380
224. Mosaic, S. Demetrius, Salonika. (Byz. Research and Publ. Fund) . 382
und)
225. Mosaic, Monastery of S. Catherine, Sinai. (H. E. : N. Kondakoff) 384
. 385
226. Mosaic, S. Irene, Constantinople. (Byz. Research and Publ. Fund) 388
227. Mosaic, S. Irene, Constantinople. (Byz. Research and Publ. F
228. . 390
Mosaic, S. Luke in Phocis. (H. E.) . 392
229. Mosaic, S. Luke in Phocis. (H. E.) . . 394
230. Mosaic in Monastery of Daphni. (H. E.)
231. Mosaic in Monastery of Daphni. (H. E.)
232. . 398
397
Mosaic in Monastery of Daphni. (H. E.)
233. Mosaic in Church of Serres. (H. E. : Perdrizet-Chesnay) . 399
234. Mosaic in Church of S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari) .
. 401
402
235. Mosaic in Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari)
236. Mosaic in Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari) 403
. 405
237. Mosaic in the Martorana, Palermo. (H. E.)
238. Mosaic in the Martorana, Palermo. (H. E.) . 407
239. . 408
Mosaic in the Martorana, Palermo. (Brogi)
240. . 409
Mosaic in the Martorana, Palermo. (Brogi)
241. Mosaics in the Cathedral of Cefalu. (H. E.) . 411
242. Mosaics in the Cathedral of Monreale. (H. E.) . 413
243. Mosaic at Grottaf errata. (H. E.) . 414
244. . 417
Mosaic at Kahrie Djami. (Sebah)
245. Mosaic at Kahrie Djami. (Sebah) . . 418
246. . 419
Mosaic at Kahrie Djami. (Sebah) .
247. Mosaic pavement, Jerusalem. (N. H. J. Westlake) . 421
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
248. Mosaic pavement, Madaba. (H. E. : Soc. orthodoxe palestinienne) . . • 423
249. Mosaic pavement, Madaba. (H. E. : Soc. orthodoxe palestinienne) . . ■ 425
250. Mosaic pavement, Jerusalem. (H. E. : Soc. orthodoxe palestinienne) . . 426
251. Mosaic pavement, S. Luke in Phocis. (After Schultz and Barnsley) . ■ 427
252. Mosaic and wall casing, S. Luke in Phocis. (N. H. J. Westlake) . ■ • 429
253. Ornament of inlaid marble, Ravenna. (Ricci) 430
254. Portable mosaic, Florence. (Alinari) 431
255. Portable mosaic, Vatopedi. (H. E.) 433
256. Portable mosaic, Esphigmenou. (H. E.) 434
257. Illuminated head-piece. Monastery of S. Catherine. (H. E. : N. Kondakoflf) . 435
258. Miniature, MS. of Cosmas, Vatican Library. (H. E.) 437
259. Miniature, G^ospel of Rabula, Florence. (H. E. : A. Venturi.) . . .438
260. Miniature, Psalter of A. D. 1066, B.M 439
261. Miniature, Gospel, B. M ... 441
262. Miniature, Gospel, Vatican. (H.E.) 443
263. Miniature, Cotton Genesis, B. M. . . . 445
264. Miniature, Cotton Genesis, B.M 446
265. Miniature, Joshua Rotulus, Vatican. (H.E.) 447
266. Miniature, Gospel of Rabula, Florence. (H. E. : A. Venturi) . . . .449
267. Miniature, Gospel of Rabula, Florence. (H. E. : A. Venturi) . . . .451
268. Miniature, MS. of Cosmas, Mount Sinai. (H. E. : N. Kondakoff) . . .453
269. Miniature, MS. of Cosmas, Mount Sinai. (H.E.: N. Kondakoff) . . . 4-55
270. Miniature, MS. of Cosmas, Vatican. (H. E.) 456
271. Miniature, Joshua Rotulus, Vatican. (H.E.) 457
272. Miniature, Psalter of A. D. 1066, B.M 459
273. Miniature, Psalter of A. D. 1066, B;M 461
274. Miniature, MS. of Simeon Metaphrastes, B. M. . . . . . 463
275. Miniature, Psalter, Milan. (H. E.) . . . . .... 465
276. Miniature, Octateuch, Florence. (H.E.) . 466
277. Miniature, Psalter, Mount Athos. (H. E.) . . .... 467
278. Miniature, Psalter, Mount Athos. (H. E.) 468
279. Miniature, Psalter, Venice. (H.E.) . 469
280. Miniature, Psalter of A. D. 1066, B.M. . 471
281. Miniature, Psalter of Queen Melisenda, B. M. . . . ... 472
282. Miniature, Book of Job, Venice. (H. E.) 473
283. Miniature, Book of Job, Venice. (H. E.) 474
284. Miniature, Gospel, Mount Athos. (H. E.) . . 475
285. Miniature, Homilies of James, Paris. (H. E. : G. Schlumberger) . . . 478
286. Miniature, Menologium of Basil, Vatican. (H.E.) 479
287. Miniature, Menologium of Basil, Vatican. (H.E.) 481
288. Miniature, MS. of Oppian, Venice. (H. E.) . . . . . . 482
289. Miniature, MS. of Oppian, Venice. (H.E.) 483
290. Miniature, Psalter, Venice. (H.E.) 485
291. Miniature, Psalter of A. B. 1066, B.M 487
292. Miniature, Psalter of A. D. 1066, B.M 489
293. Lot-casting machine of the Hippodrome. (Soc. Antiquaries of London) . . 490
294. Miniature from the Psalter of A. D. 1066, B.M 491
295. Miniature from a Western MS., B. M 493
296. Head-piece from a MS., Mount Sinai. (H. E. : N. Kondakoff) . . . .494
297. The Pala d'Oro, S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari) .497
298. Agate chalice, S. Marco. (Hachette) ... .... 498
299. Enamelled reliquaiy, Halberstadt. (Hachette) .... . . 500
300. Enamelled plaque, V. and A. M 503
301. Enamelled brooch, B. M ... . . 505
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
FIG. PAGE
302. Front of enamelled cross, V. and A.M.. 506
303. Back of enamelled cross, V. and A. M. . . 508
304. Enamelled medallion with Saints, B. M 507
509
305. Enamelled reliquary cross, Vatican. (After Lauer) .
306. Enamelled book-cover, S. Marco, Venice .... 511
515
307. Enamelled chalice, S. Marco, Venice. (Hachette) .
808. Enamelled book-cover, Marcian Library, Venice. (Alinari) 517
309. Enamelled triptych, Morgan Collection .... 519
310. Enamelled triptych, Morgan Collection .... 521
528
811. Enamelled reliquary, Limburg. (After Aus'm Weerth) .
812. Enamelled medallions, Budapest 525
313. Enamelled plaques from crown of Monomachos, Budapest 529
527
314. Enamelled medallion, Swenigorodskoi (now Morgan) Coll. (After Kondakoff) 531
e)
315. Backs of medallions, Swenigorodskoi (now Morgan) Coll. (After Kondakoff) .
316. Detail of the reliquary at Limburg, of. Pig. 311. {Archaeologia)
317. Gold jewellery from Cyprus, Morgan Collection 532
318. Silver paten, Halberstadt Cathedral. (From an electrotype) 536
535
319. Gold signet-ring, B.M. (B. M. Catalogue) 587
820. Gold signet-ring, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 538
321. Gold signet-ring, B.M. (B. M. Catalogue) 537
538
322. Gold signet-ring, B.M. (B. M. Catalogue)
323. Silver ring with inscription, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue
324. Bronze signet-ring, B.M. (B.M. Catalogue) 539
325. Gold bracelet, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) . 540
826. Development of the same bracelet. (B. M. Catalogui 542
327. Gold jewellery at Nicosia, Cyprus 548
328. Gold ear-ring, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) .
329. Gold marriage-ring, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) . 544
330. Gold pectoral cross, B. M. (B. M. Guide) .
381. Gold pectoral cross, B. M. (B. M. Guide) . 545
547
332. Gold reliquary, B. M. (B. M. Guide) 546
338. Gold signet, B. M. (B. M. Guide) . 547
834. Gold signet, B. M. (B.M. Catalogue) 548
335. Gold signet, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 550
549
836. Cross of Justin in St. Peter's, front. (After Bock)
337. Cross of Justin in St. Peter's, back. (After Bock)
838. Cover of silver reliquary, Halberstadt. (Hachette)
839. Embossed book-cover, S. Marco, Venice . 553
551
840. Enamelled and jewelled chalice, S. Marco, Venice
341. Reliquary in form of a church, S. Marco, Venice. (Hachette) 555
342. Enamelled box for relics, Vatican. (After Lauer) 557
556
343. Embossed silver panel in the Louvre. (Hachette) 559
560
844. Embossed plaque, V. and A. M.
345. Metal triptych, V. and A. M
346. Chalice of Manuel Comnenus, Vatopedi. (H. E.) 562
561
347. Silver relic-box, Vatican. (After Lauer) . 563
348. Bronze relic-box, Vatican. (After Lauer) 564
349. Silver cover, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites) 565
350. Chalice and paten, B. M. (B. M. Guide) .
351. Silver censer from Cyprus, B. M. (B.M. Catalogue) 566
567
352. Silver censer from Cyprus, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 568
858. Stamps on silver dish at Nicosia. {Archaeologia) 569
854. Stamps on silver dish from Cyprus, Morgan Collection 570
355. Stamps on silver dish from Cyprus, B. M. {Archaeologia) 570
xvin LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS
FIG.
356. Votive shield of Theodosius, Madrid. (From an electrotype) .PAGE
571
357. Silver disli at Nicosia .
358. Silver dish at Nicosia . . .... . 572
. 673
359. Silver spoons from Cyprus, B. M. (Archaeologia) . 574
360. Silver dishes from Cyprus, B. M. (B. M. Guide) . 575
361. Stamps on silver censer. Fig. 351, B. M. (Archaeologia) . . 576
362. Fragment of tapestry from Egypt, V. and A.M. . 577
363. Tapestry medallion with Orpheus, V. and A. M. . 579
364. Tapestry panel, V. and A. M. . . . . 580
365. Tunic with applied tapestry, V. and A.M..
366. . 581
Tapestry medallion, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) .
. 582
367; Silk textile, B. M , 585
368. Silk textile with gryphon, V. and A. M . 587
369. Tapestry with Oriental design, Lyons .... . 588
370. . 589
Figured silk seal-bag, Canterbury. (From a water-colour, V. and A. M.)
371. Silk textile with Samson (?), V. and A. M. , 591
372. Silk textile with horsemen, V. and A. M. . . 592
373. Silk textile with lions, Vatican , 593
374 Silk textile with names of emperors, Dusseldorf. (From a water-colour,
V. and A.M.)
375. 594
Silk textile from shrine of Charlemagne. (From a water-colou r,V.V. and
and A. M.)
A. M.)
376. Silk textile from shrine of St. Cuthbert. 595
(From a water-colou
377. 596
597
Silk textile, Crefeld. (From a water-colour, V. and A. M.)
378. Silk textile with the Annunciation, Vatican
379. Silk embroidery from Egypt, V. and A.M. . . 599
600
380. 601
Embroidered dalmatic, St. Peter's. (Mosoioni)
381. Printed linen from Egypt, V. and A. M. . . 603
606
382. Pottery ampulla from Egypt, B. M. (B.M. Guide) .
383. Pottery lamps, B.M. (B. M. Guide) .
384. Pottery lamps, B. M. (B.M. Catalogue) .... 607
609
385. Interior of the Constantine bowl, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 610
386. 611
Teri-a-cotta relief, Cairo Museum. (Service des Antiquites]
387. Stamp on red pottery, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 613
388. Glass bowl from Canosa, B. M 612
389. 615
Glass money-weights, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue)
390. Cameo glass pastes, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) . 617
391. Bronze doors, Sta Sophia, Constantinople. (Sehali) 616
392. Bronze weights, B. M. (B.M. Catalogue) 619
620
393. Bronze censer, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) .... 621
394. Development of censer, Fig. 393
395. Bronze polycandelon, B. M. (B.M. Guide) 622
396. Bronze lamp and stand, B. M. (B. M. Guide) . 623
624
397. Incised bronze cross, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 625
398. Lead ampullae at Monza. (H. E.)
399. Lead ampulla from Egypt, B. M 627
629
400. Coins, B. M
401. Coins, B. M 630
631
402. Coin of Theodosius II, Glasgow. (Archaeologia) 638
403. Coins, B. M 635
687
404. Lead seals, B. M 640
405. Intaglio gems, B. M. (B.M. Catalogue) .... 642
406. Silver signet with amuletic device, B. M. (B. M. Catalogue) 644
407. Head-piece from an illuminated MS., Sinai. (H.E. : N. Kondakoff)
408. Miniature, Gospel of Rabula, Florence. (H. E. : A. Venturi) .
 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIOKS XIX

FIG. PAGE
409. Miniature, Psalter of Melisenda, B. M. . . . 645
410. . 647
Mosaic, Cappella Palatina, Palermo. (H. E.) .
. 649
411. Miniature from a Gospel, Florence. (H. E.)
412. Miniature, Psalter of A. D. 1066. (B.M.) . . 650
413. Silver dish, Morgan Collection . 651
414. Miniature from a Gospel, B.M. . . . 652
415. Mosaic, Kahrie Djami, Constantinople. (Sebah) . 653
416. Miniature, Psalter of Melisenda, B. M. . . 656
417. Mosaic, Monastery of Daphni. (H.E.) . 657
418. Mosaic, Monastery of Daphni. (H. E.) . 659
419. Miniature, Psalter of Melisenda, B. M. . . 661
420. Mosaic, Monastery of Daphni. (H. E.) . 663
421. Mosaic, Martorana, Palermo. (Brogi) . 665
422. Sarcophagus, Ravenna. (Alinari). . 667
423. . 688
Mosaic, Cathedral of Serres. (H.E. : Pei'drizet-Chesnay).
424. Mosaic, Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari) . . 669
425. Mosaic, Daphni. (H. E.) . . 671
426. Marble relief, S. Marco, Venice. (Alinarij . 674
427. Mosaic, Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari) . . 675
428. Miniature, Psalter of Melisenda, B. M. . . 677
429. Miniature, Gospel of eleventh century, B.M. . 678
430. Enamels from crown of Monomachos, Budapest 679
431. Sarcophagus, Ravenna. (Alinari) .... . 681
432. Medallionof Valens, B.M . 682
433. . 683
Miniature from Homilies of Gregory, Milan. (H. E.)
434. . 685
Head-piece from a Gospel, B. M.
435. Carved ornament, Sta Sophia, Constantinople. (After Salzenberg) 686
436. Nielloed ornament from silver dish, B. M. [Archaeologia] . 687
437. Nielloed ornament from silver dish, Nicosia .... . 688
438. . 689
Nielloed ornament from silver dish, Nicosia, &c.
439. Pierced transenna, Ravenna. (Alinari) . 691
440. Silk textile, Vatican . 692
441. Silk textile, V. and A. M 693
442. Pierced transenna, Ravenna. (Ricci) . . . 695
443. Marble ambo, Ravenna. (Ricci) 696
444. Ornament from silver spoons, B. M. {Archaeologia) . . . . 697
445. Carved slab, V. and A. M 698
446. Mosaic ornament, Bethlehem. (Byz. Research and Publication Fund) . . 700
447. Ornament on facade of Mshatta, K. F. M., Berlin 701
448. Designs on silver spoons, B. M. {Archaeologia) 702
449. Ornament on column from Acre, at Venice. (Alinari) 703
450. Ornament on ambo at Torcello. (Alinari) . 705
451. End of casket in Troyes Cathedral. (From an electrotype) .... 707
452.
Marble relief, S. Marco, Venice _. 708
453.Mosaic ornament, S. Irene, Constantinople. (Byz. Research and Publication
Fund) 709
454. Impost capital, Parenzo. (Alinari) .... ... 710
455. Carved slabs, Lavra. (H.E.) 711
456. Sarcophagus, Ravenna. (Ricci) 712
 LIST OF THE PEINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS
Austrian Jahrbuch = Jahrluch der IcunstMstorischen Sammlungen des allerhdchsten Kaiser-
hauses, Vienna.
Afh. Mitth, — Mittheilungen des haiserlich deutschen arcMologischen Instituts, Athenische
Ahteilung, Athens, 1876, &c.
Bayet, Recherches = C. Bayet, Recherches pour servir & I'hlstoire de la peinture et de la
sculpture en Orient avant la querelle des Iconoclastes, Athens, Bibliotheque de I'Ecole
franfaise, Fasc. 10.
B. C. H. = Bulletin de Correspondance helUnique.
B. D. = Byzantinisch-e Denhmdler, a series of volumes published in connexion with the
Byzantinische ZeitschHft.
B.Z. = Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Leipsio, 1892, &c.
Diehl, Manuel = Ch. Diehl, Manuel d'art byzantin, Paris, 1910.
Garrucci, Storia = R. Garrucci, Storia delV arte cristiana, Prato, 1872-80.
H. E. = Collection chrMienne et hyzantine des Hautes Etudes, Ecole pratique des Hautes
ilfitudes, Sorbonne, Paris.
Jahrbuch K. D. A. I. = Jahrbuch des kaiserlich deutschen archdologischen Instituts, Berlin,
1886, &c.
Kraus, Geschichte = P. X. Kraus, Geschichte der christKehen Kunst, Freiburg, 1896.
Man. Piot = Monuments et mdmoires publics par V Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres,
Paris, 1894, &c.
0. C. = Oriens Christianus, Rome, Priestercollegium des deutschen Campo Santo,
1901, &c.
Prussian Jahrbuch = Jahrbuch der h'dniglich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, Berlin,
1880, &c.
R. Q. = Rdmische Quatialschrift fUr christliche Altertumskunde undfiir Kirchengeschichte
Rome, 1887, &c.
Repertorium = Repertorium fUr Kunstivissenschaft, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1876, &c.
Rev. arch. = Revue arcMologique, Paris, 1844, &c.
R6m. Mitth. = Mittheilungen des haiserlich deutschen archaologischen Instituts, Rdmische
Abteilung, Rome, 1886, &c.
Strzygowski, Koptische Kunst = J. Strzygowski, Koptische Kunst, Catalogue gineral des
Antiquitis Egyptiennes du Musie du Caire, Nos. 7001 ff., Vienna, 1904 (Service des
Antiquites de I'Egypte).
Venturi, Storia = A. Venturi, Storia dell' arte italiana, Milan, 1901, &c.
V. V. = Vizantieski Vremennih, St. Petersburg, 1893, &c. (Published by the Imperial
Academy of Sciences.)
Voge, Berlin Catalogue. = W. Voge, Beschreibung der Bildwerke der christKehen Epochen,
zweite Auflage. Die Elfenbeinbildwerke, Berlin (Konigliche Museen) 1902
Wulff, Berlin Catalogue I, II = 0. Wulff, Beschreibung der Bildwerke, &c. &c. Band III
Altchristliche und mittelalterliche byzantinische und italienische Bildwerke Teil I
Altchristliche Bildwerke; Teil II, Mittelalterliche Bildwerke. Berlin (KSniwliche
Museen), 1909 and 1911. "
 Fig. 1. Head-piece from a manuscript of the Homilies of St. Gregory in the Vatican
Library. {Hauler J^tudes : Gr. Millet.)

CHAPTEK I

INTEODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

It must be a subject of consideration to any writer on the archaeology

of the East-Eoman Empire whether to retain or discard the long-famiKar
epithet 'Byzantine'. In recent years the term has been employed more
cautiously than heretofore, for reasons which may not be lightly dis-
regarded. Itseems to infringe the rights of Syria, Anatolia, and Egypt ;
it concedes to the city of Constantinople an artistic hegemony which she
did not at first possess; it gives no hint of the debt which Byzantium
owed to the non-Christian East beyond her frontiers. On the other hand,
it has the merits of terseness, and of consecration by long usage, while the
difficulty of finding a satisfactory substitute has necessarily favoured its
survival. East Roman, Later Roman, Romaic, may be preferable in
political history, but in the history of art they are misleading. They lend
the city of Rome a predominance even less easily justified than that which
'Byzantine' lends to Constantinople; they too are question-begging
epithets. The most practical course is perhaps to retain the familiar word
with reservations, for the earlier period restricting it as far as possible to
2 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS
that which is directly associated with Byzantium, for the later allowing it
a wider connotation. Where the term is ambiguous or obviously mis-

FiG. 2. Interior of Sta Sophia, Constantinople. (S^bah and Joaillier.)

leading it is often possible to substitute the paraphrase East- Christian,

which, colourless though it is, may negatively serve a useful purpose.
The antiquities of the Christian East have achieved recognition very
late in the history of art, though they were already in some degree familiar
 INTEODUGTORY : GENERAL GONSIDERATIONS 3

to scholars and travellers four hundred years ago. But the Renaissance
rejected them; from the first they were displaced in the favour of an
awakening Europe by the monuments of pagan civilization.^ There seems
indeed something of ingratitude in the exclusive zeal of the Renaissance
for Roman remaiils and the literature of pagan Greece, when the Christian
East had done so much for mediaeval Italy, and the work of Byzantine
painters had proved so useful to the reviving art of Tuscany. But in that
hour of revival all that bore the style and fashion of mediaevalism was
flung aside as an outworn garment; men were aggrieved at the mere
thought of old routine, very impatient of austerity, and of what they
deemed unnatural restraints. What were the pomps of the Byzantine
princes to the victories of Julius, or the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus
to the new-found dialogues of Plato 1 Old Rome regained from the East
the empire which she had lost more than a thousand years before ; first
Italy and then Europe called with an insistent voice for the literature and
the art of paga,nism. Against that demand the mediaeval spirit of the
Eastern Empire availed nothing ; its artists lost their influence ; its men of
letters kept in favour by teaching the classics of antiquity. Even if the
Italians of the fifteenth century had known that art of the Christian East
with which travel and exploration have made us now acquainted, the
revulsion of feeling had risen too high to permit a just appreciation. If
Mantegna had seen the frescoes of Mistra, would he have painted one Roman
triumph the less ? If Albert! or Michelozzo had studied the churches of the
East, would they have found in them an inspiration more powerful than
that which came to them from more ancient buildings upon Italian soil ?
The Turkish conquests concealed much of the greater work from the view
of Europe, and the Empire which had produced it was half forgotten. In
the seventeenth century a Ducange might devote a life of learning to
Byzantine studies, but the French scholar moved in a backwater where
few cared to follow ; the stream flowed past and left his work unnoticed.
Succeeding epochs of war and revolution, of expanding commerce, had no
sympathy with such learning ; the age of Pompeian discovery, of Winckel-
mann and Lessing, had even less. If a writer required an epithet for all
that was obsolete or unenlightened, he found it in the word Byzantine ; if
such an author had the ear of Europe, he could pervert history with
a phrase. A single barbed epigram of Voltaire discredited all the vast
erudition of Ducange.^

' For a comparison of antique .ind Byzantine elements affecting the Renaissance see
Krumbacher, B. Z. xiii, 1904, pp. 275-6.
^ On this subject see Ch. Diehl, ^Jtudesbysantines, and Introduction a VMstoire deByzance. The
judgements of recent centuries upon Eastern mediaeval art are of the same character as those
formerly passed upon that of our own Middle Ages. The strictures of Voltaire have been too
often quoted to bear repetition ; they are conceived in the same spirit as thnt virhich led him
to remarli of mediaeval building : ' what unhappily remains of the architecture of those
times' {(Euvres, xiii. 474). Many will recall the petulant outburst of Rousseau, condemning
Gothic cathedrals as ' a disgrace to those who had the patience to build them ' (Letter on
French Music). Even the weighty Pi'esident de Brosses was not more sympathetic
b2 so open to impressions of natural beauty, per-
{Lsttres familieres, i. 174'. The mind of Shelley,
4 INTRODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDEEATIONS

Hardly less mischievous than these committed injuries was the sin of
omission of which our great English historian cannot be wholly acquitted.^
Three-quarters of Gibbon's memorable work are occupied with the period
between the Antonines and Heraclius ; for all the remaining centuries one-
quarter must suffice. The iconoclasts, the regenerator Basil, the great
fighting emperors Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces, receive almost
the same short measure as Michael the Drunkard and Constantine Rhino-
tmetus. It must be remembered in palliation that before the days of
dispassionate historical analysis, each age read the past in the light of its
especial interests, too prone to dwell upon all that accorded with its own
opinions, unduly blind to the importance of that which contradicted them.
Voltaire and Gibbon led an assault upon beliefs and institutions which
they regarded as obstacles to progress ; in their eyes Byzantium stood for
all that was eifete in politics and noxious in religion. They could not
maintain a judicial attitude of mind ; they did not subordinate themselves
to facts, but used facts upon principles essentially forensic ; the govern-
ment and society of the East -Roman Empire served them as a foil to the
institutions of a practical and enlightened age. The influence of this
scornful attitude on the part of the old historians was not easily destroyed;
it outlasted the general introduction of scientific historical methods; and
it was not until the second half of the nineteenth century that a more
impartial judgement became possible. It was perhaps not altogether an
evil that an enthusiasm for Greek and Roman antiquities should have
come first, and an interest in the art of our Western Middle Ages second,
leaving the third place for the archaeology of the Christian East. For
Byzantine studies attained recognition only when a developed critical
sense had established a scale of relative values ; they could thus from the
first be pursued in the light of experience gained in related fields of
knowledge.
The periods into which the history of Byzantine art may be divided
will vary according to the importance assigned to different lines of
cleavage. For general purposes the simplest system is the best ; much
subdividing may here and there increase precision, but there is often
a corresponding loss in comprehensiveness and breadth of outlook. If we
omit the years of the Latin occupation in the thirteenth century, the
following division may be found convenient :—
I. From the foundation of Constantinople to the outbreak of iconoclasm.
II. The iconoclastic period.

ceived no charm in the mosaics in Hie mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna. In all this
we are reminded of eighteenth-century judgements on earlier literature ; of Goethe findinc
the Inferno abominable, the Purgatorio dubious, the Paradise tiresome ; of Goldsmith's belief
that Dante owed his reputation to his obscurity and to the barbarism of the times in which
he lived ; of Horace Walpole's foolish dictum upon the same poet ; of Voltaire's remark that
the reputation of the great Florentine will continue to increase because he is never read. It
was Voltaire who described Shakespeare as ' un sauvage ivre, sans la moindre ^tincelle de
bongout'. ^
^ See Prof. Bury's Introduction to vol. i of his edition of the Decline and Fall.
 INTRODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 5

III. From the accession of Basil I (a. d. 867) to the sack of Constan-
tinople in A. D. 1204.
IV. From the Restoration to the Turkish Conquest.
The principal characteristics of these periods may be very briefly stated.
The first period was a time of growth and development during which
the various elements which contributed to the formation of a new art were
blended into an organic whole. The foundation of the Eastern metropolis
is more or less arbitrarily chosen as a starting-point : in a sense it is too
early for the actual beginning of a new artistic era. But the mediaeval

Fig. 3. Part of the Gallery, Sta Sophia, Constantinople, showing marble revetment and
1 false dooi-s^ (SSbah and Joaillier.)

spirit undoubtedly appears in literature in the fourth century;^ and no

other event makes so conspicuous a landmark in the debatable ground
between the Middle Ages and Antiquity. Decentralization is the keynote
of this period, which culminates during Justinian's reign in what has been
described as the ' First Golden Age of Byzantine Art '. The Empire,
politically one, was artistically a group of almost independent units :
Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia were first the teachers and then the rivals of
Constantinople. In the second part of this introduction something will be
said of the causes which rendered the position of the Eastern provinces so
^ Krumbacher, Geschichie der iyzanUnischen Lilteratur, 2nd ed., pp. 2, 14.
 6 INTRODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDERATIONS

influential (pp. 46-76). Here it ne^d only be noted that even in the time
of Justinian ihe primacy of the capital was but recently established and
perhaps not universally acknowledged. The Persian and Arab wars of the
sixth and seventh centuries put an end to this rivalry on the part of Syria
and Egypt, but the spirit of the conquered territories had left so strong
an impress upon Christian art that their power continued to be felt
centuries after they themselves had been absorbed in the Mohammedan
dominions (cf. p. 55). Later chapters will show how in this early period
the activity of the Eastern provinces stimulated the growth of all the arts
and enlarged the domain of iconography: in sculpture, in painting, in
ornament, in the introduction of new types, their influence was universal
and decisive. There are, however, certain general consequences of their
predominance during these centuries which may more fitly be treated in
the present place. As the seed-time of a later harvest both within and
without the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, the first period is more
significant than any other in the artistic history of the mediaeval world.
The position of Rome with regard to the evolution of Christian art is
the first point to be considered, and immediately the Byzantine question
rises before us, pugnax et spimosa, the most inevitable and persistent of
archaeological problems. Italy or the Christian East, the Orient or Rome,^
which had the pre-eminence in the first critical centuries of our era? which
controlled the destinies of Christian art ? The nature of the controversy
is now familiar ; we have watched the brilliant assaults upon the Roman
citadel and the stubborn resistance of its defenders. To which party has
victory inclined ? which of the two shall ascend the Capitol in triumph ?
It would now appear to be established that the claim set up on behalf of
Rome that the art of Christianity was chiefly formed in Italy can hardly
be maintained ; and that from the second half of the third century to the
sack by Alaric she was but one among several centres of an essentially
Hellenistic art. Few who have endeavoured to enter into the spirit of
pagan Rome will deny to her art at its best a power and individuality
which may not always charm, but is irresistibly impressive. We may not
accept in its entirety Wickhoff''s theory of "a Roman ascendency, reaching
its zenith in the third century,^ yet while the fortunes of the Empire were
at their highest there did exist an imperial Eoman style, distinct fi-om the
Hellenistic art which had called it into being. This Roman art has the
august qualities of Roman law ; it may be cold, and in detail uninspiring ;
it may be a Soldatenkwnst, too military to be often free or graceful ; but
the co-ordination of the whole is itself akin to a work of creative genius.
The constituents and motives are unoriginal ; but a fabric has been erected
distinct from any other structure ; the spirit of a logical and masterful
race has passed into it and given it individual lile. In a sense, even the

1 The phrase is, of course, suggested by Strzygowski"s now well-known book Orient Oder Rom
in which the claims of the East were brilliantly upheld. '
2 Tranz Wiokhoff, Die Wiener Genesis, 1895 ; E. Strong, Eoman Art.
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS 7

finest Eoman art owed everything to the aid of other peoples; but no
other people could have produced it. Almost all the elements are foreign ;
they can be detached and analysed, but the result is Roman and nothing
else. We think of Virgil borrowing here from Homer, there from the
Alexandrine authors, from Greek fable and from Latin legend, and from
these most diverse sources constructing his national and Roman epic.
While Eome was still the world's head, expressing her will to a score
of obedient provinces, she imposed her art with her law; it was the
outward symbol by which her dominion was asserted. But the very close-
ness of its connexion with imperial administrative power lent it an official

Fig. 4. Capitals and architrave in the Church of SS. Sei-gius iind Bacchus at Constantinople
(now the mosque Kutchuk Ayia Sophia). (S6bah and Joaillier.)

taint which prevented it from winning the hearts of strangers ; it belonged

too closely to the mechanism of government to stand alone, when the
machinery ceased to move. It was too political to be popular with other
peoples, and it had an eifective life of less than three centuries. An art of
this kind, so sumptuous, so short-lived, so intimately dependent upon
a system of government, could no longer lead when Rome herself was once
dethroned : as soon as decadence set in, the underlying Hellenistic elements
came to the surface, and with them in all the provinces those indigenous
features by which the latest phases of Hellenic art had been corrupted.
Such an art bore no longer the authentic signature of Rome. The political
decline of the city began before the third century closed ; even in the life-
time of Diocletian she was no longer the sole seat of empire. When
8 INTEODUCTORY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS
Christianity became a recognized and official religion, the speed of the
decline was inevitably hastened. The public life of Rome was so bound up
with pagan tradition that it was almost impossible to control a Christian-
ized empire from such a centre. Constantine cut the Gordian knot, broke
with tradition, and founded a new city where religious conservatism should
place no further impediments in his way. He took with him many of the
wealthiest families ; he carried off great numbers of skilled craftsmen.
The corporations of artisans remaining in Rome were weakened i'^ they
declined with the waning patronage upon which they were dependent,
though the city remained wealthy even after the exodus to Constantinople.^
Eome, uneasy and discontented, would not renounce her pagan sympathies ;
but throughout the higher orders of society there was a sense that the
glory was departing. Other cities, Milan and Ravenna, became the capitals
of the West : Rome, superseded and disillusioned, was little minded to
express her mood by artistic crea.tion. Beautiful things were still made
within her walls down to the close of the fourth century, but imitative
things instinct with a Greek and not a Roman spirit. With the disasters
of the fifth century, the workshops were closed and the artists fled ; there
was a sequence of catastrophes for which intervening periods of revival
could never wholly compensate. In A. D. 410 Alarie took Rome ; nearly
fifty years later she was sacked by Gaiseric. New buildings were still
erected in this century, and old monuments restored, but the work was now
done from without rather than from within. Rome accepted alms, and
lived on the patronage of absentee emperors or their families. Much was
done for her by Galla Placidia, and the eastern sentiment which dominated
the art of Ravenna made itself felt in the work for which Ravenna paid.
Thus the mother of many provinces became provincial. She bowed before
barbarian rulers ; and Theodoric, the noblest among them, imposed upon
her the half-Syrian art of his capital upon the Adriatic. There followed
the ruin of the Gothic wars, plague, famine, flood, disaster upon disaster,
destroying the old opulent life, scattering the last wealthy families, and
leaving the city of Romulus to begin a new existence in poverty and
destitution. The men who helped her most in the task were the orientals
who, in the preceding century, had firmly established themselves within
her walls. All the culture and art of the fallen city was now Eastern, and
remained so for two hundred years (see p. 78).
If the question ' Orient or Rome ' only implies that the elements of
Roman Christian art were not indigenous to Italian soil, if it only assumes
that for their due development a continued foreign influence was necessary,
the answer must be given in favour of the East with its army of Greeks,
Syrians, and other peoples acting as interpreters of oriental ideas (pp. 77, 87).
Where the Early Christian art of Rome is picturesque it is Alexandrian ;
1 For the influence of these corporations see Dr. A. L. Frothingham's Monuments of
Christian Borne, 1908.
2 A great proportion of the Roman sarcophagi are of the fourtli century ; the fact is in
itself a proof of wealth, as these sculptured marbles must always have been costly.
 INTRODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 9

where it is monumental, it is so not in the Augustan or the Flavian spirit,

but rather in that of Hither Asia or of Egypt. In literature and art the
Romans had always been a receptive people ; it is inherently improbable
that in the hour of their decline they should have reversed those habits
of assimilation which had made them what they were. The researches
of recent years in Anatolia, in Syria, and Egypt have enabled us to adjust

Fie. 5. Portrait of Justinian I, in S. Apoilinare Nuovo, Kavenua. ^Eicoi.)

more nicely the balance between the East and Rome. The Eastern scale
sinks lower with the growth of knowledge ; when Mesopotamia has been
explored it must sink lower yet.
A second question concerns New Rome, which also had to reckon
with the Eastern provinces. We do not know what lies beneath the
soil of Constantinople; as at Antioch and Alexandria, many dira,sters
have conspired to conceal the evidence which we seek. But it seems
improbable that the decline of Old Rome as a centre of the arts should
 10 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

have entailed the immediate succession of Cons|;antinople. If there was

a transference from one city to the other, it was a transference of artistic
patronage, the new capital enlisting in its service craftsmen from all
accessible centres of culture. It may fairly be urged that the credit of
the work created by such men must be ascribed in the first instance to
the regions in which they were trained. Only an eclectic art could have
arisen in the Constantinople of the fourth century, and eclectic arts
seldom lead to great developments. For a long time the disadvantages
of Byzantium were hardly less than those of the Italian city. She too
was an emporium and clearing-house for the world's ideas ; for many
years she could not acquire the character and individuality which belong ,
to a capital of ancient standing. Deprived by circumstance of the slow
j and ordered growth upon which a national sentiment depends, she had
! to form her character out of the various elements composing her motley
population. Greeks of Asia Minor and Alexandria, Syrians, Jews, Ar-
menians, Persians, immigrant artists from the Roman guilds, all entered
her service and persuaded her to different ends ; in the distraction of their
counsels she lacked what each group among them severally possessed,
a clear consciousness of purpose and direction. The art of the Asiatic
Greek and Syrian was established upon old foundations ; it had behind
it for base-lands Mesopotamia and Iran, rich with the inherited traditions
of many ages. The Eastern provinces knew themselves, and expressed
their ideals in their own style and language. But Constantinople had
no established pre-existing culture to resist or to control the influx of
/ exotic forces : she had first to balance and assimilate new influences,
/ a task which required at least a hundred years. It was thus a natural
; consequence that long after the new foundation neither of the two world-
capitals enjoyed an undisputed hegemony in the arts. There was an
interregnum of indeterminate length during which the leadership was
held by the great provincial cities alone qualified to exercise it. Suppose
a Venice, suddenly enriched and without individual tradition, opening her
gates not to one or two foreign artists, but to a host, a coUuvies pictorwm,
from any quarter where a vigorous art flourished, and you have some
1 parallel to the position of Constantinople in the fourth century. As the
art of her early years would be essentially a foreign art, in like manner
the earliest art of Christian Byzantium was foreign. It remains to determine
at what period the state of pupilage was ended. Though the most
complete and characteristic expression of Byzantine art is hardly found
before the Macedonian revival, yet by Justinian's reign the capital had
attained a full self-consciousness; it had assumed to itself a directive
power ; and this epoch has been justly described as the First Golden Age
of Byzantine Art. It has been remarked that in literature the fourth
century witnessed the first signs of a spirit distinct from that of antiquity
(p. 5) ; probably the change from classic to Christian forms was later
in development, but the brilliant reign of Theodosius may well have been
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS 11

distinguished by an art of no less enterprise. The ravages of time have

left a material too small to form the basis of a final judgement; but
the fifth century is represented by a building (the Church of St. John
of the Studium), in which new elements are boldly treated, and it seems
reasonable to assume in other branches the simultaneous growth of a truly
metropolitan art. It must however be remembered that until the Arab
conquests had robbed the Empire of its Eastern provinces this art did not
stand alone; it was not the unchallenged representative of East- Christian
art as a whole. While Syria and Egypt and Northern Mesopotamia were
still Christian countries they did not intermit their active rivalry.^
It would thus appear that in the earlier centuries of our era the
Eastern provinces occupied a privileged position due to geographical and
other advantages briefly discussed below (p. 46). A few of these ad-
vantages which are of a more general character may be indicated in the
present place. Before the rise of Rome they had gained much by the
ethnical and political conditions resulting from the reforms of Alexander
the Great and his successors. The happy effects of a conciliatory policy
continued when the Hellenistic states became the inheritance of the Roman
Empire ; the j^ear of division in a. d. 476 found them more homogeneous
and more contented than the Western provinces. Taxation was less
harshly imposed and aroused less fierce resentment. In parts of Gaul
the population welcomed the barbarian invader, preferring to stake all
upon the possibility of better usage than longer to endure the fiscal
tyranny of the past ; but at the conclusion of one of the Persian wars,
certain cities on the frontier which had been ceded to the Persian made
passionate appeal against the treaty, imploring the Emperor not to abandon
them to a foreign allegiance. The two episodes are instructive by their
contrast : the stability, the contentment which favour artistic growth are
wholly upon the side of the East.
The Eastern provinces contained the cradle of the Christian religion.
From the time of the Invention Q£--the-Gross"an3r~the dedication of the
seven sites in the Holy LandThe influence of Syria-Palestine upon Christian
afFandiconogfapliy-became' signally important. The memorial churches
eregted by Constantiiie.at the Holy Places were the lodestars of Christian
pilgrimage ; all that wealth and power could b'HStow was lavished upon
their decoration." The best architects," sculptors^ and workers in mosaic
were summonedT to Jerusalem and Bethlehem ; their highest efforts were
exertedTolnake^e-leaist-among— the-citier^or Judah more venerable than

' Opinions as to the role of Constantinople before the sixth century haye considerably
varied. Strzygowski, who formerly {Bys, Denkmdler, ii, p. 207) ascribed to her a creative
influence in the Theodosian age, has more recently deposed her to the position of a secondary
centre hardly more influential than Rome {Benkschri/len der k. Akad. der Wissenscha/ien, iii,
pp. 88-9. Vienna, 1906). Most scholars would probably concede a primacy to Constantinople
in the reign of Justinian ; some would make the metropolis the centre of a new imperial
art analogous to that which Wickhoff ascribed to Rome three centuries earlier. (See
especially A. Heisenberg, Grabeskirche und Ajiostdkirche, vol. ii. concluding chapter. Leipsic,
1908.)
12 INTRODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

the capitals of the world. The greater work of these years has mostly
perished. But almost contemporary products of minor arts still exist
to furnish a clue to its character and to prove that its inspiration was
derived less from Rome and Constantinople than from Egypt, Syria,
or from Mesopotamian Persia: such objects as the metal ampullae at
Monza, the enamelled cross from the treasure of the Sancta Sanctorum
in the Vatican, and certain ivory carvings, survive to prove the quarters
from which inspiration flowed. The rich ornament of animals and foliage
in which the Syrian took
delight,ment ofthe oriental treat-
reliefs in which
gradation of planes is aban-
doned in favour of contrast-
ing light and shadow, all
these things came out of
Asia, and were eagerly
adopted in the West. The
bearded oriental type of
Christ is but the most
conspicuous of the icono-
graphic forms which the
world inherited from the
(Ilhristian East during these
centuries ; the solemn
monumental attitudes, the
formal groupings of the
iigures in larger composi-
tions, were borrowed from
the same source : the Per-
sian costumes rich with
pearls and stiff embroi-
Fig. 6. Bronze steelyard-weight in the British deries came into the Byzan-
tine world through her pro-
Museum, perhaps representing the Emperor Phocas.
vinces of the East.
Yet another cause increased the influence of these favoured provinces.
When the power of Rome declined, in all the distant regions subjected
to her rule there was a revival of native sentiment in revolt against
an imposed and alien art. Everywhere the signs of this recrudescence are
apparent ; from Gaul to Egypt there is a reassertion of indigenous taste.
We need not underrate the significance of this movement within the
actual limits of the Christian East, but we must not fail to notice its
influence in Western Europe. The decorative art of the barbaric tribes
who had overrun the Roman Empire was based upon the same principles
as that of Syria and Egypt: they were oriental principles. As will be
seen below, this community of feeling was of much service to the spread
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS 13

of Christian art among these peoples ; but the most active disseminators
of that art were orientalizing Greeks and Syrians (see pp. 23-7).
All these points speak strongly in favour of the paramount place of
the Eastern provinces in the first period of Byzantine art. It seems
probable that as evidence accumulates and excavations are extended,
the tentative decisions in their favour will only be confirmed. For the
moment we must remember that, owing to the comparatively small number
of monuments yet investigated, much is still a matter of anticipation.
Anticipations, in the Baconian sense, are not without their dangers : ' for
the winning of assent they are more powerful than interpretations, . . . they
straightway touch the understanding and fill the imagination.' In the
present case they have been valuable aids to discovery. But while
Alexandria, Antioch, Seleueia, Nisibis, and many other important sites
remain unexplored, a certain moderation is imposed even upon the most
enthusiastic of pioneers.

II. The Iconoclastic Period, a. d. 726-842.

Brief as its duration was, this epoch is of great importance to Byzantine
art.^ It is commonly included w^ithjha. preceding-period; but as in many
ways it marked_a_jaew:i^ipirrture, it-is desirable" to give it prominence by
assigning^ to it a more independent, position.
VThe immediate cauieof the iconoclastic movement was a.,g^iejal revul-
sion of feelingjigainst the^uperstitiHusTfeverence^for pictures, precipitated ,
by^the^success of tjie^Arab-^rma. -The Mohamniedan^who abjured ikons,- CA'^\
hadnSeen triumphantly victorious; the men who had been_ driven _bacE
before hinrnowlirixionsly inqnirecLwhathftw-4W-~Tia,fen.T»ft nf -the. victor's faith
^ had .eonMluifcfid-io_his Jinuniph,.-aiid. whether ^the_ab.uses. of their^own had
contributed to their humiliating defeat. The question was the more easily
answered sincg_jji— many - parts, of the East the ancient hostility to the
representation of sacred persons had continued down to the sixth century,
more esp^5Jly_in_Syria, and the influence of the austere PauliciansTiad
further strengthened thTTorces now aroused against the ' sFaves of images 'v
Th^ SyriafT adversaries of ikons doubtless proclaimed"the loss of {hra.r
country to Christianity a judgement against an, impious practice ; and as
iconoclast: eii)pfiXCu:s.jiKei:e„theinselv^_ connected with Syria, the opposition
to images could hardlyjailjia issue Jn -energetic action.i
Polttieal causes reinforced those of an ethical and religious character.
The growth of monastic influence and the increase of ecclesiastical wealth
had begun to constitute a^.ppsitivF danger to the^ State. At a time when
the Empire needed all its manhood, thousands of men in the prime of life
were attracted within the charmed circle of the monastery walls. The
1 The present view of the artistic significance attaching to this period is that recently
expressed by Diehl {Manuel, ch. X, pp. 334 ff.). For the general effects of the period upon the
Empire the reader may consult the papers by M. Louis Brehier in the Revue cles cours et
conferences, &c. , noticed in B. Z. x. 696 ; xiii. 583 ; xi v. 353.
 14 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

waste of power from this single cause might of itself have determined
rulers concerned for the political future to encourage a movement which
^bade fair^to strike a blow at mjmasticismr The imperial connexion~with
ieonocTasm began with the edict of Leo III in A. d. 726. Constantino V
proceeded to extremes, and it was in this reign that the greatest destruc-
tion of 'images' took place; mosaics were torn down, frescoes defaced,
pictures and manuscripts burned. This violence was followed by a short
reaction : for a while the Empress Irene restored the cult of images. But
under later emperors, especially Leo the Armenian and Theophilus, the
campaign of destruction was renewed. On the death of the last emperor
his widow Theodora once more restored the cult, which from this time
^forward remained the usage of the Eastern Church.^

Fig. 7. The Emperor enthroned, with guards : part of the Consular diptych of the 5th-6th
century in the Cathedral of Halberstadt. (From Anhasologia.) P. 197.

It may at first sight appear strange that a movement to outward

seeming so largely negative should have exerted a lasting influence on the
course of Byzantine art. But iconoclasm had its positive side ; there is
a sense in which it may be called constructive. It must not be confounded
with a puritanical hatred of all forms of art : its fury was directed against
religious art of a specific kind, and of all that lay beyond this it was
widely tolerant. It was far from causing a general artistic stagnation.
Damming a single stream, but opening a wider channel for many others, it
maintained a wholesome movement of the waters. Its violence is to be
deplored ; its vandalism impoverished not only the centuries in which it
was exercised but those in which we ourselves are living. But it had its
stimulating and creative side upon which it is necessary to insist.
This positive influence of iconoclasm upon art was of a twofold nature :
it caused a return to Hellenistic models, especially those of Alexandria ; it
aroused a frank enthusiasm for the purely oriental decoration which the
' Diehl, Manuel, pp. 389 ff.
 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDEEATIONS 15

victorious Arabs were now adopting from Persia. The Hellenistic revival
was principally concerned with the human figure and with the genre subject ;
the oriental importation consisted of conventional designs ; in each case the
models attained a wide popularity and testify to the abounding activity of
the age. The new constructions of Theophilus at the sacred palace were
enriched with mosaics in which trees, animals, and other motives were
displayed upon a gold ground ; there were frescoes similar in composition ;
there were revetments of coloured marbles. It has been well remarked
that all this found its parallel in the palaces of Bagdad, where Harun al
Rashid amazed all Western envoys by the splendour of his habitations.
For a while in the Byzantine Empire religious subjects were relegated to
the background; the first place was occupied by a purely secular and
official art.
The greater work of this period is almost all lost : the portrait-medallions
in St. Demetrius at Salonica, the apse-mosaic of Sta Sophia in the same
place, and that of St. Irene in Constantinople may fall within its limits,
but they tell us less of the spirit of those times than the productions
of the minor arts. The group of ivory caskets with motives from the
chase, from war, but above all from classical mythology, probably had its
origin in an epoch when scenes of this kind were purposely substituted for
sacred subjects; in them the Hellenistic style of Alexandria, never quite
forgotten, returned once more to popular favour. The older examples,
such as the Veroli casket in South Kensington (p. 215), may well be of the
ninth century. Two diptych-leaves now in the Bargello at Florence and
the Museum at Vienna appear to represent an empress of this time. They
are in the style neither of the sixth or any earlier century, nor of the third
period which began with Basil the Macedonian ; they seem therefore of neces-
sity to fall within the intervening years of iconoclasm. In manuscripts
the influence of the new movement is very marked. Books of science with
illustrations drawn from Hellenistic models are conspicuous. Volumes of
the Fathers are illustrated from their secular or classical allusions rather
than from their theological content. It has been conjectured with much
probability by Kondakofi" that the zoomorphic initials and rich foliate
ornament which flourished in the succeeding period were introduced at
this time from oriental sources. Among the illuminators, monks in the
monasteries, especially the great monastery of Studium, the resistance to
iconoclasm breathed a new spirit into religious art. Psalters with marginal
illustrations, intended to appeal to the people, and rich both in sym-
bolical and topical motives, became the vehicles of the monastic thought
and policy. Hatred of iconoclastic principle, a fierce determination to secure
the triumph of ancient custom, inspired in the monkish artists a creative
energy which astonishes by its vigour and the scope of its invention. In
this varied illustration there is little of classical serenity, but much life and
character. Like the official art of the palace, the art of the monasteries
was the better for the hard forces which drove it into new paths of
16 INTRODUCTORY: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

development. Diehl has well summarized the effects of this short but
stormy period :—
It was to the time of the iconoclasts that the Second Gold Age owed
its essential characters. . . . From the iconoclastic epoch proceed the two
opposed tendencies which mark the Macedonian era. If at that time there
flom-ished an imperial art inspired by classical tradition with a developed
interest in portraiture and real life, imposing upon religious art the influence
of its dominated ideas ; if in opposition to this official and secular art there
existed a monastic art more severe, more theological, more wedded to tradition ;
if from the interaction of the two there issued a long series of masterpieces, it
is in the period of iconoclasm that the seeds of this splendid harvest were
sown. Not merely for its actual achievement but for its influence upon the
future, this period deserves particular attention among those which compose
the history of Byzantine art.
Of the indirect influence exerted by iconoclasm on the art of Europe
by driving Byzantine craftsmen into exile something is said in the section
devoted to Italy.

III. The Macedonian and Gomnenian Penods.

The three centuries from the accession of the Macedonian dynasty to

the sack of Constantinople in a.D. 1204 were as brilliant and prolific as
any period in the history of Byzantine art. Under the Macedonian and
Gomnenian rulers the Empire was powerful and prosperous ; commerce
flourished ; industries developed ; wealth was widely distributed. As the
epoch of Justinian has been described as the First Golden Age of Byzantine
Art, so the name of the Second Golden Age has been suggested for this
period, especially for the earlier half of it, when the spirit of revival and
a renewed consciousness of strength encouraged activity in all departments
of life. It will be seen from the examples considered in the later part
of this book that every braiich of art was now illustrated by important
works, and that the repute of Byzantium was raised to a height never
previously excelled. In mosaics, in architecture, in painting, in almost
all the minor arts, the period was one of prolonged and distinguished
achievement.
The tendencies which had arisen under iconoclasm were now de-
veloped to their logical conclusion. The secular ' imperial ' art patronized
by the court received unprecedented opportunities of expansion. The
buildings of Basil I and of the Comnenian princes were sump-
tuously adorned with mosaics and frescoes, in which the historical
element was conspicuous (p. 261); both in these and in the miniatures
of the manuscripts painted for the several emperors imperial portraits
are frequent. The representation of exploits in the history of various
princes, with their necessary introduction of contemporary persons
and costumes, involved a further advance upon the path of realism.
New varieties of feature diverging from the conventional classical types
appear with increasing frequency. At the same time the study of
 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 17

Hellenistic art of which iconoclasm had been a determinant cause was

steadily maintained; Greek models were never more prized or more
sedulously copied. In the mosaic picture or the miniature, in the ivory

Fig. S. Diptych of the Consul Boethius (a.d. 487) : Museum of Brescia. (Alinari.) P. 197-

carving and the fine enamel, the gestures and attitudes are constantly
reminiscent of the fourth century: the folds of the drapery have the
dignity and grace of Hellenic inspiration. In the same way the decorative
style of the non-Christian East retained the place which it had won ; in
18 INTRODUCTOEY : aENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

illuminated ornament, in the figured textiles, it established for itself a

definitive and permanent position.
What is true of the secular field is equally true of religious art, which
was subjected to similar influences. The same tendency to realism, to the
representation of observed facts and features, is reflected in the work of
ecclesiastical artists. Secular motives derived from the antique, allegorical
figures, personifications and the like, are seen on every hand; antique
gestures, antique draperies, were continually reproduced. The religious
art of this time shared both the imitative and the original tendencies of
the secular ; for a time it indulged an almost equal freedom, and the tenth
century is marked by the growth of a new iconography, in which, side
by side with inherited subjects, fresh compositions are not infrequent.
Such was the striking motive of the Anastasis ; such the solemn Last
Judgement; such the Death of the Virgin, with its dignified and im-
pressive harmony of line. But as the period advances the monastic

Fio. 9. Side of the ivory casket from the Cathedral of Veroli (ninth-tenth century) in
the Victoria and Albert Museum. P. 215.

influence which had been the principal factor in the defeat of iconoclasm
asserted its superior strength. In the eleventh century we already mark
a decline in the feeling for the antique ; natural freedom gives place to
formalism ; the theological intention becomes more obviously the end for
which the work is undertaken. The expression of dogma, not the realiza-
tion of beauty, is made the first preoccupation of the artist. The elaborate
iconographical system according to which the later Byzantine churches
were decorated belongs to this period, and each subject within the great
symbolic whole contributed to a general scheme of edification.
The Second Golden Age was without doubt an age of copyists and
imitators; in this, representative art followed in the steps of literature.
The writers of this age sought inspiration in every branch of ancient
literature, not excepting satire upon the model of Lucian. The names of
Bryennios, Cinnamos, Nicetas Akominatos, Anna Comnena, lend lustre to
a period of praiseworthy activity. But it is as it were a lunar lustre,
borrowed from without and not resulting from an inward fire. A similar
weakness often impresses us as we study much of the art produced in this
period ; it is finished and careful ; it may be of supreme technical perfec-
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS 19

tion; yet it is without the fire of creative genius. But the East was
a more valuable ally to art than to letters ; it communicated its sense for
colour, by means of which much that would else be cold and academic is
clothed with a splendour of life, compelling admiration even when the
forms are poor and the compositions ineffectual. There are no passages in
the poetry or the history of the Byzantine Empire which seize and hold
the imagination like parts of the mosaics of Daphni or of Cefalil.
The tendency towards routine was partly checked by the absolute
necessity for invention. New subjects for which ancient models did not
exist now demanded illustration, Menologia, homilies, hymns in honour
of the Virgin, required fresh compositions ; there was continual scope for
original design. The many-sided life of the capital, the eventful fortunes
of a wide empire, could not but awaken the interest of the draughtsman
and the painter, before whose eyes there passed a procession of the most
varied types of humanity. The encouragement to observation thus afforded
tended at least in part to counteract the indolent acquiescence which
followed the habit of slavish copying. Men strove to rejuvenate as they
reproduced ; to impart into the scenes which they depicted something of
actuality from the stirring world around them.

IV. Period of the PalaeologL

No period of Byzantine art has been more generally misunderstood

than that which lies between the restoration at the close of the thirteenth
century and the fall of the Empii-e in A. D. 1453. Until recent years, it
was customary to regard the whole epoch as one of almost continuous
■decadence, in which all the art which survived was lifeless, gloomy, and
hieratic, all figures emaciated, all colours sombre and depressed. If at any
time during these two hundred years a work was produced which, like the
mosaics of Kahri^ Djami at Constantinople, plainly contradicted the pre-
vailing theory, its redeeming qualities were ascribed to some hypothetical
influence from Italy ; they could not by any possibility be indigenous ;
they could only have been created under thfe influence of the Italian followers
of Giotto. In a word, nothing good could come out of Byzantium ; if good
there was, it must have been introduced from without.
Kecent research has fundamentally modified these views.^ It has been
■discovered that the examples of a really admirable art are not isolated
■exceptions to be easily explained away, but members of a sequence,
appearing in more than one region, and everywhere betraying the same
■qualities. What Constantinople began with the mosaics of Kahri^ Djami

' M. Gabriel Millet, to whom ■we owe the publication of the churches .it Mistra, has
described the characteristics of this period with sympathy and penetration, in the chapters
on
iempsByzantine art contributed
Chretiens, vol. iii, pp. 941 ff.by him to Andre Michel's Histoire de I'Art depuis Us premiers
c3
20 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

was continued in the Morea with the frescoes of Mistra (p. 293), and in
Macedonia and Servia by those of Nerez and other places (p. 296) ; the
series closes upon Mount Athos, where the name of Manuel Panselinos is
associated with the last phase of a memorable revival. For memorable it
may fairly be called when we contrast the resources and opportunities of
this period with those of the preceding epoch. Then all the commerce of
the East flowed into the Byzantine state ; the treasures of the emperors
were richer than those of Solomon. The splendid objects of which we
read in the pages of Constantine Porphyrogenitus might seem the creations
of a fairy story had we not the confirmatory evidence of the crusaders, who
piled precious reliquaries and vessels of gold and silver into heaps and
divided a booty unparalleled in the history of spoliation. Then the churches
and the palaces were adorned with the costliest inlaid marbles and mosaics ;
carved ivories and sumptuous enamels abounded ; whether for the honour

Fig. 10. Panel from the ivory casket from the Cathedral of Veroli in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Ninth century. P. 215.

of the church or for the luxury of their own homes, men shrank from no
expense of gold or labour ; they were the citizens of the richest city of the
world. It might fairly seem to one who compares the spacious Macedonian
and Comnenian times with the straitened epoch of the Palaeologi, that
there could be no effective rivalry between the art of the two periods ; that
the impoverished and despoiled empire, its commerce gone and its prestige
diminished, could achieve nothing more than delay the victorious advance
of the Turkish armies. Yet strange as it seems a rivalry in fact exists :
and if the creations of this latest Byzantine phase do not displace the great
work of the earlier epoch, they are not unworthy to stand very near them.
If the later artists had worked in the same costly materials, it might be
hard indeed to award the palm of merit. They had to adopt the
economical medium of fresco and, except at Kahri^ Djami, did not know
the glow and mystery of mosaic. They seem to have made few ivories and
enamels, substances of intrinsic value were less frequently at their disposal.
But they worked in a great style, new and distinctive of their time.
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS 21

If the question is considered more closely, the rise of a brilliant art in

these lean and unfavoured years is less anomalous than might at first
sight appear. Constantinople was still a great centre of religious and
intellectual activity ; down to the fifteenth century she was still the greatest
centre in the world. In teaching and research she still excelled all other
cities. The way for humanism was prepared by her scholars, who before
carrying their knowledge into the West must surely have derived full
advantage from it themselves. The intellectual and artistic activity of
Byzantium in the thirteenth century was remarkable for a city which had
known the experience of an alien domination. Is it conceivable that the
Eastern artists who had long been teaching the painters and mosaic
workers of Italy (see pp. 81, 263) should in the very next century be
stricken with such a paralysis that they were unable to execute any
considerable work without Italian aid? Did the great city which yet
fermented with ideas so absolutely need the foreign leaven ? At the first
glance a vague similarity between the late Byzantine work and that of
the Tuscan schools might tempt us seriously to consider the theory of an
Italian influence. But matured reflection will probably correct this
premature conclusion. Similarity there may be ; but the cause lies less
in the dependence of one art upon the other than in the development of
both along parallel lines. The whole of Europe, both East and West, was
stirred at this time by the breath of new ideas : the resulting movements
were not confined to either region alone. There is no need for us to deny
the original merit of the first Tuscan schools ; they earlj'- broke free from
pupilage and rapidly produced a native Italian art. But at present there
is more evidence of influence exerted from Constantinople westward than
of influence exerted in the contrary direction. And Constantinople began
to move first. If, moreover, we examine compositions in detail, we find in
subjects common to East and West features of striking originality which
the Italians neither devised nor followed. Such, to take a single example,
is the treatment of the Virgin in the Annunciation at Kahrid Djami.
This agitated form, expressive of a nervous and emotional personality,
is no less different from the placid Virgins of an Angelico or a Filippo
Lippi than from those of the earlier Byzantine art. It is a new and
independent creation.
There is a second hypothesis with regard to the sources from which the
art of this period was influenced; that, namely, which insists upon its frequent
relation to ancient Syrian models. There can be no doubt that Syrian
influence persisted late in Byzantine art, and that in the case of Kahri^
Djami the cycle of the Virgin is based upon early writings of Syrian
origin. Strzygowski and others have rightly pointed to this relation,
establishing the probabilitj'- that the Syrian models continued to be copied
as late as the fifteenth century. But convincing as it may be in regard to
individual monuments, the criticism hardly aflfects the independence of
late Byzantine art as a whole. As Diehl has urged, such a theory does
22 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS

not explain the real brilliance of execution, the remarkable skill and feeling-,
which are manifest in so many compositions of the time. It does not
explain such original features as the Annunciation to which we have
already referred— a scene alien in sentiment to earlier Syrian or monastic
art. Upon the whole it is preferable to adopt the theory of Millet that in
many cases where Syrian influence survives so late the motives have been
modified in their passage through Constantinople.
Side by side with this living art expressing all that was best in this
latest period, there naturally existed an art of ikon-makers to which the
old criticisms may fairly be applied. In this there is indeed much of the
hieratic spirit; there are present many of the unlovely features which
our predecessors described by the term Byzantine, the elongated forms,
the grim faces, the stern ascetic character. But we do not look to

Fig. 11. Side of the ivory casket of the eleventh century in the
Cathedral of Troyes. (From an electrotype.) P. 231.

this art to represent Byzantine achievement in the fourteenth century.

For a fair embodiment of contemporary ideals at their highest, we turn
rather to the living pictorial art of which we have made mention — the art
of Constantinople, of Servia, of the Morea. It is by the creations of this
art that the epoch must be judged, by this that it is saved from the
unmerited reproach of earlier criticism. It was not the classic Byzantine
age ; that name belongs rather to the tenth and eleventh centuries, when
a fine austerity of sentiment was embodied in forms of almost Hellenic
dignity. It was more quickly responsive to changed conditions, more
emotional, less reticent in feeling. While it was more devoted to ritual,
it was also more sensitive to the fascination of ordinary life, adding to the
older iconography those little touches of reality which lend to the sacred
scene the interest of human things. For these reasons its study is no less
essential to the comprehension of Byzantine art as a whole than that of
any earlier period.
It has become a truism to say that Byzantine art sprang from the union
 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 23

of the oriental with the Hellenistic spirit. Like Poros and Penia in Plato's
myth of the youth of Love, the two parents exercised an opposing influence,
each attracting the child in turn, the one by the grace of measure and
restraint, the other by the brilliance of an exuberant nature. Such con-
ditions of life were little favourable to a homogeneous development. Yet
they brought about a compromise mo.st profitable to the world at large,
enabling an art still rich in Greek tradition to expand with the growth of
the Christian religion, and so fulfil a wider destiny than might otherwise
have fallen to its lot. It was the remarkable fortune of Hellenism in its
decadence to be associated with two great proselytizing creeds, Christianity
and Buddhism, neither of which possessed, though both equally required,
an art capable of rendering the human figure. The latest phase of
Hellenistic art was still sufiiciently Greek to perform the service thus
demanded, already sufficiently orientalized to have lost the old exclusive-
ness. Hellenism in its decay expanded its sphere of action both in Asia
and in Europe, whereas in the years of its prime it had made little head-
way either north of the Alps or east of the Taurus. Under the Achaemenian
dynasty of Persia, Hellenic art had indeed penetrated to Susa and Persepolis.
But it had remained a superficial fashion ; it did not change the spirit by
which Persian art was informed. The unshaken philosophy and religion
of Iran had always imposed their ancient types and forms upon the foreign
artist, who was powerless to divert the deep and steady stream of old
tradition. The circumstances were changed after Alexander's expedition
had opened a wider road into the heart of Asia. About the beginning of
our era, Buddhism, rapidly spreading through the continent, felt the need
of an art which could lend attractive expression to its legend. It found
what it sought in Syria and Anatolia, and thus Hellenistic art came to exert
an influence far into Central Asia, while that of Scopas and Praxiteles had
no such distant range. Had it not been for the existence in China of
a greater figure-art, Hellenistic influence might have achieved even more
than this: it might have trained the representative art of China and
Japan. But in Turkestan it met and was defeated by an art of ancient
lineage and greater vitality, truly Asian, and already in the full strength
of its matilrity. Even the advantage of its alliance with the Buddhist
faith could not bring it victory against so powerful an adversary.
Just as Hellenistic art penetrated inmost Asia as the ally of Buddhism,
so it made its way into the Europe of the barbarian conquerors in the
train of Christian missionaries. It obtained iinchallenged entry into Italy,
Gaul, and Spain because it served the religion which the Goth, the Lombard,
and the Frank had adopted as their own. Had there been no barbarian
conversions, had the gods of Valhalla prevailed against the Gospel, the
growth of a worthy representative art in Europe might have been long
delayed. For here all effective figure-art was in the hands of Christians,
as in the East it was controlled by Buddhists; it was the orientalizing
Greek art of the Gentiles to whom St. Paul delivered his message ; and it
24 INTRODUCTORY: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

finally succeeded, where Greece and Kome had failed, because it served
a successful missionary Church, while classical art had no such fortune.
At the time of the barbarian invasions, this association of late Hellenistic

Fig. 12. Carved ivory panel of tlie twelfth century in the Museum of Ravenna. (Ricci.)

art with a living spiritual force was a momentous fact for the future
civilization of the European continent. For here were being established
the peoples of the future, the barbarians whose fathers had never under-
stood Hellas, the men who were to lay the foundations of our mediaeval
communities. They had the youthful vigour ; they had the political
 INTRODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 25

instinct which was one day to consolidate great states ; they had national
«agas and poetic traditions; but in art they had not advanced beyond
a decorative and conventional use of animal forms. The Celts whom they
had driven before them were equally devoid of the power to represent
the human figure and thus appeal to the deeper emotions. If these peoples
were to rise to greater expression, it could only be by the help of a teacher
possessed of the Greek tradition in however decadent a form ; but to the
•Greek tradition these lovers of conventional design were all instinctively
opposed. There was but one way in which it could be made acceptable in
their sight, and that was by its partnership with a spiritual force compelling
their moral assent ; without this union of ethical and aesthetic influences
they would never have accepted it at all. And though in course of time
they might have evolved a figure-art of their own, unaided by suggestion
from without, the process would have been infinitely slow, the failures
more numerous and more disheartening. The great needs of the Western
world were now an art of Greek derivation, but less inimitable than that
of Hellas, and a more austere morality than that of fallen Rome. Eastern
Christianity supplied this twofold need, and hastened by several centuries
the artistic enlightenment of the West. Without this timely aid in the
early mediaeval centuries, the West of Europe might have developed on
more purely oriental lines. For the aesthetic ideas of the barbaric West
were at this time so essentially akin to those of the Nearer East, that but
for some such intervention European art might have remained enslaved to
animal ornament and conventional design. Thej' were so fundamentally
Eastern that the teacher from the East was less purely oriental in spirit than
those whom he came to instruct in so far as the culture which he represented
was in part Hellenic. Through their maintenance of Greek tradition, in
however debased a form, East-Christian artists could appeal to the religious
emotions by representation of the human face and form ; they could depict
the Gospel scenes and represent the action and features of sacred persons.
But the peoples of Western Europe were still in a stage of artistic develop-
ment in which human sufiering or joy found no adequate representation in
art. Even the gifted Celtic tribes, with their imaginative symbolism and
their fine decorative sense, were helpless in the delineation of the human
figure. They could satisfy the eye with intricate combinations of line, but
they had no equal message for the soul of man ; they could not stir the
deeps of universal human feeling. Though long ago their fathers had
borrowed and transformed ornamental motives from Greece, the higher
achievements of the Hellenes were beyond their powers of imitation. If
this is true of the Celts, it is more obviously true of the rougher Teutons,
with their Asiatic jewellery, their designs of dismembered monsters and
interlacing animals. This relationship of barbaric Europe with Asia was a
natural result of circumstances. At the beginning of the Dark Ages, Europe
had an ornamental art, one in principle with that of the Nearer East.
For Northern Europe was in direct contact with the art of Persia at the
26 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS

time when the Goths were settled on the Black Sea ; and long before the
coming of the Goths, the steppes had formed a channel of communication
between the two continents by which ideas and artistic motives flowed
from one into the other. Through this great northern zone a long line of
tribes maintained an unbroken contact; in aesthetic feeling Europe and
Asia were one. Decorative pattern was the ideal of both, and neither
could assimilate from the storehouse of ancient art anything beyond its
fantastic monsters or here and there some feature of its floral ornament.

Fig. 13. The Entry into Jerusalem : ivory panel of the eleventh century
in the British Museum.

It was only when the barbarians had adopted a religion to which the
presentation of the human figure was essential, that such an art had any
chance of prospering among them. In the fourth and fifth centuries no
other force than Christianity could have exerted this influence, and the most
active pioneers of the new faith were then Christians of the Eastern pro-
vinces. The Christian East, half Hellenic half oriental, laid the foundations
of the structure which in a later century Charlemagne was destined to erect.
To recapitulate the foregoing paragraphs. Before the fall of the
Koman Empire in the West, Europe was overrun by barbarians whose
artistic ideas were akin to those prevailing in the Nearer East. They
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS 27

loved pattern and contrasted colour ; they could not represent the human
figure. Neither in West nor the Nearer East was there any seed or
principle out of which a great figure-art could arise. The only hope lay
in the Byzantine Empire, which through the Hellenized cities of the Eastern
provinces and the half-Syrian city of Eavenna transmitted to the barbaric
world motives and methods of composition, debased, indeed, and without
originality, yet still in the true line of descent from Greek antiquity. In
after years the Byzantine Empire continued its educative work. It con-
sistently taught a respect for fine craftsmanship and the virtues of
discipline and restraint. At the close of the tenth century its models were
imitated by the handicraftsmen of the Ehine ; its ivories and miniatures
inspired the sculptors of the Romanesque period (pp. 119, 236); under
the Comnenian dynasty it assisted the growth of Italian painting. After
the sack of a.d. 1204 the spoils of Constantinople provided many a model
for the French or German craftsman and stimulated the development of
the minor arts. But as impressions of early youth are the most indelible,
so the lessons which Europe learned from the Empire of Justinian had
perhaps a deeper influence than any others. Europe was not alone in the
advantage of this intercourse. The art of Islam from the beginning
derived from the Christian provinces of the East much that was essential
to its growth.
It is necessary to insist upon the indestructible influence of Hellenism,
because the activity of recent research in the rich treasure-chambers of
the East has somewhat tended to obscure it.^ We sometimes forget that
there was no gap or breach between pagan and Christian art; we speak
as if the new faith had made immediate revolution among old forms.
This was not the case ; iconography was changed, but the Christian figure
received the pose and gesture of the pagan god, philosopher, or muse.
It is perfectly true that almost from the first the East exerted an irresistible
charm, inspiring the Greek with its luxuriant taste in ornament, love of
colour, its feeling for the solemn and the supernatural in monumental
or commemorative art. The spirit of Byzantium is often more oriental
.than Greek. But the Hellenic element was never overwhelmed, its power
was constantly reasserted. As the metaphysics of Christian theology
remained Greek, for all the embroideries of Eastern fancy, in like manner
no opulence of oriental ornament or colour can conceal the Hellenism at
the core and centre of Christian art. That art was inevitably and by
the conditions of its birth of a dual nature; to forget this is a heresy
no less vain than those of monophysite or monothelite in the history of
Christian dogma. Whatever we may therefore think as to their relative
importance in different regions and at diflerent periods, we must mete
equal measure to both strains alike ; the very obscurity of our imperfect

^ It is the merit of Ainaloff to have insisted upon the Greek element at the foundations
of Byzantine art in his valuable and suggestive work The Hellenistic Origins nf Byzantine Art,
St. Petersburg, 3900 (Russian).
28 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS

knowledge should prevent prejudice against either. There was an old

story that the Court of the Areopagus decided its cases in darkness, in
order that no distracting influences might pervert the course of justice.
The imperfection of our knowledge, perforce condemning us to a like
obscurity, should encourage us to maintain the same dispassionate mood.
If such were the conditions under which East-Christian art developed,
what was the distinctive character of its maturity ? What are its detects
and what its merits ? What is its position among the other great arts of
the world ?
If we begin with its defects, we may say that it often became un-
emulous and self-centred : it lacked the fire
and fury of creative ideas ; it was so con-
servative that sometinigs its revivals^ seem
little more than retrospects. It was too sub-
servient to prescription, and too constantly
preoeeu^ied^by the didactic purpose. It was
limited in its scope By- the early abandonment
of greater, sculpture. It was apt to be un-
observant, copying and recopying old designs
with too little thought of nature. It depends
too much upon an atmosphere and an environ-
ment. Its virtues are in part the qualities of
these defects. It is admirable in technique,
jyjs- .1 ';>!«: jealous for the repute of a fine tradition in
Wj ' \\ 1^ J craftsmanship. It preserves seemliness ; it
does not tolerate the harsh, the_v-ulgar, or the
eccentric. In the earlier centuries it gave
evidence of a genius for assimilating and
developing foreign ideas almost equal to a
power of original creation; adapting after
wise experiment the ancient inventions of
Fig. 14. Leaf of an ivory
triptych of the twelfth century : the East, it perfected th,e architecture upon
St. John the Baptist and an epis- which its claim to absolute greatness is so
copal saint. (British Museum.)
Jargely based. In later centuries it applied
the same genius to the renovation and development of its own more ancient
work. Reserved and circumscribed in other ways, it was grand and opulent
in colour : even in its severest hours it contrived so to blend austerity with
splendour that as a decorative system it holds a unique place in history.
Gibbon, in a well-known passage, exposes one of the causes which
weakened the fibre of the East- Roman Empire. ' Alone in the universe/^
he says, ' the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not disturbed by foreign
merit ; and it is no wonder that they fainted in the race, since they had
neither competitors to urge their speed, nor judges to crown their victory.'
If this criticism is to be applied not to political but to artistic life, it
must be considerably modified ; but it will be found to contain indisputable
 INTRODUCTORY: G-ENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 29

elements of truth. In the Middle Ages, Western Europe held Constan-

tinople a place possessed, as it were by divine right, of acknowledged
pre-eminence in the arts. The city suffered from this subtle flattery;
the consciousness of old prerogative blinded her to the need for enter-
prise. She condescended to the West; and all the while the West
was rising to higher fortunes than her own. The result of _this attitude
is a certain high tranquillity of mood ; until the latest period there
is_Iittle that surprises or disconcerts^; if there is movement, we know
in_ady.anca_tha.Iiiies_whiciL.it will -follow. The revorutioBs"whicir have
affected the history of the arts in the .West wera impossible-for Byzantium^
"She mtn^ssadTjio^^uc^^ change as that from the grim and monster-loving
art of Italy in the eleventh century to the human art which succeeded

Fig. 15. Ruins and capitals of tlie sixtli ceptury at El Khargeh, Egypt.

the teaci)ing.._of_.St. jVancis, She knew no such- revulsion as _that which

changed the character of English literature when the exuberance of the
seventeentl:^_century passed into the restraint of the 'Augustan' age.
The^feuds
(Jf of classic
realist and and romantic
impres.sioni3t never the
disturbed reached her ears ; nowhich
still atmosphere disputes
she
breathed in her seclusion. Only in the last centuries of her existence
did she fully awaken to the possibilities of naturalism in art. But it
was then too late for her to gather in the harvest. The kingdom was
departing : the Turk was already at the gates.
The most striking exceptions to these conservative tendencies are to be
sought in the enfranchised art of iconoclasm, in the ' imperial ' art of the
Macedonian revival, and in those episodes and phases of common life
which, especially in MSS., enrich the scheme of illustration. In these
expressions of the secular spirit the Hellenistic model is often paraphrased
in accordance with a new conception; aspects of common life, seized by
30 INTRODUCTORY: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
a genuine power of observation, enliven the dullness of old tradition. In our
day the secular side is regarded as the least part of Bj'zantine art— perhaps
it was always so— and though it has suffered a disproportionate loss compared

Fio. 16, Sculpture on a sixtli-century ambo in the Cathedi-al of Ravenna. (Kicci.)

with the side which was dedicated to religion, it may well be that at no time
was it represented by such numerous examples. As with the mediaeval
art of the West down to the fourteenth century, as with Buddhist art at all
periods, it was an art made tongue-tied by authority. The third period
was still young when the chilling influence of prescription began to spread
in the work alike of the greater and the minor artist ; before that period
 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS
31
closed, it had become a power to which resistance was but rarely offered.
The Gospels and other books which had in earlier times been illustrated
with a certain richness oi: invention were gradually restricted to a stereo-
typed scheme of miniatures from which the life and vigour of the past have
all departed. It could not be otherwise when the subjects and the manner
of treating them were indicated in advance ; the artist was never wholly
free to recompose or introduce a fundamental change. Under the con-
ditions prevailing in the Eastern Church the genius of a Giotto or a
Masaccio would hardly have reached maturity. The Byzantine Greeks
regarded painting as a sacred art (p. 248), and it sometimes impresses us as
if it were indeed a ritual
exercise. It is true that
the Italians of the thir-
teenth and fourteenth
centuries adhered to
types of composition
which were hardly less
monotonous. But they
grew_ discontented with
the limits oFtheiFicienSe

and technique ;"they~ex-

perimented _with per-
spective, with effects of
light and shade," and
with spatial
until at the close " relations
of the;
fifteenth century they
were able entirely to re-
construct the traditional |
religious subjects. Per-)
haps if the Turk hadj
stayed his hand the By-| Salonika, Pig. 17. Part of an ambo of the fifth century; from
now at Constantinople. Cf. Fig. 84, {Hautes Etudes :
zantine painters might a. Millet.) P. U5.
have moved in a similai:
jlirection ; the mosaics and frescoes to which we have already alluded seem to
indicate no less. Bufr'without-tbe' stimulus of close contact with the West
the movement might have slackened and lost significance for Europe as
a whole. The retarding influence of orthodox prescription would perhaps
have hindered progress until the West had long ago discovered all there
was to know. How strong that influence was becomes clear to us
when we study the religious art of Eastern Christianity as it became
after the fall of Constantinople, spiritless, submissive to encroachment,
unquickened by the personal hope, lost to the saving graces of imagination,
iDespite its frequent inclination towards realism, Byzantine art as
a whole lived too much indoors for rapid improvement in theory or
 32 INTRODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

practice ; it was too incurious, too indifferent to the study of nature

and the human model: it grew short-sighted by poring over copies and
cartoons instead of seeking familiarity with life and growth. While the
contemporary art of China and Japan was searching for the harmony
between nature and the soul of man, and developing a landscape of
supreme quality, the Byzantine schools were handing down their copies
of old Hellenistic conventions, trees of strangest vegetation, plants of no
species, and dark prism-shaped mountains unrecognized in nature (p. 244).
It is remarkable that while both in the Far East and in the Byzantine Empire
monastic artists formed a high proportion of the whole, the oriental monk
divined the central secrets of the natural world in its relation to mankind,
while the Christians are almost children in comparison. The love of
animals, trees, and flowers was perhaps more vital to Buddhism than
to Christianity, and this may partially explain the difference. Yet, even
if we make this concession, there remains a superiority on the oriental side
almost humiliating to the European for the first time confronted with the
great landscape art of the Sung dynasty in China.
Like other eclectic systems, Byzantine art had few enthusiasms ; were
it not for the glow of its colour it would often fail in its appeal. It was
not quickened and inflamed by a national ideal of beauty ; its force was
dissipated in the expression of serious generalities. It never passed
through an archaic stage, or ripened to excellence through suffering and
disillusion. At the beginning it was too richly endowed to strive ; like
the Church which it served, it lost no less than it gained by the gifts of
Constantine. It is a commonplace that a comfortable inheritance will
often stifle genius, and the art of Eastern Christianity had never to work
for the means of existence. Its constituents were brought to it as it
were already fashioned; the forms which we see were not moulded in
the fury of the creative hour; they are without the signature of the
individual character.
Like much Western mediaeval art, the art -ot- the Christian East
depends constantly upon the support of its origmaTsurroundings. The
Olympian gods were dethroned before the dawn of our era, but even under
a grey northern sky a fine Greek statue or vase will compel to instant
admiration : such things have an absolute inevitable beauty independent
of creed or fashion. It is not quite the same with Byzantine movable
works of art. They may be admired for their colour, for their sumptuous
effect, for particular technical qualities, but not for the supreme harmony,
the
Evenrhythm, the perfection of form
the greater work, which cannotwhich alone command a universal homage'.
be transported, may owe more than we
think to instinctive religious sympathy and historical interest ; it gains by
the dim light of the sanctuary ; it does not always bear the searching light
of day. It may seem superfluous to judge Byzantine art by the Hellenic
standard ; but this must be done if its place among the great arts of the
world is to be fairly estimated ; to aim lower would be to pay an equivocal
 INTRODUCTORY: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 33

compliment, and to assume it an art unworthy to be measured by the

highest canons we possess.
The position of Byzantium in the general history of the arts in some
ways resembles that of scholasticism among the philosophies. We find the
same peculiar strength, the same undeniable weakness. There is the same
dependence upon Greek forms at second hand, in both there is the austere
reserve which does not court approval. But there are also the noble
qualities which earned for Aquinas his title of angelic doctor. By virtue
of the Hellenic and oriental elements of which it is composed, the art of

Flo. 18. Limestone capital of the fifth century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general: Koptische Kunst, No. 7345.)

the Christian East is a great religious and a great decorative art. As

decoration it is often of an unrivalled majesty ; as interpretation of human
and inanimate nature it was too imitative to attain supreme success. Its
forms do indeed evoke and quicken the sense of life, but it is a life elect
and spiritual, and not the tumultuous flow of human existence. They are
without the solidity of organisms which rejoice or suffer; they seem to
need no sun and cast no shadow, emerging mysteriously from some
radiance of their own. Byzantine art is unsurpassed as the interpreter of
a common faith; but by i^very elevation it evades the warmth of human
' passionT" ^Eor when it would depict the life of real, breathing, sinful
'^Beings, its academic proficiencies often play it false ; its traditional shapes
34 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

will not live and move as sincerity v^ould have them. The artists of the
Christian East regarded their art as a means rather than as an end in
itself, sharing in this the feeling of their contemporaries of the Western
Middle Ages ; but since theirs was a Church more exacting in its control
than that of Rome, a Church altogether hostile to monumental sculpture,
they lacked the opportunities afforded by the development of the plastic
sense. The free play of the intellect was too constantly excluded from
their life ; how superfluous to think out problems, when all was happily
defined by narrow, if not immutable, precepts ! In this fidelity to sacro-

1 •A.2"***'^^- — ■"'
^
^

wM

Fig. 19. Capital of the fifth century, Mosque of Eski-Djouma, Salonika.

{HaiUes Etudes : G. Millet.)

sanct tradition Byzantine art is not without analogy to that of ancient

Egypt. It had infinite decorative charm, but it grew languid for want of
livino- ideas ; it too readily abandoned initiative, to live content in ' the
narrow proficiency of perpetual iteration 'J
We have dwelled upon the deficiencies of Byzantine art because the
reaction against the old injustice has provoked a counter-reaction, and
there are many who neutralize the good results attained by using a
language of unqualified eulogy. By this insistence upon its weaknesses,
are we insensibly reverting to the injustice of Voltaire 1 Are we taking
our stand on the side of those who see in Byzantine art nothing more than
a grandiose hieroglyphic system, differing in degree, but not in kind, from
' The phrase is that of a writer in the Edinburgh Review who criticizes Egyptian civilization
upon the lines indicated above (No. 430, October, 1909, pp. 400 ff.).
 INTEODUCTORY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 35

that of ancient Mexico ? To do so would be to ignore qualities which

might redeem more serious defects. If the art of the Christian East is
lacking in freshness and enthusiasm, it is spared solecisms and ' uncertain-
ties of inspiration '. The restraint of an ever-present law may impoverish
imagination, but it forbids rhetoric, and lends to the artistic language the
stately grandeur of a liturgy. The mean and trivial accidents of life do
not intrude into the sphere of these high abstractions ; the vulgar and the
foolish thing does not come nigh them ; there is immunity from the
dangers which beset unbalanced and impetuous natures. This art avoids
false pathos, false unction, feeble sentiment. It is neither over- violent nor
over-sweet; it has no place either for a Caravaggio or a Guido Reni.
Perhaps it was after all a happy destiny which held the East-Christian art
of the Middle Ages in a servitude so august and transcendental. Freed
from the exalting attraction of the ideal type, it might never have risen
above mediocrity. It is greatest, it is most itself, when it frankly
renounces nature ; its highest level is perhaps-attained where, as in the
best mosaic, a grave_ schematic^ treatment is imposed, where no illusion of
receding distance? no- pjeoccupation with anatomy, is suffered~td_distract
the eye from the centraLmystery-of-^he symbol. The figures that ennoble
[ these walls often seem independent of earth ; they owe much of their
grandeur to their detachment. They exert a compelling and almost
I a magical power just because they stand upon the very line between that
■ which lives and that which is abstracted. The constant repetition of
j designs and methods which have acquired a kind of sanctity or pre-
.scriptive right has another compensating advantage. It is in the art of
the most conservative civilizations that the most refined and conscientious
craftmanship is often found ; what is true of dynastic Egypt is also true of
I the Macedonian and Comnenian dynasties of Byzantium. What does not
I Europe owe to the finished carvings in ivory, the delicate enamels, the
I admirable textiles, which travelled westward in the Middle Ages ? Under
what a debt do her illuminators and painters lie to the miniatures and
panel paintings which held before their eyes the classical virtues of-
reticence and sobriety ? The artistic influence of the Byzantine Empire is
•due in no small degree to those minor arts of which the very name has
-a certain depreciatory sense. Few peoples have done more than those
composing that empire to correct the error thus implied. The efiiect of
these lesser arts on the development of culture is often of a high signi-
ficance; and as there is truth in the saying that the ballads of a nation
may contain the key to its history, in like manner it might be maintained
that from what remains of its minor arts it is possible to divine its
achievement in the most diverse fields of action.
In two directions Byzantine art achieved no relative or qualified
success, but the triumph of positive and acknowledged mastery: in the
skilled use of colour, and in architectural construction ; in both cases it
owed much to the Eastern strain in its composition. There is little need to
d2
36 INTEODUCTOEY : GENEEAL CONSIDEEATIONS

dilate upon the skill, the fine responsive feeling, with which these artists
conceived and executed their schemes of colour ; both in the major and
the minor arts there survive documents sufficient to prove their perfect
competence. In the flowing tones of a rich mosaic which seem to well up
satis-
from infinite deeps the eye finds the same solace, the heart the same
faction, asin the canvases of Titian and Giorgione , those citizens of a half-
Byzantine city.
But it is in architecture, the art with which this volume is not directly
concerned, that Eastern Christianity finds its grandest expression; in

Fig. 20. Capital of the sixth century : Cathedral of Parenzo. (Alinari.)

architecture it attains to absolute greatness. The Byzantine architect

perceived the majesty of great curves ; he freed construction from the
visible tyranny of mass. His domes were symbols of the overarching
heaven in which Christ Pantokrator might fitly establish his throne. The
eye follows__the_aerial lines with consummate satisfaction ; they entrance
by suggestions of infinity ; they gcTforth and return upon theirappointed
course, until in the contemplation of their infallible perfection all sense of
superincumbent mass is overcome. There is no dome JwMgli^ floats like
_th_at of Sta -Sophia ; it is poised rather than supported ; the last thing33f~-
which the ^ectator thinks is the enormous. jbhrust_and pressure which
i for fifteen hundred" yesrs"has 'urged upon the masonry belowr "The.
audacity Qfjth£.^conception is forgotten in the apparent ease of the achieve-
 INTfiODUCTOEY : GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 37

ment. The ideal of Byzantine construction was the close-knit organisni

sufficient to itself, bearing its own burden by the nice balance of counter-;
acting forces. The churches stand lightly, rising in a natural grace ; they;
do not lean upon buttresses or painfully display the struggle and stress in
which all buildings live. After the time of Anthemius and Isidore, there
I was no further attempt to construct upon so grand a scale as that of
Justinian's great cathedral. Byzantine churches are usually of moderate
iproportions ; some, and those not the least beautiful, are very small indeed.
But all have their majesty of curved line which seems to bear the soul
away, and is congruous with the mood of still devotion.
The absolute greatness of Byzantine art willjje_affirnied or deni_e_iin
proportion as the relationship of art to ethics is regarded as nearj)r remote.
The Emperor Margvi&_4grelius expressed~one 3ruth - when he said that
everything which is beautiful is beautiful in itself and terminates in itself.
But to the artists~oFl;he~MiddlgI^gii7 whether in East or West, this was
false doctrine. To thenTthe individual wasTiothihg, the immanent idea or
eidos was both a type^and^an ensamplei , TEe~^fornvEhe image, we're but
means andr^etETblances created to exalTTne soul to the contemplation of
immortal things.^ If the function of great ai't is to enhance the sense of
life, the theory which sets ennoblement before all things will never lack
defenders, because, after all, it is founded upon another truth no less
essential than the first. In its theory Byzantine art is at one with our
great mediaeval art ; in its practice, though upon different paths, it attains
an equal level of achievement.
-" 'AXAd Kal elfcibv
es voepijv dvdyei fiv^aTtv kirovpavloiv.
Nilus, Anthology, vol. i, p. 10, Leipzig, 1819.
 CHAPTER II

In the foregoing chapter the attempt has been made to indicate in

outline some of the more general characteristics of Byzantine art and
to estimate the influence which it has exerted in the world. The purpose
of the present chapter is to supply something in the nature of a geo-
graphical basis, and to illustrate the importance of the several areas;
it may thus be regarded as complementary to the first. Since it must
necessarily be restricted to the limits of a summary, only salient facts
and features have been included; but the references to early or recent
works of a more special application will enable all desirous of entering
into further detail to obtain information from ampler and more authentic
sources.
The imperial provinces and those regions of Asia with which they
were most intimately connected have been placed first upon the list, those
parts of Europe which lay beyond the Byzantine frontiers last ; but the
space allotted to the latter is equally extensive. Two reasons may be
given for this apparently paradoxical treatment : the position of the Eastern
provinces has been exhaustively discussed in comparatively recent works
by Strzygowski and other writers; the influence of East-Christian art
in Western Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages is an
essential part of its greatness and cannot be too strongly emphasized.

Thk Balkan Peninsula ; Gkeece ; The Islands ; Russia.

In a sense, the Balkan peninsula was the hinterland of Constantinople,

and as such was open to the influence of Byzantine art. The permanent
occupation of great territories by half-civilized peoples might check this
influence, but did not destroy it, because the conversion of the Bulgarians
and the Servians to Christianity favoured the introduction of Byzantine
culture.
Thrace, with its chief city, remained Byzantine almost from first to
last. Salonica was always predominantly Greek. Though it suffered
much in early centuries from the neighbourhood of barbaric tribes its
early churches, especially those dedicated to St. George and St. Demetrius
show that by the time of Justinian it must have been very rich in
important monuments. Between the seventh and ninth centuries it was
troubled by incursions of Slavs and Bulgars, only preserving itself by
gifts which almost amounted to a tribute. During the iconoclastic dispute
its clergy declared against the innovators, and as a principal centre of
 39
THE BALKAN PENINSULA

resistance it grew in ecclesiastical importance. In a.b. 886, 904, and 912

it was attacked by the Mohammedans, and in 1185 was sacked by the
Normans of Sicily. In a.d. I!i04 it passed under the authority of a
Frankish ruler, but became once more Byzantine in a.d. 1328, falling at
last to the Turks in the fifteenth century.
The significance of Mount Athos ^ for Christian art begins in the tenth
century, when the earliest of the great monasteries were founded ; from
that time to the present day the cloister-covered headland has been the

Pig. 21. Limestone niche of the sixth-seventh century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunut, No. 7300. )

Holy Mountain of the Christian East. The monks who sought its shelter
and seclusion were natives of the most varied regions, coming from Servia,
Georgia, and Russia, no less than from Greece and the Levant. Pre-
serving traditions handed down from a very early period, they have
often succeeded in lending to their frescoes and works of art a greater
appearance of antiquity than they in fact possess. The artists were
naturally in sympathy with the monastic art of Syria, Mesopotamia,
and Egypt ; and in MSS. of quite a late date the influence of Syrian proto-
types is manifest. Little is now preserved of a date earlier than the
fifteenth century, and most of the frescoes are later (p. 302). The art
' Brockhaus, Die Kunst auf den Athos-Klostern ; N. Kondakoff, Monuments of Art on Mount
Athos (Russian), 1902.
40 THE BALKAN PENINSULA

of the Athonite monks is imitative and eclectic. No new school was

founded in their midst; the promontory has always been a place of
memories rather than the home of quickening ideas. One great name,
that of the painter Manuel Panselinos, is associated with the Holy
Mountain (p. 263).

Bulgaria and Seevia.

The Bulgarians, a people of Turco-Finiiish stock, became Christian in

the ninth century. From the close of that century down to about a.d. 930
they enjoyed a brief period of national glory, and their manners were
refined by relations, peaceful and hostile, with the rulers of Constantinople.
Their nobles were educated in the Greek capital; their famous Tsar
Simeon, who exchanged the monk's for the soldier's habit, is said to have
studied the works of Demosthenes and Aristotle. He defeated the
Byzantine armies and besieged the Emperor Romanus in his capital,
exacting from him terms of friendship and alliance.^ But after his death
Bulgaria declined, until the Emperor Basil II, surnamed the Slayer of the
Bulgarians, broke its power and removed it from the number of in-
dependent states.^
The importance of Servia" to East-Christian art begins in the thir-
teenth and culminates in the following century. The Servians were
a Slav people, allies of the Avars, who occupied Balkan territory in the
seventh century, the Emperor Heraclius ceding them lands on condition
that they acknowledged the suzerainty of Byzantium. In the time of
the great Simeon (see above) Servia was dominated by the Bulgarians;
it was not until the rise of the Nemanja dynasty at the close of the
twelfth century that the country assumed an international position, and
began to assimilate the culture of her eastern neighbours.
The third son of the first Nemanja prince, born in A.D. 1169, travelled
in the Holy Land, and studied on Mount Athos as a monk under the name
of Sava ; there the Servian monastery of Chilandari was founded, becoming
a channel through which the influence of East-Christian art penetrated
into the Slavonic kingdom.* The first period of Servian art ended with
Stephen Urosh II, Milutin (a.d. 1282-1321). During this period certain
influences from the West (Dalmatia) are apparent.^ The fourteenth
century was the great Byzantine period. Milutin, the famed soldier and
church builder, married a daughter of the Emperor Andronicus II;
his son Stephen (a.d. 1321-31) followed in his steps and built the famous
' Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. Iv. The chief Byzantine historians are Cedrenus and
Zonaras.
' Vol.x of Jsraesiii/oof Buss. Arch. Inst, of Cple., Sofia, 1905.
' Kondakoff, Macedonia ; MikloSich Stojanovifi ; Strzygowski, Denkschriften of the Vienna
Academy, vol. lii (Phil.-hist. Classe), 1906, pp. 89 ff.
* G. Millet, Becueil des itiscriptions chret. du Mont Athos, i, has published inscriptions illus-
trating the relations between the Holy Mountain and Servia.
^ Architectural ornament akin to Romanesque initials in the Miroslav Gospel (Facsimiles
by L. Stojanovi6, 1907) influenced by Romanesque style.
 BULGAEIA AND SERVIA
41
monastery of Decani. Under Stephen's son Dushan (a.d. 1331-55) Servia
attained the summit of her power. This king took Macedonia in 1345,
and conquered Thessaly, Epirus, Aetolia, and Acarnania, leaving to
Byzantium only Thrace and Salonica. Decadence began on the death
of this founder of Great Servia. His son Urosh (a.d. 1356-72) was
unequal to the task imposed upon him. Under Lazarus (1372-89) and
his son Stephen Lazarevid (1389-1427) the political centre was removed
from Uskub and Macedonia to the region about the confluence of the
two Moravas. The connexion with Constantinople was maintained by
both rulers, even though the second was actually a vassal of the Sultan.
The close of the fifteenth century saw the final establishment of Turkish
rule.

Fig. 22. Sandstone nic?ie of the seventh century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : K-dpHsche Kunst, No. 7297.)

The Nemanja period is rich in monuments of Servo-Byzantine art.

The church of Studenitsa shows Romanesque as well as Byzantine features.
Gradats dates from a.d. 1314, in the reign of Milutin : another foundation
of this king is Gratchanitsa, and in both Byzantine influence predominates.
Ravanitsa dates from a.d. 1380; Kalenitsa and Manasseya from the late
times of Stephen Lazarevic.
The most important artistic remains, apart from the buildings, are
the frescoes and the MSS. The former follow Byzantine traditions and
share the late Renaissance of the fourteenth century, to which the mosaics
of Kahrid Djami and the wall paintings of Mistra in the Morea bear such
conspicuous evidence (see p. 293).
In the MSS. similar tendencies are found; but here the influence of
the monastic art of Mount Athos is also apparent (see above).
Strzygowski has argued that Servian art was affected by old Syro-
42 G-EEECE AND THE ISLANDS

Mesopotamian traditions which never passed through Constantinople,

but had been transmitted directly from the East to the Holy Mount.
Gkeece and the Islands.
Greece does not loom large in the history of the arts during the early
Byzantine period. The country had always been discontented under Roman
sway ; in the days of Pericles it had been spoiled once and for ever for
a subordinate destiny ; the epigoni could not forget, and were embittered
under the discipline of Rome. It was not with them as with the in-
habitants of the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the East. These already
learned under the Diadochi what it meant to have a master ; when Rome
came with a measure of communal liberty as an immediate gift and the
enduring ^jaa; RomaTia in prospect, they accepted the new yoke without
reluctance, and despite the exactions of provincial governors achieved
a rapid prosperity. But the same yoke galled the necks of the Greeks
in Hellas and filled them with a sullen despair. Independence was gone,
economical prosperity was upon the wane. The Roman Empire controlled
the most productive countries of the Western world; aland like Spain,
rich in minerals, cattle, wool, and fish, could supply all needs at lower
rates, and undersell the Greeks in their own markets. The world
was no longer Hellenocentric ; the people of Hellas, resentful and im-
poverished, kept aloof, and guarded the illusion of national importance.
Athens was full of philosophers walking in the porch or the garden
and attracting to their lectures students of many nations ; she remained
the inner citadel of intellectual paganism, tenaciously holding the last
strongholds against Christianity. Here in the fifth century Artemis,
Athene, and Asklepios still had their worshippers ; yet to all but Athenian
eyes the metropolis of a lost cause was growing obviously provincial ;
she depressed the stranger with a sense of vanity and desolation. Synesius
of Cyrene, who visited the city in A. D. 416, found dilapidation everywhere,
and perhaps recalled the remark of ApoUonius of Tyana: 'I became
provincial {k^appapiad-qv) not by absence from Athens, but rather through
making a sojourn within her walls.' But Athens was not suffered to defy
the spirit of the age with impunity ; the foundation of the university of
Constantinople under Christian auspices dealt her a sensible blow and
diverted the stream of students to the East. Her philosophers still
professed, but they felt that the future was not with them ; their cause
was lost long before Justinian closed the schools of Athens. One of them
Leontius, gave an empress to Constantinople in the person of his daughter
Athenais, who, under the new name of Eudocia, became the wife of
Theodosius II.
In a word, Greece was fatally loyal to her old traditions. Christianity
made way slowly, and was at first almost confined to the walls of Corinth.
The country was singularly free from wars and bloodshed, for though
in A. D. 395 Alaric the Goth penetrated as far south as the Morea, his was
 GEEECE AND THE ISLANDS 43

but a temporary raid which brought no permanent exhaustion. Greece

was ruined by poverty and old memories, not by armed oppression :
the land of Pericles and Thucydides now neither made history nor wrote
it. Progress was to come not from rhetoric or poetry but from the prose
of a reviving commerce. After Justinian had introduced the culture of the
silkworm into the empire (see Ch. X) Greece became a great centre of
weaving, and her textiles were famous in Europe. The solid compensations
of prosperity led men to forget that the city of Corinth, once famed in
all the arts, now gave its name to currants. The silk industry flourished

Fig. 23. Carved limestone frieze of the fourth-fifth century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunsl, No. 7308.)

not only in Euboea but in Thebes and in the Morea ; and when the Norman
princes wished to establish silk manufacture in Sicily, it was to Greece that
they sent for workmen. In the tenth and eleventh centuries numerous
churches and monasteries were erected, many of graceful construction,
and adorned with mosaics and frescoes of remarkable beauty : the monas-
tery of Daphni in Attica and the great Church of St. Luke of Stiris in
Phocis retain to this day much of their original splendour. Oriental
features in architectural construction, and ornamental motives, both zoo-
morphic and alphabetic, show that at this period a strong Mohammedan
(Perso-Mesopotamian) influence aflfected the art of Greece,^ possibly
initiated by migrant artists from Hither Asia who followed the Bulgarian
armies. The Frankish occupation of the thirteenth century only partially

^ A fragment of an Arabic inscription found on the Acropolis at Athens in 1888 suggests

the actual presence of Mohammedans in the eleventh or twelfth century (Van Berchem and
Strzygowski, Amida, Beitrage sur Kunstgeschichte . . . mm Nordmesopotamien, p. 372).
44 GEEECE AND THE ISLANDS

interrupted the peaceful progress of art and industry.^ Thebes continued to

manufacture silk ; Halmyros and Chalcis were busy emporia ; the plains of
Thessaly exported corn to Constantinople, the vineyards of Pteleon sent
their wine. Monemvasia in the south furnished our own ancestors with
the Malmsey to which mediaeval records refer so often. The close of the
thirteenth century, which witnessed the fall of the Frankish principality
of Achaia, saw the Byzantine Empire re-established in the Morea. Mistra,
close to the site of the ancient Sparta, became the seat of a new and
flourishing province, which waxed as Constantinople waned, and, but for
the Turks, might have continued to prosper for centuries. Here lived
Gemistios Plethon the Platonist, here members of the imperial family made
their residence; and the churches, with their beautiful frescoes, all the
work of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (see p. 293), are the most
conspicuous examples of the last revival of Byzantine art (see above, p. 19).
The fatal year a.d. 1460 put an end to Greek sovereignty in the Morea;
and from that time till our own day the art which had done so much to
redeem the failure of mediaeval Greece lay once more under eclipse. To
the formation of East-Christian art Greece had contributed little or
nothing : its last great phase might have been peculiarly her own had
destiny spared her the miseries of Turkish misrule.
The Islands prospered during the imperial expansion of the middle
period, and retained much of their importance after the Latin occupation.
The Cj'clades (Dodekanesos) by the thirteenth century had grown some-
what insecure through the prevalence of piracy, but they were still populous
and important, lying as they did on the route from Constantinople to
Italy .2 Naxos, the Queen of the Cyclades, had a fortified castle at Apaliri ;
Chios had Nea Moni with its fine mosaics ; on Andros was the Pana-
ehrantou monastery attributed to Nicephorus Phocas, and the small church
of St. Michael at Messaria, dating from the time of Manuel I ; Paros has its
churches, of which detailed accounts have yet to be published. Cyprus
was the seat of wealthy Greek communities in the sixth century: the
discoveries of jewellery and silver plate in the island attest its prosperity
at that time. Crete is very rich in Byzantine churches, mostly of the
later centuries,^ though one at least described by Mr. Fyfi'e, St. Titus at
Gortyna,* dates from the first millennium. In the last centuries of the
Byzantine Empire Greek painters of reputation were born in Crete
(see p. 264).
RuSSI.'i^ AND THE CrIMEA.

Tlie Greek cities of the Crimea had preserved late Hellenic civilization
through Roman times, but had sufifered the barbarian yoke under the Huns.
' See W., Miller, The Latins in the. Levant, 1908, and Joum. Hellenic St. xxvii, p. 229 ; Sir
Rennell Eodd, The Princes of Achaia,
ibid. ' eh.
W. xvii
Miller, as above, p. 25. For the history of the Islands under the Franks, see
and xviii.
' G. Gerola, Monumenti Veneti neW isola di Creta, vol. ii, 1908. The churches are of the
ordinary Kreuskuppel type. * Theodore Fyffe, Architectural Review, Aug. 1907, pp. 60 ff.
 RUSSIA AND THE CEIMEA 45

They were brought within the influence of Byzantium by Justinian, who

made the city of Bosphorus an imperial dependency.^ In the seventh
century Cherson still preserved its old Greek traditions and municipal
organization, a privilege granted by Diocletian and Constantine in return
for aid against the peoples of the interior ; it emerges from obscurity in the
eighth century as the place which received and ejected Justinian II,- most
intractable of imperial exiles. The region is interesting as the home of the
Tetraxite Goths, a remnant which remained behind when their countrymen
moved westward, preserving their name and speech till after the fall of
Constantinople.* They had been converted to the Christian faith, presum-
ably in the fourth century, and two centuries later petitioned Justinian for
a bishop. Eussian archaeologists have discovered remains of early Byzantine

Fie. 24. Limestone frieze of the fourth-fifth century in the Museum at Cairo.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7302.)

churches,* and the Crimea possessed a mint at which copper coins were
struck.
The real significance of Russia for Christian art. does not begin until
the conversion of the Russian princes to Christianity in the tenth century.
When Kieff became a Christian city, artists from Constantinople were
invited to decorate the walls of its churches with frescoes and mosaics ; in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the period between the introduction of
the new faith and the Mongol invasions, the South of Russia was the
home of many arts ; and Russians had not only become skilled in mural
decoration, but also in goldsmith's work and in enamelling. The Mongo-
lians checked this peaceful development ; the seat of government was
transferred to northern centres more remote from the Black Sea and more

1 Bury, Hist., i. 470. '' Ibid. ii. 263. ^ Bradley, Goths, p. 363.
* J). Ainaloff, Monuments of the Christian Chersonese, i ; Tolstoy iind Kondakoff, Russian
Antiquities, iv, St. Petersburg, 1891 ; A. L. Berthler de La Garde, in Materials for Russian
Archaeology, xii, St. P., 1893 ; Izviestiya of the Imperial Arch. Commission, 1900, &e. ; Compte rendu
of the same, 1888-1904; V. Latysheff, Greek Inscriptions of the Christian Era, St. P., 1896. (All
Russian except the Compte rendu.)
46 EUSSIA AND THE CEIMEA

amenable to European influence. The time when Kieff was the first city
of Russia is the most interesting of all for the student of Byzantine
culture ; it is fortunate that enough remains of the period survive to
permit some estimate of its achievement. It is an interesting fact that the
influence of Armenia (p. 56) can be traced in Russian architecture ; and it is
probable that Armenians were active in introducing Christian art into the
valley of the Dnieper. Since the sixteenth century Russian art has
incorporated much that is Western and has attained a new individuality
of its own. Yet amid all changes it bears upon it the unmistakable
marks of its origin, and has preserved, with a certain barbaric grandeur,
much of the Byzantine spirit. Like the mother art, it rejected the plastic

Fig. 2-5. Limestone frieze with animals, sixth-seventh century, in the Cairo Museum.
(^Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7320.)

representation of the human figure upon a large scale, and its sculpture
is chiefly confined to the ornamental carving of the non- Byzantine area.
It owed much to Mount Athos, with which its relations have been long and
continuous, one of the monasteries bearing the Russian name. The most
remarkable monument of Byzantine art in Russia is the Cathedral of Kieff,
which is adorned with mosaics and frescoes of the eleventh century.

THE EAST-CHRISTIAN WORLD

Anatolia.

Asia Minor has always been a country of ethnical and geographical

contrasts. Her coasts and the valleys of her greater rivers have been
accessible to maritime influences ; on the other hand, her plateau has
preserved primitive and indigenous traditions. Along the littoral and the
chief water-ways Hellenistic culture was more strongly represented than
 ANATOLIA 47

in any other province ; here were to be found in their purest form the
latest manifestations of the Greek spirit. It was no small thing that in
the region nearest to Constantinople, in the home-province of Byzantine
civilization, the principles of Hellenism should have survived with less
modification than elsewhere ; it is a fact which helps us to understand the
stubborn resistance of the Greek element in Byzantine art to the influence
of the East. Great cities like Ephesus, Smyrna, and Miletus, lesser cities
like Sardis, Tralles, or Magnesia, were strongholds of Hellenism whose
wealth and commercial importance enabled them to maintain a high
position among the towns of the East-Roman Empire. The character of
their population, their wide resources, the communications which they
maintained with Asia and with other provinces, combined to maintain the
prestige of Asia Minor as the first representative of late Greek civilization. ^
The cities upon the Euxine shore of Anatolia were in the earlier centuries
under the influence of a Hellenic, in the later of a Byzantine Greek culture.
There were Christian monuments in Trebizond before the sixth century ;
Sinope was a considerable port connecting the interior with Constantinople.
Though Trebizond had already profited by the revival under the Macedonian
dynasty, and some of her principal churches were built between this time and
the occupation of Constantinople by the Latins, yet it was this latter event to
which she owed her period of greatness. In a. d. 1204 Alexius Comnenus
founded in this part of Asia Minor the Empire of which she was the
capital ; the abandonment in the same century of the route to the East
by the Red Sea and Syria diverted the oriental trade to the Euxine
and rapidly turned to her advantage. The Genoese and Venetians settled
here ; the revenues derived by the Comnenian emperors from this source
enabled them to become the generous patrons of architects and painters
until their prosperity waned and their dominion was overthrown in the
second half of the fifteenth century.^
In the interior, upon the plateau, away from the moving currents of
new ideas, the conditions of life were different. Here old customs and
modes of thought, established before the coming of the Greeks, continued
to pursue their ancient way indiflferent to the various dominations which
had in turn held rule over the peninsula. When in a. d. 133 Rome had
become an Asiatic power, she did indeed extend her sway over that
Anatolian plateau which neither Persian nor Macedonian had ever fully

' It should be unnecessary to refer the reader to Sir William Ramsay's various works on
Asia Minor, the last. The Thousand and One Churches, written in collaboration with Miss Ger-
trude Bell. Among books and treatises in other languages, Strzygowski's Kleinasien ein
Neuland der Kunstgeschichte has aroused widespread interest by its attractive statement of
original views. In Diehl's review of the book in the Journal des Savants, 1904, pp. 239 ff.,
mention is made of the German, Austrian, and Russian work in Anatolia. Miss Bell's earlier
work among the ruined churches is published in the Revue archeologique, where there is also an
article by M. Millet (1905, Pt. I). The work of Dr. Hans Rott and others is mentioned in the
chapter on Fainting,
^ Finlay, History of Greece from its conquest ly the Crusaders to its conquest by the Turks, &c., and
Mediaeval Ch'eece and Trebizond ; Fallmerayer, Geschichte des Kaiserfhums von Trapezunt ; G. Millet in
Bull, de Corr. hell, xix, 1895, pp. 419 ff. For the coins see references on p. 626.
48 THE EAST-CHEISTIAN WOELD

controlled. But what anthropologists describe as ' regional temperament '

was not to be suppressed even by the Roman legions : the deities to which
the common people prayed were Asian gods, and the state religion was
powerless to evict them. As in Syria and Egypt, the social and religious
leeling of the indigenous population reacted powerfully upon art. The
idealism of the Greek was less sympathetic to the Anatolian than the
realistic manner which had marked the art of the ancient monarchies.
The tendency to realism and to a severe monumental style characteristically
Asian was here no less marked than in Syria, where the same Mesopo-
tamian influences had penetrated. All the features which mark the
monastic art of the Empire, the austerity, the theological preoccupation,
the devotion to prescribed form, found here a congenial soil. Cappadocia

Fig. 26. Limestone frieze with mounted saint in the Cairo Musenm, sixth-seventh century.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7284.) P. 153.

is nearer in spirit to Mesopotamia and Syria than to the Hellenistic cities

of the Mediterranean littoral.
The interaction of the oriental and Hellenic elements had nowhere more
important results than in Asia Minor. For it was here that forms and
methods of oriental architecture were modified with the most fruitful
results to meet the needs of the Christian Church. In the art of skilful
adaptation the Asiatic Greek was supreme; none so quick as he to
accommodate existing features of a foreign art to new uses, combining and
transforming by bold and practical experiment. He early perceived the
advantages of the vaulted and domical system of construction, appreciating
the superiority of buildings so erected over the old basilicas with their
monotonous wooden roofs. It is probable that the invention of the
pendentive, by means of which a dome may be placed above a rectangular
ground-plan, was a Greek solution of an ancient difficulty.^ The cruciform
' G. Millet, Eev. arch., Jan. 1905, p. 102; G. L. Bell in The Thousand and One Churches,
pp. 441 and 446.
 ANATOLIA 49

plan, the two-towered fagade, the vaulted basilica, all seem to have
dominated in Anatolia.^ The very use of burned, as opposed to sun-dried,
brick may be due to the invention of the Greek builders.^
The Greeks of the Hellenistic cities of Asia Minor probably did more
to preserve the decaying art of sculpture than any other people in the
Byzantine Empire. The traditions of the period when Scopas and
Praxiteles had worked on Anatolian soil, the later traditions of Pergamon
and Rhodes, were not easily forgotten in the west of the country where
the Greeks were in strength and oriental influences remote. The ' Sida-
mara group' of sarcophagi, visibly inspired by Greek art of the fourth
century B. c. yet attracting by a striking originality, may have been
produced in Asia Minor, though whether in north or south it is still

Fia. 27. Limestone reliefs, fifth-sixth century, in the Cairo Museum.

(Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7638.)

impossible to say (p. 130). The marble quarries of Proconnesos, which

supplied the whole Mediterranean area with capitals of columns and
closure slabs in the fifth and sixth centuries, may almost be regarded as
belonging to the Anatolian province, though here there were numbers of
workmen from Syria, Egypt, and other regions.^ Various reliefs with
figure subjects found in Asia Minor would seem to show that the art was
widely distributed in this region (p. 153), though after the seventh century
it sank into insignificance. From Anatolia the Buddhist sculptors of
Gandhara may have derived their models (p. 130).
The relationships of different schools of painting in the Eastern
provinces during the earlier centuries of our era cannot yet be defined with
certainty ; the surviving material is too scanty ; the extent to which the
^ Strzygowski, Kleinasien ; and article in 0. Scheel's Religion, pp. 385, 393.
'^ Strzygowski, Kleinasien, p. 34. Burned brick, unknown to Vitruvius, was introduced
into Rome before the time of Augustus.
' 0. Wulff considers that the Sidamara sarcophagi may have been produced on Procon-
nesos {Berlin Catalogue, i, p. 15). The possible connexion of Anatolian sculptors with the
Christian sarcophagi of Gaul and even of Eome raises interesting questions (p. 133).
50 THE EAST-CHEISTIAN WOELD

different regions borrowed from each other is still too imperfectly known.
But there seems reason to suppose that Asia Minor, which from the days
of Asterius (see p. 260) had been reputed for her painters, possessed
excellent illuminators in the sixth century ; the Gospels of Rossano. and
Sinope are plausibly attributed to her workshops and themselves illustrate
the intermingling of Asiatic and Hellenistic sentiment (Ch. VIII). Her
advantage in enjoying four centuries of development after the conquest of
Syria by the Arabs allowed her to develop the art of mural painting
down to the beginning of the second millennium. ^

Syeia and Palestine.

This province was one of the most important regions which contributed
to the development of East-Christian art ; it connected the culture of
Hither Asia and that of declining Hellenism by nearer and more numerous
ties than any other part of the Byzantine Empire; it transplanted the
mixed art resulting from the connexion to the most distant countries of
the West. Syria may be said to lie between two continents ; on the west,
the Mediterranean keeps it in contact with Europe, while to the east it
merges in the continent of Asia, to which it geographically belongs. From
this situation the province derived the utmost advantage in the centuries
preceding the Arab conquest of A. d. 634. Her people were then the most
active traders of the time ; they received by land the riches of Inner Asia
by the great trade route debouching at Antioeh, and from this port they
distributed them through the Mediterranean with the products of their
own art and industry ; the effects of the relations thus established are
discussed in the sections dealing with the countries of Western Europe
(pp. 78, 87). With Alexandria, and through that city with Egypt,
Antioeh held uninterrupted communication, and so closely were mutual
interests allied that in certain branches of art it is often impossible with
certainty to distinguish the work of the one country from that of the
other. Ivory carvings and other objects of the fifth and sixth centuries
are still variously assigned by different scholars, and attributions remain to
a large extent subjective. In both alike we find Hellenistic and Asiatic
elements in process of amalgamation, we see the blending of the Greek and
oriental spirit.
The chief centre of Hellenic influence in Syria was the great city upon
the Orontes. Antioeh, which in earlier times had enjoyed a dubious fame
as a city of luxury and dissipation, retained to the last many of the
characteristics which had rendered her name notorious. The pages of
Livy, of Plutarch, of Polybius, of Posidonius of Apamea, reveal to us these
Greeks and Hellenized Syrians as a people no less devoted to festivity and
social pleasures than to the active business of life. In the time of Justinian,
Antioeh is described by Procopius as the first of the Roman cities in the
• The most extensive remains are in the rock-hewn churches of Cappadocia (see p. 267)
But the constructed churches, now ruined and decayed, must once have been equally rich.
 SYEIA AND PALESTINE 51

East.^ Its situation on the northern slopes of Mount Silpius, its abundant
supply of water, its genial climate, all contributed to make it a favourite
place of residence. Its streets were broad and lined with splendid buildings ;

FiQ. 28. Limestone relief of the serentli-eighth century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 8761.)

its theatre on the hill and its amphitheatre in the plain, its baths, and its
forum were celebrated in the contemporary world. The suburb of Daphne,
with its groves of laurel and cypress, its flowing waters, and its ancient
' For Antioch see Ottfried Miiller, Aniiquitates Antiochenae ; E. FOrster, Antiochia am Orontes,
in Jahrbuch des Jc. deutsch. arch. Inst., xii, 1897, pp. 103 if. ; Ch. Diehl, Justinien.
E 3
52 THE EAST-CHEISTIAN WORLD

shrine of Apollo, was as famous as once the vale of Tempe in Greece. The
intellectual and religious reputation of Antioch diifered alike from that of
Alexandria and that of Athens. While the former city early developed
a fanatical and violent zeal, while the latter persevered in the paganism of
a greater past, the Syrian city pursued a middle path, tolerating heathen
ceremony, yet not forgetting that the disciples were first called Christians
in Antioch. Temples were converted into churches, magnificent new struc-
tures were erected by successive emperors, the seat of a patriarch was
established, but in the groves of Daphne there were still priests of the
ancient faith and sacrifices were still ofiered to the pagan gods. The
austere Julian might despise the home of dancers and musicians, St. John
Chrysostom denounce her Babylonian follies ; but Antioch, like the capitals

Fis. 29. Limestone gable of the fourth-fifth century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7285.) Pp. 152-3.

of modern Europe, had a serious side, and beneath a somewhat frivolous

exterior she concealed an energy prolific in many fields of enterprise.
Down to the invasion of Chosroes in A. D. 540 only the occasional mis-
fortunes of earthquake or civic disturbance interrupted the course of her
prosperity. Even after the first shock of war she enjoyed a respite of
nearly a century, and during the whole early period she continued to
exert an influence upon the peoples with which she was connected by her
maritime trade. The ports of Egypt, Italy, and Gaul received her fleets.
Her merchants and her monks were found on the banks of the Tiber, the
Rhone, and the Rhine (p. 78). The Hellenism of Antioch was reinforced
by intercourse with the Greek cities of Asia Minor. By maritime inter-
course Ephesus and Miletus were kept in contact with the Syrian capital ;
the Cilician Gates secured free access to the province which originated the
Stoic philosophy. In the interior, towards the East, were the hundred cities
of Northern Syria and the Hauran, since the Arab conquest lying abandoned
in their solitude, but before the rise of Islam enjoying a civilization in
 SYRIA AND PALESTINE 53

great part Greek.^ Though the buildings of these regions were perhaps
less important to the development of Byzantine architecture than those of
Anatolia, they illustrate in the same way the effect of Hellenistic invention
working upon material imported from the East. The problem as to their
connexion with Komanesque architecture in Europe, raised by de Vogii^
many years ago and again brought into prominence by Strzygowski, can
here only receive a passing mention.^
Through relations of this kind and the character of her own population
the Hellenic element in the art of Syria was necessarily powerful.^ Antioch,
with all its buildings and its greater works of art, has disappeared from the
face of the earth, and we can only imagine the nature of its architecture,
painting, and greater sculpture. But of the minor arts our knowledge is
somewhat more extensive. Ivory carvings and the silver plate which with
much probability may be attributed to Syrian workshops remain to show
how strong the Greek tradition was between the fourth and seventh
centuries (Ch. IV, IX). The influence of Syrian art which we find in the
mosaics and sarcophagi of Kavenna and Naples permits us in some measure
to surmise the nature of the lost originals. In surviving work from Syria,
as from other provinces, we observe a swift degeneration of the Hellenistic
types ; in the treatment of the human figure, but above all in the changed
conception of decorative design, we mark the encroachment of oriental ideas.
For Syria had the Orient at her gates, and that very part of it which
from ancient times had been most active in the cultivation of the arts.
We know something of Mesopotamia in Babylonian and Assyrian times ;
our knowledge of the district in the earlier Christian centuries is only now
beginning, nor will it be adequate to our needs until excavations have been
undertaken upon the sites of many cities which flourished at that time.
' The importance of these wonderful ruined cities was first realized after the publication
of M. de Vogii6's book La Syrie Cenirale in 1860-61. Since then they have been studied by
Mr. H. C. Butler, a member of two American expeditions, in American Archaeological Expedition
to Syria, Pt. II, Architecture and other Arts, New York, 1903, and Princeton University Archaeological
Expedition to Syria, Pt. II, Ancient Architecture in Syria, Leiden, 1908. See also Choisy, L'Art de
batir chez les Bysantins, p. 22, discussed by Diehl in Journal des Savants, 1904, p. 243, &c. , an.d^«
Mediterranee, pp. 25 ff. Cf. also TJspensky's account in the Isviestiya of the Russian Archaeological
Institute of Constantinople, vol. vii, 1902, and N. Kondakoff's Archaeological Voyage to Syria and
Palestine, St. Petersburg, 1904 — these two works in Russian.
' De Vogiig, Syrie Cenirale, p. 18 ; Strzygowski, Kleinasien, B. Z., xiii, 1904, p. 298, and Neues
Jahriufh filr das klassische Attertum, &c., xv, 1904, pp. 19-33. The theories of these writers
are controverted by Kivoira, who, in his suggestive work Lombardic Architecture .- its origin and
development (English translation by Q. M'N. Eushforth, 1910), derives European mediaeval
architecture from Italy, denying the priority of the East in almost all the inventions upon
which Strzygowski bases his arguments. ELvoira appears to claim far too much for Italy ;
at the same time there is much in his main thesis which cannot be lightly set aside.
Prof. Lethaby has made some valuable remarks on this subject, from which I transcribe the
following : ' A distinction will, I am confident, have to be made between the spirit and the
body, between the structural and ornamental elements of the newer style. Much that has
been argued as to the non-Eoman origin of Byzantine building forms will have to be given up,
and a part of Eivoira's claims for Eome and Italy will have to be conceded, although he seems
to exaggerate in making too much of the metropolis and the home country to the neglect of
the Hellenistic cities of the East. There are two great difficulties in the way of any clear
statement of Byzantine origins — the tendency to identify Eome the Empire with Eome the
City, and the difficulty of separating the expreasional content of the newer art from its
structural means ' {The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, p. 38, Byz. Research Fund, 1910).
' See further A. Baumstark, Ostsyrisches Chrisientum und ostsyrischer Hdlenismus in B. Q., 1908,
pp. 16 ff.
54 THE EAST-OHEISTIAN WORLD

Through Mesopotamia the art of Persia travelled into Syria, and by its
contact profoundly modified Greek ornament, which it found in occupation
(Ch. XIII). The Persians were the middlemen who traded with the Farther
East ; they introduced figured silk textiles into the Byzantine Empire (Ch.
X) ; the neighbourhood of their western province, where in Ctesiphon and
Seleucia Greeks and Persians had long lived side by side, was in every way
significant for the growth of Christian art. In the substitution of an orna-
ment based upon conceptions alien to those of Greece or Rome and clearly
inspired from oriental sources, Syria took an active and important part.^
The carved lintels and doorways of her ruined cities afford sufficient
evidence of her work in this direction; the facade of the palace of
Mshatta beyond her eastern frontiers (Ch. XIII) proves the transmission of
Perso-Mesopotamian motives far to the south before the seventh century ;
many sarcophagi at Ravenna attest a Syrian influence in which Hellenism
did not participate. The modification of classical ornament was among the

Pig. 30. Part of a limestone frieze, sixth-seventh century, in the Caij'o Museum.
(Catalogii£ general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7340.)

most important effects of Syrian artistic activity, for the models which left
her shores found their way to the Adriatic and even further to the west,
while the style which she was most instrumental in disseminating was
copied in the barbaric kingdoms in the earlier centuries of the Middle Ages.
Not only in her carved reliefs, but in the ornament of her early illuminated
books, her influence on decorative design was constant and far-reaching
(Ch. VIII).
Her influence was no less important in the more general sphere of
religious sentiment ; an atmosphere of Semitic gravity enveloped the
monastic life, subduing the freedom of Greek fancy. The Orient imposed
its notion of commemorative art ; the love of ceremony, the conscious awe
of the superhuman, impart to the figures representing sacred scenes and
persons a new aspect of rernoteness, half fascinating, half forbidding.
With these tendencies was joined an inclination towards a simple realism
in detail indispensable to an art which found its chief audience among the
people. The illuminated MSS, handed down many compositions for sacred

• See the works by De Vogufi and H. Crosby Butler already cited, and Diehl, Manuel,
pp. 24, 37.
 SYRIA AND PALESTINE

scenes which remained almost unaltered as late as the fifteenth century ;

the popular illustration of the Psalter has been ascribed to the monastic
illuminators of Syria. The manuscripts of the sixth century were copied in
distant countries and down to latest periods ; the type of the Etchmiadzin
Gospel, providing models to Frankish illuminators (Ch. VIII), and the Servian
Psalter at Munich, preserving early Syrian features in the fifteenth century,
attest the zeal with which such books were studied. Even the monumental
a,rt of the last Byzantine period is similarly dependent; the Syrian
inspiration is seen in the narrative mosaics of Kahri^ Djami at Constanti-
nople. In this way this provincial art remained a power long after the
country where it flourished had been absorbed into the territory of
Islam. In the sixth century,
not long before its loss to
the empire, it stood at the
height of its vigour and
fertility.
In Palestine ^ the condi-
tions affecting Christian art
differed in many respects
from those which obtained
in Syria. Commerce was less
active, the settled Hellenic
element less powerful. But
the Invention of the Cross
in the fourth century and
the erection of the memorial
churches by Constantine and Fig. 31. Carved limestone, sixth-seventh century,
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst,
transformed the Holy J^^ 7369^)™ useum.
Helen into
Land a great artistic
centre. Churches were enriched with mosaics and paintings of the highest
order ; the most familiar motives were reproduced by the minor arts for the
benefit of returning pilgrims. The demand for mementoes, to which the
steady flow of pilgrims soon gave rise, led to the establishment of work-
shops where such objects as the metal ampullae now at Monza were
manufactured. It is to be supposed that more costly souvenirs, such as
the enamelled cross of the Sancta Sanctorum (Ch. VIII), produced for the
wealthier visitor, were also made upon the spot ; and from the fourth to
the seventh century Jerusalem was probably a considerable centre for
many of the minor arts. In all likelihood the workmen were for the most
part foreigners, attracted to the Holy City by the favourable prospects
which she offered. The artists and artificers who worked for Constantine
were of various races; perhaps a majority were Asiatic Greeks and
Syrians, others came from Constantinople. In process of time craftsmen
' Kondakoff, Archaeological Journey to Syria and Palestine, 1904, and Journal of the Imp. Euss.
Palestine Soc, 1892, pp. 144 ff.
56 THE EAST-CHEISTIAN WOELD

from Armenia and Persia were added to the colony of strangers ; the city
of David became a cosmopolitan emporium where people of all races and
languages were gathered together.
Under Mohammedan rule the same state of things must have continued.
When the conquerors required mosaics for their buildings, they turned to
' Greeks ', who by this time had in great measure assimilated the decorative
teaching of Persia and Mesopotamia. The ornament of the Dome of the
Kock and of the Mosque of El Aksa at Jerusalem betrays these oriental
affinities (Ch. VII). It is related that the Caliph Walid, desiring to trans-
form into a mosque the Church of St. John at Damascus and to adorn
it with mosaics, applied to the Byzantine emperor, who furnished him with
workmen. Beyond the borders of the Holy Land, in the desert palace of
an Ommiad prince, we find, as late as the ninth century, frescoes in which
the spirit of Hellenistic art survives (p. 278). Under the Latin dynasty
of Jerusalem immigrant artists were again employed, as in the case of the
Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem.
If we seek the real influence of Judaea upon Christian art, we shall find
it more manifest in iconography than in any other direction. The spirit of
Judaism was a religious rather than an artistic spirit ; such designs as can
be called indigenous — for example, those on the limestone ossuaries 6f the
early centuries of our era — appear to be allied to the family of motives
described by M. Courajod as the grarnviaire orientate (cf. Ch. XIII), and are
consequently common to Hither Asia rather than peculiar to a single
region. A bearded type of Christ is thought to have been disseminated
from Palestine, though it may have originated in Persia. But to this
and to the grave style demanded by the Semitic temperament the strictly
Jewish influence on early Christian art appears to be confined. The
Hebrews imposed a mood on art ; they did not enrich it with new
forms. The types and subjects which spread far and wide from Palestine
through the agency of pilgrims were probably the work of resident aliens
and not of the Jewish people.
Aemenia.1
The history of Armenia and Georgia is of great importance to the study
of East-Christian art, for this mountainous territory was permeated by
Mesopotamian, Syrian, and Iranian influences, assimilating the culture of
the regions on its southern and eastern borders, and ultimately returning^
or transmitting artistic forms enriched by indigenous features. In
Achaemenian times Armenia had shared the old Persian religion, and at
a later date her history was bound up with that of Parthia and Rome.
Christianity, introduced at an earlier period, became the official religion
under Tiridates in the fourth century ; but for the next two hundred years
' Strzygowski has collected the facts bearing
Denkm. v. 81 ff. See also Diehl, Manuel, pp. 315 ff. upon the artistic history of Armenia in Byz
and 441 ff. For Armenian architecture the
reader may consult Lynch, Armenia, London, 1901 ; Grimm, Monuments of Byzantine Architecture
in Georgia and Armenia, St. Petersburg, 1901 ; N. Kondakoff and A. Tolstoy, Russian Antiquities,
vol. It, St. Petersburg, 1891, from which Diehl gives illustrations.
 AEMENIA
57
Christian influence preponderated only in the west; towards the eastern
border Persian influence prevailed. The advantage of the Sassanians in
this quarter was inherited by the rulers of Mohammedan Iran ; for even
during the period of Armenian independence (a. d. 859-1045) Persian
motives, especially ornamental designs, continued to be absorbed into
Armenian art. The early religious influence of Syria had been firmly
establishing Syrian iconographic types ; down to the end of the sixth

Fig. 32. Carved wooden chest, about a. d. 600, in the Cairo Museum.
(Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7211.)

century the Armenian Church had recognized the patriarch of Antioch

and her bishops were of Syrian origin. Early Syrian miniatures still
preserved in the country show us the nature of the models which the
Armenians had to copy (see Ch. VIII), and in all that concerned the repre-
sentation of the human form they were the pupils of Syro-Hellenic
masters. It is worthy of mention that Daniel, the marmorarius of
Theodoric, is thought to have been an Armenian (p. 141).
The relationship between Armenian and Byzantine art of the Mace-
donian period presents problems of considerable interest, The study
58 THE EAST-CHRISTIAN WORLD

of Armenian architecture shows that as early as the seventh century the

Armenians had begun to modify the modes of construction adopted in the
Christian East, adding new features of their own. In the third Byzantine
period we find them still retaining features proper to the first, and develop-
ing a remarkable originality in the conception and execution of their
designs. The existence of certain common points in Byzantine and
Armenian architecture under the Macedonian dynasty may be explained
on the theory of a Byzantine influence on Armenia or an Armenian
influence on Constantinople ; nor is it easy on present evidence to arrive at
a definite conclusion as to which view best suits the facts. It is well known
that under this dynasty relations between the empire and Armenia were
very close ; emperors of Armenian descent sat upon the throne ; Armenians
settled in numbers in Constantinople. In view of the enterprising
character of this people, their readiness to travel, and the admitted
capacity of their artists, it is certainly tempting to invert the usual theory,
and to suppose that Byzantine art did not always dominate that of
Armenia, but was often indebted to it for new ideas. Strzygowski ^ has
put forward the hypothesis that the Nea, the great church erected by
Basil I in the metropolis, was erected according to Armenian plans, and he
would assign an Armenian origin to various features in other contemporary
churches. Knowing what we do of the initiative displayed by Armenians
in many fields of activity, we cannot dismiss the theory as either extrava-
gant or inherently improbable. They certainly played a leading part in
the development of Russian art during these centuries, and we hear of
their architects and painters in Constantinople and in Egypt (p. 287).
But, as Diehl has remarked in this connexion, where two civilizations
come in contact, the stronger is apt to teach the weaker ; and from the
ninth to the twelfth centuries the Byzantine Empire enjoyed a period of
unequalled power and magnificence. Unless, therefore, it is demonstrated
beyond possibility of contradiction that the features in question could not
have reached the metropolis independently of Armenian influence, it is
prudent to retain the more conservative view, or at least to suspend the
judgement.
It is, however, certain that in less conspicuous provinces than that of
architecture the Armenians served as active intermediaries between Persia
and Byzantium, enriching Christian art by new importations from the
East. The fine arabesques of foliage which form so attractive a feature in
the illuminated MSS. or in the metal-work of the period were in all
probability transmitted by the agency of Armenians. The distinctive
oriental ornament which appears in the mosques and churches of the Holy
Land may be due to the same perennial source. It may well be that a more
extensive acquaintance with the mediaeval art and industry of Armenia
will reveal other instances of the skill and capacity which her people
' In Kleinasien, p. 193, &c. ; see also Ber Bom zu Aachen und seine EnlsteUung. In these works
Strzygowski modifies the views as to Armenia published in his earlier book above cited.
 AEMENIA 59

possessed. Enamelling may provide a case in point, for important

enamelled ikons still preserved in Georgia seem to be of native workman-
ship (pp. 528-30), and we have yet to learn when and from what quarter
the art was introduced into the country.^ In the section on glass it is noticed
that some of the few Christian glass vessels of the third period may be
connected with Georgian industry (Ch. XI). Here again information as
to origins is meagre in the extreme. Was there an ancient vitreous art
of the Caucasus, as the existence of the Koban enamels might lead us to
conjecture (p. 495), or were the methods introduced from the south through
Syria or Mesopotamia? Whatever the future may have in store, it is
certain that in the ninth century Armenia had a national art both of
architecture and painting, an art in which Greek and Persian influences
were so skilfully balanced that creative powers of a hig^ order were
demanded by the process of assimilation.

THE EAST

The misleading suggestions which have prejudiced the use of the term
Byzantine are even more prominent in the case of the word Oriental. We
speak of the East after too large and indiscriminate a fashion, as if all
were homogeneous in thought and sentiment ; we are apt to assume that
the whole of Asia, in its action upon the art of Europe, has moved like
a glacier in a single mass and in the same direction. In truth the divisions
of that vast continent have influenced the West at various times, and the
effect of their action has not been uniform. A second fallacy, due perhaps
to the habit of regarding the Orient through a certain atmosphere of
romance, ascribes to the East all the knowledge and all the mystery, while
from the West is deducted such small credit as it was ever allowed to
possess. We will not believe that the continent of ancient wisdom can
ever have learned from Europe or from its own Mediterranean borders ;
we live under the obsession of the ' oriental mirage '. Here again there is
surely exaggeration. If the East has taught, it has also acquired know-
ledge. But before we can estimate the mutual influence of East and West,
it is essential to define what, for our present purpose, we mean by the East.
The best way of doing this is to begin by eliminating those regions which
have not yet been shown to have exerted a durable or effective influence.
It has been said that all the great representative art of the world has
flowed from two sources, one in Greece, the other in China.^ In interpreting
' Strzygowski long ago suggested that Armenia may have been a primary centre of
enamelling.
' It is not necessary to consider the figure-art of ancient Egypt, Assyria, or Achaemenian
Persia. The art of Egypt did not really inspire the Christian art of that country (p. 70).
Assyria transmitted certain ornamental motives. Achaemenian Iran learned how to render
the human figure from the immigrant Greek artists in her great cities, while Parfchia and
Sassanian Persia in this respect were even more dependent upon the late Hellenic painters
and sculptors living in Seleucia and Ctesiphon, or temporarily visiting the country.
60 THE EAST

the human figure, in evoking the subtle harmony between man and nature,
the Hellenes and the Chinese were supreme ; each nation has handed down
a tradition which has remained a continuous and inspiring force through
all the revolutions of history. To the artists of Japan, and in a less degree
of Persia, China is a classic land ; it stands to their country in the same
relation as that in which Hellas stands to Europe. We have seen how
deeply Christian art was indebted to Greece ; we have now to ask whether
it owed a debt to China, the country of the great T'ang and Sung painters
who during many centuries of the Middle Ages stood so far above contem-
porary artists in other lands. To answer this question it is necessary to
survey the state of affairs in Inner Asia, where the outposts of Hellenism
and of Chinese culture came into immediate contact.
After the conquests of Alexander and the foundation of the Seleueid
dominion, the figure-art of Greece had extended its influence across the
Indus. But it did not gain a permanent victory; both in India and

Fig. 33. Carved wooden lintel of the sixth-seventh century, in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 8781.)

Bactria there was a revival of indigenous feeling which continued down

to the beginning of the Christian era. The early Buddhist art of Asoka's
time did not favour the representation of the human figure ; and when the
engravers of the Graeco-Bactrian and Graeco-Scythian coins had lost the
first Hellenic inspiration, there remained no representative of Hellenism
beyond the Parthian court. But the missionary activity of Buddhism
about the beginning of our era brought the culture of India and of Greek
Asia once more into close relations ; and from a study of the sculptures
upon the stfipas and vih^ras of Gandh^ra it seems probable that at this
time the Greek had resumed the part of tutor to the Indian (see p. 115).
The sculpture of Gandhara i is the offshoot of the late Hellenistic sculpture
of Asia Minor or Syria (see p. 130). Between the third and eighth
centuries of our era this art advanced with Buddhist culture across
Turkestan to the confines of the Middle Kingdom. But during the same
period nothing in the figure-art of the region between the Pamir and the
MediteiTanean appears to show Chinese influence ; that only begins upon
a perceptible scale with the westward expansion of the Mongol Empire.

1 See A. Foucher, L'Art Grcco-Bouddhiqiie du Gandhara, Paris, 1905, and Man Plot 1910
p. 275; W. Burgess, The Gandhara Sculptures, London, 1899. For contact between Buddhism
and Christianity, see also Kennedy in Joum. E. Asiatic Soc., 1902, pp. 377-415 • S Levi Le
JSouddhisme et les Grecs in Bev. de I'hist. des religions, vol. xxiii, 1891. ' '
 THE EAST

The idea that China was instrumental in the formation of Christian art 61 in
any of its essential features must be dismissed as an emanation from the
oriental mirage.^ For the foundations of Byzantine art were all laid by
the time of Basil the Macedonian, and no westerly movement of Chinese
models after the twelfth century can have decisively affected its destiny.
During the earlier part of the first millennium two great artistic influences
met in conflict in Turkestan, and the Chinese, fighting nearer to their base,
carried off the victory over an enemy wearied by a long advance. We now

Pig. 34. The Ascension of Alexander : relief of the twelfth-thirteenth century on the
exterior of S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari.) P. 159.

know that as early as the fourth century China possessed an art superior
to that of contemporary Europe, so superior that it had nothing to learn
from the degenerate Greeks of ' Ta Chin ' (Syria). Such a genius as
Ku K'ai-chih^ was indeed assured of triumph over any Greek of less merit
than a Polygnotus ; but the Buddhist missionary art issuing from Gandhara,
with which alone he and his fellows had to reckon, was but a pale reflection
devoid of inward strength and fire. As a result, China absorbed such
Greek or Graeco-oriental motives as attracted her attention, and though
she might have taught the Christian world lessons almost above its
comprehension, gave little or nothing in return. Then, as often since,
1 For the relations of China and the Byzantine Empire, see Bui-y's edition of Gibbon's
Decline and Fall, Appendix to vol. iv. See also P. Hirth's Cliina and the Roman Orient;
O. Miinsterberg, Japanische Kunsigeschichte, i. 33 £f., 104 ff. ; ii. 138 ff. ; iii. 256 ff. ; J. Dahlmann,
Siimmen aus Maria-Laach, 1902, pp. 1-36 ; A. von Le Coq, Zeitscliriftfur Ethnologic, 1907, p. 509.
2 See L. Binyon, Painting in the Far Bast, ch. iii.
62 THE EAST

she lived a life self-centred and withdrawn ; she did not therefore press
her advantage beyond the sphere of her material power, and probably
accepted the inferiority of Western art as a fact requiring no demonstra-
tion.i It was not until many centuries had elapsed, when the Mongols
began to invade the regions west of their original seats, that Chinese
influence flowed strongly into Persia and beyond. To Gengiz and Kublai
Khan in the first place, to Timur in the second, not to tlie Chinese them-
selves, was due this extension of their art towards the West. The Mongol
schools at Herat and Samarkand taught the miniaturists of Persia how to

Fig. 35. Carved closure-slabs of the tenth century : Metropolitan Church, Mistra.
(Haufes Etudes : G. Millet.)

draw and paint the human figure : they did not teach the illuminators of
Constantinople.
Even iu decorative design the influence of China during the first
millennium is almost imperceptible. It might have been expected that
the land which exported silk to the West for so long a period should
have transmitted the favourite patterns with which her own silk fabrics
were inwoven.- But if Chinese influence can be traced at all in this
connexion (see Ch. X) the designs in which it is supposed to appear are of
a simple geometrical nature : the peculiar character of Chinese fancy is not
impressed upon them ; their relationship with the Middle Kingdom hardljr
' Northern Mesopotamia and East Turkestan may have been connected both by ethnical
and religious ties ; the monastic spirit of Buddhism maj' have influenced the monasticism of
early Christianity, while the Manichaeans, who, as the German expedition has proved, were
early established in Tiirfan, may have served as intermediaries between Hither and Central
Asia. (See Amida, as above, pp. 381 ff., where Prof, von Schroder has collected the principal
arguments.) The evidence as at present known seems to prove little with regard to artistic
influence in pre-Mohammedan times, though the results of the recent expeditions are not yet
fully published.
' Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch., xxiv, 1903, p. 173. The Chinese silk textile in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, found in Egypt, has only an inscription, and was obtained
from the late cemetery at El Azam,
 THE EAST 6S

appears established. There are none of the monsters and dragons of the
archaic Chinese bronzes; there is none of that curliness of line which
already marked Chinese decorative designs in the seventh century. The
evidence seems rather to favour the theory that during the whole of this
period China continued rather to receive than to give. While Byzantium
was still a city of small account, she had already begun to borrow ; the use
of the vine-scroll in the Chinese art of the Han dynasty followed the intro-
duction ofthe vine itself from Ferghana in the first century before Christ.
Not only are typical Chinese motives absent from the early silk textiles of
the West, while those of Persia abound, but unmistakable Sassanian types
are imitated upon Chinese silks contemporary with the last Sassanian
kings (see Ch. X). Instead of flowing westward the current seems to have
moved in an easterly direction.
What has been said of China may be repeated of Hindostan. There is
little proof that India made any great contribution to East-Christian art.'
Her own early artistic development shows the clearest traces of a persistent
influence from Achaemenian Persia ; Greek influences followed in Bactria ;
then came the Graeeo-Eoman art of Gandhara, and further influences from
Sassanian Persia, with perhaps some reflex action from Turkestan. India
was great in philosophy, and her peoples possessed a highly developed
religious imagination. But the forms which they conceived were at first
expressed by other peoples. The Buddhist iconography of the East was
indebted for many types to Hindostan, but the art which best embodied
them was first Greek and afterwards Chinese. Indian artists were slow in
achieving their independence: when they did achieve it, they produced
work of a mysterious charm and power, but apparently without influence
upon the contemporary art of the West.^ We conclude therefore that
Central and Further Asia owed as little to the Byzantine Empire as that
empire owed to them.
' The East,' then, for us must mean those parts of Asia which lie west of
the Pamir. The region which really influenced Byzantine art is neither
India nor the Further Orient : it can only be sought in Hither Asia. If
this volume were concerned with architecture, the essential truth of this
proposition would be apparent, for here the evidence is continually reinforced
by the progress of modem research. The great constructive art which
achieved its triumphs by the elaboration of the vault was native to
Mesopotamia, whence it spread into Syria, Anatolia, and Armenia upon
its way to wider conquests beyond the Mediterranean. Many fundamental
qualities which distinguish Byzantine architecture were derived from this
source; and though the ingenious and adaptive Greek spirit may have
been essential to its ultimate development, yet in its fundamental features
the art remains oriental. It belongs to Persia and to those more ancient

1 Such points as Prof. Petrie's discovery in Egypt of a Ptolemaic tombstone with a wheel
and insula {Journ. B. Asiatic Soc., 1898, p. 875), are of very great interest from the historic
point of view, but prove little with regard to artistic influence.
' E. B. Havell, Indian Sculpture and Painting, London, 1908.
64 THE EAST

empires of the Euphrates valley from which the culture of Iran was
principally derived. To Hither Asia East-Christian art owes its achieve-
ment in the field where it was most creative, and can most clearly establish
its claim to a great place among the arts of the world.
Strzygowski has insisted for many years upon the overwhelming
significance for East-Christian art of the North Mesopotamian region
about the Persian and Byzantine frontiers, where the three towns of
Edessa, Nisibis, and Amida (Diarbekr) form a triangle, with the last-named
city at the apex. The excavation of the more important sites in this

Fig. 36. The Adoration of the Magi : Sarcophagus in S. Vitale, Eavenna. (Ricci.) P. 138.

region is perhaps the most urgent task of Christian archaeology; but

even from the photographs obtained by scientific travellers ^ it becomes
more and more clear that Osrhoene was indeed a focus which from the
fourth century radiated influence in all directions. Amida became a great
centre of Christianity in the time of the Emperor Constantius.^ The
fa9ade of the Great Mosque still incorporates sculptured columns and
stones of which the afiinities are with the art of that period; and the
decorative designs confirm Strzygowski's old hypothesis that the ornament
of Egypt and other parts of the Byzantine Empire owes far more to
this part of Hither Asia than has hitherto been conceded.^

' Especially General de Beyli6 and Miss Gertrude Bell.

' Van Berchem and Strzygowski, Amida, Beitrage zwr Kunstgeschichte des Mittelalters von Nord-
mesopotamien, Hellas, und dem Abendlande, Heidelberg, 1910, pp. 168ff. Here the early authorities
for the history of the city are all cited.
' Miss Bell found that in the Tur Abdin the tradition of a remote connexion between the
monasticism of this region and that of Egypt is still general. The tradition may -well be
founded on fact.
 THE EAST 65

Even more familiar than Amida are the names of Nisibis and Edessa,
famous for theological schools of the Nestorians, who in course of time
became the predominant Christian sect in Persia.^ The Persian Church
had been founded by Syrian missionaries ; ^ its Catholic members acknow-
ledged the patriarch of Antioch, and the Nestorians were bound to Syria
by the ties of language and tradition. The reputation of the Mesopotamiau
schools rose so high that the influence of the monks and scholars of Edessa
and Nisibis extended far within the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire.
In the sixth century we find more than one trace of the respect in which
Mesopotamian learning was held in other countries. It is probable that
Cassiodorus maintained relations with this region, and that among the
manuscripts copied in his new foundation were books obtained from
Persian monasteries. The importance of Mesopotamia as a link between
oriental culture and that of the Greeks is well illustrated by the career
of Mar Aba, a Persian Magus converted to Christianity. This remarkable
man learned Syriac at Nisibis, and studied at Edessa under the celebrated
Thomas : in later years he himself established a theological school at
Nisibis and became patriarch of Persia (a.d. 536-52).^ He edited the
works of Theodore of Mopsuestia, the true founder of Nestorianism, was
a considerable traveller, and during a sojourn at Alexandria became ac-
quainted with Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose GhristioM Topography is
described below (Ch. VIII). Cosmas, who styles the Persian Patricius,
expresses deep obligation to his learning, and it is clear that both in the
theological and the cosmographical part of his work he was under a great
debt to this wise man from the East. This is especially true of the
theories respecting the formation of the world, which Cosmas himself
recognizes as of Chaldean origin.* This is a single instance of the manner
in which the ideas of East and West were brought into contact through
the agency of the Mesopotamian schools; it happens to be recorded in
the pages of a famous manuscript and thus arrests the attention of the
student. How many similar instances of the interfusion between different
religions, philosophies, and arts have Iain unnoticed in the pages of less
popular writers or are lost through the destruction which has befallen the.
libraries of those times !
It was in ornament that the influence of the Nearer East upon Byzantine
art was most enduring and extensive. Several motives which became popular
under Christianity were inherited from ancient Asian art, though sometimes
1 For the school of Edessa, see Assemani, Bibliotheca orienialis, ii. 402; iii. 376, 378; iv. 70,
924 ; and Gibbon's short account in Decline and Fall, ch. xlvii. For the relations of Edessa to
Constantinople, Baumstark, R. Q., 1908, p. 17. For the school of Nisibis, J. B. Chabot,
Journal Asiatique, 9° serie, viii, 1896, pp. 48 S. For the Nestorians, besides Assemani and
Gibbon, the reader may consult the useful Introduction of H. Yule's Cathay and the Way thither
(Hakluyt Soc., 1866), and his Introduction to Wood's Journey to the Sources of the Oxus.
^ But there was probably a monastic influence from Egypt as well. It is observed on
a subsequent page that monastic institutions may possibly have been affected by influences
from Turkestan.
' See Assemani, Bibl. Orient, and Chabot, as above ; Wright, A Short History of Syriac Litera-
ture, London, 1894, pp. 19, 116 ff.
' Jensen, Die Cosmologie der Bahylonier, 1880.
1204 F
66 THE EAST

indirectly, through the intermediation of the Greeks. Among these are the
guilloche, so popular in Assyria, and the elements of the grammaire orientale
noticed in another place (Ch. XIII). Almost without exception these motives
appear to belong to the Nearer and not to the Farther East. It was here that
the art of Asia came into most direct conflict with that of Hellas ; and since
the love of all-invading pattern entered into the lives of all classes in the
Nearer East, the resistance to the Greek style was universal and invincible.
The greater Greek art had insisted upon a salient central motive, standing
as it were in the open, unconfused by the encroachment of subsidiary
design. It knew the contrasting value of void space, and relegated its
geometrical and floral ornament to borders and places of secondary

\i- ,v

^>^'M-^l,0^.O^U'\;AMiAl:v^i

Fio. 37. Christ with St. Peter and St. Paul : Sarcophagus of St. Rinaldo,
Ravenna. (Alinari.) P. 138.

importance. But the desire of the West Asiatic, and more especially, it
would seem, of the Mesopotamian, was to escape the void by covering
it with a continuous repeating pattern, a desire the more easily gratified
inasmuch as he took comparatively little interest in the human figure,
preferring among living things the reproduction of animal forms. No
sooner did Hellenic influence wane, about the time of the Christian era,
than the oriental love of diapers covering the whole surface, and tolerating
no central or salient feature, began to win the upper hand. The Greeks
of Asia, now half oriental in their views of life, gave way to it on every
side.^ Both in the minor arts and in decorative sculpture we see the
rapid triumph of this principle: by Justinian's reign it was definitely
established, and the sculptured foliage in the spandrels of the arcades
in Sta Sophia (Fig. 2) has become the classical example of its adoption.^
1 The spread of Christianity in Persia must have further contributed to the inteichange
of artistic motives (J. Labourt, Le Christianisme dans I'Empire Perse sous la dynastie Sassanide,
Paris, 1904 ; Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf, i, p 106, Berlin
1899). 2 Riegl, Stilfragen, p. 281.
 THE EAST 67

The modification of the late Hellenic floral ornament under the hands,
first of the Sassanians, and afterwards of Persians living under the
Mohammedan rule, is a study of great interest. We see the beginning
of that conventionalized
treatment of vine and acan-
thus which reached its cul-
mination in Saracenic art,
and influenced the later
ornament of Byzantium.^
Sassanian Persia evolved a
fantastic system of floral
decoration in which vases,
amphorae, and eagles' wings
were introduced amidst a
luxuriant foliage. This
strange style, which appears
on the sculpture of Mshatta
in the First Period, was con-
tinued inlater centuries, and
is found in the mural mo-
saics executed in the Holy
Land described below, dat-
ing from the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. In the
earlier centuries the Syrians
had been the most active
intermediaries between East
and West; from about the
year A. d. 1000 the Armenians
seem to have taken the most
prominent place. Under
Mohammedan rule Persian
Mesopotamia maintained its
ancient reputation. It was
here, at Mosul, that the art
of encrusting bronze with
silver reached its great de-
velopment in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries : Fig. 38. Wooden cross set with glass pastes, fifth
,1 J. 1 ■ , , 1 century, in the Cairo Museum. (Catalogue general : Koptische
the fashion must have been ^mst. No. 8804.) v a » f
of much earlier date, and
from this part of the world it was probably derived by the Byzantine
makers of the encrusted bronze doors of churches and cathedrals. When
the Baghdad Railway has traversed this area excavation will probably reveal
' Eiegl, SHlfragen, pp. 297 ff.
f2
68 THE EAST

its full importance for the history of Christian art. Meanwhile, though
the spade has not yet been employed, we are beginning to learn something
of the conditions which prevailed under the Seljuk dynasty, and to trace
the remote origins of the art of Islam in Asia.^
Even more important than foliate or geometrical ornament was the
use of conventionalized animals in decoration, a fashion derived by the
Achaemenian Persians from Assyrian art, and transmitted westwards
by their Sassanian successors through the influence of sculpture and of
figured textiles (p. 168). Beasts and monsters attacking each other, or
' heraldically ' confronted on either side of a sacred tree, were very popular
in these textiles, to which their symmetrical arrangement especially adapted
them. Though they were also employed in stone sculpture, ivory carvings,
enamels, and other metal-work, it was through their connexion with the
silk fabrics of Persia that they gained so sure a foothold in the Byzantine
provinces and in the Europe of the Eomanesque period.^ Here again
Northern Mesopotamia exerted a preponderating influence lasting into
Mohammedan times; the decorative use of Arabic script appears also to
have spread from this region.
In figure-art there was no such assertion of oriental supremacy as
that which is to be observed in architecture and decorative design. We
have seen that in the early centuries of the Christian era China possessed
an art of supreme quality, an art of which the influence was felt far to
the west of the Middle Kingdom in Turkestan. But we have also seen
that many centuries elapsed before the representative art of China was
studied by painters beyond Turkestan and the Pamirs : her style of
rendering the human figure was as little known as was her profound
mastery of landscape. In this branch of representation Hither Asia had
been the pupil of Greece long before the birth of Christ, and her ancient
dependence remained unbroken until the close of the first millennium of
our era. In Achaemenian Persia, the power of rendering the human form
without hieratic convention had first been taught by immigrant Greeks
from Ionia in Susa and Persepolis ; the Parthians boasted themselves
philhellenes ; and under the later Sassanian dynasty the impress of
late Hellenic art upon Persian figure sculpture is very manifest. The
Persians did not disdain to learn from the Greeks settled in Seleucia and
other cities.' When Western Asia became Mohammedan, the old influence
loiig remained in the ascendant. The earlier Moslem princes had recourse

1 Strzygowski and Van Berchem, Amida, as above.

' For monsters and animals in 'Romanesque' Europe, see below in the section France,
and the paragraphs relating to Macedonia in the chapter on sculpture. For metal-work and
enamels, see the remarks on the Ewer of St. Maurice d'Agaune and the Pala d'oro at Venice
(pp. 496, .512). The Sassanian ewer and textiles in the treasury of Horiuji at Nara in Japan
show that this Persian style penetrated to China and Japan in the early Middle Ages. For
the textiles, see below, p. 591 ; for the ewer, L. Gonse, L'Art japonais, ii. 36 ; A. Odobesco, Le
iresor de Petrossa, il, p. 19 ; Longp^rier, (Emres, i. 301, 305 ; S. Reinach in Eev. arch., 1901, p. 242.
= e. g. the figure sculpture of Takh-i-Bostan shows the late Hellenic influence' of the
Syrian area (Strzygowski, Hellenistische und koptische Kunsi, p. 25).
 THE EAST
69
to Asiatic Greeks and Syj-ians in the decoration of those palaces where
the rules of orthodoxy were disregarded; Byzantine forms appear on
their coins ; and the frescoes of Kuseir 'Amra, of the later ninth century,
are almost as purely Greek in style as if they had been produced in
Antioch or Alexandria in the time of Theodosius. The dissemination of
oriental costume and Eastern modes of life gradually effaced the old
Hellenic influence as the artists of Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad worked
their way to independence; but the rise of figure-art in Western Asia
came when Mongol conquerors introduced the Chinese style fii-st into

Fig. 39. Lead ampullae of the sixtli century from the Holy Land, in the Cathedral of Monza :
Scenes from the Gospel, with the Crucifixion. {Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 623.

Samarkand and afterwards into Persia. It has already been urged that
this was at too late a date to affect the destinies of Byzantine repre-
sentative art.
When we say, then, that Byzantine art is half oriental, we mean that it
is oriental of the Nearer not of the Farther East. Its love of sumptuous
colour and omnipresent pattern, its preference for vaulted buildings, it
derived from Persia and Mesopotamia, not from India or the Middle
Kingdom. So far as Byzantine art was concerned, the supreme qualities
of old Chinese art, the control of sensitive and nervous line and the
emotional rendering of landscape, might never have existed. Ku K'ai chih
lived about the time of Theodosius. The great landscape painters of the
T'ang dynasty were contemporary with iconoclasm ; the artists of the Sung
dynasty, which closed about the same time as the Latin interregnum of the
thirteenth century, achieved supreme results in floral painting, in the
70 THE EAST

interpretation of nature, and in the rendering of gods and men, but con-
temporary Byzantine art reveals no more traces of their influence than if
they had lived and worked in another planet.

EGYPT, ABYSSINIA, AND NORTH AFRICA

The influence of Hellenistic Alexandria upon Rome is a cardinal feature

in the history of art. Even before the beginning of our era Italy may
almost be said to have stood in a state of pupilage to the Egyptian city
(p. 76). In sculpture the picturesque relief, in painting the picturesque
fresco, were alike of Alexandrian origin; in the earliest illumination of
the manuscript (Ch. VIII) as in some of its later developments, in the
application of mosaic to new uses (p. 326), in the manufacture of glass
and the methods of ceramics (Ch. XI), the debt to the capital of Egypt is
obvious and confessed. In literature the place of Alexandria is equally
commanding : the Romans adopted her authors as their models ; in the
fourth and fifth centuries all Greek poets of reputation wrote at Alex-
andria, and most were bom in Egypt; it was here that the Graeco-
oriental romance began its wonderful career.^ The city looms so large in
the history of early Christian times that to some ^ it appears the primary
source of fertilizing influence, more important than any other to the forma-
tion of the new art. In early Christian times the prestige of the Alexandrian
artist was such that to the foreigner Alexandria and Egypt must have
seemed almost synonymous terms. Yet the art of the city was not in
a true sense African : it was but a single phase of a Hellenism common to
many regions, and cannot always be readily distinguished from that of
Antioch and other Asiatic Greek cities.^ When, towards the eleventh
century, Byzantine and Armenian masters working in the country once
more raised figure composition to a higher level, a similar statement may
be made of the new time. We find paintings and sculptures which are not
distinctively Egyptian, but owe their character to extraneous influence ; *
while architecture preserves Byzantine forms.^
^ For Alexandria in Eoman times, see J. P. Mahaffy, The Greek World under Roman Sicay^
pp. 16, 164, and Greek Life and Thought, p. 506. The literary debt of Christianity to Alexandria
is explained in the pages of Harnack, Usener, and Bigg (I%e Christian Platanists of Alexandrid).
For the relations of Egypt and Italy, see also p. 76 below.
" F. X. Kraus, Geschichte der christlichen Kunst, vol. i. Ainaloff, TJie Hellenistic Oiigins, has
insisted upon the importance of Alexandria, tracing her influence in the different branches
of art ; frequent references to his work will be found in other parts of the present volume.
Strzygowski, in his Hellenistische und koptische Kunst, distinguishes the influence of the Greek
and indigenous elements in Egyptian Christian art, allowing due weight to the former.
Diehl, Manuel, pp. 54-6, in like manner recognizes the paramount position of Alexandria.
" It will be noticed below (p. 183, &c.) how extremely difficult it is to assign ivory
carvings, MSS., and other objects in which the Hellenistic element predominates to any of
the great Hellenistic centres. Even in the case of the episcopal chair at Eavenna, there is no
unanimity of opinion (p. 203).
* Of. the
Armenians carvedfrescoes.
in later wooden doors of Al Mu'allaka (p. 149) and the probable influence of
5 The churches built in Nubia during this period, as revealed to us by the American
expedition of Dr. Maclver. retain Byzantine forms. See Churches in Lower Nubia, by G. S. Mile-
ham and D. Randall Maclver (Eckley B. Coxe Junior Expedition), Philadelphia, 1910.
 EGYPT 71

But there was another Egypt o£ which the same cannot be said. From
the establishment of a Greek kingdom in the Delta of the Nile, the land of
Egypt had begun a silent revolt against the invading culture. The reaction
was already powerful under the later Ptolemies ; after the seventh ruler ^of
that name, Hellenism declined even in its stronghold of Alexandria, though
destined here to flourish, contaminated by oriental influences, almost to the

"^m
w^
r
toi--^
':;r:
n-rt-
V^^: ,-r-;.
*-V \^f'
V"^
W/JB--.

Fig. 40. Silver lamp-disk (polycandelon) of the sixth century from Lampsacus.
(British Museum.) Cf. Fig. 41. P. 567.

time of the Arab invasion. It was otherwise with the inland country.
After the revolt of Thebes in 85 B.C. and the ensuing troubles, Upper
Egypt became more and more an agricultural region with no great
intellectual or artistic centre. With the growth of monasticism, and the
tendency to an austerer view of life, an art more realistic and didactic,
more congenial to the Egyptian temperament than that of the Greek
decadence, began to replace the art of Alexandria. That reversion of taste
to indigenous forms of expression which followed the decay of Roman
power in the provinces of East and West was especially strong upon the
72 EGYPT

Nile/ where an ancient civilization and a national art had existed for
several thousand years. It was impossible for Egyptian Christians to
banish the Hellenistic types with which Christian art had from the first
been associated. These types persisted in the frescoes of the sixth and
seventh centuries no less than in the catacombs of Alexandria, though here
native sentiment and old tradition imposed their own peculiar qualities,
the two streams of influence sometimes meeting, as at El-Bagawat, in
a single building. Thus was formed the art which we know as Coptic, an
art which without a Hellenistic base would never have assumed its actual
form, but became so overgrown with local or oriental features that in its
later phases it appears almost independent of Greek tradition. Where
popular fancy wins the upper
hand we find a lapse into the
crudest realism ; ^ where the aim
is primarily religious, the con-
ventional forms of a hieratic
symbolism. As the Hellenistic
foundation is forgotten, there is
a progressive loss of life and
natural power, a return, if upon
a lower plane, to the formalism
of the ancient monarchy. In
ornament the losses are less
serious, for here the Copt dis-
plays a natural talent ; in his
treatment of the acanthus, and in
Fig. 41. Restoration of open-work design in other ways, he develops styles at
centre of a silver lamp-disk of the sixth century once pleasing and original ; in his
from Lampsacus. (British Museum.) Cf. Fig. 40.
textiles he shows a fine sense of
decoration. But in this field Egypt seems to have early fallen under the
influence of Syria and Persia (Mesopotamia). Glazed pottery of the first
century is ornamented with definitely Persian motives, while in the sixth
century textiles with Persian design must have entered the country in con-
siderable numbers (Ch. X). Syrian motives, among which the vine-scroll
with animals in the convolutions is conspicuous, occur upon Egyptian lime-
stone carvings (Figs. 25, 27, &c.) and ivory carvings ; the analogies with the
early ornament of Mesopotamia are noticed elsewhere (Ch. XIII). All this
art is non-Hellenic : the share of Hellenism in the ornament produced in
Egypt in the Christian centuries is comparatively small. The Eastern prin-
ciple of contrasting light and shadow soon dominated in carved designs and
approximated them to work in colour without relief. Nor was it only in
decorative design that what may be called the oriental spirit is mani-
' The classical Instance of the victory of ancient Egypt over Hellas is afforded by the
frescoes of Kom el-SIiugafa, where Egyptian motives are painted over others in a ' Pompeian '
style (Strzygowski, Hellenisiische und koptische Kimst, p. 76).
' As in the Leda reliefs in the Cairo Museum.
 EGYPT 73

fested : the subject, as intellectual content, is affected by indigenous modes

of thought and religious sentiment. The influence of Egypt upon Christian
iconography is very evident. The descent of the typical group of the
'Virgin and Child' from the figure of Isis carrying Horus may be
disputed ; but the * equestrian saint ', of which the most familiar example
is St. George, is certainly of Nilotic origin ;i the Anastasis, one of the
most striking subjects in Byzantine art, seems to have been composed
from Egyptian elements (Ch. XII) ; it is hardly necessary to add the ankh,
or sign of life^ which, as the crux ansata, entered upon a new existence
under Christianity.^
It is observed elsewhere (p. 98) that the spread of Egyptian influence
on iconography must have
been favoured by the rapid
growth of monasticism, the
emigration of Egyptian monks,
and the temporary visits of
foreign monks to the banks of
the Nile. At Le'rins (p. 88)
and in Ireland the Coptic
monk made his presence felt :
the Pachomian rule became
familiar to men of many na-
tions; as upon monastic use,
so upon liturgy, Egyptian
influence was striking and
persistent.
In architecture there is
evidence for the influence of
Fxo. 42. Pound weight of the sixth century,
Egypt, though it probably inlaid in silver with figures of military saints.
did not equal that of Syria and (British Museum.) P. 621.
Asia Minor. Characteristic
features such as the trefoil apse are not certainly Egyptian, but' appear to
have been introduced, like the squinch, from Asia.^ The subterranean
type of cistern supported by a forest of columns was probably imported
into Constantinople from Alexandria.*
It is probable that upon the higher planes of artistic achievement
Anatolia and Syria equalled, if they did not excel, the Nilotic province.
But the artists of Christian Egypt had one advantage. They had inherited
^ Strzygowski, SelUnistische und koptische Kimst, p. 24.
^ P. D. Scott Monorieff, Gnosticism and Early Christianity in Egypt, Church Quarterly Review,
October, 1909. It is of interest to note that the anlsh had been adopted upon Ciiician and
Cypriote coins before the Christian era. A form like an inverted ankh commonly serves as
-an initial 0 in Prankish MSS.
' For a resume of tlie position with regard to Egyptian Christian architecture, see Diehl,
Manuel, pp. 57-8. To the references there given, viz. C. M. Kaufmann's reports on the excava-
tions at Abu Mina (Cairo, 1906-8), J. E. Quibell, Explorations at Saqqara, Cairo, 1908, 1910, and
A. J. Butler, The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, Oxford, 1884, may be added the paper liy
C. K. Peers, On the White Monastery at Sohag, Archaeological Journal, 1904, pp. 1.31, 198.
' Strzygowski, B. D., iii, p. xvi, 1893.
74 EGYPT

from earlier centuries perfected technical methods which they patiently-

maintained in a high state of excellence ; ancient traditions of craftsman-
ship made it easy for them to compete with the representatives of other
peoples in the domain of the industrial arts. We may take as instances
painting by the encaustic method (p. 256), the weaving of tapestry, and
perhaps the glazing of pottery in colours (Ch. XI). In such fields the
Copts started in the race with advantages which did not belong to others :
they never lost a reputation for technical skill and ingenuity. They failed
rather in the higher representative art, where mere tradition was of less
avail. Though their influence was widely felt in many ways through
Western Europe, they remained a race apart, and the true Coptic art was
always contentedly provincial.^ It was through Alexandria that the voice
of Egypt reached the outer world, and Alexandria was never all Egyptian.

Abyssinia.

This country, which had received its Christianity from Egjrpt in the
fourth century, was in direct commercial relation with the Eastern Empire
in the reign of Justinian, who sent a bishop and clergy to Axum.^

Fig. 43.
1 0 0
Bronze weight, inlaid with silTOr, bearing the name of Theodoric.
(British Museum.) P. 621.

Christian remains of about this time have lately been discovered at Adulis
in the Italian colony of Eritrea, and the coinage shows that Greek was
known until about the seventh century. But more interesting than these
evidences of contact with a higher civilization is the connexion between
the iconography of Abyssinian religious art and that of the Christian
communities to the north. Types of composition in different sacred
subjects still betray this ancient descent, though the influence of the
Portuguese missionaries of the sixteenth century introduced new and
confusing elements from the West. For us the art of Abyssinia is of small
' For examples of Coptic art, see Strzygowski'sJTopttscfte Kvnst, 1904, a volume of the Cata-
logue general des antiquiUs egyptiennes du Miisee du Caire, and Hellenistische und koptische Kunst ;
W. E. Crum, Coptic Monuments, 1902 (a volume in the Cairo Catalogue general, containing the
stelae) ; 0. Wulff, Altchristliche und mittelalterliche bysantinische xind italienisclie Bildwerke, Teil I,
Berlin, 1909 (aincatalogue
various articles the Paris ofAnnates
the Kaiser
rit» MuseePriedrich
Cfuimet. Museum) ; A. Gayet, L'Art copte. Also
' Bury, Bistory of the later Roman Empire, i. 469. For early Abyssinian history, see Dill-
mann, Aih. der Berliner Akad., 1878, pp. 177-238, and 1880, pp. 1-51.
 ABYSSINIA 75

importance; it is too crude and barbaric to need more than a passing

notice, though the illuminated manuscripts of the country repay a careful
study from other standpoints than that of art.^

Noeth-West Africa.

' Africa/ comprising the old Roman provinces of the North-west, is

of less importance in the history of Byzantine art than those eastern
regions which have already been passed in review.^ Beyond it was no
continent of Asia rich in ancient civilizations, traversed by trade routes
which brought to the Syrian coast the various products of the East, but
the Pillars of Hercules, the unnavigated ocean, and the barbarous tribes

Fig. 44. Bronze weights for one ounce and half-ounce, sixth century.
(British Museum.) P. 621.

of an unknown interior. Down to the fall of the Roman Empire in the

West the fortune of Africa had been upon the whole prosperous. The
ruins of Roman settlements, explored by the enterprise of French archaeo-
logists, of Timgad, Tebessa, and other towns, reveal an essentially Roman
civilization ; the city with its forum, its basilica, its temples and paved
streets differs in few respects from its Italian prototype : it is an Italian
culture transplanted to the land of the Moors. The pagan and early
Christian art of Africa is allied to that of Italy, a natural result of the
close and continual relations between the mother country and the colony
which served as the granary of Rome, though there are features in the
ruins of African churches which suggest an Eastern influence probably
transmitted by way of Egypt. In the main, down to the Vandal invasion
of A. D. 435, the culture of Africa was Latin. After that time the hard
Teutonic rule pressed heavily upon the arts, and there remains but little to
illustrate their fortunes during the period of Gaiseric's 'Corsair state'.
The Byzantine conquest under Belisarius, in a. d. 533, brought the country
under the bureaucratic imperial regime ; the administration was centralized,
great fortresses were erected, and the country assumed the character of
a Byzantine province. To this period perhaps belong some of the in-
teresting mosaics which continued in Christian times the old reputation
' The reader may form an excellent notion of these from the reproductions published by
Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge. See especially the Life o/Takla Hdymdnot, 1906.
^ See Ch. Diehl, L'Afrique byzantine, a valuable general account, with references.
76 THE WESTERN WOELD

of the provincials in this particular branch of art. But tranqiiillity was

soon broken by mutinies of troops, by Moorish raids, and by the exactions
of unscrupulous governors. The population decreased, discontent spread,
until the invading Arab found a country prepared for almost any change
and quite ready to exchange a Byzantine for a Saracenic rule. Neither in
the major nor the minor arts was Africa a source of fruitful influence.

THE WESTERN WORLD

Italy, Sicily, and Dalmatia.

Any survey of the principal European countries from the point of view
of their relation to Byzantium must naturally begin with Italy, which
was of all the most directly connected with the East-Roman Empire.
Italy was more fully prepared to receive Byzantine influence than the
rest of Europe, because her civilization was more advanced and her art
had been more continuously nourished from Hellenistic sources. If we go
back beyond Roman imperial times, we recall the ancient ties connecting
the peninsula with the Hellenes, from whose activity in colonization the
name of Magna Graecia was given to the southern territory. But the period
of Greek influence most important for our subject began when the Romans
had added to their dominions the kingdom of the Ptolemies and a great
part of Hither Asia. From that time onward the Greeks and the partly
Hellenized Asiatics of the Eastern Mediterranean became very numerous
in Rome and in Campania, and the Hellenistic cities, more especially
Alexandria, played a most prominent part in the development of Italian
art. In Strabo's time Naples was almost a Greek city, with gymnasia,
phratries, and other institutions after the Greek model ; Puteoli was an
open port for Alexandria; the Alexandrian influence in the art of
Herculaneum and Pompeii is universally admitted.^
Rome could not have defended herself if she would against the Greek
invader : her cultured nobles read the idylls of Theocritus ; her colonial
governors collected statues ; there grew up an irresistible demand for the
reproduction of Greek sculpture and Greek painting. In the reliefs of
the Column of Trajan the influence of the i-ealistic Alexandrian school
is apparent. It was impossible that the continuity of Greek influence
should be broken by the triumph of Christianity.
If, in the shortest possible compass, we review the story of Italy from
the period of imperial decay, we cannot but perceive how inevitable was her
ultimate dependence upon the Christian East. Nothing less than a strong
national art, deeply rooted in the afl'ections of the people, could have survived
the successive waves of disaster which broke over the country during the
fifth and sixth centuries ; but Roman art was not national in this sense ;
' This is now a matter of common knowledge. The reader who wishes a readable and
brief statement of the case may consult Mahaffy, The Greek World under Roman Sway, pp. 208 ff.,
1890; and Boissiej', Promenades aroheologiques, p. 318.
 ITALY, SICILY, AND DALMATIA 11

it was perhaps more Italian than the art of Alexandria was Egyptian, but
in essential features it also was of foreign introduction ; it could not
outlive the misfortunes of the Roman Empire. Even in the third century-
many of the most successful artists (it is significant that they were Greeks)
had left Rome in the train of Diocletian. The foundation of Constantinople
led to a great emigration of these craftsmen's guilds, upon which the
prosperity of metropolitan art so largely depended ; the removal of wealthy
senatorial families from the Tiber to the Bosphorus reduced the golden
stream of patronage.^ Changes like this had already endangered the
position of Rome as the capital of the world ; but from the close of
the fourth century she ceased to be even the metropolis of Italy. Down
to this period she may still have exerted an influence upon provincial art.
But from the time of Theodosius the peninsula had no longer a permanent
centre of administration ; the arts were forced to share the vicissitudes of
a migratory court. The emperors retreated first to Milan, next to Ravenna,
by the last step placing themselves under the direct influence of a Graeco-
oriental culture. It would be an exaggeration to say that Rome was
destroyed as an artistic centre by these events ; the Campagna was still
covered with villas and gardens, there were still great palaces upon the
Roman hills. The city of Romulus was of a marvellous vitality ; her wealth
had been too vast to be so swiftly drained away. She recovered even
from the sack of Alaric in a. d. 410 ; and though the incursion of Gaiseric
fifty years later brought ruin to many families, so that not a few palaces
now stood deserted, yet it could still be treated as a passing tribulation.
Down to the Gothic war Rome remained a majestic and a wealthy city.
But she now possessed the shadow only ; the substance had passed else-
where. The emperors who fiitted over her stage were themselves shadows,
an Avitus, a Majorian, an Anthemius, figures appearing only to be pro-
claimed, chastened by adversity, and forgotten. But in the place of
shadows art will not long flourish ; she needs a safe tranquillity for her
expansion. From the beginning of the fifth century Ravenna became the
artistic capital of Italy, Ravenna the port for Eastern ships, the see of
oriental bishops, the dwelling-place of Greeks and Syrians.^ Here the
Roman court resided ; here social and political influences were centred ;
here alone was there wealth to be expended in the service of art. In the
first half of this century Rome received the largess of Galla Placidia ; in
the second, she saw her buildings restored by the munificence of Theodoric,
an enlightened but yet a barbarian king : in both cases the money and
the workmen came from the half-Syrian city on the Adriatic. To this
wave of Graeco-oriental influence from the north we may perhaps ascribe
^ English readers will find the most convenient summaiy of Koman history during the
earlier Christian centuries from the artistic point of view in Dr. A. L. Frothingham's
Manurmnis of Christian Rome, 1908, a volume in Macmillans' series of Handbooks of Archaeology
and Antiquities.
^ The influence of the Syrians is early apparent in other parts of Northern Italy. The
dedication of a church to Sta Keparata, a Syrian saint, indicates this for the Florence of the
fifth century (Davidsohn, Geschichte von Florens, vol. i).
78 THE WESTERN WORLD

the slight renaissance manifested in mosaics like those in the church of

SS. Cosmas and Damian. But the succeeding wars, in which the armies
of Justinian and the Goths ravaged the peninsula, were fatal to the con-
ditions ofartistic fertility. Belisarius and Narses, Totila and Tela, carried
ruin far and wide ; after the sack of A. d. 546 Rome stood empty forty
days. By all these disasters the continuity of Roman life was at last
broken ; the old society dispersed, the foundations of a cultured and
leisured life were destroyed. Rome was driven to begin life again in
squalor and humiliation ; the palaces upon her seven hills were abandoned ;
a new and lowlier city rose along the banks of the Tiber. This was
no longer a city of patricians, not even an Italian Rome. Monks and
traders from Syria and Egypt occupied whole quarters ; the civilization
which they represented was that of the Eastern Mediterranean. Sta Maria
in Schola Graeca (afterwards Sta Maria in Cosmedin) was built in the sixth
century ; St. Saba may have been founded about the same time by monks
from Jerusalem. From St. Cesareo in Palatio, St. Anastasia, St. Giorgio in
Velabro, Sta Lucia de Renatis, the process of orientalization was continued
during the century following. Pope Adeodatus (a. d. 672-6) now placed
a congregation of Greek monks in St. Erasmo, there to remain until in
the tenth century Leo VII replaced them by Benedictines. A succession
of oriental popes sat in the chair of St. Peter.^ The Syrian, Gregory III,
was a considerable builder; Paul II (a. d. 757-68) erected SS. Stephen
and Sylvester, and introduced more Greek monks. Other monasteries
of the eighth century were St. Gregorio, St. Prisca, St. Balbina, and the
convent of Sta Maria in the Campus Martins. Pascal I (a. d. 817-24) founded
the monastery of St. Praxed.
The position of the Basilian monks was thus already strong when the
outbreak of iconoclasm at Constantinople rendered it even more pre-
dominant. The fugitives from the Eastern Empire came among their
own people ; the artists among them found no competitors other than
predecessors of the same oriental origin. It was the Rome of this
' Byzantine ' period between the sixth and ninth centuries to which the
English bishops came for works of art to enrich their churches (p. 102).
Between Narses and Charlemagne the art of Rome was no less oriental
than that of Ravenna.
From this condition of servitude Italy gradually emerged ; the popes,
trained in the school of adversity, oppressed on the one side by the
rapacious exarchs of Ravenna to whom Rome owed allegiance,^ on the other
by the encroachments of the Lombards, became the leaders in a regenerative
movement. They held their own not only against the barbarian princes,
but upon occasion against the Byzantine emperors. Though the heretical
Constans II had banished one pope to the Chersonese, another had defied

' Theodore (a. d. 642-9') was a Greek. Of the ten popes between a.d. 685 and a. d. 741,
five were Syrians (John V, Sergius, Sisinnius, Constantine, and Gregory III), and four Gi-eeks
(Conon, John VI, John VII, and Zacharias). Only one, Gregory II, was a Roman.
2 Ch. Diehl, Miudes sur V administration hyz. dans Vexarchat de Ravenne, 1888.
 ITALY, SICILY, AND DALMATIA
79
the second Justinian, a tliird received rich gifts from Constantinople. In
the eighth century the hold of the East-Roman Empire rapidly weakened,
and before that century closed the Byzantine suzerainty was finally brought
to a close. Pope Stephen, dreading the Lombard conquest of Rome, appealed
to the Emperor Constantine V andappealed in vain. The failure was momen-

FiG. 45. Embroidered dalmatic of the fifteenth century in tlie Sacristy of St. Peter" s, Rome :
the Transfiguration. (Moscioni. ) P. 600.

tous for Italian history ; it thrust the pope into the arms of the Franks,
and prepared the way for the triumph of the papacy under Hildebrand.
It also prepared the way for new artistic iniluences. With the growth
of Frankish power the influx of orientals into Rome came to an end.
But Byzantine influence did not disappear from the art of Rome and the
surrounding country : we find it in the mosaics of SS. Nereus and Achilleus
and the frescoes of Sta Maria in Cosmedin of the ninth century ; we find it,
faint or distinct, obvious or remote, in many a mural decoration of the next
four hundred years ; at Sta Maria in Pallara on the Palatine, in the latest
80 THE WESTERN WOELD

of the frescoes of Sta Maria Antiqua (p. 304), at St. Elia near Nepi, at
St. Abbondio near Rignano, at St. Urbano alia Caffarella (p. 304), and
St. Clemente ; at Sta Maria in Trastevere and St. Pietro in Toseanella, in
the subterranean church of the Sacro Speco at Subiaco, and the apse of
Sta Maria in Toseanella. Sometimes the survival of oriental features may
be due to imitation of earlier Roman-Byzantine frescoes— this may be the
case at St. Urbano and St. Clemente; at other times the influence of
wandering monastic artists from the south of the peninsula may have made
itself felt ; at other times again a Greek ikon or an illuminated MS. may
have proved a source of inspiration. Although the rich decoration of
mosaic inlaid in marble, which we know as Cosmatesque, was almost
certainly of oriental introduction, Italian art was now moving to a new
birth ; the eleventh century was a time of revival and reconstruction ;
with the thirteenth came new suggestions from beyond the Alps ; at the
end of that century the frescoes of Cosmatus in the chapel of the Sancta
Sanctorum prepare the way for the great art of Cavallini, whose style was
formed independently of Byzantine influence.
We have now to consider the position of other parts of Italy with
regard to the Christian East. Of Ravenna enough has already been said
to indicate the oriental character of her art, which will also receive separate
notice in the chapters on sculptui'e and mosaics (pp. 135, 342). Before
we pass to Venice and Southern Italy it will be convenient to cast a glance
at that trans- Adriatic coast region which in the Middle Ages stood so close
to Ravenna, and derived its culture from that city. Istria and Dalmatia,
which in earlier times had been prosperous centres of Roman civilization,
fell in the fifth century first to Odovakar and then to subsequent rulers of
Ravenna : after the Byzantine conquest they were dependent on the
exarchs of that city. Their new relations, political and ecclesiastical, with
the city of Honorius explain the affinities to Ravennate art which we
mark in the architecture and mosaics of their churches. Their connexion
with the Roman Empire of the East survived for a short time the extinction
of Byzantine power on the Italian shore ; but after her conquest by
Charlemagne in A. D. 789, Istria became a duchy under the new Western
Empire and was gradually withdrawn from Byzantine influences.'^ From the
beginning of the second millennium Western culture became supreme ; the
Church admitted the sovereignty of the pope ; monks of the Western
orders were established in the monasteries. The monuments of East-
Christian art upon the Eastern Adriatic belong therefore, like those of
Ravenna, to the early periods ; the country was not aflected, as was Venice,
by the Byzantine renaissance which began with the Basilian dynasty. The
mosaics of Parenzo exhibit the closest relationship to the sixth-century
work of the Italian city.^

' F. Hamilton Jackson, Tlie Shores of the Adriatic : ii. The Austrian Side, pp. 188 ff., 397 ff.
^ The same Eastern influences which affect the art of Ravenna are visible hete. Bishop
Maximianus of Eavenna was born at Porto Vestre, near Pola.
 ITALY, SICILY, AND DALMATIA
81
After the capture of Kavenna by the Lombards in a. d. 753, Venice
and its territory, which had elected a duke since about A. d. 700, became
the representative of Eastern culture on North-Italian soil, and was
destined to hold that position for nearly seven hundred years.^ Politically
dependent upon Constantinople down to the ninth century, she remained
faithful in freedom to the old allegiance ; and though, as in the twelfth
century, relations were sometimes strained, her traders were too prudent to
offend an empire upon whose friendship their prosperity so largely
•depended. Venice was filled with buildings in the Byzantine style, of
which many remain to this day, from the famous Cathedral of St. Mark

Fig. 46. Silk tapestry of the sixth century from Egypt.

(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

■down to the private houses still visible along her canals. Through all
these centuries Eastern artists in mosaics and Eastern painters found
a home in the city of the lagoons. Venetian sculptors reproduced in
stone the motives of Byzantine ivories and textile fabrics. Venice, with
the neighbouring Murano and Torcello, stood aloof from the Italian world,
and while other towns were striving after a new national life, remained in
many ways almost a foreign city. Yet immigrant artists from other parts
of Italy were active there in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, while
Venetians sought their fortune on the mainland. The workers in mosaic
who decorated the apses of St. Peter and St. Paul at Kome in the times of
Innocent III and Honorius III came from Venice. When, in the Com-
nenian period, Byzantine painting exercised so strong an influence upon
1 Armingaud in Archives des missions scientifiques et Utieraires, 2° s6r., iv, pp. 299 if. ; E. Lentz,
VerhaUniss Venedigs su Bysans, Berlin, 1891. See Bys. Zeiischr., 1893, pp. 6ff.
I2n* Cr
82 THE WESTERN WORLD

Italian art, the- Tuscan cities did but follow the Venetian example when
they extended hospitality to the artists of the East (see p. 266). The
Venetians may have learned from Byzantium the art of damascening in
silver on bronze (Ch. XI), though the azzimini chiefly belong to the six-
teenth century, when models of Saracenic origin had long been plentiful.
After the rupture of political relations between Constantinople and
Eome, the great centre of Eastern influence in Italy lay in the south,*^
always the stronghold of Greek culture in the peninsula. We have seen
that Southern Italy had maintained close relations with the countries
of the Eastern Mediterranean long before the decline of Imperial Rome.
M. Bertaiax has shown how the geographical position of Calabria, Apulia,
Campania, and the Abruzzi separated them by physical barriers from the
rest of Italy, and made them, like Sicily, the natural appanage of the power
which held command of the sea. With the establishment of Christianity,
and after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, there was probably
no break in this old association ; it is credibly reported that the bishop of
Siponto (a. d. 474-491), a relative of the Emperor Zeno, sent to Constan-
tinople when he needed artists for his church.^ The Gothic dominion
brought scarcely more change to Southern Italy than to the great island
across the Strait of Messina : it was in the sixth century that Cassiodorus
established his monastery of Vivarium above Squillace. After the wars of
Justinian's reign the encroaching Lombard dukes of Benevento were often
troublesome neighbours, but Greek influence suffered no serious loss,
Otranto remained a Byzantine base, and the fifty thousand fugitives from
iconoelasm found a refuge in the southern provinces. Even before the
establishment of the Macedonian dynasty in the ninth century, a new
Byzantine expansion began when Constantine Copronymus added Calabria
to the theme of Sicily. But with the succession of a series of strong Eastern
rulers — Nicephorus Phocas, John Zimisces, Basil II — the Byzantine Empire
took complete and effective possession of Southern Italy as represented by
the ' heel ' and ' toe '. From the ninth to the eleventh century Calabria and
Apulia were regularly colonized by Greeks from the Peloponnese ; cities-
were founded, monasteries built; the eremites spread through the land,,
leaving on the walls of their cells abundant traces of contemporary art
(p. 308), So complete was the occupation that when, after the eleventh
century, all her Italian possessions were lost to the Byzantine Empire,
Greek culture was too firmly rooted to be easily displaced. The Basilian
monks long held their own successfully against the Western orders,
acknowledging the patriarch of Constantinople; Rome was reluctantly
obliged to tolerate Eastern ritual. These monks enjoyed the favour of the

' The principal authorities on Byzantine relations to S. Italy are given by Ch. Diehl
in his L'Art bysantin dans I'ltalie meridionale, oh. i. See also Palmieri in Vis. Vrem. x. 281-303'
(1903).
deBariparJ. les
Gay, L'ltalie meridionale
iformands, Paris, 1904,et Vcovers
empire the
hysantin
earlierdepuis I'avenementde Basil I^" jusqu'ala prise-
period.
^ E. Miintz, Mudes sur Vhisioire de la peinture et de I'iconographie chretiennes, p 41 (Paris
1882). ^ "■
 83

ITALY, SICILY, AND DALMATIA

Norman princes, who even built new abbeys for their occupation.
Although the Latin orders had triumphed by the close of the fourteenth
century, the monastery of St. Nicholas near Otranto maintained its position
until the Turkish invasion of A. D. 1480. The Greek tongue was spoken
under both Norman and Angevin dynasties, and has lasted in the degraded
dialects of Calabria to our own day, though the survival is partly due to
a new wave of immigration caused
by the Turkish conquest of Greece.
The effect of this abiding Greek
connexion upon the arts was naturally
very considerable, but from the first it
was modified by counteracting forces.
In architecture the Byzantine style
very early admitted Saracenic ele-
ments : the cathedrals of Tarento,
Siponto, and Canosa show how far
the process of assimilation had pro-
gressed in the eleventh century ; ^ La
Roccelletta and Sta Maria del Patiro
near Rossano reveal the same union
of diverse influences. But in course
of time the Saracenic style in its turn
lost effective support, leaving Byzan-
tine and Western art face to face.
Gradually the native Italian element
gained the advantage; the power
which in the twelfth century was
content to exist side by side with that
of Byzantium asserted its strength a
century later, and soon after that time
was assured of a final triumph.^ The Pig. 47. Silk textile, with elephants and
Italian tongue, the Latin monk, the winged monsters, in the Kuustgewerbe-
Western ideal in art, henceforward Museum, Berlin. (Prom a water-colour in
the Victoria and Albert Museum.) P. 595.
encountered but a feeble resistance in
the old region of Magna Graecia. But so powerful had been the influence
of the Eastern Church and the Eastern monastic tradition that in the early
eleventh century St. Nilus, a Basilian monk from Calabria, migrated north-
ward to the neighbourhood of Rome and there founded the monastery of
Grottaferrata. The buildings, with their fine mosaics, are still standing
to-day as a lasting memorial of Byzantine monastic life and art in Italy.
As an intermediary between Byzantine and Western art in South -
central Italy the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino in Campania occupies

> Lenormant, Gaz. arch., 1883, pp. 54-5, 233 ff. For Saracenic influence on the illu-
minator's art at Monte Cassino, see E. Bertaux, L'Art dans Vltalie mmdionale, p. 434.
2 Gaz. arch. 1881-2, p. 124. G2
84 THE WESTERN WORLD

a position of peculiar interest.' According to a statement by Leo of Ostia,'

the Abbot Desiderius (afterwards Pope Victor III) introduced Bj'zantine
craftsmen to embellish the monasterj^ with mosaics, Inecause the art of
mosaic had been forgotten. He also caused gold-
smith's work, enamels, and ivorj' carvings for the
use of the church to be made by Greek workmen,
and imported from Constantinople the great bronze
doors in the stjde of those at Amalfi and Salerno
(Ch. XI). The influence of these strangers was no
doubt considerable ; they laid down mosaic pave-
ments in the later Byzantine style (Ch. VII), and
their methods were soon adopted by the monks
among whom they had come to live. The illu-
minated manuscripts of Monte Cassino show many
traces of such imitation (Ch. VIII). But enough
has been already said of the condition of the arts in
Italy to show that there was no complete stagna-
tion at this period, and that in Rome the traditions
of Greek religious art still survived, while in
Calabria and Apulia there was a vigorous school
of fresco-painters among tlie Basilian monks.
The Benedictines of Monte Cassino certainly
received instruction from the Greeks, l;iut they
were no slavish imitators, and they soon eman-
cipated themselves from foreign control. Their
art, to which M. Bertaux has devoted especial
attention, assumes an individual cliaracter and is
rich in elements derived from Northern Europe.^
The names of numerous artists of Greek ex-
traction known to have worked in Italy from the
ninth to the sixteenth centurj' have been revealed
to us through the researches of Miintz and Froth-
ingham. The more prominent ai-e mentioned in
Fi&. -tS. Tapestry strip the introductory remarks to the section on painting
' davt(s) from a tunic : Coptic,
about sixth century. (Vic- (p. 263).
toria and Albert Museum.^ The island of Sicity was held by the East-
Roman Empire from the sixth century ; a Byzan-
tine emperor passed the last three years of his life in Sja-acuse.* But
' Monte Cassino, founded by St. Benedict, was sacked by the Lombards in a. d. 58',), and
remained unoccupied for a liundred and tliirty years. It was rebuilt in a. d. 720, but its
great artistic period did not begin for three centuries.
- Schuiz, Iienkmaler der Kunxt lies Mitkhdters in Vnleritalien, ii. 1]7. The original account is
in the Chronicon Casinense of Leo of Ostia, for which see Moimmenta Germ. Script., vii. 718. The
French version by the monk Amatus, a contemporary of Desiderius. will be found in Cham-
poUion-Figeac, Ystoire de U dormant, p. 105, Paris, 1835. In this only mosaic jjavemejjfe are
mentioned. The poem of Archbishop Alfanus of Salerno, a friend of Desiderius, speaks of
the mosaicists as Thracians.
2 L'Art dans VJtalie miridiomde, vol. i. * Constans II. a.d. 665-8.
 ITALY, SICILY, AND DALMATIA 85

the Saracens, whose inroads had begun in the seventh century, obtained
a firm foothold in the eighth, and by the year A. D. 965 the whole island
was in their hands. Mohammedan influence was thus more permanent
and widely diffused in Sicily than upon the neighbouring mainland,
where the power of Islam was never established upon such wide
and lasting foundations. A number of churches remain to attest the
Byzantine occupation,^ and minor works of art discovered in the island
are to be seen in the important museums of Syracuse and Palermo. But
Byzantine art produced its finest flower under the dominion of the Norman

Fig. 49. Alabastei' chalice ; about tlie eleventh centuiy : Treasury of S. Marco, Venice.
(Schlumberger-Hachette.) JP. 552.

princes, whose tolerant and eclectic principles permitted Greek, Saracenic,

and French civilizations to flourish side by side. The great mosaics of the
cathedrals and churches of Northern Sicily are due to their continual
munificence, and where not purely Greek are executed in the spirit of the
Byzantine tradition. The enterprise of the Normans introduced colonies
of silk-weavers from Greece, and the celebrated textile industry of the
island was established by their assistance (Ch. X).
France and Spain.
In the early centuries of the Christian era the condition of the Western
provinces was less fortunate than that of those in the eastern half of the
empire. The emperors, like thriftless landlords, had ruined their own
1 Orsi in B. Z., vii. 1-28 ; viii. 642 ff.
86 THE WESTEEN WORLD

estate. The oppressive curial system weakened the middle class; the
increase of latifundia cultivated by slaves drove the peasant from the
land. Near the frontiers, the northern barbarians were suflfered to occupy
whole districts, and the way was thus prepared for the gathering armies .
of their kinsmen beyond the border. The Roman provinces of Gaul were
among the first to feel the effect of these evils, though even in the fifth
century the southern half of the country still enjoyed some measure of the
cultured rural life so dear to Cicero and Horace. Sidonius Apollinaris,
himself a Gallo-Roman, has left many pleasing descriptions of the social
intercourse between the wealthy families of Gaul ; his older contemporary
Ausonius had extolled Aries as a western Rome, and paid his lavish tribute
of praise to Treves, Bordeaux, and Narbonne. But this society rested on
no sure foundations : the very generation of Sidonius saw the Vandal, the
Visigoth, and the Burgundian herald the coming of the yet more redoubt-
able Frank. With the entry of the Merovingians into Aries and Narbonne
the power of Italy in Gaul became extinct and was never again revived.
It was fortunate for the Roman provincial of the South that the Visigoths
at least had in their more eastern seats received a tincture of East-Christian
civilization, and that when established in Aquitaine they maintained com-
munication with their kinsmen on the southern side of the Alps. Sharing
in some degree the ideals of the great Theodoric, they did not desire the
complete destruction of Roman culture ; and by the distribution throughout
the conquered territory of a new peasant- class, they diminished the evils
which the system of latifundia had encouraged. The art of the latest
sarcophagi of Gaul, more or less contemporary with the appearance of the
Goths, reveals a style allied to the purely ornamental style at Ravenna ^
(p. 135) ; it has been suggested that the manus Gothica, trained in principles
originating in the East, was instrumental in keeping architecture alive in
France through a critical and unsettled period.^
' The earlier Christian sarcophagi, chiefly represented by the examples at Aries, are
probably related to the late Hellenistic art of Asia Minor (p. 132), The dissemination of
oriental motives at this period formed the subject of some of M. Louis Courajod's suggestive
lectures (A. Marignan, Vn historien de Vartfranfais: Louis Courajod).
^ This position, attacked by Kivoira, is maintained by Strzygowski in Kleinasien ein
Neuland. See also B.Z., xili. 293 and xvii. 288. The contention is that the Goths learned the
half-oriental architecture of the late-Hellenic world and transplanted it to Gaul indepen-
dently ofKome. The Church of St. Peter at Eouen is described as constructed gpiadi-is lapidibus
a manu Gothica : so also St. Martin at Tours and St. Saturninus at Toulouse. Many years ago
de Vogiie (La Syrie Centrale, i, pp. 18-23) had obsei-ved the analogies between French Eomau-
esque churches and those of eajly Christian Syria, suggesting that European schools under
East-Christian influence, such as that which erected the tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna, may
have acted as intermediaries, vrhile fugitives from iconoclasm may have continued their work.
This book is not directly concerned with architectural problems, which will not, therefore, be
discussed in the text ; but the important connexion between Byzantine and French churches
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries must receive some mention here. Opinion as to
Byzantine influence on the domed churches of Southern France is divided. It is maintained
by de Verneilh (Architecture bysaniine en France in Didron's Annates archeologiques, vol. xi) and
also by Choisy, who traces two currents, one more purely Byzantine, passing via Venice to
P^rigord (resemblance of St. Front at P^rigueux to St. Mark's at Venice), the other from
Mesopotamia, travelling with the commerce of Baghdad (Histoire de V architecture, ii, p. 258).
Dehio would allow only a general acquaintance with Byzantine art on the part of the French
architects (Lie kirchliclie Baukunst des Abendlandes, p. 341), and Phene Spiers lias argued in
favour of relative independence, noting various constructional differences (Bulletin monumental.
 FEANCE AND SPAIN 87

On the arrival of the Franks in the South the situation changed for
the worse. The new-comers, unused to the government of cities, revived
many of the worst features of Eoman social economy. Education decayed ;
the succession of cultivated provincials which had included men like
Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours now came to an end; in the seventh

Fig. 50. Chalice with enamelled mounts ; about the eleventh century : Treasury of
S. Marco, Venice. (Schlumberger-Hachette.) P. 552;

century there was little or nothing to choose between the culture of the
Frank and that of the Gallo-Roman. Such works of art as now entered
the country were introduced by traders from the East,^ who maintained
through the, southern ports the old intercourse with the Eastern Mediterra-
nean. The Syrian, the Jewish, and the Egyptian merchant brought in the
1898, and Architecture East and West, 1905). Analogies between the French churches and those
in Cyprus, especially St. Barnabas, near Famagusta, have also been pointed out (Bepertorium,
xxii, p. 481). Strzygowski {Der Dom su Aachen iind seine Entstellimg), emphasizing the resem-
blance between the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle and the Church of St. Gregory atEtchmiadzin
in Armenia, notes a similarity between the plan of St. Germigny-les-prfe and the patriarchal
cliureh on the same Eastern site. The above references will suffice to illustrate the difficulty
of this question, which can only be solved by architects. On the subject in general, see W. R.
Lethaby, Mediaeval Art, ch. iii ; Diehl, Manuel, p. 674.
' For the influx of traders from the East into Western Europe, see L. Br^hier, S. Z.,
xii. Iff. i;.
88 THE WESTEEN WOELD

fine products of artistic industry which were beyond the powers of the
Frankish craftsman, for local skill was chiefly confined to the manufacture
of weapons, jewellery,^ and textiles of inferior quality. Under these con-
ditions the Church became the most important patron of this commerce
with the East, which provided it with textiles from Tyre and Berytus,
manuscripts and ivory carvings from Alexandria and Antioch, carved
capitals from Proconnesus ; it is probable that down to the time of the
Arab conquests these importations were continuous. For the political and
social changes in Gaul must have destroyed, or reduced to insignificance,
the old provincial workshops. With the exception of the Goths, who could
at least appreciate sculpture of the decorative order, the barbaric invaders
cared for little beyond the sumptuous and the brilliant ; their enthusiasm
was for silver plate, bright hangings, and jewels rich with coloured stones.
Within the limits which such tastes imposed, they were able to a great
extent to satisfy their desires from national sources. They kept goldsmiths
in their households whose work was probably in the barbaric style familiar
to us through the orfevrerie cloisonnee of our museums. A similar barbaric
character probably marked the woven fabrics produced in the gynaecea of
the Frankish palaces and villas, though here the influence of imported
models may have been more pronounced. Down to the time of Charlemagne
such art as retained the traditions of the classical past was preserved by
the Church, or produced at her command. The Christian Church was not
confined within the frontiers of any single kingdom ; it was a great cosmo-
politan organization with a wide experience and artistic sympathies beyond
the attainment of the isolated barbarian prince. The Church still needed
ornaments and sacred utensils of traditional character, and above all she
required a figure-art for the representation of sacred subjects. For the
satisfaction of these needs she relied in great measure upon the monasteries
which were now established in Gaul, and kept the country in continual
relation to the Christian East.^
The first monasteries known to us are those at Ligug^ near Poitiers
(about A.D. 360), and at Tours, both founded by St. Martin, the latter when
he became bishop of the chief city of Touraine.^ The most famous and
influential community was, however, that of the Insulani founded in
A. D. 410 by Honoratus on the isle of Lerins.* This monastery became the
great asylum for literature and science after the irruption of the Goths
into Italy. The monks were renowned for their learning, and Aries,

1 The jewellery was of a type introduced from the East by the Goths (Dalton,
Archaeologia), viii, 1902, p. 267.
2 See L. Brfihier, as above ; E. Eocholl, Zeitschrijt fur KircJiengeschichie, xxv, 1904, pp. 481 ff.
The Merovingian MSS., which are chiefly illuminated with decorative ornament and capital
letters, exhibit many oriental affinities, amongst which the most notable are the capitals
composed of fish and animals, to which there are curious parallels in Armenia. For these
MSS.
BritishseeMuseum.
the Comte de Bastard's Album of reproductions, of which there is a copy in the
^ Dom Cuthbert Butler, The Lausiac History of Palladius (vol. vi of Texts and Studies, contri-
butions to biblical and patristic literature, ed. by Dr. J. Armitage Robinson), p. 245 (1898).
* Comte de Montalembert, The Monks of the West, from St. Benedict to St. Bernard, i, p. 346.
 FEANCE AND SPAIN
89
Avignon, Lj-on, Vienne, Troyes, and Metz took bishops from among their
number. The rival of Le'rins was the monastery of St. Victor at Marseilles,
founded by Cassian, the greatest organizer of monastic life in Gauh' His
rules for the government of his connnunity were embodied in his Institu-
tioits and Conferencet< ; the second part of the latter work is dedicated to
Honoratus, and to Eucherius, a prominent monk of Lerins.
The significant point with regard to all these early communities in Gaul
lies in their direct connexion with Egypt, and their adoj^tion in many
cases of the Egyptian eremitic rule. Cassian himself had lived for seven
years as a monk in the Thebaid ; it was his policy to adliere to Egyptian

Fig. 51. Two-handled clialice : Tiensuiy nt S. Mar< o, Ytnice. (Schlumbeigei-H.ichette.) P. 552.

precedent ; his dedication of the Conferences to Honoratus probablj" implies

that his great rival held views analogous to his own. Literary evidence
proves that some of the earliest monks established on Gaulish soil were,
like the first monks of Italy, immigrants from the East. Sidonius ApoUi-
naris relates the death near Clermont of a Syrian heimit from the Thebaid.^
Gregory of Tours speaks of the austere eremitic life led by the monks of
Auvergne.^ In the fifth and sixth centuries Gallic monasticism was clearly
Egyptian both in theory and practice. The influence of similar Eastern
connexions vipon the Church in England and Ireland is noticed below
(p. 97).
With the Carolingian period the influence of East-Christian art in the
West was undiminished, though it entered upon a new phase. Education
was now a chief concern of government ; the monastic artists were taught
to seek good models wherever they could be found ; and many of those
Montalembert, i, p. 355. Ephtolae, vii. 17
In his Liber vU. patrvm. See Butler, as above, p. 247.
90 THE WESTEEN WOELD

which were most readily available were among the works of art previously-
imported from Syria and Egypt. Studied by trained and intelligent men
filled with a new spirit of emulation, these models now for the first time
began to exercise their proper influence, the effects of which are very
conspicuous in Carolingian manuscript illumination (Ch. VIII). After the
ninth century there was a time of comparative slackness in the North of
France. But with the dawn of the Romanesque period the southern
French provinces began to teach the rest of Europe how to revive the lost
art of monumental sculpture. Tliis they did partly through the imitation
of models upon the monumental scale, but more extensively through

Fig. 52. Bowl of a chalice with gemmed mounts in the treasury of S. Marco ;
about the eleventh century. (Schlumberger-Hachette.) P. 552.

copying illuminated manuscripts and ivory carvings of the Macedonian

Eenaissance, which now entered Western Europe in great numbers. Voge
has observed that the well-known tympanum at Vezelay may be an attempt
to render a Pentecost such as that in the first cupola of the Cathedral of
St. Mark at Venicfe,' and Viollet-Ie-Duc had remarked at an earlier date
that this work and the almost equally remarkable tympanum at Moissac
were really paintings translated into stone. The clearest proof of the
influence exerted upon major sculpture by Byzantine ivory carvings is to
be found in Germany (p. 238) ; but France, to which the German sculpture
of the period was deeply indebted, undoubtedly copied similair models.
Such are the figures of Our Lord on the tympanum of Saint-fitienne at
Cahors ; ^ such a Christ and Cherubs in Saiht-Sernin at Toulouse. In
the sphere of mere ornament instances of imitation are very frequent,
especially in Languedoc and Provence, where foliate and animal designs
allied to those seen on Eastern textiles are of comparative frequency.^
* Repertorimn xxii 1899 p. 99. ^ A. Michel, Eistoire de Vart i, Pt II p 628
3 Cf. Diehl, Manuel, p. 677.
 SEANCE AND SPAIN 91

With the thirteenth century France developed a great national art which
owed little or nothing to foreign influence.
In Spain, from the fourth to the eighth century, the influence of the
East was less important than in the country conquered by the Franks.
(3aul was on the direct route from the Eastern Mediterranean to the
North-west; Spain lay apart from the ^reat artery of commerce which
followed the valley of the Ehone. When the Suevi and Vandals, and
after them the Visigoths, made themselves masters of the Iberian penin-
sula ^the Roman provincial culture was gradually transformed, though,
as in France, the Gothic princes maintained a barbaric civilization of their
own, not without dignity and splendour. The oflicial and ecclesiastical
language was Latin, and the numerous inscriptions preserved in the
country contain little which points to any considerable intercourse with
the East. After the conquest of Italy by the generals of Justinian, the
Byzantine Empire obtained a temporary hold upon the Mediterranean
coast, including Malaga and Cartagena ; but the population were not eager
to pass under the exacting imperial rule, and in A. D. 584 Leovigild the
Visigoth recovered all that had been lost. Byzantine art in Spain is
directly represented by a few capitals of the sixth century, of the types
made in Proconnesus and exported to all the coasts of the Mediterranean.
After the Arab conquest the art of the country was more deeply imbued
with the oriental spirit than that of any other part of Europe; but both
motives and technical methods had been modified by transmission through
Saracenic hands.

Germany-.
Although ' Germany ' and France were under a single government in
the time of Charlemagne, it has been convenient to treat the eastern part
of the Prankish dominions in a separate section, anticipating the division
which took place after the great emperor's death. Only a small part of
Germany, that lying to the west about the valleys of the Ehine and the
Moselle, had been influenced by Christian art in the first centuries of our
era. Several examples of Roman provincial art in this area, such as the
sepulchral monuments at Neumagen, appear to be aflTected by late Hellenistic
types like those which found their way into Central Syria.^ The ubiquitous
Syrians had reached Treves in Roman times : the position of the city in
the fourth century as an imperial residence ensured their continued pre-
sence ;the first bishop of Treves was Agritius of Antioch (a. d. 328). There
still exist several gravestones of immigrants from the East in these early
times. One is to the daughter of a Syrian; another to Azizos, son of
Agrippa, a Syrian from the region of Apamea ; a third to Ursikonos, an
1 The Vandals first occupied Spain in a.d. 409. . tt i-
2 Sir Charles Newton has observed this in his discussion of the Mausoleum ot Halicar-
nassus See also Strzygowski, Ber Horn su Aachen unci seine Entstellung, 1904, pp. 44-5. For
Poppel-
Syrians in Mainz, see B. Z., xv, 1906, p. 415, and for other Graeoo-Syrian influences, J.
reuter, Bonner Jahrbucher, Hefte 114-15, pp. 344 ff., and B. Z., xv, 1906, p. 703.
92 THE WESTEEN WOELD

Anatolian ; two more to natives of Adana in Cilicia. Works of art confirm

the statements as to early relations with the Christian East. The ivory
of
panel in the cathedral treasury, with a scene depicting a transportation
relics (p. 211, and Fig. 127), may have entered Germany by the Rhone
Valley or through Italy. The Barberini diptych, now in the Louvre
for
(p. 199), must have been preserved in Germany at a very early period,

Fie. 53. Paten of about the eleventh century : Treasury of S. Marco, Venice. P. 552.

among the names written in ink on the back are those of four archbishops
of Treves living between the fourth and sixth centuries,^ with those of
two bishops of Metz. It may have been carved in Alexandria, to which
city an early ivory pyxis with Nilotic scenes now at Wiesbaden, but
formerly at Treves, may also be ascribed.
Other Christian works of art of an oriental origin are at Aix-la-
Chapelle, perhaps imported in the time of Charlemagne, perhaps already
' Agritius, Anastasius, Euaticua, Sabaudus.
 GEEMANY 93

in the country at an earlier date. The ivory panels now inlaid in the
pulpit of the cathedral are mentioned in another place (p. 212), where it
is pointed out that several subjects appear to indicate an Alexandrian
influence ; the form of the cathedral itself is that of an oriental Martyrion}
The ancient silk textiles in which were wrapped the remains in the
reliquaries at Aix and at Cologne (Ch. X) are in an early Persian or
Byzantine style. These examples tend to show that the influences from
the Christian East continued from Roman times to those of the Carolingian
Empire.
Germany east of the Rhine had no Christian art until the latter part
of the tenth century. In the earlier Carolingian period the population
of this region was still pagan : Charlemagne spent years of his life in
combating the heathen Saxons of Hanover and Oldenburg ; Boniface and
his missionaries laboured among the Frisians and other tribes ; Emmeram,
Rupert, and Corbinian devoted themselves to the conversion of Bavaria.
But the rise of the Saxon dynasty of the Ottos in the tenth century was
accompanied by a rapid growth of Byzantine influence in Northern
Germany. The three emperors of this name all entertained friendly
relations with Constantinople; they even adopted the costume of the
Byzantine court, with the long tunic reaching to the feet. Presents were
sent from Constantinople to Otto the Great on more than one occasion ; ^
and Widukind says of this prince that he received from ' Romans, Greeks,
and Saracens' vessels of gold and silver, glass, bronze, ivory, and other
materials, ornamented with animals hitherto unseen.^ The Saxon emperors
maintained a regular intercourse with Venice ; treaties of commerce were
signed, and gifts exchanged with the rulers of the Adriatic city. Such
being the relations of the Germans to the Byzantine Empire and the
North-Italian representative of its culture, it was natural that the marriage
of the young Otto II to the Byzantine princess Theophano should have
produced a considerable effect upon German industrial art. The ground
was already prepared; there was not so much a sudden importation of
work absolutely new and strange as a reinforcement of models already
known and appreciated. The princess brought with her innumerae
thesaurorum divitiae, which must certainly have included jewels and
figured silk textiles ; nor is it improbable that her suite included persons
themselves skilled in diverse arts of luxury.* The growth of a Rhenish
school of cloisonn^ enamellers in the time of Archbishop Egbert of Trfev^s
at the close of the tenth century (a. d. 975-93) was certainly the result
of Byzantine influence (see Ch. VIII) ; at the same time Byzantine floral

' Strzygowski, Dom su Aachen, has summarized the evidence proviug the existeuee of an
East-Christian influence in the art of Gaul and Germany in the first seven centuries.
2 G. Humann, Beperloriumfiir Kumtwissenschaft, xxv, 1902, 17. In the reign of Otto took
place the embassy of Luitprand to Nicephorus Phocas, from which we learn interesting
details with regard to the manufacture of silk textiles (p. 587).
' Res gestae Sax., iii, c. 56.
* On the question of Byzantine artists working in Germany in the second half of the
tenth century and later, see E. Muntz, Rev. de Vart Chretien, 1893, pp. 181 S.
94 THE WESTERN WOELD

ornament makes its appearance in German works of art ^ and Byzantine

influence may be observed in the illumination of manuscripts.
The intimate relations between Germany and the East did not cease
in the eleventh century. Conrad II sent an embassy, with gifts, to
Constantinople ; Henry III did the same, and received a mission from the
Eastern court in return. Henry IV received many Byzantine gifts, a
golden altarpiece, a pectoral cross of gold and pearls, a cup of sardonyx,
and costly textiles. Irene, consort of John Comnenus, sent to her niece
Uhhilde, Duchess of Bavaria, a gold cross enriched with gems.^ Wibald of
Stablo visited Constantinople in A. d. 1155 and A. D. 1157, when he prob-
ably brought back examples of enamel work and other precious objects.*

Fig. 54. Crystal paten with gemmed mounts ; Treasury of S. Marco, Venice.
(Schlumberger-Hachette.) P. 552.

It is not to be supposed that the influx of these splendid objects provided

no stimulus to the industrial art of the West. In addition to these
imperial gifts, the wealthy and powerful pilgrims who visited the Holy
Land before the crusades brought back many Byzantine works of art;
after the crusades there was importation en masse into the important
cities of Germany and France. The scanty remains of the pillage of

' Humann, Beitrdge sur Geschichte von Stadi und Stift Essen, 1898, pp. 100-1 VOi^e Ergan-
zungsheft vii of the Westdeutsche Zeitschrijt, p.. 357. Some works of art may have ;been imported
into Germany by maritime commerce. The monk of St. Gall says that there were Greeks
on the Oder in the tenth century (He Carolo magna, lib. ii, c. 16, in Mon. Germ, hist, ii p. 737).
' For the above gifts, see Humann, p. 114.
' J. Janssen, Wibald von Stablo und Coney, 1854, pp. 199 and 208 ; Archaeologia, Ixii p. 26.
 95
aEEMANY

Constantinople now at Limburg, Aix, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, Augsburg,

Munich, and other towns show how very great the riches of the Eastern
capital must have been.^ And when we think of the constant movement
of treasured objects through the custom of making gifts, through bequests,
through loans for purposes of copying, and through exchange, it is e^sy
to imagine how strong an influence the fine Byzantine craftsmanship

Fig. 55. Silver dish of the sixth century in the museum at Nicosia, Cyprus. P. 574.

may have exerted upon the industrious artists of the German monasteries.^
The embossed metal-work on the shrine of St. Felix at Aix-la-Chapelle,
with foliate ornament of evident Byzantine parentage, is but one among
many objects which furnish the proof of this supposition.^ Illuminated
MSS. written at Regensburg in the early eleventh century show in many
ways a Byzantine influence. This was only to be expected, since Re-
' Biant, Exuviae Sacrae ConstantinopoHtanae.
' Humann, Repertoriwm, xxv, 1902, pp. 19-20.
' S. Beissel, Kunsischatse des Aachmer Kaiserdomes, PI. X.
96 THE WESTERN WORLD

gensburg was at this time a principal centre o f German art, while it

lay upon the trade route connecting the South of Germany with Italy
and Constantinople.^
German art of the Romanesque period is so permeated by Byzantine
influences that by the thirteenth century we find a general absorption of
oriental iconographical types rather than the patient imitation of particular
features. German individuality asserts itself in the treatment of details,
and there is a difference in feeling which is usually quite distinctive : this
is evident in manuscript illuminations, where the material for compara-
tive study is considerable (Ch. VIII). In ivory carvings the imitation is
sometimes very close, as in the case of a panel with the Crucifixion in
the British Museum.^ Byzantine miniatures and ivory carvings continued
of great importance to the development of Northern art ; sometimes they
reached Germany indirectly, through the influence of the Southern French
sculpture which they had originally in-
[^IAIN&i6Aya«0P0YC spired, sometimes directly by the copying
of manuscripts and minor sculptures im-
ported from the East-Roman Empire. The
choir-sculptures in Bamberg Cathedral
present affinities to the reliefs of Moissac,
V^zelay, Toulouse, St. Julien de Joncy,
and Ste Croix at Bordeaux.^ German
Fig. 56. Monogram and inscrip- . . j. t> t j H/t • i,
tion in niello on a silver spoon of i^ory carvmgs now at Berlm and Munich,
the sixth century from Lampsacus. probably in like manner produced at
(British Museum.) P. 567. i, , . , . ., ^ , ,. ,.
Bamberg,* bear a similar relationship
to French sculpture, suggesting that French influence on German
plastic art may first have been exerted through the medium of
ivories. The current which flowed thus early into France probably
pursued its course almost immediately into Germany, and the reliefs at
Bamberg afford early evidence of its passage. Its effects continued for
many years, for the later Bamberg sculptures, and even those of Strasburg
Cathedral, show traces of the original Byzantine inspiration.^ A more
northern school of German sculpture reveals a similar influence of the
ivory carving. The figure of Our Lord on the tympanum of the Church
of St. Godehard at Hildesheim is so close to the style of tenth-century
Byzantine ivory reliefs as represented by an example in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, that a direct imitation of the type is almost certain."
For in the sculpture at Hildesheim there is a marked and very sudden
^ Or. Swarzenski, Die Segensburger Buchmalerei des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts, Leipsio, 1901.
2 Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era, 1909, No. 58.
= A. Weese, Die Bamberger Domskulpturen, 1897, and Der Dom zu Bamberg, 1898 ; Dehio,
Repertorium, xxii, 1899, p. 133 ; W. VOge, Sepertorium, xxii. 94 ff., and xxiv. 195 ff.
* V8ge, Bepertorium, xxii. 96.
" VOge, Repertorium, xxiv. 200. Cf. the ' Death of the Virgin ' at Strasburg with that of
a Byzantine ivory at Munich (Library, Cim. 58).
' A. Goldsohmidt, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxi, 1900, p. 233. For the ivory see W. Maskell,
Description of the Ivories, do., p. 110 ; H. Graeven, Elfenbeinuierke in photographischer Nachbildung,
Ser. 1, No. 61.
 GERMANY 97

advance in plastic skill within the short space of twenty years (a. d. 1190-
1210), a period too brief for any gradual evolution of indigenous art. It
is safe to conclude that the improvement is due to extraneous influence,
and that this influence was probably exerted through the agency of the
minor arts : as suggested elsewhere, the case is perhaps a parallel to that
of the Northumbrian sculpture of an earlier date (p. 238). The head of
Bishop Adelog in the cathedral crypt at Hildesheim also recalls the
modelling of a head of St. Stephen upon another Byzantine ivory at
South Kensington. At Halberstadt the drapery of the figures of apostles
in the choir suggests a Byzantine model.
It will be gathered from the above instances that, though they began
later, the effects of Eastern influence on German mediaeval art were hardly
less profound than in the case of France.

The British Isles.

The affinities between insular and continental types^ of weapons dating

from the remote Bronze Age indicate a connexion between Ireland and
Spain even at that period.^ In Roman times geographers regarded Ireland
as midway between Spain and Britain, a fact which proves continued
intercourse between Irish and Spanish ports. Although the island was
never conquered by Rome, the existence of Ogam stones, apparently earlier
in date than the fifth century, tends to prove that Latin must have been
known at that early time : the discovery of coins of the Republic and early
Empire may point to some intercourse with the Roman provinces.^ Tacitus
also notices the trade between the Empire and the island. The story of
St. Patrick shows that in the first part of the fifth century commercial
relations were still maintained : the saint escaped from his first captivity
in Ireland in a ship carrying the highly valued Celtic hounds to some port
north of the Loire or Garonne, possibly Bordeaux.^ Christianity had
reached Ireland before Patrick. The election of Palladius as bishop points
to the early existence of Christian communities. The Paschal system
which prevailed in Britain down to the seventh century was probably
introduced before Patrick's mission. The saint had sojourned at the half-
oriental monastery of Ldrins (see above, p. 88), and had been trained at
Auxerre ; * he used the Galilean liturgy, which differed from that of Rome
and was connected with liturgies of the East. The story of St. Patrick
shows us how intimate must have been the relation between the earliest
culture of Christian Ireland and the East. The fact explains the learning

^ Especially obvious in the bronze halberd-blades.

' For these facts see Prof. Bur/s Life of St. Patrick (1905), pp. 12, 185, 288, 312.
3 Bury, p. 340.
* Ibid., pp. 49, 152, 296. Patrick's visit to Rome dates from a. d. 441-3. He brought
back relics of St. Peter and St. Paul. The cult of relics steadily increased in importance
between the fourth and seventh centuries ; see H. Zimmer, Celtic Church, pp. 119 ff. ; and Vic-
tricius, Bishop of Kouen, in Migne, Patr. Lat., t. xx (Bury, p. 152).
98 THE WESTEEN WOELD

of the later Irish monks, which gives them such an honourable place in the
history of civilization in the dark ages.
No artistic remains of the first Christian centuries in Ireland have
survived : it is only from the seventh century at earliest that material
exists for the study of Celtic Christian art. This material confirms the
historical statements as to the connexion of the Irish Church with the
orientalized Gallican Church. The Irish illuminated MSS. contain seated
figures of Evangelists writing which can only have been derived from
East-Christian illuminated gospels of the sixth century, for such types
were unknown elsewhere, and no other Western region can well have

Fig. 57. David killing the bear : silver dish found near Kyrenia and now at Nicosia.

supplied the models. The earliest example of such a seated Evangelist

known to us is the St. Mark of the Codex Rossanensis (see Ch. VIII), and the
type is derived from pagan forms based in the first instance on Hellenistic
bas-reliefs. The figures of angels have probably the same origin ; in fact all
the scenes including human figures, however fantastic they maj'' sometimes
appear, are probably distorted versions of compositions first popularized in
the Christian East.^ Some of the subjects which occur upon the high
crosses and other monuments of the period from the tenth to the twelfth
centuries are probably late versions of such early introductions. Diminished
skill in figure-sculpture and successive copying have rendered the course
of their development obscure: sometimes we seem to trace motives
definitely suggested by Egyptian models.^ But in all this later work
a Scandinavian influence is apparent, and this intrusive force has modified
' The Durham Book (Lipdisfarne Gospels) in the British Museum affords a proof of the
oiiental origin of the Evangelist types, for the figures are accompanied by their names in Greek,
written in Latin character, 0 Agios Markos, &c. The book, though written at Liudisfarne, is
still Strongly under tl^e influence of the Irish school.
'' e.g. the representation of Christ with two wands, one over each shoulder, like Osiris
with his sceptres, a motive which reappears in the Alfred Jewel (fVoc. Soc. Ant, xx. 71).
 THE BEITISH ISLES 99

or replaced many elements of Southern or Eastern origin. As it was with

the figures so it was with the ornament. Although certain of the pagan
Celtic motives survived to a late date, the introduction of Christianity
brought an influx of designs previously unknown in the West of Europe ;
a number of these can be traced in the first instance to Syria and Egypt,
though they may often have been mediately derived from Rome and
Ravenna, themselves at this period outposts of oriental art (see pp. IT,
78). The interlaced and plaited designs are more probably reintroduc-

FiG. 58. David and the lion : silver dish of the sixth century from Cyprus.
(Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq.)

tions from these sources than deliberate imitations of the borders on local
Roman mosaic pavements. In Ireland they were certainly imported after
the Roman occupation of England had come to an end, and were ultimately
developed into intricate forms of knot-work.^ The fret-patterns, though
set out diagonally in a manner as yet without precedent in the East, came
in at the same time, and are foreign to the old Celtic art:^ the step-
patterns may possibly prove of like descent. Whether their origin is to be
' The late J. Komilly Allen traced the evolution of these designs in his Cellw Art in Britain.
Interlacings appear at an early date upon mosaic pavements, which perhaps were the first
works of industrial art to adopt them from textiles or basket-work. They appear in the
Hellenistic area, from which they were imported into Italy and thence into the Roman
provinces of the north and west. See also G. Coffey, Guide to the Celtic Antiquities of the Christian
Period, Royal Irish Academy Collection, Dublin, 1909, pp. 10 ff.
" The and
Palmyra fret,other
a veryEastern
old design (see We
sites. Ch. find
XIII'),tendencies
was popular
to in the first
incline the centuries of our
angles and era ina
to form
continuous pattern of several connected rows in the period from the fourth to the sixth cen-
tury. The Irish diagonal or 'skew' fret may possibly have been anticipated in the East
(Proc. Soc. Ant, xxii. 215).
100 THE WESTERN WOELD

sought in the angular motives of basket-work, or weaving, or cloisonne work

in gold, or whether^t is connected with the mural erenellations of Hither
Asia, which undoubtedly suggested the borders of mosaic pavements at
Pergamon and bands of crenellated ornament in other branches of art, they
also came into Ireland after the century of St. Patrick.^ The early Irish
metal-work employs the same designs as the MSS., and in some cases the
illuminators appear to have borrowed motives which originated in metal.^
With the sixth century the Irish monks had begun to carry their art into
the north of Britain. From their settlements in lona their influence
spread into Northumbria in the early seventh century, when Lindisfarne
was founded. In Northumbria, Celtic art met and fused with another art
probably originating in centres allied to those which had already modified
the designs of pagan Ireland.
The reputation of the Irish monasteries for scholarship stood exceedingly
high. Columba, born in West Leinster in A. D. 543, was educated in the
great monastery of Bangor in County Down, where we know that Latin
was studied and music assiduously practised. The story of his missionary
career, first in Britain, then in Gaul, finally in Italy, is the story of other
Irish missionaries who in the eighth and ninth centuries introduced the
elements of Irish art into the Teutonic kingdoms of Europe. The position
of Ireland as a seat of culture in the early Middle Ages is attested by the
career of Dagobert, son of Sigibert of Austrasia. In the middle of the
seventh century this prince of Austrasia was sent by Grimwald to an Irish
monastery, where he remained for seventeen years, returning at the end
of that time and enjoying a reign of five years' duration.*
Christianity had entered England and Scotland during the Roman
occupation, either by a gradual infiltration from Gaul and the lower
Rhine, or by direct missionary effort from the (Greek) churches at Lyon
and Vienne * Monuments of the occupation at this early time are not very
numerous. The small church discovered at Silchester ^ is remarkable as
being of a type which is not Italian, but oriental. The sacred mono-
gram, in forms used in the fourth and fifth centuries, occurs upon sepul-
chral stones,^ and it is to be noted that the form within a circle and
having the loop of the Rho turned outwards like an R, as seen in Scot-
land, is common in Ravenna, and has been found on slabs excavated by
the French expedition at Delphi.'' Christian symbols occur upon a few
objects of the minor arts of this early period found in Britain. But the

• Note the bands of inclined cienellation on the Pilastri Acritani at Venice. Also border
of mosaic in the house of the Consul Attalus at Pergamon (Mitth. k. deulsch. arch. Inst
Athens, 1907, xxxii, PI. 17).
^ J. M. Doran, Burlington Magazine, June 1908, p. 138.
' Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vii. 39.
' Warren, The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, holds the latter view. The former is
maintained by H. Zimmer, The Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland, p. 2 (1902).
^ Proc. Sor. Ant. xvii. 206.
^ J. Eomilly Allen, Early Christian Symbolism and Early Christian Monuments of Scotland.
' Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times, 2nd Ser., 1881, p. 274.
 101
THE BRITISH ISLES

traditions of provincial Roman art seem to have died out after the evacua-
tion of the country in the fifth century. It was not pagan Rome which
inspired the figure-art of the Anglian or the Saxon.
When we reach Anglo-Saxon times the intercourse between England,
France, and Italy was once more continuous, and the indications furnished
by the monuments are more precise. The royal houses of our island were
now allied by marriage to those of the Franks and Lombards. In the latter
part of the seventh century a Kentish princess was the queen of the

Fig. 59. Silver dish of the sixth century from Cyprus, with a scene from the Life of David.
(Collection of J. Pierpout Morgan, Esq.)

Lombard Cunincpert ; ' during the same period Balthildis, an Anglo-Saxon

princess, acted as regent for her son in Neustria.^ English pilgrims were
frequently in Rome, and among their number were Coinred, King of
Mercia, Offa, Prince of the East Saxons, and Ine, King of Wessex.^ In the
year A. d. 680, at a conference convened by Pope Agatho, Anglo-Saxon
delegates had joined in condemning Monothelitism.* From this time,
and through the eighth century, the English Church was influential
throughout Europe. It was the Church of Bede : it sent out the great
missionaries Willibrord, Winnifrith, and Boniface to evangelize the pagan
Teutons of Europe. The introduction of works of art from the South and
East began at an early date. The Gospels of Corpus Christi College, Cam-
bridge, evidently a primitive copy of an East-Christian model perhaps made in
Hodgkin, as above, vi, p. 305. ' Ibid., vii, p. 42.
» Ibid., vi, p. 322. * Ibid., vi, p. 344.
102 THE WESTERN WORLD

the South o£ Italy (Ch. VIII), may have been included among the numerous
books mentioned by Bede as sent from Rome to Augustine by Gregory
the Great : its antiquity is evident, and it was in the monastery of
St. Augustine at Canterbury between the years A. D. 844 and A. D. 949. But
in the earliest history of English Christian art under kings of Teutonic
blood Northumbria occupies the most important position. The conversion
of the country had been eflfected from two sources. On the one side was
the early Scoto-Irish Church and the British Church in Wales ; on the
other the Roman Church first represented by Augustine. In the latter
part of the seventh century the agreement was reached between the native

Fig. 60. The Anointing of David : silver dish of the sixth century from Cyprus.
(Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq.)

and the Roman Churches, and it is about this time that a great artistic
activity, especially marked by the erection of churches in stone, began in
the North of England.^ The famous names connected with this artistic
revival are those of Wilfrid of Hexham and Benedict Biscop of Jarrow,
both frequent visitors to Gaul and Italy, and importers of foreign work-
men and foreign works of art. Eddius relates that Wilfrid introduced
masons (caementarios) into Northumberland ; Bede, writing in the eighth
century, states that Benedict brought masons from Gaul to build him
a stone church ' in the Roman style '.^ With the introduction of an
' For what follows the reader should consult the article on this early English sculpture
by Messrs, Prior and Gardner in the Architectural Review, xii, 1902 ; also the same authors'
work on English sculpture, now in the press.
'' Bede's Life of Benedict Biscop, in his Historia Ahbatum Wiremuthensium, will be found in
Migne, xciv. 713 ; the section about Benedict's artistic activity may be consulted in J. von
Schlosser, Quellenbuch zur Kunstgeschichte des abendliindischen Mitteldlters, where references to
writers on early history of art are given.
 THE BEITISH ISLES 103

ecclesiastical architecture in stone there suddenly appears a stone sculpture

of a quality never before equalled in England, and destined to remain
unsurpassed for several centuries. The Bewcastle Cross, set up as its
runic inscription seems to show ' in the first year of Ecgfrith ', and thus
dated to A. D. 670, has a figure of Our Lord standing upon the lion and
dragon, of peculiar dignity and modelled with a skill which astonishes when
it is remembered that at the close of the seventh century monumental
sculpture of any merit at all had almost entirely disappeared throughout
the whole of Europe and the Byzantine Empire (see p. 110). The Ruthwell
Cross,^ dating from much the same time, has another fine figure of Our
Lord standing with a book in his left hand and raising the right in the
gesture of benediction, together with other subjects all plastically conceived
and far above the standard of a barbaric art. Fragments found near the
site of Wilfrid's and Benedict's churches at Hexham and at Jarrow
exhibit the same advanced style. Of these the Cross of Acca, Bishop of
Hexham (d. a. d. 740), the greater part of which is now in the Cathedral
Library at Durham, is remarkable, though without figure subjects ; ^ another
example is a curious carved stone now in the Abbey Church at Hexham, with
the lower part of a nude human figure among vine foliage, the treatment of
the limbs showing a considerable knowledge of modelling. Reasons are
advanced elsewhere (p. 236) for the belief that this really remarkable
sculpture, which decayed almost as suddenly as it arose, must have been
inspired from foreign (East-Christian) sources. Its appearance is probably
to be explained in a similar way to that of the later sculpture at Hildesheim
(p. 96), though the links in the chain of evidence are here by no means so
complete.
The minor arts of Northumbria furnish interesting confirmation of this
view. It is probable that the 'Franks casket' derives some of its subjects either
from illustrations in a manuscript ' Chronicle of the world ', of a type first
circulated from Alexandria at the beginning of the fifth century (Ch. VIII),
or from reproductions of these subjects in wood or ivory.^ These chronicles
contained just such secular subjects as the suckling of Romulus and Remus
and the capture of Jerusalem, which we find upon the casket intermingled
with episodes from northern legendary cycles. English travellers and
pilgrims, often ecclesiastics of wealth and standing like Benedict Biscop
himself, may well have brought back ivories or even wooden cofiers in
addition to MSS., and to the figured silk textiles of which we have record.

1 J. Komilly Allen, The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland, pp. 442 ff., and J. Anderson's
Introduction, p. xxx. The fragments from Hoddam in the Edinburgh Museum exhibit the
same qualities as the figures upon the two great crosses, and must be the work of the same
school (ibid., p. 440).
' Haverfield and Greenwell, Catalogue of the Sculptured and Inscribed Stones in the Cathedral
Library at Durham, 1899, pp. 53 if. The cross at Hilton of CadboU has foliage containing
birds.
' British Museum, Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, 'So. SO ; J. Stvzygov/ski, Das orientalische Italien,
like thatthat
coffer,suggests
the casket carvers may-
the Cathedral
The flat
p. 18.worked
have technique
either and apoor
direct from or from a ofwooden
MS. modelling in the of
Terracirta. but with historical subjects instead of merely animals.
104 THE WESTEEN WOELD

The Greek workmen whom these great ecclesiastics employed may have
either had ivories in their own possession or have been supplied with them
by their patrons. If so, the ivories must have been of fine quality, worthy
to rank with the panels of the Eavenna chair.
Between the first half of the eighth century and the second half of the
tenth, that is to say for a period of more than two hundred years, the
power of rendering the human figure with truth and dignity was almost
entirely lost. The Scandinavian raids unsettled the country; elements of
Norse ornamental art found their way into North Britain and Ireland,
fusing with pre-existing motives, until by the beginning of the eleventh

Fig. 61. David before Saul : silver dish of the sixth century from Cyprus.
(Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq.)

century the highly decorative art of the later high crosses had been
evolved. With that art we are not here concerned, for the Christian East
exerted no further influence upon its development. But the Anglo-Saxon
Kenaissance in the South of England, which placed the art of Wessex on
a level with that of any country in contemporary Europe, claims our most
careful attention, though it must at once be said that a direct Byzantine
influence is not easy to trace either in the numerous illuminated MSS.
of the Winchester school, or in the rarer examples of Saxon sculpture still
preserved. In these we once more discover work of a quality unsurpassed
for about two hundred years. The sculptors exhibit a capacity for modelling
which is in advance of that shown by their successors in the Norman period ;
they can execute figures in three-quarter profile, and can lend lively ex-
pression tothe faces. Their monumental work is represented by the large
stone roods at Romsey, Hedbourne Worthy, and Little Langford, with the
 THE BRITISH ISLES 105

two angels now set over the chancel arch at Bradford-on-Avon.i If the
two large reliefs now in Chichester Cathedral are of this period, we must
add to the talents of these Saxon sculptors real power in the expression of
emotion and a dramatic conception of traditional subjects.^ The rood at
Romsey is not unlike a Byzantine Christ of the tenth or eleventh century,
as represented upon ivory carvings of that period; but the Chichester
work is animated by another spirit, it has almost the realism of South-
German art in the fifteenth century. Sculpture upon a small scale is well
represented by a few ivory carvings of great interest, chiefly in the British
andthe Victoria and Albert Museums. The figures upon the handle of the
seal of ^Ifric are finely modelled ; ^ so are those upon the beautiful tau-

Fis. 62. David receiving Samuel's message ; silver dishes of the sixth century found in
Cyprus, now at Nicosia.

cross from Alcester : * the carvers who produced this work were sculptors
with a true conception of form and movement. The large panel at South
Kensington with the Adoration of the Magi is in a more ornate and con-
ventional style ; the proportions are unduly elongated and the expressions
monotonous, the whole having in it something which suggests the art of
the early tympana at Moissac and Vdzelay.
The fine quality of this Wessex sculpture and its apparently sudden
rise are probably due to the same causes which encouraged the rapid
growth of the art in Northumbria and Northern Germany (pp. 93, 102). In
the present case, however, much of the inspiration may have been derived
1 AH reproduced by Messrs. Prior and Gardner, Architectural Renew, as above, pp. 14-15.
^ Mr. Prior accepts these reliefs as Saxon, and thinks that they may have been brought
not from the Cathedral of Selsey but from the S.ixon Church of St. Peter at Chichester.
Others are disposed to place them later, perhaps even as late as the twellth century. As
Mr. Prior points out, however, the architecture is exactly that of early eleventh-century
miniatures, while the figures have more movement and the iaces more liveliness of expression
than any of those which can be ascribed to the twelfth century.
' British Museum, Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, No. 31.
< Ibid., No. 32.
106 THE WESTERN WORLD

in the first instance from France, Germany, and Italy, and the Eastern
influence may thus have been indirectly exerted. It was not so much
contemporary Byzantine work which furnished our artists with models,
though in the eleventh century a few ivory carvings may well have been
imported into England ; the reflection of the East-Christian art of the sixth
century reached them especially through Carolingian illuminated books.
It has been remarked that it is difficult to trace direct Byzantine influence
upon the Anglo-Saxon schools:
the most remarkable of these,
that of Winchester, exhibits
much originality.

the In
timethethegoldsmith's workmayof
threads which
connect Saxon art with the East
are equally difficult to detect.
English craftsmen retained under
Christianity the skill in which
their pagan ancestors had ex-
celled. The gold rings of kings
and princesses, the enamelled
Alfred Jewel, survive to prove
their capacity : the work is in
one sense wholly English, but in
the models and perhaps in some
of the processes we may suspect
the influence of a foreign art.^
The reputation of Saxon work-
men was appreciated abroad no
less than at home, and several
references to metal- work made
by our countrymen occur in the
pages of the Liber Pontificalis.
Fro. 63. Carolingian silver bowl, repiodueing The popeS frequently ordered
early East-Christian motives. (British Museum.) objects in metal from OUr shoreS,
especially lamps in silver and bronze.^ Some are stated to have been
ornamented with lions, gryphons, and ' serpents ',^ which suggests that

' The formal foliage and conventional tree-forms upon some of this goldsmith's work
suggest the conventional ' sacred trees ' of Persia as seen upon the early textiles. They occur
on a background of niello upon a sword of the early tenth century found at Wallingford
{Victoria County History, Berkshire, vol. i, p. 243 ; Archaeologia, 1, PI. XXVIII), and upon the gold
ring of Ethelwulf in the British Museum. Cf. also a piece of silver in the Cuerdale hoard
(Arch. Journal, iv. 190, Pig. ()0). The design on the back of the Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean
Museum is also of oriental derivation (Proa. Soc. Ant. London, xx. 71).
" The extracts from the Liber Pontiflcalis are given by S. Beissel in Zeitschrift fiXr chrisfliche
Kunst, ix, 1896, p. 364. Gabatae Saxiscae are mentioned several times (Liber Pont., Duchesne's
edition, ii. 36, n. 27; i. 417 (Gregory III, n. 7); ii. 79, n. 26 (Gregory IV); ii. 120 (Leo IV);
ii. 145, n. 24 (Benedict III) ; ii, 153 ; ii. 74).
' ' Storiam leonis, diversas istorias serpentorum,' &c.
 THE BRITISH ISLES 107

oriental textiles had found their way to England, and furnished our crafts-
men with new designs. It might be argued that these 'Saxon' objects
acquired by the popes were really of German rather than English origin
were it not distinctly recorded that Egbert, on his visit to Kome in the
middle of the ninth century, brought with him costly gifts for the Church
of St. Peter, among which four gilded silver lamps of ' Saxon work ' are
especially mentioned. In connexion with surviving examples of Anglo-
Saxon niello it should be noted that several of these Anglo-Saxon works
of art are described as inlaid with that substance.^ For enamels and niello
see below, Ch. VIII.

• The silver nielloed bowl in the British Museum (Fig. 63) may conceivably be an
example of this English work, though the style of its ornament connects it rather with tlie
Frankish Empire (Anhaeologia, Ixi. 357). Strzygowski {B. Z., xix. 665) suggests a Persian
origin for this, arguing from the analogies which the ornament presents to that of Sassanian
silver. (Cf. J. Smirnoff, Oriental Silver, PI. LXI, LXIX.) Though actual examples of Caro-
lingian silver are far to seek, the resemblances to Prankish ornament are very striking, and
the form of the bowl is one known in England and Scandinavia in Viking times. Oriental
motives are common in Prankish decorative art, so that a general similarity to Sassanian
work is easily explained.
 Fig. 64. Illuminated head-piece from a Gospel of the eleventh century in the British
Museum, showing conventionalized vine-ornament.

CHAPTEE III

SCULPTURE
1. Inteoductoey Remarks.

The glyptic art had begun to degenerate throughout the Roman Empire
long before the foundation of Constantinople, and the establishment of the
imperial city did little to arrest its decay. The new metropolis enjoyed
exceptional opportunities which might almost have led to a revival. The
talent of the Eastern provinces was attracted within her walls ; she
possessed among her treasures famous works of the Hellenic masters. But
neither the Greek nor the Syrian artist of the fourth century could draw
from the statues of Pheidias or Lysippus the inspiration which the Italian
of the earliest Renaissance derived from mediocre works of the Graeco-
Roman period. The causes of this disparity in achievement are not very far
to seek. To an instinctive appreciation of beauty in form the Italians added
a new joy in life and a new intellectual freedom. The impulse to create
was in them ; their imagination was breaking free from ancient fetters.
They lived in independent states, each with a character and environment
of its own, where personality had scope for development, and prescription
 INTEODUCTORY EEMAEKS 109

was no longer accepted without criticism ; they were thus so well prepared
for a new illumination that even the inferior models yielded by the soil
of their country sufficed to kindle the creative fire. It would be hard to
say what might have happened if, instead of their actual models, they had

Fia. 65. Kairos : limestone relief of the fourth century in the Cairo Museum.
(^Catalogue general : KopHsche Kunst, No. 8757.) P. 158.

disinterred such works as the Athena Parthenos of Pheidias or the Hermes

of Praxiteles ; if, in place of Eoman reliefs, they could have studied the
firstfruits of the archaic Greek period or the masculine art of Polyclitus.
But the sculptor of the Christian East was without the peculiar advantages
of the Hellene and the Italian. He was not a member of a small state
110 SCULPTUEE

governed by men enthusiastic for the arts; his country was incorporated in
a uniform political system less favourable to the rise of original genius.
The genius of the Empire was bureaucratic ; in proportion as the frontiers
receded the tendency to centralization increased. The conditions which
gave individuality to the Italian commune, to the ancient Greek city, or
even to the German Kleinstadt of the type of Weimar, were here con-
spicuously wanting. And throughout the whole dominion the imagination
of the artist was seldom suffered to range at will, but often held under the
control of a Church which prescribed what subjects might be represented
and what treatment each must receive.
These psychological and political causes would in themselves have
sufficed to make a Renaissance difficult ; but there was another in reserve
which seemed to render it impossible. P'rom the very reign of Constantine
the Non-Christian East bore hard upon all the Eastern provinces ; not the
East which our times have known, dispirited and misruled ; but an Orient
at all times formidable, and represented by powerful and militant states.
The whole feeling of this East ■'- was against the sculpture which renders
the human form with delicate gradations of relief; it preferred an art
confined to ornament and working by strong contrast of light and shade.
It thus compelled the sculptor to produce silhouettes and to elaborate
pattern ; it had scant appreciation of skilful modelling. Even before the
rise of Islam these ideas had encroached upon the Hellenistic world,
driving back the Greek influence which in old days had spread inland from
the Ionic colonies, and at a later period followed Alexander to the banks
of the Indus. In the course of the third century they reached Rome and
affected the later reliefs on the Arch of Constantine. By the sixth century
of our era the art of Scopas and Praxiteles, so long traditionally honoured
in Asia Minor, had ceased to be the equal companion of architecture ; it
sank into a dependent place as the craft of decorators and monumental
masons.
The aversion of the oriental from the plastic representation of the
human form was a fatal hindrance to the sculptor's art in an empire so
largely orientalized as that of Byzantium. It was no longer possible to
study the nude as the Greeks had studied it. Almost the only figures
which were permitted or profitable in representation were clad persons
from sacred story, members of the imperial family, or high oiBcials,
some of whom wore forgotten costumes only known from copies, others
garments without the Hellenic charm, voluminous, half-Eastern robes, often
stiff with embroidery and pearls. Under such conditions as these the
greater sculpture which depends upon the living model could not but decay.
It was indeed time for it to abdicate, and abandon a position which could
no longer be honourably maintained ; it was better that in the Christian
East the glory of the representative arts should be upheld by the worker in

' For the sense in which the phrase The East is used in this book see Introduction, pp. 59 ff .
 INTEODUCTOEY EEMAEKS 111

mosaic, of whose craft an advanced convention was a natural and proper

attribute. It was more fitting that monumental figure-sculpture should
disappear than that it should protract a miserable existence under con-
ditions inimical to a healthy growth.
The sculpture of the Christian East was the direct descendant of the
latest Hellenistic sculpture as practised both in and beyond Italy during
the first two centuries of our era under the aegis of imperial Rome.^ There
is no breach of continuity between the pagan and the Christian art ; the
principles remained unaltered, the subjects were gradually modified : it was
at first an iconographical rather than an artistic change. Many pagan
motives were tolerated by Christians, who interpreted them in a new
symbolic sense : the examples of Cupid and Psyche and of Orpheus will
naturally recur to the memory. By degrees, designs of a definitely Christian
character were substituted for these ' neutral ' subjects, until in the advanced
fourth century they everywhere became predominant. Under such cir-
cumstances itwas inevitable that the theory and practice of the pagan
workshop should have been inherited without essential alteration. We
therefore find Christian sculpture accepting the Graeco-Roman idea of
background as penetrable space, instead of conceiving it as an impenetrable
plane of vision in the manner of earlier Greek art ; we find it even attempt-
ing to renew the perspectival effects which had distinguished the reliefs
of the Trajanic period. We see this in the ivory diptych of Rufius Pro-
bianus (p. 191) and on the embossed silver box from S. Nazaro at Milan.
The most important and most durable influence which was to affect the
evolution of sculpture for many centuries was one which had begun to
make itself felt in Roman art from the time of Septimius Severus. It
was an influence which originated in the East.
Eastern taste was indifferent to the delicate effects produced by
almost imperceptible transition between plane and plane. The oriental
preferred a single plane in a single light upon a single ground of darkness.
The procedure which found favour in his sight was to cut the background
deeply away, so that the design stood out light upon dark space, the result
in either case being really a pattern of rhythmic alternation. The delicate
play of light and shade at which fine modelling aims was sacrificed to mere
contrast of . colour : the effect was no longer sculptural but coloristie ;
the method was optical and independent of inference from touch. The
contrast of black and white is so decided that the eye sees nothing beyond
the contour of light masses on dark ground ; though the position of the
colours is reversed, it is the principle of the maker of silhouettes, of the
damascener, and the worker in intarsia. This oriental method had indeed
been essayed in a purely experimental manner and for a particular purpose
by Greek sculptors before the rise of Rome. In the pediment of the
treasury of the Caidians at Delphi the background behind the upper part

1 See also the remarks below, p. 133, in the section on the Christian sarcophagi at Rome
and Aries.
112 SCULPTURE

of the figures is deeply cut away, so that they emerge against a depth of
blackness : moreover, a point to be particularly noticed, the front surface
of the figures is nearly flat. Perhaps the logical Greek mind was quick to
perceive the consequences of such a device, and for this reason did not

Fia. 66. The Annunciation : end of the Pignatta Sarcophagus at Ravenna. (Kicei.) P. 137.

repeat the experiment. For in the perfect coloristie design, the pattern
must be brought forward to a single plane as near as possible to the eye of
the spectator, so that every part of its surface may be equally illuminated ;
only by this means can the utmost contrast be maintained throughout the
whole composition. This plan is eflfective enough in the case of conventional
ornament; it succeeds to perfection in such sculptures as the fajade of
Mshatta, now at Berlin; but it has a very different effect upon human
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 113

forms, especially when grouped together. It compels the perfect align-

ment of all the figures in the foreground, as if on a sunny day they were
drawn up across the mouth of a cavern. In other words, it means the
reinstatement of ' frontality ' and the abandonment of foreshortening.
There is no subtlety of gradation : the transition from one plane to another
is rapid and abrupt. A sculpture conforming to these coloristic require-
ments is compelled to retrace the path towards a primitive art. The
insistence on a single plane has the same result as the desire of the
primitive mind for the most extended and conspicuous surfaces of the things
to be depicted, those surfaces which crowd all others out of the memory-
picture upon which it depends.^
The coloristic method has another inevitable consequence. In Greek
reliefs the plane of the background connects each figure with that nearest
to it, joining the two in the unity of a single organic whole. But when
the background is cut out of sight, or treated as if it did not exist, the
bond of union is broken ; the figures stand'in what Riegl has called cubic
isolation : the sense of solidity and cohesion is lost. This would be of less
moment if the sculptor confined himself to single figures emerging as it
were from a matrix of darkness. But when a group is represented the
psychological connexion between its members is sacrificed, and the com-
position isresolved into detached units. When a subject is to be conceived
as a whole, the emotional and psychic unity must be visibly and materially
suggested; but by the coloristic method it is visibly denied. The figures
aligned at the cave's mouth are there by compulsion, not because each
is playing a voluntary part in a common action. They are mere numbers,
any one of which may be withdrawn without essential loss. But when
groups are habitually rendered by this frontal method of isolation even
the artist himself is apt to forget the dramatic significance of his subject.
It is without emotional suggestion; it ceases to be interesting, sinking
to the level of a decorative design. In ceremonial and religious subjects,
where there is no lively action, where the detachment of figure from figure
has a certain propriety, where a symmetrical treatment is often congruous
with the scene depicted, the new style has its own effectiveness. In scenes
involving violent movement and concerted action, on the other hand, it is
necessarily unsuccessful : it destroys the common emotional motive which
gives such compositions their life and interest. This point is well illus-
trated bythe friezes upon the Arch of Constantine (p. 142). Those which
represent the battles of the Milvian bridge and of Verona fail in their
appeal : compared with the spirited combats of earlier Roman reliefs, they
are engagements of disconnected units ; there is no interlocking of strained
' It is unnecessary to enter into any long explanation of the psychological basis of primi-
tive and archaic art now that Prof. Loewy's essay on The Bendering of Nature in Early Greek Art
is available in Mr. J. Fothergill's excellent translation (Duokv^orth, 1907). A definition of
' frontality ' , a conspicuous feature in primitive art, will be found on p. 45 : ' An imaginary
plane taken through the top of the head, nose, backbone, breastbone, navel, and crotch, so as
to divide the body into two symmetrical halves, remains always unchanged, without bending
or turning in any direction.'
114 SCULPTUEE

limbs, no fury and wrath of battle. With the other two reliefs, which
represent the emperor speaking on the rostra and presiding at the
Congiarium, the effect produced is far more satisfactory. The isolation
of the figures befits the leisured ceremonial action; the detachment of
the central figure enhances the might and majesty of the imperial office.
The transition from such scenes to those of Christian import is a natural

Fig. 67. Impost capital of the sixth century ; S. Vitale, Eavenna. (Rieci.) P. 176.

one ; had the sculpture of the fourth century been endowed with vitality
and endurance it might have travelled far upon the lines thus indicated ;
it might have achieved those purposed triumphs at which Riegl believed
it to have aimed.^ But the tendencies which the new method represented
were decorative tendencies ; and in a world in which a Semitic aversion
from figare-art grew more and more powerful the glyptic art was condemned
to become an art of ornament.

' Mrs. Strong's discussion of the Constantiniau period (iJoman Sculpture, ch. xiv) is an
admirable account of the aesthetic and psychological effects of the ooloristic method on figure
sculpture, an account doubly valuable inasmuch as it gives in a lucid form the substance so
hard to extract from the intricate style of Riegl.
 115
INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS

A short digression may perhaps be here permitted in order to recall

the affinities which exist between the figure sculpture of the fourth century
and that Indian sculpture which relied in great measure upon similar
principles. In the reliefs from Gandhara and Amaravati (second-fourth
centuries a.d.), which are well represented in the British Museum, the
influence of the coloristic principle is apparent. Here too there is an
evident effort to bring all the figures into one plane, whatever may be
their spatial relation to each other or their psychological relation to the
action represented, though the reduction to a single plane is not absolute.
The artists, intent upon the contrast of light and dark, ignore the method

Fig. 68. Marble capital of the sixth century in the Cairo Museum.
{Catalogue general : KopUsche Kunst, No. 7352.)

of creating spatial illusion through perspective and a gradually diminishing

relief. Instead of perspective they employ the primitive device of super-
position ;and though they somewhat reduce the proportions of the upper
figures, the diminution is insufficient, and is carried out without system.
Yet they give these superposed subsidiary figures an intimate share in
the action by making them crane forward out of the background like
mediaeval angels issuing from the clouds. The bodies are set at an angle;
it is as if they were intended to be regarded from below, like reliefs
designed for a higher position, in a temple or in the pendentive of a dome.
This device, logical or not, certainly adds to the liveliness of the composi-
tion, and its unnatural character is half concealed by the general crowding
of the figures. The excessive consideration for the optical principle was
not adopted in the early work executed i2 in India under Perso-Hellenic
116 SCULPTUEE

influence before the Christian era: it seems to come in with the art
of Gandhara, which sought its models at an already contaminated source,
perhaps in Syria or Anatolia. This suggests the conclusion that coloristic
treatment, in its uncompromising form, originated not in the Further but
in the Nearer East, perhaps in Mesopotamia, where, as we learn from the
decoration of the Mshatta fa9ade, the system must have been early developed.
The oldest stone sculpture of China, that of the tombs in Shantung (third

Fig. 69. Marble capital of the fourth-fifth century in the Cairo Museum.
(Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7350.) P. 172.

century B.C.), is in very low relief without violent contrasting shadow,

and is based upon a diflferent principle.
There are certain stages which an art must pass alike on its upward
and its downward path : in a decadent age we meet with work of a
technical imperfection, recalling the effort of a young age rich in promise.
In certain Byzantine reliefs, for example, we find methods employed which
remind us of expedients adopted by archaic Greek art or that of the early
Komanesque period. The men who made them had reached on the
downward path a point level with that long ago attained by others upon
their ascent. Thus in some of the late sarcophagi at Ravenna the folds
of drapery are no longer modelled, but rendered by a series of incised
 INTEODUCTORY RE.MAEKS 117

lines cut upon a flat surface; the drapery itself envelops or disguises
the figure beneath it instead of harmonizing with its structure. Similar
methods had been practised centuries earlier by the sculptors who made
the seated figures at Branchidae, the early statues found at Delos, and
other archaic figures. The folds of the garments are 'indicated by mere
furrows instead of being modelled in relief, and there is a want of har-
monious adaptation to the underlying figure. There is no skilful transition
from one plane to another ; the eyes stare ; the faces are broad and heavy.
The hair, too, is rendered in a conventional fashion by parallel grooves,
through the incapacity of the artist to represent it in a natural manner.
All these features find parallels in reliefs from Ravenna and other places
which we shall have occasion to mention below. But in spite of the
similar technical incapacity the total eflect produced is different. The
archaic art, whether Greek or Hindu or early mediaeval, is informed with
a sincere and eager spirit; it is always groping after an ideal of which
it is half conscious ; it is for ever learning, selecting, and rejecting, struggling
by original effort towards some final canon of excellence. The degenerate
art, on the contrary, is for ever forgetting and unlearning ; it abides by
traditional types and arrangements the spirit of which it does not
comprehend ; it degrades them by successive copying into lifeless cari-
catures of the forgotten model. Instead of confidence, eagerness, and
sincerity, we find diffidence, apathy, and the scamping hand. We stand
below the level even of the negligent production which in a fairly good
period supplies a popular demand. Some of the more careless reliefs
upon the Attic stelae of the fourth century b.c. are hardly superior in
execution to those of Christian sarcophagi dating from about nine hundred
years later. They, too, resort to the time-saving of the harassed craftsman
working to supply an impatient market ; yet even in the worst of them
there is a suggestion of latent power, capable under more favourable
conditions of producing fine results. In some of the free sculpture at
Rome, dating from about the time of Constantine, the abandonment of
gradations in relief and the adoption of a stiff" frontal pose are not incon-
sistent with a monumental simplicity, one in kind with that of the
impressive Romanesque statues of the Middle Ages. But these are works
without immediate successors ; in the period of decadence which followed,
their greater qualities were lost, their defects were alone retained.
For the above reasons, figure sculpture upon a large scale, which had
begun to decline in the fourth century, was moving to its extinction in the
fifth : the age of Justinian produced it by exception ; in the time of Heraclius
it may be said to have existed no longer. After the seventh century and
iconoclasm it survived only in miniature, restricted to the compass of the
ivory carving or other small relief. In this form it continued to be influenced
by antique glyptic art, for when a model for the human figure was
required it was sought among works of Hellenistic origin. The diptych
of the Symmachi and Nicomachi perhaps occupies an exceptional place
118 SCULPTUEE

(p. 190) ; but the figures on the front of Maximianus' chair are still
eloquent of a good tradition : in both cases the original was a plastic
work of a period already remote. After the iconoclastic disturbance,
sculpture in the round was practically extinct and the sources of imitation
were largely changed. With the Macedonian Renaissance, carving in ivory
received a new impetus and attained qualities of a very high order ; but
they are no longer the qualities of earlier times. The reflection of a monu-
mental style, as we still see it on the archangel of the British Museum
(Fig. 200) or the diptych of Probus at Aosta, has vanished never to return.
The plastic sense had grown weak ; the dignity of the statue was no
longer fully understood. The artist still sought his inspiration among
works of antiquity, but the models were more frequently derived from
painting than from statues or reliefs. The most conspicuous examples of
this diminutive sculpture in ivory are mentioned below (Ch. TV) : here it
must suffice to indicate the sources from which the more skilful carvers
derived their delicate and charming forms. Only in one instance is an
antique statue the indirect source of inspiration ; in other cases Roman
silver plate may have been imitated ; but as a rule it was from painting
that this minor sculpture chiefly derived the half-classical character which
preserves it upon so respectable a level. Like the work of the illuminator
which provided it with so many subjects, it is an art of illustration, not
passing beyond expressiveness ; it achieves grace often and dignity not
seldom ; it fails in the suggestion of life and vigour. Yet the ivory
carvers, thrown back upon classical or sub-classical models, retained in
a creditable degree the love of modelling and the feeling for the finer play
of light and shade : their subservient but always pleasing art renewed the
Greek plastic tradition which the irruption of the coloristic principle had
threatened to destroy. When it is considered under what a disadvantage
they laboured, compared with their rivals of thirteenth-century France,
their achievement is in every sense remarkable. There were no imagiers
to make every great church a school for sculptors ; the influence of a creative
spirit was not abroad in their land. They were hardly to blame if the
divorce from nature and the too intimate dependence upon pictorial art
afiected their most finished types with a certain taint of mannerism. The
great fault of Byzantine painting is its failure to render life ; for lack of
observation of the living model the drawing is sometimes incorrect ; an ex-
pressive face is thrown away upon a body which is not animated by an
individual spirit. The same weakness is found in glyptic art. In almost
any period of Hellenic sculpture the body alone suffices to convey the
artist's meaning: the head may be mutilated or lost, but the intention
cannot be misconstrued. But here it is not possible to be sure of the
artist's intention without knowing the iconographical type in advance : it
is not the limbs that speak, but the iconographic rule. Too often the art
betrays itself as a pensioner of antiquity, living upon traditional types, but
types originally so good that even in their latest expression they retain
 INTRODUCTOEY EEMAEKS 119

something of their primitive charm. The same defects which detract from
the merit of the Byzantine miniature are necessai-ily apparent in the reliefs
which the miniature helped to inspire.
Some errors these ivory carvers avoided, in spite of the temptations to
which pictorial models exposed them. They usually preserved a simple
background, escaping the fate of their fellow craftsmen in Europe during
the seventeenth century, when the ambition to rival the painter in perspec-
tival effects produced reliefs which lack the simple and essential qualities
of sculpture. To the last the Byzantine artist gives his figures their due
salience and does not confuse their contours among the intricate lines of

Fm. 70. Our Lord and Apostles : Sarcophagus in S. Francesco, Kavenna. (Eicci.) P. 137.

a pictorial setting. The persistence of this quality down to the thirteenth

century results from the conservative tendencies in Byzantine painting.
The illuminators of MSS. in the middle period were themselves continually
copying Hellenistic models or early imitations of them, so that a Psalter
belonging to the tenth century may bear the most obvious traces of descent
from a work executed in the fourth. The ivory carvers, who depended so
much upon the illuminators, were naturally affected by the same preserva-
tive and salutary relation. The influence of these minute reliefs in ivory
upon the nascent sculpture of France, Germany, and England is noticed in
other sections (pp. 90, 96, 103, 236). A minor art has rarely won for itself
so honourable a place in the general history of artistic development as the
ivory carving of the Byzantine Empire ; it is the irony of fate that this
refined art contributed to the rise of a greater sculpture in almost every
country but its own. Down to the thirteenth century, when the example of
Western countries led to the reintroduction of figure reliefs, as at Kahri^
Djami and in the Balkan peninsula (pp. 162-3), the great style lived only in
architecture, in mosaic and in fresco. Sculpture was reduced to the position
120 SCULPTURE

which it held in Western Europe during the Carolingian period, in the

representation of the human figure a minor art, in decoration the hand-
maid of architecture.
These introductory remarks may be concluded by a short reference to
two points as yet unmentioned— the distribution of figure sculpture in the
Christian East, and the use of colour to enhance its efifect. It seems
"--
probable that the greater centres of the sculptor's activity were in-Asia
^
Minor, where Hellenistic tradition was strongest, where the neighbourhood
of the capital and of the marble quarries of Proconnesus encouraged the
'■;

i*™the
practice of a monumental art (p. 49). It will be seen that several--of

Wk 1
y.

1
WHttttM^^OBB^^r!^^- p3GL-x=:-~--5::-". - - ■ ■

- <-^ ~
) - - . x: V .t . .» ^■^^jSfUiS ■',•'- -i- ., ■-• .■'■■
tat*. j**i"' ■y
■:-s~-*» --' — -'"^Ws^mTs^-^mmjm .s«-- 5^^iw^WSS8HKiM»i(5'iiy,3C
Z"^
IlilHIIiiiiii^H ■K^

Fig. 71. Our Lord and Apostles : Sarcophagus of Liberius in S. Francesco, Kavenna.
(Rieci.) P. 137.

more interesting remains have actually been discovered on Anatolian soil ; '^
it may well be that extended discoveries will provide further evidence in
favour of a conclusion already plausible on general grounds of inference.
Apart from Antioch, which in great measure shared the Hellenism of the
Anatolian Greek cities, Syria for the most part contented herself with
decorative designs. The greater sculpture of Antioch is lost ; that of inner
Syria may have suffered from Arab iconoclasm in the seventh century, but
what remains is not of a quality to encourage high expectations with regard
to Syrian plastic art as a whole.^ That art is best represented by the
mouldings and carved ornament enriching the ruins of churches and private
dwellings in the ruined cities of the interior. In the fourth century Egypt,
under the influence of Hellenistic Alexandria, produced remarkable work,

^ To the examples discussed below we may add the St. Michael from the church of
Aladja in Lycia (,Texier nnd Pullaii, Bys. Arch., p. 184 ; Bayet, Recherches, pp. 110-11), and
fragments reported from Corycus and Annzarbus in Cilicia {Rer. arch., 1855, p. 129- 1856
p. 365 ; De Laborde, Voyage d^Asie Mineure, i, PI. 63).
' Cf. the rudely carved lintels at Khanasir and ZeVjed, in which the Virgin and Child in
medallions are flanked by hovering angels (H. Crosby Butler, Architecture and other Arts
{American Archaeological, Expedition to Syria, 1899-1900), p. 808, New York, 1904) ■ sepulchral
relief with an eagle at Dana (Christian?), v. Chapot, B. C fl., 1902, p. 175. '
 INTEODUCTOEY EEMAEKS 121

much of it in porphyry (p. 125), but the decay of Greek influence in the
country was followed by a rapid deterioration in sculpture. A definitive
attribution of the Sidamara group of sarcophagi (p. 128) to Anatolia would
further strengthen the claims of that province and provide a direct link
between Hellenistic and Christian sculpture on Anatolian soil. The extent
to which colour may have been employed in late Hellenic and East-Christian
sculpture is still somewhat uncertain.^ The museum at Broussa possesses
a polychrome marble bust of a man in high relief, from Cyzicus, ascribed
to the third century.^ The colours, now faded, must at one time have been
brilliant. The background is black, the face and neck are now of a
yellowish tint relieved with touches of pink, the lips are red, the eyes
picked out with brown and black, the hair brown, the mantle reddish
brown. The whole is a work of almost startling realism. One thinks of
the polychrome portrait busts of the fifteenth century, of which Donatello's
Niccolo da Uzzano is the supreme example.
The stucco reliefs in the Orthodox Baptistery at Ravenna were coloured
(p. 151); wooden statues appear to have been gilded (p. 125), and it may
further be noted that gilding was applied to the reliefs at Gandhara"
probably executed, as stated, under late Hellenistic influence from Syria or
Asia Minor. Byzantine ivory carvings, like those of Western Europe,
were painted and gilt (p. 189). In purely ornamental sculpture we find
a frank concession to the coloristic point of view when the whole ground
is filled with a black composition * in order to throw the design into more
distinct relief.

2. Sculpture now destroyed.

Before attention is directed to the principal examples of East-Christian

sculpture it may be of interest to record the fact that numbers of antique
statues were imported into Constantinople, especially in the reign of Con-
stantine. The great cities of the western world were laid under contribution, °
and Athens, Kome, Smyrna, Sardis, Antioch, and Seleucia all paid their tribute
in this kind to the new metropolis. It is impossible to say how far the mytho-
logical statues mentioned by the Byzantine historians were works of a good
period of Greek art, how far they were Hellenistic, or how far Graeco-Roman
copies. Perhaps a majority belonged to the second and third categories ; but
there can be little doubt that the number of really fine statues was not incon-
siderable, and in one or two cases we have evidence which seems to justify
attribution to particular sculptors. Thus there is good reason to believe that
the colossal bronze Athena which was placed on a column in the Forum of
Constantine was the very work of Pheidias, and once stood upon the Acropolis
1 It is thought that Christian sarcophagi were partly coloured (Swoboda in ij. Q. , 1887,
p. 100 ; 1889, p. 134 ; J. Ficker, Altchristliche Bildwerke, p. 91).
- G. Mendel, Catalogue des monuments, etc., du Musee imperial Ottoman de Brousse in B, C. H.,
1909, pp. 315-17.
^ Reliefs at Shar i Balilol, observed by Dr. Brainerd Spooner. The halo of one figure
on this site had been first covered with stucco and then gilded {Pioneer Mail, August 7, 1907).
* This method was employed at Daphni,at St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis, and at S. Marco.
'' See the list in Codinus, quoted by Unger, Quellen der bysantinischen Kimstgeschichte,
p. 32.
123 SCULPTUEE

at Athens.' There is literary mention of other work by Pheidias, such as the

statement by Cedrenus^ that his seated figure of Zeus was placed in the square
known as Amastrianos, but this, like other statements of the same nature, has
no evidential value. A bronze Hercules in the Hippodrome, destroyed in the
thirteenth century, is, however, considered to have been the Herakles of
Lysippus ; '■' we shall see below that its type was reproduced by the carver of
an ivory casket of the ninth or tenth century (see p. 216). We read of statues
in marble or bronze of Helios and Selene, of Nike, of Artemis, as to which
nothing definite can be said.* But Cedrenus and Zonaras declare that copies
of the Aphrodite of Cnidus, the Hera of Samos, and the Athena of Lindus
were destroyed by a fire in the library in the year a. d. 476.^^ The better reliefs
upon the Golden Gate, which Sir Thomas Eoe wished to acquire in the seven-
teenth century, were very likely Hellenistic work." Eomau portrait statues
were certainly numerous : thus Augustus stood in the Hippodrome, Trajan in the
Milion, Diocletian on the Gathisma ; and it can hardly be doubted that members
of senatorial families migrating to Constantinople took the busts or statues of
their ancestors with them. A curious importation of another kind was a bronze
group representing an ass and its driver, originally set up by Augustus at.
Actium, because his meeting with them before the momentous battle at that
place was considered a happy omen.'
Turning now to sculpture produced in or after the time of Constantino, we
find frequent mention of portrait statues made in the East-Eoman Empire during
the first five centuries after the foundation of Constantinople. Eeserving the
column of Theodosius for description with that of Arcadius, we may cite figures
in marble, bronze, wood, and silver of Constantine (several), Helen, Constans,
Constantius, Constantia, Licinius, Gratian, Valentinian, Julian and Anastasia,
Marcian, Theodosius II, Arcadius and his queen Eudoxia, Justinian and Theodora,
Justin II and Sophia, Justin II, Narses, Jacob the physician of Leo I. Descending
to an even later date we hear of portrait statues of Phocas, his daughter Domentia
and her husband Prisons, of Philippicus Bardanes, and of Constantine, son of
Irene. Sometimes in association with imperial statues, sometimes alone, we read
of the Tyche or Fortune of Constantinople.* Some of the types of emperors and
empresses upon the coinage may be inspired by statues." Among effigies of
fabulous beings were those of sphinxes and syrens.'" Of animal figures, chiefly in
' H. Stuart Jones, Select Passages, &e., No. 101 ; S. Eeiiiaeh, Ser. des etudes grecqves, xx, 1907,
pp. 399 ff. The evidence is derived from Nicetas Choniata Acominatus. See also Unger, as
above, p. 147. The statue was destroyed by the mob in a. d. 1203. See also B. Z., xviii.
276-7.
" Cedrenus, i. 566, translated by Unger, as above, p. 166. The Pheidian statue of Zeus is
said to have been removed to Constantinople at the end of the fourth century and to have
been burned in the palace of Lausus. See Bury's edition of Gibbon, vol. iii, p. 498.
' A. rurtwSngler, Sitsungsberichte der phil.-hist. Klasse der k. hayrischen Akad. der Wissen-
schaften, 1902, pp. 435 If. See below, p. 216, where the probable imitation of this statue upon
ivory caskets is mentioned. Unger, Quellen, pp. 817-18, on authorityof Nicetas Chon., 859, says
the statue was originally brought from Tarentum by Pabius Maximus, and from Rome to
Constantinople by Julian (see J. Overbeck, Plastik, ii. 92). But Graeven, B. J., Heft 108,
pp. 252 if., says it remained in Constantinople until 1709. Nicetas describes it as being
melted down by the Latins.
* For these and the following names see Unger, as above, Index, s.vv. ; A. Van
Millingen, Byzantine Constantinople, p. 66.
' Cedren., i. 616 ; Zon., xiv. 2.
' Jahrl. des k. deutschen arch. Inst., viii, 1898, p. 88. The subjects were derived from
classical mythology— Prometheus, Endymion, Phaethon, &c.
' Nicetas, p. 859, see Unger, p. 318.
' References in Unger, s.v. Tyche. On the Tyche of Constantinople see Strzygowski,
Analecta Graeciensia, C4raz, ]898, pp. 143-53; P. Gardner, Journal of ReVenic Studies, ix (1888),
pp. 77-8. The silver statuette in the British Museum, which forms part of the treasure found
upon the Esquiline Hill at Rome, is reproduced by Gardner, as above, PI. V, andin the British
Museum Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, PI. XX.
' W. Wroth, British Museum Catalogue of Byzantine Coins, e. g. Justin II and his wife
Sophia, Tiberius II and Anastasia, Phocas and Ltontia.
'" Unger, s.vv.
 SCULPTURE NOW DESTEOYED 123

bronze, there mostly

ing animals, is very frequent mention. "We read of representations of the follow-
set up in the Hippodrome : boar, elephant, hippopotamus,
hyena, ox, wolf, serpent. The Anonymus Bandm'i says that the elephants erected
by Theodosius, with his own statue and a Victory, at the Golden Gate were
brought from Athens.' As late as the time of Basil I we learn from Constantine
Porphyrogenitus and Photius that in the atrium of the new church of that emperor
there were marble dragons and bronze rams, goats, and cocks upon the two splendid
fountains there erected. A bronze pine-cone from a column in the Hippodrome
was broken in an earthquake in a. d. 865 : it is of interest in connexion with
the example, still in existence, at the entrance to the cathedral at Aix-la-
Chapelle.^ Such pine-cones were commonly used upon fountains.
Statues of sacred persons or personages from sacred history were made
during the same period. Constantine is said to have erected a large statue of
Christ in the Chalce : ' he also caused iigures of Daniel and the Good Shepherd
to be placed over the fountains in public squares.'' There was a bronze statue
of the archangel Michael in the Church of All Saints damaged in the earthquake
of 1296.^ There appears to have been no free sculpture in Santa Sophia at
Constantinople, but Paul the Silentiary speaks of columns on the capitals of
which were reliefs with Our Lord, the Virgin, angels, apostles, and prophets.''
The marble statue of Christ mentioned by an anonymous Eussian of the
fifteenth century may have been of very late date.'' The emblems of the cross
or sacred monogram are said to have been associated with several figures of
Constantine and Helen.' Figures indirectly connected with religion were those
of the heretics Arius Sabellius and Eunomius, placed by Theodosius near the
ground in the Forum of Constantine in order that they might be insulted by
the people.'
A number of the statues already mentioned were set upon columns of
various height, and we may note that figures in this position are frequently
represented in Byzantine illuminated miniatures of the tenth to the thirteenth
centuries, both in backgrounds in which cities appear, and in scenes where the
gods of the Gentiles play a prominent part. But we have now to speak of
a few columns of exceptional size on which imperial statues were placed.'"
The earliest erected in Constantinople was perhaps that set up by Constan-
tine to receive his own efl&gy: of this the shaft, much damaged by fire and
therefore known to the Turks as the ' burned stone ', is still in existence.
But the most famous examples were those of Theodosius I and Arcadius,
which were decorated, after the manner of the columns of Trajan and Marcus
Aurelius at Rome, with a continuous spiral band of sculpture running from the
bottom to the top. A silver statue was placed on the Column of Theodosius in
A. D. 394 ; that on the Column of Arcadius was set in position by Theodosius II,
but fell down in the earthquake of a. d. 740. No trace of either remains ; and
the very Column of Theodosius was destroyed in order that the Sultan Bajazet II
(a.d. 1481-1512) might build himself magnificent baths." The inscribed base

'■ Anon. Band., p. 21 ; linger, p. 227.

^ See J. Strzygowski, Der Bom zu Aachen und seine Entstellung.
' Banduri, Imperium orientale, sim Antiq. Constant., i, p. 21.
* Eusebius, Be vita Canst., iii, ch. 49 ; B. Q., iv, p. 102 ; Bayet, JReclierches pour servir, p. 31.
' Pachymeres, Andronicus Palaeologus, iii. 15.
" Paulus Silentiarius, Bescriptio, &c. (Bonn edition), vv. 691-712.
' Lethaby and Swainson, The Church of Sancta Sophia, p. 109.
* Banduri, i, p. 33. ' Codin. (Bonn edition), pp. 40, 169.
" The columns known as the pillar of the Goths in the Serai, and the Kyz Tash or
Column of Marcian near the Mosque of Muhammad the Conqueror, were erected to support
statues. The so-called Column of Pompey at Alexandria was also of this class, though it
probably dates from the time of the Theodosian family {B. Z., vi, 1897, p. 639). The marble
eagles found near the base suggest those of the Column of Marcian.
11 The literary references for these statues are given by Unger, Quellen, s.v. Theodosius,
Arcadius. For the Column of Theodosius, see Muntz, Eev. des etudes grecques, 1888, p. 318 ; La
colonne de Th. a Cple.
 124 SCULPTURE

of a porphyry column outside the Church of St. Irene refers to a silver statue of
Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius II, erected by Simplicius, prefect of the city.'
The equestrian statue of Justinian '^ holding the orb of empire, described by
Procopius and later historians, survived till comparatively modern times. The
fragments were seen in the sixteenth century by Gyllius, who said that the nose
was nine inches long, and the leg taller than a man. It originally stood upon
a bronze column in the Augusteum, raised upon a base with seven marble steps.

1
We are enabled to form some idea of its character from a drawing of the fifteenth
century preserved in the library of the Seraglio at Constantinople and several
times reproduced.' Perhaps the bronze equestrian statue of Theodoric,* formerly

"' :"*'

?' w
i

i \^
HH^
M- ^^^BSB^aJl^^^^
W^^.jljfc ^^yt^ad ^^^^B

1
i

M
)! { :i r
■¥
i\ ~s^ <— ^*^^HKH[

Fig. 72. Daniel and the lions : end of a sarooph.igus in the Musevim at Ravenna.
(Eicci.) P. 139.

in front of the palace at Kavenna, and now also destroyed, was comparable to this
monument of Justinian, but it may have been partly inspired by the type of the
equestrian saint, or hero of the faith, so popular in the Christian art of Egypt
from at least as early as the fourth century.'

1 C.I. Gr., 8614 ; Unger, p. 136 ; Kaibel, Epigr.

p. 778. In the same place there is another base forGr. ex lapidibus colhcta, No. 921 ; V. V., i,
a statue erected to Porphyrins, a driver
in the Hippodrome (F. K, i. 774; ^rt. Jlfrt(;j. 1880, pp. 295 ff.).
2 Procopius, De Aed. (Bonn ed.), pp. 181-2 ; Malalas, p. 482 ; Unger, QuelUn, pp. 145 ff. :
Labarte, Le palais imperial, &c., pp. 13, 35-6 ; Paspati, Td Bv^avTiva AvaKjopa, p 111 • Mordt-
mann, Esquisse topographique, pp. 64, 66 ; Unger, Quellen, pp. 187 ff. '
3 Mordtmann, as above, p. 65 ; Ch. Diehl, Justinim, p. 27 ; Pokrovsky, in Materials
Russian ArcMeology, vol. viii, 1892, p. 35 (publication of the Imperial Archaeological Commis- for
sion, St. Petersburg).
* J. von Schlobser, Sitsungsberichie der Wiener Akademie, Hist.-phil. Klasse, vol. cxxiii, Pt.
pp. 164 ff., and Schriftquellen zur Geschichte der karolingischen Kunst, Vienna, 1892 n 431 • F Book II,
Bonner JahrMcher, Heft 50, 1871, pp. 1- 53 . : f , ■ -""i-*.,
= Strzygowski, Hellenistische und koptische Kunst in Alexandria!, p. 28, Vienna 1902
list of early equestrian statues see J. J. Smirnolf, Transactions of the Moscow For a
Archaeological Society,
 SCULPTUEE NOW DESTEOYED 125

It is only natural that the wooden statues, often richly gilded, of which we
read in historical works should have disappeared in every country except Egypt,
where the dryness of the soil and climate have preserved wooden sculpture
infinitely older than any with which we ai"e concerned.' The fate of the ^oava
of ancient Greece has been shared by the portrait statues of the later time, from
that of Constantino downwards. That emperor is said to have erected a statue
of himself of gilt wood, holding a Tyche (Fortune) of Constantinople in his hand,"
and doubtless his example was followed by others.
Wooden sculpture on a small scale was probably continued down to a late
date. The rhetor Johannes Eugenicus (fifteenth century) describes in an
£/c(^pa(r« a small carving representing animals round a plane-tree.^
In the various sections which follow (Free sculpture, Figure Eeliefs other
than Sarcophagi, Sarcophagi, Ornamental Eeliefs and Capitals), a certain number
of conspicuous examples have been chosen : a complete inventory is beyond the
compass of the present volume.

8. Free Sculpture.

The bronze horses over the principal door of S. Marco at Venice may receive
a passing mention here, though they are of Hellenistic workmanship, and date
from before the Christian era.^
The attribution of the colossal bronze statue of an emperor now placed near
S. Sepolcro at Barletta^ is imcertain. The name of Heraclius was already
associated with it when the Venetians brought it from Constantinople in
A. D. 1204, but it appears to date from the fourth century, and to be the work of
a Greek sculptor. The vessel conveying it to Italy was lost near Barletta, and
the statue, when recovered, lay for a long time neglected on the quay, but has
been in its present position since a. d. 1481. In a. d. 1491 the hands and legs
were restored by Fabio Alfano." The emperor wears a narrow diadem and the
costume of a Koman general, but bears a cross in his raised right hand and an
orb in his left.
A small bronze statuette of a warrior in the Berlin Museum ' is claimed as
a representation of a Byzantine bodyguard of the sixth century ; a somewhat
similar figure is in the British Museum."
The Cairo Museum contains a colossal statue (Fig. 73) of polished porphyry,
representing a seated male figure,' unfortunately without the head, arms, and
feet, which may either have been intended for a Eoman emperor, or for a Christ
Pantokrator (Fig. 73). It is still 3,080 metres high, and was found in 1870 at
Alexandria '" on a site where three porphyry columns were to be seen at the time
1905 (Russian). M. A. Kirpicnikoff has traced the superstitions popularly attaching to various
statues in Constantinople, Annual ofBist. Philological Soc. of Odessa, vol. iv, 1894.
' The sands of Chinese Turkestan have preserved wooden sculpture for us in much the
same way as those of Egypt.
^ Chfonieon Paschale (reign of Heraclius), 01. 277. 3, quoted by Unger, Qudlen, p. 67.
' A. Munoz, Nuovo Bullettino di arch, cristiana, 1 904, pp. 225 ff.
* They are probably the horses mentioned by Codinus and other writers (see Unger,
pp. 299, 300, 322) as having been brought by Theodosiua II from Chios to Constantinople,
where they stood in the Hippodrome. Cf. also Giusti in Ongania's BasiHca di San Marco, iii.
423 ff. ; r. Lenormant, Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1883, pp. 387, 388 (Fig.) ; H. W. Schultz, Denk-
maler der Kunst des Mittelalters in Unteritalien, 1860, Atlas, PI. 27.
= Venturi, Storia, vol. i, 414, Fig. 154, p. 164.
' F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, vol. i, p. 128.
' W. Bode, Prussian Jahrbuch, 1900, p. xxiii.
* H. Walters, British Museum, Catalogue of Bronzes in the Department of Greek and, Eoman
Antiquities, No. 1601, p. 261.
' J. Strzygowski, B. Q.,xii (1898), pp. 4ff. ; Seitrage sur alien Geschichte, ii, 1902, pp. 120 ff. ;
and Koptische Kunst, No. 7256, p. 3, and PI. I. The use of porphyry in sculpture is an indication
of Egyptian origin. The imperial torso in the Turin Museum, of too early a date to concern us
here, is attributed to Egypt (Seymour de Ricci, Rev. arch., S6r. IV,vol. viii, 1906, Pt. II, p. 381).
'° Neroutsos Bey, L'Ancienne Alexandrie, p. 66.
126 SCULPTURE

of the French Expedition. The date appears to be the first half of the fourth
century, and there seems nothing in the style of the figure to contradict the
Christian attribution. The Christ in the interior of the Constantine bowl (Ch. XI)
shows that the type was already known at this early period. The treatment of
the drapery is not classical ; the folds are shallow without effective contrast
of light and shadow, and the regular parallel ridges are unpleasing to the
eye. In the costume itself we mark the
intrusion of new and confusing elements
which mar the logical simplicity of the
traditional Greek dress. There appear
to be three garments, a tunic, a mantle,
and a kind of scarf with tasselled
ends passing across the breast, the
whole producing a strange and some-
what puzzling effect. We seem to be
in the presence of innovations in cos-
tume, traces of which are visible in
other monuments of the same century.'
The porphyry bust of a man in the
same museum," found at Athribis, is
a work of the same century, probably of
the period of Constantine. It represents
a man in the prime of life wearing a
chlamys fastened on the shoulder by a
(broken) fibula of the cross-bow type.
The hair and beard are treated in the
most mechanical and conventional man-
ner by parallel lines of short vertical
strokes ; the forehead is deeply furrowed,
the eyebrows raised, the eyes dilated
in a fixed stare. The whole expression,
evidently intended to denote a virile
personality, is at once strained and
vacuous : the task which the sculptor
set hifnself to perform was clearly above
Fig. 73. Porphyry statue of Our Lord (?) his powers. Those who see in the bust
of the fourth century : Cairo Museum. {Caut- an imperial portrait have identified it
logue general : Koptische Kunst, from Fig. 1. ) with Maximian.
This bust has an especial interest on
account of its identity in style with the two porphyry groups, each representing
a pair of men embracing each other, at the south-east angle of St. Mark's at
Venice,' towards the Piazzetta (Fig. 74), and the similar figures in the Vatican.*
Here we have the same furrowed brows and staring, almost pained expression,
the same arrangement of the hair. It has been suggested that these figures may
be the so-called PJiiladelpMs, or group representing the two sons of Constantine
embracing each other, to which Codinus alludes." Although the types of the
costume and swords had previously been regarded as indicating that these groups

•" Strzygowski, Ble Calenderbilder des Chronographen vom Jahre 354, pp. 92 ff. For an ivory
relief in the Masp^ro Collection with a standing figure of Our Lord in a very similar costume,
see R. Q., xii, 1898, p. 22 ; and Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, p. 63, Fig. 2.5.
2 Koptische Kunst, as above. No. 2, PI. II; Beitrage zur alten Gesehichte, ii, 1902, p. 113;
Mariette Bey, Albvm du Musee de Boiilaq, P). XXXIX.
= Beitrage sur alien Gesehichte, ii, 1902, p. 113 ; Koptische Kunst, as above, p. 7, Fig. 2; L. von
Sybel, Christliche Antike, ii. 228 ; Venturi, Storia, i, Fig. 166, p. 178 ; Molmenti, Storia di Yenezia
nella vitaprivata, p. 51.
^ H. Semper, Zeitschrift fijr christliche Kunst, 1901, p. 80 (Fig.) ; A. Venturi, Storia, i. 436.
' Codin. (Bonn edition), p. 188 ; Unger, Quellen, p. 176.
 127
FEEE SCULPTUEE

are copies of earlier work, and executed in the tenth century/ there is no
certainty that tlrese details are inconsistent with fourth-century fashions, and it
seems more reasonable to assisrn them to the same date as the Cairo bust. The

Fig. 74. Poi'jth^'ry group, exterior of S. Marco, Veiiiee, f Alinari.)

flat caps, which also occur on ivories and sarcophagi of the fourth century, are
probably military. All these examjales of the sculptor's art in porphyry were
probably produced in Egypt, the country where the stone is obtained. And
apart from the material, they all manifest tendencies alien to Hellenistic
tradition : the ancient formalism of Egypt seems in them to find a tentative

' Semper, as above, suggests tliat tlie Vatican figures are of tlie sixtli century, and those
of Venice a tentli-century copy, perluips made at Acre.
128 SCULPTURE

expression. These 'African' tendencies are accentuated in the rare portrait

heads and statuettes in limestone, dating from the fourth to the sixth centuries,
of which the Kaiser Friedrich Museum possesses examples. '
A bronze statuette in the Bargello at Florence, representing the Good
Shepherd, has been claimed as a work of the fourth century.^
Two small statues of the same subject,' not earlier than the fourth century,
are in the Ottoman Museum at Constantinople. One has been known from
a considerable time,* the other was discovered at a more recent period in the
neighbourhood of Broussa.' Similar figures of the Good Shepherd are at Athens is^
and Sparta.' The example at the Lateran, holding a staff in the left hand,
well known, though it is considered that the left arm is a restoration.^ Another
figure was found near S. Paolo, Eome.'
The most perfect of these figures is that from Broussa, which has only lost
the left forearm. The others are more seriously damaged, the lower part of the
body being incomplete and the left arm broken. The example at Athens has
the face mutilated. The execution is in all cases indifferent, but the work
appears to be of the fourth century.

4. Sarcophagi.

(a) Frovi Anatolia.

An end of a sarcophagus, from Sulu Monastir in the Psamatia quarter of
Constantinople (Frontispiece), has a figure of Our Lord, in the attitude of the
Lateran Sophocles, beneath a niche on either side of which is an apostle with a
scroll.^" The head of the central figure is surrounded by a cruciferous nimbus, and,
though like the others it is somewhat damaged, is clearly of an ideal and un-
differentiated character. It is hard to believe that figures of this description,
retaining so much Greek feeling, can be later than the fourth century of our era.
The Sulu Monastir sculpture is the only Christian relief among a considerable
class of sarcophagi and fragments, known, from the place where one of the most
remarkable examples was discovered, Ambar Arassy or Sidamara, as the Sidamara
group." The great majority belong to the second and third centuries, and are of
a definitely pagan character. To some of these the figures on the Berlin fragment

1 Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, Nos. 42 ff.

2 JR. Q., xxii, 1909, 246.
' For the Good Shepherd in Christian art, see L. Clausmitzer, Die Rirteribilder in der alt-
christlichen Kunst, 1904.

p. 35 <; De 'Rosa\,Bull., Monumenis

N. Kondakoff, 1869, p. 47,of and PI. IV, No.&c.,
Constantinople, 2 ; inGarruoci, Sioria, vol. iv, Congress
Sixth Archaeological PI. 425, No. 6, and
at Odessa,
1887, p. 229 (Russian) ; Laurent, in B. C. H., xxiii. 585. The height of the statuette is about
fifty-five centimetres.
No. 7.' Laurent, as above, pp. 583-5 and Fig. ; S. Reinach, Repertoire de la statuaire, ii. 551,
= Th. Homolle, Rev. arch., 1876 «, p. 297; Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 428, No. 7, and p. 35 ;
Strzygowski, R.Q., iv, p. 97, and PI. IV, No. 1.
' Milchhoefer in AUi. Mitth., ii, 1877, p. 358 ; Strzygowski, R. Q., iv, p. 98, and PI. IV, No. 2
' Perret, Les Catacombes de Rome, iv, PI. IV ; Roller, Catacombes, i, PI. XL, No. 1 ; Strzy-
gowski, R. Q., iv, p. 99, PI. V ; Wiegand in R. Q., iv, p. 100.
9 De Rossi, Bull., 1887, PI. XI-XII, and Bull. Comunale, 1889, p. 131, and PI. 5-6. The last
referenceof and
subject the Good Strzygowski's
Shepherd article in R. Q., iv, quoted above, will be found useful for the
in general.
'» The fragment belongs to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin (0. Wulff, Berlin
Catalogue, No. 26 ; Strzygowski, Orient Oder Rom, ii. 40-61, and Byz. Denkm., III. xiii ; A. Munoz,
Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, v. 79 ; D. Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins of Bys. Art, pp. 160-4,
and PI. IV ; Journ. Hellenic St., xxvii, p. 109, Fig. 7).
" The best examples of the Sidamara group are of a very remarkable character, Greek
motives of the fourth century B. 0. being treated with an originality and force recalling the
work of the Italian Renaissance. (See Strzygowski's description of the fragments in the Cook
Collection at Richmond, mentioned below.)
 SARCOPHAGI 129

exhibit close analogies, especially to those on the sarcophagus in the Villa

Colonna at Kome, and on that from Selefkieh in the Ottoman Museum at
Constantinople, on both of which recurs a youthful long-haired figure closely
resembling that of Christ.
The characteristics of these sarcophagi^ are : the arrangement of the statuesque
figures alternately in arched niches and in the narrower unarched interspaces ;
the employment of peculiar architecture, and the use in the decoration of this
architecture of a system in which the chisel is replaced by the drill, and
modelling abandoned in favour of contrasting light and shade. The first feature
is peculiar to this group, for in the familiar Eoman sarcophagi there is
a succession of niches, and the interspaces are not employed for figures. The
second feature is marked by the interposition between the capitals and the
pediments of an impost (probably a survival of an ancient architrave) divided
horizontally into two compartments, and decorated with motives which recur
with great persistency ; by the use of scallop shells in the niches behind the
shoulders of the figures ; by the regular employment of spirally fluted columns
on bases of Hellenistic type ; and by the duplication of the volutes at the top of
the Corinthian capitals. The neglect of the chisel for the drill in ornament,
while it continued to be used with such admirable effect in the accompanying
figures, marks the invasion of the field of Hellenistic art by that system of colour
contrasts which oriental taste preferred to the finest plastic art (p. 111). Here it
is even more pronounced than in rather later Byzantine decorative sculpture in
which the chisel was allowed to complete the work done by the borer. On
these sarcophagi the drUl reigns supreme. The capitals are ornamented with
acanthus leaves of various design, but all drilled with a view to coloristic effect.
Of the two divisions of the impost, the lower is conventionally treated, giving
a central trident-shaped design, really a derivation from the old Lesbian cymation,
the upper having in the middle an ove of exaggerated size emerging from a depth
of shadow. Between these imposts comes the scallop, and above, the pediment
with a moulding of dentils, a broad band of conventional scrolls upon the gable,
and scrolled acroteria above all. Such are the features of the most characteristic
members of the group, but they are not all present in each example. In some
the impost above the capital is not found ; in others the scallop is absent, or the
niches succeed each other continuously without intermediate spaces, or the
character of the acanthus filling the spandrels is of a different character. But
in every case the characteristic treatment of the drapery and the spirally fluted
columns are constant. The general effect is unmistakable and the group is
sharply distinguished from all others. Work of so individual a character
suggests the influence of a single centre. Was this centre in Italy or in the East?
Of the total number of sarcophagi and fragments at present known, about
half have been found in Asia Minor ; ^ a nearly equal number are in Italy '
(Eome and Florence) ; a few are at Constantinople, Athens, and in the Cook
Collection at Richmond in Surrey. The argument from provenance is rather in
favour of an Anatolian origin ; for it seems less unlikely that in the period

^ For these sarcophagi the student may consult Strzygowski, Orient oder Bom, and Journal
of Hellenic Studies, vol. xxvii (a paper, translated by Mrs. Strong, describing the examples in
the Cook Collection) ; A. Munoz, Nuom Bullettino di arch, cristiana, xi, 1905, and L'Arte, 1906,
130; G. Mendel, B.C.H., xxvi, 1902, 241 ff. The following are references for the other
important examples : Selefkieh, Orient oder Rom, Pigs. 14-16 ; Sidamara, Th. Reinach in
Man, Piot, 1902, 189 ; Bys. Denkm., iii. xii ; Journ. Hellen. St., xxvii. 100 ; Ramsay in Revue des
etudes anciennes, 1901, 278 and 358 ; Palazzo Riccardi, Florence, Orient oder Rom, 52, Fig. 20 ;
Nuom Bidlettino, as above, xi, 1905, Fig. 3, p. 82 ; Alinari, Photo 3009, Villa Colonna, Nuovo
Bullettino, as above, 86-7, Figs. 3 and i ; Villa Ludovisi, Garrucci, Storia, v, PI. 362, Pig. 2 ;
Orient oder Bom, 50, Fig. 18; Villa Mattel, A. Riegl, Spdtromische Kunstindustrie, 78, Fig. 16;
Rivoira, Origini delV architettura lombarda, Fig. 297.
' In addition to Sidamara and Selefkieh, the chief sites are Isnik, Eski-Bedestan,
TJskeles, Ismidt.
' The fragment in the British Museum {Orient oder Rom, 51, Fig. 19) was obtained in the
Eoman Ghetto.
130 SCULPTUEE

from the second to the fourth century sarcophagi should have been exerted
from Asia Minor to Eome, than that they should have been sent from Kome
to comparatively obscure places in AnatoUa. The conclusion is supported by
the analysis of the marble of which the Selefkieh sarcophagus is coniposed.
Dr. Lepsius pronounces this to be an Asiatic species,' and it is improbable that
Italian artists should have imported marble of this origin to work up and
re-export, when they had an abundant supply in their own country. A minor
point in favour of Asiatic origin is the frequent use of the scallop. niche, which
perhaps originated in Mesopotamia ; ^ while the definitely coloristic method
adopted in the treatment of ornamental detail is an oriental feature. It is
perhaps a further argument that this school of sculpture appears to have
influenced the art of Gandhara, the district including Peshawar and the valleys
to the north of it, formerly a part of the Graeco-Bactrian and Graeco-Scythian
dominions. Graeven ' has pointed out the affinity between the Christ of the
Berlin sarcophagus and certain Buddha types from the region in question.

Fig. 75. SaicopliHgus of the fourth century, Mas-d'Aire, Landes, France. (After Le Blant).

in which the attitude and treatment of the drapery are repeated. It was
perhaps, therefore, through the late Hellenistic sculptors of Asia Minor or
Northern Syria that the Apollo type adopted for Buddha was first introduced,
a type destined to travel to the furthest limits of Asia, and survive to our own
day in Chinese and Japanese art."
Various regions have been suggested as the most probable locality for the
production of this distinctive sculpture. Strzygowski inclines to the culture
area of Antioch ; Wulff to Cyzicus or Proconnesus. The case for Eome has
been stated by Mendel.^ There is a certain resemblance between the style of
examples in the Sidamara group and sarcophagi at Eavenna.'
Christian sepulchral reliefs, some of the third century, in Isauria and Phrygia
have early symbolic designs in an architectural setting."
^ Orient Oder Rom, 55.
' Anatolian artists are stated to have worked in Italy {Kuovo Bull, as above, 301 ff.), so
that even if some of these sarcophagi proved to be of Italian marble they might still be the
work of Anatolian sculptors.
show ' aJoum.
shell Hellen.
niche. St., as above, p. lU. Coins of Byblus of the third century A. d. appear to
♦ 0. C, i, pp. 159 ff. Dr. Graeven shows the similarity between the Christ of the Berlin
sarcophagus and a statue of Buddha from Gandhara also in the German capital.
' On the question of an influence from Asia Minor in Graeco-Roman times, especially in
sculpture, see Vincent Smith, Journal of the Asiatic Sooieti/ of Bengal, Calcutta, 1900, p. 131.
' B. a H., xxvi, as above. ' Cf. Wulff, as above, 15.
' A. Marptaret Ramsay, Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire,-
Aberdeen, 1906.
 131
SARCOPHAGI

(h) From Egypt.

The great porphyry sarcophagus in the Vatican Museum at Eome,' known
as the sarcophagus of St. Helena (Fig. 76) and obtained from her mausoleum in
the Via Labicana, is probably, like other sculpture in the same stone (p. 125),

Fia. T6. Porphyry sarcophagus of St. Helena, fourth century : Vatican. (Alinari.)

of Egyptian origin. The reliefs upon its sides represent mounted warriors with
their captives, a circumstance which has led more than one archaeologist to
doubt whether a tomb with such inappropriate subjects can have been really

' Helbig, Fuhrer, i, p. 241 ; Venturi, Sforia, i, p. 435, Figs. 172-5 ; Strzygowski, Orient Oder
Rom, pp. 76-7, Figs. 33-4, and Settmistische und koptische Kunst, p. 24 ; A. Biegl, Spatromische
KunstindusMe, p. 96. The sarcophagus has been k2 considerably restored.
132 SCULPTUEE

made for an empress.' The similarity of the figures to those upon a wood carving
found in Egypt and now at Berlin (see p. 149) has led to the conjecture that in
both cases the subject may be symbolical, representing the triumph of the
warriors of the true faith over unbelievers, ' in which case its destination would
be less unsuitable. Although the comparisons made by Eiegl between the
warriors and those upon sculpture of the Antonine period are obvious, it must
not be forgotten that the similarity to the reliefs on the Constantinople
columns of the Theodosian period is equally clear, and that in both cases the
same Hellenistic art provided the types.
The porphyry sarcophagus from Sta Costanza, also in the Vatican galleries,'
having on the sides a decoration of amorini gathering and pressing grapes,
peacocks, lambs, &c., with ornament of vine-scrolls in bold relief, and on
the lid laurel wreaths and masks, may also be assigned to the late Hellenistic
art of Alexandria. For although there is nothing in the designs which might
not have been produced in Rome, when we find in Alexandria an identical
porphyry lid,* and in Constantinople a fragment from the side of a porphyry
sarcophagus with identical putti and vine-scrolls of the same style,^ probability
seems in favour of an origin in the country where the stone was quarried.
And it seems to be increased when we observe a resemblance between the type
of a limestone head with curly hair in the Cairo Museum ° and that of the
putti of the sarcophagus. The case is parallel to that of the capitals of Procon-
nesian marble which were sculptured on Proconnesus and shipped in a finished
state to all parts of the Mediterranean, and to that of the marble sarcophagi
of the Sidamara type, which, as we have seen, were probably produced in Asia
Minor and exported in the same manner.

(c) Rome, Gaul, and Spain.''

The sarcophagi in Italy outside Ravenna are chiefly concentrated at Rome,
and, with the allied groups in France and in Spain, have a direct relation to our
subject in so far as an East-Christian inspiration has been claimed for them.
The Christian sepulchral relief was certainly developed by a gradual process out
of the earlier pagan relief devoted to the same purpose, such changes as occurred
' A. Biegl, BuMetin of the Second Congress of Christian Archaeology at Rome, p. 165,
suggests that the sarcophagus dates from the second century, and that it was made for a
general. The mounted figures, he says, resemble those on the base of the column of
Antoninus Pius in the Vatican and on the two spiral columns still standing. A. Monachi in
Archivio della B. Soc. Bom. di Storia Patria, xxii, pp. 570-3, also finds the subjects unsuitable for
an empress's tomb, and suggests that Constantius Chlorus may have been buried with Helena.
" Strzygowski, Orient oder Bom, pp. 65 ff. , 81 ff.
' Helbig, Fuhrer, i, p. 238 ; Garrucci, Storia, v, PI. 305 ; E. Q. Visconti, Museo Pio-Glementino,
vii. 12 ; A. Riegl, Spatromische Kunslindustrie, p. 86 ; Strzygowski, Orient Oder Bom, p. 78, Fig. 35 ;
Venturi, Storia, vol. i, Fig. 171 ; L. von Sybel, Chrisiliche Antike, ii. 226-7.
* Orient Oder Bom, Fig. 37, p. 79. The lid is in the museum at Alexandria.
' Ibid., Pig. 36, p. 79. The fragment is in the Imperial Ottoman Museum, and was found
at Constantinople.
« Koptische Kunst, No. 7-277.
' J. Ficker, Catalogue, 1887 (with bibliography) ; 0. Mamcchi, Guida del Musso Crist. Laieran.,
1898 ; Garrucci, Storia, vol. v ; L. von Sybel, Christliche Antike, ii, pp. 42 ff. ; Venturi, Storia
dell' arte italiana, vol. i. Single sarcophagi and smaller groups are to be found in other cities
in the Italian area, as Syracuse (F. Lantieri, Besorisione diun . . . sarcofago scoperlo nelle Catacombe
di S. Giovanni, Syracuse, 1872). Pagan sarcophagi may be studied in Robert's Antike Sarko-
phagreliefs. Be Rossi believed that Christian sarcophagi existed from the end of the first
century. Figure subjects, other than those of ' neutral ' types (e. g. Cupid and Psyche), really
begin in the third century, livhile the mass of specifically Christian examples maybe assigned
to the century following. Picker was inclined to date the latter class after the year 359,
the year of the inscription upon the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus. But most other critics,
including Eiegl and Strzygowski, believe that this particular sarcophagus is far earlier, and
that, as in so many cases at Ravenna, we have here nothing more than the evidence of a re-
interment. Weis-Liebersdorf, Christus- und Apostelbilder, 1902, 8-13, ] 6, 89 assigns it to the
Antonine period. See also Wittig, Catalogue of the Sarcophagi in the German Campo Santo
at Rome, Supplement to B. Q., 1906, and A. de Waal, E. Q., xxi. 117 ff.
 SARCOPHAGI 133

being rather iconographical than artistic, and this, like the other early monu-
mental sculpture in Eome, was at first the work of Greek artists executing
the orders of Eoman patrons. The great homes of sculpture in the Hellenistic
period were in Asia Minor and Egypt ; in the former country Pergamon and
Ehodes produced the most famous artists ; in the latter, Alexandria possessed
a school of which the influence was felt in various directions, reacting even
upon the Anatolian cities.^ From the school of Pergamon Eome learned the
art of representing scenes of battle ; to Alexandria she owed the treatment
of more peaceful subjects, personifications, mythical or legendary figures,
above all, the adoption of a picturesque realism in reliefs depicting features
of landscape and architecture. From the same source she borrowed the graceful
amorini associated with animals and flowers which lend Eoman decorative
sculpture under the early empire so much of its delicate charm. The pagan
sarcophagi of Eome are less indebted to the Pergamene than to the Alex-
andrian school, or perhaps to the art of those Anatolian cities where the
Alexandrian manner became predominant. It was in workshops already in-
fluenced by the art of these regions that the first Christian sarcophagi were
produced ; and whether the sculptors were actually Greeks, or Eomans trained
by Greek masters, the inspiration of the work is Hellenistic.^
As far as this point all are probably agreed. But whereas some consider
that the pagan Eoman schools, established under Greek inspiration, produced
the Christian reliefs without breach of continuity, and that it is unnecessary
to postulate any great influx of sculptors from the Christian East in the third
and fourth centuries, others are of opinion that there may have been such
an immigration, and, further, that many sarcophagi were actually imported
in a completed state from the Greek centres of the Eastern Mediterranean,
or perhaps from those quarries of Proconnesus where sculptors from the most
various regions were gathered together.
It is perhaps impossible to decide a problem of such difiiculty upon present
evidence. An exact study of all the sarcophagi of the Eoman and Gaulish
groups should first be completed by scholars thoroughly familiar with earlier
pagan sculpture ; marble should be subjected to analysis in order to decide
whether it is of Italian or Proconnesian origin ; the probabilities for and
against the two theories should be considered in the light of a more extensive
knowledge than we now possess. In the meantime it would appear that, as
in the case of so many controversies, the truth may lie between the two
extremes of opinion. The art is of Greek origin, and the group of foreign
sculptors who commenced the series may well have been reinforced at intervals
by later immigrants. As, however, the art of the sarcophagi as a class is but
mediocre, and required no exceptional talent, local sculptors were probably employed
in considerable numbers ; and if a majority of existing examples are their work,
the group as a whole may be claimed for the Italian branch of late Hellenic
art. If iconographical tests are applied, some points at least result in favour
of Western manufacture. For instance, in the Entry into Jerusalem Our Lord
rides astride instead of sideways. It is rash to draw genei'al conclusions
from any iconographical feature ; yet the sideways position in this scene is
practically universal all over the Christian East ; and if the cross-legged
attitude was represented by a Greek or Syrian, it must have been to the

^ Alexandrian influence has been traced in the woric of Archelaos of Priene ; and iu the
secoild century of our era Aristeas and Papias of Aphrodisias in Caria were ec^ually affected
by the Hellenistic school of Egypt (M. Collignon, Hist, de la sculpt, grecque, ii, pp. 674-6).
' For the development of the bas-relief at Eome the reader may consult E. Courbaud, Le
bas-relief romain, &c , 1899, and Mrs. Strong's Boman Sculpture. M. Courbaud adopts a com-
promise between the theory of an independent Latin art upon an Etruscan foundation,
adopted by Wiclshoff in the introduction to his Wiener Genesis, and that of Th. Schreiber,
who derives the very essence of Eoman art from Alexandria [fiie Brunnen-reliefs dus Palazzo
Grimani, 1888).
134 SCULPTURE

order of an Italian or a Gaul. In either case a sarcophagus treated in this

e, un
way is more likely to have been produced in the West than elsewher group
the other hand, such resemblances in type as that between the Jonah
(p. 143) and the similar subject upon a Eoman sarcophag us must
from Tarsus

Fig. 77. Porphyry sarcophagus of Constantia, fourth century : Vatican. (Alinari.) P. 132.

not be forgotten. However this may be, these sarcophagi owe their style and
character to late Hellenistic influences, not modified, as were the earlier
historical reliefs, by distinctive Eoman qualities, but essentially Greek of the
decadence. There being no appreciable infusion of the Eoman spirit, they
represent a Hellenistic art, not the less Hellenistic for being produced upon
Italian soil.
The Gaulish group,' as represented by its earlier examples, has evident
affinities to the Eoman ; it shows us Christian subjects treated in the old
1 E. Le Blant, Les sarcophages chritiens de'la Gaule, and Gazette arcMologique, 1885, p. 357 ;
L. von Sybel, ChristUche Antike, ii, pp. 207 ff.
 SARCOPHAGI 135

pagan tradition. We find sarcophagi with strigils, with figures in inter-

columniations, and with undivided groups of figures like the Eoman examples,
most of them dating from the period between the third and fifth centuries.
After this time the manufacture moved from the lower Ehone (especially
Aries) westwards to Toulouse, Narbonne, and Bordeaux ; and a symbolic orna-
mental style tends to replace that in which figures predominate.^ For their
general character these later examples suggest analogies with Ravenna, and
consequently with Syria, by which the Eavennate ornament was inspired
(pp. 53, 77).
The resemblance of the earlier Gaulish sarcophagi to those of Rome has
been used in support of the view that both derive from the late Hellenistic
East.^ It is urged that in the third and fourth centuries direct relations
between Eome and the South of France were difficult,^ whereas both the
Italian capital and the French ports were in direct maritime communication
with Alexandria, Antioch, and Western Anatolia. It has been replied that
ships trading from the East hugged the Italian coast, and that they must
therefore have touched at Ostia, thereby maintaining a connexion with Eome
no less direct than that with East-Mediterranean ports. On present evidence
the question is one which can only be decided by a nice adjustment of
probabilities. Spanish sarcophagi, as yet imperfectly studied, have a general
analogy with the Gaulish group."

(d) Ravenna.
The large and important series of Christian sarcophagi at Eavenna ° differs
in many respects from the Roman and Southern Gallic groups. Their structure,
like that of earlier Greek sarcophagi, is more architectural, and more directly
suggests a house or dwelling of the dead ; * the number of figures is usually
less considerable, and a single scene, treated with a rigid symmetry, suffices
even for the longer sides. The type in which figures are isolated between the
columns of an arcade is common to all areas in which sarcophagi are found ;
that in which closely grouped figures occupy the whole surface is hardly
represented at Ravenna. The existence of early sarcophagi with subjects not
definitely Christian shows that at Eavenna, as elsewhere, the old pagap art
was taken under the patronage of the new religion, and that' there was no
1 The style is allied to that of the grammaire orientate, so brilliantly treated by Courajod.
See A. Marignan, Un historien de V art fran fats, Louis Courajod.
^ Strzygowski, Kleinasien, p. 195, and Sehiele's Religion in Geschichte, i. 383 ; Ainaloff,
Hellenistic Origin of Early Christian Art, p. 87 ; the latter writer detects Alexandrian rather than
Anatolian influences.
' Mommsen, Eomische Geschichte, v, pp. 71ff., 100 ff., 104ff. It has been pointedout by
Strzygowski that subjects occur on Gaulish sarcophagi (e. g. scenes from life of Joseph at
Le Puy) which do not occur on those at Eome.
* See the references given by von Sybel, Christliche Antike, ii. 219.
° Photographs by L. Ricci, Eavenna, and by Alinari. The series is catalogued and dis-
cussed by IC. Goldmann, Die ravennatischen Sarkophage, Strasburg, 1906, and H. Diitschke,
Ravennatische Studien, Leipzig, 1 909. Of these two works, both of which are illustrated from
photographs, the latter appears to the writer to be the most valuable, the dating following in
the main the lines suggested by A. Eiegl, Sp&tromische Kunstindustrie, pp. 99 ff., though some of
the figured sarcophagi are placed earlier than the period usually accepted. The interpreta^
tions of Dr. Goldmann appear over-subtle, and he brings down many sarcophagi to too late
a date. See 0. Wulff, Eepertorium, xxxv, pp. 281 ff. Shorter notices and illustrations will be
found in A, Venturi, Storia dell' arte italiana, vol. i ; L. Sybel, Christliche Antike, ii. 196-206 ;
G. T. Eivoira, Origini della architettura lombarda, i. Figs. 164 ff. ; Strzygowski, Bys. Benkm., iii,
p. xix ; V. Schultze, Christliches Kunstblatt, 1889, pp. 102 ff. ; J. Picker, Sarstellung der Apostel
in der altchristlichen Kunst ; N. Pokrovsky, Monuments of Orthodox Iconography and Art, ch. viii
(Eussian) ; Ch. Bayet, Recherches pour servir . . ., pp. 113 ; Garrucci, Storia, vol. iv. Of older
books, Oiampini, Vetera Monimenta ; Fantuzzi, Monumenti Bavennati de' secoli di messo, Venice,
1802; G. Fabri, Ravenna ricerca,ta ; :A. Tarlazzi, Memorie sacre, 1852, may be mentioned.
' This idea is developed by Diitschke, as above, pp. 122 ff.
136 SCULPTUEE

breach in the continuity of artistic tradition. The relief tends to grow lower
than in the Eoman group, and in the treatment of more than one example
we are reminded of the 'Peter Belief from Asia Minor at Berlin (Fig. 88),
and the fine ivory pyxis from the Christian East at the same place (Fig. 115).
The resemblance to the Sidamara group (p. 128) is more remote, but is yet
sufficient to suggest that the Kavenna figured sarcophagi may represent a later
provincial development of the art which produced the example with the Christ
at Berlin and its earlier pagan predecessors. Both in the Sidamara group
and at Eavenna we find attitudes recalling Greek sculpture of the fourth
century b. c.
The claims of Anatolia are perhaps stronger than those of Syria ; but since
in both provinces Hellenistic influences controlled figure-art in the fourth century,
while sculptors from both regions were working together in the marble quarries
of Proconnesus,' it is impossible to discriminate with certainty between their
several productions. Whatever doubt may exist with regard to figure subjects,
the ornamental motives are certainly derived from Syria and the regions to
the north and east of that country. This is what we should expect from the
close relations of the Adriatic city with the East and from the number of
Syrian bishops who sat upon her episcopal throne. Especially characteristic
are the motives in which birds and animals are seen in the convolutions of
vine-scrolls, as on the sarcophagus of Theodore and other tombs ; ^ whorl-like
designs, as seen on the end of a sarcophagus in S. ApoUinare in Classe,
remind us of the grammaire orientale ; the frequent guilloche is an old favourite
from Hither Asia ; the confronted lions on either side of a conventional tree
on a child's sarcophagus in the Museo Nazionale ' recall those Persian motives
which the Christian East more especially transmitted to the West by the
figures inwoven in silk fabrics. It has been noticed elsewhere that the
scallop niche, very frequent in these sarcophagi, may have an oriental origin
(p. 130) ; the barrel form of so many lids is associated with Syria.
The earliest of these sarcophagi are evidently those with the finer figure
subjects. The latest appear to be those with nothing but decorative and
symbolic designs. But the figure subjects, if we may judge from their degenera-
tion, continued down to the sixth century, perhaps in some cases even later ;
while ornament, the same in character as that of the later group, appears upon
examples which should be of the fourth century. There can be little doubt that
in the fifth century the two styles are contemporaneous, and it becomes a
question whether they did not overlap at an earlier period. If they did, there
must have been a remarkable persistence in the manner of rendering peacocks,
vine-scrolls, and other ornaments ; for the peacocks and foliage upon the back
of the sarcophagus of St. Einaldus in the cathedral (p. 138) are of precisely the
same character as those upon the late sarcophagus of Archbishop Theodore.
A similar difficulty confronts us with regard to the various forms of the sacred
monogram and the cross, which would seem to be used indifferently. If we
reject the earlier dating of the ornamental work, the only alternative is to
suppose that the older sarcophagi were often left undecorated on the ends and
backs, and that the ornament of later style appearing on these parts was added
later, perhaps when a reinterment was made. This seems a reasonable hypo-
thesis and has been adopted by many. The majority of the figure subjects
belong to two classes : isolated figures within intercolumniations or niches, and
isToups representing Our Lord seated or standing between Apostles. Some
versions of the latter resemble the Tradifio Legis (see Ch. XII) ; others are
apparently of a more general type, and form varieties of the Maiestas Domini, in
which Christ is enthroned in Paradise. Each class is represented by examples
of good and indifferent quality.
' 0. Wulif in Repertorium, xxxi. 281 ff.
' Dutschke, p. 78, No. 76, Fig. 32. Photos : Alinari, 18015 ; Ricei, 257-8.
» Dutschke, No. 38, pp. 35-6, Fig. 15.
 SAECOPHAai 137

Of the sarcophagi with figure subjects, the oldest would appear to be that in
S. Francesco, once containing the remains of Liberius (Fig. 71) : this may date,
if not from the close of the third, at any rate to the first quarter of the fourth
century.^ A second in the same church,^ with isolated figures in the same style
(Fig. 70), may either be a copy or a second version of a lost original model. The
remaining figured sarcophagi, with the possible exception of the most debased,
which may be later, should probably be placed in the last three quarters of the
century. Prominent among them are the Pignatta Sarcophagus and those of
Einaldus and the exarch Isaac. The first,' in S. Francesco, has on the front

Fig. 78. The Pignatta Sarcophagus, Kavenna. (Eicci.)

Christ enthroned, holding a book in his left hand and raising his right to the
level of his head (Fig. 78), a vigorously treated figure recalling, like that of
the sarcophagus in Sta Maria in Porto (see below), the Christ of the ivory
pyxis at Berlin which was probably made in the Christian East (p. 183). His
feet rest upon a lion and dragon, while to right and left stand St. Peter and
St. Paul, beyond whom are two palm-trees. On the right end, between fluted
pilasters, is the Annunciation (Fig. 66), the angel on the right, the Virgin seated
and holding the spindle with the wool above the basket ; on the left end is the
Salutation, between two cypresses (Fig. 79). On the back, two deer drink from
a large amphora filled with water.

' Garrucci, Storia, 348, 2-5 ; Eiegl, Spcitromische Kunslindustrie, Fig. 27, p. 102 ; G-oldmann,
PI. I ; Dutschke, pp. 48 ff ; Venturi, Simia, p. 212, Fig. 198 ; Gazette archiologigue, 1882, PI. XV.
Photos : Alinari, 18075 ; Eicci, 320-2.
2 Garrucci, Storia, 347, 2-4 ; Eiegl, Fig. 28, p. 103 ; Goldmann, PI. II ; Dutschke,
pp. 52 ff. ; Venturi, StoHa, p. 210, Pig. 197. Photos : Alinari, 18077; Eicci, 323-4.
•' Garrucci, Storia, 344 ; Tonturi, Storia, i, Figs. 193 and 214 ; Kraus, Geschichte, Figs. 151
and 153; Goldmann, PI. IV ; DUtschke, No. 68, pp. 59-62. Some are inclined to regard this
sarcophagus as of the fifth century. The sarcophagus received its name from the Pignatta
family, by which it was used ; the word PIGNATOEVM is engraved in large letters on the
barrel-shaped lid, which bears a cross in relief.
138 SCULPT OEE

The sarcophagus of St. Einaldus (Fig. 37) in the cathedral ' has on the front
Our Lord, beardless and with long hair, seated on a throne with high back, upon
a mount from which issue the four streams. In his left hand he holds an open
book ; his right arm is extended. From right and left approach St. Peter and
St. Paul bearing wreaths : beyond are two palms. Above the head of Our Lord
are conventional clouds, showing that the background is regarded as indicating
depth. On the back, in lower relief, is a jewelled sacred monogram upon a
medallion, flanked by two peacocks, behind which are conventional plants with
rose-like flowers. The two ends likewise bear decorative designs with doves
and vase and vine foliage ; the corners have fluted columns, and along the top of
«ach face runs a Lesbian cymation. The barrel-lid has a wreath, and a cross
flanked by lambs. The flgure of Christ on this sarcophagus is not without
dignity, but the proportions are inaccurate and the figures of the Apostles are
inferior to those on the tomb of Liberius. In many respects they recall types
of Carolingian art, and this is not surprising, seeing that both at Eavenna and
in the Frankish Empire the reproduction of the antique was carried on under
similar conditions.
A sarcophagus in Sta Maria in Porto ^ should be compared with that of
St. Einaldus. It also has Christ enthroned between Paul, who receives a
book, and a beardless Apostle standing somewhat apart : the places of the palm-
trees are occupied by two other beardless Apostles. On the back is a cross upon
a medallion flanked by two birds and two palm-trees. On each end are two
Apostles bearing wreaths. Spiral columns stand at the corners, and a cymation
runs round the top. The barrel-lid has at one end a lamb, at the other a vase
flanked by two doves. The figure of Christ, which has no nimbus, approaches
very nearly that of the Berlin ivory pyxis (p. 183). A variant of inferior style,
in which Peter and Paul' are clearly diiferentiated and two wreath-bearing
Apostles are added on the front, is in S. Apollinare in Classe.^ The figure of
Christ has here long wavy hair and lacks the virile character of the last
example. At each end are three standing Apostles ; at the back a cross-bearing
medallion, flanked by peacocks and foliage in the same style as the designs on
the backs of the sarcophagi of Einaldus and Archbishop Theodore. A cymation
runs round the top and fluted pilasters ornament the angles. The barrel-top
has a form of the sacred monogram repeated six times in very bold relief : on
each of its ends is a cross flanked by birds which stand on foliage.
The sarcophagus of the exarch Isaac in San Vitale * is so called because it
was re-used for the sepulture of a Byzantine governor. On the front is the
Adoration of the Magi, the Virgin sitting on the extreme left and holding out the
Child to the Magi, who follow each other at intervals (Fig. 36). On the left side
is the Eaising of Lazarus ; on the right, Daniel between two lions. The back
shows a medallion with the sacred monogram flanked by two peacocks ; behind
each is a date-palm. The sarcophagus has fluted columns at the corners, and
a Lesbian cymation along the top of all fields except the back. In this, as in its
larger decorative designs, it resembles the sarcophagus of Einaldus ; and in both
cases the question arises whether the ornamental part may not be a later addition.
1 Gan-uoci, Storia. PI. 345, 1-3 ; Goldmann, PI. V, 5 ; Dutschke, pp. 13 ff. ; Kraus,
Geschichte, 239, Fig. 194 ; Venturi, Storia, i. Pig. 200 ; Riegl, Kunstindustrie, Pig. 26 ; Weis-
Liebersdorf, Christus- und Apostelbilder, p. 71. Photos : Alinari, 18089 ; Kicci, 195-6.
" Garrucci, Storia, 349, 1-3 ; Diitschke, pp. 68 if. and Figs. ; Goldmann, iii. 3 ; Venturi,
Storia, i, Fig. 196 ; Bollettino d'arte, ii, 1908, No. 9, p. 8, Fig. 1. Pliotos : Alinari, 18084 ; Kicci,
484-5.
s Garrucci, Storia, 346, 2 ; Diitschke, pp. 85 ff.. No. 80 ; Goldmann, PI. IV, 4, and V, 4 a.
Photos : Alinari, 18016 ; Ricci, 250, 251, 644.
~~ * Ciampini, Vetera Monimenta, 1699, PI. Ill ; Garrucci, Storia, 311, 2 ; Cattaneo, Varchifei-
iura in Italia, p. 23 ; A. Venturi, La Madonna, p. 263 ; Goldmann, PI. VII ; Diitschke, pp. 9 if.
The barrel-lid bears a Greek inscription in iambics relating to the exarch, and a Latin prose
translation. It is worthy of note that Isaac is described as an Armenian. For a fragment
from another sarcophagus with the Adoration (in S. Giovanni Battista), see Diitschke, p. 63,
Fig. 26. Photo : Ricci, 459. .
 SAECOPHAGI
139
The sides with the Eaising of Lazarus and Daniel should be compared with
those of a sarcophagus in the Museo Nazionale ' (Figs. 72, 80), which has on the
front a version of the Traditio Legis or Jlfazestos already noted upon the Pignatta

Fi«. 79. The Salutation : end of the Pignatta Sarcophagus, Ravenna. (Eicci.)

Sarcophagus. On the back are two fragments of another sarcophagus,^ in which

the figures were crowded more or less after the Roman fashion : one represents
the Sacrifice of Isaac ; the other, five mutilated standing figures. All the
sculpture of this sarcophagus should be of the fourth century.

' Garrucci, Storia, 332, 2-4 ; Goldmann, p. 10, Figs, li and 21 a, b ; Dijtschke, pp. 41-3 ;
Venturi, Storia, i, Figs. 194, 195, 199. Photos : Alinari, 18117, 18118, 18119; Eicci, 53-4.
^ Diitschke, pp. 44-5. To compare are a sarcophagus from Eome in the Louvre, Garrucci,
Storia, 324, 1-3 ; another in the Vatican, Garrucci, ibid., 327, 2-4 ; and a third from Mar-
seilles, Le Blant, Les sarcophages, &c., PI. XVI, 1.
 140 SCULPTUEE

It would be of little profit to give minute descriptions of ftll the more debased
figured sarcophagi. Mention may, however, be made of those in the cathedral
associated with the names of SS. Barbatianus ^ and Exuperantius,^ but not de-
monstrably made to contain their remains. The first (Fig. 81) has on the front,
under scalloped canopies between columns, three standing figures — the youthful
Christ flanked by St. Peter and St. Paul : Ijeyond the figures are two amphorae,
each containing a flower ; on the back is a disk with the sacred monogram
flanked by two lambs ; on the ends, candelabra and crosses with monograms.
The barrel-lid has jewelled crosses and a monogram within a wreath on one
side, plainer crosses and monogram on the other. The sarcophagus of Exuper-

FiG. 80. The Raising of Lazarus : end of a sarcophagus in the Museum at Eavenna.
(Eicci.) P. 139.
antius also has Our Lord standing between Peter and Paul ; but the figures
form a group, and there are no columns except at the corners : two palm-trees
stand beyond the Apostles. One end has a cross with divergent foliage ; the
other a sacred monogram within a wreath : the back is not visible. The
gestures of the figures recall those of Apostles in the mosaics of the mausoleum
of Placidia, while the lambs represent the same symbolism as that of the
sarcophagus of Honorius : we may perhaps date the work towards the middle
of the fifth century. A sarcophagus in the archiepiscopal palace has on the
front a large tabula ansata with the name of Seda, a cubicularius of Theodoric.^
To right and left, beneath two arches, were formerly two figures now broken
away, perhaps by orthodox enemies of Arianism. It is a misfortune that the
figures are lost, for there is plausibility in Dutschke's suggestion that this tomb
1Garrucei, Storia, 336, 4 ; 337, 1-3 ; Diitsclike, pp. 16 ff. ; Goldmann, PI. VII ; Venturi
Storia, i. 202 ; Baumstark in 0. C, iii, 1903, 180, &c. Photos : Alinari, 18088; Eioei 53-4. "
'Garrucei, 336, 1-3 ; Dutschke, pp. 20-2 ; Goldmann, PI. II. Photo : Eioci, 198.
'Found in the cathedral ; now in the archiepiscopal palace. Diitschke d 25 and
pp. m^iff. Photo : Ricci, 229. ' ^"
 SARCOPHAGI
141
may represent the style of the marmomrius Daniel, to whom Theodoric gave
a monopoly for the execution of sarcophagi.' Names of artists are so rare in
the history of Early Christian art that the loss is doubly to be regretted.
Of the sarcophagi ornamented with nothing but symbolical subjects, the
first to be noticed are those in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia. One, tradi-
tionally known as the tomb of Honorius, has on the front the Lamb standing
under a gabled arch before the Cross, on the arms of which are two doves, while
to right and left are crosses between round arches with shell niches.'* On the
other, called the tomb of Constantius, the nimbed Lamb stands on the mount
from which issue the four streams : to right and left stand two other lambs,
and beyond these two palm-trees. On the corners of the lid of this example

Fig. 81. Sarcophagus of S. Barbatianus in the Cathedral at Ravenna. (Ricci.) P. 140.

appears the sacred monogram in the Constantinian form, though, as in other

cases at Eavenna, the loop of the rJio is continued in a downward direction,
giving it somewhat the appearance of a Latin E.^ There does not seem any
valid reason for denying to these two monuments a date as early as the fifth
century : G-oldmann's attribution to the seventh century Avill hardly win wide
acceptance. A sarcophagus in the museum (No. 495) has two confronted
Iambs ; between is the sacred monogram in a wreath with lemnisci converted
into tendrils, and beyond, two palm-trees.*

' Cassiodorus, Variae Epistolae,iii. 19 (in Monunienia Germaniae hist, p. 89). Daniel is con-
jectured tohave been an Armenian. Le Blant, in his Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule, pre-
face to vol. ii, remarks upon the frequency of Hebrew names in the Christian East, and their
comparative rarity in the West. Bayet {Eecherches, &c., p. 117), in giving this reference, notes
that liis own experience is confirmatory.
2 Goldmann, PI. VIII, No. 11, and p. 56; Garrucei, PI. 356; Venturi, Piga. 203-4 on
pp. 216-17 ; Dutschke, pp. 4-7. Photos : Alinari, 10318 ; Ricci, 6213.
s Garrucei, PI. 355; Venturi, Storia, i. Fig. 204 ; Dutschke, pp. 1-3; Goldmann, PI. VIII,
11. Photo : Ricci, 64-5.
* For this conversion of lemnisci into tendrils terminating in leaves, see p. 167. Another
sarcophagus in the museum (No. 504), which has on one end crosses and on the other the
sacred monogram with o and w suspended from it, has on the lid the sacred monogram in a
wreath with tendril-femnisa upon which doves are perched. Yet another sarcophagus in the
same place shows this wreathed monogram flanked by two sheep with rosettes above their

*J
142 SCULPTUEE

The remaining sarcophagi with symbolic ornament are for the most part ia
S. Apollinare in Classe and in the museum.^ They bear various subjects, in
which confronted peacocks or lambs are associated with crosses, sacred mono-
grams in wreaths, vases, vine-scrolls, and other designs. The execution is
always symmetrical, sometimes stiff and heavy, but seldom ineffective, and
degeneration is less marked than in the case of the reliefs with human figures.
We may especially notice the sarcophagus of the Archbishop Theadi^re in
S. Apollinare in Classe ; here we see the monogram flanked by two peacocks,
behind each of which is a conventional vine-scroll.^ Birds peck the grapes in
each corner, and before the peacocks' breasts are two rosettes.* The ends hav&
vases or crosses with foliage and birds; the back, birds and hares in the
convolutions of vine-scrolls. The lid has on each side a row of three sacred
monograms in laurel wreaths, that in the centre being of the Constantinian
form, the others of the type with straight vertical shaft. Another example in
the same church shows two confronted peacocks, and a vase in the centre of an
arcade of six arches, each with a scallop niche, the four external arches having
beneath them crosses and palm-trees.* A similar arrangement is seen on
another sarcophagus in the same building, where, however, the central motive
consists of a palm-tree between two lambs. '^ The crosses and palms beneath
scallop niches occur on a second tomb in this church, " which has another late
example known as the sarcophagus of the Archbishop Felix. It shows a
central niche with gable top, beneath which is the sacred monogram ynth a and
u) suspended from it : this is flanked by two lambs with crosses above their
backs ; beyond them are two round arches from which coronae are suspended ;
while beyond are candelabra with burning tapers, and fluted pilasters.'

5. FiGUEE Beliefs other than those of Sarcophagi.

First and Second Periods.
The later reliefs on the Arch of Constantine at Eome hardly fall within our
period, more especially if, as Mr. Wace has suggested, two at least of the larger
subjects were executed for Diocletian and only adapted for use upon the monu-
ment of his successor by the alteration of the imperial head.* But as they
illustrate the advance of that coloristic treatment which became characteristic of
East-Christian sculpture, and are especially important as transitional monuments
between this sculpture and that of imperial Eome, it is necessary to make
passing mention of them in the present place." It is of course well known that
not all the sculptures on the arch are of the time of Constantine, many being of
earlier date. The Constantinian reliefs are the flying Victories of the spandrels
hind quarters (Dutschke, pp. 39-40 ; Goldmann, p. 11, Fig. 19). This wreath is repeated at
one end, while the other has an amphora containing a large trefoil. Sheep flank a wreathed
cross with tendril-Jemmsci terminating in vine-leaves on a sarcophagus in S. Apollinare in
Classe (Venturi, Fig. 207).
1 See Diitschke, pp. 72 ff., where all are discussed and many figured.
" Goldmann, p. 55 and PI. VI ; Garrueci, PI. 391, 3 ; Venturi, Figs. 209 and 213 ;
Diitschke, pp. 82 ff. Archbishop Theodore died in a.d. 688.
' Another sarcophagus in S. Apollinare has almost the same design (Venturi, Fig. 211),
Peacocks standing upon vine branches, which issue from n vase surmounted by the sacred
monogram, appear on a closure-slab in the same church (Venturi, Fig. 210).
* Venturi, Fig. 212 ; Diitschke, p. 81.
■■ Diitschke, p. 82 ; Venturi, Fig. 205. A similar design ornaments the front slab of a
balcony monument in S. Antonio at Padua, only here the central design is the nimbed Lamb
in a fluted disk (Venturi, Fig. 208).
'0 Venturi, Fig. 215.
Classical Review, "< Venturi,
xx, 1906, 235 ; Papers of the British SchoolFig.
at 206 ; Diitschke,
Borne, iv. 270. p.
Mr.77.Wace
observes that the heads have been chiselled away. As Constantine celebrated no triumph
in Eome, the reliefs of the north and west sides may have been executed for Diocletian's
triumph of a. d. 302.
' The Arch of Constantine was erected in a.d. 315, A detailed description with the
necessary references will be found in Mrs. Strong's Eoman Sculpture, ch. xiv.
 FIGURE RELIEFS OTHER. THAN SARCOPHAGI 143
of the main arch, with the genii of the Seasons below them ; the two medallions
with Sol and Luna on the sides ; and the long, narrow friezes forming a zone
below the medallions on the front and back. The work of the groups, which is
all undercut, exhibits that 'cubic isolation' of the several figures which, as
already observed, follows from the attempt to reduce all to a single plane upon
a background of uniform dark shadow (p. 113).

Fio. 82. Marble reliefs of the fourth century from the Hippodrome, Constantinople :
Kaiser Friedrioh Museum, Berlin. (Berlin ; KSnigliche Museen.)

A large marble relief with Jonah in the monster's jaws, now at New York,
was found at Tarsus in 1876. It is assigned to the third or fourth ceutury.^
A white marble relief in the Musee Lavigerie at Carthage (much damaged)
represents the Virgin seated with the Child, with an angel near her ; and the
angel appearing to the shepherds. The relief, which is in a foliate border, and
cannot have formed part of a sarcophagus, is in a good style, and the draperies
are well rendered. It may perhaps be of the fourth century.' Other reliefs and
fragments representing the Virgin may also approximate to this date.'
' De Bossi, Bullettino, 1884-5, 146 ; J. Delattre, Culte de la Sainte Vierge en Afrigue, pp. 10 if.
M. Bayet, who saw the relief in 1905, expressed himself in favour of the close of the fourth
century (Delattre, p. 13).
' W. Lowry, American Journal of Archaeology, v, p. 51, 1901.
' Delattre, as above, p. 18 ; Rohault de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge, ii. 602-6.
144 SCULPTUEE

The four reliefs on the base of the Theodosian obelisk in the Hippodrome at
Constantinople^ represent an emperor, perhaps Constantine, watching a per-
formance of dancers and musicians and receiving gifts and petitions. The
symmetrical treatment of these reliefs is adapted to the ceremonial nature of
the subjects, and the general effect is not displeasing (Fig. 83).
The reliefs decorating the sides of a marble block, perhaps used in a ball
game-, found in the Hippodrome in 1834 and now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum
at Berlin, are probably of the late fourth century.^ It has on it chariot races in
the Hippodrome and a very interesting representation of the lot-casting urn used
for deciding' the positions of the drivers. It is an interesting fact, first pointed
out by the late Dr. Hans Graeven, that this urn, which was fixed to a framework
and turned mechanically, was copied by Garolingian artists, probably from a
miniature in some very early illuminated MS. It is introduced into the scene
of the parting of the garments in the Crucifixion in the Utrecht Psalter and on
at least two ivory carvings, one in the cathedral church at Narbonne, the other
in the Victoria and Albert Museum.' The sculptures, which are of indifferent
quality, recall those of the obelisk base and must be of similar date. We may
compare those on the marble plinth of the lost bronze statue of Porphj'rius, which
has circus scenes, a portrait figure, &c., on its sides (see p. 124, n. 1). (Fig. 82.)
The column of Arcadius,* like the vanished column of Theodosius,^ was on
the triumphal way between the Golden Gate and the imperial palace, its actual
site being the forum known as Xerolophos. It stood until the year 1719, when
it was so damaged by an earthquake that the Government ordered its removal.
What remains is called the Avret Tash, or Woman's Stone, because there was
formerly a woman's market in the neighbourhood. It is in a side street ; and
though only the base and lowest part of the shaft still stand, it rises above the
one-storied houses which surround it. The square base contains two chambers,
on the roof of one of which is a design in relief with the sacred monogram
between a and w, in a lozenge inscribed in a rectangle : the spandrels at the
corners of the latter figure contain palmettos and scrolls. Of the exterior only
the east side is visible, the other sides being concealed by the structures which
crowd round it. The remaining reliefs have suffered severely from the effects
of fire and neglect. Hardly a complete figure has survived," and it is impos-
sible to use these damaged remains as the basis for a study of contemporary
sculpture.
The column of Marcian was until recently inaccessible, standing as it did
within a private courtyard : only the capital at the top could be studied from

' Wace andTraquair, Journ. Hellen. St., 1909, 60 ff. ; Hertzberg, Geschichte der Bymntiner, &c.,
pp. 4-5 (rig.)
lomtarda, i, Fig. ; d'Aginoourt,
18 ; Harbeek, Sculpture,
Jahrb. k. PI.
d. A.X, I.,Figs.
xxv. 4-7
28. ; Gt. Eivoira, Origini della architettura
2 0. Wulif, Berlin Catalogue, i, p. 16, No. 27 ; Berne archeologique, ii, Ft. I, PI. XXVIII (1845').
The lot-casting machine also occurs upon a contorniate medal (C. Robert, J^tude sur les medail-
hns contorniaies, PI. Ill, Brussels, 1882).
* Dalton, in Proc. Soc. Ant., xxi, 1906, pp. 188 ff.
* See J. Strzygowski, Jahri. k. d. A. I., viii, 1893, pp. 230 ff. The sculpture at the upper
end of the spiral was drawn by Melchior Lorch, who was In Constantinople in 1557-9
(A. Michaelis, Mittheilungen, as above, 1892; Strzygowski, p. 241, Fig. 7): it shows a procession
of warriors with their prisoners approaching Arcadius and Honorius. The column, as it was
in the early seventeenth century, was published by Sandys in 1 610 (reproduced by Strzy-
gowski, as above, Fig. 1 on p. 232). Its appearance at the end of the same century is shown
by other drawings (A. Geffrey, ia colonne d' Arcadius a Constantinople d'apres un dessin inedit, in
Hon. Piot, 1899, pp. 99-180, and PI. X-XIII. See also E. Miintz, Bevue des etudes grecques, 1888,
p. 318). A detail by the French artist Cassas (d. 1827) is reproduced by d'Agincourt, Sculvfure.
PI. XI, Fig. 3 (Strzygowski, p. 235).
' Ducange, Constantinopolis Christiana, i, p. 79 (Fig-), after an early drawing ; also repro-
duced by d'Agincourt {Sculpture, PI. XI), by Banduri (ii. 509), and by Strzygowski, as above,
p. 243. On the shaft were the triumphs of Theodosius ; on the base, the emperor receiving
homage. See also Unger in Bepertorium, ii, 1879, pp. 118 ff. ; de Beyli^, VhaUtation lyzantine.
p. 28.
^ Strzygowski's
man, and fragments Fig. 6 on figures.
of other p. 237 shows some ornamental detail, one complete figure of a
 FIGURE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SARCOPHAGI 145

the neighbouring streets : ' earthquakes had shifted the capital from its true
position, and large fragments had fallen to the ground. A recent fire has
permitted two French scholars to examine the base," only known from the
seventeenth-century drawing by Spon.' Three faces are carved with large
wreaths containing crosses with six limbs : on the fourth, or principal face,
were two winged Victories holding between them a wreath with a cross within

Fig. 83. Reliefs on the base of the obelisk of Theodosius, Constantinople.

(S^bah and Joaillier.)

it. This relief has suifered severe damage, only one Victory now remaining,
-and that headless. But the general sense of movement, and the skill with
which the drapery is executed, show that the sculptors of the period still
possessed a good tradition.
Of the sculptured ambos of Salonica only two fragments remain, both now
in the Ottoman Museum at Constantinople.'' Single figures under an arcade
1 Salzenberg, Altchristliche Baudenkmale mn Constantinopel, Berlin, 1854, 34-6 ; Album, PI. I,
Pig. 5 ; N. Kondakojf, Byzantine Churc)ies and Monuments of Cple. (Proceedings of the Sixth Archaeo-
logical Congress at Odessa, 1887), 214, PI. XLVII.
' MM. J. Ebersolt and A. Thiers. See J. Ebersolt in Eev. arch., July-August, 1909, Iff.,
Pigs. 1 and 2.
^ J. Spon and G. Wheler, Voyage d'ltalie, de Balmatie, de Grice et du Levant, &c., i, p. 184 : the
-drawing is reproduced in Banduri, Imperium orientale, ii, p. 498.
* Formerly in the courts of the churches of St. George and S. Panteleemon respectively.
M. i!., photos C. 67], 674 ; Ch. Bayet, L'Amhon de Salonique, in BiU. des ecoles franfaises de Rome
120< L
146 SCULPTURE

with scalloped niches make up the subject of the Magi seeking and adoring the
infant Christ. The Child is on the lap of the Virgin, who is seated full fa,ce,
while an angel introduces the worshippers. Another imperfect figure standing
with crossed legs evidently represents a shepherd. The spandrels are filled
with eagles displayed, and above is a panel containing vines, vases, &c., within
an acanthus border of a style suggesting the fifth century. The work betrays-
the hand of a meritorious sculptor ; in the figure of the Virgin there is a certain
majesty, and the drapery is carefully treated. But more than one detail removes
the composition from the earliest period of Christian art. An angel intervenes
between the Magi and the Child ; the fact that the scene passes indoors is indi-
cated by curtains upon a rod beneath the arches. M. Bayet remarks that th&
appearance of the Virgin, so aloof and detached, recalls the Adoration in
S. Apollinare Nuovo at Eavenna;^ while the separation of the actors in a
single scene by the columns of arcade under which they stand is a characteristic
of sarcophagi in the same Adriatic city, perhaps suggested by sculptures of Syrian
origin (p. 135).
The famous carved wooden doors of the Church of Sta Sabina at Eome ^ have
naturally formed a subject of contention between the opposing parties among
students of Early Christian art ; for if it can be shown that they were made in
the Christian East, their resemblances, iconographical and other, to certain
sarcophagi and ivory carvings raise the question whether these objects also-
should not be transferred to the oriental side of the account. The doors in
their present form are a reconstruction, and the carved foliated borders are of
more modern date, though they perhaps reproduce more or less faithfully the
original designs. But the disposition upon the two valves of eighteen out of an
original twenty panels with carved reliefs, in alternating pairs of larger and
smaller size, is in accord with what we know to have been the ancient arrange-
ment upon folding doors ; and it may be assumed that when they were put in
position this arrangement was followed.
The subjects are such as are commonly found upon Early Christian sarco-
phagi and frescoes, with the exception of some of the Passion scenes, the
representation of which is a rarity at this time. The principal subjects are :
the Adoration of the Magi, the Miracle of Cana and Healing of the Blind, th&
Transfiguration, the Agony in the Garden, Christ before Caiaphas, the Denial of
Peter, Christ before Pilate, the Crucifixion, the Maries at the Tomb, Christ
appearing to Three Disciples, Christ appearing to the Holy Women, Christ in
Glory ; the Calling of Moses, the Crossing of the Bed Sea, the Miracles in the
Desert, the Ascent of Elijah to Heaven, the Calling of Habakkuk. In the New
Testament series the Annunciation was probably once included : what the other
lost panel contained it is difficult to say. Several details seem to support the
oriental origin. The figure of Moses with a scroll resembles the Moses of the-

et d'Athenes, vol. i, 1876, pp. 249 ff. ; Bayet and Duchesne, Mission an Mont Aihos, pp. 249 ff.
and PI. I-IV, and Eecherches pour senir, &e., pp. 105-6 ; Garrucci, Storia, PI. 426, Fig. 1 ; Rohaulfc
de Fleury, La Messe, iii, PI. 170, 171 ; G. Eivoira, Oiigini della architettura lombarda, Fig. 71 ;.
Kraus, Geschichie der chrisiUchen Kunst, i, Fig. 189, p. 234.
1 Cf. also the ivory carving in the British Museum (Fig. 126).
2 The following are the principal publications of the doors, those of Kondakoff, Wiegand,.
and Berthier being the most detailed: Mamachi, Annales ordinis Praedicatorum, i. 569 ff.,
Rome, 1756 ; d'Agincourt, Sculpture, PI. XXII ; Garrucci, Storia, cdxeix ; N. P. Kondakoff, in
Rev. arch., N.S,, vol. xxxiii, 361 ff., Paris, 1877 ; J. B. de Rossi, Musaici, Fasc. iii. No. 5 ; J. J.
Berthier, La porte de Sainte-Sabine a Rome, Freiburg, 1892 ; E. Dobbert, Tiber den Stil Niccolb-
Pisano's und dessen Ursprung, 1873, pp. 87-8, and in Prussian Jahrbuch, i, 1880, p. 43 f. ;
F. Wiegand, Das altchristliche Hauptporial cm der Kirche der heiligen Sabina, Treves, 1900 ; A. Ainaloff,
Hellenistic Origins, eh. ii, and B. Z., xi, 1902, p. 280 ; J. Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv,
p. 75, Berlin, 1893 ; B. Z., xii, 1903, p. 698 ; G. Millet, in A. Michel, Histoire de tart, i. 258 ;.
A. Venturi, Storia, i. 476, Figs. 308-25 ; G. Stuhlfauth, Elfenbeinplastik, 26, 203 ; H. Grisar,
B. Q., 1894, pp. 1-48 (maintains the Western origin) ; Holzinger, Altchristliche Baudenkmdler,
1899,45, Fig. 39 ; Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc, N.S., i, 1895, p. 251 f. ; L. von Sybel, Christliche Antiker
ii. 257-8.
 FIGUEE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SAECOPHAGI 147

stone relief at Berlin (Fig. 90) ; the fa9ade of the church with its two lateral
towers is of a Syrian or Anatolian and not of an Italian type.^ The picturesque
character of many scenes, recalling Hellenistic genre reliefs of Alexandria, is
also an indication of an Eastern origin.^ Eoman sculptors generally renounced
picturesque backgrounds after the time of Trajan ; but in Syria and Asia Minor
there seems to have been a continual tendency to revert to early models, and
the appearance of such treatment in the fourth century is perhaps more likely.

M
^ -y>« ^*T^.\ •
^1
-f,'miJi:«^ffluai;^:2

FJ^*i^ '. wR^-

■^■-*^
t *T|5;
■HPi^''.
^r^^-"' / P^-
M^ ' ■■ la^
^ mmM
^^B . "■ , ■. ' ■^^' 'f- wg.||!WWti
Fii s^ -^M'^'M^M
. ■ '

mvW^^^H

''Niiii
i'^-^^^m^^
l ^^
P.iXSrtt^p^ H
^ ^ ^^

Fig. 84. Fragment of an ambo of the fifth century, Salonika. (Haiiies Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 145.

east of the Mediterranean than in Italy. It may be noted that the picturesque
treatment with landscape backgrounds and genre accessories is characteristic of
the early Indian reliefs of Bharhut (Barahat) and Sanchi, which are of the first
half and middle of the first century b. c, and show signs of Greek as well as
Persian influence. A further argument in favour of the oriental origin of the
doors is to be found in the existence in Constantinople of doors in marble (Fig. 3)
similar in arrangement of the panels to those of Sta Sabina, and in all proba-
bility ornamental survivals of earlier doors carved in wood. They are of the
first period previous to the outbreak of iconoclasm, and therefore the originals
must have dated from an even earlier time. One pair is in the Gynaeconitis in
Sta Sophia, where they serve to separate the western and southern portions of
the gallery : ' each valve has five panels with alternately plain and foliated
borders, but the carved subjects which remain are ornamental, consisting of

^ Venturi, Storia, i, p. 343.

2 Ainaloff, see B.Z., xi, 1902, p. 280.
' Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, 75-6, Fig. i ; Eivoira, Orig. d. architettura lombarda, i, Fig. 72.
l2
148
SCULPTURE

foliate designs with a vase and pine-cone. Another pair is in the Kalender
Jami, a Byzantine church transformed into a mosque.' Here they are merely
ornamental reliefs in the form of doors built into the wall of the naos to right
and left above the main entrance, and are surmounted by a pediment ;with
acroteria of acanthus leaves : the panels here are alternately small and large as
at Sta Sabina, but without figure subjects. A third pair is in 'the Church of
Chora, now the Mosque of Kahrie Djami (p. 416), built into the wall to right
and left of the northern lateral entrance leading from the narthex to the

Fig. 85. Wooden sculpture of the fifth century, with saints, in the Cairo Museum.
(After Koptische Kumt, PI. VII.)
wooden gallery. Here again each valve has five panels, alternately low and
high, with ornamental borders and filled by figure subjects. These are now
much mutilated, but it is possible to identify four : Nativity, Adoration, Baptism,
and Ascension, some of which occupy more than one panel. The parallelism
with Sta Sabina is here very close.
The date of these Byzantine doors is attested by the similarity of the foliated
borders of those in Sta Sophia with those on the consular diptych of Philoxenus
(a.d. 525) in the Trivulzi Collection at Milan,'' by the style of the pediment at
KahriS Djami, which recalls that of the Moses relief at Berlin but is probably
considerably older, and by the capitals on the supporting columns, which resemble
' Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, p. 77, Fig. 5 ; E. Freshfield, in Archaeologia, Iv, Pi. XXXVI-
XXXVII.
' W. Meyer, Zwei anUke Elfenheiniiptychen, &c., No. 27 ; E. Molinier, Ivoires, p. 30, No. 80.
 FIG-UEE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SARCOPHAGI 149

those of the propylaeum of the Golden Gate ; further evidence is afforded by

iconographioal details of the reliefs on the Kahrie Djami doors, for instance the
frontal position of the Virgin in the Adoration, which corresponds to that seen on
the Monza ampullae (Ch. XI) and the mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuovo (p. 354),
and points to the sixth century as the probable date ; lastly, the arrangement of
the The
bronzeother
Byzantine doors ofwooden
early carved later periods'
doors isinusually
Italy, different
those of(Ch.
the XI).
Church of
S. Ambrogio at Milan,' which are probably even earlier than those of Sta Sabina,
may also be importations of oriental origin : it is singular that all the heads
should have been struck off the figures, a fact which may point to Mohammedan
fanaticism. '^ The carved scenes are taken from the story of David, a favourite
subject in Byzantine art, and there is a rather close analogy between the scene in
which the messenger of Samuel comes to the young David among his flocks and the
same scene upon a silver dish^ in the remarkable series found in Cyprus (Fig. 62).
The carved wooden doors of the church of the monastery on Mount Sinai,'
probably dating from the tenth or eleventh century (Kondakoff), have panels
similarly disposed, but the ornament contains no human figures, being entirely
floral and animal, and incised, not carved in relief; they include goats, hares,
peacocks, dogs, partridges, vases with vine-scrolls, and birds. In Coptic churches
in Egypt there are still wooden reliefs and panels with figure subjects.' A frieze
in the Church of Al Mu'allaka at Cairo has the Ascension and the Entry into
Jerusalem, another the Annunciation and Our Lord ; the door of the Church of
St. George has gospel scenes and two angels. The five panels in the British
Museum, which also came from Al Mu'allaka, are shown by their ornament to
be as late as the thirteenth century."
In the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin there is a wood-carving of con-
siderable size, probably once surmounting a pilaster, from Eshmunein (near
Hermopolis Magna) in Egypt, representing warriors mounted and on foot before
the fortified walls of a city.' One party, consisting of a group of foot-soldiers
with tunics of mail and crested helmets, carrying shields, and swords or spears
(the latter broken off), is led by two warriors of larger stature in an attack upon
mounted enemies in scale armour, one of whom is falling from his horse. At
the back, on the left, a standard-bearer raises aloft a labarum on which is carved
a cross. In the open gate of the city stand other soldiers of the first party,
while on the walls to the right three prisoners are hanging with their heads
fixed in fork-shaped gallows [furcae). On the ramparts above appears a row of
soldiers of smaller size ; from the middle rises as it were a precipitous rocky
eminence crowned with buildings, while in a central arch stand two figures,
one a male in a long mantle, the other apparently a female (the head broken).
On the left three large male forms in tunic and pallium emerge like terminal
figures from the rock.
The architecture of the buildings resembles that upon the ivory carving in
the Louvre representing St. Mark preaching before Alexandria (p. 212), while
the warriors in the foreground have more than one point of analogy with the
' A. Goldschmiclt, Die Kirchenthur des heiligen Ambrosius in Mailand, Strasburg, 1902.
Prof. Goldschraidt believes the doors to have been made in Italy. The monograph is
reviewed by Strzygowski {B. Z. xi, 1902, p. 666), who insists upon an oriental origin, laying
especial stress upon the hint as to provenance given by the mutilated heads. J. Sauer,
B. Q., 1902, p. 72, is disposed to question the early date.
2 The existing heads on various panels are restorations. Against the theory that the
removal of the original heads points to an oriental origin it has been argued that it would
not have been worth any one's while to bring doors so mutilated into Italy. But the
intention of those who brought them may have been to have the heads replaced, an intention
which was not fulfilled. ' Archaeologia, Ix, pp. 8-10.
* N. Kondakoff, Journey to Sinai, &e., p. 72 (Russian) ; G. Ebers, Dwrch Gosen sum Sinai,
p. 279 ; A. Lenoir, Architecture monastique, p. 308.
' Strzygowski, B. Q., 1897, Die christlichen Senkmdler Agyptms ; Orient oderBom, p. 73.
' British Museum Catalogue, No. 986.
' 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i, No.'243 and PI. VIZ ; Orient Oder Bom, PI. Ill, pp. 65 S. The
carving is forty-five centimetres high. It is flat at the back, the section being a half-oval.
150 SCULPTUEE

figures upon the porphyry sarcophagus of St. Helena (p. 131). Even if the
wood-carving had not been found in Egypt, these similarities would have
suggested such a provenance.'

Si^^g^^^^^?WM'.4

Fig. 86. Coptic tombstone of the seventh or eighth century.

(Britisli Museum.)

The date of the work is evidently early, perhaps of the fifth century, the
warriors in the foreground being well conceived and vigorously rendered. The
' The hehnets are the same as those on the St. Helena sarcophagus, and one or two of
the faces are very similar in type. The treatment of the mounted warriors is also similar.
 FIGUEE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SARCOPHAGI 151

arms and accoutrements recall those in the Old Testament scenes from the story
of Joshua in the mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore at Eome, and are also similar to
those of the Joshua Eotulus (p. 447), though the helmets here have no plumes.
These affinities naturally suggest that the subject of the wood-carving may also
be derived from the story of Joshua ; but it is impossible to see here the conquest
of Jericho or Ai, since the victorious party is issuing from the city and not
entering it. Strzygowski's conjecture that the vs^hole symbolically represents
the victory of the forces of faith against the infidel is perhaps the most
plausible. According to this view the three figures in the forks would be
captured infidel captains ; ' the two figures in the upper archway, the emperor
iind empress standing as spectators of the triumph in the door of the church ;
while the three terminal figures ^vould represent the Trinity,^ on behalf of which
the battle is joined.
The human figures among the stucco reliefs of the fifth century which
ornament a broad zone of the orthodox baptistery at Eavenna ' are coarsely
modelled, and appear to have undergone restorations. But the reliefs with
ornamental motives have a great charm ; they consist of such designs as
•confronted animals, peacocks, hares, stags, &c., on each side of vases and
baskets of fruit. The figure subjects, which alternate with the others, represent
Daniel between the lions, Jonah and the monster, and Christ between the
Apostles, all of types familiar on sarcophagi and on the frescoes of the Catacombs.
The stucco reliefs in the arches of the nave of the cathedral at Parenzo * have
similar ornamental motives, though the variety is less abundant (birds, filled
baskets, cornuaeopiae, floral motives, &c.).
The Eavenna reliefs were coloured. The stucco figures at the west end of
S. Maria della Valle at Cividale are either Byzantine or copies of Byzantine
models, perhaps, as Bertaux has suggested, in the precious metals. They are
-assigned to various dates, from the eighth century to the twelfth ; they may
possibly be even earlier than the first of the suggested periods." Moulded
ornament in stucco, as distinguished from representations of the human figure,
remained popular for centuries both with Mohammedans and Christians. The
stucco decoration of the Mosque of Tulun at Cairo (ninth century), and that of
the Church of El-Hadra in the Syrian Monastery of the Scete Desert," are well
known ; but moulded stucco is used in later Byzantine churches, e. g. in the
string courses and slabs of the Church of St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis.' The
<lecorative use of stucco may be of Mesopotamian origin, as Makrizi (ii. 265)
says that Tulun ordered the plan of his mosque from a Nazrani.
It is impossible to do more than cast a general glance at the Christian
sculpture of Egypt between the fourth and eighth centuries. The plastic art
which is described as Coptic * began when sculptors who preserved traditions
.and the hereditary skill of the older Egypt began to treat after their own

' The five kings of the Amorites are shown similarly executed in the Joshua Kotulus.
Similar forked branches were used in Egypt for executions down to the first half of the
nineteenth century (Lepsius, Brief e, pp. 209 ff. )
° The persons of the Trinity are represented by three bearded figures on the sarcophagus
from S. Paolo fuori le Mura now in the Lateran (Garrucci, Storia, PI. 215, Fig. 1).
^ Ch. Diehl, Eavenne, 33, Paris, 1903, and Kivoira, Origini delta architettura lomiarda, i,
Fig. 55. These stucco sculptures appear in the photos of the interior reproduced by most
-writers on Eavenna. Cf. Fig. 208.
* C. Errard and A. Gayet, L'Art bysantin, Pt. Ill, Parenzo, PI. VII and VIII.
= Venturi, Storia, ii. 127, Fig. 102 ; F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, Pl.opp.
j>. 332 ; J. Strzygowski, Has orienialische Italien (in Monatshefte filr Kunstwissenschaft, vol. i), xx ;
Diehl, Manuel, 362.
' J. Strzygowski, Oriens Cristianus, i. 356 ff. The ornament which is on the walls of the
Haikal is conventional, with architectural and flloral motives, but no human figures.
' Schultz and Barnsley, Church of St. Luke, p. 26 f.
' Cairo Museum Catalogues, Koptische Kunst, by -J. Strzygowski (refs. to his earlier
publications), and Coptic Monuments by W. E. Crum ; 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, vol. i, pp. 2i ff. ;
.see also Kraus, Geschichte, i. 2.54 ; Gayet, L'Art copte ; V. Schultze, Archdologie, 262, &c.
152 SCULPTURE

manner the types introduced for the most part through Hellenistic channels.
Where in stone, its material is almost always the soft limestone so easily pro-
cured in the neighbourhood of the Nile. It is almost entirely devoted to the
decoration of buildings, and like the sculpture of the other Eastern provinces
of the empire, it became ancillary to architecture almost from the firsi' It
found a place chiefly in friezes over niches and doorways, especially within the
gable-like pediments many of which are preserved in a more or less fragmentary
condition. Free sculpture is very rare (see above, p. 128). In the figures and
groups of the fourth and following centuries we observe a rapid degeneration
in the sense of proportion and the growth of a stiff conventional style, varied by

Fig. 87. Orpheus : limestone gable of the fourth century in the Cairo Museum.
(Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7287.)

occasional extravagances of gesture and attitude which almost recall the fantastic
creations of the Hindu sculptor. There is also a coarse delight in representation
of undraped figure, far removed from the Hellenic pleasure in the ideal nude ; in
certain sculptures, such as the Leda reliefs in the Cairo Museum, at Alexandria,
and at Berlin,^ a naive realism is pushed to its extreme. In all these works,
chiefly produced in Upper Egypt, we may note the reaction of a frankly
sensuous oriental taste against the finer sentiment of the Greek.
Coptic art from the fourth century onward produced no figure sculpture even
of the second rank. A sufficient idea of its quality may be gathered from the
large published collections in the Cairo Museum and the Kaiser Friedrich
Museum in Berlin. To the fourth and fifth centuries belong the figures in the

1 The only sculpture which has remained in its place is the relief representing the
Coptic type of equestrian saint in the lunette over the courtyard door of the Mosque of Ali at
Dashlug (Strzygowski, HellenisHsche unci koptische Kinist, p. 22, Fig. 15; Koptische Kunst,
Fig. 160). All the other examples are detached from their architectural framework.
2 Koptische Kunst, as above, No, 7279 ; Hellenisiische und kopi. Kunst, p. 45, Figs. 28-31 ;
Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i, No. 64, p. 30.
 FIGUEE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SARCOPHAGI 153

gable-like pediments ^ over doorways to which allusion has been made, in which
we see curly-headed amorini supporting medallions with the cross, Pan, Orpheus
charming the beasts, all framed within borders of interlaced acanthus typical
of this period of Egyptian art. With the sixth and seventh centuries the
nudities become rarer, the reliefs flatter and more feeble. With friezes with
hunting scenes and mounted saints,^ tympana and niches with figures on a
background of vine-scrolls," conventional birds, &c., we are already in the
sphere of the familiar Coptic tombstones produced in such numbers between
the sixth and eighth centuries,* and possessing only an archaeological interest.
Sculptures with specifically Christian subjects are rare and usually late. Among •
the most interesting are the reliefs with a mounted saint (Fig. 26), and the Virgin
seated with the Child between two angels, found at Thebes and now at Cairo.''
The Coptic sculptures at or from Bawit include representations of mounted
saints, a mutilated standing figure not without dignity, and a curious bas-relief,
apparently representing the monster which swallowed Jonah." (For examples of
Coptic sculpture, see Figs. 21-33, 86, 87.)
The Berlin Museum possesses a broken relief of Proconnesian marble
(Fig. 88) with two figures, perhaps from the scene of the death of Ananias.'
It was found at Ajatzam (Alatchan), between Sinope and Amaseia, the ancient
seat of a bishopric, a city which from the accounts of Gregory of Nyssa and
Bishop Asterius(d. 410) was inhabited in the fourth and fifth centuries by a wealthy
and luxurious community. On the right stands an Apostle with a long cross,
on the left is a stooping figure in a short tunic, on this theory representing
one of the servants who carried Ananias out of the Apostle's presence. The
same scene is completely represented upon the ivory reliquary of the fourth
century at Brescia (p. 192).* This marble relief may have been made in the
region of Amaseia ; but it is perhaps more probable that it was imported from
Constantinople or from Proconnesus. The style of the figures recalls that of
sarcophagi of Eavenna, and the modelling of the features and hands that of the
busts of evangelists in the Ottoman Museum next to be considered. Probably
the date is still within the limits of the fifth century.
The Ottoman Museum contains a large marble medallion, and fragments of
three others, with busts in very high relief. ' In the best example the figure
is perfect, and represents a bearded evangelist holding a book with a cross on
the cover. From the fact that the relief is highest at the top, it may be assumed
that the sculpture was intended to be seen from below, and it is probable that
the set of four evangelists once ornamented the pendentives of a church dome,
a position where in later times they are found executed in mosaic.
The complete evangelist — perhaps intended for St. Mark — wears a tunic and
chlamys, the folds of which are well rendered. His heavy face, with the large
eyes, broad nose, and full cheeks, diverges from the typical representations
of earlier times and seems to be a portrait. Although the sculptor is familiar
with the methods of rendering the eye introduced in Graeco-Eoman times,
the treatment of the face is distinct from that of the Eoman portrait-busts
with their finer and more penetrating realism. The likeness is half-way between
a type and an individual, as, upon an infinitely higher plane of art, is the bust of
Pericles by Cresilas. The work has character, and is executed with sufficient

1 Examples in Koptische Kunst, as above, Nos. 7285 ff., 7292''.

2 Ibid., Nos. 7283-4. = Ibid., 7292".
* Cairo Museum, Catalogue general, Coptic Monuments, by W. E. Crum, 1902 ; Wullf, Berlin
Catalogue, i, Nos. 73 ff.
° Ibid., No. 8704; also figured and mentioned in the later volume of the Catalogue
{Koptische Kunst, as quoted above), p. 10.5.
* J. Cl^dat in Cabrol's Diet, d'arch. chretienne, s. v. Baou'it, Figs. 1266 ff.
' J. Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxii, 1901, 29 ff. (Fig.); 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i,
No. 29. Dr. Wulif thinks the subject is part of a scene representing one of Christ's miracles.
* Strzygowski, as above, p. 31 (Fig.).
9 B. Z., i. 355, and PI. III.
154 SCULPTUEE
skill to justify its attribution to the fifth century. The treatment of the
garments somewhat recalls that of the Archangel Michael on the ivory panel in
the British Museum (Fig. 121), and a thick neck is common to both figures. But
the bust of St. Mark lacks the ideal feeling of the smaller work.

^'J

wmM
Fjg. 8S. Marble relief of the fifth-sixth century, with St. Peter : from the neighbourhood of
Sinope. (Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.)

A fragment with Lazarus ' in the Ottoman Museum may be compared with the
Moses relief at Berlin (p. 160). Two reliefs representing the Thi-ee Children of
Babylon are also at Constantinople.^ But two marble drums of columns in the
same collection ' are more important as illustrating the condition of Byzantine
' A. Muiioz, Nuom Bull, di arch, crist , xii, 1906, pp. 107 ff. V. ^ Schultze,
Ibid. Both from Psamatia.
Archilologie, p. 331,
» J. Strzygowski, B.Z., i, 1892, 576 ff. and PI. I and II
Fig. 102. The sculpture has been considerably damaged, and many of the heads of the figures
are missing. The use of the vine-motive for covering the surfaces of columns was of earlier
introduction, Constantino the Great having presented columnas vitineas from Greece to
St. Peter's at Rome (Zi6. Pont. : Vita Silvestri, § 16). It also persisted later, for Basil (867-86) set
up in the palace known as Kainourgion sixteen columns carved with animals in the convolu-
tions of encircling vines (Theophanes, Bonned., p. 332). The plain 'ivy' scroll encircling the
drum (jB. Z., i, PI. I) is of an early type, analogous to bands of ornament found upon nielloed
silver of the sixth century (Fig. 360;. It is not characteristic of middle or late Byzantine art.
 FIGURE RELIEFS OTHER THAN SARCOPHAGI 155

«culpture about the year a. d. 500, when the power of modelling the human
figure was already on the decline, while the execution of iioral ornament was
vigorous and masterly. The surface
of each is covered by a vine-branch
growing spirally upwards : between
the leaves are single figures of men
and animals, with two groups, one
representing the Baptism, the other
an altercation between two women,
one of whom carries a cock, the
other a dog. There is thus a curious
mixture of the genre scene with
the religious subject ; some of the
animals, notably a charging bull, are
admirably conceived. The human
figures are of different merit : all
have certain defects, such as arms
disproportionately short where the
body is draped, excessively long
where it is nude. But in the sub-
jects where pagan or religious models
were presumably available, the work
has still a certain classical feeling ;
ihe drapery is still skilfuUy treated,
especially in the case of the St. John
in the Baptism. In those cases, how-
over, in which the sculptor had to
rely upon his own powers, as with
the two women, the inferiority is
marked. The forms are clumsier,
the draperies less natural. The
column may be assigned with con-
fidence to the period between the
reign of Theodosius and that of
Justinian. In the latter period the
human figure was already losing its
old pre-eminence, and the floral
ornament had not yet been exces-
sively conventionalized. The bold
natural treatment of these columns
could hardly have been possible
later than the sixth century.
The two front columns of the
ciborium in S. Marco at Venice,^
brought from the Church of Sta
Maria del Canneto at Pola in the
thirteenth centuiy, belong to the
«arly sixth century ; the remaining
two appear to be -later comple-
mentary work perhaps of the
eleventh or twelfth century. Each
has nine zones divided by plain Sculpture on column of. the ciborium,
bands bearing Latin inscriptions; Fig. 1 S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari.)
and each zone has a series of figures j • v,
beneath arcadings of round arches in which are to be seen scalloped niches.
- Rohault de Fleury, La Messe, ii, PI. GUI; Garrucci, Storia, PI. 486 ff. ; E. Dobbert,
Vber den Stil NiccoVo Pisano's iind dessen Ursprung, 1873, p. 88 ; A. P. Zorzi, m Ongania, La BasiUca
156 SCULPTURE

The figures, though for the most part occupying separate niches, form part of
groups or subjects illustrating the stories of Joachim and Anna, the Virgin and
Our Lord, some of the episodes being derived from the Apocryphal gospels ;
this treatment recalls that of the ambo of Salonica (p. 145). The relief is high,
and Venturi, comparing it with that of the ambo, disputes the oriental origin of
the work, believing that in the sixth century, to which he assigns it, sculptured
reliefs in the East had already become flatter and more carelessly modelled.
He sees in the survival of early types and subjects upon these columns
characteristics pointing to a local art which preserved beyond their time icono-
graphic features already abandoned in great centres : such, for example, is the
prevalence of the youthful and beardless type of Christ. He thinks that Pola
itself may have produced this remarkable sculpture. Strzygowski, on the other
hand, considers the columns oriental, and suggests Syria-Palestine as a probable
locality.^ This seems more probable, but whatever the place, the influences
which presided over the work must have been oriental. There are distinct
analogies between its style and that of the figured sarcophagi of Eavenna ;
iconographical and ornamental details also point to the East, some subjects, e. g.
the death of Judas and the two scenes with Pilate, suggesting comparison with
the miniatures of the Codex Eossanensis (p. 452). We may note the sideways
position of Our Lord when riding into Jerusalem ; the Ascension resembling
that of the carved wooden panel in the Church of Al Mu'allaka at Cairo ;
and the persistent use of the scalloped niche throughout (p. 130). The columns
may have been Venetian booty obtained in the East. The best work shows
great fertility of invention, and a considerable dramatic sense : gestures are
well rendered and the draperies are skilfully disposed.
A marble relief in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 90) formerly built into the inner
face of the wall of Constantinople on the landward side, representing the calling
of Moses by the Lord,^ probably dates from the seventh century. It is in flat
relief with but the feeblest attempt at modelling, and the folds of the draperies
are not modelled, but marked by parallel lines. The work is that of a monu-
mental mason rather than a sculptor, and in fact the relief appears to have been
intended to place over a tomb.
In an intercolumniation surmounted by a gable, Moses, turned to the right,
extends both hands covered with his mantle to receive a scroll held by the hand
of the Almighty ; behind him an attendant flgure raises his right hand in
wonder ; before him are flames. In the gable is a cross flanked by peacocks ;
above it are conventional floral scrolls, and on the architrave is a mutilated
inscription.'
The motive of the hands covered with the mantle as a sign of reverence is
of Eastern origin and appears in Christian art in the fifth century, while the
bowed knee of Moses indicates an approach to the Byzantine proskynesis. As

di San Marco, vol. iii. No. xiii, pp. 281 ff. ; H. von der Gabelentz, Die mittelaiterliche Plastik Venedigs,
pp. Iff. ; Venturi, Storia dell' arte italiana, i, pp. 454 ff. and Figs. 219-72. Prof. Venturi thinks
they may have been brought from Pola in A. D. 1243. In the dialogues of the Anonymus of
Pola, published by Kandler, there is mention of columns taken from the basilica at Pola
founded by Bishop Maximianus of Eavenna in the sixth century. The huma,n figures are
rougher in the two posterior columns, and the treatment of columns, niches, and ornament
is inferior.
' Bys, Zeitschr., xii, 1903, p. 433 ; Die christlichen DenkmSler Agyptens, B. Q., 1897. Cf. also
A. HaselofF, Codex purpureus Sossanensis, 127, who develops the suggestion of Graeven that
the Codex and the columns are inspii-ed by models from the same region (Graeven, Gottingische
geleJirte Anzeigev, 1897, p. 66).
^ Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i, No. 32 ; J. Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, pp. 65 fi'.
The parallel scene on the doors of Sta Sabiua at Rome, where it is accompanied by Moses
among Jethro's flocks and before the burning bush, makes it probable that the episode is not
the receiving of the Law, but an event which took place on Horeb. In Byzantine representa-
tions of the receiving of the Tables on Sinai Moses always averts his head, whereas here he
looks directly at the scroll.
' Containing the name John, and apparently part of the word iarpos.
 157
FIG-UEE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SAECOPHAai

this, however, was already represented in its extreme form in the seventh
century, we may perhaps place the relief not far from the year a.d. 600. With
this date the style of the ornamental foliage agrees, for it is not that of the
period after ioonoclasm. Moreover, we should not expect a gravestone of this
kind to have been produced while the religious dispute was actually in progress.
Another marble relief ' in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople,
now in a fragmentary condition, and representing two male figures in tunic and
pallium separated by a tree, the whole surrounded on two sides by a broad
acanthus border, exhibits the same defects and is probably a work of the same
period.

Fig. 90. Marble relief of about a.d. 600 from Constantinople.

(Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.)

It is interesting to note that the treatment of the acanthus leaf on

both these marble reliefs recalls that on the capital with inscription relating to
Heraclius, also in the Ottoman Museum (p. 1 72).
A ciborium with saints and angels in the spandrels, preserved in the same
museum, is attributed to the sixth or seventh century.''
A relief walled into the north side of S. Marco at Venice' represents
a throne and nimbed lamb flanked on each side by six other lambs, with the
inscriptions: +0 AMNOC +01 ATIOI AnOCTOAOI. On the throne are the
cloth,* cross, diadem, and book of the Gospels. The relief should not be later
1 Prussian Jahrbuoh, as above, p. 71, Fig. 2.
'^ Rivoira, Origini della architettura lombarda, i, Figs. 27i-5.
8 Ongania, La Basilica dl San Marco, Ft. Ill, p. 257, and PL XLIV ; 0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche
von Nicda, p. 243 (Strasburg, 1903). It may be noted that Christ and the Apostles under the
figure of lambs are to be seen at the Cathedral of Saint Front at P6rigueux, a church supposed
to be modelled upon San Marco (F. de Verneilh, Annales arch., xiv, pp. 234-6).
* As in the mosaic on the triumphal arch in Sta Maria Maggiore at Rome.
 158 SCULPTUEE

than the seventh century, because the Sixth Council of Constantinople forbade-
the representation of Christ as the lamb. The symbolism is allied to that whicli
found expression in the mosaics of the triumphal arch in Sta Maria Maggiore at
Eome, and in several of the sarcophagi at Eavenna.
A bas-relief in the Ottoman Museum, found at Thasos,' and probably earlier-
than the iconoclastic period, represents the youthful winged figure of Kairos
holding a balance, and with the wheel beneath his feet : to the right are two-

Fig. 91. Marble relief with iTrnVos in the Cathedral of Torcello. Cf. Fig. 65. (Alinari.)

draped female figures, Pronoia and Metanoia. Kairos ('Opportunity') was-

regarded as the type of human life,^ and continued popular in later periods of
Byzantine art ; an early example of this figure is found on a limestone relief
from Thebes in the Cairo Museum (Fig. 65), dated by Strzygowski as early as-
the third or fourth century,^ a later in the relief at Torcello (Fig. 91),* formerly

> A. Muiioz, VArie, ix, pp. 212 ff., Eome, 1906.

^ Ibid., L'Arte, 1904, p. 135. ' Strzygotvski, Kopiische Kunst, No. 8757, p. 103.
* E. von Schneider, Das Kairosrelief in Torcello, in Seria Harteliana, Vienna, 1896, pp. 279 if. ;
Cattaneo, L'architettura in Italia, Fig. 166 ; Venturi, Storia, i, p. 522-3; B. Z., vi, 1897, p. 211.
Kepresentations of Kaipos, Opportunity, with a long forelock and bald behind, began to be-
popular in the Hellenistic age, when aHegory found developed expression in art. The
type is said to have been introduced by Lysippus, but the figure became more richly endowed
with attributes as time went on. The balance was suspended from a razor's edge (lirf ^vpov
 FIGUEE BELIEFS OTHER THAN SAECOPHAGI 159

part of the ambo in the cathedral, and probably, like a similar relief with Ixion
in the same place, made in the Lagoon region under Byzantine influence at the
beginning of the eleventh century or earliej-. On the Torcello iTairos-relief,
which pei'haps dates from about a. d. 1008, the year of the restoration of the
church, Opportunity is seen with knife and scales running to left upon two
winged wheels, and evading a bearded man who endeavours to seize him. A
youth grasps him by the forelock, and Victory, by his side, hands him a wreath,
while a woman at the opposite end of the composition turns away in dis-
ap ointmenthe
t; slab has an interlaced border. With the slabs with Kairos
and Ixion may be compared the two slabs let into the facade of S. Marco at
Venice, and representing four of the labours of Hercules.' The whole group,
like the little- panels of the secular ivory caskets (p. 214), suggests the direct
imitation of antique models, and such may have been accessible to the
sculptors.

Third Period.

Figure sculpture in this period is of little merit and examples are not
numerous. They consist of low reliefs, the best of which, e. g. one or two in
S. Marco at Venice, look as if they may have been inspired by carvings in
ivory. It is not easy to be certain in every case whether the work is purely
Byzantine, or to what extent foreign influences may have contributed to it.
The stone medallion representing a Byzantine emperor on the wall of a
house in the Canipo Angaran at Venice, and probably brought from Constan-
tinople in A. D. 1204, is assigned to the tenth or eleventh century. '' The relief,
which is of no great merit, shows the -emperor in his embroidered mantle.
The relief on the north side of S. Marco at Venice (Fig. 34), representing
the familiar subject of Alexander's ascension,' may be as early, though it
should perhaps be rather referred to the Fourth Period. The king is seen
in his gryphon-car wearing a royal mantle of Byzantine character, but a
conical cap.
The same church has inset in its walls two reliefs of St. Demetrius and
St. George seated and drawing their swords, which, though the accompanying
inscriptions are in Latin, are Byzantine at least in inspiration.* In the Church
of Agia Paraskevi in Chalcis (Euboea) Strzygowski discovered a relief represent-
ing the Virgin as Orans ^ in a style suggesting the Third Period. The feeble
relief without modelling, the schematic composition, and the presence of the
monogrammatic letters on either side of the head support the attribution. Work
of this kind differs materially from that of the higher reliefs of the time before
iconoclasm. One example in S. Marco at Venice'' is probably of Venetian
origin as the nimbus is fluted. The finest relief of this subject is that in Sta
Maria in Porto at Eavenna.^ A Virgin at Trani is of the eleventh century.*
iVraTcu d/t^^s), and wings were added to the ankles. See Baumeister, p. 771 and Pigs. 823-4 ;
also E. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture, p. 412. Such a representation of Kairos is given
in a poem of Theodore Podromos (twelfth century), Krumbacher, p. 753.
^ The panel nearest the piazzetta is considered to be certainly a late work, the other is
held by Saccardo (in Ongania, Basilica di San Marco, iii, pp. 260 and 269) to be Roman. The
slabs are reproduced in Ongania, Plate LIII.
' Schlumberger, in B. Z., ii, 1903, 192 f., and PI. II ; P. Molmenti, Storiadi Yenesianellavila
privata, 53.
2 Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco, PI. LXIV, and text, iii. 254 ; Didron, Annales archeo-
logiques, xxv, 1865, 141 ; Venturi, Storia, ii. 527.
* Venturi, Storia, ii. Figs. 370, 371. For various reliefs in S. Marco see H. von der
Gabelentz, Mittelalterliche Plastik in Venedig, 1903.
' B. Q., 1893, p. 8 ; De Eossi, Festschrift, pp. 401 ff. ; AsKt'iov t§s iaTopuc^s «oi ievoXoyiic^s
i-raipias, 1889, 717 ff.
^ Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco, ii. 339, Fig. h. A Byzantine origin is claimed for other
reliefs in the church representing the Virgin and Child, Oar Lord with the Virgin, St. John-
Baptist, saints, and angels, all approximately of the eleventh century.^ Ibid., iii, p. 270.
' Diehl, Manuel, Fig. on p. 610. * Schlumberger, £popee, iii, p. 253.
160 SCULPTUEE

A fragment of a relief at Naxos Las the Nativity and Flight of the Holy
Family.'
The Berlin Museum possesses another curious stone relief (Fig. :)2) of late
date, found in 1895 in the village of Tusla. which is on the line between Gebse
and Pendik on the C4ulf of Ismid in Asia Minor, and is close to Haidar Pasha
on the Anatolian railway.' The object, which is imperfect, is a sunk panel on
which are two figures with tall conventional plants Ijetween them. That on
the loft is a man with a wolf's or dog's head, that on the right a personage

Fif 92. stone relief from Tusla. Asia Minor, twelfth century (?).
Kaiser Friedricli Museum. Berlin, i

in a conical helmet with side pieces, the details of his costume being very
indistinct.
The Byzantine origin of this relief is confirmed by the discovery in the same
year of another somewhat similar but even rougher relief at Hamidieh. about
eight kilometres south-we.st of Eskishehir (Dorylaion). It has upon both sides
a nude figure of a man with wolf's or hound's head ; in one case carrying an
oval shield, in the other wearing a bridle upon the head. An important point
is that the first-mentioned figure has on the border above it an incomplete
1 'Eiprii^eph apxawKoyncrj, 1S90, 20, and PL III. M. Damirales would asciilje the relief to
Early Christian times, but the peculiar convention of the trees suggests a period subsequent
to the tenth century. The conventioii recalls that of Carolingian art and that of the centuries
immediately succeeding, and it is possible that the relief may be the work of a Western
sculptor.
- Prussian Jakrbudi. xix, 189S, 57 ff.
 FIGUEE BELIEFS OTHEE THAN SAECOPHAGI 161
Greek inscription terminating in Ke<t>AAOC, probably the second part of such
a word as KvvoKi(f>aXo^ or \vKOKe<f}aXoi.
The occurrence in Byzantine art of such Cynocephali, recalling the forms of
ancient Egypt, is not unprecedented. In the Calendar of a. d. 354 (p. 484), the
bust of Anubis is seen near the priest of Isis on the page for the month of
November. In the frescoes of Mount Athos St. Christopher is represented with
a wolfs or dog's head,' though the Painter's Guide describes him as young and
beardless, and in paintings he is usually seen in ordinary human form. But in
the frescoes of the Monastery of Karakallou dating from a. d. 1717 he is seen in
warrior's costume and with an animal head among SS. Thecdore, Nestor,
Aretas, and Menas. It may be noted that on one of the reliefs the Cynocephalus
holds a shield (the lost right hand probably holding a sword or spear), while in
the other he appears in association with a warrior.
The Hamidieh relief was found on the site of an ancient Christian cemetery,
a fact which suggests the possibility of some funeral cult.^ But for the inscrip-
tion upon this relief, it might have been supposed that the figure represented
a mime,^ as performances were given at the Byzantine court in which the actors
wore animal masks. Possibly the fresco (p. 301) in the Cathedral of Sta
Sophia at Kieff * and the early Italian mosaic at Cremona ' may be brought into
connexion with this custom.
Other reliefs with representations of monsters and animals with foliage
resembling ivy rather than palm in the background are to be seen in the out-
side wall of the chief apse of the Church of Skripu (Orchomenus), of the year
A. D. 873-4."
Two reliefs in the Central Museum at Athens belong to the same group, and
seem to show that in the years following the iconoclastic dispute, when religious
sculpture was almost at a standstill, there was a fashion for carving fabulous
creatures of this kind, which do not appear to be always connected with the
Physiologus. The first shows a combat between a kind of siren and a man
armed with sword and shield, a tree with a serpent climbing up it separating the
two adversaries. In the second, a beardless centaur plays a guitar, whilp a
small figure in long garments (a dancer ?) is seen in the background.'
There is a resemblance between the nature of all these subjects and some of
those found upon the secular group of ivory caskets (see pp. 214-22), the
oldest of which were probably produced in the ninth century. On these caskets
centaurs, sirens, and pairs of combatants are all found, and the conclusion is
that the rudely carved reliefs and the finer caskets of bone and ivory alike
m^anifest the survival of mythical subjects in Byzantine art.
Bronze figure sculpture of some little merit is not unrepresented in this
period, the principal examples taking the form of small cast panels with "eflSgies
of saints upon them. The British Museum has such a relief with a standing

' Prussian Jahrbuch, xix, 1898, p. 59 ; Didron, Handbuch der Malerei, &c., ed. Schafer, p. 316,
note 2. See also K. Riehter, Der deutscJie St. Christoph.
^ Sometimes dog-headed figures are introduced in Byzantine art with the intention of
conveying an insult to the persons represented. So in Psalter illustrations the Jews who
•take Christ prisoner appear in this guise. See J. J. Tikkanen, Die Psalierillustration im MiUel-
alter, 56, and N. Kondakoff, Miniahiren des Chludov-Psalters, PI. XIV.
' For the Ludus Gothicus, in which these masks and skins were worn at the reception of
the emperor, see Constantino Porphyrogenitus, De caerimoniis aulae bysantinae, i. 83 (Bonn ed.,
i. 381, with Beiske's commentary on the passage, vol. ii, pp. 355). The animals mentioned
include wolves, bears, boars, and stags.
' The Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Kieff, PI. LV, Fig. 2 (publication of the Imperial Russian
Archaeological Society) ; Tolstoy and Kondakoff, Russian Antiquities, vol. iv, p. 153 : both works
in Russian. The scene represents a man with a beast's head in combat with another.
° Demmin, Die Kriegswaffen in ihren geschichtlichen EntwicMungen, p. 354:, 1893 ; E. Aus'm
Weerth, Der Mosaikboden in St. Gereon su Coin, &c., PI. VI, Bonn, 1873. Here again two com-
batants are represented, one labelled CENTAVRVS having what looks like an ass's head.
' B. Z., iii, p. 6.
' Prussian Jahrbuch, as above, pp. 61-2, Fig. on p. 62.
1204 M
162 SCULPTFEE

figure of St. Theodore, apparently of the eleventh century' (Fig. 93) ; another,
with St. George, at whose feet a donor kneels, is in M. Schlumberger's collection :
a third, wi*-h three militar)' saints, is at Berlin. -
A bronze steelyard-weight with bust of the Emperor Pliocas (?) in the
British Museum. ' though of rude workmanship), has some character and indi-
vidualit}'.
Repousse figures in bronze on medallions or other small objects are too
numerous to mention : all are on a small scale. For embossed silver, see pp. oGo ff.
(Jf purely ornamental sculpture in bronze the borders of the panels on the
great ninth-century doors at Sta Sophia at Constantinople must be specially
mentioned on account of their admir-
aljle workmanship (p. 618 and Fig. 391).

FourtJt Period.

With tlie thirteenth century, jaer-

liaps as a result of intercourse with the
West, there is an increase of sculpture
in high relief very different from the
shallow reliefswith which the Christian
East had contented itself since the
seventh century. Among the more
remarkable examples are the tympana
with half-tigures of Oiir Lord and
angels at Kahrie Djami at Constanti-
nople (Fig. 91). They were made to
ornament the monument of Michael
Tornikes, friend of Theodore Meto-
chites (d. a. d. 1328).-' Another relief
has a half-figure of the Virgin within
a rich and finely carved border of
acanthus. ' The cap)itals with busts of
angels in this church are also of late
date.'' The stj'le of the mutilated
subjects amid the foliage in the Mosc^ue
of the Calenders (Dcesis, Ethnasia) has
Ijeen compared with that of the figures
in Kahrie Djami.'
A fi'ieze under the arcade of the
south door at Sta Sophia, Trebizond.
has a relief showing the Temp)tation
and Expulsion from Eden, with angels,
Fig. 93. Oilt l)ronze plaque of llie eleventh
century : St. Theodore. (British Museum, i symbols of the Evangelists, &c.' It is
accompanied by a Greek inscription ;
the work is very crude.
At Mistra an enthroned Christ in the Museum is in very shallow relief ; "
' Catalogue of Early Cliiistiaii a)id Bijzaiiliiic Antiquities, No, .544.
^ G. Schluniberger, in Florilegium Mekhior tic Togiie, 560, and Epopee, ii, p, 493,
^ Catalogue, No, 485.
* Th. Schmit, IzvieMiya of the Russian Arch. Inst, at Constantinople, xi, 1906, PI. 83 and
S4 ; Diehl, Etudes hi/zantines, pp. 416-17, 1905 ; D. Pulgher, Anciennes eglises btjz. de Consta7ifino2ih\
p.
PI. 31 f. and There
XXXV. PI. XXIII, XXVI, XXVII
is a similarity between i,Vienna," 1878)
the angels and ; others
Freshfield, in in
at Bari Archaeologia,
the South Iv.
of
Italy, where there are other parallels to these late Byzantine sculptures (see Bgz. Zeitsehr., xiv.
p. 625). » Schmit, PI. 88. ' Ibid., PI. 85 and 86.
' J. Ebersolt, Hev. arcli., July-Aug., 1909, p. 22.
' Texier and Pullan, By:. Archifeciure. PI. LXIV. According to Millet, B. C. S.. xix, 1895,
p. 457, Texier s plate i.s inaccurate.
" Millet, Monuments Injz. de Mistra, PI. 49, 2. For parallels between Byzantine and Italian
 FiaURE RELIEFS OTHER THAN SARCOPHA&I 163

the style is linear, and the folds of the drapery are represented by mere grooves.
An Ascent of Alexander in the Church of Peribleptos is without merit.
Two slabs now in the iconostasis of the church at Chepin in Bulgaria,
representing St. Peter and St. Paul, each under an arch with his name by his
head, have been assigned to the thirteenth century.^
A slab on an ambo at Kalabach in Thessaly is stated to have the Ascension.^
A St. Michael and a Virgin are at Episkope, and there is a curious relief with
many figures at Orminion.'

Fig. 94. Sculpture in Kahrie Djami, Constantinople ; early fourteenth century.

(Sebah and Joaillier.)

Some of the carved wooden doors from Coptic churches in Egypt fall within
this period. The panels from Sitt Miriam (Al Muallaka) at Cairo, in the
British Museum (Fig. 95)," have figure subjects from the New Testament,
agreeing in the main with the usual Byzantine types, while ornamental details
are borrowed from Saracenic art : they appear to be of the thirteenth century.
Other wooden doors bear figures of men, animals, and monsters, recalling
those on contemporary ambos and stone slabs. A notable example is that in

sculpture during this period, see E. Bertaux, L'Art dans I'ltalie tneridionale, p. 446, and Millet,
B. Z., xiv, p. 625.
1 V. v., v,1898, 612-13, and PI. III. St. Paul holds a book, St. Peter the keys.
' Kondakoff, Macedonia, p. 231 (reference to photos by Smirnoff).
3 A. J. Wace, Journ. HeUm. St., 1906, pp. 154-9.
* British Museum Catalogue, No. 987. M 2
164 SCULPTUEE

the Church of St. Nicholas at Ochrida, apparently dating from the thirteenth or
fourteenth century/ The door is divided into panels. The two vertical rows
in the middle contain equestrian figures of SS. George, Demetrius, and the
two Theodores, with a centaur : on the other panels are fish, birds, lions,

Fig. 9T>. Cedar panels of the thirtcriitli cenhu-y, with the Annunciation, Baptism, and
Ascension, from tlie C'hurcdi of Sitt Miriam, Cairo. (British Museum.)

a gryphon with a serpent, &c. The style recalls that of Russian work at Suzdal,
reliefs in the Church of St. Menas at Salonika, and painted designs in Sta Sophia,
Kieff. It further has analogies with the well-known cypress coffer in the
cathedral at Terracina, exhibited in the Exhibition of Grottaferrata ; " and there
' N. Kondalioflf, Macedonia, pp. 230-7 and PI. Ill i^Kussian^.
^ A. Muiioz, L^Art byzantin a VExpo^iiion de Grotiafcrrata ; Strzygowski, Das orientalische
llalicn {ilonaishefle filr Kunstirissensdia/t, i).
 FiaUEE RELIEFS OTHEE THAN SAECOPHAGI 165

seems reason to believe that this coffer may have been ascribed to too early
a date. Another door in this style is at Vatopedi on Mount Athos.^
The iconostasis is often elaborately and finely carved in Greek churches,
though the work is usually of a later date than the fifteenth century. Fine
examples are in churches of the Holy Land, and that in the Church of the
Nativity at Bethlehem is especially remarkable.-
For figures dating from the various periods embossed in silver, see Ch. IX.

6. Ornamental Sculptuee.

Carving in stone of a purely decorative character is so abundant in East-

Christian and Byzantine art that it will only be possible to indicate its charac-
teristics ina general fashion. It is for the most part subordinated to architecture,
and is employed to enrich the interior or exterior of churches and other buildings :
cornices, architraves, and lintels of all periods are embellished in this way.
The designs carved on lintels and friezes, especially in the ruins of churches
and other buildings in Syria and Egypt between the fourth and eighth centuries,
are of considerable interest chiefly for the variations of scrolled vine and
acanthus in which they so abound. In Egypt there are characteristic methods
of treating the acanthus, examples of which, are now accessible in considerable
numbers.'^ All this work is more important for its ornament than as sculpture,
the relief being flat and the effect coloristic ; something will be said on these
designs in the chapter on ornament. Mouldmgs tended to become less rich
with the lapse of time ; in churches depending on mosaics for their interior
decoration deep and elaborate mouldings were undesirable. Classical features
such as oves and astragali continue to a late period (Ch. XIII), though such
sumptuous effects as those of the mouldings of Mshatta are no longer attempted.
Cornices, architraves, iconostases continued to be carved with floral, geometrical,
and animal designs in flat relief down to the last centuries of the empire,
examples of the latest work being found at Mistra.'' But, apart from capitals,
the principal field for decorative work was afforded by flat slabs or panels used
for various purposes in decoration from the fourth century ; these panels yield
the most characteristic examples of sculpture during all periods of the East-
Eoman Empire. They are found over a very wide area which extends from
Hither Asia across the Balkan peninsula and Italy into Spain.'' They range
in date from the fifth century to the twelfth or thirteenth, and their ornamenta-
tion, which is either symbolic or purely decorative, includes representations of
lambs, doves, peacocks, &c., but never admits the human figure. Many of the
motives, as we shall see, are purely oriental, having their origin in Mesopotamia,
Syria, and Persia ; and it is from the Orient, with its dislike for high relief, that
the whole style is derived (p. 110). It is probable that the sculptors frequently
imitated textile fabrics, the effect of which they desired as far as possible to
reproduce. It is evident from the general uniformity of these slabs, wherever
found, that the art here exemplified was dominant from one end of the Mediterra-
nean to the other for several centuries, and that, whether the centres of distribu-
tion were few or many, the inspiration was one and indivisible. New motives
were introduced in the Byzantine Empire from the ninth to the eleventh centuries,
but the purely ornamental and Eastern character was throughout maintained.
In Italy they first appear at Kavenna ; but by the end of the eighth century
they were in general use, and are to be found in numbers in Eoman churches.
1 Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Atlios, PI. XXXVIII (Russian).
' Baumstark, B. Q., 1906, 186.
^ J. Sti-zygowski, Koptische Kunst (Cairo Catalogue) ; J. Cledat in Cabrol's Did. d/arch.
cJtritimne, s.v. BaouU, Figs. 1273-4 ; Wulff, Berlin Catalogue. Syrian friezes and lintels are
reproduced by De VogiiS, Za Syrie Centrale ; H. C. Butler, Architecture and other Arts (American
Archaeological Expedition). ' G. Millet, Monuments bysantins de Mistra, PI. 45 ff.
B. Z., ix, 1900, 718. The tombstones of Armenia present interesting affinities with the
later 4 slabs.
166 SCULPTUEE
Probably their sudden increase about that time was due to the influx of Greek
monks into Rome, in which city and territory sculpture of this kind continued
to be produced until the eleventh century.' But the carving on the ciborium
and choir closures of S. Clemente, executed between a. d. 514 and 535, is a
proof of the popularity of the style at an even earlier date.- A number of carved
slabs, both purely Byzantine and Italo-Byzantine, enclose the galleries in
S. Marco at Venice (cf. Fig. 96), which is a veritable storehouse for reliefs of
this kind.' It is thought that some of them may have originally served as the
fronts of sarcophagi.''
It has been observed that these slabs were used for various purposes. Most
frequently they formed the transennae of choir closures or parapets of galleries ;'
less frequently they filled the lower part of windows, served as tombstones, were

Fig. 96. Closure-slab3 in the gallery, S. Marco, Venice, eleventh century.

{Hautes ttudes : d. Millet.)

fitted together as sides of sarcophagi, placed upon walls as a revetment or round

fountains (phialae) ; again, they served to decorate the surfaces of ambos or
pulpits. In the latter case they were often smaller, and the panels placed at
the sides of the steps sometimes diverged from the rectangular form.
It would be a dif&cult task to enumerate all the slabs of which records exist ;
even the list of sites upon which examples are found would be of considerable

^ A. L. Frothingham, Journ. American Arch., x, 1895, 183.

2 Ibid., 173.
" Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco, text, vol. iii. 262-3, with references to numerous plates
in folio V ; Von der Gabelentz, Mittelalterliche Plastik in Venedig ; Cattaneo, V Architettura in Italia,
&c., reproduces several slabs of Byzantine and Italo-Byzantine origin, cf. Fig. 28, p. 77, &c.
* Cf. D. Ainaloff and E. Riedin, Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Kieff, p. 52 (Russian).
" Examples in the galleries of Sta Sophia, Constantinople (Salzenberg, PI. X) ; St. Deme-
trius, Salonika (Texier and Pullan, Byz. Architecture, PI. XVIII, XIX, XXI) ; St. Mark's, Venice,
see note above. Inwindows, St. Luke in Phocis (SchultzandBarnsley, p. 24, PI. XIII-XV) ; Sta
Sophia, Constantinople (Salzenberg, PI. XVII). As transennae of choirs, S. Clemente, Rome.
HounA fountains. Monasteries of Vatopedi and Lavra, Mount Athos (G. Schlumberger, Epopee, i,
p. 129 ; ii, p. 521. Perhaps the slabs now in the floor and on the walls of the metropolitan
church at Serres in Macedonia once served this purpose (L, Chesnay, Mon. Piot, 1902, Figs. 8-16,
p. 134).
 OENAMENTAL SCULPTURE 167

length. Some of the more important may, however, be given in a footnote,^

while in the text the principal styles of design may be briefly discussed.
The excavations of the French on the site of the temple of Pelphi have
furnished definite information as to the date of slabs with a typical ornamenta-
tion found in numerous other places, notably at Eavenna. At Delphi occurs
the type illustrated in Pig. 81. Here the original elements were a sacred
monogram in a wreath, with two diverging lemnisci, with heart-shaped leaves
at the ends,^ and supporting two crosses. In course of time the spaces between
the limbs of the monogram become more important than the monogram itself,
and there finally resulted a rosette formed of six heart-shaped cavities surrounded
by a ring, which gives the whole somewhat the appearance of a wheel ; the
lemnisci become long tendrils issuing as continuations from the ring encircling
the rosette. Now a similar ' wheel ' to those on the slabs at Delphi occurs on
a lintel at Kokonaya in Syria ' with a sacred monogram in a wreath. The lintel
is dated a. d. 431, and it is evident that even at that early period the original
design and its degenerate form were in use side by side. A similar design is on
a lintel at Assos in a ruined church in which an inscription of the fourth century
has been discovered,* on a sarcophagus at Panion, where the sacred monogram
accompanies an inscription containing the names of Arcadius and Honorius,'' and
on the imperial sarcophagi at Constantinople, some of which at least must be of
the fifth century. A cross inscribed in a circle, a design found on the backs of
the slabs at Delphi, also occurs on these sarcophagi, as well as on a font at
Aladja-Kisle, the acanthus on which is of fifth-century type." We may conclude
that the slabs ornamented in this manner, as well as the sarcophagi with the
same decoration, belong as a class to the fifth century ; and though the motive
was imitated as late as the tenth century the slabs of this period are distinguish-
able from the older examples either by the alteration of the form, by omissions,
or by the addition of new elements to the design such as palm-leaves beneath
the crosses, rosettes, or candelabra flanking the arms, or a floral border round
the whole, instead of the plain margin of the originals. Examples showing
these changes are to be seen at Eavenna, in St. Mark's at Venice, at Monza,
Constantinople, and the Church of St. Luke in Phocis : in the last-mentioned
church the leaves at the end of the lemnisci have become serpents' heads. The
tomb of Yaroslafi^at Kieff is a curious example of various early symbolic motives.'

' In Greece and the Balkan peninsula examples occur at Constantinople (Church of the
Theotokos, &c.), at Salonika (St. Demetrius, Texier and PuUan, p. 123), at Athens (,Ath. Mitth.,
1889, 271 ff.), Kaisariani on Hymettus (Strzygowski and Lambros, 'Ert>ijfi.fph 'Apx<^i-oKoyiic7], 1902,
90), Delphi (B. C. H., xxiii, p. 206 f.), Daplini (G. Millet, Xe Mmastere de Baphni, ch. i),
and several sites in the Morea, including Mistra (Millet, Monuments bys. de M.), in Servia and
Macedonia (Miliukoff, Izviestiya of the Eussian Arch. Inst, at Cple., iv, 1899, 146 ; N. Konda-
koff, Macedonia, 231) ; at Broussa in Anatolia is a slab with peacocks (Mendel, .B. C. H., 1909,
350). On the Adriatic, at Parenzo, Grado, Pola, and Zara (Museum). In Italy, at Borne
(S. Clemente, Sta Maria in Cosmediii, S. Saba, Sta Maria in Trastevere, S. Lorenzo, Sta Agnese,
S. Sabina, S. Prassede, and other churches) (A. L. Frothingham, Journ. Amer. Arch., x, 1895,
183 ff.), Venice (Ongania, Basilica di San Marco, as above), Eavenna (especially in the Museo
Civieo), Bologna, Ancona, Kimini, OLranto (E. Bertaux, L'Art dans Vltalie meridionale, 76,
Fig. 15), and Naples. The best discussion of the earlier slabs will be found in J. Laurent's
article Belphes Chretien in B. C. S., xxiii, 1899, 238 ff. Slabs of the tenth century and later are
discussed by O. Wulff (Die Koimesiskirche in Nicda, 164 ff.); examples are well illustrated by
Schultz and Barnsley (The Church of St. Luke of Siiris, PI. XIII-XV), and in Ongania, as above.
Further illustration will be found in collective works (Garrucci, Storia; Venturi, Storia, &c.),
while the photographs of Alinari and Eicci supply much material for study (the former in
V. and A. Museum).
' For lemnisci with heart-shaped leaves on ivory carvings, &c., see note 3, p. 202.
' De Vogiii, Syrie Centrale,, PI. XCIX and p. 88. A similar ' wheel ' between two crosses
occurs on a lintel at Deir Sambil of the date a.d. 421 (ibid., PI. CLI). The monogram in a
wreath flanked by two monogrammatie crosses is found on the part of the Golden Gate at
Constantinople which dates from the closing years of the fourth century (Prussian Jahrbuch,
viii, 1893, p. 234). * C.I. G., 8838; W. Eamsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, p. 521.
^ Laurent, as above, p. 245. * Petersen and von Luschan, Lykien, p. 39.
' Ainaloff and Eiedin, Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Kieff, pp. 52-3. On this monument,
168 SCULPTURE

Delphi has also furnished examples of slabs ornamented with a series of

interconnected circles containing quatrefoils or whorls of acanthus, and having
in the interspaces leaves or fragments of leaves of the same plant, and even
animals and birds : in one example two birds are confronted on either side of
a central cross.
Motives of this kind are partly of textile origin, and were copied by sculptors
and workers in mosaic.^ They are frequently found carved in stone on lintels and

Fig. 97. Closure-slab, tenth-eleventh century, in S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari.) P. ]66.

cornices in the ruined cities of Syria ; '' they occur on the capitals of St. Demetrius,
Salonika, S. Vitale at Eavenna, and Sta Sophia at Constantinople,^ A fine panel
in openwork at Eavenna (Ch. XIII), from the classical character of its border, is
not likely to be later than the sixth century. Very early examples of such inter-
connected circles occur in mosaics : one from Aegina is assigned to the second
century ; * another, a mosaic, from Tyre in the Louvre, is ascribed to the fourth.
But the style is fully developed in sculpture in the fifth and sixth centuries,
and to the earlier part of the sixth century most slabs of this type probably
belong.^ To a similar but even earlier date and the same oriental origin must
be assigned slabs covered with a diaper of circles in contact, each having four

crosses are flanked by fish, and palm-leaves as well as crosses stand on lemnisci which end in
leaves. The authors suggest the seventh century as a probable date. For the examples in
St. Luke's, see Schultz and Barnsley, PI. XIV. D.
' Such motives appear on the robes of consuls upon their diptychs (Molinier, Ivoires,
PI. I and Figs, on pp. 18, 19, 21, &o.).
2 At B^hioh, Moujeleia, Serjilla, &c. (De Vogii(5, Syrie Centrah, PI. 137 ; 46, Figs. 2, i ; 24,
Figs. 1 and 3). The acanthus rosette is frequent in Syria, and is also found on the Cup of
Chosroes in the Cabinet des M^dailles, Paris.
' Laurent, as above, p. 263. * Le Bas and Reinach, Les lies, PI. I, p. 140.
° An example at Kieff has an eagle, rosette, &c., in the circles (Ainaloff and Riedin, as
above, Fig. 53).
 ORNAMENTAL SCULPTUEE 169

almond- or leaf-shaped segments in the interior and in the centre a rosette. This
is a rarer style of decoration than the preceding, though represented by a number
of examples.'
With the full sixth century these sculptured slabs assume another character.
Designs are enclosed in geometrical figures, especially lozenges and circles, formed
of bold mouldings in high relief, very different from the plain borders of the
earlier period.'' The lozenges and circles are sometimes connected with each
other in one design. From the seventh century the field is often continuouslj'

Fig. 98. Closure-slabs of the fountain, Monastery of Lavra, Mount Athos.

{Hauies Etudes : Gt. Millet.) P. 170.
covered with circles and interlaced designs between which animals, plants, and
crosses are distributed. The development was complete in the ninth century,
the period when the architectural activity under the Macedonian emperors began.
The Church of Sf. Luke of Stiris in Phocis is rich in examples of the eleventh
century, in which interlaced ornament, animals (lions, &c.), floriated crosses, &c.,
are found.' The Church of the Assumption at Nicaea is also rich,* and the
' Serjilla, fifth or sixth century (De VogU(5, PI. 49) ; Moujeleia (ibid., PI. 50, Pigs. 1, 4, 5) ;
bronze door of the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem (Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament,
PI. 28) ; marble at Brescia (Cattaneo, Archit., PI. 137) ; S. Vitale, Eavenna (Kicoi, Photo 36) ;
Church of St. Ginfes at Toledo (De Eios, Arte latino-iisant. en Jispana, PI. Ill, Fig. 12). The
circles enclosing four segments were adopted in barbaric art, and lasted through the early
Middle Ages. They are found, for example, in the border of the Book Cover of Theodelinda
at Monza.
' The ambo of S. Apollinare in Classe has a central panel in this style ilanked by two
narrow panels, each with a cross standing upon a disk or circle (Laurent, as above, p. 267,
Fig. 25) ; a similar combination is seen on closures between the pillars along the front of
the gynaeceum or gallery in Sta Sophia at Constantinople (Lethaby and Swainson, Sa7icta
Sophia, Fig. 61, p. 261).
^ For examples of slabs of the later period see Schultz and Barnsley, 26 and PI. XIII-
XV. Some of the slabs in St. Luke's are not carved stone but plaster cast in n mould
(Schultz, pp. 26-7) like the string-courses in the same church. Further examples are at
Kieff (Ainaloff and Eiedin, Monuments of Kieff: The Cathedral of Sta Sophia, p. 53). See also
Millet, Le Monastere de Daphni, p. 14, n. 4 ; Diehl, Manuel, 428 ; E. Phene Spiers, Architecture East
and West, p. 124 ; Salzenberg, Altchristliche Smkmdler, Pi. XXXV, 14 ; Ath. Mitth., xxxi,
pp. 279 ff. ; 'EipTii/epis 'ApxaioXoyticTi, 1902, 92 ; B.C.H., Mars-Juillet, 1909, 352.
* Wulff, KoimesisMrche, 164 ff.
170 SCULPT QEE

fountain (iMale) of the Monastery of Lavra on Mount Athos has good examples.'
Others are inserted in the facade of Kilisse-Djami at Constantinople.^
The survival in new combinations of motives dating from a quite early
period is probably due to the fact that these were admirably adapted for the
purposes for which they were needed.'
In the Fourth Period animal ornament continued popular, but conventional
floral designs and interlacings
furnish the main motives. The
work usually lacks the salience
and character of that produced in
the earlier centuries.*
The two pilasters known as
the Pilastri Acritani in the piazzetta
near the south-west corner of
S. Marco at Venice may be noticed
here.° Their ornament of vine-
scrolls is characteristically Syrian,
and they were probably carved
in Syria in the sixth century. They
formerly stood near the door of
the Genoese citadel at Acre, and
were brought to Venice after the
Venetian victory over the Genoese
in A. D. 1258. The disposition of
the ornament is analogous to that
seen in contemporary silk textiles
fromWethe should
same region.*
also notice the
elaborate sculpture from the fagade
of Mshatta (Ch. XIII) with its simi-
lar suggestion of textile methods.
In this work, the date of which lies
Fjg. 99. Closure-slab of the ninth or tenth cen-
somewhere between the fourth and
tury. Metropolitan Church, Mistra. (Hautes Etudes : the seventh centui'ies,' classical
G. Millet.) mouldings are found, but the bulk
of the ornament is Persian, a fact
which is readily explained if, as Strzygowski holds, the sculptors came from the
Persian province of Mesopotamia. Mshatta is not a Byzantine work, but the
principle of decoration which it embodies is precisely that which triumphed at

^ Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, p. 42. Some of the slabs on this
fountain, with peacocks, beasts, &c., in interlaced borders, are probably later than a.d. 1200,
and belong to the Fourth Period.
2 Bev. arch., July-August, 1909. 33.
^ In the walls of the Church of the Virgin Qorgopico at Athens are slabs with confronted
gryphons and vases, confronted birds with snakes, sphinxes, lions, &c. The style is debased,
and the work is probably not earlier than the date of the church (Rivoira, Origini delta architet-
tura lombarda, i, Figs. 278-81).
* Slab with gryphons and birds from a fountain near Eski Djuma, Salonika ; peacocks,
&c., on the old ambo on Sta Sophia, Ochrida, thirteenth-fourteenth century (Miliukoif,
Izviestiya of the Russian Arch. Inst, of Cple., iv, Pt. I, 1899, 29 and 89 ; Kondakoff, Macedonia,
232), and on remains of a ciborium in the Church of Nerez, near TJskub (Kondakoff, as above,
176). Fountain slabs of Lavra on Mount Athos (Kondakoff, Monuments, &c., of Athos, p. 43),
and of Kyrk-tohechm^, Constantinople, with peacocks {Riim. Mitth., xviii, 195, Fig. 10 ;
Mordtmann, JEsquisses topographiques de Cple., 71) ; slabs with animals, St. George, Salonika
(Kondakoff, Macedonia, 82) ; numerous carvings at Mistra (G. Millet, Monuments byz. de Mistra,
1910) ; others at Trebizond (Millet, B. 0. H., xix, 1895, 457).
° Strzygowski, 0. C, ii. 423, photo.
' Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 159.
' Strzygowski {Jahrbuch, as above, 1904) argues for a considerably earlier date, Diehl
(Manuel, 48, &c.) is in favour of the fifth or sixth century.
 ORNAMENTAL SCULPTUEE 171

Constantinople in the time of Justinian.' Many of the

are common to Byzantine and Persian art, and somemotives which it displays
of them were in later
centuries reproduced in the mosaics of the Basilica at Bethlehem (p. 414).
Something further is said on this subject in the chapter on ornament.

7. Capitals.

(Of. Figs. 2-4, 15, 18-20, 67-9, 100-5).

The Corinthian capital was the ground-form from which those used in
Christian times were developed, and in examples of the fourth and fifth

Fig. 100. Capitals of the transept, St. Denieti-ius, Salonika.

{Hauies itudes : G. Millet.)

centuries the descent is obvious, despite the varied treatment of the acanthus
foliage.'' There were two principal causes which led to the modification of
the earlier Greek type, one based upon structural necessity, the other upon
changes in taste and technical methods. To the first is due the substitution of
a straight-sided abacus for the old type with incurved sides (e. g. Fig. 69), a change

' Diehl compares the general effect of the sculptured ornament in the spandrels of the
lower order in Sta. Sophia with that of Mshatta.
^ A good idea of the various types of capitals in use from the fourth to the seventh cen-
tury may be gathered from the series in the Kaiser Priedrich Museum in Berlin, illustrated
in 0. Wulffs catalogue Bie altchristlichen Bildwerke, &c.,i, 1909, pp. 53 ff. and 65 ff. See also
G. Millet in A. Michel, Histoire de Vart, i. 154 fP. ; Lethaby and Swainson, Church of Sancta
Sophia, 247 ff. ; 0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Kiciia, 47 ff. and 122, and B.Z., 1904, 564 ff. ;
Strzygowski, Kleinasien, 117 ff. ; B. H., iii. xx. Like the carved slabs, capitals of Proconnesian
marble were very widelj' distributed, being found from Jerusalem (Mosque of Omar) to
Kertch, from Alexandria and the Fayflm to Carthage and Kairuan (cf. Diehl, Manuel, 169,
.•ind, for Kairuan, Saladin, La mosquee de Sidi Okia a Kairouan, Paris, 1903). Egypt is very rich
in capitals, many evidently imported from Proconnesus, and having parallels in other places,
either themselves seaports or accessible from such. Imported forms were copied and modified
by Coptic workmen. Fine examples have been found at Ahnas, Bawit, Saqqara, and other
sites. logue,For Egyptian
as above, 65 ff. capitals
For laterseedevelopment
Strzygowski,seeA'opiiscAe
also M. Kunst,
Meurer,69 ff., and Wulff,
Vergleichende Berlin Cata-
Formenlehre des
Ornaments, pp. 541 ff. , 1909.
172 SCULPTURE

which gave a capital better capable of supporting an impost-block (see below) ;

to the second must be ascribed the disappearance of the plastic treatment of
the leaves in favour of a flat relief in which contrast of light and shade is
obtained by a free use of the drill, or else so far neglected as almost to deprive
the work of plastic value. At these stages other ornamental motives often
replaced the acanthus, which, however, was never abandoned as long as capitals
of Greek descent were made in the East. We thus find interlaced 'basket
designs ', lozenge diapers, parallel bands of zigzag, or vine foliage, all resulting
from the tendency to reduce the relief to a single plane (cf. Figs. 15, 18, 68).
Doubtless application of new motives to the capital was due in large measure
to the influence of Syria, where they had been adopted upon carved panels in
stone and wood.'
An interesting capital in the Imperial Ottoman Museum shows that old
tradition died slowly. It has an inscription which assigns it to the seventh
century^ and the reign of Heraclius (a.d. 610-41): it is said to have been
found in Constantinople. It is so far Greek that the abacus forms a re-entrant
angle on each face instead of a straight line ; round the top runs a band of
olive-leaves, while the sides bear in high relief pairs of crossed cornuacopiae
enclosing wreaths, a motive familiar in the mosaics, inlaid marble, and ivory
carvings of the sixth century ; " above these are pairs of leaves enclosing fruits,
while between the pairs of cornuacopiae, just above the band of oves finishing
off the capital at the bottom, are leaves of acanthus type in low relief.*
The survival of a form with such strong reminiscences of the antique is
remarkable when the impost-capital with square top had already long been
popular. Not less remai-kable is the conjunction of very high and bold relief
with relief of a flat and feeble character, and with the most inartistic label
on which the inscription is very ill cut. The high reliefs are well executed
and show that, at any rate in merely decorative work, the Byzantine sculptor
of the seventh century was by no means contemptible.
The period between the fourth and seventh centuries is the most
important in the development of the Byzantine capital, and in what follows
attention is chiefly directed to this time of growth and adaptation. The
Macedonian period, a rival of the First Period in so many branches of art,
fell behind it in the decoration of capitals. ° After the close of that dynasty
degeneration was rapid. In the Comnenian period old motives were repro-
duced ; under the Palaeologi, capitals were often taken from earlier buildings
and re-employed, or where new work was done, it lacked character and style.
Nevertheless,
tion of a zonemany of acanthus
of tall the capitals at aMistra
with " are not
superposed zoneineff'ective, the combina-
of tall leaves [feuilles
d'tati) having a certain originality and charm. But a detailed examination
shows how inferior the work is to that of the fifth or sixth century.
We may now consider some of the principal changes of the First Period
in rather greater detail, noting in the first place the capitals in the Church
of the Nativity at Bethlehem (Fig. 169), which are probably of Constantine's
time, and are still very close to the original Corinthian type (cf. Fig. 69). Of
the more decidedly modified forms that described by Strzygowski as a Theo-
dosian capital is the most important. It was produced through a period rather
longer than that covered by the second emperor of that name (a. d. 408-50), and

1 Wulif, Berlin Catalogue, as above.

' J. Strzygowski in Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, Fig. 3 on p. 73. The inscription, whioli
is on a square label in the middle cf one side at tlie top, runs : 6 0{eo)s raiv ayiwv tiori6i'y5paii\icp
tS SeairoTi. See Curtis and Aiistarcliis in 'EK\. ipiK. 2iiAAo70s, napaprrj/jxi, 16, p. 24.
' For instance at S. Vitale, Ravenna ; Parenzo Cathedral, diptych of Areobindus, A. i>. 506.
* Tlie treatment of these leaves recalls that of the foliate ornament on the marble relief
with Moses in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 90).
° Capitals of the eleventh century in S. Marco, Venice, are reproduced in Ongania, Basilica
di S. M. ; and by C. Errard, L'Art byzantin, vol. i, T'em'se, PI. VI.
^ Ct. Millet, Monuments byz. de Mistra, PI. 46.
 CAPITALS 173

is composite, having two large bands of thorny acanthus {acanthus spinosa)

and four volutes at the corners. Between the volutes runs a band of single
acanthus leaves of five lobes, the whole rising from a torus of acanthus leaves
laid obliquely.^ Examples of this type are in the Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele

Fig. 101. Capital of the fifth century, S. Apollinare in Classe, Eavenna. (Alinari.)

at Eavenna,'' in S. Apollinare in Classe {Fig. 101), and in St. John of Studium at

donstantinople' dating from a. d. 463. The capital is thus the prevalent fifth-
centuiy type, for the thorny acanthus makes its first appearance on the Golden
■Gate at Constantinople, which dates from about a.d. 390,'' while it went out

' B. Z., i, 1892, 68 ; S. D., ii, 1893. 241. For examples in the Broussa Museum, see
<J. Mendel in JS. C. H., Mars-Juillet, 1909, 360.
2 Eicci, photo No. 362 ; J. Laurent, B. C. H., 1899, Fig. 2, p. 209.
* Pulgher, Anciennes eglises, &c., PI. I, No. 2 ; Salzenberg, Alichristliche BaudenJcmdler, PI. Ill,
No. 1.
* Strzygowski in Prussian Jahrluch, viii, 1893. 27. For the development of different
types of acanthus see the same writer, Ath. Mitth., xiv, 1889, 281-2 ; JS. Q., ix, 1891,
pp. 1-11, 97-109 ; B. Z., i, 1892, p. 68. Examples of the capital are found at Venice, Eome,
Milan, Salonika, Broussa (vestibule of the Green Mosque), Sofia (museum), Mesembria, and
Deir Seta in Syria.
174 SCULPTUEE

of common use towards the end of the fifth century. The period of its chief
extension may be placed between a. d. 425 and 475, to which the fragments of
ten capitals found at Delphi ' belong.
The old columns were too small to receive the arch which had to spring

Fig. 102. Capital of the sixth centui-y ; Eavenna, Museo Nazionale. (Alinari.)

from them, for they were still of the size and form originally designed to support
a plain architrave. An intermediate member had therefore to be devised with
a considerably greater area than that of the column : this was the impost,
a block approximately in the form of a shallow truncated pyramid placed with
its base uppermost. Although the impost appeared in the fourth century,
when the archivolt succeeded the architrave, comparatively few examples have

' Laurent, B. 0. H., 1899, 207 ff. For examples of the deeply undercut acanthus at
Mir-Achor-Djami (St. John of Studium), Constantinople, see J. Ebersolt, Bev. arch., July-
August, 1909, PI. VI, and Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i. No. 162 ; for those at Kutchuk Aya
Sophia (St. Sergius), Ebersolt, as above. Fig. 7, p. 11. Fine undercut acanthus in tlie Mosque
of the Calenders at Constantinople is shown in Dr. Freshfield's plates in Archaeologia, Iv,
PI. XXXII, &e.
 CAPITALS 175

survived of that early date.' In the fifth century it was general, and must
usually have accompanied the capitals of the Theodosian type.^ But separate
blocks disappear with the beginning of the sixth century, when impost and
capital were combined. Fragments found at Delphi have the sacred monogram
with an open loop to the rho, a feature which is characteristic of the period
between about a. d. 375 to about a. d. 450, and is distributed over the whole

Fig. 103. Capital of the sixth century. Monastery of Lavra, Mount Athos.
{Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

empire from Syria and Egypt to Gaul and Africa, being found alike in
Italy and Constantinople.^ The examples from Delphi are also ornamented
with the acanthus mollis, which shows that not only were the two kinds of
acanthus used together, but that theories which would confine the spinosa
to the East and the mollis to Italy cannot be accepted without reserve.*
For the next stage of evolution in the capital the name of impost-capital
is generally accepted, implying the union of the two previously separated parts
in one block."

^ The impost was probably invented in Syria (examples in the pretorium at Musmieh.
De Vogufi, Syrie Centrale, PI. VII). Examples exist at Rome ascribed to the middle of the
fourth century (de Eossi, Bullettino, 3880, p. 153). The column of Theodosius at Constanti-
nople had this feature (d'Agincourt, Sculpture, PI. XI, No. 4).
^ Laurent, B. G. H., 1899, 214, mentions fifth-century imposts as found in the following
churches at Eome : S. Stefano Kotondo, S. Lorenzo fuori, Sta Agnese, Sta Maria in Cosmedin
(Bunsen, Sasiliques chretiennes de Rome, PI. XIII, XVII, XXI, XIII) ; at Ravenna : S. Apol-
linare Nuovo, S. Giovanni Evangelists, SS. Nazaro e Celso, S. ApoUinare in Classe, S. Vitale,
S. Francesco, Sta Agata; at Naples : S. Giorgio Maggiore (de Rossi, Bullettino, 1880, PI. Xand
p. 154) ; at Salonika : S. Demetrius, Eski Djuma, Sta Sophia.
' Laurent, as above, 217.
* Strzygowski, Ath. Mitth., 1889, 280 ; Prussian Jahrbuch, 1893, p. 10. Cattaneo (Architet-
tura, 37) had hinted at this classification, and Heldreioh had suggested it.
' Laurent, as above, p. 223. There is an intei'esting description of the capitals in
Sta Sophia in Lethaby and Swainson, 247 ff. ; the capitals in the cathedral are there grouped
in seven classes.
176 SCULPTUEE

This combination was accomplished in the case of all the three varieties
of capitals : the composite, the Ionic, and the Doric ; in the first case the result
was more in the nature of a fusion ; in the other two the component parts
remained distinguishable. The composite impost-capital, extensively used in
the time of Justinian, had two principal varieties, the first, of cubic form,
partaking more of the character of the old impost, that is to say, forming
a reversed truncated pyramid rounded only towards its point of junction with
the shaft ; the second, conical, and descending more directly from the original
capital. It was rounded on all sides, and includes the type commonly described
as the ' basket capital '. It was often finished at the corners by eagles, as at
St. Demetrius, Salonika, by rams, or by large volutes ^ (Figs. 18, 20, 103).
The relation of these developments to the parent composite capital is less
obvious than it would be had not the ornament changed with the form. In
early examples, such as one from Delphi probably dating from about a.d. 450,
the two superposed rows of acanthus of the classical composite capital are
still employed, but later we have a single row, still acanthus but no longer
in such high relief, and often divided into half or quarter leaves arranged
in series : on the faces are medallions containing crosses or other objects, round
which the elements of the foliated design are grouped.
The process of debasement appears to have been somewhat as follows :
The leaf becomes shallower, and looks as if it were glued to the block, no
longer producing the old contrast of light and shade ; this is the acanthus mollis,
and is found as already noted on the pilasters of the Golden Gate at Con-
stantinople, which dates from a.d. 388-91.'' Next the interior details of the
leaf were accentuated, its edges becoming hard and sharp ; thus originated the
acanthus spinosa or thorny acanthus so popular in the first half of the
fifth century. A variety of this is the ' wind-blown acanthus ' as seen in
S. Apollinare in Classe and elsewhere (Fig. 101). Then the individual leaves
tend to merge in the festoons or interlaeings which we find on capitals of
Justinian's time. The number of varieties of the composite impost-capital
dating from the sixth century is considerable. The 'basket' capital, with
eagles or rams at the corners, the ' melon ', and the various forms of ' Byzantine
Corinthian ', all belong to this type.^
In certain cases the impost-capital did not sufiice, the upper surface even
now providing an insufficient area for the arch. At S. Vitale in Ravenna there
are familiar examples of this (Fig. 67), a second impost being added, of a form
very similar to the capital below, and not shallower like the earliest imposts.
This continuation of the impost after the middle of the fifth century is
characteristic of the Adriatic cities, Ravenna and Parenzo.*

1 Basket capitals occur on the columns of the old ciborium of S. Clemente at Kome (Cat-
taneo, L'Architettura, &c., Fig. 7, p. 29), and at Bawlt (Cledat in Cabrol, Bict. d'arch. chretienne, s.v.
Baouit, rig. 1269), sui-mounted by eagles (?) and couchant rams. Very plain and rudi-
mentary capitals, such as those in the cistern of Philoxenus (Salzenberg, p. 28), hare to be
classed with the cubical variety. Both Salzenberg and Laurent (as above, 225) hafre re-
marked their close resemblance to the Romanesque cushion-capital. As Laurent points out,
numerous intermediaries between these early Byzantine forms and those of Romanesque
times can be found in Italy (Cattaneo, Architettura, &c., pp. 88, 107, 113).
2 Strzygowski, Jahrbuch k. d. A. I., viii, 1893, p. 10.
" For the sixth-century capitals at S. Marco, Venice, some of vrhieh have monograms, see
R. Cattaneo in Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco, vol. ii, 217 ff. An interesting early capital
^vith rams' heads at the corners and eagles on the four sides is in the Metropolitan Church at
Voden (MiliukofF, Izviestiya of the Russ. Arch. Inst. Cple., iv, p. 35). It recalls other capitals in
St. Demetrius, Salonika, and at Bawit (cf. Figs. 18, 103). For a capital with birds at Mir-
Aohor-Djarai at Constantinople, see Bev. arch., July- August, 1909, p. 6 ; for one at Broussa,
B. C. H., Mars-Juillet, 1909, 381 ; for an example at Trebizond, B. C. H., xix, 1895, 518 ; it is
almost identical with those in St. Mark's.
* Strzygowski, B.D., ii, 212; C. 'EnaxA, V Art hyzantin, iii{Parenzo), PI. VI. A number of
iifth and sixth-century capitals are also reproduced by Rivoira, Origini delta architettura lom-
larda. Figs. 26, 29, 32, 35, 64, 89-92, 94-6, 99, 100, 102, 135-8, 140, &.c.
 CAPITALS
177
The small size of the Ionic capital facilitated its combination with the impost.
The two could be directly carved from a single block without any extensive
modification of form. The two original elements were from first to last readily
distinguished.
This convenient quality of the Ionic impost-capital led to its popularity and
its long persistence. It began in the fifth century, continuing during the Second
Golden Age, from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, and the area of its
distribution was exceedingly wide.'^ With the lapse of time it naturally under-
went considerable variations. In the fifth century the Ionic portion preserved

Fig. 104. Capital of the sixth century from Salona : Spalato.

{Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

the large classical volutes separated by an echinus decorated with oves, while the
upper part received a plain decoration of a monogrammatic or other cross, with
or without acanthus leaves. With the sixth century the volutes diminished in
size, and were so carelessly carved as almost to resemble snail-shells ; the upper
part, though occasionally preserving an antique appearance, is generally covered
with the scrolls and conventional festoons first common in the period of Justinian.
The degradation is complete in the capitals of the cistern at Constantinople
known as the Bible House, on which the crosses, birds, and scroll-work are
characteristic of the Macedonian period.''
The Doric impost-capital is a rarer variety than others and is practically
confined to Greece.'

1 Strzygowski, B. S., i, p. 97; ii, p. 230, &e. ; B. Z., iii, 1894, 14; 0. C, 1901, 152.
M. Laurent has oolleeted the following examples of the Ionic impost-capital : Fifth century —
Etchmiadzin (B. D., i, p. 7), Eavenna (S. Giovanni in Fonte, SS. Nazaro e Celso, Ricci's photo
No. 152), Borne (S. Stefano Kotondo, d'Agincourt, Arch., PI. XXII, and Bunen, PI. XXI);
Chalcis {Ath. Mitth., xiv, 1889, 289, Fig. 6), Venice (S. Marco), Pomposa (Ricci, photo
No. 518), Delphi (Laurent, as above, p. 236). Sixth centuiy— Sta Sophia, Cple. (Salzenberg,
PI. XVII, No. 12), and SS. Sergius and Bacchus (Salzenberg, PI. V, Nos. 3 and 4) ; Delphi
(Laurent, as above, p. 235). Seventh and eighth centuries — Cistern at Cple. (B. Z., iv, 1895,
598), Salonika, Sta Sophia (Texier and Pullan, PI. 39) and St. Demetrius (ibid., PI. 24),
Sheikh-Musa, Syria {Quarterly Statement, Palestine Exploration Fund, April, 1899, p. 125).
Ninth and tenth centuries — Cisterns at Cple. {B. D., ii, pp. 100, No. i, and 228; windows of
St. Luke in Phocis).
^ B. D., ii, p. 100, No. 4.
' Laurent, as above, 237-8 (Delphi, Aegina, &c.).
1204 N
178 SCULPTUEE

Capitals of the first Byzantine period are so widely distributed and so

uniform in type that they were probably made in a single centre, almost
certainly to be sought in the marble quarries of Proconnesus. From the busy
workshops by the quarries they were exported to all the ports of the
Mediterranean ; they are found in Syria in the East, in Cordova in the West.
Like the carved slalas and the sarcophagi of similar date, they were a staple
export from the Sea of Marmora ; the close affinities of _ specimens now
separated by great distances are explained by their common origin.

Pig. 105. Capital of the sixth century from Salona : Spalato.

(Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

8. Influence in the West.

The probable influence of East- Christian sculpture upon the sarcophagi of

Italy, France, and Spain has already been discussed above (pp. 132-5). The
short life of monumental figure sculpture in the East put a premature end to its
function as an educative power ; after the first Byzantine period it ceased to
affect the art of Europe. But its place was almost immediately taken by minor
sculpture, chiefly in ivory, which early became a most important instrument in
the development of European plastic art (p. 236), aided by the illuminations
in manuscripts which, with an equal mobility, travelled as far and were no less
useful to the artist in search of designs. In France, Germany, and England the
influence of the ivory carver's art was a cardinal factor in evolution. In Italy
it was chiefly operative in the north-east, in the region of Venice, though the
gates of Bonannus at Pisa and other bronze gates further south owe much to
this source of inspiration. A kind of hereditary instinct seems to have kept the
Italians true to classical models ; the sculptors working for Frederick II in
Apulia obeyed such an instinct ; so did Niccolo Pisano, who borrowed from the
pagan art of Eome rather than from that of the Christian era. But even he
adopted Eastern iconographical types : in content, if not in style, his subjects
betray a dependence upon Byzantine compositions.^

' E. Dobbert, Der Stil Niccolb Pisano's vnd dessen L'rspnng,

 .x

•:• AFTGONKAeHMePiM-eYArreMv

miMfsiviiinn fN<|)\fAAKii^er(
M? TOM mow" H^'TOAe 6NTW
f^W^HCOTfTfAf BAnTK^miAIA
Fig. 106. Illiuninatod head-piece from a Gospel of the eleventh century in tlie
British Museum.

CHAPTER IV
SCULPTURE: CARVINGS IN IVORY AND STEATITE

It has been already stated that the ivory carvings of tlie Christian
East possess a higher relative importance to Byzantine art as a whole than
do those produced in the West to occidental art. For while in the West
monumental figure sculpture, reappearing in the eleventh century, regained
in the twelfth the position which was its due, the Eastern Empire was
almost without figure sculptors in stone from the sixth to the thirteenth
centuries, while workers in Ijronze or other metals confined their etforts to
a diminutive scale. The Byzantine Empire through the greater part of its
history, from the time of Justinian to the period in the thirteenth century
when it began to be effectively influenced by Western glyptic art, was in
very much the same [)Osition as the shorter-lived empire founded l:iy
Charles the Great. In the Garolingian period monumental sculpture was
also dead ; and the ivory carvings which were then produced in consider-
able ninnbers acquire in consequence an
n2 historical value which under normal
180 SCULPTUEE

circumstances they could not have attained. Some of the causes conducing
to this result were similar both in the East and in the West, and are
noticed in other places, Avhere stress is laid upon the capital importance of
Byzantine ivory carving to the development of monumental sculpture in
Europe (pp. 96, 103, 236).
But this position, so exceptional for a minor plastic art, was not
immediately attained. So long as monumental sculpture lived, it retained
its ancient influence over the destiny of
the small relief. The style of the. earliest
Christian ivories is evidently afieeted by
that of the sarcophagi ; the figures have
the same massive character, the same
squat proportions; their relief is often
higher than that which obtained in later
times. Nor did the ivory carvers confine
themselves to the imitation of Early
Christian sculpture ; they naturally went
back to works of pagan art by which that
sculpture was itself inspired. Their debt
is especiallj- clear in the case of single
figures, such as those of consular diptj'^chs
(see below, p. 196), where the derivation
from portrait sculpture of the early
empire is evident : thus we recognize an
imperial statue of a familiar type in the
Emperor Honorius in the diptych of the
Consul Probus in the Cathedral of Aosta
(a. d. 406). 1 Other figures upon these
diptychs recall Roman sepulchral monu-
Fie. 107. Bone relief of about the ments ;while the seated consuls, who are
third century in the Cairo Museum.
represented either as i-eceiving congratu-
(Catalogue general: Kcptische Kunst, No.
7090.) P. 195. lations on their appointment or as givino-
the signal for commencing the games
from their place in the circus, are in like manner derived from the
large sculptured portraits of the early empire. From such representations
of the Roman magistrate in his ofiicial seat descends the type of Our Lord
enthroned, or seated in majesty upon the globe or the rainbow. With the
book of the Gospels in one hand, and with the other raised in benediction
he resembles the type of which the diptych of Rufius Probianus, vice-prefect
of Rome, is so admirable and so early an example.^ The reversion to pagan
models extends even further than to Roman imperial times. We shall see
below, in relation to the archangel of the British Museum and the ivory

1 Best reproduction, Molinier, Ivoires, PI. II : references to earlier publications on p. 17.

° Molinier
des arts industriels,as 2nd
above,ed.,PI.vol.
IV i,; p.
W. 13.Meyer, Zicei
Cf. p. 191antike
below.Elfenbeinlafeln, PI. II ; Labarte, Histoire
 CARVINGS IN IVORY
181
chair at Ravenna, that from the fourth to the sixth century the traditions
of the Hellenic age were still respected. Like the sculptors of the sarco-
phagi of the Sidamara group, the ivory carvers had still a sense for plastic
form, they were still above a merely servile imitation. Ivory carving had
profited by the general demand for subjects in the Greek manner ; the
diptych of the Symmachi and Nicomachi reproduced not without success
the motive of an Attic sepulchral relief (p. 190). With the decay and
disappearance of monumental sculpture the influence of the greater glyptic
art naturally ceased ; and though, as on one of the caskets with mytho-
logical subjects, we find about the tenth century a representative of the
Heracles of Lysippus (p. 216), the work is a curiosity of survival without
essential value.
The relations between ivory carving and minor plastic art in other

Fig. 108. Side of a wooden casket with engraved bone panels, about the fifth century,
in the Cairo Museum. {Catalogue general : Koptische Kunst, No. 7065.) P. 195.

materials may be briefiy noted, 'though here, too, the results were not of
primary importance. The ivory carver and the silversmith seem to have
reproduced the same subjects in a very similar style : the upper zones of
the early consular diptych at Halberstadt (Fig. 7), representing an emperor
seated with his guards, recall the group upon the votive shield of Theodosius
at Madrid (Fig. 356) ; the silver disk of Aspar at Florence reminds us of
the diptych of Asterius, in which the consul is seated in like manner and
holds a scroll ; the embossed silver plaques of the casket at Anagni (p. 557)
reproduce the designs of contemporary caskets in ivory. With painting
relations were continually close. From the time when illuminated MSS.
began to grow common, they provided models for the carver, as was
constantly the case in France in the Middle Ages, where the ivories of the
fourteenth century are so nearly allied to contemporary miniatures. But
more important paintings of purely secular origin were on rare occasions
a source of inspiration : thus the figure of Calchas in a picture of Timanthes
is held to have been the original of the Abraham on the fine 'j^y^is at
Berlin (p. 195). Nor should we overlook the efiect which the great mosaic
 182 SCULPTURE

compositions of the First Period produced upon the imagination of artists in

ivory. It is quite probable that some of the types seen upon Syro-
Egyptian ^j7/xirfes and diptychs of the fifth and sixth centuries may cop3^
mosaic originals: it has been conjectured that this was the case with the
seated Virgin and Child of certain composite diptychs (p. 210), for which
the mosaics on the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem may have provided
the models : the monumental character of these figures is certainly in
favour of such a supposition. Several of the angels upon panels of this
early period recall types of which examples
still survive in mosaic, for instance at Kiti
in Cyprus. We must finally notice the in-
fluence oftextiles, though this influence was
probably not exerted much before the
iconoclastic period. When the zoomorphic
motives of early Persian silk fabrics became
popular in the Byzantine Empire, we find
them suggesting subjects to the Byzantine
ivory carver, as they also did to the Western
sculptors in Romanesque times. The designs
of certain oliphants are reminiscent of textile
patterns ; and certain caskets with animals
of purely oriental style may be placed in
the same category. Possibly the subject on
the lid of the casket at Troyes may be
derived from a textile design (Fig. 144).
Ivory carvings naturallj' reflect the style
of models which were popular or accessible
at different epochs. In the First Period there
is a greater tendency to a broad monumental
treatment than in later centuries. The
Fig. 109. Figure engraved on
bone, about the fifth century, in the figures are generally larger and the relief
Cairo Museum. (Catalogue general: more salient.
Koptische Kunst, No. 7069. ) After the iconoclastic dispute
and the Basilian revival we notice a change
of method. Ivory carving is now consciously a minor art : the monumental
gives place to the minute and the highly finished. The ivories of the Third
Period charm by an adn lirabl e delicacy only equalled by that of the best Gothic
ivories of France, but like these they often sink into a mannerism which
seems to express some faint reflection of feeling rather than feeling itself.
The development was doubtless due to similar causes in East and West, for
though the French carvers had abundant models in monumental sculpture,
it would appear that with the fourteenth century they resorted more and
more to the convenient models presented by drawings or illuminations.
Like their Byzantine rivals they travelled away from nature ; but being-
less rigidly restricted in the range of their subjects, they more easily
preserved their contact with the world.
 183
CAEVINGS IN IVOEY

The difficulty in deciding the provenance of ivories from the Christian

East is especially great in the First Period. At that time the artistic
centres were more numerous, and for a while Italy was still a competitor,
though on a rapidly decreasing scale. While Syria and Egypt were still
within the empire, that is to say down to the first Mohammedan conquests
of the seventh century, it was but natural that Alexandria and Antioch,
the great artistic and industrial centres where the Hellenistic spirit still
survived, should take a leading part in this as in all other branches of art.
We shall see below, in treating certain groups of ivories, that this general
probability is confirmed by facts, and that the majority of the ivories

Fig. 110. Side of an ivory pyxis of the fourth century in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum
at Berlin. (From a cast.) P. 195.

dating from the period between Constantine and iconoclasm must be

ascribed to the Syro-Egyptian artistic province; but since Egypt and
Syria stood in close relation to each other, giving, receiving, and trans-
mitting influence, the task of assigning particular works to one or other of
the two countries is almost an affair of divination. The Arab conquest
changed the centre of gravity, removing as it did from Byzantine control
the very regions which had hitherto been most productive. The empire
being now for a while driven back upon an inner line of defence, the
capital itself was probably the chief centre of production; and in all
likelihood this continued to be the case even after the conquests of Basil,
Nicephorus Phocas, and John Zimisces had once more expanded the
imperial frontiers. Constantinople then seems to have occupied a position
with regard to the ivory carver's art comparable to that of Paris in Western
Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and perhaps
184 SCULPT UEE

encouraged by this concentration, there began in both places the same

process towards a delicate and mannered style. Between the tenth and
thirteenth centuries ivories may have been executed in a few other parts

Fig. 111. The Baptism : ivory p:iiK4 cif the sixtli century. , British Museum. ^ 1'. 208,

of the empire ; but if so they prol.iably copied metropolitan models no less

closely than European mediaeval ivories copied those of Paris.
The earliest Christian ivories naturally inhei'ited the forms and types
of pagan times : the old shapes were adapted to new uses and ornamented
with subjects from a new iconography. In the tirst place we may notice
the ivory box or casket. Such receptacles had lieen ttsed for trinkets by
 CARVINGS IN IVORY 185

the Romans, who did but follow the Greeks and the peoples of earlier
civilizations : the fine casket from Enkomi in Cyprus in the British Museum
is an ancient example, going back to Mycenaean times. The Romans had
especially affected the circular box or pyxis} cut from a transverse section
of a tusk, using it chiefly for jewels and other valuables of small size.
Boxes of this kind had lids and locks ; but an open cylindrical form, the
acerra} was used for the grains of incense thrown upon the altar in
sacrifice. The Christians adopted both the rectangular and the circular type,
employing them chiefly as reliquaries, and as pxyides in the more restricted
sense which the word has now come to bear. In many cases they
continued to employ boxes of pagan origin, regardless of the secular scenes
upon their sides. But examples of this are comparatively rare ; for as early
as the fourth century ivory carvers were already producing both forms
with Christian designs. The rectangular caskets had generally a wooden
core or dme, to which panels were applied.
In ,the decoration of furniture with plaques of carved ivory, a usage
common to the great ancient civilizations. Christian art again followed
early precedents. The panels of doors in Santa Sophia, Constantinople,
were so enriched,^ and the adornment of thrones or magisterial chairs in
this manner was imitated in the decoration of episcopal chairs, of which
a familiar surviving example is that preserved at Ravenna and associated
with the name of Archbishop Maximianus (p. 203).
More important than either caskets or plaques for furnitjire were the
diptychs which descended from the ancient writing-tablets, but were more
immediately derived from the tablets with ornament carved in relief
presented to important personages and friends by the higher Roman
oflScials on their accession to office (p. 196). Although in these the interior
was still prepared with wax for writing, the exterior with its representa-
tion of the donor gradually became the significant part ; by this change the
first step was taken in the transformation of the writing-tablet into the
devotional diptychs of later times. Of all the early diptychs those sent by
the consuls were the most important, though the rarer commemorative
diptychs made for private persons to record events in family history are of
even greater interest. To this class belongs the diptych already mentioned
as made to commemorate a matrimonial alliance between the families of
the Symmachi and Nicomachi, of which one leaf (the finest) is in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, the other in the Musee de Cluny at Paris.

^ A number oi pyxides will be individually mentioned below. But on this form of box in
general, the reader niay consult E. von Sacken in Mitlheilnngen der fc.' k. Central-Commission,
vol. ii, N. F., Vienna, 1876, 43 ff.; E. Molinier, Imires, -55 ff.; H. Graeveu, Man. Piot, vi,
pp. 160 ff. ; and Antike Schnitsereien, Nos. 1, 17-19. The pyxides reproduced in fictile ivory by
the Arundel Society are enumerated by Westwood, FiclUe Ivories, pp. 270 ff. ; while references
to others in various collections will be found in his index. Several are reproduced by Garrucci,
Storia, vi, and by Kohault de Fleury, La Messe. See also H. Graeven's Photographische NaclMldung
(both series), the catalogues of the British, Berlin, and Vatican Museums, of the Louvre,
and that of the Basilewsky Collection (now at St. Petersburg) by A. Darcel.
^ Lethaby and Swainson, Church of Sancfa Sophia, 160 ; J. P. Richter, Qmllen der byz.
Kunstgeschichte, 14, 64; D. Ainaloffin V. V., v. 159.
 186 SCULPTUEE

Diptychs wei-e very early used in those parts of the church ritual in which
the names of saints, bishops, and benefactors were publicly recited.^

Fig. 112. Ivory reliefs on the episcopal P.chair

205. at Ravenna ; sixth century. (L. Eicci.)

Consular diptychs were sometimes adapted to this use ; but new panels with
religious subjects seem to have been made at least as early as the sixth
1 As early as the Council of Mopsuestia (a.d. 550) there
and reference is made to diptycha in quibus memoriae sacerdotumwasisfius
a custodian of the diptychs,
opiimae ciritatis saipia con-
tinentur rocabula (Gori, Tkesainus ret. dipt,, i. 45).
 CARVINGS IN IVORY 18/

century. There are no diptj'clis for private devotional use dating- from the
First- Period, and prolmbly their manufacture does not go liack much

Fro. 11;;. lyovy pijuiilrs of tlie sixtli century : Dniriel between tlje lions ; tlie martyrdom
ofSt. Menas. (British Museum.) Pp. 20'J, L'lii.

further than the ninth century : almost all existing examples date from the
tenth century and later. The triptych was a natural development from
the diptych, and numerous examples are preserved ; but we do not find
188 SCULPTURE

polyptychs with many leaves, such as those which were produced in the
West during the later Middle Ages. The use of carved ivory panels for
book-covers was a result of the general introduction in the fourth century
of the book or codex, succeeding the rotulus or roll. The codex required
a cover ; and this, especially the cover of the liturgical book, offered a large
surface for decoration. A carved ivory panel was well adapted to this
purpose : hence we find the two leaves of old diptychs early used to decorate
the covers of books, or, where only one leaf or panel could be procured, to
embellish the upper side only. The large composite diptychs (see p. 197)
were better adapted to this purpose than narrow single leaves, because
their square form corresponded more nearly to that which had been
generally adopted for the codex. After the abolition of the consulship in
A. D. 541 this type continued to be made, but directly as book-covers, and
no longer as diptychs. The examples mentioned below, the subjects of
which are entirely Christian, are sufficient proof of the adaptation (p. 20.2).
Ivory statuettes were hardly, if at all, made in the Eastern Empire,
because sculpture in the round was not favoured by the Church. But they
may have been made in isolated cases ; for instance, a rhetor named
Cyprius is said to have presented to a church an ivory statue of St. Helena.^
Their absence robs the group of Byzantine ivories of the variety and
charm which the Madonnas, saints, and other groups in the round lend to
almost contemporary Western work. Byzantine ivory carving further
suffers by the absence of objects intended for secular use, such as the
mirror-cases and jewel-caskets made in such numbers in mediaeval France.
Throughout the whole duration of the empire, the Church possessed the
same control which in the West she had exercised down to the end of the
twelfth century. The West, under the influence of a literary and
scholastic revival, achieved its artistic independence in tlie thirteenth
century, enriching its iconography by an immense variety of subjects
derived from the literature of romance. The difference between East and
West in this matter is strikingly marked by the fact that though romances
were plentiful in the Eastern Empire, and many of the most popular
mediaeval stories were of oriental origin, so far as we kiiow they were
never suffered to obtain a footing in the decoration of toilet objects or utensils
made for domestic use. The exploits of Digenis Akritas are not per-
petuated in the same way as those of Parcival or Gawain or Lancelot of
the Lake.
Bishops' staves, though in use in the Greek Church under a form
approximating, to that of the tau-cross, have not come down to us in ivory
from early times ; the same applies to the handles of the tlabella used to
drive the flies away from the altar. Here again we find the Byzantine
ivory carver indifferent to opportunities of which his Italian and French

1 J. P. Eichtei-, Quellen der by:. Kunstgeschiclite, Vienna, 1897, pp. 14 and 64. This may,
however, have heen something in the nature of a chryselephantine statue, and not a
statuette.
 CARVINGS m IVORY 189

contempoi'aries availed themselves to the full, though the flabellum has

continued in the East until the present day, while in Western Europe it
became obsolete at the close of the Middle Ages.
As in mediaeval Western Europe, ivory carvings were generallj' coloured
and gilded, though few surviving examples have preserved this decoration
in any but the most imperfect
condition. An early example
is the large book-cover from
Murano, of which one half is
in the museum at Ravenna
(see p. 209). In a later period
we have the curious casket,
perhaps of the ninth century
(see p. 231), in the Kircherian
Museum at Rome, where
traces of red and green can
be seen on the garments of
several figures. The Harba-
ville triptych in the Louvre
(see p. 227) was once partially
gilded, and the letters of its
inscriptions were coloured
red ; the lost panel with the
Deesis, formerly in the Epis-
copal Library at Vich in
Catalonia, Spain, was treated
in a similar manner. Ivories
were also sometimes stained
purple, the royal colour so
often usfed to dye the vellum
of MSS. The remarkable
casket at Ti-oyes (p. 231)
aifords an example of this
mode of decoration.
A.few points differenc
of J. leaf of a com-
e ^i<*- H^- Central panel from one (John
. n i! posite diptych of the sixth century. Rylands
distinguishing Eastern from Library, Manchester.) P. 209.
Western ivory carvings may
be noticed. Unlike Western mediaeval ivories, which are hardly ever
decorated behind, Byzantine panels and devotional tablets are frequentlj-
carved on the back, most commonly with a decorative cross. The
architectural canopy which is such a constant feature in the West
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is less conspicuous in the
East. A figure will often be placed under an arch resting on two columns ;
but this is generally of simple construction ; even where, as in numerous
examples of the Third Period, the canopy is pierced, the effect is less
190 SCULPTUEE

elaborate than that of a fourteenth-eentuiy French panel with its intricate

crocketed gables and ornamented spandrels. The leaves of the Byzantine
triptych are not attached by means of hinges, but turn upon vertical
pins in the upper and lower inside corners fitting into holes in projecting
bands across the top and bottom of the middle panel.

First Period.^
It has been observed that the attribution of ivories belonging to the First
Period is a matter of great difficulty ; in the first place the conflicting claims of
East and West are by no means easy to decide, especially during the earlier years ;
in the second, the close relations maintained between the provinces of the Eastern
Empire render the establishment of artistic frontiers a very hazardous proceeding.
All that we know of the migratory habits of artists in antiquity further com-
plicates the subject, for there is no reason why carvers in ivory, born and trained
in one province, should not have tried their fortune in others, and imported
into them the peculiar characteristics of their style. Again, drawings, paintings,
and carvings which served as models must have circulated as freely at this period
as in later times, introducing persistent foreign influences to disturb the develop-
ment of local schools. Even when it is granted that an ivory is of East-
Christian inspiration there will often remain a doubt whether it is to be ascribed
to an Eastern artist working in the East, to an Eastern artist settled in the West,
or to a Western artist who had assimilated Eastern methods. There can indeed
be little doubt that the majority of ivories dating from the period under dis-
cussion are of East-Christian origin, and that for the most part they were made
in the Syro-Egyptian artistic province. A general difference of style, a tendency
to realism in the human types, and the minute treatment of details marks them
off from the Italian work of the late classical period ; while details of iconography
in the sacred subjects represented show an increased resort to the Apocryphal
writings in which the East delighted. More precise indications are provided by
analogies with objects like the ampullae at Monza (see p. 623), known to have
come from the Holy Land, and by such examples of conventional ornament as
those upon the chair of Maximianus at Eavenna, which are clearly of Syrian
descent. But there is a minority which cannot so easily be divorced from the
Western soil on which they have been discovered ; and in view of what has been
said above, even the presence of details emanating from oriental sources does not
prove them to be the work of oriental hands. We may first notice a few of the
more important ivories of which the East-Christian origin, even where probable,
is not proven ; we may then pass to those which seem undoubtedly to belong to
the East.
There seems no valid reason to doubt the Eoman origin of the diptych of the
Symmachi and Nicomachi, already mentioned as divided between the Victoria
and Albert Museum and the Cluny Museum at Paris.* The two families are
Eoman, and the onus prohandi lies on those who suggest that Eome at the end
of the fourth century was incapable of producing such work. That the model

1 In this section the ivory carvings are considered as far as possible according to their
artistic affinities ; except in the case of consular diptychs they are not grouped according to
their forms (diptychs, pyxides, &o.) or to the purposes for which they were used. The latter
method of classification has been adopted by Von Sybel (ChristUche Antike, ii. 228-57), whose
list the student will find extremely useful.
^ South Kensington leaf: W. Maskell, Fiolile Ivories, 44 ; Gori, Thesaurus diptychorum, i,
PI. TI ; A. Venturi, Storia, i. Fig. 355. Leaf in Cluny Museum : Molinier, Ivoires, p. 48 ; Ven-
turi. Fig. 354 ; L. von Sybel, ChristUche Antike, ii. 237 ; A. Haseloff, Prussian Jahrbuch, 1908,
p. 55. The panel of the Lampadii at Brescia is of the same group (W. Meyer, Zwei antike
Klfenbeintafeln, &<:., p. 35 ; H. Graeven, Bom. Mitih., vii, 1892, 21 ; Westwood, Fictile Ivories,
12).
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
191
was Greek has often been remarked, but it was of the fourth century b. c, and
not any late Hellenistic work : the types seem to have been suggested by the
reliefs upon a sepulchral stele such as the artist might easily have studied in
the capital of the Western world. The diptych of Eufius Probianus,' Vicarius of
Eome, preserved at Berlin, is still less likely to have been made in any other
city. But .if these two examples are Eoman, then the ivory in the collection of
Prince Trivulzio at Milan, representing the Women at the Tomb,'' should be
Eoman too, for the palmetto border surrounding the door of the sepulchre
is identical with that framing the two other diptychs, and not found upon any

''**b*''»wm*

Fig. 11-5. The Sacrifice of Isaac : side of an ivory pyxis of tlie fourth century in the
Kaiser Priedrich Museum, Berlin. P. 195.

ivory for which an Eastern origin can be asserted. The Trivulzio ivory should
carry with it the fine panel in the Munich Museum ' on which the scene at the
tomb is combined with the Ascension ; for here the general treatment is
analogous. It also carries with it the set of four panels from a casket in the
British Museum, carved about a. d. 400, with scenes from the Passion and after ;*
' W. Meyer, as above, PI. II; E. Molinier, Ivoires, p. 40, PI. IV; Venturi, Storia, &c., i,
p. 356 ; Westwood, p. 13.
' Molinier, as above, PI. VI; Garnicci, Storia, PI. 449, Pig. 2; Graeven, Oott. gelehrte An-
ceigm, 1897, 69-72; L. von Sybel, Christliche Antike, Fig. 65. Westwqod, p. 866, No. 6,
describes this panel as Oarolingian. M Diehl gives it to Alexandria {Manuel, 73).
' H. Graf, Katalog des bayerischen Nationalmitseums, vol. v, PI. VI, No. 157 ; Garrucci, Storia,
PI. 459, Fig. 4; J. Stuhlfauth, AUchrisUiche El/enbeinplasiik p 58 references to all the litera-
ture). Westwood, p. 337, ascribes the fianel to tlie ninth or tenth century.
* British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, No. 291, and Cata-
192 SCULPTUEE

here the tomb of Our Lord is similar in construction, diiFering from the type of
the Monza ampullae, while the head and shoulders of one of the women are
almost the same. The costume of the soldiers, with their flat caps, tells us
little, for it seems to occur in works both of Italian and East-Christian origin
(see p. 127). The set of three smaller panels in the British Museum ^ must
belong to the same group : some of the costumes are identical, and the figures
have the same rather squat proportions. ;
The chain of affinities thus established is one of the most perplexing with
which the student of Early Christian antiquities is concerned ; it has been drawn
out to some length to illustrate the extreme difficulty of research with regard to
Christian antiquities of this period. For if at the beginning the connexion with
Eome appears to be obvious, at the end the relationship to the Eastern provinces
is almost as prominent, yet there has been no obvious break in the continuity of
development. There are good reasons for suspecting that the doors of the
Church of Sta Sabina, with their panels carved with Testament subjects, were
imported into Eome (see p. 146), and the Crucifixion upon those doors, a subject
very exceptional at the beginning of the fifth century, has analogies with the
Crucifixion on the British Museum panels. The giving of the Law to Moses on
the same doors is moreover iconographically related to a similar subject upon a
marble relief of Eastern origin at Berlin (see p. 156). The architecture seen in
the Thekla scene on the set of three panels in the British Museum, with its
fagade flanked by a tower, seems to point to Asia Minor ; ' architecture of
similar origin appears upon the Brescia casket, with which these panels are
stylistically related — an object also claimed for Asia Minor. This casket '^ pre-
sents the same contradictions in an even more perplexing form, for the
resemblance to the style of the Eoman sarcophagi is conspicuous.
With the ivories just mentioned we enter the fifth century, to which a few
diptychs of Eoman consuls belong. These differ in style from those of the
following century made for consuls of the East ; and there seems no particular
reason why they should have been made in any other country than that of the
magistrates who ordered them. The earliest, that of Probus, consul in a. d. 406,
reproduces, as we have already seen (p. 180), an imperial statue and preserves
the old classical tradition.*
Another ivory carving, perhaps of the fifth century, and showing the same
general relationship to Early Christian sculpture in stone and wood, with the
same puzzling suggestion of oriental influences, is the diptych with scenes from
the Gospels in the treasury of Milan Cathedral.^ The diptych, also with Gospel
scenes, in the Cathedral of Palermo " is assigned by Venturi to this early period ;
and Molinier ascribes a similar date to the panels in the Bibliothfeque Nationale
at Paris.'
The mention in preceding paragraphs of the diptych of the Symmachi
and Nicomachi and of that of Eufius Probianus has already brought us into

logue of Ivory Carvings, No. 7; H. Graeveii, Gottingische geleJirte Ameigen, 1897, 75; Venturi, Storia, i,
Figs. 397-400.
' Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities, No. 292.
" Strz.ygowski, Kleinasien ein Neuland dor Kunstgeschichte, pp. 215 ff. This architecture is
again found on the Werden Casket in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Arguments derived
from such architectural resemblances are not in themselves conclusive ; we may compare the
occurrence of Italianizing architecture upon the thirteenth-century embroidery known as Opus
Anglicanum and certainly made in England.
' Garrucci, Storia, vi. 441-5 ; Graeven, Photos, ii. 11-15 ; Westwood, Fictile Ivories, 33-8 ;
Venturi, Storia, i. Pigs. 273-7 ; G. Stuhlfauth, Elfenbeinplastik, 41, &c.
* Molinier, Ivoires, 17, and PI. II ; "Westwood, No. 42.
' Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 450 ; Labarte, Sistoire des arts indusiriels, 2nd ed., i. 32 and PI. V ;
Venturi, Storia, i. 508 and Pig. 390 ; Graeven, Gottingische gelehrte Ameigen, 1897, 75-7. Some
are inclined to place these panels at any rate alter the sixth century, as Dr. A. Heisenberg
{Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche). Labarte considered it of the ninth century.
« Venturi, vol. i, p. 505, and Pig. 382.
' Labarte, Sistoire, 2nd ed , vol. i, PI. IV ; Molinier, Ivoires, p. 60.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
193
contact with a group of ivory diptychs made to celebrate events in individual
life. These commemorated acces-
sion to public offices, or domestic
occurrences, such as marriage or
recovery from dangerous illness.
The two diptychs already men-
tioned represent the two classes ;
but as the domestic class is the
smaller, and few of the ivories
composing it can be proved
Byzantine, we may dismiss it in
a very few words. The chief family
diptychs appear to belong to the
fourth and fifth centuries, espe-
cially to the latter. Well-known
examples are the diptych from
the Mayer Collection in the Free
Public Museums at Liverpool,
with Aesculapius and Telesphorus,
Hygieia and Eros,' perhaps as early
as the fourth century ; the diptych
with the muse and poet at Monza ; ^
that at Brescia,^ with a male and
female figure variously identified ;
that at Trieste, with the Dioscuri,
Europa and Zeus;* that in the
Louvre, with poets and muses ; °
and that formerly in the treasury of
the cathedral, now in the museum
of Sens,'^ with the Rising of the
Sun and Moon under the attri-
butes of Bacchus and Diana.'
The majority of these works
evidently imitate the classical art
of an earlier date, and this circum-
stance gives them an appearance
of superiority over contemporary
ivories' with Christian subjects,
the artists of which had no
such models to copy. It also
renders even more hopeless the
task of discriminating between
work produced in Italy and in the
Christian East, where the same Fig. 116. Adam in Eden : leaf of a diptych of
kind of imitation was in progress. the iifth-sixth century in the Museo Nazionale
Ornamental and architectural (Bargello), Florence. (Alinari.) P. 195.

' Pulszky, Gatty, Westwood, Fictile Ivories, Nos. 15 and 16 ; W. Maskell, Description, &c.,
p. 166 ; Molinier, Ivoires, No. 61, p. 45 ; H. Graeven, Gott. gel. Anz., 1897, 351 ; Veuturi, Storia, i.
Fig. 357 ; W. Meyer, Zwei antilce Elfenbeintafeln, &c. No. 55.
^ Molinier, No. 62, p. 45 ; W. Meyer, No. 51 ; Didron, Annates archeologiques, xxi. 289, 294;
Westwood, 21 ; Venturi, Storia, i, Fig. 358.
' Molinier, No. 59 ; Meyer, No. 57 ; Westwood, Nos. 18, 19 ; Wieseler, Das Diptychon Qui-
rinianum, PI. I ; Venturi, Storia, i. Fig. 356. The usual interpretations are Hippolytus and
Phaedra, and Virbius and Diana.
* Molinier, No. 60 ; ArcMologische Zeitung, N. S. viii, 1876, PI. XII.
= Mplinier, No. 63 ; Westwood, No. 25.
* Molinier, No. 64 ; Meyer, No. 56 ; Liibarte, Hist, des arts industriels. 1st ed.. Album, vol. i,
PI. I ; Westwood, Nos. 23-4, &c.
' A few other ivory carvings of the same date are mentioned by Molinier, Ivoires, p. 48.
194 SCULPTURE
details often seem to suggest an oriental origin ; one is reminded of the
ornamental details upon many sarcophagi to [the oriental character of which
Molinier and others have
rightly drawn attention. But
we cannot say with certainty
that the importation of an orna-
ment implies the importation of
the object on which it occurs
or of the whole art on which it
depends. The same remarks apply
to the rare diptychs which repre-
sent family portraits. Of these the
best known is that in the treasury
of Monza Cathedra], on one leaf of
which is a soldier of I'ank wearing
an embroidered tunic and chlamys
and armed with spear and shield,
on the other his wife and child.'
There are various opinions as to
the identity of the persons repre-
sented, Molinier and JuUian
believing them to be Stilicho,
Serena, and Euclierius ; whoever
they may actually be, the costumes
and the quality of the work prove
the diptych to be not later than
the beginning of the fifth centuiy.
The diptych in the Cathedral
of Eouen^ with SS. Peter and
Paul on the two leaves may be as
early as the fifth century, for the
types resemble those of the sarco-
phagi. These leaves were employed
about the twelfth century to adorn
the binding of a manuscript relat-
ing to the archbishops of the
diocese, and it is probable, as
de Linas and Molinier argue, that
this was only done when the sur-
faces of the leaves themselves
were overcrowded with names. If
this is so, the diptych is one of
the few known to us originally
made to contain the lists read in
Fig. 117. St. Paul at Malta : leaf of .a diptcyh church, the diptych in the Cathe-
of the fifth-sixth century in tlie Museo Nazionale dral of Tongres being probably
(Bargello), Florence. P. 195.
another (see p. 208). The figure
of St. Peter recalls good Greek models allied to the Lateran Sophocles, which
inspired many works of art in the Christian period (p. 128) ; that of St. Paul
finds analogies on sarcophagi from Southern France.* Molinier, partly in conse-
'■ Gori, Thesaurus, i, PI. VII ; Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels, 1st ed.. Album, vol. i,
PI. II ; Molinier, Ivoires, PI. II ; Westwood, Fictile Ivories, No. 42, p. 14 ; Graeven, Gdtt.
gel. Ann., 1897, p. 354; C. JuUian, Melanges d' arch. ^ Ecole franfaise de Borne, i. 5. The usual
alternatives to Stilicho, Serena, and Eucherius are Aetius, Galla Placidia, and the young
Valentinian III.
2 C. de Linas, Gaz. arch., 1885, 25-37, PI. IV ; Molinier, Ivoires, 53 ; Westwood, p. 46 ;
Graeven, Oott. gel. Ann., 1897, 71.
' E. Le Blant, Sarcophages chret. de la Gaule, PI. XI, No. 1.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY 195

quence of this, believes the diptych to be of Western origin. A diptych in

the Louvre,' of about the same date, with Apostles and saints, is also assigned
by Molinier to Latin art. The famous diptych in the Bargello at Plorence,-
which Graeven would place as early as the fourth century, others as late as
the fifth, is in the same uncertain position. It has on one side Adam vs^ith
the various beasts in the terrestrial paradise, on the other scenes from the life
of St. Paul (Pigs. 116, 117). In the paradise scene the nude figure of
Adam is not without grace, nor is the modelling contemptible, while the
animals testify to observation of nature on the part of the artist. The
treatment of the figures on the second leaf has a certain sober gravity and
restraint ; it recalls the work upon a small panel, formerly in the Mallet
Collection at Amiens, now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin," which
Haselofif, not without reason, ascribes to the Italian art of the fifth century.
The representation of the terrestrial paradise upon the back of the consular
diptych of Areobindus in the Louvre,* with its centaurs, sirens, and gryphons,
and its gesticulating Eve, seems to embody the spirit of an altogether later age,
and it may be doubted whether it was added at an earlier period than the
fifteenth century.
We may now consider the more important ivories of the First Period, the
origin of which is almost certainly East-Christian.
The large pyxis in the museum at Berlin ° is distinguished by an almost
classical excellence of style and can hardly be later than the first half of the
fourth century (Figs. 110, 115). It has upon one side Our Lord seated among
the Apostles, on the other the Sacrifice of Isaac. The figure of Abraham in
the latter subject may be derived from that of Calchas in a picture of the
Sacrifice of Iphigeneia by Timanthes, and. the manner of representing the
sacrifice appears in monuments associated both with Syria and Egypt, a, pyxis
at Bologna, and a bone carving from Alexandria in the Kaiser Friedrich
Museum at Berlin, where the attitude of Abraham is almost identical.® Stuhl-
fauth's attribution of the pyxis to Eome and his date about 400 a. d. are both
inacceptable ; the work points to an earlier date and to the Syro-Egyptian
province, though to which part of it must remain uncertain. The bone carving
to which allusion has just been made belongs to a group, once in all proba-
bility decorating articles of furniture, found in considerable numbers at Alex^
andria.' These cai-vings are of interest in relation to the Christian ivory carvings,
as the figures upon them, though for the most part purely pagan, have many
affinities with those adopted by Christians. In some cases, as on the Berlin
pyxis, motives are incorporated in Christian ivories which go back to classical
originals ; another subject of a bone relief, representing Nike holding above
her head a ^medallion containing a bust,' is reproduced upon an ivory diptych
in the library at Munich (p. 198), though here the ideal classical types have
disappeared and a bearded head of oriental type has replaced the youthful head
within the medallion.
A large group of the pagan carvings is ornamented with nude figures of
classical type, sometimes with a background of water-plants and birds suggesting
' Molinier, Catalogue des imires, No. 2 (figured).
' Garrucci, SioT-ia, PI. 451, Fig. 3; Denon and Carrand Collections ; Grivaud delaVincelle,
Mtmumenis antiques inedits, ii, PI. XXVIII, p. 232 ; Molinier, Ivoires, 57 ff. and PI. V, 2 ;
Westwood, Fictile Ivories, p. 48 ; Graeven, Goti. gel. Anz., 1897, 67 ; Venturi, Storia, i. Fig. 385.
' A. Haaeloff in Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903.
* Molinier, Ivoires, PI. III.
fauth,■'■' W. VOge, MfenbeinUldwerke
Elfenieinplastik, p. 18. (Catalogue, Kaiser Friedrich Museum), 1902, No. 1 ; Stuhl-
' Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, No. 428 ; Strzygowski, Hellenistische und koptische Kunst, 10 ; Ainaloff,
Hellenistic Origins, 45, 59.
' J. Strzygowski, Hellenistische und koptische Kunst in Alexandrien, Vienna, 1902, and Koptische
Kuntt, 171 ff. ; Wulif, Berlin Catalogue, i, Nos. 341 ff. ; H. Gi-aeven, Aniike Schnitsereien aus
Elfenbeih und Knochen in photographischer Nachbildiing (Hannover, 1903), Nos. 64-6.
' Hell, und kopt. Kunst, 6 ff.
o2
196 SCULPTURE

oriental inspiration.' Tlie principal example of this work is a bridal casket at

Cairo of similar form to the silver casket of Projecta in the British Museum. -

CONSULAE DlPTYCHS.3

A definite predominance of an oriental or Byzantine style is shown by the

consular diptychs which were made to the order of consuls on their accession to

Fig. 118. Part of the consular diptych of the fifth-sixth century in the Cathedral
of Halberstadt ; from a cast. {Archaeohgia, Ivii, p. 164.) P. 197.

cfSce and were sent by them as complimentary gifts to important personages ;

in the same way in England, if small things may be compared with great, gold

' Hell, und kopt. Kunsi, 13-14. " Strzygowski, Koptische Kunst, No. 7060.
* The best accounts of consular diptychs are given hy E. Molinier, Ivoires, ch. i;
W. Meyer, Zwei antike Elfenbeinixifeln der k. Staatsiibliotliek in Miinchm, pp. 3 ff., Munich, 1879.
Westwood enumerates those reproduced for the Arundel Society in his Fictile Ivoms, first
section, 'Classical Ivories.' L. von Sybel, Christliclie Anlike, ii, pp. 232-5, gives a very
convenient list of the precisely dated examples. The Theodosian code of a.d. 384 prohibited
the presentation of diptychs by any officers other than consuls ; but the prohibition was
ineffective, as ten years later Symmachus in a letter to his brother announces the dispatch
of a diptych on the elevation to the quaestorship of his son (Marquardt, Romisches Piivatleben,
ii'',
and pp. 562, 803
Saglio, art. ;Diptychon,
Pauly-Wissowa,
i. 27). Sealencyklopiidie, iv, 1135, andv, aitiole Diptychon; Daremberg
 CAEVINGS IN IVOEY 197

rings were distributed by newly made serjeants-at-law. A considerable number

were required by every consul, and the quality of the work varied according to
the rank of the recipient. Proof of this is supplied firstly by the manufacture
of the great composite diptychs (see below), which appear to have been reserved
for imperial persons ; secondly, by the existence of examples in different styles
made for the same magistrate. Thus there exist eight diptychs of Areobindus
(a. d. 506), four of a more elaborate type, showing the consul seated at the games
(see below), the other four with medallions, monograms, and geometrical or
iloral ornament, which must have been more rapidly executed and cost con-
siderably less. The series of consular diptychs begins about the commence-
ment of the fifth century and ends with the year of office of BasiUus in 541,
when the consulate was abolished by Justinian. Thirty-seven are identified by
inscriptions giving names, or by monograms ; twelve are anonymous. Of these
forty-nine examples only six belong to the fifth century, and all these are of
Eoman consuls. Of the remaining thirty-one only that of Orestes (a.d. 530)
belongs to Eome. This diptych (Fig, 120), now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum,^ is so entirely in the style of the contemporary Byzantine examples
as to suggest that oriental influence was already paramount in this branch
of art.
The usual scheme of decoration shows the consul in the toga picta arranged
in the 'confabulated' style, that is to say folded into a comparatively narrow
band before it was put on.^ Sometimes the chlamys with the tahlion is worn, an
imperial and court costume from the fourth century (Fig. 118). In the earliest
examples the consul stands (Felix, a.d. 428) or is seated (Asterius, a.d. 449,
Boethius, a.d. 487), holding a sceptre in his left hand and either nothing or
a scroll in his right. In most of these examples he must be considered as
receiving the congratulations of his friends. But as early as Boethius (a. d. 487)
there appears in the raised right hand the mappa circensis, the napkin thrown
down as the signal for the commencement of the games (Fig. 8).' That
there may be no doubt in the spectator's mind as to the scene depicted, the
lower part of the diptych is filled either with charioteers, horses, acrobats,
mimes, or with figures of men pouring money out of sacks to signify the
largesse of the new-made consul. To right and left of the consul there some-
times appear accompanying figures, either persons of rank, as on the fifth-
century diptych in Halberstadt Cathedral,* or personifications of Home and
Constantinople, as on the diptychs of Magnus (a.d. 518) and Orestes (a.d. 530),
as well as on contemporary coins. With a few exceptions the diptychs had the
same design on both leaves.
It has already been remarked that the quality of consular diptychs varied
according to the importance of the recipients. As the chief recipient was the
emperor, it was necessary to devise for his acceptance a more elaborate type
than that presented to less-exalted personages. To meet this need there came
into existence very large diptychs ('composite diptychs'), each leaf of which
was composed of five parts (cf. Fig. 124). The principal panel was in the
centre, flanked by two narrower panels of the same height, while at top and
bottom were narrow horizontal panels equal in length to the breadth of the
three others combined. "*

1 W. Maskell, Description, &c., p. 55. This diptych was acquired in 1866.

^ Wilpert in VArte, Kome, 1898, and Die Gewandung der Christen in den ersten Jahrhundertm,
Bonn,
theory 1898
based; 0.'Wulff,Dse
upon that ofKoimesiskirche von Nicua,
Bielyayeff, and 204 from
differing ff., Strasburg, 1903. The
that of Meyer, who latter adoptsthea
discusses
question of costume on pp. 22 ff.
" The action of holding up the mappa is found upon coins, from those of Valentinian III
to Phocas (Meyer, as above, p. 15).
* Graeven {Giitt. gel. Am., as above) ascribes this diptych to the first quarter of the
century. It is reproduced among the fictile ivories of the Arundel Society.
'' On the type, see Graeven, Gott. gel. Am., as above, 352 ; V. Schultze, Archaologie, &c., 273 ;
0. Wulff in Deutsche Literatiir-Zeitung, 1906, 1468.
198 SCULPTURE

Two fragments of an example in the Trivulzio Collection at Milan ' show the
nature of the upper and lower plaques.
That from the top has two winged
figures of Victories holding a wreath
containing a female bust (the Tyche of
Constantinople), that from the bottom
barbarian tributaries. The inscriptions
on these two plaques: AC TEIVM-
PHATOEI + PERPETVO SEMPEE
AVG ; and : VIE ILLVSTE : COM :
PEOTIC(?) ET CONSVL OEDINAE,
leave no doubt that the whole of which
they formed parts was intended as a gift
to an emperor from a consul. Another
upper plaque from a composite diptych
is at Basle ;^ with its flying Victories and
medallion with female bust it is almost
identical with the Milan plaque, and
bears the inscription PEEPETVAE
SEMPEE + AVGVSTAE. The royal
library at Munich contains two side
plaques from such a diptych^ which
Meyer supposes to represent the consul
bringing his congratulations for the new
year in the presence of imperial guards
and an ofiScer of the court ; a standing
figure of Victory holds up a medallion
containing a bearded imperial bust,
which is conjectured by Meyer, upon
inadequate evidence, to be Julian.* If
the scene really represents a gift to an
emperor, we must suppose that the top
and bottom panels were not dissimilar
from the examples at Milan and Basle,
and that the centre panel represented
the omperor himself. This is suggested
by the presence of the bodyguard and
by the fact that the consul is humbly
standing offering a scroll, instead of
proudly seated as always in the absence
of his sovereign. Whatever the true inter-
pretation, the style of the work suggests
Fig. 119. Diptych of the Consul Ana- the sixth century rather than the fourth.
stasius (a. d. 517). (Victoria and Albert The only comparatively perfect ex-
Museum.)
ample of a composite diptych possibly
made for presentation to the emperor is that now in the Louvre, formerly in

' Westwood, Fictile Imries, 365, No. 5 ; W. Meyer, as above, p. 50, and PI. I and II. The
winged Victories recall the scheme of two winged genii holding portrait medallions which
frequently occur on pagan sarcophagi. See also Strzygowski, B. b,, vol. i. Das Etschmiadsin-
Evangaiar, 31. ' W. Meyer, 50-1 ; de Rossi, Bullettino, 1878, PI. I.
= Meyer, pp. 51-5 and PI. Ill ; Molinier, Imires, No. 49, p. 39.
*. Eiedin (Proc. of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Soc, N. S., vol. ix, 1897, 201) declares
that the scene represented is not a gift made by a consul to an emperor, but the apokomhia,
a gift made to the Church by a high official, perhaps a patrician, when entering upon his
(new) ranli. He says that the offering is not a scroll, but a bag of money. {See D. Bielyayeff,
Bysantina, i. 48, 254, ii. 47 and 240; Migne, Pair. Gr., vol. 112, p. 516.) Eiedin, like
Molinier, declines to accept the fourth century as the date, preferring the sixth, which is
certainly more probable. The bust in the medallion, in his view, represents Our Lord.
 CARVINGS IN IVORY
199
the Barberini Collection at Rome, and thence known as the Bai'berini diptych.'
Here the emperor, variously supposed to be Constantino or Justinian,' is seen
on the central panel, mounted and carrying a lance. The upper plaque has

Pig. 120. Diptych of the Consul Orestes (a. d. 5.30). (Victoria and Albert Museum.) P. 197.

Victories holding a medallion containing a beardless bust of Our Lord ; the

lower, barbarians bringing tribute, among them being apparently natives of
India. Of the two lateral plaques, only that on the left side remains : it bears
^ Gori, Thesaurus, ii, PI. I, 168 ; W. Meyer, No. 58 ; Molinier, No. 10 ; G. Schlumberger,-
Monuments Plot, vii. 1 ff. : Westwood, p. 353 ; A. Venturl, Storia, i. 394 (Fig.) ; Strzygowski,
HellenisUsche und koptische Kunst, p. 29, Fig. 17, and Kleinasim, 137, 183 ; E. Strong, Roman
Sculpture, PI. 105 ; L. von Sybel, ClirisUiche AnUke, ii. 242, and Fig. 75 ; Cli. Diehl, Juslinien
(frontispiece). M. Molinior, J»oiVes,p. 10, declines to accept the Barberini ivory as a diptych
because it is devoid of any dedicatory inscription, and it may be, as he suggests, that it
was originally made as a book-cover. Names v?ritten in ink on tlie back of the Barberini
diptych prove that it -was already in Germany in the seventh century.
^ H. Graeven {Aih. Mitth., xv, 1900, p. 212) and J. Strzygowski (as above, p. 28)
express the opinion that the period of Justinian is too late. The French archaeologists,
MM. Schlumberger and Diehl, believe that the emperor is Justinian. So apparently does
Von Sybel, and upon the whole this view appears the most probable.
200 SCULPTUEE

a warrior offering a figure of Victory. It will be shown below that after the
peace of the Church this composite type of consular diptych served as a model
for book-covers, the figure of Christ being substituted for that of the emperor,
the Virgin and Child for that of the empress, who was probably sometimes
represented upon the second leaf (p. 198) (cf. the Basle fragment, with 2ie)petuae
semper Augustae). As a general rule, the emperor was probably seated after the
fashion of the higher magistrates (cf. the diptych of Eufius Probianus, p. 191), and
this is the scheme represented on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (p. 132, n. 7),
on the ivory pyxis at Berlin (p. 195), and on various diptychs.' Emperors are
seen enthroned in the Calendar of a.d. 354 (p. 484), on the votive shield of
Theodosius at Madrid (p. 569), and also upon coins.
It has been already obseiwed that the diptychs of consuls and officials passed
in considerable numbers into the possession of the Church, where they were
used for purposes of commemoration. To this circumstance a number owe their
preservation ; and it would appear that in a few cases the carved figures of the
consuls were modified in order that the ornamentation might better conform to
Christian sentiment. In a diptych at Prague the consul has been transformed
into St. Peter ; '^ the ma^^a has become a scroll, the sceptre a key, while a nimbus
has been traced round the head. An ivory at Milan shows a consular figure
similarly changed into St. Paul.' But though modification in these cases cannot
be doubted, it is not so easy to explain in the same way the curious diptych in
the treasury of Monza Cathedral with figures of David and St. Gregory.* It is
quite true that the deliberate representation of a pope holding up the mappa
is peculiar ; but if the very extensive alterations required on the other theory
were really made, it is strange that the carver entrusted with the work did not
change the mappa into a scroll, as was actually done in the Prague panel. This
was a far easier transformation than that of the eagle on the sceptre into a cross,
and the unnecessary introduction in many places of foliate designs. The
differences in the general arrangement, and the position of the space left for the
inscription, make this pair of panels very anomalous if they are to be regarded
as a sixth-century diptych altered some time after the death of Gregory in
A.D. 604. The opinion of Bloch,'^ Westwood," Venturi, and others, that the
diptych was made ad hoc, and that the preservation of the general consular
scheme was partly suggested by the exalted worldly position of the gens Anicia
to which Gregory belonged, appears to present the fewest difficulties. Both
theories presumably attribute the actual work to a Teutonic carver trained
in Italy.
The leaf of a diptych in the British Museum (Fig 121), with the standing
figure of an archangel, 'in some respects the noblest ivory in existence, is perhaps
allied to the previous group by the circumstance of its dedication. From its
exceptional size and beauty as well as from the attitude of the angel, who seems
to offer the orb of imperial power, it is supposed to have been made as a present
for an emperor, who was represented upon the lost second leaf.' The diptych
1 .T. Strzygowski, B. D., i, 31.
^ H. Graeven, Ram. Uitth. (Eome), 1892, p. 213 ; Molinier, Ixoires, p. 52, iind No. 45, p. 38.
5 Graeven, as above, 213; Molinier, 25 ; Venturi, i, Fig. 348. The type resembles that of
the diptych of Magnus, a.d. 518.
' Graeven, as above, 218, and Giitt. gel. Am., 1897, 77 ; Molinier, No. 84 ; Venturi, i.
Fig. 390.
° In Daremberg and Snglio, Siciiomiaire des antiguiles rjrecques et romaines, a. v. Oiptyqiie.
M. Bloch, however, perhaps inadvertentlj", assigns the diptych to the fifth century.
^ Fictile Ivories, p. 30 ; Molinier, Ivoires, No. 44, p. 37, vrhere other references are given.
' British Museum, Cat. of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, No. 295, and Catalogue
of Ivory Canings of the Christian Era, No. 11, where the principal references to earlier reproduc-
tions are given. Cf. also Diehl, Manuel, 2Ti.
" Stuhlfauth {Elfenbeinplastik, 174, and Die Engel, 180) argues that the Virgin rather than
an emperor was carved upon the second leaf. Venturi (Stoi'a, 506) thinks rather a crowd of
worshippers. Kondakoff {Byzantine Churches of Constantinople, 6th Archaeological Congress,
Moscow, 116) regards the angelic figure as a personification of Hagia Sophia, or the Divine
Wisdom.
 CARVINGS IN IVORY 201

is of exceptional importance
for the study of early ivories ;
unfortunately its history and
date are not easy to determine
■\vith precision.
Strzj'gowski, in a suoges-
tive paper communicated to
the Hellenic Society/ notices
the analogy between the angel
and the inferior but still fine
figures on the chair of Maxi-
mianus. He shows that the
arrangeinent of the five figures
on the front of the chair corre-
sponds to that on the sides
of the sarcophagi of the
Sidamara type, which he
would assign to the art of
Antioch. He then brings
the angel, the figures of the
sarcophagi, and those of the
chair into connexion with
the decoration of the prosce-
nium wall of the ancient
theatre. Here, as we kno^w
from a fresco at Pompeii in
the Fourth Style,'- the doors
through which the actors
entered and the sj)aces be-
tween them are flanked bj'
pairs of columns connected
above by rounded arches or
by pediments, all united by
a continuous entablature as
on the sarcophagi. Now the
doors are approached by short
flights of steps ; and it is re-
markable that the archangel
is made to stand in a verj'
awkward position at the top
of a similar flight of steps
flanked Ijj' projecting columns.
If he is represented coming
forward from the proscenium
wall, as an actor about to
descend upon the stage, we
' Journal of Hellenic Shulies.-xxvn,
1907, 99 ff. See also the article
by Mrs. Strong in the Burlington
Marjazine, May, 1907, p. 110.
- Strzygowski, Goftiwjische Ge-
lehrte Anzeigen, ]90tj, 910 ff. See Fm. 121. Leaf of an i\"ory diptych, fourth-sixth
century, with the Archangel Michael. (British
also Von Cube, Lie fomische ' Scenae
frOHs' in den Ponrpeia/iischen Wand- Museum.) P. 200.
bildern, Berlin, 1906. The figure
standing at the top of the slioit flight of steps is seen in the stucco decoration of a wall in
the Stabian Tliermae, and in some paintings in relief now in the Bronze Eooms of the
museum at Naples. The doors in the stage wall with their flights of steps may he clearly
seen in Von Cube's reconstruction of a Pouipeian stage facade, reproduced in Jo^irn. Hell. SI.,
as above, 120.
202 SCULPTUEE

should have to infer a powerful influence exerted by stage architecture upon the
arts of painting and sculpture, and it seems at first sight unlikely that motives
with such an origin should have been adopted into Christian art. But the
researches of Holl suggest that the iconostasis of the Greek Church, with its three
doors for ceremonial entries or eio-oSot, may have had a similar theatrical descent.^
When it is remembered that such theatrical influences can only have been
exerted in some great centre of population ; that the fourth Pompeian style came
from Antioch ; and that the chair of Maximianus, the standing figures on the front
of which have analogies to the archangel, has oriental foliated designs and is
most probably a work of Antiochene art, it is certainly a defensible hypothesis
that the British Museum diptych was also produced at Antioch, possibly at a
period not far removed in date from that of the sarcophagus at Berlin, that is
to say within the limits of the fourth century. The figure is the work of some
school living upon older Greek traditions, and especially distinguished for its
masterly treatment of drapery. The belief that this school may have flourished
in or near Antioch is supported by the style of the rosettes and leaves in the
spandrels above the columns, a style which was much favoured in early
illuminated manuscripts painted in Syria, and by the identity of the mouldings
of the arch with those ornamenting the large zigzag band, and certain of
the rosettes on the facade of the palace of Mshatta.^ The wreath before the
scallop, with its lernntscP terminating in leaves, recalls certain slabs and sarco-
phagi at Eavenna, Delphi, and elsewhej-e, perhaps imported from the Syrian area.
The Museum panel may therefore represent the art of the Hellenistic ivory
carver of Antioch at an earlier and higher stage than the chair and the group of
ivories connected with it. Its admirable quality proves the vitality of the
Hellenic spirit, which even at this late hour, amid so many influences making
for decay, could still give plastic form to a majestic idea ; and it is interesting
to remember that . at about the same period the best school of ivory carvers at
Rome showed a similar appreciation of early Greek sculpture (p. 190). It seems
quite possible that this fine work may belong, as Graeven held, to about the time
of Theodosius, though others assign it to the fifth, or even the sixth, century.*
Other Ivories of the First Period.
Book-covers after the model of consular diptychs made for presentation to
emperors (p. 197) are among the most important documents for the provenance
of the ivory carvings of the sixth century, and most of them were beyond
a doubt produced in the Christian East. The only example as to which there
is uncertainty is that in the treasury of Milan Cathedral,^ which is exceptional
in many ways. Instead of the flying angels supporting a wreath, which in
other book-covers of the class decorate the panel at the top, it has Gospel scenes
similar in character to those at the bottom ; while at the extremities of both
these panels are figures of the Evangelists within wreaths. The central panels,
instead of Our Lord and the Virgin, contain the Holy Lamb in orfevrerie
eloisonnee set with coloured stones or glass pastes, and a cross similarly
ornamented, each within a wreath : the lateral panels have each three Gospel
scenes instead of the usual two.
The following additional ivory carvings are in the same style as the Milan
book-cover : three panels from a casket, formerly in the Abbey of Werden in
* Archiv. fiir Heligionswissenschaft, ix, 365 if. ; J. H. S. , p. 119.
' Prussian Jahrbiich, 1904, 276.
^ See p. 167. The lemnisci are already converted into stems or tendrils by the fifth
century, though the ribbons with hearts at the ends persist to the sixth (Wickhoff, Austrian
Jahrbiich, xiv, p. 196, miniatures in a sixth-century MS.).
* Diehl, p. 278, assigns it to the latter period,
= Garrucci, Storia, vi, Pi. 454-5; J. Strzygowski, Kltinasim, p. 198, Fig. 144; Venturi,
Storia, i, 424-5, Figs. 388-9. The references to other publications are fully given by
Stuhlfauth, ElfeHieinplasiik, 69, wlio discusses and gives the references for the other objects
belonging to tlie group.
 CAEVINGS IN IVOEY 203

Westphalia, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum ; ' the right-hand lateral
leaf of a (lost) composite book-cover, formerly in the collection of M. Mallet of
Amiens, but now in the Berlin Museum ; ^ panels in the museums at Toulouse
and Nevers ; ' three pyxides, one still at Werden, one in the museum at Rouen,
the third in Florence,'' and perhaps the panel in the British Museum representing
Our Lord disputing with the Doctors.^ Of this group, the panels at Berlin and
Toulouse are the oldest, and the pyxides the latest examples, the book-covers and
other panels occupying an intermediate position.
Although the whole series is less obviously oriental than the groups which
we have next to discuss, it may be observed that the following points suggest
a doubt as to its origin in the West. The book-cover is very original in its
ornamentation, diverging considerably from the usual schemes of Eoman-
Christian art. The decoration with the jewelled lamb is an orientalizing
feature. The figure of St. John the Baptist upon the panel at Berlin is like
that of one of the men who carried out Ananias on the marble relief from Asia
Minor now in Berlin ° (Fig. 88). On the Werden casket there is a church the
facade of which is flanked by two towers in a style of architecture associated
with the Christian East.'
On the other side it may be pointed out that in the Nativity the manger is
under a shed-like roof. This is a Western feature, for in the East the scene is
almost invariably at the mouth of a cave.
With the large number of ivories forming two distinct groups, of which the
nuclei are the chair of Archbishop Maximianus and the large composite
diptych formerly at Murano and now at Ravenna, we are in the presence of
works incontrovertibly of oriental origin. They represent what has survived
from the production of at least two schools working in the great cities of the
oriental provinces. It has already been said that the artistic and icono-
graphical influences in these provinces between the fourth century and the Arab
conquests are so confused that the more precise localization of these ivories can
only be conjectural.
The famous sixth-century chair known as the chair of Archbishop Maximianus,
in the chapel of the archbishop's palace at Ravenna, is of wood covered with
carved ivory panels.* These are rectangular, and ornamented with figure
subjects: between them are narrower plaques forming frames or borders,
ornamented with birds and animals in scrolls of foliage. Over the central figure
on the front of the chair is a monogram which can be read ' Maximianus ', and

' Garrucci, PI. 447 ; Strzygowski, Ikonographie der Tavfe Christi, PI. II, Fig. 3 ; Westwood,
Fictile Ivories, pp. 41-3 ; Stuhlfauth, ElfenbeinplasUh, pp. li ff. ; Sybe], ChrisfUche Aniike, ii. 247.
The casket is erroneously ascribed by W. Maskell to the eleventh century (p. 67).
' A. Haseloif, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 47 ff. , and Plate ; Strzygowski, Kleinasien,
198.
' A. Darcel, Tresors cles eglises et objets d'ari fran^ais appartenant aux mvsees exposes en 1889 au
palaia du Trocadero, vol. i. No. 14.
* Garrucci, Storia, Pi. 438, Figs. 1 and 2, and 437, Fig. 5. Cf. Stuhlfauth, Elfenbein-
plastik, 79.
^ British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Bysantine Antiquities, No. 293 ; Catalogue of
Ivory Carvings, No. 9.
' The two are figured side by side by Strzygowski, Kleinasien, 197.
' Ibid., 214. Architectuj'e of a similar origin appears on the Brescia reliquary (p. 192)
and one of the early set of casket-panels in the British Museum {Catalogue of Early Christian
and Bysantine Antiquities, No. 292).
^ The literature of this chair is too extensive to be given at length. It is illustrated
in detail by Garrucci, Storia, vi. 414-19, from drawings ; and from photographs, by H. Graeven,
Series ii, 41, 62-3 ; Venturi, Storia, i, pp. 468 ff., Figs. 278-807 ; C. Ricci in Arte italiana
decorativa e indusiriale, vii, 1898, and Molinier, Ivoires, p. 67, PI. VII; G.. Stuhlfauth, Elfenbein-
plastik, 86 ff. : a full bibliography of the earlier works in which it is described is given by
Stuhlfauth ; a less complete bibliography by Venturi, as above, 466. See also Graeven,
Bonner Jahrbilcher, 1900, 159, 162; Eohault de Fleury, La Messe, ii, 154-5; C. M. Kauffmann,
Handbuch, p. 523; Leclercq, Manuel, ii, p. 352; Strzygowski, Journ. Eellen. Studies, 1907, 115;
H. Diitschke, Bavennatische Studien, 1909, 279 ff. ; E. Strong, Burlington Magazine, May, 1907, p. 111.
204 SCULPTUEE

naturally suggests the long-prevalent attribution to the Maxiniianus (a. d. 545-556)

in whose episcopate the Church of San Vitale was dedicated. But recent
investigation seems to show that in all probability the chair was never in

Fig. 122. Front of the ivory-covered episcopal chair at Eavenna : .sixth century. (Ricci.)

Kavenna at all before a.d. 1001, when it arrived there as a gift of the Doge
Pietro Orseolo to the Emperor Otto III, then residing in the city.' The gift is
recorded by John the Deacon, who says that the doge gave, in return for certain
imperial presents, eathedram elephantinis artificiose sculptam tabulis ... quam
avide suspiciens in eadem conservandam urhe reliquit. This passage at least

' C. Ricci, Arte italiana decorativa e industriale, vii, 1898, 42 ff. ; for the passage in Johannes
Diaeonus see Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae historica, vii. 101. See also Venturi, as above, 466.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
205
accounts for the presence of a throne covered with ivory panels at Eavenna, and
cannot be explained away as referring to the second ivory-covered chair which
was still at Grade in the eleventh century, because the latter is definitely stated
to have come from Alexandria, the city of St. Mark, whose life was recorded on
the panels.'

Fjg. 123. Our Lord and the Woman of Samaria, panel of the episcopal chair at
Eavenna. (Eicci.)

It is usually considered that the panels upon the chair are the work of more
than one hand. The five large panels on the front, with figures of John the
Baptist and four Apostles, and the smaller panels on both sides with New
Testament scenes, and those fitted into the framework of the back, are all of
finer quality than the larger panels decorating the sides, which have scenes from
' De Eossi, Bulhttino, iii, 1865, 29 ; H. Graeven, Bonner Jahrbiicher, Heft 105, B. Q.,
1899, PI. 8 and 9, and photos, series ii, 42-8 ; Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom. 34, 74, with
Fig. 32 ; Venturi, Storia, Figs. 415-7 ; Leclercq in Cabrol's Didionnaire, i. 1124, Figs. 274-5.
206 SCULPTURE

the history of Joseph.^ The latter vary in CLuality, and may themselves be the
work of more than one artist. It must not be forgotten, however, that a single,
artist may have lavished more care on the work placed on the more conspicuous
parts of the chair.
Before proceeding to enumerate a number of allied ivories, we must in
a few words discuss the probable origin of the chair. The place of residence
of the bishop for whom it was made does not necessarily affect the question,
for, as in modern times, objects for presentation must have been frequently
ordered from without ; and as the connexion with Maximianus of Eavenna
has been discredited there is no necessity to attribute the work to that
city. On the other hand there are definite reasons, already touched upon in
connexion with the panel in the British Museum, which point to the eastern
shores of the Mediterranean. The choice seems to lie between Alexandria and
Antioch. AinalofiF decides in favour of the former city, and Diitschke believes
that one of the animals in the scroll-work is a jerboa,^ but the arguments for
a Syrian origin appear to have at least an equal weight. Although Ainaloff
finds analogies in the treatment of the figures with the miniatures of the Vatican
Cosmas (p. 462) and notes points of resemblance with a painted triptych from
Egypt in the Golenisheff Collection,' he admits the essentially Asiatic character
of the ornamental work, which recalls that of the Mshatta facade at Berlin (p. 170).
The opinion of Strzygowski that the chair was produced at Antioch or within
its culture area has been confirmed by his investigations on Mshatta* and the
sculpture on the sarcophagi of the Sidamara group. The statuesque character
of the figures on the front of the chair is very marked ; they are evidently the
work of men still influenced, like the sculptors of the sarcophagi and of the British
Museum archangel, by the old Hellenic spirit ; and as we have seen reason to
believe that these monuments were produced on the eastern L'ttoral of the
Mediterranean, there is a presumption in favour of an Asiatic origin. Strzygowski
shows that the disposition of the figures on the front of the chair in separate
niches of unequal breadth surmounted by scallop canopies corresponds so exactly
to the disposition of the pagan figures on the sides of the sarcophagi that the
carver of the chair must have had the typical decoration of such a sarcophagus
in his mind. Had it not been so he would hardly have crowded five figures
into the space at his disposal : three would have served equally well. But as an
imitator, and not an original designer, he had to include the two extra figures
corresponding to those which in the sarcophagi stand in the narrower inter-
spaces. Stryzgowski gives plausible reasons for supposing that the scallop
niche is of oriental origin,' while there can be little doubt that the fine scroll-
work containing birds and animals, deeply cut with dark interstices between
every part, is Syro-Mesopotamian and not European in its origin. The in-
teresting theory which accounts for the disposition of figures under unequal
niches along the sides of the sarcophagi has been already mentioned in connexion
with the British Museum archangel (p. 201). With regard to the treatment of
the statuesque figures themselves, Strzygowski urges that they are clearly the
work of an artist trained, not in the 'illusionist' school which flourished about
1 Several panels have been removed from the chair, but only two are lost. Those which
have been traced are in the Museo Olivieri at Pesaro, in the museum at Ravenna, in the
Stroganoff Collection at Rome, in the Museo aroheologico at Milan, and the Museo Farnese
at Naples. For the Stroganoff panels see P. Hermanin, I! Arte, i, Rome, 1898 ; and E. K.
Riedin, Panel from the Chair of Archbishop Maximianus, &o., Charkoff, 1893 (Russian).
^ P. Diitschke, Ravennatische Studien, 1909, 279 ff., and Figs. 83 and 84. Diehl, Manuel,
281, also decides in favour of Egypt.
3 r.M., V, PI. II, and p. 184.
' For Mshatta see Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904, 299; for the sarcophagi, p. 128 above. It may
be noticed that some of the scenes on the chair (e. g. the Baptism) apparently resemble the
descriptions left by Constantino the Rhodian and Mesarites of the lost mosaics of the
Church of the Apostles at Constantinople (A. Heisenberg, Graheskirche iind Apostelkirche, ii.
236 ff.) ; while the miniatures of the Gospel of Rabula differ in their types.
'•' Journ. Helien. St., as above, 114-15, and see p. 130.
 207
CARVINaS IN IVOEY

the beginning of our era, but rather in the principles which dominated Greek
sculpture in the fourth century b. c, before the time of Alexander. The fine
treatment of the drapery is evidently inspired by such models, and the types of
the sarcophagi are purely Greek in origin. As Strzygowski puts it, the
sculptors of the sarcophagi, who worked from the first to the fourth century a. d.,

Fig. 124. Ivory book-cover of the sixth century in the Bibliothfeque Nationale, Paris.
(Prom a cast.)

were living on the heritage of the period before Alexander and copying ancient
types ; it would be natural for ivory carvers to follow their example. It is a further
point that the ivory covers of the Etchmiadzin Gospels (p. 208) are stylistically
and iconographically related to other panels on the chair.
The best-known members of the group connected with the chair are the two
large composite book-covers, each with both leaves intact, at Paris and at
Etchmiadzin in Armenia. That preserved in the Bibliothfeque Nationale ' has

1 Bibl. Nat., No. 9384 ; Garrucci, Storia, PI. 458, Figs. 1 and 2 ; Lenormant, Tresor de
glyptique, vol. ii, PI. 9-12; Westwood, Fictile Ivories, 45-6 (Nos. 108, 109). For other references
see Stuhlfauth, Elfmbeinplastik, 97 ff., and H. von Sybel, Christliche Aniike, ii, Fig. 76.
208 SCULPTUEE

in the centre of one side Christ, bearded and without nimbus, seated between
St. Peter and St. Paul. In the upper plaque two angels, substituted for the
Victories of pagan times, hold a wreath containing a cross. The bottom panel
shows Christ with the Woman of Samaria and the Eaising of Lazarus ; on the
left lateral plaque are the Healing of the Blind, and of the Paralytic ; on
the right lateral plaque, Christ with the Woman with an Issue of Blood, and the
Healing of the Demoniac.
In the centre of the other leaf is the Virgin seated with the Child between
two angels.' The top plaque is almost identical with that on the first leaf ; that
at the bottom has the Entry into Jerusalem. On the left are the Annunciation
and Visitation ; on the right, the Meeting of Joseph and Mary, and the Journey
to Jerusalem. In all the Gospel scenes Christ is represented as young and
beardless. The execution is poor throughout.
The book-cover in the Monastery of Etchmiadzin in Armenia ^ also has as
central plaques on the two sides. Our Lord seated, and the Virgin seated with
the Child. The top plaques are similarly ornamented with flying angels
supporting wreaths containing crosses, with the sun and moon in the corners,
those at the bottom the Entry into Jerusalem and the Adoration of the Magi
respectively. The lateral plaques on the upper leaf, each divided into two
compartments, have four miracles of Our Lord, while those on the other leaf
have scenes from the life of the Virgin, partly drawn from the Apocryphal
Gospels. The iconography of these scenes diverges from that of the Early
Christian art of the West ; for example in the Entry into Jerusalem the Tyclie
of Jerusalem is introduced, a feature characteristic of East-Christian art.
Strzygowski, who assigns the book-cover to the first half of the sixth century,
was at first inclined to seek its origin at Eavenna, but has later abandoned this
view and believes that all three monuments are more likely to have been
produced in the culture area of Antioch.
The following are the principal other ivory carvings belonging to this group :
the well-known diptych in the Berlin Museum with figures of Our Lord and
the Virgin,^ the relationship of which to the figures on the front of the chair is
unmistakable ; a panel in the Stroganoff Collection at Eome, representing
St. Peter : * a panel in the Provincial Museum at Treves with Abraham and
Melchizedek ; ° the two large panels in the M^Clean Collection in the Fitz-
william Museum at Cambridge ° with Apostles and Gospel scenes, and the related
diptych s in the Brussels Museum ' and the Cathedral of Tongres ; " the Baptism in
the British Museum (Fig. Ill) ;° a panel with St. Paul in the Musee de Cluny,

' For the deriTation of this type from imperial figures upon Roman medallions
showing the empress (e.g. Pausta) enthroned full face, holding her child, see Strzygowski,
B.B., i. 39 ff. The figure of Juliana in the MS. of Dioseorides (p. 460) probably shows
the style of lost diptychs with figures of empresses. The type of the Virgin and Child
flanked by angels was adopted in mosaic art, and was the subject chosen to decor-ate apses
from the sixth century onwards.
^ J. Strzygowski, B.D., i. Das Etschmiadsin-Evangeliar.
' W. VOge, Besehreibung der Bildwerke, &e. (Catalogue of Ivories in the Kaiser Friedrioh
Museum), 1902, No. 2 ; Graeven, Prussian Jahrbuch, 1898, 83 ; Venturi, Storia, Figs. 383-4.
These are the panels the authenticity of which was doubted by Didrou and Molinier. But
on the lower edge of the Virgin leaf are to be seen traces of a monogram similar to that upon
the chair, almost destroyed when a piece was sawn off the bottom to shorten, it.
648. ♦ Ainaloff in Archaeological Notes, St. Petersburg, 1897, 305-9 (Russian) ; B. Z., vii, 1898,
^ H. Graeven, in Bonner Jahrbucher, Heft 105.
« Garrucci, 452, Figs. 1 and 2 ; Molinier, 78 ; Graeven, Bonner JahrbOcher, 1900, 153 ff. ;
Dalton, Catalogue of the Objects in the WClean Bequest, No. 31.
' J. Destrfie, Musees Boyaux, <ic., Catalogue des iooires, Brussels, 1902, No. 1.
» Graeyen, Bonner Jahrbucher, 1900, 152 ; J. Helbig, La Sculpture au pays de Ziige, 13 ;
Keusens, Elements d' archiologie chretienne, Aix, 1885, i, 194, Fig. 195 ; Eohault de Pleury, La
Messe, vi, PI. 437 ; Molinier, Ivoires, 55. This diptych may have been originally liturgical.
It has on the back names of bishops of Tongres and Lifege, the latest dating from a.d. 959.
" Cat. of Early Christian and Bys. Antiquities, No. 294.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY 209

Paris ;^ and several ivory pyxides : that with the Martyrdom of St. Menas in the
British Museum ; ^ that formerly at Lavoute-ChUhac, Le Puy, now in the Louvre,'
with the scene of Our Lord and the Woman of Samaria ; a fragment in the
Berlin Museum with Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites ; * a pyxis in the Basilewsky
Collection in the Museum of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg,'' with Joseph
entertaining his brethren and the money being found in Benjamin's sack ; and
a part of another pyxis in the collection of M. Novikoif at Kertch."
The difference in merit between these various objects is considerable, making
it probable that some are later than others. The inferior workmanship on
several of the pyxides suggests that they date from the latter part of the sixth
century or possibly from the beginning of the seventh.
We now come to another group, clearly made in the Christian East, but
characterized by a different and inferior style. The Civic Museum at Eavenna
contains one leaf of a book-cover, formerly at Murano, of which the companion
leaf is only panel
the central represented by three
Our Lord plaques
is seated now St.in Peter
between different collections.''
and St. On
Paul and two
angels, while beneath, as it were in a kind of predella, are the Three Children
of Babylon in the furnace. The lateral panels have each two miracles of
Our Lord, and the bottom, panel two scenes from the story of Jonah. The
upper plaque has the usual angels bearing the wreath containing a cross.
The panels are bordered by bands of ornament formed of vine-scrolls and
acanthus leaves, while above the 'predella' of the central plaque is a row
of 'billets' (Fig. 210).
The remaining leaf is only represented by three plaques. The central panel,
with the Virgin and Child and Magi with the Nativity below, formerly in the
collection of the Earl of Crawford, is now in the John Eylands Library at
Manchester* (Pig. 114). The bottom plaque, with the Annunciation, the
Administration of the Oath by water to Mary, and the Journey to Bethlehem,
is in the Stroganoff Collection at Eorne." The left-hand lateral plaque is cut
into two halves, which are in the Botkin Collection at St. Petersburg."
The iconography of the figure-groups is Syrian in character; but the
ornamental borders are closely related to those used about the sixth century
in Upper Egypt. As the iconographical types of Syria and the Holy Land
were carried by pilgrims into many Christian countries and there reproduced,
both StrzygowsH and Ainaloff " think it probable that the work was executed
in Egypt, though under artistic influences emanating from the Holy Land.
All the plaques of this leaf retain traces of painting and gilding. Details of
ornament, such as the rows of disks like the heads of billets, certainly find
parallels in Egypt. '^
1 E. Molinier, Oazette archeologique, xiT, 1889, PI. 22.
■" Catalogue of Marly Christian and Byiantine Antiquities, 1901, No. 297; Catalogue of Ivory
Carvings, &c., 1909, No. 12.
3 E. de Fleury, La Messe, v, PI. 366, 367 ; Les Arts, 1902, pp. 16-17.
' VSge, Catalogue, as above. No. 4.
» Garruoci, Storia, PI. 439, Fig. 6 ; R. de Fleury, La Messe, v, PI. 370.
^ Stuhlfauth, Slfenheinplastik, 93.
■' Gori, Thesaurus, Hi, PI. VIII ; Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 456 ; Venturi, Storia, i, p. 432.
" Strzygovvski, HeUenistische und kopiische Kunst, 87, Pig. 63 ; Ch. Diehl, Justinieh, 649, Fig. 206 y
D. Ainaloff, F. V., v, 1898, 158 ff., and PI. I. The facing position of the Virgin, as in this
panel and one in the British Museum mentioned below, is found in Syrian art, e. g. on the
Monza ampullae, and in one of the miniatures at the end of the Etchmiadzin Gospels (Strzy-
gowski, B.D. i. Das Mlschmiadsin-Evangeliar, PI. VI). The arrangement with a 'predella'
occurs in the Syrian Gospel of Kabula (a.d. 586, see p. 448), where the miniature with the
Craoifixion has this peculiarity. ' Ainaloff, V. K, 1897, p. 128 (Figs.).
i» Strzygowski, B. Z., viii, 1899, 680-1.
'^ The monumental character of the central groups has suggested to Smirnoff and Ainaloff
that they may be inspired by the (lost) external mosaics of the Church of the Nativity at
Bethlehem {Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1904, 212).
^2 Strzygowski, HeUenistische und koptische Kunst, 86-7 ; Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, 54
(Russian). Strzygowski, from comparison with sculptures in Egypt, ascribes the work to the
monastic art of Inner Egypt rather than to the Hellenistic art of Alexandria.
210 SCULPTURE

The principal ivories connected by style and treatment of individual subjects

■with this Eavenna book-cover have been enumerated by Stuhlfauth,' who,
however, includes among them the two large panels in the Pitzwilliam Museum
at Cambridge here assigned to the group of the ivory chair (p. 208). Among

Fig. 125. Ivory book-cover of the sixth century In the Museum at Ravenna, (Alinari.)
P. 209.

them are : panels at Bologna and in the Uvaroif Collection at Moscow ; two
plaques (one in the British Museum (Fig. 126) and one in the Le Roy Collection
at Paris) once forming the central panels of a single composite book-cover,
of which the remaining parts are lost ; ^ with a large series of ivory pyxides
in the Basilewsky Collection in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg and in the
following museums: British Museum {Catalogue, No. 298, Daniel, &c.), Cluny
1 Elfenbeinplastik, 1 12 if.
^ Proc. Soc. Biblical Archaeology, 1904, 209 ff. ; K. Koeehlin, La Collection Martin Le Roy, ii. 1,
and Pi. I.
 CARVINGS IN IVORY

211
Museum (two), Louvre (from Lavoute-Chilhac), Vienna, Berlin, the Vatican,
Darmstadt, Bonn, Pesaro, and Livorno. The group as a whole is inferior
to that of the chair, and none of the pieces composing it is of high artistic
merit.
We may now briefly mention a few well-known ivories of the First Period,
which, though clearly pro-
duced in the Christian East,
cannot so easily be included
in definite groups. The so-
called Barberini diptych men-
tioned above (p. 198) has been
affiliated by Stuhlfauth to the
school of the chair, but it is
not clear that the resem-
blances on which the opinion
is based are sufficient to
justify its inclusion : the simi-
larity between the barbarians
bringing gifts and figures
upon the ivory pyxides at
Florence, Eouen, andWerden,
which are affiliated to the
group of the Milan book-cover
(see p. 202), tends to increase
the suspicion that this group
may not really belong to
Italy. ^ The panel may well
be of earlier date than the
chair, though the description
of the emperor as Constan-
tino rather than Justinian is
doubtful, the general appear-
ance of the sculpture sug-
gesting the art of the sixth
centuiy. Whoever the em-
peror, he is perhaps repre-
sented as the Hero of the
Faith, mounted on horseback
and triumphant over evil.
The equestrian saint was a
favourite motive in Egypt, Fig. 126. The Adoration of the Magi, part of an
and may have been derived ivory book-cover of the sixth century in the British
Museum.
from a mounted type of
Horus.^
The remarkable panel at Treves, representing the transportation of relics
in the presence of an emperor,' probably Justinian, seems to have been made
in Alexandria, and Strzygowski conjectures that the scene represented is the
removal of the remains of the forty martyrs to the Church of St. Irene, Sycae
(Constantinople), in a. d. 5-52 * (Fig. 127).
An Egyptian origin is suggested by the same writer for the set of carved
' Haseloif, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv (1903), p. 53.
^ Strzygowski, Der koplische Reiterheilige unci der heilige Georg, in Zeitschr. filr dgyptische Sprache,
1902; and HeUenistische und koptische Kunst, 21 ff. Examples of mounted saints are a sculpture in
a lunette of the Mosque of Ali at Dashlug, an ivory comb from Antinoe {R. Q., xii, PI. I), &c.
' Westwood, Fictile Ivories, p. 64 ; Archaeological Journal, xx. 149 ; Rohault de Fleury, La
Messe, v, PI. 415.
' Orient oder Bom, 85 ; Der Bom su Aachen und seine Entstdlung (1904), 49 ; Hellenistische und
koptische Kunst, 78. p2
 312 SCULPTUEE

ivory panels now inlaid in the pulpit of the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle.'

The equestrian figure is to be compared with the emperor of the Barberini
diptych and the other mounted figures represented in Egyptian sculptures
already mentioned, more especially the relief in stone at Dashing (note 2, p. 211) :
the other panels are figures of Isis and Bacchus, Nereids, and an armed
warrior. The evidence for the Egyptian origin of these panels is plausible : a
panel representing a nude figure standing with crossed legs before a background
of vine-scrolls, just in the manner of the Aix Bacchus reliefs, has actually been
found in Egypt. ^ But apart from the particular points which connect them
with Egypt the panels as a whole exhibit a general afi&nity to the earlier
Alexandrian bone carvings with classical subjects to which allusion has alreadj-
been made. Several ivories in various collections recall the style of these
pulpit carvings, especially the 'Apollo' at Berlin,' the panels representing

Fio. 127. A translation of relies : ivory carving of the sixth century in the Cathedral
of Treves. (From a cast.) P. 211.

Kome and Constantinople at Vienna,'' and a panel in the museum at Eavenna ^

with Apollo and Daphne.
An ivory relief in the Louvre representing St. Mark seated before the
city of Alexandria, surrounded by an audience of thirty-five men each wearing
an embroidered mantle, while from the walls and windows in the background
interested spectators look down, is ascribed to the beginning of the seventh
century and is in all probability Alexandrian." It is of exceptional interest
because, in the upper part representing the city, an attempt is made to
reproduce streets and buildings in a realistic manner, in this resembling the

1 Sellenistische und koptische Kunst, 19-67 ; Orient oder Bom, 85 ff. E. Dobbert, in Beperiorium,
viii, 1885, 174 ff., where references to earlier publications are given. Dr. Graeven believed
that three of the panels were made in Constantinople during the First Period, -while three
are later imitations made in Venice. He believed the whole set to have originally formed
part of a throne presented by the Venetians to Otto III.
' HeUmistische u. kopt Kunst, 65, and Koptische Kunst, No. 7115. Examples at Leipzig,
Strzygowski, Sell. u. kopt. Kunst, Fig. 47, p. 59.
' Venturi, Storia, i, p. 402 ; Strzygowski, as above, Pig. 43, p. 53.
' Strzygowski, Figs. 34-5, p. 49.
° Venturi, Sloria, i. 339 ; Graeven, photo, ii. 48.
^ G. Schlumberger, Mon. Plot, i. 165-70, PI. XXIII ; E. Molinier, Catalogue des ivoires,
No. 3 (MM. Molinier and Schlumberger consider the preacher to be St. Paul); J. Strzy-
gowski, Sellenistische und koptische Kunst, 79, and Orient oder Rom, 71 ff. : Bys. Zeitschr., ix, 1900,
p. 606.
 CARVINGS IN IVORY

panel at Treves, with the transportation of relics, But the closest parallel213is
with the wood carving from
-Egypt in the Kaiser Fried-
rich Museum at Berlin (p.
149), where the architecture
is very similar, while there
are also analogies with the
background architecture of
the group of ivories illus-
trating the acts of St. Mark
in the Pentapolis, of which
the greater number are in
the Milan Museum,^ but one
is at South Kensington''
(Kg. 129). If the thirty-five
listeners represent the patri-
archs of Alexandria, the
ivory cannot be earlier than
Anastasius, thirty-sixth pa-
triarch (a.d. 607-9).
The panels in the Bar-
gello at Florence and at
Vienna, representing a queen
or empress standing beneath
a canopy, have been variously
identified by different critics.
Graeven considered the per-
sonage to be the Gothic
Queen Amalasuntha ; ' Moli-
nier saw in her the Empress
Irene, who was regent for
her son Constantine VI in
780 ; * while Modigliani ' de-
cides in favour of Ariadne,
wife of the Emperors Zeno
and Anastasius, whose bust
appears upon the diptych of
the Consul Clementinus. If
the latter theory is correct,
and it seems not improbable,
the panels were executed
before a.d. 507, in which
year the son of Anastasius
and Ariadne died. It seems
probable that Molinier's date
is too late, and that in
spite of the extremely florid
character of the ornament
and the costume, parallels Fig. 128. An empress : ivory panel in the Museo
for the principal features are Nazionale (Bargello), Florence. (Alinari.)

1 The architecture on these panels again resembles that in the Ashburnham Pentateuch
(A. Sprenger. Die Genesisbilder, &c., PI. II ; Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, Pig. 11, p. 33).
2 R. Q., xiii, PI. VIII.
' Prussian Jahrbuch, xix, 1898, 82 ff. Both panels are figured in Gori, Thesaurus dipt, ii,
PI. 11 and 12. The Vienna panel is also in K. von Schneider. Album aitserUsener OegensUinde der
Antikensammlung des a. h. Kaiserhauses, PI. 50. For the Florentine panel see' Graeven, as above,
p. 84 ; Molinier, Ivoires, v, Fig. 3.
* Gasette des Beaux-Arti, Third Period, vol. viii, 1893, p. 337, and Ivoires, as above.
" L'Arte, Rome, 1898, 365-7 ; see also B. Z., viii, 1899, 250.
 314 SCULPTURE

to be found in the art of the First Period. Among other details may be
mentioned the curious wimple which was a fashion with ladies in the sixth
century, and was transferred from the representations of secular personages to
those of the Virgin Mary.' Further, the custom of presenting diptychs with
large portrait-figures seems to have fallen into desuetude after the abolition of
the consulate in a. d. 541, when consular diptychs ceased to be made.
The ivory vase in the British Museum,^ formerly in the Maskell Collection,
presents problems very difficult to solve. From vases carved at two opposite
points on the sides rise formal vine-scrolls, the leaves at the top merging
mto plain trefoils and quatrefoUs ; in the interspaces are medallions with busts
of angels, and birds with opened wings. This ornamentation is enclosed above
and below by bands of maeander, also enclosing birds ; the base is calix-shaped,
and round it near the bottom is a loose ring of ivory turned from the solid
when the vase was made. The lid ^ is carved with a scroll of trefoils.
The ornament on this vase is undoubtedly oriental and of a Syro-Meso-
potamian style. Analogous work occurs on smaller pyxides of less graceful
design in the Victoria and Albert Museum and at Berlin.* The date of the
whole group lies somewhere between the sixth and the eleventh centuries :
the conventionalization of the vine leaves perhaps points rather to the later
part of this period. Though the British Museum example was made for
Christians, the sanie origin is not certain in the case of all : the smaller
examples may be the work of Mohammedan ivory carvers.

Second and Third Periods.

With the Arab conq-uest-ef-Syria and -Egypt, the Persian wars of Heraclius,
and the succeeding iconoclastic disturbances of the^ eighth <ientafYr^e art~bf
; Carving"
On the onein fvbfy
Band entered a new~pKase'
the crusade and found_nawi^;&ha.mi«ls
againstjma^sTntroduced of expression.
a preference for secular
subjects; on the other^l^hTe-ixiCTeasedTknowl^'ge of -oriental' and especially
"IPerslgn af £ led to anmerease of Persian motives. The secular fignre subjects
mediaeval Europe, for jewels and small objects of value^; t^ie oriental motives,of
are fouiid upon a large ~gr6up~df~caskets"presumaQyinade,l3lke_those

prirroijJally
interconnectedlionSj gryphons,
circles, and on other
are found a few beasts, often franieff^
of the caskets, but are inmore
a diaper of
frequent
upon the ivory horns commonly known as oliphants. As the horns are less
numerous and less interesting from an iconographical point of view than the
caskets, they may be briefly treated first, though it may be premised that
the dating is in both cases only approximate. It may be assumed that few
of either class are earlier than the close of the iconoclastic period, and that
\ the majority must probably be placed between the second half of the ninth
\ century and the twelfth. The secular character of both groups, due to the
! absence or the unpopularity of religious models, outlasted the causes which
\ had brought it into existence ; but while at the end of the ninth century
Ireligious subjects reappear upon the caskets, the horns for the most part retain

1 On this fashion see E. Molinier in Mudes d'liistoire du moyen age dediees a Gabriel
MonoiJ, Pai-is, 1896, 61 if., and Prussian Jahrbuch, as above, 83. Prominent examples
of the fashion are to be seen in the mosaics in S. Vitale representing Theodora and her
suite ; in a marble head in the Palace of the Conservatori at Kome {Bull. deUa Comm. arch.
Comunale di Roma, xvi, 1888, PI. VI) ; and in the diptych leaf at Berlin representing the "Virgin
(VOge, Berlin Catalogue, No. 3).
^ British Museum, Catalogue oflwry Carvings, No. 15 ; W. Maskell, Description of the Ivories,&c.,
p. xliv ; A. Maskell, Ivories, PI. XVI, Fig. 1.
' The workmanship is not quite equal to that of the body of the vase, and it may be
a later, though not necessarily a modern, addition.
* See British Museum, Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, 1909, note under No. 15.
 CAEVINGS IN IVOEY
215
the zoomorphic decoration which best suited their form. It is interesting to
compare the beasts represented upon them not only with those] on Byzantine
caskets with zoomorphic ornament, but also with those upon carved ivory caskets
made at the close of the tenth and the beginning of tlie eleventh centuries

Fig. 129. St. Peter and St. Paul : ivory panel of the sixth (?) century in the
Victoria and Albert Museum. P. 213.

for Moorish princes in Spain, which drew upon the same oriental sources for
their designs.
Some fifty of the caskets are in existence in public and private collections ; '
the finest example of all, formerly in the Cathedral of Veroli, is in the Victoria
and Albert Museum (Figs. 9, 10, 130, 132). They have upon them groups and

> See the list given by Graeven in Austrian Jahrbuch, xx, 1899, 25 ff. See also A. Venturi,
Le Gallerie nazionali italiane, iii, 1897, 261 ff. ; L'Arte, i, Kome, 1898, 212; and Sioria, i, 512 ff. ;
R. von Schneider, Serta Sarteliana, Vienna, 1896 {Vber das Kairosrelief in Torcello und verwandte
Bildwerke) ; W. Maskell, Desaiption of the Ivories, &c., 176 ; Molinier, Ivoires, &o. Further
references are given by Graeven and Venturi. The following caskets are reproduced in
•whole or part by M. Schlumberger : in his Nicephore Phocas, p. 175 (Xanten), 647 (Sens) ;
in his ipopee, i, pp. 59, 113, 185 (Darmstadt), 268, 357, 589, 687 (Veroli, S. Kensington),
281 (Lyon), 348 (St. Petersburg), 349 (Brussels, see also J. Destr^e, Catalogue of Ivories), 385
(S. Kensington) ; in his Epopee,- ii. 1, 8 (Oarrand), Florence, 201, 271 (Xanten).
216 SCULPTUEE
single figures, of which a large proportion are derived from classical mythology.
The panels on which the figures are carved are framed in borders enriched with
rows of very characteristic rosettes, between which are in many cases heads in
profile resembling coin types (Fig. 132). The last feature makes it almost certain
that pieces of silver plate supplied the carvers with many of their models,
for a common method of ornamentation in Graeco-Eoman plate was to inlay
in the borders of dishes or salvers coins bearing the imperial effigy ; while
an example is known of a plate to which were applied gold disks with incised
busts simulating the coins of earlier work. In addition to this, silver vessels

Fie. 130. End of an ivory casket of the ninth-tenth century in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. P. 215.

in the Roman treasures of Boscoreale, Bernay, and Pompeii are ornamented

with putti and animals so closely allied to those of the caskets that there
can be little doubt as to one at least of the sources whence the ivory carvers
derived their inspiration.' It is not probable that many carvers resorted to
antique sculpture for their models, but the casket at Xanten has on it a figure
imitating the Herakles of Lysippus,^ which stood in the hippodrome of Con-
stantinople. But the centaurs, the genii, Bacchic and Maenad-like figures
which constantly recur, speak at every turn of the Graeco-Eoman art from
which they are derived, and it is unnecessary to specify further instances.'
Were these the only relationships which a study of the caskets reveals, the
opinion of Venturi that they are products of expiring classical art would meet
with a more general agreement. But they have affinities to the eleventh-
century sculptured slabs at Torcello with Eairos (Fig. 91) and Ixion,' to other
1 G-raeven, Austrian Jahrbuch, as above, p. 20.
^ A. Purtwangler, Sitzungsberiehte der phil.-hist. Klasse der k. bayrischen Akad. der Wissen-
schafien, 1902, 435 ff. ; H. Graeven, Bonner JahrbScher, Heft 108, 252 ff. The statue remained
in Constantinople until 1704, when it was melted down. This fact has been considered an
argument in favour of Constantinople as the place where the caskets were made.
' H. Graeven, Antike Vorlagen byzantinischer Elfenbeinreliefs, in Prussian Jahrbuch, 1897.
^ R. von Schneider, as above. The slab in the cathedral at Torcello, with two confronted
peacocks, has a border of rosettes like those of the caskets.
 217
CAEVINGS IN lYOEY

slabs with the Labours of Hercules at S. Marco, Venice, and to sculptures found
in Asia Minor and Greece' (one with a dancer and a centaur playing a lyre) ;
moreover, many of the small and animated figures strongly recall those of
illuminated psalters of the Monastic group,'' the earliest known examples of
which do not go back beyond the ninth century (p. 465). It might be possible
indeed to explain the resemblance to the Torcello sculptures by assuming
that these are themselves mere copies of far earlier originals, but it is not
so easy to explain the absurd misunderstanding of common mythological scenes

Fig. 13]. Ivory casket of the ninth-tenth centurj' in the Victoria and Albert Mnseum.

which is a frequent feature upon the caskets. Figures are taken out
of their context and inserted where they have no meaning ; attributes are
misinterjjreted or mi.splaced in so naive a manner that it is impossible
to suppo.se the artists to have lived at a time when classical mythology
was still a fixmiliar subject. Thus Venus and water-nymphs are given torches
as attributes ; the thyrsus of Dionysus is turned into a whi^j ; -wings are
applied to figures which have no claim to them ; head-dresses are assigned to
persons who in ancient art are always bare-headed. We do not find mistakes
pointing so obviously to pure ignorance of classical mythology ujion any of
^ Strzygowski, Prnssian Jahrbucli, xix, 1898, 57 ff. Cf. also his Amvhi, y. 34-j.
' Ventui'i. Sioria, .514, compares the style of the figures on the caskets with the art of
Roman imperial medals of the late fourth and early fifth centuries. But the almost bulging
relief ('fare roiondeggkmte ') may be explained as the result of reproducing by another technique
the high relief of embossed metal-work.
218 SCULPTUEE

the ivories dating from the fourth to the sixth century on which classical
subjects are represented : whatever errors the carver commits, he is still
clearly famUiar with the general trend of the story. This unintelligent treat-
ment of familiar subjects appears an almost conclusive argument in favour
of the theory that the carvers cannot have lived before the sixth century. An
argument of a more specific kind which must carry considerable weight is
that on one of the earliest and best of the caskets, that at Cividale (Museo
Archeologico), mounted figures are seen riding with stirrups. Stirrups were
not used in Europe before about A.r>. 600, and even in the East, where they
probably originated, not very much earlier. One small fact like this is more
cogent than many abstract arguments. The relationship existing between
particular details on the caskets and various illuminated manuscripts is if
anything in favour of similar conclusions. Graeven ' showed that groups of
figures correspond exactly to certain groups in the Joshua Kotulus in the
Vatican (p. 447), and in one case the men who in the manuscript are stoning
Achan are introduced into a panel of the Veroli casket illustrating the story
of Europa, where they are entirely out of place. Venturi, however, points out
with justice that on his theory the identity is easily explicable, supposing
the rotulus and the casket to have both copied antique models of the same
character. There is a certain similarity between the rosettes and the busts
in medallions which appear among them in the borders of the caskets, and
those seen upon the remarkable glass cup in the Treasure of S. Marco at
Venice.^ This cup has a Cufic inscription assigned to the early twelfth century ;
and as the subjects in the larger medallions upon the sides are derived from
classical models we perhaps have here an example of the same kind of copying
to which the ivory carvers themselves resorted (see p. 614).
Another indication of later date is furnished by the close resemblance of
the nude putti with their characteristic curly hair, so constantly found on
these caskets, with the figures representing the dead resuscitated from the
Valley of Dry Bones on a panel in the British Museum.' This panel, with
another of the same kind in the same collection, bears every sign of having
been copied from a manuscript, the style of which would in no case point
to a date earlier than the ninth century. Caskets with classical figures in
repouss6 work were produced by silversmiths contemporary with the ivory
carvers, and are clearly related to them in style (see p. 557) ; other silver-work
seems to belong to the same group.
Caskets of similar form to those with mythological subjects, and with the
same borders of rosettes, but ornamented with animals and monsters of oriental
style to the exclusion of the human figure, are represented in England by
the example in the Mi^Clean bequest to the Fitzwilliam Museum * at Cambridge,
formerly in the Spitzer Collection (Graeven's list, No. 43). This style, like
the other, was probably imitated by Italian ivory carvers in the twelfth century,
and the casket in the museum at Pisa is considered to be such an imitation.'
Another small group of four caskets," in which the rosette borders are a

' Prussian Jahrbuch, xviii, 1897, 1 ff.

' Pasini, Tesoro di San Marco, PI. XL ; Holinier, Tresor de Saint-Man, 58, and Ivoires, p. 90.
' British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities, No. 299 ; Graeven, Photos,
Series i, 1898, No. 45; W. Maskell, Ivories, 152, No. 11; E. von Dobschiitz, Repertorium,
xxvi, 282-
* Dalton, Catalogue of the M'Clean Bequest, No. 85. Cf. the other Spitzer casket in the
Musee du Cinquantenaire, Brussels, for which see J. Destr^e's Catalogue, and Schlumberger,
ipopee, i, p. 349.
" A. Ventui'i, Le Gallerie nasionali, iii, 261, and PI. IV ; H. Graeven, Adamo ed Eva sui
cofanetti d' avorio hizantini, in L'Arte, Kome, 1899, Fig. 1.
" At Darmstadt (Graeven, in L'Arte, as above, Figs. 2-6; Schlumberger, Epopee, i, p. 59),
Florence (Bargello : Graeven, Figs. 11-14), in the collection of Monaignor Bethune (South
Kensington Loan Exhibition, photographs : Graeven, Figs. 7 and 8), and in a private collection
at Rheims (Graeven, Fig. 9). The last is possibly an early Western imitation.
Fig. 132. Side of the Veroli casket, ninth-tenth century,
in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
220 SCULPTURE

constant feature, has scriptural or religious subjects carved upon panels usually
of small size. On all but one of these the story of Adam and Eve is found ;
the exception being the example in the Bargello at Florence, The which is orna-
mented with figures of Our Lord, the Virgin, and saints. borders of
rosettes are here more elaborate, and they are sometimes combined with
bands of vine-scrolls, either alone or enclosing birds and animals. It is
probable that these caskets are later than the iconoclastic disturbance, and
belong to a time when the pagan mythologic subjects were less popular.
There are several isolated panels in existence which once formed part of
caskets now lost. One is in the British Museum,^ and represents the arch-
angel of the Expulsion from Eden (Fig. 134) ; another is in the Museo Oliveriano
at Pesaro, in which the whole scene is carved.' The latter is important
with regard to the question of date, for either this or a similar panel, as

Fio. 133. Adam and Eve : end of an ivory casket of the twelfth century.

Graeven was the first to show, must have served Bonannus as a model for
the rendering of the same episode on the bronze doors of the cathedral at
Pisa : the arrangement and the treatment of the figures are identical, and
Adam carries over his shoulder the same bifurcated hoe. The Pisa doors
are a few years earlier than those made by the same artist for the Cathedral
of Monreale, which are dated a. d. 1186; we may therefore assume that these
caskets with religious subjects were already in existence about the middle
of the century. As they are related to the class with pagan subjects by
their similar rosettes, and since the attitude of a frequently recurring figure
of Hercules has evidently influenced that of the Adam, as on the Darmstadt
example, we may conclude that as a whole the caskets with Christian subjects
are the later. Among the finest examples with the story of Adam and Eve

1 Catalogue of Early Christian and Byz. Antiquities, No. 302.

' Graeven, Photos, Ser. ii, No. 49, and L'Arte, 1899, Fig. 16 a ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii,
p. 610.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
221
are the panels in . the Bargello and in the Pulszky and Oppenheim (now
Morgan) collections respectively.' Probably they belong to the twelfth century,
and the close resemblance between the saints upon the example at Florence
and those upon a pierced Byzantine panel in the Victoria and Albert Museum
(Fig. 142) supports this view, for the panel is probably not older than the close
of the eleventh century at earliest. The panels (probably from a single casket)
in the British and Berlin Museums respectively, with different scenes from the
story of Joseph, are of the same class and period, the costumes and attitudes of
the figures being similar. Their existence shows that other Old Testament
subjects besides the story of Eden were used to adorn caskets, and perhaps an
example of a similar kind was imitated by the sculptor of the remarkable casket
at Sens. In these cases the miniatures in the Octateuchs (p. 464) were probably
an important source of inspiration.
The curious casket in the Museo Kircheriano at Eome,^ covered with scenes
from the story of David, is clearly related to the
caskets just described, in so far as the carver
probably saw one of the kind and in general
tried to imitate its style. A large number of
small figures are displayed in dramatic action,
but the types of the faces are notably different,
the whole being vigorous but somewhat barbaric
in its effect. It may be, as many critics have
supposed, that this casket goes back to the second
half of the ninth century ; but in this case its
inferiority to the finer pagan caskets must be
ascribed either to production in some provincial
centre or to the work of a school very different
from that which produced the casket of Veroli.
There are details about it, however, which give
rise to reflection, and suggest that it may be con- Fig. 134. The Archangel
siderably later than has usually been supposed.
Michael : panel of the twelfth
For example, the large conventional leaf between century, from a casket. (British
the lower pair of figures on the lid is of a Museum.) P. 220.
type which is commonest in the art of the
twelfth century, and is found upon two ivories to which this date is usually
assigned, one in the Museo Cristiano at the Vatican,' the other in the Museo
Oliveriano at Pesaro,* the latter probably a Western imitation of a Byzantine
original. This large and massive style of leaf frequently appears in Eomanesque
art, especially in enamels. The top of the lid, which is a truncated pyramid, is
divided into two compartments, in the upper of which Our Lord is seen blessing
an emperor and empress, while in the lower stand two adoring figures." An
iambic inscription in two verses invokes a blessing upon an imperial pair. The
inscriptions round the sides are in even more corrupt iambics, and the lettering
on two sides differs from that on the others, the form Z appearing instead of the
usual C. These sides are by another hand, and are probably a restoration : the
substance of these lines is a eulogy of the bride and bridegroom. The casket
must have been made on the occasion of an imperial or royal marriage. The
treatment of the David scenes differs considerably from that usually found in

1 Molinier, Ivoires, PI. IX bis, Figs. 2 and 3.

2 G. Sehlumberger, Mm. Piot, vi, 1900, 191 ff. and PI. XVIII ; A. Venturi, Sioria, ii. 599 ff. ;
H. Graeven, Photos, Ser. ii, Nos. 57-61 ; Westwood, Fictile Ivories, 354.
' E. Kanzler, Avori, PI. XVI, Fig. 11 ; A. Munoz, L'Art hys. a Vexposition de Grottaferrata,
Eome, 1906, 115.
* H. Graeven, Photos, Ser. ii, No. 51.
' It has been held that the couple are a king and queen, not the emperor and empress ;
and that the selection of scenes from David's life may point to a prince of the same name.
As a possible personage the Bagratid pi-ince David, who died in a. d. S94, has been suggested
(Strzygowski, B. Z., x, 1901, 729).
222 SCULPTUEE

the Psalters which inspired other versions in minor sculpture, for instance the
set of silver dishes found in Cyprus (p. 574).
Eelated in some respects to the group of caskets with figure subjects are two
panels in the British Museum with the Valley of Dry Bones (Pig. 135),^ and
the Nativity : the treatment of the small nude figures of the rising dead in the
former carving with their characteristic curly hair is, as stated, reminiscent
of that which is often found in the mythological and other secular scenes. The
inaccurate inscriptions give the impression of copies from written words not
quite clearly understood, and illuminations in manuscripts may have supplied
the carver with his models. In the style of the figures there is a great
difference from that of the Harbaville triptych and ivories of its period ; there is

il^A^A^-Li'JjJiim ' \iMi

Fig. 135. Ezekiel and the dry bones : panel of the tenth century in the British Museum.

less certainty of execution, a less exquisite finish. If the triptych is of the

tenth centuiy, then these panels in the British Museum may be as early as the
ninth, for their imperfections are those of an inexperienced rather than those of
a decadent art. To the ninth century we may also assign the better among the
caskets ; but as there is a very considerable difference in the merit of various
examples, it may be conjectured that this style of work, once having become
popular, outlasted the iconoclastic period, and continued perhaps to the twelfth
century, while ivories used for devotional purposes had begun to develop upon
independent lines. The caskets may have been made in Constantinople ; but
there is no convincing evidence in favour of any particular locality. They were
no doubt exported in considerable numbers, and seem to have been imitated in
Italy. The panels with the Labours of Hercules on the chair of St. Peter in the
Vatican appear, as Westwood ^ long ago suggested, to be related to those of the

Nos. '18,
Catalogue
19. of Early Ghristian and Byzantine Antiquities, Nos. 299, 300'; Catalogue of Ivory Carvings,
2 Fictile Ivories, p. 341. The argument of Garrucci attributing u Carolingian origin to
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY 223

caskets, and may even have been derived from a casket. In this judgement
Molinier concurred.'
The subjects upon the oliphants being largely zoomovphic and without
inscription, it is very diflScult to decide in particular cases whether they are
Byzantine reproducing Eastern designs or whether they are original oriental
work. As a class they date from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, a period
when oriental motives invaded not only Byzantine art but the Eomanesque art
of Western Europe, and when the same motive may appear with but slight
variation in Constantinople or Italy, in Granada or■9 in France. M. Molinier's
study of the oliphants led him to the conclusion that they may be divided into
three groups : (1) those which are purely oriental ; (2) those made in Con-
stantinople after oriental models ; (3) those made in the West in imitation either
of Byzantine or oriental originals." The conclusion is in the main accepted by
Hampel,' who has, however, brought forward some interesting evidence in tlie
endeavour to connect certain oliphants with a particular period of Byzantine art.
The town of Jasz-Bereny in Hungary has ' from time immemorial ' possessed

■BP
f1 .'■^,-PH'^"'-f XJ 4^

finoiUi^Uiliil

V'!
FiQ. 136. Panel from a casket of the eleventh-twelfth century.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

a horn on which, with bands of ornament consisting of interlacings, and con-

nected circles containing monsters, birds, and animals of oriental style, there
occur representations of acrobatic and other performances which are supposed to
have as their scene the hippodrome of Constantinople. The small human
figures, especially with their curly hair, recall those on the group of caskets
already mentioned ; while the conspicuous position given to an eagle possibly
suggests a connexion with the symbol of Byzantine imperial power. The con-
nexion with the casket group becomes more probable on comparing the oliphant
with the two long panels from a casket in the British Museum, where
dancers and acrobats of a not dissimilar character are represented. Another
oliphant in the Cathedral of St. Veit at Prague * is ornamented with bands of
animals somewhat similar to those of the Jasz-Bereny example, while the
central part, instead of combats and acrobatic performances, has two broad
bands in which chariot races round the ' Spina ' are represented, a form of
sport which certainly points to the hippodrome. A third example, in the same
cathedral, shows in a broad band of ornament running round the mouth a racing
the chair on the ground that a bust amidst the scroll designs represented Charles the
Bald, falls to the ground if Venturi is right in assigning this part of the work to the
Renaissance. The panels on the chair are certainly of heterogeneous origin. See Garrucci,
Storia, vi. 12 ; Venturi, Storia, i. 526 ff.
1 Molinier, Ivoires, pp. 91-2.
' Ivoires, 93.
' Allerthumer des friihen Mittelalters in Ungarn, ii. 920 ff. ; Archaeologiai Eriesito, N. S., xxiii,
1903, 97 ff. (reviewed, B. Z , xii, 1903, p. 70.5). Supka, following Strzygowski, connects the
Jdsz-Ber6ny horn with N. Mesopotamia (Lehel Kiirlje Tanulmdny, Budapest, 1910, p. 63).
* Hampel, Alterthiimer, as above, 921-4, and PI. 536-7; F. Bock, MitteMterliche Kwnst-
denkmcUe, &e., 1860, ii. 136. The casket-panel in the British Museum is No. 301 in the
Catalogue of E.-C. and Bys. Antiquiiies.
224 SCULPTURE

chariot issuing from an arch, and mounted acrobats. A curious cloisonne

enamelled dish in the museum at Innsbruck (p. 500), which if not Byzantine must
have been directly influenced by Byzantine models and dates from the tenth
century, has also a group of acrobats, three of whom are seen upon a T-shaped
apparatusbalancedupon thehead of a fourth. We thus have at leastthree oliphants
which appear to have a connexion with the civil life of Constantinople ; a fourth,
formerly in the Spitzer Collection, is carved with bands of animals and conven-
tional ornament like that of other examples, but in the central part with figures
of Our Lord, the Virgin, angels, and Apostles, showing it to have been made for
the use of Christians. Most of the other horns are ornamented with beasts,
huntsmen, &c. Dr. Hampel proposes to amplify the classification suggested by
Molinier, and divides them into four instead of three groups : (1) Horns like the
two first mentioned, with hippodrome scenes ; perhaps used to give the signal
for actual performances in the circus. (2) Horns with hunting scenes, used in
hunting. (3) Horns with animals, monsters, and floral ornament ; these may
have been used either for secular or for Church purposes. (4) Horns with
religious subjects, used in churches and monasteries. We have already discussed
the three horns which compose the first group. The second group is also small,
consisting of some five examples, one of which is in the Victoria and Albert
Museum.' The third group is far the largest, comprising about fifteen
specimens. The fourth class is represented by a single horn— that above
mentioned, with the figures of Our Lord and the Virgin.
A number of the above oliphants were probably made in Western Europe,
some of them perhaps as late as the twelfth century ; but for the reasons already
stated it is exceedingly difficult in many cases to decide which may have been
made in Constantinople and which in other places. There is little in the
ornamentation of any examples which affords any precise indication of date :
we can only say that characteristics of style place all the horns in the period
between the ninth and twelfth centuries. The use of the zigzag band as a
border or division and certain details of foliate ornament is common to some
oliphants and an inscribed ivory panel (Fig. 138), perhaps part of a cross, now
in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum,^ to which the last quarter of the ninth century
has been assigned as a date ; but no absolute reliance can be placed upon the
relationship, this ornament being of so simple a character. This panel, which
is carved on all its sides, has on the front and back, which terminate at the top
in a large round arch with scalloped niches, two groups of three half-figures, one
of Our Lord between SS. Peter and Paul, the other the Virgin attended by the
Archangel Gabriel, and crowning a youthful Emperor Leo ; the two medical
saints, Cosmas and Damian, are represented upon the narrow sides or edges. A
long inscription ^ runs round the large arches and along the architraves ; and
the age pf the emperor represented, together with the style, less finished than
that of later work, makes it probable that the emperor is Leo VI, who came to
the throne in a. d. 886, and that the cross of which the ivory formed part may
have commemorated his coronation. Leo V (d. 820) must be excluded, in his
quality of confirmed iconoclast.
Such indications by no means amount to proofs ; but for the obscure period
between the seventh and tenth centuries they are all the evidence available.
It is quite certain that the ornament of the majority of the oliphants, whoever
may have executed it, is derived from Eastern sources, and that much of it
originally came from Sassanian Persia. The character of the animals, real or
' W. Maskell, Description of the Ivories, 37.
" Vege, Berlin Catalogue, i. No. 7 ; G. Schlumberger, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1892, PI. I, 118.
^ The inscription runs: KE EN TH AYNAMEI COY €Y*PAN0HCei AeOJN O
BAC(IAeYC) KAI eni TCO CaJTHPIOJ COY ArAAAIACCTAI C<DOAPA +
CNTEINON Ij? BACIAeYC ACCON ANAZ + AITAIC <t)OITHTC0N XPlCT(e)
(H)rOY CCx) AOYAGJ. The first part is taken from Psalm xxi. 1 ; the latter part consists
of two iambic verses.
 CARVINGS IN IVQEY 225
fabulous, points in this direction, and so does their disposition in a diaper of
interconnected circles such as we find on Sassanian textiles (p. 590).
It would be monotonous to consider in detail the Byzantine ivories of the tenth
and two following centuries.' At their best they attain a technical perfection only
equalled by French ivories of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ; and in
many of the most beautiful examples there is not only dignity and grace, but the
evidence of a fine artistic feeling. Yet, like their Western analogues, they suffer

trz':>ti'-»r':ir-j-rB.:i"r^m^.--m^^-m^^ '■M^. -t^ir.

ia.#,i.^

Fie. 137. The Death of Isaac : panel from a casket of the twelfth century.
(British Museum.) P. 230.

from the taint of monotony ; they express the same spirit too nearly in the same
way ; the convention is high and delicate, but it allows too little scope for the
intervention of creative genius. Within the three centuries of their production,
those ivories of the maturity are most difficult to date. Subjective methods of
' Byzantine ivories of the Second and Third Periods may be studied in all the general
works on ivory carvings cited above. Reproductions will be found in the large catalogues
of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin, the Vatican, and the British Museum ; in the
Portfolio of Ivories of the Victoria and Albert Museum ; in the catalogues of the Meyer
Collection at Liverpool, by P. Pulszky and C. Gatty ; in H. Graeven's two series of photographs ;
in M. Schlumberger's historical works {Nicephore Phocas, and L'Epopee tysantine, i and ii), where
a considerable number are illusti-ated ; in the older publications : Gori, Thesaurus diptychorum ;
Garrucci, Storia. It is impossible to enumerate all the examples of so numerous a class ; but
it will be found represented in England in the two great London museums, in the Free
Public Museums, Liverpool, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Christ enthroned), and the
Pitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In France fine specimens are to be seen in the Louvre
and the Mus^e de Cluny, which contain between them perhaps the most important examples
of all (Giraudon's photos). The treasury of Troyes possesses the important casket mentioned
below (p. 231). In Germany the Kaiser Friedrich Museum has important pieces, all cata-
logued (see above) ; the museums at Dresden, Hanover, and Darmstadt contain ivories of
exceptional merit. The treasuries of Aachen Cathedral, Halberstadt Cathedral, Treves, and
Quedlinburg have also ivories of the period. Austria is not rich in work of this time, but
the Imperial Museum possesses a beautiful diptych leaf, the companion to another at Venice
(p. 228). Italy has, besides the Cortona reliquary (p. 227), examples in the museums of the
Vatican, Venice, and Florence ; other pieces are to be seen in the treasury of Monza, and
in private collections so well known as to be almost public — the Barberini and Stroganoff
at Rome, the Trivulzio at Milan. Many of the important Italian ivories are reproduced
in Graeven's series. Russia has various examples in the Hermitage and Stieglitz Museums at
St. Petersburg.
226 SCULPTURE

appreciation assign the finest to the tenth and early eleventh centuries and dis-
tribute the rest over the whole later period from a. d. 1050 onwards. Molinier long

Pig. 138. Coronation of the Emperor Leo VI ; Our Lord between SS. Peter and Paul.
(Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.) P. 224.

ago insisted that for such a procedure no certitude can be claimed ; we cannot be
sure that inferior workmanship proves a debased period ; it may equally result
from the inferior talent of an artist living in a good period, or from the
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY 227"
incapacity of a local school. It may be safely assumed that the really admirable
work is of the time when the other arts conspicuously flourished under the
Macedonian and Comnenian lines ; but in the East-Eoman Empire we have not
the assistance which in the study of Western mediaeval works we derive from
contemporary major sculpture or from progressive changes in architecture and
costume. Nor can we be quite sure that the last Renaissance of the fourteenth
century altogether neglected this minor art ; some pieces even of great excellence
may prove later than has hitherto been supposed, though there is little trace of a
change in sentiment such as we observe in the painting of that epoch (pp. 19, 254).
Despite all these uncertainties we are not without some aids which enable
us to arrive at an approximate date in many cases. The comparative study of
miniatures in illuminated manuscripts is of high importance, for it may be
assumed that, as in the West, the relation between the art of the ivory carver
and that of the illuminator was particularly close, while the manuscript can
more often be assigned to a particular year than is the case with other works of
art. In one instance we have an ivory in its original position in an object
dated within a -few years by an inscription. On the front of a reliquary for
wood of the true cross in the Franciscan Church at Cortona in Italy, dedicated,
as an inscription on the back explains, by Stephen, a priest of Sta Sophia at
Constantinople, in the reign of Nicephorus Phocas (a. d. 963-9), is an ivory
panel ' having at top and bottom two broad bands each containing three
medallions with busts of Om- Lord between Michael and Gabriel, and Constan-
tino with Helen and Longinus, while the central part has standing figures of
the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, St. Stephen, and St. John the Evangelist in
the angles of a larger cross. The work is of fine quality, the figures are
dignified, the draperies free from stiffness : there is an obvious advance upon
the Berlin ivory of the time of Leo VI. But the hopes raised by the approxi-
mate dating of this panel are dissipated when we come to examine another
ivory which must be a hundred years younger. This is the centre of a triptych ^
in the Bibliothfeque Rationale at Paris (Pig. 139) representing Our Lord standing
between Romanus (a. d. 1068-71) and Eudocia, to whom^ he gives his blessing :
the names are indicated by inscriptions above the heads of the figures. The
style is here the same as that of the Cortona panel, so that the triptych helps us
but little for the purpose of dating other ivories with precision. We may
mention a third panel bearing historical figures in the Musee de Cluny at Paris.'
This is similar to that just mentioned, and shows Our Lord blessing Otto II of
Saxony and Theophano, the Byzantine princess whom he espoused ; a small
figure crouches at the emperor's feet— possibly the author or scribe of the
manuscript upon the cover of which the ivory was fixed. This panel is of much
poorer execution than the two others, so that if the Cortona relief were not in
existence we might form erroneous conclusions as to the capacity of the ivory
carver towards the last quarter of the tenth century.
Out of the large number of Byzantine ivories of the Third Period existing in
various collections we may now mention a few of special merit or importance.
The famous triptych in the Louvre known as the Triptyque d'Harbaville,*
' Gori, Thesaurus diptychorum, iii, PI. XVIII; G. Schlumberger, Siciphore Phocas, 189;
Venturi, Storia, ii. 578 ff., Pigs. 411, 412. Even here tliere is room for doubt whether the
Nicephorus in question may not be Nicephorus Botoniates (a.d. 1078-81). See Diehl,
Manuel, 619.
^ Molinier, Ivoires, 197 ; Venturi, Storia, ii. 583. Older references, Gori, Thesaurus, iii. 1 ;
Lenormant, Tresor de glyplique, PI. II ; Didron, Ann arch., xviii. 197 ; Rev. arch., i, PI. IV.
' G. Schlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 651 ; Louandre, Les Arts somptuaires, v. 67, and Plate;
Weiss, Kostumkunde, i. See also Westwood, Fictile Ivories, 397 ; Cahier and Martin, Melanges
d'archeologie, i. 186. The inscription begins OTTO PFJ A N and ends :-f0eO<l>ANCl) I MP
AC, and fu) {'laiavvjjs ?) perhaps referring to the smaller figure. The genuineness of this plaque
has been questioned, but it was apparently seen by the two Benedictines Martene and
Durand at the beginning of the eighteenth century (Voyage litteraire, ii. 29) : it was then upon
the cover of a Book of the Gospels in the Abbey of Echternach near Trfeves.
* Best reproduced by Molinier, Ivoires, PI. IX. Cf. also Ch. de Linas, in Revue de Vart

Q 2
228 SCULPTUEE

perhaps the most finished work of the Bj'zantine school, has all the elegance of
a French ivory of the early fourteenth century and ma}' have l:>een produced in
the interval between the date of the Cortona reliquarj' and that of the panel with
Eomanus. The rich ornamentation of the back, perhaps representing the
triumjjh of the Cross in the Garden of Eden, has features which reveal the
influence of oriental decorative art. and the whole work is instinct with a delicate
and sumptuous charm. It is true that formal rows of saints are not a subject
which gives scojie for composition or inventive power, but in the pose, and in
the expression of individual
faces, the carver has shown
himself to be an artist who
appreciated both nature and
the antique. The large trip-
t}'ch in the Museo Cristiano
at the Vatican is evident!}-
a later reproduction of a
similar scheme. But it is
difficult to follow French
archaeologists in assigning
it to so late a period as the
fifteenth centurj' : the thir-
teenth century is perhaps
late enough to account for
the inferiority of workman-
A second large triptych
in the Biblioteca Casana-
ship.^in Rome ^ follows the
tense
scheme of the Harbaville
triptych more closely than
does the Vatican example,
but the figures are heavier
and coarser, and the work
suggests a later period. But
even here the arguments
in favour of the fifteenth
century do not appear con-
vincing. The}- are partly
based upon the occurrence
of the name Constantino in
one of the iambic verses
Fir.. 139. Our Lord crowning Romanusan.l Eudocia :
carved upon the central
centre of a triptych of tlie late eleventh century, i Bib-
l-iand dividing the upper
liotheque Nationale, Paris.} P. 227. and lower groups in the
interior. This has been
referred to the last emperor of Constantinople, though the .absence of the usual
title SetrW.Tijs has not failed to excite remark. Bu"t it does not seem necessary
to associate the triptych with an emperor at all : it may have been made for any
personage of wealth or consequence.
Another ivory of importance is a diptych, probably of the eleventh century,
the two halves of which are now separated, one being in the Museo Archeologico

din'tien, 1885 ; G. Schlumberj^er, Melanges d'arcli. l,ij:. 71 ft". ; G(i:e1le des Beaux-Arls, 3' Periode,
(-iX'-yri del masei sacrv e proOd'o, &c.,
V,
ri. 1891,
VII andp. 29i;
VIII. Vcnturi, S/oc/n, ii. 584 ft-, ■ R. Kan'zler Vl
104 : Venturi, Storia,
' Ch. de Linas, in Revue de I'art chnHien, 1880; Molinier, as above, p,
588; A. Mufioz, VArthyzautin ii Vexpositmi de Graitajerrata, 190(j, 103 ft'.'
'' Munoz, Groliuferraia ; De Linas, as above.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
229
at Venice,' the other in the Imperial Museum at Vienna.^ The first has upon it
figures of St. Paul and St. John the Evangelist ; the second those of St. Peter
and St. Andrew. The Apostles stand with books in their hands, dignified in
attitude and expression, their long mantles falling in logical and graceful folds.
Their names are cai-ved in intaglio near their heads ; but across the top of each
leaf is an inscription in two iambic lines cut in relief. The lines on the Venetian
leaf are :
CK€YOC OeOYPrON CYAAAAei TO) nAPOeNW
BAABHC CKeneCGAI AecnOTHN KWNCTANTINON.

Fig. 140. Triptych of the eleventh century. (Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.) P. 230.

On the leaf at Vienna is the following couplet :

CJC AYTAAeAOOl MYCTOAeKTAI TOJN ANCO
N€MOIT€ AYTPON AeCnOTH KCONCTANTINtO.
The identity of the imperial donor thus twice named cannot be established
with certainty on account of the frequent recurrence of the name Constantino in
the tenth and eleventh centuries."

1 Grori, Thesaurus diptychorum, iii, PI. XXVIII, XXIX ; G. Schlumberger, Gas. des Beaux-
Arts, 3" Periode, xiii, 1895, 379-81 ; Venturi, Storia, &c., ii, Fig. iU, p. 585 ; C. I. G. 8784.
" In the Milns- und Antikmkabinett. Westwood, p. 78.
^ Gori considered the emperor to be Constantino Porphyrogenitus ; Von Sacken and
F. Kenner thought Constantine Ducas (a. d. 1059-67) ; H. Schlumberger suggests Constantine,
brother of Basil II (1025-28), or Constantine Mouomaehos, third husband of Zoe (1042-58).
 230 SCULPTUEE

The leaves of another fine diptych, probably also of the eleventh century, are
separated in a similar manner. One carved with the Noli me fangere and the
Anastasis is in the museum at Dresden ; the other, with the Crucifixion and
Descent from the Cross, is in the Hanover Provincial Museum.^
It is impossible to notice individually the numerous ivories of the Third
Period, which maintain a high average of excellence : a complete list of such
works would be of value, and might bring us nearer to the precision in the
dating of Byzantine carvings at present so difficult to achieve. We may
specially mention, however, the Virgin and Child in the Stroganoff Collection,''
the triptychs with the Crucifixion in the Cabinet des Medailles' of the Bibliothfeque
Nationale, Paris, and of the Kaiser Priedrich Museum (Fig. 140) ; the triptych
panels with figures of the Virgin at Utrecht ^ and Liege, the seated Christ in
the Bodleian Library,'' and several panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
one with busts of St. John and four saints upon a pierced ground (Fig. 142).
As far as our knowledge goes, those ivories which in correctness of proportion,
skilful treatment of drapery, and careful modelling of the extremities approach
the excellence of the Harbaville triptych may with probability be assigned to
the tenth and first half of the eleventh centuries. Those in which the figures are
elongated, the faces monotonous in expression, the draperies poorly rendered,
and the extremities out of proportion may be assumed to belong to a later date
than the panel of Eomanus and Eudocia, and may be conjecturally placed in
the twelfth and thii-teenth centuries. It has already been stated that careless-
ness of finish and inferiority of style need not necessarily imply any great difi'er-
ence in date : these defects may be due to the incapacity of inferior craftsmen
turning out to. order works of moderate price. We cannot be certain that all
the second-rate work is late, though a parallel decadence in illuminated manu-
scripts justifies the conclusion in the majority of cases. We seem to trace the
existence of different schools even among the ivories of high merit. Those
which have hitherto been selected for special mention have been chiefly dis-
tinguished bya certain sculptural dignity. But in several panels the aim is
picturesque, and the influence of miniatures jnay be assumed. In the panels
with the Ascension in the Kunstkammer at Stuttgart, in the Bargello at
Florence,^ and in the Stroganoff Collection, Eome," and those with the Washing
of the Disciples' Feet and the Forty Martyrs in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum,'
the careful composition of the groups and the tendency to dramatic action
suggest the inspiration of pictorial art. Such ivories as the casket panels in
the British ^ and Kaiser Friedrich Museums ' with the Story of Joseph (Fig.
137) were perhaps inspired by illuminated Octateuchs. Of this picturesque
group there are also numerous late or inferior examples apparently related to
illuminated miniatures : the panel with the Entry into Jerusalem in the British
Museum '" may serve as an illustration of these (Fig. 13).
The great majority of these ivories of the Third Period represent subjects from
the New Testament, or figures or busts of sacred persons, saints, and Apostles : in
this predilection the Byzantine ivory carver resembled his Western colleague. The
destination of diptychs and triptychs as devotional tablets explains the predilec-
tion. Acertain number of panels are, however, ornamented with subjects from
the Old Testament. Of these we may cite the series already mentioned as in the
British and Kaiser Friedrich Museums, which once formed part of a single
casket, and are carved with the Story of Joseph. Caskets were well adapted
for a sequence of historical scenes, and since they were mostly made for secular
1 G. Schlumberger, Epopee, ii. 216 and 217 (Figs.).
■■i Graeven, Photos, ii, No. 67. This figure of the Virgin is admirable in its simple dignity.
' Diehl, Manuel, Fig. 311. The panel is in the Arehiepisoopal Museum.
* Ibid., p. 624, Fig. 314. b Graeven, Elfenheinwerke, aer. ii. No. 34 (photo)
« Graeven, ibid.. No. 70. ' VOge, Berlin Catalogue, Nos. 8 and 9.
» Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities, No. 302"; Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, Nos. 20 and 21
» V6ge, Catalogue, Nos. 13 and 14.
^'' Nos. 302'' and 19 in the two British Museum Catalogues.
 CAEVINGS IN IVOEY 231

purposes they were less rigorously confined to religious subjects. The well-
known casket in the treasury of the Cathedral of Troyes affords an example with
secular designs. It is flat topped, and, originally dyed purple, was probably
part of the booty from the sack of Constantinople assigned to Gamier de Traisnel,
almoner of the Crusade, who himself died in the East ' (Figs. 11, 144-5).
On the lid is represented a circular structure surmounted by circular and
rectangular buildings with gable and conical roofs, and having in the base
a gateway in which an empress (?) stands, holding a diadem (?) in her hands.
On each side, facing outwards, is a
mounted emperor with a lance,
wearing the diadem with pendants
and a cuirass of scale armour with
a chlamys. The symmetrical dis-
position of these figures suggests
that they may be imitated from a
textile design, and may be intended
to represent a single personage.
The sides have hunting scenes, full
of life and vigour, and the ends
birds in foliage. On the front we
see a lion-hunt ; on the back, a man
on foot attacks with his spear a
huge boar assailed from three sides
by as many dogs, each of which
wears a collar. The date may be
the eleventh century.
The ivory covers of the Psalter
written and illuminated for Meli-
senda, daughter of Baldwin II,
King of Jerusalem (a.d. 1118-31),
and wife of Fulk, Count of Anjou
and King of Jerusalem (a.d.
1131-4), do not represent a pure
Byzantine art.^ The subjects on
the two covers, scenes from the
Story of David and the Works of
Mercy, are treated in a style Fig. 141. Our Lord : figure from a panel of
which makes it difficult to say the eleventh century. (Victoria and Albert
Museum.)
whether we are in presence of East-
Christian work produced under
Western inspiration, or Western (French) work strongly affected by an Eastern
environment. Each scene is enclosed in one of a series of interconnected
circles, six on each leaf ; the interspaces on the cover with the Story of David
are filled with the Combat of the Virtues and Vices, based upon the Psycho-
machia of Prudentius; those on the other cover are occupied by spirited
representations of struggling beasts and by single birds. The borders are
ornamented with scrolls of vine foliage, enriched upon one side with interlacings,
vases, and pecking birds, and (upon the upper band) two fish. The nature of
the figure subjects, and especially their coincidence upon the same work of art,"'
suggest that the scheme is of Western conception : the armour of Goliath appears

^ Le Brun Dalbanne, Memoires lus a la Sorbonne en 1863, p. 212, PI. II ; Molinier, Ivoires,
pp. 92-3 (Figs.) ; Sohlumberger, ipospee, i, pp. 673, 714 (Figs.).
' Tlie Psalter is in the Department of MSS. in the British Museum, and is exhibited in
the Grenville Library. It is illustrated in the British Museum Catalogue of Ivory Carvings,
already quoted, Nos. 28-9, PI. XV and XVI.
' The same combination of subjects is found on the Romanesque enamelled crozler in the
Bargello at Florence {Gazette Arch., 1887, PI. XVIII). Lethabyl)elieves the Melisenda book-
covers to have been made in Anjou (Proc, Soc. Antiq. of London, 1911.
Fig. 14.2. Pierced panel of the eleventh-twelfth century : St. John and other Saints.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.) 'P. 230.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
233
to be Western, and all the inscriptions are Latin. On the other hand, the royal
costumes are Byzantine : the ornament of the borders has far more affinity with
Eastern (Armenian) motives than with anything French. Moreover, the treat-
ment of the beasts recalls that of Mohammedan ivory carvers, especially those
who worked for the Moorish princes of Spain, and relationships of the same
land appear in the disposition of the vine border of the lower cover. We need
not suppose that the carver of these panels was influenced from Spain, but

Fig. 143. The Entry into Jerusalem : panel of the tenth-eleventh century.
(Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin.)

rather that he drew from the same Asiatic sources from which Spanish-Moorish
art derived its peculiar character. The miniatures within the book are for the
most part the work of a Greek painter, Basilius ; and if we recall the mosaics
of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (p. 414), executed by Byzantine
craftsmen for Latin princes, we may perhaps incline to the opinion that these
ivory covers were produced under similar conditions. But the blending of
Eastern and Western elements is so intricate, and the style so exceptional, that
it is difiicult to pronounce any certain opinion.
Throughout their history, a period of some thousand years, the ivory carvings
of the Christian East were imitated by the craftsmen of the West, The large
composite diptychs and the pyxides of the fifth and sixth centuries were copied
in Carolingian times : well-known examples of copies are the book-covers from
the Abbey of Lorsch, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 146),' and the
' Nos. 138-66, W. Maskell, Description ofihe Ivories, 53 ; and V. and A. Museum, Portfolio of
Ivories.
234 SCULPTUEE

Museo Cristiano at the Vatican.' The book-cover in the Bodleian with Our Lord
trampling on the asp and basihsk,'^ which is of the same period, is an imitation
of such a composite work cut from a single piece of ivory, though the model is
held by some to have been made in Italy. A single panel of this model has
actually been preserved and is now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum.' The
British Museum possesses a Carolingian pyxis which must have been inspired from
an original of the same kind as those which we have considered above (Fig. 148).''
In the South of Italy after the ninth century a school or schools of ivory
carvers produced a large number of panels clearly based on Byzantine models.
The series on the paliotto at Salerno ^ is the most familiar example ; single
panels showing the same peculiarities of style in various stages of decadence
are to be found in different collections, e. g. the museums of Berlin and Bologna.
One, of a finished but dry style, representing the Eaising of Lazarus, is in the

Fm. 144. Top of the casket of the eleventh century in the Cathedral of Troyes.
(From, an electrotype.) P. 231.

British Museum.^ It is allied to the group of panels in the Museo Archeologico

at Milan,' representing scenes from the life of St. Mark and formerly assigned by
Dr. Graeven to the sixth century. It seems probable that they are all of later
date and of about the eleventh century.
We have seen that the caskets of the ninth and following centuries were
imitated in Northern Italy in the twelfth ; other panels were produced there
towards the same period. Attention may be drawn to two panels in the Museo
Olivieri, Pesaro ; ' a pair of panels on a MS. in the Barberini Library, Eome,
with the Ascension and Pentecost ; ' a panel in the collection of Count Stroganoff
at Eome, with the Nativity." The Byzantine arrangement of busts of saints in
interconnected circles or medallions, as seen for instance in a panel in the Museo
Civico, Bologna, is imitated on a book-cover in the Cluny Museum at Paris."
Another interesting example of apparent imitation is the casket in the
1 R. Kanzler, Avm-i, PI. IV. ^ Westwood, Fictile Ivories, PI. VI, p. 55.
^ Haseloff, in Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, p. 47. ' Catalogue of Ivory Carvings, No. 43.
^ Arundel Society's casts in Victoria and Albert Museupi ; E. Bertaux, L'Art dans I'ltalie
miridionale, i. 433 ; Venturi, Storia, ii, Figs. 458-69 ; Schlumberger, ipopee, ii. 265 ; West-
wood, 91.
° Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities, No. 290 ; Catalogue oflvonj Carvings, No. 27.
' Graeven, Photo, ii. 42 ff.; a panel in the V. and A. Museum belongs to this series.
No. 270, 1867 ; Portfolio of Ivories, Pt. III.
» Graeven, Photo, No. 51 ; E. Modigliani, L'Arte, ii, Rome, 1899, 291 f.
° Modigliani, as above, 290 ; Graeven, Nos. 55 and 56.
'" Hermanin in I! Arte, 1898, 5 ; Graeven, No. 75. 'i Les Arts, April, 1902, p. 12.
 CAEVINGS IN IVOEY 235

Cathedral of Sens.' It is
number of surfaces. The dodecagonal , with a conical lid having the same
panels covering the body are divided into two
horizontal zones, the uppermost surmounted by a tympanum. On the lower
zone are scenes from the life of David ; on the upper is represented the Story
of Joseph. The tympana contain gryphons and beasts of prey, confronted
peacocks, &c. ; while in the spandrels and along the top of each panel is
conventional foliage partly derived from the acanthus. The figure subjects are
.not unskilfully grouped, and, as Molinier has remarked, some of the details,
especially the drawing of the horses, suggest analogies with the casket at Troyes
(p. 231). The beasts of prey and monsters are carved in a bold and free style ;
they may have been derived from textile models, as was probably the case with
the oliphants and certain Byzantine caskets already mentioned. But though in
the reminiscences of the antique and in details of decoration we trace an
influence of Byzantine models, we may agree with Venturi that there is a certain
vivacity and absence of convention in the art of this casket which removes it

Fig. 145. Front of the casket in the Cathedral of Troyes. (From an electrotype.) P. 231.

from the company of Byzantine ivories. One scene, a banquet given by Joseph
to Jacob, is not to be found in the Bible story ; in another, the Anointing of
David, Samuel and the young king are alone in the field with the flocks, the
scene thus completely diverging from the traditional Byzantine rendering.
Again, in the combat of Goliath and David, the giant, contrary to all rule, is
mounted on a horse ; and throughout the treatment of the costumes is unusual.
Other North-European examples are the three early panels with the Cruci-
fixion at Essen, at Tongres, and in the Musee de Cluny, and another Crucifixion
formerly in the Spitzer Collection.^
The Bargello at Florence possesses a panel with the Maries at the Tomb °
which must have been made in Northern Europe, though the Byzantine
inspiration is clear ; and the group of panels sometimes classified as Ehenish-
Byzantine, of which the Victoria and Albert Museum possesses five examples,''
must be assigned to the artistic centres of the Middle Rhine. Two panels on
the covers of a Book of the Gospels at Wtirzburg closely imitate the Byzantine
style of the tenth-eleventh century, and in one the Greek characters of the
names are preserved. Both have figures under canopies in open-work." Too much
' Millin, Voy<fge dans les depariemenis du Midi, i. 97, PI. IX and X ; G. Schlumberger, Niai-
phm-e Phocas, 647; E. Molinier, Ivoires, 106; A. Venturi, Stotia, iii. 367 ff. and Figs. 346-59;
Viollet-le-Due, Diciionnaire du mobilier franmis, i. 80. All sides of the casket were reproduced
in fictile ivory by the Arundel Society, and may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
^ Molinier, Imires, 189-40. = Graeven, Photos, ii. No. 26 ; Venturi, Stmia, ii, p. 625.
* Nos. 144-5 (1866), 371 (1871) ; W. Maskell, DescrijjKom, &c., 63 ; V. and A. Museum, Port-
folio ofIvories, Pts. X and XI ; Venturi, Storia, vol. ill. Figs. 360-2.
'' J. von Hefner Alteneck, Trachten, Kunstwerke und Gercithschaften, &c., i, PI. 38 and 41.
236 SCULPTUEE

stress need not be laid upon the importation of Byzantine models by Theophano,
the Byzantine princess who married Otto II ; on the other hand, it is an
exaggeration to deny all artistic importance to such a marriage. The strong
influence of Byzantine art in these regions during the Eomanesque period is
proved a study
by been illuminated
of the factor manuscripts
development, the "We
490).
(see p. not casual supposeof
may result
it to have a steady in artistic
any particular historical event. Voge has shown reason for the belief that even
the vigorous but uncouth group of German ivories dating from the tenth century,
of which the Crucifixion on the Echternach Gospels at Gotha and other panels
at Berlin and Paris are interesting examples, were partly inspired by Byzantine
models.^ It is needless to pursue the subject further : sufficient examples have
been adduced to show that, like illuminators of MSS., European ivory carvers
between the ninth and thirteenth centuries frequently depended upon models
from the Christian East.
It has already been observed that at more than one period the East-
Christian carver in ivory exerted an important influence upon the early
mediaeval sculpture of Western Europe. It has been suggested (p. 103) that
a probable instance of this is found in our own country, where the remark-
able stone sculpture of Northern England,^ dating from the seventh century,
can hardly have arisen independently of foreign models, either in the form of
illuminations or ivory cai-vings. This sculpture, best represented by the figures
upon the high crosses of Bewcastle and Euthwell (Fig. 147), appears very
suddenly and decays with great rapidity ; its rise and fall are those of an exotic
art which flourishes during the persistence of exceptional conditions but is
unable to maintain itself when they are withdrawn. The half-figure of Christ
at Eothbury, not a hundred years later than the Bewcastle cross, shows all the
symptoms of decadence ; the staring eyes, the elongated lips, the drapery
channelled rather than modelled, are all evidence of a growing incapacity. Yet
even here an ancient type is preserved, one which we also find in Carolingian
miniatures of about the same period. But with the crosses of Aycliife and
Ilkley, and the fragment from Gainford, the decay is complete: the human
figures have almost sunk to conventional hieroglyphs without pretence to natural
truth. It can hardly be doubted, therefore, that this meteoric appearance of
a monumental sculpture in Northumbria must be ascribed to external influence.'
To the question from what quarter this influence proceeded there is only one
probable answer : it must in the first instance have come from the East of the
Mediterranean. Neither in Ireland, nor in the Frankish dominions, nor in Italy, do
we know any sculpture at all comparable with this, or any art in which the human
figure is treated with equal ability. But although, by a method of elimination,
we are driven to seek the models in the Byzantine Empire, the problem has
only, lost a part of its difficulty. For in the East at this time monumental
sculpture had already ceased to be used upon any extensive scale for sacred
subjects ; statues of emperors were still erected (p. 122), but they were probably
devoid of merit. It is improbable that either in the East or in Italy there were
any contemporary sculptors capable of executing or inspiring work in which the
effects of a fine tradition are obvious. The inspiration must have come, as
Mr. Prior has already suggested, from the minor arts, and more probably from
minor glyptic art than from painting ; in this case the models are more likely to

1 Prussian Jahrbuch, xx, 1899, 177.

2 For a good account of this sculpture see Messrs. Prior and Gardner's articles on English
sculpture in the Architectural Review, xvi, 281-2, xvii, pp. 87 ft'., and their forthcoming book on
the same subject.
2 Kivoira, Lomhardic Architecture, tr. G. M°N. Eushforth, 1910, concludes that, on account of
the beauty of the figures, the Ruthwell cross cannot be earlier than the twelfth century. But
the Bewcastle and Kuthwell crosses are of the same age, and the former is dated by the
mention of Alchfrith. The Ruthwell runes are accepted by English scholars as late seventh
century, or very little afterwards. Runes would have been unintelligible in the twelfth cen-
tury. Rivoira also doubts the early date of the Acca cross.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY 237

have been ivory carvings than metal reliefs. The purely ornamental decoration
of the crosses are northern developments of motives, the more conspicuous of

Fig. 146. Book-cover of the ninth-tenth century, cawed in the Frankish dominions after
an East-Christian model. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) P. 233.
which are probably of Syrian origin, and their tall slender proportions are
characteristic of the North. ^
The probability of inspiration from ivory carvings, even at this early time, is
1 The custom of setting up over a grave an upright stone carved with a cross was, how-
ever, known in Egypt and Armenia.
 238 SCULPTUEE

increased by a parallel case at a later period, where the existence of a model in

ivory can hardly be doubted. V()ge ^ had long ago insisted that Byzantine
ivories must have helped to inspire the
Eomanesque sculpture of Southern
France. It remained for Prof. Gold-
schmidt to produce a definite instance in
the half-figure of the seated Christ in a
tympanum of the Church of St. Godehard
at Hildesheim.^ He showed that in
Saxony the sudden change, at the very end
of the twelfth century (a. d. 1190-1210),
from an ' archaic ' to a natural style
can only be explained by the sudden in-
tervention of a foreign influence. The
comparison which he draws between the
Christ of the tympanum and a Byzantine
ivory in the Victoria and Albert Museum
makes the nature of the model clear.
The difference between the HUdesheim
sculpture and such an earlier work as the
Christ at GrrSningen is inexplicable on any
other hypothesis. In the same manner,
the treatment of the face and hands
of Bishop Adelog of Hildesheim (d.
A.D. 1190) in his monument in the crypt
of the cathedral of that city, shows an
enormous advance upon the sculpture of
the preceding decades ; it has indi-
viduality and a subtle delicacy of expres-
sion, the modelling of the features again
recalling that of the Byzantine ivory
carver. In other figures, as for example
the Apostles at Halberstadt, the treat-
ment of the draperies is so close to that
which we find upon Byzantine ivories
that it is difficult to avoid the theory of
a direct influence : the small mannerisms,
the arrangement of particular folds in
particular positions, are reproduced with
great fidelity ; the imitation is especially
clear in the case of the folds covering the
shoulder.' By degrees the Western artist
endeavoured to outbid his teachers, exag-
gerating the number of the folds, sug-
gesting violent movement and unwittingly
diminishing the true plastic effect. It is
the same phenomenon which made its
appearance a little earlier in the case of
illuminated manuscripts : modelling is
FiG. 147. Sculpture of the seventh cen- subordinated to the linear and calligraphic
tury on the Euthwell cross, influenced by style to which artists of inferior training
an East-Christian model. P. 236. naturally resort. There is an example of
a similar proceeding at an earlier period
in the case of the group of Carolingian ivories to which the Sneyd pyms in the
British Museum belongs (p. 234).

' Repertorium, xxii, 1899, 95 ff., xxiv, 1901, 195 ff. ' Prussian Jalirbuch, xxi, 1900, 230 ff.
» Ibid,, pp. 233-5.
 CARVINGS IN IVOEY
239
It would be possible to draw up a considerable list of Eomanesque sculptures
in which the influence of Byzantine ivories is highly probable. But the above,
which are crucial cases, suffice to prove its existence.'

Steatite Carvings.

With Byzantine ivory carvings is closely allied a whole group of minute

sculptures in steatite, serpentine, or fine schist.^ The subjects of these carvings
are almost entirely religious, resembling those of the ivories ; and though a few
are of excellent quality the majority of specimens are of little artistic merit :
most are three or four inches in height, but some are as large as ivory plaques
of average size. There are traces in some cases of gilding, and it is probable that.

Pig. 148. Ivoiy pyxis of the ninth century, carved in the Frankish dominions after
an East-Christian original. (British Museum.) P. 234.

like ivories, they had a polychrome decoration, which has in the great majority
of examples entirely worn away. The stone in itself is softer than ivory and
suffers more rapidly from attrition. These steatite carvings do not appear to go
back beyond the tenth century, most of them dating from the eleventh and
twelfth centuries ; but many are later still, for this kind of work survived the
overthrow of the Byzantine Empire, and examples are found among the products
of Russian ' and modern Greek religious art. A number of spurious examples
are said to be in existence.''
In the following paragraphs some of the more interesting and accessible
carvings in various collections may be noticed.

1 Of. also A. Michel, Histoire de I'art, &o., i. 597-8.

' According to Lapparent, serpentine and steatite are abundant in Greece and Asia
Minor. See H. de Villefosse, Bull. S'tc. Ant. de France, 1900, 317 If.
' Examples assigned to Bussian art of the eleventh-thirteenth centuries are in the
Khanenko Collection at Kieff. See La Collection Khanenko, Kieff, 1902, Livraitou V,
Pl.XXXVn, Figs. 1303 fif.
* J. Strzygowski, B. Z., xy, 1906, 423.
 :f*^<'^^^^-*^.
. '^i:-^-.

'1■ ■
■ 5 1!^ f^- ...i A'

Pio. 149.
-C?SiZS' ?i
Panel of the twelfth century, carved in steatite -with the ' Twelve Feasts'
of the Church, Toledo. {Bautes Etudes : E. Koulin.) P. 242.
 STEATITE CARVINGS 241

The British Museum ' has several examples, but none of exceptional merit.
Three have half-figures of the Virgin and Child ; three others representations of
saints ; two have Gospel subjects, one the Nativity, the second, which is a
fragment, the figures of Our Lord and a soldier from the scene of the Passion.
In France the Louvre possesses several steatites with figures of saints (one,

Fis. 150. Panel of the thirteenth-fourteenth century, carved in steatite with the Twelve
Feasts : Monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos. {Sanies Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 242.

with St. Demetrius, in exceptionally high relief).^ There is a St. George in the
museum at Angers.^
The collection of the Comtesse dc Beam * contains at least two fine examples,
one being especially remarkable. It is a panel with subjects in two zones : at the
top the Etimasia (Ch. XII) between SS. Michael and Gabriel ; below, four saints
(Demetrius, Theodore Stratelates, George, and Procopius) each accompanied by
his name, while an inscription in four iambics extols the warrior saints. Other
panels have SS. Demetrius,' Chrysostom, and George.
M. Schlumberger's own collection contains a panel with Constantino."
Italy is rich in steatite carvings. The Museo Cristiano in the Vatican has
several examples. A panel has SS. George and Theodore Tyron on one side and

1 Catalogue of E. C.andByz. Ant., Nos. 108, HI, 112, 1J5-19.

2 6. Schlumberger, ^opee, li. 45, 57 i,Pig9.), and Mon. Piot, ix, 1902, 231, and PI. XX.
= The same, Epopee, ii. 132.
* The same, Mon. Piot, as above, 229 ff., and PI. XX.
' Ibid., 285; B. Z., i, 1892; Diehl, Manvel, 627. « G. Schlumberger, Epopie, ii. 277.
i9n4 R
242 SCULPTURE

SS. Michael and Daniel on the other : ^ another S. Theodore Stratelates,^

probably of the eleventh or twelfth century, and resembling an ikon on Mount
Athos ; others have a bust of Our Lord, and the Pentecost ;^ a wooden panel*
is inlaid with a number of steatite carvings, a beardless saint (Panteleemon ?) in
the middle, and round the border smaller panels amongst other carvings in ivory.
In the Church of S. Anzano near Florence there is a fine carving of the
Archangel Gabriel, partly gilded ; at Lentini another,, with Constantine and
Helena.*
In Germany the Kaiser Fried rich Museum j)ossesses several examples. One
has St. Therapon, Bishop of Cyprus ; " another Our Lord between the Virgin and
St. John.' Spain possesses, in the panel in the cathedral at Toledo, carved with
the Twelve Feasts of the Church (Fig. 149), the largest example iu existence.*'
In the Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg are several plaques." One of
about the eleventh century, from Cherson, has SS. Demetrius and George ; ^^
another from the same site has part of a seated Virgin."
In the Khanenko Collection at Kieff are two plaques with St. George and
St. Andrew respectively."
On Mount Athos the Monastery of Vatopedi has a finely carved panel with
the Virgin and Child {Hoclegetria), and another with SS. George, Demetrius, the
two Theodores, and other saints, both framed in painted panels : these carvings
are probably of the twelfth century, that representing the Virgin going back to
a model of about the sixth.^' There is a larger panel with the Twelve Feasts '*
(Fig. 150) ; another has a standing figure of St. George.'^
An example with the 'Twelve Feasts' in the Church of St. Clement,
Ochrida, is of rough workmanship and assigned by Kondakoff to about the
sixteenth century.'"
1 A. Munoz, L'Art byz. a V exposition de GroUaferrata, 124.
2 E. Kanzler, Gli amri, &c., PI. XI, Fig. 7.
8 Munoz, as above, Fig. 86. * Ibid., p. 120, and Fig. 85.
5 G. Schlumbergoi-, Mon. Piot, iv. 232 ; Salinas, L'Arte, vi.
" Schlumberger, Epopee, ii. 85. ' Ibid., 105.
' G. Schlumberger, Epopee, i. 465 (Fig). A somewliat similar example was in the Car-
michael Collection sold at Cliristie's, May 12 and 13, 1902, Catalogue, No. 150.
' G. Schlumberger, ipopee, i. 539.
i» Ibid., 13 (Fig.). n Ibid., 152 (Fig.).
" La Collection Khanenko, Kieff, 1902, Livraison V, PI. XXXVII, Figs. 1301, 1302.
'' Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, pp. 147-8 ; Schlumbei'ger, Epopee,
ii. 273. , " Ibid., 524.
" Hautes Etudes, photo C. 193 ; Manuel, 626.
" Kondakoff, Macedonia, 1909, 270, Fig. 185.
 ■
Fig. 151. [H
KjotmKmmmi'
Head-piece from an Evangelistarium of the eleventli century in the
British Museum. (Harley 578.5.)

CHAPTER V
PAINTING : I. MURAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS

It has been stated in an introductory chapter tliat Byzantine art

suffered the disadvantage of never passing through an arcliaic stage ; it
inherited too much, and as a result of its rich endowment rendered too
unquestioning a liomage to tradition. In consequence of this habit of
acquiescence it was too ready to accept the copy and cartoon in place
of nature ; it received too easily that ecclesiastical prescription which
gradually assumed over it an excessive control. When, as must have
often been the case, the model itself was an academic work of the late
Hellenistic period, the Byzantine copj'ist often stood at a second remove
from nature. The Campanian fresco-painters of the earlier empire are
found to have taken their figures from one more ancient picture and their
background from another,^ and the practice was not their own invention but
widely adopted in the Graeco-Roman world. The model of the Christian
artist must often have been itself a cento without organic cohesion ; nor is it
remarkable to find in Byzantine art, as in literature (p. 18), the effects of
this disregard for essential principles of unity. Here and there in the
1 W. Helbig, Vntersiichunrjen nher die Campanische WandmaUrei. 1873, .348; G. Kodenwaldt,
Die Composition der PomjjeianiscJien WandmaUrei, 1909, 52, 77, 132.
R 2
244 PAINTING

history of Byzantine painting we find evidence of an interest in nature

and a realism apparently based upon intelligent and interested observation.
But for the most part, alike in the province of figure painting and that of
landscape, the artist sees through other eyes than his o-wn. It must be
admitted that the difficulties with which he had to contend were serious.
As a rule he was debarred by circumstance from the proper study of the
human form, for religious sentiment was averse from the representation of
the nude, and religious sentiment was extremely powerful. The conditions
of life were altogether different from those which had obtained in ancient
Greece. The ascetic or the monk, not the athlete, was held up as the ideal ;
the nude came to be regarded as something in itself disgraceful ; and there
is little evidence that even the draped model was generally employed.
Figures produced by artists who knew little of anatomy are naturally
unconvincing; too often they support their draperies but do not wear
them; sometimes the draperies appear to have an almost independent
existence. Facilities for study from the life were very restricted, whereas
copies were abundant and easily procured. Continued copying checked
the growth of a natural or vigorous style, and elementary errors in drawing
were often committed whenever a copy was not available. Nevertheless
the careful preservation of good tracings and miniatures of a good period,
the continuity of tradition, the general obedience to manuals of composition
so well studied that they were known by heart, united with the pursuit
of sound technical methods and an understanding use of colour to ensure
a pleasing effect even in the case of figure subjects.
In the treatment of landscape and architecture there is the same in-
difference to reality, the same acquiescence in routine, though here the
excuse is less obvious.^ The most characteristic features of Byzantine
landscape are hills symmetrically disposed in pairs, with a conventional
vegetation of trees or plants, the smaller of which are sometimes dotted
over the surface in such a way as to resemble a continuous pattern. The
hills are composed of prism-shaped rocks, the tops of which form sloping or
horizontal planes, and are strongly lighted, contrasting with the vertical sides
remaining in deep shadow.^ The trees which cling to this barren ground
are mere schematic forms of the ' mushroom ' and other types, copied and
recopied until all connexion with nature is lost: only cypresses, palms,
and dead trunks faithfully suggest the vegetation of the actual world. In
the foreground a formal band of green is diapered with conventional
flowers. The architecture is composed of colonnades, porticoes, and artificial
units fantastically but symmetrically arranged, though here there is more
observation of reality than in the case of natural objects. Occasionally we
recognize a domed church of a familiar type, and habitable houses are
depicted.^ But for the most part the buildings are clearly a congeries of
1 This subject has been excellently treated by Dr. Kallab in the Austrian Jaftrftucft, xxi,
1900,'' pp. 1 ff. ■
Early examples in the Vienna Genesis (p. 444).
s The palace of Theodoric in the mosaics of S. ApoUinare Nuovo at Ravenna has features
 MURAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS
245
motives handed down from generation to generation, and there can be no
question of an honest attempt to render things actually observed. If the
scene represents an interior, the fact is merely indicated by accessories
suggesting the inside of a house : ^ thus an arcade vs^ith an ambo before it

Pig. 152. Mural paintings, Sta Maria

History of Design Antiqua,
in, Mural Rome. P. 304.
Painting.) (N. H. J. "Westlake,

suffices to indicate the interior of the Temple at Jerusalem. All the features
of this conventional mise en scene point back to Hellenistic art and the
Roman art which its principles helped to form. The prism- shaped rocks
may be traced through Roman frescoes to Hellenistic bas-reliefs.^ The archi-
in common with the ruined houses of Syria, and gives proof of some attempt at realism ; in
MSS. and mosaics of the eleventh and twelfth centuries realistic features such as bulbous domes
are seen (mosaics of Bethlehem). The Menologium of Basil also appears to represent particular
churches, and M. Millet believes that characteristic local features are thus preserved. But
here conventional walls and buildings usually close the scenes.
' Examples in the Vienna Genesis (see especially the scene in which Abraham receives
the promise, and that representing the drunkenness of Noah). The most striking feature in
these indicated interiors is the absence of a roof. The prison of St. John in the Codex
Rossanonsis, and that in which Joseph is incarcerated, in the Vienna Genesis, are like boxes
with the lids off.
'' Schreiber, Die helknistischen Beliefbilder, PI. XC.
246 PAINTING

tecture descends from that of Pompeian frescoes, through such conventional

designs as those in the dome-mosaics of St. George at Salonika, or of the
Baptistery at Ravenna.^ The process of schematization, gradual down to the
fifth century, was rapid at a later date. In the earliest monuments there
is still an attempt to render a self-contained landscape, as in the mosaics
of Sta Maria Maggiore at Rome, the miniatures of the Vienna Genesis,
and those of the original of the Joshua Rotulus ; whereas in the Ravenna
mosaics and the miniatures of the Codex Rossanensis, the Gospel of Rabula,
the Vatican Cosmas, freedom and invention already give place to motives
of a stereotyped design. The typical Byzantine landscape is fixed by the
time of the Menologium of Basil II (tenth century), though a few books of
a deliberately archaizing character, such as the Paris and Venice Psalters
(see p. 468), reintroduce for a while the features of late Hellenistic art.^ In
the eleventh century the conventional forms win the upper hand, and they
are characteristic of the Comnenian period, the art of which directly
influenced that of Tuscany. By the thirteenth century they predominated
in Italy ,^ and it was only by degrees that the Italian painters of the
Trecento emancipated themselves from this Byzantine pupilage. In the
work of Duccio and his successors its influence is manifest ; it may be seen
in the works of other painters, including Lorenzo Monaco; even the
fifteenth century shows survivals of the ancient inspiration.* Naturally
the style penetrated wherever Middle-Byzantine art obtained a firm foot-
hold; it is found in the mosaics of S. Marco at Venice, and in those of
Monreale in Sicily, though in the latter case the peculiar motives are
treated in a somewhat original manner. Byzantine landscape retained
to the last the limitations of the Hellenistic model. The poetical effects
produced by the modern power of rendering atmosphere with its varying
lights and shadows and vague receding distances were unknown to the
antique artist, who depicted everything with a clear contour and ignored
the suggestion of things half perceived.* The seizure of the evanescent
phase, the passing aspect, which depends upon the quick perceptual power
of the individual, was not for him ; his art is impersonal and unobservant.
A gulf separates Byzantine painters from their contemporaries, the great
artists
the mostof intimate
the T'angsecrets
and Sung period nature.
of inanimate in China with their penetration of

^ For the unreal character of painted architecture, see Rodenwaldt, as above, 124.
Festooned drapei-y on columns and walls connecting one point with another was of
Hellenistic origin; it lasted through the Middle Byzantine period, and is nowhere more con-
spicuous than in the late frescoes of Mistra.
'' Kodenwaldt argxies for the Italian (Roman) origin of developed landscape bacl<grounds
(as above, 27, 77, 132). If Vitruvius is correct, landscape began in the second Pompeian
style; at any rate, it was general in the fourth. The famous Odyssey landscapes in the
Vatican, which are of a romantic character, are among the oldest in which depth of space is
consistently depicted. On these see K. Woermann, Die andken Odysseelandschaftm, 1876 ;
B. Nogara, Le Nozse Aldobrandine, 1907 ; F. Wickhoff, Wiener Genesis, 79.
' Kallab, as above, 28.
' For an example of the Comnenian woi-k which influenced Italian art see the panel in
the British Museum mentioned on p. 319 (Fig. 155).
° This point is well brought out by Helbig, as above, 353-65.
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 247

Wickhoif, in the brilliant introduction to his edition of the Vienna

Genesis, has attached much weight to the persistence in the fifth century
of an impressionist method of painting which he describes as illusionism.
In this style the artist so depicts his subjects that they may appear natural
at a certain distance and that distance only. When examined closely, the
subject is found to be a crude arrangement of diverse colours placed harshly
in juxtaposition; at the calculated distance the colours blend, and the
proper effect is produced. That such methods were employed in late
Roman or late Hellenistic art is indisputable ; they may have developed
from scene painting and the scenic Pompeian style; they were always
imposed upon the artist in mosaic, where a face or other detail is grotesque
at a near view, and natural only when the spectator stands sufficiently far
away. But though some early artists practised them, it need not be
assumed that they were ever generally representative of East-Christian
painting, which both in figure and landscape remained faithful to the
contour or the silhouette ; there is no merging or ' irradiation ', but a clear
outline defining each essential form.^ And the fact that in process of time
the artist relied more and more upon pre-existing compositions must have
itself proved a sufficient discouragement to illusionism. Didron has
described the system of the monk-painter Joasaph in the Monastery of
Esphigmenou, as he saw it practised in the year 1839,^ a system which
probably difiered little from that of older Greek painters. Elaborate com-
positions were executed with the utmost rapidity from memory alone, the
artist reproducing forms which were not seen but mentally conceived:
with the relative and temporary validity of impressions he was not con-
cerned. A consistent illusionism is even less characteristic of Byzantine
art as a whole than a consistent realism.
The average painter of the Christian East perhaps knew better how to
convey the sense of depth in his composition than the great Apelles, for the
power to render receding space came late in Hellenistic times.^ But, like
many artists of the Roman imperial period, he preferred to avoid the
greater difficulties, manipulating natural features in order to limit the
view by a near or middle distance, which he intended as a scenic back-
ground for the figures.* In the same way he often draws a screen of
walls and buildings across the picture to avoid the necessity of rendering
distant objects. Through the prevalence of such methods a conventional
and monotonous character is given to the scene in which the figures are
■■ For a criticism of Wickhoff's position see J. Poppelreuter, Kritik der Wiener Genesis,
pp. 26ff.
^ Manuel d'iconographie chretienne, 65 (edition of 18i5).
' Eodenwaldt, as above, 3, 9-10. Wickhoff maintained the limitations of Apelles' art in
the representation of depth ; his opinion upon this point has, however, been disputed. In
any case, distance was well understood at the time when the Odyssey landscapes in the
Vatican were painted, though in some examples the view is not carried as far as the horizon.
The same applies to the landscapes in the villa of Fannius Sinister atBoseoreale (P. Barnabei,
La Villa Pompeiana di P. Fannio Sinisiore, &c. , PI. IX, X).
• Th. Schmidt, in a paper lead before the Eussian Arch. Inst, at Constantinople, has
attempted to analyse the chief characteristics of Byzantine landscape and trace them to their
respective sources. See the notice in B. Z., xix, p. 240.
248 PAINTINO

set, and the tendency to the repetition of stock motives was yet further
increased.
It is stated in the Carohne Books that the contemporary Greeks
regarded painting as a consecrated art: dicunt enim artevi pictoriavi
piam esse, a statement confirmed by much that we know of Byzantine
theory and practice. But it must not be inferred from this that there was
no important secular art in the Christian East. The wealth and patronage

Fig. 153. Painting in the dome of the Church of the Kedeemer, Athens.
(N. H. J. Westlake, History of Design in Mural Painting.) P. 293.

of the Church, always rivalling those of prince and nobles, in later centuries
excelling them, undoubtedly gave to religious art a real and growing pre-
ponderance. The vicissitudes of fortune have exaggerated this advantage ;
for as sacred buildings have survived in far greater numbers than any
others, and religious books outnumber the secular in a high proportion, it
is easy to overestimate the predominance of the sacred art and the
subordination of the profane. In the one case material is fairly abundant ;
in the other it is even scantier than we might have hoped to find it. The
literary references given below (p. 258) would alone sufiice to prove that
through the mediaeval centuries secular art flourished both in the capital and
the provinces, a conclusion which might indeed have been deduced from
a general knowledge of social conditions; for down to the later years of
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 249

decadence, the number of the leisured and wealthy class was always consider-
able in the East-Roman Empire. We have descriptive notices of the secular
style of decorating churches obtaining in early times, and of frescoes and
mosaics with historical subjects set up by various emperors and nobles in tlieir
palaces, from Theodosius to the Palaeologi, a period covering the whole range
of time between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries. The preponderance
of sacred over profane subjects was perhaps more pronounced than in the

Fig. 154. The Story of David : illumination from a Ps.ilter of a. d. lOCG in the British
Museum. (Add. M.S. 19352.)

West, but it was at no time absolute or exclusive.^ Among the surviving

representatives of secular subjects may be specially noted the mosaic pictures
representing Justinian and Theodora at Ravenna, that representing Con-
stantine IV in S. Apollinare in Classe, mosaic portrait figures at Salonika
and Kahrie Djami at Constantinople (p. 418), frescoes at Kuseir 'Amra
(p. 278), KieS; and Mistra; illustrations in historical and other MSS. and
on coins, ivory carvings, and other minor works of art are numerous. Few
though they are compared with sulyects of a sacred character, they may
at any time be reinforced as a result of new discoveries.
1 M. Dielil, in his Mcmnel d'art bijMnlin, has insisted vipon the danger of under-estimating
the extent and influence of secular art.
250 PAINTING

With these reservations we may admit that the solemn shadow of the
Church lay over Byzantine art, affecting its mood and directing its pro-
cedure. In the representation of sacred scenes the Church had the con-
trolling voice. The Council of Nicaea had decreed that the composition of
each subject down to the smallest detail was the province of the theologians ;
the part of the artist was confined to execution. It is difficult in any
country to give an individual accent to the works of an idealist art ; under
the conditions which prevailed in the East-Roman Empire it was perhaps
impossible. The conservatism natural to ecclesiastical prescription was not
counterbalanced, as in the West, by the growth of independent nationalities
with different tastes and sentiments. In the West, during the five centuries
between Charlemagne and Charles V of France, there was a succession of
artistic styles, each affecting several countries and representing a general
change in the feeling for beauty and in the manner of its expression. The
sentiment of the Carolingian differed from that of the Anglo-Saxon ; that
of the Ottonian is even more distinct. Still more striking grow the changes
when Eomanesque passes into the art of the thirteenth century. Compare
a Carolingian with a Gothic version of an identical subject, and the distance
between the two is seen to be immense: for good or evil there has been
growth and evolution along lines which it would have been hard to
prophesy. But compare two Byzantine Crucifixions, one of the ninth, the
other of the thirteenth century, and sentiment, conception, and composition
will be found essentially the same. Though there may be a difference in
quality, the two might almost be the work of a single artist whose life had
been miraculously prolonged. For the Eastern Church, beauty of form has
always been secondary to the correct and intelligible expression of theo-
logical ideas ; the painter must be theologian first and artist second. The
manuals of the Greeks, from the prototype of the ' Painter's Manual ' dis-
covered byDidron on Mount Athos^ to the podlinniks of the Russians,
are concerned with iconography before everything : if the forms employed
to express the idea are pleasing, it is well; if not, it matters little, for
dogmatic truth must be considered before visible beauty.
With the tyranny of the antique upon one side and the prescription of
the Church upon the other, the Byzantine art was often so preoccupied with
rules and reasons that it was prevented from following creative lines. The
painter was never quite free to choose his own subject and treat it in his
own way. Even in the rarer secular motives, such as the hunting scene or
the ceremonial group, an antique method, a mos iniaiorum, was always to
be considered. In the rendering of animals and sometimes of plants we
often seem to mark an independent observation ; this is most noticeable in

' The age of this book is less considerable than Didron supposed. The monk Dionysius,
who wrote it, is now known to have lived late in the fllfteenth century. The Russian manuals,
of which the earliest go back to the sixteenth century, are partly theoretic, partly pattern-books
or collections of drawings. M. Pokrovsky has given an account of both kinds in hisManummts
of Christian Art and Iconography, but as the book is in Russian the abbreviated version promised
by M. Munoz will be doubly welcome to the English reader. Cf. Didron, Manuel d'iconographie
chretienne, 1845 ; Constantinides, "Epiirjvda tSiv (aypi(pwy, Athens, 1885 ; Diehl, Manuel, 774.
Fig. 155. Painting on panel : Annunciation, Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration :
thirteenth century. (British Museum.) P. 319.
352 PAINTma

the illuminations of MSS., where the painter was under a less rigid control.
But in the more numerous cases where the subject was religious, the
consecrated manner of treating it had to be followed. Well was it for
Byzantine art that the inventors of the type-compositions representing
scriptural and devotional scenes were for the most part the Greek or
Hellenizing artists of the Eastern Mediterranean who had still a sense of
beauty and were masters of the methods known to Hellenistic times.
From the preceding paragraphs it might perhaps be inferred that
Byzantine painting has no proper and intrinsic character, no merits of a
quality to justify its high pretence. Such a verdict would be hardly less
unjust than that which dismissed all Byzantine history as a tedious and
uniform tale of weakness and misery. In spite of its manifest defects, it
maintains an honourable place among the arts of the world. To understand
its position we must accept it as an art based upon ethical and intellectual
foundations ; its chief aim is not the expression of personal emotion, but the
embodiment of a general human ideal to which it always makes ulterior
reference. No individual feeling is ever suffered to interfere with this
set purpose of edification ; not the feeling of the artist or spectator but
the nature of the subject is always the primary aim. But Byzantine art,
more especially when it works upon a large scale, is actually exalted by its
limitations. Through those very theological restrictions which forbade
devotion to created things as objects of beauty only, the artist was held in
the path of noble simplicity, and the power of bold and wise renunciation
was communicated to his work. He was obliged to paint for the instruc-
tion of all whom religion concerned, and therefore for a majority composed
of simple people. He was compelled to omit the inessential detail in order
not to confuse the story ; for the sake of the spectator he must preserve
a breadth and simplicity of composition. He dared not confuse his out-
lined figures by too conspicuous or realistic a background ; salience and
life must be given not by heavy and. graded shadows but by unbroken
flat tints in a key which is always clear and brilliant. This method,
which is largely oriental, admirably accords with the architecture, itself
mainly oriental, to which Byzantine painting in its highest manifestations
is so closely allied. As in the case of Western mediaeval art, the very con-
ventions adopted for ulterior aims contribute to a greater majesty of effect.
The clearly outlined figures, their contours filled with colour boldly massed,
possess a mystical and superhuman quality in presence of which anatomical
defects appear of no account. By adopting the natural and inevitable
methods of its environment, by fulfilling dominant religious needs, this art,
which set out to instruct, achieved an independent value as magnificent and
congruous decoration : thi'ough renunciation it rose to grandeur.
So far for the redeeming features of theological restriction ; those
resulting from technical limitation often tend in the same direction. Whether
they painted in tempera or in mosaic, the two methods upon which they
principally relied, Byzantine artists were impelled to a lofty repose and
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 253

gravity of style, a convention supremely suited to their purpose, a

mannerism at unity with itself. The weakness of tempera painting lies in
the difficulty with which deep tones and shadows are produced, those tones
and shadows with which lighted and shaded planes are composed into a
structure and vitality is most puissantly suggested. They can only be
produced by repeated washings and hatchings ; the colour dries too fast for
blending ; touches can only be applied side by side or superposed. It is
no process for the inspired fury of creation ; but it well accords with the
solemnity of a religious art. Its finely luminous tints, contrasted by the
skill of the hereditary colourist, will yet evoke the sense of life ; above all.

' }f^ g o»7TT "TOO ;/d\«/oi/jii-ootA«7-/croxtoi octroi t» ^

a Yr aaam ^ oa- td u ^J~fi at/ ttj txr "TH «r 'mxXojo'jf^ ;•

Fio. 156. St. Peter rescued by Our Lord ; miniature of a Psalter of a. d. 1066 in the
British Museum. (Add. MS. 19352.) P. 470.

of the mystical life essential to the sacred subject, the existence which is
simple, renunciant, composed. If this is true of painting, it is yet more
true of mosaic, in which a wise convention, a solemn glow of colour, is the
one secret of success. Producing I'esults such as those which survive at
Ravenna, at Salonika, at Constantinople, and in Attica, the limitations of
mosaic may well be described as splendid; the art which brought it to
perfection may not be denied the elements of greatness.
Byzantine art may have set small store by personal emotion ; it may
have cared too little for the immediate aesthetic impression, too much for
the ethical content ; in the sight of those who dissociate^ aesthetic from
practical feelings it may appear too objective, too didactic, too wedded to
the general type. But among systems of artistic expression which achieve
greatness by fidelity to a fixed principle of estimation and a theory of
values consistent with broad ideals, which reject the precarious impression
and hold fast to the enduring symbol, it must stand with the art of the
Western Middle Ages in a position which may indeed be assailed but can
scarcely be overthrown. It will have the suffrage of all who believe that
art for the sake of art is not the final word in criticism ; but that some of
.254 PAIIsTING

the power iu beauty is drawn from the diffused experience of humanity

and rises from the general heart of men.
Byzantine painting was essentially conservative and faithful to the
laws of its being. It remains perhaps an open cpiestion whether it would
have belied its truer nature if it had pursued to the end the innovating
path which began in the fourteenth centurj^ and was still followed in the
Morea when the armies of Mohannned conquered Greece. In tliis late
renaissance it relaxed in some measure its austerity and definitely inclined
to the picturesque. The number of
i .o-MOj^-axIc
, •
the figures in the traditional sub-
jects was increased, accessories
Inecame more numerous, the atmo-
sphere was more dramatic ; at the
same time we miss something of
the solemn effect of the earlier
figures, the relief and salience »
the mystical distinction of their
comparative detacliment. We
seem to discern traces of this
changed spirit in the mural
paintings of Nerez as early as
A. D. 1164 (p. 296): the mosaics
of Kahrie Djami (p. 416), but
above all the frescoes of Mistra
(p. 293), reveal its full develop-
ment. The new movement must
have begun in the capital, whence
K aiTtTJ^iTMXjifg/x/a^aiTKpcu- UmJL, it spread through the agency of
C.''}H,»>'trgwira^»rcJwg^wxiLaLfrBO{jai/y
migratory painters carrj-ing the
Bj'zantine manner into the various
countries of Eastern Europe. It
Fig. 1-57. The Descent into Hell (Aiiaslasis", may fairly be described as Greek :
from a twelfth-century Gospel in the British it is unnecessary to suppose a
Museum. ( Harley ISIO.)
controlling foreign influence from
Italy or elsewhere. The literary suggestions in descriptive writers
such as Choniates, Manuel Philes, or Eugenikos, who devoted themselves
to tlie principles of Alexandrian aesthetics, would alone almost suffice
to explain the new freedom and sentiment which now transformed a
traditional art. But the Crusades had brought East and West together,
and there resulted a ferment of ideas by whiclr tlie Byzantine Empire
was insensibly affected. The earliest manifestations of the new spirit
appeared too soon in the East to owe their existence to a direct influence
of Giotto or his followers, nor is it necessary to suppose that in later
times particular Greek artists studied Italian work line upon line or
precept upon precept. The similarity may perhaps result from a process
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 255

comparable to that which, in another sphere of knowledge, physiologists

describe as germinal interfusion. Under the new tendencies Byzantine
art became more emotional ; it was more and more devoted to the illustra-
tion of hymns and liturgies. Indulgent of episode, prone to luxuriance,
it attracts by a pleasing air of opulence and ease ; a breath of freedom
has passed over it and given it a new but softer life. But for the Turkish
conquest the world might have witnessed a development along lines very
different from those actually followed in countries obedient to the orthodox
Greek Church.
The natural relation between the literature and art of a country is
evident in the several Byzantine periods. After the literary revival
between the ninth and twelfth centuries, a high level was attained by
many authors writing in various fields. But although there is a polished
ease of style with a superficial appearance of unity, a closer examination
reveals the characteristics of the cento. Poetic flowers of antiquity,
Hellenistic innovations, ecclesiastical, ofiicial, and technical expressions, all
contribute to form a whole which is created by dexterity rather than by
genius.^ But apart from this resemblance, which maybe ascribed to theopera-
tion of like general causes, we may note a more particular link connecting
letters and representative art. As the earlier descriptions or criticisms of
works of art by Pliny, Petronius, and Philostratus ^ are of considerable
service to the study of Hellenistic and Roman painting, so the later
literary descriptions of Christian times are not without their importance.
The second book of the Kvk\os of Agathias, an anthology compiled in the
time of Justinian, is entirely devoted to epigrams descriptive of works of
art. But the writers to whom we are most indebted take as their model
the Imagines of Philostratus, in which a whole gallery of pictures is
described and criticized. The name eKcjypaa-Ls ^ was given to such descriptions
whether composed in prose or verse. They continued down to the fifteenth
century, and might be of considerable value were it not for our doubts as
to the extent to which the author draws on his imagination or parades his
accomplishments as a connoisseur. We have an example of late date by
Eugenikos in the fifteenth century * which might well have been composed
for the picture of the burial of St. Ephraim in the Christian Museum of
the Vatican.' In this case there is a close correspondence between picture
and description ; and if all other hcjipda-fLs are as conscientious and exact,
they throw a certain light upon Byzantine methods of composition. Many

^ See Krumbacher's remarks, Geschichte, p. 30.

^ W. Helbig, Untersuchungen iiber die Campanische Wandmalerei, 61 ff.
' Such works were written by Johannes Maiiropus (Euchaites), middle of eleventh cen-
tury (Krumbacher, p. 740), and Manuel Philes (c. a. d. 1275-1345), who describes works of all
kinds, pictures, sculpture, coins, gems, books, &c. (Krumbacher, p. 777). See also A. Munoz
in Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1904, 221 ; Bepertorium, 1904, 390 ; L'Art byzantin a Vex-
position de Grottaferrata, 35 ff.
* C. L. Kayser, Philostraiei lihri de gymnasfica qui supermini : Accedunt Marci Eugenici imagineSj
&c., Heidelberg, 1840 ; Munoz, Grottaferrata, 37. For Eugenikos, see Krumbacher, p. 115.
' Reproduced by Munoz, Grottaferrata, Fig. 14, p. 33.
256 PAINTING

modern poets have written verse of a similar tendency. Keats, whose

genius was pictorial, has described Titian's ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' almost
in the manner of an tV^pao-tj, and his ode to a Grecian urn, like several of
Andr^ Chenier's shorter poems and Rossetti's sonnets, falls within the same
descriptive category.
It is clear even from documentary evidence that during the First
Period paintings were executed on walls, on canvas, and on panels.^ In

Fig. 158. Alexander pursuing Darius ; Bellerophon and the Chimaera : miniature from a
tenth-century MS. of the Cynegetica of Oppian in the Marciana, Venice (Gr. 479). {Hautes
Etudes: G. Millet.)

the last case the encaustic method, of which so many examples have been
preserved, was very commonly employed.^ This is a process which was
much practised in Egypt, as the numerous portraits upon late mumttiy
cases now in European collections abundantly prove. The remarkable
panels from Sinai described below (p. 316) show that it continued in

' For tlie technique of Byzantine painting see E. Berger, Beitrage sur SntwiMungsgeschichte
der Maltechnik, Munich, 1897.
^ Aid TTJs KrjpoxvTov ypaipris, Eusebius, He vita Const., iii, o. 3. '^^ ml ttji/ Krjpdxvrov
^yaTrrjira, Homily of St. John Chi^sostom, cited by John of Damascus (Migne, i, p. ypiupiiv 1318).
Quoted by Bayet, Becherches, p. 67. On the encaustic method see Helbig, Wandgemdlde der
StMte Campaniens, pp. x-xxx. That the encaustic method was employed upon walls as well as
panels appears to be certain ; see Emeric David, Histoire de la peinture au moyen age, pp. 96-7.
 MURAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 257

favour rather later than was at one time supposed ; but it seems to have
fallen into disuse by the time of the Macedonian renaissance. For mural
decoration both fresco and tempera were used, though the latter was the
most in favour.^ In the former process the colours are applied without
a vehicle to plaster still wet, in the latter a medium is used upon a surface
which has been allowed to dry ; but in both cases the wall is covered with
more than one layer, the first being coarse and mixed with straw, &c., the
later of finely pulverized lime in which hair or cotton may be added to give
cohesion. Vitruvius pi-escribed the use of no less than six coats of plaster,
the first three of sand and lime, the last three of marble pounded with
increasing care; the uppermost, upon which the work was done, was
polished.^ The picture was executed in colours mixed with lime, in some
cases so thickly applied that the figures seem to stand out in relief. True
fresco has the merit of great permanency, due to the formation of carbonates
and sometimes silicates of lime after drying.^ But its scale of colours is more
restricted than in the case of tempera, and it requires a rapid and unerring
hand, since it cannot be retouched when the plaster is dry. True fresco
appears to have been known to Minoan artists, though the Egyptians used
tempera.* The Greeks and Romans also knew fresco, but frequently painted
with a medium, which was commonly made of fig-sap and white of egg.^
The majority of East- Christian and Byzantine wall paintings were
executed in tempera, the colours being applied to plaster already dry, and
mixed with some kind of medium such as glue, size, gum, or white of egg.
M. Clddat is of opinion that all the early mural paintings in Egypt are in
tempera.* In these the vehicle was often weak, with the result that the
painting fiakes off at a touch, or even under the influence of atmospheric
exposure. This is especially the case with greens and blues : reds and
ochreous tints are less perishable. As a rule the artist first outlined his
subject in yellow or red ; the shading was done with a green or blue tone,
and the folds of draperies were indicated by red, yellow, or black lines,
with high lights in white. The conclusions derived from a study of these
ancient Coptic mural paintings prove the great conservatism of East-
Christian art ; it has been observed that the methods of the monastic
painter Joasaph studied by Didron in the Monastery of Esphigmenou on
Mount Athos in 1839 very nearly resemble those used by the Copts more
than a thousand years earlier. The figures were outlined in red, and green
^ Kuseir 'Amra is described as painted in true fresco (p. 280), and some of tlie work in
the Cappadocian rook-cut churches is considered to have been done by this method (p. 267).
2 See the article by H. Stuart Jones, Quarterly Review, No. 419, April, 1909, 436.
" For technical information on fresco and tempera see James Ward, Fresco Painting , 1909 ;
A. P. Laurie, Greek and Roman Methods of Painting, 1910. In ' Fresco secco ' the plaster, which
has been allowed to di-y, is re-wetted with water, and colours without a medium are used ;
the results are not so permanent as with true fresco. In spirit-fresco the colours are
ground in a wax medium and thinned with spirits of turpentine or oil of spike. For histori-
cal facts and information of a more general character see also Mrs. Herringham's translation
of Cennino Cennini's Trattato delta pittura. For the artistic qualities of tempera, see R. E. Fry,
Burlington Magazine, June, 1905, p. 175.
* Ward, as above, 11. ° H. Stuart Jones, as above, 437.
" Article Baouit in Cabrol's Did. d'arch. chretienne, p. 232.
1204 S
258 PAINTING

and blue tones were freely used in shading.^ Joasaph followed the rules
given in the Manual, rules which had no doubt come down from ancient times,
perhaps from a date as early as that of the paintings at Bawit or Saqqarah.
His treatment of flesh is interesting, explaining the sombre and sallow
appearance of so many Byzantine faces. A dark colour was first applied
by an assistant ; the master then added three coats of yellow, allowing each
to dry before the next was added ; but in the parts to be represented in
shadow, the dark was not completely concealed ; shading was completed with
blue and green pigments, and darkness was counteracted where necessary by
the addition of a little more yellow: cheeks and lips were heightened with red.
It is interesting to note that the eyes were left to the last. The pupils were
added in black upon the original dark ground, the sclerotic in white ; a dot
of delicate pink as the final touch gave life and brilliance to the expression.
In panel paintings tempera was probably universal, and they must have
been executed very much as the Manual directs.^ The wood was first
covered with size, which was allowed to dry. Then three or more coats of
fine gesso and size were successively applied. Gilding generally had a
ground of ochreous red ; upon this gold foil was laid and moistened with
alcohol,^ which caused it to adhere sulficiently to admit of burnishing. If
we may judge from the evident traces of red beneath the gilding in MSS.,
a similar ground was employed in illuminations, though in describing
gilding upon paper, Dionysius only mentions gum.*
Like the earlier mediaeval painters of Western Europe, Byzantine artists
did not paint in oil. It is interesting in this connexion to recall the priority of
the Orient in the discovery of oil colours. There is oil painting on the Tama-
mushi tabernacle in Japan which is dated as early as the sixth century.^
Although at Rome, in Egypt, and elsewhere examples of mural paint-
ings of the early period are now becoming known, the literary references
to what is lost show how small is the proportion still preserved. The con-
ditions, atmospheric and other, have been adverse to survival, though, as will
shortly be shown, the remains which have come down to us are in some cases
remarkably extensive and in better condition than might have been expected.
M. Bayet and others have published the literary evidence in so accessible a
form that it is only necessary to notice some of the more important examples.**
The Eparch Olympiodorus, asking the advice of St. Nilus as to the
decoration of a church to be erected by him in the fourth century, suggests
motives from the chase or country life, such as had been usual up to this
time. The saint recommends a series of subjects from the Old and New
Testament in chronological order,'' those of the two Testaments to be kept
on opposite sides of the church, as was apparently the case of S. Maria
Antiqua at Rome. Paulinus describes paintings of the new Church of
1 Didron, Manuel, 65 ff. ^ Ibid., pp. 26-7. ^ ibia_^ p, 31
* Ibid., p. 46. ^ » Binyon, Painting in the Far East, p. 84.
^ Bayet, Reckerches pour servir a Vhistoire de ia peinture, &c., 60 ff.
' Letters of St. Nilus, Bk, iv, ch. 61 ; see GaiTueci, Storia, i. 593 ; for the passage in full
and for other references, J. Reil, Die altchristlichen Bildzyklen des Lebens Jesu, p. 58.
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS
259
St. Felix at Nola,' and Prudentius, if Prudentius, and not a Carolingian,
be the true author, parallel picttires from Old and New Testament for the
decoration of church walls."
The triclinium of Bishop Neon, which may have actually adjoined the
Basilica of Ursus at Ravenna, was adorned with either frescoes or mosaics

Fig. 159. St. John the Evangelist dictating to a scribe : miniature from a MS. of Simeon
Metaphrastes in the British Museum. (Add. MS. 11870.) P. 480.

representing the Creation of the World, the Story of Peter, the Psalm
Lcmdate dominum de coelis, and the miracle of the Feeding of the Five
Thousand."
1 The text and literary references are given bj' J. von Schlosser, QueUen zur Kunstgeschichfe
lies ahendUlndischen MUtdalters (in Eitelberger's QueUenschrlften fiir Kunstgeschichfe), Vienna, 1896 ,
1.3 ; see also .J. Keil, Lie attchrisflichen Bildzylden des Lebens Jesu, 57.
* On his mttochaeiim see von Schlosser, as above, 3ff. As to the doubt of authorship
see J. Keil, as above, pp. 59-60.
2 Agnellus, Liber Pont., Vita S. Neonis (Migne, Pair. Lat., cvi. 518) ; F. Wickhoff, Eepertorium
fiirKunstwissenschaft, xvii ; E. K. Riedin, Viz. Vrem., ii, 1895, pp. 512 ff.
S 2
260 PAINTING

Asterius, Bishop of Amaseia (d. a.d. 403), gives a lengthy description

of mural and other painting in Asia Minor.' An epigram in the Antho-
logy describes the Church of St. Polyeuctes, founded in the fifth century,
and mentions paintings in the vaults representing episodes in the life
of Constantine.^
Choricius of Gaza, in the sixth century, describes frescoes in the
churches of that city with considerable detail.^ They were all derived
from the New Testament, and included the Passion scenes.
Several epigrams in the Anthology, chiefly by Agathias, who lived
in the early part of the sixth century, are descriptive of paintings, though
it is not certain that these are all mural.*
To commemorate a miracle of the Holy Cross at the time of the
capture of Antioeh by Chosroes in A. D. 540, the circumstances attending
ij_:wfire_painted on the ceiling of the church.^ Before leaving the subject
of the painted decoration of church walls, we may note the existence of
similar scenes and cycles in the early mediaeval centuries in the West.^
Allusions by St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nyssa to works of art ^
may refer in part at least to panels ; the painting representing the
martyrdom of St. Euphemia described in one of his sermons by Asterius,
Bishop of Amaseia in the fourth century, appears to have been on canvas.
There are other references to what appear to be panel pictures, of
which only a few need be transcribed. The death of a blasphemer named
Olympius, who lived in the reign of Anastasius, was commemorated by
a picture painted by order of the emperor, and suspended in the baths
where the sinner was miraculously punished.*
Christophoros of Mytilene (d. about a.d. 1050) alludes to a picture
of the Forty Martyrs.^
It has been already stated that secular subjects, though surviving
in comparatively small numbers, were not neglected by the East-Christian
artist. The letter of Olympiodorus to St. Nilus (see above) proves that
in the first Christian centuries secular designs were used in the decoration
even of churches ; the mosaics of Sta Costanza in Rome, and the Nilotic
scenes in other churches, remain to afford ocular evidence of a widely
distributed custom. Some of the frescoes of Kuseir 'Amra, probably by
a Greek artist (p. 280), perhaps give an idea of this decoration as it
' Migne, Pair. Gr., xi ; Strzygowski, Kleinasien ein Neuland, p. 200; A. Mufioz in Nuom
Bullettino di archeologia eristiana, 1904, p. 222.
' Anthology, ed. Jacobs, i. 18.
'' Orationes, etc, Choricii Gaiaei, fragmenia, ed. Boissonade, pp. 91 S. ; Bayet, as above.
* See GaiTucci, Storia, vol. i. In the Anthologia Palatina, i. 36, a picture is described in
which an angel gives insignia to an official.
5 Evagrius, Hist. Ecd., iv, c. 26
"> e. g. Frankish examples by Venantiu"! Fortunatus, Alcuin and Bernowin (Diimmler,
Poetae Lat. medii aem, i. 346, 413), Frmoldus Nigelliis and Walafried Strabo (Von Sehlosser, as
above, pp. 37 if., 126 ff. ; Migne, Patr. Lat., cxiv. 916 ; G-arrucci, Storia. i, p. 599). On the sub-
iect of early Western frescoes see F. X. Kraus, Die Wandgemdlde in der Sankt-Georgskirche zu
'Oherzell, p. 13 f.
' Both quoted by Bayet, Recherches pour servir . . ., 63.
' John of Damascus, Oratio III de imag., ed. Migne, i. 1388. See also Garrucoi, Storia,
i. 590. ' Krumbaclier, Geschichte, 2nd ed., 737.
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 261

existed. in Western Asia in the iirst millennium of our era. Historical

subjects followed. The rhetor Eunapius, in the second half of the fourth
century, mentions a representation of victory over barbarians.^ We read
of the mosaics set up by Justinian in the Chalks or vestibule of his
palace in Constantinople, representing the triumph of Belisarius over
the Goths and Vandals.^ The warlike exploits of the Emperor Maurice
(a.d. 582-602) were painted at Biachernae.^ Iconoclasm naturally favoured
the extension of secular art. In a building used by Theophilus as an
armoury were painted all the types of weapons in use; in another
building were all manner of animals; fruits and flowers in mosaic, or
on a mosaic ground, decorated a third. After . the restoration of the
cult of images, we read of the remarkable mosaics in the Kainourgion
of Basil the Macedonian (p. 393), in which battle scenes and the members
of the imperial family were represented. In the period of the Comneni,
secular art continued to flourish ; the exploits of Manuel were depicted
in mosaic ; probably the pictures with which the same emperor adorned
the Palace of Blachernae were also of secular subjects. The pages of
John Kinnamos, secretary of Manuel Comnenus, prove that nobles and
wealthy citizens in this period followed the example of the imperial
house.* Nicetas Akominatus (Choniates) (d. about a.d. 1220) describes the
works executed for Andronicus Comnenus. At the west fend of the Church
of the Forty Martyrs this emperor caused to be depicted various episodes
of his romantic and eventful life, including the murder of the unfortunate
Alexius. In his own residence he had painted series of hunting scenes
and further events of his earlier nomadic career ; in one place he was seen
cutting up and cooking the venison obtained in the chase.^ The verses
of Theodore Prodromos (twelfth century) on the Twelve Months are not
without importance in connexion with the pictorial representations of
the months and seasons in Byzantine art.® Manuel Philes also wrote
upon this subject.
Caricature was not unknown in the By-zantine .Empire. The repre-
sentations o£~iconoclasts in various MSS., includifig-the-Chludoff^ Psalter
^and~th5'Tsal^ of Theodore in the British Museu^m, a-lmpst j:ome..iiadeL
this headT; and the Empfiror- -And-r&nieus—is said to JiaxB_QEdfii:fid_the
disfigurenienF^f portraits of the Enipress Maria_ijQ_. order to diminish _
~ public sympathy, which ran strongly in her favour. \
' Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, 84.
^ For this and the following references to lost secular works of art, see the article by
G. Mavrogiannes
^ Millet notesin that
"E(p. 'Apx-, 1893, 23
the Roman ff.
emperors preferred to see their exploits perpetuated in
sculpture rather than in painting. Historical painting may have originated under the
monarchies of Hither Asia (in A. Michel, Hisioire de Vart, i, Pt. i, 179-80).
* History of the Times of John and Manuel Comnenus, Bk. vi. That Kinnamos was interested
in art is shown by a surviving essay of his on the following subject : What would a painter
say if he had to paint Apollo and Daphne upon a panel of insufficient size ?
5 This scene may be compared with a similar realistic subject in the frescoes of Kuseir
'Amra (p. 282). We may also recall the bone casket of Troyes (p. 231) and other caskets, as
well as scenes in various MSS.
s Sti'xoi «s Tois SdiSeua liijvas (Krumbacher, 753).
262 PAINTING

Portraits of imperial personages were evidentlj' numerous; nor -were

persons of lesser rank left without memorial. We remember the mosaic
representations of Justinian and Theodora, and his large gold medal
(p. 629. n. 1) ; the mosaic with Constantine Pogonatus in S. Apollinare in

'^WMmyfr-

y-y D o C dW 0 1 XjLOVj

S^^trw^t CT odKoiaPi-nuui k'op-^ dour- ^B

Fig. 100. Maityidom of Anthimos, Bishop of Nioomedia : illumination of the eleventh-
twrlftli century in tlie MS. of Simeon Metajj)iraste,s in tlie British Museum. ^Add. US.
11870.)

Classe ; the portrait mosaics in St. Demeti-ius at Salonika (Fig. 198), and
in Kahrie Djami at Constantinople ; the fresco portraits of the Palaeoloci
at Mistra and at Trebizond. In illuminated MSS. emperors sometimes
appear under conditions whicli allow us to a.ssume that the features
resemble those of the living man. Among such miniatures may be
mentioned that of Basil I in the Psalter of the Marcian Library at Venice.
Representations of emperors upon ivory carvings (pp. 224. 227) are probably
 MUEAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 263

more conventional, as are most of those upon coins (p. 627). In those
in enamel the likeness is even more remote.
Names of artists who lived before the thirteenth century have not
come down to us in any number. Of those quoted by Unger,'^ one
Lazarus, a monk, is simply mentioned as an obstinate opponent of the
iconoclastic Emperor Theophilus ; another, Andreas, is highly praised by
Theophanes and Cedrenus, but has left no works by which his art can
be criticized. Ephraim, an historical painter (?) of the twelfth century, is
better known as a mosaicist (see p. 415). Manuel Panselinos of Salonika,
stated to have also lived in the twelfth century, is one of the first painters
to whom existing work is attributed : he is said to be the author of
the frescoes in the church at Kares on Mount Athos. His name, 'AH
Moonlike,' points to the brilliance of his achievement and is familiar
to the readers of the ' Painter's Manual ' , where he is exalted in laudatory
terms by the monk Dionysios of Furna.^
Miintz ^ and Frothingham * have searched for the traces of all the
Greek artists whose names are recorded in Italy. Before the ninth
century there must have been many, especiallj'^ among the monks whose
communities flourished in Eome under the Greek popes of the seventh
and eighth centuries (see p. 78). But it is not until that period that
we have references to names — Lazarus, Chrysaphius, Methodius — and
these tell us very little. Lazarus was a painter-monk sent to Eome with
gifts by the Emperor Michael III.^ Methodius, perhaps the apostle of
the Slavs, executed the wall painting in the narthex of S. Clemente at
Eome and painted the famous ikon of SS. Peter and Paul which he
gave to the Vatican.* Chrysaphius, chamberlain to Leo III, was sent
by him to Eavenna to restore the mosaics of S. Apollinare in Classe.
Another monkish painter, Theophylactus, has signed his frescoes of the
year 959 a.d.
the date in a 1020,crypt occurs
at Carpignano ; '' while
in the same the The
place. name artists
of Eustathius, with
of the twelfth
century known to us by name are very few : one is Marcus Indriomeni,
who worked on the mosaics of S. Marco at Venice (see p. 399). Of the
painters working in Sicily we have no personal record, except of Bion,
who cast the great bell for Eoger at Palermo in a.d. 1136. But there
are known to have been many Greek ateliers in the island, and it is
perhaps from them that Theophilus, author of the famous Schedula
diversarwm urtium, derived his acquaintance with the methods of By-
zantine art. A certain Daniel signed the vault of a crypt of S. Biagio
near Brindisi* (A.D. 1197). With the thirteenth century we reach the

1 Quellen der hysanlinischm Kunsigeschichte, pp. 52-4.

' 'Epii-qvfia Tuv (aypa(j>aiv (Painter's Manual), 39-41.
mine du 7« a« JSV
Steele. 3 Revue de Vart Chretien, xxxvi, 1893 ; Les Artistes byzantins dans t Europe
* American Journal of Archaeology, ix, 1894, 32ff. ^ Liber Pontiflcalis, Life of Benedict.
« Jelic, in De Rossi, Festschrift, Eome, 1892, pp. 83 ff.
' Ch. Diohl, B. C. H., 1885, 211-13.
* Ibid., 1888, 458. A mos.iic pavement at Otranto is signed by Pantalebn.
264 PAINTING

period in which Greek influence began to produce its full effect. Theo-
phanesof Constantinople is believed to have worked in Venice in a.d. 1242,
and the mosaicist Apollonius to have taught Andrea Tafi. The painter
Melormus, who was working in Tuscany at the very beginning of the
century, is regarded as the possible master of Guido da Siena.^ Another
important name is that of Conxolus, who signs' his name on the frescoes
of the stairs leading from the upper to the lower church of the Monastery
of Sacro Speco at Subiaco : the frescoes of the lower church may be in
great part due to him. It is clear that this monastery, like Monte Cassino,
must have depended very largely upon Greek artists. In this century
we have also the first signed panel pictures. Andrea Rico of Candia
in Crete signs a Madonna in the Ufiizi at Florence ^ as well as panels in
the galleries of Naples and Parma. A panel with the Presentation, in the
Vatican, bears the name Johannes."
For the fourteenth century we hear of Mark of Constantinople,
Demetrius of Pera, and George, working at Genoa; of George Clotzata,
who executed a tempera painting of the two Saints Theodore in the Vatican,*
and of Kyrillos, who signed a triptych with the Trinity and Annunciation,*
formerly at Palermo. In the Sacro Speco at Subiaco the name of
Stamatico occurs in lettering which seems as likely to belong to the
fourteenth century as to the sixteenth." A panel picture in the Vatican,
representing the Virgin and Child, is signed by Antonios Pampilopos ;
a cross in the sacristy of the Monastery of Sacro Speco, Subiaco, bears
the name of Eutychios.' A painter named Eustathios signed a work
formerly in the possession of Cardinal Fesch.* A panel in the Vatican,
with Our Lord and Mary Magdalen in the Garden, is by Donatas Biza-
mannos of Otranto.
For the beginning of the fifteenth century we hear of George of Con-
stantinople working in Venice and Ferrara : a signed picture of St. Mark
by him is in the Brera at Milan ; Antonio of Negropont also worked
in Venice. The Vatican has a Visitation signed by Angelos Bizamannos "
of Otranto, and the gallery at Bei'lin a Crucifixion by the same artist : the
painting in the Vatican by Theodoros^" would appear to be of the sixteenth
century.
In the sixteenth century Emmanuel Zanfurnari, a member of the
Greek colony in Venice," was active as a painter, and several of his works
1 H. Thode, Franz wn Assist, 84.
2 Prothingham, as above, PI. X. Frotliingham would identify Eico with the Tafi who
executed the mosaics in the baptistery at Florence. A Cretan school of painters is mentioned
in the Painter's Manual of Mt. Athos (Didron, Pt. I, Sect. 51). For Cretan painters from the
fourteenth to the seventeenth century see also G. Gerola, Monumeiiti wnetineW Isola di Crefa
3 D'Agincourt, Peinture, PI. 88.
* Frothingham, as above, 48. The picture is signed on the back. See D'Agincourt
PI. XC. '
' J. Gambacosta, Memorie per servire alia storia letteraria cU Sicitia, ii, Pt. iii, 271.
" Prothingham, 48. ' D'Agincourt, PI. CXXV.
" Emeric David, Bistoire de lapdnhire au moyen age, 129 (1863).
» D'Agincourt, PI. XCIII. '" Ibid., PI. III.
" Signer Veludo has given an interesting account of this Greek colony written in modern
 MURAL PAINTINGS AND PANELS 265

are preserved. The researches of Signor Vehido make it ahnost certain

that the well-known picture of the Burial of St. Ephraini the Syrian

»^ -' O I XIM cix f \

'^><:7f<g/'fJcu'TXXJH»rii^o^tij»rLOH • -r -r

— €

Fig. 101. The Death of the Virgin : miniature from a flospel of the twelfth century in the
British Museum. (Harley 1810.

(in the Christian Museum of the Vatican) is by him, and not by an earlier
painter of the name.^ An Emmanuel Zane was working in Italy in the
seventeenth century.^
Greek and published in Venice in 1893. For oriental painters in Italy during tlie Renais-
sance M. Ch. Diehl's article in Bcv. de I'arf ancien et moderne, xix, p. 14-3, should be consulted.
^ A. MunoZj L'Art by^anfin, a Vexposifion de GrottaferraUt, p. 34. The picture used to be
attributed to much earlier periods, and was traditionally said to have been brought from
Greece by Squarcione. The mere fact that it is painted in oil .should long ago have disposed
ofthe.se attributions. - By:. Zeilschr., xii, 1903, p. 702.
266 PAINTING

It will be seen from the above that information with regard to the
First, Second, and Third Periods is singularly scanty, and that names
only become frequent when Byzantine art had passed its prime.
The influence of Greek painting in the West was perhaps exerted most
eiFectively through the art of the illuminator. But the monastic artists
from the East who decorated the walls of churches and catacombs at
Eome between the sixth and tenth centuries (p. 303) often inspired their
Italian successors in the metropolis and in Campania; the frescoes with
which the Greek monks in the South of Italy decorated their grottoes
(p. 308) prepared the way for a native Italian art; and on such work
as that of S. Angelo in Formis (p. 316) the Greek foundation is unmis-
takable. From the time of the Abbot Desiderius in the eleventh century
the art of Monte Cassino is largely Byzantine in character, though here,
too, the illumination of manuscripts provided the most useful models
(p. 486).
From the time of the earlier Comnenian emperors to the close of the
thirteenth century Byzantine art was admired and imitated by painters
of Northern and Central Italy. The frescoes of the baptistery at Parma
have clear Eastern affinities. Byzantine panels came into the country
perhaps through Venice ; and it is possible to trace their influence in the
work of the early Sienese and Florentine painters from the beginning
down to an advanced period of the fifteenth century (p. 322). The debt
of the painters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is not denied.
In the pictures of Duccio di Buoninsegna not only are many of the old
Greek compositions repeated, but niceties and mannerisms of treatment
are also reproduced. Duccio may himself have visited Constantinople;
certainly he had the advantage of more accomplished Eastern masters
and more perfect models than contemporary artists in Florence. His
work is in close accord with the best Comnenian art ; it has the same
technical excellence and an equal glow of generous colour. But from
the very closeness of the relationship it has many of the same defects,
the preoccupation with expressiveness, the defective modelling, the lack
of energizing force. Compared with the breathing forms created by
Giotto his figures are still hieratic and he himself is still three parts
Byzantine. Contemporary Florentines were less docile than their neigh-
bours of Siena, partly perhaps from temperament, partly because their
models do not appear to have been of equal value : Cimabue, less accom-
plished than Duccio, is more forceful and more Italian. In him, as in
his pupils, the Byzantine tradition is yet alive, but its still influence is
disturbed by the action of an unsubservient and creative nature. Even
the original genius of Giotto did not wholly disdain the old allegiance.
 MUEAL PAINTING 267

I. Mural Painting.

((/) Asia Minor}

Mural paintiiigw are still very numerous in the vast and imperfectly explored
area of Anatolia, though they have suffered so much from exposure to damp
and to other forces of destruction that most of those as to which we possess
accurate knowledge are but imperfectly preserved. In most regions heavy
storms are frequent, and frescoes have less chance of survival -I^ than in the
rainless climate of Egypt. In the free-ljuilt churches, the roofs of wliich have
almost always fallen in, walls >k
have only retained their decora-
,> 1
'X-
tion in places protected by
favouraVjle accident ; and there
are few considerable remains be-
^^rr
rt

longing to the pre-iconoclastic "■D

period. The most numerous f*.

frescoes are those in the rock- le

-3-
hewn churches of Cappadocia.
which have for the most part » €^UJr C (MO W A*-
'^'i
L
remained under cover, and have £
>— c -TB

r.Te«i^
t-»-q-
only suffered fi'om an all-per- CM n(
TIT ITS 4i
vading damp. They chiefly date .TrtT
K-;
from the tenth and eleventh to
T'L ire
y r
i, «
centuries, some descending as <-'t

late as the earlier jjart of the -n«. p.»

t>>
.
thirteenth. A simple style of • <r
or Pie
mural painting without figure Pt.

n
j
P'i
suljjects seems to have existed at f'*C PIS
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—n
pto

an earlier date, and traces of it are PL©

I*
■-n- Hco
P
3T
visible in a number of churches. p
^
r'S Hi€
i l " Il>
PAT

Few of the Anatolian frescoes

f«r 9 '^
rise above mediocrity, though
the older work in the Church of ^»r Tt*-
ass
p-n

St. Stephen on the island of Nis p.i

. p"

(Pisidia) and the frescoes in

jj-i.
p«.
several churches at Gereme in
Fig. 102. Eusebian Canons from a Gospel of the
Cajjpadocia are of consideraljle twelfth
pir-
3.5030. ,1 centuryP"- in the British Museum. (Add. MS. pf
merit. I'hej' have, however,
much iconographical importance, 9 ^
as the number of saints represented is large, and the treatment P»
of biblical and
symbolical scenes frequently offers points of interest. It would ajjpear that in
Cai^padocia at least the paintings were executed in true fresco.' The plaster
was often strengthened by the addition of chopped straw and tow.
In Lycia not very much is as yet recorded. A small church at Kiirksass,
near Myra, has remains of frescoes including the Nativity, Adoration of the
Magi, Last Supper, Crucifixion, and various saints.* Traces of painting were
also observed in a church at Gagae.' At Alaja, in a domed church, the four
Evangelists writing, a Virgin enthroned, and .several saints are still visible/
The frescoes of the Church of St. Nicholas at Myra have greatly suffered, and but
little now remains. The Divine Lituray and figures of saints were distinguished
by Eott."
1 H. Eott, Kkinasialische JjoikmOhi-, Leipsio, ]908 ; G. de .Terphanion, iJir. atxh., I'..t08, 1-32,
and Complc rendu de I'Acad. des Inscr., 1908, 7-21; H. Gregoire, B.C.li., xxxiii, 1909, 1-170;
Levidis, Ai kv fxovokidots ^oval ttj? KaTT-nahoKia^, Constantinople, 1899 ; Diehl, Manud, 533.
'' H. Rott, Kkinasiatische DenkmiUtr, 126.
* Dr. K. Michel, in H. Rott, Kleinasiatische JJcnhiiKihr, 70.
' Ibid., 77. 5 Ibid., 80. « Ibid., 336 ff.
268 MURAL PAINTING

At Isbarta (Bans) in Pisidia Arundel' in the first half of the nineteenth

century saw a church 'plentifully ornamented with paintings', but building
operations have resulted in their disappearance.^ The Church of St. Stephen ''
on the island of Nis, in Lake EyerdirgoU, is covered with frescoes much dis-
coloured by smoke and evidently of two periods. Dr. Eott, by washing the
walls with water, was able to identify many of the subjects. Among the earlier
series are the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Washing of the Disciples' Feet, the Betrayal,
and the Ascension ; inscriptions show that these were followed by the Descent
from the Cross and two other scenes. In the choir is the Divine Liturgy,
a rendering of exceptional merit ; on the south wall are a much-damaged Last
Judgement and a martyrdom. Among the later work, chiefly on the lower
walls, are figures of saints, the Nativity, Presentation, and the Sacrifice of Isaac.
This work is perhaps as recent as the thirteenth century, while Eott assigned
the earlier frescoes to the ninth at latest.
In Pamphylia, the Church of the Panagia (Djumanin-Djamissi) at Adalia has
frescoes of about the thirteenth century, recalling in style those of Suwasa
in Cappadocia ; but for the most part they have been covered by Turkish
whitewash.'
With Cappadocia we enter upon a whole series of interesting paintings in
rock churches and chapels, which may be compared to the work executed under
somewhat similar conditions in the South of Italy (p. 308). The frescoes in the
ruined choir of a basilican church between the villages of Gowerdjinlik and
Djardaghkoi, near Newshir, are claimed as of pre-iconoclastic date." Three
busts of an almost classical style adorn a choir window, while in the apse are
thirteen figures of Our Lord and Apostles. All have suffered greatly from
exposure, and the principal colours (blue, red, and greenish-yellow) are much
faded. At Amos, in a rock-hewn chapel the roof of which has recently fallen
in, the decoration may possibly go back to the iconoclastic period, as the
palaeography of the inscriptions suggests an early date." In the choir is the
Pantokrator between two angels ; on the south wall the Annunciation may still
be discerned. Elsewhere are the Virgin and Child attended by two angels, and
a number of saints, including Michael, Gabriel, Dionysius, Demetrius, Blasius,
and Theodore.
In the free-standing stone basilica at Andaval, perhaps erected in the fifth
century, are remains of mural paintings of post-iconoclastic date. In the choir
are the Pantokrator between angels, and two rows of saints, including Gregory and.
Epiphanius. In the nave are seen the Adoration of the Magi, and Constantine
and Helena.'
Eock churches at Semendre, Soandere, and Ulnach, with the addition of a
free-standing church at the latter place, have still remains of frescoes.* The
Miinchilkilisse, a two-aisled funerary chapel cut in the tufa," has on one side
of the barrel vault of the north aisle the Angel appearing to Zacharias, the
Salutation, the scene from the apocryphal Protevangelhtm Jacobi in which Joseph
and the Virgin are compelled to drink the water to prove their innocence," and
the Journey to Bethlehem ; on the other side only the Nativity is visible ;
the south aisle has no paintings. In the choir is Our Lord in a mandorla
surrounded by cherubim, and on the lower wall painted hangings (cf. Kuseir
Amra, p. 282). In the vestibule are SS. Demetrius and George, and on a tym-
' J. Aruudel, Discoveries in Asia Minor, 1834, i. 349.
' Eott, as above, 8. ' Kott, as above, 86 ff.
* Eott, as above, 45.
' An accurate plan of the church was made by the Eussian archaeologist Smirnoff (Strzy-
gowski, Kleinasien ein Neidand, 69 f.). For a brief notice of the frescoes, see Eott, 247-8.
= Kott, as above, 108-9.
' See Smirnoff's obsei-vations incorporated by Strzygowski, Kleinasien, 201 ; and Kott, as
above, 108.
8 Eott, as above, 111-12, 126.
" Eott, 128. i» Ch. viii. 15, 16.
 MUEAL PAINTING
269
panum two other saints. In a similar church in the valley of the Balyq,' not
far away, the mural paintings are numerous and interesting, though not of a
high quality. On the vault of one aisle are seen the Annunciation, the Saluta-
tion, the ' Water of Oath ' as above described, the Journey to Bethlehem, in
which the Virgin is seated on the ass in the attitude of an omns, and a scene

Fjg. 163. The Virgin and Child : fresco in the Crypt of Sta Lucia, Brindisi.
(N. H. J. Weatlake, History of Design in Mural Painting.) P. 309.

in which a peasant is represented ploughing. On the west wall are the Nativity
with the Washing of the Child, and the Sacrifice of Isaac ; in the other aisle are the
Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion between the two thieves in the presence
of the Virgin, St. John, St. Ephraim, Longinus and Stephaton (here described as
0 €COnOC, or the man who offers hyssop). In the apses are the Virgin between
Michael and Gabriel, with seven saints, and Our Lord in glory. A number of
other saints are seen in other places, and there is one figure without a nimbus,
who may represent a donor : all the scenes are accompanied by inscriptions.
A great deal of the work in the chapel is effaced, and the colours are much
dimmed,' but the effect of the whole in its original state must have been
brilliant.

' Kott, 129 ff. and Fig. 39 ; GrSgoire, B. C.H., 1909, 109-11 (Figs.).
270 MUEAL PAINTING

The free-standing Akkilikilisse in the same valley has the figure of the Panto-
krator ;^ more important are the frescoes of the Karabashlcilisse,^ a rock-cut monas-
tic church in the same region, because the work is accompanied by an inscription
stating that it was executed in the reign of Constantine Ducas (a. d. 1059-68)
by the monk Nephon and the nun Catherine, with the co-operation (o-wSpo/xTj)
of Michael the protospatharios, perhaps the divisional commander of the district.^
As is usually the case in these Cappadocian churches, the sacred scenes are
painted upon the barrel roof, and the lower walls are covered with figures of
prophets and saints. In a niche the dedicators of the frescoes, Nephon and
Catherine, kneel before a third figure, near which are remains of an inscrip-
tion. Catherine is also represented in another niche ; and in another place the
monk Basil kneels before a bust of the Virgin. The scriptural subjects are
the Nativity with the Washing of the Child and Annunciation to the Shepherds ;
the Presentation ; the Crucifixion between the Virgin and St. John ; the Maries
at the Tonib ; the Anastasis, with Hades in chains ; and (in the choir) the Divine
Liturgy. In a chapel, above a large arcosolium grave, is an abbot (Bathistrokos),
with other figures in monastic habit. Three rock-cut churches on the other side of
the valley, collectively described by Eott as the Belikilisso, are hewn from the heart
of the pyramids of tufa.* All have frescoes, though many subjects have almost
entirely disappeared. Among those still visible may be mentioned the Annuncia-
tion, Presentation, Zacchaeus in the Tree, Peter and Paul before Nero, Peter and
Paul in Prison, and the same two Apostles with a third figure accompanied by
the inscription Koprj y8ao-iA(6)tos Trvpe((T)a-ov(Ta, John the Baptist in the Wilderness,
the Last Supper, Crucifixion (much perished), Flight into Egypt, Adoration of
the Magi, Presentation, Water of Oath, and Massacre of the Innocents, with
Christ and the Apostles, and a great number of saints. The neighbouring
Chanavarkilisse (Wolf's Church)'' has still the Nativity, Presentation, and a
much-damaged Last Judgement, Divine Liturgy, and Christ Pantokrator. The
style of these frescoes is rough and conventional.
In a lateral valley leading out of the Soandere valley is the half-ruined
Chapel of St. Eustathius " with damaged frescoes, beneath one of which,
representing a mounted saint, is an inscription not earlier than the eleventh
century. At the end of the valley is the Church of St. Barbara, ' with important
frescoes and a painted inscription showing that the decoration was carried out in
the reign of Constantine and Basil, therefore between a.d. 976 and 1028. On
the roof -vaults are the Annunciation, Salutation (6 acnraa-fioi), the Water of Oath.
Journey to Bethlehem, Nativity with the Washing of the Child, and Anastasis^
with Hades in chains beneath Christ's feet ; on the lower walls are numerous
saints, including Constantine and Helen with the Cross between them. In the
choir is Christ enthroned between the symbols of the Evangelists : Adam and
Eve approach in adoration, and cherubim veil their faces with their wings.
Among them is the tetramorph, a fantastic figure formed of the four beasts of
Ezekiel's vision (lion, ox, eagle, and man), and having eyes in its wings. The
fiery wheels of the Vision are also indicated.
In the valley of Ortakeui, in the same part of Cappadocia, is the triapsidal
Church of St. George with frescoes of two periods, two layers of stucco being in
some places visible. The choir has the Virgin and Child ; in addition, the
figures of St. Eustathius and another mounted saint, with SS. Gregory and
John, may be distinguished. There are tombs with inscriptions of the thirteenth

1 Eott, 132. 2 Eott, 135 ; GrSgoire, B. C. if., 1909, 96.

^ There are traces of earlier frescoes, so that the present paintings represent a re-
deeoration.
* Eott, 140. 6 Rott, 144; Gr^goire, B. C. R., 1909, 101.
^ Smirnoff's description incorporated by Strzygowski, Kleinasien, 203 ; also separately
published in Journal of the Ministry of Public Instruction, 1900, 35 (Eussian) ; Eott, 144."
' Eott, 146 ; Gr^goire, B. C. H., 1909, 104 ff. and Figs. For the inscription see Prldik in
Journal of the Ministry of Public Instrtiction, as above ; facsimile in Appendix.
' Figured by Eott, 148. Christ is in a mandorla, within which rays issue from his body.
 MUEAL PAINTING 271

century, and the upper frescoes are probably not much older.' In the same
valley are various rock chapels once richly adorned with frescoes which have
suffered from the effects of time and of neglect.
In the region of Susam Bayry near Urgilb, in the rock-hewn Church of
St. Theodore, there are again frescoes of two periods, of which the later are
inferior to the earlier.''' Among the numerous scenes represented on the walls

Fig. 164. The Crucifixion : mural painting in S. Urbano alia Caffarella. (Moscioni.) P. 304.

are the Draught of Fishes, Eaising of Jairus's Daughter, Crucifixion between the
Thieves, a Martyr tortured upon a Wheel, the Flight into Egypt with the Fall
of the Idols,' the Magi conducted to Christ by an Angel, several of the miracles,
Christ and the Samaritan Woman, and the Entry into Jerusalem. On the roof,
divided into two longitudinal halves by a row of busts of saints in medallions,
are the Annunciation, Salutation, the Water of Oath, John the Baptist in the
Desert, the Baptism, the Pursuit of Elizabeth and the infant John by Herod's
Soldiers,* the Journey to Bethlehem, the Nativity with Washing of the Infant
and Annunciation to Shepherds, the Miracle of Cana and the Call of St. Peter.

1 Eott, 149-51. ^Kott, 205ff.

' See the apocryphal Grospel De nativiiate Mariae et infantia Salvatoris, ch. xxiii-iv.
* Protemngelium Jacobi, xxii-iii.
272 MURAL PAINTING

In the choir is Christ enthroned between the Evangelists' symbols ; below him
are archangels, cherubim, and seraphim.
The rock-hewn Church of the Ascension at Gereme near Urglib is among the
most important of the painted churches of Cappadocia.^ The Ascension itself is
in a small sepulchral chapel forming a kind of vestibule. Our Lord is enthroned
within a mandorla supported by four soaring angels : beneath stand the Virgin
between two angels, and the Apostles divided into two groups, the whole
recalling the treatment of the same
scenes in the dome mosaics of
St. Sophia at Salonika (p. 376).
The treatment is conventional, but
in spite of the damaged surface
this fresco is among the best of
those in the Cappadocian churches.
Other scenes in this antechapel are
the Annunciation, and Abraham
entertaining the angels. The
three-aisled church itself is ex-
ceedingly dark, but perhaps for
this very reason its frescoes are
unusually well preserved. The
whole space is decorated, bands of
scroll designs and other ornament
filling the intervals between the
paintings. The subjects comprise :
the Baptism, with the personifica-
tion of Jordan with crab's claws
on his head. Transfiguration,
Eaising of Lazarus, Journey to
Bethlehem, Nativity with Washing
of the Infant, Adoration of Magi
(below which is a large figure of
the Archangel Michael), the Be-
Fig. ICo. An archangel : mural painting in trayal, Crucifixion with the Virgin
the crypt of St. John, Cafaro. (N. H. J. Westlake, and John, Longinus and Stephaton
Btstory of Design in Mural Painting.) (0 eCOnOC), the Anastasis, the
Three Children of Babylon in
the Furnace, the Last Supper, the Four Evangelists at their Desks, Abraham,
the Veronica " (to ayuov /tav(8i;)Xi(o)i/ with the head of Our Lord upon it), the
Deesis, with two adoring figures named by an inscription as Mcephorus and
Basil, a number of single figures of saints, the Virgin and Child (in the left
apse), the Entry into Jerusalem (vault of nave), the Pantokrator (in the main
dome), Christ with a scroll inscribed ' I am the Light of the World ' (dome
of the presbyterium), a number of prophets of the Old Testament. The
sumptuous decoration of this chm-ch, executed throughout by careful artists, gives
an excellent idea of the monastic style, which even in these remote valleys
preserved a character of dignity and distinction. The frescoes, like those of
the two churches next to be described, must belong to the tenth or eleventh
century.
Gereme possesses several other rock churches and chapels decorated with
mural paintings, some of them of a comparatively early date. The small rock-
hewn chapel known as the Tcharikilisse ^ has in the apses the Virgin and Child,
Deesis, and Archangel Michael, below which, in the arches of a painted arcading,
are standing figures of saints — Blasius, Gregory, Basil, Chrysostom, Nicholas,

1 Kott, 212 ff., with Figs. 73-5, and PI. III. ' Rott, 217ff.
" Brockhaus, Die Kunst in den Alhosklostern, 76 ff.
 MURAL PAINTING 273

Hypatius. The principal remaining scenes in the church are Christ adored by
three figures named as Theognostus, Leo, and Michael, the Nativity with
Washing of the Infant and Adoration of the Magi, the horses of the three kings
visible in the background, the Baptism with Jordan personified, the Kaising of
Lazarus, the Entry into Jerusalem, Transfiguration, Betrayal, Simon of Gyrene
carrying the Cross, Crucifixion without the thieves, Anastasis, Eesurrection
with the angel seated at the tomb, the Ascension, and the Virgin with the
Child between Michael and Gabriel. In the principal dome is the Pantokrator,
with the four Evangelists in the spandrels ; in a lunette Abraham entertains the
angels (rj ayia rpias).
The neighbouring Elmalykilisse ' is again richly covered with paintings of
the same school, perhaps by the same hand as those in the two preceding churches.
We see here the Nativity with its usual accessory motives; the Flight into
Egypt, Baptism, Raising of Lazarus, Transfiguration, Last Supper, Entry into
Jerusalem, Betrayal, Christ led Prisoner, Crucifixion, Entombment, Eesurrection,
and Ascension ; on the lower wall are the Three Children in the Furnace ; in
the principal dome is Christ with the Book of the Gospels, the four Evangelists
below him in the spandrels ; in the apses are the same subjects as those already
described in the Tcharikilisse ; in other parts of the church a great number of
saints and prophets.
Not far away is the largest rock-hewn church of Gereme, the Tokaly-kilisse,^
now very damp and often flooded with water : the rich mural paintings have
suffered considerably from this moisture. Near the entrance are John the
Baptist, and Our Lord in Glory surrounded by the Apostles seated on thrones.
Along the walls are rows of saints. On the two longitudinal halves of the
barrel roof are the usual biblical scenes : Annunciation, Salutation, Water of Oath,
Journey to Bethlehem, Nativity, Pursuit of the infant John the Baptist by
Herod's Soldiers, John called by an Angel to Preach in the Wilderness, John
preaching to the Publicans (ol rtXiuvai) by Jordan, the Baptism, the Marriage at
Cana, Entry into Jerusalem, Betrayal, Christ before Pilate, the Adoration
of the Magi, Massacre of Innocents, Flight into Egypt (two scenes). Miracle of
Loaves and Fishes, Calling of Peter and Andrew, Simon carrying the Cross,
Crucifixion without the thieves. Descent from the Cross, Entombment, Anastasis.
and Ascension. All these frescoes are faded, and appear to be more recent and
inferior in style to those of the transept walls and roof, which include a large
Ascension, the Annunciation, Adoration, Flight into Egypt, Presentation,
Christ in the Temple, the Angel calling John the Baptist, Baptism, Temptation,
Matthew at the Receipt of Custom, the Calling of Peter, the Marriage at Cana,
Raising of Jairus's Daughter and Healing of the King's Son, Healing of the
Paralytic (?), Raising of Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, and Last Supper.
Elsewhere are the Widow's Mite, the Death of the Virgin, and other subjects,
with numerous figures of saints. The choir frescoes are much damaged. In
the main apse is the Crucifixion between the thieves, with the Virgin and John,
Longinus and Stephaton ; in the north apse is Abraham entertaining the Angels,
in the south the Pantokrator between two angels. There are many inscriptions,
one naming the painter Constantino. The frescoes of this church, especially
those of the transept, the best of which are probably of the eleventh century,
are the most remarkable in the Gereme district.
Quite close is the rock-cut Chapel of the Theotokos, also richly decorated.'
We see here scenes from the life of the Virgin, including the Censing of
the Purple Veil of the Temple,* the Virgin fed by Angels in the Temple, the
Annunciation, the Salutation, the Journey to Bethlehem, Nativity, Crucifixion
between the thieves. Entombment, Anastasis, St. George being broken on a

' Eott,
ornamental 219 ff. In this church there are traces of painting of an earlier date with simply-
motives.
2 Kofct, 224 ff. ; H. Gr^goire, B. C. H., 1909, 81 ff. and Figs. 13 and 14.
s Rott, 229 f. * Of. Bayet, L'Arl bys., Fig. 57, p. 175.
1204 T
274 MURAL PAINTING

wheel set with knives, the Pantokratov with angels, the Virgin and Child,
and busts of saints in medallions, i&e. In the neighbourhood are other frescoed
chapels.1 In the first is St. Procopius on horseback, St. Eustathms with the
stag, the Pursuit of the infant John the Baptist by the Soldiers of Herod (where
we see Zacharias lying slain by arrows before the Temple and EHzabeth with the
Child taking refuge among trees against soldiers armed with bows), Joseph s
Dream, the Annunciation, Visitation, the Water of Oath, Nativity, Adoration with
the old magical inscription CATOP, APCnO TeN€T,' Presentation, Flight into
Egypt, Massacre of Innocents, Christ in Majesty with the Evangelists' symbols,
personifications of Sol and Luna, and (below) the Twelve Apostles, saints,
adoring monks in pointed hoods, &c. Above the figures of saints on the south

a
-»^^9«fti<^P^ "—

.xS^

\
xr

II f :
-^*L -
-.6.^-^

Fig. 166. The Virgin and Child between St. Peter and St. John : S. Urbano alia Caffarella.
(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.)

wall is a frieze of animals and birds, hares, cocks, ravens (?) drinking from vases.
The frescoes in this chapel are not of artistic merit. Another chapel, noticed
by Texier in his Bygantine Architecture,* has the Nativity. A third, a sepulchral
chapel, has large figures of St. Basil and Daniel as orans flanked by lions,*
between them a smaller female figure without nimbus, and at the side,, standing
figures of Our Lord and the Virgin.
The Hemsbeykilisse in the same district, now inhabited by a colony of doves,
has a fuller cycle of frescoes than any church but the Tokaly-kilisse.* The dome
has the ascended Christ and the Twelve Apostles : in other parts of the church
are Joseph's Dream, the Water of Oath, the Salutation, Nativity, Presentation,
Plight into Egypt, the Angels giving the Charge to John the Baptist, John
adoring Christ, the Baptism, Healing of the Blind Man, Zachariah in the Tree,
Eaising of Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, the Washing of the
Disciples' Feet, Christ before Caiaphas, the Betrayal, Denial of Peter, Christ before
Pilate, Simon bearing the Cross, two Crucifixions, one with the thieves, the other
without, the Anastasis, Entombment, Kesurrection, Pentecost, Death of the
1 Eott, 230 ff. "^ Eott, Plate opp. p. 231.
' Sator arepo tenet opera rotas. An anagrammatic magical formula which occurs frequently
in Roman timea and was regarded in later centuries as a charm against fever and fire. The
words read the same backwards and forwards.
* pp. 42, 236, PI. V. Texier appears to havo misinterpreted the scene of the Nativity.
' Kott, Fig. 80, p. 232.
8 Rott, 234 if. ; Gregoire, JS. C.H., 1909, p. 88.
 MUEAL PAINTING 275

Virgin, and numerous saints. The execution is good throughout, and the frescoes
must belong to the tenth or eleventh century. The churches of the Apostles
and of the Holy Cross on different sites not far from Sinasos are rich in frescoes ;
in the last named figure subjects are, by exception, avoided.'
At Aktchik Serai are rock-hewn churches with ruined frescoes, among which
are visible the Transfiguration, Ascension, and Constantine and Helena with the
Cross between them.^
Frescoes in a similar church at Arebsun,'' on the Halys, are much darkened by
smoke, but the Last Judgement with the archangel weighing the souls was visible,
and the Baptism, Betrayal, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Anastasis, Ascension, and
Death of the Virgin are discernible. The style of the frescoes is inferior to that

Pig. 167. The Last Supper : mural painting of the fifteenth century in the grotto of the
Theoskepastos, Trebizond. {Hautes Mudes : Gr. Millet.) P. 276.

of those at Gereme, and an inscription states that they were executed in the
time of Theodore Lascaris in a. d. 1212.
In the free-standing octagonal church at Suwasa,^ which itself dates from
Early Christian times, are remains of other frescoes of the thirteenth century.*
The Nativity, Eaising of Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, Betrayal,
Crucifixion without the thieves. Entombment, and Ascension can be dis-
tinguished. Among single figures are mounted saints (George and Demetrius ?)
and the Virgin Hodegetria.
In the free-standing Tchanlikilisse ^ at Tcheltek there are also remaihs of the
Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration, and Last Supper, with figures of saints.
The larger rock-hewn church at Selme, the Kalekilisse,* is much blackened
by smoke and otherwise damaged : the decoration of the church was originally
extensive. In a church in the side of the dark valley of Peristrema is an
animated representation of the Last Judgement by an unpractised hand, with the

1 Gr^goire, as above, 90, 91. ' Rott, 242. s gott^ 246.

* Kott, 251 f. 5 Eofct, 260. ' Rott, 263 f. and Fig. 97.
T 2
276 MURAL PAINTING-

archan'gel weighing the souls, and a number of realistic devils tormenting

the damned ; the salvation of the blessed is represented by the patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob holding the souls in their bosoms. The other subjects
are the Flight into Egypt, the Eaising of Lazarus, Entry, into Jerusalem, Last
Supper, Crucifixion v^ith the thieves, the Pantokrator, Virgin and Child, the
Apostles and numerous figures of saints, and Daniel in the Den of Lions. The
work here is again inferior to that at Gereme. In the Karajedikilisse ^ in
the same place the numerous frescoes have greatly suffered, though scenes
from the story of John the Baptist and Our Lord, the legend of St. George, and
other subjects are visible.
The mural paintings in the churches at Trebizond are of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, that is to say of the period of the Comnenian emperors. In
the early Church of St. Anne, restored by Basil the Macedonian, are representa-
tions of deceased ecclesiastics and others interred within the walls, one kneeling
before the Virgin, a St. Michael, a St. John the Baptist, and a Death of Joachim
and Anna.'^ The presence, on damaged parts of the wall, of more than one
painted stratum all of the same two centuries, indicates that these funerary
pictures were frequently renewed.
Low down on the west wall of the Church of St.Eugenius, restored between
A. D. 1340 and 1350, are traces of royal personages which were more distinct in
Fallmerayer's time than they now are.' The same investigator noted frescoes
on the outside of the apses at St. Anne and St. Eugenius, of which only traces
now remain.* In the church of the Panaghia Theoskepastos, on the slopes of
Boz-Tepe, the wall dividing the church from the vestibule had on the exterior
portraits of Alexius III, his wife Theodora, and his mother Irene ; but these
are now covered by modern work.^ The small rock-cut chapel of the
Theoskepastos, probably consecrated to St. Onuphrios, received a rich decoration
in fresco in the year a. d. 1411 at the expense of a certain Paraskevas Poutzaris,
as is recorded by an inscription " (Fig. 167).

(b) Syria — Palestine.

The third-century frescoes at Palmyra discussed by Strzygowski (Orient
Oder Bom.), though not Christian, may be mentioned here as closely related to
Christian art (Pig. 168).
The remains of wall painting in Syria are scanty ; for the most part they
represent symbolic or decorative designs, or animal and aquatic motives. On
fragments of plaster in tombs in North-Central Syria ' we see sacred monograms
and crosses within circles, the grape-vine, water-birds, and plants.
A rock-hewn tomb at Hammam id-Djedj near Shnan has busts from which
the faces have been scraped away, and symbols including peacocks and fish.
Other recorded frescoes in this area are of the Third and Fourth Periods.
Those in the church of the cloister of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem,' though of
the seventeenth century, appear to be restorations of models perhaps as early as
the eleventh. Their iconography, however, seems to diverge considerably from
Byzantine types ; this may be due to the Iberian origin of the artists.
The frescoes in the Church of Abu Eosh (now restored) are assigned to the
period of the Frankish occupation, though they were probably the work of Greek
artists. Among the subjects were the Anastasis, the Bcesis, a Crucifixion, and
a Death of the Virgin.'
' Eott, 275 if. Other churches in this district are probably decorated with frescoes.
' a. Millet in B. C. H., xix, 1895, 435-7.
' Orig. Framm., i. 125. * Millet, as above, 458.
» Texier, Asie Mineure, 597 and PI. LXIV, and Bys. Arch., 231 and PI. LXVI. The fact is
also noted by Tournefort and Pallmerayer (Millet, as above, 437).
« Millet, 440. ' H. C. Butler, Architecture and other Arts, 293-4.
' A. Baumstark in Monatshefte fur Kunstwissenschaft, i, 1908, 771-84.
» A. Baumstark, B. Q., 1906, 157-8.
 MURAL PAINTING 277

The faded figures upon the columns of the Church of the Nativity at
Bethlehem ' are of about the same period (Fig. 169). They consist of single
saints, including Cnut, with both Greek and Latin inscriptions. The occurrence
in association with these figures of kneeling persons and coats of arms suggests
that they are votive. The iconography is almost entirely Byzantine, though
the donors seem to have belonged to the Frankish nobility. Other frescoes are

Fig. 168. Paintings of the third century in a sepulchral chamber at Palmyra.

(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.)

reported in the monastery church of the Baptist, between Jericho and the Dead
Sea, and in the Lavra rov Xo^C/Sa^.^
In the Monastery of Mar Saba some mural paintings may have been originally
executed as early as the fourteenth century,^ though they have been restored in
later times. Among the subjects are a Virgin and Child of the Flatytera type
(seeCh. XII), a Virgin holding the Child, recalling the fresco in the Catacomb of
Commodilla at Eome in which the lady Turtura is represented (p. 304), a Deesis,
a bust of Our Lord, angels, and saints. The decoration of the main church,
which includes a series of martyrs, has been ascribed to the late fifteenth or to
the beginning of the sixteenth century.*
1 Baumstark, 158-9; Durand in Bulletin monumental, Caen, 1884; de Vogiid, EgJises de la
Turre sainte, 70 ; W. R. Lethaby and others. The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (Byzantine
Research and Publication Fund), 1910.
2 Baumstark, 159. ' A. Baumstark, R. Q., xix, 1905, p. 161. " Ibid., p. 162.
278 MUEAL PAINTING

The discovery of the mural paintings in the Palace of Kuseir "Amra, on

the edge of the Arabian Desert about the latitude where the Jordan falls into
the Dead Sea, was an event of great importance for the study of painting in the
second half of the first millennium of our era.' The desert east of Moab, in
which the earlier Palace of Mshatta (p. 170) is also situated, was a region con-
trolled byvarious Bedouin tribes which both the Eomans and Sassanians found

Fie. 169. Column of the fourth century in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, with
paintings of the twelfth century. (Byzantine Research and Publication Fund.) P. 277.

it necessary to conciliate ; the most influential were the Lakhm, who received
Sassanian support, and the Rassan (Gassan), who were friendly first to the
Eoman, and afterwards to the Byzantine Empire. The chiefs of these tribes,
who from subsidies and other sources were in possession of considerable wealth,
built residences of stone in those desert giazing-grounds where a sojourn of
several months in the year is possible ; and here they doubtless entertained the
envoys both of the Eoman and the Persian. One of the Lakhm entertained a
Sassanian prince for a long period in such a palace, which, according to our
' Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Kiisejr 'Amra, Vienna, 1907, by Alois Musil and
others. Professor Musil had visited the site before the final expedition, during which the
photographs and water-colour reproductions used in the above volume were taken.
 MURAL PAINTING 379

Arab authority, was erected for him by a Greek architect. Mshatta itself was
such a desert residence.
Life in these retreats was luxurious, and diversified with all kinds of amuse-
ment :by day there was the chase after the wild ass and the antelope ; by night
the feast with music and dancing. The Mesopotamian influences revealed in
the architecture and ornament of Mshatta show us clearly from what quarter
these amenities were introduced into the life of the nomad princes.
When the Arabs advanced into this region, the power of the Kassan was
rapidly destroyed. Prom a.d. 633 the Mohammedans were accepted as the
overlords of the Bedouin, who, nominally at least, adopted their belief. The
Ommayad khalifs, a tolerant dynasty, disliked at Mecca but popular in Syria,
pursued a politic course with the desert tribes ; they were in the habit of
quitting Damascus in the winter months and transferring their residence to
the healthier regions of the desert. Abd el-Malik had numerous Christians in
his entourage, while Greeks and Persians were his architects. It was in the
reign of Yezid, who acceded in a.d. 720, that the custom of spending the
unhealthy summer months in the desert was introduced. But Walid II did
more than make the desert his summer quarters : he had resided there for some
twenty years before his accession in a. d. 743, leading an existence suggestive of
the Arabian Nights. A man of unorthodox habits, he surrounded himself with
every luxury which his wide dominions could provide. Wines and silver plate,
fine raiment and jewels, were brought to his desert palaces on camels. In his
harem were Greek women who bore him sons ; about his court were singers
and dancers for the entertainment of himself and his guests. A hunter of
repute, pursuing the lion and the antelope, he was also a man of taste and
education, himself a poet and musician, and familiar with the Greek tongue.
These years of splendour were almost all passed before he became khalif in
A. D. 743. In the following year he was slain by his rival and cousin Yezid, for
his long absence from Damascus had made him unpopular in Syria, the province
on which the Ommayad house had hitherto relied as its greatest support.^ This
is the man for whom the Palace of Kuseir Amra was probably erected, and the
frescoes which adorn it were executed at his command.
Before the various scenes depicted ort the walls are shortly described, it will
be well to state in what the peculiar importance of these frescoes consists. They
show us how absolutely the art of the early Mohammedan period depended upon
the Hellenistic art of Syria and Mesopotamia. In the second place they prove
how tenacious of life and of its old traditions the Hellenistic art of Hither Asia
really was. The survival of a classical spirit in certain MSS. and other works
of art in the tenth and eleventh centuries appears much less abnormal now that
we have before us these frescoes dated in the middle of the eighth century,
works so purely Hellenistic in style that competent observers at first considered
them to be some three centuries earlier than they are. Here, as in Constantinople,
the old genre scenes retained their popularity, and at once found favour with the
luxurious princes of the conquering faith. We now more readily understand
how the iconoclastic emperors, when they banished the religious picture, so
easily introduced the fishing and the hunting scenes of earlier centuries. The
old scenes had survived in Byzantine secular art, and their fresh vogue was
encouraged by the knowledge that the triumphant leaders of Islam tolerated
the representation of similar subjects. The scenes which St. Nilus had striven
to banish (see p. 258) had only been expelled from the Christian churches : in
the palaces they had prolonged an uninterrupted existence.'' There are Persian
and Mesopotamian elements in the ornament of Kuseir Amra ; but the figure
' The story of the desert palaces and their occupants is excellently told by Dr. Musil,
Kvsejr 'Amra, as above, 123-66.
^ J. Strzygowski, 'Amra und seine Malereien, in Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, xviii. 213-18.
Hunting scenes illustrating the pursuit of the gazelle, lion, hippopotamus, &c., occur in the
funerary chapels at Bawit in Egypt (p. 285).
280 MUEAL PAINTING

compositions, which are l;>y far the most important part, are Hellenistic through-
out. It is possible that some of the artists who worked here were not of Greek
descent ; Ixit the traditions in which they were trained had come down to them
almost unimpaired from the early culture of the Hellenistic cities on the Mediter-
ranean coast. Elsewhere, as in Egypt, Greek art might be strangled or debased
by the recrudescence of local styles, Ijut here it was preserved in a surprising
purity.
The buildings at Kuseir 'Amra consist of a great hall covered by three barrel
vaults running" north and south, withouta ofcentral niche and two apsed lateral
chambers at the south end. Opening the east wall is a sequence of small
chambers, the fii-st two of which have vaulted roofs, while the third is covered
by a dome. It is clear that these chaml>ers were the different apartments of

Fig. 170. P.iinting nf the eightli eeutury on v.nult of chamber at Kuseir 'Amra.
(After Kusejr 'Amrn. by A. Miisil anil others. : Vienna. K. Akademie der Wissenschaften.)

baths, and that the first, or cold bath, was beneath the dome and entered
through a small court on the east.' The great hall may be described as a hall
of audience or throne room, the lateral chambers at its south end serving as
retiring rooms for the prince.
The walls and vaults of all these rooms are covered with paintings which
have unfortunately lost much of their original rich effect. The colours were
directly applied to a facing of mortar about three centimetres in thickness, and
in the opinion of Austrian chemical exjierts are to be regarded as fresco rather
than tempera, since no traces of size are apparent. The range of colours is
limited, those used being bright blue, deep brown, light brown, dull yellow, and
a bluish green.- Notwithstanding these limitations, the effect of the whole
^ Remains of pipes leading fri-m a well ni-rth of the building to the domed chamber have
been found. On the Arab baths with their three rooms [fiifjidaritnn, Upuhiriuvi, and caldaiiinn
derived from Roman models, see Karabaeek t Kuseir 'Anir:i, p. 2271.
- The blue is natural ultramarine. Tlie deep brown is a red produced app.irently from
oxide of iron, then overlaid with a thin co.at of ultramarine. The lighter brown and the
yellow appear to be of ochreous composition containing iron. The green is produced when
the yellow has received a light ci;iating of ultramarine {Kusejr 'Ainra^ 200-1, results obtained
from specimen fragments by Drs. Pollak and Wenzel).
 MURAL PAINTING 281

must once have been bi'illiant ; no such extensive decoration in fresco is known
to have survived in any other secular building, or indeed in any building earlier
than the Eomanesque period.
In the niche at the south end of the great hall is painted a prince enthroned
between two attendants. He is bearded and has the nimbus, and maj' represent
either Walid himself, Mohammed, or one of the early khalifs. Round the niche
is a row of desert birds ; above the throne is an inscription,' and below it a broad
zone with a river scene, people fishing in a boat, water-birds, &c. The vault of
the niche has semi-nude female figures between spirallj' fluted colunrns with
curtains, above which are half-figures of larger size. Along the top of the vault
is a row of vases, with scrolls. The lateral chambers, which are dark and only
entered from the hall, have roofs painted with vine-scrolls.

Fifi. 171. Painting of the eighth century in one of tlie ch.ambers at Kuseir Amra.
(After Kusejr 'Amra, by A. Musil and others : IC. Aliademie der Wissenscliaften, Vienna.)

The most interesting paintings in the hall itself are those covering the west
wall. At one end are nude figures exercising after the bath. In the middle is
a nude female figure standing on the edge of a bath contained in an octagonal
building with round arches and an upper gallery with grilles, from which other
women are looking on : the architecture, though without perspective, appears to
represent a domed building somewhat in the style of San Vitale at Eavenna.
At the opposite end is a groujj of figures of the highest interest, accompanied in
some cases by their names in Greek characters, now partly effaced. The}' are
six in all, and the first four from the left represent jtrinces with whom Islam
had come in conflict. On the extreme left is the Byzantine emperor (KAICAP) ;
next comes Eoderick,^ king of the Visigoths in Spain ; next to him Yezdegerd,
the last Sassanian monarch of Persia ; and in the last place the Negus of
Abyssinia, followed by a woman and a boy. The whole of this long fresco is
enclosed in a double border of 'rosettes' in circles, reminiscent of those upon
the well-known group of carved ivory caskets (see p. 215). On the walls to the
1 Karabaoek reads this as an invocation of good fortune in favour of Prince Alimcd
(a. d. 862-66), but it is considered earlier by other authorities.
^ Karabacek (^as above, 217) takes Ptoderick for Theodora, mother of Michael III.
282 MUEAL PAINTINd

south and north of this west vault are a richly dressed woman under a canopy
and a woman standing near sea monsters and a ship. On the east wall is an
antelope hunt ; on the north wall the capture of antelopes in nets ; on the
south wall we see the evisceration of the game, above which are allegorical
female figures in antique dress, styled ICTOPIA, CKS'HC (CK€tlC), and
nOIHCIC. The barrel vaults are ornamented with double rows of arcades with
gable arches, beneath which are nude figures, men engaged in the operations of
the building trade, &c. Above the columns of the arches are birds in pairs.
On the spandrels of the great arches of the hall and in other positions are nude
female figures under canopies, one richly dressed and reclining on a couch, by
which attendants stand, and palm trees. The lower part of the walls is painted
to represent hangings, a fashion which appears to have originated in Hither Asia,
reappears at Pompeii (House of Pansa), and was continued in Komanesque and
Gothic art. The caldarium, or small room opening out of the hall upon the east
side, has on its vaulted roof a large lattice, or lozenge-diaper,' the contained
spaces of which are for the most part occupied by figures of men, wild asses,
a bear, a monkey, and cranes ; the central row has busts representing the three
ages of man (Fig. 170). In the two lunettes are two remarkable pictures, perhaps
emblematical of birth and death, the former showing two nude figures, one
being a pregnant woman, grouped in a Michelangelesque manner on either side
of a window, the latter (Fig. 171) a man looking pensively at a recumbent figure,
to which a genius or eros points. The adjoining chamber, or tepidarium, which
has a cross-vault apparently with ribs, has three lunettes, with women and
children bathing : through the architecture in the background is seen a green
meadow and blue water. In the window are vine-scrolls in the convolutions of
which men and beasts are symmetrically opposed. The domed third room (the
first to be entered by the bather) had its cupola painted with the stars of the
northern heavens (the Bears, Erichthonios, Bootes, Ophiuchos, Cassiopeia, &c.),
and with the signs of the zodiac.

(c) Egypt.
Work of the First and Second Periods.

The wall paintings in the catacombs of Alexandria '' discovered in 1864, not
far from Pompey's column near the south-western extremity of the old city, are
in the vestibule and a square chamber with three adjacent chapels to which the
vestibule gives access. They are of importance because they are executed in
a similar style to those of the Roman catacombs, and their symbolism is of the
same character. There has been considerable restoration at various early
periods, but in their original form the symbolic scenes appear to have been
painted not later than the first half of the fourth century. They thus illustrate
that pictorial art of Alexandria which is known to have exerted so strong an
influence in Italy. We may notice in the first place a frieze running round the
apse in the vestibule. In the middle sits Christ between standing figures of
Peter and Andrew, the latter oifering a dish upon which lie two fishes : on the
ground are twelve baskets filled with loaves, and doubtless St. Peter was
represented as offering loaves, though this part of the subject is damaged. To
the right, between trees, recline two persons partly effaced, evidently to be
regarded as partaking of the food miraculously provided, the inscription painted
1 Eeealling the design of certain early textiles (p. 586).
" Nerutsos Bey, L'Anciome Alexandrie, Paris, 1888, cli. x, xi, xxi ; C. Wescher, Bappmi d'une
mission accomplie en igypte in Archives des missions sdentiflques et litieraires, 2" S6rie, i, Paris, 1864,
190 ; BuUettino di archeologia cristiana, iii, 1865, pp. 57-64 and 73-7, and 1872, pp. 21-2 ; Arch.
Journal, xxiii, London, 1866, 256-8; Garrueci, Storia, ii. 128-31 and PI. CVb; C. Bayet,
Recherches pour seroir,
in Proceedings &o., 1879,Section
of the Oriental 18-21,of 68; V. SehuUze,
the Imperial Die Katakombe>%,
Archeological Society, v,282-4; "V. Golenisheff,
St. Petersburg, 1890,
3-4 ; A. Popoff, Jerusalem and Sinai, St. Petersburg, 1878, 8 and 137 (the last two references
are in Russian).
 MUEAL PAINTING 283

above them reading: TAC eYAOTIAC TOY XY €C0IONTeC. On the left is a

group which has suffered even more severel}', and of which the details are not easy
to distinguish. The head of Our Lord is visible in the middle, with the letters Tc
near it. Close to these is the inscription H ATI A MAPIA, and further to the
right nAI Al A. Below are figures at table, and it seems certain that the subject
is the miracle at Cana in Galilee. Thus the frieze presents the two miracles
usually symbolical of the Eucharist, which was probably celebrated here.'
The figure of Christ between Peter and Andrew, in the middle of the whole
composition, bears signs of having been repainted, perhaps in the sixth or
seventh century. The figures of saints in the corners and on the walls of the
antechamber are probably of similar age. The walls of the principal chamber
have also figures of prophets painted over subjects of earlier date, one of which

i^y-^^ r
Fig. 172. Remains ot mural painting. El Khargeh. P. 286.

may represent St. Peter and the angel at the sepulchre. In a lunette is a figure
trampling upon serpents (of. p. 672). The other lunettes show traces of inscrip-
tions and figures over which have been painted saints of the same type as those
covering the walls : among these St. Bacchus is conspicuous, making it certain
that St. Sergius was also depicted. Near St. Bacchus is a cross Ijetween the
letters of the inscription iC XC Nl | KA. On the vault Our Lord is seen adored
by angels.
In the churches and cells on the site of the Monastery of St. Jeremias at
Saqqara excavated by Mr. J. E. Quibell " aie many paintings of interest. The
monastery is known to have been founded about a. d. 480 and destroyed about
A. D. 960, and coins of Heraclius and Phocas have been discovered. Probably
the frescoes date from the sixth and seventh centuries (Figs. 173-6).
The wall paintings at Bawit, ' west of Deyrut el-Sherif, are for the most part
' De Rossi, Bulletlino, as above, 74. The Eucliaristic subjects may be compared with those
in the Catacombs of S. Calixtus at Rome.
^ J. E. Quibell, Excavations at Saqqara, Cairo, 1908 and 1011 ; Coniptc rendu (tu Congrts
international d'ardieologie classique, Cairo, 1909, p. 268.
^ Jean Cledat, Le Monasttre et le ntcrojpnle dt Baoiut, in Mem. dc VInst. fran^ais d'aich. orientate
du Caire, xii, 1904. M. Cledat's excavations were caiTied out in 1901-2. He has given a
further account in Cabrol's Lid. d^arch. chretienne, s.v. Baoiut. .See also Palanque, in Bull, de
rinst.frein^ais etrch. elu Caire, v. There are remains of paintings in the ruined churches at Bawit,
the columns having figures of saints ; but the church paintings are less important and in
worse condition than those <tf the chajiels.
284 MURAL PAINTING

in the series of funeral chapels in the necropolis of the ancient monastery/ long
buried under mounds of sand. Among the most remarkable are the series in
Chapel III representing the story of David, a cycle which was not a favourite
with the earliest Christian artists, but had become popular by the sixth century.-
In the seventh chapel is a group of the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints ;
in the fifty-ninth a fine group of the Virgin and Our Lord with a further group
of saints ; in the seventeenth a remarkable Baptism, in which Jordan appears

i v..

Fig. 173. Mural paintings, Monastery of St. Jeremias, Saqqara.

(Photo communicated bj J. E. Quibell, Esq.) P. 283.

to be personified by a female figure, the Temptation of St. Pachomius, mounted

figures of St. Phoebammon and St. Sisinnius, with animals connected with the
myth of Horus ; in the twenty-sixth, Our Lord enthroned between the apoca-
lyptic beasts ; in the twenty-eighth, the Virgin seated holding the Child, who is
surrounded by an oval mandorla. On either side stand two angels with acerrae
and censers. In addition to these there are a large number of saints, many of
whom, like St. Apollo, are Egjrptian, of single figures, and busts in medallions, &c. ;
we may notice the winged Pistis, or Faith, and Elpis, Hope, in Chapel XVIII,
where there is also a winged figure personifying dew. Scenes from the Gospels
are comparatively rare, but in different chapels we see the Annunciation, Nativity,
Visitation, Massacre of the Innocents, Baptism, Miracle at Cana. Among the
1 For the Monastery of Apa Apollo, see W. E. Crum, Der keilige Apollo und das Klosfer von
Bavnt, in Zeitschr.fiir dgypt. Spraclw, xl, 1902.
'^ Cf. remarks on the silver plate from Cyprus (p. 574).
 MUEAL PAINTING 285

religious subjects occur others of a secular character, for instance the gazelle
hunt of Chapel XXXVII ' and the hippopotamus hunt of Chapel XXXVI.- Like
the similar scenes at Kuseir "Amra (p. 279) they liave still much of the life and
grace of late Hellenistic art. Such figures as that of the child riding the panther
in Chapel XXVIII have all the appearance of fifth- or sixth-century work. In
Chapel XVIII we see a representation of Orpheus, in another (XLII) of the sibyl.
In some of the faces the artists show real mastery : the demon in Chapel XVII,
with his suggestive and saturnine smile, is -worthy of especial mention.' The
walls before'lthe apses have usually a medallion containing a portrait bust,

Fig. 174. PaintiDg in a niche, Monastery of St. Jei^emias, Saqqara.

(Photo comnninioated by J. E. Ouibell, Esq.) P. 28-3.

supported by two winged figures ; in the nineteenth chapel two peacocks flank
a central cross. The paintings in this position have been far more exposed to
destruction than those within the apses, and most of them are in a lamentable
condition. Some of the early symbolic animals, the hart, peacock, lamb, &c. ,
are represented ; while baskets of fruit, birds, and other motives of like character
fill the vacant spaces, and testify to the early date of the paintings as a whole,
which must be for the most part between the fifth and seventh centuries.' The
colour scheme includes green, reds ranging from brown to jsink, purj^le, greyish
blue, yellow, and black.
The method employed by the artists was to sketch the subject in outline,
first in yellow, then in red. Within the contours, sometimes strengthened with
black, which were left to give precision of line, the body colours were applied.
For hair, beard, &c., and for shading, green was the favourite colour : legs and
hands were left unshaded.^
'■ Cledat in Cabrol, s.v. Baouit, coloured plate between pp. 240-1.
- Ibid., 23S. ' Ibid., 239, Fig. 1278.
^ In some of tlie larger compositions, liowever, M. Cledat sees traces of later work of
about the eleventh century, similar to that found in tho White Monastery art. Baou'tf^ in
Cabrol, p. 237). = Cledat, Memoires, 134."
286 MUEAL PAINTING
♦
The funerary chapels in the Christian necropolis on the border of the desert
north of El-Khargeh, and known as El-Bagawat,' are extensively decorated with
mural paintings (Fig. 172). The buildings are of brick, and the walls are covered
with a thin coating of stucco upon which the paintings are executed. The style
is that of the late Hellenistic art of Alexandria, and the traces of Egyptian in-
fluence are insignificant, being confined to details such as the crux ansata or ankh,
which is freely used with a symbolical meaning. The inscriptions are numerous,
and those which are in Greek should be contemporary with the frescoes. These,
both from their character and their subjects, would appear to be not later in any
case than the seventh century. Among the scenes represented are Adam and
Eve, Noah's Ark, episodes from the stories of Jonah, Abraham, Jacob, Susanna,
Daniel, the Three Children in the Furnace, and St. Thekla in-a Burning Brazier,
conversing with St. Paul : most of these belong definitely to the cycles of Early
Christian art, though the martyrdom scene points to a date probably not earlier
than the fifth century. The personifications of Eu;^ (Prayer) and Eighteousness
(AiKaioo-wj;) holding scales and cornuacopiae are of especial interest, and recall
those of Faith and Hope at Bawit: among other single figures appears the
Virgin as oralis. The ornamental motives, which include vine-scrolls and
massive wreaths like those of early mosaics at Eavenna and elsewhere, all
point to an early date.
A rock chamber at Athribis, two mUes south of the White Monasterj' near
Sohag, has on its whitened walls figures very rudely painted in red.- The
principal represent figures in the attitude of orantes between crosses ; one of
them, who stands between lions, is probably Daniel. Birds with crosses on then-
heads, a hunting scene, &c., occupy the less prominent positions, and on one wall
is a Coptic inscription. On account of the summary nature of the drawing the
date is not easy to determine, but the birds rather resemble those on the Coptic
stelae, and the work may be as early as the seventh or eighth century.
The apses and west end of the nave in the older Church of El Hadra at the
Syrian monastery by the Natron Lakes'* are decorated with mural paintings.''
The subjects are the Annunciation, in which the Virgin stands as in the
Etchmiadzin Gospel, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi, the Ascension,
and the Death of the Virgin. The scheme of the Nativity is simple, neither
the ox and ass nor the nurses washing the Child being present : the composition
resembles that on the cover of the Etchmiadzin Gospel (see p. 208). In the
Koimesis the soul of the Virgin held by Our Lord has the form of a diminutive
swathed figure. These paintings all lie over work of earlier date : the Ascension
is superposed on an older representation of the same subject. The upper and
more recent work is on a blue ground, and of a formal and conventional
character; the lower series is on a white ground, and such parts of it as are
visible, especially the faces, indicate a freer and more skilful hand.
The stucco ornamentation in the haikal of this church appears to be of the
ninth century (see p. 151), and it seems probable that at any rate the early
paintings are of this age.

Worh of the Third Period.

The White Monastery near Sohag on the border of the Libyan desert,
originally dating from the fifth century, contains interesting mural paintings.
1 Vladimir de Bock, Matiriavx 'pour seroir a VarcMologie de VEgypte chritienne, St. Petersburg,
1901, 7ff., and PI. VI-XVI ; A. M. Lythgoe, Bulleiin of the Metropolitan Museum, New York,
1908, pp. 203 ff. (frescoes with allegorical and biblical persons, and biblical scenes) ; see also
Quibell, Congress of Archaeology at Cairo, 1909.
^ V. de Bock, Materiaux pour senir a V archiologie de Vigypte chritienne, St. Petersburg, 1901,
68 ff.. Pigs. 80-5, and PI. XXIX ; J. Cledat, Notes d'arch. et dephilologie in Bull, de V Inst, francais
du Caire, ii, and Cabrol, Diet, d'arch. chret. i, col. 2344 ff.
' A plan is given in Butler's Ancient Churches of Egypt, i. 821.
• J. Strzygowski, Oriens christianus, i, 1901, 866 ff. (no illustrations).
 287
MUEAL PATNTINGI-

In the central apse is a colossal figure of Christ enthroned within a mandorla,

holding the book in his left hand and raising his right in benediction.' The
head is unfortunately destroyed, but to right and left of it are seen the
abbreviated forms of Our Lord's name in Coptic and Armenian characters.
There is an Armenian inscription below to the left, mentioning a certain

Fio. 175. Our Lord enthroned : mural painting in the Mon.istery of St. Jeremias, Saqqara.
(Photo communicated by .T. E. Quibell, Esq.)

Gregory as the person who ordered the painting to be executed ; he may be

a bishop of the eleventh century.^ In four medallions to right and left of the
lower part of the mandorla are the four Evangelists, each holding a scroll with an
Armenian inscription : between them and the mandorla are Coptic and Armenian
inscriptions, the former dated a. d. 1124. In the southern apse a colossal cross
with a cloth draped across the arms is supported in a mandorla by two angels :
to right and left are the Virgin and- St. John the Baptist.' The soffit of the
' V. de Bock, Materiaux pour sercir, &c., 58 and Pi. XXI.
^ One of the Armenian inscriptions shows that Armenian painters were at work in the
church at the end of the eleventh century (J. Cledat in Cabrol's Did. d'arch. chritienne, s.v.
Bamat, col. 209). The name of Theodore, painter and copyist, is given, and M. Cledat says
that the apses in the White and Bed Monasteries have been four times restored.
' v. de Bock, MatSriawc pour sermr, &c., PI. XXII. De Bock did not pliotograph the
northern apse, nor (apparently) does he describe any paintings in it.
288 MURAL PAINTING

arch before the apse is painted with a series of medallions containing busts of
Apostles and rosettes.
The Eed Monastery, a few miles to the north-west of the White, contains
painted ornament dating from different reconstructions of the building, both
on the walls of the church and in the small chambers adjoining the central
apse.^ Some of the work seems to betray the same hands as that in the White
Monastery ; perhaps the Armenian restorers were at work in both places.
There are mural paintings at the Monastery of the Martyrs near Esneh.^ In
one of the sanctuaries there is upon the wall a group with an archbishop named
Gregory, a female orans, and another figure, near which the Entombment may
have been painted." Above the door is the Virgin enthroned with the Child
between two angels, executed in a better style, and probably earlier than the

Fig. 176. Angels : mural painting, Monastery of St. Jeremias, Saqqara.

(Plioto communicated by J. E. Quibell, Esq.)

last group : in the dome is an imbricated design. Another sanctuary has in

the apse a large figure of Our Lord enthroned, the face unfortunately obliterated.*
The mandorla is flanked by the four apocalyptic beasts and by two kneeling
angels. In the intrados of the arch are St. Peter and St. Stephen on either side
of a central cross. In another chamber are the Virgin and two angels, with
remains of Coptic inscriptions, the whole rudely executed. Some of the Esneh
inscriptions are of the eighth century, though it is doubtful whether any of the
wall paintings are so early. There is again an affinity to some of the work iri
the White Monastery, which, as we have seen, is conjectured to be the work of
Armenian restorers at the close of the eleventh century.
The wall paintings in the Monastery of St. Simeon at Assuan are of consider-
able interest.^ The east apse of the church shows Our Lord enthroned in a

^ V. de Bock, MaUriaux pour servir, &c., 66. De Bock does not describe the paintings
in detail. What is visible in his plate shows borders of quatrefoils, overlapping circles, &c.
' V. de Bock, MaUriaux pour servir, as above.
3 Ibid., 76. * Ibid., PI. XXX.
' J. de Morgan, Catalogue des monuments de VEgypte antique, i. 129 ff., Vienna, 1894 ; A. Gayet,
Le Heir d' Assouan, 161 ff., 1892 ; V. de Bock, MaUriaux pour servir, 81 ; N. H. J. Westlake, Mural
Painting, ii. 106-7.
 MUEAL PAINTING 289

mandorla flanked by two standing angels and other figures. ' Below, as well as
on the walls of a chapel cut in the rock, there are friezes of saints. The ceiling
of the chapel is painted with panels and fret-like designs.^ Eelationships with
paintings in the White Monastery, and at Esneh, supposed to be of the eleventh
century,"siiggest that the present work is of that date.
Chambers cut in the rock at Deir Abu Hennis, south of the ruins of Antinoe,
are ornamented with interesting frescoes representing scenes from the early life
of Christ, &c. ; they are in a bad state of preservation.' The inscriptions show
that they are not in any case earlier than the first half of the seventh century.
Other rock chambers with painted subjects have been noted at Gourneh.*
In the second pylon at Philae was a mural painting, and in one of the
chambers of the first pylon traces of colour. Frescoes in the apse of the Temple
of Luxor are almost effaced. There are also remains at Kalabche, and at El-Azam,
near Assiut.^
Algeria and Tunis seem to have yielded little or nothing of Christian date.
The wall paintings discovered are of the pre-Byzantine period, and do not
therefore come within our province. They are few in number, the most
remarkable being in a subterranean chapel on the south-east side of the Hill
of St. Louis at Carthage."
(d) Constantinople and Salonika, Greece, the Balkan Peninsula,
the Islands.
In Constantinople itself the Parekklesion or lateral gallery on the south side
of the Mosque of Kahrie Djami (p. 416) contains frescoes of two different periods ;
the most interesting and the best appear to date from the early fourteentl^ century,
and are probably contemporary with Theodore Metochites.' In the cupola the
Virgin is seen accompanied by archangels ; on the side walls are warrior saints,
bishops, and ascetics ; above are subjects from the Old Testament. In a niche
an indistinct painting seems to represent an emperor with his family, and once
had an inscription. The poorer work is chiefly on the east side, and is perhaps
of the fifteenth century. An equally late representation of the Virgin and Our
Lord side by side is seen in the narthex of the church.'
There were late frescoes, perhaps of the time of the Palaeologi, within one of
the lateral archways of the Golden Gate."
The Cathedral of Herakleia (the ancient Perinthus), near Constantinople,
now half-ruinous, has mural paintings following the later Byzantine tradition. '"
In Salonika frescoes are visible beneath the Turkish whitewash in the
narthex of Sta Sophia ;" on a blue ground, Moses receives the tables of the Law,
and the Three Children of Babylon are seen in the furnace : there are also figures
of saints, and the sacred monogram. On the east wall of the church are busts in
medallions, and in the gallery a row of saints, once more on a ground of blue.
In the Mosque of Eski Djuma at Salonika, formerly the Church of Hagia
Paraskevi, there are remains of painting, perhaps in true fresco, in the soffits of
the window openings.^^ In one is a stiff plant rising from a vase upon a red
' De Book, as above, PI. XXXI. ^ Ibid., PI. XXXII ; de Morgan, as above, 135.
' Ibid., 84, PI. XXXIII; J. Cl^dat, Bull, de finsiitut franfais d'arch. orientale du Caire, ii,
1902, 1-30 ; Westlalje, as above, 107 ff. Mr. Westlake notes tlie Egyptian character of the
floral ornament.
* Ibid., 85; Maspero, Eevue arch., 1888, Pt. II, 213 ; Sayce, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., viii. 187;
Bouriant in M6m. de la mission arch, frangaise du Caire, i. 33 ff. ^ De Bock, 89.
* For the literature see Cabrol, Diet, d'arch. chret, &c., s.v. Afrique, sect. xxvi.
' Ch. Diehl, Etudes hyzantines, 416 if., Paris, 1905 ; Th. Schmit, Izmestiya of the Russian
Arch. Inst, at Constantinople, xi, 1906, Atlas, PI. 81 and 82 ; Pulgher, Anciennes eglises hyzan-
tines de Constantinople, p. 33 and PI. XXX.
' Pulgher, as above, PI. XIX, Fig. 1. ' Van Millingen, Walls of Constantinople, p. 65.
1° Jahreshefte des osterreichischen arch. Inst, in Wien, i ; Kalinka and Strzygowski, Die Cathe-
drals von Herakleia. ■'' Smirnoif in V. V., v, p. 369.
'2 The information is derived from Mr. W. George, who has reproduced these designs in
colour for the Byzantine Kesearch and Publication Fund.
1201 TJ
290 PAINTING
MUEAL
 291
MUEAL PAINTING

ground, which appears to belong to an earlier series ; others have thin scroll
designs in dark pigment upon grey or red-brown grounds ; another has a recurrent
design, derived from the palmette, in white upon a parti- coloured ground of
red and green. These later designs recall the work of the eleventh century.
On the wall of the south gallery next the narthex is a fine sketch of a bird
--^!^.-^.::-fmms:-

Pig. 178. Saints : mural painting in the Parthenon, Athens.

(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.) P. 292.

in brown upon the white mortar jointing of the rubble work. Other sketches
of birds are also to be seen.
The Byzantine wall paintings in Greece and the Balkan Peninsula are still
numerous, though many have been destroyed or half effaced,^ while others have
been covered with whitewash or repainted at a more recent datf . The work in
little out-of-the-way churches is often of great interest, and in itself as important
as that in buildings which are better known ; but unless accessible to study by
means of photographs or published reproductions it cannot at present possess
' A decree of Otho I, dated May 20, 1836, placed all the ruined churches in Greece at the
disposal of the Ministry of Public Instruction, with unfortunate results from the point of view
of archaeology and art. Didron, in a passage quoted by Mr. Westlake [History of Mural Painting,
ii. 100), described the melancholy state of affairs in 1844. In numbers of churches frescoes of
considerable age are covered over with one or more coats of whitewash, so that they cannot be
studied : so at Merbaka in Argolis (A. Struck, Ath. Mitth., 1909, 204).

U 2
 292 MUEAL PAINTING

the same value for the general student.^ Attention must here be confined to a
limited number of sites which can be made profitable for comparative study.
As a whole the compositions on the walls of these churches are marked by-
great uniformity : the artists are obedient to the iconographical canons of their
time, and originality is seldom found either in subject, conception, or in
technique. Where it does occur, as at Mistra, it is doubly impressive.
At Athens, the Parthenon, which was used as a church from the seventh
century, has important remains of mural painting^ (Figs. 178, 179). The oldest
are those on the north wall of the opisthodomos, which in Christian times'became

h'fi't^\ t

--/,

I'c1 1S l7' '

Fig. 179. Saints : mural painting in the Parthenon, Athens.

(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.)

the narthex. Here there are three tiers of single figures rather above life size,
possessing repose and dignity, and perhaps of the eleventh century : they are in
red outline, directly upon the marble, with slight shading. In the centre of the
upper zone Our Lord was seen enthroned ; in the middle of the lower the
Virgin with the Child : the other figures are standing saints formerly accom-
panied by their names. The painting is now fragmentary, and the work is only
extensive on one side.
The frescoes in the dome of the Church of the Mcgali Panagia, now destroyed,
' Lampakis, AfXTi'oj' T^sXpiariaviK^s 'ApxaioXojtKrjs 'Eraipias, i, &c. ; Smirnoff, V. V., vi. 323.
Some of the paintings in these churches are dated. Lampakis {Mem. sur les antiguitds
chritiennes de la Grece, Athens, 1902) mentions several churches with frescoes, some of which,
however, like Kaisariani, are too late for our limit. Among them are : Asteri, Karea, and
St. John Theologos on Hymettos, the monastic churches of Phaneromeni at Salamis,
Hierothea near Megara, St. George at Phaneas, Corinth, Monemvasia, Calambaca, Zerbitsa,
Golla, &c.
2 Scottish Review, vi, 1885, Some Christian Monuments of Athens, by the Marquis of Bute ;
N. H. J. Westlake, Archaeologia, li. 173 S., and History of Mural Painting, ii. 90 ff. Mr. "Westlake,
in the latter work, suggests that the frescoes of the north wall may date from before the
time of Basil II, who himself visited the Parthenon.
 MUEAL PAINTING- 293

had in the centre the Pantokrator, and below, in semicircular compartments,

the nine orders of the heavenly hierarchy ; below again was a zone representing
the firmament, in which were visible the signs of the zodiac. The spandrels
probably had the four Evangelists.^ Between the windows were the terrestrial
subjects, the deeps, whirlpools, powers of nature, fruitful hills, &c. The whole
composition was intended to illustrate the last three Psalms, which together
formed the group known as the Amoi. The Church of St. Andrew has mural
paintings conforming to the later Byzantine tradition.^
The Church of the Eedeemer, now destroyed, had in the dome the Panto-
krator, below whom were two zones of seraphs and angels ' (Fig. 153).
The Church of St. Michael (Asomatos Taxiarches), not far from the Megale
Pcmagia, has frescoes which were once of considerable merit.* The largest,
divided into two vertical halves, represented the Agony in the Garden and the
Betrayal, with busts in medallions below. It is rather difficult to judge the
date of this work from the reproductions, but it should be later than that in the
Parthenon (Fig. 177).
At St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis frescoes have replaced the lost mosaics in the
dome of the greater church,^ while in the crypt of St. Barbara beneath, more
modern paintings cover work of an earlier period, probably of the eleventh or
twelfth century : " in 1839 Didron recorded that the walls of the smaller Church
of the Theotokos, now whitewashed, were covered with frescoes.
At Kaisariani in Attica the church is fully decorated with frescoes of the
seventeenth century : although late they may be mentioned here, because a
scheme of their arrangement has been published,' and the arrangement itself is
largely traditional.
At Mistra in the Morea' (p. 44), the churches of the Peribleptos, Panta-
nassa, and Panagia of the Brontocheion have still a great part of their original
decoration ; traces remain in the church of the two Saints Theodore ; under the
whitewash of the Metropolitan Church subsist remains which may represent
the earliest art of this region. All the visible work, however, dates from the
period of the Palaeologi.
It has been stated that Mistra represents one of the most interesting phases
of Byzantine art, a phase which was probably so far original as to have
developed without direct influence from the West, whatever indirect benefit
Eastern artists may have derived from the contact of East and West during this
period (p. 20) (Figs. 180-4).
M. Millet finds at Mistra the work of three schools. Firstly, at the Metro-
politan Church there was a school of fine draughtsmen, following older tradition,
content with the convention and restraint of the past, but finely expressive in
their treatment of the human figure. In the second place stands a school which
may be described as impressionist, following the new tendencies towards the
picturesque. The artists of this school multiply the personages, enrich the
decoration, and create a conventional architecture to enliven their backgrounds.
But the figures are powerfully conceived and vigorously modelled ; they are not
always vague types, but stamped with the impress of individuality. The work
of this school is found in the Brontocheion as well as in the Metropolitan Church.
The work of the third school, of which the activity is best seen in the Peribleptos,
is elegant and graceful ; its artists love the minute and the finished, as if they
were miniaturists at heart and church decorators by accident. They understand
the antique ; many of their figures are of a singular if effeminate charm. The
'■ Scottish Review, as above, 102, 104-5 ; Archaeologia, as above, 181 ff. and PI. VIII ; West-
lake, Hist, of Mural Painting, 92. " Millet in B.Z., i, 1892, 646-8.
^ Westlake, History, as above, 97. The figure is from a drawing by Mr. T. J. Wilson, done
in 1846-7. * Archaeologia, as above, 185 ; Westwood, History, as above, 99.
= Sehultz and Barnsley, 65. ^ Ibid., 34.
' Strzygowski and Lambros, "E^. 'Apx. 1902, 92 ff.
' G. Millet, Monuments iyzantins de Mistra, 1910, and B. C.H., xviii, 1895, 453 ff. ; L. Magne,
Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Third Period, xvii, 1897, 806 (water-colour drawings by M. Yperman
reproduced).
 294 MURAL PAINTING

decorators of the Pantanassa (a. d. 1430) are masters of rich colour and precise
line ; the picturesque and the pathetic attract them'; they are no longer in accord
with the tranquillity and detachment which distinguish the ' old masters ' of
Byzantine art.
Frescoes of the Comnenian dynasty and later still exist in churches in the
islands, though in many cases they have been covered with whitewash. Such
covered paintings can be discerned in the exonarthex of Nea Moni on Chios.'

Fig. 180. The Death of the Virgin : mural painting of the fourteenth century in the Church
of the Peribleptos, Mistra. {Sautes EtuHes : G. Millet.) P. 293.

There are no mural paintings of the first two periods in Servia and Mace-
donia ;^the earliest belong to the period of the Nemanja dynasty (p. 40). As
in Eussia, the first masters were Byzantine, but rapidly formed a local school,
and in the transitional period it is difficult to say where the work of the masters
ceases and that of the pupils begins. The picturesque style represented in
1 Byz. Zeitschr., v, 1896.
^ P. Pokryshkin, (hihodox Ecclesiastical Architecture of the ZII-XVIII Centuries in the Modern
Kingdom of Servia, St. Petersburg, 1906 (in Russian), many plates ; W. PetkoviiS in Nowa Iskra,
1906, Iconography of the Monastery Churches in Servia (reviewed, B. Z., xvi. 742) ; Kondakoff (Mace-
donia, St. Petersburg, 1909, p. 65) says that drawings made by Valtrovitoh and Miliutinovitch
and exhibited at the first Archaeological Congress in Moscow, 1872,' remain unpublished.
 MUEAL PAINTINa 295

Fio. 181. Remains of mural paintings of the fourteenth century, Church of the Brontocheion,
Mistra. < iraufes Etudes : G.mWet.) P. 293.
296 MUEAL PAINTING

mosaic by the cycle in the Mosque of Kahrie Djami at Constantinople (see p. 416),
and in fresco by the wall paintings at Mistra (p. 298), occurs early in Servia (see
frescoes of Nerez below), and is probably to be ascribed to Byzantine influence :
it is also found in the mural paintings at GradaC (middle of the thirteenth
century) : these analogies lend a peculiar interest to these Servian monuments.
In the sixteenth century analogies with the art of Mount Athos are numerous.
From this jjeriod national Servian features begin.
In the monastery church of Nerez near Uskub (Skopia) are a few frescoes
considered contemporary with the building (twelfth century). These are in the
prothesis and diakonikon and the lateral chambers corresponding to them in the
north-west and south-west of the church, and in the neighbourhood of the altar,
the latter with Greek inscriptions. The subjects are with difiBculty dis-
tinguished, but the colouring and style are said to differ from those of the
remaining frescoes, the earliest of which are assigned to the sixteenth or
seventeenth centuries.^ The style of the earlier work is held to anticipate the
manner found in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries at Mistra.
In the monastery church of Treskaveo, not far from Prilep in Macedonia,
two domed lateral chambers have frescoes dating from the end of the twelfth
or the beginning of the following century. They represent Our Lord, the
Virgin, the Etimasia, and a number of martyrs and saints. These chambers
are very dark, and without artificial light the work cannot be properly
examined.^ This church also possesses frescoes of King Stephen MiUutin
(a. d. 1281-1322) and a princess, probably Simonida his consort, daughter of
Andronicus and Irene.' These are of the fourteenth century, and are probably
good portraits. Other frescoes in the church are perhaps later reproductions of
damaged original designs.
The frescoes of the Kraljeva Crkva at Studenitza of a. d. 1314, with scenes
from the life of the Virgin, exhibit a similar treatment to that found in the
mosaics of the inner narthex at Kahrie Djami (p. 420) and that in the Monastery
of Vatopedi on Mount Athos, all being of about the same period.* There is
much liveliness and an approach to realism in the work in this church, the
Descent into Hell being especially fine. Earlier frescoes at Studenitza, in the
church founded about a. d. 1200, include a Crucifixion and Last Judgement.^
Zica, founded a. d. 1222-1228, has frescoes representing the Bearing of the
Cross and the Forty Martyrs in an excellent style."
Frescoes in St. John the Evangelist at Ochrida represent Our Lord,
prophets, and angels (dome): others, in the body of the church, are overlaid
with whitewash.'
St. Clement, Ochrida, has Gospel scenes, and an interesting portrait of the
dynast Osto Eayakovitch : the inscriptions are Slavonic, and the date the close
of the fourteenth centurj'.^
The work at Eavanitza, Manassiya, Kalenic, and Liubostynia is ascribed to
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.'
The ruinous Church of Zaum (a. d. 1361), on the south-east shore of Lake
Ochrida," has frescoes of the period in very bad condition. Over the principal
door is the Beesis, on either side of it three figures of saints and royal personages.
In the apse is the Virgin with a Greek inscription ((MP) GV (axeLpo)Tr6irjToi) :
below her are saints in medallions, and the throne with the lamb and chalice

' P. N. Miliukoff, Isviestiya of the Russian Arch. Institute at Constantinople, iv, Sophia,
1899,187.
^ Ibid., 113 ff. For this church see also Antonin, Travels in Rumelia.
' Miliukoff, PI. 19 b. This king is represented with Simonida in a fine church at Nagurid,
two hours east of Kumanovo (A. J. Evans, Anhaeologia, xlix, p. 155).
* Kondakoff, Macedonia, 65-6. See Strzygowski's review of Pokryshkin, B. Z xvi 731
» Kondakoff, 65. ^ Ibid. ' Kondakoff, 236.
« Kondakoff, 245. s gy Petrovic.
lo Miliukoff, as above, 83-6, and PI. IX and X.
 297
MURAL PAINTING

flanked by four bishops. Other subjects are the Assumption, Our Lord
enthroned, the Virgin enthroned, St. Peter of Alexandria before Our Lord and
a series of life-sized saints, including two stylites on columns.
In the fourteenth-century Church of Liubiten, which from its high position
looks south towards Uskub, are frescoes ^ representing King Stephen Dusan his
consort Helena, and his son (north wall), while on either side of the chief door

Fie. 182. Part of an Ascension : mural painting of the fourteenth century, Chureh of the
Perlbleptos, Mistra. {Hautes Etudes : Gt. Millet.)

are SS. Michael and Gabriel, and Cosmas and Damian. In the apse Our Lord
is seen giving the Communion in both kinds, and there are various saints, with
inscriptions in Greek. To right and left of the apse are apostles and saints,
also with Greek inscriptions. Other paintings have Slavonic inscriptions.
They include a number of Our Lord's miracles, Christ in the Synagogue, Christ
and the Samaritan Woman, and various saints. The dome having fallen in, and
the roof being now ruined, these paintings are rapidly decaying ; later travellers
have noticed deterioration since the visit of Dr. Arthur Evans. Miliukoff is of

' A. J. Evans, Antiquarian Researches in lUyricum, in Archaeologia, xlix, p. 93 ; P. N. Miliu-

koif, Izviestiya of the Russian Arch. Inst, at Constantinople, iv. 130-2 (Sophia, 1899) ;
N. Koudakoff, Macedonia, 177 ff.
298 MUEAL PAINTING

opinion that all date from the fourteenth century. Kondakoff notes the
intrusion of naturalistic details into the Byzantine compositions.
The church on the island of Mali Grad in the south-west of Lake Presba is
built within the shadow of an enormous cave.'^ On the exterior, about the
principal entrance, the wall is covered with frescoes : in a tympanum is the Birth
of the Virgin ; about the door, the Last Judgement ; above it the Virgin sits
enthroned between a prince and princess ^ and their children. Of these paint-

FiG. 183. Mural painting of the early fifteenth century, Church of the Pautanassa, Mistra.
{Hautes jtudes : Q. Millet.)

ings the upper alone, with the representations of princely personages, are
considered older than the seventeenth century, to which the others are assigned.
The interior is richly decorated. On the triumphal arch is the Deesis ; below,
Our Lord in a mandorla supported by angels. In the apse is the Virgin, on
either side angels and saints ; below, a throne flanked by bishops. On the side
walls of the church a lower zone is occupied by life-sized saints ; a higher zone
contains a row of medallions with busts of saints ; above this is a broader zone
embracing on each side half of the barrel-vaulted roof, and covered with Gospel
scenes : Nativity, Salutation, Flight into Egypt, Baptism, Christ before Caiaphas
' Miliukoff, as above, 68 ff., and PI. XX, XXI.
2 Greek inscriptions give the name of the prince as Novak, who lived towards the middle
of the fourteenth century, a date confirmed by two inscriptions in the church. But an
exterior inscription mentions restoration at the beginning of the seventeenth century ; and it
becomes a question how much of the work was left untouched, and whether even the in-
terior inscriptions have not been repeated .
 MUEAL PAINTINQ 299

and Pilate, Christ mocked, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Transfiguration,
Betrayal and Crucifixion, the Maries at the Tomb, the Anastasis, and Assump-
tion. While the artist adheres in the main to the traditional types, he shows
force and originality : the gestures are lively, the grouping in the more com-
plicated scenes is well conceived. In spite of certain features which suggest
a later date (seventeenth century), Miliukoff inclines to the belief that the
majority of the frescoes are of the fourteenth century.
The Church of St. Spaso, at the village of Boria {Emporia), in the valley of
Korch, south-west of Lake Ochrida, founded in a. d. 1390 under Amerales, son
of Novak, is likewise covered with frescoes.^ A Greek inscription over the chief
door mentions the name of this prince, with those of John V Palaeologus and
his son.
On the exterior of the same wall is a Last Judgement ; the interior is covered
with frescoes. In the apse is the Virgin as orans, with the Child in a medallion
on her breast, and the inscription ■}) TrdvToiv x°-P"- Below is the Lamb upon a
disk placed on a throne with a chalice, flanked by four episcopal saints. On the
triumphal arch is the Annunciation ; on its lower parts are St. Cyril and
St. Stephen. On the south wall are the Entry into Jerusalem and the
Betrayal ; on the north, the Crucifixion and the Maries at the Tomb ; below
are full-length figures of saints, including Constantine and Helena. The work
in the dome is almost destroyed, but there are traces of thfe forms of prophets
and the Evangelists in the pendentives. These frescoes are inferior to those of
Mali Grad (see above).
The wall decoration of the monastery church of Markov to the south of
Uskub, though very much has been destroyed, contains some work ascribed to
the close of the fourteenth century.'' This is chiefly the upper part of the walls
in the interior. In the bema are the Communion of the Apostles, Last Supper,
and Christ appearing after his Resurrection, with Greek inscriptions ; below are
subjects with Slavonic inscriptions, two representing adoration of the Virgin.
Miliukoff assigns the older work to about the year a. d. 1400.
To about the same period belong the figures of Ibunders on the exterior of
the monastery church of the Archangels near Prilep,' and in the Church of
Matka, where there are a Virgin and Child, an Ascension, saints, and prophets
in the bema.*
To the fifteenth century belong the mural paintings of St. Peter's, at Presba.
Outside, over the door, is the Virgin, with a Greek inscription. The Virgin is
repeated within in the apse ; below her is the Lamb upon a throne flanked by two
bishops ; near by, on the vault, Our Lord is seen enthroned and in the act of
benediction. On the lateral walls are the Baptism, Transfiguration, Presentation
of the Virgin, Eaising of Lazarus, Maries at the Tomb, Crucifixion, Entomb-
ment, and Anastasis. In a lower zone are numerous saints. A Greek inscrip-
tion gives the date of this decoration as a. d. 1410.
A church at Nagorio, apparently dedicated to St. George, has frescoes of
later date than the fourteenth century ; but the cathedral of the same place, also
dedicated to St. George and founded in a. d. 1330, has mural paintings of
exceptional quality.* In the five domes are various representations of Christ ;
in the apse, the Virgin and Child between angels, and below, the Last Supper.
On the walls are Gospel scenes, the Death of the Virgin, the Last Judgement, &c.;
in the narthex, in superposed zones, are the lives of SS. George and Demetrius,
with numerous saints and prophets. Kondakoff considers the work of the same
century as the foundation of the building.
In the church at Mateetz,' near Kumanoff, now roofless, are to be seen the
' Miliukoff, as above, 75 ff.
'' Miliukoff, aa above, 134 ff. ; A. J. Evans, Archaeologia, xlix. 84, 98-9 ; Kondakoff, Macedonia,
180 ff. Since the visit of Dr. Evans mucli vandalism has taken place. The portraits of King
Vukasin and his son on the outer wall have disappeared.
» Miliukoff, 145. * Kondakoff, Macedonia, 191.
5 Miliukoff, 60-62. « Kondakoff, 194 ff. ' Kondakoff, 199 ff.
300 MURAL PAINTING

Communion of the Apostles (in the bema), with large figures of prophets,
apostles, and saints. On the west wall is the Death of the Virgin ; on the left
side are various members of the Servian royal house, the lower part of the work
being damaged. The architecture of the building is of the fourteenth century.
The Church of Grachanitza, founded by Milutin (a. d. 1275-1321), is painted
with figures of saints, the lower part being much damaged, the building having
been used as a stable by the Turks : on two piers of the central dome are seen
Stephan Urosh and his Byzantine consort, Simonida.' The work dates from
before the close of the fourteenth century, and may be contemporary with the
church. In the narthex, which is a later construction, are portraits of St. Simeon

Fig. 184. The Ti-ansfiguratiou : mural painting of the fourteenth century, Church of the
Peribleptos, Mistra. (Uautes itudes : G. Millet.)

in monastic dress, and his son, St. Sava, in episcopal vestments." On the west wall
is the Death of the Virgin, and above it the Miracle at Cana and the Expulsion
of the Merchants from the Temple. In the large dome, Our Lord with the four
Evangelists, the type of head recalling that seen at Monreale. Other figures
include the Virgin as orans between Michael and Gabriel, above her being Christ
Emmanuel. Kondakoff finds the work representative of the best late Byzantine
manner, ' as if illuminated miniatures had been transferred to the walls.'
Other frescoes of the sixteenth century and later, some in churches already
mentioned as containing earlier work, are enumerated by Miliukoff,' but cannot
be mentioned here.

(e) Mount Athos, Russia, the Caticasus.

The Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Kieff,* founded by Yaroslav in the first half
of the eleventh century, has in addition to its mosaics (p. 394) an extensive

' Kondakoff, Macedonia, 205 ff. ; M. E. Durham, High Albania, 279 ff., 1909.
2 Durham, as above, 281. ' pp. 145-6.
* D. Ainaloff and E. Eiedin, Tlie Cathedral of Sta Sophia of Kieff, St. Petersburg, 1887, serving
as text to the Album issued by the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society, entitled :
Antiquities of the Russian Empire : the Cathedral of Kieff, St. Petersburg, 1871-87. The most con-
venient work for a preliminary study is Ainaloff and Riedin's ^nraeni Monuments of Art in Kieff:
 MURAL PAINTING 301

series of mural paintings in tempera.' These in their origin no doubt go back

to the century in which the church was built ; but the greater part of them
were subjected to drastic restoration between 1843 and 1848, only those in the
Chapel of St. Michael remaining untouched, by imperial command. The paint-
ings had suffered very seriously from the various disasters which befell the
building during the first five hundred years of its existence. Then in the
seventeenth century, during the Uniat occupation of the fabric, they were
covered with whitewash, beneath which they were rediscovered in 1843. The
restorations followed the ancient work as far as it was possible to trace it, and
though they cannot be regarded as absolute reproductions they present the
general character of Byzantine religious art at the time of Yaroslav's conversion.
The principal paintings are in the Chapels of SS. Joachim and Anne,
St. Peter, St. George, and St. Michael (only those in the latter, as above
remarked, remaining in their original condition), in the transept and in the
galleiy, and on the walls of the stairs leading up to it. The decoration of the
stairs is of exceptional interest because it is purely secular in its subjects.
The Chapel of St. Joachim and St. Anne has the various scenes based on the
story of the Apocryphal Gospels, including the meeting at the Golden Gate, the
Nativity of the Virgin, her life in the Temple, Betrothal to Joseph, Annunciation,
and Salutation.
The work in the Chapel of St. Michael is but imperfectly preserved, but there
are traces of the Victory over Satan and figures of saints, while the apse
contains a fine figure of the archangel with outspread wings. On the roof are
remains of scenes in which the angel appears to Joshua, Balaam, and Zachariah.
The Chapel of St. Peter contains scenes from the life of the saint, including the
Baptism in the House of the Centurion Cornelius and the Delivery from Prison.
In the Chapel of St. George are paintings of a similar biographical nature,
the most remarkable being the martyrdom of the saint in boiling pitch.
In the transept the subjects illustrate scenes from the Passion and after :
Christ before Caiaphas, the Denial of Peter, the Crucifixion, Anastasis, Appear-
ance to the Holy Women, Incredulity of Thomas, the Mission of the Apostles,
and the Pentecost. The Crucifixion is of the more elaborate type, with the
two thieves, Longinus and Stephaton, the Virgin with three attendant women,
St. John, and the centurion and his follower.
In the gallery are scenes from the Old and New Testament : Emmaus and
the Miracle at Cana, Betrayal and Last Supper, Sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham enter-
taining the Angels, the Three Children of Babylon in the furnace. The walls
and columns are covered with whole and half figures of saints, almost entirely
renovated : among the whole figures may be mentioned Constantino and Helena
and Cyril and Methodius ; among the latter, the personifications of Faith, Hope,
Charity, and Divine Wisdom ; names seem to have been somewhat arbitrarily
assigned to figures of which little more than the original contour was visible.
The very curious secular paintings on the walls of the staircases ^ represent
performances in the hippodrome attended by the emperor and empress, perhaps
on the occasion of an important public festival (Christmas ?). We see the
imperial personages, with their guards and attendants, seated in the Kathisma ;
the charioteers of the four factions behind the barriei's ready to start ; musicians,
dancers, and acrobats,'' including a man bearing a pole on his shoulder up which
a boy is swarming ; combats between mounted and unmounted men and beasts ;

the Cathedral ofSta Sophia, Charkoff, 1899, and to this the references in the above brief account are
given. See also N. Pokrovsky, Mural Decoration of Early Greek and Russian Churches, St. Peters-
burg, 1890, 45 ff. ; Tolstoy and Kondakoff, Russian Antiquities, iv. 124. All the works mentioned
are in the Russian language.
' Ainaloff and Kiedin, 27. The colour was applied to the dry stucco by a medium of size
or white of egg.
2 Ainaloff and Riedin, 1899, 45 if. ; N. Kondakoff, Zapiski of the Imperial Russian Archaeo-
logical Society, iii (3-4 of new series), 287 ff.
5 These scenes may be compared with those upon ivory carvings (consular diptychs at
303 MURAL PAINTING

single combats between pairs of men, one of the antagonists in one case wearing
an animal mask over his head.' Some of these hunting scenes have no con-
nexion with the amphitheatre, but are simply illustrations of the chase, as
enjoyed by princes of the time.^ There are trees in the background, and the
scene is evidently laid in the open country. As some of the animals, e. g. the
panther, are unknown in Eussia, and the costumes are oriental, it is probable
that the artists were not Eussians but Greeks.
An interesting episode represents men carrying a gift of a boar's head and
fore-quarter to the imperial palace.' An imperial procession hawks is only preserved
in a few imperfect figures. There are also the remains of and falcons
and of a number of fantastic animals and monsters, including winged lions and
gryphons of the usual oriental type.
Eussian mural painting in the twelfth century maintained the Byzantine
tradition, and it is in some cases a matter of dispute whether a given work was
executed by Byzantine or Eussian artists. Pokrovsky * has traced the history
of the art through the period preceding the Mongolian invasion to the Eenais-
sance of the sixteenth century and later times. Some of the older work of the
twelfth century may still have been executed by Greek artists, and Pokrovsky
holds that this is often the case even where inscriptions are not in Greek, native
artists, as in Italy, growing independent of their masters. The style of the
work in the Mirojsky Monastir at Pskof (a. d. 1156) is almost pui-ely Byzantine,
and that in the Cathedral of St. Demetrius at Vladimir (end of the twelfth
century) has been compared to MS. illumination. That at Neredits^ (a. d. 1199),
New Ladoga, in the district of Novgorod, is similar ; but in the Cathedral of the
Assumption at Vladimir we find a more picturesque and impressionist style
analogous to that of the Peribleptos at Mistra.
Down to the sixteenth century old iconographic traditions were followed :
there were fewer changes than in Western Europe. This fact, already noticed
in connexion with Byzantine art as a whole, is especially conspicuous in the
mediaeval art of Eussia.' In the sixteenth century the Eussians again based
their art upon the earlier Byzantine models, though introducing changes of
detail according with the national idiosyncrasy of taste and belief. In the
seventeenth century Western influences made themselves decidedly felt.
With the exception of those in the Chapel of St. George in the Monastery of
St. Paul, which date from a. d. 1423 (Fig. 185), the surviving mural paintings
on Mount Athos ' are not earlier than the first half of the sixteenth century.
It is true that there is record of work of a. d. 1198 at Chilandari. and in the
narthex of Vatopedi in a. d. 1312. But the old Cathedral of the Presentation
at Chilandari was destroyed at the close of the thirteenth century ; and the
other paintings are so drastically restored that the original work is often doubtful.
Those of Vatopedi were repainted in the year 1789 ; assuming the original

Liverpool and elsewhere ; panels from a casket in British Museum (p. 223~) ; oliphant of Jasz-
Beri5ny (p. 223). i Ainaloff and Riedin, Pig. 57. p. 48.
" The animals pursued are the bear, boar, panther, squirrel (?), &;o.
' Ainalofe and Riedin, 1899, Fig. 54, p. 47.
* Mural Decoration of Early Greek and Eussian Churches, oh. iv-viii. These chapters describe
the paintings at Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, and the post-Renaissance work at Mount
Athos in Greece .ind Eussia down to the eighteenth century.
5 ,T. Ebersolt, Mon. Plot, xi. 1-23 and PI.; Pokrovsky, Mural Paintings, 172 ff.; Bayet,
VArt lyz., 280.
* Pokrovsky, Sketch of the Monuments of Orthodox Iconography and Art, ch. ix-xi (St. Peters-
burg. 1891, in Russian). See also B. Z., v, 1896, 599.
' N. P. Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Athos, St. Petersburg, 1902, 50 ff. ;
Pokrovsky, Mural Becmations of Early Greek and Russian Churches, as above (both the above in
Russian); Bayet and Duchesne, Memoirs sur une mission au Mont Athos. Paris, 1876; Didron,
Annales
xxiii. 249arcMologiques,
; xxiv. 177 iv. 133, 223 Manuel
; Didron, ; v. 148; xvii. 72; xviii.
dHconographie 109, 197;
chretienne. xx.' 275 ; ;xxi.
Introduction 27, 80,
Diehl, 126 ;
Manuel,
p. 765. See also Brockhaus, Die Kunst auf den Athosklostern. Drawings by the artist Papety
are in the Louvre ; see also Bevue des Deux Mondes, 1847 ; Archives des missions, ii, p. 493. For
M. Miller's expedition see M. Proust's description, Le Tour du monde, 1861, pp. 103 ff.
 MURAL PAINTING 303

compositions to have been carefully followed, they are of much interest on

account of their similarity to the cycles with the life of the Virgin at Studenitza
(see p. 296) and Kahri6 Djami (p. 420).
These are the conclusions of the Kussian archaeologists who have devoted the
most careful study to these frescoes in recent times. Bishop Porphyry,
Pokrovsky, and Kondakoif are in general agreement, and the opinions of earlier
travellers and archaeologists, ascribing a remote date to many of these mural
paintings, can no longer be accepted. The memoir by MM. Bayet and Duchesne,
though published many years ago, is a short and scientific account free from

Fig. 185. Presentation and Death of the Virgin : mural painting of A. d. 1423 In the Chapel
of St. George, Monastery of St. Paul, Mount Athos. {Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

the inaccuracies and hasty generalizations contained in the works of many

travellers. The existing frescoes of Mount Athos do not therefore come within
our limits : it may, however, be stated that the most interesting are those
executed by Manuel Panselinos in a. d. 1535-6 in the Church of Protaton. A
list of dates of other frescoes from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century is
given by Kondakoff.' Bayet would assign the frescoes of Lavra to a similar
date.'' Most of the artists whose names are known were not trained on Athos :
Panselinos came from Salonika, Theophanes from Crete, Mark from Georgia,
and so forth. Panselinos is an interesting figure because he seems to have been
acquainted with Italian art of the fifteenth century, and by this knowledge to
have given new life to the earlier Byzantine types, to which, however, he
remained faithful.
Mural paintings in the later Byzantine style are in the Church of Kekresi in
the Caucasus.'

Artists from the Christian East (/) Italy. pupils have left their work upon
or their
the walls of the Eoman Catacombs. In the Basilica of SS. Felix and Adauctus,
' Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, 53.
^ Bayet and Duchesne, Archives des missions, 1876, 460 ff.
' Alluded to by C. de Linas, in Eemie de I'art chritien, 1883.
304 MUEAL PAINTING

in the catacomb of Commodilla/ one painting represents Our Lord seated on

the globe between St. Peter and St. Paul (the Traditio clavium), another the
Virgin enthroned with the Child between SS. Adauctus and Felix, the former
saint presenting to her a female figure described as Turtura. These two subjects
may go back to the early sixth century. A third fresco with a standing figure
of St. Luke is accompanied by an inscription stating it to have been executed
in the reign of a Constantino, apparently Pogonatus (a. d. 668-85). The figure
of the Virgin has been compared with that in the mosaics of S. ApoUinare
Nuovo at Eavenna, and the type attributed to Syria ; ^ the figure of Christ in
the Traditio clavium resembles that in the apse of S. Vitale in the same city.
Figures of SS. Emerita and Stephen are also in the Kavennate style. In all these
freicoes the colour is rich and solid in tone.
The well-known paintings in the catacombs of Ponzianus and Generosa are
clearly dependent on Byzantine inspiration.' In the cemetery of Generosa
are frescoes suggesting an East-Christian influence (Fig. 186).
In the catacombs of Albano, fifteen miles along the Appian Way, there is
a bust of Our Lord between busts of the Virgin and S. Smaragdus, similar in
style to the work in the catacomb of Ponzianus, but rougher : they may be of the
ninth century.*
The churches of these early centuries, where they have retained their mural
paintings, show an equal dependence upon East-Christian art.° Eemains of frescoes
with Greek inscriptions were found at S. Saba on the Aventine, a monastery
founded by Greek monks." Both here, in Sta Maria Antiqua (see below), and in
the later work in S. Urbano alia Caffarella, ornamental motives occur which are
found in the Codex Eossanensis and in the Gospel of Eabula (see pp. 448, 452) ;
conspicuous among these are the borders formed of overlapping disks tinted in
various colours.' The frescoes at S. Saba are in the oratory of S. Silvia beneath
the larger basUica of the twelfth century. Figures of saints, and a bust of
Our Lord, unfortunately damaged, are so finely treated and so nearly allied to
East-Christian work that they must be ascribed to Greek artists." A group of
monks in a cruder style appears to be later, though also oriental. Scenes from
the life of Christ of small size correspond to the work of Pope John VII in
Sta Maria Antiqua.
The mural paintings of Sta Maria in ScJiola G-raeca, executed during the
papacy of Hadrian (a. d. 772-95), are Byzantine in style."
The mural paintings in the Church of Sta Maria Antiqua under the Palatine
Hill and adjoining the forum illustrate in the most remarkable manner the art
which prevailed at Eome during the Dark Ages.^° The church, which was
' J. Wilpert, Nuovo Bullettino di-arch. crist., 1904, 161 ff. and PI. V-VII ; A. Munoz, Pitture
medievali romane, in L'Ariej 1905.
2 A. Munoz in L'Arte, as above, 55 ff. ; B. Z., xiv, 1905, 728.
3 See J. Wilpert, Die Malereien der Kaiakomben, 255, 257, 258, 262.
' Nuovo Bullettino di arch, crist., 1902, 101-2 and PI. IV. Above the Virgin's head are the
words MITCR THeV.
5 Cf. also the mosaics of the Triumphal Arch of Sta Maria Maggiore (p. 338).
* G-risar, in Civilta Cattolica, ser. 18, ii, p. 589; iii. 719; v. 194. See also B.Z., x, 1901,
714 ; xi, 1902, 661. ' A. Munoz, It Codice purpureo di Bossano, 22.
assuming the monastery to have been founded in the Wandmaiereien
8 'Wiischer-Becehi, R. Q., xvi, 1903 ; Die griechischen sixth century, inwould
S. Saba. Prothingham,
ascribe these finer
frescoes to about a.d. 600 {The Monuments of Christian Rome, 291). Wilpert {Studi su I'iconografia
cristiana, in Melanges d'arch. et d'histo%re, xxvi, 1906) assigns tlie earliest to the time of John VII,
the later perhaps to that of Paschal I (a.d. 817-24).
' Frothingham, Journ. Amer. Arch., x, 1895, p. 186.
'° For the literature down to the year 1905 see C. Hulsen, Ram. Mitth., xx. 84-94. The
first comprehensive account in English is that of Mr. G. N. Eushforth in Papers of the British
School at Rome, vol. i. Wilpert, who criticizes Eushforth on many points, has given excellent
reproductions in L'Arte, xiii, 1910, 1 ff., and will publish the whole decoration of the church.
See also B.Z., x, 1901, 713; xii, 1903, 434; xiv, 1905, 578; xv, 1906, 413; Venturi, Storia-^ .
ii. 257 ft'., 377 if.; E. Bertaux, Bome, ii, 50ff. ; W. von Grxineisen in Archivio della E. Soc.rom.distorid'
patria, xxix, 1906 ; Studi iconografici, &c. ; Diehl, Manuel, 327 ff. ; Photographs by Dr. Q-. Gar-
giolli in the Babinetto Fotograflco of the Ministry of Public Instruction, Via in Miranda 1.
MURAL PAINTING
305

It
C3

<4_, 50
O -

01

a 5C3 -i'

gi^

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o
306 MURAL PAINTING

crushed and buried by the fall of buildings above it in the ninth century, received
its decoration at various times between the sixth (possibly even the fifth) and
eighth centuries. The oldest work is seen in the lowest layer in the presbytery ;

Fig. 187. Mural paintings in Sta Maria Antiqua, Eome.

(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.)

the second layer should not be much later than the middle oi the seventh
century, as the inscriptions on the scrolls held by the Fathers of the Church are
derived from the Acta of the Lateran Council of a. d. 649. They may have
been executed under Pope Martinus (a. d. 649-53). The third layer in the
same place is ascribed to the time of John VII (a. d. 705-7). The work in
the Chapel of the Crucifixion is assigned to the time of Zacharias (a. d. 741-52) ;
that on the presbytery apse to that of Paul I (a. d. 757-67) ; and that of the
 MUEAL PAINTING 307

right wall of the court to that of Hadrian I (a. d. 772-93). Some of the
representations of popes have the square nimbus, an indication that the painting
was done in their lifetime.^ The Chapel of the Forty Martyrs has a figure of
St. Leo, medallions with busts of saints, a subject which may have been the
Anastasis, the Virgin, to whom a saint presents a pope with square nimbus, two
large crosses with medallions containing heads of Our Lord and the Virgin,
below which are lambs and peacocks, scenes perhaps from the life of St. Anthony,
and (in the apse) the Forty Martyrs frozen to death.
The court of Sta Maria Antiqua has on the entrance wall St. Agnes, St.
Cecilia, and other male and female saints ; on the right side Pope Hadrian offering
a book to the Virgin, St. Silvester, and other saints ; near these figures are a
Christ enthroned, St. Anthony the hermit, and a female saint. In the southern
corner is a female figure with dedicatory inscription, the name unfortunately
destroyed. On the left wall are more recent scenes from the life of St. Anthony ;
in the left corner a colossal head of St. Abbakyros, with spatula and medicine
boxes. On the wall opposite the entrance hardly anything remains but an
inscription giving a year conjectured to be a. d. 792.
In the nave the decoration is largely upon the piers: it comprises a head
of the Virgin, Daniel in the Lions' Den, St. Salomone and her Seven Sons
(2 Mace, vii), Our Lord enthroned between angels, the Annunciation (two repre-
sentations, one over the other, of different age), St. Demetrius, Judith with the
head of Holofernes, the Virgin with the Child, St. Anne with the infant Virgin
and Elizabeth with St. John ; above are scenes from the New Testament, almost
totally destroyed, though the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi can be
distinguished. The left aisle has Our Lord, with eleven Latin saints on his
right and nine Greek saints on his left. Above are scenes from the Old
Testament in two rows, the best preserved representing the history of Joseph.
By the entrance into the Chapel of the Crucifixion are two nude figures,
perhaps part of the group of the Forty Martyrs ; on piers are Christ between
saints, and the Three Children in the Fiery Furnace. In the lunette over the
apse is Christ crucified adored by angels, with a long inscription in Greek.
Below this are four half-figures of popes each with a rectangular nimbus, one
with his name, 8. Martinus p{a)p{a) Bomanus. Below, and immediately to the
right of the apse, three layers of stucco are distinguished, and the work may be
described as palimpsest. The lowest layer has the Virgin enthroned, adored by
angels ; the next, a mutilated Annunciation, in which the heads of the Virgin
and the angel remain ; the uppermost, almost life-sized figures of SS. Gregory
of Nazianzus and Basil. In the corresponding position to the left of the apse
only a nimbus with the name S. Augus(t)in(u)s remains. Below the palimpsest
only the second layer is preserved, with figures of St. Basil and St. John
Chrysostom holding inscribed scrolls ; to these figures correspond those of
SS. Leo and Gregory of Nazianzus on the left. The subjects on the upper part
of the wall are entirely perished.
In the apse " Paul I adores Our Lord, who stands between tetramorphs.
On the upper part of the side walls were continuous series of New Testament
scenes in two superposed rows. The story began on the left wall next the
entrance, but the only subjects which now remain are the Adoration of the Magi,
Christ before Pilate, the Bearing of the Cross, and a figure of the Virgin at the
far end ; below is a row of Apostles' heads in medallions. The series is
continued on the right wall, but the following alone are distinct : the Incredulity
of Thomas, the Appearance of Our Lord on Lake Tiberias, the Traditio clavium,
and the Appearance of Our Lord in Galilee. Below these are Apostles' heads in
medallions corresponding to those on the opposite side. The lower part of the
wall is painted to resemble hangings (cf. Kuseir Amra, p. 282), but near the
door is a figure of a female saint carrying a child.
' These examples of the square nimbus have given rise to some controversy (see B. Z.,
XV. 700). 2 Wiiseher-Becehi,
X 2Zeitschr.fur christl. Kunst, 1904, pp. 289 ff.
308 MUEAL PAINTINGS

The left-hand lateral chapel has on the back wall the Crucifixion, below which
is a Virgin with SS. Peter, Paul, Quiricus, and Julitta. Other subjects are the
founder carrying a model of the church, and three figures of popes. On the side
walls are eight scenes from the life of SS. Quiricus and Julitta, and the family of
Theodotus (?) adoring (the Virgin ?) ; on the entrance wall are Theodotus (?)
kneeling before SS. Quiricus and Julitta,^ and other saints.
In the right-hand lateral chapel are figures of various saints.

Fig. 188. The Ci-ucifixion : mural painting in Sta Mai-ia Antiqua, Rome.
(N. H. J. Weptlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.)
The frescoes in the lower Church of S. Clemente have affinities with East-
Christian art, but can hardly be described as Byzantine.^
The earlier wall paintings in the rock-cut oratories and churches of Southern
Italy ' are for the most part the work of Basilian monks who lived as eremites
in these regions and gathered at regular intervals to attend services in common.
' Probable repainting makes the identity of Theodotus uncertain {B.Z., xv. 700).
^ Wilpert, Le Pitture di S. Clemente in Milanges de Borne, 1906. For those in S. Maria in Via
Lata, see Cavazzi, Nuow Bullettino di Arch. Orist., xi, pp. 123 if. ; of the ninth or tenth century at
Vallerano, Calosso, Gli affreschi delta grotta del Salvatore, &c., 1907. For others in the Cathedral of
Anagni, P. Toesca in Le Gallerie nasionali, v, pp. 151 ff. Cf. also references in B. Z., xii, 1903, p. 709.
' Salazaro, Studi sui monumenii delV arte meridionale dal IV al XIII" secolo ; Diehl, L'Art bysantin
dans I'ltalie miridionale, 1894, smAManuel, p. 542 ; Ch. Bayet, VArt byzantin, pp. 299-801 ; Lenor-
mant, Notes arcMologiqnes sur la terre d^Otrante in Gazette archiologigue, 1881-2.
 MUEAL PAINTING 309

In many respects these chambers recall those of Cappadocia (see p. 268) decorated
approximately at the same time and under similar conditions.
These mural paintings of Calabria and the region of Otranto begin with
the tenth century, and the oldest are purely Byzantine, executed in simple
tones without bright colours or gilding. In the twelfth century a new art
appears, still obeying the old iconographic rules, but marked by a freer style
and a richer scheme of colour : in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
the work of this school was considerable, and is well represented by existing
remains.' The inscriptions which constantly accompany the paintings are
both in Greek and Latin, sometimes in one language alone, sometimes in
both ; but it hardly appears possible to distinguish between frescoes with
Greek and those with Latin inscriptions. At Soleto, SS. Stefani near Vaste,
in the crypts of Grottaglie, and of S. Biagio near Brindisi, work which almost
seems inspired by the feeling of contemporary Tuscan art is described by
Greek legends ; conversely, in the crypt of St. John near Brindisi figures
conceived in the purely oriental tradition are accompanied by inscriptions in
Latin. There was a gradual transition from the Byzantine to the Italian
manner ; and though Latin tended to predominate from the thirteenth
century, the occurrence of Latin inscriptions is not a certain test of indigenous
origin.
At Carpignano, north-east of Otranto, in a crypt beneath the Church of
Sta Maria delle Grazie, are paintings of various periods. In a niche is a Christ
enthroned,^ with an inscription below it giving the date as the year of the
world 6467, corresponding to a.d. 959. This evidence lends this representation
of Our Lord an especial value, for as a rule it is only miniatures which can
be dated with such absolute precision. The execution is superior and the
type is purely Byzantine. In a niche in the right wall Christ is again seen
enthroned ; here the style is ruder, the elongation accentuated, the hands
and draperies ill drawn. An accompanying inscription gives the date as
A. D. 1020. In the end wall is an arcosolium with figures of SS. Theodore (?),
Nicholas, and the Virgin seated with the Child. The conventionality of the
style and the exaggerated length of the faces suggest the twelfth century ;
in the inscription the date is uncertain, but may possibly be a.d. 1146.
On one of the pillars are three saints, perhaps of the thirteenth century.
Other figures of SS. Nicholas and Christina are probably not earlier than
the fifteenth.'
In the crypt of Sta Lucia near Brindisi are niches with a Virgin enthroned
with the Child, of the twelfth century," and later figures of SS. Peter, Mary
Magdalene, and Nicholas. In the Church of S. Giovanni in Sepolcro, a circular
building of the twelfth century, are figures of saints not earlier than the
fourteenth century, apparently superposed upon frescoes of earlier date.
In the crypt of St. John, situated in the farm of Cafaro in the same district,
a fine figure of an archangel, with orb and staff and wearing richly embroidered
robes, is in the style of Byzantine art of the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
to which period it appears to belong : ' the other wall paintings at this place
appear to be of the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
The neighbouring crypt of S. Biagio affords excellent examples of the
two styles of local art, the Byzantine and the indigenous, painted over frescoes
of earlier date. The former are upon the roof, the latter upon the walls of
the crypt. The date of the earlier designs (a. d. 1197) is given in an inscription
above the entrance doorway. The subjects of the roof, which is divided
into five compartments, are the Flight into Egypt (partially over-painted), the
1 Diehl considers this freer style the evidence of reawakening Italian art in the South of
Italy; Millet contests this (B. Z., xiv, 1905, 624), pointing out that an equal freedom and
vivacity characterize the fine frescoes of Mistra in the Peloponnese (see p. 293).
' i)iehl, L'Art bys., Pig. on p. 35. ' Diehl, as above, 29.
* Diehl, p. 47 ; Salazaro, as above, ii, pp. 30-1. ^ Diehl, Fig. on p. 49.
310 MUEAL PAINTING

Presentation, Annunciation (Fig. 189)/ and Entry into Jerusalem, the scenes
following the usual Byzantine arrangement, and a remarkable figure of Our Lord
with the open book containing the text ' I am the Light of the "World '. The
expression is severe, and on either side of the head are the words ' The Ancient
of Days '.^ The symbols of the Evangelists accompany this figure. The paint-
ings on the walls are for the most part saints, with a fine representation of
SS. George and Demetrius on horseback slaying dragons (Pig. 190)." The Nativity

Fig. 189. The Annunciation : mural painting in the crypt of S. Biagio, Biindisi.
(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.)

finds a place among the saints. These frescoes appear to be of the fourteenth
century.
In the territory of Otranto there are mural paintings of considerable
historical importance. In a small basilican church (the grotto dei Santi
Stefani), cut in the tufa near the village of Vaste near Otranto, the work of
three periods may be seen.* The Christ standing upon a footstool between
two adoring angels in the right apse,^ SS. Nicholas, Basil, and Gregory in the
corresponding apse on the left, and the neighbouring figure of the Archangel
Michael appear to be Byzantine work of the early twelfth century. These
paintings are executed upon a coating of stucco applied directly to the wall.
Another series of paintings covers a second layer of plaster, laid over the first
where the work appeared to need renovation. The most important of this
group is a Virgin standing as orans in a long red mantle ; a saint (St. John ?)
kneels at her right, and draws her attention to four diminutive figures kneeling
on the other side, above whose heads is an inscription giving a date — the
year of the world 6884 (a. d. 1376). Many other figures of saints upon a similar
' Busts of David and Isaiah on medallions are introduced into this scene.
' 'O TTaXaiJs T&v ijfiepSiv. For the confvision of attributes of the Father and the Son see
Ch. XII. ' Diehl, 61. ' " Diehl, 64 if. o Diehl, Pig. on p. 71.
 MUEAL PAINTING 311

layer of plaster and of the same style may thus be ascribed to the last quarter
of the fourteenth century. Most of these cover the piers and iave kneeling
•worshippers before them, with inscriptions giving their names.'
The third series also consists of figures of saints, but these are of more
careless execution, and with Latin inscriptions ; they probably date from the end
of the fifteenth, or the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The rock chapel of Celimanna, in the south of the Terra d'Otranto, has
figures of saints with bilingual inscriptions, apparently of the fifteenth century,
while others, with Greek inscriptions only, appear to be earlier.'' In the crypt
of the Church of the Carmine at Kuffano is a St. Peter perhaps as early as the
year a.d. 1200." In an early structure known as the Cento Pietre, south of
Kuffano, converted into a chapel in the Middle Ages, is a seated female figure
with a child on her knees raising his arms in the attitude of an orans ; this
appears to be a representation of St. Anne rather than of the Virgin, and
Diehl considers it as early as the eleventh, century.* A Virgin and Child,
a figure of a saint, and a fragmentary Annunciation appear to be of the same
date. Other saints are of the fourteenth centui-y, and most of the paintings
are in bad condition.
In the apse of the circular rock crypt dell' Annunziata between Lecce and
Tarento ^ is a St. George in a red tunic, carrying his lance. The work, which
is much affected by damp, may be as early as the eleventh century. Other
figures of saints in a rock chapel near the Lama di Villanova are perhaps a century
later. The walls of the Chapel of San Stefano at Soleto in the Terra d'Otranto
are covered with paintings, of which only those of the apse are upon the
original plaster. The subject in the apse is the Pentecost, represented in
a manner which differs in various points from the usual type, and is assigned
by Diehl to the twelfth or thirteenth century.' At the top of the composition
is a bust of the Almighty as the Ancient of Days, with the Son and the dove,
representing the Holy Spirit, all within one aureole. The lower lateral walls
are covered with figures of saints, above which are on one side scenes from the
life of Christ, on the other scenes from the story of St. Stephen. Above the
apse is the Annunciation ; on the west wall, in its usual place, is the Last
Judgement, '^ the elaborate scheme followed being in the main that adopted
at Torcello and at S. Angelo in Formis, though among the damned who
are being carried by devils are simple labourers and tradesmen, indicated by
the names of their callings. An inscription on the left wall appears to give
the date a.d. 1347. Iconographically they are for the most part Byzantine,
and the inscriptions are Greek ; but we seem to trace the moving of another
spirit.
The oratories and chapels cut in the sides of the gravine (valleys with
precipitous limestone walls) which cross the plain between the mountains and
the sea in the region of Tarento are frequently decorated with mural paintings,
though the country is not so rich as that just described. Most of them
were the places of worship for communities of eremite monks, whose cells
may be seen in the vicinity ; but some were perhaps places of pilgrimage only.
In a few cases chapels and cells are cut in the rock which forms the floor
of the valleys, and are entered by a stair which descends from amidst the
cultivated fields. For the most part they were already abandoned by the
sixteenth century : some have altogether disappeared. The more important
are situated within a radius of fifteen or twenty miles of Tarento, near the
villages of Massafra, Mottola, Grottaglie, and Palaggianello. In the gravina
di San Marco near the first-named place, the rock chapel of La Candelora'
has figures of saints, the Virgin as omm, and the scene of the Presentation
• Many cf the names are those of women, showing that this church was used by a mixed
congregation.
2 Diehl, 84. ' Ibid., 86. * Ibid., 87-8. ' Ibid., 89.
« Diehl, 99-101. ' Ibid., 101 ff. ' Ibid., 117.
312 MUEAL PAINTING

in the Temple, the inscriptions being in Latin, but the style and iconography
Byzantine: none of these paintings appear to be earlier than the thirteenth
century. In the Chapel of San Leonardo in the same valley, with saints of
late date, probably of the sixteenth century, are others, including a St. Stephen,
in an earlier style : in the apse is the JDeesis, but with a Latin inscription :
the work may be of the fourteenth century.^ The Chapel of St. Pantaleon in
the same neighbourhood has lost its frescoes.
In the gravina of Mottola, the Chapel of the Madonna of the Seven Lamps,
which does not appear to have been a monastic church, has figures of saints

Fie. 190. SS. George, Demetrius, and Nicholas : mural painting of the fourteenth century
in the grotto of S. Biagio, Otranto. {Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 310.

and the Deesis with Latin inscriptions, probably painted in the fourteenth
century.^ A chapel near the farm of Casalrutta ' in the same gravina has
numerous frescoes, apparently of the fourteenth century. The inscriptions are
in Latin, but the inspiration and the general scheme are Byzantine. The
paintings which are best preserved are in the three apses ; one apse has the
Deesis, another Christ enthroned between St. James (?) and the Virgin, the
third Christ standing between Michael and Gabriel. In a crypt below, also
at one time entirely covered with paintings, an apse has Our Lord between
St. Basil and St. Andrew.
The Chapel of Sta Margherita, in a deserted ravine not far from Casalrutta,
•has paintings of two periods on different layers of stucco, the later, apparently
of the fourteenth century, replacing figures, probably of the same saints, of
a century or so earlier.'' Even the later subjects, though the inscriptions have
Latin characters, are inspired by Eastern models, for a St. Demetrius pierces
with his lance a small figure in ecclesiastical vestments described as Arius.
a subject which is not Western. On the second pillar of the chapel, painted
on stucco applied directly to the wall, is a fine St. Michael with spear and
orb, and with his name in Greek. In the apse is a Deesis ; and near it a
3 Ibid., 124 if. * Ibid., 137.
Diehl, 123. Ibid., 124.
 MUEAL PAINTING 313

Virgin and Cliild : like the archangel, these two paintings appear to be of the
earlier date.
The gravina of Grottaglie east of Tarentum has several rock chapels,
some of which have been wilfully damaged in the nineteenth century : the
principal is known as the Church of Lama di Pensiero.' Here the walls
have figures of saints, Gospel scenes (Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, Christ
before Pilate, Crucifixion, Annunciation, Nativity, and Presentation in the
Temple (?) ). The Virgin is twice represented, once holding the Child, with
an archangel in a sumptuous costume holding an orb ; a second time, also
between angels, with a small figure of a kneeling donor at her feet. The
names are in Greek, and a lost inscription is said to have given the date
as A.D. 1392.
The gravina of Palaggianello '' has also several chapels, one of which, that
of St. Nicholas, is very remarkable. The Chapel of S. Girolamo contains
work of two periods, some with Latin inscriptions and apparently of the
fifteenth century, others probably older, representing a person in a rich
Byzantine costume, and a figure of a prophet. The Chapel of St. Andrea has
a mounted St. George, apparently of the fourteenth century, with a Greek
inscription : other saints of the same period have in some cases Greek, in
others Latin inscriptions, the work being of a uniform character.
The Chapel of St. Nicholas' has in the central apse a standing figure of
Our Lord between St. Nicholas and the Virgin: on the wall to the right of
the entrance Christ is again seen, enthroned in rich apparel ; behind him
are two angels ; at his feet kneels a donor. Other paintings on the walls
represent St. Peter and St. Matthew. All have Latin inscriptions and appear
to date from the fourteenth century.
The Chapel of St. George,'' excavated like a crypt in the floor of the valley,
has round the walls niches with figures of saints, and Our Lord between
St. George and St. Paul, at his feet a kneeling figure of a monk named Paul ;
the inscriptions are in Latin, but the types, especially that of St. George, are
Byzantine. The Chapel of the Holy Eremites,'^ in the flank of the gravina,
was a monastic church. It contains jaaintings of purely Byzantine style with
Greek inscriptions, perhaps of the twelfth century. On the end wall behind
the altar are St. Michael, in jewelled robes, holding a spear and an orb, and
St. Eustathius with the stag, near the horns of which are the letters IC. XC,
and the inscription S n\a/ct8a t[ fi.e. Siokis.^ Between the two is a small niche
with a cross between the letters M f B X .'
The Chapel of St. Nicholas, at the foot of the hill of Mottola, shows work
of the same transitional character as that of Sta Margherita near Casalrutta
(see above). The plan is Greek, as also are the types of the numerous saints
which cover the walls. In some cases Greek names are still visible, though
most are Latin ; and it is evident that earlier Byzantine figures have been
'Eomanized', and the names replaced in Latin; there is only one layer of
stucco on the walls. The decoration of the apses remains untouched. In
the centre is the bust of the Pantokrator, flanked by St. John the Baptist and
the Virgin. On the right is St. Michael, bearing an orb or inedallion inscribed
XC NIK(a), and near him the Dream of Zachariah ; on the left is Our Lord
enthroned with St. Stephen at his feet, and another representation of St. Michael.
These earlier paintings are perhaps of the eleventh century, and to this date
the original decoration of the whole chapel seems to have belonged. The
palaeography of the Latin inscriptions suggests the fourteenth century as the
probable period when restoration took place.
' Diehl, 127. = Ibid., 129 ff. => Ibid., 130.
* Ibid., 131. = Ibid., 132.
* St Eustathius (= St. Eustace and St. Hubert) bore the name of Placidas before his
Bonversion. His story is told in the Golden Legend.
' Diehl conjectures as a possible reading : Mjjtt;;) fivva /Spe'^os XpiaTov.
314 MURAL PAINTING

In the district of Matera,^ which was lost to the empire in a.d. 1041, the
influence of Byzantine art had been equally great, though the mural paintings
which remain are less considerable. In the gravina of Matera, the rock chapels
of Sta Barbara and Cappuccino Vecchio have work of the fourteenth centuryj In
a Virgin with the Child in that of Santa Sofia may be of the thirteenth.

Fig. 191. Mural paintings over the door and over tlie central ai-oh of the porch. S. Angelo in
Fornii?. (N. H. J. Westlake : Bisiory of Design in Mural Painting.) P. 316.

the Chapel of St. Nicholas, in the southern part of the gravina, once the church
of a monastic community, little of the once rich decoration remains intact,
but an Annunciation can still be distinguished ; in the apse a figure of Our
Lord is in almost perfect condition, but neither painting is earlier than the
fourteenth century. In one of the three oratories known as the Madonna of
the Three Doors, there is a majestic Virgin, which in many ways recalls the
art of Cimabue and may be of the early part of the thirteenth century. In
the Chapel of Cascione, the Greek and Latin rites appear both to have been
' Diehl, l.ilif.
 MURAL PAINTING
315
used, and the paintings, of which the principal is a Virgin between two saints,
have inscriptions in the two languages, which makes it probable that the
later part of the fourteenth century is their date. The Chapel of Sta Lucia
of Bradano, not explored by Diehl, is said to have a colossal head of Our
Lord of the twelfth century.'
In Campania the direct influence of Byzantine mosaic compositions intro-
duced by the artists imported by Desiderius is to be inferred in certain cases,
as in a church at Foro Claudio, two miles from Carinola on the road to Sessa.
where an apse ■v\'ith the Virgin and Child enthroned above the Twelve Apostles

Fie. 192. The Crucifixion : mural painting in S. Angelo in Forraia.

(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painiing.) P. 316.

is after a Byzantine model exemplified in the mosaics of Torcello (see p. 402)

and Monreale, and in S. Giusto at Trieste : '^ it appears to belong to the latter
part of the eleventh century. But as a rule in this region such Byzantine
influence as exists appears to have come south from Eome, and to represent
the earlier traditions of the eighth and ninth centuries, when the capital was
filled with immigrant Greek monks. The colouring of many mural paintings
recalls the scheme of the Eoman mosaic- workers of that time ; details of dress
seem to point in the same direction. The work appears to be earlier than
the twelfth century: the Crucifixion, martyrdom, and figures of saints in the
Grotta dei Santi'' (tenth century), the Virgin and saints of the Grotta delle
Formelle ' (tenth-eleventh centuries), the busts of Our Lord, St. Michael, and
s Ibid., 245.
Diehl, 159. " E. Bertaux, L'Art dans I'ltalie meridionak, i. 270.
' Salazaro, Monumenti deW Italia meriiionale, i. 58.
316 MURAL PAINTING

St. Gabriel, with figures of other saints at S. Biagio near Castellamare,^ the
saints in the chapel on the promontory of Montorso and of the ruined Church
of Sta Maria di Trochio near Monte Cassino, all exhibit affinities with the
work of the early Roman school. They differ from the frescoes of Apulia and
the Basilicata, where Byzantine influence dates from the Basilian revival.
The eleventh-century frescoes of the Church of S. Angelo in Formis have
given rise to interminable polemics between those af&rming the Byzantine
character of the work and those who find in it an almost independent Italian
initiative.- The principal champions of the latter theory are T. X. Kraus and
Caravita ; of the former view, Eduard Dobbert and A. Munoz. There seems
to be little doubt that the conception of the subjects is Byzantine ; Byzantine,
too, are very many of the facial types and the details of costume. It may
be conceded that the greater part of this important mural decoration was executed
by Italian artists, but artists trained in Greek nrethods ; the type of several
scenes resembles that of the corresponding subjects in the Codex Eossanensis
(p. 452), and the types of the Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, Washing
of the Disciples' Feet, and Eaising of Lazarus are oriental. On the other hand,
in many scenes fresh traits are introduced which are certainly of Western
origin. We must perhaps imagine a group of painters partly Greek and partly
Italian, obeying Byzantine ideals, and working under the direction of Byzantine
masters. The state of affairs is in fact analogous to that which obtained about the
same time among the mosaicists of Venice (p. 399). The most Byzantine work
is in the narthex, where cursive Greek inscriptions are found,' and in the apse.
In German countries Byzantine influence is evident in mural paintings as in
MSS. It appears, for instance, at Salzburg (Nonnberg), and on Lake Constance.*
II. Panel Painting.
Portable pictures, which were introduced in Martyria as early as the fourth
century,^ were usually executed upon wooden panels, and the subjects of those
which have been preserved are almost all religious. The study of the earlier
periods is rendered difficult by the rarity of surviving works, and by the
complete or partial invisibility of many ikons in churches, which are often
placed in ill-lighted positions and sometimes partly covered over with silver
and gold plates and precious stones."
Out of the darkness enveloping the origins of Byzantine painting a few facts
emerge. The earliest surviving work is evidently allied to that of the portraits
on the mummies of Graeco-Eoman Egypt.' The Eussian bishop Porphyrins
Uspenski brought home from Sinai several panel pictures, now in the
Ecclesiastical Academy at Kieff, which make the earliest developments of
painting in the East-Eoman Empire comparatively clear. They are all on
panels, executed like the Egyptian portraits by the encaustic process,* and
' Bertaux, 247 ; Schulz, SenkmUler der Kun.it. des Mittelaliers in UntmHalien, ii, 224-6.
2 Salazaro, Momimenti dell' Italia meridionaU, fase. ix and x ; Caravita, I codici e UArti a Moitte
Cassino, vol. i, p. 259 ; H. W. Schulz, Denkmciler der Kunst des Mittelidters in Unteriialien, 1860, Atlas,
PI. LXXI; F. X. Kraus, Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, 84 ff., and Bepertorium, xxiii, 1900, 53 ;
E. Dobbert, Prussian Jahrbuch, xv, 1894, 221, and Repertorium, 1892; see also Jahrbuch, xix
(1898), remarks in the course of tiie author's article on the Goslar Gospels; Ch. Diehl, VArt
hyzantin dans I'ltalie meridionale, 109, and Manuel, 681 ff.
= Diehl, Manuel, 681.
* F. X. Kraus, WandgemiUde der S. Sylvesterkapelle am Bodensee ; P. Buberl, ICunstgescMcht-
lichesJahrb. der K. K. Zentral-Commission, 1909, pp. 74 ff. (Nonnberg).
'^ Chyysostora, Gregory of Nyssa, and Prudentius. See refs. in Garrucci, Storia, i. 467 ff.
' This custom, familiar to all who have visited Russian churches, descends from Byzan-
tine times. In the inventories of the eleventh century tliere is mention of pictures so treated
(A. Munoz, VArt byz. a I'exposition de Grottaferrata, 16).
' Examples in the National Gallery and the British Museum, the Mus6e Guimet, Paris,
the Berlin Museums, the Vatican, &a. Two encaustic portraits of rather later date were dis-
covered atAntinoe (Ann. du Musie Guimet, 1902, PI. XI, after p. 140).
' Ki?pox"Tos 7pa^i;. The description of the process in Pliny is not quite clear. It seems
 PANEL PAINTING 317

represent the Virgin and Child in half figure, St. John the Baptist or a prophet,
busts of St. Sergius and St. Bacchus side by side, busts of a male and female saint
in the same position, and a half figure of St. Panteleemon.^ The Virgin closely
resembles a female sepulchral portrait on linen from Antinoe, painted in the
fourth century, and presented by M. Gayet to the Egyptian Museum of the Vatican
(p. 318, n. 1). She has the same large black eyes and full lips, and is represented
in so naturalistic a manner that without the nimbus she might well represent
an Egyptian lady of the Eayum. This picture of the Virgin is the earliest
of the series, though Kondakoff places it as late as the sixth century. The
other panels are so conventional in their treatment of faces and drapery that
they may be as late as the ninth or tenth : if these dates are coi-rect, the
tradition of encaustic painting must have survived the Arab conquest of Egypt.
The other ikons of the group are attributed to the seventh century or even
later. Examples of encaustic painting in the Kaiser Priedrich Museum at
Berlin establish the Egyptian descent yet more definitely. The principal
specimens are a rectangular casket with busts of Our Lord and SS. Luke,
Thomas, and Cosmas, and a palette with a bust of the Virgin (?), the one
attributed to the fifth or sixth, the other to the sixth or seventh century, and
both from Egypt.'' Another object, a single panel, has busts of a female saint (?)
and of St. Theodore.^
The process, which long coexisted with tempera, seems to have gradually
lost favour with artists, and not to have been common in the Third Period.*
It was apparently applied upon occasion to canvas or linen. Asterius of
Amaseia describes a cycle of four scenes from the story of St. Euphemia in her
martyrion at Chalcedon (Kadikeui) which seem to have been painted in
this way.^
The great majority of East-Christian panel paintings are in tempera. Their
number is considerable, and will be increased as well by future discovery as
by the scientific examination of ikons now inaccessible in churches. In the
present place attention can only be drawn to certain representative examples.
Ainaloff believes that the leaf of a painted wooden triptych in the Golenisheff
Collection at St. Petersburg, with two superposed compartments, one with the
Nativity, the other with the Baptism, is as early as the sixth century." He
compares the type of the Baptism with that of the Etchmiadzin Gospels (p. 450),
and notes analogies with the ivory chair of Maximianus (p. 203) and with the
central panel of a composite diptych formerly in Lord Crawford's collection
(Pig. 114).
The panel painted on linen stretched on wood, with a figure of Our Lord,
discovered in the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran, was reputed to be of Eastern
origin. It is in very bad condition, but Mgr. Wilpert, who subjected it to
probable that the painter heated certain spatulate implements (causeria) before applying the
wax ; a fresco at Kertch (Panticapaeum) shows a painter in the act of heating such an
instrument (see H. Stuart Jones, Quarterly Review, No. 419, April, 1909, pp. 452-3). According
to another theory the wax was liquefied by mixing with oil.
'■ Keproduced by Munoz, as above, Figs. 3 (two saints), 4 (SS. Sergius and Bacchus), 5
(Virgin and Child). Publications of one or more of these panels by Likhacheff, Material for the
History of Russian Ikon Painting, i, PI. I and II ; Strzygowski, Byzantinische Denkmlller. i, PI. VIII,
Orient oder Rom, 124 ; by Ainaloff, Encaustic Religious Paintings from Sinai in V. V., 1902, 348 ff. ;
and Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art upon Mount Athos, Pi. XLIX and L, and Figs. 52 and
53. See also B. Z., xii, 1903, 703.
^ Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, Nos. 1604, 1605 (ref. to earlier publication).
' Ibid., No. 1606, ascribed to the sixth-seventh century.
* Pictures of saints in the chapels at Sta Sophia, known as the ar/nprjTa, appear to have
been encaustic (J. P. Richter, Qvellen der byz. Kunstgeschichie, 1897, 59, 92).
* Migne, Patr. gr., xl. 333-7, On the text see Strzygowski, Orient Oder Rom, 118-19, who has
drawn attention to the importance of the passage for the liistory of art. It had been pre-
viously cited by Garrucci, Storia, i. 471 ; but its significance had not been fully appreciated.
* V. v., V. 181 ff. and PI. II. See also Strzygowski, Senkschriften der k. Akad. der Wissen-
schaften, li, Vienna, 1906, 199. The subjects are painted upon a thin layer of stucco applied to
the wood.
318 PANEL PAINTING

a very careful examination, suggests a Eoman origin at the end of the fifth or
in the earlier part of the sixth century.^
Dr. Jelic is of opinion that the panel with SS. Peter and Paul in the Vatican
is the work of the missionary St. Methodius, and that it was presented to the
Pope during the saint's sojourn in Korae between the years 867 and 869. ''
The wooden reliquary-box with sliding lid found in the Sancta Sanctorum
(Fig. 193) has on the top of the lid a figure of St. John Chrysostom, on the under
side of the lid the Crucifixion between the Virgin and St. John, and on the
bottom of the interior a cross of double traverse in intaglio, flanked by painted
figures of SS. Peter and Paul, busts of Our Lord and the Virgin, and two angels.

Fig. 193. Paintings on a wooden reliquary from the Sancta Sanctorum, Vatican Library.
(After Ph. Lauer, Mon. Piot, 1907.)

The eleventh century has been suggested as the date of the work, but it may be
rather later.^ A period not much later has been proposed for a small picture
of the Crucifixion surrounded by other subjects in the Alexander III Museum at
St. Petersburg.*
The remarkable series of pictures upon the iconostasis in the Church of
St. Clement at Ochrida* are evidently early; most are assigned by Kondakoif
to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, though two or three are said to be of
the twelfth. Among these are a pair of panels, one representing the Archangel
Gabriel, the other the seated Virgin, together forming an Annunciation group,
perhaps for the two sides of an iconostasis. There are five other pictures of the
Virgin, two of the Hodegetria type, one described on the (contemporary) frame
1 E. Q., xxi. 65ff. and figui-es. We may note that in Egypt figure subjects of a fine quality
were painted upon linen alone. Cf. the already mentioned portrait from Antinoe in the
Egyptian collections at the Vatican, of which Diehl gives an illustration (Manuel, Fig. 20).
2 Se Rossi-Festschrift, Rome, 1892, pp. 83-9i. Old tradition ascribed this panel to the age
of Constantino. Cyril and Methodius are said to have also painted a fresco in S. Clemente,
witii representations of themselves as donors.
3 Ph. Lauer, Mon. Piot, 1907, PI. XIV ; H. Grisar, Gimlta Cattolica, year 57, iv. 54.
* V. de Griineisen, in Rassegna d'arte, 1904, 138 £f. ; B. Z., xv. 417.
" N. P. Kondakoff, Macedmia, 248 ff. and PI. V-XII.
 PANEL PAINTING 319

as Peribleptos, and possibly a copy of some famous ikon in the monastery of

that name at Constantinople. Another picture, perhaps of later date, represents
Our Lord as the Almighty ; the faces are grave and dark, and the Virgin's face
is in most cases characterized by a very prominent nose, the cast of features
remaining fairly constant in all.
The interesting panel with four subjects in the British Musevim (Fig. 155),' ob-
tained from the Monastery of the Virgin near the Natron Lakes in Egypt, appears
from a comparison with illuminations to date from the thirteenth century. It
is rich in colour and rather lighter in tone than most pictures of later date.
It is difficult to be precise as to the date of the well-known ikon of the
Virgin in S. Marco at Venice. It is probably less ancient than tradition would
have it, but may be at least as old as the British Museum panel.^
Another picture of the Panagia t^s xp^'coTi^yi?? at Zacynthus is said to be of
a good period.'
Other panel paintings do not go back beyond the fourteenth century, and
even those of this date are rare. A Transfiguration in the Sterbini Collection at
Eome appears to be of this age."*
The Virgin and Child enthroned between two standing angels in the Uffizi
Gallery at Florence (Fig. 194) ^ has sixteen busts of saints and prophets round
the border. It is considered by Munoz to date from the early fourteenth century,
and the dignity of the figures makes this possible. It may, however , be rather later.
Of the fifteenth century, the Sterbini Collection possesses an interesting
■Nativity,* showing in a rocky landscape the Annunciation to the Shepherds and
the approach of the Three Kings from the far distance.
The portrait upon the monument (in Santa Maria Novella at Florence)
of Joseph, Patriarch of Constantinople, who came to Italy for the Council of
A. D. 1438-9 and died there, appears to be a Greek work, perhaps by some artist in
the patriarch's suite.' The bearded figure in tunic and omophorion stands
facing, holding a book ; in the background are two angels and a Greek inscrip-
tion. It seems unlikely that a work in this formal style should be by an Italian
of the Quattrocento.
The Virgin and Child in the Church of the Madonna del Scarpello on an island
off Perasto in Dalmatia is said to have been brought from Negropont in a. d. 1452."
A number of Greek panel-ikons in Eussia may fall within our Third and
Fourth Periods ; they are illustrated in Likhachefifs monumental work.'
Kondakoff assigns the enthroned Christ of the Uspenski Cathedral at Moscow
to the period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries,'" as also the
Veronica picture in the Monastery of St. Andronicus in the same place. The
Virgin Hodegetria at Smolensk was restored in the seventeenth century,
but appears to have been originally of the late thirteenth. The bust of Christ
in the Alexander III Museum at St. Petersburg is of about a. d. 1360.^'
A Virgin in the Monastery of Chilandari on Mount Athos is claimed for the
fourteenth century, and a Virgin in Lavra is thought by Kondakoff to be

' British Museum, Catalogue, No. 987 ; Burlington Magazine. Jan. 1909.
^ Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco, PI. XXII and XXII'. M. Molinier {Gaz. des Beaux-
Arts, Seconri Period, xxxvili, 1888, p. 408) is probably right in thinliing that it cannot be an
original of the fifth century, but is a copy of a later date than the tenth.
s G. Mairojani, Bufai/rix^ Te'x""?, 1893, 226-7.
* Munoz, L'Aii tys. a Vexp. de Grottaferrata. Pig. 16, p. 38.
• ° A. Munoz in Rivista d'arte, 1909, 118-14. Other authorities believe the date to be rather
later (of. B.Z.,xix. 243).
'' Munoz, L'Aii byz., &c.. Fig. 18, p. 40. ' A. Muiioz in Rivista d'arte, 1909, 115.
" F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, ii, 'I'he Austrian Side. 374 (no illustration).
Another Virgin in the Church of S. Niccolo at Lussin Grande is described as Byzantine;
ibid., 182.
' N. P. Likhacheff, Materials for the History of Russian Ikon Painting, vol. i, Pfc. I, 1906.
'" Iconography of Our Lord, Pi. I.
'^ Ibid., PI. V. A panel in the same museum is described by V. de Griineisen in Rassegna
d'arte, 1909.
320 PANEL PAINTING

Fig. 194. Painting on panel : the Virgin and Child, with angels and px'ophets : Uffizi Gallery,
Florence; foui-teenth century. (Plioto : K. Gabinetto, Florence.) P. 319.
 331
PANEL PAINTING

a century older. A few other ikons may be of the fifteenth century, but most
are later/
The panel pictures in the churches of Palestine chiefly ornament the
iconostasis or are set upon the ■KpofTKwrp-a.piov on the occasion of special feasts.
They appear to be almost all later than the sixteenth century.^
A very interesting triptych in the possession of the Earl of Crawford, with
the Last Judgement and other subjects, may be as early as the sixteenth
century."

FxG. 195. Panel from tlie Maesta of Duccio at Siena : the Flight into Egypt.
(Photo : Alinari.)
The great majority of the panel ikons now in existence are of similar
date : most, indeed, are of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The
repetition of. traditional forms, the adherence to fixed facial types and
consecrated attitudes, the predilection for gold backgrounds, combine to lend
these pictures, whether Greek or Slavonic, an air of antiquity which they do not
really possess. But in many cases the influence of Western art is very obvious,
especially when we reach the seventeenth century.
In the eighteenth century we find rococo details introduced ; Theodore
Poulaki imitated the designs of Diirer and other artists. The work of these
painters falls beyond our limits. The reader will find an interesting account
N. Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, ch. iv.
2 A. Baumstark, R. Q., xx. 166. The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is especially
rich.
" Described by Lord Balcarres in Proc. Soc. Ant. London, xix, pp. 136 ff,
1204 Y
 322 PANEL PAINTING

of them in Munoz' book on the Exhibition of Grottaferrata, to which I am

indebted for so many of the facts in the present chapter.
As in the case of illuminations in MSS., so with paintings on panel, the repro-
duction ofEast-Christian designs in the West began at an early date. Interest-
ing examples of the first half of the seventh century are afforded by the
Eesurrection of Lazarus, and SS. Augustine and Gregory, painted inside the two
leaves of the consular diptych of Boethius at Brescia, apparently by a Western
hand."^ The style of the work closely recalls that of the Codex -Eossanensis and
the Sinope fragment, which were executed in the Nearer East (p. 452).
It has been stated above that Byzantine panel pictures of the Comnenian
period exerted an evident influence upon the early Tuscan schools in Italy.
There are in the galleries and churches of Siena,'' Florence,' Assisi,* Eom.e,° and
elsewhere many Italian pictures of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
in which the imitation of Byzantine originals is direct. But one of the most
pleasing examples of such imitation, because the artist at the same time avows
his debt and reveals his own power of independent invention, is a small wooden
triptych in the collection of the Commendatore Sterbini at Eome, exhibited at
Grottaferrata in 1905.^ Each panel is divided into two compartments, one
above the other. On the left the Virgin and Child in the pose adopted by the
Italian painters of the thirteenth century, are seen with St. Joseph, all in half-
figure : below tfiem stand St. Laurence, St. Philip, and St. John the Baptist.
On the right leaf the Crucifixion with two angels, the Virgin, St. John, and the
prostrate Magdalen is at the top ; below are the kneeling St. Francis receiving
the stigmata, and St. Louis. This charming work has been attributed to
Duccio, to Cimabue, or to one of Cimabue's pupils. The painter may have
belonged to the Sienese school, but the subject of St. Francis receiving the
stigmata is characteristic of Florentine art. What chiefly interests us here
is the close dependence upon the Byzantine manner. The three saints of the
left leaf are oriental in conception ; the wall across the background of the
Crucifixion scene is a typical Byzantine feature ; the background behind
St. Francis, with its rocks and buildings, might also have come direct from an
Eastern miniature. There could not be a better example of the manner in
which Byzantine painting influenced that of Italy in the Trecento, or of the
manner in which Italy prepared its swift emancipation. But the debt of Italy
to the art of the Comnenian period is evident and undeniable ; the inheritance
of the typical Byzantine landscape (see p. 244) would alone suffice to prove it.'
In illustration of the latter point a single scene from Duccio's Maesta at Siena
is reproduced (Fig. 195).

' A. Munoz, Nuovo Bull, di arch, crist., xiii, 1907, 5ff., with earlier references.
2 Gallery, Sala I, Nos. 14, 15,
the Baptist, Peter, and Francis. 485, the subjects including scenes from the lives of SS. John
= Aecademia, Nos. 99 and 100. The Magdalen with Latin inscription, and St. John the
Evangelist with inscription in Greek.
■*. Sacristy of S. Francesco.
» Vatican, Museo Cristiano : see Thode, Franz von Assisi, 90 and 110 ff. The famous
Euoellai Madonna in Sta Maria Novella, assigned by Vasari to Cimabue and by later critics to
Duccio, is now taken from both and attributed to an anonymous ' Master of the Eucellai
Madonna '. _See Suida, in Pi-ussian Jahrbuch, 1905, 28 ff.
^ A. Munoz, L'Art byzantin a Vfixposition de Grottaferrata, Eome, 1906, 6 (Fif. 1\
' For the spread of Byzantine influence in the thirteenth century see Eumohr, Italienische
Forschungen, i. 282-35 5. .
 Fig. 19G. Illuminated lieacl-i>iece : eleventh century. (Britisli Museum.

CHAPTER VI
PAINTING: II. MOSAICS

The general remarks at the beginning of the chapter on painting apply

in great measure to nio.saics, and to these the reader is referred. But
the art of ' painting ' in mosaic is by association so peculiarly Byzantine
that something further must be said of its nature and development.
The method of decoration by coloured tetmerae, oriental in its origin, is
most impressive when it abides by the decorative traditions of the East.
Here, as we have already noticed, the silhouette is all-important ; and
though the figures may be statuesque in pose, the contour is not plastically
conceived. Modelling and structure give place to colour boldly massed,
upon the contrasts of which depend the life and significance of the form
depicted. There is everywhere a grandeur in simplicity, the charm of
a right convention openly avowed. The defects in training and percej^tion
observed in other Byzantine methods of painting were here less prejudicial
to achievement; the defective sympathy with nature is hardly observed
where the atmo.sphere is almost supernatural ; the manipulation of light
and shade is of little moment when the M'all itself seems to glow and
flame with its own light.
The mosaic of Byzantine churches is unsurpassed by any other form
•of mural -decoration practised in the Christian East. Its true rival is not
fresco but painted glass. This has been maintained by John Addington
Symonds in a picturesque passage Ywhich 2 will bear quotatioji at length :
324 PAINTING

' The jewelled churches of the South are constructed for the display of
coloured surfaces illuminated by sunlight falling on thenLiLQILTL-iiarrQ^y'
windows, jusLuas-those of
tEe North — Rheims, for

example— er-ie— Mans —

are built for the trans-
mission of light throughle
me^um

painted windows of a
Northern cathedral find
their„prQper_counterpart_
in the— fflosaics— of—the-
South.-T-he^othic archi-
teci-stro-ve-to-ebtain the
greatest amount of trans-
luceiirsurface. — The By-
zantine builder- directed
his attention to securing
just enough _Jight.,JQr
tlie~illununation of his
glistening walls. The
radiance of the Northern
church was similar to
that of flowers or sunset
clouds or jewels. The
glory of the Southern
temple was that of dusky
gold andwork.gorgeous
The North needle-
needed
acute brilliancy as a con-
trast to external grey-
ness. The South found
rest from the glare and
glow of noonday in
these sombre splendours.
Thus Christianity both
of the North and South
Fig. 197. Mosaics of the twelftli century in the apse of decked her shrineS with
the cathedral at Cefalii, Sicily. (W estlake : History of Mural gQ^Q^p ]N^q^ gQ ^\yQ pa-
1 ganism of Hellas. With
the Greeks, colour, though used in architecture, was severely subor-
dinated to sculpture ; toned and modified to a calculated harmony with
actual nature, it did not, as in a Christian church, create a world beyond the
world, a paradise of supersensual ecstasy, but remained within the limits of
 MOSAICS 325

the known. Light falling upon carved forms ... in simple lustre was enough
for . . , Hellas. . . . Neither the gloomy glory of mosaics nor the gemmed
fretwork of storied windows was needed to attune the souls of Hellenic
worshippers to devotion.' ^ The contrast here put forward between Byzan-
tine and Hellenic art is not without its value. The Greek masters appealed
to the general heart of men ; they were classical ; their work may be trans-
planted into almost any environment and everywhere retain its command-
ing power. The Byzantine mosaicist appealed rather to the individual
emotion atoused by the associations of a particular environment ; he had
much in common with the romantic spirit; his work loses more by
transplantation.
Before we consider the principal monuments representative of Byzan-
tine mosaics in the different periods, a brief epitome must be given of the
origin and early history of a style of ornamentation which became so
characteristic of Byzantine art. The principal wall mosaics of the Early,
Middle, and Late Periods may then be mentioned in their turn ; pavement
mosaics of the Christian period will follow; and some account will be
given of sinall portable mosaics executed on wooden panels.
The word mosaic, which is now usually held to have no connexion
either with Moses or with the Hebrew MasJdth, is probably a derivation
from the root to which Movcra belongs, and is thus of the same verbal
descent as music.^ It signifies a, modfLXiLflrnamenting a fiat surface by
designs „fbrm«d-of-sma;H -pieces -of' "differeTitl^r-CSl^ured ^^stonT°^°^glass,
usually cubical in form, fixed in cement upon a base of brick or_stone.
It was employed to ornaTTnent_jTnfJT^flnnrs and walls, and served both
purposes for a great_jnafly_centimes^; but after"
tianity attention was chiefly directed to mural decoration, forjvh^h cubes
or tesserae of £dass-ffi:ei:£ ^almost exclusively empkyfid-in-place-of- the stone
and brick cubes used in the manufacture of mosaic pavement. There can
be little doubt that the art originated in the East, and that its earliest
examples must be traced to Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt. It was in the
Egypt of Ptolemaic times that it rose to independence, and sent out two
principalr^bfaHcEes, one back to the East into Syria, Asia Minor, and
Constantinople, the other to Sicily, North Africa,- Magna Graecia, Rome,
and the West^ -^Z??. before the Peace of _the Church different preferences
character^ize these regions. — ^The- Greek "school, reigning in the Hellenistic
East, preferred decorating walls and vaults ; the Roman school had
a predilection for tesselated floors. These were not exclusive preferences ;
the West decorated wall surfaces in the time of the early empire, while
' Sketches in Italy and Greece, 1879, pp. 156-7.
' See the article, Musivum Opus, by P. Gauckler, in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionary of
Antiquities (Hachette, 1877, &c. ), p. 2088. To this article, which brings our knowledge of Eoman
mosaics up to date, I am indebted for many of the facts mentioned below. The origin of the
art of forming decorative designs with tesserae was known in C<-ete in the second millennium
B.C., Dr. Arthur Evans having discovered in a rough stone box in the Lesser Palace at
Knossos tesserae for mosaic of crystal, amethyst, beryl, lapis • lazuli, and solid gold (The Times,
August 27, 1908). These tesserae must have been used for fine wbrk analogous to that of the
miniature mosaics described below (p. 430).
326 PAINTING

the East produced mosaic pavements down to a comparatively late date.

In briefly touching upon the different early schools and periods, we may
adopt M. Gauckler's triple classification into (1) mosaics of the Alexandrian
period ; (2) those of the period of the Antonines ; and (3) those of the
Christian periods inaugurated by the Peace of the Church.
During the first of the^e periods the influence of Egypt was paramount ;
and, though most of the earliest surviving examples have been found in

Fig. 198. A portrait head : mosaic of the sixth or seventh century in S. Demetrius, Salonika.
(From a drawing by Walter George, Esq. : Byzantine Research and Publication Fund.) P. 381.

Rome and Campania, they bear the visible impress of Egyptian taste.
The names of artists, where they occur, are Greek, and are signed in
Greek characters; thus two of the finest works at Pompeii are signed
by Dioscorides of Samos. Although all the different kinds of mosaic were
kflowiTm Italy before the time of Augustus, very few existing specimens
are earlier than the beginning of the Christian era, a notable exception
being the decoration of the House of the Faun and a few other houses
at Pompeii, which have by some been placed as early as the second
century B.C., by others about a hundred and fifty years earlier.^ When,
from the time of Augustus, the adoption of this mode of decoration
became general, the character of the favourite subjects betrayed their
Hellenistic and Egyptian descent. The costumes, the landscapes, the flora
' Gauckler prefers the later date (p. 2097).
 327
MOSAICS

and fauna, the ornamental motives — all are primarily Alexandrian.^ The
deities, the mythological and historical personages and episodes, are all

Fib. 199. The Birth of the Virgin : mosaic of the eleventh century in the Monastery of
Daphni, Attica. {Sautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 397.

Greek : we see Centaurs, Amazons, Argonauts, the stories of Perseus and

Theseus, the Trojan Cycle, scenes from the Odyssey, the Battle of Issus,
'■ Among examples in Rome are the Isiac mosaic of Prima Porta (Notizie degli scavi, 1892,
160 ; Mdlanges de V ^cqle fran^aise de Rome, 1893, 49) ; the mosaic from the Appian Way in the
Museo delle Terme (Rev. arch., 1896, 135). Outside Rome are the mosaics of Palestrina,
Naples, and Pompeii ; especially noteworthy is the picture representing the Battle of Issus
{BuUettino arch, napol., 1855, PI. IV ; Giornale degli scavi, iii. 9 ; Gazette arch., 1879, p. 80).
328 PAINTING

and the Academy of Plato.^ There are genre scenes of all kinds, both
sporting and theatrical. Lastly, there are landscapes in the style of the
painter commonly called Ludius, Sicilian scenes illustrating the idylls of
Theocritus, and the exceedingly popular representations of aquatic life by
the Nile.2 The finer figure or landscape subject — emblema—w&s indepen-
dently executed and fitted into a prepared cavity in the centre of a com-
position usually consisting of geometrical and conventional designs. At
Pompeii the emblema has hardly greater dimensions than a large tile,
and was in effect a miniature copying some popular (usually Alexandrian)
work of art. Admirable examples are exhibited in the Capitoline Museum
at Kome, and these should be recalled in connexion with the diminutive
mosaics which we shall have to study later (p. 430).
The material employed for tesserae in the first century was principally
marble of Greece or Luna, more rarely limestone or schist, hardly^ver
"bnckX. The scale of colour was"" thus" restricted, and the chief shades,
in addition to black and white, were red, yellow, and olive-brown.
The ornament, as opposed to the figure subjects, consisted of rosettes,
imbrications, interlaced bands, palmettes, ivy leaves, thyrsi, peltae or
Amazonian shields, and figures of animals. It has already been stated that
these motives w^ere for the most part employed in the decoration of pave-
ments, for which marble tesserae were best adapted; But the Augustan
age was also familiar with the cubes of glass enamel which were so soon
destined to play so prominent a part in Christian mosaic ; these were used
' From Torre Annunziata (Notizie degli semi, 1897, 337).
^ Nilotic subjects occur in the mosaics of several churches (see below, pp. 332, 338), in the
lower part of the Issus mosaic (see note 1 on p. 327), and are also found on products of the minor
arts, e.g. a silver dish from Tipasa (H. de Villefosse, Milanges d'arch. et d'arl, Paris, 1893,
p. 181), and another silver patera (Garrucci, Storia, 461-2), on Coptic textiles (Riegl, Versamm-
lung dadscher Fhihlogen und Schulmdnver in Wien, 1893, pp. 191-7, and Siilfragm, p. 38), on the
ivory pyxis at Wiesbaden, and in the tenth-century Armenian Gospel of Queen Mike (B. Z., xiv,
1905, 730). Such subjects were evidently popular, and there are references to them in contem-
porary and later literature. Philostratus {Imagines, ed. Boissonade, Paris, 1849, vol. i. 342)
describes a picture of this kind called 'The Marsh' in the gallery of a rich man at Naples.
Choricius of Gaza, a rhetor of Justinian's time, describes a Nilotic frieze in the Church of
St. Stephen at Gaza {Choricius, ed. Boissonade, p. 120). Hunting scenes, analogous in
character, were a popular decoration in private houses and perhaps also in churches (see
the Epistles of St. Nilus, Bk. IV, ch. 61, in Migne, Pair. Gr., vol. Ixxix). For further infor-
mation on this subject see Gauckler, p. 2100 ; Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, 138 ff. ; VPoermann,
Die Landschaft in der Kunst der alien Volker, Munich, 1876, 303 ; W. Helbig, Untersuchungen iiber
die Campanische Malerei, 101 ; 6. Eodenwaldt, Die Komposition der Pompeianischen Wandgemalde, 32.
' It may be of interest in a very few words to describe the manner in which cubes of
mosaic are made and fixed (see Gerspach, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1880, 145). In the case of
ordinary colours, a mass of glass of the requisite tint is made, and from this rectangular pieces
are detached. In the case of gilded cubes, the following procedure is in use at Murano, and is
doubtless an ancient method. The workman takes a thin piece of colourless glass shaped like a
watch-glass but about ten centimetres in diameter. To the concave side he applies a thin gold
foil and subjects the glass to a certain heat. Then he pours into the concave side some fused
enamel, generally dark red or bottle-green, flattens the whole, fires again, and allows to cool
gradually. When the ' cake ' thus formed is cut up, the section shows three layers, trans-
parent glass, gold foil, and enamel body. The transparent covering of the gold foil is apt in
process of time to decay and drop oif, leaving exposed the dark enamel base, and producing
dark patches in the picture. It is a difficult matter to ensure permanency, for in the second
firing the workman has to devote his chief attention to ensuring successful results with the
gold, which readily blackens if overheated, and fuses at a different temperature from the enamel.
The procedure is similar to that employed in the manufacture of the gilded glasses of the
Catacombs. The preparation of cements is a matter of prime importance, and experience
shows that the most durable mosaics arc embedded in the thinnest layer of cement.
 MOSAICS 329

to ornament vertical and not horizontal surfaces. Large specimens, if they

existed, have been destroyed ; but there survive various examples of work
upon a small scale from Pompeii, chiefly niches for fountains,^ piscinae, and

Fig. 200. Isaiah and .Solomon : mosaics of the eleventh century in the Monastery of Daphni,
Attica. {Baules Etudes : G. 'UliWet.) P. 396.
portions of columns. The tones are few and strongly contrasted, the
ground being usually blue ; the reds are furnished by pottery cubes, lava,
and ferruginous stone: shell was also inserted in these compositions. If
gilt cubes were used at all, they were extremely rare.^
' An example from Pompeii in the Victoria and Albert Museum (in the Glass Gallery).
^ Gaucklor, as above, 2107. Muntz {Bull. cU la Soc. des Antiquaires de France, 1891, p. 266)
330 PAINTING

In the Antonine period the Romans to a great extent emancipated

themselves from Greek tutelage. Roman pupils succeeded their Greek
masters, and many subjects were derived from more purely Italian sources.
The glass mural mosaic of this period has nearly all perished, but
contemporary ^Yriters and inscriptions mention chambers so covered.^
Glass cubes were still rare and costly at Rome and perhaps imported from
Egypt. Gold was used, and cubes with traces of gilding have been found

Pig. 201. The Magi before Herod : mosaic of the fourteenth century in Kahrie Djami,
Constantinople. (Sdbah and Joaillier.) P. 420.

in the Baths of Caracalla. The style of this period naturally influenced

that which succeeded it. Among the early mosaics of the age of Constantine,
the most conspicuous are those of Sta Gostanza (p. 333), and in these mosaics
may be traced a clear resemblance to more than one pavement of Anto-
nine times in the Proconsular Province.^ A similar adherence to earlier
tradition seems to be proved in the case of the mosaic pictures on the
esplanade of the harbour of Carthage, as described by St. Augustine,*
which were clearly conceived in the realistic picturesque spirit of the
Antonine epoch.
notes that there are no gold cubes at Pompeii, but that these were known in Nero's time, the
Golden House being perhaps named from thl^ kind of decoration. See also Artaud, Hist,
ahrigie de la peinture en mosaique, p. 18.
' Gauekler, 2121.
2 Ibid., p. 2121. The sites are Kurba (Curubio) and Oudna (Uthina).
' De Civitate Dei.
 MOSAICS 331

With the distinctively Christian period which begins with Constantine

the simple symbolism of earlier times tends to disappear. The art of mosaic
now appeared as the rival of fresco, and assumed something of a monumental
style. In North Africa, indeed, the pavements still present the old subjects
familiar from the painted decoration of the Catacombs, such as the story of
Jonah, the Sacrifice of Isaac, the Good Shepherd;^ but on the walls of
churches these subjects grow rare, so that the^ Good Shepherd ^ in the
(fifth century) Mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna has almost the
air of a survival. — Classreal"^BrsDnific3tioas-of--ri^ver^moun-tain% and -cities
lived on to a far_ later, time _ia manuscripts and in the "mintrr arts; in
mosaic there is a personification of the River Jordan in the Orthodox
Baptistery.^" But in~a general way_the_histprical treatment supersedes the
symbolical, though the two are often combined where historical episodes are
intendedto_cofly£^:^iL.allfigjE}rical meaning^__ Cycles from the Bible were pro-
d^ced at great cost, and executed by artists_pf_ repute.* Of these the Old
Testament scenes in the nave of Sta Maria Maggiore at Rome are the best
surviving examples (see below, pp. 338-40), while the series in S. Apollinare
Nuovo at Ravenna aifords a remarkable instance of New Testament illus-
tration (see p. 351). Like the illuminated biblical manuscripts now becoming
general, such mosaics were intended to impress the scriptural story upon
the mind in a vivid and easily intelligible manner, and it is probable that
the arts of the illuminator and the worker in mosaic exerted a reciprocal
influence on each other.
Mosaics, like frescoes, are readily damaged, and when once the process
of disintegration has begun it advances with deplorable rapidity. The
result is bad enough when the natural causes of decay are alone in opera-
tion but
; it is often hastened by human agency, generally responding to
motives of a religious or superstitious character. Thus the Greek peasants
in Cyprus desire to possess cubes of ancient mosaic, which they regard as
talismans,® and a similar desire doubtless explains the disappearance or
dilapidation of much mosaic work throughout the Christian East.

FIEST AND^COND PERIODS

I. Mosaics in Italy and the Adriatic.

(a) Eoine.
In the rare mosaics of the Catacombs ' dating from the fourth and fifth
centuries, the transition from the symbolic to the dogmatic treatment of sacred
subjects is already marked. The crypt of St. Eusebius had a cantharus flanked
» Gauckler, as above, 2124. ' See Fig. 209.
' See p. 345. A personification of Jordan is found on a sixth-century ivory panel in the
British Museum representing the Baptism (Fig. 111). The examples in MSS. are compara-
tively numerous.
* The musivarii were relieved from public charges by Constantine {Codex Theod., XIII,
iv. 2'), and occupied a privileged position.
' This information I derive from Mr. George Jeffery, Curator of Ancient Monuments in
Cyprus.. Tj!- i
'■ Less than a dozen mosaics are known to have existed in the Catacombs (E. Muntz,
Bulletin et Mimoires de la Soc. Nat. des Antiquaires de France, VI" Serie, ii, 1891, 294-321). See
332 PAINTING

by birds ; the pavement in SS. Peter and Marcellinus a dove and interlaced
designs ; a mosaic in S. Calixtus, described by Marangoni in the eighteenth
century, represented Christ seated on the globe betvreen SS. Peter and Paul, the
Eesurrection of Lazarus, and another scene.'
Among the more considerable early mosaics in Eoman churches those of
Sta Costanza take the first place.' for The present church -was built between
A. D. 326 and 330 as a mausoleum Constantia, sister of Constantine the
Great, and his daughter Helena, whose sarcophagi (Figs. 76-7), removed from the
building, are now in the Vatican Museum. It is a domed circular structure
surrounded by a ring-vault, and the interior was once completely decorated with
mosaics and marble panelling. At the present time only the mosaics of the
ring-vault and those of two of the fifteen niches which surround the interior
wall of the rotunda are preserved. These have undergone numerous restora-
tions, which, however, are not considered to have made essential changes in the
original designs. The elaborate mosaic decoration of the dome, though much
decayed, was still in existence until the first half of the seventeenth century,
when all that remained was completely stripped away (a. d. 1620). "We can
form a general notion of their character from drawings by Francesco d'Ollanda,
a Dutch artist resident in Spain in the sixteenth century, from sketches of about
the same date in the library of St. Mark, and from descriptions and sketches
by Pompeo Ugonio, the friend of Bosio, preserved in the library of Ferrara.
The drawing of d'Ollanda, which is in the Escurial, was engraved by Pietro
Santi Bartoli, and the lower part was reproduced by Ciampini.' The MS.
description of Ugonio was first identified by de Eossi ; but the discovery that
it contained a lengthy description of the mosaics of Sta Costanza is due
to Mtintz, who patiently deciphered a volume written in a difficult shorthand.*
From Ugonio's description we know that Bartoli's engraving of those parts of
the dome not represented in d'OUanda's drawing is fantastic.
The decoration of the dome was an important example of the transitional
stage of Early Christian art ; the conventional motives derived from Alexandrian
art were blended with historical scenes from the two Testaments. Eound the
lower part ran a river scene representing Cupids fishing, similar to those known
upon pagan mosaics, in Sta Maria Maggiore, and in the Lateran Basilica.'* Above
also J. B. de Eossi, Eoma sotlerranea, iii, pp. 582, 592-3 ; F. X. Kraiis, Real-Enajklopddie der alt-
christUchen Kunst, ii. 422. Besides the subjects mentioned above, the Roman Catacombs have
or had the following mosaics : two portraits (once in S. Cyriaca, now in the Chigi Library) of
Flavins Julianius and Maria Simplicia Rustiea his wife (see d'Agineourt, Painting, PI. XIII,
Figs. 25 and 32 ; de Eossi, Mv^aici ; Gerspach, La Mosaique, 43) ; a cock, from the same catacomb,
now in the Vatican Library ; Daniel in the Lions' Den (V. and A. Museum, Photo 62,021) and
the Resurrection of Lazarus, in the Catacomb of St. Hermes, monograms and inscriptions, &e.
The figure mosaics of St. Priscilla are entirely lost (de Rossi, Bullettino, ser. IV, vi. 108 ;
d'Agineourt, PI. XIII, 16).
1 De Eossi, Bullettino, 1866, 86, 95, 99.
2 Alinari, photos ; de Rossi, Musaici ; Garrucci, Stoi-ia, PI. 204. 4 ; Venturi, Storia, i ;
6. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiqiies chritiennes, i. 116 ff., Paris, 1893 ; D. Ainaloff, Journal of the
Ministry of PiMio Instruction, St. Petersburg, 1895, 247 (Russian); E. Miintz, Revue archiologique,
1875, 224, 1878, 351 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, new English edition
edited
chriiiens byjusqiC
Langtou Douglas,
a nos jours, i. 39i.If.,
9 ;&c.
A. P^rat6 in A. Michel, Uistoire de I'art depitis les premiers temps
^ Vetera monumenta, vol. ii. A print from Bartoli's engraving is in the Cabinet des
Estampes at Paris ; it contains insertions made by Bartoli under the assumption that the
church was a temple of Bacchus. It was first published in PI. II of the Appendix to Bellori's
Picturae antiquae, Rome, 1819, and has been reproduced by G. Clausse, Basiliques, &c., as above,
i. 120-1, and Garrucci, Sloria, PI. 204. 4.
* Rev. arch., xxxv, 1878, 357. In the earlier part of the same article Miintz had described
the sketches in the Marcian Library at Venice, which he reproduced on PI. XI.
^ These genre scenes of river life, usually associated with the Nile, are found on the
mosaic representing the Battle of Issus at Naples, in African pavement mosaics, and in
Pompeian frescoes. In the fourth century a frieze of such putti was in the oratory on the
Monte della Glustizia, below a scene representing Christ and the Apostles (de Rossi, Bullettino,
1876, 50, and PI. V and VII). The examples in Sta Maria Maggiore and the Lateran Basilica have
been considered either thirteenth-century copies of the Sta Costanza work, or careful restorations
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 333

this, as it were from the shores of the river, rise a series of caryatid figures each
flanked at the base by two tigers or panthers and at the top by dolphins.
Above each principal figure was a group of three smaller figures, from which
issued foliated scrolls all uniting at the summit of the dome. The interspaces
between the large caryatids contained sacred subjects from the Old Testament ;
while the cartouches between the small upper groups of three figures were
probably ornamented with New Testament scenes, though in Ugonio's time
these had already severely suffered, and we have only his rough sketches on which
to base a judgement. Of the larger lower scenes mentioned by Ugonio one is
conjectured by Ainaloff to represent St. Paul taken to execution,^ another may
have been the Eaising of Lazarus. That in the eighth interspace (the first in
d'Ollanda's drawing) may be St. Peter with the fish and tribute money, though
Ugonio thought of Tobit ; another may have been the Story of Susanna ; in
two more, Cain and Abel with their offerings and Moses striking the rock are
almost certainly depicted. Of the scenes upon the upper cartouches too little
remains to justify much more than conjecture ; in style and conception these
lost mosaics must have been closely related to the art of the Catacombs. There
is a similar choice of scenes in both cases, a similar concordance of the two
Testaments, and a similar use of ornamental designs.
The mosaics of the ring-vault have like afiinities (Fig. 202). The birds, flowers,
and fruits, the genii, Cupids and Psyches, disposed in compartments divided
from each other by garlands or floral bands, suggest the conventions of
Pompeian artists. Individual motives coincide with many in the frescoes of
the Catacombs ; while the quality of the work and the light backgrounds recall
the style of pavement mosaics. The continuous geometrical pattern, formed of
hexagons, 'stars,' and crosses, which covers one section finds an early parallel
at Amida in Mesopotamia (Ch. XIII) : the design is essentially oriental and the
several figures are precisely those used through the mediaeval centuries by the
Persian makers of glazed tiles.
The vintage scene, with its genii involved in scroll-work of vine tendrils,
suggests an influence from Syria, where motives of this kind seem to have first
been popular, passing thence into Egypt and the West. The geometric and
diaper designs in other sections suggest a similar influence from oriental
textiles. It was the vintage scenes which gave rise to the theory, generally
held from the sixteenth century by all except Bosio and Ugonio,^ that Sta
Costanza had been erected as a temple of Bacchus.
The mosaics remaining in two opposite lateral niches in the interior wall of
the rotunda, the fourth from each side of the entrance, present figure subjects
which have given rise to much dispute. That on the left represents the scene
known as the Traditio legis, in which Our Lord, standing between, SS. Peter and
Paul, gives the former the book of the Gospels ; ^ that on the right, which was
more seriously damaged and more fatally restored, shows the Almighty or Our
Lord seated on the globe,^ and offering an indeterminate object to a figure who
advances with hands veUed beneath the mantle. The subject has been variously
interpreted as God giving the tables of the Law to Moses, or Christ giving the
keys to Peter or the scroU to John (Kev. i. 19). Ainaloff finds in it a
resemblance to the mosaic in S. Vitale, in which Our Lord seated on the sphere

of original mosaics of similar style and almost equally early date. Vitet {Journal des Smants,
1863, 501, and Etudes sur Vhistoire de Vart, i. 298) held the second view, while Venturi {Storia,
i, p. 237) only accepts S. Giovanni as antique. Ainaloff believes that they are original com-
positions essentially undisturbed by the artists of the thirteenth century. He notes that such
motives were familiar to the Christian East, and quotes the letter of St. Nilus to Olympiodorus
(Migne, Patrology, Greek series, vol. Ixxix — Nili Epistolae, Bk. IV, ch. 61), in which similar
designs are mentioned. See also Woermann, Die Landschaft in der Kunst der alten Volker,
Munich, 1876 ; Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, 138.
' He compares the sarcophagus (Garrueci, Storia, PI. 322. a).
2 Bev. arch., xxxv. 355. ' Photo in Victoria and Albert Museum, 70. 885.
* Rev. arch., xxx, 1875, 273 ; photo, V. and A. Museum, 70. 884.
334 PAINTING

receives the titular saint.* In both niches Christ is bearded and is of tlie
' Nazarene ' type, earlj' disseminated through the Christian world as a result of

Fiu. 202. Interior of Sta Costanza, Rome, with mosaics of the fourth century.
(Alinari.) P. 332.

pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Opinion seems on the whole in favour of an

early date for these two mosaics, either the fourth century or quite early in the
fifth. De Eossi, Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Mttntz, and Venturi' hold this view:
' Ainaloff, as above, 267. ^ Sioria, &c., as above, i. 241-2.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 335

Ainaloff believes the work to belong to the fifth century.' Vitet,' Labarte,'
and Schnaase* attributed it to various periods from the sixth to the eighth
century.' It is true that the figures have a barbaric appearance incongruous
with the decorative schemes of the ring-vault. But, as Mtlntz has pointed out,"
the designs of the vault are stock patterns, which were copied over and over
again until perfection was easy, whereas the figures of the niches represent a
new departure in composition. Another point in favour of the early date is the
use of a pale background. All the mosaics of Eavenna have backgrounds of
blue or gold. Even Sta Pudenziana has the dark ground : and the only other
early mosaics which are without it are those in the nave of Sta Maria Maggiore,

Fig. 203. Our Lord with Apostles and others : mosaic of the fourth century in the apse of
Sta Pudenziana, Kome. (Alinari.) P. 336.

which are considered to be of the fourth century (p. 338). Again, the borders,
which consist of garlands, are of the same design as others in the ring-vault.
Purple and gold, usually characteristic of mosaics later than the fourth century,
do not appear. Finally, the type of the Traditio legis is early, and distinct from
that adopted from the seventh century onwards.'
In the apse at the end of the rotunda, above the principal altar, Ugonio saw
a mosaic with Our Lord in the midst of the Apostles, evidently allied to that in
Sta Pudenziana, of which it may have been a prototype.* In the niches round
the gallery was also mosaic decoration representing stars : one of these, which
still remains, has in addition the Constantinian form of the sacred monogram."
' As above, 267. ^ Etudes sur I'histoire, i. 207.
' Hist, des art's induslriels, iv. 212. * Geschichte der bildenden Kiinste, iii. 567.
^ H. Parker, Mosaic Hctures in Rome and Bavenna, 37 (Oxford, 1866), assigns the work, like
Laharte, to the eighth century.
* Bev. arch., xxx. 279.
' Ibid., 282. Christ stands upon the mount from which issue the rivers, approached
from both sides by lambs coming from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. With his right hand he
points to a palm-tree in which a phoenix is seated. This type, unknown in the Catacombs,
resembles that upon various sarcophagi (Garrucci, Storia, PI. 327. 2, 333, 384. a, 335. 2), and is
distinct from that adopted in the sixth and seventh centuries, when saints and martyrs were
introduced. See Ainaloff, as above, 262 ff. De Eossi (Bulleltino, 1868, 44) has shown that the
reading Ziominus paceni dot is a legitimate variant for the more usual legem dot.
« Bev. arch., xxxv, 1878, 362 ; Ainaloff, as above, 260. « Ainaloff, 258.
336 PAINTING

Sta Costanza had a mosaic pavement with black designs on a white ground,
among which were genii making libations, altars, birds, vine scrolls, &c. : it
is partly shown in Santi Bartoli's engraving.
The mosaics of the apse of the Church of Sta Pudenziana at Eoine ' (Fig. 203)
are hardly less famous than those of Sta Costanza. Onuphrio Panvini, whose
manuscript account in the Vatican Library is cited by de Eossi, asciibed a great
antiquity to the work ; Bianchini - even carried it back to the days of the
Antonines. Vitet " pronounces in favour of the fourth century, which is also
the opinion of de Eossi,* of Ainaloff,^ and of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, F. X.
Kraus, and the majority of critics. Schnaase prefers the fifth century,' Barbet
de Jouy ' the eighth.
Eestorers have been at work on the apse from very early times. Perhaps
the first worked for Adrian I, whose monogram was once visible.* In 1588
Cardinal Gaetani renewed decayed portions with painted stucco ; between 1829
and 1832 Cardinal Litta caused further renovations to be carried out, this time
with tesserae. But there is ground for the belief that, except for the loss of two
figures of Apostles on the two sides of the picture, the composition has not been
modified in any important feature.
The mosaic represents Our Lord seated on a throne amid the Twelve
Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul being on his right and left hand, crowned by
two female figures. Behind the group runs a semicircular wall in masonry ;
at the back of this a large jewelled cross rises from a small hill. Behind, again,
are buildings among which a circular domed structure is conspicuous ; in the
sky are the symbols of the four Evangelists. It has been conjectured that a row
of lambs, six to right and six to left, flanked a central lamb beneath the feet of
Christ.
Bianchini was of opinion that the scene represented the foundation of the
building by the Senator Pudens and his daughters Praxed and Pudenziana.
The figures represented the family of the founder ; the cross symbolized the
Church, and the surrounding architecture the Vicus Patricius. De Eossi,
regarding the scene as Our Lord and the Apostles in the celestial paradise, held
that the buildings were an adumbration of the heavenly city, sub specie Vici
PatricH ; the female figures he held, like Bianchini, to represent Praxed and
Pudenziana. Ainaloff" believes the buildings of the background to represent
the surroundings of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem as they grew up after the
donations of Constantine and Helen. The circular domed building to the left of
the spectator he takes to be the Sepulchre itself {Anastasis), which is repre-
sented as a circular structure in various Early Christian monuments,^" and
continued in existence down to the time of the pilgrim Arcillph in the seventh

' Photos, Alinari, Victoria and Albert Museum, 70. 697-700. De Eossi, Musaici, Fasciculi
13 and 14, and Bullettino, v, 1867, 49-60 ; Ciampini, Vetera Monumenta Bomae, vol. ii ; Garrucoi,
Storia, iv. 208 ; Ainaloff, as above, 272 ; G. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiques ctiretiennes, vol. i,
p. 144 ; F. X. Kraus, Oeschichte der christlichen Kunst, toI. i ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 11 ;
Venturi, Storia, i. 246, and Fig. 105 ; PiSrate in A. Michel, as above, 44 f.
2 De vitis Romanorum Pontiflcum. ' Journal des Savants, 1863, 28.
* Musaici, as above. From Panvini's transcription of a lost inscription de Eossi concludes
that the mosaic was dedicated by Leopardus, Ilicius, and Maximus in the time of Bishop Siri-
cius, between a.d. 884 and 398.
5 As above, 273 ff.
^ Gesch. der bild. Kiinsle, iii. 197. ' Jlfos. chrit., p. 48 (Paris, 1877).
* The Liber Pontiticalis says that Adrian restored the church. Labarte (Hist, des arts
induslriels, 340-2) thought he could trace these restorations, and argued that the figure of
Christ was of the Byzantine Pantokrator type. Eestoration has especially affected the right
side of the mosaic, though Crostarosa, who examined it closely in 1895, said that the archi-
tecture represented is original {Nuovo Bullettino, 1895, 67).
« As above, 282 ff.
i" On sarcophagi, Garrucci, Storia, v. PI. 315. 5, 316. 2 ; on the ivory panel from tjie Trivulzio
Collection at Milan, Molinier, Hist, des arts appliquis a I'industrie, ii, Ivoires, PI. VI, and Ainaloff,
p. 293 ; on a silver medal, Garrucci, vi. PI. 480. 14. A Eussian reviewer of Ainaloff (V. V., iv,
1897, 221) agrees in general with this identification, but holds that much is purely ideal.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 337

century. The cross in the centre of the composition he believes to represent the
actual cross erected between the Martyrion and the Anastasis, and described in
the accounts of the early pilgrims.' This ' Golgotha Cross ' was richly orna-
mented with precious stones, and the jewelled cross which is so frequent in
Byzantine works of art is intended for a representation of it. The presence of
the lamb before Christ's throne is an additional proof of the fact that the scene
is laid at Golgotha ; and in the accounts of the Fathers, which compare the
splendours of the earthly with those of the heavenly Jerusalem, he finds addi-
tional probability that the Jewish city and not Eome was chosen to symbolize
Paradise. The careful perspective and the realism in points of detail make it
clear to him that an actual site and not a mere ideal composition is intended.
The two female figures holding crowns are now usually held to be the
JEcclesia ex gentibus and the Ecdesia ex drcumcisione ;" but Mgr. Crostarosa has
recently maintained the earlier opinion of Bianchini and de Eossi that they

Fig. 204 Mosaic wreath of the fiftli century : dome of St. George, Salonika.
{Hautes Eludes : G. Millet.) P. 374.

represent SS. Praxed and Pudenziana, in whose lifetime and by whose gift the
Bomus Pudentiana became the property of the Church. The architectural back-
ground, according to his view, is the Domus itself, which like other large Eoman
palaces consisted of a large number of buildings of various forms, including a
basilica."
Grisar* has followed Ainaloif with regard to the principal features, accepting
the cross as the Golgotha Cross, and the domed building as the Anastasis, but
regarding the sigma-shaped arcade as a conventional representation of Jerusalem,
since similar arcades are seen in the Madaba mosaic.
Heisenberg ° has more recently argued that the arcade represents the atrium
of Constantine's basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. The scene, according to him, is
an ideal version of the actual ceremony which took place in this atrium on
Good Friday, when the bishop's throne was set up before the cross, and he and
the presbyters read passages from the Gospels relating to the Passion. He
accepts the female figures as Praxed and Pudenziana.
It will be seen that the interpretation of the apse mosaic of Sta Pudenziana
remains uncertain ; the balance of probability seems to support an East-
Christian influence in the work, which was executed in the fourth century.

1 For references with regard to this cross at Golgotha see also 0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche
in Nicaa, Strassburg, 1903, p. 223.
2 Lefort in Eev. arch., 1874 ; Nmvo Bullettino, 1896, 174 ff.
' Ntmio Bvllettino, 1895, 58 ff.
* CivUta Caltolica, iii, 1895, 722 ff. ; Analeda romana, i. 564 ff.
° Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche : zwei BasiUken Konstantins, i. 141 ff. (Leipsic, 1908).
 338 PAINTING-

The surviving ancient mosaics in Sta Maria Maggiore,^ which have suffered
from constant restorations at the most various periods, cover the sui'face of the
triumphal arch and the walls of the nave. The decoration of the apse, with the
possible exception of the frieze representing a river scene with genii,'' is probably
of the thirteenth century ; while other mosaics, now lost, but alluded to in early
manuscripts, represented the Virgin approached by a procession of saints.^ The
position of the lost work is disputed, de Kossi believing that the Virgin was
placed in the apse, while the saints were between the upper windows of the
nave ; Eichter argues that the whole subject occupied the west wall above the
principal entrance.'
The number of the mosaic scenes in Sta Maria Maggiore is so great, and the
discussions to which they have given rise are so voluminous, that it is not possible
in the present place to do more than indicate their general nature and state the
conclusions of the principal investigators who have studied them.
The subjects upon the arch are usually interpreted as the Annunciation,
Presentation in the Temple, Flight into Egypt, Adoration of the Magi, Eeception
of Christ by King Aphrodisius in Egypt (or Christ disputing with the Doctors),
Massacre of the Innocents, Magi before Herod, and (in the lower corners) the
cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Above the arch is a throne on which are
a jewelled cross and crown, having on either side figures of St. Peter and
St. Paul and the four apocalyptic beasts, and below, the inscription XYSTUS
EPISCOPUS PLEBI DEI.
The subjects of the nave, which are distributed in a long series of panels,
represent scenes from the Old Testament derived from the histories of Abraham,
Jacob, Moses, and Joshua.''
The difficulties which beset the interpretation and proper attribution of the
mosaics are, briefly, as follows :—
The work is clearly very old ; the grouping, the types of the figures, the
iconographical details, the light background, and the absence or great rarity of
gold cubes in any original parts ^ all point to an early period, and no critic
of authority has attributed any of these mosaics to a later time than the first
half of the fifth century. But the general character of the scenes upon the arch
is different from those of the nave. The former are obviously of a dogmatic
character, and introduce episodes from apocryphal books not known to have

1 Ainaloff, Journal, &o.. May, 1895, pp. 94 ff., where the following list of references for
these mosaics is given : Paul de Angelis, Basilicae S. Mariae Maioris descriptio, &c., Bk. V,
p. 91, Borne, J621 (illustration of the arch, but inaccurate and worthless) ; Oiampini, Vetera
Monumenta, vol. i. Borne, 1747 (illustration of the arch still of value) ; Bianchini, Anastasii
Bibliothecarii de vitis Romanorum Pontiflcum, vol. iii, p. 124 f. ; Agostino Valentini, La Patriarcale
Basilica Liberiana, illustrata per cura Ag. Val., PI. LXI, Eome, 1839 (many inaccuracies in the
rendering of the arch mosaics) ; Giacomo Fontana, Baccolta delle migliori chiese di Eoma e suhur-
bane, vol. iii, PI. XXVIII, Borne, 1855 (pleasing illustration of arch, but containing inaccura-
cies afterwards reproduced by K. de Floury); Garrucci, Storia ddV arte cristiana, PI. 211-14
(illustrations of the arch are better than any that precede, but introduce new errors) ; J. B. de
Bossi, Musaici cristiani e saggi dei pammenti delle chiese di Rama anteriori al secolo XY, Fasciculi xxiv,
XXV, Eome, 1893. Pending the complete publication by Mgr. Wilpert, the best reproductions
.ire to be found in J. P. Richter and A. Cameron Taylor's Tlie Golden, Age of Classic Christian Art,
London, Duckworth, 1904. This work deals entirely with these mosaics, and contains the best
coloured reproductions of various scenes and groups in nave and on the arch which have yet
appeared, together with numerous process and line blocks. Details and isolated scenes are
reproduced by d'Agineourt, Histoire de I'art par les monuments, Pt. V, PI. XVI, Fig. 4, Paris,
1811-23 ; Eohault de Floury, La Sainte Vierge, vol. ii, PI. 85, Paris, 1878 ; Lehner, Die Mai-ien-
verehrung in den ersten Jahrhunderten, PI. Ill, Stuttgart, 1881 : A. de Waal, B. Q., 1887,
PI. VIII-IX; A. Venturi, Storia, i. 252 and Fig. 111.
* Ainaloff, in opposition to the general belief, accepts this part of the apse as ancient (see
above, p. 332, n. 5).
' As above, p. 29.
* Richter believes that the pictures of the Joshua series are not in their original places,
but were probably moved by Cardinal Pinelli (Second Congress of Christian Archaeology,
Rome, 1900). The Joshua pictures have many points of relationship with the same subjects
as treated in the Joshua Rotulus in the Vatican Library (see p. 447).
' Richter says that none of the gold cubes are original.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 339

been adopted in art before the fifth centuiy. Moreover, their rendering of
familiar scenes, for instance that of the Adoration, where Christ is seated alone
upon a very large and massive throne, diverges, apparently of set purpose, from
the familiar versions of Earls' Christian art.' Further, the style and sumptuous-
ness of many costumes is characteristic of the fashions introduced by the Byzantine
court from about the time of Theodosius, while the costumes of priests point to
a similar oriental origin.^ If, then, they are original, and not due to early restora-
tions, it is not easy to place them earlier than the fifth century. On the other
hand, the pictures in the nave are full of movement and more antique in character

Fig. 205. Interior of S. Apollinare Nuovo, Eavenna : sixth centuiy. (Alinari.)

than those of the arch, recalling the oldest known illustrated MSS. of the Bible,
which, though not earlier than the fifth century, must certainly have had proto-
types of an earlier date.
In view of these facts two courses are open to us. Either we must suppose
the mosaics of the nave earlier than those of the arch ; or, considering the work
to be all of one period, we must adopt one of two subordinate alternatives. If
we choose the fifth century as the sole date, we must explain the style of the
nave pictures by supposing them to be careful copies of older compositions ; if

1 Smirnoff (F. V., iv, 1897, li-lS) suggests that the infant Christ is placed in solitary
grandeur upon the throne because it was inconsistent with his supreme divinity, affirmed at
the Council of Ephesus, that any person not divine, even his mother, should be placed on the
same level. It is possible that for a considerable time after the Council the artistic tradition
may have been unsettled, and unusual compositions may have been attempted which did not
find permanent favour. Venturi (as above, 255-6) takes a somewhat similar view. This re-
markable feature is discussed by Smith and Marriott, Diet, of Christian Antiquities, 84, and
V. Sehultze, Archdologie der christlichen Kunst, 25.
' Aiualoff lays particular stress upon these features, and in general regards the mosaics as
strongly influenced by the early phase of East-Christian art. A short but useful abstract of
this valuable article upon Sta Maria Maggiore is given by Richter and Taylor, 415-19.
z 2
.^40 PAINTING-

an earlier period, we must find parallels in early work for details which have
the air of being late. Ainaloff, Venturi/ and Eichter concur in the belief that
contemporary, de Eossi's
rejectinghalf conclu-
sion that theof nave
the pictures was and
the arch for are
donenave Liberius in the second of the fourth
century, while the arch was decorated for Sixtus III, by whom the inscription
was composed. But whereas the Kussian archaeologist believes that the whole
decoration was executed for Sixtus, Eichter, basing his arguments on the artistic
qualities of the work, on the symbolic tendencies of the whole, and on the theo-
logical opinions which in his view they illustrate, declares for the second, or at
latest the beginning of the third century. He maintains that work of such
quality ^ was beyond the powers of fifth-century decadence, and can only be
attributed to the golden age of classic Christian art, that is to say, to a time
a hundred years before the conversion of Constantine. For him the scenes upon
the arch are not intended, as de Eossi and others supposed, to glorify the Virgin
as Theotokos, after the Council of Ephesus, for in individual scenes, as for
instance in the Adoration, the Mother is obviously subordinated to the Child ^
he rather sees in these compositions the Advent of the Logos, considering them
as an antitypical group corresponding to the prototypical scenes of the nave.'
The latter he consequently regards not as merely historical illustrations in the
style of a picture Bible — for they do not observe the strict historical sequence —
but as a carefully chosen • typological series. The presence of late types of
costume upon the arch and of gold cubes throughout he ascribes to restoration.
As to the subjects from the apocryphal writings, he argues that though we
happen to have no examples in art before the fifth century, this is merely
negative evidence. The theological atmosphere of these mosaic scenes is that
of Justin Martyr, of the two Clements, of Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Origen,
and not that of Jerome and Augustine or any post-Constantinian writer.
Into the controversy thus raised we cannot here enter ; it can only be decided
by the union of both sides in a single view as to what is original work and what
is restoration. If, for example, Eichter is right in ruling out all the gold cubes
and all the 'Byzantine ' costumes as later interpolations, then many of Ainaloff 's
arguments fall to the ground, though serious iconographical difficulties would
still remain. For us it is important to notice that Eichter admits the proba-
bility that the artists may have come from Syria, and suspects in many details
of the work the inspiration of the Christian East : * this opinion will receive
very general support.
In discussing the mosaics of Eavenna we shall have occasion to notice that
the subjects of the lost mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore in that city seem to have
coincided with those of the arch in the Eoman church, a fact Avhich may perhaps
be considered to favour the usually accepted date of the fifth century (see below,
p. 865).
Across the wall of the Church of Sta Sabina,' founded in the time of Celestine,
1 As above, 266-7.
2 Eichter takes a higher view of the artistic quality of the scenes in the nave than many
other critics, some of vphom agree with Vitet that though the antique inspiration is undeniable,
the execution often leaves much to be desired. They see heads too big for bodies, bodies
themselves thick and squat, indecision of line, negligence and clumsiness of detail. Eichter,
who has been suspended from the roof and carefully examined these liigh-placed mosaics, has
seen them to exceptional advantage, and in his admirable illustrations (by Signer Tabanelli)
has enabled others to see them almost as well. But though he has thus increased our admiration
for some scenes, notably the parting of Abraham and Lot, he has equally brought into a
stronger light some of the elements of weakness mentioned above. He has perhaps too low
an opinion of the art of the lifth century and of the last quarter of the fourth, which produced
much creditable work.
» The close connexion between the subjects of the nave and arch is, however,
and explained by those who believe the mosaics to be a pictorial poem in honour of theaccepted
Virgin
and of her son God made man (see Venturi, as above, 271-2).
* The ofGolden
existence Age,influence
oriental &c., 399. Strzygowski
in these mosaics. (Prussian Jahrbuch. 1903, 151) maintains the
» Venturi, as above, p. 275 and Fig. 108; G. Clausse, Basiligues, &c., 161.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC
341
A. D. 423-32, there is mosaic decoration consisting of a large central inscription
between two female figures representing the Ecclesia ex gentibus and the
Eeclesia ex circumcmone, above which in Ciampini's time were still to be seen
St. Peter and St. Paul. The costumes, in which purple is conspicuous, the
type of the eyes, the border enclosing the work, and the blue background
all suggest an artistic affinity with Eavenna,' though the figures themselves
may descend from those of Eoman monumental art. In the chapels of the
Lateran Baptistery there are other mosaics illustrating the transitional art
of the fifth century. The design of one,^ with its central medallion containing
a nimbed lamb within a wreath, still recalls catacomb art, though the back-
ground is here of gold. But the style of certain details (birds and vases, &c.)
resembles that of similar accessories in the Mausoleum of Placidia and
S. Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna rather than the work of the first Christian
centuries at Rome. The design in the second chapeP is divided into two

Fig. 206. Ornament in mosaic, Sta Sophia, Constantinople. (After Salzenberg.)

halves filled by rich acanthus scrolls diverging from a point in the middle
of the base. In a border below are a lamb and white doves, representing
Christ and the Evangelists; below again is a jewelled cross of the Golgotha
form. Though some critics have assigned the mosaics to the twelfth century,
Htibsch, de Eossi, Muntz, and Ainaloff all attribute them to the fifth, and
probably to the earlier half, for the nearest parallel to such acanthus scrolls
is to be found in the Mausoleum of Placidia.*
The lost mosaics on the triumphal arch of St. Paul extra muros, destroyed
in the fire of 1823 and since restored, are said to have still preserved the
antique character : they dated from the time of Leo I, and are ascribed to
about the year a.d. 450.* The scene represented is the apocalyptic vision
of the twenty-four elders singing before the throne, or rather before a bust
of Christ in a medallion. The mosaics in the apse of SS. Cosmas and
Damian" were executed under Felix IV about the years a.d. 526-30. They
1 Ainaloff, Journal of the Ministry of Public Instruction, St. Petersburg, July, 1895, 21.
2 De Eossi, Musaici, Fane. 17 and 18; Garrucci, PI. 238; Hiibsch, Die altcliristlichm Kirchm,
Karlsruhe, 1862, PI. XXVIII, Fig. 1 ; Venturi, as above, 244, and Fig. 107 ; Clausse, as
above, 174.
s Venturi, 243, and Fig. 106 ; Perate in A. Michel's Histoire de Vart, 46.
* Hubsch, as above, PI. XXI, Fig. 1; Muntz, in liev. arch., 1874, 172; Ainaloff, as
above, 23. . ^ ,
6 Vitet, Journal des Samnts, 1863, p. 346; Venturi, 276, and Fig. 79; Crowe and Cav.il-
caselle, i. 14, with plate.
« De Kossi, Musaici; Venturi, as above, 273 ff.; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 15 and lb;
Clausse, as above, 184.
342 PAINTING

represent SS. Peter and Paul presenting the two titular saints to Our Lord :
at the sides stand St. Theodore and Pope Felix. On the external front of the
arch is the Lamb between the seven candlesticks, angels, the twenty-four elders,
and the symbols of the Evangelists. Here the influence of the antique tradition
strong, and the style excellent for work carried out so soon after the
sackstill
is of Eome.
In the Roman mosaics of the period between the sixth and ninth centuries,
with much that is clearly of East-Christian inspiration there is a certain barbaric
force which points to the practice of the mosaic art by Western hands. It_ is
impossible in the present place to do more than notice those churches in which
Eastern influence is most evident. The figures of Apostles and saints in the
Chapel of St. Venantius {temp. John IV, a. d. 640-2) recall those of S. Apollinare
Nuovo, Ravenna.' The cross in the apse of S. Stefano Eotondo (temp. Theo-
dore, +649) is of the type seen on the Monza ampullae from the Holy Land.
Drawings of the lost mosaics of the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul {temp.
John VII, +707) prove the introduction of oriental iconographic features, such
of the ofChild at the Nativity.'-'
TheWashing
as the later phase degradation in Roman mosaic art, as illustrated in
St. Praxed and St. Cecilia,'' finds a parallel in the work of the dome of Sta Sophia
at Salonika. The figures of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Chapel of St. Zeno in
St. Praxed, if added to the Apostles of that dome, would hardly excite remark."
The Salonika mosaics can hardly be regarded as imitating Roman work, for
the types of Christ and of the angels are Eastern, and the treatment
of the ground and of the trees is equally Byzantine. It has therefore been
suggested that the mosaics of Sta Sophia are examples of a decadent period
in Byzantine art, the earlier illustrations of which have perished ; and that
from the close of the seventh century the degradation of the oriental masters was
followed step by step by their Western pupils. The period of decadence would
thus coincide with that of the iconoclastic dispute, the results of which may
have continued to operate in the provinces even after the establishment of
peace in the capital. It is not necessary to believe that all or even the
greater part of the work was executed by immigrant Greeks ; it is natural
to suppose that there was on the part of Italians much imitation of Greek
models, which the residence in Rome of Greek monks would certainly have
encouraged. The work (St. Cecilia, St. Praxed, St. Maria in Domnica) executed
for Pope Paschal, and that in St. Mark for Gregory IV, 830-40, marks the
nadir of Italian mosaic art. The revival began with the importation of
Byzantine artists by Desiderius of Monte Cassino (p. 84) in the eleventh
century and was continued in Venice (p. 899). With the thirteenth century
Italy produced her own artists, and the names of Jacopo Torriti and Gaddo
Gaddi prove her enfranchisement from Greek pupilage.

(6) Ravenna.^
From the time when Galla Placidia returned from Constantinople to Italy
and took up her residence on the Adriatic, down to the close of the sixth
century, Ravenna was the chief centre of mosaic art in Italy and possibly
of the world. There remain more mosaics of this period in this quiet pro-
vincial town than in any other place, for what the East had once to show f''
1 S. Bei-ssel, Zeitschri/t fiir christlkhe Kimst, x, 1897, 114; 0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in
Niciia, 281.
2 Frothingham in Eev. arch., 1888, Pt. I, p. 70 ; Garrucci, Storia, PI. 279 ; Rev. de I'art
Chretien, xxvi, 1893, 361 ff.
s Beissel, aa above, 148, 182-4. For reproductions, de Rossi, Musaici ; Venturi, Storia, &c.
■> O. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche, &e., i!84.
5 The mosaics of the churches in Ravenna are reproduced in Alinari's and Ricci's photo-
graphsAlinari
; has negatives of all the important subjects. Most may be seen in tlie collec-
tion of photographs in the Victoria and Albert Museum, series xixab.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC
343

Fig. 207. Apse of the Cathedral of Parenzo, showing mosaics'of the sixth century.
(Alinari.) P. 373.
344 PAINTING-

of equal age has not been preserved in the same manner. Three great names
are indissolubly associated with the art of Eavenna, those of Placidia (tA. d.
450), of Theodoric the Ostrogoth (conquered Odovakar a. d. 493, t526), and
Justinian ; and each is commemorated by mosaics which survive to the present
day. To the time of Placidia belong the Catholic Baptistery (c. a.d. 430),
and the princess's own tomb (now SS. Nazaro e Celso) (c. a. d. 440) ; to that ojf
Theodoric the Arian Baptistery (c. a. d. 500) and most of the work in
S. ApoUinare Nuovo (a.d. 504); to that of Justinian, S. Vitale (a.d. 547)
and S. ApoUinare in Classe (a. d. 549). To the succeeding period of rapid
decadence under the exarchate may be ascribed parts of the decoration of
S. ApoUinare Nuovo (a.d. 560), S. ApoUinare in Classe (a.d. 672), and the
archiepisoopal chapel.
We gain but little information as to art from Agnellus' compilation known
as the Liber Pontificalis,^ though we learn the names of four mosaic artists :
Cuserius, Paulus, Janus, and Stephanus.'' The question whether the inspira-
tion of the mosaics of Eavenna was or was not continuously oriental has
been the subject of much contention in the past. The present writer agrees
with those who answer the question in the afSrmative. Those who wish
to follow the discussion in detail may consult the list of works given in the
footnote,
discuss thewhich is based
principal upon the bibliography of Eiedin.' "We may now
monuments.
The Catholic Baptistery,* otherwise known as S. Giovanni in Fonte, and
' Published in Muratori, Serum Ualicarum scriptores, yol. ii, p. 1-187 ; Migne, Patrol. Lat.
2 Liber Font, as above, p. 51 ; S. Beissel, Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, xlvii, 1894, 422 ff., 497 ff..
and Ivi, 1899, 344-9.
^ (a) Supporting the theory of Eastern Christian influence : Labarte, Histoire des arts
industriels, &e., Paris, 1873, ii. 349, 358 ; Schnaase, Geschiclite der bildenden Kiinsle im Mittelalter,
Diisseldorf, 1869, i. 211; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, i; FOrster,
Geschichte der italienischen Kvnst, Leipzig, 1869, vol. i, p. 106 ; Gregorovius, Wanderjahre in Italien,
Leipzig, 1871, iv. 11 ; J. P. Eichter, Die Mosaiken tore Eavenna, Vienna, 1878 ; N. P. Kondakoff,
Histoire de I'art byzantin, 1, and Journey to Sinai in 1881, Odessa,. 1882 (Russian) ; Bayet, Recherches
pour servir a Vhistoire de lapeinture^d de la sculpture chretienne en Orient, Paris, 1879, 80, 81, 95,- and
L'AHbysantin, 35 ff. ; E. Miintz, Etudes sur Vhistoire delapeiniureetdel'iconographiechretiennes, Paris,
1888, 31 ; E. Dobbert, Bepertorium, viii, 1885, 163, 173, and xxi, 1898, 1 ff. and 95 ff. ; Ch. Diehl,
Ravenne : .Etudes d'archeologie bysantine, Paris, J 886, 1, 44, 50, &c. ; J. Strzygowski, Das Elschmiadzin-
Emngeliar, Vienna, 1891, 50-1 ; V. Schultze, Archaologie der altchristlichen Kunst, Munich, 1895,
202, 222, &c. ; D. V. Ainaloff, Mosaics of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries, in Journal of the Ministry of
Public Instruction, St. Petersburg, 1895 (incidental allusions) ; E. K. Kiedin, Journal of the
Imperial Russian Archaeological Society, St. Petersburg, 1897, 41-264 ; N. Pokrovsky, Mural
Decoration of Early Greek and Russian Churches, 11 ff.
(6) In favour of Western independence, at any rate down to the sixth century : Hiibsch,
Die altchristlichen Kirchen nach den Baudenkmalen und dlteren Beschreibungm, Carlsruhe, 1862 ;
Kugler, Handbach der Geschichte der Malerei, 1866, 40, 53 ; Didron, Manuel d'iconographie chretienne,
Paris, 1845, 46 ; Woltmann, Geschichte der Malerei, Leipzig, 1879, 1. 167 ; S. Beissel, Stimmen aus
Maria-Laach, 1894, 344-9; P. X. Kraus, Geschichte der christlichen Kunst, i. 427-44, Freiburs,
1896. ' "'
(c) In favour of a mixed origin, in which Eastern and Western influences almost balance
each other, or leaving the question undecided : X. Barbier de Montault, Rerue de Vart Chretien,
vii, 1896, 70 ; F. von Quast, Die altchristlichen Bauwerke ton Ravenna, Berlin, 1842 ; Garrucci,
Storia dell' arte crlstiana, Prato, 1877, iv.
{d) Early works dealing with these mosaics are : Agnellus, Liber Pontificaiis, site Vitae Ponli-
flcum Ramnnatum (ninth century), printed in Muratori, Rerum italicarum scriptores, ii, Milan,
1723 ; Migne, Pairologiae cursus completus, Latin series, vol. 106, and Monumenta Germaniae
historica, Scriptores rerum longobardicarum et italicarum saec. vi-ix, Hannover, 1878 (ed. Waitz).
From this ancient source all writers have drawn in a greater or less degree ; Tomaso Tomai,
Historia di Ravenna, Kavenna, 1580 ; Eubens, Historiarum Ravennaium libri decern, Venice, 1589 ;
F. Fabri , Le Sagre Memorie di Raveima, Venice, 1664 (and his continuator Tarlazzi, Memorie sacre di
Ravenna, Rav., 1852) ; Oiampini, Vetera Monumenta, i and ii, Rome, 1690-9. An account of
the recent restorations undertaken by the Commission of Monuments is given by C. Ricci,
Ravenna e i lavorifatii dalla Sovrintendenza dei monumenti nel 1S98, Bergamo, 1899 ; Ravenna, Ber-
gamo, 1902, and in Arte italiana decorativa e industriale, xiii, 1904,
apse of S. ApoUinare in Classe was in progress in the autumn of pp. 21-5. Restoration of the
1906
J Richter, as above, 9 ff. ; Riedin, 51 ft'. ; Venturi, as above, i. 283-5, and Pigs. 114-17 ;
G. Rivoira, Le Ongini delta architettura Icmbarda, i. Fig. 55 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Eistory of
Patntmg m Italy (new English edition edited by Langtou Douglas, London, 1903), p. 18
and
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 345

perhaps built by Ursus (a. d. 400-10), was decorated, according to the Liber
Pontificalis, by Neon (a.d. 425-30). It is an octagonal building surmounted
by a dome, and the interior decoration is divided into four zones, the two
uppermost occupying the dome, the two lower ornamenting the two superposed

Fig. 208. Mosaics of the Catholic Baptistery, Ravenna : sixth century. (L. Eicci.)

courses of round arches of which the lower part of the structure is composed.
In a large medallion at the top of the dome is represented the Baptism. In
addition to the figures of Christ and St. John, who holds a long jewelled cross,
there is present a personification of the Eiver Jordan.^ The background is gold,
plate opposite ; C. Eicci, Monumenti Ravennati, II Battiitero cU S. Giovanni in Fonte, and Bawnna,
Figs. 43-6 ; J. Kurth, Wandmosaiken mn Bavenna, pp. 65-81 and PI. XV, &c.
' This Baptism scene has been considerably restoi-ed. The restorations have affected the
hands of
heads is Chribt and St. John,
not original. See C. asEicci,
well asas above,
the garments of the63.lattei'. The bowl in the Baptist's
38 ; Eiedin,
346 PAINTINQ

but the nimbus is in each case blue with red borders. The broad zone below
procession
has a rises of Apostles bearing crowns to lay at Christ's feet : between each
pair a tall conventional flower from a green ground signifying that the
scene is laid in Paradise. The background is blue, and round the top is a line
of looped curtains. The tunics and mantles are alternately ^yhite and gold, and
the clavi purple. The second narrower zone is decorated with a series of con-
ventional representations of the interiors of churches. These are of two types.
In one the centre is occupied by an altar on which lies an open book of the
Gospels, while on either side is a jewelled chair ; in the other a chair is seen in
the centre, while the lateral divisions are closed by cancelli. _ The idea under-
lying this peculiar decorative scheme is doubtless the glorification of the Church,
and the example here seen is the earliest of a series, later instances occurring in
the Church of St. George, Salonika,' and the basilica at Bethlehem.^ Eiedin
thinks that possibly these representations may be intended for parts of the
galleries of a church, in which sacred objects were sometimes exposed for
veneration.^
The uppermost of the two remaining zones contains eight arches, each
enclosing three smaller arches, under the midmost being placed the eight
windows, while the lateral pairs form niches each occupied by a stucco figure of
a prophet holding a book or scroll.* Before the restoration of 1889 the back-
ground was a dull red, and the reliefs themselves yellow (Eicci, U Battistero,
p. 36). Above the figures are pairs of confronted animals and birds (hares,
goats, peacocks, vultures, dogs, cocks, pheasants, sheep) divided by baskets of
fruit, &c., alternating in four cases with representations of the Traditio Legis
(see p. 664), Daniel, Jonah, and a youthful figure of Christ without nimbus and
carrying a book, walking upon a lion and a serpent. It is held by some that all
this stucco decoration is later than the mosaics; but the subjects are charac-
teristic of the earlier date, and stucco had been employed for similar purposes
in imperial Eoman times. Eiedin (pp. 79-80) points out analogies to the sub-
jects in various oriental monuments, amcaig others on certain Eavenna sarco-
phagi and the Gospel of Eabula, where the decoration of the Eusebian Canons
offers points of resemblance. The spandrels between the arches are filled by
acanthus designs in mosaic with birds among the leaves.
In the lowest zone, between the arches, are bold scroll designs in green and
gold on a blue ground enclosing figures of prophets. Apostles, or saints in white
garments heightened with gold lines, after the style seen in the Vatican Virgil
and later Byzantine MSS.'' In four of the arches are exedrae or niches, while
the spaces within the remaining four were filled with coloured marbles forming
designs, some of which stiU remain : the lower walls were also covered with
marble. Above the arches enclosing the niches were inscriptions in mosaic
relating to the use of the building for the ceremony of baptism, and with them
the monograms of the bishops Peter, Chrysologus, Neon, and Maximianus.
Oriental elements in the decoration of the baptistery are the presence of the
personification of Jordan ; the forms of the crowns carried by the Apostles,
resembling the diadems of Byzantine emperors ; the treatment of the stucco
reliefs, recalling that of the reliefs on the base of the obelisk in the Hippodrome

1 Photo, Hautes Etudes, of. Fig. 221. Texier .nnd PuUan, Byz. Anhiteoture, PI. XXX-XXXIII.
The architecture in this case is of a more elaborate character than at Kavenna. For these
architectural motives see pp. 374, 414. They perhaps originated in Alexandria, and are
found in the wall paintings of the house discovered in 1893 on tlie Palatine.
"- De Vogiie, Eglises de la Terre sainte, 71 ; Lethaby and others, The Church of the Natimty at
Bethelehem (Byzantine Research and Exploration Fund), 1910. The Bethlehem mosaics are of
the twelfth century, but reproduce more ancient designs.
' As above, 54, 74 ff. He quotes Bishop Sophronius of Jerusalem,
instruments of the Passion were so exposed. Kondakoff has suggested according to whom the
that such an occasion
may have suggested the representation of the Throne with the instruments of the Passion
(cf. p. 666).
« Richter, 17-20 ; Kiedin, 54. « Venturi, i. Figs. 116-17.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC 347

at Cbnstantinople.' The general type of the Baptism scene is claimed as

Byzantine, and compared with the versions on a relief in Constantinople,'^
and of the miniatures in the sixth-century Gospel of Eabula at Florence ^ and
the Etchmiadzin Gospel.'' The solemn ceremonial character of the procession
of the Apostles has also been noted as a new element, absent in Early
Christian art.'
It is the beginning of the formal style, and we already see here the strange
fashion of walking, as it were upon the toes, which may be remarked upon
later Byzantine monuments, as for instance in the eleventh-century mosaics of
Sta Sophia at Kieff." It may be noted in conclusion that the decoration of
both the Eavenna; baptisteries is less remarkable for the number of subjects
represented than other early baptisteries of the fourth to sixth centuries which
have either survived or are known to us by description.' Such are the lost
mosaics of the Vatican and Lateran Baptisteries ' and the surviving decoration
of the Baptistery of Naples (p. 369).
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia '■' is thought to have been erected by the
princess about a. d. 440 in honour of SS. Nazarius and Celsus ; ^^ she was buried
within its walls. Its plan is in the form of a Latin cross such as is seen in
almost contemporary crypts in the catacombs of Alexandria ; " in the centre
is a dome on four arches concealed on the exterior by a quadrangular tower
with tiled roof. The arms of the cross have barrel vaults, and the whole surface
of the interior, except the lower walls, which were formerly faced with marble,
is covered with mosaic, the ground throughout being blue. In the vaults
covering the eastern and western arms of the cross this blue ground is diapered
with gold rosettes, &c. ; in the other two are vine scrolls rising from acanthus
and enclosing the figures of four Apostles and terminating at the top in the
sacred monogram. In the dome a central cross appears in a firmament of
stars ; '^ in the spandrels between the four supporting arches are the symbols
of the Evangelists.
Flanking the four windows under the dome are four pairs of Apostles in
bluish tunics and white mantles standing under ornate niches on a green
ground ; between each pair and below the windows are doves either standing
by a fountain or perched upon water vessels (cf. the Capitol mosaic, Woltmann,
Gesch., i. 92). The pair above the left transept are St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Peter,
almost for the first time in monumental art, carrying a key as a symbol." The
heads of these figures, most of which are youthful, are poor and not equal to the
drapery, which is executed in a far more skillul manner. The figure to the
spectator's left is in each case more successful than that on his right, probably
1 Eichter, 17; Dobbert, Beperiorium, viii. ]64.
2 Figured, B.Z.,i, PI. II, Fig. 1.
' J. Strzygowski, Ikonographie cJer Taufe Christi, PI. II, Fig. 9.
* J. Strzygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, PI. VI, Fig. 2.
5 E. Dobbert, in Repe'dorium, viii, 1885, 163.
« Dobbert, in Prussian Jahrhuch, xv. 221. ' Eiedin, 55-6.
' E. Miintz, The Lost Mosaics of Borne, in American Journal of Archaeology, ii, 1886, 296.
» Alinari and Eicci, photos ; Eiedin, cli. ii, 89 ff., PI. I, and Figs. 8-15; G. Eivoira, le
Origini della architettura lomharda, i. 45 ; Kurth, as above, pp. 44-64 and PI. X-XIV.
1" Liber Pontiflcalis, p. 28 B. Some have held that the building was dedicated to SS. Ger-
vasius and Protasius (Pabri, Sagre memt/iie, 295 ; Garrucci, i. 505).
1"^ Eichter, as above, 24 ; Eiedin, 92.
" Eiedin, 93. Of. Baptistery of Naples (p. 369). The cross so placed in the vault or
dome was not confined to churches, but also decorated the imperial palaces (Eusebius, Vila
Const, in Migne, Pair. Gr., xii, c. 49). This motive is mentioned by Paulinus of Nola (Migne,
Pair. Lat., Ixi. 336, 339 ; 'Wickhoff, B. Q., iii. 158 ff.). Sometimes the sacred monogram occu-
pied the place of the cross ; so in a fourth-centuiy fresco in Hungary (de Eossi, Bullettino,
1874, 169 ff. and PI. VIII), and in the sculpture in the small chamber in the base of tlie
column of Arcadius at Constantinople (Ath. Mitth., 1893, 230).
1' St. Peter has keys on the triumphal arch of St. Paul outside the walls at Eome, but
these were almost certainly added during one of the numerous restorations which these
mosaics have undergone. They are, however, seen upon one of the sarcophagi at Eavenna.
348 PAINTING

because in attitude it approaches the readily accessible model of the antique

orator.
The lunettes of the transepts are ornamented with acanthus scrolls in
yellowish green, while in the foreground in each is represented a pair of harts
approaching the water (C. Eicci, Eavenna, Fig. 39). The most important subjects
are those which fill the lunette over the entrance door and that immediately
opposite. The first is the famous Good Shepherd/ the second possibly the
martyrdom of St. Laurence.^ The Good Shepherd is seated on a boulder in
a meadow with a rocky background with bushes, surrounded by his sheep and
holding a long gold cross in his hand. He is no longer the herdsman of Early
Christian art clothed in short tunic and carrying a simple pedum or crook, but
Christ the Lord wearing a gold dalmatic with blue clavi and a mantle of royal
purple. Eound his head is a golden nimbus, and his oval face is framed in rich
brown hair falling in long locks on either side. The type of head has suggested
a comparison with Apollo,' and finds parallels upon sarcophagi of the fourth
century. This picture has been considered the finest example of Early Christian
mosaic in existence ; and certainly the ideal treatment, the clever management
of lights and shadows, and the opulence of colour combine to place it in the very
first rank.
The subject of the Good Shepherd is appropriate to a mausoleum, since the
ancient liturgies allude to the departed as sheep taken by the Good Shepherd
into the fold (Le Blant, itude sur les sarcoplmges Chretiens, xxxiii-xxxv ;
V. Schultze, Arch, der christliclien Kunst, 172). The long golden cross of the
Golgotha type (p. 337), which was carried by the emperor in processions at
Constantinople (Kondakoff, Bysantine Enamels, 291), as well as the purple
raiment, are indications of an oriental influence.
The sheep standing in the lower left-hand corner is a restoration later than
the time of Ciampini, whose reproduction (Fe<. Mon., vol. i, PI. 66, p. 227) shows
the sheep in this place recumbent (see Eicci, Gruida di Eavenna, 77).
In the opposite lunette a man advances from the right towards a large
gridiron, beneath which a fire is burning.'' He holds over his right shoulder
a long golden cross, and in his left hand a red-bound open book, probably the
Gospel of St. Mark, for in a cupboard opposite are seen the books of the three
other Evangelists, each with its name inscribed. His tunic is blue, his mantle
white. The face is fine and aristocratic, the close-cut hair of a chestnut colour,
but the type is one which was never adopted in representations of Our Lord :
rovmd the head is a golden nimbus.
If the person here represented is really St. Laurence, the occurrence of two
such subjects as the Good Shepherd and a Martyrdom in one building of the
fifth century is of great interest. In idea at least, the Good Shepherd still
belongs to the early symbolic tradition, though the ancient simplicity has already
vanished. The other subject would be an early example of realism, though
it is still only transitional, the saint enduring no pain. The martyrdom of
St. Laurence occurs upon Early Christian minor works of art dating from the
fourth to the fifth century.'^ It is well known that representations of martyrdoms
' Alinari, 11596 (V. and A. Museum, 5223-90) ; Richter, as above, plate opp. p. 28 ;
Biedin, PI. I and Pig. 15 ; C. Ricci, Eavenna, Pig. 41 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i, plate opp.
p. 20. Tlia picture has been drastically restored (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 21, note).
'' Kurth, as above, PI. XIV ; C. Ricci, Havenna, Pig. 40. The figure in this scene was
formerly held to represent Christ, but the identification as St. Laurence was suggested by
the Abb6 Crosnier in 1859 and confirmed by de Rossi in his discussion of the decoration of
the Church of S. Lorenzo at Rome. Although this interpretation has found general favour,
some are still unable to accept it ; for instance, Venturi does not accept this explanation,
thinking that the book may be a volume of Maniohaean heresy which is about to be cast into
the flames (i. 280).
' Cf. the Christ on the Lateran sarcophagus (Garrucci, Storia, 323. 4), which is also of
the type of Apollo.
« Alinari, 11595 (V. and A. Mus., 5212-90).
^ P. X. Kraus, ReaUncyklopdclie, s.v. Zaurentius.
MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC
349

ffi

M
350 PAINTIKG

in general did not begin until about this period. A relief of the fourth century-
has the martyrdom of St. AchUleus,'^ and Eoman frescoes of about the same date
show that of SS. Crispus Crispinianus and Benedict.''
The ornamental motives in SS. Nazaro e Celso are composed of wreaths of
fruit and flowers rising from vases, vine scrolls, and bands of maeander.' There
is a similarity between some of this decorative work and that of the Orthodox
Baptistery, which, considered in relation to the more general resemblance in such
matters as gradations of colour and the outlining of the figures, has led some
critics to attribute the decoration of both buildings to the same hands.*
The Arian Baptistery,' otherwise known as Sta Maria in Cosmedin, is, like
the Orthodox Baptistery, octagonal, and was probably built by Theodoric. The
mosaics are confined to the dome, and reproduce the subjects of the Catholic
Baptistery. The execution is throughout inferior : the draperies are unskilfully
handled and the types of the faces monotonous. In the dome is the Baptism.
The figure of Christ is very small and boyish, as is usual before the seventh
century, while that of the Baptist is without the nimbus. Above Our Lord's
head descends the dove, from the beak of which water issues." To the right is
the seated figure of Jordan, represented as an old man with white beard and
hair from which issue crabs' claws,' nude down to the waist, and below wearing
a sea-green cloth with red border. In his right hand he holds a reed, his left is
raised in wonder.' The lower zone is occupied by the Twelve Apostles divided
into two groups, each approaching a throne on which lies a cushion supporting
a cross : the throne is not here intended as in the later Etimasia as a symbol of
the Last Judgement, but simply stands for Our Lord. The Apostles are clothed
like the figures in the Mausoleum of Placidia, and each has a pale blue nimbus.
Between each pair is a palm-tree to indicate that the scene of the action is
Paradise. One group is led by St. Peter, the other by St. Paul, but only the
five figures following St. Peter are unrestored. The principal restorations were
carried out in 1835 (Eicci, Guida di Bavenna, p. 28). The scroll held by St. Paul
and the keys in the hands of St. Peter are late additions.'
The Church of S. Apollinare Nuovo," built by Theodoric and originally
dedicated to St. Martin, only received its present name in the ninth century,
when the relics of St. Apollinaris were placed there in safety from the Saracens.
The building was probably erected in the first decade of the sixth centuiy: in
the time of Agnellus (a. d. 553-66) it was transferred from the Arians to the
Catholics.
The mosaics are of two periods corresponding to the two dates already
mentioned. To the time of Theodoric belong the series of biblical scenes
' De Bossi, Bullettino, 1875, 8, PI. IV ; Le Slant, Les Persecuteurs ei les martyrs aux premiers
sieoles de notre ere, Paris, 1893, 281-2.
^ R. Q., ii, 1888, 148, and PI. VI ; Germane, La Casa Celimontana dei SS. Martiri Giovanni e
Paolo, Rome, 1894, 325, and Fig. 44.
' Von Quast, Die altchristlichen Bauwerke ton Ravenna, PI. IV.
* Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 20, note.
^ Eiediu, as above, ch. i; Eiohter, as above, 36 ff. ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 22 ; Kurth,
193-200, and PI. XXVI ; C. Ricci, Ramnna, PI. 52.
* This feature, as Riedln notices, probably shows the influence of the so-called Hebrew
Gospel (p. 65). See also H. Usener, ReligionsgeschichtUche Untersiichungen, 60, 34. Cf. the ivory
carving in the British Museum (Pig. 111). As a whole, the scene of the Baptism should also
be compared with that on an ivory in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Garrucci, Storia,
iil. 3 ; Strzygowski, Ikonographie der Taufe Christi, PI. II, Fig. 3). Cf. also the versions on a
relief on part of a column at Constantinople {B. Z., i.), on the chair of Maximianus (Garrucci,
418. 2), and in the Etchraiadzin Gospel (J. Strzygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, PI. VI,
Fig. 2).
' With these crabs' claws should be compared those issuing from the head of the personi-
fication ofthe Sea in the Vienna MS. of Dioscorides (see p. 460). The motive is, however,
antique (Riedin, p. 69).
s In conformity with the words of the Psalm : ' The waters saw thee and feared.'
s Riedin, p. 72.
" Richter, 42 ff. ; Riedin, 113 ff. ; C. Ricci, Ravenna, Figs. 54-82 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle,
i. 30-6 ; Kurth, 134-92, and PI. XXV and XXVI ; A. Munoz, LUrte, 1905, pp. 55 ff. ; &c.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC

which run along both walls of the nave high up above the windows near 351the
roof, and also the isolated figures between the windows. To the time of
Agnellus must be assigned the two long processions of male and female saints

Fig. 210. The Port of Classe ; Apostles : mosaics of the sixth century in the nave of
S. Apollinare Nuovo, Eavenna. (Eicci.)

which occupy the lower part of the walls.' All the mosaics have a gold
background.
The twenty-six biblical scenes which represent the Life and Passion of Our

1 Fabri, Ciampini (ii. 89), Von Quast (p. 19), Crosnier (p. 678), HUbsch (p. 63), and
Crowe and Cavalcaselle attributed the whole mosaic decoration to the time of Agnellus. On
the other hand, Eiedin (p. 114) thinks that the passage in Agnellus referring to the decoration of
S. Apollinare Nuovo (Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores rerum langobard, et ital., &c. , p. 334-5)
admits of the conclusion that all the mosaics date from Theodoric's time, or at any rate from
the beginning of the sixth century. Kraus {Gesohichte, i. 434) thinks the two lower zones, i. e.
the Apostles between the windows and the processions of martyrs, were both executed after
Theodoric's death. There seems no reason to assume that the Gothic king saw the work com-
pleted, and most authorities are unanimous in ascribing the processions to the period of
Agnellus. But the style of the figures of the Apostles is so superior that in the text the view
of Eahn (p. 27), Eiohter (as above, 43), Dobbert (Repertorium, xxi, 1898, 100), Diehl {Ravenne,
p. 54), and others, who consider them of equal age w^ith the scenes from the life of Christ, has
been adopted. The opinion of Eichter that the seated figures of Christ and the Virgin, to
which the two processions severally move, may be later than Agnellus does not seem to have
found acceptance (p. 68). In addition to carrying out restorations, Agnellus placed on the
fajade of the church mosaic portraits of Justinian and of himself {Liber Pont., 'Life of
S. Agnellus ').
 352 PAINTING

Lord are a series of great iconographical importance, and are so arranged that
the subjects from the Life are on the left side from the entrance and those from
the Passion on the right. Among the principal subjects of the former group
are the Healing of the Paralytic, the Healing of the Possessed, the Division of
the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew xxv. 31-2), the scene used allegorically to
typify the Last Judgement (Fig. 211) and recalling a sarcophagus in the Stroganoff
Collection (Eiedin, Fig. 23, p. 141), the Widow's Mite, the Pharisee and the
Publican, the Eaising of Lazarus, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, the Woman
with the Issue of Blood (or possibly the Woman taken in Adultery), the Healing
of the Blind, the Calling of Peter and Andrew (or the Miraculous Draught of
Fishes), and the two miracles of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the Gathering
of the Baskets that remained (or the miracle at Cana : this picture has suffered
restoration). The thirteen scenes of the Passion are the Last Supper, Christ in
the Garden of Gethsemane, the Kiss of Judas, Christ led Prisoner, Christ before
the Sanhedrin, Christ announcing to Peter that he should betray him, the
Denial of Peter, the Eepentance of Judas, Christ before Pilate, the Eoad to
Golgotha, the Maries at the Tomb, the Way to Emmaus, the Eisen Christ among
the Disciples. These pictures are still imder the influence of antique pagan
art, manifest alike in the composition and in the costumes of individual figures.
With the mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore, the carvings on the doors of Sta Sabina,
the ivory panels of the chair of Maximianus at Eavenna, and the miniatures
of the Codex Eossanensis (p. 452), they are the most important early series of
historical subjects, and are all the more interesting because they are exclusively
derived from the New Testament. The laws of perspective are imperfectly
understood, but the colour is effective. The figures in the series' ujjon the left
side of the church recall those of the Early Christian sarcophagi,' and the com-
position ofthe various scenes is extremely simple, Our Lord being accompanied
by a single Apostle, who serves to convey to the spectator the emotion aroused
by the action, for the Saviour himself looks towards the spectator. In this
series Christ is beardless, and has the cruciferous nimbus, which here makes an
early appearance in monumental art. He wears a purple dalmatic, the colour
usual in the art of the Christian East.'' An oriental influence may also perhaps
be indicated in the different colouring of the two angels with the two flocks, the
one being depicted as ruddy, the other blue.'
In the second series Christ is bearded, the hair and beard being blond.
Although they mark a transition from the old symbolic to the new historical
art they are still far from realism, and both the Flagellation and the Crucifixion
are omitted. This series seems to show more pronounced affinities to early
illuminated MSS. ; the scene in which Pilate washes his hands, and the Last
Supper, recall the same scenes in the Codex Eossanensis.* The costume of the
high-priest resembles that of the priestly figures in the mosaics of Sta Maria
Maggiore at Eome ; and the sepulchre in the scene of the Maries at the Tomb is
a circular building with cupola, probably reproducing the building over the Holy
Sepulchre at Jerusalem.'' Although these two series are the earliest surviving.

' Venturi, Storia, i. 288. Eichter compares the style of these pictures to that of the
frescoes in the catacombs of Central and Southern Italy (p. 50). For the Gospel pictures see-
C. Ricci, La Vita di Gesu, in Emporium, rivista mensile illustrata, &o., Bergamo, xv. 261-84, and the
same author, Ravenna, 21 ff.
^ e.g. the Gospel of Rabula, the sixth-century Syrian Gospel in Paris (Bibl. Nat., No. 33,
fol. 5 V and 6 v), and the Codex Rossanensis.
3 Venturi, p. 290.
• Ibid., and Eiedin, p. 158. Haseloff, however {Codex purpureus Rossanensis, 123), shows
that the relations between the mosaics and the miniatures must not be regarded as con-
tinuously close. The same may be said with regard to the lost mosaics of the Church of the
Apostles at Constantinople described for us by Mesarites and Constantino the Ehodian
(A. Heisenberg, GrabesMrche und Apostelkirche, ii. 249).
" See the remarks in connexion with the building represented in the mosaic of
Sta Pudenziana (p. 336).
 353
MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC

representations of Gospel narrative in any church, the decoration of walls with

such subjects had been usual from the fourth century.'
Eiedin has noted various points suggesting oriental influence, e. g. the red
colouring of the angel who stands by the goats in the scene representing the
Last Judgement, which recalls similar treatment in later Byzantine MSS. ;^ the
Last Supper is of the familiar type of the later Byzantine period;' the bearded
type of Christ in the Passion scenes recalls that of the Codex Rossanensis and
of the sixth-century Syrian Gospel at Paris {Bibl. Nat., No. 33). Dobbert'' sees
in the general character of all the pictures from the Life of Christ the breaking

Fig. 211. The Separation of the Sheep and the Goats : mosaic of the sixth century in the
nave of S. ApoUinare Nuovo, Ravenna. (Eicci.) P. 352.

free of East-Boman art from the traditions of Early Christian times. The stiff
treatment of the drapery, the sharp-cut band of ornament below the pictures,
and the manner in which hills are represented, recall bas-reliefs, and suggest
1 We have various litei-aiy evidences of this. St. Theodore the Studite says that Sabinus
ordered the decoration of his church with Gospel scenes {Antirrheticus, Migne, Pair. Gr., vol. 99,
p. 388). Scenes from the New Testament adorned the walls of the Church of the Virgin at
Blachernae in Constantinople founded by the Empress Pulcheria (Montfaucon, Anal, gr.,
Paris, 1688,458-4 ; Garrucci, Storia, i. 508-9). St. Nilus, in a letter to Olympiodorus, speaks of
nave decorations consisting of scenes from the Old and New Testaments (Migne, vol. 79, p. 578).
The decoration of the Church of St. Sergius at Gaza included Gospel scenes, among them being
the Crucifixion (Boissonade's ed. of Choricius of Gaza, pp. 91-8). The same was the case with
the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople and with Western churches : the Lateran
Basilica, the Basilica of St. Ambrose at Milan, St. Felix at Nola, and the Basilica of St. Syl-
vester built by Pope Celestine. For the above see Eiedin, p. 138.
' Eiedin, pp. 141-2 ; Paris Gospels, Bibl. Nat., No. 74 (eleventh centuiy) ; and Bible in thtt
Laurentian Library, Florence (also eleventh century) ; in the first of which an angel thrusts
an emperor down into hell, while in the second the angel expelling Adam and Eve from '
Paradise is of a fiei-y colour. Eiedin also compares the mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore at
Eome in the scene where the angels are entertained by Abraham.
' This point had previously been brought out by Dobbert {Bepertorium, xiv. 183, note 23).
* B^ertorium, xxi. 108.
1204 A a
354 PAINTING

that some work similar to the doors of Sta Sabina, or miniatures influenced by-
such reliefs, may have inspired the artist.' The last pictures of the Passion
series, from the Betrayal onward, in which the grouping, the types, and the
treatment
models. of drapery differ, suggest that there may also have been other

Between the panels with the historical subjects are gold niches with
' scalloped ' arches, each surmounted by a cross between two doves, and below
these, between the windows, is a middle zone composed of figures of prophets
and Apostles, in which Kiedin sees a more pronounced Greek influence (p. 137).

Fig. 212. Christ before Pilate : mosaic of the sixth century in the nave of S. ApoUinare
Nuovo, Eayenna. (L. Eicci.)

In the sofi&ts of the windows are diapers of stars, circles, crosses, and other
designs.
The long processions of crown-bearing martyrs* on the walls of the nave
below the windows are represented on green meadows on which grow lilies
and palms ; the females advance from the town of Classis towards the Virgin
throned with the Child in her arms, the males from the city of Eavenna
towards an enthroned figure of Our Lord, who is bearded and differs from
the symbolic juvenile type of the miracle scenes.^ Both the Virgin and
> Riedin, p. 162,
2 The males are principally saints venerated in the West, and only five are directly con-
nected with Eavenna. The female martyrs are of Eoman or Eoman-provincial origin. The
remains of four feet show that two other saints once formed part of the procession. Several
of the same saints in similar costume are represented in the mosaics of the Cathedral of
Parenzo (Garrucci, 276. 2).
3 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, p. 30 (Plate) ; Riedin, 117-18. Pigs. 18, 19. The representation
of the palace, probably the fafade, with inscription PALATlVM,is architecturally of interest.
The palace was perhaps east of S. ApoUinare Nuovo, and the building to the south, now
called the Palace of Theodorie, was probably a guard-house. In the lunette of the gateway in
the mosaic i-epresenting Eavenna are seen three indistinct male figures In white, one cari-ying
a long cross. Behind are seen various buildings, among others S. Vitale and S. ApoUinare.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 355

Our Lord are attended by angels ; but the Virgin is also approached by the
Magi bringing gifts, who thus appear to lead the procession of female martyrs.
The figures of the Magi, as at present seen, are all restorations,' as also is
the left side of Christ's figure and the sceptre or torch which he holds, in place of
the original book of the Gospels. The two outer angels attending the Virgin
are restored, as also are the angels in the corresponding position attending
Our Lord." The figures of the saints have been left untouched. The men,
with the exception of St. Laurence and St. Martin, are clothed almost entirely
in white, which is thrown into relief against the gold background, producing
an inharmonious effect unrelieved by gradations of colour and intensified by
the monotonous character of the drawing. Upon their mantles are to be seen
in exceptional variety the letters so often found in similar positions in Early
Christian art.' The procession of women is superior to that of the male saints.
These female martyrs are arrayed in gold-embroidered upper garments over
white tunics ; they show a greater variety of type than the men and recall the
female figures in the ceremonial picture in S. Vitale.* They may also be compared
with the mosaic picture of St. Agnes at Eome dating from about the year 630.
The two throned figures of Christ and the Virgin have given rise to a diversity
of opinion ; " the Christ recalls the fresco on the roof of the principal chapel
in the Catacomb of Peter and Marcellinus at Eome," which is certainly of
earlier date. Before leaving the subject of the two processions, we may
specially note the introduction of realistic pictures of Ravenna and Classis
into a purely ideal subject, the action of which is supposed to take place in
heaven.
In the Chapel of Tutti Santi in the left aisle is preserved a fragment of
the mosaics formerly ornamenting the entrance wall, consisting of a head
(Pig. 5) of the Emperor Justinian,' which may be compared with the portrait
in S. Vitale. The corresponding figure of Agnellus, who restored the churchj
has been destroyed.
The Church of S. Vitale " was begun under Archbishop Ecclesius
(a. D. 524-34) by a certain Julius Argentarius, probably continued under his
successors Ursicinus (a. d. 534-9) and Victor (a. d. 539-46), and consecrated
under Maximianus in the first year of his office, a.d. 547. It has a dome
supported by eight piers, between which, on the ground level, are exedrae,
each with two columns, and on a higher level the openings of a gallery
fronted with columns in a similar manner. The exterior would be a complete
octagon but for the addition, on the side opposite the entrance, of a rectangular

' Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 49. Agnellus mentions the Magi (£. P., § 38), so that they must
liare formed part of the original composition.
^ Kichter, 64. There was once a figure of St. Stephen introducing the male saints, but
this has entirely disappeared. We learn from a manuscript account by Gr. F. Malazappi da Carpi
that it was still in existence in 1580.
' Richter, 66, where tliere is a reference to the use of letters to symbolize the characier
of the wearer in Egyptian monasteries.
* Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Plate opp. p. 32. Cf. also the figure of the Virgin in the
mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore at Rome (Garrucci, Storia, 212. i and a), on the Milan diptych
(Garrucci, 447. i), and the female figures in a seventh-century Coptic MS. in the Library of
Ifaples (No. 1, B 19 ; see Riedin, p. 123).
' Richter (p. 68) suggests that they may not have been designed to form part of the com-
position, and sees in them a certain barbaric influence. Riedin makes a general comparison
with the figures in S. John Lateran, S. Cosmas and Damian, Sta Sophia at Constantinople,
and the monastery on Sinai, as well as in the miniatures of the MS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes,
noting that in all these early representations the aspect is mild, in contrast to the stern
expression of the Pantokrator of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
' Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i, p. 48 ; Richter, p. 69. The fresco is reproduced by Garrucoi,
Storia, vol. ii.
' Kurth, 191 and PI. XXVI.
" Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 23-6 ; C. Ricci, Ravenna, Pigs. 87-101 ; Richter, p. 73 f. ;
Riedin, pp. 164 ff. ; Kurth, pp. 88-131 and PI. XVI-XXIV. For recent restorations see
C. Ricci, Ravenna e i lavorifaiti datta Sovrintendema dei monummti nel 1898, Bergamo, 1899.
Aa 2
356 PAINTING

room or tribuna, terminating in an apse. The mosaic decoration covers the

apse, the tribuna or presbyterium, and the ti-iumphal arch before it.
In the apse a youthful Christ is seen seated on the globe of the world
and extending a jewelled diadem to St. Vitalis, who, presented by an angel,
holds out his hands covered by his mantle to receive it : ^ on the other side
advances Archbishop Ecclesius bearing a model of the church and likewise
led by an angel. Beyond are two ceremonial pictures, one representing the
Emperor Justinian (clearly a portrait) ^ carrying a gift in the form of a basin
probably containing an offering of gold, accompanied by Bishop Maximianus

Fig. 213. The Empress Theodora and attendants : mosaic of the sixth century in S. Vitale,
Kavenna. (L. Eicoi.)

and surrounded by his suite and guards, the other the Empress Theodora bearing
a golden bowl or chalice accompanied by her attendants. These two scenes
either represent the participation of the imperial pair in the dedication of
the church, for which there is, however, no historical evidence, or merely one
of the ceremonial entries of the kind described by Constantino Porphyrogenitus.'
Justinian doubtless contributed to the expense of decoration ; he might thus

1 Kurth, PI. XXI ; Eiedin, Fig. 38, p. 192, and PI. II ; C. Kicci, Ravenna, Pig. 97. For
Christ upon the globe, cf. the mosaics of Sta Costanza, Rome (p. 383).
2 The ceremonial pictures are figured by Du Sommerard, Les Arts au moyen age, Album,
10' s^rie, PI. 32, 112 ; Hefner- Alteneck, Frachten, Kunstwerke und Geraihschaften, i, PI. 3 and i ;
Revue anheologique, vii, 1850, PI. 145; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, pp. 24 and 26; J. Kurth,
PI. XXII-IV; C. Eicci, Ravenna, Figs. 99-100. Cf. the mosaic portrait in S. ApoUinare
Nuovo, above, p. 355.
^ I). Bielyayeff, Bysantina, ii, ch. 5. Such ceremonial entries were probably already
stereotyped in Justinian's day {Byzantina, as above, 46, 158, 160-1).
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC 357

be regarded as at least intimately concerned with the dedication ceremony, for

which he may also have sent a gift of plate. The imperial procession has
halted in the narthex, and the emperor has been censed by the Archbishop
Maximianus: We know by the fact that the emperor still wears his diadem
that he has not actually entered the church, for within the sacred walls the
crown was removed.
It is on the walls of the tribuna that what may be called the dogmatic
subjects are to be found, the most important scenes occupying a central lunette
on either side. On the right hand are Abel and Melchizedek bringing their
offerings ; on the left, Abraham entertains the angels and prepares to sacrifice
his son. In the spaces between these two pictures and the body of the church
are the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah ; on the spaces towards the apse are :
on the right, and next the scene of Abel's offering, Moses represented with
lambs like the Good Shepherd of the Mausoleum of Placidia, and Moses and
the Burning Bush ; on the left, Moses receiving the tables of the law. Above
this series of pictures, on the upper part of the tribuna walls, two on either
side, are the four Evangelists accompanied by their symbols, figures which
in style recall the mosaics of the Monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai. In
the centre of the roof,' in a medallion enclosed in a wreath, is the apocalyptic
Lamb on a background of blue sprinkled with silver stars. From this radiate
four bands of ornament formed of leaves and fruit, &c., and terminating at
the lower ends in peacocks and dolphins. These divide the surface into
four compartments filled with scroll-work resembling that seen in the Chapel
of St. John in the Lateran Basilica, and in the Orthodox Baptistery at Eavenna.
Amidst the scrolls in each compartment an angel in white garments stands
upon a sphere, with raised arms appearing to support the central medallion,
a motive already employed in the decoration of the Orthodox Baptistery and
the Mausoleum of Placidia. In the convolutions of the scrolls are various
creatures (hare, fish, panther, stork, deer, parrot, peacock, &c.), as seen in the
carved scrolls on the ivory chair of Maximianus (Pig. 122) and on numerous
other works of art. Above the apse, and above the two lunette pictures, are
pairs of flying angels supporting medallions,'' and in the soifit of the triumphal
arch are busts of Christ, the Apostles,^ and the martyrs Gervasius and Pro-
tasius in medallions ' which again recall the Sinai mosaics.
The principal subjects in this remarkable scheme of decoration must now
be described in greater detail. In the right-hand lunette picture * Abel and
Melchizedek stand on either side of a rectangular table set in a meadow. To
the right stands Melchizedek in priestly attire offering bread : a palace is seen
behind him. To the left is Abel dressed as a shepherd offering a lamb : the
hand of the Almighty appears from clouds above to signify the acceptance
of the offering. On the table, which is covered with a white cloth with purple
border, is a chalice with handles, and two circular cakes of bread : it is thus
evident that it is intended to represent an altar. The offering of Abel is
a favourite subject in Byzantine art, but the complementary figure is usually
Cain : the two brothers were thus represented in the lost mosaics of Sta Costanza
at Eome (p. 333). Melchizedek wears a white tunic confined by a green
girdle, and a purple mantle fastened by a gold brooch.^ On his head is a red
cap, on his feet red shoes, and he has a golden nimbus. The figure of the
priest-king in Christian art is usually balanced by that of Abraham, as in

1 C. Eicci, Ravenna, Fig. 101 ; Riedin, Fig. 33, p. 166. Compare the decoration of the
roofs in the chapels of the Lateran Baptistery (p. 341).
' C. Kicoi, Ravenna, Fig. 98. Cf. the angels on the large five-part diptychs (Fig. 124),
and in the mosaics of the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai.
= The bust of Christ is entirely restored. Such me4allion portraits in mosaic are prob-
ably descendants of the encaustic portraits of the Fayuin.
* C. Ricci, Razenna, Fig. 96 ; Riedin, Fig. 36, p. 171.
" This is the traditional priestly costume in Byzantine art ; cf. the costume of the priests
in the Passion scenes in the Gospel series of S. Apollinare Nuovo.
 358 PAINTING

the mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore at Eome and in the miniatures of the
Vienna Genesis.
In the opposite lunette we see in the centre a rectangular table beneath
a tree, at which three angels are seated/ wearing white garments and each
having a golden nimbus but no wings. On the table are three circular cakes
of bread marked with crosses. Abraham approaches from the left bearing
a dish on which lies a calf, while Sarah stands in the door of a hut behind
him.'' Abraham is an old man, wearing a short brown tunic. To the right
of the picture Abraham is again represented standing on the grass quite close
to the table preparing to strike Isaac, who kneels upon a low altar. Near
by is the ram ; above, the hand of the Almighty issues from the clouds. The
subject is frequent in the frescoes and on sarcophagi, but is there treated in
a more symbolic manner. Above each of the lunette pictures are two soaring
angels holding between them a medallion containing a jewelled cross. Of
the figures of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Mcses little need be said except to remark
their general excellence and to note that the representation of Moses taking
off his sandals recalls the same scene in the Eoman Catacombs of SS. Nereus
and Achilleus and of Calixtus,' while in the representation of the Giving
of the Law the prophet's attitude and costume suggest those of the crown-
bearing Apostles in the Catholic Baptistery. Moses has throughout a golden
nimbus, and, as usually in Byzantine art, is without a beard.
In the upper series of pictures the grey-haired Evangelists are seen seated
in a green landscape with their Gospels upon their knees : Matthew has a desk
and a scrinium, or case for manuscripts.
Although the mosaics of S. Vitale are splendid and impressive, they are
not equal to the earlier work of Eavenna, such as that of the Mausoleum
of Placidia. Many of the figures are feeble and disproportioned ; the passage
from light to shade is no longer finely graduated. The important place
assigned in these compositions to landscape should be especially noticed ; it is
formally treated, without any power of rendering distance. As Eichter has
remarked, it almost suggests geological sections.^ The conventional indica-
tions in other mosaics such as those of S. Apollinare Nuovo are here
replaced by a formal attempt to render scenery. But foregrounds and back-
grounds are not distinguished, and black lines are used to emphasize the out-
lines and features of the figures, defects which are not entirely compensated
by the careful drawing or the skill with which the draperies are often arranged.
The colour scale is more extensive than in the earlier work, and mother-of-
pearl is used to heighten the effect, but brilliance cannot disguise the fact
that the principal persons in the ceremonial pictures are arranged in the
foreground as if they were hung on wires." The biblical personages wear
a solemn and hieratic aspect, different from that of Early Christian art. These
changes resulted necessarily less from artistic decadence than from the changed
spirit of an age enthusiastic in dogmatic discussions. The mosaics of S. Vitale
are indeed a striking example of the dominion which theology now began
to exercise over art.
It is generally agieed that the subjects represented in S. Vitale are intended
to teach a dogmatic lesson. Some critics have seen in the principal pictures

1 Riedin, fig. 35, p. 368 ; C. Kicci, Ravenna, Fig. 95. The subject of the entertainment
of the angels is also found m the mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore. In later Byzantine art
occurs frequently as an allegorical representation of the Trinity (mosaics of St. Mark, Venice,it
and of Monrcale : miniature of Vatican Octateuch, see J. Tikkanen, Die Genesis-Mosaiken
7enedig, &c., p. 61, Helsingfors, 1889). in
' ^'■°J^^
the so-called and Cavalcaselle notice the antique character of Sarah's figure, which suggests
Pudicitia in the Vatican Sculpture Gallery.
' Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 7 ; de Rossi, iJoma sottm-ranea, vol. ii, Supplementai-y
Cf. also the same scene on the ivory casket at Brescia (Garrucci, Storia PI 443-1 Plate B.
* p. 85. 0 Venturi, i. 294. ^ • )•
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 359

types of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and bring' them into connexion with the
Koman canon. This view, stated by Abbot Lambrecht as early as the twelfth
century,'' has most recently been maintained by Kraus' and Beissel,* who
contest the oriental iniluence in these compositions. Others, represented by
Quitt and Schenkl, argue that the above view does not explain the whole cycle
of pictures in the church."^ For instance, it gives no special point to the

Fjg. 214. Portrait of Archbishop Maximianus : mosaic of the sixth century in S. Vitale,
Kavenna. (Eicci.)

Entertainment of the Angels by Abraham, Moses at the Burning Bush, and

receiving the Tables of the Law, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, the
Evangelists and Apostles, and Christ enthroned. They hold that the true
interpretation must be sought in the Christological disputes of the sixth
century, in which the defenders of the Catholic faith crossed swords with
the Monophysite followers of Eutj'ches. The especial texts illustrated by the
' Kugler, Kunstgeschichie, i. 269 ; Kondakoff, VArt hyzantin, i. 135 ; Kichter, Mosaiken von
Barenna, 81.
'' B. D., iii. 75. ^ GeschicMe der christlichen Kunst, i. 438.
* In Stimmen aus Maria-Loach, xlvii, 1894, 508 ; and S. Beissel, Bilder aus der Kunstgeschichie
der altchristlichen Kunst und Liturgie in Jtalien, 178.
» B.D., iii. 74 if.
360 PAINTINa

mosaics Quitt finds in the books of Bishop Vigilius of Thapsus against Eutyches,
written in the last quarter of the fifth century;^ and he explains the appearance
of such pictorial polemics in the West, where the great controversy entered
less into the lives of the people, by the personal interi'ention of Justinian.
The emperor was a theologian and an ardent champion of orthodoxy. He
neglected no detail in questions which he regarded as of capital religious
importance, and where he contributed funds, was quite likely to dictate the
lines which the decoration should follow. Schenkl, agreeing that the inspira-
tion of these pictures did not flow from Eonie or the Eoman liturgy, thinks
it more probable that the text of which they are a commentary should be
sought in the works of St. Ambrose, the most prominent defender of the
doctrine of the two natures of Christ in the Western Church.* The greatest
of North Italian bishops was well versed in the writings of the Greek theo-
logians, and was their principal interpreter in his own country. Here, then,
was the real source of inspiration, a source which made the pointed defence
of dyophysitism on Italian soil perfectly natural, and would be entirely approved
by the imperial patron of the church. The influence of Ambrose would further,
explain the presence of Gervasius and Protasius, two saints held in especial honour
at Milan, among the Apostles upon the arch. For why, if Milan had no
connexion with the work, should these two saints and these alone be singled
out to occupy such a place of honour ?
Such arguments carry considerable weight, and the newer theory appears
to explain the scheme of decoration more completely than the old. It must
also be remembered that the relations of Eavenna and Eome were not always
either close or cordial during the Gothic period,^ nor is it certain that the
Boman liturgy had been adopted in Eavenna at the beginning of the sixth
century.
The Archiepiscopal Chapel* is very richly decorated. A monogram and
inscription on a capital in the interior ascribe the completion of the building
to a certain Peter, perhaps Peter Chrysologus, bishop in the middle of the
fifth century.^ The busts of Apostles and of Our Lord in medallions on the
soffits of the arches nearest the entrance and nearest the altar may be earlier
than the other mosaics, though opinion is not unanimous on the point. Here
is to be seen the monogram of Bishop Maximianus which occurs in the Catholic
Baptistery. The head of Christ is in each case youthful and beardless, the
long hair falling on the shoulders ; the type is perhaps reproduced from the
symbolic pictures in S. ApoUinare Nuovo,* and also resembles that on the
ivory reliquary of Brescia. On the soffits of the two lateral arches are busts
of saints in medallions, but the centre at the top is occupied by a sacred
monogram between Alpha and Omega : on one arch the names are of male,
on the other of female saints.' The heads of Apostles are considered by
Eichter to be earlier and superior in style : the others later and inferior. In
the compartments of the vault are the Evangelists' symbols, which have been
so extensively restored as to call for little notice ; on the ribs are four angels
with raised arms, supporting, after the fashion of those in S. Vitale, a medallion
with the sacred monogram. These angels have been considerably restored
and seem to have impressed observers very differently, for while Eichter

1 B. D., iii. 83.

2 Ibid., 11] -18. Cf. B. Z., xiii. 291. » B.D., iii. 113.
* Riohter, 93 ff. ; C. Eicci, Ravenna, Figs. 47-8 ; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i, p. 27 ; Kuitli,
225-35 and PI. XXX.
6 More than one Bishop Peter occupied the' See of Ravenna in the fifth century (Labarte,
Hist, des arts ind., ii. 344). Kraus {Real-Enoylcl.^ ii. 425) and Gerspach {La Mosaique, p. 51) are in
favour of the fifth century and the period of Chrysologus. Schnaase, Crowe and Caval-
caselle, Rahn (Ravenna, p. 18), Garrucci (Storia, iv. 31), and Riedin (p. 211) prefer the sixth
century. " Eichter, p. 94.
' SS. Sebastian, Fabian, Damian, Cassian, Chrysogonus, Chrysantus ; SS. Daria, Perpetua,
Felicitas, Euphemia (Eufimi.i), Eugenia, Cecilia.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 361

thinks them of poor workmanship and not earlier than the seventh century,
Eiedin finds in them examples of the purest style, comparing them with
the caryatid angels of S. Vitale.'
In the presbyterium, above the altar, is a standing figure of the Virgin
with the hands raised in prayer, originally in the bema of the cathedral ; this
may be as early as the tenth century.^ There is also a much damaged and
restored figure of Our Lord, of the Emmanuel type, the date of which is
difficult to determine ; he carries a cross like the Good Shepherd in the
lunette of the Mausoleum of Placidia.' It remains to mention four single
heads in mosaic, also from the cathedral, two being those of SS. Vitalis and
ApoUinaris, the two others unnamed : they recall the Evangelists on the
triumphal arch of S. ApoUinare in Classe. Yet a further fragment represents
a bearded man in half profile/

Fig. 215. Mosaic decoration in the bema of Sta Sophia, Salonika.

{Hautes Etudes: G.Millet.)

t Architecturally, the chapel resembles the Mausoleum of Placidia. But

in the mosaics we notice the method of outlining figures and features in
black which is noticeable at S. Vitale as well as in early oriental miniatures,
such as the Gospel of Eabula.* The medallions with Apostles also have
affinities with those in S. Vitale, and those of the martyrs and saints with
figures in the J)rocessional mosaics of S. ApoUinare Nuovo. Such considerations
lead to the conclusion that the mosaics of this chapel belong to the same
century, if to a rather later period within it.*
S. ApoUinare in Classe' was built at the port of Eavenna in the time
of Bishop Ursicinus (a.d. 534-8)* and was dedicated under Maximianus
(a. d. 549). The mosaics cannot have all been completed in the sixth century,
as we learn from the Life of Eeparatus (a. d. 672-7) that such work was still being
executed in his time.'

1 Kiedin, 212.
^ Eiedin,
Nicaea, 217, atwho
at Cefalii, the compares
Gelatsky the figures atof S.theDonate,
Monastery, "Virgin Murano,
as orans and
in Sta Sophia
other at Kieff, He
examples. at
rejects JRichter's view that this mosaic is Italian work of the twelfth or thirteenth century.
s Eiedin, 216-17.
* Bicci, Guida di Eaienna, 200; Kichter, 97 ; Riedin, 219.
6 Riedin, 213. « Ibid., 214-15.
' Eiedin, 220 ff. and Figs. 47-54; Kurth, 200-24 and PI. XXVII and XXVIII ; C. Ricci,
Ravenna, Fig. 1 09.
8 Liher Pontiflcalis, p. 101 E. « Ibid., p. 108, note 4.
362 PAINTING

The mosaics of the triumphal arch are divided into horizontal zones, and
in the centre of the vippermost is a medallion with a red ground containing
the bust of Our Lord. He is bearded, and recalls to Eiedin the types of
SS. Cosmas and Damian, the Lateran Basilica, and the MS. of Cosmas Indico-
pleustes. To right and left, on a blue ground with clouds, are the
Evangelists' symbols in the form of winged half-figures holding books, as in
the mosaics of SS. Cosmas and Damian at Eome. In the second zone,
broken by the arch, on a gold ground also with clouds, are lambs issuing
from the two cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the walls of which are
golden, with precious stones, and moving upwards towards the portrait of Christ.
The third zone consists of two triangular surfaces with blue ground on which
are palm-trees, and below on the pilasters are large figures of the Archangels
Michael and Gabriel, on a gold ground, wearing white tunics and purple
mantles, and holding labara on which are small panels with the word AflOC
thrice repeated. The nimbus of each is blue.^ Below again are the busts
of St. Matthew and St. Luke on a blue ground, the types recalling those of
S. Vitale. The ascetic appearance of the Evangelists, the costume of the
angels, and the type of labarum which they carry suggest affinities to later
Byzantine art.
The mosaic in the apse is clearly of an earlier date, and represents the
Transfiguration treated in a symbolic manner.^ At the top, on a gold back-
ground, appears the hand of the Almighty issuing from clouds ; lower down,
also emerging from clouds, are the half-figures of Moses and Elias in white
garments, both young and beardless as in S. Vitale, and in the finer style of
the sixth century.' Their eyes are fixed upon the centre of a large jewelled cross
in a jewelled medallion strewn with stars on a blue background : in the centre
of the cross is a small bust of Our Lord. At the ends of the arms are the
letters A and CO ; above the vertical limb is the word IX0YC and below it the
words SALVS MVNDI.
In the lower part of the apse, beneath a horizontal band, is a green
landscape, with birds, cypresses, and pines. Here stand three lambs with
heads raised, evidently representing the three Apostles present at the Trans-
figuration on Mount Tabor.* The blending of realism and symbolism here
observed is more artificial than in the case of the Good Shepherd picture in
the Mausoleum of Placidia, where a similar tendency was remarked (p. 349).
At the bottom of the picture is a row of twelve more lambs, perhaps Apostles,
among them St. Apollinaris standing with arms outstretched in prayer.'' The
saint wears a white dalmatic and a dark paenula and has a golden nimbus.
The figure, which has been considerably restored, is not without resemblance
to those of the popes in St. Agnes without the walls at Eome, which date
from about a. d. 630.'' Between -the choir windows below the apse are the life-
sized figures of the four archbishops of Bavenna with their names in Latin

1 Isaiah vi. 3. The lower parts of the angels' figures are restored ; Haseloff has expressed
the opinion that both the heads are also restorations (0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche von Mcda,
278, note 4).
2 The apse mosaic has recently been restored under the supervision of the Sovrintendewa ;
the left side, which had suffered a great deal, and had been partly replaced by painting in oil,
has been re-executed in mosaic to correspond with the right side : all that is new has been
enclosed within a dark line. It was found that a part of the clouds above the cross had been
already restored in ancient times (see S. Muratori, L'Arie, 1910, 60-2).
3 Eiedin, p. 226.
* This is a very early representation of the Transfiguration, and is unique in character,
though the employment of the cross on a background of stars to represent Christ has already
been remarked in the Mausoleum of Placidia and in the Baptistery of Naples. The Transfigura-
tion in the apse of the Sinai Monastery (see p. 383) is of the type adopted by later Byzantine
art, Christ himself appearing upon the mountain. 6 p. 228.
" Richter, 104. Riedin (p. 228) considers that it is contemporary with the rest of the
apse mosaic, and that its commonplace character is due to the employment of inferior
artists.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC
363
characters,' the two earlier alone having the title of saint. Above their heads
hang crov^ns between curtains draped to right and left.
In a line with these portraits are two more elaborate pictures on blue
backgrounds, the one ritual, the other ceremonial, both suggested by the earlier
work in S. Vitale : in the first we have a combination of the two ritual pictures
of that church. A table-like altar is set in the centre, behind which stands
Melchizedek, while on his left is Abel. The former wears a purple mantle
fastened with a brooch over the breast, and a gemmed fillet in his hair ; the

Fig. 216. Constantine IV, Pogonatus, with Ai-uhbishop Eeparatus : mosaic of the seventh
century in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna. (Eicci.) P. 364.

figure of Abel is almost entirely restored. On the right Abraham leads Isaac
to the altar (both figures largely restored), the action taking place before an
architectural background, perhaps representing an interior section of a church,
as in the ninth-century choir mosaic of S. Ambrogio at Milan. '^ From curtains
in- the background appears the hand of the Almighty. The picture has suffered
much from decay, but from what remains of t}ie original work it seems to
represent the art of a copyist in a decadent period. The colours are poor and
the drawing is feeble ; critics find it impossible to date such work earlier than
the seventh century,^ and this attribution is borne out by the probable historical
explanation of the companion picture, which is in the same style.
1 Severus (a. d. 3i6-91), Ursus (400-12), Eeclesius (525-34), and Ursicinus. The
figures, which can at no time have been of great merit, have been restored (Eiedin, 234,
Fig. 54). 2 Eichter, 105 ; Kurth, PI. XXVIII.
' Eichter, 106 : he thinks that the work is local.
364 PAINTING

This picture (Fig. 216), representing a ceremonial subject, is on the opposite

side.' The scene represents a Byzantine emperor and two princes, all with
the nimbus, attended by courtiers and a group of clerics. The emperor wears
a white tunic and purple chlamys, fastened with a brooch on the right shoulder,
but no diadem. The clerics stand on the right, two deacons with censers, two
other ecclesiastics, and the Archbishop Eeparatus,^ to whom the emperor presents
a scroll labelled (PRI VI)LEGI A. Eeparatus (a.d. 672-7) is known to have
visited Constantinople and to have received from Constantine IV Pogonatus
a grant of privileges opposing the Eoman claims to ecclesiastical supremacy.'
The painted inscription CONSTANTINVS MAIOR IMPERATOR HERACLII
ET TIBERII .... IMPERATOR is based upon an original inscription im-
perfectly recorded by Agnellus,^ either because in the ninth century it had
already been damaged, or because it contained difficult abbreviations. The
mosaics of the nave are all lost. The spandrels between the archivolts con-
tain painted emblems which may be copied from earlier work. The style
and decorative motives in S. Apollinare in Classe are clearly Eastern ;
but it seems probable that most of the mosaics were executed by local
artists.
The Church of S. Michele in Affricisco, of which now but little remains, was
built in A. D. 545 and ornamented with mosaics in the apse and on the triumphal
arch.^ These were sold in 1847 to King William IV of Prussia, and until
recent years remained in storage in Berlin. They now form one of the principal
features of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum."
In the apse, on a gold ground, Our Lord as Emmanuel ' stands between
Michael and Gabriel : he wears a purple tunic and mantle, and holds in his right
hand a long jewelled cross, in his left an open book with the inscription : qui
vidit me vidit et Patrem. Ego et Pater unum sunius (John xiv. 9, and x.' 30). The
archangels are in white garments, and hold golden sceptres. Eound the upper
part of the apse runs a band of floral scrolls, in the volutes of which are doves,
while at the top is the Lamb with the nimbus, the whole representing in
a symbolic manner Christ and the Apostles. In the spandrels to right and left
of the apse stand St. Cosmas and St. Damian. In the centre of a broad zone
covering the whole breadth of the triumphal arch above the apse is Our Lord
enthroned. He is bearded ' and wears a golden tunic with purple mantle. In
his left hand is an open book of the Gospels, his right hand is raised in the
gesture of benediction. To his right and left stand two archangels, one holding
a reed with the sponge, the other holding a spear ; behind are other angels, four
to the spectator's left and three to his right, the last blowing golden horns.
About the feet of all are conventional representations of clouds, signifying that
the scene is passing in heaven (Eev. viii. 2).
The mosaics above described represent only a part of those which once
adorned the churches of Eavenna. To those which have vanished either

1 Garrucoi, iv. 91 ; Eiedin, 231 ff. ; Kurth, PI. XXVIII.

^ This is attested by the fragments of an inscription (Rep)AR(atus) (Epis)COPVS. Some
have explained the scene as the dedication of the cliurch in the presence of Justinian.
' Agnellus, p. 148 C; G-regorovius, Geschichte der Stait Boms im MittelcUter, vol. ii, p. 163.
' The inscription probably ran : Constantinus maior {natu) imperator, Seraclius et Tiberius
fratres imperatoris.
° Riedin, 236 ff.. Fig. 55 ; 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, vol. i, PI. I, and Prussian JahrTmch,
XXV, 1904, 374 ; Crowe and Cavaloaselle, i, p. 26 ; Kurth, pp. 236-40.
« The mosaics were published by Ciampini, Vet. man., ii, PI. XVII, and ch. vii. The
illustration in Garrucci, Storia, PI. 267. 2, was based upon a cast.
' Kondakoff, Iconography of Our Lord, Figs. lOandlO"; Kurth , PI. XXIX. The subject may
be compared with that of several sarcophagi (e.g. Garrucci, Storia, 325. 1-3), where, liowever,
Christ is flanked not by angels but by Apostles. The archangels in the present case recall
those upon the well-known silver dish in the Stroganoff Collection (p. 571), as well as those
attending the throned figures of Our Lord and the Virgin in S. Apollinare Nuovo.
' Riedin compares the Christ of S. Apollinare Nuovo and of the Vatican MS. of Cosmas
Indicopleustes.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC 365

through the destruction of the buildings which contained them, or through

disasters affecting themselves alone, we have numerous allusions in early-
writers, especially in Agnellus, but in few cases is the information extensive
or precise.' The cathedral or Basilica of Ursus was covered with mosaics, and
Agnellus has handed down the name of the artists, though he gives no details as
to their work.^ The same authority tells us that in the Basilica of Peter there
was over the west door a figure of Christ of extraordinary beauty, and within the
building a group of Our Lord, St. Peter, and St. Paul, doubtless the favourite
subject of the Traditio Legis.^ In the Basilica of St. Laurence, built in the reign
of Honorius, there was rich mosaic decoration of which no details are given,*
and in the adjoining Oratory of SS. Gervasius and Protasius a group of three
youths, either the titular saints with St. Stephen, or else, as Muntz suggests, the
Three Children of Babylon in the Furnace.^ On the triumphal arch of the
Church of the Holy Cross, built by Placidia, was a mosaic representing the
Baptism, and above the main door Christ upon the Holy Mount whence issued
the four rivers." Agnellus relates that in the Church of St. Agatha, by the
altar, was a figure of the Archbishop John (a. d. 418-40). In the apse was
a figure of Christ the Judge seated on a throne between two angels and holding
the scroll with seven seals : it was only destroyed by an earthquake in a.d. 1688
and has been reproduced by Ciampini.' The work was evidently fine, and
Ciampini considered it to date from the fifth century ; but recent critics think
that it cannot have been in any case earlier than the sixth.* The Chapel of
St. Andrew had over the entrance a mosaic portrait of the founder, Peter
Chrysologus.' The Church of Sta Maria Maggiore, said to have been erected by
Ecclesius in the time of Theodoric, had rich mosaics, destroyed in a.d. 1550.'°
In the apse was the Virgin ; " elsewhere, perhaps on the triumphal arch, were
scenes from the Life of Christ, the subjects of which recall those on the triumphal
arch of Sta Maria Maggiore at Kome.'^ In St. Stephen's, built by Archbishop
Maximianus, was an apse mosaic representing the founder," and in SS. John
and Paul, also in all probability erected in the sixth century, figures of the
titular saints.'*
Nothing remains of the wall-mosaics placed by Galla Placidia in the Church
of St. John the Evangelist in fulfilment of a vow made during a storm which over-
took her vessel on the voyage from Constantinople ; they have been described by
Eubeus and an anonymous writer in Muratori.'^ On the triumphal arch were
Christ in majesty giving a scroll to St. John the Evangelist, a stormy sea with two
ships, upon one of which St. John appears to Placidia, the seven candlesticks and
other mystic figures from the Apocalypse, portraits of Constantine, Valentinian,
Gratian, and other emperors and empresses of the early dynasty. In the apse
was a seated figure of Christ on a throne, and, below, the bishop Peter Chryso-
logus singing the Mass, the Evangelist St. Luke, various imperial personages,
and twelve sealed books. Latin inscriptions stated that the church was the
' On the lost mosaics of Kavenna see E. Miintz in The American Journal of Archaeology, i,
1885, 115-30; Steinmann, Die TiMi und diekirchliche Wandmalerei imAbendlande mm V. UszumXI.
Jahrhundert, vol. i ; Kiedin, as above, 2i3-58 ; Kichter, 110-12.
2 Lib. Pmt., Be S. Urso, xvi, § 23.
3 Ibid., Be S. Petro, xvii, § 24 ; Be S. Neone, xviii, § 28.
* Ibid., Be S. Johanne, xx, § 36. ^ As above, p. 118.
* Agnellus; Eubeus, Hist. Bav., 107; Fabri, Sagre Memorie, 153; Garruoci, i. 506;
Riedin, 250-1.
' ret. Mon., i, PI. XL VI (reproduced by Kraus, Seal-Encyklopddie, Fig. 358).
" Muntz, as above, 117 ; Riodin, 252. ' Agnellus, L. P., Be S. Petro, xxi, § 50.
" Rubeus, as above, Book III, 154 ; Fabri, as above, 214 ; Agnellus, L. P., Be S. Ecclesio,
§27.
"• Eubeus says that the Virgin held the Child, and that Bishop Ecclesius approached,
offering the model of the church (p. 154).
'2 Eiedin, 254. " Agnellus, L. P., Be S. Maximiano, xxvi, § 72.
1* Fabri, as above, 216 ; Riedin, 254,
'5 Rubeus, Historiarum Bavennatum Libri X, ii. 98 F ; Muratori, Berum Italic. Scriptores, i.
Part II, 567-72. Riedin suggests that a miniature in a fourteenth-century MS. in the Ravenna
366 PAINTING

thank-offering of Placidia and her children Valentinian and Honoria for her
escape from shipwreck. The account of Eubeus contains more details than that
of the anonymous writer, and Riedin conjectures that these additions, which
include the candlesticks and sealed books, may refer to mediaeval restorations
or else be due to the writer's imagination. The mosaics now in the church were
probably made in the thirteenth century for a pavement.' Their subjects are of
two kiads : symbolic and physiological, based upon the Physiologus, and his-
torical. Among the creatures represented are the cock, the deer, sphinx,
gryphon, siren, unicorn, and panther.' The historical pai-t is represented by

Fig. 217. The Incredulity of Thomas : mosaic of the eleventh century in the narthex of
' St. Luke in Phoeis. {Hautes jEtudes : G. Millet.) P. 394.

figures of men, ships, and buildings, some of the warriors with the nimbus, some
of the buildings described by the word COSTATINOPOLIM : the allusion may
be to the capture of Constantinople during the fourth crusade.' The workman-
ship of the mosaics is extremely rude, and if the Eastern Empire furnished the
ideas, the West supplied the hands.
Whether the subjects decorating the walls of the triclinium adjoining the
Basilica of Ursus, built by Bishop Neon on the model of similar buildings at
Constantinople, were mosaics or frescoes is not clear from the description left by
Agnellus ; * they may, however, be conveniently mentioned here. They included
Library, representing Galla Placidia making her vow at sea, may be a copy of one of the
mosaic scenes described above (Journal of Imp. Euss. Arch. Soc, 1897, 248, Fig. 57). See also
Kurth, as above, PI. IX.
^ Eichter. 112; Eahn, Bavenna, p. 9; Riedin, as above, pp. 246 S., and Vi:. Vrem. ii,
pp. 327 ff., with PI. IV-VIII; Garrucci, Sioria, i, p. 495 ; Von Quast ; Kurth, pp. 41-3;
E. Miintz, Bev. arch., 1876; Eicci, Suida di Bavenna, 6-7.
2 Eiedin, as above, 329 ; Kondakoff, Bys. Churches and Monuments of Constantinople, 53, 58, 60.
s Eiedin, 338.
* De S. Neone, xviii, § 29. The important words pingere iussit need not necessarily imply
fresco, though it is quite probable that they do. Accounts of the triclinium will be found
in Bepertorium, xvii (F. Wickhoff), V. V., ii, 1895 (E. K. Eiedin), and Jornnal of Imp. Bussian
Arch. Soc, 1897, 245.
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC 367

illustrations of the Psalm Laudate Dominum de Coelis ; the Flood ; the Creation
and the Fall ; the Calling of Peter and the sheet let down from heaven (Acts x.
9-16) ; and Christ amid the Apostles, giving the law to Peter.
Having now passed in review the mosaics of Ravenna we may briefly discuss
the origin of their art/ The arguments in favour of their execution by Byzan-
tine artists are of two kinds, general and particular. In the first place it is
argued that probability is in favour of an oriental inspiration. Ravenna was
closely connected with Constantinople from the first half of the fifth century
down to the fall of the exarchate. Both Galla Placidia and Theodoric had lived
in the Eastern capital, and were necessarily affected by its culture. Under the
exarchate the two cities were under one emperor ; the fashions and the
artistic preferences of Constantinople must inevitably have influenced the life
of the Adriatic city. In the second place, the characteristics of the mosaic itself
point to the East. Thus the blue and the gold grounds which replace the pale
Roman backgrounds are oriental ; the procession of Apostles as seen in the
Orthodox Baptistery suggest the ceremonial of Constantinople, the diadems
which they carry are of an oriental type. The curious walk of some of these
figures, as if their whole weight was supported on their toes, is oriental,
occurring for example in the mosaics of Sta Sophia at Kieff. The garments of
the prophets in the lower spandrels of the same baptistery, with their close
parallel shading of gold lines, i-ecall those of Byzantine enamels and mosaics.
The costumes in many of the mosaics are Byzantine, for instance those of the
virgins in the processions of S. Apollinare Nuovo and that of the Virgin Mary
in the same church. The invariable use of purple in the garments of Christ is
also an Eastern characteristic. Other details of the same kind have been
noticed in the detailed description of the various churches ; and we may add
the identity of the borders surrounding the sacrificial pictures in S. Vitale with
a border used in Sta Sophia at Constantinople. Finally, the mosaics of Kana-
karia and Kiti in Cyprus (p. 384), which are not at all likely to be in any way
connected with Rome, are very like those of Ravenna,^ the Gabriel of Kiti nearly
resembling the St. Laurence of the Mausoleum of Placidia. The mosaics of the
Monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai also offer points of analogy.' On the other
hand, there are undoubtedly points of resemblance between the Ravenna mosaics
and those of the Roman churches ; this is especially noticeable, for instance, in
the case of the male martyrs in S. Apollinare Nuovo. The occurrence of the
Evangelists' symbols also points rather to Western than to Eastern influence
(cf. p, 680). The conclusion which upon the whole commends itself is that
the mosaics of Ravenna were from the beginning inspired from the Christian
East, and that the resemblances which exist between them and those of Rome
are largely due to the fact that the Roman mosaics themselves were produced
under similar influences. Probably oriental craftsmen were introduced into
Ravenna either from Constantinople itself or from the Eastern provinces,'' and
"they worked from Eastern designs. Neither Rome nor Ravenna was in
a position in the fifth or sixth century to found a vigorous school without
external help. But the impulse once given, it is equally probable that Italians
were soon trained to the work : men of Ravenna and Rome must have colla-
borated with their oriental teachers and, as at Venice at a later period, in course

' The various points here mentioned are brought forward by Dobbert in his review of
Eiediu, in Eepertorium, xxi, 1898, 95 ff., in an earlier paper in the same publication, viii, 1885,
166, &c. ; and in the Prussian Jahrbuch, xv, in an article on the frescoes in S. Angelo in Pormis.
See also Eiedin, as above, 258 ff. At tlie beginning of this section, mention was made of the
paper by Beissel maintaining the dependence of Kavenna upon Rome, the arguments being in
part based upon the recorded movements of workers in mosaic.
2 Riedin, 262 ; Repertorium, 1898, 105.
' Ainaloff, Sellenistic Origins, 137.
* Strzygowski and Ch. Diehl {Ravenne, Paris, 1903) hold that the mosaics of the earlier
period from Galla Placidia to Theodoric show the influence of an Antioohene school.
368 PAINTINQ

of time become master themselves. In some such way the divergences from
the predominant oriental manner may perhaps be explained.
The difficulty in studying the mosaics of Eavenna is much increased through
the numerous restorations to which the work has been subjected. The more
modern restorations, or those of which there is historical record, may be
detected without difficulty ; but those of more ancient date, if carried out with
care, cannot be so easily identiiied without a minute examination of the walls.
Another difficulty lies in the inability, even of the best photographs, to render
all the details which the iconographer or the critic requires. Until all known

Fig. 218. Christ Pantokrator : mosaic of the eleventh century in the narthex of the
Church of St. Luke in Phocis. {Rautes Mudes : G. Millet.) P. 393.

mosaics have been reproduced upon a large scale the decision of many disputed
questions is impossible.'
It may be added in conclusion that the preservation of these ancient mosaics
in the early Middle Ages is at least in part due to the moderation of Charle-
magne. The following are the terms of a concession by Hadrian I to the
Frankish king : —
' Musiva et marmorea urbis Eavennae tam in templis quam in parietibus et
stratis, tam marmorea quam musivum, caeteraque exempla de eodem palatio
vobis concedimus auferenda.'
Generosity or indifference could go no further ; but Charlemagne restricted
himself to the mosaics of the palace, and Aachen was not beautified at the
expense of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia or of San Vitale.

1 See the remarks in note on vol. i, p. 18 of Crowe and Cavalcaselle.

 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 369

(c) Other parts of Italy.

Similar affinities with Eavennate art are to be found in the rare Italian
mosaics of the fifth century outside Eome. Conspicuous among these is the
Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte in the cathedral at Naples, ' a rectangular
building with a dome connected with the square plan by an intervening octagon.
The baptistery, being entered from the adjoining Church of Santa Eestituta, is
sometimes called by that name. Here again we meet with the early scheme of
a central medallion from which radiate ornamental bands of vases, birds, fruits,
and leaves dividing the dome into eight compartments, formerly filled with
figure subjects of which only fragments remain. Below, in niches in four
sides of the octagon corresponding to the angles of the building, were the
symbols of the Evangelists, of which one (the eagle) is entirely destroyed. The
medallion contains a monogrammatic cross on a background of stars : round the
head of the monogram is a nimbus, and above is the hand of the Almighty. The
arrangement recalls the crosses in the Mausoleum of Placid ia and the apse of
S. ApoUinare in Classe : the Church of St. Felix at Nola evidently had a similar
subject.^ It is possible, as Ainaloff suggests, that such crosses as those in
the mosaics of the Mausoleum of Placidia have an historical reference to the
vision mentioned in a letter to Constantino by St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Cyril
declares that a cross appeared in the heavens at the Feast of Pentecost ; and
Philostprgius, describing the same vision, adds that it was encircled by a
rainbow.'
The scenes in the compartments covering the sides of the domed roof are in
very bad preservation, and some of them are merely fragmentary. One is the
Samaritan Woman at the Well combined with the Miracle at Cana, resembling
the same scene on the ivory panel on the chair of Maximianus at Eavenna ; *
another is the TracUtio Legis, much as seen in Sta Costanza (see p. 333), only here
Christ is not upon the hill but on a globe ; a third is the Miraculous Draught
of Fishes, a scene unknown elsewhere except in S. ApoUinare Nuovo.' Other
parts of the mosaic which have fallen down have been replaced by late
frescoes."
Above the Evangelists' symbols are graceful pastoral scenes, the Good
Shepherd on the hill from which flow the rivers of Paradise between sheep and
deer, on a blue ground. Three of the four symbols of the Evangelists survive,
the winged man of St. Matthew, the lion of St. Mark, and the bull of St. Luke.
These symbols are conventionally executed, and are thought to be perhaps Copies
fromOnsculptures
the upper: the
partlion
of resembles
the walls types uponsmall
are four sarcophagi.''
figures of martyrs bearing
wreaths and clothed in white, which suggest the figures in the Mausoleum of

' A. Sorrentino, Bullentino d'arle, iii, pp. 217 fF., 1909 ; Garrucci, Storia, PI. 269 ; Venturi,
Storia, i. 245 ; E. Bertaux, L'Art dans Vlialie meridionale, 43 ff. and Figs. 5-9 ; E. Miintz in Mev.
arch., 1883, 16 ff. ; Crowe and Cavaleaselle, i. 10 ; C. Stornaiuolo, Atti of tlie Congress of
Christian Archaeology, 1900 (1902), 269 ; G. Galante, Niaw BuUettino di arch, crist., 1900, 99 ff. ;
A. Filangieri dl Candida, i, 1898 ; 6. Clausse, Basiliques ei mosalques chretiennes, i. 355 ;
A. Munoz in I! Arte, 1908 ; Diehl, Manuel, 117. Miintz notes that in the seventeenth century
and even later a few mosaics were still to be seen in the Catacombs of S. Januarius. See
also V. Schultze, Die Katakomben von S. Gennaro in Neapel, 1877.
^ B. Q., 1889, iii. 158 ff. A church at Inkermann has in the apse a cross within a circle,
but no stars. See A. Strukoff, Ancient Monuments of the Chersonese, Moscow, 1876, 26 (Russian).
A jewelled cross also ornamented the roof of a hall in Constantino's palace (Eusebius, Vita
Const., in Migne, Patr. Gr., xii, ch. 49, p. 1109).
2 P» Batiffol in B. Q., iii, 1889, 263 f.
* Garrucci, Storia, PI. 414. 4. ^ ibid., PI. 249. 5.
* Miintz held them to be careful copies of the originals, but Ainaloff says that this is not
the case.
' Garrucci, Storia, 295. 2, 334. 3 ; Melanges d'arch. et d'histoire, 1894, PI. VIII. Like the
symbols on the Trivulzio ivory (Molinier, Ivoires, PI. VI) the diptych in Milan Cathedral
(Venturi, Storia, i, Figs. 888-9) and the throne of St. Mark from Grado in tl:e Treasury of
S. Marco, these symbols have six wings.
1204 B b
370 PAINTING

Placidia, and in frescoes of the Catacomb of S. Januarius, dating from the fifth
century. This baptistery in fact reveals affinities both with the art of the
Catacombs and with that of the earliest school at Eavenna : ' it has been recently
restored under the direction of Cavaliere F. Mazzanti.^ Of the mosaics formerly
in the apse of the BasUica of St. Severus at Naples, a building erected in the
fourth century, little can be said, as they are only superficially described by
Muratori.^ They represented Our Lord with the Apostles and, below, four
prophets.
The Church of St. Priscus at Capua,* built between a. d. 491 and 506, has
only preserved the mosaics of a lateral chapel ; but drawings which have been
preserved show that those which have been lost were in the catacomb style,
with a central medallion in the domed roof, from which radiated bands dividing
the surface into equal compartments. The medallion contained a throne set
on a sphere surrounded by stars, and in the compartments were figures of saints
carrying wreaths, divided from each other by vases and fruit fianked by birds :
round the base was a broad garland of leaves and fruits with small figures of
winged genii.
In the apse were processions of saints. The figures in this church were
evidently inspired by the same ideas which produced the processions of saints
surrounding the domes of the two Eavenna baptisteries, and the massive
garland round the dome is of the character of Eavennate work.
Passing now to the chapel, which still retains its decoration, we find
a central medallion, now destroyed, to which rise vine-scrolls issuing from vases
in the four compartments. One lunette has the throne with cushion and scroll
with seals, and a high back, on which a dove is seated ; the second is incomplete,
but shows the symbol of St. Matthew. It may be noted that it is of the early
type seen in Sta Costanza, in which only the upper part of the body is shown :
the later type shows the whole body both of the winged human figure and of
the three beasts. In the lunette over the west entrance is a bust of Christ between
Alpha and Omega ^ which recalls Byzantine figures," and must be later than the
mosaics already described : the absence of the cross in the nimbus, the use of
A and O instead of the later IC. X C, point to the period between the sixth and seventh
centuries. The free use of green and gold suggests Eastern influence, and Ainaloif
again finds the affinities with the mosaics of Eavenna evident.' It has been
further pointed out by Bertaux that land communication between Campania and
Eavenna was extremely difficult and that the resemblances between their
mosaics are best explained by a common Eastern inspiration coming by sea.
In the Chapel of St. AquUinus in the Church of San Lorenzo at Milan,
occupying the upper part of two apses, are mosaics which go back to the close of
the fifth century, and may have been executed by command of Theodoric, who in
the year A. D. 495 ordered the church to be ornamented with marble and mosaic'
The work is in very bad condition and restored by painting. In the apse to the
right of the entrance Christ is seated on the hill (or globe ?) between the Twelve
Apostles." He is youthful and of antique type, and has the Constantihian
1 Ainaloff, Journal, &c., July, p. 36; E. Bertaux, as above, p. 61.
Fonte.^ L'Arte, 1898, A. Pilangieri di Candida : I Reslauri dei musaici del Battistero di S. Giovanni in
' Berum Italicarum Scriptores, i, Pt. II, 293-4 ; Bullettino di arch, crist., 1880, 144-6.
* Ainaloff, as above, 37. Prooopius (De hello Gothico, Bk. I, eh. xxiv) mentions a mosaic
portrait of Theodoric at Naples, which gradually decayed with the decline of the Gfothic
fortunes in the peninsula (Muratori, Bcrum Hal. Script., i, Pt. I, 269 ; E. Miintz in Rev. arch.,
1883, Pt. I, 28).
menii ' delV
Garrucci's drawing, Storia,
Italia meridionale, 48. 257. 3, is inaccurate and based upon Salazaro, Studi sui monu-
^ e. g. the type in the MS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes (Garrucei, Storia, 451. i), the diptychs
in Berlin (ibid., 451. i) and Paris (ibid., 458. i), the cross of Justin in Eome (ibid., 265. i),
and the mosaic of S. ApoUinare in Classe (ibid., 253).
' As above, 44. « Ainaloff, 45 ; Venturi, i. 275 ; G. Clausse, Basiliques, i, p. 381.
» This subject is very common in the fourth-fifth centuries, being found, for instance, on
several sarcophagi, and on the large ivory pyxis at Berlin.
 371
MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADRIATIC

monogram between A and O inscribed in his nimbus. The group is awkward, and
the different Apostles are not characterized. Tlie absence of detail and the general
simplicity suggest the practice of earlier art, but the gold background marks
a later period than the fourth century.

Fig. 219. The Annunciation : mosaic of the sixth century in the Cathedral of Parenzo.
(Alinari.) P. 373.

The second apse has a pastoral scene referred by Garrucci' to the stoiy
Shepherds.^
of Jacob, but interpreted by Schnaase as the Annunciation to the Virgil
In its rather clumsy style, the mosaic is reminiscent of the Vatican of the
sixth century (p. 459).
1 Storia, 22i. 2 ; referring to Genesis xxxvii. 3, 23.
' Oesch. der bildentlen Kiinste,
B b iii.
2 197.
373 PAINTING

The Chapel of St. Victor in the Church of St. Ambrose has lost the mosaics
of its apse, but retains in part those of its cupola and walls.' In the centre of the
dome is a half -figure of the saint ^ on a plain gold ground, recalling the medallion
portraits in the Eavenna mosaics,'' but inferior to these in style and execution.
The frieze of the cupola is antique in character, and contains cameo-like busts
and figures in grey on a red ground, similar in their colouring to the busts of
the Evangelists below them. These busts find parallels on sarcophagi, and are
among the earliest examples of actual representations in mosaic of the Evan-
gelists, the more ancient custom being to suggest them by means of their
symbols.
On the walls are saints specially reverenced in Milan, St. Ambrose between
Gervasius and Protasius, and Maternus between Felix and Nabor. These
figures, which are on a blue ground, recall the monumental types of Eavenna,
but are the work of an inferior artist. They must be ascribed to the fifth
century, a period when representations of martyrs began to be common. Mosaics
in the Chapel of S. Satire, now incorporated in the Church of S. Ambrogio, are in
the style of the fourth or fifth century.
At Casaranello, in a church resembling in plan the Mausoleum of Placidia at
Eavenna, there are some interesting mosaics in the choir and dome. They are
remarkable for the absence of human figures and in fact bear a general resem-
blance to pavement mosaics of Syrian type.* In the baptistery at Albenga in
Liguria^ are mosaics with stars, birds, &c., on a blue ground, above which are
sheep ; they appear to be of the fifth century, and to show traces of the influence
which radiated from Eavenna at that period.

(d) Dalmatia.
In the apse of the northernmost of the two churches which form the
Cathedral of Trieste " are mosaics with Latin inscriptions — the Virgin and Child
flanked by St. Michael and St. Gsibriel ; below these, figures of the Apostles
divided by a palm-tree into two groups. The work, which strictly should be
mentioned among the later mosaics, is probably an eleventh-century restoration
of an older design, again carefully restored in 1863. The types of the Apostles
are early, St. Peter and St. Paul having no attributes ; the style and colour of
their mantles recall the Early Christian manner : between the figures are palm-
trees and conventional trees. In the apse of the southern church (S. Giusto),
Our Lord treads upon asp and basilisk, while S. Giusto and S. Servolo stand on
either side.
The older mosaics of Dalmatia and Istria are contemporary with those of
Eavenna and allied to them in style. The Cathedral of Parenzo, a basilica
erected on the site of an earlier church by Bishop Euphrasius in the first half
of the sixth century, has in the apse mosaics Avhich appear contemporary with
the new foundation, and present analogies with those of Eavenna, especially
those of the Arian Baptistery.' The most recent restorations, undertaken at
the beginning of the present century, resulted in the rediscovery, on the wall
above the apse, of an upper band of mosaics which had been hidden by a modern
ceiling.

1
1. SiO. Garrucci, Sioria, PI. 234, 235 ; Ainaloff, Journal, &c., July, p. 48 f. ; Venturi, as above,
2 Ainaloff, p. 50, Pig. 27 ; P. X. Kraus, Beal-EncyJdopadie, ii. Pigs. 237-8.
" e. g. S. Vitale (Garrucci, PI. 259. 4, 6, 7) ; and arehiepiscopal chapel (Garrucci, 224. 8).
See the essay ' II piii antico ritratto di Sant" Ambrogio ' in the volume Ambrosiana, published
on the fifteenth centenary of the death of St. Ambrose, Milan, 1897.
* A. Haseloff, I Musaici di Casaranello, in BuUettino d'arte, i, 1907, 1-8.
5 Ainaloff, V. v., viii, 1901 {The Mosaics of the Ancient Baptistery of Albenga), Russian.
« T. G. Jackson,
Careful copies of the asmosaics
above, are
iii. in862-3
the ;museum
P. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, ii. 62.
at Trieste.
' Photos of Parenzo mosaics by WIha of Vienna are in the V. and A. Museum Nos. 1122
et seq., 1903. Others in the collection of the Hautes Etudes. On the cathedral, see T. G. Jackson,
 MOSAICS IN ITALY AND THE ADEIATIC 373

In the apse the Virgin and Child are enthroned upon a gold ground
between two angels and various saints, Euphrasius himself standing on one
side accompanied by his young son and holding the model of his church. On
the wall spaces beyond the windows are the Annunciation (Fig. 219) and the
Visitation/ between which, in the spaces between the windows, are an archangel
between St. John the Baptist and another saint. This part of the work has been
restored. Below these mosaics the wall is covered with fine inlaid marbles. In

m
3
the upper band of mosaic, much restored, as mentioned on p. 372, note 8, Christ
is seen seated on the globe holding the book of the Gospels, while on either hand

B^ H
■^

H^o^>.
MS
^

F'^^aM ■pm
^flHH
BHH j|v^^^|^H
B^
H^Hi
^n
EJ|^,^^R

1
^s H
f^W' %lmk
kK
^

Fia. 220. The Visitation : mosaic of the sixth century in the apse of the Cathedral at
Parenzo. (Sjitttes Miules : Q. Millet.)

stand six Apostles. In the soffit of the triumphal arch are busts of female
martyrs '■* in medallions, after the style noticed in S. Vitale at Eavenna, St.
Catherine's, Sinai, and the-Panagia Kanakaria in Cyprus, &c. Above the
triumphal arch a lamb with cruciferous nimbus in a field of stars has replaced
the sacred monogram which recently occupied this position, traces of the former
design having been discovered during the restoration. The west front of the

BaXmatia, the Quamero, and Istria, Oxford, 1887, iii. 316 ff. ; A. Amoroso, Le BasiUche cristiane di
Parenso, Parenzo, 1895 ; P. Deperis, H Duomo di Parenzo ed i suoi mosaici, in Atti e memorie delta Societa
istriana di archeologia e storia pairia, x, 1894, Paso. 1 and 4 ; C. Errard, L'Art hysantin, Part II,
PI. XrV ff. ; 6. Boni in Archimo storico dell' arte, Rome, 1894, 107 ff. ; O. Marucchi, Nimvo Bultet-
tino di archeologia cristiana, 1896, 14 ff. ; Kivoira, Origini dell' architeitura lombarda, i. Pig. 134 ;
F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, ii. 113 ff. ; Wlha and Niemann, Ber Bom von
Parenzo. The restorations, which in the case of the upper band of mosaic formerly hidden by
the ceiling were very considerable, led to severe criticism on the part of Signor Boni, and to
a polemical reply by Deperis in the second article mentioned above. Of the groups of
Apostles standing on either side of Our Lord only the heads and shoulders remained, and the
bodies have been entirely reconstituted. But a red line has been run across the whole length
to mark where the old work ceases and the new begins. On the restoration, see also B. Z., x,
1901, 719. Illustrations of the mosaic as restored are given by Boni and Marucchi, as above,
and by Diehl, Justinien, Fig. 100, p. 273, Fig. 101, p. 278, Fig. 102, p. 279.
1 Figured by Diehl, Justinien, Figs. 100-2, pp. 273, 278, 279 ; Errard, PI. XV.
^ They are : SS. Agatha, Agnes, Cecilia, Eugenia, Basilissa, Felicitas, Euphemia, Thecla,
Valeria, Perpetua, Susanna, and Justina.
374 PAINTING

cathedral was also covered with mosaics : those on the baldacchino over the
altar are of the thirteenth century. The mosaics of the Cathedral of Parenzo
should be especially compared with those of S. Vitale at Eavenna, which they
resemble both in style and disposition.'

II. Mosaics in the Christian East.

The upper part of the dome of St. George at Salonika was partly damaged
and covered with whitewash by the Turks. At the top there is a large
medallion with a figure of Our Lord surrounded by a wreath of foliage and
fruits (Fig. 204). Below the medallion was a zone of figures (Apostles ?) now
concealed by whitewash.
The lower part of the dome is covered with mosaics on a gold ground
divided into eight compartments.^ The subject in each case presents an elaborate
building in two stories in a Pompeian style, with numerous columns between
which curtains are suspended : on the top are various birds including peacocks.
The buildings are all of similar character, and though ' classical ' in style are
probably intended as interiors of basilican churches. In the foreground stand
saints in the attitude of orardes.^ The vaults of the chapels are ornamented
with a diaper of mosaic, the square and octagonal compartments being filled
with birds (partridges, herons, ducks, &c.) and fruits (apples, pomegranates, &c.).*
These motives should be compared with those in Eski Djouma (p. 382) and
St. Demetrius.
Although some critics are still doubtful as to the date of the work,' others,
especially Eussian scholars, assign it with confidence to the earliest period (fifth
or even fourth century)." The architectural ornamentation has already been
mentioned in connexion with that seen in the Orthodox Baptistery at
Eavenna (above, p. 344), and it may well be that the decoration of the two
buildings was not very far removed in time, that of St. George being the earlier.
The free use of pearled and jewelled ornament on columns and arches is an
oriental feature.
The mosaics of Sta Sophia at Salonika,' a church used as a mosque, suffered
1 See p. 355.
2 Eeproduced in colours, but inadequately, by Texier and Pullan, PI. XXX-XXXIV;
a photograph in G-. Eivoira, Le Origini della architettura lombarda, Pig. 19 (Eome, 1901) ;
N. Kondakoff, Macedonia, 1909, 82 ff., Figs. 23-25 and coloured Plate I ; J. Kurth, Mosaiken der
christlichen Ara, i. 16; Ch. Bayet, Memoire sur une mission au Mont Athos, 1876, 319 if., and
Secherches, 85. See also N. Pokrovslsy, Uvral Decoration of Ancient Greek and Eussian Churches, 24 ;
Woltmann, Geschichte der Malerei, i. 176; Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, 147. The mosaics, which
were
Italianmuch
nameddamaged (see Kondakoff's
Rossi (Kondakoff, 87 ). Fig. 26), were 'restored' with paint in 1889 by an
' They are SS. Romanus, Eucarpion, Ananias, Basiliscus, Priscus, Philippus (Bishop of
Heraclea in the fifth centuiy), Therinus, Leo of Patara, Philemon of Comana, Onesiphorus,
Porphyrius, Cosmas, and Dainian.
122. ■■ Millet in A. Michel's Histoire de Vart, i. 174; Kondakoff, McKedonia, 82; Diehl, Manuel,
5 Woltmann, Geschichte der Malerei, i. 176, who assigns the work to the time of Justinian;
The fantastic character of the architectural motives inclines others to think of an even later
date (W. Kallab, Austrian Jahrbuch, xxi. 26).
I! J. J. Smirnoff, V. V., v. 392; Pokrovsky, as above. Kondakoff, Macedonia, as above,
points to the analogy between the architectural zone in these mosaics, and the architeetura
of Spalato, or that shown in the Calendar of Filocalus (p. 484). The architectural ornament
in the nave mosaics of the Cljurch of the Nativity at Bethlehem is evidently based upon
earlier work analogous to that at Ravenna and Salonika (p. 414).
' Diehl and Letourneau, Monuments Plot, xvi, 1909, 39 ff. and PI. IV-VI ; Ch. Bayet,
Memoire sur une mission au Mont Athos, 1876, S25 ff. ; Archives des missions scientiflques, 1876, 521-8 f
and Secherches pour serrir, &c., 1879, 91 ff. (valuable descriptions) ; N. Kondakoff, Macedonia,
89 ff. and Figs. 37 and 38 ; Texier and Pullan, Byz. Architecture, 144-5 and PJ. XXVI, XL, and
XLI (the plates not accurate enough to satisfy modern requirements) ; J. Kurth, Ath. Mitth.,
xxii. 1897, 463 ; Labarte, Ristoire des arts industriels, 2nd ed., 1873, ii, p. 349 ; Gerspach, La
Mosa'iqm, 56 ; N. Pokrovsky, Proceedings of the Seventh Archaeological Congress, Moscow, 1890, 1. 158,
Monuments of Orthodox Iconography and Art, St. Petersburg, 1894, p. 139, and Mural Decoration of
 375
MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST

60
376 PAINTING
from the fire which destroyed the quarter of the city in which the building
stands in the year 1890. The fire performed, however, one useful service in
rendering the church accessible to investigators, and making more visible the
interesting mosaic inscriptions, which assist us in determining the date, but
the mosaics were not entirely visible until after the work of M. Letourneau
in 1907. The mosaics cover the bema and the dome, and in each case there
are accompanying inscriptions. Taking those of the bema first, we find
a diaper design consisting of gold squares alternately containing silver crosses
and vine leaves : in the middle of the vault, on a gold ground, is a circle with
a silver ground containing a cross. In the apse is a seated figure of the Vii'gin
with the Child upon her knees : the faces of both, formerly obscured, are now
clearly visible. On the gold background can be discerned a cross, now gold on
gold and therefore inconspicuous, but perhaps originally outlined with tesserae
of various colours. It is probable that this cross onc^ formed the sole decoration
of the apse, as in St. Irene, Constantinople (p. 387), and that the figure of the
Virgin was added at the close of the iconoclastic period.'
The inscriptions have been discussed by various scholars, but the most
satisfactory readings appear to be those given by Smirnoff.'' That in the
lower part of the conch of the apse reads : -f K{vpi)e 6 6(€o)s tuIv Tr(aT£)/)(i)v -^/jiuiv
aT€peiji<Tov Tov oIkov tovtov ews t^S a-vvreXe^iai tov atuivos kol <rSi(Tov avjTov irpo'; 86iav
a-rjv KOI TOV /Liovoy£VOi)(s) (tov v{io)v koI tov Travaytov o-ov Trv(eu/AaTos).* An inscription
above this contains the fourth and fifth verses of the sixty-fifth Psalm.*- The
inscription on the north and south walls of the bema ° consists of the words £
Xe Po-qOri 6io<^L\ov TaTrtvoC brLo-Koirov, together with six cruciform monograms
inscribed in circles, which may be read : Kijpif ^oi^dei Kava-TavTivov Sea-Trorov (for
the
the three
three monograms
on the southon wall),
the north wall), and
the names iLvpie to
referring PorjOn 'Eipi^vrj^ Beo-Troivr/s
Constantine VI and (forhis
mother Irene.^ The date would thus be the last quarter of the eighth century,
probably not very far from a. d. 785. The figure of the Virgin in the apse would
then have been inserted upon the triumph of the image-worshipping party.
The upper part of the dome is filled with a representation of the Ascension
on a gold ground' (Fig. 222). In a central medallion is Our Lord in a glory
supported by angels. In the zone below are the Virgin, as orans, between two
ISarly Greek and Russian Churches, 2i ; O. Wulff, Mepsrtorium, xxiii, 1900, 337 ff., and Die Koimesis-
Mrche, 1908 ; E. K. Kiedin, Y. F., vi, PI. XII-XVI. The narthex and the body of the church
are covered with frescoes, only partially visible beneath the whitewash.
' J. Smirnoff, Y. Y., v. 871-2, and vii. 60. It will be remembered that a similar cross
occupied the apse of Sta Sophia, Constantinople. Smirnoff's view is shared by Wulff. Diehl
also considers the cross the original decoration, placing it, however, as early as the fifth or
sixth century {Mon. Plot, as above, 52). The Virgin he assigned to the close of the eighth
century. See also his Manuel, 345-6, Fig. 170.
2 Ch. Bayet, Mission au Mont Athos, 829 ; P. N. Papageorgiou, 'Effxia, Athens, 1892, 394-5,
and 1893, 219 and 317 ; A. Papadopoulos Kerameus, Y. Y., 1894, 448 ; J. Smirnoff, ibid.,
V. 365 ff. ; J. Kurth, Aih. Mitth., 1897, 463-72.
5 Smirnoff, as above, 373 and 392.
^ Tl\ri(j0Tjo6fieda kv Toti dyaOots tov oikov aov, ayio? d va6s aov, Gavixaarbs Iv dtaatoavvrf. The
same inscription, continued at greater length, occupies a similar position in the mosaic
decoration of St. Irene at Constantinople (see Y. V., i, 1894, p. 781), which Bielyayeff assigns
to the iconoclastic period, when a simple cross was preferred to figure subjects (see p. 387).
^ Smirnoff, 375, 387 ff. (with sketches) ; J. Kurth, as above ; Bayet, as above, 525-6 ; Seper-
torium, 1900, 387 ff.
" Bayet read the word Tairtvov as KayaTarrivov, and took it to refer to a bishop of Salonika
living in the sixth century. This early dating he thought confirmed by the use of S instead
of a cross at the beginning of the inscription. But it would appear that this nionogrammatic
cross was not completely displaced by the cross in the sixth century. The reading of Texier
is imperfect {Byz. Arch., 145) ; that of Kurth seems less probable than that of Smirnoff given
above. Kurth supposes the Constantine to be Copronymus.
' Diehl and Letourneau, PI. IV (the first satisfactory illustration) ; Texier and Pullan,
144-5, and PI. XI and XII. The mosaics are well described by Bayet, Archives des missions,
&c., as above, 522 ff., and Recherches pour servir, &c., 91 ff. Diehl observes that an interesting
comparison may be made between this Ascension and that of one of the cupolas in St. Mark's
at Venice (Alinari, photo 13745).
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 377

angels, and the Twelve Apostles. Above the Virgin is the inscription, ' Ye men
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven,' &c. (Acts i. 11). The Apostles,
who are without the nimbus and separated from each other by trees, carry books
or scrolls, and stand in various attitudes on a curious conventional ground of
many colours. The band of fruits and flowers which forms the lower border of
the composition is interrupted in two places (beneath the two angels), leaving in
each case a rectangular panel with a dark ground on which are inscriptions in
white or pale letters. These have been read as follows : + M-qvl Nocyn/Sptoi IvSi-
KTLOVl T€T(£pTjy tTOVS 0.770 KTlfTeuli KOCTflCyU q (e)7rt IlaijXoU TOV dyt(tfTaTo(v rjlJ.S>)v apXliirUTKOTTOV
iyi(veTo (r)vv 6(€)Z to epyov roii{To).^ Unfortunately the crucial numbers which
should have followed the 5- (6) to compose the date from the creation of the
world are invisible. M. Letourneau, who examined the work from a scaffold, is
convinced that the inscription existed before the ornament and was imperfect
when it was executed, so that we shall never discover the precise date. The
conclusions of Papageorgiou,'' who suggested first a. d. 571 and next a. d. 495,
were generally adopted until the criticism of Laurent showed them to be un-
tenable : ' it was pointed out that before the seventh century dating from the
creation of the world does not occur. A bishop of Salonika named Paul is
mentioned for the year a. d. 649 ; and as the fourth year of an indiction falls
in A.D. 645, Laurent conjectured that this is very probably the date of the
work. The church itself may be somewhat earlier, but there is no reason to
suppose that it was built in imitation of Sta Sophia at Constantinople.*
Eiedin, who reproduced the mosaics from a series of photographs,' quoted
a variety of instances derived from the art of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
to which this Ascension scene is allied.* The figure of the Virgin especially
is almost the sarhe in all these examples, while in other figures the resemblances
are hardly less striking. If we turn to church decorations of the same period,
we find a similar treatment of the subject in S. Marco, Venice,' in the Church of
St. George at Old Ladoga,* in the Church of the Redemption at Nereditsi,' and
at Monreale." The figure of the Virgin as orans finds near parallels in the
mosaics of Sta Sophia at Kieff," and at Eavenna, and not in work of the earlier
period.
The appearance of the various figures, their elongated proportions, the close
and multiplied folds of the garments certainly seem inconsistent with a seventh-
century attribution. But Smirnoff, in a second article," while admitting that
Eiedin is right in considering the seventh century too early, argues that the
twelfth century is too late. The work of these mosaics is inferior to that of the
fine Byzantine mosaics of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and details, such
as the form of the trees between the Apostles, are incongruous with the style of
that period. Further, the presence of the band of foliage round the base of the
^ Smirnoff, as above, 383 (sketches). The remains of a painted inscription above the
wreath are of no archaeological importance.
2 'EiTTi'o, 1894, ii. 318. ' B.Z., iv, 1895, 481-3.
* Smirnoff, as above, 387. The type of the Pantokrator and of the angels supporting the
glory in which he sits is early, and has been rightly compared by Diehl to that of sixth-
century MSS. (Babula, Sinope fragment) and the fresco in the Catacomb of S. Ponzianus at
Eome. The remaining figures, which show a greater freedom of style, resemble the work of
the late tenth or of the early eleventh century, at which time they were probably added to
replace the damaged figures of an older composition, and M. Letourneau (p. 47) notes that the
figures are of a different date from the grounds.
« r. v., vi. 370 ff. and PI. XII-XVI.
* The flying angels are compared with those with miniatures in Gospels in the Monasteiy
of Gelat and on Mount Athos (Pokrovsky, The Gospels in Monuments, &c., St. Petersburg, 1892,
Figs. 200-1), on a relic-case at Shemokmedi (Kondakoff, Account of the Antiquities in certain
Churches and Monasteries of Georgia, St. Petersburg,, 1890, Fig. 63, Russian), and on the bronze
doors of St. Paul's, Rome (Rohault de Fleury, L'JSvangile, vol. ii, PI. C. 4).
' Ongania, La Basilica di San Marco, PI. XII-XIII.
' Pokrovsky, Mural Decorations, &c., 194 (Russian). ' Ibid., PI. II.
^^ Gravina, II Duomo di Monreale, PI. XX.
" D. V. Ainaloff and E. K. Riediu, The Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Kieff, St. Petersburg, 1889,
44 (Russian). 12 V. V., vii, 1900, 60 ff.
378 PAINTING

dome is reminiscent of earlier times, and does not occur in the renaissance of
Byzantine mosaic. Finding that there was an Archbishop Paul of Salonika at
the close of the ninth century,' he now proposes c. a. d. 885 as the probable
date.''
MM. Diehl and Letourneau agree with Laurent in considering the large zone
of figures as of the eleventh century : they assign the figure of Our Lord to an
earlier date, perhaps to the seventh century.^ It appears that a line of division

Pio. 222. The Ascension : mosaic in the dome of Sta Sopliia, Salonika.
{Hautes Etudes : G-. Millet.)

between the work of two periods can be distinguished. It seems possible, there-
fore, that the mosaics of this church represent different centuries.
Eecent restorations (1907-8) in the Church of St. Demetrius at Salonika
have brought to light a number of most interesting mosaics.* They cover the
south wall above the arcade dividing the two north aisles, the two piers at the
^ Lo Quien, 0. C, ii. 46.
2 r. v., vii. 67. ' Mon. Piot, as above, 54 j Diehl, Mamwl, 488.
- P. N. Papageorgiou, B.Z., xvii. 321-81 ; 0. Tafrali, Bev. arch., Jan.-Feb., 1909, 83 ff.^
J. Strzygowski, Monatshefte fiir Kimstwissenschafl, 1908, i, 1019 ff. ; Th. Uspensky, Izviestiya of the
Russian Arch. Inst, at Constantinople, xiv, Sofia, 1909, 1-61; Ch. Diehl, Manuel, 190 ff.
Uspensky also read an important paper upon them at the Congress of Classical Archaeology at
Cairo, 1909, summarized in the Compte rendu, 1909, p. 267. The fire referred to in the inscrip-
tion appears to have taken place about *. n. 634 (see 0. Tafrali, as above, p. 95). The date of
the church is disputed, but the opinion which ascribes it to the fifth century may be well
founded, in which case the Leontius of the inscription might be the prefect of Illyria men-
tioned in the Theodosian code under the years a. d. 412 and 413 (ibid,, p. 101).
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 379

entrance to the bema, and an isolated panel above the door leading from
the narthex to the inner of the two south aisles. They are clearly of two dates,
the later following the fire mentioned in the inscription (see below). The
lower part of the long series above the arcade evidently remained undamaged ;
the newer work comprises all above a line running just above the heads of the
figures, with the inscription mentioning the name of Leontius and the mosaics
of the two piers.' The different sections of the subjects in the long series are
indicated by vertical ornamental bands, and the whole is bounded along the
top by a broad band of ornament. The upper part, though more recent in date,
has suffered more severely from decay than the lower : at the beginning and
towards the end great pieces are broken away, while smaller fragments are
missing at intervals.
There are several inscriptions along this arcade. Towards the beginning
and end an identical dedicatory inscription is repeated." Below the three
medallions above the middle arch,, representing St. Demetrius and two ecclesias-
tics, are two iambics referring to Leontius.' At the easterly springing of the
same arch are the remains of an imperfect inscription,* while at the springing
of the next arch there is another which is complete." On .the south pier of the
bema the Virgin holds an inscribed scroll," while beneath the picture is a line
of characters almost perfect.' Beneath the three figures on the north pier of
the bema are four complete iambics.*
The first subject along the arcade, beginning from the west, is very badly
damaged, but to right and left of the arch two saints, richly clothed in the long
chlamys with taUion, stand each within a niche with hands uplifted in prayer.
The head of the westernmost is lost. Each was approached by a smaller male
figure in a deferential attitude veiling his hands beneath his mantle ; but of
these only the easternmost remains. Above, towards the next arch, is a square
frame containing the bust of an aged saint with white beard, wearing a small
modius on the head (Zachariah ?). The space between the figures is occupied
by jewelled columns and foliage. The next subject towards the east is a group
of the Virgin seated with the Child upon a high-backed jewelled throne flanked
by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. On the right stands a bearded saint in
the attitude of an orans, wearing a chlamys ; on the left a beardless saint
in similar costume ushers a man with hands veiled beneath his mantle. In the
upper right-hand corner of the compartment are busts in medallions of a bearded
male saint and two female saints— Pelagia and Matrcna — below which a diminu-
tive male figure is seen moving to the left towards the throne. In the corre-
' Mr. Walter George, who was working at the mosaics for a long period in 1909, and has
made coloured drawings of them, gives this as his decided opinion. He states the following
differences between the old and newer work :— The red of the older work is vitreous and of a
carmine tint ; that of the newer, brieky and vermilion ; the newer black is also more opaque
than the older ; for the newer white, marble is employed instead of glass, and the same sub--
stance replaces silvered cubes for the pear-shaped drops in the darker borders ; the gold
tesserae of haloes, &c., in the lower and older part are set with a forward inclination, while
above they are in the plane of the wall. The dividing line between the work of the two
periods is conspicuous.
'^ VneP eVXHC OY OIAEN O eC to ONOMA-f. in the second case only the
beginnings of the lines are clear.
' -f-eni XPONCON AeoNTOc hboonta BAeneic
KAYeeNTA TO nPIN TON NAON AHMHTPIOY.
* KAi THN Aecnoi
NAN THN eeOTO
KON THN (?)Ar///.
= -fKAl CY AecnOTAMO(Y) ] AflG AIMHT(P)I (B)OH0I HAMN | TOIC AOYAOIC
COY KAJ I TH AOYAH COY MAPIJA HN eAOOKCC HMIN + .
' ACHCIC
YiTieP "Re 0AGO
TY KOICMY 06 |IMC.
eiCAKY|CON THC | ct>ONHC TIC | AAIHCCOOC | MOY OTt
' //////// iciN
zooonomeic ANGPonoicANeecMHN.
cyxapictoon AneAHiceeic nAPA Ae thc chc aynam6(joc
' See below.
380 PAINTINQ

sponding position on the left are two busts, one of a male, the other of a female
saint. The next subject occupies the width of four arches. In the middle;
crowning the centre arch, are three busts in medallions; in the centre
St. Demetrius, beardless and wearing a chlamys, on his right and left a bishop
and a lower ecclesiastic holding jewelled books : beneath, on a tabula ansata, are
the iambic verses referring to Leontius.' The subject proper refers to the story
of a child named Mary. On the left the child and her mother are seen with
St. Demetrius, who is seated before a polygonal building or tent : above, to the
right, are a standing female figure with nimbus, and a damaged bust, apparently
in a medallion: beyond are a rectangular building and a large medallion

Fig. 223. Part of the Ascension : mosaic in the dome of Sta Sophia, Salonika.
{Hautes Mtudes : G. Millet.)

containing the bust of a bearded male saint : next to this is a jewelled ciborium
from which hangs a lamp. Beyond, two angels stand with their hands upon
the shoulders of two figures, one of whom carries a child: in the foreground
stands the Virgin in a purple robe. Next follows the Leontius inscription with
the three medallions, after which we see St. Demetrius standing in the attitude
of an orans between two columns and before curtains : to right and left are two
female figures in white, before one of whom stands a child. Beyond again
is a building surmounted by busts of Our Lord and the Virgin in medallions ;
then comes the final division of the subject, unfortunately very much damaged.
In a flowery landscape, in which a tomb (?) with columned upper portion stands
apart, three women and a youth conduct a little girl in a long tunic and a dark
mantle seme of red hearts towards a saint (?) in a white chlamys : the girl holds
an offering of two white doves. Below the saint's feet is an inscription ; behind
• him are columns with a hanging curtain, below which plants and grass are,
however, visible. Further to the right are the remains of a medallion and of

1 Diehl, Manuel, Fig. 169. For the verses see p. 379, n. 3. Cf. B. Z., xvii. 326, and
PI. III. 6.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 381

a fountain in a garden. The subjects of the arcade are closed on the right
by a figure of St. Demetrius in a rich chlamys standing as an orans before
a scalloped niche from which hangs a curtain seme of hearts. Within
the columns a small figure advances from the left with extended hands :
beyond them to right and left stand two other male figures, that on the right
having near it the second dedicatory inscription, identical with that at the
beginning of the series.
The various compartments of the series are enclosed within jewelled borders
resembling those of other early mosaics at Eavenna and Parenzo, green, red, and
blue stones in rectangular and oval gold settings succeeding each other or
alternating with pearls upon grounds of red, purple, &c. The whole group
is contained above by a broad band of wavy ribbon in red and green, entirely
destroyed in several places. Ornamental details include wreaths of flowers and
fruit, and vine-scrolls issuing from vases.
On the two faces of the pier on the north side of the entrance to the bema
are two compositions, both presumably belonging to a later period than that of
the mosaics just described. In the smaller, St. Demetrius, in his usual rich
costume, stands between two small boys ^ whose rank is in each case indicated
by the white chlamys with purple tablion and the gold fibula upon the shoulder ;
both veil their hands beneath their mantles : a green wall and canopy form the
background. The larger shows the Virgin and a bearded saint standing before
a decorated wall, above which is seen the blue sky with a bust of Our Lord in
a white segment of radiating light: he extends his hand downwards towards
the Virgin, who, wearing a ruddy purple mantle, the upper part of which veils
her head, holds in her right hand a scroll with inscription. The saint, in
decorated chlamys, stands in the attitude of an orans.
The corresponding pictures on the opposite south pier are in the same style.
One shows St. Demetrius standing between a bearded ecclesiastic who holds
a jewelled gospel before his breast and a bearded official (Fig. 198) in a green
pallium contahulatum holding a purse in his right hand and a T-shaped staff with
a finial and other embellishments in his left. Behind the figures is a wall
draped with a green curtain striped with gold, and below is the important
inscription of four iambics in two lines stating that the persons represented are
the founders of the church.^
The second picture shows St. Sergius richly clothed like St. Demetrius, and
wearing the gold and jewelled collar marking his rank as captain of the imperial
guard.^ Behind him is a green wall draped with a blue curtain, above which is
inscribed the saint's name. The picture above the narthex door shows a beard-
less saint (again St. Demetrius ?) standing as orans before a columned niche
(Fig. 224). From the right approach two youths of dififerent ages, veiling their
hands beneath their mantles. Behind is a landscape with hill and trees, in the
foreground of which is a high pedestal or column surmounted by a vase.
The mosaics of St. Demetrius are of exceptional artistic and archaeological
importance. The figures are rendered with singular grace ; the compositions in
the scenes relating to the child Mary possess charm and human interest ; the
richness of the costumes and the landscape backgrounds are remarkable. By
the latter feature we are reminded of such early mosaics as those of the
Mausoleum of Plaoidia or the frescoes of Kuseir 'Amra (see pp. 347, 278), both
inspired by the conventional but picturesque landscapes of late Hellenistic art.
Some of the heads are clearly portraits : this is evidently the case with the two
' founders ' standing to right and left of St. Demetrius. The technical quality
of the work is unsurpassed by any other early mosaic.
1 Diehl, Manuel, Fig. 93.
2 + KTicTAC eetopeic toy nANeNAOEOV aomy
eKeieeN eNeeN maptypoc ahmhtpioy
TY BAPBAPON KAYAtONA BAPBAPOON CTOAO)
MeTATPenONTOC KS nOAIN AYTPOY/V\eNOY-h.
3 Cf. the silver disli in the British Museum (p. 575).
383 PAINTING

Both the general treatment and the details of costume and ornament point
to a date not later than the sixth century for the earlier mosaics : the style of
the chlarays, the form of the fibula, &c., point in this direction, as do the borders
simulating gems and pearls, and the designs of wreaths andjfiaes ; ttoSse are
features which recur in the early mosaics of Eavenna and Parenzo. The presenta--
tion of sections by different donors which we find in the mosaics of the nave is,
so far as our knowledge goes, confined to this church, among those of the early
periods. The custom obtained, however, in the case of mosaic pavements: itnd~
in spite of the differences in the colour of the cubes, the restored upper^ortion —
of the nave mosaic and the large panels on the piers, presumably contemporary

Pie. 224. St. Demetrius and worshippers : mosaic of the sixth century in St. Demetrius,
Salonika. From a -watei'-colour by Mr. Walter George. (Byzantine Research and
Publication Fund.) P. 381.

with it, so successfully preserve many features of sixth-century work that they
must have been executed before the traditions of that period had been forgotten.
The basilican Church of Hagia Paraskevi, now the Mosque of Eski Djouma,
was once richly decorated with mosaics and frescoes. The former are to be found
in the soffits of all the arches of the nave, both the lower and upper ranges, the
arches between nave and narthex, and those between narthex and exo-narthex.
Till recently these mosaics were covered with plaster, the removal of which
displayed decorative designs of exceptional charm and remarkable brilliance of
colour. They are all of an early style, and cannot be later than the sixth
«entury. Among them we may note vine-scrolls rising from vases, vases filled
with lotus and papyrus flowers upon which stand birds (one has in the centre
what appear to be ears of corn), interlaced bands formed of flower wreaths rising
from fluted bowls, and having in their convolutions white doves on branches
and rosette-like ornaments ; vases with acanthus leaves and cornuacopiae rising
symmetrically from them, and a diaper composed of a silver lattice in the openings
of which are blue flowers with long straight stems upon a gold ground ; there
are also crosses within circles. The borders are of guilloche or of the design
representing oval and rectangular jewels in gold settings alternating with pearls
 MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST 383

upon a red ground such as we have found at St. Demetrius (p. 381). Below some
of the designs are votive inscriptions of known types.^ Nothing in the whole
range of Early Christian ornament surpasses these very graceful conceptions,
and the richness of the colours is worthy of the designs. Beautiful rich blues,
dark and turquoise, fine greens and reds of varying shade, unite with the silver
and gold tesserae to form a colour scheme of singular charm.
The Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, has in the apse of its church
a mosaic representation of the Transfiguration which is ascribed to the sixth or
seventh century (Fig. 225) ; ' above and at the sides of the apse are other mosaics,
perhaps of later date.'' On the two sides are two figures of Moses, one with the
Burning Bush, the other receiving the Law. Above are two flying angels, below
which are two medallions with silver grounds, one having a male, the other
a female bust, and perhaps intended for the Virgin and St. John the Baptist.''
These medallions are considered by Kondakoff to be in any case later than the
twelfth century. In the scene of the Burning Bush, Moses stands undoing his
shoe in a rocky landscape; in the corresponding scene the prophet standing
between rocks receives the tables from the hand of the Almighty. These scenes
have none of the characteristics of early Byzantine art, and must be due to the
hand of the restorer : the form of the tables of the Law is that introduced in
the sixteenth century.''
The Transfiguration is surrounded by a border of medallions with silver
backgrounds containing busts of the prophets and Apostles with the addition
of David and two personages named John the Deacon and Longinus the
Hegoumenos : all have their names beside their heads. Such borders of
medallions we already know from the examples in S. Vitale at Eavenna,
Kanakaria in Cyprus, &c.
In the Transfiguration,* Christ has a pale-hued tunic and mantle with gold
clavi, and stands in a blue mandorla of three concentric shades : he holds a scroll
in his left hand, and with his right makes the gesture of benediction. His
nimbus is silver with an inscribed gold cross, and six rays issue from his body.
His hair is a rich brown, and in general type he resembles the Christ of the
Eabula Gospel. In the foreground John lies prone, covering his face ; James
and Peter kneel, the latter upon one knee only.
Below the Transfiguration, and at the right end of the border of medallions,
are mosaic inscriptions mentioning the Hegoumenos Longinus and a Presbyter
Theodore. In their present form Kondakoff thinks they can give no informa-
tion of any value as to the date of the mosaics.'
In the sixteenth century there still existed other mosaics representing the
Virgin and Child between Moses and St. Catherine.* Although, as above stated,
the principal mosaic is usually considered to be of the sixth century, a later date
has been suggested.'
1 e. g.also
formulae + "Trrep eux^t at'AvSpeov
occurring (ja)T{e)u/od + , + "Iirip eix(?s O") o'^"' + ^ 0«^s t" wo/xo, the
St. Demetrius.
2 Ainaloff (Hellenistic Origins of Early Christian Art, p. 210 (Eussian)) claims the apse mosaic
for the time of Justinian, though assuming that restorations have taken place.
s For illustrations of the Sinai mosaics see J)e Laborde, Voyage clans I'Aralne Petree, PI. XX;
Eohault de Fleury, L'Evangile, PI. XLIII. 1, and Garrucci, Storia, iv, PI. 268 (both reproducing
De Laborde's drawing). Noroff, Jerusalem and Sinai, 1879 : a drawing by Polivanoff." Photographic
reproductions are given by Ch. Diehl, Justinien, 291, Fig. 107, and by Kondakoff. Iconography
of Our Lord and Saviour. The mosaics are described by Kondakoff, Journey to Sinai in 1881,
Odessa, 1882, 75 ff. (Eussian) ; G. Ebers, Surch Gosen sum Sinai, Leipsic, 1872, 273 ff. ; C. Usoff,
Mosaics of the Church of the Monastery of St. Catherine, publication of the Moscow Archaeological
Society, 1879: illustration based on Polivanoff's drawing; Diehl, Manuel, 190. For the date
of the building (a. d. 554-62) see H. Gr^goire, B. C. H., 1907, 327 ff.
' Ebers considered them to be Moses and St. Catherine (as above, 275). Kondakoff
(Journey, p. 81) considers St. John and the Virgin more probable. Tradition describes the
two busts as portraits of Justinian and Theodora. ' Kondakoff, Journey, 78.
« This-subject is rare in Early Christian art, only occurring in two other mosaics, those
of S. Apollinare in Classe at Eavenna and SS. Nereus and Aohilleus at Eome.
■> Kondakoff, 95 ff. ' Smirnoff in V. 7., iv, 1897, 13.
» S. Vailh6, Bev. de I'orient Chretien, 1907, 96-8. See also Bevue iibligue, 1907, pp. 105 ff.
384 PAINTINa

The most ancient Christian mosaics of the Holy Land have all perished.
We know from the words of the pilgrim Abbess Aetheria, who visited the Holy
Places at the close of the fourth century, that there were mosaics in the atnum
of Constantine's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and possibly even on the west
fagade of the basilica.^ The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem ^ had rich
decoration of early mosaics : on the west fajade was an Adoration of the Magi,
said to have been spared in the sixth century by the soldiers of Chosroes because
the Magi had Persian caps. The dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at

^HHmSBh^V 9
S^v.^jflH^H
^^BB^SB^^^^SH^sfli^ra^^ ''< . ~^^|
n^^Bj HHip^M^^^^IBi

1^H H^HI
■

H^^^^^EH^^r ^ S^ jfl^feAtfalSSC '^ qBroJiflCgBiH

Fig. 225. Tlie Transfiguration : mosaic in the monastery church of Mount Sinai.
{Bautes Etudes: N. Kondakoff.) P. 383.

Jerusalem once possessed a mosaic representing Constantino and Helena holding

the Cross between them.' We may suppose that almost all the sacred edifices
of the Holy Land were adorned with mosaics, and it is superfluous to seek for
further instances.
The two examples of early mosaic in the island of Cyprus, published and
discussed by Smirnoff,* date from the fifth or sixth century. One fills the apse
in the church of the Panagia Angeloktistos at Kiti on the southern coast of the
island, a few miles west of Larnaca ; the other occupies a similar position in
the Panagia Kanakaria, the still-used church of an abandoned monastery near the
village of Lithrankome, on the southern slope of the ridge forming the backbone
of the Karpass. The existing churches belong to the post-iconoclastic period
of Byzantine architecture ; but in both cases the venerated mosaics of older
buildings seem to have been incorporated in the new structures.
1 Ornavit aura musim et marmore. Aetheria, in Geyer's Itinera Hierosol, 76. 17.
2 For the mosaics of this church see below, p. 414.
s p. Horn, Ichnographia Locorum et Monumentorum Veterum Terrae Sanctorum, 96 (ed. Golu-
bovich). See A. Baumstark, R. Q., xx, 1906, 169. * F. V., iv, 1897, 1-93.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST 385

In the Kiti mosaic the Virgin is seen standing on a footstool, with the Child
on her left arm, between the two archangels Michael and Gabriel, who hold in
their right hands orbs, in their left wands or sceptres. All the figures have the
nimbus, which, however, is not gold but very dark in the central part and in the
outer part formed of bands of dark blue and a paler tint : ' it is doubtful whether
there was ever any cross in the nimbus of the infant Saviour. The exact shade
of the garments of Christ and the Virgin is difficult to determine, but those of
the Child are of the paler tone.
■ The Virgin wears a long-sleeved tunic and
a mantle, the angels white tunics with gold clavi, white mantles (pallia) on
|

HH
1 H
> ^Hi|3r . . . ^^^^ ^

HH|
H
/flH ^^m

hIL H
m^M

18
j^kdi^^l ^^Rlai HI w
Constantinople.
iMii^^
^^^^K'
^
:-:-:-.,:

1
(Byzantine Research and Publication Fund.)
i
Fib. 226. Cross and ornamentation in mosaic of the eighth century in the apse of St. Irene,
P. 387.

which are seen the letters H and F. Their wings are executed in imitation of
9
Mis>i^^-MM

those of peacocks with ' eyes ',^ and they stand upon a green ground. On either
side of the Virgin's head, on a band of pale cubes set in the gold background, is
the inscription +H ATIA | MAPIA + , while below, between her and the
angels, may be read in vertical lines, on the left MIX AHA, and on the right
TABPIHA. Below the composition is an ornamental border of rosettes.
The use of the form ' Saint Mary ' instead of the usual ' Mother of God '
(MP 0Y, or ©eOTOKOC) points to an early date,^ in any case not removed
'■ The colours are Obscured by accumulations of dust and smoke, while the faces of the
Virgin and Child have in addition traces of dull red paint. Of the figure of Michael, only the
head, the right hand, and the lower part of the body remain, and the missing parts are filled
in with stucco.
Smirnoff notes that the mosaic at Kiti appears to be mentioned in a synodal letter to
the Emperor Theophilus written from Jerusalem in A. D. 836. The letter mentions a number
of wonder-working ikons, and this occurs among the number. It is published by J. Sakellion :
'Etf Tcav avcKSdrtuv ttjs TlaT^Licijs Bt0\Lo6rifCT}s : 'ETriffToA?) avvoSiKij . . . npds @e6<pt\ov avTOKpdropa
KavaTavTivovirdKeoJi.
^ The only analogy for this kind of wing in the case of angels (not seraphim) appears to
occur in the Sinai mosaics. See N. Kondakoff, Journey to Sinai, 79 (Russian).
' These words occur, but in monogrammatic form, on the Trivulzio ivory with the
Annunciation (Garrucci, Storia, PI. 453. i ; G. Schlumberger, L'Epopeebys., &c., 1896, 48).
120* C C
 386 PAIKTING

by more than a century from a. d. 436, the year of the Council of Ephesus.
That the date is later than this council is certain from the presence of the two
archangels as a celestial guard, for before the solemn proclamation of the Virgin
as the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven such representations were unknown.'
The Virgin herself resembles the type known as the Hodegetria (Ch. XII), which
may well have been introduced into Byzantine art about the middle of the fifth
century from one of the oriental centres, perhaps Jerusalem or Antioch.^
The execution of the Kiti mosaic is I'emarkably fine, as fine as anything in
Eome or Eavenna. The manner in which the transitions from dark to light
shades are managed differs from that employed in those cities, but has an
analogy in a Eoman pavement found near Constantine in Algeria," a fact which
suggests that the school of mosaicists to which Kiti work is due was affiliated to
Alexandria. It was evidently not identical with the school which worked at
Salonika, and its style is distinct from that of the later schools of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. It is possible that the Sinai mosaics, when properly
published, may afford a clue to its origin. We know that there were mosaic
workers in Syria and Palestine in the First Period, because the decoration of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored at some time before the year a. d. 862,
possibly after the Persian invasion, by a monk Thomas of Damascus.* The
synodal letter of a. d. 836 already quoted (p. 385, n. 1) mentions the lost mosaic
of Justinian's time, representing the Adoration, on the exterior of the basilica at
Bethlehem.^ This mosaic, spared by the Persians under Chosroes because of the
Persian costume of the Magi, was possibly the model copied by the makers of
the Monza ampullae (see p. 628), some of which have this subject.* In these
ampullae, as in the Kiti mosaic, the Madonna looks straight forward at the
spectator, not at the Child ; there may here be an indication of a dominant
Syrian type.
On iconographical and stylistic grounds Smirnoff assigns the Kiti mosaic to
the close of the fifth or early part of the sixth century.' The absence of the
title MP 0Y, or 0€OTOKOC, has been already noted as evidence of an early
origin ; on the other hand, the work can hardly have been done before a.d. 436,
The fact that the nimbi are not gold is also in favour of an early date, the
nearest parallels being found in the niche mosaics of Sta Costanza (p. 333) and
in Sta Maria Maggiore. Further, it is unlikely that such admirable quality
should have been done in Cyprus in the period between the middle of the seventh
century, when the Arabs took the island, and its reconquest by the Byzantines
in A. D. 964. The year a. d. 650 would thus be the latest possible limit.
The mosaic in the Panagia Kanakaria * also represents the Virgin as Queen of
Heaven between two angel guards. She is seated on a throne surrounded by
an oval glory of dark blue between two palm-trees, and wears a purple tunic
and blue mantle : the Child wears a blue tunic and white mantle, and has
a golden cruciform nimbus. The picture has suffered greatly from time, and
the lower part is all lost except the central portion representing the Virgin's
knees and feet. One angel has almost entirely disappeared, while of the other

1 Archangels holding orbs are seen on the famous British Museum diptych with
St. Michael (p. 200), and on the large diptych at Kavenna (p. 209), though in the last instance
the chlamys replaces the pallium. It may be recalled that on consular diptychs personifica-
tions of Eome and Constantinople hold orbs. None of these are later than the beginning of
the seventh century. 2 Smirnoff, as above, 54.
3 V. Delamare, Exploration cVAlgirie, PI. 141-2. The method consists in the employment
of alternating dark and light cubes placed in a single line (Smirnoff, 64).
* This fact is derived from a contemporary metrical postscript to a Psalter of the year
A. D. 862, ending with the lines :—
lirevxe Tqvhi Ka/xirpcLv veKovpyiav
Qail^as fuuva^aiv, (io-fpa<pO!, AaiJLaaK66ev.
See Smirnoff, 90.
■i The existing mosaics in Palestine are all of the later date (p. 414).
« Bayet, Becherches pour servir, &c., 72 ; Smirnoff, 91-2. ' p. 65.
' Smirnoff, as above, 65 ff. ; figure on p. 73.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST 387

only the upper half of the body remains. It can be seen that this angel holds
a sceptre or wand in the left hand, though the hand itself is lost. He wears
a, blue tunic with yellow clavi and a white mantle : the feathers of his wings
are dark blue, light blue, and a lilac shade. His nimbus is of a colour not easy
to determine, but certainly not golden.
The whole group is enclosed in a mosaic border composed of a series of
medallions representing the Twelve Apostles, six probably being placed on
either side of a central medallion of Christ. Onlj' a few of these medallions are
now distinguishable, and these only in part. Each Apostle was accompanied by
his name, but not many letters are now visible.
Smirnoff remarks that the mandorla surrounding the Virgin is a unique
feature in early Byzantine art, and its presence lends these mosaics a peculiar
interest. This dark-blue glory recalls early examples of the nimbus in which
gold is not employed of which mention has already been made, the blue aureole
of Christ in the Sinai mosaics,' and that in the manuscript of Cosmas Indico-
pleustes. The rainbow-tinted or irisated border enclosing the mandorla gives
no definite clue to date, for it occurs on monuments of very various age.^ The
series of Apostles in medallions may be compared with the heads of those of the
Orthodox Baptistery at Eavenna, those of the lost mosaics of St. Agatha in
Suburra (Garrucci, Storia, P]. 240. 2), those of the triumphal arch in S. Vitale
and the archiepiscopal chapel at Eavenna, and those of the Sinai mosaics. There
is a general resemblance to the work at Parenzo, but it is difiBcult to find any
very close analogy among published mosaics. There is a difference in technique
between the Kanakaria work and that at Kiti, which makes it probable that
there was more than one school of mosaicists in Cyprus. Kanakaria indeed
seems to stand nearer to Eavenna and Eome than to Kiti, though even there
too the types of faces are different.
Smirnoff places the mosaics of Kanakaria slightly later than those of Kiti,
assigning them to the period between the beginning of the sixth and the middle
of the seventh century.'
Another mosaic reputed to be of similar early date is reported from the
Church of Tlavayia ttj<s Kupas, also in the Karpass. It is said to represent the
Virgin and to be in a rather dilapidated condition, but up to date I have obtained
no full description of it.
The mosaics of St. Irene at Constantinople, the fine church used by the Turks
as an armoury, cover the apse and the triumphal arch, but are obscured by
whitewash." The subject in the apse is a large cross of dark blue on a gold
ground (Fig. 226), while on the arch there appears to be nothing but ornamental
designs with two mosaic inscriptions (Fig. 227).^ Bielyayeff is inclined to
ascribe these mosaics to the iconoclastic period when the building was last
restored, a conclusion supported by the examination made by Mr. Walter George
iu the past year (1910) and by epigraphic and literary evidence adduced by
M. Millet." Inscriptions associated with simple representations of crosses in

' Kondakoff, Journey to Sinai, 87 (Kussian).

^ In mosaic, in the dome of St. George, Salonika, on tJie vault of tlie presbyterium in
Sta Sophia, Salonika, round the bust of the Virgin in Sta Sophia, Constantinople ; iu MSS.,
■e. g. in the Vienna Dioscorides and in the Etchmiadzin and Florentine Gospels (J. Sfcrzy-
gowski, B. D., i. 57). ' As above, 89.
* i). Bielyayeff, V.,V., i. 780 ff. Photographs of the interior of the church, from both
■ends, in G. Rivoira, Le Origini delta architettura lombarda, i. Figs. 289, 290. Mr. Walter George
has studied the church on behalf of the Byzantine Research and Publication Fund (1910).
^ The first inscription is : oiKoSofJituy ds rov oTkuv aov Kal dvdpaaiv aiirov Kal t^v ktrayyeKiav
ToG dyiov irvevfiaros e{is ^)/ias ^K-nsiaafLev its to ovo^a ainov. The second is Psalm 65. 4 and 5 :
IlKrjffBTjaofteOa hv roTs dyaSois tov oikov ffov dyios 6 vaos ffov, Bavnaarbs Iv SiKaioavi'T}. 'EnaKovaov
^^1/, 6 Oeos 0 aayr^p iiiiSiv, ri hX-nh iravrajv twv vipdroiv ttjs yrjs teal raiv iv OdKdaffT} liafcpdiv) + . The
same inscription is found in Sta Sophia, Salonika (p. 376). Mr. George reads the fii-st word
diffex-ently.
« B. C. H., 1910, 96 ff. M. Millet cites iconoclastic poems quoted by Theodore the Studite
relating to the veneration of the Cross.
c c 2
388 PAINTING

Cappadocian chapels belong to the ninth centuiy ; and it seems probable that
these chapels -ivere decorated in this manner as a result of iconoclastic sentiment.
The cross was the symbol of the iconoclasts, who even falsified letters of the
Fathers to prove that it should form the sole mural decoration of churches.
Traces of mosaic in the narthex, with conventional ornament, have also been
observed.
The mosaics of the Churcli of the Assumption at Nicaea ' were parth' ruined
the Panto-
contained
by the collapse of the dome, which probabl)-krator. and of
bemafigure
The the narthex have
mosaics of dift'erent dates, but the
body of the church was ornamented
with frescoes.
Tlie great arch has in the centre
a medallion containing the Eihuaskt
(p. 666), here a tlirone with cushion
and veil, supporting a book and a
cross, and placed in a dominating
position, as at Daphni. Monreale. and
in the Cappella Palatina at Palermo.
Ou each side is a pair of angels
wearing imj^erial costume and hold-
ing disk-like orbs in their hands.
Their long purple tunics are adorned
^\'ith figured gold bands : their wings
and the fillets in their hair are
white. They are described by inscrip-
tions as representatives of ' Xpxo-i,
under theKi'/jtcirv^Tcs,
Aira/.i£t;, and riglit
two to the 'Etoi'fri'ai,
are and
the
AVoi'ds : Kal — putThiT'/^frurtocrai' avrw
-urre? ayyeAoi. The words Ei'0paV(?v;Te
iivj>nr.'i)\ a/.(a avTw must have once
occupied the corresponding position
under the two left-hand figures. On
Fre. 227. Mosaic with inscription of tlie thegoldbackgroundbetweenthe wings
eightli century ; arch of tlie apse of St. Irene,
Constantinople. (Byzantine Research and Pub-
of the two angels on the south side
lication Fund.) is a mosaic inscription : a-T-qXol Nai-
K'parto? ^ TOL'; O^ias etKoVa?. The use of
the word crTqXoL suggests a connexion with the festival known as 'Ai^acmJAwo-is
Tail' dyiwv eiKoj'co!', which celebrated the triumph of the orthodox party at the
close of iconoclasm. This word, with the addition of the adjective f^et'a?, may be
taken as indication of a date closely following the iconoclastic persecution.
In the apse is a standing figure of the Virgin on a gold ground.' She wears
a purple mantle covering her head, and ornamented with a gold border and
tassels. In her arms is the Child, v;\w wears a gold garment and raises the

1 0. Wulff, Dif Kiiimesishirrlic in Nic'ia vtul Hire Jlosiiikni, Heft XIII of Zi(r Gesihirhlc des Aiis-
landes, Strassbiirs, 1903, 194 ff. and PI. I-III ; Ch. Diehl, Mi'sa'iqnes by:aniiiies dc Niae, B.Z., i,
1892, 7.5 if., revised and reprinted in Etudes bij:antines, Paris, 1905.
^ Wulff and Diehl believe that Naukratios may be the mosaicist; others think this
improbable, and wrnild refer the name to tlie donor of the mosaics. But tlie nionoi;ranis in
the church, which <lo refer to the donor, do not appear to stand for the name Naukratios.
The absence of any title and the inconspicuous position of the inscription are also against
the attribution to a donor.
^ The type — a standing figure holding the child in one arm — is not that usually found in
Byzantine mosaics, the two nearest examples being in S. Marco, Venice. As a rule the
Virgin, when standing, has a medallion containing the Child represented on her breast. The
type in the present case may lie a variation of the seated Virgin and Child .already adopted by
the seventh century.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 389
right hand in the act of benediction. Above her head are a semicircle and two
concentric bands, representing heavenly zones ; and from the semicircle issue
three rays, that in the middle descending to her nimbus. Across them runs an
inscription from Psalm 110. (109.) 3 (Septuagint version): ix yacn-pbs Trpo kwa-^opov
yeyevrjKo. ere, referring to the celestial birth of the Son : the three rays are intended to
represent the Trinity. Round the top of the apse runs the inscription : roi o1.ku>
<TOv Trpiirei ayiaoryaa K()jpt)e ew fiaKpor-qra rjiJ.€pG)v (Psalm 92 (93). 5), within borders
of geometrical and formal ornament of an early character.' The type of the
Etimasia is also early.^
The mosaics of the apse and the bema are related to each other as two parts
in the expression of one theological design — the declaration of the Trinitarian
idea in its relation to the Incarnation and the divine motherhood of the Virgin,
as expressed in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.^
The iconographic and dogmatic character of the mosaics suggests that they
date from the same period as the church. They must be connected with the
iconoclastic struggle, and may be assigned to the sixty years between the second
Nicene Council in a. d. 789 and the middle of the ninth century ; after the
definite triumph of the orthodox party in a. d. 842 there would be no need for
such solemn emphasis on the sacred character of the figures. The beginning of
this period seems to commend itself as the more probable date. The figure
of the Virgin, though somewhat elongated and no longer showing the large
and simple treatment of the sixth century, is yet of a grave and majestic
dignity ; the draperies are well designed and the colours rich. The angels
likewise preserve something of the serene beauty of a period in which classical
tradition was yet alive.* The mosaics of the narthex,'* which only survive in
part, are in a later style. Over the central door is a mosaic inscription :
K(vpi)E PoTjOei Tw crw SoijXa) l^LK-rjcfiopm TrarpLKLia TrpatTrocrtTa) Pecnrj koI fieyaXta
eraipLapxy. The inscription on a later fresco has preserved the information
that this Nicephorus lived in the time of an emperor named Constantine.
From the fact that Constantine VIII appointed one of this name a Protovestia-
rius, and that a lead bulla, apparently of the period, gives the same name as
that of a Great Hetairiarch, it is conjectured that this may be the Constantine in
question. Epigraphy confirms this conclusion : there are accents, which are not
found over uncials on monuments before the tenth century, whereas in the
mosaic inscriptions of the eleventh they are common."
In the tympanum over the royal door is a half-figure of the Virgin as
orans, which with its grave expression, natural treatment, and fine colouring is a
beautiful example of the mosaic work of the period.' The type may be derived
from that of the Virgin placed by Basil I in the church of the new palace at
Constantinople as described by Phocas." In the roof, which has a gold ground,

' Wulff, as above, Fig. 41, p. 199.

2 Ibid., 243-4. A similar inscription occupies the same position in the Church of St. Luke
in Phocis.
' vv. 3-6. ' Who ... sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high ; being made so
much better than the angeLs, as he hath by inheritance obtajn«d a more excellent name than
they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. And
again, when he bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, he saith. And let all the angels
of God worship him' (Wulff, p. 274).
* Wulff, 297 ff. Opinions are not unanimous, though most are inclined to place these
mosaics within the first millennium. See Diehl, as above, 78, and Xe Monastire de St. Luc en
Plucide, 62 ; Sfcrzygowski, 70. Geburtstag, 398 ;
B. Z.,1. i. 340, Archaologische Ehrengabe zu de Eossi's
J. Smirnoff, F. V., iv. 87. note
= Wulff, as above, 301 ff. The only objection to the acceptance of this date is that m the
reign of Constantine X (Ducas) a severe earthquake visited Nicaea, as recorded by Michael Atta-
liotes. Possibly the Nicephorus of the inscription may have lived in the latter part of the
eleventh century (Diehl, 3 ff.). «, Ibid., 305.
' G. Schluraberger, L' Epopee bysaniine, iii, 1905 ; Diehl, Mwles, 265 (after Schlumberger).
' Nome ecdesiae descriptio, 199. Diehl {Etudes, &c., p. 367) remarks the popularity attained
by this type in Byzantine art during the tenth and eleventh centuries (coins of Leo VI,
390 PAINTING

is a jewelled sacred monogram (of the type formed by two Greek crosses placed
one over the other) in a blue medallion of different shades, upon which are gold
stars representing the heavenly spheres : this motive occurs in numerous
mosaics of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.' The mosaics of the narthex
also include figures of Christ, St. John the Baptist, the Evangelists, St. Joachim,
and St. Anne. In technique these mosaics may be compared to those of Daphni

Fig. 228. Our Lord : the Virgin and Child : mosaics of the eleventh century. Church of
St. Luke, Phocis. {Hauies Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 393.

(p. 396), and the transitions from one tone to another are gradual and delicate.
Black outlines are used to give the figures relief against the gold ground, or, in
the case of flesh tones, against hair or garments. The features and details of
hands and feet are rendered by red cubes. There is a certain fondness for
greenish tints. As a whole, the work is more delicate than that in the bema
and commands a greater variety of tones.

John Zimisces, and later emperors). He further notes its resemblance to the Virgin in the
mosaics of the cathedral at Torcello.
1 In the vault of the Diakoiiikon at Nea Mone, Chios, in the narthex at St. Luke in
Phocis, at Daphni, and at Kieff.
 MOSAICS IN TBE CHRISTIAN EAST 391

THIED AND FOUETH PEEIODS

The mosaics of the great Church of the Divine Wisdom at Constantinople are
only in part visible, the rest having been covered with whitewash by the Turks.
In the year 1847 restorations were carried out in the cathedral, and many
mosaics were uncovered by Eossati, the architect employed for the purpose.
These restorations afforded an opportunity for reproduction, and to them we owe
the illustrations of Fossati himself and of Salzenberg.' We do not know either
the character of the entire decoration as it at first subsisted, or the certain date
of all the work that was uncovered in 1847 ; the reproductions then published
were neither complete nor sufficiently accurate for a definite judgement. From
the analogy of the Church of the Holy Apostles, described by Constantino the
Ehodian and by Mesarites, we may infer that there was once a whole cycle of
Gospel scenes, such as is found in later churches like that of the Monastery of
Daphni in Attica ; ^ but it is worthy of remark that neither Paul the Silentiary
nor Procopius nor the Anonymus Banduri^ make any mention of mosaic pictures.
It has, however, been urged that this negative evidence is not conclusive,*
and Wulff follows Kondakoif in assigning some of the known mosaics to the
age of Justinian, the rest, with the exception of mere ornamental designs, being
admitted to be in no case earlier than the ninth century."
Among those by some assigned to Justinian's time are the Cherubim in
the pendentives of the great dome, which are of an early type, the angel with
orb and sceptre on the south side of the apse, and the remains of the Pentecost
ornamenting the western cupola in the central part of the south gallery." The
other mosaics known to us, which are but the disiecta membra of a cycle still
unknown, are as follows : In the dome is the Pantokrator,' in the apse the
Virgin (Blacherniotissa) enthroned with the Child ; along the north and south
walls saints and prophets, among which are identified Anthemius of Nicomedia,
Basil, Gregory the Theologian, Dionysius the Areopagite, Nicholas, Gregory of
Armenia, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Habbakuk ; on the great eastern arch
beneath the dome is the Etimasia in a medallion flanked by the Virgin and
St. John the Baptist, and, below, the portrait of John Palaeologus.' These
mosaics are thought to have been originally due to Eomanus (eleventh century)
^ Fossati, Aya Sofia, London, 1852; W. Salzenberg, Die altchrintlichen Baudenkmiller, &o.,
Berlin, 1854 ; E. M. Antoniades, 'Eicippaais t^s ayias Sotfiias, Athens, 1907 ff. Other works whinh
should be consulted are Kondakoif, The Churches of Constantinople, in the Proceedings of the
Sixth Archaeological Congress at Odessa, 1887 (in Kussian) ; Lethaby and Swainson, The Church
of Sancta Sophia; N. Pokrovsky, Mural becoration in Ancient Greek and Russian Churches, 25 ff.,
and Outlines of the Monuments of Orthodox Iconography, &e., ch. v (Russian) ; G-. Millet in A. Michel's
Eistoire de Vart, i, Pt. I, 190. For various references to mosaics in Sta Sophia in Byz. litera-
ture, see J. P. Eichter, Quellen der byz. Kunstgeschichte, 1897, index, a. v. Mosaiken.
^ On the walls between the windows there were probably figures of saints. Tor the
lost mosaics of the Church of the Apostles see the description of Constantino the Khodian
edited by E. Legrand, Revue des etudes grecques, ix, 1896, pp. 32 ff. For Mesarites' description
(late twelfth century) see A. Heisenberg, Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche, ii, pp. 3 ff.
^ The title of the Anonymus' work is : AirjyrjaLs nepl rrjs oifcoSoixTJ^ tov vaov ttjs fieyaKrjs tov
$tov ^icieXTjaias ttjs euovofia^ofjiivTjs ^Ayias ^0(pias.
* 0. Wulff, B.Z., V. 218.
■^ Fossati and Salzenberg were inclined to ascribe all mosaics to the sixth century.
Labarte, Bayet, and Woltmann excepted the lunette mosaic in the narthex. The opinion of
many writers now is that the archangel is the only figure mosaic earlier than iconoclasm.
See Lethaby and Swainson, as above, and Th. Preger in B.Z., x, 1901, 458.
^ Antoniades, 312 ; Salzenberg, 29. Some would include the Virgin and Child in the
apse among the earliest mosaics {B. Z., v. 219). Smirnoff (ibid., iv. 49) doubts the antiquity
of the angel.
' This subject perhaps dates from the restoration carried out by Basil II after the earth-
quake of A.D. 975 ; some consider that the great cherubim of the pendentives are not earlier
than this period.
' Other portrait mosaics reproduced by the brothers Fossati included Constantine, Zoe,
Alexius and John Comnenus, and Irene. Fossati saw over the south portal a mosaic of the
Virgin receiving tlie Church of Sta Sophia from Justinian, and the city of Constantinople
from Constantine.
392 PAINTING

and to have been restored in the fourteenth century by John Cantacuzene. On

the opposite western arch are the Virgin and Child in a medallion between
St. Peter and St. Paul/ mosaics perhaps to be ascribed to Basil I, and restored
by Basil II. The Pentecost, already mentioned, concludes the list of the
identified subjects within the building. Above the royal doors of the narthex
is the figure of Our Lord enthroned, adored by an emperor, perhaps Leo VI the
Wise (a.d. 886-911), perhaps a later monarch : on either side are busts which
are variously interpreted as the Virgin and an archangel, personifications of
Light and Peace, &c.'

Fig. 229. Christ washing Peter's feet : mosaics of the eleventh century in the narthex
of St. Luke in Phocis. {Eautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 393.

The roof of the narthex and side aisles is decorated with mosaic ornament
of geometrical and floral design, interconnected medallions, &c., among the
details being heart-shaped figures, lozenges, and swastikas. The vaults of the
galleries had rich mosaic diapers, now in great part destroyed ''' (Fig. 3).
It may be of interest, in connexion with Sta Sophia, to touch briefly upon
the lost mosaics of the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, as described
by Mesarites. These have recently been discussed by Heisenberg, who has

1 Salzenberg, p. 102 and PI. XXXII.

^ Ibid., p. 101 and PI. XXVII ; Antoniades, PI. opp. p. 168 ; Labarte, Hist, des arts indus-
triels, 2ud ed., ii, PI. LVIII. The description as Leo is adopted by Kondakofif, Byzantine
Churches of Constantinople, llo . Labarte thought the emperor Heraolius, Woltmann Basil I;
Millet considers him a ruler of the Macedonian period. Bayet {L'Art byzantin, 3rd ed., 52)
calls the emperor Andronicus II ; Oman {Bysanfine Empire, p. 317) follows him, and Wroth
{Imperial Byzantine Coins, Introduction, p. Ixx) notes the resemblance to coins of that emperor
(PI. LXXXIV, Pigs. 10-12). Other attributions to Justinian and Constantine Pogonatus are
no longer entertained. The female bust has by some been i-egarded as the Divine Wisdom
represented under the form of the Virgin. In churches dedicated to 'A7ia ^a<pla the Vii-gin is
usually represented in the apse (e. g. here, at Salonika, and in the church dedicated by
Eoclesius at Kavenna in the sixth century, on which see Agnellus, ed. Bacchiui, ii. 38).
8 Salzenberg, 98 ; Antoniades, Pigs, on pp. 196-200, 206, 278, 286, 312.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 393

conjecturally assigned each subject its position in the building.^ On the walls
were numerous scenes from the Gospel and figures of Apostles ; round the
domes a continuation of the same ; in the centres of the domes the Pantokrator,
Crucifixion, Pentecost, Transfiguration, and Ascension.
There are general resemblances between the compositions as described by
Mesarites and those of the Codex Eossanensis, though the differences of detail
are considerable. The resemblances with objects probably originating in the
Holy Land, as the ampullae at Monza, are very frequent, while the divergence
from the Syrian types in the Eabula MS. is equally remarkable. For these
reasons Heisenberg is inclined to assign the mosaics.to the sixth century, though
they are commonly attributed to the Macedonian period.
The Church of the Peribleptos on the Propontis was richly decorated with
mosaics of the eleventh century.^
The imperial palaces at Constantinople were richly decorated with mosaics.
Especially brilliant was the ornament of the Kainourgion, erected by Basil I.
Here the emperor was several times represented, now among his generals, now
enthroned by the side of the Empress Eudocia .surrounded by their children,
now again adoring the cross with his family.' Manuel and Andronicus Com-
nenus both follovVed this example, which Basil himself had inherited from
earlier times.*
The larger of the two churches of the Monastery of St. Luke at Stiris has
still a complete scheme of mosaic decoration covering the whole interior, and
affording, like Daphni, a fine example of the system followed in Byzantine
churches from the eleventh century : '" the pictures are of one period though the
work of more than one artist, and show the influence of the monastic spirit.
They are clearly related to the miniatures of the Menologium of Basil in the
Vatican Library, in which their qualities of rich colour, skilful handling of
drapery, and frequent nobility of expression, as well as their occasional defects
of composition, inaccurate drawing, and ignorance of anatomy are equally con-
spicuous." The Menologium was executed in Constantinople for the Emperor
Basil II : the mosaics are of the early eleventh century. The general effect of
the interior is brilliant, though numerous windows have been filled up in
consequence of the damage done to the fabric by earthquake. In the dome is
Christ Pantokrator surrounded by the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, the archangels,
and (lower) by the prophets and Evangelists. In the apse is the Virgin seated
with the Child ; and on the sides of the bema the great doctors of the Church.
The walls, vaults, and pendentives of the church are decorated with the Gospel
scenes corresponding to the great ecclesiastical feasts, and an array of saints in
order of their importance ; near the west end, monks and ascetics, then martyrs ;
near the altar, bishops and deacons ; in the arms of the cross warrior-saints
take their place in attendance upon the majestic Christ of the dome above.
The narthex is also richly decorated with mosaics. In an apse at its north
end is the scene of the Washing of the Feet ('O NtVrTjp) (Fig. 229), and in the

^ A. Heisenberg, Grabeskirche und Apostelkircfie : Zwei Basiliken Konstanfins, ii, Leipzig, 1908.
ch. V, 140. Mesarites also mentions mosaics in the Mausoleum of Constantino and in that of
Justinian.
^ For references see J. P. Eiohter, Quellen der iysantinischen Kunstgeschichte, 1897, 235.
Othei- references to mosaics in the capital will be found in the same work. See Index,
s.v. Mosaiken.
8 Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Life of Basil, ch. 89; see J. P. Richfer, Quellen der bysanii-
nischen Kunstgeschichte, 1897, 363 ; Diehl, Manuel, 375-6.
* The authorities are Nicetas and Kinnamos : Diehl, as above.
° Ch. Diehl, VEglise et les mosai(iues de Saint-tuc en Phocide, Gazelle des Beaux-Arts, 1897
(reprinted in his Etudes bysantines, Paris, 1905, 882 ff.), Monuments Piot, 1897, and Manuel, 476 ;
Schultz and Barnsley, The Monastery of St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis, 66 ff. and PI. 36-55 : Plate 34
give? a plan of the mosaics marking the position of each subject ; numerous coloured plates
illustrate the general effect. M. Diehl's article in the Monuments Plot is illustrated by photo-
gravures. G.Schlumberger, vApojiie, i, Figs, on pp. 120, 161, 341, 729 ; ii. 197, 329, 545.
« Diehl, Etudes, 390.
394 PAINTING

opposite apse the Incredulity of Thomas {rZy dvpZv Ke/cXetcr/icVo)!/, John xx. 26).
In the centre of the east wall is a half-figure of Our Lord with a book, flanked
by the Crucifixion and the Aimstasis : the remaining surfaces are covered by
figures of saints.
The monastic influence, with its tendency to produce stiff and severe figures,

Fig. 230. St. Sergius : mosaic of the eleventh century in the Monastery of Daphni,
Attica. {Haufes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 397.

is most marked in the work of the artists who executed the ascetic saints and
bishops. The archangels and warrior saints are less remote from the classical
tradition, and still have something of the spirit of earlier centuries. On the
other hand, the figure of the Virgin, for all its dignity, has not the grace of the
older conceptions of the Mother of God ; and the Pantokrator. if august, is
hard and stern. In the Gospel scenes and in more than one saintly figure there
is evidence of an attempt at individual treatment : the artists are not yet on-
slaved by foi-mulae. The whole church, like that of Daphni, is a fine example of
the systematic decoration according to an accepted scheme.
The mosaics of Sta Sophia at Kieff,^ a church founded by Yaroslav in
1 D. Ainaloff and E. Kiedin, Ancient Monuments of Art in Kieff: The Cathedral of Sta Sophia,
Charkoff, 1899 (illustrated) ; the same authors' earlier -work, The Cathedral of Sta Sophia at
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 395

A. D. 1037, are in great part of that date, but the damage caused at various times
by fire and pillage has necessitated considerable restoration. Some of them
were for a long time covered over when the building was in the hands of the
Uniats. The mosaics in the dome, which were still to be seen in the first half
of the seventeenth century, were thus concealed, and part of them were only
rediscovered in 1885.' In the centre is Christ as Pantokrator,^ within
a medallion, the figure almost perfect ; below this is a figure of an archangel,^
perfect down to the knees, holding a labarum and an orb. On the east side of
the dome is St. Paul, similarly imperfect. High up on the inner surface of the
triumphal arch, to the left of the spectator, is Aaron in high-priesfs vestments,
and carrying a censer. In the seventeenth century the whole series of mosaics
about the dome was visible — Christ surrounded by angels and the Twelve
Apostles, with the four Evangelists in the pendentives.
On the two piers of the triumphal arch are the angel and the Virgin of the
Annunciation,'' the latter erect and holding the purple thread and the spindle.
Within the bema, forming the lower zone of ornament, are standing figures of
saints in an admirable style, '^ the faces having the character of portraits : only
the upper parts of the figures are original. Above the saints is the Communion
of the Apostles : " in the centre is an altar standing before a ciborium, and on
each side of it an angel serving as subdeacon to Our Lord, who is twice
represented. On the right he stands at the end of the altar, offering the cup
to a group of six Apostles ; on the left he occupies a similar position, offering the
bread. Above, in the upper part of the apse, is a standing figure of the Virgin
as orans, draped in purple, and wearing the red shoes which mark royal rank.
The Virgin in the apse of a church, especially when in the attitude of
prayer, was regarded as the personification of the Church on earth, for which
she intercedes, as Christ Pantokrator in the dome represents the Church in
heaven.
In the four arches beneath the dome were originally medallions containing
busts of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, but only fifteen of these now remain,
coloured with fine rich tones.' At the top of the triumphal arch are three
medallions containing the three persons of the Deesis' (p. 664). Above the
eastern and western arches of the dome are the remains of figures of Christ as
Emmanuel with a scroll and of the Virgin. Of the four Evangelists once in
the pendentives only St. Mark remains ; he is seated on a folding chair before
a desk, writing his Gospel.
The tones of the mosaics in different positions in this church are of a different
character ; those of the dome and the bema, with the exception of the figures
of the saints, are lighter than the rest. The drapery is broken into numerous
folds and there is apparent an effort after effect which perhaps points to the
influence of the metropolis, where changes of style were initiated at this period.
On the other hand, the figures of saints and busts of martyrs illustrate a more
traditional character. These differences may point to a division of labour in
the decoration of the building. It is known that artists from Constantinople
were employed at Kieff ; but as there was a great deal of mosaic work being
Kieff, St. Petersburg, ]899, itself without illustration, serves as the text to the fine plates by
Th. Solntseff, publislied by the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society of St. Petersburg
between the years 1871 and 1887 under the title AntiquiUes of the Russian Empire : The Cathedral
of Sta Sophia at Kieff; Kondakoff and Tolstoy, Russian Antiquities, iv. See also N. Pokrovsky,
Mural Decorations of Ancient Greek and Russian Churches, 41 ff. ; N. Kondakoff, Macedonia, 151 ;
Bayet, VArt bysantin, 275 ; Schnaase, Geschichte der iildenden Kiinste, iii, 1869, 365 ; G. Schlum-
bergcr, VtSpopie, i, Figs, on pp. 57, 73, 378, 537 ; ii. 212 ; and Nic. Phocas, 353.
' Ainaloff and Kiedin, Ancient Monuments, &c., 10.
' Ibid., Fig. 15, p. 23. ^ Ibid., Fig. 14, p. 22.
* Ibid., Figs. 4 and 5, p. 12.
5 SS. Epiphanius, Clement, Gregory, Theologus, Nicholas, Stephen, Laurence, Basil the
Great, John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory the Wonder-worker (Ainaloff and
Eiedin, Figs. 6 and 7). « Ibid., Figs. 8-11.
' Ibid., Fig. 16, p. 24. Bust of St. Severianus. * Ibid., Fig. 17, p. 24.
396 PAINTING

executed at this time in various parts of the empire it is unlikely that they were
sufficiently numerous to undertake the whole of it. In all probability they
employed such local talent as was available to carry out the work in the less
important positions. The work as a whole stands between that of St. Luke and
Daphni : it is more advanced in its treatment than the former, ' plus varie, plus
souple, plus pittoresque." The cubes of mosaic employed at Kieff, as in other
places, were composed of glass and of opaque stone. The latter were chiefly used
for the uncovered parts of the body — face, hands, &c. — and were of smaller size
than the vitreous cubes which formed the background and the garments of the
figures.
The mosaics of the Monastery Church of St. Michael at Kieff, among which
the Communion of the Apostles is the most important, are more definitely
Eussian in character, though closely following Byzantine models.*
The church of the Monastery of Nea Moni in the island of Chios ' suffered
severely in 1881 from earthquake, when the dome was destroyed with all its
mosaics. These represented Christ Pantokrator surrounded by nine angels and
(on a lower level) the Twelve Apostles. When its whole decoration was complete,
the interior deserved comparison with Daphni and St. Luke in Phocis, so
extensive was the cycle which it contained. The date is considered to be a little
earlier than those of Daphni,* perhaps the period of Constantino Monomaehos
(a.d. 1042-54). When examined by Dr. O. Wulff in 1897, the surviving
mosaics were found to have suffered considerable deterioration.
In the main apse is the standing figure of the Virgin as orans ; in the lateral
apses busts of St. Michael and Gabriel. In the church are seven out of eight
scenes from the life of Christ : the Annunciation, Presentation in the Temple,
the Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Deposition, and Anastasis : only the
Nativity is lost, the other scenes being under the circumstances fairly well
preserved. The inner narthex has mosaics in bad condition. The subjects
include scenes from the life of Christ (the Raising of Lazarus, the Washing of
Peter's Feet, the Entry into Jerusalem, Pentecost, Ascension, and another scene),
the Virgin, military saints, SS. Joachim and Anna, Stephen Martyr and Pante-
leemon, two pairs of Stylites, Daniel and Isaiah, and fourteen busts of other
saints in medallions. The exonarthex was adorned with frescoes which, how-
ever, have been largely covered over with whitewash. The colours in these
mosaics are very rich, but subdued in tone ; there is an absence of the greens
which are characteristic of the later work at Bethlehem and Kahrie Djami. The
drapery is disposed in longitudinal unbroken folds. The figures are seen
against gold, standing upon a greyish-green ground often diversified with
flowers. Accessories are limited in number. We mark a further stage in the
advance towards the elegant and the picturesque treatment seen at its best in
the work next to be described.
The church of the Monastery of Daphni, not far from Athens, was erected
in the second half of the eleventh century, and the mosaics with which the
interior was covered are held to be almost contemporary with the building.'
They are the finest mosaics of their period, characterized by such an elegance of
design, richness of colour, and skill of composition that they command universal
admiration. They mark the culminating point attained in the Third Period,
when the artist had learned to express his idea with an astonishing refinement
and grace of style.
1 Diehl, Manuel, 482. ' Ainaloff and Riedin, 1899, 55-7.
s .1. Sti-iiygowski, B. Z., v. 1896, 145 ; F. F., vi, 1899, 300 ff. ; V. G. Barsky, Trans. Imp.
Russian Palestine Society, 1886, ii. 200 ff. ; 0. Wulff, Iziiestiya of Russ. Areli. Inst. Cple., iii, 1898,
206 ff. (no illustration) ; Diehl, Manuel, 485.
•> F. v., as above, 300.
" G. Millet, Le Monasiire de Baphni, Paris, 1899, 183. M. Millet's photograplis form part of
the Collection des Hautes Etudes at the Sorbonne. Figures illustrating the mosaics are also
given by M. Sehlumberger, L'Epopee, i, pp. 265, 569, 680, 741 ; ii. 884, 396, 512, 629. See also
'Elf. 'Apx-, 1894, lllff. and lJ9ff. ; G. Lampakis, XpiariainHi) apxawKoyta t^s Moi'^s Aatl>viov,
Athens, 1889, and 'H Movfi Aacjifiov, &c., Athens, 1899 ; and Diehl, Manuel, 491, &c.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST 397

The interior of the church, with its great number of isolated figures and
biblical scenes arranged according to a regular scheme, is at once splendid and
impressive. In the dome is a colossal bust of the Pantokrator, round whom, at
a lower level and occupying the spaces between the windows of the drum, stand
sixteen prophets (Fig. 231). In the vault of the bema is the Etimasia, aild in the
two niches at the sides the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. In the apse is the
Virgin seated. The prothesis originally had John the Baptist with Aaron and
Zachariah ; but the two latter figures have been removed to niches in the body
of the church. The two lateral figures in the diaconicon, St. Gregory Thauma-

FiG. 231. Christ Pantokrator : mosaic in the dome of the Monastery Church of Daphni
in Attica. (Sautes Mudes : G. Millet.)

turge and St. Gregory of Agrigentum, have in like manner been removed,
leaving only St. Nicholas. Under the arches of these two lateral chapels are
figures of saints. In the transepts to north and south of the central dome are
two groups of martyrs commemorated in the Menologia : in the north SS. Pro-
bus, Tarachus, and Andronicus (Oct. 12), in the south SS. Samonas, Gourias,
and [Abibosj (Nov. 15), the last figure destroyed. Above the two side doors
leading into the narthex are the busts of St. Sergius (Fig. 230) and St. Bacchus ;
while the rest of the western portion of the church is decorated with busts
and standing figures of other saints. A number of figures once decorating the
roof of the narthex and the great arches beneath the dome have been entirely
destroyed. The Gospel scenes are in the transepts, the pendentives of the
dome, and in the narthex. In the church itself are : Birth of the Virgin (Fig 199),
Salutation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi (Fig. 232), Presentation in the Temple
(lost). Baptism, Transfiguration, Raising of Lazarus (fragmentary). Entry into
Jerusalem, Crucifixion (Fig. 418), Descent into Hell (Anastasis), Incredulity of
Thomas, Death of the Virgin ; in the narthex : the Betrayal, Christ Washing
the Disciples' Feet, the Last Supper, the Prayer of Joachim and Anna, the
Blessing of the Virgin by the Priests, and the Presentation of the Virgin in
398 PAINTING

the Temple (the head of Joachim in this scene restored). These narthex
mosaics are in two groups, the first four in the northern; the remainder in
the southern half.
The Metropolitan Church of Serres in Macedonia has in the apse a zone
of mosaic representing the Communion of the Apostles,' as in two cases at

Pig. 232. The Adoration of the Magi : mosaic of the eleventh century iu the Monastery
of Daphni, Attica. {Hautes Mudes: Cr. liiUet.) P. 397.

Kieflf (Fig. 233).' The mosaic suffered greatly as a result of a fire in 1849 and
has been badly restored in paint. Christ, represented twice, stands under a
ciborium, and delivers the wine and the bread to two groups of Apostles
approaching from right and left. The work, where it remains intact, is of
considerable merit, and may well be, as Diehl supposes, of the end of the
eleventh century, though Kondakoff is inclined to ascribe it rather to the
1 L. Chesnay, Monuments Plot, 1902, I26ff., Figs, i and 6, and PI. XII; N. Papageorgiou
hiXtppm ; N. Kondakoff, Macedonia, 151-3, Figs. 91 and 92 ; Diehl, Manuel, 490. '
' Ainaloff and Riedin, 289 ff. The earliest
eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is common examples of this subject date from the
in frescoes of the Greek Church in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. References to frescoes on Mount Athos, at Mistra &c. are
given by Chesnay, as above, 129. ' ''
 399
MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST

second half of the thirteenth, suggesting that cartoons of the best period may
have been used by later artists.
The mosaics of S. Marco at Venice ' are only in part Byzantine : the famous
church is a museum for the mosaic of all periods between the eleventh century
and modern times, many of those of the sixteenth century and later reproducing
the style of celebrated painters. The result is distracting to the eye, and the
original harmonious impression is lost.
It was the Doge Domenico Selvo who commenced the decoration of the
interior with mosaics in 1071 ; the chronicle of Bemba relates that thev were

Fig. 233. Part of the Communion of the Apostles: mosaic of the eleventh century, apse
of the Metropolitan Church of Serres. {Sautes Etudes : Perdrizet-Chesnay.) P. 898.

completed in 1094 ; but Saccardo doubts whether the work referred to extended
beyond the pavement and the apse. Whenever the general decoration of the
roof and walls was commenced, doubtless in the early eleventh century, it
is probable that Byzantine artists were employed. For on the one hand
the message asking for, mosaic artists sent to Constantinople by Desiderius,
abbot of Monte Cassino, implies that native workmen could not be obtained,
and on the other the close commercial relations of Venice and Constantinople
and the presence of Greek painters in the former city in the twelfth century
make it more than probable that the republic began the ornamentation of
its great church under Greek tuition, if not by the aid of Greek hands.
A document of 1153 mentions the name of Marco Greco Indriomeni, artist
in mosaic,^ and the presence of this Greek master at so advanced a period
^ P. Saccardo, Les Mosaiques de Saint-Man a Venise (Venice, 1897), and in Ongania, La
Basilica di San Marco, iii, pp. 301 ff. ; J. J. Tikkanen, Die Genesismosaiken von San Marco in
Venedig, &c., in Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fenniiae (Helsingfors), vol. xvii, pp. 207 ff. ; C. Neu-
mann, Die Marcuskirche in Venedig, Prussian Jahriuch, 1892 ; A. Venturi, Storia delV arte
ilaliana, ii, 1902, 418 ff. ; C. Errard and A. Gayet, L'Art byzarUin, Part I, Venise, PI. XIV-XXIV ;
Diehl, Manuel, 502 ff.; Gr. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiques chretiennes, ii. 164 ff. ; N. Pokrovsky,
Mural Decoration of Early Greek and Russian Churches, 29 ff. (in Russian) ; S. Beissel, Zeitschrift
far christliche Kunst, vi, 1893, 281, 267, 363.
2 Saccardo, p. 23.
400 PAINTING

in the century seems to show that indigenous workmen were not yet competent
to stand alone. It would seem probable that Venice, always more directly
subjected to oriental influences, was less swift to develop an indigenous school
of mosaicists than other parts of Italy ; and this state of tutelage may have
prevented the rise of a Jacopo Torriti, an Andrea Tafi, or a Gaddo Gaddi
within her territory. The Italian spirit did not completely triumph until the
middle of the fifteenth century.' There was then a great revival, and from
that time until our own day an almost continuous series of masters worked
upon the decorations of the church, infusing into their mosaics the spirit and
style of the centuries in which they lived. In the sixteenth century the old
independence of mosaic came to an end, and with the work of the Zuccati, Eizzio,
Bianchini, Mavini, Salviati, and others it entered into complete subjection to the
art of painting in oil.
M. Diehl, the latest authority to resume what is known of the mosaics
in S. Marco,^ accepts as early the following subjects in the interior: Christ
between the Virgin and St. Mark in the tympanum over the entrance door,'
the Pentecost of the western cupola, the Ascension of the central dome, the
Christ Emmanuel with prophets of the eastern cupola, the Feasts of the
Church, the Miracles of Our Lord, and the Life of St. Mark in the vaulting
of the great berceaux supporting these three cupolas and along the upper part
of the walls ; all these he assigns to the close of the eleventh century,
remarking their affinity in variety of composition and colour to the mosaics
of the Monastery of Daphni. In certain features they diverge from contempo-
rary Eastern work : Western saints are introduced, unusual personifications
occur ; Latin inscriptions explain the subjects ; but the general character is
the same. The work of Italian pupils of Greek masters begins in the thirteenth
century : it is found on the fa9ade, where the Translation of the body of
St. Mark over the left door is alone original,* and in the narthex (see below).
Saccardo assigns the decoration of the Chapel of St. Zeno to this date. To the
fourteenth century belong the partly restored mosaics of the baptistery, which
are still Byzantine in conception, and those of the Chapel of St. Isidore,
which are influenced by the art of the Giottesques. The two angels above
the treasury door are early, but not likely to date from before the fire which
damaged this part of the building in a. d. 1231.
In some respects the most interesting of all the earlier mosaics are those
of the narthex or vestibule. This is due to the fact, first noted by Tikkanen,'*
that their subjects, derived from Genesis and Exodus, were clearly copied from
an early illuminated Bible of the same group as the Cotton Bible (p. 446).
Tikkanen believed that the series of pictures covering the domes and vaults
of the western or entrance -section of the vestibule are of the early part of
the thirteenth century and perhaps by Byzantine masters, while those of the
northern section date from its second half, and are the work of Italian pupils.
Decorative as they are, the mosaics as a whole fall far behind the illumina-
tions, in comparison with which they are stiff and formal. As far as may
be judged from the miniatures which have survived, the imitation is faithful,
the only great difference lying in the free introduction of architectural
backgrounds where none originally existed, and the changing of blue grounds
into gold.
It seems quite possible that the whole series is the work of Italian pupils
1 Saceurdo, 32. 2 Manuel, 503.
s But see Saccardo, 23 ; and Tikkanen, 297.
* The bronze horses (p. 125), which came from Constantinople in a.d. 1204 but were
not erected for some time, appear in this subject (Saccardo, 26 ; Tikkanen, 298-9).
° As above, especially 303 S. It is not asserted that the mosaics need have copied
the actual book known as the Cotton Bible, but a Bible of its type, which had probably
become the standard for Bible illustration of the period (p. 320). The Genesis mosaics are
reproduced in Naya's photographs (Nos. 3552, &c.), which are to be seen in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, Nos. 1351-1906 et seq.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST
401
of the Byzantine masters in mosaic. But whatever were the hands that
produced them, they draw their inspiration immediately from oriental sources,
and are the creation of the Byzantine mind.
When compared with other mediaeval Genesis cycles, the series in S. Marco
seem to stand somewhat alone.' The group of Carolingian miniatures on
the one hand, and on the other an early Italian group, including the mosaics
at Palermo and Monreale, the carved ivory paliotto of Salerno, the mosaics
of the baptistery at Florence, the Cimabuesque frescoes at Assisi, and the
embossed reliefs upon a silver cross in the Vatican, all derive from ancient

Pio. 234. Joseph and his Brethren : mosaic of the thirteenth century in the narthex of
S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari.)

traditional models, but these belong to a different class from that in which
the Cotton Bible was included.
The principal subjects of the vestibule mosaics, which fill the cupolas,
vaults, and tympana, range from the Creation, through all the principal
Genesis stories, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Joseph,
down to Moses and the events in the wilderness, which occupy the northern
or later section.
The fine old Basilica of Torcello, on an island reached from Venice in
a few hours, is known to many who have never visited it from Euskin's
description in the Stones of Venice. The island began to be inhabited in
the seventh century, when Paul, Bishop of Altino, transferred his see there
and built his cathedral in a. d. 641. The building was altered after the lapse
of about fifty years, and again partly reconstructed and restored in a. d. 1008
by Bishop Orso Orseolo, son of the doge of Venice.
The mosaics " in the cathedral occupy the apses at the east end, and the
1 Tikkanen, pp. 346 ff.
' Alinari's and Naya's photos; P. Molmenti, Le Isole delta laguna veneta, Bergamo, 1904
(Series Italia ArlisHca, ed. by Corrado Kicci), 117 if. ; P. Saccardo, Les Mosaiques de Saint-Marc de
1201 D d
 403 PAINTING

interior of the great western wall. The Virgin standing with the Child in
her arms above the Twelve Apostles occupies the central apse (Fig. 235) and
is the oldest mosaic in the building.' The date is probably the earlier part
of the eleventh centuiy, and the work is contemporary with that of St. Luke

Fig. 235. The Virgin and Child, with tiie Apostles : mosaic of the eleventh century in the
apse of the Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari.)

in Phocis (p. 393), with which it shows affinities of style and treatment. The
subject in the right lateral apse, that of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament,
is Christ seated on a throne holding a book of the Gospels and flanked by
Michael and Gabriel (Fig. 286) : below stand SS. Nicholas, Ambrose, Augustine,
and Martin.'' Above, and beyond the apse, four angels support on four sides

Vmise, Venice, 1897, pp. 19-22 ; A. Renan in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Second Period, xxxviii,
1888, 407 f.. Pig. on p. 409 ; G. Clausse, Basiliques el mosaiques, &c., ii. 142 ; L. Testi, Storia deUa
pitlura veneziana, 1909, 75-7 .
1 Saecardo, p. 21, compared the work to that of Parenzo, and apparently held it to belong
to the First Period. Bayet {L'Artbyz., 304) and Molmenti speak rather of the twelfth century.
The opinion expressed above is that of Diehl (Manuel). The small half-figure below the window
in the middle of the apse represents Bishop Heliodorus.
above,^ Naya's
304) seesphoto,
in this3752,
apse V.traces
and ofA.Italian
Museum, No. 1419, 1906; Molmenti, 127. Bayet (as
collaboration.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST
403
a central medallion containing the Lamb.' Two of the angels kneel, the others
stand erect upon globes. This work is later than that of the central apse,
and may date from the end of the eleventh century or rather later.

Fio. 236. Our Lord between archangels, and saints : mosaic of the twelftli century in the
lateral apse of the Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari.)

To the same period and the same artists may be ascribed the decoration of
the west wall,* though it has sometimes been assigned to the close of the
' Molmenti, 128 ; Testi, 75.
■' Naya's photo, 3764, is in the V. and A. Museum (No. 1422, 1906). Molmenti, Le Jsole,
&c., 125 (photo) ; N. Pokrovsky, Proceedings of the Sixth Archaeological Congress at Odessa, 1884, iii,
published at Odessa, 1887, 285 ff. and PI. LXXIV ; Testi, 76 (large photo by Naya).
D d 2
404 PAINTING

twelfth century.' At the top is the Crucifixion between the Virgin and
St. John ; below are five successive zones diminishing in breadth from top
to bottom : the two lowest are broken by the west door, in the round tympanum
of which is a half-figure of the Virgin.
The zone below the Crucifixion bears a representation of the Anastasis,
and is fl.anked by two large figures (restored) of Michael and Gabriel holding
orbs and staves and trampling on serpents. The next zone ^begins the subject
of the Last Judgement. In the centre Christ is seen in a riiandorla between
the Virgin and St. John the Baptist (the three forming the Beesis), behind
whom are two angels. On either side are seated Apostles, behind whom are
visible a crowd of nimbed heads, many restored. From the mandorla issues
a stream of fire descending to the right and traversing the lower zones. Two
small wheels appear to support the mandorla ; on either side of ' these are
cherubim with eyes in their wings ; on the top of each of the four wings
appears an Evangelist's symbol.
The following zone contains the throne, on the cushions of which lies a
closed book : before it is a carpet, behind it are the instruments of the Passion
guarded by two angels. Two kneeling figures, male and female, adore the
book, which represents the apocalyptic Book of Life. To right and left angels
are blowing curved horns, while beasts vomit out bodies and fragments of
bodies : those on the left are land animals — lion, tiger, elephant ; those on the
right sea monsters. On one of the latter rides a kind of nereid holding
a large fish, from the mouth of which a human figure issues. An angel
standing near those who blow the horns carries a scroll covered with stars
and scatters stars abroad with his right hand.
In the middle of the succeeding zone appears an angel holding a balance,
the scales of which flying devils attempt to depress with spears. On the
left advance the elect in four groups. On the right two angels with pikes
thrust down the damned into the fiery river. In the corner Lucifer, seated
on a two-headed dragon, holds the small figure of Antichrist upon his
knees.
The next zone, which is interrupted by the door, has on the right side
six compartments. In one the luxurious are seen up to the waist in flame }
in another the violent walk naked in darkness ; then follow the lazy in a bog ;
those who sinned with their eyes are represented by skulls into the hollow
orbits of which serpents enter ; those who sinned with their ears have heads
with incandescent earrings on a fiery ground ; those who sinned by touch
are depicted as masses of skulls and bones.
On the left of the door is Eden. A marble gate leads into a garden, and
to the right of it are an angel and St. Peter : to the left stands a figure holding
a two-armed cross. To the left again is the Virgin with raised hands, and
beyond her is St. Nicholas carrying a child in his right arm and surrounded by
other children.
This elaborate representation of the Doom merits a detailed description,
and should be compared with occidental versions of the same subject
(cf. p. 667).
The Virgin in the apse of the Church of S. Donato at Murano is considered
to be Byzantine.'' She stands without the Child, wearing a severe expres-
sion ;the figure is probably later than that in the apse at Torcello, perhaps
by nearly a century. In two chapels in the Church of St. Just at Trieste
there are apse mosaics of a similar period, one representing Our Lord with
martyrs.^

1 Venturi would place it as early as the ninth century {Storia delV arte italiana, ii. 429).
" Naya's photo, 3711, in the V. and A. Museum, S. Kensington (No. 1408, 1906); Bayet-
L' Art hyzaniin, 304.
' G. Clausse, as above, ii. 162-4.
 405
MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST

The mosaics of Sicily ' and Southern Italy belonging to the period of the
Norman princes are partly the work of Greek artists, partly of their Western

Pig. 237. Mosaics of a. d. 1143 in the Martorana, Palermo.

{Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 410.

pupils. The conditions affecting the art were similar to those obtaining in
Venice and Torcello ; but as restorations and substitutions have here been less

' Photos, Sautes Etudes, Alinari and G. Brogi ; D. Marzo, Belle belle arii in Sicilia dai Nor-
manni sino alia fine del secolo XIV ; A. Springer, Die mitiekUterliche Kunst in Palermo in Bilderaus
der neueren Kunstgeschichte, 1886 ; G. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiques chretiennes, 1893 ; Bayet, L'Art
byzaniin, 298 ; Ch. Biehl, L'Art dans Vltalie meridionale, ch. vil, and Manuel, 513.
40)6 PAINTING

extensive, the eifect of the Sicilian churches is more harmonious than that of
.S. Marco. The mosaics in the Chapel of the Eoyal Palace (Cappella Palatina)
and the Church of Santa Maria dell' Ammiraglio (the Martorana) at Palermo, and
the Cathedral of Cefalu on the coast to the east, date from the second quarter of
the twelfth century; those of Monreale Cathedral, a building begun in a.d. 1174,
were completed in a.d. 1182 and represent a later style. The mosaics on the
mainland have been less perfectly preserved.
The mosaics of the Cathedral of Messina, consecrated under Eoger II
about A.D. 1130, had already suffered from fire and earthquake before the final
disaster of 1908, so that little of the original work remained.' This was to be
found in the three apses, though even here the old design was early modified.
The end
the restorations
of the thirteenth rendered century,
necessary
and bywere
the carried
earthquake
out by ofFrederic
a. d. 1'232
II ofbegan
Aragonat
and his successors. In the principal apse Christ was enthroned between
Michael, Kaphael, the Virgin, and St. John. At his feet knelt three small
interpolated figures representing Frederic, Peter, and the Archbishop Guidotto.
In the left apse was the Virgin seated with the Child between two angels, the
dove descending above her head. Beyond the angels, on the right and left,
were the kneeling figures of Eleonore queen of Frederic and Elizabeth queen of
Peter, represented on the same scale as the angels. In the right apse the
central figure was St. John (10 AN OC), seated with the book of his Gospel between
St. Nicholas and Bishop Mino. To right and left were intercalated two small
kneeling figures of the young King Louis, successor of Peter II, and his tutor
John of Eandazzo, Duke of Athens. The early restoration of these lateral apses
was more fundamental than that of the central apse, and they were practically
reconstructions. The church of the former Monastery of San Gregorio at
Messina had in the apse a Norman-Byzantine mosaic^ representing the Virgin
seated with the Child, with St. Gregory kneeling with a scroll.
At the entrance to the Cathedral of Capua is a mosaic with the Virgin and
Child and St. John the Evangelist with their names in Greek characters.' The
work has, however, been mended at various times and has been allowed to fall
into disrepair.
The Cathedral of Salerno * has in the lunette over the entrance door a figure
of St. Matthew holding a book with the first words of his Gospel in Latin.
It is of fine workmanship, and has been assigned to the eleventh century.
One of the apses has the remains of what was probably a Baptism. In the
corresponding apse is a mosaic originally dedicated by John of Procida, friend
of King Manfred and originator of the Sicilian Vespers. It still preserves the
original arrangement, but a restoration was carried out in 1867. At the top
stands an archangel in imperial costume holding orb and labarum ; below him
St. Matthew is seen seated between the standing figures of SS. Fortunatus,
John, James, and Laurence, while the diminutive figure of John of Procida
kneels in the foreground. The names are given in Latin, and below is a Latin
inscription. It probably dates from the close of the eleventh century, and is
Byzantine in conception. The other mosaics in the cathedral have been de-
stroyed, except those of an ornamental character.^
The Cappella Palatina, or Chapel of the Eoyal Palace at Palermo,' was built
1 Clausse, BasiUques, &c., ii. 115 ff.. Figs, on pp. 121, 123, 125 ; Venturi, Storia, ii. 412.
2 Clausse, ii.' 128-9, Pig. on p. 129.
' Venturi, Storia, ii. 416.'
* Clausse, Basiliques, 16-20 ; Venturi, Storia, 414-16.
" Venturi, Figs. 295-6, pp. 429 and 431.
'' Domenico Lo Faso Pietrasanta, duca di Serradifalco, II Buomo di Monreale, &c., 24-8,
Pi. XVI-XVII ; Biiscemi, Notizie delta basilica di San Pietro, dttta la Cappella Eegia, Palermo,
1840; leizi, La Cappella di San Pietro nella Beggia di Palermo, &c., Palermo, 1873-85; Veuturi,
Storia, ii. 395 ff.. Figs. 279-85; Clausse, Basiliques, &c., ii. 60fif. ; A. Pavlovsky, Bev. arch.,
S" s6t., XXV, 1894 (iconography of the mosaics) ; Mosaics of the Capp. Pal., St. Petersburg, 1890;
Kondakoff, Hist, de I'art bysantin, ii, p. 20 ; Diehl, Manuel, 519. Restorations at various times
have chiefly affected the western wall and the central and left apses.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 407

by Roger II and consecrated in a. d. 1140, though the decoration of thejinterior

was not completed until about 1160, in the reign ofWilliam I, when the nave
and aisles received their decoration. The effect produced by this church is one
of extraordinary magnificence, covered as it is in almost every part above the
marble revetment of the lower walls by brilliant mosaics on a gold ground. The
Saracenic ceiling of the nave, with its painted scenes of festivity, animals, and

Fig. 238. Mosaics of the twelfth century, Martorana, Palermo.

{Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 410.

monsters, and the oriental character of many details hardly detract from the
harmony of a whole, the dominant note of which is splendour. No less than
a hundred and thirty-four mosaic pictures, a hundred ^nd ten single figures, and
thirty-eight medallions containing busts follow each other in unbroken succes-
sion over apses, arches, walls, and embrasures. The subjects in the choir and
nave are Byzantine, and accompanied by Greek inscriptions. In the upper part
of the apse is a great half-figure of Christ, holding the book of the Gospel and
raising his right hand in benediction. Below is the seated figure of the Virgin
between SS. Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, James, and Peter, but none of
these figures are in their original condition. At the top of the triumphal arch are
the throne with the instruments of the Passion (Etimasia) ; below are the Arch-
angels Michael and Gabriel, and SS. Gregory and Sylvester, the last two figures
being of post-Norman date. The two secondary apses contain busts of
408 PAINTING

Christ and the Virgin, representations of the Nativity and Adoration, and
busts of St. Peter and St. Paul. In the dome is Christ Pantokrator'
in a medallion surrounded by a Greek inscription, 'The Almighty said:
"The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool".' Below him are

Fig. 239. The Admiral George of Antioch at the feet of the Virgin : mosaic of the twelfth
century in the Martorana at Palermo. (Brogi.) P. 410.

the four archangels, each holding a labarum, and four angels in imperial garb.
In the drum stand David, Solomon, Zachariah, and St. John the Baptist ;
in the niches at the corners are the four Evangelists writing at their desks.
In the spandrels between the larger figures are eight busts of prophets of the
Old Testament. Eound the base of the dome runs a dedicatory inscription of

1 Venturi, Fig. 279, p. 397 ; Kondakoff, p. 19.

 409
MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST

the church by Eoger to St. Peter, giving the date as the year 6651, which
corresponds to a. d. 1143.
The mosaics in the choir and transepts represent the Gospel scenes relating
to the twelve Feasts of the Church year, among which the Entry into Jerusalem,'
above the sacristy door, deserves especial mention. Figures of the minor
prophets complete the scheme of decoration. The mosaics of the nave .and aisles

Pia. 240. Christ Pantokrator : mosaic of the twelfth century in the dome of the
Martorana, Palermo. (Brogi.) P. 410.

represent scenes from the Old Testament, those of the aisles scenes from the
Acts of the Apostles : in the soffits of the arches are medallions with busts ot
saints. These mosaics, as already observed, are by later hands than those of the
choir, and may be described as Siculo-Byzantine.
The Cathedral of Palermo has lost, through restorations, all its old mosaics
but one over one of the doors representing the Virgin enthroned with the Child
upon her knees, which appears to belong to the Norman period.'
Santa Maria dell' Ammiraglio =■ was erected iuA.D. 1143 m honour oi the
1 Venturi, Pig. 283 ; Clausse, Fig. on p. 69. ' S'i""'^' T f'^^Z' ^^' p „
3 G. Clausse, vol. ii, pp- 39 ff. ; A. Venturi, Storia, vol. ii, pp. 404 ff. ; Tohukareff, in Pio-
new series, iv, pp. 50-67 (Bussian).
ceedings of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society,
410 PAINTING

Virgin by George of Antioch, admiral of Eoger II; ite other name of La

Martorana is derived from Aloisia Martorana, foundress of the adjoining convent,
to which the church was annexed in a. d. 1433. . Though the central apse was
destroyed in the sixteenth century in the construction of a more commodious
choir, there still remains a great part of the mosaic decoration.
In the dome is the Pantokrator' surrounded by a Greek inscription
(Fig. 240); beneath are angels, and, round the drum, Evangelists and prophets;
on panels flanking the steps to the high altar are the Archangels Michael and
Gabriel in royal raiment and each holding a labarum. Elsewhere are medallions
with busts of saints, while the vaults, in addition to large figures of saints
with their names in Greek characters, are enriched with scenes from the life of
the Virgin of great merit, especially that representing her death.^
Near the west end of the church are now placed two mosaic pictures, which,
in spite of repeated restorations, still retain great historic interest. One repre-
sents the founder, George of Antioch, prostrate at the feet of the Virgin
(Fig. 239) in a similar attitude to that of the emperor in the mosaic over the
door of Sta Sophia at Constantinople;* in the other, which is of slightly later
date, Christ is seen crowning King Eoger II.* In the former picture the Virgin
holds a scroll with a Greek inscription containing a supplication on behalf of the
admiral to Christ, whose figure appears in the right-hand upper corner emerging
from the heavens.
The mosaics of this church, like those of Cefalti, next described, are purely
Byzantine in style and follow the iconographic rules of the Third Period.
At Cefalli, on the north coast between Palermo and the eastern extremity of
Sicily, King Eoger II in the first half of the twelfth century built a cathedral
similar in plan to that at Monreale, with three aisles and a transept, with three
apses corresponding to the aisles at the east end. The church was sumptuously
adorned within and without with mosaics,'' of which many are now lost. For
example, the facade once bore pictures of Eoger II, William I, William II,
the Empress Constance, and the Emperor Frederick II, all of which are now
destroyed."
In the finely proportioned interior the mosaics are confined to the choir, and
the effect is therefore more simple and severe than in the Cappella Palatina or
at Monreale. At the top of the apse is a great bust of Christ ; in the hemicycle
below are the Virgin between four archangels; in the second and third tiers
are ten Apostles and the Evangelists Mark and Luke. The decoration of the
choir wall is similarly disposed in four zones, filled by standing figui-es of saints.
The group containing the Greek Saints Basil and Chrysostom is of especial
excellence both for drawing and colour,' and must be ascribed to Byzantine
masters. The mosaics of the vaulted roof representing four archangels and four
cherubim, though also of admirable workmanship, are by some considered to
be of the thirteenth century ' (Fig. 241). The inscriptions accompanying the
mosaics in this church are both Greek and Latin. Six Latin verses in honour
of King Eoger, running round the apse, give the date 1148.
The Cathedral of Monreale is magnificently decorated with a series of mosaics
forming an organic whole and upon a most imposing scale." But as the work
must have been done in great haste, the whole building being completed in

1 Venturi, Fig. 288, p. 415.

'- Ibid., Fig. 292, p. 423 ; Diehl, Manuel, 517.
^ Clausse, Fig. on p. 49.
* Venturi, Pig. 291, p. 421 ; Clausse, Fig. on p. 47 ; Diehl, Manud,519.
= G. Clausse, BasiUques, &c., ii. llOflf. ; A. Venturi, Storia, 402ff. ; Diehl, Manuel, 515.
« But described in a MS. at Palermo dated 1329 and reproduced by Pirri.
' Venturi, Pig. 287, 41.3.
» Ibid., Pig. 286, p. 411.
" Domenioo Gravina, II Duomo di Monreale, Palermo, 1859 (folio) ; Pietrasanta, duoa di
Seiradifalco, II Duomo di Monreale, &c., Palermo, 1838, 1-22 and Pi. I-XV ; G. Clausse, BasiHjues
e< moaaiques, ii. 81 ff. ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii. 410 if. ; Diehl, Manuel, 524 ff.
 411
MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST

eight years (a. d. 1174-82) by William H, perfection of detail was probably

sacrificed to grandiose effect, and much of the work is conventional and lifeless.
Though the majority of the inscriptions are in Latin, and most of the decoration
must be the work of Sicilians, the iconography is Byzantine, and probably

Fig. 241. Mosaics of the twelfth century : Cathedral of Cefalu, Sicily.

{Hautes Sfucles : G. Millet.) P. 410.

a part of the mosaics, notably that in the choir, was executed by Greek hands.
The number of subjects is too vast even for enumeration here, and only those
of especial interest can be mentioned.' In the upper part of the main apse
is a colossal bust of Christ holding the book, below him in two zones are the
Virgin enthroned with the Child attended by archangels and saints. In the
lateral apses are the Apostles Peter and Paul and scenes from their lives ;
in the aisles are Gospel scenes, in the nave, scenes from the Old Testament.
In the soffits of the arches are busts of saints in medallions, and in spaces
between the larger subjects, standing figures of saints and Apostles. In the
choir, on the lower part of the first two piers, are two historical subjects. On
the right, looking towards the altar, the king, William II, is seen offering
a model of the church to the Virgin, who is seated, while above are two

^ Almost everything is reproduced in the ninety plates of Gravina. Clausse (p. 90)
gives a list of the subjects in the nave, and mentions the principal subjects of the aisles.
412 PAINTING

angels and the hand of the Almighty: by the king's head is the inscription
REX GVLIELMVS SCOS. On the left, Christ enthroned full-face lays his
right hand upon the head of the king, who stands, a smaller figure, at his side
with the same inscription about his head. By the head of Christ are the words,
MANVS ENT MEA AVXILIABITVR El. The features of the king in both
these pictures seem to indicate an attempt at portraiture.
In such a blaze of splendour as that of Monreale particular defects pass out
of focus and at first appear of no importance. But upon a closer scrutiny the
inferiority of style to that of Cefalti and the Martorana becomes manifest:
the nearest parallel is to be found in the decoration of the aisles in the Cappella
Palatina.
Of the Palace of the Zisa, built by William I (a. d. 1154-66) at the extremity
of the old royal park, in a quarter beyond the walls, there remains a chamber
adorned with mosaics. Above a mural fountain are three connected medallions
upon a background of fioral scrolls, containing trees, in two cases flanked by
peacocks, in the third and central example by men shooting with bows at birds
seated on the branches. Above and below the medallions are ornamental
borders of Byzantine character.^ The work is in a good style and by artists
equal to those who decorated the royal chapel.
The Basilian Abbey of Grottaferrata near Eome, founded by St. Nilus the
younger at the beginning of the eleventh century, has two mosaic compositiojis,"
generally accepted as of Byzantine workmanship. One is over the triumphal
arch, and represents the Pentecost flanked by the Apostles enthroned in two
equal groups with rays of light descending upon their heads (Fig. 243).' The
colours in this composition are brilliant and the drapery well executed. These
qualities also mark, though in a less degree, the second picture over the prin-
cipal door. Here Christ is seen enthroned between the standing figures of the
Virgin and St. John the Evangelist (the Beesis)," while to the right of the
throne stands a diminutive figure of a Basilian abbot. This work is generally
attributed to the eleventh century, but Venturi considers it a copy of later date
derived from a Byzantine model. It was restored by the pontifical government
in 1858,
A brief mention may here be made of the mosaics in the dome of the
baptistery at Florence,* which have been recently restored. They are for the most
part the work of Andrea Tafi (b. a. d. 1213), who brought the Greek mosaicist
ApoUonios from Venice to help him in the work. Greek influence is clear, but
the frequent clumsiness of treatment must be ascribed rather to the inexperience
of Tafi and his Tuscan pupils. The mosaics in the apse are signed by a Franciscan
named James, the date being given as a.d. 1225. The uppermost zone contains
angels, archangels, principalities, and powers, and Our Lord between four
seraphim ; in the lower zones are the Last Judgement, with a colossal figure of
Christ ; scenes from Genesis from the Creation to the Deluge ; scenes from the
life of Our Lord, and of St. John the Baptist.
Various mosaics in the Holy Land, by Byzantine masters, belong to the
Third Period.
The mosaics of the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Eock, Eubbet es-Sdkrah) at
Jerusalem " are of two periods, but in both cases the mosaicists were Christians.

1 Venturi, 408, Fig. 293 on p. 425 ; Clausse, ii, p. 75.

' A. L. Frothingham, Les Mosaiques de Grottafeirata in Gasette archeoloqigye, 1883, PI. LVII,
LVIII ; A. Venturi, Storia delC arte italiana, ii. 416-18 ; G. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiques,
i. 423 ff.
^ Sclilumberser, L'Mpopee, ii. Fig. on p. 289.
' Ibid., i, Fig. on p. 581.
ii. 2195 A.
ff. Perate in Les Aiis, February, 1908, 8 ff. (with illustr.ntions) ; G. Clausse, Basiliques,
8 De Vogiie, Le Temple de Jerusalem, pp. 83 ff. and PI. XIX-XXIII ; Kondakoff, Archaeological
Journey to Syria and Palestine, 1904, PI. XLVI and XLVII (text in Eussian'l ; A. Baumstai'k,
B. Q., 1906, 143 ; Clermont-Ganneau, Archaeological Researches in Palestine, i. 190.
 413
MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST

Fib. 212. Mosaics in the Cathedral of Monreale near Palermo.

(Haufes Etudes : G. UUlet) P. 410.
414 PAINTING

Those of the body of the building, decorating the wall above the columns, are
probably contemporary with the mosque itself, and date from the end of the
seventh century. Those in the dome and on the sides of the drum belong to
the restoration of a. d. 1027, when the mischief done by the earthquake eleven
years earlier was repaired. In both cases the motives consist of conventional
floral and geometric designs on a gold ground, no human figures being intro-
duced. In the lower mosaics fantastic formal ' trees ' built up of foliations,' vase-
like figures, pairs of wings, &c., recall the designs of the later work in the Mosque
of El-Aksa and at Bethlehem. Some of these figures are enriched with gems
and even pieces of jewellery ; ' from their sides diverge vine-scrolls with bunches
of grapes. In the drum of the dome between the windows somewhat similar
'trees' rise from vases, while a lower band has vases connected by vine-scrolls
of a style recalling that of Early Christian art : the dome itself is covered with

Fig. 243. The Pentecost : mosaics of the twelfth century at Grottaferrata.

{Sautes Stuies: G. Millet.) P. 412.

a diaper of foliage. The borders are partly floral, partly geometrical: those
round the dome contain Arabic inscriptions giving the date of the work. What-
ever may be the precise date of the older mosaics in the Dome of the Eoek,
their prototypes must belong to the First Period.
The mosaics of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem '' occupy the walls
of the nave and transepts : they are but the residue of a complete and splendid
decoration stUl in great part existing at the close of the sixteenth century, when
it was described by Quaresmius.
At the west end of the church was the Tree of Jesse, now entirely destroyed.
On the walls of the nave were busts in medallions of the ancestors of Our Lord
in a long line above the architrave ; above these, between foliate designs in
which Persian influence is apparent,' were conventional churches and archi-
tectural tables containing Greek inscriptions relative to the oecumenical and
provincial Councils; above, again, between the windows, was a procession of
angels advancing towards the east. Of this decoration only four complete and
three incomplete Councils, six angels, and seven busts survive. The mosaics

' De Vogu6, PI. XXI.

2 The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (Byzantine Research and Publication Fund,
London, 1910) ; G. Millet in A. Michel's Histoire de Vart, i. 166 ; Diehl. Manuel, 527 ; Baum-
stark in R. Q., 1906, 145. The older books are C. J. M. de Vogu6, Les iglises de la Terre sairtte
1860: Quaresmius, Terrae Sanctae Elucidatio, ii ; Clampini, De sacris aediflciis, 1793, 150 ff.
' The Sassanian eagle's wings occur as part of conventional tree-like forms built up of
leaves, vases, &c., as they do at Mshatta and in the Dome of the Rock (p. 412). For Mshatta
see Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904 ; the wings are there discussed on p. 320.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST 415

once visible in the grotto beneath the church are all lost except for insignificant
fragments, as are those of the exterior. "^
In the transepts, of many subjects from the life of Our Lord, only the Entry
into Jerusalem, Incredulity of Thomas, Ascension, and Transfiguration are
represented, the two last by fragments only. In the choir are a fine band of
interlaced ornament and an important inscription assigning the mosaics to the
time of Manuel Comnenus (a. d. 1169), and to the hand of an artist named
Ephraim. The statement of this inscription is probably correct, and the scheme
of decoration to which the remaining fragments belonged was no doubt executed
at the time when Jerusalem was in the hands of Western princes. But the
artists, of whom there must have been several, came from the Christian East,
and worked under the supervision of Western ecclesiastics : by one of the angels
of the nave we note the name of one Basilius. It may well be that in a general
way pre-existing designs of an earlier period were reproduced : - the architectural
ornament of the nave recalls the fashion illustrated in St. George at Salonika and
the Orthodox Baptistery at Eavenna, and the ornament in the same place has
afiinities with earlier art. But in details the work suggests the Third Period :
the final Councils are too late in date to have been included in a scheme executed
in the First ; the colour-scheme, in which green is very conspicuous, is not that
of any early mosaics ; the iconography of the scriptural scenes is that of later
Byzantine times. De Vogue's view that the mosaics as we see them formed
part of a decoration carried out in the time of the Crusaders, when for a short
time East and West worked in harmony, may therefore be regarded as most
probable. The Persian character of the ornament, also conspicuous in El-Aksa
and the Dome of the Bock, may possibly be due to Mesopotamian or Armenian
influences.
The mosaics of the Mosque of El-Aksa at Jerusalem date from the time of
the restoration under Saladin a.d. 1187.^ The conqueror of Jerusalem resorted
to East-Christian artists,^ who decorated the dome ydth a diaper of conventional
floral scrolls, and the drum with fantastic formal ' trees ' composed of foliations,
vessels, columns, pairs of wings, &c., in a Perso-Mesopotamian style like that
observed at Bethlehem.
In this work both mother-of-pearl and silvered cubes are employed to render
high lights, as at Bethlehem.
The monasteries of Mount Athos were all in existence in the tenth century,
and during the next few centuries their churches were enriched with numerous
mosaics.' Most of this work has perished, but a little is still to be seen at
Vatopedi and Xenophon.
In the former church there is a representation of the Deesis, Christ enthroned
between the Virgin and St. John the Baptist in the tympanum of the royal door ; "
on each side of this door are the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin,' representing the
Annunciation, while the same subject is repeated upon spandrels in the interior.
In the tympanum of one of the lateral doors leading to the first inner narthex
is a damaged figure of St. Nicholas. The monks state that other mosaics
formerly covered the other parts of the church, but this is disputed by Kondakoff.

' .T. Wilpert, Bassegna Gregoriana, 1909, p. 25.

2 It is known that in the First Period the church was decorated with mosaics. On the
exterior, at the west end, was the Adoration of the Magi, said to have been spared by the
soldiers of Chosroes because the Magi wore Persian caps.
5 De Vogu6, Le Temple de Jerusalem, 1864, 101. * Ibid., 101.
» Didron, Annates areheologigues, v. 152 ; C. Bayet and Duchesne, Memoire sur une mission
au Mont Athos, 1876, 310 ff. ; C. Bayet, L'Art iysantin ; N. Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian
Art on Mount Athos, St. Petersburg, 1902 (Russian); G. Clausse, Basiliques, &e.,i. 453; Diehl,
Mamiel, 490. ,
« Kondakoff, Fig. 47, 101 ; Schlumberger, L' Epopee, ii, Fig. on p. 560 ; Diehl, Manuel,
Fig. 239,
' Kondakoff, Figs. 48 and 49, pp. 103 and 105; Schlumberger, V Epopee, ii. Fig. on
p. 140 ; ii. 345. The lower part of each figure is concealed by a modern picture.
416 PAINTING

An inscription refers to the restoration of the mosaics in the time of a certain

Higoumenos named Joannikios. The Beesis and Annunciation are by some con-
sidered as early as the close of the eleventh century ; the others are perhaps
later.
The mosaics in the new catholicon of Xenophon were removed from the old
church. They form two panels : on one is St. George, on the other St. Demetrius ;
the work is of good quality. All these mosaics are on a gold ground, and most
are inferior to the finest work of the eleventh century. In the Beesis Kondakoff
notes deviations from the classical Byzantine type.
The mosaics of Kahrie Djami ' at Constantinople adorn the inner and outer
narthex of the church built for the monastery known as Mov^ t^s x'^P°-^ near the
Adrianople gate. The name, which is equivalent to ' without the walls ', implies
the great antiquity of the foundation, as the walls within which it now stands
were built by Theodosius II in the first half of the fifth century. The church,
however, was rebuilt for the second time by Maria Ducas, a princess of the
imperial family, at the beginning of the twelfth century, the period when the
household moved to the neighbouring palace of Blachemae at the Golden Horn.
It suffered during the Latin assault and occupation, and after the return of the
Greek princes was restored and decorated by Theodore Metochites, minister of
Andronicus Palaeologus (1282-1328), between the years a. d. 1310 and a. d. 1320.
The mosaic picture (Pig. 245) over the tympanum leading from the inner narthex
into the church (Schniidt, PI. 57 and 58) represents Theodore in a high turban-
like white head-dress striped with red, a gold tunic, and flowered green mantle,
kneeling with a model of the church in his hand before Christ enthroned. The
inscription records his title of grand logothete, and describes him as ' founder '
(KTrjTiDp) of the church. The claim of Theodore to have carried out extensive
restorations is supported ■ by Nicephorus Gregoras, his pupil and friend,'
and is asserted by himself in his own poems." From these passages it would
certainly be gathered that not only a great part of the structure, but also the
entire mosaic decoration is due to the munificence of Theodore. But Kondakoff
argues that except in the case of the tympanum-with the portrait, the figures of
St. Peter and St. Paul, the Beesis, and the decoration of the cupolas in the second
narthex, the mosaics are works of the Comnenian period which Theodore at best
can only have restored. This theory is in harmony with the old traditional
belief that Byzantine art produced no work of real merit after the beginning of
the thirteenth century. Yet the arguments against a twelfth-century date
appear to be very strong. In the mosaics of Daphni and in the miniatures
of MSS. we have actual examples of the manner in which many of the same
subjects were treated
the fourteenth centuryat seems
that period, and notice
most probable for marked divergences.
the execution, there "While
seems
reason to believe that the compositions go back to early Syrian types.*
The mosaics at Kahrie Djami consist of two cycles representing the life of
1 Sebah and Joailler, photos ;_ Ch. Diehl, Les Mosaiques de Kahrie-Djami, Gazette des
Beaux-Arts,. 190i-5, reprinted in Etudes hysantines, Paris, 1905, 392 ff.; N. Kondakoff, Pro-
ceedings ofthe Sixth Archaeological Congress at Odessa, 1887, vol. iii, p. 165 ff., and an earlier work,
Odessa, 1881 ; Th. J. Schmidt, Inviestiya of the Russian Archaeological Institute at Constanti-
nople, Tiii, 1902, 119-52 — these and Izviestiya as above, xi, 1906, text and album of ninety
plates ; A. Leva!, Les Principales Mosaiques, Peintures et Sculptures existant a Kahrie-Djami a Con-
stantinople, Cple., 1886; 0. Wulff, Litterarisches Gentralblatt, Iviii, 1907, No. 45-6; Pulgher, Les
Anciennes Mglises byz. de Constantinople, with Plates XVIII-XXX, 1877.
^ Bk. VIII, ch. 5, and IX, ch. 13-
' Ed. A. Treu, A. 1004 ff., B. 222 ff.
* Schmidt, as above, 1 16 ff. ; possibly the models were the frescoes executed for the
(Syrian) Abbot Syncellus at the close of the iconoclastic dispute. Strzygowski {Die Miniaturen
des serbischen Psalters in Miinclien in Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
vol. 52, 1906, 87 and 129) points out that both the miniatures of the Vatican copy of Jacobus
Monachus and the Kahri6 Djami mosaics show clear traces of inspiration from early Syrian
art, and that many of the types are Syrian. For Kahrie Djami he cites the Immaculate Concep-
tion over the door of the exonarthex, where the Virgin is seen in half-figure as orans
between two angels with the medallion containing the Child over her breast.
MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 417

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418 PAINTING

Christ and that of the Virgin, and are confined to the inner and outer narthex,
as the decoration of the church itself has either been destroyed or hidden beneath
thick coats of whitewash. At Daphni there are three episodes from the life of
the Virgin, the Prayer of Joachim and Anna, the Virgin's Nativity, and the
Presentation in the Temple, which may be compared with the same subjects at
Kahrie Djami ; but though the main outlines are the same, the Constantinople

Fig. 245. The founder offering the church to Our Lord : mosaic of the fourteenth i
century at Kahrig Djami, Constantinople. (S^bah and Joaillier.) P. 416.

mosaics are more picturesque and fertile in invention. They also show a more
skilful composition, and a broader conception of landscape than the work of the
Greek
to the monastery
same effect. church.' The manuscript appears to afford even clearer evidence
The difficulty of accepting a fourteenth-century date for the whole of the
mosaics has Iain in the general reluctance to admit that any good thing
could come out of Byzantium after the Latin conquest. M. Diehl has rightly
insisted upon the exaggeration which this view implies. He cites the frescoes
in the churches of Mistra and on Mount Athos, also dating from the fourteenth
1 Diehl, Atudes, &o., 421-2.
 MOSAICS IN THE CHEISTIAN EAST 419

century, where we find the same powers of composition, the same sense of the
picturesque, the same movement and power of expression (of. p. 19 above). He
further cites a MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Gr. 1242), painted by Manuel
Tzykandilos for John Cantacuzene, in which the same feeling for colour and for
the natural rendering of familiar scenes is no less clearly apparent. There is

Fig. 246. The Annunciation : mosaic of the fourteenth century, KahriS Djami,
Constantinople. (Sebah and Joaillier.) P. 416.

therefore no need to assume Italian intervention, however close may have been
the relations of the court of the Palaeologi with the Italian peninsula.' The
■evidence accumulates in favour of a late Byzantine renaissance in the fourteenth
century. Contact with the West may have had its indirect effect upon the social
and artistic movements of the day, but there seems no proof of the direct inter-
vention ofWestern artists. There are attitudes and groupings of figures which

^ Strzygowski and Millet (in A.. Michel's Histoire de I'art) repudiate any Western influence.
They also agree in assigning all the mosaics to the fourteenth century.
E e 2
420 PAINTING-

appear to find no and

the architecture parallel in Italian art,
the ornamental but offer
borders evidence
in which of a realareoriginality
the mosaics framed are; '
almost entirely Byzantine,^ and so is the conventional landscape. The excessive
and inappropriate use of curtains in unnatural positions on the exterior of
buildings is an Eastern and not an Italian feature.
The most important subjects represented by the mosaics are, in the inner
narthex, the cycle of the history of the Virgin, inspired by the apocryphal
Protevangelium of James, which it follows scene for scene ; and in the outer
narthex, a series of scenes from the life of Christ. These last do not include
the Passion or the events after the Crucifixion, which were probably repre-
sented in the interior of the church. In addition to these two cycles there are
a bust of Christ over the entrance door, opposite it the Virgin between two
archangels, and over the door leading into the nave, Theodore Metochites offering
his church to Our Lord, as already described. There are also a number of
individual figures of saints and Apostles.
The mosaics of Kahrie Djami suffered less than the structure from the
earthquake of June 1884. The damage thus caused was not made good
until 1898-9.^
The central cupola in the funerary chapel of the Mosque of Petiye-Djami
(Church of the Pammakaristos), which dates from the early fourteenth century,
has in the centre a bust of Our Lord holding the Gospel and blessing with
his right hand."* Below, round the curve of the dome, stand the Twelve
Apostles. The expression of the Christ is mild and gentle ; the attitudes of
the Apostles are skilfully varied. The quality of the work affords another proof
that originality and individual artistic feeling were not destroyed at one blow
by the sack of a. d. 1204.
The mosaics in the dome of the Church of the Paregoritissa at Arta,
representing Our Lord with prophets below him, are ascribed to the thirteenth ■
century and adhere more closely to tradition.
At Trebizond there is little mosaic, most of the mural decoration being
painted. But a fragment outside the apse of the Metropolitan Church of
Panagia Chrysokephalos in the citadel is still to be seen beneath a covering
of whitewash. Pallmerayer claims to have seen an Annunciation here."
Mosaic Pavements.

The custom of covering floors with tesserae forming patterns and figure
subjects was so universal during the First Period that only a few remarkable
examples can be noticed.^ It was practised in all the provinces, and the
greater proportion known from certain districts is chiefly due to the greater
progress of excavation in these regions. Conspicuous among them is Syria-
Palestine.''
1 The Distribution of the Wool in the Temple (Fig. 244) and the Healing of the Sick are
finely composed. The arrival of the Magi at Herod's Court (Fig. 201), the Massacre of the
Innocents (Schmidt, PI. XXXVIIl, the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (PI. XLIV), contain
figures which are full of life and character. In the Annunciation (Fig. 246) the attitude of
the Virgin diverges from known types.
" A band of interlocking acanthus leaves, however, round one of the cupolas is of
a type very common in Central and Western Europe in the Romanesque period (Schmidt,
PI. XLVI). The ciborium with trefoil arch (in the Temptation, Schmidt, PI. XLIII) suggests
a Western form. s V. F., i, 1894, 792-3, and vi. 322.
* J. Ebersolt, Rev. arch., July-August, 1909, 37 ff. and PI. IX; Diehl, Mamiel, 742.
The mosaics are also described, though not reproduced, by N. Kondakoff, Churches of Con-
stantinople (Sixth Arch. Congress, Odessa), 208 (Russian).
5 Grig. Framm., i. 120: see G. Millet in B. C. H., xix, 1895, 458.
" The subjects of floor mosaics are geometrical, animal, or symbolic. Where they contain
figures, these are mythological or secular : sacred subjects could not be placed where they
would be trodden underfoot.
' See Jacoby, Das geographische Mosaik von Madaia, 1905 (lists) ; Strzygowski, Zeitschrifl
des deutschen Palastina-Yereins, xxiv: Baumstark, B. Q., 1906, 139 ff. The Dominicans of the
Ecole Biblique at Jerusalem have the material for a Corpus of these mosaics.
 MOSAIC PAVEMENTS 421

"We may notice in the first place the mosaic discovered at Serjilla in
Central Syria by the American Expedition,' because although its subjects are
the common hunting scenes, it has in the centre a long inscription with an

Pig. 247. The Orpheus Mosaic, Jerusalem : sixth century.

(N. H. J. Westlake : History of Design in Mural Painting.) P. 422.

indiction-date giving the year a. d. 472-3. We may next notice the examples
from the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon discovered by Eenan during his
mission in Phoenicia. At Kabr Hiram, a suburb of Tyre, a ruined church

1 Bev. arch., 1901, Pt. II, 62 if. and PI. XII.

422 PAINTING

was found to possess an elaborate mosaic floor in good preservation.^ The

nave has a series of medallions enclosed by vine-scrolls issuing from vases
in the four corners. They contain animals either alone or pursuing each
other, with scenes from pastoral and country life. In the aisles are further
series of medallions with personifications of the months, seasons, and winds,
subjects already known upon pavements in North Africa.^ In narrow panels
between the piers of the aisles are more animals and scrolls. The date of
the whole may be the beginning of the sixth century, though de Eossi wa&
inclined to place the central portion as early as the fourth.^ Even better
preserved was a second pavement discovered by Eenan in a church in the
neighbourhood of Sidon.* It has a number of animals in a series of medallions,
as well as vases and flowers. An inscription gives the date as the end of the
sixth century. The pavement is now in the Louvre.
Jerusalem and its neighbourhood have furnished many mosaics.' One of the
most interesting (Fig. 247) is that discovered in 1901 north of the Damascus
Gate, and known from its principal subject as the Orpheus Mosaic." The
rectangular floor which it decorates is perhaps that of a sepulchral chapel,
for Orpheus, like Jonah, is associated in Christian as in pagan art with death and
the life to come, a fact which explains his appearance in monuments of
Early Christian
Algeria, art.'' Of
Tunis, France, some fifty Germany,
Switzerland, mosaic pavements with England
Austria, and this subject in
almost
all are of pagan origin ; the Jerusalem example is therefore of especial interest.
The musician occupies a large panel surrounded by a broad margin in which
busts and figures of animals are enclosed in acanthus borders : near him are
a centaur. Pan or a satyr, an eagle, a bear, a serpent, and other creatures.
Below this large panel are two rows of smaller rectangular compartments,
one in the first row partly covered by a pillar. The other two compartments
in this row contain two nimbed female figures described by inscriptions as
Theodosia and Georgia ; the three compartments of the lowest row are filled
by a small figure of a nimbed hunter with a spear, a lion, and a panther.
Theodosia and Georgia have been variously regarded as historical persons
(foundresses) or as allegorical figures ; perhaps the former alternative is
the more probable. The date of the mosaic may be the fifth century.*
Two mosaics with Armenian inscriptions and symbolic ornament, perhaps
of the sixth century, were discovered, one on the Mount of Olives," the other
west of the Cave of Jeremiah outside the Damascus Gate.'"
The town of Madaba has proved exceedingly rich in mosaics, but we need
only mention the now famous pavement with a map (Figs. 248 and 249) of part
of Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land." The erection of a new church upon

1 Eenan, Mission de Pheiiicie, 607 ff. and Atlas, PI. XLIX; Didron, Annates archeologiques,
xxiii. 278-82 ; Bayet, L'Art byzanfin, 31 ; V. Sohultze, Arch, der chrisilichen Kiinst, 201.
2 Gca. arch., 1879, PI. XXII; Mon. Plot, iii, 1896, 202. See also Archaeologia,. xxxviii,
1860, 202 ff.
3 Bemie biblique, vii. 424 ; Compte rendu de I' Acad, des Insa: et BeUes-lettres, 1862, 161 ff.
* Eenan, Mission, 511-13.
s Jacoby, as above, 13ff. ; Palestine Exploration Fund, 1891, 19-20, 309-10; 1893, 139-40;
189.5, 86, &c. ; Revue biblique, v, p. 122 ; vii, p. 254.
0 J. Strzygowski, in Zeitschrift, as above, xxiv. 139 ff. ; Betue biblicjiie, 1901, 436 ff., 1902,
100 ff.; Palestine Exploration Fund, 1901, 283 ff. ; Marucchi, in Kuovo Bullettino di archeohgia
cristiana, 1901, 217 ff. The mosaic has now been removed to Constantinople.
' e.g. sculptures in the Central Museum at Athens and the Ottoman Museum at
Constantinople; ivory pyxides at Florence and Bobbio, &c. See Heussner, Die altchristlichen
Orpheusdarstellungen in B. Q., iv. 104.
' References to alhisions to mosaics in the description of the early pilgrims to Jerusalem
are given by Jacoby, Das geographische Mosaik von Madaba, p. 17.
" Palestine Expl. Fund, 1893, 139-40 ; Bevue biblique. vi. 241 ; Mitth. des deuischen Palastina-
Vereins, 1895, 51.
1" Pal. Expl. Fund, 1895, 257; Zeitschrift des deutschen Pal.-Vereins, xviii. 88.
" The now considerable literature is quoted by A. Jacoby in his monograph, Dos
geographische Mosaik von Madaba, Leipsic, 1905. See also Diehl, Manuel, 211. English accounts
 423
MOSAIC PAVEMENTS

CM
424 PAINTING

the old site resulted in the mutilation of the map, which is now imperfect
on the left side and has lost fragments on the right. It now begins with
the lower part of Jordan near its outlet into the Dead Sea, and ends with the
mouths of the Nile. Towns are represented as clusters of buildings usually
accompanied by their names in Greek ; and it is plain that the principal object
is to celebrate those which were visited by pilgrims. Although the work is
not of the highest order, it gives evidence of the same lively spirit of observation
and feeling for nature which we find in other mosaics of better quality and
earlier date.^ Fish are seen swimming in the rivers ; there are ships on the
Dead Sea ; palm-trees occur here and there, and in one place a gazelle is
seen flying from a lion. The date appears to be the first half of the sixth
century, and the mosaic is the oldest example of a true geographical map.
The artist was evidently acquainted with the 'Ovo/iaorTiKov Trepl tSv tottlkIov
ovo/jLoruiv of Eusebius, and with the Ata/tepta-/ios r^s yrj's which has come down
to us through several channels, among others through the Chronicon Paschale.'
He seems, however, to rely in part upon his own local knowledge.
Among the Egyptian towns recorded is Athribis, the seat of a bishopric
and of the famous sanctuary of St. Menas ; among those of Philistia, Gaza,
where the dome of a great church brings to mind that St. Sergius which
Choricius has described. In the Holy Land itself the chief interest centres
in the representation of Jerusalem, for it is certain that the artist intended
to depict the principal features of the city as it was before its capture by
Chosroes. It is elliptic, surrounded by walls with towers and gates at
intervals : within these some of the principal buildings and streets are visible.
On the north side is the Damascus Gate, from which a broad street, the
Via recta, fianked by arcades, runs to the opposite end of the city. Another
arcaded street runs south-east and south, and from it branches in an easterly
direction to the gate of St Stephen a further street identified as the Via dolorosa.
To the south of the gate of St. Stephen is another entrance which appears
to be the Golden Gate. The most interesting feature of all is the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre,' visible on the west side between the Via recta and
the walls. The church is entered by steps leading to the three doors mentioned
by Eusebius in his Life of Constantine (iii. 37). To the west of it are the
Anastasis, or circular Church of the Eesurrection, and the place of Golgotha.
The details of the several buildings are not very clear in the map, and the
rounded space which some have taken for the dome of the Anastasis may
be simply intended for an open space behind the basilica. One of the two
large buildings on the opposite side of the Via recta may represent the prae-
torium of Pilate, later the Church of Sta Sophia. Among other sites marked
upon the map may be mentioned Eama, Gerizim, Sichem, Jericho (surrounded
by palms), and Bethabara, where the Baptism is said to have taken place.
The mosaics discovered in the ruined cities of North Africa are very
numerous, but for the most part the subjects are not distinctively Christian.
Exceptions are found in the case of a pavement at Hemhir Msadine in a funerary
chapel, where Daniel in the Den of Lions occurs above the tombs of a Bishop
Vitalis, a Blossus, and a Victor ; in another pavement in the neighbourhood,
Jonah and the Monster are seen among acanthus scrolls with peacocks, ducks,
and other birds.* Africa, where inscriptions are constantly in Latin, and
even after the conquest of Justinian religious interests were attracted to Kome,
betrays its relation to the Byzantine Empire less in its pictorial art than in
of the mosaic will be found in the Palestine Exploi ation Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1899, 316,
and in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1897, 308 if.
1 Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, &c., 214.
2 Jacoby, as above, 33-4.
' See Guthe in Hauok's Bealencyklojiiidie, vii. 44; A. Heisenberg, Graheskirche und Apostel-
kirche, Leipsic, 1908 ; A. Jacoby, as above, 75.
* Eevi arch., 1902, Pt. II, 406; R Cagnat, Bulletin critique, 1895, 358, 378. Daniel is also
represented at Bordj-el-Youdi, Tunis, Bidl. arch, du Com. des trataux hist., 1898, 335.
 MOSAIC PAVEMENTS
425
its architecture. The symbolic motives of Early Christian art were long
retained, and new features have a local character little affected by the influence
of Syria and Egypt. African mosaic pavements are thus less important for
the purposes of the present volume than those of the Eastern provinces, though
for their intrinsic merits they deserve the careful study which the excellent
French publications of recent years have rendered possible.^
The curious tombs covered with mosaic, with figures of the deceased

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Fi6. 249. Part of a map of the Holy Land : mosaic pavement of the sixth century from
Madaba, Palestine. Cf. Fig. 248. {Hauies jBtudes : Soci^te orthodoxe palestinienne.)

between candelabra, doves and vases, vine-scrolls, &c., discovered in various

sites, especially at Tabarka (Thabraca), may be conveniently mentioned here.
Their date is thought to lie between the fouiih and sixth centuries.^
The mosaic pavements of Asia Minor only require excavation to prove
as numerous and interesting as those discovered in other parts of the Christian
world. A few examples are mentioned in the footnote.'

1 See the papers and monographs by Gauckler, de la Blanehfere, Gsell, H. de Villefosse,

Cagnat, and others, a large number of which are quoted in P. Gauckler's article Musivum opus
in Darcmberg and Saglio's Dictionary of Antiquities, and in Cabrol's Dictionnaire d'archeologie
chretienne, article Afrique, section xxv. It may be noted that some of the interesting mosaics
from Carthage representing the months and seasons, now on the staircase at the British
Museum, were published by Mr. Franks in Archaeologia, vol. xxxviii. 222 tl.
' For the literature, and for figures of six of these tombs, see Cabrol, as above, 715-20.
' Miletus and Didyma (stags drinking, other .inimals: early type), see Wiegand, Suppl.
to Abh. der k. preuss. Akad. der Wiss., 1908, 1-46 ; EpTiesus, E. Heberdey, Jahreshefte des oest. arch.
Inst., X, 1907, BeiUait, 61-78 (in basilica).
426 PAINTING

The dating of the earliest of the Christian pavements in opus vermiculatum,

•which are to be found in Italy and the region of Istria, is a matter of great
difficulty/ and in regions where the East-Christian art of Kavenna extended it
is not always easy to say at what point ' Byzantine ' influence is lost in the art
of the Western Middle Ages. In few branches of art was antique tradition so
persistent and so continuous as in that of floor mosaic: features like the disposi-
tion of animals in medallions or separate compartments were reproduced down
to the close of the twelfth century. Mlintz inclines to place those of Grado

Fig. 250. Mosaic pavement, Jerusalem. (Hautes Shides : Soei^te orthodoxe palestinienne.)

as early as the sixth century, as well as others at Inzino and Trieste.^ Most ot
the mosaics with votive inscriptions he attributes to a similar early period,' and
some at least of the fine pavements at Parenzo, Ravenna, Pomposa, and Venice
must belong to the time of the Greek domination.* In Central and Southern
Italy we find numerous instances of mosaic floors which must belong to the
period of Byzantine occupation between the tenth and twelfth centuries. Those
with which Desiderius decorated the floor of his church at Monte Cassino were
chiefly geometrical, the lines filled with cubes of coloured marble. Before the
1 E. Muntz, Rev. arch., xxxiii, Pfc. I, 42 if. The fragment from Sta Maria di Capua Vetere,
assigned to the sixth century and representing an eagle seizing a quadruped (E. Bertaux,
L'Ari dans I'ltalie meridionale, i. 64-5 and Fig. 13), is the same in style and colouring as similar
designs at Pomposa. This affords a clue to date for the latter.
2 Ibid., 45.
' Ibid., xxxii, Pt. II, pp. 402 £f. Persons of moderate means were in the habit of giving
quite small sections of pavement to their churches, and recording the fact with their names.
* C. Errard and A. Gayet, L'Art bysaniin, &c., Pt. I (Venice), Pt. XIX ; Pt. II (Parenzo),
PI. XXVIII-XXXI ; Pt. Ill (Eavenna, Pomposa), PI. X-XII. Some of the pavements at
Parenzo have votive inscriptions in Latin. For mosaics of the fifth century at Salona see
F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, ii. 312.
 427
MOSAIC PAVEMENTS

high altar were slabs of marble with figures of animals, the silhouettes being
cut out of the^ base and filled with a chequer of squares of coloured marble.'
The raris mosaic pavements of the eleventh and twelfth centuries preserved in
the East have only geometrical designs, as at St. Luke in Phocis, Palermo, Iviron
on Mount Athos, and Trebizond^ (Pig. 251).
The remains of a pavement in the Church of the Pantokrator at Constantinople

Fig. 251. Pavement of the eleventh centui-y in inlaid marble and other stone : Church of
St. Luke, Phocis. (After Schultz and Barnsley : The Church of St. Luke of Siiris in Phocis.)

have in the interspaces between the disks of oriental marble bordered with
glass cubes, genii, the Labours of Hercules, and figures of eagles in opus
sedile,^ but these recall, as M. Bertaux has remarked, rather the technique of
marble encrustations of the walls of Sta Sophia, or the basilica of Parenzo
(Fig. 253), than that of the ancient floor mosaics. Yet figure subjects were
certainly used in the Eastern Empire, if we are to believe the accounts of the
^ E. Bertaux, L'Art clans Vltalie meridionale. Fig. 74, p. 176. Similar animals are to be seen
in the pavement of Sant' Adrjano, near San Demetrio Corona, Calabria (ibid.. Fig. 209,
p. 484).
^ For St. Luke in Phocis, see Schultz and Barnsley, Church ofHt. Luke, PI. XXX. For the
geometric pavement in the apse of the Chrysokephalos at Trebizond, G. Millet, B.G.H., xix,
1895, 458. For those of Sta Sophia, Trebizond, Texier, Arch, bys., 229. For Iviron, Schlum-
berger, L'Apopee, i, p. 453.
^ Salzenberg, Altchrisllic'ne Baudenkmale ton Consfantinopel, PI. XXXVI. The pavement of
San Miniato, Florence, is in opus sectile, as also the decoration on the fa9ades at Pisa and
Lucca (Bertaux, 485).
428 PAINTING

chambers in the palace of Basil I and of his new church (see below). Those
parts of the pavement in S. Marco at Venice which go back to the eleventh or
twelfth century show both geometrical designs and medallions in pairs, between
palmette-like foliage, containing figures or animals in opus vermiculatum.^ Here
again we find also animals sunk in champleve in slabs of marble and filled in
with a chequer of coloured cubes, as at Monte Cassino and S. Adrian o.'' In the
nave of the Church of Sta Maria del Patir near Eossano is a pavement ' with
medallions containing animals and monsters (lion, gryphon, unicorn, centaur-
sagittary), the interspaces being filled with palmette-like foliage ; all the animals
have on their fore-quarters and flanks rosettes of oriental character. Decorative
work of the same character, though more elaborate, ornaments the pavement of
the Abbey Church of Tramiti,* where a multiple border of zigzags surrounding
the figure of a gryphon recalls a border surrounding a marble disk in the
pavement of the Pantokrator (see above). It would seem that these Apulian
and Calabrian pavements represent a system of oriental floor decoration of which
no complete example survives in the East. In another pavement of this region,
in the Cathedral of Otranto,^ among figures of animals we find groups of human
figures, one representing Alexander's ascent in the gryphon-car ° (cf. Kg. 34).
Other pavements, now destroyed or mutilated, show that the South was as rich
in work of this kind as the Lombard plain. Th^y once decorated churches at
Tarento,' Lecce,' Trani,' and Brindisi.'"
The Byzantine mosaics with geometrical designs in which interlacing bands
or variegated borders enclose disks (o/i<^dXia) of precious marbles were introduced
into Italy by the mosaicists summoned to Monte Cassino by the Abbot Desiderius
(see p. 84). The interlacing bands were formed as a rule of cubes of variegated
marble, not with cubes of coloured glass,^' and in the earlier Italian imitations,
e. g. the closure panels of the choir of Salerno Cathedral, set up by Archbishop
William (a.d. 1137-54), the same procedure was adopted, though the plane was
now vertical instead of horizontal." Simple geometrical figures in the same
style were also adopted by the Cosmati of Eome," who remained faithful to the
designs of the pavements without introducing the more intricate motives
suggestive of intarsia in wood and ivory. The new style superseded the carved
slabs in low relief (p. 165), and sometimes, as in Sta Maria in Cosniedin, the
encrusted ornament covers the back of a carved slab which has been reversed
in order to receive it.
In the last third of the twelfth century the marble anibos, paschal
candelabra, and closure-slabs of the Campanian churches and cathedrals were
decorated withrnosaic encrustations in which cubes of coloured and gilded glass
were profusely used. The designs are purely geometrical and consist of inter-
lacing bands, of which those occupying large panels are usually circular in
contour after the Byzantine manner, while those of the borders and friezes form
broken and angular lines with sequences of polygons and stars after the
Mohammedan fashion.

1 U. de Gheltof in Ongania's Basilica di San Marco, Pt. II, folio. No, 5.

^ Ibid., Nos. 6 and 9. Somewhat similar treatment of animals in remains of the choir-
pavement in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas at Bdri (Bertaux, ISB).
'* Bertaux,
Ch. Diehl,487.
L'Art dans I'ltalie meridionale, 195-7 and Fig. ; E. Bertaux, as above, 484 ff.

A. u. ^1163
Schulz,
and i.1166.
261-7. The mosaic is signed by a priest Pantaleon, and was executed between
" For these mosaics see E. Miintz, Rev. arch., xxxii-xxxiii, as above.
' E. Aar. 6U studi storici in Terra d'Otranio, Florence, 1888, 124.
* Ibid., 125. 3 Sarlo, II Duomo di Trani, 10, No. 2.
'"' Sohulz,
Cabinet as above. Paris
des Estampes, 303-6 (G.; Bertaux,
b. 68). 492 ff. Drawings taken by Millin in 1812 are in the
1' Transennae now in the walls of S. Marco at Venice, and believed to have come from
Constantinople, have geometric designs reserved in the marble on a background of cubes of
glass as well as of marble (Boito in Ongania's Basilica di San Marco, Plates ; and Bertaux,
p. 497). 12 Bertaux, as above, 503.
1^ M. Bertaux believes that the style of encrustation which we know as Ccsmati work was
 MOSAIC PAVEMENTS 429

' This combination was introduced into Italy from Palermo, where it had
resulted from the contact of Moslem and Byzantine art. Fine early examples
are at Salerno and Ravello.
Among the most remarkable secular mosaic pavements, now lost were those
on the floor of the sleeping-chamber of Basil I in the part of the imperial palace

Fig. 252. Mosaic and marble covering of the walls in the Church of St. Luke in Phocis :
eleyenth century. From a drawing by R. W. Schultz, Esq. (N. H. J. Westlake : History of
Design in Mural Painting.)

known as the Kenourgion, described by Constantino Porphyrogenitus in his life

of that emperor. In the centre was a peacock within a circle of Carian marble ;
in the spandrels were four eagles, and the ground seemed to ' flow with streams '
of the green marble of Thessaly.'
The covering of the lower part of church walls with a casing of different
coloured marbles was general in the East ; ^ proofs of its extensive use remain at
Constantinople and in Greece ; ' it was adopted in those parts of Italy influenced
introduced into Eome from Campania and not into Campania from Rome. For the Cosmati
see also G-. Clausse, Les Marbriers romains, and A. L. Frothingham in Journ. American Arch., x
pp. 189 ff., 1895.
1 The passage is quoted by Labarte, Le Palais imperial de Constantinople, p. 79. Cf. J. P.
Richter, Qiiellen der lyz. Kunstgeschichte, 364.
2 Eusebius mentions it in the case of the Martyrium at .Jerusalem (iii. 36).
s Sta Sophia (cf. Fig. 3) ; Kahrie Djami, Mosque of the Calenders. The new church of
430 PAINTING

from the East, especially in Palermo, Eavenna, and Parenzo/ In the latter
place we have good examples of wall revetment inlaid with designs in stones
of various colours (Figs. 207, 253).

Fig. 253. Ornament in inlaid marbles of the sixth century : S. Titale, Eavenna. (Eicci.)

MixiATURE Mosaics.^
It has been already noticed (p. 328) that the emblemata of Eoman mosaics
were separately made, often at a distance from the place where they were finally
to be used. Sometimes, but rarely, they were carried from place to place;
Suetonius says that Caesar took pavements with him upon his campaigns. But
about the twelfth century, if we may judge from surviving monuments, it became
the fashion in Constantinople to have small pictures in mosaic for devotional
use. M. Kondakoff has explained that they were venerated upon the days of
Basil I was sumptuously decorated in this style. In Greece the most perfect example is
St. Luke in Phoeis (Fig. 252). Daphni was also thus covered with marble, and so was Nea
Moni on Chios.
1 F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, ii, p. 114 ; C. Errard and A. Gayet, L'Art
byzanfin, Pt. Ill, PI. X ff. ; de Beylie, L' Habitation bysctntine, PI. I ; C. Diehl, Ju^inien, p. 576
and PI. VII. The materials are green and red porphyry, dull red marble, greenish marble,
stones of purple, yellowish green, and blue, and inlays of vitreous paste (Jackson, p. 114).
A fragment of later date, with interlacing broken lines, is in the Campo Santo at Pisa
(E. Bertaux, L'Art dans Vltalie meridionale, i, Fig. 220, p. 498).
^ E. Milntz, Les Mosaiqaes bysantines portatives in Bulletin monumental, Caen, 1886, 228 ff. ;
Labarte, Hisloire, 2ud ed., ii. 852 ; Diehl, Manuel, 530. There were no less than twenty-five of
these mosaics in the collection of Paul II (Miintz, Les Arts a la Cour des Papes, ii, pp. 143, 203).
 MINIATUEE MOSAICS 431

Fis, 254. Portable mosaic of the thirteenth century in tlie Museum of Sta Maria del Fiore,
Florence. (Alinari.) P. 432.
432 PAINTING

■ the saints depicted : they are mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus among

the most precious objects in the imperial throne room.
The base of these mosaics is of wax, in which very small cubes or cut strips
of glass, stone, and metal are fixed. So fine is the work, especially in the faces
of human figures, that in some cases it is almost impossible to see the points of
contact, while the effect is heightened by the use of gold and silver for high
lights, or to accentuate the principal divisions.
The number of portable pictures in mosaic now surviving is small. The
following list is based upon that of Milntz, but includes a few additional
examples.
Italy.
Borne. Vatican Library : St. Theodore, thirteenth to fourteenth century.'
Borghese Palace : The Virgin and the Apostles, perhaps fourteenth century."
There was a portable mosaic, with a figure of Our Lord, in the Church of
St. Praxed as late as the sixteenth century ; twenty formerly belonged to Cardinal
Pietro Barbo (Paul II) ; others were bequeathed by Cardinal Bessarion (d. 1472)
to the Basilica of St. Peter.'
Florence. In the Museo di Santa Maria del Fiore are two mosaic pictures
of extraordinarily minute workmanship (Fig. 254). The ground is formed of
microscopic golden tesserae : the subjects are the Feasts of the Church, and the
date is perhaps the thirteenth century.* The collections of the Medici family,
dispersed at the revolution of 1494, contained several examples, mentioned in
the inventory of Lorenzo the Magnificent.'
Venice. The treasury of S. Marco contains a picture representing St. John
the Baptist." Another mosaic, in the Church of Sta Maria della Salute, represents
the Virgin and Child.'
At Sassoferrato there is a picture of St. Demetrius.'
France.
Paris. The Louvre has a picture with the Transfiguration ° and a circular
medallion with St. George slaying the dragon." St. George is mounted, and
rides to right, transfixing the dragon with his lance : the cubes of the mosaic
are of marble, glass, and silvei-. The date is probably the thirteenth century.
England. In the Victoria and Albert Museum is a tine mosaic with the
Annunciation," with Greek inscriptions. The ground is of gold tesserae fixed
in wax, and the same metal is used to delineate the architecture and other
features. Silver is employed to give richness and variety to the ornament,
while lapis, verde antico (?J, and rosso antico unite with glass cubes to enhance
the effect.
Belgium. A small mosaic picture with a bust of Christ is in the Church of
SS. Peter and Paul at Chimay.^''

' Barbier de Montault, La Bibliotheque Vaticane, 122 ; A. Munoz, L'Arl byzantin a V e^^ositiotir
de Grottafenata, Eome, 1906, 169-70, and Fig. 136.
2 Barbier de Montault, in Revue de I'art chritien, xviii, 1874, 152.
= Miintz, as above, 229-33.
* Alinari, photos ; Uori, Thesaurus dipiychorum, iii. 320 ff. and PI. I and II ; Miintz, 233 ;.
F. X. Kraus, Zeitschrift fur christliche Kitiist, iv, 1891, PI. VIII; Bayet, L'Art bysantin, 150 ;
Kumohr, Italienische Forschungen, i. 304-6.
5 Miintz, 234.
^ Durand in Annales archeologiques, xxi. 102-3 ; E. Molinier, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Second
Pei'iod, xxxvii, 1888, 391, and Le Iresor de Saint-Marc.
' Durand, as above.
' Byzantinisclie Zeitschrift, ix, 1901, p. 718. Described by Professor Savignoni at the
Second Congress of Cliristian Archaeology, Rome, 1900.
" Labarte, Eistoire des arts, &c., 1st ed., PI. 120 ; Schlumberger, L'Mpopee, iii, p. 449.
'" Miintz, as above, Plate opposite p. 225 ; Courajod and Molinier, Donation du Baron Davil-
lier, No. 274, Paris, 1885 ; Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 2nd series, vol. xxviii, 1883, 205 ; G. Schlum-
berger, Nic^hm-e Phocas, p. 415.
11 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1869, i. 157 (A. Darcel). This mosaic was acquired in 1859.
12 W. H. J. Weale and J. Maes, Instrumenta ecclesiastica, Choix Wobjets d'art etc. exposes U
Malines, 1864, PI. IV, No. 54, Brussels, 1866.
 MINIATUEE MOSAICS 433

Germany. The Abbey of Burtscheid possesses a mosaic with a figure of

St. Nicholas of Myra in episcopal vestments.' The picture in the Monastery
•of the Holy Cross at Donauworth is considered by Durand to have been enamel."
KussiA. In the Basilewsky Collection at the Hermitage Museum, St. Peters-
burg, is a picture with Samuel, above whom is seen the hand of the Almighty.
The same museum has a half-figure of a military Saint (Schlumberger, L'l^popee,
i, p. 309).

Fio. 255. St. Anne and the Virgin : portable mosaic of the eleventh or twelfth century,
Monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos. (^Hautes Mtudes : G. Millet.)

Another example in the same collection represents St. Theodore Stratelates,

half-figure, standing armed with shield and lance.' In the museum a( Kieif is
a St. Nicholas.''
Mount Athos. In the Monastery of Vatopedi there are a Crucifixion
between the Virgin and St. John,° a half-figure of St. John Chrysostom," and
a standing figure of St. Anne (Fig. 255) with the Virgin.' At Esphigmenou there
is a full-length figure of Our Lord (Fig. 256),» at Chilandari a Virgin and Child.^'

1 Book, Die Beliquiensohatzs der ehemaligen gefiirsteten Beichsabteien Burtscheid, &c., Cologne,
1867, 16-17 ; Schlumberger, L'ipo-pee, ii, Fig. on p. 121. , '^ Ann. arch., xxi. 103.
' A. Darcel, La Collection Basilewsky, 25 ; Schlumberger, L' Epopee, i. Fig. on p. 309.
* Likacheff, Materials for the History of Russian Fainting, i, PI. Ill, 4.
5 Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, PI. XIII ; Didron, Annates archeo-
iogiques, xxvii, 261-3, and xxi. 176.
' Kondakoif, as above, PI. XVI. ' Ibid., PI. XII.
8 Ibid., PI. XI. 9 Ibid., PI. XV.
1204 ^ I
434 PAINTING

An ikon of St. Nicholas, of which only the head is visible, in mosaic, is in the
Church of Stavro-Nikita. '
The picture representing St. John Chrysostom, formerly in the Monastery of
Vatopedi, is now in the collection of M. de Nelidoff.^ It is of the twelfth
century.
SpAijr. In the Episcopal Library at Vich in Catalonia there was formerly
a portable mosaic representing St. Nicholas, which has now been stolen,' It is
attributed to the thirteenth century.

Pig. 256. Our Lord : portable mosaic of the eleventh or twelfth century in the Monastery
of Esphigmenou, Mount Athos. {Sautes Studes : G. Millet.)

The style of these works should be compared with that of contemporary

panel ikons and miniatures ; but the medium of mosaic is not adapted to work
on this diminutive scale, and the result is seldom quite successful. The finest
examj)les are said to be the St. Nicholas at Stavro-Nikita, the Crucifixion of
Vatopedi, and the panels at Florence.

1 Kondakoff, as above, PI. XIV.

2 Ibid., PI. XVI ; Ainaloff in F. V., vi, 1899, 75 ff. and Pi. XI ; A. Munoz, L'Art bysantin
a I'exposition de Grotiaferrata, Kome, 1906, p. 170 and PI. III.
= E. Eoulin, Monuments Plot, 1900, 95 and PI. XI ; Kondakoff, Pig. 50, p. 108 ; A. Munoz
in B. Z., 1905, 575, and L'Art bysantin, &c., Fig. on p. 178.
 r
cTHNreNeeAMHhieiSiiiYxy
' I 6 '"TOO '-'i-CO 'fJll '-t-f
cLnnA-
crou M«|^' ^^^-<=*-* //^

Fig. 257. The Nativity : head-piece from the twelfth-eenfury Homilies of Gregory of
Nazianzus in the monastery on Mount Sinai. [Hautes Studes : N. Kondakoff.)

CHAPTER VII

PAINTING : III. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS ^

The great series of illustrated manuscripts ranging over a period of about
a thousand years offers for comparative study a material more accessible than
that at our disposal in the case of any other branch of Byzantine art.
The remarks which were made at the beginning of this section apply
to the miniature no less than to other forms of painting : there is
a certain uniformity of treatment, a permanence of tradition which at
times appears monotonous ; the main causes are the same : fidelity to
early models, obedience to ecclesiastical rule. In mediaeval Europe, from
' General surveys of Byzantine illuminated MSS. will be found in N. P. KondakofTs Histoire
de I'art lyzantin, in G. Millet's chapters in A. Michel's Histoire de I'art, and Ch. Diehl's Manuel,
Bb. II, ch. iv, III, ch. vii, and IV, ch. iv. iTwo chapters in J. A. Herbert's forthcoming volume
on Illuminated Manuscripts (in Methuen's Connoisseur's Library) will deal comprehensively
with the subject.
F f 2
436 PAINTING

Italy to England, there were at least five well-marked changes within the
space of a single millennium. To the art of the Christian Celts and the
Merovingian Franks succeeded that of the Carolingian Renaissance. There
followed the German style of the Ottonian period, and the Anglo-Saxon art
of Southern England. Next came the Eomanesque in all its varieties, and
finally the fully developed Gothic itself with its various subdivisions.
Every one of these changes brought with it some modification in sentiment,
in ieolour, in iconography, in technique. Even if we leave on one side the
highly original art of the Celts and the vigorous outline-drawings of the
Anglo-Saxons, we still find illustrated MSS. separated by comparatively
short periods of time, but infinitely remote in the scheme of their colour
and in the style of their ornamentation. An illuminated book of the
eleventh century, with its hard greens and reds and its almost total neglect
of gilding, creates a very diflFerent impression from a book of the thirteenth
century, with its rich gilding and its sumptuous blues and crimsons. Nor
do the changes aflfect practice only : they extend to the sphere of senti-
ment as well. The accepted type of the Virgin with the Child about the
year a. c. 1300 is far removed from that which prevailed only two hundred
years earlier : a new feeling modified the old austere conception of the
divine. The change of manners and social institutions was more rapid
among the Western peoples, with their divergent national temperament and
their numerous centres of art and industry, than it was in the Eastern
Empire, especially after the loss of Syria and Egypt. And the Roman
Catholic Church never exerted so rigid a control over the individuality of
the artist as the Orthodox Church of the East.
In the Eastern Empire, after the First Period, the divergence between
localities or epochs is seldom so pronounced. A Byzantine MS. of the
fourteenth century may differ in power and quality from a book dating
from the tenth ; but the two will be nearer to each other in spirit than
Western MSS. of the same two periods. In the latter case each illuminator
obeys one law ; and though the interpretation may not be the same, the
identity of the law is at once discerned. As with feeling and conception,
so it is with technique and with schemes of colour. If not invariable, they
suffer no violent or radical alterations. There are fewer breaks in con-
tinuity, fewer losses of technical knowledge, fewer bold experiments in
harmony or composition. In no part of the empire, and in no country
within the radius of its artistic influence, could we imagine the rise of so
original an art as that of the Anglo-Saxons.
As far as figure-art is concerned, this unity of Byzantine illumina-
tion arises from a faithful adherence to Hellenistic tradition. Whenever
there was a revival in Byzantine art the antique model emerged into
greater prominence; even if a Syrian influence is apparent, it must be
remembered that Christian Syria itself drew largely from the Hellenistic
source. In the time of Basil I and his immediate successors such a depen-
dence surprises us little: it appears natural that the fine copy of the
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS
437
Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in the Biblioth^que Nationale, with its
personifications, its classical architecture, its pastoral landscapes, should
reproduce in a later age the picturesque sentiment of ancient Alexandria ;
it was this very age which preserved for us the greater number of our
classical Greek texts. In the general progress of the empire between
the ninth and twelfth centuries, the arts were cultivated with renewed
vigour; the number of antique models preserved in Constantinople and
in the monasteries must still have been very large ; the distance in point

Fig. 258. Paul on the road to Damascus : miniature of the seventh century in the Vatican
MS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes. (Hauies Etudes : G-. Millet.) P. 4-47.

of time between the fourth and the ninth centuries was still not wide
enough to prevent the maintenance in a conservative society of an almost
consecrated tradition. But when we find classical features reproduced in
books illustrated half a millennium later, we recognize a loyalty which
would commend itself to the religious artists of the Buddhist East. An
example of this late period may be quoted from a MS. in Paris, which
shows us the two poets Dosiades and Theocritus making ofierings to Apollo
and Pan, both gods being of a purely Hellenistic type.^ The illuminators
' H. Omont in Motiuments Plot, xii, 1905. Another interesting example of such survival
is a medical MS. of the ninth or tenth century in the Laurentian Library at Florence. It
is a Hippocrates Tlepl dpSpav, with commentary by Apollonius of Citium, and contains nude
figures recalling those of the Calendar of Filocalus (J. Ebersolt, Bev. arch., 1905, §8). Of.
also the MSS. of the Cynegetica of Oppian (Marciana 479, tenth century, Bibl. Nat., Paris,
fifteenth centui-y), and the eleventh-century Paris Nicander.
 438 PAINTING

of Western Europe in the fourteenth century had emancipated themselves

from many old traditions and developed a style of their own : they looked
forward or around them, not backward ; conventional though it was, their
art was a more complete expression of contemporary life. Where the
treatment of the human figure is less immediately concerned, the fidelity is
the same, but the sources are different. The Early Christian art of Syria
and Mesopotamia, which had grafted upon ideal Hellenic types its own
more realistic sentiment, found imitators equally obsequious. It had been

Pig. 259. Solomon and David, tlie Baptism, Nativity, &e. : page from the Syriae Gospel of
Rabula, a. d. 586, in the Laurentian Library, Florence. {Hautes Etudes : A. Venturi.) P. 448.

no less predominant in the monasteries than the Hellenistic style at the

court ; and since monasticism outlasted the empire, its influence survived
the fall of Constantinople. A striking example of this long persistence is
a late Servian Psalter at Munich ; ^ the earlier Armenian Gospel of A.D. 902
in the Lagoon Monastery at Venice shows it no less clearly .^
It need not be supposed that this loyalty, to tradition was inconsistent
1 See p. 473. Both Strzygowski and Millet agree on the antique influence, though they
differ as to the channels by which it reached Servia. Millet considers that it may have
passed through Constantinople ; Strzygowski, that it issued in the last resort from Mount
Athos, a great centre of Syrian tradition.
2 In the Gospels of Mike, Queen of Armenia (early tenth century). The canons are in
the style of those in the Gospel of Eabula and its congeners. The miniatures with the Ascen-
sion and the Evangelists betray similar influences (P. Alishan, Lie Miniaturen des &angeliars
tier Konigin Mike, Venice, S. Lazzaro, 1902).
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 439

with a lively appreciation of the realities of life. A feeling for the expres-
sive, for the characteristic, maintained its place liy the side of the feeling
for inherited types and i-epeatedly manifested its power in tlie history of
Byzantine art. Realism was always latent, and sometimes liai-dly less free
and animated in expression than that of Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon illu-
mination. Even in mosaics, where the artist conforms more strictly to the

Fig. 260. Illumination from the Psalter of a.d. lOCG in the British Museum.
i;Add. MS. 193.51.) P. 470.

requirements of an ordered scheme, we see the portrait at times emerge from

the impersonal tj-pe. The heads of Justinian and Archbishop Maximianus
at Ravenna will at once recur to the memory in this connexion (Fig. .5).
But the same character is found in the ascetic saints of St. Luke in Phocis,
which are of the eleventh century; wliile two hundred years later, at
Kahri^ Djami, the scenes pass in an atmosphere of actual life. It is the
same with frescoes, where again the real and individual takes its place hy
the side of the typical and ideal. The paintings on the staircase at Kieft
(p. 301) sliow that the genre scene might lie introduced even within the
precincts of a cathedral ; and if we had preserved to us many frescoes
from palaces or private dwellings we should doulitless find a far fuller expres-
440 PAINTING

sion of the realistic spirit. But in MSS. there was a wider scope for such
freedom : the illuminator was less constrained, and stood in a more per-
sonal and intimate relation to the spectator; his work was less in the
public eye, less bound by the proprieties of iconographical convention.
Then, too, the book had margins and head-pieces, and pages for Eusebian
Canons, where floral and animal ornament, or little scenes from the chase,
agriculture, or war could be introduced without offence. Thus illumination
affords a deeper insight into life under the Eastern Empire than any other
branch of art. The more rapid technique and the comparative abundance
of space in a book of many leaves permitted the illuminator to indulge his
fancy, where the worker in ivory or metal remained faithful to a traditional
type, or owed his apparent originality to direct imitation of a manuscript.
It was the illuminator who multiplied subjects and invented varieties of
composition : the other minor arts looked to him for guidance. There were
other causes which increased the illuminators' influence. Throughout the
whole duration of the empii-e they enjoyed the patronage of the imperial
house, and of the noble and wealthy classes. At quite an early period it
was the fashion for ladies to possess finely illuminated volumes ; we may
compare the Books of Hours of the Western Middle Ages.^ Juliana Anicia,
daughter of Galla Placidia, for whom the Vienna Dioscorides (see below,
p. 460) was painted, is represented receiving an illuminated codex of the
same work from a personification of Phronesis, it being the evident
intention of the painter to illustrate her patronage of his branch of art.^
The earliest form of illustrated book was a long scroll or roll of papyrus,
for the home of the art of illuminating was ancient Egypt. At first such
scrolls were of a strictly religious character ; but in Ptolemaic times literary
and scientific works were enriched with a pictured commentary. Alexandria,,
the seat of Hellenistic culture in Egypt, gave the world the earliest
illuminated manuscripts ; the Alexandrian artists who migrated to the new
imperial metropolis in the north must have included illuminators among
their company, and at an even earlier date such artists were probably estab-
lished atAntioch and in the other Hellenistic cities of the Mediterranean.
Two streams of influence appear to have converged to produce the illu-
minated book of the Middle Ages.'* The first was that of the painter upon
papyrus, the material upon which the earliest illuminations of the Christian
era are executed. The illustrator confines himself to the elucidation of the
text without apparent care for the artistic quality of his work. As in the
papyri of pagan Egypt, the figures are set in lines like parts of a diagram ;
there is no indication of depth or of light and shade to suggest solidity ;.
the only ornamental decoration consists of plant forms used as divisions :
we have before us merely a primitive kind of coloured drawing. From the
Egyptian papyrus scroll developed the scroll illustrated by Hellenistic
1 St. Jerome fulminated against this kind of extravagance (E. Preuschen, Zeitschrift fiir
Neu-Testamentliche Wissenschaft, hi, 1902, 253 ff. ; Krauss, Geschkhte, i. 447).
2 A. von Premerstein in Austrian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 106 and 123.
2 See Strzygowski in Denkschriften der k. Akad. der Wissenschafien, Vienna, 190.5, li. 169 ff.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS
441
artists, whose methods are represented T.<3' the Joshua Rotulus in the Vatican,
perhaps an exact copy of a scroll dating from about a. d. 300 (see p. 447).
Perhaps in the fourth century, perhaps even earlier,^ the Hellenistic Rcroll
based upon Egyptian prototypes found a rival in the codex or payed Ijook
of vellum, the honje of which may with probability be sought in Mesopotamia.-
In these books appear formal compositions surrounded by borders and possess

>i cpau p f^'

q^ -JO- ofj ^"J (J e "^ *V^i cj fJ p M M '^^I^C^

Fig. iljl. The Crucifixion : miniature from a fAvelfth-century Gospel in the British Museum.
(Harley ISIO.,

ing as it were an individual existence : the scheme of colour is also more

comprehensive, for instead of the prevailing red and yellow of Egypt, we
find purples and blues with enrichment of gilding. Illustration is granted
the right to a position more independent of the accompanying text ; for the
first time one might conceive a man buj'ing a book as much for the pictures
which it contained as for the written matter. There is now a deliberate
effort to beautify the page ; ornament as ornament is recognized as a worthy
adjunct to the book. The earliest pictures painted in books were probalily
portraits of the authors : Martial alludes to one in a MS. of Virgil.'^ The
oldest surviving example appears to be that in the Vienna Dioscorides
(see p. 460), painted about the year a. I>. 512 ; ■* and the fashion was almost
^ St. Jerome alludes to parchment as a .substitute when papyrus could not be obtained.
^ StnygriViski, Denkschriflen, as above, p. 169. ' xiv. 186.
* Vienna Jahrhvch., xxir, 1903, 124. The type, wliich also occurs on a sarcophagus from
Konia, may be of Anatolian origin (J. Strzygowski, B. L., 39 ff. ; Orietit oder Rom, 47).
442 PAINTING

at once adopted in illustrated Gospels, in which each Evangelist is seen at

the beginning of his Gospel, usually writing at a desk.^
The Asiatic ornamental system rapidly prevailed, and wa^ adopted by
the monkish artists, to whom the earliest art of illumination owed so much.
In this style the monk Eabula illuminated the Gospels known by his name
at Zagba in Mesopotamia in the year A. D. 586 (see p. 448). Probably he
copied an earlier book of the fifth, or even of the fourth century, perhaps
nearly contemporary with the Calendar of Filocalus (see p. 484) . The com-
bination ofGreek and oriental sentiment which marks all East-Christian
art is manifested in the illustration of these early parchment books :
in Eabula's work oriental affinities are evident. But in the Vienna
Dioscorides Hellenistic feeling predominates, and in the fine books of the
eleventh century, executed for imperial or noble personages, an influence
almost purely Hellenistic is apparent.
The illustrated codex may have first become familiar to Europe through
Cassiodorus, in whose Monastery of Vivarium near Squillace the transcrip-
tion of MSS. was a regular occupation. There is nothing improbable in
the supposition that he maintained relations with the scholars of Edessa
and Nisibis,^ who were masters of the art which he desired to introduce
into Italy.
The miniatures of Byzantine illuminated books painted on vellum are
in colours mixed with gum or size. But the priming is usually inferior
to that of contemporary Western manuscripts. While a French, English,
or German book of the thirteenth century will often have preserved its
miniatures in a comparatively perfect condition, even when the thumbed
corners of the pages testify to continuous use, a Byzantine book of the
same age will almost certainly be much abraded. The inferiority is even
more marked in the case of the gilding. The Western book will frequently
present a wealth of gilded surface, highly burnished, and as brilliant now
as on the day when it was first applied. The Eastern manuscript seldom
approaches this perfection.
It is perhaps unsafe to generalize about the methods employed by
illuminators within the wide limits of the Eastern Empire ; but in several
cases the abrasion of the surface colour has enabled us to follow the
procedure of the artist with some certainty, and it is probable that the
methods thus observed were of general application.^ Several pages of
a Gospel in the Library at St. Petersburg (No. 21), held by some to be
of the ninth century, pages in the Paris Psalter of the tenth century
(MS. gr. 201), in the twelfth-century Gospel in the same collection (No. 54),
in another Gospel of the same period in the Royal Library at Berlin (No. 66),

' B.B., iii. 38 ff. ^ Strzygowski in Jahrli.filr klassisches AUerthuni, xv, 1905, 29.
^ See Ch. Diehl, Notice sur deux mss. a miniatures de la Bibliothegue de VUnicersite de Messine,
Melanges d'arch. et d'histoire, viii, 1888, 321 ff., and L'Art dans Vltalie meridionale, ch. viii ; 3. Tik-
kanen in Acta societatis scientiarum Fennicae, xix. No. 2, Helsingfors, 1890 ; Eine illustrierte
Klimax-Handschrift, &c. ; N. Pokrovsky, The Oospel in the Monuments, &c., 228 ; E. Dobbert, jB. Z.,
V, 1896, 595.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS
443
and in the Psalter of a. d. 1066 in the British Museum, all betray the use of
the same method, which appears to have been as follows. The composition
was first sketched in with a fine brush or pen, commonly, but not always, in
a shade of brown ; gold backgrounds were also perhaps applied at an early

Fig, 262. Our Lord crowning John and Alexius Comnenus : miniature in a Gospel of
A. D. 1128 in the Vatican. {Hautes Stiides : G. Millet.)

stage. This preliminarjr outline was often very carefully done, and the ex-
pression offeatures was rendered with the greatest care. The surface colours
were often applied in thin coats so that at first the details of the drawing
were visible beneath them. The effect at such an intermediate stage is
often remarkable, the drawing lending the contrast of light and shade,
so that occasionally the loss of later and denser coats of colour positively
improves the effect of the design. But in a Byzantine illumination which
has suffered but little from use or from time, all the substructure is hidden
beneath masses of rich colour, thrown into relief by the general use of gold-
444 PAINTING

leaf for the backgrounds. Sometimes the accidental removal of surface

colours betrays an alteration in the design, the artist having modified the
original conception in this or that detail. Thus the abrasion in a Crucifixion
miniature in the Paris MS. of the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus reveals
the fact that the crucified figure was intended to have a short loin-cloth,.
whereas the finished picture showed a far longer garment.
Byzantine MSS. fall into the two main groups of religious and secular.
The former has been conveniently subdivided by M. Millet into six classes :
(a) Early books of the Old Testament and complete Octateuchs ; (6) Psalters ;
(c) The Prophets ; (d) The Gospels ; (e) Theological works, editions of the
Fathers ; (/) Menologies, Church Calendars. The second group is composed
of books wholly or partly scientific, such as the medical works of Dioscorides
and the Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes.

FIEST AND SECOND PERIODS

I. Keligious Manusckipts.

The important early MS. of the first book of the Bible, commonly known,
from the place where it is preserved, as the Vienna Genesis,' is closely allied
to the Codex Eossanensis and the Sinope fragment (pp. 452, 458), but earUer
than either. As later Byzantine miniatures illustrating Genesis are evidently
based upon different compositions, it seems probable that this manuscript
dates from a time before the general acceptance of a common illustrative cycle.
The Octateuchs had a model akin to the Joshua Eotulus (p. 447), and differing
in important respects from the Vienna book ; the models in all cases must
have been scrolls. Pages have been lost at the beginning and the end, but
twenty-four with forty-eight miniatures remain. The text is written in silver
letters upon purple vellum. It occupies the upper part of each page, the
miniatures being at the bottom in every case. There is no marginal ornament.
The colours are white, green, lapis-blue, reddish purple, violet, iron-red, and
black. Gold is occasionally used but never polished.
The illustration of the book is the work of several hands." The earliei"
part of what remains (mins. 1-20 and 21-32) is the work ' of two different
illuminators and their pupils. The first is a literal interpreter of the text,
who as a rule leaves the purple page to serve as background for his figures
and accessories : his trees are conventional, his environment is suggested by
abbreviated features, a segment of a blue circle indicating the sky, a few
columns and an architrave a room : atmospheric and perspective effects are
rarely attempted. The colours are decided, and black lines are freely used
to define contours. Eleven of the pictures appear to be by this illustrator

^ Freiherr Von Hartel and F. Wicklioff, Die Wiener Genesis, Vienna, 1895 (Beilage to
vols, xv-xvi of the Austrian Jahrbuch) ; Vf. LMtke, Untersuchungen su den Miniaiuren der Wiener
Genesis, Greifswald, 1897 ; Kondakoff, Histoire de I'art by-., i. 120 ; D. Ainaloff, HeUenistic Origins,
&c., 41-2; J. Strzygowski, B. D., iii. 68. An early publication of the text was that of
R. Holmes, Epistnla complexa Genesim ex codice purpurea argenieo, &c. , Oxford, 1845. Early repro-
ductions ofthe miniatures are to be found in Lambecius, Commentariitm de aiu/ustiisima liblio-
fheca Caesarea Vindobonensi, Vienna, 1665-79 ; de Nessel, Breriarium et swpplementum Comment.
iamiectoKi, &c., Vienna, 1690 ; Kollar, Commentarii demig. bibl. Caesarea Kmdobonoisi, Vienna,
1766-82. The manuscript is frequently mentioned by the commentators of the Codex
Rossanensis (which see). It probably came to Vienna in the second half of the seven-
teenth century with the Fugger Collection. Fugger may have bought it in Italy (Lambecius,
Commeniarium, as above, 1670, vol. iii).
2 Wickhoff, as above, 144 and 162 ff.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 445

himself and four designed by him ; four others follow his technical methods,
but appear to be inspired by another artist. As a rule each composition
is disposed in two zones, one above the other, and the ' continuous ' method
of narration is adopted.
The second artist also allows the purple page to serve as background,
and treats accessories, such as trees, con-
ventional ybut
; he is a finer colourist
and far more inventive in composition,
filling his work with minor episodes
and situations unsuggested by the text.
He avoids the hard juxtaposition of
colours, understands gradation of tone,
and paints flesh well.
The remaining pages are the work
of three different painters who have
more in common with fresco-painters
than illuminators, working in a broad
impressionist style very different from
the minute and finished manner of
artists already described.
Thesubjectsdepicted areasfollows : —
The Fall ; the Expulsion from Eden ;
the Flood ; Noah's issue from the ark,
and his sacrifice ; God's covenant with
Noah ; the Drunkenness of Noah ; Abra-
ham and Melchizedek ; Abraham re-
ceives God's promise ; Lot's flight from
Sodom ; Intoxication of Lot ; Abraham's
return from the attempted sacrifice of
Isaac ; Abraham's servant journeys to
Mesopotamia ; Eebecca at the well ;
the Servant makes gifts to Eebecca ;
Esau sells his birthright ; Isaac and
Abimelech ; Jacob demands the pied
sheep ; the peeled rods ; Laban over-
takes Jacob ; Laban searches the tents ;
Jacob awaits Esau ; Jacob sends his
herds to Esau ; Jacob takes his company
across the water, and wrestles with the
angel ; God blesses Jacob ; Jacob at
Bethel ; burial of the gods of the hea-
then ;Death of Deborah ; Death and
burial of Eachel ; Death and burial of
Isaac ; Jacob gives Joseph the coat
of many colours ; Joseph's dream ;
Joseph's second dream ; the Grazing of
the herds in Sichem ; Joseph is sent
to his brethren in Sichem ; Joseph
and Potiphar's wife; Joseph falsely p,a, 263. Fragment from the Cotton Bible
accused ; Joseph in pi-ison ; Pharaoh's ^ (British Museum, Otho B. VI). P. 446.
banquet ; Pharaoh's dream ; Joseph
interprets the dream ; Joseph recognizes his brethren ; the Eeturn of Joseph's
brethren ; the Emptying of the sacks ; Eeuben asks permission to take
Benjamin to Egypt ; Judah asks for Benjamin ; Jacob permits the departure
of Benjamin ; Eeturn of the brethren to Egypt ; the Brethren speak with
Joseph's steward ; Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh ; Jacob summons his
sons to bless them ; Jacob charges his sons; Death and burial of Jacob.
 446 PAINTING
The Cotton Bible ' in the British Museym, almost ruined by the fire in
the Cotton Library in a. d. 1731, originally possessed two hundred and fifty
miniatures. Only a hundred
and fifty fragments illus-
trating the Book of Genesis
remain, and the majority are
so damaged as to be valueless
from an artistic point of view.
In the general treatment
analogies may be traced with
the Vienna Genesis, though
some would place the date
earlier than the sixth cen-
tury. Probably, in this case
also, the illustration is based
on earlier work in the form
of a scroll. The pictures are
sometimes placed two on a

The backgrounds are

coloured,
page. generally blue, re-
calling in this those of the
earlier mosaics, though they
are of a lighter shade. Out-
lines are heavily drawn ; the
gestures are natural, and the
faces often expressive. The
draperies are well executed,
but we note that the angel
in the Expulsion from Eden
has a mantle picked out with
parallel gold lines resembling
the cloisons of enamel, a
feature of frequent occur-
rence in later miniatures and
panel paintings. An interest-
ing feature in connexion with
the Cotton Bible is the fact
that it, or another book from
the same model, was evi-
dently copied by the mosaic-
ists who executed the mosaics
in the vestibule of S. Marco
at Venice (p. 400).
1 Cotton MS., Otho B. VI.
Fis. 264. Hagar : fragment from the Cotton Bible (British Bibliographical references will
Museum, Otho B. VI). be found in the British Museum
Catalogue of Ancient MSS., Part I,
Greek, 1881, 20. On the original fly-leaf, now destroyed, was a statement by Dr. James,
Cotton's librarian, to the effect that the MS. was brought by Grreek bishops from Philippi and
presented to Henry VIII ; and that it was afterwards given by Queen Elizabeth to Sir John
Fortescue, her tutor in Greek, who in his turn presented it to Sir R. Cotton. Some fragments
which came into the possession of Dr. Andrew Gifford have been preserved since his death in
A.D. 1784 in the library of the Baptist College at Bristol. Reproductions are to be found in
Vetusta Monumenta, i, PI. LXVII, LXVIII ; British Museum Catalogue, as above, PI. VIII (fol. 26 b
and 27 a, Gen. xviii. 13 and xix. 1-3) ; Westwood, Palaeogr. Sacra Pictoria, PI. Ill (fol. 24, Hagar).
H. Omont in his Facsimiles des miniatures des plus anciens mss. grecs, Paris, 1902, PI. I, repro-
duces two surviving copies, made for Peireso, illustrating : (1) The Almighty with Cherubim
(Gen. iii. 24) ; (2) God's promise to Abraham. The MS. had been lent to Peiresc through
the good offices of Camden, and was kept by him for four years.
 447
ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS

The Joshua Eotulus in the Vatican Library ' (Codex Vat. Palat. Gr. 431)
is among the most important MSS. now preserved, although it is usually-
held to be a copy, dating from the period between the seventh and tenth
centuries, of an original perhaps as old as the fifth." Two hands have evidently
been at work ; an earlier, which has written the short descriptions under or
near the figures ; a later, to which the continuous text is due. The earlier

Fig. 265. Joshua pursuing the Gibeonites : miniature from the Joshua Rotulus in the
Vatican. {Hautes Studes : Gr. Millet.)
may be of the seventh to the tenth century: the later of the tenth. Most
critics believe that the copy is traced over an original which had faded : it be-
longs to the same period as the earlier of the two hands, while the colour, which
is thin and pale, is probably of the same date as the later (Figs. 258, 265).
' The MS., formerly a long scroll, was in 1902 divided into sections, each separately
mounted. In the thirteenth century it was in Greece ; in a. d. 1571 it belonged to Ulrich
Fugger, who bequeathed it to Frederick IV, Elector Palatine ; in a. d. 1623 it was taken with
other spoils of war by Maximilian I of Bavaria, who presented it to the Pope. The literature
is given in the excellent Vatican edition of A. Munoz, in which the whole Eotulus is reproduced,
some parts in colour {II Botulo di Giosue . . . riprodotto a cura della Biblioteca Yaticana, Milan, Hoepli.
1905, p. 7). Earlier discussions of the scroll will be found in Palaeographical Soc, i, PI. 108 ;
d'Agincourt, Feinture, PI. LIII ; Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels, iii, 1865, p. 27 ; Sehnaase,
Oeschichte der bildendm Kunst, iii, 1869, p. 239 ; Garrucoi, Sttyria dell' arte cristiana, iii. 97-8 ; Kon-
dakoff. Hist, de I'art byzantin, i, p. 95 ; Bayet, L'Art hyzantin, 72, and Becherches pour servir, 68 ;
E. Frantz, Gesch. der chrisUicJien Malerei, i, 1887, 215 ; H. Graeven in L'Arte, i, 1898, 227-8 ;
F. X. Kraus, Gesch. der christlichen Kunst, i. 453 ; Diehl, Manuel, 232.
^ Opinions as to date are divided. Kondakoff ascribes the MS. to the fifth or sixth cen-
tury, and in this he is followed by Diehl. But there seem to be indications that the work is
that of a copyist who has not in all cases fully reproduced his original. It is perhaps more
probable that a copy so intelligent and full of life should have been made in the ninth or
tenth century, when iconoclasm had given a new impetus to the study of ancient art, than at
an earlier period. The frequent resemblances between figures in this or a similar MS. and
those on ivory caskets of about the ninth-tenth centuries are rather in favour of this view.
But if it can be shown that the earlier of the two hands is of the seventh or eighth century,
the earlier time must be adopted.
448 PAINTINa

The original MS. was the work of a Greek artist who probably worked
in Alexandria. Details such as the furcae in which the King of Ai and the
Amorites are hanged, and the type of seat (8tV>pos) on which Joshua sits,
find parallels in the Vienna Genesis, and in monuments- such as an ivory
pyxis in the British Museum (p. 209), and a wood carving in Berlin (p. 149).
The fiirca replaced the cross in the last years of Constantine's reign.
The Eotulus represents the Hellenic tradition in Byzantine miniature art,
and the resemblances in points of detail to the tenth-century Paris Psalter
(MS. grec. 139 — see below, p. 468) show that both MSS. are of the same
artistic descent ; the Psalter and its congeners probably_reproduce an early
model of about the same date as the original of the Eotulus. Both models
may have been produced in Alexandria : ' the copies were possibly made in
Constantinople. A number of scenes are missing both from the beginning
and end of the scroll, but the Octateuchs (p. 464), which are evidently based
upon models of the same kind, permit us to supply the deficiency.^ From
the setting out of the spies, the story runs continuously to the execution of
the five kings of the Amorites. We see the Ark crossing Jordan, the erection
of the monument at Gilgal, the taking of Jericho, the contest for Ai, the battle
with the Amorites. It is noted elsewhere that the Joshua Eotulus or its
type was one of the sources from which ivory carvers derived groups or
single figures, at a time when sub-classical models were in request (see p. 218).
Among the most important of early MSS. is the Syrian book of the Gospels
in the Laurentian Library in Florence,^ illuminated in the year a.d. 586 by
Eabula in the Monastery of Zagba, in Northern Mesopotamia.
The colour is throughout rich, ranking with that of the Codex Eossanensis.
The figure subjects are composed strictly to illustrate the Gospel passages and
are independent of the early traditions of Christian art in the West. We
have here in fact Christian iconography reflected as it were in a new ethnical
mirror. A feature which at once strikes the eye is the great fondness of the
illustrator for accessories and ornament; in this the book is in absolute
contrast to the Codex Eossanensis and the group with which it is associated.
Except in the case of the first two and the four last folios, which have
full-page illustrations, the ornamental and figure subjects are arranged at the
sides of the architectural canon-tables, which are very numerous (Figs. 259, 266).
Above the arches are birds and vases, trees, plants, and flowers, peacock's
feathers, &c. : to right and left at the bottom various animals and plants.
The wealth and variety of this ornament is very striking: the style which
it represents must be attributed to Hither Asia, and was the basis of much
that became traditional in later Byzantine art. The species of animals and
flowers are often rendered with a lively touch and with much fidelity to nature.
The date of this early manuscript being precisely known, and the range of its
illustration wide, it will be useful for iconographical purposes to indicate
the figure subjects in their order, it being assumed that in every case down
to folio 23 the figures are disposed about or within the columns of arches or
of Eusebian Canons.
The Apostles elect Matthew in place of Jude ; the Virgin standing with
the Child ; Eusebius of Caesarea and Ammonius of Alexandria ; Moses receivim^
the Tables of the Law, and Aaron with the rod that budded ; Samuel with
the horn of anointing, Joshua with the sun and moon above him, and the

1 Strzygowski (BilderJereis des griechischen Plnjsiologus, pp. 122 ff.) notes points of resem-
blance, such as the form of the di(ppos of Joshua, to the Vienna Genesis
2 Muiioz, p. 17 and PI. P, G, 4e.
s S. E. Assemanus, Archbishop of Apamea, Bibliothecae
Codicum MSS. orientalium Catalogus, Florence, 1742, Iff. and PI.Mediceae Laurenflanae et Palatinae
I-XXVI ; Garrucci Storia del
Varte cristiana, PI. C VI I ; Ussoff, in Drevnosti (publication of the Moscow Arch. Soo ), vol xi For
a Synac MS. (No. 341) with miniatures of the seventh-eighth centuries recently acquired by
the BibliothSciue Nat., Paris, see H. Omont, Mon. Plot, xvii, p. 85. ^ i j
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS 449

Annunciation ; Solomon, David, the Baptism, the Massacre of the Innocents ;

the Miracle of Oana ; Abdias, Amos, the Healing of the Woman with the Issue
of Blood ; Jonah beneath the Gourd, the Woman of Samaria, the Healing of
the Lame Man ; Zephaniah, Nahum, the Eaising of the Widow of Nain's Son ;
Isaiah, Job, Our Lord standing between two Apostles ; Haggai, Habakkuk,
the Healing of the Blind Man ; Jeremiah, Zachariah, Our Lord with the Sons
of Zebedee and their Mother ; Daniel, Ezekiel, Our Lord healing the Demoniac ;

Fig. 266. Page from the Syriac Gospel of Eabula, a. d. 586, in the Laurentian Library,
Florence. (Hautes Etudes : A. Yentuii.) P. 448.

Our Lord and the Tribute-money ; the Evangelists Matthew and John seated
with codex and scroll ; Mark and Luke ; a miracle (the Loaves and Fishes ?) ;
Christ upon the Mount, the Healing of the Lame and Blind ; the Entry into
Jerusalem, Christ distributing the Bread to the Apostles ; the Betrayal, Judas
hanging ; Our Lord with Matthew at the Eeceipt of Custom.
With folio 23 begins a series of full-page illustrations.
23. The Crucifixion.^ Holy women at the tomb, and Noli me tangere, in
a border of step pattern.
In the upper part of the picture Our Lord, in the colobium, is crucified
between the thieves, nails being driven through each foot. Below the cross
I It is maintained by several critics that this and the following miniatures are not of the
date of the MS. and are not likely to be earlier than the tenth century (cf. A. Morini, Origini
M cidto dell' Addolorata, Appendix ; A. Hoisenberg, Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche, 1908, 255 ;
G-. Stuhlfauth, Die Engel, &c., 144, note 5). But Ainaloff has remarked the affinity between the
treatment of their subjects and those of the Monza ampullae (p. 623), which are considered
to reproduce in outline the early mosaics of the memorial churches in Palestine. Cf. Diehl,
Manuel, 237.
1201 Ct g
450 PAINTING

three soldiers play 'morra' in order to divide the garments. Above the cro^
are the sun and moon, the former with human features. To right and left
are Longinus (AOriNOC) and Stephaton, with spear, and sponge on reed.
Beyond them are five mourning women, the Virgin, who has the nimbus,
standing on the extreme left. Below is the Holy Sepulchre, a buildmg with
fanciful roof and opened doors, from which issue rays of light. On the left
sits the angel discoursing with the two Maries. On the right is Our foliage Lord,
while the two Maries kneel before him. In the background is the
of trees. . ■, ■, ■ -u- ■.
24. The Ascension. In the upper part of the picture is a mandorla m wJiich
stands Our Lord. It is supported below by the winged beasts and flaming wheels,
and at the sides by two angels : to right and left are two other angels with
offerings : in the upper corners are the sun and moon with human features.
Below stands the Virgin as orans between two angels, beyond whom are the
Twelve Apostles in two groups. Behind the figures is a hilly landscape.
25. Christ among the Doctors. Our Lord is seated in the middle, two doctoi-s
standing on each side, two holding books. The scene is beneath an arched
canopy surmounted by a cross upon a globe, on eachwith side of which is a long-
necked bird with head turned back towards a branch berries.
26. The Pentecost. The Apostles stand before a round hill, on the sides of
which are formal plants or trees ; flames are depicted above their haloes. In
the midst stands the Virgin, above whose head the Dove is seen descending,
with flame and rays issuing from its beak.
The miniatures at the beginning of the Etchmiadein Gospel^ of the year
A.D. 989, in the library of the monastery of that name in Armenia, were
probably imported into that country from Syria at an early date. The MS.
shows more decided Syrian characteristics, but its miniatures, if rough in style,
are evidently true copies of Hellenistic originals. They must be considerably
older than the text and are regarded as of the sixth century: the subjecte
comprise Our Lord, the Virgin and Child, the Evangelists, the Sacrifice of
Isaac, and a sanctuary symbolizing the Christian Church. Several details in
these miniatures suggest the influence of Syria-Palestine. The form of the
altar in the Sacrifice of Isaac is found on the ivory pyxis of earlier date at
Berlin assigned to this region (p. 191, Fig. 115), and its flight of steps may
have been suggested by the steps leading up to Calvary often mentioned by
early pilgrims. The Adoration of the Magi recalls the type seen on several
ivories, on a panel from the Murano diptych in the John Rylands Library,
Manchester (Fig. 114), and on a similar panel in the British Museum (Fig. 126).
All these panels, from the monumental character of their style, may well
reproduce, as has been suggested, the mosaics on the fajade of the Church
of the Nativity at Bethlehem.'' In the arcades enclosing the several miniatures
and the ornamental details there is close relationship to the Gospel of Babula
(see above), while the iconographical arrangement of several among them
also recalls that MS. and the ampullae of Monza, which were made in Syria-
Palestine. It can hardly be doubted that the types followed by the Etch-
miadzin miniatures are Syrian, and that they go back at least to the first half
of the sixth century. The manner in which the school to which they belonged
affected early Prankish art is an important instance of the early oriental influence
in the West which is elsewhere discussed (p. 85). It is evident in the case of
the page with the sanctuary symbolizing the Church, which recalls the shrines
represented in the mosaics of St. George's, Salonika, and the Catholic Baptistery
at Eavenna.'
' J. Strzygowski, B.V., i, Bas Elschmiadsin Evangeliar ; Aiualoff, Hellenistic Origins, 40.
2 Ainaloff, p. 41.
* D. Ainaloff, Y. V., v. 167-8. Ainaloff thinks that this architecture is of Alexandrian
inspiration, and compares tliat of muial paintings of the period of Hadrian and the Antonines
on the Palatine at Rome (cf. Edm. Miiih., 1893, 291-2).
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 451

Numerous details confirm the Syrian inspiration of the miniatures. The

ornament of the arcades is similar to that in the book of Eabula ; the rainbow
tinting of one arcade occurs again in the Crucifixion and Ascension miniatures
of that book ; the maeander is also common to both MSS. ; so are the birds
and plants with which the pages are adorned. There is hardly a decorative
feature in Eabula which does not find a parallel in this Gospel. Either,

Fig. 267. Christ before Pilate : page from the Syriac Gospel of Kabula, a. d. 588, in the
Laurentian Library, riorence. (Haides Mtudes : A. Venturi.) P. 448.

therefore, the Etchmiadzin miniatures are themselves Syrian of the sixth

century, or they copy a work very close in date to the Gospel of Eabula.
Opinions are not unanimous as to the date of all the miniatures. The page
with the Virgin and Child has been considered to be contemporary with the
Armenian text (a. d. 989).^
Fragments from other early Gospels have survived, mostly decorative and
without figure subjects. We may especially mention two leaves with rich
Eusebian Canons of the sixth century, bound up with a twelfth-century Gospel
in the British Museum.'* The shafts of the columns and the pediments are
filled with rich floral and geometrical designs ; in the pediments are medallions
with busts of saints on a blue ground ; outside the arches are realistic plants
and birds. Interconnected circles, whorls, and rosettes also enter into the
1 0. Wulff, Die Eoimesiskirche m Nicda, 267.
2 Add. MS. 5111, fol. 10 and 11 ; Brit. Mus. Cat. of Ancient MSS., Gresk, 1881, p. 21 and
PI. II ; H. Shaw, Bluminated MSS., 1833, PI. I-IV (in colour) ; A. Haseloff, Codex Purpureus
Hossanensis, 1898, 44-5.
452 PAINTING

decoration. These leaves should be compared with the pages from an early-
Gospel at Vienna, which have also rich Eusebian Canons, and wreaths with
lemnisci enclosing crosses.' The ornament in both cases is of Syrian origin.
The Codex Eossanensis," a Gospel in the Cathedral of Eossano in the South
of Italy, written in silver letters upon purple vellum and illuminated with
miniatures in rich and varied colours, is from the point of view alike of art and
iconography so important to the study of early Byzantine art that it must be
described at exceptional length. With it must be discussed the fragment of
St. Matthew from Sinope now in Paris, which is of the same school, while both
have affinities to the Vienna Genesis (p. 444).
The artist who produced the miniatures was a colourist ; and the variety
and rich tone of the colours employed are in striking contrast to the thin tints of
the Joshua Eotulus. In brilliance of tone this book is only second to the
Gospel of Eabula.' The compositions are well conceived, realistic, and full of
detail ; they are of fundamental importance for the study of Byzantine icono-
graphy, proving as they do that many familiar types (e.g. the Entry mio
Jerusalem) were already fully developed as early as the beginning of the feixth
century, to which period experts in palaeography assign the book.* Ornament
is sparsely used in this codex and in the volumes artistically related to it, all
contrasting in this respect with the Gospel of Eabula and Syrian illuminated
books in general. The text is in two columns of silver letters, and there are
188 pages. The miniatures are as a rule divided horizontally into two parts,
the lower having half-figures of four kings or prophets of the Old Testament,
holding scrolls and bearing witness to the truth of the scene represented above,,
the upper containing the principal subject. The nature of the illuminated
subjects may be briefly resumed.
FqI. 1. The four half -figures below are David, Hosea, David, and Isaiah (here,
as elsewhere, David is repeated). The subject above is the Mesurrection of Lazarus.
The upright swathed body of Lazarus is seen in a cave on the right supported
by a slave. Christ, as always in this MS., is bearded and clothed in a purple
tunic, over which is a gold mantle : he has the cruciferous nimbus. At his feet
are Mary and Martha ; to right and left, groups of Apostles and spectators.
1 b. David, Zachariah, David, Malachi : tlie Entry into Jerusalem. Christ
rides from the left ; behind him follow two disciples, while two boys have
climbed a tree in the background. From the gates of Jerusalem on the right
issue people leading little children and carrying palms : two boys spread
garments before the feet of the ass. Within the walls houses are visible r
people look from the windows of one, holding palm branches in their hands.
Fol. 2. David, Hosea, David, Malachi : the Excision of the Merchants from
the Temple. On the left is the Temple, a gabled building with projecting
portico. Before it Christ, holding a scourge, converses with two priests. On
1 H. Wickhoff, Austrian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, 196 ff.. Die Omamente eines altchristUchen Codex
der HofbibUothek (No. 847). For other early fragments at Paris and St. Petersburg see Cronin,
Codex purpureus Petropolitanus in Texts and Studies contrilruted to . . . Patristic Literature, v No. i
1899 ; Izriestiya of the Russian Arch. Inst, at Cple., i, 1896, 138 ff. ; Monumenti d' qirte, Fase. i|.

2 0. von Gebhardt and A. Harnack, Evangelionim Codex pwpureus Rossanensis, Leipsie, 1880 ;
A. Haseloff, Codex purpureus Bossanensis, 1898 ; A. Munoz, II Codice purpurea di Sossano e iljram-
mento Sinopense, Rome, 1907 (the coloured reproductions in this work are the best which have
appeared, but all three books contain valuable critical matter). See also lampreoht in Bonner
Jahrbiicher, Heft LXIX, 1880, 90-98 ; Zucher in GbtUngische gekhrte Anseigen, 1881, 938 ff. -^
C. Ussoff in Vremosti {Proc. of the Imperial Moscow Arch. Soc), 1902 ; 0. von Gebhardt, hie Evari-
gelien, &o., aus dem Codex purpureus, Leipsio, 1883 ; H. Graeven in Gbttingische getehrte Anseiqen
1900, 410 ff.; E. K. Riedin in V. Y., 1900, 4.54 ff. ; J. Strzygowski, B.Z., 1899, 589, 590. F. x!
von Funk {Historisches Jahrbuch, 1896, 381 ff.) ascribes the MS. to the eighth or ninth century.
' The colours are applied directly to the purple, though the face of Our Lord is painted
over the gold of the nimbus.
• The early date assigned by palaeographers is confirmed
Jev?ish priests have no special costume, but only tunic and by iconographical details. The
pallium ; whereas a distinctive-
attire characterizes them in the later part of the sixth century.
 453
ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS

the right the merchants are retiring, We note a money-changer with his
table and abacus.
T !*'■ •"^^7"'^. ^*^'"®® *™^®)' ^°^^^ = ^^^ Parahle of the Wise and Foolish Virqins
In the middle is a panelled door, seen from the side. On the left of it are the
hve toolish virgins in mantles of various colours, pink, blue, yellow, and
black

Fig. 268. Movement of the heavens round the earth : miniature from the eleventh-
century MS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes in the monastery. Mount Sinai (Cod. Sinait. 1186)
iHauUs Etudes: N. Kondakoff.) P. 462.

carrying extinguished torches. On the right, in a landscape with a tree

bearing golden fruit and a mount from which issues the Four Rivers, are the
five wise virgins in white, with burning torches. Christ stands on the inner
side of the door.
Fol. 3. David (three times), Zephaniah : the Last Supper, and the Washing
of the Disciples' Feet. A semicircular table with couches at each end, on which
Our Lord and Peter recline. Bound the table are seated the Apostles, while
Judas reaches > across for the sop. In the second scene Christ bends over
St. Peter's feet.
3 b.' David, Moses, David, Isaiah : Communion of the Apostles, the Distribi*-
tion of the Bread. Our Lord stands on the left. Six Apostles in bluish mantles.
4. Moses, David, David, Solomon : the Dispensation of the Wine. Here
454 PAINTINa

Our Lord stands on the right, offering a hemispherical golden bowl. The
Apostles advance in line from the left.
4 b. David, David, Jonah, Nahum : Gethsemane. A rocky landscape : on
the left Our Lord bends over the sleeping disciples ; on the right he is again
seen kneeling in prayer. Above is a band of blue sky, with stars and crescent
moon.
5. Frontispiece to Eusebian Canons. At four equal points in a circle composed
of overlapping disks variegated in blue, pink, and a bluish tint are medallions
with busts of the Four Evangelists; each is bearded and nimbed, holding
a golden book. The ground is blue, the mantles white. The motive of over-
lapping disks recurs in the frescoes of Sta Maria Antiqua.
6 b. Part of EuseMus' letter to Carpianus, in Sin oi-na,mei\tal gold horder. At
the top is a pink rose flanked by doves (?). At the corners are baskets, on the
sides pink roses and lotus-like flowers with long stems ; at the bottom is a rose
flanked by two ducks.
7. David, Sirach, David, Isaiah : the Healing of the Blind Man. On the
left Our Lord, followed by two disciples, approaches the blind man: on the
right the latter bathes his eyes in a quadrangular fountain watched by onlookers.
7b. David, Micah, David, Sirach: the Good Samaritan. On the left the
buildings of the city ; in the middle the Good Samaritan in the form of Our
Lord, and an angel with a golden bowl, lean over the prostrate traveller.
On the right Christ leads the ass on which the victim is placed to the door of
a house and pays the occupant money.
8. Christ before Pilate; Judas restoring the Tliirty Pieces; Judas hanged.
The govei'nor sits on a high throne before which is a draped table with ink-
pot and pens. To right and left stand guards wearing golden collars, and
holding standards on which are imperial busts. Below, on the left, Christ and
two priests advance ; on the right stands a group of Eoman functionaries. The
Judas scenes are below, replacing the usual prophets. On the left the priest,
seated in a basket chair with high back beneath a canopy, rejects the silver
w^hich Judas offers in the fold of his mantle. On the right Judas is seen
hanging from the tree.
8 b. The Jeios choose between Christ and Barabbas. Pilate is seated as before ;
on his right stands a group of Jews ; on his left a recorder writing in a diptych.
Below on the left Christ stands between two functionaries each in chlamys with
tablion, one holding a birch : on the right, two slaves in short tunics hold
Barabbas. In this miniature also there are no prophets.
121. St. Marls, seated in a basketwork chair with high back, writing his
Gospel. He writes upon a long scroll. Above him is a canopy with an archi-
trave :there are two windows through which the sky is seen. Before him
stands a female figure in a blue mantle and with blue nimbus, perhaps a per-
sonification ofthe Divine Wisdom ('Ayta %o<jil.o).
Of the above scenes, the Eaising of Lazarus occurs here for the first time
with the full detail usual in later Byzantine art. The Entry into Jerusalem is
also an early example of a type which became traditional. The treatment of
the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins varies in art, but the type here seen
is similar to that described in the (late) Painter's Manual. The Last Supper
and the Washing of the Feet are also compositions which became more or less
fixed. The Distribution of the Bread and Wine is a liturgical equivalent of the
Last Supper, and does hot occur in Western art. The arrangement of the
scene in two symmetrical parts suggests imitation of a mosaic, perhaps an early
prototype of the version in that of Sta Sophia at Kieff.^ Of the Parable of the
Good Samaritan it may be noted that the representation of the Samaritan under
the form of Christ is an oriental feature. The division into two parts of the
scene representing Christ before Pilate occurs again on the ciborium columns

1 For the scene see p. 666 and A. Munoz, VArt bysantin a Vexposition de Grottaf errata, 132 fF.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 455

of S. Marco, which come from the Christian East (p. 155 and Tig. 89) : the same
columns are the only other early monuments which present the return of the
thirty pieces by Judas in an equally dramatic manner.
The miniature representing St. Mark writing is interesting as an early
application to an Evangelist of the type of author's portrait known to have
been prefixed to illustrated pagan MSS., and occurring in the sixth-century MS.

Pig. 269. The Ascension of Elijah, from the eleventh-cenhiry MS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes
in the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai. {Hautes Etudes : N. Kondakoff.) P. 462.

of Dioseorides at Vienna (p. 460). It will be remembered that the Gospel of

Eabula has two Evangelists represented in a similar way (St. Matthew and
St. John).'
The female figure before St. Matthew is probably one of those personifi-
cations adopted by Byzantine from Hellenistic art. Had the Evangelist been
St. John, she might have well been interpreted as the Virgin ; but though the
Virgin does occasionally appear under the form of the Divine Wisdom,'' it is
perhaps better to suppose that here only the latter is intended.' Various
figures representing vehicles of divine inspiration accompany the Evangelists in
Byzantine art (e. g. Our Lord in the Clouds, St. Peter, the Virgin) : St. John
' For the author's portrait, the origin of which is to be sought in Hellenistic bas-reliefs,
see Diez in B. D., iii. 38. The portrait of Virgil is seen at the beginning of the famous MS.
of the Aeneid in the Vatican.
' Fresco in Sta Sophia, KieiT ; top of triumphal arch in Cathedral of Moureale, Sicily,
where the Virgin orans is described as Sapientia Dei.
' A. Munoz, Codex purpureus, &c., 16.
456 PAINTING

is often seen dictating to Procerus, though sometimes he is attended by a female

figure.' Most examples of these attendant figures are late, a fact which makes
the present example doubly interesting.
It seems probable that the whole series of illuminations is intended to
illustrate the liturgy of Passion Week in the Graeco-Alexandrian Church.
Kondakoff is probably right in regarding the codex as a product of a realistic
and vigorous monastic art." .
The stylistic relations of the Codex Eossanensis with the Vienna Genesis
have been discussed by all critics, especially by Ussoff, who considers them in
great detail : ' types of figures, architectural forms, costumes, all offer points of

Fig. 270. The Vision of Isaiah, from the ninth-century MS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes in
the Vatican Library. (JSautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

similarity : the colour-scheme is also similar. Affinities less close, but proving
the influence of the same artistic current, are found in the Ashburnham Penta-
teuch (p.488), the sepulchral frescoes at Palmyra (Fig. 168), and the apse mosaic
at' Sjnai.^ The animals represented, guch as the humped oxen in the Expulsion
of the Money-changers, point to Asia Minor or Syria.
On the whole, Asia Minor appears the most probable place of origin. The
Sinope fragments were obtained there, as also were the St. Petersburg fragments
{see p. 452). Anatolia is known by documentary evidence to have been rich in
painters " (see p. 260) ; and we may note that the distinctive style differs from
that of MSS. executed elsewhere. The most serious rival to Asia Minor is the
capital,' and this is an alternative which will commend itself to many, especially
if the book, like the Sinope Gospel, was illuminated for a member of the imperial
house.'
^ As on a twelfth-century Italo-Byzantine relief on the outside of the -west wall of
St; Mark's at Venice.
^ Munoz, p. 19. This is also the opinion of Kondakoff, Ussoff, and F. X. Kraus ; it is
disputed by Haseloff and Pokrovsky. ' Hist, de Vart bye., i. 120.
* pp. 73 ff. See also Liidtke, Untersuchungen su den Miniaiuren der Wiener Genesis, Greifswald,
1897. 15 Munoz, p. 22.
" For Asterlus of Amasia see Migiie, Pair. Gr., vol. xi ; J. Strzygowski, Kleinasien, 200 ;
A. Munoz, Alcune fonti htterarie per la storid dell' arte bizantina, in Nuovo Bvllettino di arch, crist,,
1904, p. 222.
' 0. Wulff, B.Z., xiii, 1904, 573. * E. Cronin, Journal of Theological Studies, ii. 590 ff.
 457
ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS

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458 PAINTING

The date is generally given as the beginning of the sixth century ; but
Federici would place it, with the Vienna Genesis, considerably earlier.^ It has
been stated that certain iconographic features, such as the absence of a distinctive
costume for the Jewish priests, are held to support this view (p. 452, n. 4).
The fragment of the Gospel of St. Matthew obtained by Captain de la Taille
at Sinope, and now in the Bibliothfeque Nationale at Paris, belongs to the same
, school as the Codex Eossanensis, though the execution is inferior and the date
perhaps a little later." It comprises Matthew vii, xi, and xiii-xxiv ; the
miniatures are not placed together at the beginning, as in the case of the Codex
Eossanensis, but intercalated in the text, which is written in gold upon purple.
A leaf of the book is preserved at Mariopol in Eussia. Each miniature is
accompanied by two prophets with scrolls, placed not below, but at each end of
the picture.
The remaining miniatures are as follows :—
Pol. 10 b. The Feast of Herod and Decollation of St. John the Baptist, between
Moses and David. Herod reclines at table ; before him stands Salome, to whom
a servant in short girded tunic offers the head upon a golden charger. Behind
him is the prison, a roofless enclosure, in which lies the headless body ; near
it stand two mourning disciples.
Fol. 11. The First Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (Matt. xiv. 19). _ The
accompanying prophets have lost their scrolls ; only the upper part of the picture
remains.
Pol. 15. The Second Miracle (Matt. xv. 32), between Moses and David. Our
Lord in gold tunic and mantle with cruciferous nimbus stands between two
disciples holding baskets of bread and fish: on the ground are other large
baskets of bread. To the right the Israelites are seated eating in two rows in
the high grass.
Pol. 29. The Healing of the Blind at Jericho, between David and Isaiah.
Our Lord touches the eye of the blind man, who supports himself on sticks.
Behind him is a disciple, and behind again two Jews in paenulae.
Fol. 30. The Barren Fig-tree, between Habakkuk and Daniel. Our Lord,
followed by a disciple, advances to right towards a solitary fig-tree. In the
background is the city with crenellated walls, the interior showing two gabled
buildings and one with a dome upon a high drum.
Of these scenes, the first is of a type which persists in later Byzantine art,
and occurs in a twelfth-century Gospel in the Laurentian Library at Florence.*
The Painter's Manual describes the scene in the same way.
The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes resembles the representation in the
Catacombs of Alexandria,* though Christ is there seated. The addition of the
people eating after the miracle appears to be an oriental feature.
The Miracle of the Barren Pig-tree is not known elsewhere before the
twelfth century,^ unless the relief from Sohag, now in Berlin, represents the
scene." on
frescoes TheMount
subject is described
Athos. Our Lordin in
the this
Painter's Manual,
MS. and in the and
Codexrepresented in
Eossanensis
resembles the Christ of the Gospel scenes in the nave of S. Apollinare Nuovo
at Eavenna."
1 See B. Z., 1900, 320 ; Muiioz, p. 12. The point iis to the prieatly costume had been
raised by Graeven (Austrian Jahrbmh, 1900).
2 H. Omont, Monuments Hot, vii, 1900, 175, and PI. XVI-XIX ; Facsimiles des mss., &c.,
1902, pp. 1-4 ; Journal des Savants, 1900, 279-85 ; Notites et extraits des mss. de la Bibl. Nat, xxxvi,
599 ff. ; Compte rendu de VAcad. des Insaiptions, 1900, 215-18 ; A. Munoz, 11 Codice purpurea diMossana
e ilframmento . , . di Sinope, 16 ff. (reproductions).
' Munoz, as above, p. 16.
* Bull, di arch, crist, 1865, p. 63 and Plate ; Kraus, Geschichte derchristl. Kunsi, i. 17.
° Munoz, p. 17.
« J. Strzygowski, Hellenistische mid koptische Kunst, Fig. 68. In this sculpture Our Lord is
mounted.
' As Kondakoff remarked (Hist, de Vart bys., i, p. 120). The type is perhaps Mesopotamian.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS 459

II. SeCI'LAR MANUSCEirTS.

The illuminated Uiad in the Anibrosian Library at Milan is considered

by some to date from the fourth centmy, by others even from the tliird.' The
Vatican Virgil - is not far removed from it in date, both MSS. being appa-
rently copies from older works and purely antique in spirit. Like the frescoes
of Pompeii, with which they have been compared, these miniatures descend
from Alexandrian art ; Christianity had not modified their pagan ins]>iration.
The Chronicle of the History of the World in the C4olenisheff Collection,
written upon papyrus, was evidently executed in Egypt, the date being

r -.\

Fig. 27 Scenes from the Life of David : Psalter of a. d. 106(; in the British Museum.
(Add. MS. 193-52.) P. 470.

apparently about a.d. 400.-' It thus belongs to a time marked by a recru-

descence ofEgyptian feeling against Hellenic art.* The system of illustration
is that of pagan Egypt : the pictures are inserted in the text ; they are coloured
drawings, the figures arranged in rows without indication of depth or per-
spective. The colour -scheme is harsh and without variet}-, the prevailing tones
being red and yellow. Plant forms are only used as divisions between the
> A. M. Cei-iani and A. Ratti, Humeri lUadis pidac frngmeiita Amhnsiana, MiUin, 1905. The
earlier edition usually consulted was that of Angelo Mai. The costumes, &o., are studied by
A. De Marohi in Miscellanea Ceriani, Milan, 1910, 3 ff.
- P. de Nolhac, Le Virgile du Vatkan, Paris, 1897 ; Co<Uc€S e Vaficanis seledi, i.
^ A. Bauer and .T. Strzygowski, Eine alexuHdrinlsche Welkhronik, in DehUfichrlfleii of th&
Vien-na Academy (philosophic-historical .section), li, 1906, 169 ff.
* The most conspicuous example of this recrudescence ia found in the frescoes of Kom
es-Shugafa {Zeitschr.fiir lildende Kunst, xiii, 1902, 112 ft'.).
460 PAINTING

subjects. There is nothing in the shape of mere ornament, nor are there the
decorative borders which appear at an early date in the vellum codices of Asia
Minor and Syria: at present we know no Greek or Latin papyrus with such
ornamentation.' The Asiatic style of illumination with decorative accessories,
probably originating in Persia and Mesopotamia, definitely won the day by
the beginning of the sixth century : only where an Alexandrian papyrus scroll
was literally copied, as in the case of the Joshua Eotulus and the Octateuchs
{pp. 447, 464), was the simpler Egyptian manner preserved. The style rich in
ornament probably owed its triumph to the spread of the monastic art repre-
sented by such books as the Gospel of Eabula and the group of the Codex
Eossanensis (see p. 452).
The illustrations of this Chronicle of the World, which was an Alexandrian
redaction, need not themselves have been executed in Alexandria. Their crude
style, so inferior to that of the Joshua Eotulus, in which Greek influence is
evident, points rather to some centre in Upper Egypt where art was modified
by indigenous sentiment.
The Vienna manilscript of the medical treatise of Dioscorides, a physician of
the first century, was executed for Juliana Anicia, daughter of Galla Placidia
and wife of the consul Areobindus, in the early years of the sixth century,
probably about a. d. 512.^ The date may be inferred from an acrostic in-
scription surrounding the central part of the miniature with the princess's
portrait described below.
The larger illuminations precede the text of the work. The first shows
a peacock with tail displayed ; on the next two, groups of doctors are seen in
discussion ; on the fourth Dioscorides on a folding stool receives the plant man-
dragora from a female figure personifying Discovery (Evp-qais), while a dog dies
in agony in the foreground. On another page the physician is seen writing,
while Discovery holds the mandragora for an artist to draw. The most im-
portant miniature is that with a portrait of the princess, to be presently described.
When once the book begins, the illustrations are confined to medicinal plants,
one of which is accompanied by a nereid with lobster-claws upon her head,
riding a marine monster.
The miniature representing the princess shows Juliana seated on a throne,
holding in her hand a book or diptych. On either side stand two personifica-
tions, MeyaXoij/vxca with a number of gold coins in the fold of her mantle, and
^povr/a-L'i holding an open book, on a page of which is a plant, indicating that
the work is probably a copy of Dioscorides. In the foreground on the left a
female figure, 'EixoLpLa-na rex^wv, the Gratitude of the Arts, prostrates herself at
the princess's feet ; between her and MeyaXoi/^vxia, Ild^os t^s (^iXoktio-tow, or Love
of the foundress, again holds up a book. It is round this scene that the acrostic
is inscribed, which, through the mention of a church founded by Juliana at
Honoratae, a suburb of Constantinople, gives for the MS. the approximate date
of A.D. 512. In the small outer fields with blue grounds surrounding the large
composition are putti in grisaille engaged in building operations, again in

1 St. Jerome mentions vellum as a substitute when papyrus is not to be obtained ; from
the fourth century it must have been in general use outside Egypt. The earliest mention of
an illumination on parchment is in Martial (xiv. 186), where there is allusion to a portrait
of the author in a MS. of Virgil. It has been suggested that parchment was first commonly
used at Pergamum, whence the name. Early examples of painting on papyrus, showing a
certain analogy to the designs reserved upon textiles by the wax process (see p. 602), are to be
seen in the British and Victoria and Albert Museums (Bauer and Strzygowski, as above, 176).
2 For the early reproductions and discussions by Lambecius, Du Cange, Gori, d'Agincourt,
cSec.^ see the list given by von Premerstein, as below, p. 105. Moi'e recent discussions are by
J. Strzygowski, B. S., iii, xiv. 57 ff. ; D. Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origin, &c., 38; N. Kondakoff,
Histoire de I'art lyzantin, i. 108 ff. ; F. X. Kraus, Gesch. der christl. Kunst, i. 489 and Fig. 345 ;
G. Millet in A. Michel's Hist, de Vart, pp. 208-9. Labarte, Hist, des arts industriels, gives a good
plate in colours of the Juliana miniature {Album, ii, 1864, PI. 78) ; but the best reproductions,
with the most valuable commentary, are those of A. von Premerstein, Austrian Jahrbuch,
xxiv, 1903, 105 if., and of the same author with C. Wessely, Codex Aniciae Iidianae, &o., 1906.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 461

allusion to the foundation of the church.' The purpose of the miniature is to

extol Juliana Anicia as a patroness of the Church and of the arts. Tlie char-
acter of the borders surrounding and dividing its surface is oriental, the custom
of enclosing a design within
a border going back to the
ancient art of Mesopotamia.-
Of the other miniatures,
we may specially note that in
which Dioscorides is sitting
writing, as it is an early
surviving example of the
author's portrait, later em-
ployed for representations of
the four Evangelists at the
beginning of their Gospels.^
The type is found on one of
the early sarcophagi from
f'OVTDCCiU
Konia, and would appear to
have been popular in Hel-
lenistic Asia Minor. Through-
out this MS. the Hellenistic
element is predominant ; the
oriental elements are for the
most part decorative only.
The style is distinct from that
of the early MSS. connected fxyjXf
with Southern Anatolia,
Mesopotamia, and Syria
ri:a do 2
(Vienna C4enesis, Codex Ros-
sanensis, Gospel of Eabula) ;
perhaps the work may have
seen the light in Constanti-
nople itself.
It is noticeable that a
gold background occurs for
the first time in this book.
It will be convenient to
mention here the fifteenth-
century illuminated Diosco-
rides of the Chigi Library at
Eome,* which reproduces I
many of the same subjects
and is clearly a copy of Fig. 273. The Ascension : illumination in the Britisli
a late Hellenistic original Museum Psalter of a.d. 106(3. (Add. MS, 19352). P. 470.
nearly allied to the Vienna
book. It has numerous jjages of coloured plants, trees, and animals, including
birds and insects, the coral, the mandragora scene, the groups of doctors,
Dioscorides with the painter and Epinoia (or Sophia), and (an interesting addi-
tion) two views of a nude man, the head being of an antique type.
Other Dioscorides MSS. are the Codex Neapolitanus in the Vienna Library,
the Paris Codex of the ninth century (Gr. 2179), and a MS. in the collection of
Sir Thomas Philips at Cheltenham.
The Christian Topography of Cosmas Iiidicopleiistes, who wrote either at Alexan-
^ We may compare the building scenes of the frescoes of Kuseir 'Arara isee p. 2S-).
2 Cf. B. f)., iii, p. 57 ; Orietit oder Rom, 47.
^ It has been already noticed that the author's portrait, derived from Hellenistic reliefs,
is mentioned by Martial as occurring in a MS. of Virgil (xiv. 186). See Diez, B.D., iii,
pp. 38 ff. * A. Muijoz, Codici greet miniali delle minori bibliotedie di Boinu, PI. XI-XIV.
462 PAINTING

dria or on Sinai about a.d. 547, is extant in several illustrated MSS. The oldest,
in the Vatican (No. 699),^ is probably of the ninth century ; two others, in the
Laurentian Library at Florence and in the monastery on Mount Sinai, are of
the eleventh. The work is a curious medley of science and religious doctrine, in
which natural history and cosmogony are explained in accordance with the philo-
sophy of Christian belief and Chaldaean legend. The illustration is equally varied,
maps from Ptolemy's geography and figures of plants and animals finding their
place with miniatures representing scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
The geographical illustrations are the source through which elements of
' pictorial science ', Alexandrian in origin, entered the province of later Byzan-
tine art. Such is the representation of the earth as a square flanked by the
four personified winds, environed by ocean, or as a mountain similarly sur-
rounded (Fig. 268). The biblical illustrations are chosen to mark the paral-
lelism between the two Testaments : thus Melchizedek is a type of the eternal,
the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Escape of Jonah from the Jaws of the Whale
typify the Passion and Eesurrection, the Ascent of Elijah represents the
Ascension of Our Lord. The plants and animals recall the illustrations of the
Vienna Dioscorides (see p. 460) and the Smyrna Physiologus (see p. 482).
The three MSS.^ are all based upon an original contemporary with Oosmas,
but their illustrations vary with the taste of the illuminator ; thus the artist of
the Vatican copy abridges the geographical pictures and dispenses with the
animals and plants, while the painters of the other two volumes suppress some
of the symbolical illuminations derived from the Bible. It was supposed by
various critics that the Vatican MS. might be as early as the seventh cen-
tury ;but the descriptive words placed amongst the illustrations are identical
in character with those of the text, which palaeographers assign to the latter
part of the ninth. If this is correct the book possesses a commanding in-
terest for Byzantine art. It belongs to a rather obscure transitional time and
clearly illustrates the continuity of tradition through the iconoclastic period.
On the one hand, many features, such as the zodiac, the personification of Jordan,
the heads of seraphs, point back to late classical art ; on the other hand, many
types and figures are closely related to those in MSS. of the two succeeding cen-
turies.'^ There are manj'' points of analogy with the Vatican Oetateuchs, and the
conclusion reached by a study of the Joshua Eotulus is confirmed, that the Bible
illustration of the eleventh century and later is based upon books of far earlier
date. It has been observed that there are repeated parallels between the Vatican
book and the Alexandrian Chronicle of the World on papyrus (see p. 459).
Features in the Vatican miniatures suggest an origin in Alexandria : the
mummy-like representations of the dead, the figures of Ethiopic type attending
Ptolemy, are cited as indications of an Egyptian provenance. It is in itself

1 C. Stornajolo, Le Miyiiature della topografia crUtiana dl Cosmas Indicopleustes {Codices e Vaticanis

selecii, Milan, Hoepli, 1908) ; Garrucci, Storia, PI. CXLII, CXLIII ; G. Millet in A. Michel,
Hist, de Vart, i. 214 ; Kondakoff, Sistoire de Vart iys., Paris, 1886, p. 137 and Figs, on pp. 142-3,
146-7, 149, and Voyage to Sinai ; Labarte, Hist, des arts industriels, ill. 25 and PI. LXXIX ;
d'Aginoourt, Peinture, PI. XXXIV; J. Tikkanen, Die Genesismosaiken, &c., Helsingfors, 1889,
5, 322 ; D. Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origin, &c. ; A. Munoz, Monumenti d' arte medioevali e moderni,
Pt. II (miniature with Enoch) ; Dielil, Uanml, 224 ff. The text of Cosmas is treated by
H. Gelzer in Jahrbucher fUr protestantische Tlieologie, ix, 1883, 105-41 ; an English edition by
J. W. M°Crundle was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1897. There seems to be no proof
that Cosmas wrote his work on Sinai ; he himself implies that a part at least was composed
at Alexandria, of which city he was a native. His own statements suggest that he had some
artistic power, and the representations of the monuments at Adulis (Stornajolo, PI. II) are
probably based on his sketches. But it is doubtful whether he could have executed all the
miniatures illustrating his work.
^ For the Sinai Cosmas see Gardthausen, Cat. codicum graec. Sinaiticorum, p. 421, Oxford,
1886, and Kondakoff, Sinaitic Album (Russian). The Smyrna fragment accompanies the
Physiologus in the Library of the Evangelical School (p. 482).
3 e.g. the type of the old man in Cosmas recalls the Samuel of the Paris Psalter 139
(tenth century) ; the Isaiah and Elijah resemble figures in the Paris Codex 510 (H. Omont,
Facsimiles, xxv. 1, xlii. 1).
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 463

natural that Alexandria, the centre of ancient science, and distinguished for the
attainment of her painters, should have promoted the decoration of works of tliis
character.
It has already been noted in the Introduction (p. 65) that many of the
cosmographical features of the Christian topography were derived from Mar-Aba
the Persian Nestorian, and may ultimately be traced to Ba))jdonian sources. The
syncretism of the Vatican Cosmas lends it a peculiar importance. By the side

Jujir»-A, 0 Juuu^ TV p • C I iS-

' - - /'
TW I a^ cu H nrxu H » N M-e

ly ► BY •

nrro A I CT <A}-, n-u ou (J oj • )Aj( b^

tfgyDUTT)pil<U- y^tJJti.BfO
crt u_M c Llxui fti o «JU3 w jju^Tj m

cl; jy o <r t4- K ou (jtxu » I jj_»

Fig. 27i. A Stylite on his column : from an eleventh-century MS.

(British Museum Add. MS. 36036, fol. 48 b,)

of much that is Alexandrian there is plain evidence that the new monumental
style is already established, and it has been justly remarked that the miniature
in which Our Lord, the Virgin, and three saints are presented in a line before
the spectator has all the character of a mural mosaic. Iconographically the
book is no less interesting, owing to its introduction of new features and details.
The following is a rcsnmij of the chief illustrations. Monuments of Adulis,
Ethiopians, c^c. ; views of the world ; planisphere ; the high conical mountain
with the sun going round it ; complete view of the world ; the earth and signs
of the zodiac ; Moses receiving the Law ; the Tabernacle of the .lews ; tlie Ark
of the Covenant between Abiah and Zachariah ; the Court of the Tabernacle ;
Aaron ; Encampment of the Israelites ; Abel and his Flock ; Enoch and Death ;
Noah and the Ark ; Melchizedek as orans ; Sacrifice of Isaac ; Isaac alone ; Judah
and Jacob ; Moses and the Burning Bush ; Moses receiving the Law ; David and
his Musicians ; Ascension of Elijah ; Hosea ; Amos, Micah, .Joel, Obadiah ; three
scenes of the Story of Jonah ; Vision of Isaiah (Fig. 270] ; Vision of Ezekiel ; Vision
464 PAINTING

of Daniel ; Our Lord, the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, Zachariah, and Elizabeth
standing in line, with busts of Simeon and Anna above ; Stoning of Stephen ;
Conversion of Saul ; the Eesurrection of the Dead ; the Cosmos with the Sun ;
plan of the world ; the Tabernacle ; the Story of Hezekiah ; the movements of
the stars about the world.
In the ninth century, as a result of the changes produced by iconoclasm,
there was a revival of the scientific spirit and a consequent predilection for
scientific books. In some of these the early Alexandrian style which had
presided over the decoration of the earliest illuminated editions is very faithfully
revived.^
THIED AND FOUETH PEEIODS
I. Religious Manuscripts.
The illustrated Bible appears in the form of an abridgement or series of
extracts. The great MS. in the Vatican (Cod. Vat. Eeg. Gr. I) is akin to the
Paris Psalter (139) and of the same period.'' It, too, is distinguished by
numerous personifications and a similar richness in architectural forms. At
the beginning of the book, after miniatures representing the Creation and orna-
mented with large crosses, the Virgin is seen receiving the book from Leo the
patrician. The remaining illustrations represent the Story of Moses ; a Council
of Judges ; the Anointing of David ; the Coronation of Solomon ; the Ascension
of Elijah ; the Exploits of Judith ; the Maccabees before Antiochus ; Job in his
Misery. A seated figure of David introduces the Psalter.
Five illuminated Odateuchs have been studied — two in the Vatican Library,
one in the Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos,^ one in the library of the
'EvayyeXiKrj o-xoXij at Smyrna,'' and one in the Seraglio, Constantinople:^ they
date from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the copy on Mount Athos being
probably the oldest.' Their great interest lies in the fact that they are clearly
related to a rotulus of earlier date, if not so early as the original of the Joshua
Eotulus in the Vatican. Although that famous scroll stands so close in the
conception of its scenes to the Octateuchs that the character of its missing
miniatures can be inferred from the Octateuch miniatures illustrating the same
book, there are yet so many divergences in detail that we cannot suppose it
to have itself supplied the model. The occurrence of features indicating a
departure from Hellenic ideas and the admixture of oriental characteristics
justify the conclusion that the book is based upon a scroll similar to that in the
Vatican ; a copy in codex form earlier than any now surviving may probably be
assumed.
Of the five MSS., that at Vatopedi is evidently the most faithful copy.
Of the two Vatican Octateuchs, one (No. 747) is rather careless, but shows
originality in the artist. The other Vatican book (No. 746) is more careful,
though the work of a mediocre artist ; the Smyrna book resembles it in both
these respects.
There is another Octateuch in the Laurentian Library at Florence (tlut. v,
No. 38).

1 e.g. the Ptolemy of a. d. 813-20 in the Vatican Library, -which contains numerous
Hellenistic personifications very well executed (Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, &c.).
^ CoUezione paleograflca Vaiicana, Milan, 1905, PI. I-XVIII ; Millet in Michel's Sistoire,
i. 228.
^ N. Kondakoff, Sist. de I'art bys., ii. 275 ; Brockhaus, Die Kunst in den Athos-KKstem, 214 ff.
* J. Strzygowski, Ser illustrierie Okiateuch in Smyrna, Appendix to Der BSderkreis des griechi-
schen Physiologus {Bys. Archiv, Ergflnzungscheft i), 113 ff. ; D. C. Hesseling, Miniatures de I'OctO-
ieugue grec de Smyrne, Leyden, 1909 ; H. Graeven, L'Arte, i, 1898, 221 ff. ; A. Munoz, II Roiulo di
G-iosiie . . . riprodotto a cura della Biblioteca Vaticana, Milan, 1905, PI. F and G ; 0. Wulff, Isviestiya
of Russ. Arch. Inst. Cple., iii. 201.
" Th. Uspensky, Ismestiya of the Russian Arch. Inst, at Cple., xii, Sofia, 1907. The book has
352 miniatures, of which about half are reproduced. Cf. G. Millet, Rev. arch., 1910, pp., 71 ff.
« Wulff, however (as above), places the Smyrna book in tho early part of the eleventh
century.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS 465

Illustrated Greek Psalters iall into two main groups named by Tikkanen the
aristocratic and the monastic-theological.^ The miniatures of the first group form
set compositions occupying the whole page, placed together at the beginning of
the volume. The illustrations of the second are marginal, scenes and figures

Fig. 275. David inspired by an allegorical figure: miniature from a tenth-century Psalter in
the Ambrosiau Libraiy, Milan. {Hautes Studes : G. Millet.)

upon a small scale surrounding a central text. The first group, of which the
famous Paris Psalter of the tenth century (Gr. 139) and its congeners in Eome
and Venice are the chief examples (p. 468), shows very clearly the influence of
late Hellenistic art ; the style and attitude of the figures, their grouping and
disposition in a landscape are all Greek. It owes its origin to a courtly
' J. J. Tikkanen, Die Psalterilluslration im Mittdaltcr.
1204 H h
466 PAINTING

art in the service of imperial patrons, whether the artists worked actually
in Constantinople or elsewhere. The second group is animated bj' a different
spirit. Here the imagination is more free, the fancy of the artist is allowed
a wider range, but theological preoccupations are often betrayed by the choice
of subject. It is the art of the monks who worked in the monasteries, at first
of Mesopotamia and Syria,' later in the widely scattered religious houses which
to the last followed the traditions of these precursors. The method of marginal

UJLo C "l/^ I CrfrOD CT

; -^ *- oujU ouTt
j< ou. ■y'H C ■ o T 6

Pig. 276. The Ci-eation of Man : miniature from the eleventh-oenturj- Octateuch in the
Laureutian Library, Florence. {Hautes Eludes : G. Millet.)

illustration is known to us from Sj^rian work of the sixth centurj' ; it will be

recalled that the Gospel illustrations at the beginning of Eabula's book were all
disposed in this way in the border (Fig. 267). The same feature occurs in the
early Syrian Gospel at Paris (Bibl. Nat. Gr. 33). Although Psalters fall into
these two principal groups, no hard and fast line can be drawn, for sometimes
a book with miniatures across tlie page will he more closely related to the
marginal group in artistic details. Nor is it certain that monks confined them-
selves to the marginal stj'le : they seem to have executed ' aristocratic ' Psalters
upon occasion. -
The oldest surviving Psalter dates from tlie ninth century, and is known
as the Chludoff Psalter, from the collection in which it was formerly pre-
served :it is now in the Monaster)' of St. Nicholas at Moscow, and belongs to
1 Cf. Baumstark, B. Z., xvi. ().58.
- A. Baumstark, FrulichristUch-syrische Psalferilhisfration, &c., 0. C, 1905, 295 if. Baumstark
traces a possible, evolution of Psalter illustration; the earlier stages are to l)e sought in
Syria and Palestine, not witliout Alexandrian influence ; the later stage develops at
Constantinople.
 467
ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS

the monastic group.' Illustrated copies of the Psalms of David begin approxi-
mately at the same time both in East and West. But it is certain that late
Hellenistic illuminated Psalters must have been in existence at a far earlier
period. It is unlikely that the scenes from the life of David which we find
in early mural paintings (p. 284) and on silver plate (p. 676) should not have

Fig. 277. David and Goliath : miniature from the Psalter of a.d. 1084 in the Monastery
of the Pantokrator on Mount Athos. {Havies Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 470.

also attracted the illuminator before the iconoclastic period. There is other
evidence which leads us to infer that this must have been the case. The ' aristo-
cratic' group of Psalters, dating from the tenth and eleventh centuries, is
clearly inspired by lost models, either of Alexandrian or Anatolian origin ;
the types, landscape, and composition all point to this descent, while the evident
relation of the types to those of the silver plate, which is of the sixth century,
carries them back beyond the iconoclastic disturbance. Strzygowski assumes an
early original for the Servian Psalter at Munich, as also does Baumstark for
another of a. d. 1053 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.'* Again,
' For Byzantine Psalters see J. J. Tikkanen, Die PsalteriUustration im Mittelalter, toI. i. ; Kon-
dakoif, Histoire de I'art bysantin, and Miniatures of the Greek Psalter in the Ghludoff Colleciion, HI.
The Psalter, as a liturgical book, included the odes, or prayers, derived from the Old Testa-
ment, on which see Baumstark in E. Q., xxi, 1907, 157 ff. ^ 0. C, 1905, 295 ff.
H h 2
468 PAINTING

the well-known Utrecht Psalter, probably illustrated by an Anglo-Saxon at Haut-

villers, near Eeims, in the ninth century, has many characteristics which seem to
prove that there must at one time have existed a model dating from the fourth or
lifth century.' The frequent personifications (Earth, Sea, Sleep, &c.) in that book
are significant, while in a Passion scene appears the curious machine used to cast
lots for the chariot races in the Hippodrome at Constantinople ■ (Fig. 293).
It will be convenient to take as types one or two Psalters representative of

,XjU'-TT»D4-K9i-flof.'»£r K 3'oUlAJlu.TTpn-T .t*- K t o -Orr (*0" '

""'V'PJ-I'''

Fig. 27S. Tlie Three Children in the Fiery Furnace: niiniatnre from the Psalter of A. D. 1084
in the Pantokrator Monastery, Mount Athos. (Haiiics Elitchs : G. Millet.) P. 470.

the two groups above indicated. The best known and most beautiful example
of the ' aristocratic " group is the tenth-centur}' MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale
at Paris (Gree 139)." Most of the full-page miniatures are in almost equal sets at
the beginning and at the end : the eight relating to David are at the beginning (7),
and at fol. 137. The subjects are : David playing the Lyre among his Flocks,
beside him the personification of Melod}' as a female figure ; David attacks
the Lion and Bear, supported by the personification of Strength ('In-;;^t's) ; the
Anointing of David in the presence of Jesse, Eliab, Aminadab, and others, with
the personification of Mildness (XlpaoVj;?) ; David, supported bj- Might (AiW/ms),
engages and slays Goliath, who is supported by Braggadocio {'Wa^orela) : David
and Saul, with Michael dancing ; Coronation of David, the crown being placed
on his head by a nimbed female figure ; David in royal vesture, standing
' H. Graeven, Die Vorlage des Utrecht-Psallers in livpertoriinn, xxi, 1S98, iS ff.
- Proc. Soc. Ant, London, N. S. , xxi. 188 ff.
' Omont, Fac-siimles des miniatures, So., PI. I-XIV ; H. Bordier, Description des ornaments etc.
desinss. cjrees, 111 ; Bayet, L'Art bysantin, pp. 1.59, 161, 162 ; G. Millet in A. Michel's Histoire de
I'art, i. 222, 223; Diehl, Uanud, 566. Miniatures from this MS. have been very frequently
reproduced (Labarte, Schlumberger, Venturi, &c.).
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 469

between Wisdom and Prophecy ; ' David rebuked by Nathan, and humbling
himself in the presence of Repentance (Meravoia).
The remaining miniatures are as follows : the Crossing of the Red Sea,

Fig. 279. David slaying the bear and confronting Goliath : miniature from the Psalter of
Basilll in the Marciana at Venice. {Hautes Mtudes: G.Millet.)

with four personifications of Night, the Desert, the Deep, and the Red Sea,
the Deep, in the guise of a vigorous nude figure, dragging Pharaoh from his
horse ; Moses receiving the Tables of the Law in presence of the personified
Mount Sinai ; Anna, mother of Samuel, giving thanks ; Jonah ; Isaiah between
^ This miniature is reproduced in colours by Labarte, Hist, des arts industriels, 1st ed., 1864,
Album, vol. ii, PI. 84.
470 PAINTING

personifications of Night and Dawn ; the sick Hezekiah, behind whom stands
the personified Supplication.
It has recently been questioned whether, as in the case of the Etchmiadzin
Gospels, these miniatures may not be far older than the text with which they
are bound, and represent a very early copy of a Hellenistic original, a copy
dating from the fourth to the sixth century.^ It is not yet, however, established
that so excellent a copy as that here presented was impossible at the date when
the MS. was written. The costumes are not always understood ; the architecture
is fantastic ; the borders are unclassical ; we must await the publication of more
detailed evidence before abandoning the attribution hitherto universally adopted.
We may remark affinities to the Vienna Dioscorides (see p. 460),^ and may also
compare several Vatican MSS. — a volume of biblical extracts, a Psalter (Gr. -381)
of the eleventh century, and an Isaiah, none of which, however, approach its
high standard of excellence.^
Other well-known illuminated Psalters of the group are a smaller replica of
the Paris book in the Monastery of Vatopedi (No. 609), dating from the end of
the eleventh century, in which the miniatures are partially repainted ; and the
Psalter of the Monastery of the Pantokrator (No. 49), of similar age. These are
the only two which are approximately complete in illustration, but the great
Psalter of Basil II in the Marciana at Venice is of the same school ' (Figs. 279,
290). There are numerous other ' aristocratic ' Psalters of which the illustra-
tion is imperfect.'*
As an example of the monastic group we may take the fine MS. in the British
Museum, written by Theodore of Caesarea for Michael, abbot of the Monastery
of the Studium at Constantinople, and completed in a. d. 1066." A high pro-
portion ofthe very numerous illustrations are concerned with the life of the
Psalmist ; a great number depict those episodes in the Gospel story to which
passages in the Psalms allude. Old Testament episodes which have a bearing
upon the Psalms are freely introduced, e. g. the Three Children in the Furnace,
the Creation of Adam, Daniel in the Den of Lions, Moses striking the Eock, the
Plagues of Egypt, the Israelites in the Desert, the Golden Calf, the Sacrifice of
Isaac, Abraham entertaining the Angels, Destruction of Sodom, the Ascent of
Elijah, and several scenes repeated more than once. Saints and martyrs are
very numerous, with occasional representations of martyrdoms. In two places
(fol. 27 b, 88), as in other Psalters of the group, there are miniatures relating to
the iconoclastic dispute (cf. Fig. 291), the latter example showing iconoclasts
engaged in defacing a portrait of Our Lord.' Other enemies of orthodoxy who
appear are Julian the Apostate dragged oif by an angel (fol. 200) and Arius
expelled from the Church (fol. 37 b).
Symbolic zoology is represented by the Capture of the Unicorn (fol. 124 b) ;
while contemporary geographical ideas find, expression in more than one curious
figure of the heavens (fol. 135 b, 138). Among the frequent personifications may
be mentioned Hades, Helios in his chariot, various rivers, the Four Winds,
Orthros with a torch accompanying Isaiah, &c. (cf, the example quoted from the
' aristocratic ' group above). Many of the pictures are literal illustrations of the
text (WortiUustration"): such are a miniature on fol. 10 b, where the ungodly
are seen shooting arrows at the righteous ; and on fol. 11 b, where an angel pulk
1 Dr. R. Berliner's examination of the book,
Histoire, &e., i, p. 224, and Kev, arch., 1910, p. 80. see B. Z., xix. 242 ; G. Millet in" A. Michel's
2 Some authorities are of opinion that the model was probably of Anatolian origin.
' Cf. Diehl, Manuel, 571, and the reference there given.
< Labarte, Histoire, &e., 2nd ed., 1873, PI. XLIX ; Collection des Hautes Eludes, Series C,
No. 535 (David slaying the bear).
^ Cod. Vat. Gr. 381, see GoUezione paleograflca Vaiicana, Pasc. 1, Milan, 1905, PI. XIX-XXII.
8 G. F. Warner, British Museum, Reproductions from Illuminated MSS., ser. ii, PI. 2 and 3 ;
P. G. Kenyon, Facsimiles of Biblical MSS., No. vii ; Waagen in Zeitschrift fUr ArchHologie und
Kunst, i. 97 ; Labarte, Hist, des arts indtistriels, ii. p. 186.
: ' Tikkanen has noted the various known examples of these ante-iconoclastic miniatiires.
' Cf. A. Goldschmidt, Ser Allanipsalter su Hildesheim.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 471

out the tongue of the proud (Fig. 280). The numerous animals are some-
times inthe same manner directly illustrative of passages in the accompanying
verses.
Like the^ other monastic Psalters,' this book is of the most varied interest :
the painter is a man of talent, whose touch is often as delicate as his fancy.

'-nT\H rrjo/jaj-i-rox/ ;.

"nr o «r >^'UJ13 y Ttua th}J y\oo (

_^^ '■ / * " • »^ ^

i\ Cotter K itrtrs
crxr •7«ij»^>i<

Qt/ OOf/OU
Qt/i
y^F'

Fig. l'80. The angel pulls out the tongue of the proud ; David before the Lord : marginal
illustrations in the Psalter of a.d. 1066 In the British Museum. Add. MSS. 193.52.) P. 470.

It is to be regi^etted that the miniatures are for the most part badly rubbed, so
that little of the work is seen to advantage.
The Latin Psalter of Melisenda, daughter of Baldwin, King of .Jerusalem
(a. d. 1118-31), and wife of Fulk, Count of Anjou and King of Jerusalem (11-31-
' The best known of these are the already mentioned Chludoff Psalter and the Panto-
krator (No. 61 in the library of the monastery of that name on Mount Athos;, dating from
A. I). 1084. More nearly allied to the British Museum book are the Hamilton Psalter at
Berlin and the Barberini Psalter (twelftli century, E. Dobbert, Prussian Jahrbuch, xv. 148).
Numerous Russian Psalters produced down to the seventeenth century are descended from
books of this type.
472 PAINTING

44), may be mentioned here in view of the fact that it has a number of full-page
miniatures at the beginning which are Byzantine, one being signed by an artist,
Basilius.' In so far the book might be regarded as a hybrid member of the
' aristocratic ' group ; but it differs from the other Psalters of the class not only
in the language of its text, but in the subjects of its miniatures, which illustrate
the New Testament, with addition of the Beesis, and have no connexion with the
story of David : they may have been originally painted for another book.

Fig. 281. The Adoration of the Magi : miniature from the twelfth-century Psalter of
Queen Melisenda in the British Museum. (Egerton 1139.)

The head-pieces in this MS., with their interfacings containing men and
monsters, are not Greek, but in the Western Romanesque style, and the smaller
illuminated subjects beginning at fol. 202 b, with their ornamental borders,
appear to be in like manner by a Western hand, though here and there an
Eastern influence is perceptible, as in the representation of St. John the
1 This Psalter, which is in the British Museum, is numbered Egerton 1139. See New
Palaeographical Society, 1908, PI. 140; Du Sommerard, Les Arts au moyen age, Album, 2' s6r.,
PI. XXIX, &c. For the carved ivory covers of this MS. see p. 231. The subjects of the
miniatures are the Annunciation, Salutation, Nativity, Adoration, Presentation, Baptism,
Temptation, Transfiguration, Raising of Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, Last Supper, Wash-
ing of the Feet, Agony in the Garden, Betrayal, Crucifixion, Descent from the Cross, Entomb-
ment, Anastasis, Women at the Tomb, Incredulity of Thomas, Ascension, Pentecost, Death of
the Virgin, Seesis. The iconography is throughout Byzantine : the Seesis and Anastasis are
specifically Byzantine subjects ; but in those common to East and West the oriental com-
position isfollowed, as in the Last Supper and Pentecost.
 473
ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS

Evangelist as a bearded old man. The style of this second artist is very delicate
and precise, differing markedly from that of Basilius, which is bolder but less
careful, and lacking in the finish of the smaller miniatures. The work of the
Greek painter is rough and sketchy in comparison, but his colours are of richer
tone. ^ His figures are outlined in black, and their proportions are often faulty ;
thus in the Betrayal and Transfiguration, the figures in the foreground are
unduly small. The miniatures as a whole are in better condition than those of
most Byzantine books ; possibly Basilius may have learned some secrets in the
matter of priming and applying gold-leaf from the Western artists with whom
he may have associated. The interaction of Western and Byzantine influences
in the illustration of this book recalls the same feature in the mosaics of the

Fig. 282. .Tob's Friends : miniature

Venice. from the Etucles
(Hautes Book of: G.JobMillet.)
of a.d. 905 in tlie Maroian Library,

Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, executed a little later and under similar
conditions (p. 414).
The fifteenth-century Servian Psalter in the Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in
Munich is also worthy of especial mention. It is evidently based upon a much
older book which Strzygowski supposes to have been of early Syrian origin.'
He finds in it motives which he considers only possible in a redaction never
influenced by the art of the capital. Baumstark, in his review of Strzygovvski's
work, strongly supports this view on liturgical and iconographical grounds ; '^
but Millet' contests it, believing that the features in question are consistent
with a Byzantine origin for the model. In either case, the antique inspiration
remains, and the book is a valuable proof of the fidelity to tradition which still
influenced the latest phases of Byzantine art within and beyond the frontiers of
the empire.
The Prophets oi the Old Testament are illustrated by various illuminated
catenae, some of high interest. The Catena in propheias oi the Chigi Library in
Rome* contains figures of the various prophets of a fine statuesque quality,
evidently based on good Hellenistic models and suggesting in some cases
classical orators : the book dates from the late tenth or early eleventh century.
The Prophets of the Laurentian Library, Florence (Plut. v. 9), are distinguished by
' Strzygowski, Benkschriften of the Vienna Acad., vol. 52, PhU.-hist. Classe, 1904.
^ B. Z., XTi, 1907, 644 ff.
' Bev. arch., 1908, i. 171-89.
* A, Munoz, Codici greci miniati delle minori biblioteche di Roma, PI. I-V. Only three of the
miniatures, Jonah, Micah, and Jeremiah, are unrestored.
474 PAINTING

a similar dignity, and are of about the same period. The Vatican MS., No. /5o,
is of the tenth century ; it contains two miniatures representing Isaiah, one
showing his martyrdom, the other depicting him between Night and Dawn as m
Parisinus 139 and in the Pantokrator Psalter. The large Vatican 1153 \ is of
the twelfth century : it contains miniatures of eleven prophets, also reminiscent
of Greek models, while the borders have details of ornament found in early MSS.
like the Codex Eossanensis and the Gospel
of Eabula, and in the frescoes of Sta Maria
Antiqua at Eome. The miniatures of the
Chigi catena have distinct analogies with
the tenth-century illuminations of a Gospel
of the twelfth century in the Monastery of
St. Andrew on Mount Athos.^ Even closer
is the relation to the Gospels (No. 204) in
the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount
Sinai ^ of the tenth or eleventh century,
which in its turn recalls a Gospel in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (MS. gr., No.
70). The whole group is characterized by
the Hellenic influence visible in the figures,
and an oriental (Syrian) influence in the
ornament : it may be the work of a school
working at Constantinople. The surviving
illuminated copies of the Book of Job, or
fragments of it, are of various dates, the
fragment in the Naples Museum (now part
of a Coptic Bible) probably belonging to
the seventh or eighth century f the copy at
Paris is ascribed to the fourteenth." Inter-
mediate between these are the books at
Venice (No. 538), dated a. d. 909 ; Mount
Sinai, and Patmos. In the fragment at
Naples, the seated figures of Job and his
family retain the monumental manner of
the art of the early period ; the Sinai book
preserves the picturesque tradition of late
Hellenistic art, with its pastoral scenes
and genre subjects. In the copy in the
Marcian Library at Venice, on the other
hand (Fig. 283), the picturesque tradition
Fig. 288. The Angels before the Lord,
and before the Devil : miniature from the is abandoned, and the figures stand out
Book of Job of A. D. 905 in the Mai'cian against a blue background."
Library, Venice. {Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.)The Prophets are finely illustrated in
the MS. of the tenth or eleventh century
divided between the libraries of Florence and Turin. With the exception of
Jeremiah, who is seen in full figure, they are represented in medallions, in a style
recalling that of the mosaics at Daphni but more nearly approaching the
antique.'
Famous examples of illuminated Gospels and Lectionaries from the First
Period have been already noticed. The essential features of the later Byzantine
type go back to this time: the architectural canons framing the Concordance,
' Munoz, as above, PI. VII, VIII.
" Ainaloff in Viz. Vrem., vi, 1899.
» Kondakoff, Album of Mount Sinai, Odessa, 1882, PI. 32-7.
^ Kondakoff, Histoire de Vari bys., ii, p. 82.
^ Kondakoff, as above, ii. 172 ; Diehl, Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, 1905, p. 81.
« G. Millet in Michel, Histoire de Vart, i. 221 ; Bordier, 235 ff.
' Millet, as above, 227.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 475

and the figures of the Evangelists, usually seated writing their Gospels, but
sometimes standing, are both derived from the older books.^ The head-pieces
with conventional floral designs are of fresh introduction, due to a new oriental
influence, though the ornament itself has been developed from vine motives
employed in the earlier period in the Christian East. The elaborate pictorial
decoration, comprising numerous miniatures with New Testament subjects, seen
at its best in the Codex of Eossano (p. 452), is no longer found. There are two
jemtmrn i^auasmsiaiiEi

lOCTcufTTTD uJa.G a_|j I CLor-EK. /

C KCJO-JUiJAXrXJLXLZ) I CLJC.£,i-^
Fig. 284. The Raising of Lazarus : miniature from a twelfth-century Gospel in the Monastery
of Iviron, Mount Athos. {Hauies Sludes : G. Millet.)

main types. In the first the four Evangelists are shown writing, while at the
beginning of each Gospel is a scene from the New Testament, usually one of the
Twelve Feasts. In the second, illustrations of the narrative are introduced
in the text, and are often very abundant, as if designed for the use of the
unlearned.' Head-pieces of the ornamental foliage characteristic of the time are
introduced. In the first type the Evangelists are usually beneath canopies, the
background being sometimes gilded, sometimes filled with architecture. Figures
inspiring the writer are occasionally introduced;' the symbols are not found
till a late date.* The type of seated figure writing is derived, as already stated,
1 For illustrations from Byzantine Gospels see Kondakoif, Millet, Venturi, S. Beissel,
Vatikanische Miniaturen, PI. IX-XI, XIV, and Gesch, der Evangelienhmher, &e., 1906.
^ See the remarks of Kondakoff, Bistoire de Vart bys., ii. 137 ff. A fine example of the
second type is the eleventh-century Gospel in the Bibliothfeque Nationals, Paris (MS. gr. 74),
see Omont, Bvangiles avec peintures hys. du XP siicle, Paris, 1908.
' This feature also occurs in Gospels of the First Period (p. 454). The inspiring figure is
found with St. John, but this Evangelist sometimes has the Dextera Domini, as in Brit. Mus.,
Harley 1810, fol. 211 b.
* Brit. Mus. Add. 11838, dated A. d. 1326, has the symbols with the Evangelists.
476 PAINTING

from the antique ' author's portrait ' transmitted to later times by MSS. like the
Vienna Dioscorides.' The canons, which are often decorated with the minute-
ness of goldsmith's work, sometimes retain the flowers and animals above the
arches and at the corners which we have noted as a characteristic of early Syrian
books (e. g. the Gospel of Eabula, p. 448).
The number of Gospel books of the period later than the tenth century is too
large to admit even of an attempt at enumeration in a work of this nature : all
the important libraries in Europe contain examples of greater or less merit.
Several are in the British Museum."
Illuminated editions of the Fathers were very popular after iconoclasm,
during which period they had been widely read. The favourite book is the
Homilies of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, which provided lections for the different
feasts of the ecclesiastical year. The large older copies of the Bibliothfeque
Nationale(No.510)andtheAmbrosianaatMi]an — both are of the ninth century —

1 See Diez, B. D., iii. 1-69.

2 The Byzantine illuminated Gospels and Lectionaries in the British Museum, dating
from the tenth-fourteenth centuries, are as follows : Arundel 547. Tenth century [P. H.
Scrivener, Collection of MSS. of the Holy Gospels, 1853, and Plain Introduction, 1874, p. 260 ; British
Museum, Cat. of Ancient MSS., p. 23]. Seated portraits of the four Evangelists at the begin-
ning of their Gospels ; head-pieces of foliage enclosed in geometrical figures or zigzag ;
grotesque initials composed of human limbs, amphorae or jugs suspended from cross-bars,
birds, &c. The text is in uncials of Slavonic type, and the character of these initials, reminiscent
of Frankish art, points to Western influence. ITarley 5598. A lectionary, dated a.d. 995.
The illuminations are confined to the head-pieces on fol. 1, 56, and 142, consisting of fine
foliate designs geometrically disposed in panels. Harley 8785. A lectiouaiy, tenth-eleventh
century. Full-page illustrations of the Evangelists writing their Gospels on gold background ;
fine head-pieces fol. 1, 67, 104, 144, 246, 298 b, 642 b, &c. The ornament is of formal foliage ;
above the panels in some cases are animal motives, e. g. two lions, two gryphons, peacocks
flanking a vase, &c. Burney 19. Gospels, eleventh century ; full-page miniatures represent-
ing the Evangelists writing ; delicate foliated head-pieces. (Exhibited.) Additional MS.
37001. Gospels, eleventh century. Ten pages of illuminated Eusebian Canons ; head-
pieces. The ornament of the canons is very oriental in character, illustrating the aifinities
between Byzantine and Saracenic decorative art. Arundel 534. Gospels, eleventh century.
A small book, with illuminated Eusebian Canons. The floral ornament again shows oriental
aflinities. Add. MS. 36928. Gospels, end of the eleventh century. Add. MS. 4949.
Gospels, twelfth century. Full-page miniatures of the Evangelists ; head-pieces. The latter
are stiff and inferior in execution. Add. 1810. Gospels, early twelfth century. In addi-
tion to the usual Evangelists, this book has a number of other figure subjects : the Nativity,
Transfiguration, Last Supper, Baptism, Ascension, Annunciation, Presentation, Death of the
Virgin, Crucifixion, Descent from the Cross and Entombment, Anastasis, Pentecost, Raising
of Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, Washing of the Disciples' Feet, Incredulity of Thomas, and
a martyrdom (fol. 107 b). There are besides several fine head-pieces, with geometrically treated
floral ornament. A number of the subjects coincide with those in the Psalter of Melisenda,
with which they should be compared, but the rendering of facial expression and the treat-
ment of draperies are finer. The face of the Evangelist St. Mark admirably expresses
reflection ; emotion is well given in the miniature of the Descent from the Cross (fol. 205 b).
The shading is done with darker tints of the several colours ; high lights are painted on in
white. Add. MS. 35030. Gospels, twelfth century ; a small volume, with illuminations of
good quality, but much rubbed. The Eusebian Canons are executed in a fine linear style,
with animals and plants at the corners ; no gold is used. There are the usual four Evan-
gelistsSt.
; John stands, dictating his Gospel. Add. MSS. 5111. Gospels, twelfth centuiy.
This is the book in which the interesting early illuminated pages mentioned on p. 451 are
bound up. In itself it is not remarkable, but possesses one full-page miniature of merit,
representing St. Matthew seated writing his Gospel, with a building with an upper loggia in
the background. Add. MS. S2740. Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, twelfth century.
Full-page miniatures with the Evangelists ; head-pieces of good quality with formal foliate
designs. The proportions of the human figure are faulty, as in the case of St. Mark. Add.
MS. 5112. Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, twelfth century. Full-page miniatures of the
two Evangelists at their desks; the work is mediocre. Burney 20. Gospels, dated
A.D. 1285. Full-page miniatures of the seated Evangelists, and head-pieces of formal foliate
ornament. Add. MS. 87007. Lectionary, thirteenth century. Miniatures of the four
Evangelists writing ; the style is coarse. Foliate head-pieces. Add, MS. 7170. Gospels
with subjects of Byzantine type, showing, however, Syro-Arabic influence. Add. MS. 1183S.
Gospels, dated a. d. 1326, Full-page miniatures of the four Evangelists on gold ground, with
their symbols in the right-hand corners. Foliated head-pieces of inferior quality. All the
great Continental libraries possess examples of Byzantine Gospels.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS 477

contain all the sermons, the letters, and the minor works. Later copies are
usually of a smaller form, containing sixteen selected sermons beginning with
that appointed for Easter.
The Codex Parisinus 510,' written between a. d. 880 and 886, is one of the
most interesting and important of Byzantine illuminated MSS. It is profusely
illustrated, the miniature usually coming at the beginning of the sermon, or
division of the text, and sometimes being composed of two or more zones one
above the other ; a single scene rarely occupies a whole page. In many
places the imitation of a much earlier late Hellenistic model is clear, some
subjects, such as the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, standing nearer to Early
Christian types than they do even in the sixth-century Codex of Rossano (p. 452J.
In some cases, as with the Vision of Ezekiel,'' the scene is enclosed in an oval
frame or border, suggesting the imitation of an ikon. The treatment of the
frontispieces recalls the monumental style of contemporary mosaics.
At the beginning of the book. Our Lord is seen enthroned : on two neigh-
bouring pages are the Emperor Basil I, his wife and sons. The emperor stands
between the Archangel Gabriel, who places a crown on his head, and the Prophet
Elijah, who carries a labarum : the princes carry scrolls.'
The remaining illustrations are suggested, directly or indirectly, by passages
in the text : the subject of the homily itself may be chosen, or the Church
festival which was the occasion of its delivery, or some historical or symbolic
allusion admitting parallelism between the two Testaments. Among directly
historical miniatures are those depicting episodes in the life of St. Gregory, or
contemporary events. Among biblical subjects may be mentioned : the Garden
of Eden, the Deluge, Sacrifice of Isaac, Jacob's Dream, Moses, Joshua, Samson,
Gideon, the Anointing and Eepentance of David, the Judgement of Solomon,
scenes from the life of the prophets and kings. Job, the Maccabees, &c. The
Gospel subjects include scenes from the childhood of Our Lord, parables and
miracles, the Transfiguration, Entry into Jerusalem, Crucifixion, Descent from
the Cross, Pentecost, &c. Millet is of opinion that some of the full-page
subjects, such as the Transfiguration and Pentecost, are copied from ikons or
mosaics. The association on one page of Daniel, the Three Children of Babylon,
Manasseh, and Ezekiel suggest a derivation from a Psalter, for they are
connected with the illustration of the ' Odes ' appended to that book.
The Homilies of the Ambrosian Library are more monotonous in character,
every epistle being illustrated by a miniature showing its composition, dispatch,
and reception. The illustration of the text is simpler ; there are the prophets,
the Old Testament scenes, the life of Julian the Apostate. The scenes from the
Gospels are proportionately less numerous than those illustrating mythological
allusions, as if the secular rather than the sacred subjects had chiefiy interested
the artist. The illustrations are for the most part in the margins, as in the case
of the ' monastic ' group of Psalters. The MS. of Gregory at Jerusalem * (No. 14,
eleventh century) includes a sermon on the Nativity by John of Damascus,
freely illustrated with episodes partly biblical, partly derived from secular
history (Dream of Cyrus, &c.).
No. 923 of the Bibliothfeque Nationale contains a number of parallel passages
from the Fathers. The illustration comprises figures of the saints, episodes
from the Old Testament and from the New, especially the miracles. There are
also genre scenes, showing the activity of the doctor, the painter, the athlete, &c.
The book belongs to the same type as the Ambrosian Homilies of Gregory.
It is impossible to describe the later and smaller copies of the Homilies, the
illustration of which is influenced by the two types represented in these two
' G. Millet in A. Michel, i, pp. 239-43 ; Kondakoif, ffistoire, &c., ii. 58 ; Diehl, Manuel, 580.
' Reproduced by M. Omont, Facsimiles des Miniatures, PI. LVIII ; and by Millet, as
above, p. 242.
3 This style of frontispiece perpetuates the late Hellenistic tradition illustrated in the
Vienna Dioscorides (see p. 460).
* In A. Michel, Histoire, i, p. 247.
478 PAINTING

older redactions. M. Millet has given a general analysis of their distinguishing

features/
The Fonds Coislin of the Bibliothfeque Rationale' has a fine MS. of the
sermons of St. John Chrysostom. It is remarkable for the introductory minia-
tures representing the Emperor Nicephorus Botoniates (a. d. 1078-81), for whom
it was executed. The emperor, who is four times represented, is accompanied by

p> p I OL4J tc u p o UJL», Xam d\KO-0~ "T»«>M

Fig. 285. Joseph and Mary expelled from the Temple : miniature from the twelfth-
century Homilies ot James in the Bibliothfeque Nationale. {Hauies Etudes : G. Sehlumberger,
Hachette.)

the empress, great officers of state, and other persons, the. pictures preserving
the traditional type of frontispiece-portrait represented in the Vienna Dioscorides
and the later Homilies of Gregory.
Two MSS. of the Homilies of Jacobus Monachus in honour of the Virgin
may be mentioned. The Vatican MS. (No. 1162) appears to be an original of
the twelfth century ; the Paris MS. (No. 1208),' a contemporary replica (Fig. 285).
1 A. Michel, Histoire, i. 243 ff. The principal MSS. are Bibl. Nationale 543, and Coislin
239 ; Sinaiticus 339 ; Jerusalem No. 14. For Sinaiticus 339 see N. Kondakoff, Voyage to Sinai,
pp. 148 ft'., Odessa, 1882; the MS. is ascribed to the twelfth century.
2 G. Millet, as above, 247 and Fig. 136 on p. 249.
^ Sehlumberger, Epopee, ii, PI. VIII and pp. 229, 241 ; Venturi, Stmia, ii, p. 482 ;
Kirpicnikoff, B. Z., v, p. 109.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS 479

The latter still retains the frontispiece representing Jacobus presented by

Chrysostom to Gregory of Nyssa. The illustration of these books consists of
whole-page frontispieces and miniatures inserted in the text, with gold back-
grounds. They are suggested by allusions in the Homilies, or based upon the
parallelism between the two Testaments, or are derived from the story of the
Virgin, in which the apocryphal legends play a considerable part ; or, again, they
set forth her celestial rank and functions. Irregular arrangement and the
detachment of certain scenes from their context suggest that these compositions
may be inspired from the frescoes or mosaics of some church decorated in a
similar manner to Kahrie Djami at Constantinople.'

Fm. 286. Daniel ; miniature from the Menologium of Basil II in the Vatican Library.
(fiaufes Studes : G. Millet.)
To the Third Period belongs the illustration of Menologia or general liturgical
calendars, succeeding the earlier calendars of more local use. The compilation
of the lives of the saints by Simeon Metaphrastes was executed in the reign of
Constantino Porphyrogenitus (a. d. 912-59): this was abridged in the reign
of Basil II, and the most famous illustrated example, that bearing the name
of this emperor in the Vatican Library,^ should strictly be described as a
synaxarium rather than a menologium proper.
The endless series of martyrdoms, chiefly by beheading (Fig. 286), represented
in a landscape of conventional rocky hills, or before architecture which at first
sight seems equally conventional, lends an aspect of monotony to the illustration
of this famous book: they are the work of more than one artist.^ In style
the miniatures belong to their time, and are a good example of the contemporary
illuminator's art. But the book derives additional interest from its frequent
I The decoration both of Kahrie Djami and of the Church of the Peribleptos at Mistra is
related to the work of Jacobus Monachus (see p. 416) ; but they date from the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries respectively, and the scenes differ in many ways from those of the MSS.
^ II Menologio di Basilic II : Codices e Vaticanis selecti, vol. viii, Turin, 1907, where refer-
ences are given to earlier notices of the MS. See also Millet's remarks in A. Michel, i. 237 S.
Menologia have been treated from the literary side by Ehrhard and Delehaye, see references
in B. Z., vii. 231. ' Eight artists sign the miniatures, two described as ' of Blachernae.'
480 PAINTING

loans from antiquity. It has been pointed out by various scholars that it is very
rich in reminiscences of a more ancient art. Among these may be mentioned
the occurrence of sarcophagi with sculptured reliefs, and of nude statues repre-
senting idols, derived from pagan art. The evidence for the copying of Early
Christian models is even more direct : thus Joshua before the Archangel Michael
reproduces the type seen in the Joshua Eotulus (see p. 457). M. Millet has drav^n
attention to the resemblance between the buildings depicted and churches at
Salonika, Eavenna, Bethlehem, and Constantinople. Martyrdoms are often repre-
sented near the church consecrated to the martyr, and this is usually a circular
building, or a basilica with a circular baptistery attached to it. The Church
of Apamea presents the characteristics of Syrian churches ; the building shown
in the scene of the translation of St. Timothy to Ephesus resembles that depicted
in the translation of St. John Chrysostom to the Church of the Holy Apostles at
Constantinople. Since tradition connects the origin of the latter type with
Ephesus, the comparison is interesting, as are those afforded by the representa-
tions of the Monastery of St. Simeon Stylites, and the Churches of St. John
Studium and Blachernae. It is argued that the architecture of this manuscript
is not conventional but is based upon the actual buildings : the originals from
which the artists worked were products of that ' pictorial hagiography ' which
Asia Minor transmitted to Constantinople. Reasoning of this kind is certainly
seductive ; but it is perhaps possible to attach too much weight to these
resemblances.
The Menologium in the Synodal Library at Moscow may be compared with
the Vatican book for the month of January. But there are a considerable
number of illustrated menologia which do not follow the type of the Vatican
book. The illustrations in many cases are intercalated in the text, instead of
being placed at the head of each chapter. In two examples, those of the
Monastery of Esphigmenou on Mount Athos (eleventh century ; No. 14), and the
Bibliotheque Nationale (No. 580 ; twelfth century), there are illustrated frontis-
pieces, each divided into several scenes.
The British Museum possesses an illuminated copy of Simeon Metaphrastes'
Lives of the Saints for the month of September, dating from the eleventh or
early twelfth century (Add. MS. 11870).^ It contains more than twenty minia-
tures, chiefly representing martyrdoms in a conventional landscape, though
occasionally the saint appears as orans, holding a cross or praying before or in
a building. One subject (fol. 60) depicts a miracle of St. Michael. In more
than one case the saint is seen in a medallion in the centre of four larger
medallions in which his story is depicted : there are elaborate head-pieces of
the foliate ornament characteristic of the period, often enclosed in circles,
lozenges, quatrefoils, &c. The figures are delicately painted, and the faces
often expressive : the scheme of colour is brilliant, the principal tints being
blues, greens, purples, browns, and vermilion.
Illuminated copies of theological works have also survived. Conspicuous
among these are the MSS. of the Spiritual Ladder of John Climax, abbot of
Sinai, who lived at the close of the sixth century. The finest copy is that
of the eleventh century in the Vatican (Gr. 394),^ where the miniatures are very
numerous and of fine quality, though without variety in subject or conception.
The matter is for the most part derived from episodes of religious and monastic
life, in which acts of penitence are of especial frequency ; and allegorical subjects
in great variety accompany the progress of the monk up the ' spiritual ladder '.
In the combats of the virtues and the vices, the forces of evil are symbolically
distinguished by their black colour and infernal wings.
Another copy of the twelfth century in the Monastery on Mount Sinai is
illustrated in a different spirit. Here genre scenes depict the effects of vice
' G. P.Warner, British Museum Eeproductions from Illuminated MSS., ser. i, 1907, No. I,
PI. I (St. Euphrosyue).
' G. Millet, as above, p. 248.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 481
and virtue ; monks are constantly represented, the fact suggesting a monastic
origin.
Eeligious poetry has left less illustration than remains to us in historical
works. The Akathistio Hymn (u/ivos d/ca^to-To's) to the Virgin,' considered the
work of Photius, who composed it in a.d. 626 to aid in the defence of
Constantinople against the Eussians, has however survived in illustrated copies.
The MS. at Moscow, of the eleventh century, has interesting zoomorphic initials,
and each of the twenty-four oIkoi is preceded by a miniature.

Fig. 287. An Oecumenical Council : miniature from the Menologiura of Basil II in the
Vatican. {Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 479.

The same cycle of subjects is foilnd in the fifteenth-century frescoes of the

Church of the Pantanassa at Mistra, and in later frescoes on Mount Athos.
Portraits of imperial persons occur in numerous religious MSS., and some
have been noticed above; It may be of interest to mention a typikon of the
Monastery of the TheotoJcos rrjq ySe/Saias eXTriSos at Lincoln College, Oxford,
which contains interesting portraits of John Comnenos Ducas Synadenos, his
wife, and relatives : it is of the fourteenth century."
II. Secular Manuscripts.
As far as present knowledge goes, illuminated copies of the Physiologus, or
Book of Symbolic Beasts, were not so popular in the East as were the Bestiaries
in the Western Middle Ages. Although the Physiologus itself was probably
compiled in Alexandria in the first centuries of the Christian era,' no illustrated
copies of the First Period are at present known to exist. The origin of the
pictorial types at a time preceding the iconoclastic revolution is exceedingly
probable, but cannot as yet be proved : animals of a similar kind are used to
illustrate the early MSS. of Cosmas Indicopleustes. The earliest examples now
1 Millet in A. Michel, i. 248.
'^ H. Omont, Rev. des etudes grecques, xvii, 1904, 361-73 ; B. Z., xiv, 1905, 732.
s Krumbacher, Gesch. der iys. Mtt., 2nd ed., 874 ff. ; B. Z., viii, 1899, 510 ft.
1204 I 1
482 PAINTING

known — for instance, the Smyrna Physiologus of about a.d. 1100^ — show an
evident affinity with the art of the Psalters of the ' monastic-theological ' school :
though their illustrations are not marginal they are similar in style, especially
those, common to both books, in which Old and New Testament subjects are intro-
duced for symbolical reasons or to illustrate allusions in the text. In both we
find miniatures relating to the iconoclastic dispute, and to entrance into religious
orders : both are conceived in the same theological spirit. Probably the type of
Physiologus containing such supplementary pictures, the earliest type which
we now know, was first produced in the ninth century and under monastic
influence.^
Other illuminated copies of the Physiologus exist, dating from the twelfth
century and after. As time advanced the book became more popular, and the
type diverged in some respects from the Smyrna example, possibly as a result

^ ' ■ ' .'I'lU' - '•..'■ 'I /_^ i

^ , Ai-DTtJ WMK! -inilTi v-.ji><fV)«Ti 'n^UJLiiipiKt'uuiriiii'.
Fig. 288. A naval battle : miniature from the tenth-eentury MS. of the Cynegetica of Oppiau
in the Marciana, Venice. (Hautes Studes : G. Millet.) P. 483.

of influence from the West.' Perhaps the comparative scarcity of Physiologus

MSS. is merely due to our ignorance ; if there are other causes, a reason may be
sought in the popularity of abridgements of the Natural Histories of Aristotle and
Aelian.
It is possible, as Strzygowski has remarked,' that there may be interaction
between the animal types of the earliest Buddhist art in India and those of the
Physiologus, both having a common origin in a Graeco-Asiatie area. The types
of the Physiologus may have affected the treatment of biblical scenes in which
numerous animals appear, for example, the naming of the beasts by Adam, and
the entry into the Ark. The same may be said of monstrous and other forms
in the illustrated books of Job.
Only a few purely secular illuminated MSS. can be mentioned. In the
Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris there is an eleventh-century copy of the Tlieriaca
of Nicander, who lived in the second century.^ The illustration comprises three
' J. Strzygowski, Der Bilderkreis des grieohisohen Physiologus (Erganzungsheft i of the B. Z.,
1899) ; V. Sohultze, Der Physiologus in der kircMichm Kunst des Mittelalters in Christliches Kunstblatt,
xxxix, 1897, 49-55. 2 Strzygowski, 95-6.
' 0. Wulff {IzviesUya of Kuss. Arch. Inst., Cple., iii. 202) mentions a Physiologus in the
'Eiayyf\iie/i 2x0^4 at Smyrna 'not earlier than the fourteenth century'. This contains
features pointing to Western influence. * pp. 92 ff.
" The Theriaca was a treatise on the remedies to be adopted against poisonous bites. The
picturesque miniature representing the ' Purification of the Gardens ' is reproduced by Millet
in A. Michel's Hist, de I'art, i. 210.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 483

picturesque miniatures in which the figures are seen in landscapes of Alexandrian

type, and a number of other illustrations in the margins without any back-
grounds. The work is evidently a painstaking copy of a very early original,
perhaps almost contemporary with Nicander himself. It should be compared,
as an illustrated scientific work, with the Vienna MS. of Dioscorides (p. 460).
The finest copy of the Cynegetica of Oppian dates from the Third Period, and
is in the Marcian Library at Venice (tenth century) ^ (Fig. 288).

Fig. 289. Scenes from the chase : miniature from the tenth-century Cynegetica of Oppian in
the Marcian Library, Venice. {Sautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

It contains numerous historical and mythological illustrations arranged in

horizontal bands, usually without borders, hunting-scenes, and figures of
animals. Near the beginning we see Oppian presenting his work to Caracalla,
and receiving the counsel of Artemis. Among the historical and mythological
subjects are Bellerophon and the Chimaera, Achilles on his chariot, and Alexander
pursuing Darius,— the very subjects which the hero Digenes Akritas is said to
have caused to be represented in mosaic on the walls of his palace at about the
time when this book was illustrated. Millet has drawn attention to this rela-
tion to monumental art ; probably both versions of the old motives were based
upon late Hellenistic models of the third century.

Paris.1 6. Millet in Michel's Eistoire de Vart, i. 212. There is a later (fifteenth century) copy at
ii2
484 PAINTING

The Calendar of the Chronographer Filocalus, written and illuminated in

A. D, 354, is only preserved to us in copies of the fifteenth and seventeenth
centuries from older copies of the Carolingian era.' These copies at second
hand possess, however, in so high a degree the characteristics of the fourth
century, that, allowing for the necessary influence of the later style, they still
furnish evidence of great value for the transitional period between pagan and
Christian art. The ninth-century models of surviving editions" are either
destroyed or lost, though one Avas known to the antiquary Peiresc in the first
quarter of the seventeenth century.
The surviving copies are three in number, and are clearly based upon two
diiferent ninth-century models. The earliest copy, that in the Vienna Library
(No. 3416), dates from the second half of the fifteenth century, and is based upon
a redaction like that of an unillustrated fragment at Bern. The other two copies,
those in the Brussels Library and in the Barberini Library at Rome, derive from
a diiferent Carolingian MS. The different copies are complementary to each
other, in so far as miniatures missing in one are still preserved in others, so that
by utilizing all three, Strzygowski has been able to give a fair idea of the
contents of the book, only three illustrated pages remaining blank. The greater
number are taken from the Barberini Codex, and are copies made for Peiresc ; '
where a single miniature is represented in more than one MS., it is possible to
draw some conclusion as to the fidelity of the earlier copyists. The title-page
bears an inscription relating to a Valentinus of whom nothing is known ; * the
name of the calligrapher Filocalus is given upon one end of the tabella ansata on
the same page.'' The fact that in the pages with the Natales Caesarum a Con-
stantius and a Constantine are described as divi, while a second Constantius
appears as dominus noster, shows that the book was originally written in the
reign of Constantius II (a.d. 350-61): details in the iconography accord with
this conclusion. The actual year must be that of the consulship of the two
princes, a.d. 354.
The book contained a title-page, the Tychae of Eome, Alexandria, Con-
stantinople, and Treves, a Nike, a Victory, a table of the Natales Caesarum, or
birthdays of the deified emperors, six pictures representing planets, two of
which did not survive to the second copying, a second title-page (also lost), a
series of miniatures with the emblematical figures of the months and signs of the
zodiac, and two miniatures of imperial persons, one of Constantius II enthroned,
the other of the Caesar Constantius Gallus standing, both with the nimbus.
The calendar was certainly illustrated as well as written in Eome ; but as it
shows various features which became characteristic of East-Christian art, it should
be mentioned in the course of any account of Byzantine miniatures. These
features are a certain relaxation of Eoman austerity, the introduction of more or
less ' unorthodox ' ornamental motives, some of which — for example, the borders
formed of overlapping heart-shaped figures — bear an oriental impress, the sump-
tuous costume of the imperial personages recalling in its detail of applied gems
1 J. Strzygowski, Die Calenderbilder des Chronographen vom Jahre 354, Erganzungsheft i of the
Mitih. k. d. A. I., Berlin, 1888 ; N. Kondakoff, Histoire de Vartiyz., i. The Vienna copy has been
published more than once, first by Lambeoius in the seventeenth century, Bibl. Caes. app.
com., Bk. IV, addit. i ; Kollar, Analecta Vindobon., 1761, i. 946 S. ; Graevius, Thesaurus, vol. viii ;
Montfaucon, Antiq. expl., suppl. i, PI. VI ff. The text of the Calendar was fully discussed by
Monimsen in 1850 ; see Abh. der k. sachsischen Oesellsch. der Wiss,, Phil.-hist. Classe, 547 ff.
^ Only fragments, without illustration, exist at Bern and at St. Gall.
'' It is clear from Peiresc's letters that these illustrations were sketches provisionally
sent, to be followed at a later time by more exact reproductions. At the same time, the anti-
quary remarks in a published letter that they follow the original very closely. This was an
outline pen-drawing (Strzygowski, p. 22), but it does not follow that the originals from
which the Carolingian copyists worked were not coloured miniatures.
* Valentine floreas in Deo. Valentine lege feliciter. Valentine tivas, Jloreas, Valentine vivas,
gaudeas.
^ Filocalus titulavit. This Filocalus, as a Eoman inscription upon stone shows, is probably
the calligrapher who furnished the texts for the inscriptions of Pope Damasus (Strzygowski,
p. 101).
 485
. ILLUMINATED MANUSOEIPTS

or inwoven figures representations of emperors, empresses, and consuls whose

lives were passed in the East-Eoman Empire, or in places, like Eavenna, under
the influence of its art. The two concluding miniatures, with their portraits of

Pig. 290. The Emperor Basil II : miniature from the Psalter of the tenth century in the
Marciana, Venice. {Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.) P. 470.

Constantius II and Constantius Gallus, recall the rather later consular diptychs
made for consuls of Constantinople. The fantastic treatment of the architecture
in which the Natales Caesarum and the calendar tables are framed, a treatment
in which structural propriety is abandoned to decorative advantage, marks an
486 PAINTING

early stage of a process which is familiar to students of all the later periods of
Byzantine art.
The best example of the illustrated historical book is the history of John
Skylitzes at Madrid/ It contains nearly six hundred illustrations. The hand
is of the fourteenth century, and the history covers the period from the accession
of Michael Ehangabe (a.d. 811) to the middle of the eleventh century. The
work of several artists may be distinguished. In the earlier part of the book
the style is simple and of harmonious colouring ; then follow pictures of larger
size and coarser execution ; in the subsequent portion, illustrating the reign of
John Zimisces and part of that of Basil II, the subjects are broadly treated in
a realistic manner, but the architecture of the backgrounds is more fantastic.
In both this and the preceding manner polychrome backgrounds of an oriental
character are employed.
The influence of East-Christian illuminated MSS. upon Western mediaeval art
was no less powerful and widely extended than that of ivory carvings. It may
be assumed in Italy at least from the time of Cassiodorus, who, as is well known,
established a scriptorium in his Monastery of Vivarium, and probably entertained
relations with Mesopotamian centres.'^ The Codex Eossanensis (p. 452) may
possibly have entered Italy at quite an early date through relations of this
kind, though it is perhaps more probable that it came in with the later influx of
Basilian monks. Imported MSS. must have been early imitated by Italians,
and the Gospels of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,' are by some considered
to be a very early copy from a Greek book of the First Period. In the Third
Period, at the time when the great Monastery of Monte Cassino flourished (p. 83),
the influence of Byzantine MSS. was continuous. A book of the Gospels (No. 165)
in the Biblioteca Casanatense at Eome, with miniatures of the four Evangelists,
appears to have been executed in South Italy.* It may belong to a rather
numerous class of South Italian MSS. of about the year a.d. 1000° closely
following Byzantine originals. The Gospels in the Ambrosiana at Milan (D. 67)
also appear to represent this class, of which Professor Munoz promises a publica-
tion. Late Byzantine books of prayers, of a type to be compared with the
Western books of hours, were sometimes copied in Italy for Graecizing princes
of the Eenaissance. An example is the fifteenth-century book in the Bibliothfeque
de Ste Genevifeve at Paris, written in Greek but possibly illuminated at Milan."
The Greek Gospels in the British Museum, written at Eome in a. d. 1478 for
Cardinal Fr. Gonzaga by a Cretan priest John, show the interaction of Byzantine
and Eenaissance styles (Harley, 5790). The number of MSS. in Italy of various
periods showing Byzantine influence must be very considerable.'
1 A complete set of photos in the Collection des Hautes Studes at the Sorbonne. Millet, as
above, pp. 213 ff. A MS. of Skylitzes dating from about the beginning of the twelfth century-
is in the library of the Church of S. Clement at Ochrida in Macedonia {Ismestiya, Russ. Arch.
Inst. Cple., iv, 1899, 132).
" A. Munoz, II bodice pm-pureo di Eossano, 29.
^ H. Wanley, Cat. librorum septentrionalium, Oxford, 1705, 151 ; J. 0. Westwood, PaJaeographia
sacra pictoria; Falaeographical Society's reproductions; Garrucci, Storia, iii. 64 ; H. Grisar,
Soma alia fine del mondo antico, 1899 ; L. Traube, Abk, der k. iayerischen Akad. der Wiss., Phil.-hist.
Klasie, xxi, 1898, 107. Munoz {Codice purpurea, p. 30) maintains a South Italian, Grisar a
Roman origin.
■* A. Munoz, Codici greet miniati delle minor i biblioieche di Boma, 81 ff.
* A good example is a Gospel of a.d. 1237 in the Biblioteca Queriniana at Brescia, with five
miniatures (A. Martini, Catalogo di marwscrHii greci, &c., i, Pt. II, 223 ff. ; A. Munoz, Miniature
biz. nella Biblioteca Queriniana di Brescia, in Miscellanea Ceriani, 1910, 172).
' A. Munoz, Codici greci miniati delle minori biblioteche di Boma, 90 ff.
' A few further examples may be here cited. In a book of sermons in the library of
Monte Cassino (MS. 99206) the Annunciation, Adoration of the Magi, and Ascension are
affected by the Byzantine types (Prussian Jahrbuch, xv. 228 ; see also D. Oderisio Piscicelli
Taeggi,
the famousLe Miniature nei Codici
illuminated Cassinensi,
initials of MonteandCassino
E. Bertaiix,
are of VArt
North dans I'ltalie meridionals).
European Though
inspiration, oriental
types appear in zoomorphic capitals resembling those of books in the Monastery of St. Catherine
on Mount Sinai (A. Muiioz, L'Art bysantin a I'Exposition de Qrottaferrata, p. 85). An exultet-roll in
Bari Cathedral, inscribed with the names of Robert Guiscard and his second wife, has minia-
 487
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

Turning to tlie countries noi-th of the Alps, we find similar influences at

work from the early centuries of the Middle Ages. The ornament of Merovingian
MSS. is rich in Eastern motives, both floral and zoomorphic' The Carolingian

etrJcroif

•T-euo-rWTDir .• a

"y^y*. li'^\''viraLpictjJ0XLOVLU-'TTa}javuJl\

Fig.
291. Iconoclasts facing a sacred picture ; from tlie Psalter of a.d. ]0C(» in tlie
British Museum. (Add. MS. 19.3.52.) P. 470.

era begins under the same auspices.- The monk Godescalc, who in a.d. 781-8
illuminated for Charlemagne the remarkable Gospels now in the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris," must have had for his model a book in the style of the
tures representing Basil II and Constantine (Bei-taux, as above, pp. 217 ff.). In the capitular
library at Verona there is a bilingual Psalter in Greek and Latin liands of al'out the seventh
century, illu,strated with single figures of animals, &c., perhaps of slightly later date. The
style is marked by oriental characteristics (Maft'ei, Istoria ieolugira. PI. I, Fig. 1 ; Westwood,
Palumgrapliia sacra pkt, PI. X ; A. Goldsohmidt in Eepertorinm, xxiii, 1900, 205 ff.). An early
Italian MS. in the British Museum has two full-page miniatures representing the Virgin
between two archangels (Fig. 29.5) and the Death of the Virgin, which must be copies of Byzan-
tine originals (Nero, C. 4). ' See Comte A. de Bastard's reproductions.
2 Thegan (Monmnenta Germaniae hist., ii. -593; relates that before his death Charlemagne
collated the Gospels with tlie aid of Greeks and Stjrians.
^ The connexion was first established by Strzygowski, B. D., i. .58 ff. The Gosjiels of
Lothair and of Epernay reveal a certain impressionism perhaps inspired by late Hellenistic art.
 488 PAINTING

Gospels of Etchmiadzin (p. 450). On the reverse of fol. 3 we see a representa-

tion of a sanctuary closely resembling that of the earlier Syrian book, the
differences chiefly arising from the artist's imperfect comprehension of his
original. In the foreground are introduced a variety of beasts and birds of the
types which occur in the Syrian Gospel of Eabula (p. 448), betraying the kind
of copy which Godescalc had before him. In the later Gospels of St. Medardj
written in the time of Louis the Pious (tenth century), a similar motive appears,
though the sanctuary has now become a fountain at which the animals drink,
and is associated in idea with the Fountain of Life (Jer. i. 13 ; John iv. 13, 14 ;
Rev. xxi. 6). In this book the rainbow border, first encountered in early Syrian
books, is also reproduced, and so handed on to later Western art. ' -5=-
The large group of early Carolingian illuminated books, known, from a
Gospel prepared for the Princess Ada, as the Ada group,' shows the evident
traces of Syrian inspiration both in ornamental motives and in figure sub-
jects. Between these MSS. and a series of ivory carvings" a close relationship
exists : ivories and miniatures have common iconographic models, which appear
to belong to East-Christian art of the sixth century. Among examples preserved
in England, the large composite book-cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
and the Snejd pyxis in the British Museum,' the imitation of oriental types and
forms is very evident (Figs. 146, 148). Similar imitation may be assumed in the
case of other well-known Carolingian ivories, for example the book-covers from
Metz in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.*
Peculiarities in the seventh-century Ashburnham Pentateuch ° justify a
similar inference to an early MS. of oriental origin now lost or destroyed. Here
details of costume and architecture, showing analogies to the frescoes of Jewish
tombs at Palmyra, suggest that the model was of Jewish origin, though the
place where the work was executed was very likely Alexandria." It is clear that
the painter or painters were familiar with oriental fauna and flora. Other
details, such as the architectural ornament of the frontispiece, are oriental in
type : the frontispiece, with its windows, recalls the canopy under which
St. Matthew sits in the Codex Rossanensis. The MS. has been variously assigned
to Upper Italy or Germany.
The Utrecht Psalter,' written and illustrated in the early ninth century
at Hautvillers in the diocese of Reims, probably by an Anglo-Saxon, is clearly
based either upon a model of the fourth or fifth century, or upon an early copy
of such a model. The original artist evidently lived in a Greek environment :
the division of the Psalms is into two parts after the Greek manner, the second
section beginning with Psalm 78 ; there is further an afiinity between this
MS. and the Joshua Eotulus or its original (p. 447), showing that the model
of the Utrecht book was of the same period and character. The backgrounds
with their hills and buildings are similarly treated ; the personifications of cities
' .Tanitschek, Die Trierer Ada-Randschrift a,nA article in Sptinger-Festschrift, 1885.
2 A. G-oldsehmidt, Prussian Jahrbuch, 1905 ; Voge, Bepeiiormm, xxiv, 1901, 196.
' Catalogue of Iv(,ry Carvings of the Christian Epoch, No. 43. The question of oriental influence-
is discussed in the introduction of this catalogue.
* Haseloff, Prussian Jahrbiich, xxiv (1903), pp. 60 and 61.
° The book, which contains the Books of Moses (except Deuteronomy) in Jerome's trans-
lation, was formerly at Tours and in the collection of Lord Ashburnham, but is now in the
Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (Palaeographical Society, PI. CCXXXIX ; 0. von Gebhardt, Tlie
Miniatures of the Ashburnham Pentateuch, 1883).
= J. Strzygowski, Orient Oder Rom, pp. 32 ff. ; A. Goldschmidt, Bepertoriiim, xxiv, p. 146 j
A. Springer, Die Genesisbilder in der Kunst des friJJien Mittelaliers, in Abhandlungen der phil.-hist.
Klasse der k. slichsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, ix, 1884, pp. 663 ff. ; L. Delisle, Compte rendu
de I' Acad, des Insa:, Feb., 1883.
' Formerly in the Cottonian Library, now in that of the University of Utrecht (W. de G.
Birch, The History, Art, and Palaeography of the MS. styled the Utrecht Psalter, London, 1876 ; The
Latin Psalter in the University Library of Utrecht, &e., photographed and produced in Facsimile, London,
1875 ; P. Durrien, L'Origine du Psautier d'Utrecht, in Melanges Julien Havet, 1895 ; A. Goldschmidt,
Repertorium, xv, 1892; H. Gmeven,. Die Vorlagen des !7. P., ibid., xxi, 1898, 28 ff.; J. J. Tikkanen,
■Die Psalterillustration, &c., i, Pt. iii).
 489
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

and places are a conspicuous feature in both cases ; the groups of warriors bear
a resemblance to each other. Such personifications are especially characteristic
of later Greek ai-t : not only ])laees, but Sun. Moon, Earth, Winds, and Waters,
with abstract qualities like Virtue, Pity, Justice, and Truth, are rendered by
human figures : the whole circle of Nature is in fact personified. Sleep
(Psalm 75) appears as a small figure hovering like an insect above slumbering
men. The personification of 'our days ' (Psalm 89, v. 8) as Aeon, a nude male
figure, points to a Greek original, for the Latin word SaeniJitm is impersonal :
in the same way the bearded half-figure representing Hades (Psalm 114) is more

'j-aj. o 'I lAT-l n^^i n I r

"^1' owrxroi^fLourrajop
±
IJ/C' ftstJ-ir4.tA

<."

Fig. 292. Illustration from the Psaltoi- of a.d. lOOC in the British Museum.
(Add. MS. 19352.J

•probably derived from the Greek than from the Latin Infermm. More conclu-
sive still is the illustration of the passage in Psalm 21 : ' they parted my
garments among them,' &c., where the curious machine used in the Hippodrome
at Constantinople (cf. Fig. 29o) for casting the lots for chariot-races is introduced.'
An object of this kind cannot have been known in the west of Europe at the
time when the Utrecht Psalter was written. Finally we note resemblances
between figures in the Psalter and others on the group of Byzantine ivory
caskets best represented by the Veroli casket at South Kensington (p. 21.5),
which are themselves partly influenced by the .Joshua Eotulus or an early
version of it. The conclusion is that the artist of the Psalter had before him
a Greek MS. of the Psalms illustrated in the style cf the rotulus, and perhaps
of the fourth or fifth century.- The vigorous draughtsmanship is due to the
individual talent of the artist ; the original was probably more classical and
restrained in style, and fully coloured rather than drawn in outline : the linear
style, as in the case of the Calendar of Filocalus, is probably to be ascribed to
the copyist.

1 H. Graeven, as above, p. .34 ; Dalton, Pioc. Sue. Ant. Lorulox, xxi, p. 188.
'' This conclusion is in contradiction to tliat of Springer (/'le PsaCtnY/Ms^a/ioK imfrillim
MiUelaller in Alliandhmgen der k. sachsischen Gesellschaft, Phil. -hist. Classe, viii, 1880, pp. 187 ft'.).
490 PAINTING

In the manuscripts of the period of Archbishop Egbert of Treves there are

distinct traces of Byzantine influence, though it is clear that the German artists
of the closing tenth century did not rely exclusively upon Eastern sources.
Like their contemporaries of the Winchester school in England (see below), they
seem to have resorted in great measure to Early Christian models produced in
the West.' In the Codex of Egbert, as in the Benedictional of St. JEthelwold, the
apparent blending of sources is perplexing to the student, because we cannot
say what the Western originals really were.'' General influences of this kind
are observed in the group of MSS. of about a. d. 1000 studied by Dr. Voge, and
perhaps produced at Cologne.' Here the Byzantine scheme of composition is ,
adopted in some cases, as in the Last Supper and Death of the Virgin ; in others,
single Byzantine features are incorporated into a scheme of Western origin,
giving rise to a hybrid type. In yet other cases contemporary oriental influence
is altogether absent, and the scenes are entirely of Western composition. There

Fig. 293. The lot-easting machine of the Hippodrome, from a contorniate medal, an ivoiy
carving, and the Utrecht Psalter. (Cf. pp. 143, 468.) P. 489

is an almost exaggerated expression of movement and feeling, in some ways

recalling the atmosphere of the Utrecht Psalter. Perhaps these Cologne MSS.,
like that famous book, reflect the spirit of earlier work based indeed upon the
antique, but dating from a period, possibly the fourth century, when the antique
had lost its gravity and its repose. Here and there it seems possible to trace
a particular feature to Eastern inspiration, as the type of St. Mark as Bishop
of Alexandria, which may have been introduced from Egypt.*
German art of the Eomanesque period is so permeated by Byzantine
influences that by the thirteenth century we find a general inspiration and
absorption of oriental types, rather than the direct imitation of individual
models which had prevailed at an earlier period. Haseloff has demonstrated
this in the case of a Saxon-Thuringian school of illuminators working at the
beginning of the thirteenth century. ° The artists adopt Eastern types of faces,
^ W. VOge, Repertorium, xxiv, 1901, 474, reviewing Sauerland and HaselofTs Egbert-PsaMer.
In the Codex Egberti (see P. X. Kraus's edition) the Washing of the Disciples' Feet, the
Pentecost, and the Massacre of the Innocents follov\' Eastern types.
2 A clue is perhaps given in the similarity between the gesture of Peter in the scene of
the Washing of tlie Disciples' Feet on a sarcophagus at Aries and in the Gospels at Corpus
Christi
306). College, Cambridge (Garrucci, Ston'o, PI. 141 ; Romilly Allen, Early Christian Symbolism,
' Eine deutsche Malerschule um die Wende des erslen Jahrtausends (Erganzungsheft vii of the
Westdeutsche Zeitschrift fiXr Geschichte und Kunst).
* Sauerland and Haseloff, Egbert-Psalter, 149.
° A. Haseloff, Eine thiiringisch-sachsische Malerschule des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Strassbxirg, 1897.
For other German MSS. influenced by Byzantine models, see E. Dobbert, Prussian Jahrb., xix,
1898, 1 if., Das Emngeliar im Rathaus zu Goslar, and Gott. gelehrte Anseiyen, 1890, 883 ff. The Horius
Deliciarum of the Abbess Herrade of Landsperg, now extant only in i-eproduction, is also
strongly influenced by Byzantine types.
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS
491
styles of drapery, even whole compositions, but incorporate them into designs
in which, like the Carolingian draughtsmen who produced the Ada group, the
English illuminators definitely adopted a linear style, proljably because they
found colour-shading difficult.'
The manner suited their national genius and enabled them to pursue a freer

It o -r/tn/K K» w ^ "T" Y*'

-^

\ _

Fig. 294. Isaiah and Dawn (Oiihros) : from the Psalter of a. d. 1060 in the Bi-itisli Museum.
(Add. MS. 193.52.) P. 470.

and more original path : the excellence of their work was such that it reacted
upon continental art.'^ The manuscripts of the Winchester school, of which the
Benedictional of St. jEthelwold, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire,
is the most famous example, are executed in a style which has little in common
with contemijorary Byzantine illumination. Throughout, the artists rely upon
mastery of line ; and, though the colours are often rich, the miniatures recall
tinted drawings rather than the compositions of the Byzantine illuminator, with
their softer outlines, and deeper contrasts of light and shade. The luxuriant
foliage which frames the figure subjects, or forms the structure of the initials,

1 This seems more jirobable than Haseloffs tlieory that a vanished early Byzantine linear
style, only represented by derivative work in the Etchmiadzin Gospels, actually exerted an
influence upon Anglo-Saxon art (Der Psalter Erzbischof Egberts rim Trier).
^ There inay be ground forVoge's suggestion that there is a j'eflection of the Anglo-S.ixon
linear style in the early sculptures in Bamberg Cathedral (W, Vijge, liepertorium, xxiv, 1901).
492 PAINTINa

though conventional in character and doubtless suggested by the vine or acanthus,

has little in common v^ith Byzantine foliate design. The iconography of the
scenes diverges constantly from that of the Eastern Church, and may rather be
connected with the art of Western Europe than that of the new school of
Byzantine illumination which began to flourish with the establishment of the
Macedonian dynasty. Here and there we find a definitely Eastern feature, such
as the Washing of the Child in the Nativity, occuriing in the Psalter of Athelstan
in the British Museum, a MS. dating from the late ninth century ; ^ such features
may have been borrowed from the same early MSS. of the Eastern area which
inspired the Carolingian illuminator, but if the Anglo-Saxons had such models
they followed them less closely. There may have been intermediate models of
continental brigin.^
The influence of the East-Christian illuminator was naturally felt in the
states of the Balkan peninsula. The miniature art of the Southern Slav
peoples appears to betray influences coming from different quarters. Bulgaria
is more directly affected by the art of Constantinople ; in Servia, which was
closely connected with the Monastery of Chilandari on Mount Athos, where
Early Syrian MSS. were preserved, the influence of the Early Christian art of
Syria and Mesopotamia appears to have lasted until very late. In some parts of
the peninsula Byzantine influence was modified by that of Western Romanesque
art coming in through Dalmatia or Hungary.'' The dependence of the well-
known fifteenth-century Servian Psalter at Munich* on a Byzantine or, as
Strzygowski thinks, Early Syrian model has been clearly established. Similar
influences are traced by Baumstark in a twelfth-century Gospel in the library of
the Greek patriarchate at Jerusalem." Of Byzantine influence in Armenia the
Gospels of Queen Mike (early tenth century) in the Lagoon Monastery at Venice
are an important example, though the style depends largely upon the Early
Christian art of Mesopotamia and Syria.'* Armenian illuminated books are
enriched with many ornamental motives inherited from similar sources. It
has been stated above that the Armenians were important intermediaries
between Christian art and that of Persia. Mohammedan MSS. often show in
their illumination the influence of Byzantine miniature art.'
Western miniaturists copying Byzantine models frequently betray them-
selves in such details as the rendering of heads and suggestion of motion.* It
is possible that where, as is often the case, a subject is reversed, e. g. where, in
the Entry into Jerusalem, Our Lord rides from the right, instead of from the
left as usually in Byzantine art, the copyist may have held the page from the
MS. up to the light and traced the design from the back. Although Byzantine
influence was thus continually exerted in Europe down to the thirteenth century,
we sometimes find a reaction of the West upon the East, or rather the interaction
of two styles. The MSS. of Monte Cassino will be at once recalled ; the Servian
Miroslav Gospel has already been mentioned (see n. 3). A Western influence is
suggested in the Eusso-Byzantine miniatures in the Egbert Psalter at Cividale,

1 Westwood, Facsimiles, &c., PI. XXXII.

" It may be noted that in the latest Anglo-Saxon period the architecture of Anglo-
Saxon churches presents features which have been traced to Germany (Baldwin Brown, The
Arts in Early England, vol. i).
= So in the Miroslav Gospel (late twelfth century?), which was among the possessions
the murdered King Alexander (Facsimiles by L. Stojanovitch, 1897). Kondakoff and Bus-of
slaieff have both noted the Western style of the initials.
' See Jagitch and Strzygowski in Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy, vol. 52, Phil.-hist.
Classe ; A. Munoz in Nuovo Bull, di arch, crist., 1906.
' 'Ayiov Tdi^ou, 56 ; see A. Baumstark, R. Q., 1906, 174.
^ Alishan, Die Miniaturen des Evangeliars der Konigin Mike, Venice, S. Lazzaro, 1902. For
Syrian influence on Armenian MSS. in the Holy Land see A. Baumstark, B. Q., 1906. 181-2.
' E. Bloehet, Bev. arch., ser. iv, vol. ix (1907), pp. 193 S.
* E. Dobbert, Bepertorium, xv, 372-3. Examples of books quoted by Dobbert in illustration
are the Evangelistarium D. 67 in the Ambrosian Library at Milan (thirteenth century), and the
Gospel No. 118 at St. Petersburg (middle of the fifteenth century).
 ILLUMINATED MANUSCEIPTS 493

where the symbols of the Evangelists are introduced.^ The ritual book at
Vatopedi of a.d. 1346, with its representations of months and seasons, intro-
duces Western (Italian) types."
Like the ivory carving, the illumination probably provided frequent models
for the major arts. It may have assisted the sculptors of the early Eomanesque
period, especially in Southern Ffance ; we know that an illustrated Bible of the

Fi6. 295. The Virgin between Archangels : miniature showing Byzantine influence, from
a Western MS. of the twelfth century in the British Museum. (Nero C. 4.)

same style as the Cotton Bible in the British Museum provided the scheme of
decoration for the Genesis mosaics in S. Marco at Venice (p. 400) ; probably an
illuminated MS. played the same part in the decoration of Kahrie Djami at
Constantinople. On the minor arts, too, the influence of the illuminator must
have been considerable. There is an evident analogy between the figure subjects
on silver plate and those of miniatures (p. 467) ; and ivory carvings occasionally
suggest the same affinities.
1 A, Haseloff, Bgbert-Codex ; N. Kondakoff, Representations of a Russian Princely Family in Minia-
tures ofthe Eleventh Century, St. Petersburg, t906 (Russian).
* J. Strzygowski, Repertorium, xiii, 1890, 241 ff.
 .^
— rou

PIG- -iraoVfevio

V^ /Z« ^ / .«v
o- '
>s|> croVf "^^ *~^
*■ r»^ P£D-nn>;A$v^

Fig. 296. The Pentecost : head-piece from the twelfth-century Homilies of Gregory of
Nazianzus in the Monastery on Mount Sinai. (Hmitex Etudes, N. Kondakoff. )

CHAPTER VIII
ENAMEL
The oriain of enamelling; in the Christian East is no less obscure than
that of the art itself. At first sight it seems strange that this method
of decorating metal should not have been invented by the Egyptians.
This people had from a very early date been familiar with the process
of applying a vitreous glaze to earthenware, and from a period at least
as early as the twelfth dynasty had produced gold jewels inlaid with
coloured stones very similar in general effect to enamelled ornaments.
But though facts of this nature would naturally indicate the Nile Valley
 ENAMEL 495

as the probable birthplace of enamelling, no enamelled objects from this

region are known to be earlier than Roman times. The explanation of
this apparent anomaly is perhaps that suggested by Mr. Edward Dillon,
who has pointed out that Egyptian glass lacks the lead which is a neces-
sary constituent if this substance is to be successfully fused upon a metal
surface.^ The jewels discovered by Ferlini in 1834-5 in the upper part
of a pyramid at Meroe in Nubia ^ were associated with antiquities not
earlier than Roman times. If the experience of future excavation corre-
sponds with that of the past, the claims of other countries must be con-
sidered superior to those of Egypt. To say nothing of the Aegean peoples
whose position with regard to this question is still perhaps uncertain,^ we
find the Greeks and Etruscans enamelling gold jewellery by about A.D. 500
B. c. ; * and whatever the date of the remarkable barbaric enamels from
Koban in the Caucasus,^ they are certainly older than the objects found
at Meroe. The same may be said of the older Celtic enamels of Western
Europe, which go back to the early part of the third century before
Chf-ist. There is at present practically no evidence on which a theory
of origin can be based. The Greeks of the Aegean appear to occupy
a strong position, though they may have received the first impulse from
the West of Asia, possibly from the Syrian coast. At present, however, we
know nothing of early Asiatic enamels. Much of the documentary evidence
collected by De Linas and others seems rather to apply to jewellery
inlaid with coloured stones (' inlaid jewellery '), of which there are examples
as early as the fourth or even the fifth century. Central Asia is still
a blank as far as ancient vitreous art is concerned ; while enamelling
was only introduced into China in the fourteenth century, and then from
Constantinople.^
These remarks upon the origin of enamelling in general have their
bearing upon the history of the art as practised in the Christian East.
Perhaps no surviving Byzantine enamel can claim an earlier date than the
sixth century A. c, but, as will be noticed below, there is literary evidence

'■ Burlington Magazine, xi, Sept., 1907, 373.

^ Ferlini, Cenno sugli scavi operati nella Nubia, &c., Bologna, 1837.
3 The blue substance inlaid in the jewels forming the Aegina Treasure in the British
Museum is considered to have been cut and fitted when cold, and not fused in position.
' Greek and Etruscan enamelling is delicately applied in compartments of gold wire
enriching articles of jewellery (ear-rings from Eretria in the British Museum found in a
vase of about b. o. 400, F. H. Marshall, Catalogue of Jewellery, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan, Nos.
1267, 1290, 1653-4; fourth-century ear-rings, necklaces, &c., under Nos. 1644-7, 1947, 1951).
In the second and third centuries the Greeks coated small figures of animals pendent from
ear-rings, &c., with white 'enamel, a difficult process revived in Europe at the close of the
fourteenth centuiy and frequently employed in the Eenaissance (examples from Prince
Torlonia's excavations at Vulci, Ac, in the British Museum appear to be of Greek origin,
Marshall, as above, Nos. 1675 ft'.). Enamelled jewellery of the fourth and third centuries has
also been found in the Greek settlements in the South of Eussia (Kondakoff, Tolstoy, and
Beinach, Antiquiies de la Russie meridionale. Index, s.v. email).
" Virchow, Das Graberfeld von Koban ; Zeitschriftfur JSthnologie, 1904j 87.
« The Chinese name for cloisonne enamel is Fa-lan, a corruption of Fo-lang or Fo-lin,
the name of Byzantium in Chinese annals. The Ming Emperor Ching-tai (a. d. 1450-6) took
the art under hi? protection, and the mark of his reign is found upon early examples. See
S. W. Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, Collection ofW. T. Walters, Text Edition, 1899,455.
496 ENAMEL

which makes a knowledge of enamelling in Constantinople probable at

least two centuries earlier. When Christian enamels first appear, they
are of the cloisonne variety on gold, distinct from the champlevi^ work
upon copper found at Koban and in the Celtic area, and diflFering also
from the wired or encrusted work of the Greeks. Their nearest relations
are with the Meroe find ; while to the inlaid jewellery they bear an obvious
if only superficial resemblance. It is conceivable that the Persians taught
their Western neighbours how to enamel ;i but at present there is no
satisfactory evidence that at the time of Constantine they knew any
other kind of cloisonn^ work than that in which stones are inlaid d froid.^
The real date of the ewer at St. Maurice d'Agaune ^ in the Valais,
enamelled with gryphons and a 'sacred tree' in the Persian style, is
uncertain, but no authorities place it earlier than the seventh century,
too late to support a Persian claim in the face of the older cloisonne
enamels made within the limits of the Byzantine Empire. If Byzantine
cloisonne enamel is not of Hellenic origin, suggested to an inventive people
already able to fuse glass on metal by the sight of inlaid jewels, the
alternative would perhaps be to seek its birthplace in the area embracing
Syria, Mesopotamia, and the countries running north to the Caucasus,
where, as we shall see (p. 528), it was very popular in the' Third Period,
and where glass seems to have been manufactured.* Upon the evidence
at present available it is best to suspend the judgement.
Almost all Byzantine enamels ° are of the cloisonne variety, that is
to say, the enamel is contained within cells composed of thin strips of
metal bent to the desired contour and soldered edgeways to the metal
base. This kind of enamelling lends itself to minute work, and is practi-
cally confined to the precious metals, of which gold was almost exclusively
employed in ancient times : it follows that the great majority of Byzantine
enamels are of restricted size. They are chiefly small plaques, as a rule
rectangular and circular, of such a size that a number may be applied
to the decoration of a single object such as a book-cover, reliquary, chalice,
or crown, their decoration consisting of figures and busts of sacred persons
or saints, and of conventional floral or geometrical designs for use in
subordinate positions. In addition to these plaques and medallions, there
' This is the opinion of Kondakoff and Diehl {Manuel, 344).
' Too much importance need not be a^itached to the philological argument based upon the
Arabic, Persian, and Turkish words for enamel {mynd, mina, mineh). There seems no satisfactory
evidence that the substance so described was introduced to the Arabs by the Sassanian
Persians.
' M. Dieulafoy, L'Art antique de la Perse, \, p. 158 ; S. Guyer, CkrisUiche Denkmdler des ersten
Jahrtausends in der Sehwelz, 102 ; E. Aubert, Le Tresor de VAhbaye de Saint Maitrice d'Agaune, PI. XIX.
* Strzygowski has always regarded Armenia as the possible place of origin (cf. Amida,
352).
' The standard work upon Byzantine enamels is Prof. N. Kondakoff's GeschicMe und Denkmdler
des hyzantinischen Emails, an edition de luxe in which the Swenigorodskoi collection is described,
and a large number of the known enamels in public and private collections are dis-
cussed. The work, hereafter cited as Kondakoff, Enamel, is also published in a French
edition, but is only accessible in large libraries. P. Bock's Die hyzantinischen ZeUenschmdze,
&c., covers much of the same ground. See also Labarte, Kecherches sur la peiniure en email, and
Histoire des arts industriels, pp. 96 ff. ; Diehl, Manuel, pp. 287 ff., 642 S.
ENAMEL 497

K k
498 ENAMEL

are in existence a few small articles of jewellery, ear-rings, brooches, so

decorated, to which a Byzantine origin is attributed.
There were various methods of producing enamels with figure subjects.
If a plain gold background was desired, as was most frequently the case,
a thin plate of gold was beaten into a mould having the outline of the
figure to be represented, or else, perhaps, the cavity in the required shape

Fia. 298. Agate chalice with enamels, of the eleventh century : in the Treasury of
S. Marco, Venice. (Schlumberger : Hachette.) P. 514.

was punched in over a piece of leather. Within this cavity the strips
of flat wire which rendered the features, extremities, and folds of drapery
were soldered, and the cells thus produced were filled with enamel. This
kind of plaque shows at the back the general form of the figure in
repouss^. The process may be clearly seen from an examination of such
plaques as have lost the whole or a great part of their enamel, such as one
of the circular medallions in the Treasury of St. Mark's at Venice and
a similar medallion in the Communal Library at Siena. In the medallions
of the Swenigorodskoi Collection both the outlines and the principal inner
lines appear to have been also punched upon the gold plaque, and can be
clearly traced upon the back. Another method is illustrated by medal-
lions in the British Museum (Fig. 304) enamelled upon both sides. Here
the background i.s also covered with enamel contained by a strip of metal
 ENAMEL 499

soldered round the edges. The same principle is adopted in the ease of
the medallion from Risano (p. 507) and the example from the Victor Gay
Collection now in the Louvre (p. 506, n. 2). When the enamel had received
all the firings which it required it was given a high polish which may-
have added to its durability; but as almost all Byzantine enamels
have escaped burial in the earth this point is of comparatively small
consequence.^
Pure gold is much the best metal for enamelling, as it is ductile, never
tarnishes, and only melts at a high temperature, while the glass clings
firmly to the surface.^ The chief objection to it is its softness and excessive
malleability, which exposes the finished enamel to the danger of being
easily cracked unless very carefully treated. It has been stated that
many Byzantine enamels are applied to an alloy of gold and silver
(electrum) : ^ this would certainly make them stronger ; but if strength was
required, it is curious that the enamellers should have hardly ever used
pure silver, a metal which gives very beautiful blues and greens.* Perhaps
their neglect of silver may have been due to the fact that it melts at
a lower temperature than gold, whereas' the coloured glasses which they
used, not being of so uniform a quality or fusible at so low a temperature
as those now employed, may have fused late and with difficulty : as
a consequence of this the whole work might have been imperilled by
the premature melting of the silver base. But an alloy of gold and
silver actually melts at a lower temperature than pure silver. We must
therefore conclude that if the gold used by the Byzantine enamellers is
not pure, then their glass must have been of good soft quality, and
consequently they could have had no need to fear accidents ; their avoid-
ance of it may therefore be merely a matter of taste. But it is curious
that they did not sometimes employ the white metal for economy, finally
gilding the edges of the cloisons if they wished to produce the efiect of
gold. They did occasionally use copper, a metal inferior to silver for
cloisonne-work, as we see from the above-mentioned medallions in the
British Museum and the Louvre:^ in this they were followed by
earljr makers of cloisonn^ enamels in Western Europe, for the curious
portable altar in the Treasury of Conques and several medallions in
various collections are enamelled in cells of the red metal.^ The champleve
process on copper was very rarely employed, though the practice of
' For the technical processes of the enameller the reader may consult Mr. H. H. Cunyng-
hame's European Enamelsia the Connoisseur's Library, and his smaller work on the same sub-
ject. Mr. Lewis Day's book on enamelling will also be found useful. The older works by
Labarte, de Laborde, Darcel, and others are still valuable ; a bibliography is given by
Mr. Cunynghame.
^ For the comparative merits of the metals which may be used in enamelling see the first
chapter in Mr. Cunynghame's European Enamels.
3 Kondakoff, Enamel, 102.
* Molinier mentions two small silver plaques in the Gr^au Collection dating from the
tenth or eleventh century, or at any rate in the style of that period, and representing full-
length figures {L' Orfevrerie, p. 64).
" V. Gay, Glossaire archeologigue, s. v. email (Fig.) ; Les Arts, .Jan., 1910, p. 12.
" For the Conques altar see E. Molinier, Histoire des arts appliquds a Vindusirie:
Vor/evrerie, 116.
Kk2
500 ENAMEL

encrusting silver in bronze might well have suggested its more frequent
employment : almost the only example in which it is used to any extent
being the large plaque with St. Theodore now in the Hermitage at
St. Petersburg^ (see p. 528). The panel in the Museo Kircheriano at
Rome would be another instance if it could be proved to be certainly
Byzantine (see p. 510). The border of the reliquary at Gran in Hungary
has ornament in embossed metal on an enamelled ground (p. 525).
The converse process of applying enamel to surfaces embossed in relief
seem s also to have been understood by Byzantine
enamellers, though they used it rarely. This
kind of work, sometimes known as encrusted
enamel, is the most difEcult of all, and was
not attempted by the enamellers of Western
Europe until the latter part of the fourteenth
century, when it was successfully practised
in France. At a later period it formed the
principal decoration of the splendid pendent
jewels of the Renaissance. The Greeks had
produced small ornaments, such as ear-rings,
enamelled in this way, in the third century
before Christ ; but from that time down to
the time of Charles V of France the method
appears to have been abandoned. The face
of the figure of St. Michael upon the
Fig. 299.
Enamelled figure of enamelled book-cover in the Treasury of
St. Demetrius on a gold reliquary St. Mark at Venice (see p. 513) is embossed
at Halberstadt. (Schlumberger :
Hachette.) in gold and covered with enamel ; and as this
book-cover is not later than the twelfth
century, it will be seen that Byzantine art was in this particular some two
centuries in advance of that of Eui"ope.
The Byzantine enameller probably worked very much in the fashion
described by the eleventh-century author Theophilus, who, though himself
of Western origin and writing in the West, was evidently familiar with
the methods of the Greeks in more than one of the industrial arts. In
the fifty-fourth chapter of the third book of his Biversarum artium
schedula, he describes the process of making cloisonne enamel, and the
description is so good that it might be followed by any amateur desirous
of learning the art in our own day. The reader who is interested in
the subject is referred to the chapter in question, from which only a few
^ A. Darcel, La Collection Basilewsky, PI. XIV. For the curious panel in the Museo
Kircheriano, Rome, see p. 510. Tlie copper dish at Innsbruck, ornamented in champlev^
with the Ascent of Alexander, musicians, dancers, gryphons, eagles, &c., bears an inscription
showing that it was made for an Ortukide prince of the twelfth century, perhaps Dawud,
who died in a. d. 1144. It may have been made in Mesopotamia, but the Mohammedan
craftsman probably learned to use enamel from Byzantine sources. The dish may be
regarded as a link with the Mesopotamian metal-work encrusted with silver (Van Berchem
and Strzygowski, Amida, 120 ff., 353 ff. ; Von Falke, in Monaishefte fiir Kunstmssenschaft, ii, 1909,
234 ff.).
 ENAMEL 501

points can here be particularly noticed. The first of these is concerned

with the manner in which ancient enamels were fired. From the earliest
times down to the Renaissance, and even later, the fuel employed was
pure charcoal, which gives off no fumes to tarnish the metal and spoil the
surface of the enamel. According to Theophilus, the powdered glass was
simply put on a plate or in a large kind of ladle made of iron, over which
was placed an iron cover perforated with holes. The charcoal was then
built up about this primitive contrivance and blown to a red heat. More
complicated apparatus was doubtless introduced in time ; but down to
the introduction of coal and gas fuel the principle must have been the
same whatever the scale of the operations may have been ; under modern
conditions, where coal and gas are used, it is necessary to protect the
object from noxious and sulphur-laden fumes by using a muffle furnace.
After the work had been fired several times, and the enamel renewed until
when cooled it was slightly higher than the edges of the metal cloisons,
the surface had to be first ground down until cells and vitreous surface
were all in one plane, and. then polished to give it the requisite lustre.
According to Theophilus the grinding was done with water upon a sandy
stone and the polishing on a lead slab smeared with pulverized pottery
of fine quality mixed with saUva, first rubbed into a paste upon a hard
stone. The final finish was given upon a piece of goatskin similarly
smeared and stretched upon a table. Modern enamellers grind with car-
borundum and emery, and polish with rottenstone or Tripoli powder;
but it is probable that the processes described by Theophilus were very
close to those in use at Constantinople. The glass used for enamels must
have been rendered sufficiently fusible by the addition of a greater or
less quantity of lead oxide, and the even quality attained by the best
Byzantine work proves that the composition must have been scientifically
determined. The colours were given by various metallic oxides. White
was obtained from oxide of tin, blue from cobalt, green from copper, and
so on. The scale of colour was less extensive than that available in our
own day, but comprised several blues, purples, reds, and greens, with
yellow, brown, and flesh-pink. Many colours were preferred translucent,
especially in earlier work. Byzantine enamellers no doubt owed much
to the researches of the chemists who in earlier times had provided recipes
for making coloured glass pastes in imitation of gems.
Literary evidence confirms the conjecture that enamelling may have
been practised in Constantinople in the earliest years after the foundation
of the city. The Anonymus of Banduri says that Constantine set up on
the place called Philadelphion a gilded cross ornamented 5ia XiOuiv koI
vikoDv; and the passage may refer to enamel, though encrustation of
precious stones and glass pastes is a possible alternative.^ Evidence
for the time of Justinian is more satisfactory, though far from com-
' Kondakoff (Enamel, 84) is inclined to accept iiXav as referring to enamel. Codinus
repeats the story of the Anonymus.
502 ENAMEL

plete.i The accounts of the ornamentation of the altar in Sta Sophia in Paulus
Silentiarius, the Anonymus, Cedrenus, and Nicetas Choniates seem to imply
that enamel was employed to- decorate the altar itself, though not the
ciborium above it. It is not until we reach the time of Constantine Por-
phyrogenitus (a.d. 913-59) that certain literary evidence becomes available.
The emperor, in his treatise on the ceremonies of the Byzantine Court,
mentions enamels used to decorate the palace or sent as gifts to Moham-
medan and barbaric princes,^ employing the words XJ^V^"""'^ ^^^ enamel and
epya xvfJ'fVTd for enamelled objects. It would appear from his account
that these works of art were set out among other treasures when a
display was made on the occasion of great receptions ; most probably they
were personal ornaments, medallions with portraits, imperial mantles and
regalia with enamelled medallions upon them, sacred pictures, crosses,
reliquaries, cups, chalices, book- covers — in short, objects belonging to the
same categories as those which have come down to our time. Horse-
furniture would also appear to have been enriched with enamels, like that
of the Celts in earlier days.^ Goldsmiths and enamellers were accommodated
in the building attached to the palace known as the Zeuxippus, where
the looms of the imperial silk manufactory were established.* Eesidence
about the precincts of the royal palace was enforced by the early Teutonic
princes in Europe (Franks, &c.), and by the Mohammedan princes of
Damascus, Bagdad, and Sicily, in the case of all craftsmen whose work
was necessary for the royal luxury. The imperial goldsmiths had, how-
ever, no monopoly of the art, which was also practised by independent
workmen.
Except in rare instances where historical persons are represented or
mentioned by name in inscriptions, or where an enamel has been discovered
in the tomb of an identified person, the date of Byzantine enamels can
only be approximately given. But there are a few examples which fulfil
the above conditions, and they serve as points of comparison for others
which resemble them. These are the Limburg reliquary (see p. 522) with
its inscription relating to Constantine and Eomanus ; the cross at Copen-
hagen, found in the tomb of Queen Dagmar, who died in A.D. 1212,
and therefore anterior to that date (p. 527) ; the crown at Budapest with
enamelled representations of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos and the
Empresses Zee and Theodora (p. 525) ; and the ikon of Chachuli in the
church of the Monastery of Gelat (p. 528), with Our Lord crowning the
Emperor Michael VII Ducas. But though such precise evidence is rare,
indications are not wanting by which the period of a given enamel can
be approximately determined. The character of the designs and details of
iconography enable us to assign certain outside limits within which most
' Lethaby and Swainsoii, The Church of Sancta Sophia, p. 70 ; Labarte, Hist, de.s arts industriels,
iii. 67.
2 Be Caerimoniis, vol. ii, pp. 566-98 [in the Bonn edition of the Corpus scriptoi-um historiae
Byzantinae], Kondakoff, 110, and Labarte, Histoire, &c., iii. 527, botli cite the treatise.
^ Ibid., i. 99, 105. (yf\oxcL\ivov xP^<^ov Sia\i$ov xw/^curoi/,
^ Ducange, Constaniinofolis Christiana, i. 37. a.
 ENAMEL 503

examples must have been made : comparison with illuminations in MSS. and
carvings on ivory establishes these beyond the possibility of error, and we can
say with certainty that, with the exception of the Lateran Cross (p. 508),
none of the existing specimens with human figures are earlier than the
eighth century, very few later than the year A.D. 1200, while the greater
part are of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, more especially
the two latter. It is in attempting to classify enamels within the limits
thus described that uncertainty still exists ; for though we note a process
of degradation in vigour of design and purity of colour, the work of the
tenth century being the best and that of the twelfth inferior, it is often
difficult to feel sure of the precise place to which a definite object should
be assigned. All attributions are to a certain extent subjective, and the
most prudent course is to be content with a latitude of at least a hundred
years. After all, we are sure that enamelling
reached its zenith at Constantinople during the
Comnenian period, and that such specimens as exist
from the earlier time between that period and
iconoclasm are different in style and character.
Whether the art had enjoyed a previous period of
excellence under Justinian, relapsing into decadence
in the troubled seventh century and during the
iconoclastic disturbance, we are hardly in a position
to say, though judging from the analogy of other p^^ g^^ gj_ p^^j .
arts it is exceedingly probable. In the work of the enamel on gold in the
J. in,, , ,, . !■ IT rv • 1.1 Victoria and Albert Mu-
tweJrth century there is a lallmg oil in the prepara- seum. P. 506.
tion of several colours, notably in flesh-tints, which
from the delicate pink tones of the tenth and eleventh centuries decline
into a dead white, much as at Limoges the flesh -tints of late enamellers like
Suzanne de Court are lifeless and opaque when compared with those of
the Penicauds and their school.
The earliest surviving East-Christian enamels, which do not appear
to be earlier than the sixth century,^ will be noticed below : they are in
the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, the Louvre, the Vatican,
and in Russia. Except in the case of the enamelled cross alluded to
above, they bear decorative designs and are without representations
of the human figure; but the exception is so remarkable that it would
be unsafe to base an argument upon their absence. The existence of
certain rude cloisonne enamels with portrait busts made in Europe before
A.D. 900 lead to the inference that early Byzantine models with similar
subjects must have been known in the West, and that their absence from
modern collections is due to their loss and destruction. The most
remarkable of the Western productions is the already mentioned Castellani
brooch in the British Museum (Fig. 301), containing an enamelled
' Kondakoif, however, would assign the ear-ring in the Louvre (see below) to the fourth
century (p. 82).
504 ENAMEL

medallion with a bust very roughly executed, but apparently showing

Byzantine influence.^ The gold setting of this brooch is identical in
character with the work upon the gold cross of the Lombard King Agilulf
preserved in the sacristy of the cathedral at Monza, and there would
appear to be no serious argument against the attribution of the enamel
which it contains to the beginning of the seventh century.^ If Italian
goldsmiths had already learned how to make cell enamel at this period,
the production of the busts and other designs on the paliotto of
S. Ambrogio at Milan, and of other enamels of the ninth and early tenth
centuries in countries further to the west, becomes more comprehensible.
For rare Byzantine models may have penetrated beyond the Alps, or
there may have been successive imitation, Italian copies of Byzantine
work being themselves copied by Ostrogoths or Franks. It seems reason-
able to explain the early appearance in Europe of human busts in cell
enamel on gold by some such process as this; the coarser designs repre-
senting birds and animals, in the style of contemporary inlaid jewellery,
as seen on the reliquary of Pepin, which was probably made in the Frankish
dominions in the eighth century, may point to a survival of the art of
enamelling from Roman times, and to its independent substitution for
cell-work with inlay of coloured stones and pastes.
It has been argued by Bock ^ that a knowledge of cell enamelling had
been introduced into Rome by the close of the tenth century, and he
supposes that the crossed bands of the crown of Stephen of Hungary
(crowned A. D. 1000) are by Roman craftsmen; Sylvester II, who sent it,
was the art-loving Gerbert, formerly Bishop of Reims and correspondent
of Egbert of Treves. It is conjectured that other crowns dispatched from
Rome in the tenth and eleventh centuries were of like origin ; even the
crown of the Holy Roman Empire may, he thinks, be in part of Roman
work. When we remember the Byzantine complexion of Rome in the
eighth and ninth centuries (p. 78), and the probable existence within its
walls of relics like the enamelled cross of the Sancta Sanctorum (p. 508),
there seems no reason why the imitation of Byzantine work should not
have begun there quite as early as upon the Rhine. Examples of imitation
of earlier Byzantine models may be found in the enamelled book-cover
of Archbishop Aribert in the sacristy of Milan Cathedral * and the Gospels
of Bishop Alfanus (d. a.d. 1182) in that of the Cathedral of Capua.° The
latter has on one side a Crucifixion, on the other a Christ in Majesty,
each side having also ten medallions with busts of saints accompanied
by their names in Latin.
' De Linas, Histoire de Vorfevrerie doisonnie, i, PI. IV, Fig. .S,
'^ Proc. Soc. Antiquaries of London, xx. 65, where the other early Western brooches and orna-
ments, including the Alfred Jewel, are mentioned. It may be stated here that the lamb which
ornaments the large ivory diptych in the treasury of Milan Cathedral is now generally
admitted to be constructed of inlaid pastes, and not of enamel (see p. 202).
' F. Bock, Die byz. Zellenschmelze, 53 ff.
* E. Histoire,
Labarte, Molinier,1stL' ed.,
Or/evrerie, 118, comparing another book-cover in the Louvre figured by
PI. XLII.
'' E, Bertaux, L'Art dans I'ltalie miridionale, i. 178-9 and PI. VII.
 ENAMEL
505
Towards the end of the tenth century, Byzantine enamels imported
into Western Europe as articles of commerce/ or coming as presents from
Byzantium to the courts or churches of Europe,'^ served as models for the
imitative Western enameller beyond the Alps. Among the most conspicuous
examples of such Western imitation are the famous processional crosses
in the Miinsterkirche at Essen, three of which date from the last quarter
of the tenth century, the fourth from about the middle of the century
following, and the enamels produced for the art-loving Archbishop Egbert
of Treves.' Other examples at Munich
and Quedlinburg are noticed below
(p. 524). Sometimes the Western
artist used copper instead of gold,
gilding it on occasion to produce
the effect of the more precious metal.
Such work may be seen on a portable
altar in the Treasury of Conques in
Rouergue, which has on the border
five busts, the Lamb, and the symbols
of the Evangelists. The ground in
this case is formed by plain upper
medallions from which the busts, &c.,
are cut out ; the medallion so treated Fig. 301. Gold brooch with enamel
IS in the Byzantine style, probably made in
then fixed above a second plain Italy in the sixth or seventh century :
medallion upon which the cloisons re British Museum. P. 503.
presenting the details are soldered.
This process avoids the necessity for beating or punching a cavity in a
single plate after the Byzantine manner.*
Since the great majority of surviving Byzantine enamels belong to
a single period of some three hundred years, it may be convenient to
review the principal examples geographically, according to the countries
in which they are now preserved ; such an arrangement will be comple-
mentary to that of Kondakoff", who classifies by the nature of the objects
(reliquaries, book-covers, crowns, &c.) which they decorate.

Begiiming with our own country, we find that Great Britain is exceptionally
poor in these enamels. In addition to a pair of ear-rings of the lunate form
popular between the sixth and eighth centuries, enamelled with confronted
^ It is considered that the numerous finely executed diminutive plaques with conven-
tional diaper patterns and floral designs which are set as if they were cabochon stones, on so
much Western goldsmith's work of the tenth to the thirteenth century, are in great part
Byzantine importations. See Kondakoff, p. 204 ; De Linas in Bevue de I'art chritim, 1887,
421 ; Molinier, L'Emaillerie, Paris, 1891, 50, &e.
' Instances such as the reliquary at Poitiers are specially mentioned. But enamels
must often have accompanied the textiles and other objects which were so frequently sent in
Caroliugian and Ottonian periods. On these presents see G. Humann, Die Kvnslwerke der
Miinsterkirche zu Essen, Diisseldorf, 1904, 113 ff.
' G. Humann, as above ; O. von Palke, Deutsche Schmelzarbeiten des Mittelalters (examples
shown at the Diisseldorf Exhibition of 1902).
* E. Molinier, L'Emaillerie, 122-4, and L'Orfevrerie, 117 and 176.
506 ENAMEL

birds/ and two gold medallions of exceptionally small size, one with a bust of
Our Lord, the other with St. Gregory, the British Museum only possesses the
copper medallions already alluded to as being enamelled, like the Kisano and
Louvre examples, upon both their surfaces. This latter peculiarity makes it
difficult to guess the purpose for which they were made, for they cannot have been
intended to adorn any of the usual
objects upon which enamelled
medallions were placed. '^ They
may perhaps have been pendants
of some kind, for even if they had
been attached to any vestment or
article of apparel, one side would
still have been permanently con-
cealed :from the generally excel-
lent style of the workmanship they
may be assigned to the eleventh
century. As there are traces of iri-
descence upon the surface, which
has also lost all its polish, they
must be among the rare examples
which have been buried in the

At South Kensington there is

ground.
a small gold plaque of fine work-
manship, with a bust of St. Paul
(Fig. 300), and the Beresford Hope
Cross,^ so called because it was at
one time in the collection of Mr.
Beresford Hope (Figs. 302-3).
This cross has on one side the cru-
cified Saviour in a colobium, or
long sleeveless tunic commonly
found on monuments of the eighth
to tenth centuries, and on the other
the Virgin, busts filling the vacant
extremities. The background, as
in other early enamels, is of a
translucent green ; the cloisons
are thick and the drawing of the
figures primitive. These facts,
F16. 302. the Front together with the presence of the
Victoriaof the
and 'Albert
Beresford Hope ' Cross in
Museum.
colobium, suggest an early date
such as the eighth or ninth
century, but Kondakoff inclines to the late tenth or the eleventh century. The
^ Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, No. 267. The coloured substance
appears to be true enamel, and the date may quite possibly be the sixth century.
^ Anothei" medallion, now in the Louvre, is executed in cloisonne work upon copper on
both sides (Victor Gay, Qlossaire archeologiqiie, 615, s.v. email, and Les ^rts, Jan., 1910, p. 12). It
belongs to a class of amulet held to be eileotive against stomachic disorders (Schlumberger,
Melanges d'archeologie byz., p. 136). It is assigned by G-ay and FrShner {Philologus, Supplement, vol. v)
to the sixth century, though this appears to be too early a date. It has on one side the
usual Medusa-like head surrounded by radiating serpents, with inscription "A710S 0710$ 07101,
&c. ; on the other, the common inscription varipa jieKavrj neKavaifihr], &c., on which see Schlum-
berger, as above. The border round the inscription is formed of stepped pyramids inter-
locking, so that dark and light colours alternate. The whole surface is enamelled. Cf. the
ring. Fig. 406.
' Arch. Journ., viii. 51 ; Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester, 1857, Section, Vitreous Art,
PI. VI, Fig. 1 ; Kondakoff, 176 ; Book, Die bysantinischen Zellenschmelze, 340. The cross was
originally
DebrugeD., inNo.the661). Debruge Dumgnil Collection (J. Labarte, Description des objets d'art de la coll.
 507
ENAMEL

work certainly seems more primitive in character than that of known enamels
of the eleventh century, but the colobium affords no evidence, as it occurs in
eleventh-century MSS.
The early enamel in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford is of exceptional
interest. It is a small circular gold pendant enamelled upon both faces, exca-
vated for Dr. Arthur Evans in a campagna at Carina near Risano (JRismium)
in Dalmatia, in 1878.' The town
of Eisinium was wiped out by the
Slavs and Avars in the first half
of the seventh century, which
gives a terminus ante quern for the
object. On one face is a leonine
quadruped with crested mane in
green, yellow, red, and bluish
white on a dark blue ground ; on
the other, a rose with red centre
and dark blue and yellow petals
on a ground of green.'' The
animal is executed in a conven-
tional style which recalls the
creatures of early Persian silk
textiles and of the Nagu Szent
Miklos treasure ; the rose sug-
gests to Dr. Evans Italian in-
fluences. It is possible that
this most remarkable enamel may
have been made during the Ostro-
gothic dominion in Northern
Italy and Dalmatia, under strong
oriental influences ; and if so it
only concerns us here as an addi-
tional proof how far enamelling of
this kind had already travelled
by the time of Justinian. The
United States have secured
examples of Byzantine enamel
which may be described here, as
they are now exhibitedinEngland.
The silver-gilt reliquary for wood
of the True Cross, formerly in the
Oppenheim Collection and now in
the possession of Mr. J. Pierpont Fig. 303. Back of the ' Beresford Hope ' Cross in
Morgan, is unusually difBcult to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
date with certainty.' It is in the
form of a shallow rectangular box enamelled both on the top and round the
sides. The subject on the top is the Crucifixion between the Virgin and St. John,
with conventional floral designs and inscriptions filling the ground, which is of
a rich translucent green. Above are seen the sun and moon. The inscriptions
are almost barbarously misspelt, the usual verse ' Woman, behold thy son ', &c.,
being rendered Ibcou ui(o)c ecu IboL h |uif ip c(ou) ; the two lateral figures are
described as 66(J0Ta)K(o)c, Hcoavic. The gestures are clumsy and the faces
grotesque. Our Lord wears a violet colobium, and his feet rest upon a red
1 Archaeologia, xlviii. 49 ff. (Fig. on p. 50).
^ Dr. Evans notes tliat the colours are those of the earlier mosaics at Ravenna.
■'' Bock, Die iyzantinischen Zellenschmelse, 340 and PI. VIII ; Molinier, L'Orfhrerie, 43 and 44.
The reliquary is at present, 1911, exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South
Kensington. The Hanau triptychs are exhibited at the British Museum.
508 ENAMEL

suppedaneum. A broad border round the central subject contains fourteen

busts of saints, each accompanied by his name, and the same kind of orna-
mentation covers the side edges. The preservation of the work is almost perfect.
Were we to judge by iconography alone, we might assign this curious
reliquary to the pre-ieonoclastic period, comparing it with the nielloed cross of
Adaloald at Monza and the related cross at Goluchow (see p. 548). But this
work seems to lack the qualities which give the two crosses the stamp of
antiquity in spite of their obvious deficiencies : it is harder in design and more
frankly barbaric than either. It may, however, be an early work executed in
some outlying part of the empire. The Morgan collection now also includes the
triptychs formerly at Hanau (see p. 524).
What was probably a Byzantine pectoral cross of great interest was lost to
us at the end of the seventeenth century, though it may yet be in existence in
some other country. On June 11, 1685, one Taylour, being in Westminster
Abbey, observed through a cranny. in the coffin of Edward the Confessor, then
exposed, the glitter of a gold chain. He drew it out, and found that it had
attached to it an enamelled cross which on one side had the Crucifixion and on

Fig. 304. St. Theodore and St. George, two sides of a medallion enamelled on copper
in the British Museum. Pp. 498, 506.

the other a kneeling figure. On the limbs of the cross upon the reverse were
inscriptions which the finder considered to be Latin, but which were probably
Greek, and seem to have been in all probability meant for 6 aytos Zaxaptas.^
The cross was given to King James II, who seems to have taken it abroad in his
exile and lost it.
Italy is fortunate in possessing Byzantine enamels exceptional both in
quantity and quality. In the cypress chest beneath the altar of the chapel of
the Sancta Sanctorum at Eome, reopened in 1903 and 1906 after an interval
of nearly four centuries, and fully described with illustration for the first time
in the latter year, were found several objects ornamented with cloisonne
enamel.'' The earliest in date is the gold reliquary cross (Fig. 305),' which may
possibly be that discovered by Pope Sergius I (687-701) in the Vatican and by
him conveyed to the Lateran.* On one side it is now hollow, but if the sug-
gested identification is correct, it was formerly covered with gold plates enriched
with gems. On the other side it is covered with five enamelled plaques, that in the
centre cruciform, those on the limbs approximately rectangular. The whole
surface of each plaque is enamelled and the colours employed are red, orange-
red, dull red, lilac, blue, yellow, white, and black. The translucent ground is
' Proceedings Soc. Antiquaries of London, 2nd ser., ix. 227 ; Archaeologia, iii, p. 390.
^ The chest was built into the altar by Pope Leo III (a. d. 795-816), and its contents have
been mentioned by writers of the thirteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. None of
its contents are later than the thirteenth century, and most are much earlier. See P. Lauer,
Le Tresor du Sancta Sanctorum, Monuments Piot, 1906 ; and H. Grisar, in Civilta Cattolica, year 57,
1906, Pt. ii (June, &c.). The objects are now exhibited in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican
Library.
5 Lauer, PI. I ; Grisar, as above, 525 ff. and Figs. 6-8.
* Lauer, as above, 36 ff., quoting Duchesne, Liber Pontiflccdis, i. 374.
 509
ENAMEL

very badly cracked. Eound the side edge? runs an inscription in red enamel
in Latin letters, with one or two Greek characters, of which it is difficult to
make sense, though some words like EPISCOP(VS) (VE)XILLVM (R)EGINA
MVNDI are clear: possibly these plaques are additions from other objects;
more probably, perhaps, they may be the work of men unfamiliar with the
Latin language. The plaque on the upper arm represents the Annunciation,

Fig. 305. Keliquai-y cross with cloisonne enamels on gold from the Sanota Sanctorum
at the Lateran : now in the Vatican Library. (After Lauer : Mm. Hot.)

that in the centre the Nativity, those on the two arms Joseph and Mary
journeying to Bethlehem and the Adoration of the Magi respectively, that
on the lower limb the Presentation in the Temple and the Baptism. The
subjects are obviously influenced by the Apocryphal Gospels, and are executed
in a rude but forcible style, some of the individual figures being very expressive.
The whole appearance of this cross is certainly ancient, and there seems no diffi-
culty in accepting it as of the period of Sergius I. As far as descriptions go,
it might almost be the cross already in existence in the time of Symmachus
(498-514),^ and M. Lauer rather inclines to this possibility. Whether it is
quite so early it is difficult to say in the absence of objects with which it can
be compared, for the other enamels which claim an antiquity as high as the
sixth century have only animal and floral designs. But the appearance of this
cross tends to show that the historical statements as to the early use of enamel
^ Duchesne, Liber Pont., i. 261.
510 ENAMEL

in the Byzantine Empire are correct. It has been suggested that it may have
been brought from the Holy Land, and that it represents the more costly and
elaborate mementoes there purchased by pilgrims. The character of the art
is East Christian, and if not made in Jerusaleni it may have been imported
from Syria or even Armenia. Our ignorance of the sites where cloisonne enamel
was first produced makes precise attribution for the present impossible.
In the area there was also a rectangular silver casket (Fig. 342 and p. 356),
the cover of which is ornamented with enamels.' In the centre is a rectangular
plaque with the Beesis, Christ being seated on a high-backed throne between the
standing figures of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. In a broad border
round this plaque are twelve circular medallions, three of which still contain
enamelled plaques with SS. Simon, Thomas, and Luke. St. Luke and St. Simon
are in the same style, but St. Thomas appeared to M. Lauer to be rather more
archaic in treatment. Though these enamels are all of a conventional character
they are finely executed, and the colours are rich and good. They date from
about the eleventh century, and are probably not much, if at all, older than the
box which they adorn.
The Vatican also possesses a gold cross with enamels, by some considered to
be as early as the eighth century.^ A bronze pectoral cross in the same place
has on each side five busts in medallions, the ground being also enamelled with
geometrical designs. The work has the appearance of champleve.^
The so-called 'encolpion of Constantine' in St. Peter's (p. 550) is enriched
with enamelled medallions of the Third Period : it is probably of the twelfth
century.
The Stroganoff Collection at Eome' contains a flat reliquary with an
enamelled representation of the Crucifixion closely recalling that upon the
book-cover in the Eeiche Capelle at Munich (see p. 524), but inferior in drawing
and execution. On each side are plaques with SS. James and Gregory Theologus,
while below is Christ in the tomb with Michael and Gabriel on either side.
M. Schlumberger would assign it to the end of the tenth or early eleventh
century, but it looks as if it might be a hundred years later.
The very curious enamelled panel in the Museo Kircheriano in the same
city * remains something of a problem. It is a panel of large size (c. 2 ft. high)
upon copper, and the enamels are applied both by the champleve and cloisonn6
processes. Our Lord stands erect, holding a scroll in his left hand, and with his
right making the Greek gesture of benediction. His cruciferous nimbus is
jewelled and edged with pearls, the spaces between the cross being filled with
floral scrolls. The ground beneath his feet is a broad band enamelled with a
series of interconnected circles, each containing a leaf in green and red. This
panel, in every way exceptional if an example of the Byzantine enameller's art,
is said to have been found near Sta Maria in Trastevere, and is labelled
as Byzantine work of the twelfth century. Diff'erent as it is from other
Byzantine enamels known to us, it diverges almost as much from the style of any
contemporary Western school, whether in France or Germany. The type of the
figure is Greek, the conventional design of circles containing leaves is oriental,
the scheme of colour is not that of Limoges or the Meuse. Perhaps we are here
in presence of a work produced by a Greek enameller living in Italy, who had
seen examples of the large champleve panels of Limoges and determined to
execute something in the same manner. In this case the date would probably
be the early part of the thirteenth century.

1 Lauer, as above, 69 and Plate ; Grisar, as above, July, 1906, 172 : figured in June, ,
516-7. I Ji > s
2 A. Munoz, Esposizione italo-bizantina, Grottaferrata, 54, No. 62.
' A. Munoz, L'Art hyz. a Vexposition de Grottaferrata, 162, Pig. 127.
* G. Schlumberger, Mon. Plot, i. 99, PI. XIII. and XIV ; and Vipopee, i. Pig. on p. 520.
<> A. Venturi, Le Gallerie nasionali italiane, iv, 1899, 332-4; J. Sfcrzygowski, B.Z., ix, 1900,
305 ; Labarte, Eecherche's sur la peinture en email, p. 42. Labarte thinks the work may be Italian.
 ENAMEL 511

i'la. 306. Enamelled boot-cover

S. Marco,with figure P.of 513.
Venice. St. Michael in the Treasury of
512 ENAMEL

The pala d'oro ' in the Cathedral of S. Marco at Venice (Fig. 297) is now
a reredos consisting of a large number of enamelled gold plaques in a frame-
work of Western design ; it was originally the frontal of the altar, ampli-
fied in A. D. 1105 for the Doge Ordelaffo Faliero, and finally rearranged and
restored in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the last occasion being
in i.. D. 1343, when it was enclosed in its present Gothic frame. According to
tradition the pala was ordered from Constantinople by Doge Orseolo in a.d. 976 ;
but the Venetian chronicle of the eleventh century only states that the frontal
then ordered was of marvellous workmanship, and makes no direct mention
of enamel. This negative evidence would not_ alone suffice to upset an old
tradition ; but a comparison of the enamels among themselves and with
others seems to justify the conclusion that only a small number can belong
to the close of the tenth century, while the greater part are of the period
between the eleventh and the fourteenth. The pala must in fact be regarded as
a composite work, perhaps owing its chief enrichment to the Venetian share of
the spoils in a. d. 1204. The only parts which Kondakoff accepts as possibly
belonging to the late tenth and early eleventh centuries are a number of the
small medallions ornamenting the jewelled field of the architrave, and the
lower border.'
The upper band of the pala d'oro has upon it the following subjects : in the
centre the Divine Wisdom in the form of an angel, and on the two sides of it,
beginning from the left : the Entry into Jerusalem, the Anastasis, the Crucifixion,
the Resurrection, Pentecost, and the Assumption of the Virgin. As the same
subjects in the same order are frequent upon iconostases of the Greek churches,
it is considered probable that this portion was actually taken from an iconostasis
in Constantinople,^ perhaps from the Church of the Pantokrator. In the lower
division immediately above the altar are plaques illustrating the twelve feasts
of the Church and scenes from the life of St. Mark, with twelve prophetSj twelve
Apostles, twelve angels, the Empress Irene, the Doge Ordelaffo Faliero, the
Ethnasia with kneeling angels and the Virgin as orans, and (in the centre)
Christ enthroned in a mandorla surrounded by the four Evangelists.
The origin and merit of these plaques in the lower part is very various. The
enthroned Christ is good Byzantine work of the eleventh or twelfth century,
probably by the same master as the Twelve Apostles ; the Evangelists are later
and inferior, probably Venetian work of the thirteenth or even fourteenth
century.* The St. Mark scenes, the Empress and the Doge, and the twelve
prophets are also Venetian : ^ the inscriptions and gestures of benediction are
Latin. The angels are superior, and appear to be Byzantine work of the early
twelfth century.
As already stated, it is among the smaller medallions on the upper and
lower borders (thirty-eight in all) that the earliest enamels are to be found.
The subjects of some of these show a distinctly oriental influence. Two of
them represent a prince hawking, and hounds hunting hares ; another, two
gryphons flanking tlie ' sacred tree ', on which is a crowned female head —

1 Alinari, Photos ; Pasini, II Tesoro di San Marco, Venice (Ongania), 1885-7, PI. XV-XX,
account by Veludo ; Labarte, Recherches sur la peinture en email, 17-31, and Bistoire des arts
indusiriels, iii. 396-412, PI. LX ; Durand, Tresor de Vl^glise de St-Marc, Paris, 1862 ; E. Molinier,
Le Tresor de St-Marc, 1888, 65, and L'Orfevrerie, 65 ff. ; Didron, Annates orcA., xx, 1860, 167 ft'., and
208-14 : Zanotto, Venesia e le sue lagune, 1847, ii, Pt. ii, 82 ff. ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii, pp. 645-54,
PI. XV and Figs. Tlie best illustrations are in Pasini. Botli he and Labarte {Bist., iii,
PI. LX) give outline sketches showing the relative positions of the subjects.
2 Kondakoff, 129 ; Veludo in Pasini ; Molinier, L'Orfemerie, 66.
« Kondakoff, 128. < Kondakoff, 181.
'' Molinier considers that the figure described by the Latin inscription as Ordelaffo
Faliero was really made to represent the Emperor John Comnenus (a. d. 1118-43), and that it
is genuine Byzantine work, to which the Latin inscription was inappropriately added,
perhaps during one of the later restorations. The Empress Irene would then be Irene,
daughterofLadialas I of Hungary, JohnComnenus's queen (Qasette des Beaux-Arts, Third Period,
i, 1889, 48 ; L'Orfiwerie, 65).
 ENAMEL 513

perhaps the Woman of the Apocalypse ; ' another, two peacocks confronted and
divided by a sacred tree.
Thus the pala d'oro, sumptuous though it appears, is not a homogeneous
work : only a part of its enamelled plaques are Byzantine, and a considerable
proportion mediaeval Venetian reproductions in the Byzantine style. Although
it contains examples of fine workmanship, it does not afford the best opportuni-
ties for study, as the light in S. Marco is often dim, and the position of the
j)oto itself unfavourable for thorough examination. The student will form
a better idea of the character of Byzantine enamels from the book-covers in the
neighbouring Library of St. Mark and from a few other examples mentioned
below, which are exhibited in a good light and can be examined at leisure.
The first book-cover'' in the Treasury of S. Marco has in the centre a standing
figure of St. Michael in relief and covered with enamel, with an enamelled
background ornamented with floral scrolls (Fig. 308) ; he stands on a globe and
carries sword and orb. Of six surrounding medallions on the top and bottom
of the frame only three remain, with busts of Our Lord, St. Peter, and St. Menas :
those from the bottom are lost. Four oval plaques on the sides of the frame
have each two saints, Theodore Stratelates and Theodore Tyron, George and
Procopius, Demetrius and Nestor, Eustathius and Mercurius. This book-cover
is remarkable for having the figure of St. Michael in relief, a very rare thing
in Byzantine enamels, whUe the application of enamel to the face, which is
embossed in high relief, shows that Byzantine craftsmen were already masters
of a method of enamelling which Western Europe only perfected some centuries
later.'' The work is good, and the date is probably the eleventh century.
The second book-cover* in the same place has in the centre a bust of St. Michael
in relief, perhaps of the tenth century, and round it fourteen medallions of various
periods from the tenth to the fourteenth century. The St. Michael has enamel
only on the wings, nimbus, and part of the garments: the body is enriched
with gems. Within the inner borders surrounding the figure are eight
enamelled plaques : those nearest the figure represent Christ and St. Simeon,
the others, SS. Michael, Mark, Luke, Gabriel, John the Baptist, and Bartholomew.
Bound the frame are fourteen other medallions with the Virgin, SS. John the
Evangelist, Matthew, Thomas, James, Philip, Paul, Procopius, Theodore Strate-
lates, Demetrius, George, Mercury, and Eustace ; the border of the frame in
which they are set is covered with very fine repousse scroll-work. This is one
of the most sumptuous examples of the Byzantine goldsmith's art. The back is
a fine example of embossed design (Fig. 339). In the middle is a cross with
embossed busts of saints in medallions, round the inner border a series of
similar busts, outside this an outer border of fine floral scrolls.
The third cover ' in the Treasury has in the sunk central portion a repre-
sentation ofthe Crucifixion between the Virgin and St. John, with two busts of
angels, and the sun and moon. All the figures, as well as the usual inscriptions
('Woman, behold thy Son,' &c.), are cut out and applied to the surface of the
cover. The surrounding border has in the middle of each side an enamelled
plaque with a standing archangel ; along the top of its upper part is added
a plaque of the same length with a nielloed inscription. ° It is clear that this is
an object which has been reconstructed, and Durand conjectured that parts of it
originally decorated a reliquary for wood of the True Cross.
1 Kondakoff, 132 ; Venturi, as above, 652-4 (Figs.). These plaques should be remembered
in any discussion of the ewer of St. Maurice d'Agaune (p. 496).
' Pasini, Tesaro, PI. II ; Durand in Didron, Annales arch., xxi. 101 ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii.
656 (Fig.) ; Kondakoff, 189, and Fig. 55 ; Molinier, L' Orfevrerie, 49 ; Gr. Sehlumberger, L'tjpopee,
i, Fig. on p. 89.
' The statement of Durand and Pasini that the face is of agate is erroneous.
' Pasini, PI. IV ; Kondakoff, 189 ; Molinier, L' Orfevrerie, 49, 50.
^ Pasini, PI. Ill ; Durand in Didron, Annales arch., 1861, p. 99 ; E. Molinier, L'Orfevrerie,
p. 51.
• CT(AY)Pe KPATAION KATA AeMGNCON KPATOC
0HKHN KA0O ZCOHC CE KAI OeiON ZYAON +
1201 L 1
514 ENAMEL

The fourth example ^ has in the centre a disk of lapis lazuli on which the
Crucifixion with the same persons and inscriptions is represented in relief in
gold, though the workmanship does not rise above mediocrity. The disk,
which is surrounded by a circle of pearls, is in the centre of a rectangular field
of fine filigree, on which are carbochon gems and four small enamelled medal-
lions of an archangel, St. Andrew, St. John the Evangelist, and a nameless
saint. In the more recent Italian border which surrounds this filigree are four
square enamelled plaques with figures of St. Matthew (two), St. Cosmas, and
another damaged figure the name upon which is not legible.
Besides the book-covers there is a flat reliquary ^ for the wood of the True
Cross with a drawing-out lid. On the front are an enamelled Crucifixion and
enamelled medallions, St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, SS. Thomas,
Peter, Paul, and Panteleemon. There are no enamels on the back, which is
covered by a plate of silver with a cross rising between two acanthus leaves,
and the inscription IC XC NIKA, the whole embossed.
A votive crown (?) of silver gilt ornamented with rectangular enamelled
panels bordered with pearls, and incorporated in work of Western origin
and later date, also forms part of the treasure.^ The enamels represent busts
of saints and of an emperor described by the name of Leo. Pasini wished to
identify this emperor with Leo I (457-74), but even Molinier's attribution to
Leo VI (885-911) seems to be too early, the character of the work suggesting the
eleventh or twelfth century. It has been suggested that the crown may really be
nothing more than the ornamental band once surrounding one of the very large
Byzantine chalices, such as some of those actually preserved in the Treasury.
Eight of the Byzantine chalices '' in the Treasury of S. Marco (Figs. 298, 307)
have kept the enamelled plaques which ornamented them. The plaques them-
selves, which are circular and square, have busts of Christ and of the saints,
executed in the usual style of the period to which they belong (tenth to twelfth
centuries) : the square plaques are probably earlier than the round, which
are often framed in borders of pearls. The inscriptions upon two of them
are considered to refer to Eomanus Diogenes, who came to the throne in
A. D. 1068.° One chalice has its whole cup covered with enamelled plaques with
ornamental designs. ° A paten has an enamelled medallion of Our Lord with
surrounding inscription AAB€Te <t>AreTe, &c., and outer border of precious
stones and pearls' (Fig. 53).
In the central case in the Treasury are fifteen detached enamelled medaUions,'
said to have come from the decoration of the high altar of the fourteenth
century, presumably at the time when the pala was being rearranged. They
represent Our Lord, saints, and Apostles, and are about two inches in diameter,
with the exception of three representing St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. George,
which are considerably larger. They are instructive as illustrating the way in
which the cavities in the shape of the contour of the figure were hammered in
the gold plate before the cloisons were soldered in. This is very clear in the
case of the damaged medallion of St. John the Baptist.
The sacred picture in S. Marco known as the Madonna Nieopea ' or Bringer
of Victory has on its frame sixteen enamelled medallions of a good period — the

1 Pasini, PI. VII. s Ibid., PI. XXIII.

' Pasini, No. Ill, PI. L ; Molinier, Le Tresor de Saint-Marc, Ho. 100, p. 95, and V Orjeererie,
41 ; Labarte, Ristoire, &c., iii. 396.
' These chalices are described by Pasini and Molinier. They have been figured by
M. Schlumberger
volume work. Phocas and ipopee. Several illustrations in the present
his Niciphore
are from thein latter
' Pasini, Tesoro, PI. 41 ; Molinier, L' Or/evrerie, 60 ; Kondakoff, 225-8.
« Pasini, PI. XXXVIII ; Molinier, Le Tresor de Saint-Marc, No. 70, and L'Orfevrerie, 61.
' Schlumberger, L'Epopee, i. Fig. on p. 777 ; Pasini, PI. XLVIII.
* Rosenberg {Geschichte der Goldschmiedekunst) has reproduced these medallions.
» Pasini, PI. XXII and XXII a ; Molinier, Le Tresor de Saint-Marc, No. 15, and L'Orfivrerie,
56 ; Schlumberger, L'Mpopee, i, Fig. on p. 665.
 515
ENAMEL

-tenth or eleventh century. Tlie subjects are Christ, the Virgin, and St. John
the Baptist, together forming the Deesis, and SS. .John the Baptist (repeated),
John the Evangelist, Eugenius, Damian, Auxentius, Eustace, Nicholas, Paul,
and an Italian repetition of St. Nicholas. Tliey were put upon the frame in
the sixteenth century.

Fig. 307. Enamelled chalice of the eleventh century ; Treasury of S. Marco, Venice.

The Library of St. Mark also contains four very important book-covers
decorated with enamelled plaques. The first of these ' has plain borders of red
stones or pastes inlaid in cells (orfcvreric cloisoiinee), and is decorated with enamels
on both sides. In the middle of the upper cover is a cruciform plaque on which
Christ, in a dark blue colobium and with a yellow nimbus, is represented on
the Cross, which is thrown into relief by a translucent green ground. The
surrounding medallions represent the four Evangelists and SS. John the Baptist,
Peter, Andrew, and three angels, with a single medallion bearing only an orna-
mental design. The under cover is decorated in a similar manner. In the
middle, on a cruciform jjlaque, is the Virgin as orans between four cruciform

1 Pasiui, PI. VI and Villa; Kondakoff, 185-8, and Fig. 54 ; Moliiiior, L'Orfiorerie, 42
^ind 43; Schlumberger, VEpopie, i, opp. p. 188.
L 1 2
516 ENAMEL

monograms, giving the name of Mary and of the donatrix ; round this plaque
are ten medallions, of which, however, only three (with SS. Proclus, Philip, and
John) are enamelled.
The style represented by this book-cover is very early, and the use of trans-
lucent colours throughout, especially green backgrounds, is an early feature.
Labarte considered the work as of the ninth century; both Kondakoff and
Molinier regard it as very early. It can hardly be as late as the twelfth century,
as the style is more primitive than that of this period, and there can be little
hesitation in saying that while it cannot be later than the ninth century, it may
be even earlier. It is one of the most precious Byzantine enamelled objects in
existence, and its cloisonne border of red stones or pastes lends it an additional
interest, for this style of work, as we have seen, was in general superseded by
enamel, and its presence here supports the earlier date.^
A second book in the Library ' has also Christ and the Virgin as the central
figures on the two covers. Christ is represented standing and holding the book
of the Gospels : round him are medallions bordered with pearls containing busts.
of SS. Andrew, Luke, James, Thomas, Philip, Matthew, Simon, Paul, Elias, and
Gabriel ; round the Virgin, who stands with raised hands, are SS. John the Baptist,.
John Chrysostom, Bartholomew, Peter, Gregory Theologus, Nicholas, Anna,
Elizabeth, Joachim, and Basil, similarly bordered with pearls. The work is
not of the best quality, and the date is either the eleventh or the twelfth
century. The metal-work upon which the enamels are fixed is without engraved
or embossed ornament, but is enriched with cabochon gems and rows of pearls.
The colours of the enamels are remarkably pale and bright, so that the whole-
effect is much lighter than usual. The tone is given by a pale lilac contrasting
in the drapery with a rich translucent red ; an opaque red and a gamboge yellow
are also used (Fig. 308).
A third book in the same place,' a Latin Missal of the fourteenth century,,
has a cover of the same date, also ornamented with cabochon gems and pearls,
though here again the principal decoration consists of enamelled plaques. In
the middle of one side Christ stands making the gesture of benediction : round'
the border are rectangular plaques with busts of SS. Peter, Andrew, Paul,
Matthew, Luke, Proclus, James, John, Thomas, and Theodore (?). The middle
of the back is occupied by the Virgin standing ; round the border are ten
enamelled plaques, of which those at the corners, representing the four
Evangelists, are of Italian workmanship ; the remaining six are Byzantine,
and represent SS. Eugenius, Mardarius, Orestes, Mark, Auxentius, and Simon.
The enamels are all of the tenth century and of fine quality: they may be
compared with those on the reliquary of Limburg (see p. 522).
A fourth book-cover * has six large enamelled medallions round the borders
on each side, the principal decoration consisting of reliefs embossed in silver
gilt, and representing scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin. The
enamels represent, on one side SS. Michael, Basil, Nicholas, and John Chry-
sostom, with Moses and David ; on the other the Etimasia, David, Solomon,,
and SS. Gregory of Nazianzus, George, and Demetrius.
The colours are all opaque ; dark blue, dark red, and a thick golden yellow
are freely used.
The cover of a book of the Gospels in the Communal Library at Siena' has
' A border of orfivrerie cloisonnee is not in itself conclusive evidence of early date, as the
reliquary of Limburg (p. 522) has one. But the work of the present example is in a less
finished and more massive style, which really looks as if it might belong to the eighth or
even the seventh century. This was the opinion of Moliniei-, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Second
Period, vol. xxxvii, 1888, pp. 388-9.
2 Pasini, PI. X and Fig. 13 ; Labarte, Histoire, 2nd ed., iii, PI. 63; Molinier, VOrflvrme,-
51-2 ; Kondakoff, 192 ; Schlumberger, Nicqihore Phocas, 449 (after Labarte).
5 Pasini, PI. IX and Fig. 12 ; Labarte, as above, PI. 62 ; Molinier, as above, 51-2 ; Kon-
dakoff, 188. * Pasini, PI. XIII ; Kondakoff, 192.
" Labarte, Histoire des arts indusirieU, 2nd ed., iii, PI. LXI (in colours) ; G. Schlumberger,
Nic^hore Phocas, 23 ; Kondakoff, 201 ; A. Munoz, B. Z. , xiii, 1904, 707 ; Molinier, L'Qrfhrerie, 52>
 517
ENAMEL

Venice.
Fig 308. Enamelled book-cover with Our Lord and Apostles : Marcian Librai-y,
(Alinari.) P. 513.
518 ENAMEL

about fifty plaques of cloisonne enamel upon it. In the centre of one side is-
the Anastasis, of the other the Ascension, each surrounded by numerous smaller
plaques, both round and rectangular. Kondakoff considers that the enamels
have come from several different sources and fall into distinct groups. To one
group belong Christ as Pantokrator, the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter,
Paul, John the Evangelist, and Matthew ; to a second, Christ, St. John Chryso-
stom, and St. Basil ; to a third, three plaques all representing St. Michael, and
allied to vsrhich are SS. Theodore, Demetrius, and two seraphim. The dates,.
according to Kondakoff, vary from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, and
he does not believe that any go back to the tenth. Among the best plaques are
the archangels ; but the work, though fine in execution, lacks dignity and seems
characteristic of a period of decline. The resemblance, however, in style between
many of the plaques and those upon the crowns of Monomachos and St. Stephen,
the dates of which are confined to a certain period of the eleventh century,.
suggests that we may have here unequal work of this earlier period rather than
an assemblage of pieces of different dates. '^
It has been suggested that the book-cover was ' made up ' in the Byzantine
Empire for sale to Italian merchants.^ The most prominent colours are lapis
and turquoise blue, opaque red, yellow, apple-green, and white. As in the case-
of so many Byzantine enamels the pupils are frequently represented in the
extreme corners of the eyes. On the back of the binding are several small
medallions, one of which, representing St. Nicholas, is entirely stripped of its-
enamel, showing the sunk bust hammered out in the metal.' The surface of
the two covers is plated with gilt silver which has an ornament of floral designs,
in relief, possibly of the fourteentji century.
Space forbids the detailed consideration of other Byzantine enamels to be-
found in Italy, but some of them may just be mentioned. A cross in the
Cathedral of Velletri' has upon it Christ crucified, between four busts in
medallions, two representing the Virgin and St. John. Crosses of a similar
kind are preserved at Gaeta and Cosenza ; all three were exhibited at Orvieto-
in 1896, and at Grottaferrata in 1904. The Cosenza cross, which is ascribed ta
the eleventh or the twelfth century, has on one side the Crucifixion, with the
Virgin and St. John, the Etimasia and St. Michael in medallions ; on the other,
Christ enthroned amid the four Evangelists, all in circular medallions. The
Gaeta cross is much smaller, and has oh one side the Crucifixion as in the
Cosenza example ; on the other, a standing figure of the Virgin between four
busts of saints ; it bears, in addition to the names, a somewhat barbaric
inscription relating to one Basil." The pectoral cross of Cardinal Caietano is
attributed by some to a date as early as the eighth century." A reliquary for
wood of the True Cross, enamelled and bearing inscriptions, is in the Stroganoff
Collection at Eome : ° it has been ascribed to the tenth century.
In the treasury of the Abbey of Nonantola near Modena is a slender silver-
gilt cross, on the front of which are applied seven enamelled medallions with
busts : the enamels appear to be of about the eleventh century.' The rectangular
reliquary for wood of the True Cross in the same place has also two small
enamelled plaques, one with the Etimasia, applied to the double-armed cross in
the centre.'
1 Molinier, as above. 2 Kondakoff, 203.
s Bock, Die 6y3anK)?isc7ien2eHenscA»ieke, PI. XXII, XXIII; Molinier, i'Oc/CT^erie, 56; S.Bor-
gia, Be crme Vditernd, Kome, 1780, pp. xviiiff. ; Didrou, Annates anhMogiques, xx, I860, 167.
* A. Munoz, VArl iysantin a VExposition de Grottaferrata, Rome, 1906, p. 156 and Figs. 119,
120 (cross of Cosenza), pp. 156-7 and Figs. 121-2 (cross of Gaeta) ; Gasette des Beaux-Arts, Third
Period, xvi, 1896, p. 500, and 1905, p. 506 ; A. Munoz, Esposisime ilalo-bisantina, Grottaferrata,
1905, 54, No. 55, and L'Arte, Kome, 1905, 166-7 and 169 and Fig. ; Molinier, L'Orfem-erie, p. 57.
= JB. Z., ix, 1900, 719. It was discussed by Ferraro at the Congress of Christian Archaeo-
logy at Eome in 1900.
* G. Sehlumberger, in Mon. Plot, 1894.
' The same, L'tSpopee, ii. Fig. on p. 17.
» The same. Fig. on p. 81. Cf. also L'CEum d'art, August, 1897, 147, and Fig. on p. 149.
 ENAMEL 519

In Sicily in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries there was a school of

enamellers inspired by Byzantine models. Their work, as we know it, chiefly
consists of small gold plaques, enamelled with ornamental designs and applied
to the crowns or embroidered garments of members of the imperial house.
A crown of the Empress Constance of Aragon at Palermo is finely reproduced
by Bock in his monumental work,^ and in the same book may be seen reproduc-
tions of an imperial mantle, gloves, and stole to which enamelled plaques and
medallions are sewn.^ These exhibit motives of Byzantine origin, and one of
those upon the mantle, with a floriated cross, is almost identical in design with
that set in the Towneley brooch in the British Museum. At Capua there is

Fig. 309. The Annunciation : leaves of a triptych enamelled on gold, mounted in a larger
triptych of West-European workmanship : Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. (Formerly
at Hanau.) P. 524.

a Gospel-cover with cloisonne enamel in a purely Byzantine style, but said by

Bertaux to be Benedictine work of the late twelfth century.'
The cloisonne enamels at Milan and Monza are not of Byzantine workman-
ship. The enamelled flowers on the famous Iron Crown * appear, like the paliotto
in Sant' Ambrogio, to be early Western work, probably of the ninth century,
while the book-cover in the sacristy of Milan Cathedral = is certainly of Italian
workmanship imitating the style of the later Byzantine enamellers. Some of
the gold panels with which it is decorated have plain metal grounds, others have
grounds of enamel in which are Latin inscriptions in gold wire. They comprise
scenes from the New Testament and figures of saints, the Crucifixion occupying
the centre.
France now possesses hardly any Byzantine enamels, many having dis-
appeared at the time of the Eevolution. The most interesting is the portion

1 Kldmdien des heiUgen Eomischen Reichs, PI. XLIV ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii, 667.
2 Book, as above, PI. XXV, VIII. and XIII. Cf. also the ornamental enamels, probably
of the twelfth century, on the so-called sword of Charlemagne (ibid., PJ. XXIV), and on the
sword of St. Maurice in the Schatzkammer (PI. XXIII). The enamels on the imperial crown
(PI. I and XXV) are Western work imitating the Byzantine style, with inscriptions m
Latin.
' L'Art dans I'ltalie meridionals, i. 276.
' Bock, Kleinodien; Kondakoff, pp. 236-9 and Fig. 68. ' Kondakoff, p. 205.
520 ENAMEL

«f a triptych reliquaiy at the Monastery of Sainte-Croix of Poitiers,' which may

be one of the earliest Byzantine enamels in existence. It has been identified
by French authorities with the reliquary mentioned by Gregory of Tours and
Fortunatus" as sent by Justin II to St. Eadegund in the sixth centui-y. It
arrived at Poitiers in the time of Sigebert and before the death of Eadegund
{t687) : its date must therefore lie between a. d. 565, when Justin came to the
throne, and a. d. 575, when Sigebert died.
The part preserved is the central panel of the triptych. It has in the middle
a cavity for the relic in the shape of a double cross bordered with coloured glass
pastes [verroterie cloisonnee), set in a single row as in the case of the Limburg
reliquary, while the whole field is of dark blue enamel covered with floral scrolls
in gold with leaves of turquoise blue and red pistils. From early descriptions
made at a time when the reliquary was perfect, we know that each of the two
leaves had three superposed busts of saints in enamel ; on the outside was
a gemmed cross with cabochons at the extremities, and bordered with pearls.
The four exterior corners had cavities for relics, bordered, like the interior cross,
with coloured pastes.
There are details about this reliquary which make us hesitate to accept the
early date claimed for it ; for example, the character of the scrolls recalls the
ornament of the tenth to eleventh centuries, and the arrangement of superposed
busts on the leaves suggests the ivory triptychs of the same period. The history
is, however, circumstantial, and as we cannot definitely say that the work could
not have been produced in the time of Justin it may be provisionally accepted.
A brooch with a gryphon in the style of the tenth century ^ and the remark-
able enamelled amulet already mentioned (p. 506, n. 2) are in the Louvre. Among
the enamels lost to France there were reliquaries for wood of the True Cross in
the Sainte-Chapelle at Paris, at the Abbey of Grandmont,'' and at Clairvaux.°
A gilt-copper chasse with enamels and Greek iambic inscriptions is mentioned
by Ducange, and the same author refers to a triptych at Amiens with about
twenty enamelled figures."
In Belgium a wooden cross overlaid with silver, on which are filigree and
gems of Western thirteenth-century work, is in the treasury of the Soeurs de
Notre-Dame at Namur,' and is said to have been brought to Belgium by Jacques
de Vitry, Bishop of Ptolemais, who died in the Abbey of Oignies. Applied to it
are Byzantine enamelled medallions of a good period, perhaps the early eleventh
century, representing the Etimasia, SS. John the Evangelist, Mark, Matthew,
Peter, Paul, Panteleemon, and the Archangel Gabriel. In the Cathedral of the
same city is a reliquary for wood of the True Cross, while another appears to have
been shown in the exhibition of ecclesiastical art at Malines in 1864.' Down to
the French Revolution there was at Maestricht a double-armed cross with an
inscription relating to a Romanus, given in 1204 by the Emperor Philip of
Swabia to the Church of Notre-Dame."
An enamelled pictui'e in the same cathedral (Maestricht) represents the Virgin
' B.irbier de Montault, Le Tresor deVabhaye de Sainte-Croix a Poitiers, Paris, 1883 ; E. Molinier,
fj'
by Orfcwerie,
Kondakoff38-40and (Fig.)
Bock. ; Leclereq, Manuel d'arch. chret., ii, p. 458. The reliquary is not noticed
^ Historia Francorum, ix, c. 40. See Barbier de Montault, as above, 118-9.
' From the Campana Coll., and exhibited in a window of the Galerie d'ApolIon in the
Louvre; Kondakoff, as above, 261. E. Gonse (Exposition unimrselle de 1878, ii. 243, 549) and
V. Gay {Glossaire, s.v. email) refer to Byzantine enamels in French private collections.
* Texier, DicUonnaire d'orfewerie, col. 834 ff.
° D'Arbols de Jubainville, Revue des Societes savantes, 5" s6r., v. 497.
' Didron, Annates archeologiques, xx, 1860, 166, and xxi, 1861, 123-4. Ducange, in his
Traite du Chef de Saint-Jean, also mentions an enamelled reliquary for wood of the True Cross
at Amiens (Ann. arch., 1862, p. 47). Cf. also R. Mowat, BuM. Monumental, 1896, p. 230.
' Didron, as above, v. 318 (Fig.) ; Kondakoff, 169 ; Proc. Soc. Antiquaries of London, ser. 2,
iii. 62 ; Schlumberger, L'^popee, ii, Fig. on p. 193.
* W. H. J. Weale, Catalogue des objets d'art religieux, Brussels, 1864, 88 and No. 482.
" Didron, as above, v. 280 ; Schlumberger, Nicephore Pliocas, 477 ; Bock, Die bysantinischen
Zelletischmelse, 323 and PI. XX ; Labarte, Histoire, &c., 2nd ed., i. 330 ; Molinier, L'OrfevreriefbS.
522 ENAMEL

as 0)-ans in half-figure and Christ on one side making the gesture of benediction.*
The inscriptions are very incorrect, and de Linas thought the work due to a Greek
artist of the Adriatic or Southern Italy. The date is perhaps the twelfth or
thirteenth century. On the back is the Annunciation in repousse work, probably
made for another object.
Germany possesses some exceedingly good examples of Byzantine enamel.
The finest is the reliquary for the wood of the True Cross in the Cathedral of
Limburg-on-the-Lahn,' brought into the West by the knight Heinrich von
Uelmen after the sack of a. d. 1204
It is a shallow rectangular box with a sliding lid. _ In the interior is
a cavity in the form of a cross with double traverse, in which lies a cross con-
taining the relic. The gold covering the back of this cro?s bears a, repoussfr
inscription in nine iambics, showing it to have been made at a time when
Constantine Porphyrogenitus and Komanus II were associated in the empire
between the years a. d. 948 and 959. The borders of the sliding cover bear
similar repousse inscriptions in larger letters. These are also metrical, and show
that ' Basil the Proedros caused the reliquary of the cross to be embellished '. '
This Basil was either the future Basil II, who during the reign of his stepfather
Nicephorus Phocas (a.d. 963-76) held the title of Pi'oedros, or more iirobably
Basil the bastard son of Eomanus Lecapenus, the same man who is mentioned
on the chalice-reliquary in the treasure of St. Mark. In the latter case the whole
object, cross and case alike, would be earlier than a.d. 959, when Constantine^
died. This is the alternative preferred by Molinier, as against Aus'm Weerth
and Labarte.
The upper side of the sliding lid, most conspicuous when the reliquary is
closed, has in the middle nine rectangular enamelled plates in three rows of
three, together forming a large rectangle (Fig. 311). The central plaque of the
middle row represents Christ enthroned, that to the left of it having Gabriel
and St. John the Baptist ; that to the right, Michael and the Virgin : the figures
of the Virgin and the Baptist are nearest to Christ and stand with their hands-
raised towards him, thus forming the favourite group of the Deesis (see p. 664).
All the other plaques each contain two figures. On the top row are St. John
the Evangelist and St. James, SS. Peter and Paul, Andrew and Mark ; in the
bottom row, SS. Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew and Luke, Philip and Simon.
Eound the large rectangle runs a border of inlaid garnets, round this a narrow
band of enamelled ornament consisting of blue lozenges with stepped edges on
a white ground ; round this in its turn is a broader band of filigree and cabochon
gems, interrupted at opposite points by eight small square plaques, six con-
taining enamelled busts — SS. Chrysostom, Theodore, Eustathius, Basil, Nicholas,
and George ; two squares are occupied by repetitions of St. Basil and St. George
without enamel. At top and bottom of this filigree band are broader gemmed
bands each containing three large circles of cabochon gems surrounded by
borders of garnets.* Then comes a broad enamelled border enclosing all four
sides, the design consisting of pink lozenge-shaped figures on a white ground.
Outside all is an exterior border of silver-gilt with a repouss6 band of leaves,
and the metrical inscription above referred to.

' Molinier, L'Orfivrme, 59.

2 E. Aus'm Weerth, Das Siegeskreus des byzantinisclien Kaisers Konstantin VII. und Bomanus,
Bonn, 1861, PI. I ; Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels, ii. 83-92 ; Didron, AnnaJes arch., xvii.
377 ff., xviii. 42 ff. and 124 ff. ; Kondakoff, as above, 209 ff.; Molinier, L'Or/evrerie, 46ff. ",
Schlumberger, NicepJiore Phocas, 669 and 672 (Figs, after Aus'm Weerth). The reliquary was
given by Heinrich von Uelmen to the Nunnery of Stuben, near Treves. In 1788 it passed to
Trfeves Cathedral, but on the outbreak of the French Revolution it was taken to Ehrenbreit-
stein for safety. In 1815 it became the property of the Duke of Nassau, who in 1827 gave it
to Limburg Cathedral. For Heinrich von Uelmen see the references given by Comte Eiant,
S^ouilles religieuses, p. 57 ; Beyer, Mittelrheinisohes Urkundenbuch, 275 ; Annates Cotonienses maximi,.
in Pertz, Scriptores rerum Germ,, xvii. 824, &c.
^ kKa\X^TTiff€ rijv 6^Kt]y £iiAou.
* Cf. the book-cover in the Marciana (p. 516) and the early reliquary at Poitiers (p. 520).
 ENAMEL 53S
The interior of the case has in the middle a cavity in the shape of a crosa
with two arms, in which the cross made of the true wood is laid : this cavity-
extends over the whole field. The greater part of the space between the cruci-
form cavity and the silver-gilt border is occupied by twenty rectangular enamelled
plaques, those nearest the cross having figures of angels, those outside seraphim
described by enamelled inscriptions as 'Apxai and 'Efovo-tat. Along the top and
bottom of these plaques, and about the upper half of the cross, are bands of
enamelled ornament, consisting of series of circles and half circles containing

famMivci) e 1 e KbUYj ^j-ijiAj;Aj'^n'i.c

Fig. 311. Enamelled and jewelled reliquary for the wood of the True Cross, tenth
century : Cathedral of Limbui-g-on-the-Lahn. (After Aus'm "Weerth.) P. 522.

floral ornament of exquisite quality in very rich colours (green, red, blue, and
white).
Both the figure subjects and the conventional ornament on the Limburg
reliquary are as fine as any other Byzantine enamels now jjreserved : the
attitudes are as unconstrained as is possible within the limits of such an art ;
the flesh tints are delicate, the colours of the draperies rich and effective.^ The
presence on the embossed border of an inscription indicating a definite date
lends this object a peculiar importance, for while it proves that the close of the
tenth century witnessed the highest development of the enameller's art at
Constantinople, it furnishes us with a standard with which other Byzantine

' Four shades of blue are employed— ultramarine, grey-blue, indigo, and sky-blue ; two
reds, one brownish, the other vermilion ; two shades of yellow ; a pink flesh-tint, and an
opaque white.
524 ENAMEL

-enamels may be compared. Among other enamels of similar fine quality are
those of Shemokmedi in Ghuria (see below, p. 530).
With the Limburg reliquary may be mentioned two oblong enamelled panels
with figures of Constantino and Helena^ set in aEhenish reliquary of the thirteenth
■century, but once belonging to a reliquary of Byzantine origin ; they were prob-
ably made for an inscribed cross with the name of Constantino (Porphyrogenitus),
now preserved in the above-mentioned Rhenish shrine.
At Munich there are also important enamels. In the Reiche Capelle is a
book-cover^ of the eleventh to twelfth century, the enamels on which are of
•excellent quality. The subject represented is the Crucifixion, and the realistic
treatment of the suffering body of Christ prevents an attribution to an earlier
period. By the Cross stand, the Virgin, St. John, and Longinus ; in the fore-
ground two soldiers rend the seamless garment, while above are four busts of
weeping angels in clouds, and the sun and moon. The reliquary in the Stroganoff
Collection at Rome, as already noticed, has points of analogy with the plaque in
the Reiche Capelle. The arrangement of the figures is the same, but the work
is inferior.
In the Royal Library of the same town the cover of the Gospels of the
Emperor Henry II (Cim. 57) is decorated with circular and arched plaques of
■cloisonne enamel.", The arched plaques which represent Our Lord and eleven
Apostles have the names in Greek letters, and appear to be Byzantine : the
circular, which represent the Evangelists' symbols, suggest German work in
the Byzantine manner. All the plaques do not seem to have been designed for
the places which they now occupy.^
The large triptych by Godefroid de Claire, formerly in the Walz Collection
at Hanau,"* has mounted in the centre two small triptychs enriched with Byzan-
tine enamels of the second half of the eleventh or first half of the twelfth century,
the work not rising above average merit. The larger has Constantino and Helena
flanking a relic of the True' Cross ; on the interior of the leaves are SS. George
and Theodore, Procopius and Demetrius ; on the exterior, busts of the Evangelists.
The smaller has in the interior the Crucifixion ; on the outer side of the leaves,
the angel and Virgin of the Annunciation (Figs. 809, 310).
In the Museum of Sigmaringen is a reliquary for wood of the True Cross
with enamels ; " of another such reliquary in the Church of St. Mary at Cologne '
only fragments remain. Enamels on book-covers at Gotha and in the library
of the Monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland have sometimes been described as
Byzantine, but the latter is Western work, and on the former only the small
plaques with ornamental design may be Greek."
The treasure of the Cathedral of Quedlinburg contains a Gospel-cover orna-
mented with filigree and cabochon stones, and having in the centre the Virgin
and Child with two bishops. In the filigree border are set nine enamelled
plaques and medallions, two of which, with representations of Christ and the
Virgin, are Byzantine of the eleventh century, somewhat resembling those upon
the cross at Namur." The Byzantine origin of the remaining enamels is doubtful,
and the enamelled cross in the same treasure is in the same category.^" Mention

"^ E. Aus'm Weerth, SiegesTcreus, &c., 12, Pig. 13.

2 Zettler,'Eiisler,andStoc^hauer,
Trachten, Kimshverke und GeriWischaften,AusgeicuhlteKimstu;erke,&e.,
&c., i, PI. XV (2nd ed., Pl.XXVIII; Hefner-
Frankfurt, 1879) Alteneck,
; Kondakoff,
195 ; Schlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 580 (coloured reproduction, after Hefner-Alteneck) ;
C Becker and J. von Hefner-Alteneck, Kimsiioerke und Geriithschaften des 2IittelaUers, ii, PI. XL.
■ ^ Labarte, BecJierches srir la peinfure en email, PI. C. * Kondakoff, 196.
■' Kondakoff, 220 ; Bock, Die by:- ZdlenschmeUe, 181-4 ; Archaeologia, 1910, PI. V and VI.
These enamels were probably brought from Constantinople by Wibald, Abbot of Stavelot,
■where they ■n-ere long preserved. Wibald was sent on missions to Manuel Comnenus in
A. D. 1155 and 1157. « Lehner, VerseichnissderHmaUwerke, 1872, p. 1.
' Aus'm Weerth, Siegeskreu:, &c., 12-13.
i. 440.* Kondakoff, 204. The Gotha cover, from Eehternaeh, is figiu-ed by Sfchlumberger, L'^opee,
« .J. J. Marquet de Vasselot, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Third Period, xx, 1898, 310-11. " Ibid.
 ENAMEL 525

has been made above of the Ehenish imitations of Byzantine enamels about the-
year a. d. 1000.
Austria- Hungary also possesses Byzantine enamels of great importance.
The reliquary for wood of the True Cross in the cathedral at Gran' in Hungary
probably came, like that at Limburg, from the crusaders' spoils. It is of the-
same rectangular form, and is richly ornamented with enamels representing
Constantine and Helena with the cross, the journey to Golgotha, and the-
Deposition. Though not equal to the Avork at Limburg, these enamels hardly
seem to deserve Kondakoff's severe criticism : Molinier found in the scene
representing the road to Calvary exceptional movement and originality, and
the style recalls to him that of the book-cover in the Eeiche Capelle. He
points out that the imperial costumes are identical with those upon the crown at
Budapest (see below), and would refer both to a good period, presumably the
eleventh century.
The border of the reliquary is of embossed silver gilt plaques with fine inter-

FiG. 312. Sb. Andrew and St. Peter : enamelled medallions of , the eleventh century
in the Museum at Budapest. P. 526.

laced designs and feeble figures of saints : the interlacings are similar to those
on one of the book-covers in the Library of St. Mark* and on the frame of
a picture of the Virgin at Liege,' and they are probably of Byzantine origin.
They rise from an enamelled ground, which has been left unpolished like the
enamel upon English candlesticks and fire-dogs of the seventeenth century, or
the Russian enamels made in the same manner, and thus afford one of the rare
examples of champleve work executed by Byzantine artists.*
The National Museum at Budapest possesses a crown,' discovered in 1861
at Nyitra Ivanka, consisting of a series of gold plates with enamelled figures
of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos (a. d. 1042-54), the Empress Zoe
(a. d. 1034-50), her sister Theodora (d. 1042), three female dancers, and per-
sonifications of Humility (TaTriVocris) and Truth (aXWrja) : these figures, as
^ Pulszky, Badisics, and Molinier, Chefs-d'oeuvre d'or/ivrerie ayant figure a VExposition de Buda-
pest, vol. ii, last plate ; E. Molinier, L'Orfevrerie, 50 and 51, and Gazette arch., 1887, 245 ff. and
plate ; Eevue de Vart Chretien, 2" s6r., xiv, 1881 ; J. Danks, Geschichtliches, Beschreibendes und Urkund-
liches aus dem Graner Domschais, 1880 ; Kondakoff, 217 ; r. Bock, Der Schais der Metropolitankirche sie
Gran in Ungam, Vienna, 1859 ; Sehlumberger, L'Epopee, i, Fig. on p. 81. A letter of complaint
from Innocent III to the Hungarian prince (dated June 27, 1205) has suggested that this
reliquaiy was among the objects robbed by Hungarians from the envoys of the Cardinal
Legate, who carried treasures dispatched to Rome from Constantinople in that year. Se&
Innoceretis III Epistolae, viii, p. 127 ; Biant, Sepouilles religieuses enlevees d Constantinople, p. 43 j
and de Linas, Origines de Vorfevrerie cloisonnee, i. 350.
2 Pasini, Tesoro, PI. XII (No. 14).
' De Linas, L'Art et I'industrie d'auirefois dans Us regions de la Meuse beige (1881), 81.
' Molinier, L'Orfevrerie, 64.
° Sehlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, Figs, on pp. 517, 521, 523, 525, 527, and 529 ; Molinier,
V Orfenirerie, p. 52-3 ; F. Bock, Kleinodien, &c., PI. 88, and Mitth. der k. k. Central-Commission, xii,
Vienna, 1867, 85-6 ; de Linas, Sist. du travail a VExposition universelle de 1867, Paris, 1868,
121-6 ; Kondakoff, 243-9, Figs. 72-7 ; Pulszky, Radisics, and Molinier, Chefs-d'csuvre d'orfevrerie
ayant figure d VExposition de Budapest, ii, p. 81 and plates. Filimonov appears to have suggested
that this crown was made in Egypt in the fourteenth century. See Vis. Vrem., v. 579-80
and 304-5.
526 ENAMEL

Kondakoff suggests, may have some reference to the coronation festivities at

Constantinople. This crown cannot have been made for Monomachos himself,
or his portrait would not be on it. It was probably ordered as a gift to some
other king, perhaps Andreas I of Hungary (1046-61). The enamels are of fair
quality, though somewhat affected by burial in the earth ; the silhouettes of the
figures appear to have been stamped with a matrix.^ The drawing and design
are not on a high level, and betray the hand of an artist content with purely
industrial aims (Fig. 313).
The Budapest Museum likewise contains two good enamelled medallions'^
representing St. Peter and St. Andrew (Fig. 512). A ring with an enamelled
female bust is also referred by Kondakoff to the twelfth century.^-
In the same museum is the so-called crown of St. Stephen,* which is not
a king's crown but that of a prince or patrician. The crossed bands or hoops
have enamels which Kondakoff assigns to the end of the eleventh or beginning
of the twelfth century," refusing to accept them as part of the ornament
traditionally recorded by St. Stephen from Pope Sylvester II (tlO03).
The subjects of the enamelled plaques are Christ enthroned between two
cypresses, the Archangels Gabriel and Michael, SS. George, Demetrius, Cosmas,
and Damian, and Michael Ducas (a. d. 1071-8) with his son and colleague
Constantine, by which emperors the crown was probably sent as a gift, as in
the case of that now bearing the name of Monomachos.
In the same museum is a baptismal cross with enamels," made, as the
inscription records, by Leontios, a monk of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. The
work appears to show Slav or Eiissian influence and is perhaps later than
the fifteenth century.
The treasure of the house of Brunswick- Liineburg (Welfenschatz) at Gmunden
contains an enamelled cross, which, from the primitive character of the figures
upon it, may be earlier than the date which Bock assigned to it, namely, the
twelfth century. In the same treasure is an ikon of St. Demetrius, partly
enamelled in relief like the St. Michael at Venice (p. 513). The work, which is
not purely Byzantine, may be of the thirteenth century.'
A reliquary for wood of the True Cross is said to be in the Church of Saint
Vit at Prague.^
In the Schatzkammer at Vienna is preserved the so-called crown of Charle-
magne," with four enamelled plaques representing David, Solomon, Isaiah and
Hezekiah, and Christ between seraphim. The work is perhaps as late as the
beginning of the twelfth century, and may have been executed by Greek
workmen in Sicily, where the Western princes employed many Greeks (see
below, p. 590).
A similar Siculo-Byzantine origin is suggested for the enamelled medallions
on the sword of St. Maurice, also in the Austrian regalia, and for the medallions
with conventional cruciform and other designs of fine execution attached to the
imperial mantle, dalmatic, and shoes (see above, p. 519). The designs recall
ornament in the mosaics of the Cappella Palatina and the Cathedral of Monreale
in Sicily.'"
1 Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xxiii. 374.
2 Kondakoff, 209. a jbid., 263.
* Ibid., 241 ; Fr. Bock, Kleinodien, &e., 79 and PI. XVI, Fig. 3, and Die bysantinischen ZeUen-
schmelze, 284 ff. ; Molinier, L'Orfiorerie, 53-4 ; Sohlumberger, Niciphore Phocas, 657 (Fig.).
" Tlie plaques on these hoops, with their Latin inscriptions, may be compared with those
on the so-called crown of Charlemagne at Vienna. They are very probably of Sicilian work-
manship imitating the Byzantine style.
* 6. Supka, Archaeologiai Ertesito, 1909, 207 ff.
' Neumann, Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braunschieeig-Liineburg, pp. 63, 236; Bock, Die
iyzantinischen Zellenschmelse, 349 ff. and PI. XXI ; Molinier, L'Orfivrerie, 56. The Welfenschatz
was for many years exhibited in the Kunstgewerbe-Museum at Vienna, from which it has
now been withdi-awn.
' Bock, Mittheilungen der k. h. Commission, 1870, xv. 16 ; Molinier, L' Orfevrerie, 58.
' Fr. Bock, Kleinodien, &c., 12 and PI. I, and Mitth. der k. k. CentraZ-Commission, ii, 1857,
89 ; Kondakoff, 249-50. " Bock, Kleinodien ; Kondakoff, 254.
 527
ENAMEL

The Church of the Holy Cross at Donauw6rth once possessed a reliquary

■with an enamelled cover, now lost.^
The head- and arm-reliquaries of St. Blaise in the cathedral treasury at
Eagusa have numerous small cell-enamelled plaques with busts and half-figures
of saints. The accompanying names are in Latin characters, but the style is
Byzantine, and the work is perhaps as early as the late eleventh century ;
the mountings in which the plaques are set are of the seventeenth.^
Denmark has in the cross of Queen Dagmar, now in the Copenhagen

Fig. 313. Figures of dancers enamelled on gold : parts of the crown of Monomachos
in the Museum at Budapest. P. 525.

Museum, an exceptionally interesting piece of Byzantine enamel. It was found

in the tomb of Dagmar, who died in a. d. 1212, and is to be attributed to the
eleventh or twelfth century, probably the latter. On the front, upon a blue
ground with white scroll-work punctuated with red, is the figure of Christ as
crucified ; on the back a central bust of Christ upon a white ground, with busts
of the Virgin, St. John, St. Basil, and St. John Chrysostom upon a ground
of blue.'

1905.' 732.
F. Schneider, Mitth. d. historischen Vereins/ilr Donauworth und Vmgebung, ii. 1-12 ; B. Z., xiv,
^ F. Hamilton Jackson, The Shores of the Adriatic, ii. The Austrian Side, 343-4, and plate.
^ N. M. Petersen in Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed, Copenhagen, 1842-3, PI. I, Figs. 1'
and It" ; G. Stephens, Queen Uagmar's Cross, London and Copenhagen, 1868 ; Arch. Journ., ii,
p. 166; Labarte, Histoire, &e., 2nd ed., iii. 23; Kondakoff, 178, Figs. 51-2; Molinier,
L'Or/evrerie, 57. The latter rightly points out that Labarte's comparison with the Beresford
Hope cross is misleading, the style.in the two cases being very different. Queen Dagmar is most
likely to have worn a cross made in her own time, i. e. the latter end of the twelfth century.
528 ENAMEL

The enamelled medallions on a mitre from the cathedral at Linkoping, now

in the National Museum at Stockholm,' are probably of German origin, dating
from the twelfth century. They represent busts of Christ, the Apostles, angels,
and prophets, in the later Byzantine style, the descriptive names being, however,
in Latin.
The enamels in various parts of the Kussian dominions are very numerous,
and can only be briefly mentioned, the student being referred to Kondakoffs
work. Among the most interesting is the large rectangular panel in the
Museum of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, executed upon copper with copper
cloisons, the main outlines being reserved in the metal ; the work thus com-
bines the cloisonne and champleve processes, and is very exceptional among
Byzantine enamels.'' The subject is St. Theodore of Heraclea killing a dragon,
with the inscription o ayios ©eoSwpos 6 BaOrjpidKrii (the Dragon-slayer). The style
of the work suggests that the panel is comparatively late, and that it was
probably made in the twelfth or even in the thirteenth century. St. Petersburg
further possesses some interesting early enamels from a Kurgan at Smiela,
considered to date from before the eighth century.' The Church of Polozk in
the Government of Vitebsk has a cross with enamelled plaques of the tenth
or eleventh century representing the Deesis, two archangels, the four Evangelists,
and ten saints.* The cross of Archbishop Antonius in the Church of Sta Sophia
at Novgorod has the Crucifixion between the Virgin and St. John."^
In the Cathedral of St. Michael at Moscow is the interesting book-cover of
Prince Mstisslav of Novgorod." It dates from the sixteenth century, but is
richly decorated with Byzantine and Eussian enamels. Among the Byzantine
plaques two- standing Apostles are of the tenth century ; the rest are two
centuries later. The maniples of the Metropolitans Alexius and Photius, also
at Moscow, have enamels sewn upon them.^ In the armoury at the same place
is a fine medallion with a bust of the Virgin.^ In the Tauric Chersonese
a medallion with the Crucifixion now ornaments a mitre. ^ The Palace Church
at Livadia has a reliquary for the wood of the Cross with eleven enamelled
medallions of saints, good work of the late eleventh or the twelfth century. "^^
A cross exhibited at Paris in 1865 by M. Sevastianoff had a figure of Christ
crucified, with a white loincloth and green nimbus on a dark ground, with the
inscription : 'O ySacriXevs t^s So^s." An enamelled medallion found at Kieff
has a bust of Our Lord, and appears to be of the eleventh century.^'' A remark-
able series of enamelled ear-rings (Kolt), crosses, necklaces, pendants, with
cloisonne figures of Our Lord, the Virgin, &c., and an interesting gold crown or
diadem with the Ascent of Alexander are in the Khanenko Collection at Kieff.^"
At the Monastery of Gelat in Mingrelia is an ikon, styled the Virgin of
Chachuli, in the form of a triptych enriched with numerous enamelled plaques
not altogether homogeneous.^* In the centre at the top Christ is seen crowning
' Kondakoff, 257, Pig. 85.
2 The plaque was formerly in the Pourtal8)3 and Basilewsky Collections (Labarte, Be-
cherches sur la peinture en email, &c., p. 40 and PI. D, and Hist, des arts industriels, Album, ii, PI. 105 ;
Daroel and Basilewsky, La Collection Basilewsky, PI. XIV ; Kondakoff, 163 ; Schlumberger, Nice-
phore Phocas, 361 ; E. Molinier, VOrfevrerie, 64 ; A. Darcel, 6as. des Beaux-Arts, xix, 1865, 511).
' Bobrinsky, The Kurgans of Smiela, 152 and PI. XX (St. Petersburg, 1887, in Russian).
* Kondakofe, 170.
^ Ibid.,
Annates 175 ; Antiquites
archeologiques, xx, 1860,de 166.
I'Empire de Kussie, Atlas, i, No. 25, Moscow, 1849 ; Didron,
" G. Filimonoff, Archaeological Researches, &c., The Cover of the Gospel of Mstisslav at Moscow,
Moscow, 1861 (Eussian) : Kondakoff, 198 ; G. Schlumberger, L'ipopee, i, Pig. on p. 85.
^ Schlumberger, L'Evopee, i. Pig. on p. 693.
" M. Rosenberg, Geschichte der Goldschmiedekunst, p. 118, Pig. 181.
' Kondakoff, 180 and 255, Pigs. 82-4. i» Ibid., 219.
^1 A. Darcel in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xix, 1865, 510.
^^ G. Schlumberger, L'Mpopee, i. Pig. on 112.
^' La Collection Khanenko, croix et images, 1899 and 1900, and ^poque slave, 1902, especially
PI. XXVII ff. Most of the objects appear to be of about the twelfth century.
" Kondakoff, 135 ff.. Pigs, on pp. 134 and 185 and 140 ; Durand, Bulletin monumental, 1877,
113 ff. ; Schlumberger, L'Mpopee, vol. i. Fig. on pp. 187, 688.
 ENAMEL 529

the Emperor Michael VII Ducas and his wife Maria : other plaques on the
central part represent the Beesis (three plaques), the four Evangelists, the
Etimasia, Constantine and Helen with the Cross, two archangels, twelve
Apostles (Andrew and Mark each occurring twice), SS. George, Demetrius,
Theodore, Procopius, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Nicholas the Wonder-
worker, Christ Pantokrator, the Virgin (Hodegetria), the Archangel Michael,
a medallion of Christ with two crosses, two plaques with figures of bishops, and
(on the predella) the Evangelists, St. Theodore Tyron, and a bishop.
On the leaves are the following enamels : the Virgin crowning a king and
queen, John the Baptist preaching to a queen, the Virgin alone, SS. Matthew
(thrice repeated), John the Evangelist, John the Baptist, Peter, Simon, Thomas,
Philip, and Luke ; an Annunciation is modern. Besides these there are a
number of diminutive plaques with ornamental motives.

Fig. 314. St. George : enamelled gold medallion of the eleventh century in the
Swenigorodskoi Collection. (After Kondakoff.) P. 530.

On the left leaf is a very early plaque with the Crucifixion between the
Virgin and St. John, Christ being represented wearing the colobium.^ The
ground is translucent green, the cross purple, as also the colobium, the nimbus
yellow with a red cross, the flesh-tints milky white. Above the cross is the
hand of the Almighty, and flanking the top two angels. Two small medallions
with the Virgin and St. Theodore are executed in translucent green, dark blue,
purple, yellow, and white.'' The drawing in these three examples is weak, and
there is no attempt at shading or gradation of colour : they are assigned by Kon-
dakoff to the iconoclastic period, or at any rate placed within the limits of the
ninth century.'' On the leaves, one on each side, are also the two halves of an
enamelled reliquary cross ; one side has St. John the Baptist and the busts of
the four Evangelists ; the other, Christ on the Cross between busts of the
Virgin and St. John. This cross is assigned to the tenth century, to which
another, with the cross between Constantine and Helena, also belongs.
It will be seen from the above that this triptych at Gelat is one of the most
important monuments for the study of Byzantine enamelling anywhere pre-
served, and it is to be regretted that it is in so inaccessible a place.
At Gelat there is also an early Georgian ikon of Christ with enamelled
nimbus and enamelled medallions round the border [Etimasia, an archangel,

' Kondakoff, Pig. 35 on p. 143. ^ jbid., •pi^s. 39 and 40, p. 146.

' Molinier {L'Or/evrerie, 64, note) thinks this early attribution doubtful, and rightly urges
the necessity for caution in dealing with work executed in remote provinces where archaistio
tendencies may have persisted to a late date.
1204 M m
530 ENAMEL

SS. Peter, Paul, &e.). Most of these are Georgian work in the Byzantine style,
characterized by thick bright colours.^
The Monastery of Martwili has an enamelled Beesis represented in translucent
colours on a translucent green ground. The whole work differs from the
developed Byzantine style of the tenth century and recalls that of the Gelat-
Chachuli ikon (see above) ; it may date from as early as the eighth century.^
Fixed to the iconostasis of the church in the same monastery is a seventeenth-
century triptych, in which are set an enamelled standing figure of the Virgin,
and a number of medallions of saints, none later than the beginning of the
eleventh century, but some of very fine execution. A small rectangular plaque
with a diminutive bust of St. Peter on a green background is thought to
belong, like the above-mentioned Beesis, to the eight or ninth century.' Mart-
wili also possesses a remarkable enamelled pectoral cross of almost as early
a period, in which Christ is represented wearing the colobium and the ground is
enamelled. It has a second enamelled cross among its treasures.^
At Chopi in Mingrelia there is an ikon of the seventeenth century on the
iconostasis. The enamelled nimbus recalls the work of the first cross of
Martwili just described, and should be as early. The remaining enamels, which
are round the border, consist of medallions of saints and the Beesis, the work
perhaps dating from the tenth century.^ Another ikon at Chopi has preserved
eight out of the ten enamelled medallions upon its border : these appear to be
of the late tenth or early eleventh century. The case of Queen Tamar's cross
in the same place has on the back enamelled medallions of the twelfth or
thirteenth century.''
Shemokraedi in Ghuria is fortunate in the possession of exceptionally fine
Byzantine enamels upon an ikon.' These are eight rectangular panels arranged
in three rows. In the middle are the Anastasis and Annunciation ; the other
plaques contain representations of saints. The admirable quality of these
enamels and the excellent style of the drawing recall the work of the Limburg
reliquary. An ikon at Kozcheri in Mingrelia is similarly adorned with enamels,
though of less fine quality.*
Other enamels in Imeretia, Swanetia, and Georgia are recorded by Kondakoff,'
while there are several examples on Mount Athos in the Iberian Monastery
and that of Dochiaru. A picture in miniature-mosaic attributed to the time of
John Zimisces, but probably rather later, has a number of medallions upon its
border (the Etimasia and ten saints).'"
The enamels which form as it were the text of Kondakoff's book are a set of
medallions with Our Lord and saints, formerly ornamenting the frame of an
ikon of St. Gabriel in the Monastery of Jumati in Georgia. Purchased by
M. Swenigorodskoi, they were long known as the enamels of his collection. The
work is careful and the colours good, and possibly they may be as early as the
eleventh century ; but we cannot rely upon them in the same manner as tipon
the Limburg reliquary or the Martwili ikon, the date of which is certainly
known." In the distribution of the lights and shadows they are inferior to the
enamels upon those objects.

' Kondakoff, 154.

^ Hid., 125 ; but see the opinion of Molinier in note above.
- Ibid., 152. ■« Ibid., 171-2.
» Ibid., 148 ; Sohlumberger, L't^-popee, i, Fig. on p. 133. _ <■' Kondakoff, 222.
' Kondakoff, 157 and Fig. 43 on p. 156 ; Sohlumberger, L'Epopee, i. Fig. on p. 129.
» Kondakoff, 158-61 and Fig. 44 on p. 159.
" Ibid., pp. 173, 180 : the cross of Nikortzminda, Imeretia, is figured by Sohlumberger,
L'^opee, i. 125 ; it is of Georgian workmanship with Byzantine medallions of the eleventh
century at the extremities. " Kondakoff, 207-8.
11 Ch. de Linas, Eevue de I'art Chretien, 1885 ; Bock, Die lysantinischen Zellenschmelze, &c. ;
E. Molinier, L'Orfevrerie, 55. A separate enamelled nimbus and an enamelled face and hand
for a figure of the Tirgin also form part of the collection, and by their very character suggest
a rather later date ; for the custom of applying the nimbus of goldsmith's work to painted
ikons suggests the later Bussian fashion.
 ENAMEL 531

Byzantine enamels were imitated both in Eussia and in Georgia at an early

date, the imitations preserving the style and character of the originals more
closely than those executed under somewhat similar conditions in Italy and on
the Ehine.' In Eussia, crosses, medallions, and gold ear-rings of 'jaadlock'
shape (called KoU) were all enamelled ; the results in the latter case were very
pleasing, since only decorative designs were attempted. But the Eussian artists
never quite mastered the processes ; their colours, especially the blues, are less
durable than those of their masters ; their drawing, when they attempt the

Fie. 31.5. Gold medallions from which the en.imel has heen lost: Swenigorodskoi Collection.
(After Kondakoff.)

human figure, is defective. Their work all dates from the period between the
beginning of the eleventh century and the Tartar invasions of the thirteenth,
and has been discovered near Kertch or in the neighbourhood of Kieff.
Enamelled medallions to the number of six or eight were worn by the Russian
princes upon the Barmi, the collars of woven stuff which covered their necks
and shoulders. The Georgians had a wider scale of colours than the Eussians,
and produced figures of better quality.
Byzantine enamels in Greece and the Balkan Peninsula are not numerous.
A pair of silver eucharistic fans (rhipidia) belonging to the Cathedral Church
of Serres in Macedonia are ornamented with cloisonne enamels which are appa-
rently of the sixteenth century and therefore beyond our period.' They are in
1 A special chapter is devoted by Kondakoff to these Russian enamels, while examples of
Georgian work which occur on monuments such as the ikon of Christ at Gelat (Kondakoff,
p, 154) have been mentioned above. Other Russian enamels in the possession of M. Khanenko
at Kieff are reproduced in the finely illustrated catalogue of his collection : they include a
number of crosses, ear-rings, and a gold diadem or crown recalling in some ways that of
Monomachos in Budapest.
2 N. P. Kondakoff, Mucedmiia, 1.54 and Figs. 93, 94 ; Kondakoff observes that the name
r€N N A AIOY at the top of the liandle of one fan seems to show that tlie work was done for
the Metropolitan Gennadius in the sixteenth century ; L. Cliesnay, Monicineii/s Plot, 1902,
137 ff., and PI. XIII ; G. Millet in A. Michel's Histoiie cU Vart.
M m 2
532 ENAMEL

the form of lobed disks on straight handles ; one has the Pantokrator surrounded
by the symbols of the Evangelists, while the lobes are occupied by busts of
angels alternating with cherubim ; the other has Christ Emmanuel in the attitude
of benediction with a border of the Same celestial beings. The work, though
inferior to that of early periods, is by no means to be despised, and affords^an
Another
interesting proof of the late sui-vival of the art in the Christian East.

C "T^ltTor^if^
Pig. 316. Detail of the enamelled reliquary of tlie tenth centuiy in the Cathedral
of Limburg-on-the-Lahn. Cf. Pig. 311.

pair of enamelled fans of like character, dated a. d. 1592, is in the Church of

St. John the Baptist near Serres. The subjects are similar : in the centre, a half-
figure of Our Lord ; round the border, angels and seraphs.^
The halo surrounding the head of the Archangel Gabriel, in an ikon attributed
to the twelfth century in the Church of St. Clement at Ochrida, is finely
enamelled with a diaper of green and red foliage on a white ground.^ The
date of the enamel should not be much later than that of the picture.
Mount Athos has several Byzantine enamels."
In the border of a mosaic picture are the Etimasia and nine saints, attributed
to the time of John Zimisces, but probably later. Other examples are in the
Monastery of Dochiaru and the Iberian Monastery.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem there is a painted ikon
1 Kondakoff, as above, 164 and Fig. 10.8.
2 Kondakoff, as above, 268-9 and PI. XI.
^ Kondakoff, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, 207-8 (Russian).
 ENAMEL 533

of Our Lord, in a metal frame upon which are eighteen circular and rectangular
enamelled plaques of angels and saints, the nimbus round Christ's head being
also finely enamelled with scroll designs, and the inscription at the top
(6 jSaoriXcus TTJ's So^Tj's) decorated in the same way. These enamels are not all of
the same date, but the best are ascribed to the tenth and eleventh centuries.^
Ebers, in his description of the Church of St. Catherine in the monastery on
Mount Sinai, appears to state that there are enamels upon the doors leading
from the narthex into the church. Perhaps the statement refers to some other
kind of encrustation.^
A word may be conveniently added here on the subject of niello. This
substance (the name derived from the Latin nigellum) was largely used by
Byzantine goldsmiths, and its employment will be noticed on a number of
metal objects mentioned below. '^ Though, like enamel, it is fused to the surface
of the metal which it is desired to ornament, it differs entirely from enamel in
being not vitreous but metallic, being composed of four principal ingredients,
silver, lead, copper, and sulphur, a combination which fuses at a comparatively
low temperature.* Byzantine goldsmiths appear to have sometimes used silver
or gold in the same cavity which contained the niello in order to obtain a
pleasing contrast of colour.^ It is even said that occasionally enamel and niello
are found together in the same bed ; ° if this is really the case, the enamel,
which requires a greater heat, must have been fired first and the niello after-
wards applied.
The free use of niello on Byzantine plate and jewellery for designs executed
by the champleve process makes it remarkable that champleve enamelling was
not more frequently practised in the Eastern Empire. Figure subjects are rare
in niello ; they occur on the cross of Adaloald at Monza and one or two other
objects (p. 548).
Niello appears to have been occasionally employed in larger masses than is
usual. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, describing the oratory or chapel in the
Sacred Palace, says that the floor was of massive silver enriched with niello.'
^ Kondakoff, Archaeological Journey to Syria and Palestine, St. Petersburg, 1904, PI. LXV ;
and F. F., iv, 1897, Appendix, p. 40 (both in Russian).
^ G. Ebers, Durch Goschen sum Sinai, p. 261.
' It is claimed that the ancient Egyptians used niello In the time of the seventeenth
dynasty (axe and dagger of Amosis I, see von Bissing, Ein thebaniscker Orabfund, and M. Rosen-
berg, Geschichte der Goldschmiedekumst). Greek objects in the Hermitage Museum at St. Peters-
burg are nielloed, and its employment by the Romans is a matter of common knowledge.
Merovingian jewellery and Anglo-Saxon jewellery from the South of England are also
ornamented in this way. In mediaeval Europe it was especially used in the Romanesque
period.
* Comparative tables on the composition of niello derived from the statements in Pliny
(xxxiii. 46), Theophilus {Schedula diversarum arlium, c. 1100 a. d., Bk. Ill, ch. 28), Cellini {Trattaio
della oreflceria), &c., are given by Rosenberg, as above. The modern processes of employing
niello are described by Remain, Le Bijoutier orfevre (1886).
^ As in the case of the small reliquary in the British Museum, Fig. 332.
' Rosenberg thinks, probably correctly, that the second substance on the ring at Palermo
(p. 545) is metallic and not vitreous.
' Cf. J. Ebersolt, Le Grand Palais de Constantinople et le livre des Ceremonies, 1910, and Diehl,
Manuel, 393.
 CHAPTER IX

GOLDSMITH'S WORK AND JEWELLERY i

Goldsmith's Work tn general.
The work of the Byzantine goldsmiths offers less variety than that
of their mediaeval contemporaries in the West, who for about eight
hundred years were occupied with the solution of similar problems.
There are several reasons for this comparative monotony. In the West
there was a succession of striking and fundamental changes in architecture,
an art which has imposed its forms upon ecclesiastical metal-work; at
the same time different processes of enamelling succeeded and displaced
each other, each requiring a fresh treatment and necessitating a new dis-
posal of the surface to be wrought and decorated. In the Eastern Empire
the architectural changes from the fifth century to the fifteenth were
less pronounced ; there the reliquary in the form of a church would there-
fore alter far less throughout this long space of time than in a country
like France, where the Romanesque style was succeeded by various phases
of Gothic with arches, pinnacles, and window traceries of different forms.
The style of enamelling in the East remaining constant down to the fall
of Constantinople, gold plaques of small size continued to be decorated by
the cloisonn^ process, which meant that they were in all centuries applied
to larger surfaces of metal in the same way. But in the West the general
adoption of the champlev^ process on copper in the twelfth century re-
acted upon artistic metal- work : the craftsman could now dispense with
small plaques treated as if they were merely larger precious stones, and
was able to cover considerable surfaces with colour embodied as it were in
the very substance of the work. The development of the beautiful trans-
lucent enamel upon sunk relief admitted further variety, and the process of
painting in enamel still more. Lastly, the restricted use of sculpture in the
East debarred the Byzantine goldsmith from many delicate devices known
to his Western neighbours. He cast and chased bronze but little, making
no such bold and beautiful mouldings as were produced on the Rhine
and Meuse in the twelfth century, and confining himself as far as figures
were concerned to embossing thin plates of silver or gold. In this respect
the stationary character of his work is marked when compared with the
continual developments which were taking place in Italy, Germany, and
France. In the use of niello he was also conservative, never advancing
beyond a few figures on a small scale, or a conventional design. In the
application of precious stones he adhered throughout to the plain raised
setting (cf. Figs. 308, 316), not attempting the device, known even to the
1 See also, in addition to the references given below, Ch. Diehl, Manuel, pp. 287 ff., 635 ff. ;
H. Leclercq, Manuel d'arch. chrit, ii, pp. 393 ff.
 GOLDSMITH'S AVOUK IN GENEEAL 535

Carolingians, of holding a gem as it were suspended in claws, so that

the light might pass completely through it. Nor did he often mass stones

Fig. 317 Gold jewellery of the sixth century from the neighbourhood of Kyrenia, Cyprus :
in the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. P. 541.

together, or arrange them in a close row, except by the old method of

orfevrerie cloisonnee, which he maintained after it had been abandoned
in Western Europe. He never faceted his gems or pastes, but in this
respect was no more Itackward than his neighbours, who also contented
themselves with cabochon gems down to the approach of the Renaissance.
Filigree he occasionally used to cover \'acant spaces between the stones
536
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

or enamels, having no canopies or traceries to perform this office, thus

adhering faithfully to a method of ornamentation which the West aban-
doned with the rise of the Gothic style. In a word, Byzantine goldsmith's
work, though often sumptuous and highly decorative, is perhaps more
conservative than any branch of a very conservative art.
Before we examine the more important examples of Byzantine work
which have survived to our own day, we may notice some of the literary
evidences which prove the magnificence of the treasures once existing in
the East-Roman Empire. John Chrysostom inveighs against the luxury of

Fio. 318. Silver paten of the eleventh century in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Halber-
stadt. (From an electrotype in the Victoria and Albert Museum.) Pp. 553-4.

the wealthy classes of his day, who covered themselves with jewels and
embroidered robes, while their very horses had golden bits.^ The descrip-
tions of the gold and silver furniture in the palaces of Constantinople
reveal an oriental extravagance.^ The consistoriwjn or throne-room of
the old imperial palace had a throne covered with gold and precious
stones beneath a golden canopy upon four columns. The panegyric of
Corippus on Justin II is eloquent with descriptions which would do honour
to a goldsmith, and he dwells complacently upon the rich plate and vestments
of the royal house.^ The accounts left by Constantine Porphyrogenitus
and Anna Comnena of the gorgeous displays upon the occasion of imperial
receptions complete the tale of the earlier chronicles.* The houses of the
' Chrysostom's works in Migne, Patr. Gr., i. 957, v. 515, vii. pp. 501-2.
2 Labarte, Le Palais imperial, 124; Diehl, Justinien, 82.
■^ iii. 87 ; iv. 103.
* Accounts of these splendours will be found (in addition to Labarte's works) in J. Eber-
solt, Le Grand Palais de Constantinople et le lime des Ceremonies, Paris, 1910, and in Bielyayeffs
BizanUna, the latter a most valuable work, unfortunately in the Russian language and
therefore accessible to few.
 537
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK IN GENEEAL
wealthy Byzantine nobles, with their silver tables and other furniture,
were scarcely less resplendent.
Descriptions of the glittering furniture of churches have been left
us both by Greek panegyrists and by pilgrims from other countries. The
building which left the most profound impression upon the minds of all
who saw it was naturally the Cathedral of the Divine Wisdom in the
metropolis.^ The altar was of gold ; the ciborium was splendid with
the precious metals and possibly with enamel; the iconostasis, like that
of Galla Placidia's Church of St. John at Ravenna, was covered with silver,
comprising figures of the Virgin, angels. Apostles, and prophets, either
embossed or damascened ; the ambo was equally magnificent ; the very

Fig. 319. Gold signet of the sixth- Fig. 320. Gold signet of the sixth
seventh century. (British Museum.) or seventh century. ^British Museum.)
P. .540.

columns and walls within the bema were overlaid with silver. The
'polycandela and other lamps were of silver and gold ; the furniture
of the altar was of unecjualled splendour. Archbishop Anthony of
Novgorod, who visited Sta Sophia in a.d. 1200, describes the votive
crowns of Constantine and other emperors hanging above the altar, thirtjr
smaller crowns, a suspended golden cross and dove, and behind the altar
a golden cross higher than two men.^ In the sanctuary there were endless
gold and silver plates, eighty silver candelabra, and a large number of
the most sumptuous chalices and patens. All this might seem exaggera-
tion were it not that we have the testimony of the crusaders of A. D. 1204
and the actual spoils which they took back into the West.' And how
much even of the spoils has since been destroyed or lost we may learn
from the accounts which have come down to us of the indiscriminate
1 Most of the facts relating to the splendours of the cathedral have been collected by
Lethaby and Swainson, who also publish a translation of Paulus Silentiarius. See their The
Church of Sanda Sophia in Constantinople, 74 if. The reader may also consult the earlier woi-ks
of Labarte, Histoire des arts industriels, vol. iii, and others, themselves largely based upon the
earlier researches of Ducange. lAifF
- Itineraires russes en OrieHt(Soc. Orient Latin, serie geogr.,vo\. v) ; Lethaby and Swainson, 101 ft.
' Nicetas describes the destruction of the altar, ciborium, and iconostasis. He mentions
no less than forty golden censers, silver candelabra, and other vessels (Lethaby and
Swainson, 75). For Robert de Clary's account in the thirteenth century, see his Prise de Con-
stantinople inC. Hopf's Chromques greeo-rotnau.es, p. 67.
538
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY

looting of Constantinople, and of the ultimate official division of what the

marauders did not succeed in appropriating for themselves.^ Nine-tenths
of the treasure in S. Marco at Venice comes from the official share of
the republic, and even after the disastrous . fire of A. d. 1231, which
damaged the treasury and destroyed much of its contents, the residue is
still of an unequalled interest. M. Molinier, in one of those passages
which made his archaeological work so illuminating,^ warns us, however,
to discount in some measure the rather inflated descriptions of Byzantine
splendour. He rightly maintains that if the Byzantine work that has
survived is to be taken as typical, it is not superior to the Western
goldsmith's work of the close of the fourteenth century and later, as
revealed to us by such objects as the Royal Gold Cup in the British

Pig. 321. Gold signet of the sixth cen- Fia. 322. Gold signet of about the
tury with monogram. (British Museum.) fifth century : Our Lord and Apostle (?).
P. 540.
(British Museum.) P. 541.

Museum, made for the Due de Berri, and by the entries in the inventories
of that prince and his royal relations. Much that the pilgrims and
crusaders saw and described as gold was doubtless really gilt — did not
Luitprand in his account of his embassy (a.d. 948-50) assert that the
famous mechanical lions of the imperial audience chamber were really
made of gilded copper? And the pearls which are such a feature upon
the personal ornaments, reliquaries, and chalices are of no great size
and quality, and would now command a moderate admiration. Yet, even
when due deductions are made for the exaggeration of early historians,
the wealth of Constantinople must still have been enormous, and would
have been memorable in any age.
In reviewing such work as remains after the destruction of centuries
' See Comte de Biant, Bepouilles religieuses enlevees a Constantinople, Paris, 1875. The Byzan-
tine relics formerly in the Sainte Chapelle at Paris were destroyed during the Revolution.
The richest Venice
it reached treasureas ofa Byzantine goldsmith's
result of the Crusade. work
The issame
in S. cause
Marco has
{A.Fsismi,llTesoro
enriched the di S. Marco):of
Cathedral
Halberstadt with valuable objects, brought by Bishop Conrad, who accompanied the army
(Sohatz, Clironicon Halberst,, pp. 76-7), Namur received gifts fi-om Henry I, successor of
Baldwin (Ann. de la Soc. arch, de Namur, ix. 407) : an enamelled cross is still preserved (p. 520).
The Limburg reliquary (p. 522) was also crusaders' spoil.
'' Hist, des arts appliques a I'industrie : I'or/evrerie, 45.
 GOLDSMITH'S WOEK IN GENEEAL 539
it will be convenient to divide the subject into three sections, the first
comprising personal ornaments; the second, objects made and decorated
for devotional or ecclesiastical use ; and the third, plate. In the second
section a few objects not actually of precious metal are included for
convenience. Byzantine metal-work, not in gold and silver, has chiefly
survived in small objects, mostly of the First Period, found in the greatest
numbers in Egypt,^ or rarely in work on a large scale such as the great
bronze church doors. Such of the more important classes as can be
conveniently described in groups are briefly noted in a later chapter.
Jewellery.
It may be noticed by way of preliminary that Byzantine fashions
in the matter of personal ornament diflTered somewhat from those of the
West. In Western mediaeval Europe after Frankish times ear-rings
are but rarely mentioned in contemporary literature, and examples are

Fio. 323. Silver ring inscribed : ' Lord

preserve the wearer.' (^British Museum.)

Fie. 324. Bronze signet of one

Stephen. (British Museum.)

never found belonging to any period much earlier than the Kenaissance ;
nor did bracelets, which were common among prehistoric peoples and
among the Romans, find much favour before the fifteenth century. In
the Eastern Empire this was apparentlj;- not the case, though the ear-rings
which we possess happen, like European examples, to be of earJy date.
But we know that bracelets continued in use, both through existing
examples and through documentary evidence. Thus in a.d. 831 we
read that a chief magistrate presented Theophilus with golden brace-
lets.^ The custom of sewing pearls, gems, and even enamelled medallions
to the garments may also be conveniently noticed here. The richly
embroidered imperial robes were covered in this way until they became
so stiflT that the grace of draped folds became impossible. Many illumina-
tions and mosaics illustrate this magnificence ; while an even better idea
may be gained from the royal mantle and other vestures made in mediaeval
' For these small metal objects see especially Strzygowski's Catalogue, 'Koptische Kunst',
0. WulfPs Catalogue of the Collections in the Kaiser Pj-iedrioh Museum, Berlin, and the
Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities in the British Museum.
' Constantino Porphyrogenitus, He caerimoniis avlae Byz., i. 503.
540
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

Sicily under strong oriental influence and now preserved in the Schatz-
kammer at Vienna.^
Roman jewellery has survived in greater quantities than that of the
Eastern Empire, partly because great tracts of that empire have been
less accessible to the excavator than the Eoman provinces, partly because
Byzantium was Christian from the beginning and interments are le^s
likely to yield objects of archaeological interest.
At the beginning of the First Period, as we should naturally expect,
there is no clear line of demarcation between late Roman and Byzantine
jewellery. The combination of large stones of intense colour, such as
plasma or carnelian, with gold of an ever-diminishing solidity is a charac-
teristic which became general in the fourth century. The old Greek
insistence on beauty of form was gone : it was no longer necessary to

Fig. 325. Gold bracelet of the sixth century. (British Museum.) P. 541.

model well, or to apply to the creations of the goldsmith's craft that

fine restraint which preserved the Greeks from the love of empty splendour.
What was now required was not work to be picked up and lingered over
by the discriminating eye, but something to attract attention from a
distance by almost violent contrasts of light and colour. For this purpose
fragile gold-work and stones of inferior quality sufficed : with the Greek
perfection of detail, the honest solidity of early Roman work was abandoned.
Even from the third century the oriental system of massing table-gems
or pastes between narrow cloisons had invaded the Roman Empire, and
must have obtained early entrance into Constantinople. We may infer
this from the survival of the style upon the Limburg reliquary (p. 532)
at a time when it had disappeared in Persia and had practically died
out in Europe.

The following examples of Byzantine jewellery of the First Period are more
or less accessible to students.
Specimens in the British Museum, with their numbers as given in the
Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, begin with finger-rings.
No. 168 (Fig. 321). Gold ring with a monogram of the early rectangular
form engraved on the bezel (sixth century).
No. 120 (Fig. 319). Gold ; on the bezel an intaglio bust of Christ with two
angels and a cruciform monogram (sixth century).
No. 189 (Fig. 320). Gold ; on the bezel a head of Christ in intaglio with two
adoring angels. Found with coins of Heraclius (seventh century).
1 Book, KUinodien des Heiligen Romischen Reichs, PI. IV, VI, VIII, XIII, XXV, XXXII.
 JEWELLEEY 541

No. 190 (Pig. 322). Gold ; on the bezel Christ seated ; on the seven connected
panels forming the hoop, seven Apostles ; obtained in Smyrna (fifth century).
No. 207. Gold ; on the square bezel two busts of a husband and wife
deeply cut in intaglio : between them a cross. The hoop is cut into seven
circular panels on which are nielloed busts, male and female alternating (fifth
century).
No. 210. Gold ; the bezel set with a coin of Marcian, the shoulders modelled
to represent hares (fifth century).
No. 211. Gold ; plain wire hoop ; the bezel a coin of Justinian (sixth
century).
All the engraving upon these rings is on the metal, and none of them contain
intaglio gems. Several are approximately dated by their association with coins.
Of jewellery other than rings belonging to the early period, the more remark-
able British Museum examples are as follows :—
No. 252. A rectangular gold panel formed of two pierced plates of scroll-
work set back to back. In one of these a mounted Amazonian figure is reserved
in the metal. This panel is said to have been found in Asia Minor with six
aurei of Constantius.
No. 253. A gold plate from a buckle with a circular medallion containing
a nielloed bust, from which radiate large lobes. No. 254 is an imperfect buckle
of the same kind.
No. 256. Bronze-gilt fibula of the crossbow type, with the sacred mono-
gram and busts in small medallions. This fibula is of a type found with coins
from Valentinian I to Arcadius.
No. 264. Gold fibula of the crossbow type engraved with the inscription
-I-0Y XAPIC {®€ov x<^P«) ; iiot later than the sixth century. The inscription
occurs in several objects of about this period.
Nos. 258-261. Tour gilt-bronze rectangular plaques from a belt, one with
a buckle. They are ornamented with subjects in relief, a male figure standing
cross-legged occurring more than once. This type of figure originated in Greek
art and was continued in the art of the Syro-Egyptian region.^ Pound in the
tombs of the prophets.
No. 267. Pair of gold ear-rings with lunate plaques enamelled by the
cloisonne process, the subjects being confronted peacocks. (Cf. p. 505.)
Nos. 268-278. Gold ear-rings (Fig. 328) with lunate plaques of openwork,
mostly with confronted birds.^ Ear-rings of this form have been found not
only in Egypt, but also in barbaric graves in Hungary ; apparently of about the
seventh century.
No. 279 (Fig. 325). Gold bracelet ; the broad openwork hoop has confronted
peacocks separated by a vase, and several geese, all contained in a flowing scroll ;
the front, which opens on a hinge, has a circular medallion with a bust of the
Virgin in low relief. This bracelet is of the same form as a pair with openwork
vine-scrolls and without busts, forming part of the Kyrenia treasure (p. 572) which
is dated by the coins found with it to the sixth century. The bracelet is there-
fore in all probability not later than a. t>. 600.
The principal other articles of jewellery found with this treasure consisted
of three necklaces, one of large cylindrical plasma beads alternating with pearls,
the other two of gold chains with crosses and pendants hanging from them,
several pairs of ear-rings, a girdle (?) composed of a number of gold coins and four
large gold medals (Fig. 317). The first of these necklaces and the ear-rings are of
an early type, and analogous to jewellery ascribed to the Eoman period found in
Egypt and elsewhere. The two others are interesting from the character of
their pendants, which are in the form of little gold amphorae, and of flat open-
' J. Strzygowski, Bull, de la Soc. arch, d' Alexandrie, No. 5, "Vienna, 1902, 56-60.
^ Gold ear-rings, belonging to M. de Nelidoff, were exhibited at the Italo-Byzantine
Exhibition of 1904 at Grottaferrata (A. Mufioz, Esposizione italo-bizantina, Grottaferrata,
1905, 54).
542
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY
work plaques, circular and pear-shaped, with confronted birds and conventional
patterns. One of the chains has flat rectangular links of quatrefoil design ; both
are rather flimsy in construction. The greater number of the coins composing
the girdle are of Maurice Tiberius, and all the four large medals, which are stated
by numismatists to have been cast and not struck from a die, are of the same
emperor : the date is therefore presumably the last quarter of the sixth century.
The district of Kyrenia had previously yielded other Byzantine jewels (a chain,
ear-rings, &c.), probably of much the same date as the treasure just described ; ^
and to the same period belongs the interesting gold jewellery discovered at
Mersina in Cilicia,'' now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, in which the use

Pig. 326. Development (if gold bracelet of the sixth century. (British Museum.) P. 541.

of openwork and the pear-shaped pendants noticed in the Kyrenia necklaces are
again conspicuous. The latter feature suggests an oriental (Persian) influence.
Another treasure, found at Narona in Dalmatia, included four gold rings and an
ear-ring : the coins discovered with it ranged from Justin I (518-27) to Tiberius
Constantino (a. d. 578-82).' One of the rings was inscribed in Latin letters with
the name JJrvece (Urbica ?), another with a monogram.
Various sites in Sicily have yielded necklaces and ear-rings of a similar style
and period. Of a treasure discovered at Pantalica in the valley of the Anapus
only a small part has escaped destruction or dispersal ; that which remains,
with some objects surviving at least in photographic record, has been de-
scribed by Orsi.* The objects were discovered in 1903 in a bronze vase with
many hundred gold coins of Constantine IV, Constans II, Heraclius, and
Tiberius,* giving the close of the seventh century as the probable date of
deposit : Pantalica was probably taken by the Arabs in a. d. 878.
1 J. L. Myres, The Reliquary, 1898, 109-12, Figs. 1-6, and Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum.
2 Kondakoff, Russkie Kladui (Russian treasures), 187-92, and PI. XVIII-XIX.
^ F. Bulie, Nuom Bullettino di archeologia crisUana, 1902, 234 if.
* B.Z., xlx, 1910, 64 ff.
5 The types are those shown in W. Wroth's Catalogue of Imperial Bysantine Coins in the British
Museum, i, PI. XXX, 19, XXXII, 10, and ii, PI. XXXVI, 2 and 3, XXXVII, 9.
 JEWELLERY 543

A treasure from Campobello di Mazara,' of which the remains are in the

museum at Palermo, contains necklaces with openwork disks of gold containing
floriated crosses.
What was once the richest treasure of all, that of Syracuse, is now repre-

Fig. 327. Gold ear-rings and other objects of the sixth century from the neighbourhood of
Kyrenia, Cyprus. (Museum of Nicosia.) P. .511.

sented only by the nielloed marriage-ring in the Palermo Museum (see

below).
Speaking of such finds of Byzantine jewellery of the sixth to seventh
centuries M. Smirnoff draws attention to the similarity of their style, however far
apart they may be found.' This seems to point to one or two important centres
Both
of production, of which the work was disseminated in all directions.
' Salinas Le Collaiie hizantine del Museo di Palermo rinvenule a Cmnpobcllo.
2 Journal of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society, xii (Classical Byzantine and West-
European section), 506-10 (in Eussian).
544
GOLDSMITH'S "WOEK AND JEWELLERY
Egypt ' and Cilicia are mentioned as renowned for their goldsmiths, and it is
possible that, as in the case of the silver plate found with it, the Cyprus jewel-
lery may have had a continental origin. The lunate type of gold ear-ring with
birds, &c., in openwork which is found in the Mersina_^treasure, has occurred in
Egypt, Cyprus, Asia Minor, and in graves in Hungary.'' -d • • t.
Of objects probably belonging to the Third and Fourth Periods the British
Museum possesses several of considerable interest.
Five specimens are rather massive gold rings with flat hoops and applied
bezels, with inscriptions and subjects in niello (Nos. 121 and with 129-32 of the
catalogue). One, No. 121, has on the bezel the Annunciation, the usual
inscription from Luke i. 28, XaXpe, Kcxapirw/AeVi y, &c. ; the others are marriage-ri ngs
having on the bezel figures of Our Lord, or Our Lord and the Virgin, blessing
the bride and bridegroom, with the word o/wvoia, while the inscription on the
hoop is, mfnjvrjv Tr,v e/xV 8t8<"A" vjuv (John xiv. 27). One has on the hoop, instead

MM)?ll^lli«lW
Fig. 328. Gold ear-ring of the Fia. 329. Gold marriage-ring with subjects
sixth-seventh century. (British in niello : tenth century or earlier. (British
Museum.)
Museum.)

of the inscription, a series of scenes from the Passion, in this resembling other
rings of the class, one of which is in the museum at Palermo. One reason for
supposing that these rings are later than the objects previously mentioned is
the debased orthography of the inscriptions ; but it is possible that some may
be earlier than has been usually supposed, and date from the sixth or seventh
century.' The niello work is not always good and the figures are often mere
caricatures, but the restricted space was against the artist. The same criticism
applies to a charming little flat octagonal gold reliquary (Fig. 332), apparently
for relics of SS. Cosmas and Damian, whose names are engraved upon it
(No. 284). On the top are the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi in niello,
and round the edge the inscription, 'H ySeySaia o-iarrjpia Koi airorpoiri] TravTiov Twv
/cttKiDv, T<3v dyiW Ko(r/ia /cat Aa/AiavoC*
Four gold pectoral crosses (Nos. 285-8) may also belong to the Third Period.
Fig. 830 (No. 285) has engraved upon the face the verse from Galatians vi. 14
(' God forbid that I should glory,' &c.) ; No. 286 has Our Lord as crucified, in very
low relief, and medallions with busts at the ends of the arms (Fig. 331 ; No. 287
has in the centre the Virgin as orans ; above her is a standing figure of Christ,
and below a military saint (Theodore ?), while on the back is the inscription
Teopytou SkottcXou : the figures were originally nielloed. No. 288 has the in- ■
scription : Lord, protect the wearer of this (cross).
1 The writer has seen a find of gold jewellery said to have been discovered a few years ago
at Assiut. It included a pierced lunate gold collar set with pastes, two medallions with the
Annunciation and Miracle of Cana, and a bracelet.
2 British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Bysantine Antiquities, No. 276. The Cyprus
example of the type is figured by Cesnola, PI. VI.
3 Dr. Arthur Evans has one from Trapani, Sicily, with Our Lord between two angels, and
legend: GLORIA IN eXCEASIS DO €7 IN TERRA PAX. The Latin inscription
is in favour of a seventh-century date. Cf. also Kondakoff, Enamel, p. 264.
* An interesting nielloed gol d reliquary for relics of St. Stephen the younger, son of Basil I,
is in the collection of M. Schlumberger, who figures it in his Nicephore Phocas, p. 93.
 545
JEWELLERY
The Palermo marriage-ring, resembling in style those in the British Museum
mentioned above, was found near Syracuse. It has on the bezel Christ blessing an
emperor and empress, with the debased inscription 6s unrXov eiSoKias, icrT€rJ3a.vo(ra's
rjjMS (Ps. V. 12). The word cvSo/ci'as has been thought to imply a reference to
the Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa (a.d. 1068) and the ring referred to the
eleventh century, but there is a possibility that it may be older.^
Another ring of this class, in the Pichon Collection, has on the bezel Christ
blessing a bride and bridegroom, with the word o/xowa and, on the border, Lord,
preserve thy servants Peter and Theodotis.
The hoop has seven Gospel scenes in niello,
and on the edges the text : ' Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give unto you,' in
the usual faulty orthography.^ The bezel
of a ring apparently in this style, with the
Crucifixion in niello, and the usual inscrip-
tion from John xix. 26-7, was described by
Sir Charles Robinson before the Society of
Antiquaries of London in 1889.' A massive
gold ring set with a green glass paste is
engraved with a head of Christ, round
which is an inscription ; on the shoulders,
are cruciform monograms with scroll de-
signs continued round thehoop. Theinscrip-
tion relates to a ' Basil the Chamberlain ',
whom M. Schlumberger would identify
with the Emperor Basil the Macedonian
before his accession, thus placing the ring
in the ninth century.* Another golJi ring
has a bust of Christ on the bezel and on
the shoulders busts of the Virgin and
St. John the Evangelist, all apparently in
niello. It bears the inscription : Lord,
preserve Aetius protospatharius and drun-
garius, &c. This personage is identified by
Schlumberger with the Aetius beheaded
by the Emir al-Mumenin at Samara on the Fig. 330. Gold pectoi-al cross.
Euphrates ; if this attribution is correct, this (British Museum.) P. 544.
ring also belongs to the ninth century.^
Another octagonal ring of the same metal has on the bezel a monogram and the
word 'Eifnjvri's. Schlumberger deciphers the monogram as Aou/catVrys AvTOKparo-
pLo-a-rj';, and ascribes the ring to the Empress Irene, consort of Alexius I
Comnenus.' Another plain gold ring has on the circular bezel the inscription :
Lord, save Theophano and John. These persons the same writer conjectures to
be the Empress Theophano and John Zimisces (t976), though as they were
' G. Romano and A. Salinas, Archivio storico Siciliano, New Series, iii, 1878, 92 ff. Other
descriptions of this ring will be found in papers by J. Durand, Bulletin monumental, 5th series,
X, Paris, 1882, 508 ff., and H. Leclercq in Cabrol's Sictionnaire d'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie,
s.v. Anneaux, col. 2190. The last writer states that it formed part of a rich treasure said to
have belonged to the Emperor Constans II, who was assassinated in Syracuse in a. d. 668.
Cf Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1888-9, 84 if.
' G. Schlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 389 ; K. Krumbacher, Sitsungsherichte der It. bayerischen
Akad. der Wissenschafien, philos.-philol. und hist. Klasse, 1906, 439.
' Proceedings, xi. 89 (no Figure).
* Gr. Schlumberger, Sigillographie de VEmpire btjzantin, 1884, 562, and Melanges d'arch. byz.,
1895, i. 40 ; Leclercq in Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'arch. chretienne, &c., 1905, s.v. Anneaux, col. 2207,
Fig. 740.
' G. Schlumberger, Melanges, &e., as above, i. 43 ; Leclercq, as above. Fig. 741.
" G. Schlumberger, Compte rendu de I'Acadimie des Inscriptions et Selles-Lettres, 1905, 142
{Quatre bagues d'or).
1204 N n
546
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

never married the attribution seems doubtful.^ A silver ring, perhaps of the
tenth or eleventh century, has an inscription with the name of an imperial
spatharius named Theodore: on the sides are monograms reading ©coroVe
fio-qe-i) and ornamental designs.' A gold ring, perhaps a century earlier, has
a circular legend on the bezel, Haf^vos 6 direAaTrys, enclosing a monogram.'
Sir Charles Eobinson in 1889 dpscribed a massive gold ring the bezel of which
was set with a coin of Michael VII Ducas and his wife Maria (1071-78).* A solid
gold ring with a large circular bezel bearing an inscription, found a few years
ago at Mainz, provides us with a more certain date. The inscription, which is
nielloed, consists of two iambics in careless
orthography, which, when emended, read as .
follows :—
Mv^cTTpov 2r£<^avou Aoukik-^s pitpr)^ KXahov
KofJi.vrjvo(f}vrji ralv -^epoiv, Avva, Sc'^ov.
Krumbacher^ showed that the reference can
only be to King Stephen Eadoslav of Servia
(a.d. 1228-34) and his wife Anna Comnena,
daughter of the Emperor Theodore Angelus
Comnenus Ducas of Thessalonica. As the ring
is of a well-known type, it perhaps justifies
us in assigning to the thirteenth century
others of similar form and appearance, for in-
stance aplain gold ring in the Palermo Museum,
with an inscription on the bezel which Salinas
reads as Ev^iyyut'ov vTrdrov,'' and another ring in
the museum of the Principi di Trabia at Palermo
with the inscription : Lord, preserve thy servant
Nicetas, imperial protospafhariusJ'
Of the last centuries of the empire but little
jewellery survives, for the times were unsettled,
and doubtless, as in the stormier periods of the
Middle Ages in the West, objects in the precious
metals were freely melted down.
Fig. 331. Gold pectoral cross. A gold ring in the British Museum [Cata-
(British Museum.)
logue, No. 171), of fourteenth-century type, has
engraved on the bezel a cruciform monogram
which reads Manuel, and has been supposed, though on insufficient evidence,
to have been made for Manuel Palaeologus. Two other gold rings (Nos. 122,
123), one with a bust of Christ in intaglio, the second with a rudely engraved
figure of Orpheus, may be of similar date.
In M. Schlumberger's Collection is a small reliquary of the period of the
Palaeologi from Palma in. Majorca.'
Laegeh Objects, chiefly Ecclesiastical or Devotional.

If in personal jewellery the Byzantine goldsmith's art is but poorly repre-

sented among existing remains, much in the decoration of book-covers,
reliquaries, and mounts of chalices has survived to suggest interesting com-
parison with the contemporary work in Western Europe. Most of these
' G. Schlumberger, Compte rendu de I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1905, 142 ;
Krumbacher, as above, 439.
^ Schlumberger, Quatre bagues d'or, as above, 143, and L'JKpopce hyzaniine, third part, 140.
' Ibid., 139. * Proc. Soc. Ant. Land., xi, 1889, 89, No. 4.
° Sitsungsberichie der k. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschafien, philos.-philol. und hist. Klasse,
1906, 421 ff. This paper led to various others, on wliich see B. Z., xix, 1910, 111 ff.
" A. Salinas, Periodica di numismatica e s/ragistica per la storia d'liaUa, iii, 1871, 208 ff. and
PI. IX, Fig. 2 ; Krumbacher, as above, 438.
' Salinas, as above, 209 f. and PI. IX, Fig. 8.
' Compte rendu de I'Acad, des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, 1905, 137.
 LARGEE OBJECTS 547

examples are of the Third Period, but at the same time earlier than the
thirteenth century, and it is among the products of the late Carolingian and
Komanesque periods that they find their nearest affinities.
Flat surfaces were usually ornamented by embossing figures or scroll
designs and by the application of filigree or cabochon gems in plain raised
settings, sometimes disposed in geometrical groups, as on the reliquary at
Limburg (Fig. 316). The use of pearls threaded upon a wire is very charac-
teristic from the time of Justinian down to the twelfth century, if not later :
the wire is passed through gold loops placed at frequent intervals, so that when
all the spaces are filled with pearls the tops of the loops present the appearance
of alternating gold beads. This kind of work, also used for personal orna-
ments, isseen upon several book-covers and chalice-mounts, of the best period
(Fig. 340), where enamelled medallions are framed with threaded pearls.
It may be regarded as characteristically Byzantine, and is rarely found in
Western work except in early Teutonic jewellery made under Byzantine

Fig. S32. Gold reliquary for relics of SS. Cosmas Fig. 333. Gold signet with head of Our
and Damian. (British Museum.) P. 544. Lord. (British Museum.)

influence. We find it in Ostrogothic or Lombard jewellery like the cross of

Agilulf at Monza, and the Castellani brooch in the British Museum (Fig. 301).
It has already been noticed that the massing or alignment in borders of table
garnets or glass pastes set in cells formed of fine cloisons was early ac-
cepted by the Byzantine jeweller. Conspicuous examples of this are to be
seen in the border of the book-cover with remarkable early enamels in the
Library of St. Mark at Venice ' (p. 516), and on the enamelled reliquary at Limburg-
on-the-Lahn (p. 522) ; the triptych reliquary of the Monastery of Sainte-Croix at
Poitiers, considered to have been sent to Eadegund by Justin II, was also
ornamented in this way (p. 520). Perhaps the earliest example of all is the
lamb which ornaments the leaf of the large composite diptych of the sixth
century in the sacristy of Milan Cathedral (p. 202), though here the surfaces of
the stones have not been ground flat. It was formerly considered that this
ornamentation was enamelled, but it is now held to consist of precious
stones fixed without the agency of heat.^ It has been claimed as of East-
Christian rather than Western work, partly owing to its naturalism, the
majority of animal forms made by Western barbaric jewellers being highly
conventionalized.^
Some of the more remarkable examples of devotional or ecclesiastical gold-
smith's work may now be considered, postponing enamelled work to another
1 Pasini, II Tesoro di San Marco, PI. VI; Moliuier, Hist, des arts appliques a I'industrie :
L'Orfevrerie, p. 43.
2 Molinier, Cfasette des Beaux-Arts, 2° P^riode, xxxvii, 1888, 391, note 1, and Vladimir de
Bock, Proc. of the Imp. Russian Archaeological Soc, New Series, viii, 1896, 394-8. See also B. Z.,
vi, 1897, 467 ; vii, 1898, 249 ; and V. K, vi, 1896, 691.
' De Bock, as above. Labarte had already claimed the work as Byzantine, though he
regarded the vitreous ornament as enamel.
N n 2
548
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY

section. The majority of surviving pieces being of the Third Period, they are
here geographically arranged under the countries in M^hich they are now-
preserved.
The cross of Justin II in St. Peter's at Eome ' is entirely ornamented on
one side with embossed work on thin plates of gold or silver gilt ; on the other
it is bordered with cabochon stones in raised settings, while the four arms are
covered with an engraved inscription upon a plain plate of gold :
Ligno quo Ohristus humanum suhdidit liostem
Bat Bomae lustinus opem et soda decorem.
This seems to imply that the emperor himself was the donor of the relic,
while his consort (socio) presented the decorated cross. From the arms hang
four pendent gems. The embossed side of the cross has a large central medallion

Fig. 334. Gold signet of the fourteenth Fig. 335. Gold signet with Orpheus.
century with monogram. (British Museum.) (British Museum.)
with the Agnus Dei, and four smaller medallions at the extremities : those at
the top and bottom containing busts of Christ, those to right and left of the
emperor and empress as orantes. The rest of the surface is covered with a rich
acanthus ornament, recalling the foliage seen upon contemporary Sassanian
sculpture. The cross has suffered much from depredation in the course of
centuries. Six of the gems have been removed and replaced by pastes, and
the pearls which formerly enriched it stripped off. The central medallion on
the front was added in the time of Pius IX ; the pendent agates are also
modern. Bock conjectures that it may originally have been suspended from
a regnum or votive crown like the cross of Agilulf at Monza ; but it may have
been made for the relic, and afterwards used as a processional or stationary cross.
The curious embossed silver cross in the cathedral at Eavenna may possibly
be as early as the sixth century." The limbs are formed of a series of circular
medallions with busts of saints, while at the extremities are foliate designs
recalling those upon the cross of Justin. The two large central medallions on
either side, representing the Virgin between two cypresses, and the Eesurrection,
cannot claim so early a date.
The cross of Adalpald in the treasury of the cathedral at Monza is commonly
accepted as the actual cross presented to the infant Lombard prince on his
baptism in a. d. 603, and referred to in his letter to Queen Theodelinda as
crucem cum signo sanctae crucis Domini.^ It is a gold cross with a pearled border,
1 S. Borgia, De cruce Vaticana, Rome, 1779 ; Barbier de Montault in Didron's Annales arch.,
xxvi, 1866, 23, 272 ; 'B&yet, Rechenhes pour servir, &o., 122 ; Book, Kleinodien des heiHgen RomUchen
Reichs ; Diehl, Justinien, 425 ; Ch. de Linas, Origines de Vorfevrerie cloisonnee, i. 303 if. ; E. Moli-
nier, Hist, des arts appUgucs a I'industrie : L' Orfim-erie, 37-8 and Fig. on p. 39 ; A. de Waal, Die
antiken Reliquiare der Peterskirche in R. Q., 1893, p. 246 and PI. XVI, XVII. The cross is kept
in the Volto Santo, and is not shown.
* Bayet, L'Art bysantin, 98 ; Molinier, L'Orfiwerie, 40 ; Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 431.
' Frisi, Memorie delle chiese Monsese, dissertation No. 2 ; Book, Kleinodien, Appendix, p. 35 ;
 549
LAEGEE OBJECTS

about four inches long, the face covered by a cruciform plaque of crystal with
bevelled edges. Under this is visible the Crucifixion engraved and nielloed.
Christ wears the colobium and rests his feet upon a suppedaneum. On the
upper limb of the cross is a label with IC XC, and below the arms, lAE
0 YC CY I lAY mp CY. At the extremities of the transverse limb are
diminutive iigures of the Virgin and St. John in niello, and at the top repre-
sentations ofthe sun and moon. On the back is a foliate design boldly engraved.
A ring at the top serves for suspension.
Of equally early date may well be another and far more sumptuous cross in
the possession of the Countess Dzyalinska.^ It is a gold encolpium ornamented

Fig. 336.
Front of the jewelled (After
gold cross of Justin II in St. Peter's .at Roms.
Bock.)

with niello, having on the front in niello Christ on the Cross, wearing the
colobium as in the Monza example. Above are the sun and moon, and on the
titulus at the top of the cross the words +PEZ PEPNANTI (rex regnantium),
a formula occurring on the coins of Justin II. On the back is a bust of Christ
in a circular medallion accompanied by two kneeling angels ; above it is a half-
figure of the Virgin, and below it two standing angels. Eound the edges, in
niello, is the EpineMon hymn of the old Liturgy of St. Basil, and in the interior
a cross ornamented with verroterie cloisonnee in red and green, having on the
back the Assumption in niello. This cross is evidently of very early date,
De Linas assigned it to the seventh century, while Molinier argues in favour of
the sixth. The inscription may have been used on crosses and other sacred
objects before it was adopted on the coinage.
The so-called encolpium of Constantine the Great, in the sacristy of
St. Peter's at Eome, is a gold triptych which in reality dates from about the
Molinier, V Orfemerie, p. 40. Strzygowskl suggests a Mesopotamian influence and a slightly
later date (B. Z. xiv).
1 W. FrOhner, Collections dw Chateau de Goluchow : L'Orfevrerie, No. 201, p. 76 and PI. XVIII
(Paris, 1897) ; C. de Liuas, Mmaillerie, metallurgle toreutique, Us expositions retrospectives, 1880, 179 ff. ;
Molinier, as above, 41.
550
GOLDSMITH'S WORK AND JEWELLERY

eleventh century.^ The central part, which has along both top and bottom
a row of large pearls and rubies, has in the middle the relic of the Cross
covered with crystal. In the exterior angles of the cross are four large pearls,
and at the extremities of the arms four circular enamelled medallions with white
inscriptions on blue grounds : the spaces between these medallions are enriched
with ornamental enamels, giving the whole enamelled portion of the triptych
somewhat of a lozenge form. In the four corners of the gold plate forming
the ground were formerly four applied embossed figures, of which only one,
Constantine the Great, remains in the lower left-hand corner. He stands
adoring the Cross, and opposite him was doubtless Helena, in the same attitude.

Fig. 337. Back of the gold cross of Justin II in St. Peter's at Rome. (After Bock.)
The upper corners were perhaps filled with figures or busts of archangels in
similar relief, as in the case of the reliquary formerly in the Sainte-Chapelle,
which Saint Louis bought from the Emperor Baldwin (see below, p. 560). The
inscription upon the four enamelled medallions forms two iambic verses, one
defective :
Opa Ti KaLvov Oav/Jia Kal ^IvTjv XO-piv
Xpva-bv jxiv l^co Xpia-rov iv Se o-KoVa.
The relic seems to have been worn separately, as the receptacle containing
It has a ring for suspension ; it may be earlier than the triptych. The back
ot the central part is embossed with a cross rising from two large acanthus-
leaves in the style of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, on an imbricated
ground. About the cross are two small medallions embossed with Tc XC and
three with ornamental rosettes. On the inner side of the leaves are eight
figures in relief, d\l but one with perfect inscriptions. On one side Christ,

p, i^^f'^'Z"^'".' H;/'- ^^' ^'S- ^^' "^*f- : ^ de Waal, R. Q., 1893, p. 250 and
pp oJand'g? ■ ^''''°'""' ^<^f<""-"i'> 58 (no Fig.) ; G. Schlumberger, Kicephore Pllocas, Figs, on
 LARGEE OBJECTS 551

Demetrius, Barnabas, and Matthew ; on the other the Virgin, Panteleemon,

Timothy, and Timon : a row of pearls runs across the middle of each leaf.
The treasury of St. Giovanni in Laterano contains a cross-rellquary which
has lost its enamels, but retains some cloisonne pastes like those of the Poitiers
and Limburg reliquaries and the Venice book-cover ; the back has an embossed
cross recalling that in the Louvre (Fig. 343).^ The same treasury has a silver
cross of the thirteenth century."
Book-covers and reliquaries of which the enamels are described in another
chapter must here be noticed for their metal-work. In the Marcian Library at

Fig. 338. Cover of a silver reliquary of the eleventh century at Halberstadt : St. Demetrius.
(Schlumberger : Haehette.)

Venice two of the book-covers have plain silver borders with cabochon gems
and rows of pearls,' and one has the border of orfevrerie doisonnee already
mentioned (p. 515). The two other covers in the same place are good examples
of Byzantine embossed decoration ; they have numerous reliefs (scenes from the
life of Christ and figures of saints) in the style of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. One has in the border compartments of interlaced scroll-work which
occurs upon other pieces of Byzantine goldsmith's work, for instance on the
border of the picture of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Liege and the reliquary
at Gran in Hungary (p. 525), where the excellence of the scrolls contrasts with
1 G. de Nicola in Bollettino d'arte, iii, p. 19 (1909).
^ Munoz, Monumenti d'arte, &c., Part II.
' Pasini, II Tesoro di San Marco, PI. IX and X.
 552 GOLDSMITH'S WORK AND JEWELLERY

the feeble execution of the human figures.^ Of the book-covers in the Treasury
of S. Marco the example with the enamelled bust of St. Michael^ (p. 513) is
specially interesting as being covered with gems, while the border has fine
embossed scrolls : these, unlike those on the border of the other cover with the
complete figure of the archangel, are Byzantine (Fig. 339). The cover with
the applied Crucifixion upon a ground of lapis lazuli ^ has a border of pearls
round the lapis disk, and round this again an exceedingly fine filigree in which
are set cabochons and diminutive enamelled medallions. This filigree, in contra-
distinction tothe outer border, which is Italian, may well be of Byzantine
workmanship. Such filigree is also to be seen upon the -famous tenth-century
reliquary at Limburg (see p. 522). The reliquary in the treasure * has a plain
border with cabochons like the two book-covers of the library mentioned above,
but on the back is a repousse cross rising from two acanthus-leaves, with the
inscription IC . X C . N I | K A and an embossed scroll border.
The Byzantine chalices in the Treasury of S. Marco (Figs. 49-52, 298, 307, 340),
thirty-two in number, are in great part agate, sardonyx, or glass in silver-gilt
mounts.^ These mounts are not all Byzantine, for after the disastrous fire of the
thirteenth century much of the metal-work had to be replaced by Venetian
goldsmiths, who were doubtless to a great extent influenced by Byzantine models.
To these Western craftsmen are probably due the mounts with filigree scrolls of
a fine bold character, distinct from the other examples of filigree in the treasure
to which a Byzantine origin may be assigned." Most of the Byzantine mounts
are of plain metal enriched with enamelled medallions, pearls, and cabochon
gems : there are no mouldings or crestings such as would be found upon Western
mediaeval work of the Gothic period. The chalices are in many cases inscribed
with the words Adhere wUre ; on two of them occurs the name of a Eomanus,
who may be Eomanus IV,' on another that of Sisinnius, a grand logothete.*
One has the cup entirely enamelled. Some of these chalices are of extraordinary
size and larger than any Western examples. They are of two general types,
the first with a low foot from which a large scrolled handle rises to the rim
on each side (cf. Fig. 51), the second without handles and rising on a higher
foot with short stem and knop. With them we may note a chalice with its
paten which has been transformed into a reliquary. It has an agate bowl
without handles, and the rim and foot are connected by silver straps. Three
small lions upon the rim support the paten, round the border of which is
engraved a pious inscription. On the foot is another inscription with the name
of Basil the bastard, a partisan of Nicephorus Phocas.'
The patens in S. Marco are also very remarkable though less numerous than
the chalices. They are composed of glass or stone with metal mounts bearing
the consecration formula (Aa/Serc 4>a.ytTe, &c.). The most splendid is of fine
alabaster" (Fig. 53), enriched with gems and having in the centre a circular
enamelled medallion with a bust of Christ. It may be of the eleventh century.
In connexion with these examples in S. Marco may be mentioned the paten
1 Pasini, II Tesoro di San Marco, PI. XII and XIII ; Molinier, Tresor de Saint-Marc, No. 10,
L' Orfivrerie, 63 ; C. de Linas, L'Artet Vinduslrie d'autrefois dans Us regions de la Reuse beige, 81.
2 Pasini, PI. IV, p. 73.
very 'unusual.
Ibid., PI. VII. Such application of figures embossed in metal to a stone giound is
* Ibid., PI. XXIII, p. S3.
^ Pasini, II Tesoro di San Marco ; E. Molinier, Le Tresor de Saint-Marc, and Gazette des Beaux-
Arts, xxxvii, 1888, 459 ff. ; G. Schlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, Figs, on p. 21 (agate with name
of Sisinnius) and 253 (sardonyx chalice with name of Romanus) ; the same. L'^popee, i,
Figs, on pp. 700, 701, 709, 713, 720, 721 ; Rohault de Fleurv, La Messe, iv, PI. CCC-CCCVIII
and PI. CCCXXV.
« Molinier, Gazette, as above, 395, 462, aniL'Orfevrerie, 60 ; Pasini, PI. XLI.
' G. Schlumberger, L'^popee, i. 705.
* Pasini, PI. XLII ; Molinier, Tresor, No. 72.
' Schlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 291 (Fig.).
" Pasini, II Tesoro, PI. XLVIII ; Molinier, Le Tresor de Saint-Marc, No. 94, L'Orfevrerie, 61 ;
Schlumberger, VEpopee, i. Figs, on pp. 705 and 777.
Fig.
339. Back of a book-cover in the Treasury of S. Marco, Venice, with embossed silver
ornament of the eleventh or twelfth century. P. 552.
554 GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

(Pig. 318) preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral of Halberstadt.^_ This is

not enriched with gems, or partly composed of stone, but of simple silver with
embossed ornament in a good style dating from the twelfth or possibly from
the eleventh century. In the centre it has a Crucifixion in relief, within a
medallion with eight lobes, on each of which is a bust of a saint in relief.
Eound it runs the formula of consecration. The use of lobes in patens is thus
seen to have been adopted in the East at an early date.
The Treasury of S. Marco at Venice also contains an interesting silver
reliquary (Fig. 341) in the form of a conventional Byzantine church of the
twelfth century, now containing a crystal phial of oriental workmanship with
Cufic inscriptions with a relic of the Sacred Blood.'' This reliquary, like another
of similar character and date though less ornate design in the treasury of Aachen
Cathedral,' was originally an artophorion or ciborium for the reserved Eucharistic
bread. The Venice example is partially in openwork and the sides are orna-
mented with repousse figures of Fortitude and Prudence ; a row of animals in an
orientalizing style runs round the base.
S. Marco further possesses a coffer-shaped reliquary of silver with embossed
ornament of the eleventh century. On the top is Christ seated, giving crowns
to the four martyrs of Trebizond, who stand under an arcade ; on the sides is
a nielloed inscription in praise of the martyrs.* An embossed book-cover with
Crucifixion and Anastasis in the Marcian Library may also be mentioned.^ In
the Church of Alba Fucense, north of Lake Fucino, in Italy, is a reliquary
for wood of the Cross '^ with sliding lid, having on the top the Crucifixion
between the Virgin and St. John, with two busts and angels above, and below,
an inscription relating to two donors, John and Maria ; the border is of scrolls
with cabochon stones at intervals. Inside are engraved St. Michael and the
Transfiguration.
A remarkable example of the silversmith's art, probably of the period between
the ninth and eleventh centuries, though not made for a religious purpose, may
be mentioned here. It is the small cylindrical silver box, originally made for
the pigment of a scribe named Leo, but now used for the chrism in the
Cathedral of Padua, where it has probably been from the fifteenth century.'
It is ornamented with embossed figures, on the hinged lid a Medusa head, round
the sides four mythological figures separated by pairs of interlaced serpents —
Apollo, a reclining figure, perhaps a listener to his song. Ares, and Eros present-
ing him with a helmet. Bound the top of the box and upon the bottom are
inscriptions in two debased iambics :
-fBA0HC AOXeiON 0) ACONTI HAC nOPOC
+ Aea)N TO TCPHNON 0AYMA TON KAAAITPAOCON
Details in the epigraphy of these inscriptions, such as the omega closed at
^ Molinier, VOrfmrerie, 61 (no Fig.) ; Leasing, Gold und Silber (Handbook of the Berlin
Kunsfcgewerbe-Museum), p. 30.
2 Pasini, II Tesoro, PI. XXIV ; Molinier, Tresor, No. 17, and L'Orfevrerie, 63 (Fig, on p. 61);
Sehlumberger, L'Mpopee, ii. 485 (Fig.).
' S. Beissel, Kunstschdtse des Aachener Kaiserdomes, PI. XI (1904), and Aachenfahrt (1902) ;
Molinier, L'Orfewerie, 62 ; Sehlumberger, Mmwments Piot, xii, 1905, 201 ff. and Pi. XIV, and
L'Bpopee, i. 461. This reliquary is ornamented on its plain surfaces witli nielloed scroll-work
and inscriptions, the latter referring to an Eustathius, proconbvil and patrician, general of tlie
army of Antioeh at some time between A. n. 915 and a. d. 1057. Molinier suggested that the
architectural peculiarities of certain Rhenislx enamelled reliquaries (in the Victoria and
Albert Museum and in the museum at Darmstadt) may bo duo to imitation of such artophoria
as those here discussed.
• Pasini, II Tesoro, PI. LXIV ; Molinier, Tresor, No. 145 ; Sehlumberger, L'£!popee, i, pp. 456
and 6R9 ; Candidus,
Valerian, ii, p. 669 and
(Figs.) ; Molinier, L'Orfivrerie, p. 61. The four martyrs are Eugenius,
Aquila.
" Sehlumberger, ipopee, i, p. 745.
° E. Bertaux, VArt dans tltalie meridionale, pp. 177-8 and PI. VI.
' L'Arte, ix, Rome, 1906, 35 ff. and Plate ; article by Toesca. The box is stated to have
been presented to the cathedral by Bishop Pietro Donati (a. d. 1428-45), previously Arch-
bishop ofCrete. See also B, Z., xv. 701.
Fig. 340.
Chalice of the eleventh century enriched with enamels and pearls :
Treasury of S. Marco, Venice. P. 552.
536
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY

the top as seen on the bronze doors of Sta Sophia and on the Limburg rehquary
(pp. 522, 618), suggest the tenth century as a possible date. The figures are of
great interest because of their evident relation to those upon the group of ivory
caskets mentioned on pp. 215-21, a large number of which derive their sub-
jects in a similar way from classical mythology. We find the same influences
in the casket in the Cathedral of Anagni (p. 557).

Fig. 341. Silver reliquary in the form of a chureb of the twelfth century in the Treasury ot
S. Marco, Venice, (Schlumberger ; Haohette.) P. 554.
The rectangular silver casket in the area of Leo III under the altar of the
Chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran is probably a work of about the
twelfth century.^ It has on each of the two sides two standing figures in relief:
on the front St. John Chrysostom and St. Nicholas ; on the back, St. Gregory
the Theologian and St. Basil : these all stand, as on contemporary mosaics and
ivory carvings, with the letters of their names in vertical lines beside them.
The ends are decorated with engraved or punched ornament consisting in each
case of a large central medallion containing a cross patee with, looped corners to
1 P. Lauer, Monuments Hot, 1906, 69 and PI. X and XI, Figs. 6 and 7 ; H. Grisar, Die
romische Kapelle Sancta Sandorum, p. 106, and PI. IV and V, Freiburg, 1908 These objects are
now in the Library of tlie Vatican.
 557
LARQEE OBJECTS

each arm, and circular medallions containing rosettes at each extremity. In the
angles of the cross are four ivy-like leaves, and in the spandrels beyond the
medallion four disconnected foliate designs. The cover is ornamented with
applied enamels described elsewhere (p. 510).
An oval box of copper or bronze in the same place (Fig. 348) has incised
ornament apparently filled with niello ('?).' On the top is the Crucifixion, Christ
being represented in the colobium ; on either side stand the Virgin and St. .John,

Fig. .342. Enamelled silver box of the eleventh century from the Sancta Sanctorum at the
Lateran, now in the Vatican Library. (After Lauer, Moii. Piof, 1906, PI. X.)
while below the arms is the usual inscription (Kc o wio; a-ov, &c.) and above the
sun and moon. On the sides are the busts of the four Evangelists with their
names, and the lid and box have borders of guilloche. From the style of the
figures and inscription the date should be about the twelfth century.
Of the same date or perhaps a little later is a smaller oval silver relic-box in
the same place,^ ornamented with engraved design. On the top in three
medallions are busts of Christ, St. Peter, and St. John the Baptist ; on the sides
the four Evangelists in similar medallions. The remaining surface of the Ijox
is covered with vine-scrolls reserved on a nielloed ground.
A casket in the Cathedral of Anagni," formerly entirely covered with silver
plates bearing mythological subjects, is important as showing that the silversmith
and the ivory carver were inspired by the same models. The casket is
rectangular, with cover in the form of a truncated pyramid, and of the rectangular
and trapezoidal panels with figure subjects which ornamented its surfaces only
1 Lauer, as above, 77 and Pi. XII, Fig. 2 ; Grisar, as above, p. 111.
2 Lauer, 75 and PI. XII, Fig. 1 ; Grisar, CiviUa Catholica, -52 and Fig. 2C..
^ H. Graeven, Jiin. BdtquienkiisfcJicn aus P/rano, Austrian Jaltrhuch ; P. Toesca, L'^rff, Rome,
1906, ix, Figs.3-.5, pp. 36ff.
558 GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY
six remain. Even the bands of rich foliate ornament which serve as borders
have suffered severely from rough usage : their motives are derived from the
vine and palmette, .and are of a bold rich character vchich suggests a Western
influence of the early thirteenth century. Ornament of a similar kind is found
on the border of a silver book-cover in the Monastery of Zara/ vchich bears an em-
bossed figure of St. Gregory with a Latin inscription of the thirteenth century ;
also upon a book of the Gospels at St. Am-e.^ It would seem that stamps for
the production of foliated ornament were distributed from a common centre,
which may have been the north-east of Italy or Dalmatia, regions naturally
penetrated by influences both from East and West.
The figure subjects, which also appear to have been produced by stamps,
represent Hercules with club and lion's skin, and a dancing figure holding a
veil, a group perhaps representing the infancy of Bacchus, a sleeping Silenus,
a putto driving a pair of dolphins, a figure approaching a statue on a high base,
and a youth carrying an offering in veiled hands ; of these subjects, the first two
are of a type frequently occurring on the ivory caskets. The figures vary con-
siderably inmerit, some of the stamps used being apparently much worn. They
move in a less classical atmosphere than those of the better ivory caskets, and
this later character, with the nature of the ornamental motives, justifies an
attribution to the thirteenth century, though some of the stamps may have been
older than that date, for instance the Hercules.
In Germany and France there are many other examples of Byzantine
ecclesiastical goldsmith's work, mostly derived from the spoils of a. d. 1204.
In the treasury of the Cathedral of Halberstadt is the top of a silver-gilt
reliquary in the form of the tomb of St. Demetrius, with an embossed figure of
the saint as orans : in the interior is a repousse bust of the saint.* The wooden
cross plated with gold and with caps of filigree set with rubies on three
extremities, formerly in the treasure of S. Maria ad Gradus, is now in the
archbishop's palace at Cologne. Aus'm Weerth considers that, on account of the
abbreviation of the emperor's name in a metrical embossed inscription on the
back, this cross may have been actually the work of Constantino Porphyro-
genitus.'' In the Church of Jaucourt in the Department of the Aube near Troyes
there is a reliquary for wood of the True Cross with figures of archangels and of
Constantino and Helena.^ It is assigned to the twelfth century and now stands
on a French base of the century following. At Eeichenau there is another
reliquary for the wood of the Cross of about the same period." M. Schlumberger
has described a reliquary bearing the name of Maria Comnena, daughter of
Alexius Comnenus,' and also the . so-called cross of the family of Zaccaria at
Genoa,* with an inscription showing it -to have been dedicated by one Bardas,
and renovated in the thirteenth century by Bishop Isaac of Ephesus. The
reliquary at Brescia," which is rectangular and embossed, has on one side the
Crucifixion, on the other Constantine and Helena on either side of the Cross, with
angels above.
Other references will be found in Molinier's list of Byzantine reliquaries
for wood of the True Cross in the Gazette arclieologiquc}" Many examples of
Byzantine work, formerly in.the Sainte-Chapelle at Paris, were destroyed at the
time of the Eevolution. The reliquary for wood of the Cross bought by
St. Louis from Baldwin of Constantmople for the cMsse of the Sainte-Chapelle,
1 L'Arte, as above. Fig. 6, p. 39. = Les Arts, Paris, 1903, 22.
' Schlumberger, V^opee, ii. 505.
* E. Aua'm Nicephore
Schlumberger, Weerth, Phocas,
Das Siegeskreuz
421. der Kaiser Constanlinus und Romanus, 12, 13 (Fig.) ;
^ Didron, Annales arch., xix, 1859, 46 ; Gazette des Beaux-Arts, S" P^riode, ii, 1889, 157 ;
Gaussen, Porte/euille
Schlumberger, arch, i.de 501.
VMpopce, la Champagne ; A. Dareel, Cat. de I'exp. retrospectue, &c., 1889, No. 283 ;
" Rev. arch., xxxvi, 1900, 176 ff. and PI. IV.
' Compte rendu de VAcademie des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, 1902, 67-71.
' Mon. Piot, 1895, 131 ff.; Melanges d'arch. bys., 275.
8 Yenturi, Storia, 66 (Fig.). " Gazette arch., 1887, 245-9.
Pig. 343. Embossed silver-gilt panel of the eleventh century in the Louvre.
(Sohlumberger : Hachette. ) P. 560.
 560
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY

which has thus disappeared, had on it figures of Constantine and Helena and four
archangels, all embossed.' A large silver-gilt panel, which may have been
intended for a book of the Gospels, is now in the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre,
and was formerly at St. Denis. It is an example of Byzantine embossed work,
representing the Holy Women at the Tomb, with a long repousse inscription
from one of the Fathers round the borders.^ Though the general effect is good,
the style of the figures hardly rises above mediocrity. The work is perhaps not

Fie. 344.
The Virgin and Child : silver-gilt plaque of the eleventh century.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

earlier than the twelfth century,' though Labarte and Dareel assigned it to the
tenth. A smaller repousse panel, also from St. Denis and in the Louvre, has a
jewelled cross in repousse, rising from two acanthus leaves on a background
of stars (Fig. 343). Dareel assigned it to the eleventh century, and it may
have been part of the spoil of a. d. 1204. An embossed medallion with a half
figure of a saint was found near Eosiferes, Jura, in 1891, with a fragment of the
skull of St. Akindynos."
The Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, possesses a gilt plaque
with the Virgin standing with the Child (Fig. 844), and a triptych with the
r, J^^Sraved by Morand, Histoire de la Sainte-Chapelle, &e., Paris, 1790, 44. Reproduced by
Ct. Schlumberger, Nicepnore Phocas, 171. Another reliquary, which was lost and destroyed at
the Kevolution, was that formerly in Notre-Dame at Maestricht. Ibid., 477.
2 Labarte, Sisioire, 1st ed. ; Album, PI. XXVI; Schlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 273:
Venturi, Storia. ii. 657 ; Molinier, L'Orfevrerie, 64.
' A. Dareel, Notice des emaux et de I'or/ewerie, No. 710 ; Molinier, V Orfaireiie 63
a. Schlumberger, Bull, monumental, 1891, p. 111.
 561
LARGER OBJECTS

Virgin enthroned between St. Gregory and St. Jolm (Fig. 34-5). The former,
which is stated to have come from Torcello, is a work of considerable merit. A
flat reliquary in the collection of M. Martin Le Eoy at Paris ^ contains a
Byzantine relief in silver gilt upon a small panel, in a frame ornamented with
European enamels. The panel has a cruciform cavity for a relic of the True
Cross, flanked above by the Archangels Michael and Galsriel, below by the Virgin
and St. .John ; in the field are engraved the inscription H CTA(V)PCl)CIC and
eiAe 0 YOC COY and lAY H MHP COY. The work is good, and appears
to be of the eleventh century ; the frame is of Italian imitation of Byzantine
repousse. Four silver-gilt plaques with embossed subjects in the same collection
(the Annunciation, Virgin and Child, Our Lord among, the Doctors, and Pente-

Fig. 3io, The Virgin and Cliild, St. Gregory and St. .John : metal triptych of tlie twelfth
centui-y. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

cost) are evidently based upon Byzantine originals, but probably made in Italy
in the twelfth century.- They were obtained in Naples.
The following objects in various countries may be noticed : the Monastery
of Martwili in Mingrelia has a silver diptych, on the outside of which are two
angels in a good style, attributed by Kondakoff to the ninth century.' In the
same place is a silver-gilt cross, perhaps two centuries later. Several embossed
silver frames of ikons in the Church of St. Clement at Ochrida (see p. 318)
appear to date from the fourteenth century and even earlier.* The grounds are
covered with diapers of foliate design or with small panels of interlaced scrolls,
and round the frames are in some cases medallions or rectangular plaques with
figures of sacred persons, saints, and prophets, or Go.spel scenes. Some of these
figures are well executed, and present types familiar to us in the art of the
period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries : in one example Kondakoff

1 La Collection Martin Le Boy, vol. i, by J. J. Marquet de Vasselot, No. 12, PL X.

2 Ibid., Nos. 2-5, PI. II and III.
^ 'Kondako^, Description of Antiquities in s07neClturches and Monasteries of Georgia, St. Petersburg
1890, 71. * N. P. Kondakoff, Macedonia, pp. 250 ff. and PI. V-XII.
1204 O 0
562 GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY
traces the influence of a local Servian style. A Gospel cover in the treasury of
the same church has an embossed Crucifixion between the Virgin and bt John.
Two flying angels bear small figures in human form, one of which holds a
chalice to Our Lord's side ; these figures perhaps represent the Old and New
Dispensations. Bound the border are pierced panels with interlaced designs.
This work is probably late. To these objects we may add the frames of the
portable enamels on Mount Athos (p. 433), and two triptych-reliquaries and a
book-cover in the monastery of Lavra,'' and the book-cover with standing figure
enclosing busts at Djumati in Georgia.'
of St. George and border of floral scrollsfigures
The number of objects with embossed and ornament of this kind still
unpublished must be considerable.

Fig. 346. Chalice of Manuel Palaeologus : Monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos.

{Hautes Etudes : G. Millet.)

The chalice or cup of Manuel Palaeologus, 1891-1425, in the treasury of the

Monastery of Vatopedi (Fig. 846) is an interesting example of the latest period
of Byzantine silversmith's work, when the influence of Western art had made
itself felt in Constantinople.' The cup resembles a chalice with two handles ;
its bowl is of jasper, the stem, foot, and handles are of silver-gilt. The foot is
octagonal, its surfaces being ornamented with embossed designs, medallions
with busts of saints alternating with others bearing the monogram of the
emperor, all upon a ground of foliage. The saints are Byzantine in style, and
so is much of the ornament upon the knop and elsewhere ; but a Gothic cresting
crowns the stem, and the handles are in the form of dragons. If this cup be
compared with purely Byzantine work such as some of the chalices in St. Mark's
^t Venice, the incongruities of its style become apparent.
1 Kondakoff, Macedonia, p. 273 and PI. XIII.
" Schlumberger, Epopee. Hi, pp. 420, 748, and PI. III.
' Kondakoff, Georgia, 107. This is assigned to the eleventh or twelfth centui-y.
< Kondakoff, Monuments of Oiristian Art upon Mount Athos, 220 ff. and PI. XXXVII (Russian) .
 563
SILVER PLATE

SiLVEU Plate.
This is almost all of the First Period.
The treasure found on the Esq^uiline Hill at Eome in a. d. 1793, in the British
Museum since 186(3,' contains olsjects which suggest an origin in the Christian
East. The deductio of the bride on the large marriage-casket has an oriental
appearance, and the figures show an analogy with types of late Hellenistic art.
Moreover, an engraved ivory casket of the same form exists in a fragmentary
condition in the Cairo Museum,' and silver work of this kind was doubtless
produced in Alexandria. Otlier objects of the treasure seem to betray a more
definite Eastern influence. The ewer (Cat. No. 307) is of Eastern type ; tlie
vase (No. 306) with animals in the convolutions of spiral scrolls suggests by its
ornament the well-known Syrian motive ; and among the silver statuettes
(Nos. 332-5) repiresenting the Tijcliae of the fom- cities, Eome, Constantinople,
Antioch, and Alexandria, that of Antioch copies a statue of Eutychides. ' The
treasure, the constituents of which need nut be all by the same hand, was

- I 1 1 1 1 1 1 I i n I n rtit^ii^ lit I !■ 1 1 ml

Fis. 347. Silver box of the sixth century from the Saneta Sanctorum of the Lateran ; now
in the Vatican Library. (After Lauer, Jlon. Plot, 1906, PI. XIL) P. 564.

probably concealed at some time of dangei', perhaps on the occurrence of a

barbaric invasion.
Silver boxes, oval and rectangular, with embossed figure subjects, were early
used to contain relics. The most ancient, and artistically the finest, is that
found in 189-t in a stone urn beneath the pavement near the altar in the
Church of S. Nazaro at Milan. ^ On the lid Our Lord is enthroned between
the Apostles, with water-jars and baskets with bread before him in allusion to
his miracles. On the sides are the Virgin enthroned with the Child, and
shepherds who bring ofi:'erings ; the Judgement of Solomon ; the Three Children
of Babjdon in the furnace ; and Daniel judging the Elders. There is a freedom
and a sense of style about these groups which point to a period in which
classical art was something more than a memory ; and it is probable that the
casket was actually used to contain relics at the consecration of the church in
the year 382. Graeven saw in it evidence of late Hellenistic workmanship,
though Italian archaeologists have claimed it for Rome. The composition of
the lid, as Riegl has remarked, recalls the scene of the Coiigiaviiun on the Arch
of Constantino, to which, however, it is superior in its livelier interpretation of
a centralized action. The pose of the heads, the expressive features, the telling
if summary treatment of the extremities, render this relief a most remarkable
example of sculpture in metal in the period of transition between anticjue and
later art.
The best known of these silver relic-boxes is the oval example in the Museo
Cristiano of the Vatican, found at Henchir Zirara in Numidia, between Tebessa
' Catalogue of Early Cliristiaii and Bijzanfino Anilquities, 1905, 61 if.
^ Strzygowski, Koplische Kunst, No. 7063.
^ Gardner, Journal of Hellenic SUtdies, is, 1888, 78.
* H. Graeven, Zeilschrift fiir chrisflkke Kunst, 1899; A. Venturi, Storia, i. -549 and Figs.
445-9 ; A. Riegl, Die spdtrdmische Kunst Industrie, &o., 106.
0 0 2
564 GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

and Constantine. and presented by Cardinal Lavigerie to Pope Leo XIII.^ It

has on the top a beardless figure in tunic and pallium, holding a wreath with
both hands, standing on the mount from which flow the four streams, while
on either side is a lighted candle in a tall candelabrum, indicating Paradise :
above the head appears a hand holding a wreath. Eound the sides of the
box are a row of sheep, and a stag and hind drinking at streams issuing from
a mount, above which is the sacred monogram. De Eossi was inclined to
attribute this reliquary to the fifth century, and in any case it cannot be later

Fig. 348. Bronze box of the twelfth century from the Sancta Sanctorum of the Lateran ;
now in the Vatican Library. (After Lauer, Mon. Pioi, 1906, PI. XII).

than the sixth. Muuoz traces a Syrian influence in the type of the principal
figure.
A box of the same form but of ruder workmanship, now in the Louvre, was
found in Brianza (Castello di Brivio).^ It has on the top the Eaising of Lazarus,
on the sides the Adoration of the Magi and the Three Children of Babylon in
the fiery furnace. It is probably also of the fifth century.
At the opening of the relic-chest of Leo III under the altar of the Chapel of
the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran in 1906, another box of this style (Fig. 347)
was discovered.' This is stated to have stamped on the bottom a trefoil and
a quatrefoil, with the letters HAS in a rectangular border, as well as a
St. Andrew's cross between the letters A and Q,. It almost looks as if these
were very early ' hall-marks ' (see below, p. 568). Another silver box of early

1 De Bossi, La Gapsella argentea africana, &e., Bome, 1888 ; Venturi, as above, 552 j
A. Muiioz, L'Art lyzantin a I'Eocposition de Groiiaf errata, 152-3, Bome, 1906.
" Venturi, as above, 550 and Figs. 450-2 ; Muuoz, as above, 153. Other early silver
boxes are two found in 1871 under the high altar at Grado, and now in the cathedral
treasury; one, whicli is cylindrical, has in relief the Virgin enthroned with MP 0Y and
names of saints ; the other is elliptical, embossed on lid with two lambs on the Mount of
Paradise with a gemmed cross between them, and on the sides with medallions with male
and female heads of saints with Latin names. Two early silver reliquaries found in 1862 in a
stone chest at Pola are now preserved at Vienna. One is hexagonal, with embossed figures, on
the sides Our Lord between Peter and Paul with three others ; the other is rectangular, with a
blue enamelled cross on the lid. The first is claimed for the second centui-y, but is not likely
to be earlier than the fifth, while the second must be later.
^ Ph. Lauer, Le Tresor du Sancta Sanctorum, Mon. Piot, 1906, pp. 67-8 and PI. XII, Fig. 3 ;
H. Grisar, GivUta OattoUca, 1906, Pt. iii, Figs. 24-5.
 SILVER PLATE 565

type in the Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg has upon it busts of Our Lord
and Apostles in medallions. It was found near Sebastopol/
A large silver vase in the Salle des Bijoux in the Louvre, but found near
Emesa in Syria,^ has points of analogy with these early relic-boxes as well as
with the Kyrenia censer (p. 573). Like the latter it has a series of busts in
medallions forming a horizontal band, the persons being Our Lord, the Virgin,

Fig. 849. Silver cover of the,fifth century, from Luxor : Cairo Museum. (Service des
Antiquit^a de I'Egypte : Catalogue, Eoptische Kunst.) P. 567.

SS. Peter, Paul, John the Evangelist, and James (?) with the addition of two
angels. The containing band of cable ornament recalls that which runs round
the lids and bodies of the reliquaries ; and, as the example on the box from
Carthage seems to indicate, was in some cases at least derived from the palm-
leaf. The figures are without the nimbus, and the vase may be as early as the
fifth century. Apart from the single band containing the medallions it is almost
devoid of ornament.
A silver treasure, found at Luxor apparently in 1889, once belonged to a
church, perhaps to the small basilica discovered in the temples. It dates from
the fifth to the sixth century, and recalls the Church treasures to which allusion
' Compte rendu of the Imperial Arehaeologioal Commission, 1897, 28 and 103, Pigs. 87, 88,
213, 214.
' H. de Villefosse in Bulletin des Antiquaires de France, 1892, 239.
566 GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

Firi. 350. Chalice and paten (?) of the sixth cent my from Lampsacus.
(British Museum.; P. .567.
 567
SILVER PLATE

is made in the Liber Pontificalis: it is now in the Cairo Museum/ It consists

of a processional cross with a dedicatory inscription, three rectangular covers of
book-holders or boxes, ornamented with the sacred monogram in its later forms
and a cross (Fig. 349), two censers in the shape of cups on high feet, and part
of a third, a silver vase, and one or two fragments. The two book-covers bear
inscriptions referring to two bishops named Abraham and Besammon, with the
names of silversmiths Gregory and Isidore : all the inscriptions are in Greek.
Next in date to the Luxor treasure perhaps comes the treasure in the British
Museum found at Lampsaous on the Hellespont, and probably dating from the
sixth century.^ It consists of a silver lamp-stand of the type resembling

Fig. 351. Silver censer of the sixth centui-y from Cyprus. (British Museum.) P. 573.

that of pricket-candlesticks, a large cup on a low foot, possibly a chalice, two

very shallow parcel-gilt silver bowls with monograms in niello (Fig. 350), an
openwork lamp-disk or polycandelon (Fig. 72), and thirteen spoons with designs
and inscriptions in niello (Fig. 56). The inscriptions, which are in Latin and
Greek, are secular, being derived from Virgil's Eclogues and from Greek Epigrams
on the Seven Sages : they may have been given to a church or monastery, gifts
of secular plate and spoons being not uncommon. The lamp-stand and the
bowls bear the Byzantine hall-marks mentioned below (p. 568).
A considerable amount of silver plate has been found in Eussia and in the
island of Cyprus.^ In the former country the most frequent discoveries have
1 J. Strzygowski, Kopiische Kunst, Nos. 7201-10, pp. 340 ff., where the objects are fully
discussed and photographically reproduced.
2 Catalogs of Early Christian, Antiquities, 81-6, Nos. 876 ff. and PI. XXII and XXIII.
' Stephani, in Compte rendu of the Imperial Eussian Archaeological Commission, St. Peters-
burg, 1867, 50-2' and 211, 1878, 69, 146, 151-8, and The Feeding of the Serpents at the Orphic
Mysteries, in Journal of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St; Petersburg, vol. xxv, third paper of
the Appendix ; Kondakoff, Tolstoy, and Eeinach, Antiquites de la Bussie meridionale, Paris, 1891,
411 ff. ; KOhler, Gesammelte Schriften, vi. 41-4 ; de Linas, Origines de I'orfhrerie cloisonnee, ii. 349 ff. ;
J. Arneth, Die antiken Gold- und SUber-Mmiumenfe des k. k. Miinz- und Aniiken Cabinettes, Vienna , 1850,
Beilage; A. Odobesco, Le Tresor de Petrossa ; Aspelin, Antiquites du Nord Finno-Ougrien ; Strzy-
gowski and Pokrovsky, Der Silberschild aus Kertch in Materials for Eussian Archaeology (a continua-
tion of the Compte rendu mentioned above), 1892, 1 ff. ; J. Smirnoff, in the same publication,
1899, 7ff. ; H6ron de Villefosse, Bulletin de la Socieie des Antiquaires de France, 1892, 239;
A. Venturi, Storia deW arte italiana ; British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine
Antiquities, 1900, Nos. 376-424 ; Dalton, in Archaeologia, vol. Ivii, pp. 150 ff., and Ix, pp. 1-24;
and B. Z., 1906, 615-17.
568
GOLDSMITH'S WORK AND JEWELLERY
been made on the Stroganoff estates in the province of Perm, where Sassanian
silver is also found .^ The presence of snch objects in these remote regions is
probably to be explained by the fact that they were imported in exchange for
furs, as it is well known that the chiefs and princes of barbaric tribes set great
store by silver cups and dishes.'' An historical instance of this predilection is
connected with the great Attila, and is related by Priscus in his account of an
embassy from the emperor to the Hunnish king, in which he himself took part.
The embassy took presents of silver plate with it, and at the banquets at which
the envoys were entertained it was observed that, though Attila himself drank
from a wooden cup, his guests were supplied with silver vessels. The episode
of the church plate of Sirmium, which Attila almost made a casus belli against
the Western Empire, affords a further illustration of the importance attached
by barbarians to silver plate.

Fio. 352. Silver censer of the sixth century from Cyprus. (British Museum.) P. 573.

' This Byzantine silver chiefly consists of dishes or plates of various sizes,
parcel-gilt and ornamented with conventional designs in niello and figures in
relief. More rarely spoons are found, some of which have inscriptions in niello,
others animals, &c., in relief in the bowls. The plates or dishes are massive,
and betray their descent from Graeco-Eoman silver plate of the imperial period,
which is similarly ornamented, though in a more classical style.
Most pieces are marked on the under side with stamps or control-marks
(Pigs. 353-5, 361), five impressions being the rule, though the same stamp
might be used more than once.' These stamps are circular, hexagonal,
rectangular, or round at the top and square at the base, all much larger
than our modern hall-marks. They contain names and monograms which

1 For the Sassanian dishes see the Russian Compte rendu, 1878, 145 if., and Atlas, PI. VII ;
1883, PI. X ; Kondakoff, Tolstoy, and Reinach (p. 567, note 8) ; A. Odobesco, Le Tresor de
Fetrossa; The Treasure of the Oxus, British Museum, 1905, 121.
' They were probably brought from the Black Sea up the Volga and Kama. See Compte
rendu de ta Commission Jmperiale archeologique for 1875 (St. Petersburg, 1878), 69. The Sassanian
silver, to vphich allusion is made below, may have come by way of the Caspian.
^ It was called Apyvpov TrevraacppayicrTov. See J. Smirnoff, Zapiski of the Imperial Russian
Archaeological Society, Classical, Byzantine, and West European Section, xii, Pt. v, 506 ff.
For these marks see Marc Rosenberg, Der Goldsohmiede Merkseichen, new edition, where all the
known marks are quoted with abundant illustration.
 SILYEE PLATE
569
appear to be those of the controlling officials, and nimbed busts which probably
represent imperial persons. Unless the marks' upon the early silver reliquary
from the Saneta Sanciotum (p. 564) should prove to be regular stamps, these
Byzantine impressions are the oldest hall-marks known. The Byzantine officials
did not confine themselves to the stamping of contemporary plate, but also
marked silver of earlier periods. Eoman silver at Vienna and St. Petersburg
bears the typical Byzantine marks.''
Among the so-called votive shields or disks, of which eight are known '
though one has disappeared, those of Valentinian (a. d. 364-75), found in 1721
in the Arve and now at Geneva, and Theodosius, found in Estremadura in

Ou

Fig. 353. Stamps of the sixtli century on tlie bottom of a silver dish found in Cyprus and
now at Nicosia (Pig. 5-5).

1847 and now at Madrid (Fig. 356), deserve special mention. The former
represents the emperor standing in the middle of six soldiers ; the latter,
which is more definitely Eastern in character, shows Theodosius wearing the
chlamys and diadem, seated between Valentinian II and the young Arcadius.
The group is closed by protectores with swords and spears, while an allegorical
figure of Spain occupies the space at the bottom of the picture.* The shield of
Aspar at Florence, dating from the j-ear a. d. 434, shows affinities with the
diptychs of Probus and Felix, the style of more than one figure being analogous
to that of those upon the ivories.^ In some ways the most interesting of these
shields is that of Justinian in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, found in a cata-
comb at Kertch in the year 1891." The emperor is represented on horseback
accompanied by guards and a figure of Nike, as on his coins ; the whole design
is incised, and not, as usual, in relief. The general scheme recalls that of the
Barberini ivory diptych in the Louvre. The emperor wears a diadem without
the pearl pendants {ivoTia Kpefiaar^pia) which were regularly used from the time
of Justin II, and a tunic with clavi.' The guards (protectores) in general
' Ph. Lauer, Le Tresor du Saneta Sanctorum in Moii. Plot, 1906, p. 67.
^ J. Arneth, Die antiken Gold- und Silber-Monumente, &c., PI. S, vil ; Compte rendu de la Com-
mission Imperiale ArcTwologique tor 1867 (St. Petersburg, 1868), PI. II, Figs. 1 and 4.
' List in Strzygowski and Pokrovsky, Materials for Russian Archaeology (Imperial Arch. Com-
mission), 1892, 9.
* Both shields are figured by A. Odobesco, Le Tresor de Petrossa, 154 and 158.
^ A. Eiegl, Spatromische Kunstindustrie, 118.
" Strzygowski and Pokrovsky, Materials for Russian Archaeology, 1892, 1 if. and PI. V.
' Strzygowski, as above, 17-18.
570
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLEEY

Fig. 354. Stamps on the bottom of a silver dish of the sixth century from Cyprus in the
Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. (Photo communicated by Dr. Marc Rosenberg.)

i
Fig. 355. Stamps on the bottom of a silver dish from Cyprus (Fig. 360, top).
 SILVEE PLATE 571

resemble those upon other monuments and in MSS. of various dates,' and, as
at S. Vitale, have the Constantinian monogram upon their shields. The disk
of Justinian is parcel-gilt, and parts of the emperor's head and tunic, as well as
portions of the horse-trappings, are filled with niello.
Among the silver dishes found in Eussia are the examples mentioned by
Stephani in the Eussian Compte rendu (see note 3, p. 567), the best of which

Fig. 356. Votive disk of Theodosius at Madrid : tlie Emperor enthroned.

(From an electrotype in the Victoria and Albert Museum.) P. 569.

have in the centre crosses in niello within circular borders of floral scrolls, and
resemble the dishes with similar subjects found in Cyprus (Figs. 357, 360).^
Many of these are at St. Petersburg ; but a dish in the collection of Count
Stroganoff at Eome, found in 1867 in the Berezoff Islands in' Siberia,' is of
especial interest. It represents a jewelled cross between two angels, fixed
in a starry globe resting upon ground from which flow the four rivers of
' B. g. the base of the obelisk of Theodosius at Constantinople, the silver votive shield of
the same emperor at Madrid, the consular diptych at Halberstadt (Fig. 7), the mosaics of
S. Vitale at Eavenna, &c. See British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and Bys. Aniiquities,
refs. under No. 398, p. 87.
^ Two more dishes with nielloed crosses were found near the village of Klimowa in
Biai-mia in 1907. See Ath. Mitth., xxiii, 1908, 153-4 and Pig. 2. With them was a dish of
earlier date, with an idyllic scene in relief and Byzantine control-stamps on the base.
' De Kossi, Bullettino, 1871, 153 ; Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 460 ; Kondakoff. Tolstoy, and
Eeinach, as above, 433 and 438 ; A. Munoz, L'Art bysantin a VExposition de Grottaferrata, Rome,
1906, 149, 150; J. Smirnoff, Oriental Silver, PI. XV (Eussian).
572
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY
Paradise. The angels recall those of mosaics of the sixth century, and to this
period or to the early part of the seventh centurj' the dish may probably be
assigned. There is no certainty that it served as a paten, but it may have been
intended for some ecclesiastical use. The work was perhaps executed in Syria,
where the influence of Persia was strong. A remarkable dish with the Cruci-

ria. 357. Silver dish of the sixth century, with cross and ornament in niello.
(Museum of Nicosia, Cyprus.) P. 674.

fixion, also found in the Government of Perm, has been discussed by Smirnoff
and others.' It shows the interaction of Christian and oriental influences, and
may be as early as the close of the First Period, though some authorities think
it later, and would assign it an origin in Central Asia rather than in Persia
or Syria.''
The silver treasures of the First Period from Cyprus have all been found
about six miles west of Kyrenia, the small seaport on the north coast of the
island, at a place called KaravJis (near the site of the ancient Lapithos), and
close to the Monastery of Acheropitia. The discoveries were made in the last

1 Materials for Russian Archeology, 1899 ; J. Smirnoff, Oriental Silrer, 1909, PI. XV.
' V. Stassoff, An Oriental Silrer Dish in the Museum of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 190i
(Russian). M. Stassoff assigns the dish to tlie thirteenth or fourteenth century, but this
appears unduly late. Cf. B. Z., xvi. 392.
 SILVER PLATE 573

few years of the nineteenth century and in the summer of 1902. The principal
objects of the first find,^ now in the British Museum, consist of a fine dish
with a nielloed cross within aborder of ivy-leaves (Figs. 55, 360), a silver bowf
with an embossed bust of St. Sergius surrounded by a band of nielloed orna-
ment (Fig. 360), a small hexagonal censer (?) (Figs. 351-2) with three loops on the

Fig. 358. Silver dish of the sixth century found near Kyrenia and now at Nicosia,
Cyprus. P. 576.

rim for suspension and with embossed busts of Our Lord, the Virgin, and saints
upon the sides, and a number of spoons with baluster handles and a design of palm-
leaves on the backs of the bowls (Fig. 448). Eight of them are otherwise plain
(Fig. 359) ; a ninth has the nanie Theodoros punched in dots on the side of the
handle ; four others have on the upper part of the handle the inscription AY + AA
in niello, and the remaining eleven have embossed animals (gryphon, leopard, lion,
horse, stag, ram, bull, tiger, bear, boar, and hare) in the interior of the bowls.
A small silver dish on a low foot, with a nielloed monogram surrounded by
a border of vine-leaves, obtained in Cyprus about the same time and now in
private hands, may have formed part of the same find.^ All the objects
' Archaeologia, Ivii. 159 ff., PI. XVI-XVIII ; British Museum, Catalogue of Early Christian and
Bysantine Antiquities, 1905, 86-90, Nos. 396-424.
■' B. Z., 1906, 615-17 (Fig.).
574
GOLDSMITH'S AVORK AND JEWELLERY

probably date from the sixth century. The find of 1902 ' was more important.
It consisted of eleven silver dishes of various sizes, nine with embossed subjects
illustrating the life of David (Figs. .57-(32), two with nielloed designs— a cross and

Tig. 359. Silver spoons of the sixth century from Cyprus. (British Museum.) P. .573.

<i monogram — withia bands of formal floral desiga (Fig. 357). With the silver
plate was a quantity of jewellery described on another page (p. bil). The adven-
tures of these objects, how they were concealed from the Government of Cyprus,

1 Dalton in Arcliaeologia, Ix, pp. 1-24, and the Bniiintjion Muga-ine, March, 1907 ; Sambon in
L( Musk, Paris, 1906.
 575
SILVER PLATE

Fig. SCO. Silver dishes of the sixth century from Cyprus. (British Museum.) P. -572.
576
GOLDSMITH'S WOEK AND JEWELLERY

how part were seized by the police while part were smuggled out of the island
on behalf of a dealer in antiquities in Paris, make a curious story. The result
has unfortunately been to divide the treasure into two parts. One remains at
Nicosia ; the other, that taken to Paris, has been purchased by Mr. J. Pierpont
Morgan, and is temporarily exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum at
South Kensington ; both groups havein numerous hall-marks.^ The chief impor-
tance of the treasure, however, lies the scenes from the life of David with
which several of the dishes are ornamented. We have here a large part of
a cycle which first became popular as early as the fourth century, and is repre-
sented on the carved wooden doors of Sant' Ambrogio at Milan (p. 149), in the
frescoes at Bawit in Egypt (p. 284), on a later ivory casket in the Museo
Kircheriano at Eome (p. 221), and on other monuments. But while evidently
deriving from Early Christian models, the subjects of these dishes are as
evidently related to what is known as the ' aris-
tocratic group
' of illuminated Psalters (p. 467)."
The close resemblance in the treatment of
certain scenes, especially the killing of the lion
and the bear, the anointing of David, and the com-
bat with Groliath, seems to show that there must
have been an unbroken tradition connecting the
Third Period with the First, and that the once
popular theory which ascribed the beginning of
Psalter illustration to the eighth or ninth centuries
is untenable. For the models from which the
silversmiths worked are more likely to have been
early illuminated MSS. than anything else. The
Fig. 361. Stamps on base of
a sixth- century silver censer from subjects upon the surviving examples are : David
Cyprus (Fig. 351). killing the lion, killing the bear, summoned by the
messenger of Samuel, and conversing with a
warrior ; all dishes of small size.* On larger dishes * we see David introduced
to Saul, being equipped with Saul's armour, fighting with Goliath and taking his
spoils ; the marriage of David (Fig. 358), and his anointing as king (Fig. 60). The
Goliath plate is of still greater size. The marriage scene ° is of interest as
resembling the type on a coin of Theodosius II, where the emperor is seen
standing between Valentinian III and Eudoxia (Fig. 402), just as Saul stands
between David and Michael. This is an earlier type than that usual in Middle-
Byzantine art, in which the third person is usually Our Lord. All the larger
dishes, except that with the Goliath scenes, have an architectural background of
the same style as that seen on the votive disk of Theodosius at Madrid, but
more debased. The foreground is in each case occupied by weapons, bags of
money, &c., suggesting the objects of largesse upon consular diptychs, or the
attributes of the Notitia Dignitatum. The work as a rule lacks life, and both
features and drapery are heavy. But the slaying of the lion and the bear
have more vigour, and some of the individual figures are not without charm.
At the end of this section it may be repeated that the figure-art of East-Christian
silver work with figure subjects throughout stands in a close relation to that
of miniatures or illuminated books and to carvings in ivory.
1 Archaeologia, as above, 13-17. ' Archaeologia, as above, 17.
' About 5^ in. in diameter. * About 8 in. in diameter.
' Figured, Archaeologia, as above, PI. II.
 Fxs. 362. Fragment of tapestry of about the fifth century from a Coptic cemetery in Egypt.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

CHAPTEK X
TEXTILES

The figured textiles of the Christian East may be most conveniently

■divided into two main groups according to the method of manufacture.
The first group comprises tapestries and fabrics with inwoven designs;
"the second is composed of embroideries. Materials occur which fall into
neither group (e. g. the printed Egyptian fabrics, p. 602), but the above
division may serve in an introductory chapter on the subject.
Figured textiles were used for garments, for hangings or coverings,
especially for altars, ciboria,^ walls, and doorways,^ and for various
subsidiary purposes : the very numerous textiles mentioned in the Liber
P.ontificalis were mostly hangings. Figured stuffs also served as wrappings
for the dead,^ and the large loose tunics in which bodies were interred
1 As in Sta Sophia, Constantinople.
2 Epiphanius. Bishop of Cyprus (d. a.d. 402), in a letter to John, Bishop of Jerusalem,
dated a.d. -394, mentions a figured curtain in the door of the Church of Anablatha in
Palestine (Migne, Pair. Lot. xxii. 526 : see also de Kossi, BuUettino, 1871, 62). The use of
curtains in churches is illustrated by mosaics and frescoes, e. g. those of St. George, Salonika
(Fig. 221), the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, &e.
' Ammianns Marcellinus speaks of persons fulgentes sericis indumentis ut ducendos ad mortem.
Rich textiles were sometimes placed upon the sarcophagus, as in the case of Diocletian.
St. Ambrose and St. Basil both mention the usage of interring rich textiles with the dead :
the bodies of martyrs were covered with robes of especial splendour. See Cahier and Martin,
Melanges d'arch. chritienne, ii, note on p. 245.
1204 -P P
578 TEXTILES

were often enriched with apphed figured designs. It is naturally from

the Egyptian cemeteries that our principal knowledge of older textiles
is derived (Akhmim, Antinoe, Sakkara, the Fayum, &c.); but it is in-
creased by documentary evidence. Thus Asterius, Bishop of Amaseia in
Pontus (fourth century), a censor of the luxury prevalent in -his time,,
condemns the wealthy for adorning themselves with garments covered
with figures, including Gospel scenes and all manner of beasts, ' as if they
were frescoed walls in motion.' ^ His descriptions justify the old Roman
phrase acu pingere, and the classification of tapestry and embroidery as
branches of painting. Ausonius on his accession to the consulship received
from Gratian a trabea in which a portrait of Constantius was inwoven.^
Chrysostom, describing the state robes of the emperor, mentions his silk
raiment enriched with golden dragons.^ We may recall the much later
royal mantles from Sicily in the Schatzkammer at Vienna, with their
inwoven animals, continuing earlier traditions.* Paul the Silentiary
describes the ciborium curtains of the Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Con-
stantinople as of silk with figures of Our Lord, SS. Peter and Paul, &c.^
Further evidence is obtained from representations upon surviving works
of art. The official mantles of the consuls, as seen upon the consular
diptychs, are rich with various designs, mostly conventional floral patterns,
but occasionally human figures. Examples of the latter class are those
of Areobindus (consul A. D. 506) and Basilius (a.d. 541), which resemble
in this respect the earlier trabea sent to Ausonius. On the diptych
• of Stilicho and Serena ' in the Treasury of Monza Cathedral, Stilieho's
garments show the head of Galla Placidia and the bust of Valentinian
beneath canopies." In the well-known ceremonial mosaics in San Vitale
at Eavenna, the costume of the Empress Theodora (Fig. 313) has repre-
sented upon it the scene of the Adoration of the Magi, thus confirming
the statement of Asterius that biblical scenes were depicted upon garments.
A similar use of pictured garments among the Sassanian Persians is.

1 The passage, which is in a homily (Eis rbv uXoiatov koX tov Aa^apov), will be fovmd in
Migne, Pair. Gr., xl. 165c ff. See also Kraus, Geschichte, i. 389 ; Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, &o.,
131 ; J. Strzygowski, Orient oder Bom, 116. For the similar strictures of Chrysostom, see the-
quotations in Cahier and Martin, Milanges d'arch., li. 252-3.
2 'In qua Divus Constantius parens noster intextus est.' Ausonius calls this uesto pt'cto
{Aus. ad Gratianum imp. pro Cons., xxi).
^ Sermon, nepl reAeias 070771;!. Opera, ed. Gaume, vi. 848 : SpaKovras kv Ifmriois (rxwrifo-
fxevovs aijptKoTs.
* Imperial mantles were enriched with applied gems and pearls. Claudian uses the-
expression gemmato trabeae cinctu. In the Calendar of the Chronographer (fourth century ;
see p. 484) the mantle of the Emperor Constantius II is enriched with gems. Possibly only
emperors wore such begemmed garments. Pearls were also sewn upon Carolingian robes-
(J. von Schlosser, Schriftgwellen zur Oesch. der karol. Kitnst, 408).
The court chlamys was richly woven with peacocks, eagles, &c. Cf. Kondakof^
Enamels, 299-800. Constantine Porphyrogenitus especially mentions the peacock (He Caeiir
moniis, i, ch. xxiii).
48-9. ° Paulus Silentiarius, quoted by Lethaby and Swainson, The Church of Sancta Sophia,.
' The designs upon these garments were perhaps embroidered and not inwoven. The
splendid raiment of Aurelian is also probably to be regarded as embroidered (L. Homo,
Bssai sur le regne d'Aurelien, 193). For embroidery in ancient Rome see M. Besnier's article.
Phrygio, in Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des antiqwiies grecques et romaines.
 TEXTILES 579

proved by the sculptures of Kermanshah, where the king (Chosroes I1 1)

is apparelled in a figured robe. Mere decorative pattern on garments
may be studied in miniatures of MSS.,^ in mosaics,^ frescoes,^ and in
representations on silk textiles themselves.*
It may be added that figured textiles, woven and embroidered, had
been derived by the earlier Greeks from oriental sources, and there are
numerous references to them in the classical authors. Euripides describes

Fig. 363. Orpheus : tapestry medallion of about the third century in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.

a hanging of oriental workmanship in the temple of the Delphic Apollo ^

with marine battles and mounted hunters. Aristophanes speaks of the
limaX.eKTpvdv and the Tpayika^os, oriental monsters forming a known
pattern on Median carpets.''

ky.'in^ Egypt about the year B.C. 1500

s pemastde
It is claimed that tapestry waTa
1 e. g. miniatures in the Menolcglum of Basil (p. 479).
^ The mosaics in S. Demetrius, Salonika, may be cited as particularly interesting.
' Costumes in the frescoes of Kuseir 'Amra may be noted.
* e. g. the Gunther silk at Bamberg (p. 596).
5 Ion, 1159 ff. « Frogs, 937 ff.
' W. &. Thomson, A Eistory of Tapestry, 1906 ; W. Lowry, Atti of Eleventh Congress of
Christian Archaeology, Kome, 1900, 47 ff. ; M. Gerspach, Les Tapisseries coptes, Paris, 1890, and
Gasette des Beaux-Arts, J 887, 124 ff. ; K. Porrer, Die Grdber- und Texiil-Funde von Achmim-Panapolis,
Strassburg, 1891; A. Biegl, Die aegyptischen TexWfunde des k. k. oesterreichischen Museums, Vienna,
1889, and Eranos VindoVonensis, 1898 ; E. Porrer, Versuch einer Classification der antik-koptischen
TextUfunde, Strassburg, 1889 (these and other references are given in the article Akhmim,
sect, ii : Tapisseries, in P. Cabrol's Dictionnaire d'archeologie chretienne, ' col. 1049) ; A. Gayet,
pp3
580 TEXTILES

(under the eighteenth dynasty) ,i and that the art of making it was known
to almost all the ancient civilizations of the nearer East.^ The Greek
figured stufFs from South Russia, dating from about B. c. 400, are regarded
as tapestry.^ Tapestry was made for the Romans under both the republic
and the empire, and great numbers of the tapestry-woven stuflFs from
the Egyptian sites date from the first three centuries of our era. It is

Fig. 364. Tapestry panel of about the third century from a Coptic cemetery in Egypt.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

from Egypt that our principal knowledge of early tapestry is derived.

Great numbers of specimens have been exhumed from the larger cemeteries,
especially that of Akhmim (Panopolis), which since 1884 has yielded large
series to various museums,^ and that of ^ntinoe, the city founded by
Hadrian in honour of his favourite, Antinous.

Annales du Musee Guimet, xxx. 2 ; J. Baillet, ,Les Tapisseries copies au Music d'Orleans, 1907 ;
H. Swoboda, in R. Q., vi, 1892, 95 ff., and Arch. Shrengabe su de Rossi's LXX. Geburtstage, 71 f.;
V. de Bock, Eighth Arch. Congress, Moscow, 1890 (publ. 1897), 218 ff. (bibliography), and Trans.
Imp. Arch. Sac. of Moscow, viii, 1897, 1-82 ; E. Schiaparelli, Si una antica stoffa, &c., Bessarione,
Nos. 49-50, 1900, 1-9; G-. Migeou, Les Arts du tissu, ch. iii; V. de Griineisen, Bull, della Soc.
Filologica Romana, x, 1907, 1-24 ; M. Dreger, Kunsilerische Entioicklung der Weberei, pp. 4 ff. (1904).
^ Fragments of tapestry-woven linen with design in colours, from the tomb of Thout-
mfisis III, in the Cairo Museum (water-colour drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Description in Cat. gen, des ant. egyptiennes du Musee du Caire, Nos. 46001-529, The tomb of
Thoutmosis III, by H. Carter and P. E. Newberry, 1904, Nos. 46526-9, pp. 148 ff. and
PI. I and XXVIII). " Thomson, 9 ff.
^ Found in the mound known as the Seven Brothers in the province of Kuban.
* Good series are to be seen in this country in the Victoria and Albert Museum (the
most considerable), in -the British Museum, and at Liverpool. Of collections in foreign
 TAPESTEY

The process by which these Egyptian fabrics were manufactured closely

resembles that by which Gobelin tapestry is produced, and for technical
581
methods the reader is referred to M. Gerspach's and Mr. Thomson's books.
The warp and woof are sometimes both of linen, at others of linen and

Fig. 365. Linen tunic with applied tapestiy, about tlie sixth century, from a Coptic cemetery
in Egypt. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

wool ; in other cases the weft is of silk, though this is rare in the first
centuries.^
museums, those in the Mus^e Guimet and at the Gobelins in Paris, in the Kaiser Friedrich
Museum and Kunstgewerbe-Museum at Berlin, in the Vienna Museums, and in the Hermitage
and Stieglitz Museums at St. Petersburg are all important.
1 Gerspach, p. 6. The Coptic loom must have been upright, but of course was much
smaller than those employed at the Gobelins. The most obvious distinction between
tapestry and ordinary shuttle weaving is that in the former the weft or horizontal thread
is pressed down so as to envelop completely and conceal the warp of vertical threads
(Thomson, p. 2). Designs are produced by altering the colour of the weft, and by using
particular threads of the warp. True tapestry is always hand-made. Where, as was
commonly the case in figured garments, tapestry bands or panels had to be introduced
into a woven piece, the process is thus described : (at the requisite point the weaver)
'changed the weft or threads in the shuttle, and working with two or more of the warp
threads combined as one, proceeded with his tapestry weaving, beating down this new weft
with the comb. The ordinary shuttle weaving was continued to right and left of the
insertion, and when the tapestiy panel was completed, the warp threadsLwere divided into
their original number, the plain weaving being proceeded with along the width of the loom '
(ibid., 21 and 22). Coptic weavers largely employed the free shuttle (known in France
as the ressaut or crapaud), and allowed the weft to diverge from the horizontal line in any
direction convenient for the execution of their designs. The fine figures or patterns in
thin linen thread upon dark purple ground in many pieces seem to be executed by the
582 TEXTILES

The colours employed were never more than about twelve. Purples,
violet-brown, and reds served for background ; for executing the designs,
the weaver disposed of violet, indigo, and pale blue, two tones of yellow,
orange, several tones of green, and a blue-black. The colours are very
fast, and are capable of resisting prolonged action of sunlight.
Large tapestries were used, like silks, as hangings in churches; the

Fig. 366. The Adoration of the Magi : tapestry medallion from a tunic of about the sixth
century, from a Coptic cemetery in Egypt. (British Museum.)

smaller were applied to the garments of the living or served to adorn

the great linen tunics in which the bodies of the dead were clothed.
A great number of textiles with tapestry ornament belong to the
Egypto-Roman period between the first and third centuries. The subjects
and ornament of these are not Christian; where figures occur they are
usually mythological, or are concerned with the chase and the games
of the circus : an example at South Kensington (2140 — 1900) shows Vulcan
forging the armour of Achilles. There are various female types, often
busts, which may be compared to the late Hellenistic figures on the bone
carvings from Alexandria. But the commonest pagan subjects are genii
on foot or mounted, and the most various animals, fruits, and flowers,
ressaut, and not embroidered by a needle (Gerspaoh, p. 6) : Gayet, however, believes that
embroideiy was largely used. For the technical process of making tapestiy, see also
G. Migeon, Les Arts du tissu, 174-B.
 TAPESTEY 583

disposed in compartments or panels of different design. Ornamental

motives comprise vine-scrolls and arrangements of vine-leaves, vines
issuing from vases, guilloche, wavy lines, lozenges, stepped triangles, rows
of hearts, and various geometrical figures for which, the Copts had a
distinct preference. In these earlier pieces it is very common to find only
one colour, a purple or red-brown, contrasting with the buff of the flax
which forms the ground and is used to pick out the details. Yellow,
green, and red become more common in the Christian period, when the
drawing often deteriorates while the general effect grows more brilliant.
Christian subjects now become predominant, sometimes easily distinguish-
able, as in the roundel with scenes from the life of Joseph at St. Peters-
burg,^ or that in the British Museum (Fig. 366), at others difficult of inter-
pretation, arrangements of figures as grotesque as any which may be seen
on the tapestries of Peru. Throughout the Christian period certain
elements of the ancient Egyptian ornament, such as the ankh, continued
in use, and were ineorpoi'ated into the symbolism of the new faith; but
the motives are chiefly of late Hellenic introduction.

SlLK.2
All figured silk textiles are included in the class of fabrics with
inwoven designs. Even in the area covered by the Byzantine Empire
weaving in silk preceded Christianity,'^ and beyond that area it was
practised in very remote times.
The antiquity of silk-weaving in China is very great ; records exist from
which it would appear to have flourished in the third millennium B.C. ; in
any case, it seems to have been practised in the Far East earlier than in
any other part of the world. Raw silk was imported into the West before
the fourth century B.C., for the thin Coa vestis woven in the island of
Cos was of this material.* Alexander's general, Nearchos, is stated to have
worn silk, and the Greeks of the period following that king's Indian
expedition even knew something of the silkworm, Aristotle, who first
' Strzygowski, Orient oder Bom, 113.
* J. Lessing, Die Gewebe-Sammlung, &o., des h. Kunstgewerhemuseums in Berlin ; F. Michel,
Becherches sur U commerce, &c des etoffes de soie, 1852 ; P. Fischbach, Onmmentik der Gewebe ;
F. Bock, Liturgische Geiodnder ; M. Dreger, Kiinstlerische Eniwichlung der Weherei, 1904, and Kunsl
und Kunsthandwerk, ii. 330 ff. ; Isabel Errera, Collection d^anciennes etoffes, 1901 ; Cahier and
Martin, Melanges d'archeologie, ii, iii ; J. Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 147 ff., and
Orient oder Bom, 90 ff., 114 ff. ; E. Ferrer, Romische und bysantiniscJie Seiden-Textilien aus dem
Graberfelde von Achmim-Panopolis, Strassburg, 1891 ; A. Cole, Ornament in European Silks, 1899 ;
De Caumont, Bulletin monumental, xiv. 480; Gr. Migeon, Les Arts du tissu; Diehl, Manuel, 248,
600 ; Anncdes du Musee Guimet, 1902 ; Ph. Lauer, Mm. Piot, 1906, 103 ff. ; G-ibbon, Decline and Fall,
V. 57, vii. 12 (Smith's edition), references to vai-ious old books.
= e.g. Victoria and Albert Museum, No. 334—887, entirely executed in silk tapestry.
Egypto-Eoman roundels in the same museum are sometimes of linen, tapestry-woven in
coloured silks. The combination of linen warp with tapestry-woven silks was favoured
after the Saracenic invasion ; examples from the cemetery of El-Azam near Assiat.
■• Aristotle, Hist. Animalium, v. 19 (17), 11 (6), relates the tradition that silk was iirst
spun in Cos by Pamphile, daughter of Plates. Were it not that the wearing of silk garments
by Nearchos points to their use in Persia, it might have been doubted whether the line textiles
of the early Persian Empire were of silk, as the Zoroastrian regarded such animal products
as unclean.
584 TEXTILES

mentions it, perhaps deriving his information from persons who had
heard of it in the East. But though the use of silk in the West greatly
increased under the Roman Empire,^ the orientals prevented the export
of the silkwomi's eggs, and thus preserved for themselves a valuable
monopoly. Pliny, writing in the first century A.D., knows no more of
the nature of the worm than Aristotle, who wrote four hundred years
earlier ; ^ we gather from him, however, the interesting fact that Chinese
textiles were unravelled and rewoven in occidental designs.^
References in classical Latin authors to silk garments are numerous
from the first century before our era, but evidently textiles of the material
remained very costly for a considerable period, and were only worn by
the wealthy. Aurelian is said to have complained that at Rome an ounce
of silk could only be purchased by twelve ounces of gold. The silk
robes of Theodosius have been already mentioned. At the baptism of
Theodosius II, son of Arcadius, the walls of Constantinople were hung
with silk fabrics,* and it is clear that hangings and garments of this
material must have existed in great quantities by the fifth century. The
silk-weaving industry in Persia was in a flourishing state in the fourth
century, when Shapur II imported weavers into Persis, a district which
henceforth became the most important centre; but the geographical
position of Iran makes it probable that the material was woven there
at an earlier date.
The influence of Persia was early felt in the eastern Byzantine
provinces. Oriental fabrics were imported ; ° raw silk was introduced
in ever-increasing quantities, to be woven and dyed on the looms of
Syria and Tyre. The raw material was absolutely in the hands of Persia,
for even when shipped to Ceylon it was controlled by Persian merchants
and carried to Persian ports ; " when it' came overland it was sold to the
Persians by middlemen of Bokhara and Samarkand. Many of the figured
silks belonging to the First Period are of a definitely Persian character,,
even when they have been found in Coptic cemeteries in Egypt. Most
authorities, as Lessing, hold that these silks were actually produced in
Persia in the later Sassanian period, chiefly in the sixth century ; '' others,
1 Silk garments remained a mark of effeminate luxury until the fourth centuiy ; see-
Pliny, vi. 20, xi. 26; Cahier and Martin, Mel. d'arch. cJiret. ii. 241, footnote.
2 Chinese textiles were imported into Syria (Pllny, vi. 17 (20), 54; xi. 22 (26), 76 j
F. Hirth, China and the Soman Orient, p. 258 ; H. Semper, Da- Stil, i. 140).
' xi. 76. This was done in Cos.
■i 'OKoaijpiKuiv. See Bury, Eist. of the Later Soman Umpire, i. 204.
^ There may well have been Chinese silks among the number. A passage from Leo
Diaconus quoted by Michel (p. 42, n. 2) indicates that Chinese silks were among the spoils
taken by John Zimisces from the Arabs : iic XrjpSiv {/(pda^iaTa, but the absence of designs which
can be identified as Chinese upon early surviving silks is against the supposition of any
important Chinese influence. An exception may perhaps be made in favour of the lattice
forming a series of lozenges.
' M. Diehl has given a useful summary of the commercial situation in his Justinien (iii,
ch. iv), where references to ancient and modern writers will be found. That valuable
earlier work, Heyd's Geschichte des Levant-Handels, may also be consulted. Chinese and Persians
used to meet at the harbour of Trincomalee ; and this commerce between the Far and Near
East is mentioned by Cosmas Indicopleustes.
' Sassanian sculptures, as that representing Chosroes II at Keimanshah, show textiles
 585
SILK

as Smirnoff,^ believe that many were made in Mesopotamia under the Arab
dominion after the downfall of the Sassanian monarchy. It is in any
case certain that Sassanian motives were at an early period copied both
within and beyond the limits of the old Sassanian Empire, definitely
Persian motives occurring on textiles produced in China and the Eastern

Fig. 367. Silk textile of the sixth-seventh century from Egypt. (British Museum.) P. 592.

Byzantine provinces indifferently (p. 591). In the West, designs of this

oriental derivation maintained their popularity through the Middle Ages.
It is not alone in the figures of animals and monsters that this oriental
influence is apparent. Upon the silk fabrics of about the seventh century
the floral ornament in the borders of the medallions and in the inter-
spaces is often composed of Persian derivatives from the palmette,^ or
varieties of the symmetrical ' sacred tree ' (horn) which, under so many
forms, is of such ancient date in the Nearer East. The influence of Persia
is in fact paramount ; and it is a curious fact that neither China nor India
introduced their motives in this way, though the opportunities of doing so
almost identieiil with some which have survived (Dreger, Kiinstlerische Entimcklung, &c.,
PI. XXXVIII.
^ Materials for Bitssicm Archaeology, xxii. 41.
^ Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbnch, xxiv. 1903, 157 ff.
586 TEXTILES

must have been very frequent. Some methods of dividing the field of the
stuif into a lozenge-diaper have been claimed as Chinese,^ and there is
documentary evidence that Chinese silks were known at the Byzantine
eourt.2 But any motives and designs which we may regard as peculiarly
Chinese seem to be consistently absent.
It was not until the middle of the sixth century that the annoyance
caused by the Persian monopoly made the introduction of the silkworm
into Byzantine territory a matter of urgent moment. So long as the
Christian factories were dependent for their raw material upon countries
with which the empire was frequently at war, the prosperity of a great
industry might be at any time imperilled by an outbreak of hostilities
on the eastern frontier. Whatever may be the truth of the stories told
by Procopius and Theophanes of the smuggling of the eggs out of China
in hollow staves," it is certain that by some means or other Byzantium
became in great measux'e independent of foreign sources of supply in the
reign of Justinian, and that henceforth the workshops were less exposed
to the vicissitudes previously aflfecting the production of their looms.
Within the empire, silk was produced during the First Period in Syria
and in the imperial manufactories (Baphia or Gynaecea, Zeuxippus)
in Constantinople, which supplied the court and sometimes furnished the
public as well. This state of affairs prejudicially affected private enter-
prise, which could not easily meet such privileged competition. To the
last, certain kinds of silk fabrics remained the monopoly of the imperial
workshops, and a particular purple might not be produced elsewhere.*
Before the eleventh century some of the principal centres of the Byzantine
silk industry were established in Greece, especially in Thebes and Corinth.^
It will be noted below that Roger of Sicily transported Greek workmen
from Greece to Palermo ; and the continuance of the industry in Greece
under the Byzantine and Frankish princes is well attested.'' Silk-weaving
^ Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 170 ff. The human figures on the painted
silk brought by Dr. M. A.. Stein from Turkestan are predominantly Chinese, but the orna-
mental motives seem either of a kind which does not affect Western art, or themselves to
bear traces of Western influence (e.g. borders derived from the palmetto). Cf. also
M. Dreger, Kilnstl. JSntwicklung, as above, pp. 35-6.
* John Zimisces displayed tx trjpwv btpaaimra at Constantinople (Leo Diaconus, Bk. X,
p. 163, Bonn ed.). Silk vifith Chinese characters has been found at El Azam ; but its date
does not appear to. be very early (example in Victoria and Albert Museum).
' Gibbon, v. 61 ff. Procopius says that the persons who brought the silkworms were
monks resident in Serinda (Khotan(?) or China) : see Se Bella Gothim, 546-7, and Theophanes,
Bonn ed., p. 484. The most generally accepted stoiy is that between the years a.d. 562
and 554 two monks from Serinda offered to bring the emperor eggs from that region,
ailSrming that they could be hatched and fed upon mulberry leaves. The proposal was
accepted ; success justified the enterprise ; and large mulberry plantations were soon
established in Syria. Justinian had endeavoured without much success to introduce raw
silk via Abyssinia, and perhaps round the north of the Caspian, both routes free from
Persian control. Officials called commerciarii were entrusted with the task of making the
necessary purchases in the Persian markets. Much information will be found in the article
of Zachariae von Lingenthal, Eine Verordmmg Justinians iiber den Seidenhandel, Memoirs of the
Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, ser. vii, vol. ix, No. 6.
•> Code of Justinian, Bk. X, viii, ix ; Theodosian Code, Bk. X, xx, xxi.
= For the statement of Benjamin of Tudela (d. a.d. 1173) as to silk manufacture in
Central Greece, see G. Mavrojani, Bviavrivrj Tex^i HO, 255, Athens, 1893.
" For the Frankish period see allusions in W. Miller's The Latins in the Levant. For
 587
SILK

survived the fall of Constantinople, for we read of Greek weavers

summoned to France by Louis XI in a.d. 1480.^ Some of the most
interesting information which we possess with regard to the imperial
silk manufactory at Constantinople is derived from the account of his
embassy left by Luitprand,^ who was sent by Otto on a mission to the
Emperor Nicephorus Phocas. The envoy had purchased various silk

Fig. 368. Silk textile of about the seventh century with Persian gryphon.
(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

textiles to carry home, but the customs officials compelled him to surrender
five pieces of purple fabric, which they informed him were not to be
exported, as being K<a\v6fj.fva, or forbidden to foreigners.^ Those which
he was permitted to take with him were marked with lead seals, and
the fact reminds us of the conservatism of revenue officers, who still
employ the same methods. The account of Luitprand is lively, and
deserves perusal.* _ .
the silk establishments attached to the palace at Palermo see Palcand, Hist. Sic, in Muratori,
Ecrum ital. script., vii. 256.
^ E. Mtintz, Eevue de Vart chret., 1893 ; les Artistes bys. "ddizs VEurope latine du 5" au 15'
' Pertz,
Michel, 63. Man. Germaniae hist, iii. 259; Muratori, Serum ital. scriptores, ii. 447, col. 2 a;
^ The emperors used to send these purple silks as gifts to popes and Western princes, as
we learn from entries in the Liber Pontificalis. For examples, see Michel, 64.
* It is partly quoted in Cahier and Martin, Melanges d'arch. chret., ii. 240.
588 TEXTILES

Though the Italians did not weave silk during the first millennium
oi" our where
centre era, thetheEome
silk of
andtheother
earliest Middle
textiles AgesOrient
of the becameanda the
distributing
Eastern
Mediterranean were brought for sale or presentation. It was at Rome
that Benedict Biscop obtained the woven fabrics mentioned in Bede's-
Life;'^ and the Liher Pontificalis is full of entries recording their use
as altar-coverings or hangings in our churches.^ We hear of gryphons.

Fig. 369. Tapestry of the thirteenth century, in the style of early textiles.
(Musee Industriel, Lyon.)

peacocks, unicorns, eagles, lions, elephants, leopards, and other beasts,

with various tree-forms, enclosed for the most part in rotae or rotellae.
By these words are meant circles or medallions, tangent or interconnected
with each other so as to form a network covering the whole stuff, over
which the subject is repeated. (Cf. Figs. 368-9.) These animal and monster
types are of oriental origin, though from a very early period they were
reproduced upon Christian looms. But Christian subjects were not long
in competing with secular designs, and the pages of Anastasius contain
many references to these, for the most part representing episodes from
the lives of Our Lord, the Virgin, the Apostles, and saints. It will be
seen below that a few remarkable fabrics of this type have escaped
1 Vita S. Benedidi Abb., "Wearmouth, i. 9. Hangings presented by Egbert, Bishop of York,
are described by an eighth-century poet as serica peregrinis vela flguris {Alcninua Ahbaa, Opera,'
ed. Frobenius, ii, Pt. I, 254, col. i). Oswald embellished the church in the same way ;
Wilfrid of York and Milfred, King of Mercia, were also donors of silk hangings (Michel,
66 ff.).
' See F. Michel, as above, 14 ff.; S. Beissel, Bilder aus der Gesclnchte der altchr. Kunst und
Zitteratur in Italien, 260 ff., and Zeitschr. fiir Chrisiliche Ktmst, 1894, pp. 357 ff. ; Dreger, pp. 41 ff.
 589
SILK
destruction, and are now preserved in churches and museums. Several
authorities have justly remarked that some of these ancient textiles may-
have been made by monks of the Greek colony in Rome, Many have
Latin inscriptions; the subjects often reproduce the legends of the
patron saints of Roman churches; portraits of popes also occur. More-
over, as the greatest production began precisely at the time of the iconoclast
persecution, probability is in favour of manufacture in the West.^
The Franks imported silk textiles in even greater quantities than the
Anglo-Saxons. Sidonius Apollinaris (d. a.d. 488) mentions the silks of
a young Merovingian prince.^ St. Cloud renounced the use of silk

Fig. 370. Silk textile used for a seal-bag. (Chapter Library, Canterbury.)

garments, but St. Eloi wore them in order to conform to custom ; Gregory
of Tours speaks of silk altar-hangings in Gaul. Charlemagne himself
only used rich textiles for festivals, but presented many to churches.^
It has already been noted that figured silks of traditional Persian
designs may have continued to be made in Mesopotamia after the Arab
conquest of Persia. But from the beginning of the Arab dominion
weavers produced designs suited to the taste of the orthodox Moslem.
Silk fabrics of this kind wei'e woven by Mohammedans from the early
years of their conquests in Egypt and Western Asia : fragments and
pieces with inscriptions and geometrical ornament have been found in
1 Gregorovius, Gesch. der Stadt Eoms, ii. 378 ; Labarte, Hist, des arts industriels, iv. 334 ;
A. L. Frothingham, American Joum. Arch., x, 1895, 187 ff.
2 Epist. IV, No. 20 ; quoted by Michel, p. 68.
^ Dom Ruinart, at the end of his edition of Gregory, gives details showing the abun-
dance of silk textiles in Merovingian times.
590 TEXTILES

early cemeteries in Egypt.^ By degrees the Mohammedan weavers them-

selves adopted the heraldically disposed animals and the hom of Persian
art. In this they only resembled the weavers of the Greek Empire;
and it is sometimes a matter of great difficulty to decide to which group
of imitators textiles with such designs belong. For example, the fabric
with chained leopards at Chinon was not known to be of Mohammedan
workmanship until an Arabic inscription was observed upon it (p. 597).
The Moslem had clearly a wide reputation as a weaver in mediaeval
Europe.^ Perhaps the Mohammedan princes of Sicily had workshops
for silk manufacture even before Roger, the Norman king, in the middle
of the twelfth century, brought back weavers from Corinth, Thebes, and
Athens, and established them at Palermo.^ M. Amari has been followed
by more recent authorities in his belief that the Normans only increased
the number of weavers, and that the system of the tiraz, which corre-
sponded to the Byzantine gynaecewm, already existed in the island at the
time of the Norman invasion ; it may not have been established for any
length of time or upon a very extensive scale, and need not have been
situated in Palermo itself. Roger's expedition introduced the silkworm
into the island, and this must have greatly increased the area of manu-
facture. He did for Southern Europe what Justinian had formerly done
for the Byzantine Empire.
To illustrate the subjects with which figured silks were decorated it will be
convenient to mention a few of the more important and accessible textiles, pre-
served for the most part in museums and the treasuries of churches, and repre-
senting the three principal groups with oriental, late Hellenic, and Christian
motives.

Subjects upon Silk Fabrics.*

(a) Of Persian and Byzantine Origin
Among the most popular Persian designs is that of a mounted king shooting
wild beasts, the whole framed in a medallion and repeated over the surface, the
medallions being interlaced or connected by small tangent circles, while the inter-
spaces are filled with formal foliage (Fig. 372).^ The huntsman is usually duplicated
^ El-Azam, from which site interesting fragments are exhibited in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.
^ Theodulf (xxviii. v. 211) speaks of —
Pallia quae misit, ut puto, tormts Arabs
(von Schlosser, SohriftqueUen sur Gesch. der karolingischen Kimst, 407). In the Nibelungm-
lied there is mention of Arab silits (Michel, 60).
» A.B. 1146-7. See Muratori, Script. Hal., vi. 668; Michel, pp. 73 ff. ; Gibbon, vii. 12.
Falcandus, a writer of the twelfth century, describes the silks of Palermo.
■* Migeon, Essai de classification, &c., in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1908 ; Diehl, Manuel, 249.
' Some examples of this type may be mentioned : London, British Museum, Department
of Egyptian Antiquities ; Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 558, 1893, a lion hunt); another
similar ; also a fragment from Akhmim (107 — '87) ; St. Servaas, Maastricht (Pischbaoh,
PI. Ill) ; St. Kunibert, Cologne (Schniitgen, Zeitschr. fUr christliche Kunst, xi, PI. V) ; St. Andrew,
Cologne {Gas. des Beaux- Arts, 3° Pi5riode, 1902, 221) ; Sant' Ambrogio, Milan (Venturi, Le GaUerie
nazionali, iv. 292, and PI. I and II) ; Paris, Musfie Guimet, from Antinoe, Necrop. D : horse-
man shooting lion ; Berlin, Kunstgewerbe-Museum (No. '78 — 632), king mounted on a winged
horse and holding up cub; king shooting lions, palmette border (No. '96 — 630), from
Sfiokingen (Lessing, Pt. Ill), perhaps made in the sixth-seventh century in the Byzantine
Empire ; Tokyo, the example mentioned above, for which also see Lessing, Gewebe-Sammlung,
Pt. I, PI. II ; Annates dv, Musee Guimet, xxx, Pt. II, PI. VI (after p. 152) ; the king represented
 SUBJECTS UPON SILK FABRICS 591

so that the compooition is symmetrical, the two figures heing usually back to
back, but turning inwards to release the arrow. Sometimes the hunter swings
aloft the cub of the lioness below him, a motive found on Sassanian silver plate,
the designs upon which have affinities with those on these textiles. It maj' Ije
remembered that the horse was always the most important animal among the
Medes and Persians.'
The hunter type was imitated in China in the seventh or early eighth
century, as is shown by an example from the treasure of the Horiuji temple at

Fi<^, 371. Samson (? J or Hercules (?) : silk textile of about the sixth century in the
Victoria and Albeit Museum. P. -598, )'. 1.

Nara in Japan, presented in the eighth century with other objects belonging to
the Mikado Shomu (d. a. d. 756) by his consort Komyo. In this example,
though the composition is Persian the execution is Chinese, and Chinese seals
are seen on the flanks of the horses, replacing the Sassanian ' star '.- Most
examples of this type were perhaps made beyond the Byzantine Empire,
though in the piece in the Musee des tissus at Lyons the costume has Greek
is shown by his liead-piece to be Chosroes II (a. d. 591 628). A variation of the hunter tyi>e
is seen on a textile from the Church of St. Ursula, Cologne. Here the king rides a gryphon,
and is attacked by a winged monster, while lions are seen below, and ibexes above (No. '81 —
13, Lessing, Pt. I, PI. Ill ; Dreger, as above, p. 40 ; Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3" Periode, 1902,
220 1. Sometimes a huntsman is seen on foot armed with a spear ; so in the textile dis-
covered in the Sancta Sanctorum at Rome, ^vhere he is seen spearing the lion i H. Grisar,
Sis r&mische Kapelle Sancta Sanctonlm, p. 12G (1908) ; Ph. Lauer, Man. Piot, 1906, PI. XVIII;.
Examples also in Victoria and Albert Museum (2178—1900, 558, 559—1893, Fig. 872).
' For the hunter motive see L'Arte, ix, 190G, 193 ff. (G. Sangioigi) ; Strzygowski, Prussian
Jahrhuch, xxiv, 1903, 151 ; F. Justi, in Zeiischr. fiir Christl. Kunst, 1898, pp. 3C1 ft'. ; Dreger, as
above, pp. 32, 37, &c.
^ Toyei ShuJioi, An Illustrated Catalogue of the Ancient Imperial Treasury called Shoshoi)i, 1909,
PI. XCIV ; Japanese Temples and their Treasures, PI, CCIII 11910). It may be noted that the
Chinese equally reproduced later designs on silk brocade produced under the Mameluke sultans
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. For an example, with addorsed eagles, in the
Kunstgewerbe-Museum at Berlin, see Lessing, Pt. I, PI. I.
592 TEXTILES

■elements.' The derivative type, in which both mounted and unmounted horse-
men appear, and the name ZAXAPIOYis inwoven above, must be Christian. Ex-
amples are in the British and Victoria and Albert Museums, and Berlin ^ (Fig. 367).
Monsters, beasts, or birds confronted or addorsed within medallions, and
separated by some variety of formal foliage representing the horn or sacred tree,

Fig. 372. Silk textile of the eighth or ninth century. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

are also of Persian derivation ; like the hunter motive they appear to have
been also reproduced beyond the limits of the Sassanian Empire. Such motives
were adopted not only by Byzantine and Greek, but by Saracenic and Sicilian
weavers ; they ultimately passed into the stock of subjects reproduced in Central
and Western Europe. The tradition was persistent, and the date of some
pieces is often dif&cult to determine. The borders of the medallions are usually
of motives based upon the palmette : they are often reduced to sequences of
heart-shaped figures ; foliate designs of similar origin fill the interspaces.
Here again, in a Berlin example with gryphons reproduced by Lessing, the
Chinese are found reproducing, about the ninth or tenth century, a Persian
' Migeon, Arts du iissu, 26-7 ; Dreger, as above, p. 37. The piece was formerly in the
Church of Mozac, Puy-de-D6rae.
2 Brit. Mus., Christian Room ; V. and A. Mus., 303—1887 (from Akhmim), 2063—1900,
2150—1900, 2067—1900, 769-1898. Of. A. F. Kendriek, Burlington Magazini, 1905, p. 23 S.
 SUBJECTS UPON SILK FABRICS 593

original perhaps three hundred years older. Among the most remarkable fabrics
of this class which may perhaps be regarded as Christian rather than Persian is
the splendid piece with yellow eagles on a purple ground in the Church of
St. Eusfebe, Auxerre,^ and the cope at Metz, known as the Chape de Charlemagne,
also with eagles,^ on a ground of red. The pieces at Aix-la-Chapelle with swans
and ducks ' may also have been produced in the Christian East. The winged
grj'phons of the ' Suaire de Saint Siviai'd ' * at Sens may be pseudo-Sassanian
rather than actually Persian ; the same mfiy be the case with the nimbed cocks

Fio. 373. Silk textile of the sixth-seventh century found in the Sancta Sanctorum, now in the
Vatican Library.

and formal lions of the treasure of the Sancta Sanctorum ° (Fig. 373). The
number of textiles with animals dating from the First and Second Periods is
considerable.^
The heraldic treatment of beasts or monsters, within or independent of
circles or rotellae, was retained by the Byzantine weavers of the middle period,
' Migeon, 29 (Fig.) ; Schlumberger, L'Epopee, i. 409.
= Migeon, 30 (Pig.).
^ Cahier and Martin, ii, PI. XII ; Schlumberger, V^opee, ii. 325.
' B. Molinier, Exposition retrospective, 1900, 47.
■' Ph. Lauer, Man. Piot, xv, PI. XVI and XVII ; M. Dreger, in H. Grisar, Die riimische Kapelle
Sancta Sanctorum, p. 15.5.
° The following are prominent examples : — Victoria and Albert Musenm, Nos. 8562-3 —
1863, 1241-64, No. 761— 1893, the Sassanian bird-tailed gryphon ; No. 764—1893, fragment with
head of a gryphon ; No. 613 — 1891, fragment with eagles ; No. 753 — 1893, confronted liona
with pairs of dogs set tail to tail ; No. 2066 — 1900, formal 'tree' in medallion ; another, from
Akhmim, with same design, No. 355 — 1887, &c. Paris, Mus^e Guimet : From Antinoe, Egypt,
Necropolis C. and D., ibexes on buff ground ; conventional trees and zebus : the trees buff,
green, and red, the zebus red, on blue ground ; peacocks and peacocks' heads, confronted birds,
winged horse. Sens : confronted lions on red ground (Cahier and Martin, ii, PI. 39). Berlin :
Kunstgewerbe-Museum, gryphons (Lessing, Pt. I, No. '84 — 226), the contours are ' curly ' in
the Chinese manner ; the foliate ornament of the background is Chinese in character.
Hildesheim Cathedral : Pairs of eagles, each separated by a ' tree ' ; in spandrels foliate orna-
ment derived from the palmette, possibly a Western imitation of a Persian original (Lessing,
Pt. II).
1204 Q <^
594 TEXTILES

and with great success. A magnificent example is preserved ia the Katholische

Pfarrkirche at Siegburg. It is a silk fabric with great lions of a yellowish
tint upon a purple ground, and the inscription, 'In the reign of Eomanus and
Christophorus, the most Christian emperors.' ^ The piece is thus dated at
the close of the first quarter of the tenth century, as Eomanus was crowned in
A.D. 920, while his son Christophorus, named joint emperor in the following
year, died in a.d. 931. The treatment of the lions is full of force and vigour ;
the conventional style is here used with all its effect.
Another dated piece of almost equal age is in the Kunstgewerbe-Museum at

\ 4 ^mm JmSS^^^^^Su
i
.m

rk
■%

"^k^^
^^y
m .Ml wM
^^1 n
1 J^ F^H
^
-
^^ ^
•^^^^fe W^^m. h^
^^ \' ^^^B
^ A/
^MP
4i
^ TCON*IAO>!?KTC«A€Cn(!tWN

IB^
,^ ^niKUNCTAKSMIBAWAeiOV ~

^^
IK
<^-.

L M^. w^^^Sk ^^b- .-V

P^SmninraH

y^^ S '"■■
. Fig. 374. Silk textile, with names of Constantine "VIII and Basil II, at Diisseldorf,
made between a. d. 976 and a.d. 1025. (From a water-colour by Herr Paul Schulze in the
Victoria and Albert Museum.)

Diisseldorf.' It also has lions upon a purple ground, and an inscription mentioning
Constantine VIII and Basil II. showing that it must have been made between
A.D. 976 and a. d. 1025 (Fig. 374).
Equal certainty is not to be attained with regard to the silk fabric with
yellow elephants upon a red ground discovered in the shrine containing the
remains of Charlemagne in the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle.' Each elephant
stands alone with a formal tree behind it in a medallion with a border of
debased palmettes (Fig. 875) ; oval ornaments with similar palmettes fill the
interspaces ; green and blue are freely used for details. In one part of the stuff
upon the red ground is a Greek inscription :—
'Under Michael, chief chamberlain and keeper of the privy purse, Peter
^ Pound in the shrine of St. Anne. Inscription : "Erri 'Faifiavov ical XptiTTo(l>6pov tSiv
<lii\oxpi(rTaiv SeaTroTcHv. Leasing, Oewebesammlung, Pt. Ill ; F. Bock, Gesch. der liturgischen Gewdnder,
iii. 167 ; Bonner Jahrbiicher, Heft 46, 161, PI. X ; P. Clemen, Die Kunstdenkmaler der Eheinprovins,
V, Pt. IV, 1907, PI. XX; G. Schlumberger, Nicephore Pkocas, 109, and L' Epopee, ii. 293 (figure
only) ; Gaseite des Beaux-Arts, Third Period, xxviii, 1902, 208 ; G. Migeon, Les Arts du tissu, 16.
^ H. Frauberger, Bonner Jahrbiicher, Heft 93, 1892, 224 ff. ; Lessing, Gewebesammlung,
Pt, III. Inscription : ^Ewl Koji'GTa(TLv)Qv Kal Baaikeiov raiv <tii\oxpi(^rQjv SeanoTwv, Other frag-
ments at Berlin and Crefeld ; 6. Schlumberger, L'ilpopee, 293.
' Cahier and Martin, Melanges d'arch. chret. ii. 234 ff. and PI. IX-XI ; F. Bock, Zeitschrift des
bayerischen Kunstgewerbe-Vereins, 1894, 65 ff. ; G. Schlumberger, Nicephore Pkocas, 487 ; M. Dreger.
Kiinstlerische Entwiclchmg, &c., p. 64. Another smaller fabric of a violet colour was also found
in the shrine.
 595
SUBJECTS UPON SILK FABRICS

being Archon of (the Manufactory) of Zeuxippos. In the second indictioh.'' The

identity of the oiiScials mentioned cannot be determined with certainty, so that
it is impossible to decide upon the precise indiction. It was formerly thought
-that the stuff might be almost of Charlemagne's time ; but few are now disposed
to ascribe it to so early a period. The shrine is known to have been opened
about A.D. 1000 under the Emperor Otto, and again in the fifteenth century

Fig. 375. Part of the silk textile from the shrine of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle.
(From a water-colour by Herr Papl Schulze in the Victoria and Albert Museum.)

at the orders of Louis XI, "^ so that a fabric of later date than the remains
may well have been introduced. Opinions vary between the tenth and twelfth
centuries. A fragment (Pig. 47) with an elephant motive allied to the pre-
ceding is in the Kunstgewerbe-Museum at Berlin.' Elephants are mentioned
^ *Eirl Kixarj\ irpi^i^Kripiov) KoiriioviTov) icai elSticov Uerpov apxovT(os) tou Zexi^htrov ivS. i0.
' It was opened again in 1810, and once more in recent years, when the latest reproductions
(tessing's) were taken. M. Diehl, at the Archaeological Congress held at Cairo in 1909, sug-
gested that the textiles were probably in3e]'ted in the time of Otto, and that they date from
the latter part of the tenth century. He points out that the title flStxds is first found in the
middle of the ninth century, and that KoiTaivirris never occurs in the eighth {Compte rendu du
Congris International d'archeologie classique, Cairo, 1909, 267).
' Leasing, Gewehesammlwng : Prussian Jahrbuch, 1900, xxi and xxii (Museum Report) ;
Smirnoff, in V. Y., vii. 609-10.
596 TEXTILES

in mediaeval inventories as forming part of the decoration of various silk fabrics

now destroyed. One such mention occurs in the inventory of St. Paul's
Cathedral, London, dating from the latter part of the thirteenth century.
The textile found in the tomb of Bishop Gilnther in the Cathedral of
placed there at the time of the bishop's interment in
the halfprobably
second^ was
Bamberg of the eleventh century ; it may have been made only a few
years earlier. When discovered it was in a great number of fragments ; but
after these had been pieced together it was found that only the heads of the
emperor and his horse were destroyed.
The subject is a nimbed emperor '' riding a white horse, richly caparisoned,
to left, holding a jewelled labarum in his left hand, and wearing a crown, a long
purple tunic, and blue mantle, with red buskins. Before and behind him stand

Fig. 376. Silk textile found in the coffin of St. Cuthbert, Durham, and now in the Chapter
Library. (Prom a water-colour by J. J. Williamson in the Victoria and Albert Museum.)

two female personifications of cities in mural crowns, one offering a diadem, the
other a crested helm. The ground is a diaper of green circles on purple, each
circle containing a figure somewhat resembling the spade in cards, alternately
pink and blue, the interspaces being filled with yellow lozenges. Above is
a broad ornamental border in several zones, the larger filled with interconnected
circles containing formal floral designs, and with similar but smaller circles
containing debased palmettes. The emperor's purple tunic is diversified with
' clubs ' and ' spades ', and the borders, like the horse's trappings, are richly
jewelled. Short jewelled streamers are attached to the animal's legs and tail.
Among the stuifs of the Third Period with heraldic animals, to be regarded
1 Cahier and Martin, Melanges cV arch., ii. 251 ff., and PI. XXXII-XXXIV; G. Sohlum-
berger, Nicephore Phocas, 365. Michel, 34 it, doubted whether the subject is really inwoven
and not rather embroidered. He noted a textile having a historiam imperatoris in Anastasius.
An interesting fragment with an emperor in a chariot, perhaps of earlier date, is in the
Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 762—1893).
2 Kings and emperors are often represented with the nimbus in East-Christian art, even
when their careers had made them detested by Christians. Thus in the Menologium of Basil
(p. 479) Herod and Julian the Apostate are both nimbed.
 597
SUBJECTS UPON SILK FABEICS

as Saracenic rather than Byzantine reproductions of early Persian types, must

be included that with confronted and chained tigers in the Church of St. Etienne,
Chinon, if the inscription inwoven in it is Arabic.^ It is needless to linger
over the numerous examples of this class, which are well represented in Lessing's
work : M. Migeon has also discussed these fabrics.^
It remains to notice another textile which, though oriental, may not be
Asiatic, and appears to be inspired by other artistic influences than those
hitherto described.
The silk fabrics found in the coffin of St. Cuthbert at Durham include an
example (Fig. 376) of an exceptional character, perhaps even as old as the
fourth or early fifth century." A large medallion with a border of grapes and

.t/,^-..*!^-,-

Fis. 377. Silk textile of tlie sixth-seventh century with the Dioscuri : Crefeld. (From a
water-colour drawing by Herr Paul Schulzo in the Victoria and Albert Museum.) P. 598.
other fruits encloses a ceremonial vessel (?) draped at each end, and containing
other fruits. It rises from water in which ducks and fish are swimming, while
the interspaces between this and the other medallions which once covered the
complete fabric were occupied by larger ducks, as two surviving examples
prove. This type of design seems essentially Egypto-Greek, recalling the Nilotic
scenes of early mosaics (p. 328) ; it has little in common with Mesopotamian or
Persian art, and is therefore an object of exceptional interest and importance.
The other silks at Durham do not so directly concern us here.
^ Michel, 40, 50 ; V. Luzarche, La Chape de Saint Mesme de Chinon, Soc. arch, de Toiiraine,
March, 1851 ; Cahier and Martin, iii, PI. XIII ; Migeon, Les Arts du iissu, 44-5.
. " As133).
Phocas, above, ch. iv. Cf. also ' Suaire de St. Potenticn ', Sens (Sehlumberger, Kicephore
2 J. Raine, Saint Cuihhert, 1828, PI. V; Dreger, as above, p. 32. The ground is red, the
principal other colours being yellow and purple. The arguments used by Dr. Kaine to prove
that this textile was made for St. Cuthbert have no scientific value. It seems to be certainly
older than the time of the saint's death, and was probably one of the fabrics originally in-
terred with the body. Another fabric figured by Baine (PI. IV), representing a mounted
huntsman with a hawk and dog, is of Saracenic type, and must have been one of the stuffs
placed with the body in a. d. 1104, when the tomb was opened (Raine, 196).
598 TEXTILES

(b) Late Hellenic Motives.

Important as was the -Persian inspiration, it naturally did not suffice for the
requirements of Greeks, or Christians brought up in an atmosphere of Greek
tradition. In all subjects requiring the introduction of the human figure late
Hellenic influence was necessarily prominent. Subjects from pagan Greek
mythology are not infrequent, and may have been introduced by the weavers of
Syria and Asia Minor, '^ though even in these pieces ornamental motives of
Persian origin often accompany figures of Greek derivation.^ The fabric from
the shrine of St. Servatius at Maestricht with the Dioscuri (?) is among the
earliest.' The surface is covered by a continuous series of medallions connected
at the four opposite points by small circles, and each containing a repetition of
the same design. This consists of the Dioscuri standing side by side on an
altar, to right and left of which fly genii pouring libations ; below, symmetrically
disposed, are two men with steers for sacrifice. This piece has been described
as work of the fourth century from Asia Minor, but may be conjectured to be
of rather later date. A second example '' with the same design is at Crefeld
(Fig. 377). Another piece has a representation of Ganymede.^ The busts and
figures of Hellenic type upon Egyptian textiles have been already noticed, but
the material is usually other than silk.
(c) Christian Subjects
As in the case of tapestry, distinctively Christian subjects soon found a place
by the side of those of pagan origin ; examples of about the sixth century are
preserved, and it is clear from their character that they must have been pro-
duced in a Christian community. At one time figured silks with sacred or
scriptural subjects must have been very numerous : ° they are now of great
rarity. Most remarkable is the fragment in the treasury of the cathedral at
Sens, with scenes from the life of Joseph in two zones, with accompanying
Greek inscriptions.'' The Daniel between the lions in the Benedictine Nunnery
of Eichstadt in Bavaria is of later date.'
Special mention must be made of the beautiful Annunciation and Nativity
fragments discovered in the relic-chest in the Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran,*
neither of which can be later than the sixth century (Fig. 378).
Embroidery.
The method of working with the needle upon a finished textile with gold or
coloured thread dates from very ancient times," and accompanied the weaving
' For late Hellenic motives see Strzygowski, Prussian Jahrbiich, as above, and M. Di-eger,
as above, pp. 25, 35, &c. Cf. textile, man driving quadriga, in Louvre (Cahier and Martin,
Melanges d'archdologie, iv, PL XX) ; at Aix-la-Cliapelle (S. Beissel, Kunstschatze des Aachener
Kaiserdomes) ; Collection Li(5nard (G. Schlumberger, L'Jipopee, ii. 36). The vfinged horse,
seen on fragment from the Sancta Sanctorum {Monuments Piot, xv, 1906, 115, Fig. 19) and in
a fabric from Antinoe in the Musee Guimet at Paris, is perhaps an oriental form rather than
a representation of Pegasus. The ' Samson ' forcing open a lion's mouth, described as Chrisr
tian, may possibly have been intended for Hercules (H. Semper, Der Stil, i. 437). Examples
of this are in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 371), the Vatican {Mon. Hot, xv, 1906,
PI. XVIII), &e. Cf. Dreger, pp. 27, 31.
2 On this mixture of influences see Strzygowski, Jahrbuch, as above, 166 ff.
' F. Fischbach, Ornament of Textile Fabrics, PI. Ill ; A. Migeon, Les Arts du Ussu, Fig. on p. 22.
* Fischbach, PI. III. = Lessing, Prussian Jahrbuch, 1, 1880, 119-26.
° Anastasius mentions a great number of scenes from the life of Our Lord and the Virgin,
enumerated by Michel, 22 ff. Old Testament subjects aie far less frequent.
' Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, 117 : Chartraire et Prou, Mem. de la Soc. dp-s Ant. de Fraivx,
Iviii, 1899 ; Oh. de Linas, Revue des Sodetes savantes, ii, 1857 ; Ch. Uiehl, Jusiinien, 399, Fig. 138 ;
Gaussen, Portefeuille archeologique de la Champagne (coloured plates).
' Oahier and Martin, ii. 250, and PI. XVIII. Cf. the piece with similar subject at Sens,
the ' Sualre de Saint Victor ' (Schlumberger, L'lipopee. i. 405).
' Ph. Lauer, Mon. Piot, xv, 1906, PI. XV and XVIII ; H. Grisar, Die rSmische Kapelle Sancta
Sanctorum, PI. VI, VII.
1" Embroidery was in great request under all the early civilizations in Babylonia, Egypt,
Phoenicia, and the Mediterranean. About the fifth century e.c. figured garments went out
 EMBEOIDEEY
599
of figured stuffs throughout the period with which we are concerned. While
silk-weaving and tapestry-weaving flourished it was, however, of less conspicuous
importance than it became in the later centuries. Akhmim and other sites have
furnished a number of examples, chiefly with human figures, some dating perhaps
from the century before the Arab occupation.^ The most important surviving
examples of embroidery date, however, from the twelfth to the fourteenth
centuries. A few of these may be mentioned.

Fig. 378. The Annunciation : silk textile of the sixth-seventh century from the Saneta
Sanctorum, now in the Vatican Librarj'.

The omophorion at Grottaferrata,^ by some still ascribed to a date as early as

the twelfth or thirteenth century, is by others placed as late, or almost as late,
as. the inscription upon it (a. d. 1618). It is embroidered with New Testament
scenes : the Annunciation, Nativity, Baptism, Entry into Jerusalem, Transfigura-
of fashion in Greece, but after Alexander's time they regained favour, and were increasingly
used under the Roman Empire. See article Phrygio in Daremberg and Saglio. For Byzantine
embroideries once belonging to Pope Paul II, see Muntz, Les Arts a la Cour des Papes, ii, p. 207.
also F. Bock, Gesch. der liturgischen Geiomder, ch. ii. ,
' Examples in Victoria and Albert and other great museums. Figs, in R. Forrer,
Hamische und bys. Seiden-TextiUen aus . . . Achmim-Patiopolis, 13 and plates.
' Farabulini, Arch, ed arte rispetto ad uno raro moniimento greco, Rome, 1883 ; Gas. des Beaux-
Arts, 1905, 501 ; B. Q., 1905, 205 ; Muiioz, L'Arf hys. a VBxposition de Grottaferrata, 141-2 and
Pig. 100 ; H. Grisar, Cimlta CattoUca, 1897, 220 ; N. Kondakoff, Monuments d'art ehret. du Mont
Athos, 1902, 249. The omophorion, which roughly corresponds to the pallium of the Roman
Church, is of white silk, and the embroidery is upon applique bands and panels, four of whicli
are cruciform. '
600 TEXTILES

Won, Ascension, Pentecost, and Death of the Virgin. There is also a Panto-
krator Ijetween angels, saints, and prophets.
A similar divergence of opinion has existed with respect to the so-called
'Dalmatic of Charlemagne' (Figs. 4-3, 380) in St. Peter's, Rome.' This famous

Fi... !79. Embroidery m silk, of sixtli or seventli century, from Egypt.

(Victoria and Albert Museum.)

embroidery, which is of great beauty, was formerly assigned to any date from
the time of Charlemagne down to about the eleventh centur}\ As long as it
was commonly believed that Byzantine art was incapable of producing anything
1 A bibliography of the earlier literature is given by A. Colasanti, Nnnvo Bvll'ttI i,o di
arclieokxjia crisliaiia. 1902, 155. The principal earlier publications are: S. Boisseree, Uber die
Kaiser-Dahiialil.xi, &c., Munich, 1842; Didron, Aiiiudes ardicologiques, i. 151, and xxv. 288'
Bayet, VArt !>//;., 219 ; Peratti in Gazette dis Beanx-Aris, Second Period, xxxvi, 1887, ICC. See
also B.Z., ix, 1900, CUG-7 ; Brauu, in Betue de I'art chnHien, 1901, 52-4 ; Aicli. Journal, iv. 286.
A coloured reproduction is given in the Art Workers' Quarterli), .Ian., 1906. But the finest is
still that in F. Bock's Khinodicii. dvs Heiligt ii Boiiiisdien En'cJia. The principal defender.-, of an
earlier date are Perate and A. Colasanti, the latter arguing in favour of a period not later than
tl>e end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century. On the other side are Braun
and Dobbert iNciuivriniii, xv. 515). See also the ref., B. 2., 1900, COC-7.
 601
EMBEOIDEEY

of merit after the sack of Constantinople in a. d. 1204 there was force in the
argument that such fine work as this could not be posterior to that date. But
now that this belief has been abandoned the dalmatic is ascribed to the
fourteenth century, when embroidery was very extensively practised. This is
the opinion of perhaps a majority among modern critics.
Four subjects are embroidered upon the dalmatic in gold and coloured silk

Fie. 380. Embroidered dalmatic of the fourteenth century in the sacristy of St. Peter's,
Eome. Cf. Fig. 45. (Moscioni.)

thread upon a dark blue ground. On the front Our Lord, beardless (Emmanuel
type, see p. 672), is seated on the globe holding an open book on which are
inscribed the words of Matthew xxv. 34 ; before him are the choirs of angels
and the orders of the saints. The inscription is 'H avda-Taa-L'; Koi 17 ^w-^. On the
back is the Transfiguration. On the two shoulders is seen the Communion 6i
the Apostles, on the back the Transfiguration (Fig. 45).
Two pieces of embroidery now forming an antependium belonging to the
Collegiate Church of Castell' Arquato were bequeathed in a.d. 1314 by the
Patriarch of Aquileia.' The subjects are the two phases of the Communion of
' A. Munoz, L'Art iys. a VExposilion cle Grottafetraia, 130 ff., and VArie, 1905, 165 ; Baum-
stark, B. Q., 1905, 206 ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii. 355-6.
603 TEXTILES

the Apostles. The ground is of red silk, the embroidery of gold and blue silk,
the borders showing interlaced designs in green and two shades of blue. These
embroideries, the original use of which is uncertain, may perhaps be reckoned
among the earlier surviving examples of such work. The latest date as yet
assigned them is approximately that of the death of the patriarch in a. d. 1314,
while some suggest that they were already of some age at the time of the
becLuest and that they may go back to the eleventh or twelfth century.
Among the finer pieces of embroidery are various epitaphioi or ' shrouds ',
used in the Eastern Church upon Good Friday to cover the ceremonial bier of
Christ. The central subject embroidered upon them is the dead Christ mourned
by angels, the Virgin, St. John, other Apostles, and holy women. One in the
Church of St. Clement at Ochrida, Macedonia, has the name of Andronicus II
Palaeologus, and is of his time (a. d. 1282-1328).^ The Christ lies on the bier,
behind which are angels with rhipidia or liturgical fans. Another at Salonika
is of the fourteenth century at latest.^ More recent examples of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries are in the Monasteries of Dionysiu, Dochiaru, and
Chilandari on Mount Athos.'' Shrouds and other embroideries of Moldavian,
Servian, and Russian origin are discussed and reproduced by Kondakoff.*
In the Treasury of S. Marco at Venice there is an epitaphios, while in the
same place is another embroidery on violet silk with SS. Michael and Gabriel
holding sceptres and orbs, and an inscription describing it as the gift of
Constantino Comnenus, cousin of the Emperor Manuel.^ Most of the old
oriental textiles in S. Marco were destroyed in the fire of a.d. 1234.

Fabeics with Printed Designs, and other Stuffs.

Very interesting among East-Christian textiles, and perhaps among the

earliest of Christian figured stuffs, are the linen fabrics printed by reserve,
found in Egyptian cemeteries (chiefly Akhmim) and represented in various large
collections. Some of the finer specimens in Germany and Austria have been
discussed by Strzygowski," who observes that they were produced by a process
known to Pliny as practised in Egypt. The subjects are represented or outlined
in the natural colour of the linen upon grounds dyed blue or red, and it is clear
that before the stuff was immersed in the dyeing bath they were in some way
protected from contact with the colour. Pliny ' says that they were treated by
an agent which counteracted the effect of the dye. An ethnographical parallel
suggests that what was used was not any mysterious medicamentum, but simply
wax. In .lava and Sumatra the method of ornamenting figured cloths {batik}

1 Miliukoff, in Imestiya of tlie Russian Arch. Inst, at Cple., iv, 1899 ; N. Kondakoff, Monu-
ments of Christian Art on Mount Athos, 1902, 263 (Russian), and Macedonia, 1909, 243, Pi. IV".
Tliis slaroud has Evangelists' symbols at thiee corners, that of St. Mark being replaced by a
figure of a ciborium, with Greek insoi-iptions. The inscription is :
Mefjtvrjffo noifjiiiv BovKydpoiv kv (pvaiais
"AvaiCTOS * KvhpoviKOV IlaKawKoyov.
2 Kondakoff, Athos, p. 266 ; Letourneau and Millet in B. C. H., xscix, 1905, 259 ff.
' Kondakoff, Athos, PI. XLI-XLIII.
* Athos, 264-5, 267 ff., PI. XXXIX, XL, XLIV, XLV ; Macedonia, 243 ff. See also D. V.
Ainaloff,
Plates. Transactions of the Eighth Arch. Congress held at Moscow in 1890 (Moscow, 1897), 220 ff. and^
^ Ongania, II Tesoro di San Marco, 77-8 and PI. XIX ; Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, Second Period,
xxxvii, 1888, 392.
' Orient oder Bom, 90 ff. ; Dreger, pp. 30 ff. ; Diehl, Manuel, p. 78.
' Cf. Inlinentes non coloribus sed colorem sorbentibus medicamentis (Nat. Hist., xxxv. 42). It seems-
probable that Pliny was not altogether clear as to the process. He says that the fabric, when
the design has been protected, is plunged for a short time in coiiinam pigmenii ferventis. There
is no reason why the dye should be boiling ; on the other hand, a second immersion in boiling
water would be necessary to remove the wax. Pliny appears to have misunderstood his
informant, and compressed two distinct parts of the process into one. See Sir Stamford
Raffles, History of Java, 2nd ed., i. 188.
S

2
604 TEXTILES

is as follows.^ The part intended to form the background is painted over with
hot wax. The cloth is then dipped in the dye, which stains every part not
covered with wax. When the dye is fast, the cloth is boiled, by which means
the wax is removed and the pattern appears in the chosen colour in strong relief
against the light ground. The Javanese do not rest content with two colours,
but produce polychrome designs, repeating the process already described, but
now waxing the whole ground and only leaving unwaxed such portions of the
design in neutral tint as they wish to stain red, or whatever the second colour
may be. The method may obviously become a three or four-colour process ; but
as it is very tedious the number of tints is not usually large. In the Egyptian
examples only one bath of dj'e appears to have been used as a rule.
The more remarkable examples of these printed textiles are worthy of
special attention. They include large fragments at Berlin with Daniel '' and
Peter'' receiving a book (the Psalter) from Our Lord, the subject being ap-
parently akin to the Traditio Legis (see p. 664), fragments (all from one stuff?)
in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Nos. 721-3—1897, 1103—1900), in Berlin
and Leipzig with the Virgin and Child, the Annunciation, saints, and scenes
including Moses
collection of ; * P.
Dr. J. theEichter,
healing London,
of the with
man SS.
withMark,
the dropsy ; '" a Thomas
Peter, and piece in onthea
blue ground ; ^ a large piece with figures before an altar belonging to Dr. Forrer ; '
a piece on a green ground, now lost, with a scene from the life of Joseph."
We may in conclusion allude to another kind of work frequently found in
Coptic cemeteries. The surface of the linen textile is worked into loops at
frequent intervals, giving the whole a towel-like appearance. Upon this a
pattern is worked in coloured wool, frequently purple, drawn into long loops
and tufts, again giving the effect of a thick towel. The style was especially
employed for hangings, such as the large example with gammadia at the corners
in the Victoria and Albert Museum, attributed to the period between the sixth
and ninth centuries ; other examples are assigned to the Roman period.

Influence of Textiles on the Aets.

It has already been remarked (pp. 88, 93, 103, 165, 182) that on account of
their portability textiles at various times exerted an important influence upon
other arts, more especially those of mosaic, mural painting, and sculpture : among
such textiles those woven of silk were probably the most important. It has often
been observed that such mosaics as those in the vaulted roofs of Sta Costanza at
Rome bear a resemblance to those silk textiles in which the field is divided into
lozenge-shaped compartments each containing its own subject ; some of the
early frescoes have a similar affinity, for example at Kuseir 'Amra (p. 280), while
mosaic pavements may have been first suggested by the figured carpets produced
in ancient times in the Nearer East. We seem to trace a similar influence in
enamels ornamented with beasts and trees of oriental type, such as those on the
pala d'oro in S. Marco, Venice (p. 512).
' A photograph of Javanese women making iatik is published in The Women of all Nations,
ed. by T. A. Joyce and N. W. Thomas, 181.
^ Orient oder Rom, Pi. IV. The background red. In the Kunstgewerbe-Museum.
^ Ibid., PI. V. In veiy bad condition. As Strzygowski notes, the same subject adorned
one of the curtains suspended from tlie ciborium of Santa Sophia at Constantinople. See
Paulus
Onent OderSilentiarius' metrical description in Salzenberg's Altchristliche Baudenkmale, xviil, and
Rom, 100, 101.
* A Moses fragment in the collection of Dr. Keinhardt is figured by Strzygowski, PI. VI.
Moses receives the Tables of the Law ; in an upper zone there appears to have been subjects
from the New Testament. The background is blu?.
•'■ Orient oder Rom, PI. VII.
" R. Forrer,
Zeugdruches, 10. Die Zeugdrucke der btjzantinischen Kunstepochen, 11 and PI. II. s, and Kunst d(s
' Zeugdrucke, 11 and PI. II, Fig. 2.
" Orient oder Rom, 109.
 INFLUENCE OF TEXTILES ON THE AETS 605

The early sculptured slabs in low relief which were produced throughout the
Mediterranean area from the sixth to the eleventh century (p. 165) certainly owe
much to figured hangings.' The effect of textile motives upon minor sculpture
in ivory is apparent in the case of the ivory casket at Darmstadt.^
The ornament of Western Eomanesque sculpture probably owes much to the
influence of oriental models transmitted by means of textiles produced in Persia
or the Byzantine provinces from the sixth to the twelfth century.^ This is
especially evident in the case of capitals of columns, where confronted beasts
and ' sacred trees ' betray their Iranian or Mesopotamian origin. An example
specially quoted is a capital in the Church of Urcel, with two confronted lions
recalling such textiles as that at Le Mans.* We have already seen that Sassanian
textiles were copied by the Chinese about the seventh century (p. 591), and it is
possible that the Chinese conception of the lion was modified by Persian models
woven in silk.°
' W. Lowrie, Atti ni the Eleventh Int. Congress of Christian Archaeology held in Rome,
1900 (Rome, 1902), 43 ff. (especial reference to a large curtain with gammadia from Egypt,
resembling carved slabs in S. Clemente, Rome, &o.) ; Sesselberg in Zcitschri/t des deutschen
Paldstina-Vereins, xxiv. 152.
^ H. Graeven, Bonner Jahrbiicher, xii, 1903, 431.
' Lenormant in Cahier and Martin's Melanges d'arch. chritienne, i ; A. Springer, Ikonogra-
phisclie Siudien in Mitth. der k.k. Central-Commission, Vienna, 1860, v. 66 ff.; Durand in Didron's
Anrmles archeologiques, xxt, 1865, 152 ; B. Z., 1908, 293.
* Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1876, 402-3, the Pig. reproduced from Ch. Cahier's Noiiveaux
Milomges d'archeologie.
5 Metal-work probably shared in the dissemination of Persian influence. A Sassanian
ewer of metal is in the same Japanese treasure-chamber where the silk is preserved.
 CHAPTER XI

VARIOUS: POTTERY AND GLASS, METAL- WORK, WEIGHTS,

COINS, SEALS, ENGRAVED GEMS, &c.
POTTEKY.
The ceramic art of the Christian East is most abundantly illustrated by
unglazed ware of the First and Second Periods : later periods are at pre-
sent imperfectly illustrated.
The plain red or buff earthenware employed for common utensils in
Roman and earlier times naturally continued to be made in later cen-

FiG. 382. Pottery ampulla of the sixth century from Egypt : St. Menas between two
monsters. (British Museum.)

turies ; it is the material of the innumerable lamps and ampullae yielded

by excavations in all the Mediterranean countries, the latter group being
chiefly represented by the flasks brought by pilgrims from the well-known
shrine of St. Menas at Alexandria.^ Certain votive terra-cotta disks found
in the Tauric Chersonese and bearing figures of saints seem to have also
belonged to the class of eiXoytai, but since the designs are sunk, they
' See Index to B. Z., 1909, s.v. Ampullm ; M. A. Murray, British Museum, Catalogue of Early
Christian and Byz. Ant., 54 : Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i. 263 £f. ; K. M. Kaufmann, Ausgrabung der
Menas-HeiligtMtner, Cairo, 1906, and Die Menasstadt, 1910. Kaufmann believes that the flasks
were filled with water. For St. Menas and his legend see Revue de V orient Chretien, 1908, 212 ff.
The ' camels ' to right and left of St. Menas are now explained as sea monsters. See E. A. W.
Budge, Texts relating to St. Mena, 1909 ; and Chaine in Bev. de Vorient cfu-et., 1908, 212-18 ; B. Z.,
xix, 1910, 157.
 607
POTTERY

may have been used to stamp cakes given to pilgrims.^ These may be
also of about the sixth century.
A finer red ware with impressed designs was also made in Egypt,^
where also ware with figure reliefs resembling terra sigillata occurs at
an early date (Fig. 386). Excavations in the same country have given
us a paler unglazed ware with figures painted in black outline, sometimes
on a white slip. Such are numerous vases and vessels in the Kaiser
Friedrich Museum and at Cairo, and fragments from Bawit painted with

Fig. 383. Pottery lamps of about the sixth ceutui-y : that on the left an Egyptian ox-
Syrian type ; that on the right, with Jonah and the monster, of a type common in Carthage.
(British Museum.)

human heads, birds, fishes, &c.^ A fragment in the British Museum has a
figure of a saint.
The number of lamps of unglazed red ware, chiefly dating from the
fourth to the seventh centuries, is extremely large, and all great museums
contain examples.* They are especially numerous from North Africa,
Egypt, and Syria-Palestine, those with inscriptions in relief usually
coming from Egypt or Palestine. Three terra-cotta medallions in the
Treasury of Monza with figure subjects were probably brought from the
1 Latysheff in V. V., vi. 344 ff. SS. Phocas and George, -witlj Greek inscriptions.
* Examples in the British Museum, Catalogue, Nos, 923 ff. and refs. ; Garrucci, Storia,
PI. 466.
^ J. ClSdat, Mem. de V Inst, franf, d'arch. orientate du Caire, xii, 1904, 12, 66-7, 71, 147.
* British Museum, Cat. of Early Christian and Bys. Ant., pp. 138 ff., with references ; Wulff,
Berlin Catalogue, i. 243 ff. ; Garrucci, Storia, PI. 473-6 ; 0. Pelka, Koptische Altertiimer ini German-
ischen National-Museum, 1906, &o.
608 VAEIOUS OBJECTS

Holy Land, like the well-known metal ampullae.^ The large disk in the
Barberini Library, with Christ seated among six Apostles, while in
the foreground people stand with suppliant gestures, may also be noticed.^
Small pottery figures of men and animals, apparently votive, have
been found in numbers on the site of the Menas shrine.^
The bricks and tiles used in East-Christian buildings were often
stamped with marks and monograms;* but these marks belong to the
province of epigraphy ra.ther than to that of art; and the material
composition of the bricks has little interest for the study of ceramics.
The same may be said of the clay sealings of wine jars, not strictly
pottery, since they were not fired. Impressions with figure subjects
on pottery fragments, apparently of the sixth century, are of interest,
as for example one in the British Museum with St. Michael (Fig. 387).^
Great as is the variety of these objects of unglazed ware, their artistic
quality is seldom high, and perhaps the most attractive are the painted
jars and other vessels from Egypt, most of which are of the First Period.
East-Christian ceramic art becomes more interesting with the appearance
of wares covered with a vitreous glaze.
Siliceous glazes had been employed from very early times in Egypt,
and the blue or greenish Ushabti figures and other small objects so covered
go back to the third millennium B. 0. Pottery with a lead glaze " is thought
to have been first made in the first century B.C., when it appears on
various sites, at Alexandria, Tarsus in Asia Minor, and in the Allier district
of Gaul.'
It is interesting to note that green-glazed ware came into vogue in
China under the Han dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 220); and that a ceramic
revival of the fifth century is ascribed to potters from the Indo-Scythian
kingdom, who are reported to have improved the methods of producing
coloured glazes.^
Prof. Petrie's discovery in 1909-10, at the south end of Memphis, of
kilns for baking glazed potterj^, with a large number of fragments of
vessels, is of much interest for the early history of glazing ware." The date
is considered to be between a.d. 1 and A.d. 50, a fragment of a lamp of
known type permitting this conclusion. The glazed sherds are of great
interest both from their colouring and their design. The chief colour is
a deep indigo blue, lighter blues, manganese purple, and apple green.

1 X. Barbiei- de Montault, Bulletin monumental, 5" sSrie, xi, 1883, 144.

•■' G-arrucci, Stm-ia, PI. 465-0. s q. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i. 282 ff.
* Cf. tile in British Museum, Cat. of Early Christian Antiquities, No. 928. Dr. Mordtmann's
Collection froni Constantinople is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, but not at present
catalogued (cf. 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i. 298). At the Mosque of Eski Djuma (Church of
Hagia Paraskevi), Salonika, the ' rectangular ' monograms of early sixth-century type occur
upon loose bricks detached from the original building.
5 Catalogue, No. 930.
° H. Mazard, De la connaissance par les amiens des glamres plombiferes, 1879.
' British Museum, Catalogue of Soman Pottery, by H.B. Walters, 1908, p. xi.
' S. W. Bushell, Introduction to the Catalogue of the J. P. Morgan Collection of Chinese
porcelain, 1907.
' W. M. F. Petrie, Memphis and Meydum, 1910.
 609
POTTERY

The designs are almost entirely Persian, showing little, if any, direct Greek
influence. Winged bulls, confronted beasts, 'sacred tree', &c., all occur;
and the problem arises whether this Persian character points to some
oriental revival of the art of making glazed pottery. A question of even
greater interest concerns the employment of tin glaze. There seems no
particular reason why such a glaze should not have been used about the
beginning of our era, as it was certainly known in more ancient times.^
It is possible that the Constantine bowl in the British Museum ^ may

Fig. 384. Two terra-ootta lamps of about the sixth century : that on the left from Beyrut,
that on the right from Abydos, Egypt. (British Museum.)

afford an example of this, though the opaque white of its surface may be
produced by applying a clear glaze over a white slip. The bowl has in
the interior (Fig. 385), under the glaze, an incised figure of Our Lord and an
inscription relating to Constantine and Fausta, showing it to have been
made before A.n. 329. The exterior is ornamented with a chequer of blue
and white.
The Constantine bowl stands alone, and we know little of the art of
making fine glazed ware in Early Christian times. But as glazed pottery
appears at the beginning of the Arab occupation in Egypt, and lustred
glazed ware with Cufic inscriptions not later than the tenth century has
been found in the ruins of Fostat,^ the conclusion is suggested that an
' Oxide of tin was used for glazing Babylonian bricks (De la Beche and Reeks, Catalogue of
Specimens illustrative of the Composition and Manufacture of British Pottery and Porcelain, 30-2).
2 Catalogue of Early Christian and Byz. Ant., No. 916. The authenticity of this bowl, once
doubted by Strzygowski {Orient oder Som, 61 ff.), is now accepted by him {B. Z., x. 734, xi. 671),
and he has defended it against a more recent attack by Mgr. Wilpert. Ceramic experts
who have examined this interesting object do not believe it to be of modern date.
' Dr. P. K. Martin considers that the oldest lustred ware was intended to imitate gilding
{Burlington Magazine, xvii, April, 1910, 46). He says that in the oldest pieces no Mohammedan
ornament is seen, only such designs as occur on the Coptic red earthenware painted in black
(fish, birds, &c.). Arab examples occur of the Tulunid, or at any rate pre-Fatimite, period.
Dr. Martin thinks that the makers of the beautiful Fatimite lustre were probably Copts.
1204 K r
610 VARIOUS OBJECTS

advanced ceramic art flourished in the country without intermission, and

that the Saracenic potters were instructed by the Copts. Dr. A. J. Butler,
who developed this view,i rightly supported it by allusion to the general
prosperity of industrial Egypt in the period just prior to the Moslem
invasion.^ It seems quite probable that the finer ceramic products of
Syria and Persia, dating from the thirteenth and later centuries, were
first inspired by Egyptian potters who left the Nile valley after the

Pig. 385. Interior of the ' Constantine bowl ' of glazed earthenware : fourth century.
(British Museum.) P. 609.

destruction of Fostat in the middle of the twelfth century. The mounds

of Fost&.t have yielded, in addition to these finer wares, bowls and frag-
ments of glazed sgraffiato ware, in which the clay body is first coated with
a slip, the design then incised in the slip so as to expose the ground, and
the whole finally covered with a lead glaze. It is remarkable that while
Mohammedan potters in Asia continued the finer Egyptian process of
lustre, the Christian potters of the Mediterranean area seem to have
confined themselves to such incised and lead-glazed pottery. This is almost
all that we have to show as 'Byzantine', though much of it seems by
no means exclusively Greek. It is widely diffused, being found at Con-
' Burlington Magazine, October, 1909, 19 if.
' See his earlier work, The Arab Conquest of Egypt, ch. yii and xxiv, and p. 490.
 POTTEEY 611

stantinople itself, ^ on the Black Sea^ (Chersonese, Theodosia, &c.), in the

Caucasus, at Ephesus, at Salonika, at Sparta, and bears a close resemblance
to the ta,zze found in Cyprus and the Italian sgraffiato ware of the period
between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.^ Less common than the
sgraffiato fragments are those with a similar glaze but with subjects in
relief apparently impressed with a mould.*
It seems reasonable to infer that Egypt was the centre from which

Fie. 386. Terra-cotta relief of the fourth-fifth century, perhaps imitating a figure on an
ivory diptych : Cairo Museum. {Catalogue-general : Koptische Kunst, No. 8978.) P. 607.

this glazed ware spread to the various countries where Egyptian commerce
penetrated. The style of decoration is everywhere similar ; and though
Constantinople itself and parts of Anatolia are at present regarded as
Hie chief centres of its later production, it may well be that it was
1 J. Ebersolt, Cat. des poteries bye. et anatoliennes da Musee de Constantinople, 1910.
2 Examples in the Stieglitz Museum at St. Petersburg. Cf. V. de Bock, Poteries vemissees
du Caucase et de la Crimee in Memoires de la Sooiete des Aniiquaires de France, Ivi, 1897, 1-62 ; Von
Stern, Theodosia and its Ceramics, Odessa, 1906 (German and Russian). The route from Egypt to
Russia may have been via Syria and Armenia. Cf. also N. Kondakoff, Bussian Treasures, i. 41,
and B. Z., xvii. 282.
' Orvieto, Viterbo, and Siena appear, by civic records, to have been the most ancient
centres of mediaeval ceramic art in Italy (A. Imbert, Ceramiche Orvietane dei Secoli XIII e
Jnv, Rome, 1909 : M. Solon's review, Burlington Magazine, October, 1909, 10 ff.).
* Examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum and at Berlin have been finely repro-
duced by Mr. Henry Wallis in his Byzantine Ceramic Art. The same author has discussed other
pieces of interest in Persian Ceramic Art in the Collection of Mr. F. Bucane Godman, 189 1 , Appendix,
39 ff. For the Berlin examples see 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, ii, 1911, nos. 2002 ff. and
PI. XVIII, XXIX.
Rr 3
612 VARIOUS OBJECTS

produced at a number of different sites situated at considerable dis-

tances from each other. The common feature lies in its somewhat
primitive character. Pottery of this kind is easy to make, and is apt
to appear at any period when the manufacture of superior wares is
either unknown or in abeyance: the sgraffiato slip-wares made in
England in the seventeenth century afford a case in point. Probably
the mediaeval potters of the Mediterranean countries made this simple
ware because they were unable to rival the fine pottery which Egypt,
Syria, and Mesopotamia had long manufactured; and
if such pottery really represents Byzantine achievement
in the Third and Fourth Periods, then the East-Eoman
Empire was behind the Mohammedan states in ceramic
art and in no sense their teacher. It may be that far
finer wares may be discovered when systematic excava-
tions are undertaken; and it is difficult to believe
Fig. 387. Stamp
of the sixth century ^-j^^^ g^ elaborate a civilization as that of the East-Eoman
on red pottery frag- Empire, SO luxurious, SO distinguished for skill in other
seum ■) P^eos "' industrial
proficiency arts, should of
in ceramics have remained
which content
a Persian wouldwith
havea
been ashamed.^ Future research may have surprises in store ; if it leads
to no more profitable results than those at present attained, it will be
necessary to conclude that the people of the Byzantine Empire preferred
to make all their finer vessels of other materials than clay. The circular
disks or dishes of faience inlaid in the walls of churches in parts of Greece,^
especially the Morea and Mount Athos,^ and ornamented with rosettes,
concentric circles, floral and geometrical designs, are attributed to Ehodes
or Constantinople, but it seems probable that they are of Mohammedan
origin.
Glass.
(See also chapter on Enamel, p. 494.)
Of East-Christian glass we know even less than of East-Christian
pottery. More fragile and far more subject to decay, it has survived in
lamentably few examples.
In the vitreous, as in the ceramic art, Egypt led the way. It is well
known that Roman Italy developed the manufacture of glass through
her close connexion with that country,* and the influence of Alexandria
1 Theophilus {Siversarum artium schedula, ii, ch. xvi) ascribes painted ware to ' the Greeks',
the designs being ' circles or arches or squares, and in tliem beasts, birds, or leaves'. The
description cannot refer to the sgraffiato wares, as there is mention of colours, ground singly,
with which the painting is done. Cf. H. Wallis, Persian Ceramic Art (Godman Collection), as
above, 45.
2 Luka, Chrysapha, Mistra ; in Argolis at Merbaka, &c. (A. Struck, Vier bys. Kirchen der
Argolis in Ath. Mitth. 1909, 227. See also Karabacek, Zur rmisKmischen Keramik, in Oesterr.
Monatsschriftenfur den Orient, 1885).
' Iviron, Lavra, &c. (H. Brockhaus, Die Kunstin den Athasklostern, 254 ff.).
* E. Dillon, Glass (The Connoisseur's Library), ch. iii. After Justinian's edict of a. n. 529,
Egyptian glass-makers are said to have dispersed themselves over the empire (Kondakoff,
Enamel, 78).
 GLASS 613

extended through the Asiatic no less than through the European provinces.
In Roman times the Holy Land and Syria were great centres of produc-
tion, but the plainer kinds of glass must have been produced in many
places. Documentary evidence is not abundant. The Theodosian Code
mentions, among craftsmen exempt from certain taxation, Vitrearli, vasa
vitrea confiantes;'^ while Constantine Porphyrogenitus states that the
Emperor Romanus Leeapenus sent seventeen glass vessels to Italy, though he
omitted to describe their nature.^ Illustrations of vessels, which from their
transparency are presumably of glass, are not infrequent in illuminated

Fig. 388. Glass bowl with enclosed gold ornament from Canosa, probably made in Egypt
in the third century a. d. (British Museum.)

MSB., mosaics, and frescoes. Such are the small phials with globular
body and straight neck seen upon the desks of the seated Evangelists
whose portraits are placed at the beginning of their Gospels.^ In the
mosaics on the north wall of the Church of St. Demetrius at Salonika,
which are not later than the sixth century, we see a hanging lamp appa-
rently of glass. This object has a foot, and bears a general resemblance
to Saracenic and Turkish mosque lamps of the thirteenth and later centuries,
though it is apparently of plain undecorated glass.

The well-known gilded glasses of the Eoman catacombs need not all be of
Egyptian origin, though the connexion of this kind of decoration with Egypt is
demonstrated by the existence of pre-Christian examples which can only have been
made in Alexandria ; such are the bowls from Canosa (Fig. 388) now in the British
1 Cf. Dillon, as above, 96.
' De Caerimoniis, ii, xlv, p. 661 (Bonn edition). Cf. also J. Fowler, Archaeologia, xlvi, p. 93.
^ e. g. British Museum, Arundel MS. 547, Gospels of the tenth century, miniature repre-
senting St. Mark.
614 VARIOUS OBJECTS

Museum.' But the iconographical types bear evidence of oriental influence, for
instance the scene known as the Traclitio Legis (p. 664).'' Theophilus, the mediaeval
writer on technical processes of the industrial arts, asserts that in his time gilded
glass cups were still made ' by the Greeks ', who protected the gilded designs by
an upper layer of glass in the old fashion.' It is possible that work of this kind
may have come to his notice in Sicily.
Certain objects disinterred from cemeteries in the district of Caltagirone in
Sicily are perhaps typical of the kind of glass-ware in use in the Mediterranean in
the
beadsearlier Middle forms
of various Ages.*andThecolours.
types include
In theplain beakers have
cemeteries and jugs, and there
occurred coins are
of
Maurice Tiberius (a.d. 582-601), and the interments are considered pre-Moham-
medan. The beaker with expanding lips, a type known on other sites of Roman
date, assumes a form recalling that of the richly enamelled Saracenic glasses of later
times, to which it probably formed a transition. It may well be, as Orsi maintains,
that the great centre of diffusion for glass vessels and beads was Syria ; it was
to Syrian technical traditions that both the Venetian and the Saracenic glass-
workers owed their inspiration. Polychrome beads from these Sicilian interments
are rare ; but they exist, and present an analogy to those of Castel Trosino and
of early Teutonic graves in Central and West Europe and in England ; a
similar analogy exists in the case of bronze buckles, whidli in Sicily are some-
times ornamented with Greek cruciforat monograms.'* Of other glass belonging
to the First Period we know little or nothing. The small glass money- weights,"
of which examples are found in several museums,' are chiefly of the sixth century,
and are of interest from the names of the officials moulded in relief upon their
upper surfaces ; but technically they are unimportant, being composed of a
common greenish glass of a single tint (Fig. 389). Similar in character are
certain small flat circular pendants for necklaces, found chiefly in Syria, with
the Good Shepherd and other early subjects.*
The most remarkable of the rare surviving examples of Byzantine glass are
of the Third Period, and presei-ved in the Treasury of S. Marco at Venice. We
may notice in the first instance the fine cup with enamelled and gilded
ornament.' The method of decorating glass by designs painted upon the
surface and fixed by a subsequent firing had been employed in Roman times.
But in the examples presumed to be of Roman date the designs are thinly
applied ; they lack the gem-like brilliance and depth of the oriental enamelled
glass, which began in the twelfth century and reached its climax in the beautiful
mosque lamps, bowls, beakers, flagons, and candlesticks of the two centuries
which followed.'" These qualities the cup in San Marco in some measure possesses,
and this perhaps affords some reason for ascribing it to a later date than the
Roman period." The cup, which is of purple glass, is of small size (height,
^ H. Vopel, AUchristliche Ooldgldser (in J. Fickei-'s series) ; Dalton, in Archaeological Journal,
Iviii, 1901, 225 ff., where the Canosa bowls are figured. In the ' gilded glasses ' the subjects
are reserved in gold-foil, in which the details are etched, and the whole is protected by a
second layer of glass fused to the first.
^ 0. Wulff, Eepertorium, xxiii. 318 ff.
' Schedula cKversarmn artium, ii, ch. 15. Published in E. Heudrie's Loudon edition, 1847,
and by Ilg in Eitelberger's Quellenschriften, vii, 1874.
* Orsi, B. Z., 1910, 70 ff. 5 B. Z., as above, 72.
° A useful list is given by Seymour de Kicci, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., xxiv, 1901, 56-7 and
97-107. See also B. Z., vii, 1898, 603 (Mordtmann) ; B. C. H., xxxi, 1907, 321 ff. (Grfeoire) ;
JEchos oCorient, 1907, 199, 302 (L. Petit).
' Those in the British Museum are described in the Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzan-
tine Antiquities, Nos. 660 ff. s n,i(i,_ Nqs. 697 ff.
^ Ongania, La Basilica ^di San Marco, PI. XL, No. 78, and XH, No. 82; Molinier, Le Tresor
de la basilique de Saint-Marc, 58 n. ; E. Dillon, Glass, 66 and 102. See also J. Tikkanen,
Acta Sodetatis Scientiarum Fennicae, xvii. 321.
1" Oriental enarnelled glass was probably first made in Egypt, but Syria soon became dis-
tinguished for its manufacture. Venice learned to enamel glass in the fifteenth century.
" Most earlier critics, and lately Mr. Dillon, have maintained the Roman date. Molinier,
Tikkanen and others consider it Byzantine.
 GLASS 615

0-080 m. ; diam. 0-120 m.) and mounted in silver-gilt in a Byzantine style.

Kound the body are seven enamelled medallions containing figure subjects of
a' purely pagan character, and in the interspaces between these are smaller
medallions each containing a head in profile with golden diadem, and suggesting
the imitation of coin types. In the interior of the rim, and at the base of the
cup, are bands of pseudo-Cufic inscription, thinly applied and not laid on in
impaste like the remaining decoration. The classical style of the figure subjects
has doubtless decided many in favour of the first centuries of our era. The
early date granted, it is easy to suppose the inscriptions a later addition,
especially as they differ somewhat from the figures in the manner of their
application. But the non-Christian character of the figures is not itself an
important factor : it is found on the well-known Byzantine ivory caskets, which
it seems impossible to assign to so early a period as the fourth century (p. 214) ;
and these caskets are also decorated with heads resembling coin types in small
medallions. In addition to this, the Cufic inscriptions appear to be illegible,
as if they had been used as mere decoration by an artist who did not understand
their meaning. But as such use of Cufic is a recognized feature in Byzantine
ornament (p. 711), it appears on the whole preferable to follow Molinier in giving

Pia. 389. Glass money-weights of the sixth century. (British Museum.)

the cup to Byzantine rather than Eoman art, and ascribing it to the ninth or
tenth century.
The Treasury of S. Marco contains, among many chalices, bowls, lamps, and
patens,^ several of glass which are probably of Byzantine origin. They are of
clear or greenish glass, the ornament, where it exists, taking the form of conical
or button-like projections, apparently applied, or ringed disks and other motives
sculptured in the glass body. Some are sculptured with animals in relief; these
are of oriental appearance and perhaps of oriental origin, recalling similar
objects carved in rock crystal. The patens assume the form of the plate
or the shallow bowl ; the lamps are bucket shaped or resemble a balance-
pan." One has an inscription on its silver mount mentioning Zachariah,
Archbishop of Iberia, a fact which may possibly connect this group of glass
vessels with Georgia. The conical glass cups used for insertion in the metal
coronae or poli/candela (cf. Fig. 395) suspended in churches, and probably
also in houses, are not represented in the treasury ; they must have been in use
from the early centuries of our era, as they are mentioned by Paul the Silentiary
as contributing to the illumination of Santa Sophia in a.d. 563.^ As small,
common, and easily broken objects they were naturally more exposed to
1 Lamps— Pasiai, PI. LIV, Nos. 123-7 ; Dillon, PI. XI. Pafens— Pasini, PI. XLIX,
Nos. 107-10. Chalices— Fasini, PI . XXXI, Nos. 76 and 77. M. Schlumberger has figured many,
if not all, of these chalices and patens in his Nicephm-e Phocas and L'Mpapee. Mr. Dillon,
pp. lOOff., gives a convenient list of those vessels in Pasinl's work which he regards as
possibly of Byzantine manufacture. They are also enumerated, with references to Pasini's
plates, in Molinier's Le Tresor de la basilique de Saint-Marc, Venice, 1888.
" The resemblance of certain lamps to a balance-pan is noted by Paul the Silentiary in
his description of Sfca Sophia. He says that such lamps had a single central light, and this
may have been the earliest an-angemcnt.
' ' Shaped like the ovpiaxos or butt of the spear.' The passage is given in Lethaby and
Swainson's The Church of Sancta Sophia, 50 ff. This form was used independently of a metal
mount in the early Middle Ages in the West ; it is frequently seen suspended from ciboria or
arches in illuminated MSS. of Carollngian or Romanesque date.
616 VARIOUS OBJECTS

destruction than vessels of greater worth, and would not have been brought
to Italy by crusaders. The small apertures in the pierced marble plates fiUing
church windows were probably filled with glass.
Glass pastes simulating engraved gems, familiar to the Greeks and Bomans,
were probably known in the East-Eoman Empire as long as intaglio and cameo
gems remained popular ; but actual examples are practically unknown in the
First Period. To the Third Period belongs a class of rather large cameo pastes,
usually oval, with figures of Our Lord, the Virgin, and saints with their names
beside them. Some examples have the descriptive names in Greek, others in
Latin, yet the style is in both cases very similar. They have been discovered
in the most widely distant sites : at Akhmim (Panopolis) in Egypt, at Smyrna, at
Athens ; and we may perhaps surmise that the manufacture began in the East,
providing models imitated by contemporary Western glass-makers. These
pastes, which are to be found in most large museums, are for the most part of
about the twelfth century. Greek examples in the British Museum represent
Our Lord, the Virgin, and SS. Theodore, Demetrius, and Nicholas.^

J<'io. 390. Cameo glass pastes of about the twelfth century. (British Museum.)

Bbonze Dooes: Vakious Metal-work.

It may appear incongruous to include in a chapter containing miscel-

lanea objects of so monumental a character as these church doors. But
since Byzantine metal-work on a great scale is exceedingly rare, while
on the other hand smaller objects in bronze are too miscellaneous, and
often of too small merit, to call for description in a special chapter, the
incongruity may perhaps be allowed to pass.
The decoration of the doors is chiefly by encrustation with silver, after
the style illustrated on a small scale by the exagia (p. 621). The method,
if not already practised on large objects as early as the sixth century,
had certainly been extended to them by the ninth century, to which date
the door of Ma'mun in the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem is ascribed.^
This style of damascening may well have been of Eastern introduction,
and have been adopted in the empire in the First Period. Whether this

1 Catalogue,
V 6I11C6, Nos. 686 ff. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, ii, p. 65, assigns these reliefs to
2 A.D. 831 (Becker in Zeitschrift filr Assyriologie, 1904, 105; M. von Borohem, InsaHpUona
arabes de Syne, 8, and PI. II, 4). 'if
 617
BRONZE DOORS

Fig. 391. Bronze door of the ninth century, Sta Sophia, Constantinople, with monograms
inlaid with silver. (Sebah and Joaillier.)
618 VAEIOUS OBJECTS

was so or not, it was always popular among the Moslems of Mesopotamia,

Syria, and Egypt from the thirteenth century onwards, and was by them
transmitted to Italy.^
The oldest and most beautiful of the Byzantine bronze doors are those of
Sta Sophia, Constantinople, with inscriptions mentioning the Emperors Theo-
philus and Michael and the year a.d. 838.^ The panels, which bear monograms
and other ornament damascened in silver, are framed in borders cast in relief
and enriched with bosses and scrolls, the whole in an admirable style (Fig. 391),
suggesting that the founders, had they devoted themselves to the production of
figures, would probably have left us W9rk of no inconsiderable merit.
The examples still preserved in Italy' were mostly given by a rich merchant
of Amalfi named Pantaleon, and by his son and grandson. This family possessed
a house in Constantinople, and its members were familiar with contemporary
Byzantine art. Those of Amalfi are composed of twenty-four plaques, twelve
fixed upon the wood of each valve and framed by bands of metal fixed by nails.
On sixteen of the plaques are nailed bronze crosses rising from divergent
foliage. The four middle compartments bear the figures of Our Lord, the
Virgin, St. Peter, and St. Andrew engraved or punched in outline. The lines
are filled partly by hammered silver, partly by red and green enamel (?), and
the faces and extremities are covered by thin plates of silver on which the
features and details are first engraved, then filled with a black substance.
A long inscription under the figure of St. Andrew indicates that the doors are
the gift of Pantaleon, son of Mauro ; and as this personage is known to have
been dead in a. d. 1066, the doors must be rather earlier than this date.* Six
lions' heads with rings in their mouths serve as handles." These were the
doors which in a. d. 1066 must have excited the admiration of Desiderius, Abbot
of Monte Cassino,* who ordered another pair for his own monastery,' through
Mauro, son of Pantaleon. His doors, still at Monte Cassino, are of a simpler
design than those of Pantaleon. The decorated panels bear nothing but crosses
like those at Amalfi ; on those undecorated is a long inscription giving the
names of all the churches subordinated to the abbey.
In the year a. d. 1070 Pantaleon the j'ounger, son of Mauro, presented to
the Church of St. Paul without the Walls at Eome, served by Benedictines
depending upon Monte Cassino, a pair of doors of far finer quality.' Here all
the ornamentation was damascened or filled with niello (?). There was a whole
series of figures of apostles, saints, and prophets, and scenes from the New
Testament, from the Nativity to the Descent into Hell ; several compartments
were occupied with crosses ; another had a long Latin inscription with the
names of Pantaleon, Pope Alexander II, and the Archdeacon Hildebrand.
Pantaleon himself was represented kneeling at the feet of St. Paul. These
doors were seriously damaged by fire and now only fragments remain.
Six years later, in a. d. 1076, the same Pantaleon presented bronze doors to
Monte Gargano.^ The compartments are filled with damascened figures of
' 'Saracenic' metal-work (cisterns, bowls, candlesticks, salvers, writing-boxes, tables,
&c.) is represented in the great museums in London, Paris, Berlin, and other cities, as also
are the derivative products of the Venetian asziminist.-
2 Salzenberg, AUchristliche Baudenkmiiler mn Constmitinopel ; Lethaby and Swainson, Tlie
Church of Sancta Sophia at Constantinople.
* E. Bertaux, L\4.rt dans I'llalie ineridionale, i. 403 ff. ; H. W. Scliulz, Benkmaler der Eunst des
Mittelalters in Unterilalien, ii. 228-45.
* Bertaux, as above, 405.
° There is some doubt whether these were also made in Constantinople.
' See AVatten bach's edition of the Chronicles of Monte Cassino, Mon. Geiin. Script., vii. 711.
' D'Aginoourt, Jiistoire de V art par Us monuments, iv, PI. XIII-XX; 'Bayet, L'Artlysantin,
206, Fig. 69 ; Bertaux, as above, 405-6 : Kicolai, Delia iasilica di San Paolo, Rome, 1815,
PI. 11-17.
' Bertaux, 406 ; Schulz, i. 243 ff. and Atlas PI. XXXIX ; Huillard-Brgholles, Monuments
des Normands, &c., PI. V ; S. Borgia, Memorie di Benevento, Eome, 1763, i. 177.
 BEONZE DOOES 619

angels representing episodes from the victory over Lucifer down to the appear-
ance of St. Michael to the Bishop of Siponto. The inscription mentions
Pantaleon by name, states that the doors were cast in Constantinople, and
contains a recommendation that they should be cleaned once a year in the
manner explained by the donor.
In A. D. 1087 the son of this Pantaleon, himself bearing the same name,
presented to the Church of Atrani near Amalfi doors almost identical with those
given to the cathedral of that town about twenty years before : ^ the principal
difference is that the figure of St. Sebastian replaces that of St. Andrew.

Fig. 392. Bronze weights, inlaid with silver : that on the left, 2 oz., that on the right, 3 oz.
^British Museum.) P. 621.

In the same period of the eleventh century a noble of Salerno named

Landulf Butromile, determined to rival the munificence of the patricians of
Amalfi, presented to the cathedral of his native city bronze doors in like manner
ordered in Constantinople.^ These doors are also an imitation of the doors
given to Amalfi by the first Pantaleon : the crosses in relief are identical in
each case. But the Salerno doors are far larger, with fifty-four panels to
twenty-four. Eight have designs damascened in silver ; one bears the inscrip-
tion in six hexameters dedicating the gift to St. Matthew ; on another, two
gryphons drink at a fountain ; the rest have figures of Our Lord, the Virgin,
SS. Peter, Paul, Simon, and Matthew, the names of the last four being in Latin :
the donor and his wife Guisa are seen to right and left of St. Matthew. The
inlay in the figure subjects is now for the most part lost.
The makers of this series of doors are only recorded in two cases. On one
of the crosses of the Amalfi doors it was formerly possible to read the name of
Simeon.' On the doors of St. Paul without the Walls the name of Staurakios
was engraved in a cursive hand.*
The doors of the narthex in the Cathedral of S. Marco at Venice are held by
some to be a gift of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, by others to have formed
part of the spoil of a.d. 1204.'^ Each valve has fourteen panels framed in borders
1 Sohulz, ii. 259 and 285, Fig. 116.
' Schulz, as above, ii. 285, Fig. 115 ; PI. LXXXV, Figs. 4 and 5 ; Bayet, VArt bysantin, 205,
Fig. 68 ; G-. Clausse, Basiliques et mosaiques, &c., ii. 14 If.
' Camera, Storia d' Amalfi, 2nd ed., i. 155.
* 'EKa/iiiffri ^eipl e/iov Sravpaxiov rod x^tov oi dvayiyvwaicovTes evxfffSe vir' ijiov.
' Ongan ia. La Basilica di S. Uarco, v, PI . 1 9 1 , A ' ; Ch. Errard and A. Gayet, VAH bysantin,
Pt. I, Venise, PI. II and III.
620 VAEIOUS OBJECTS
with conventional foliate designs, of which the upper twelve have each a saint
standing beneath a rounded arch, the lower two, animals, birds and foliate
designs in geometrical compartments. The figures are damascened in silver,
and each is accompanied ]>y a name similarly encrusted. Other doors after the
Byzantine style were made for S. Marco in the twelfth century.^ The damas-
cened doors of the Mausoleum of Bohemond at Canosa, b}' Roger of Amalfi.^
introduce ornament of a Saracenic character ; those of the Cathedral of Troja, by
Oderisius of Benevento, also retain the method of encrustation. In the second

Fig. S03. Bronze censer of about the seventh century. (Britiish Museum.)

half of the twelfth century, Italians preferred to decorate their doors with
figures in relief, though even here they resorted to Byzantine ivories as models
for their subjects (cf. p. 220).'
The Byzantine style of damascening bronze doors was imitated in Russia,
where gold was employed as well as silver, and the scenes represented are more
elaborate. The finest doors are at Suzdal, and are of the thirteenth century.
Those from Novgorod, now at Alexandrova,' are a century later, and already
show a more decidedly Russian character. On Mount Athos there are finely
damascened doors with very elaborate ornamentation of animals, monsters, and
scrolls.''
^ Ventiu'i, Sforia, ii. 056 ; E. Bertnux, VAri dansV ItaVcineridiomde, 409. One door w.is made
for Leo di Molino, procurator of the fabric ; another, with crosses in relief, is of tlie twelfth
centnrv. " Bertanx, as above ; Diehl, Mannd^ 6S4 ; Venturi, ii. .552.
' boors at Trani, &c. (Venturi, ii. 553 ff. ; Bertaux, 421).
* a. Millet in A. Michel, Hist, de Pari, iii. 900.
'' N. Kondakoft', Jlonnmcnts of Cliristian Art on Mount Athos, PI. XXXVIII ; Diehl, Manuel,
809, 810.
 METAL-WOEK 621

The bronze exagia'^ or metal money-weights (Figs. 42, 392) deserve

mention because the denomination was so frequently deeply engraved and
inlaid with silver, and this process is essentially the same as that adopted
on a larger scale upon the bronze doors. The unit is the solidus or
v6ix.i(riJ.a, and both the Greek and Latin denominations are employed ; the
weights range from fractions of the solidus, to the ounce (six solidi), the
pound, and two or three pounds, the abbreviations No or SOL usually
representing the unit, F the ounce, and A the pound. Besides these signs

1^^^
they bear the names or monograms chiefly of prefects or proconsuls, but

M r
r
s

Fig. 394. Development of the censer, Fig. 393.

occasionally of princes. Sometimes there are busts which may be imperial,

and more rarely figures of saints, a remarkable pound weight with two
military saints being in the British Museum (Fig. 42). The date of
most examples is the sixth century : examples of the later periods do not
appear to be known. They are usually flat, and either rectangular or
circular. Some weights, however, are of the spheroidal form of Roman
times. Exagia were used by Theodoric in Italy, and several examples
bear his name.^

Other Small Objects of Metal.^

The censers which have been preserved belong chiefly to the First and Second
Periods, and have globular or hexagonal (cf. Figs. 351, 393) bodies and low foot-
rims, for which three separate feet are sometimes substituted. Most of them are

1 Examples in the British Museum, see Gat. of Early Christian and Bys. Ant., 'Son. 425 ff. and
references there'' given. Examples in Algerian museums. Rev. arch., July-December, 1903,
p. 80. Cf. also B.Z., ix (1900), pp. 477, 668 (Papageorgiu and Papadopoulos Kerameus) ;
'ABipiatov, vil, 1878, p. 263 (Papadopoulos Kerameus) ; G. Schlumberger, Monuments byzantins
inedits in Florilegium Melchior de Yogiii, 562, &c.
* Brit. Mus. Catalogue, No. 444 ; another with monogram of Theodoric (?) is in the Dutuit
Collection, Petit Palais, Paris.
' See especially the Catalogues of the British, Cairo, and Kaiser Friedrich Museums.
623 VAEIOUS OBJECTS
without covers, and suspended from chains ; but in a few examples a handle is used
instead of chains and there is a pierced domical cover. ^ A considerable group
of bronze censers with New Testament subjects in high relief (Fig. 393) appears
to date from the sixth or seventh century; and perhaps originated in Palestine.
Examples of this type, represented in many museums, come from Egypt, Syria,
Anatolia, and even the Crimea.'* In later times, if we may judge from repre-

FiG. 395. Bronze lamp-holder {^polycandelon) for glass lamps. (British Museum.)

sentations in miniatures, the usual type of censer resembled a cup or chalice

with a rather high foot : it also seems to have had no cover.
Metal lamps in the First Period continued the traditions of Early Christian
times : they preserve in general the old forms, and are often provided with
stands. Such lamps were in use at any rate down to the seventh century.'
Church lamps for numerous lights (polycandela) often took the form of
a pierced disk or corona suspended by chains and containing a number of
separate receptacles for oil, probably of glass.* These are also represented in
museums (cf. Fig. 895) ; one at Cairo has the apertures not in the circle itself,
but at the extremities of radiating projections.^
• Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i, No. 980.
' The example in the British Museum (Catalogue, No. 5i0) is from Syria. For other
examples see Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i, Nos. 967 ff.
' Numerous examples in the British Museum {Catalogue, Nos. 495 ff.) ; Kaiser Friedrich
Museum, Berlin (Wulff, Catalogue, Nos. 760 ff.); Cairo Museum (Strzygowski, Koptische
Kunst, Nos. 9124 ff.).
* For the variety of lamps in churches see the description of the interior of Sta Sophia by
Paulus Silentiarius, quoted in Lethaby and Swainson. '' No. 9153.
 623
METAL- AVOEK
The numljer of hrotue vessels and utensils of various sizes and forms is
considerable : a high proportion comes from Egypt. These also may be studied
in the catalogues already so frequently cited. Only one type can liere be
noticed, a kind of bowl with two swinging handles on a low pierced foot. The
interest of this type lies in the fact that
while the earliest examples presumably
come from Egypt, almost identical speci-
mens have been exhumed from Anglo-
Saxon cemeteries in England,^ and in early
Teutonic graves in Germany.
The variety of bronze crosses and other
small objects is too great for consideration
in this place. We may note a type of reli-
quary cross (Fig. 397) with figures rudely
engraved or in relief. Some of these are
assigned to the sixth or seventh century,
but the ruder examples may extend into
the Third Period. They may have been
made for pilgrims to the Holy Land.'

Ampullae.

The sixteen ampullae of Ijase metal, with

subjects in relief upon both sides, preserved
in the cathedral at Monza,' whether or not
the gift of Gregor}' the Great to Theo-
delinda the Lombard queen, are certainly
of the sixth century and, as their inscrip-
tions prove, brought from the Hoi)'
Land. These inscriptions : €AeON ZYAOY
ZCOHCTGON AriGON XPICTOY TOncON,
or eVAOriA* KVPIOY TOON AnOJN
TOnoON. repeated with varying ortho-
graphy, clearly relate to the sacred sites in
Palestine, and show that the flasks were
made to contain the miraculous oil from

' Strzygowski, Koptisdie Kmist, No. 9041 ;

Wulft', Btdin Catalogue, i. No. 1014.
2 Wulff, as above, Nos. 91S ff. ; British
Museum, Catalogue of . . . By:. Arils., Nos. 5 -58 ft'. A
number of crosses allied to this type are in the
Khanenko Collection at Kieft'('X« (Jollection Klianenko,
Cnix et images, 1899, PI. X ; 1900, Pi. XIX, &o. ).
^ Vhotos : Haates iXucks. Photographic repro-
ductions A.
: Heisenberg, Grahesldrche iind Apostel- Fig. 396. Bronze lamp of tlie sixth
kirche, i, PI. VIII-IX ; H. Kehrer, Die heiUgeii drei century on pricket-stand, probably from
Kijiiige in der Litteratur -and Knnst, ii. Figs. 31-3.
Other descriptions and illustrations : Frisi, Egypt. (Bi-itish Museum.)
Memorie storiche di Monza, i, 1791 (inaccurate repro- PI.
ductions of six examples) ; GaiTucci, Sioria, vi. 433-.5 (drawings of all the types
represented, and descriptions on pp. 46 ff.); F. Kraus, Geschichte der christl. Knnst, i. .524;
V. Schultze, Arclt. der christl. Kunst, 302 ; de Rossi, Roma sotterranea. Hi. 50.5, and Ball, di arch,
(fist.. 1. 36 ; G. Stulilfauth, Die altchristlidie ElfeiiVeinplastik, 148 ; J. Strzygowski, B. D., i. 71 ff.,
105 ff, ; N. Kondakoff in Glubokovski's Orthodox Encyclopaedia, vi. 87 ff. ; D. Aiualoft', Hellenistic
Origins, 168 ff. ("Russian), an important discussion of these interesting objects. The small
group of repousse gold encolpia in various museums may be compared with the Monza ampullae
iu that they also liave figure subjects of iconographical interest, and are of quite as early
a date (Strzygowski, Za-ei Goldenkolpien aus Adana, in B. D. I.).
* The word ivkoyia, literally blessing, was given to any object which had been blessed,
especially those associated with tombs of martyrs (Garrucci, 47,i. Cf. the flasks associated
with the tomb of St. Menas.
624 VARIOUS OBJECTS

the wood of the Cross carried away by pilgrims from all parts of the Christian
world. The nature of the scenes represented confirms this origin. The Cruci-
fixion, Holy Women at the Tomb, Ascension, and Incredulity of Thomas
point to Jerusalem : the Annunciation, Salutation, Nativity, Adoration of the
Magi, to Bethlehem. The treatment of these subjects offers many points of
interest. The Crucifixion is never realistic. Our Lord being xepresented in
several cases simply by the nimbed bust placed above the Cross, while the
two thieves are seen in full figure ; or, where the whole body is shown, the
arms are half extended while no cross is visible : in this case a long garment
falls to the ankles. Two small figures, presumably Adam and Eve, kneel to
right and left, and beyond them stand the Virgin
and St. John. The sun and moon appear either
as busts with rayed crown and crescent upon the
head, or as a simple star and crescent. In the
scene on Easter morning (Pigs. 39, 398) the angel is
usually seated by the tomb, which is a columnar
structure, apparently circular, with conical or
domed roof surmounted by a cross, double doors,
and openwork cancelli : the foremost of the two
women carries a censer. The inscription for the
scene, which is sometimes on the same side of the
ampulla as the Crucifixion, isANCCTHOKVPIOC
variously spelled. In the Ascension, Our Lord,
holding the Gospel and raising the right hand
in benediction, is seated on a throne in a mandorla
supported by four angels ; below stands the Virgin
flanked by the Apostles. In one case (Garrucci,
PI. 434. 3) a Dextera Domini issues from beneath
the mandorla, and a dove descends above the
Virgin's head. In the Incredulity of Thomas
(Fig. 399) Our Lord stands between two groups of
Fig. 397. Incised bronze reli- six Apostles, holding a book of the Gospels,
quary cross. (British Museum.)
P. 623. while Thomas approaches from the left ; the accom-
panying inscription is 0 KC MOY KAI 0 0€OC
MOY ; the closed doors which appear as a background in later art are absent. In
the Annunciation the Virgin stands with the spindle in her hand and the wool-
basket beside her. In the Nativity the manger is in the centre, with the ox
and ass and star above, while the Virgin lies on the mattress to the right, and
St. Joseph sits, head supported on hand, on the left. In the Baptism Christ
stands up to the ankles in Jordan, the Baptist is on the left, and one angel
holding a garment on the right. The Adoration of the Magi is usually combined
with the Annunciation to the Shepherds, the three kings standing on one side,
three shepherds on the other, of the throne on which the Virgin is seated facing,
with the Child held straight before her. The monumental type of these figures,
as mentioned elsewhere, has'suggested that the group may repeat upon a small
scale the mosaic which once stood on the exterior of the Church of the Nativity
at Bethlehem. As on some of the sixth-century terra-cotta lamps," busts of the
Twelve Apostles in medallions form a border to a central subject in more than
one case ; a circle of six-pointed stars is also used for the purpose. One fiask has
in the centre a cross with loops at all extremities ; and all have crosses within
round-headed arches on the necks.
The British Museum possesses a lead ampulla of a similar type to those at
Monza with scenes and inscriptions of the same character : on one side is the
Incredulity of Thomas (Fig. 399), on the other the Women at the Tomb ; the
ampulla was obtained in Egypt, but must have been brought from Palestine.
' In one ease (Garrucci, PI. 43. i) three lamps seem to hang in the interior.
2 e. g. Garrucci, Storia, PI. 473. i.
 AMPULLAE 625

In the British Museum are also three other lead ampullae,' apparently of rather
later date, with figures of militaiy saints. There is no evidence that these
examples are connected with Palestine. There is also a curious little lead
triptych in openwork with three single figures, and above the middle part
a round arch flanked by two birds recalling Syrian art of the late sixth century.

Coins (Figs. 400-3).

The coinage of the Byzantine Empire will disappoint the eye trained
to appreciate the variety of design and the fine modelling which distin-
guish the coins of Greece. It is more monotonous than we might have

Fig. 398. The Maries at the Tomb ; the Ascension : lead ampullae of the sixth century from
the Holy Land in the Cathedral of Monza. (Hautes itudes : G. Millet.)

expected even from a people to which sculpture meant comparatively

little ; and even at times of renaissance it hardly shows the vitality mani-
fested in other arts. Glancing over the work of a thousand years, the
eye is rarely arrested by a graceful or a powerful design : for the most
part all is mediocre and conventional, as if the officers of the mints were
influenced by the feeling that money was a sordid necessity which should
not be made unnecessarily attractive. Yet here and there the exception
appears; and in the tenth and eleventh centuries there is a period of
respectable achievement. Mr. Wroth, who has done so much to re-establish
the study of Byzantine numismatics, gives it as his verdict that though
the execution is often careless or unskilful, and though the choice of types is
limited in range, yet it is not hard to find individual specimens possessing
1 Catalogue, Early Christian and Bys. Ant., Nos. 997-9.
1204 S S
626 VARIOUS OBJECTS

a distinctive charm, while at most periods the currency displaj'S, if not the
qualities of great art, at any rate a certain numismatic propriety.^
Coins were minted in gold, silver, and bronze, those of silver being
now the rarest. The gold coins are as a rule the least worn, a fact
probably to be explained on the theory that they were issued for the most
part for the payment of taxes and tribute, and were less constantly in
circulation than those of less precious metal; the bronze coinage, which
was at its best in the sixth and seventh centuries, is often much defaced
by continuous usage. The principal gold coin was the solidus or nomisma,^
which weighed about 70 grains ; its fractions, the semissis and tremAssis
(half and third), were issued down to the tenth century. The standard
was maintained until the eleventh century, when, in the reign of Michael
YIII, there was a tendency to supersede gold by electrum. The ' scyphate '
or saucer-shaped nomisma begins early in the same century, existing side by
side with a lighter flat coin of about 63 grains. About A. d. 1081 the latter
disappears, leaving the heavier scyphate form in possession of the field.
The chief silver coin down to Heraelius was the miliaresion of about
70 grains: that emperor introduced the hexagram of about 100 grains.
From Constantine V to Alexius I, coins of thin fabric were struck, weigh-
ing about 40-50 grains ; Alexius issued thicker coins similar to the bronze
currency, and Michael IX imitated the Venetian mata'panB.
From the time of Anastasius down to the last quarter of the seventh
century the bronze coinage bore on the reverse conspicuous marks of value,
M signifying the follis of 40 nummia, and K, I, and € pieces of 20, 10,
and 5 respectively. The weight varies considerably; the follis, which
under Justinian weighed about 300 grains, fell towards the eighth century
as low as 50, rising and falling irregularly in subsequent reigns.
As a rule, all coins bore on the obverse the image of the emperor
as bust or full figure ; he is seen alone, or with members of his family,
but occasionally with figures of Our Lord or the Virgin, who set the crown
on his head (Constantine Porphyrogenitus ; John Zimisces ; Romanus III).
The reverse varies considerably. The figure of Victory occurs in the early
period under Anastasius and his successors. Justin II introduced the
Tych^ or Fortune of Constantinople. Tiberius II (a. d. 578-82) first used
the cross potent standing on steps, a design which had a very long career.
The rarer patriarchal cross with double traverse appears under Theophilus
in the ninth century. Leo VI (a.d. 886-912) introduced the Virgin in
half- figure as orans with the inscription MARIA; an ivory carving at
Berlin (p. 226) probably shows this emperor being crowned by the Virgin.
Under Alexander (a. d. 912-18), the first saint (St. Alexander) appears on

^ Imperial Byzantine Coins (British Museum Catalogue, 1908), p. Ixxxv. In this work will
be found references to Sabatier and other early writers. For coins of Trebizond, &c., see
W. Wroth, Coins of the Vandals, Ostrogoths and Lombards, and of ike Empires of Thessalonica, Nicaea,
and Trebisond, British Museum Catalogue, 1911 ; 0. Eetowsky, Die Miimen der Komnenen von
Trapezunt, Moscow, 1910.
* The nomisma circulated widely in Europe as the bezant.
 627
COINS

a coin.^ The full figure of the Virgin with the Child was used by
Romanus IV, the standing Virgin as orans bj- Constantine IX; the
Virgin with the Child before her in a medallion first appears under
John Zimisces.
The bust of Our Lord in two types, one bearded, the other beardless,
is seen for the first time on coins of Justinian II in the seventh century
(a.d. 685-95). Intermitted' in the iconoclastic period, it was again used
by Michael III, Constantine VII, and
Nicephorus Phocas. The enthroned
figure of Our Lord, a type which
long continued popular, makes its
first appearance under Basil I, the
Macedonian. The rule that the em-
peror alone, with members of his
family, or with Our Lord and the
Virgin, should occupy the obverse is
not universal. Constantine V omitted
the imperial portrait, placing a cross
upon the obverse, and an inscription
in several lines on the reverse : on
the silver coins of Constantine VII
the same arrangement is found. On
the other hand, Theophilus places
imperial portraits on both sides of
the coin. Barbarian rulers often
placed the head of the reigning century Fig. 399. Lead ampulla of the sixth
from the Holy Land, found in Egypt.
Byzantine emperor on their coins : (British Museum.) P. 624.
this was done by the Ostrogoths in
Italy, and probably by the Vandals in Africa, who used the head of
Justin I.
The portraiture of the coins is for the most part conventional. A real
likeness is seldom attempted, and heads which appear to have individual
character are made to serve for more than one emperor, so that all real
claims to likeness have to be abandoned. Where the heads of difierent
rulers are characterized by distinct features or attributes, it is still im-
possible to say whether the differentiation implies resemblance, unless
the coin can be compared with a contemporary portrait of another kind,
e.g. a representation in an illuminated manuscript. But manuscript
or other portraits are rare ; and even when the comparison can be effected,
the very conventional way in which on the coins the eyes are rendered
by a circle or a pellet makes it in most cases difficult to decide in favour
of a faithful representation. The coins of the early emperors to Justinian
have conventional heads. In Justinian's case it is possible that the full-
' Afterwards St. George was adopted by John II, and SS. Theodore and Demetrius by
Manuel I.
SS 2
628 VARIOUS OBJECTS

faced head introduced in a.d. 538 may be a portrait, as it agrees in general

with the description of Procopius.^ Phocas seems to be really portrayed ^
as the face with its short pointed beard differs materially from those of
his predecessors. The obverse of one of Heraclius' coins may also be
a portrait.^ Constans II and Constantine IV are characterized, but we
cannot be sure whether their features are faithfully rendered. From their
time down to the tenth century, including the iconoclastic period, all
heads appear to be conventional, except possibly that of Leo III.* Con-
stantine Porphyrogenitus is seen in a bust executed with the fineness
of a gem,* but the head is so like that of Leo VI that its authenticity
must be doubted. In the same way we are obliged to reject as true
presentations the heads of Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces. From
this time down to the sack of Constantinople in a.d. 1204 there are a few
attempts at characterization, but no reliable portraits. The Latin emperors
used imported Venetian coins, and struck none with their own effigies.
There is little to chronicle after the restoration. The coins are carelessly
struck and feebly designed, so that even where, as in the case of John VIII,
a portrait may be intended, we learn little by comparing it with Pisanello's
famous medal. It may be noted that there is no authentic portrait of
an empress on the coins. Theodora does not appear at all ; other empresses,
Sophia, wife of Justin II, Anastasia, consort of Tiberius II, Leontia, wife of
Phocas, are conventional figures, perhaps in some cases reproducing statues.
Thus the coins do little to make the princes of the East Roman Empire
live for us; or if they make an emperor more real, as in the case of
Justinian, they make him at the same time less heroic. We would have
given much to know the features of the greater rulers, of Leo, conqueror
of the Saracens, of Basil, founder of a dynasty, of Nicephorus Phocas and
John Zimisces, the leaders of undefeated armies, of Constantine Porphyro-
genitus the artist, and Alexius the diplomat. It is a record of lost
opportunities similar to that of our own coinage before Tudor times.
The inscriptions* on the coins are short and vary little. Down to
Justinian II the obverse usually has the emperor's name preceded by D N
(Dominus noster), and followed by PP AVG (Perpetuus Augustus).
When the Greek inscriptions came in at the end of the eighth century,
BACIAeVC, BACIA€VC PWMAICON or AVTOKPAT (AwoKpdrcop) often
replaced the Latin titles, which, however, continued to be used until the
middle of the eleventh century. From the time of Romanus IV (a.d.
1067-71), the word AeCTTOTHC was alone used.
The reverses in the early centuries bear such legends as Victoria Aug.,

' Wroth, Catalogue, as above, xci, and PI. IV, 11, 12 ; VII, 1, 3; VIII, 4. The lost gold
medallion of A. D. 534 (?) (Wroth, frontispiece to vol. i) had already introduced a characteriza-
tion of Justinian's features.
2 Ibid., PI. XX, i, 5, 12 ; XXII, 16.
' Ibid. and
full beard , PI. moustache.
XXIII, 4,8; XXVIII, 3, 4. In the last years of his reign Heraclius has a huge
* Ibid., PI. XLII, 7, 8. « Ibid., PI. LIII, 7.
" For the more remarkable inscriptions see Wroth, ii. 664 ; and for the epigraphy, i, cv.
 COINS 629

Gloria Rotnanorwrn. Heraclius introduced Deus adiuta Romanis, and

eN TYTO NIK A — the earliest of the Greek inscriptions. Justinian II used
IHC CRISTOS REX REGNANTIVM, a form which persisted in later reigns:
Constantine V (a.d. 751) introduced IHSVS XPISTVS NICA, a barbaric
formula in which, as in later issues,
Greek and Latin are confused. ' Mixed
legends,' in which Greek words were
partly written in Latin letters, con-
tinued down to the third quarter of
the eleventh century. Monograms, so
universal on the lead seals, are very
rare on coins, and chiefly occur on
the bronze pieces of Cherson.^ A
few of the rectangular form (ef.
Figs. 387, 389) occur in the time of
Justinian. Where they are found
later they are cruciform, the letters
being attached to the extremities of
a cross (cf. Figs. 334, 392). Dates,
almost always giving the regnal
years, occur on the bronze coinage
from Justinian to Constans II (a.d.
641-68) : after this reign they are
rarely found.
The sacred monogram (Chi Rho)
sometimes occurs in both its com-
moner forms (5f< and -f-j; the former
or ' Constantinian ' type,
•^ '^which on ^"*- **!?•
„Valens ; 3. Constantius Constantius
,^°i°'- . l- Gallus II ; 2.
; 4, 5. Julian
works of art and monuments is II ; 6. Jovian ; 7. Valentinian I. (British
seldom later than the fourth century, Museum.)
is found on coins of Maurice Tiberius and Heraclius.
The principal mint throughout the history of the empire was that of
Constantinople, where coins of all denominations were struck : for many
centuries, indeed, the metropolis was the only place where money was
coined.^ Before Justinian, Nicomedia and Antioch were the only additional
mints ; but after the conquests of that emperor we find, in addition to
these, Thessalonica, Cyzicus, Alexandria, Carthage, Sicily, Rome, Ravenna,
and Cherson. In the seventh century Cherson drops out, but Isaura and
Cyprus are added.^ In the eighth century only Sicily, Rome, and Ravenna
remain beside Constantinople ; in the ninth and tenth only Cherson. After
' A list of the monograms is given by Wroth, as above, ii. 761-2.
" For the mints, their mint-names, and officina marks see Wroth, i, xeix ff.
^ The coins whioli Mr. Wroth describes as ' Provincial ' and ' Italian ' were also issued in
the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, but their exact locality is unknown. The former
may have been issued in Sardinia and Sicily, the latter are assigned to Central and Southern
Italy.
630 VARIOUS OBJECTS

this the metropolis coined alone clown to the fall of the empire. Of all these
mint places few coined in gold and silver. Carthage from about a. d. 534 to 698
was one. Eome coined gold from Constans II (a.d. 641-68) to the death of
Constantino V (a.d. 775) : so did Ravenna, from its capture by Belisarius to
its final loss to the empire (a.d. 555-
741). The ' Provincial ' and ' Italian '
mints also issued gold. Thessalonica,
Nicomedia, Cyzicus, Antioch, Isaura,
Cyprus, Alexandria, and Cherson
minted nothing but bronze.
The Byzantine coinage influenced
in many curious ways that of the
earliest Mohammedan dynasties. In
the first century after the Hegira
Greeks were employed to make the
dies, and sometimes bungled the
Cufic inscriptions.^ In the second
half of the seventh century under
the Khalif Abd-el-Melik (d. a.d.
705), the familiar cross raised upon
three steps occurs ; but it de-
generates until the vertical limb
finally carries a crescent. An
example of this is seen on a copper
coin of Horns (Emesa) in Syria,
which bears on the obverse a stand-
ing figure of the khalif.^ Some of
the Ortukid princes in the twelfth
century did not disdain to place
Fig. 401. Coins. 1. Valentinian II ; 2. Theo-
dosius I ; 3. Aroadius ; 4. Eudoxia ; 5. Hono- figure-designs of Christian origin
rius ; 6. Valentinian III ; 7. Theodosius II ; 8. on their coinage : Christ enthroned
Marcian ; 9. Eudocia ; 10, 11. Pulcheria.
(British Museum.) or the bust of Christ, imitating
Byzantine types, thus occur.^

Byzantine seals offer this distinction

Seals.'* from those of mediaeval Europe,
that almost without exception they were impressions upon metal and not

' Karabacek, Kiisejr 'Amra, 216.

' H. Lavoix, Cat. des monnaies inusulmanes de la BibUotheque Xaiionale, No. 70, p. 21.
^ S. Lane Poole, The Coins of the Turkumdn Houses of Seljook, Urtuk, Zengle, &c., British
Museum, 1877, Nos. 324 ff., and the same, Numismata Orientaliu, PI. IV.
* G.ficlihxmbergeVfSigillographie deVempireiysayitin, Paris, 1884; Mordtmann, Conference sur
des sceaux et plomhs byzanUns ; Sorlin Doi-igny in Eevue arch., 1877, and Bulletin critique, 1884,
272 ff. ; E. Paribeni, Bidlettino delV Archivio paleogr. italiano, i, Perugia, 1908, 77-94 (contains a
bibliographyof the work done in connexion -with seals since the publication of Sehlumberger's
work) ; B. A. Pancenko, Ismestiya of the Russian Arch. Inst, at Constantinople, xiii, 1908 ;
W. de Gray Birch, British Museum Catalogue of Seals, v, pp. 1-72 ; articles by K. M. Konstanto-
poulos in Svoronos" Journal International d'Archeol. Nuniism. fi'om vol. ii (1899) onward.
 SEALS 631

upon wax, the latter material being less suitable for use in a hot climate.
In this connexion it may be noted that the East has seldom made use of
wax : the Chaldaeans used clay, a substance also employed by the in-
habitants of Turkestan down to the eighth century ; while since the
introduction of paper, the oriental has always impressed directly upon the
document a matrix smeared with ink or other colouring matter. A very
few matrices of bronze, stone, &c., apparently cut for use with wax, belong
to the Christian East, and these are small in diameter ; the larger bronze
examples must be as a rule assigned to the period after the fall of
Constantinople and to places where Western influence was strong, Under
the Byzantine Empire matrices for wax were so few
as to be a negligible quantity.
It will thus be seen that the Byzantine seal is
what we know as a hiMa, made in the following
manner. If the metal employed was gold or silver,^
two thin circular sheets were impressed with
the obverse and reverse design and joined together
with overturned edges, the space between them, Fie. 402. Coin of
except where the suspending cords ran through, being Theodosius II : the em-
filled with some kind of mastic, so that the whole nian IIIperorandbetween Valenti-
Eudoxia.
had the general form of a thick medallion. If
lead was used, as was usually the case, two disks, each with a central groove
already prepared, were placed one upon the other, and the suspending
cords laid in the grooves. They were then pressed or struck between the
two faces of a double matrix in which the design was engraved ^ until they
were welded together into a single disk firmly enclosing the cords. It is
supposed that the matrices may have been of iron, and that they may have
been worked by handles like wafering irons, as were the bronze instruments
used in making lead papal bulls. In any case, their material would seem
to have been more perishable than bronze, for although the seals themselves
have been preserved in thousands, only a single irfin matrix appears to be
known. Curious as this is, it has been pointed out that a similar anomaly
exists in the case of the dies of early coins, and of the stamps used to impress
the handles of amphorae in ancient times : though the impressions are
numerous, the stamps themselves have disappeared.* Owing to the rapid
disintegration of the surface of lead when exposed to a damp atmosphere,
Byzantine seals are difficult to preserve, and in wet northern climates they

' e. g. the large circular matrix of a Cretan monastery in the collection of M. Schlum-
berger, figured in his Sigillographie, p. 202. For small earlier matrices (eleventh century ?) of
steatite, see Brit. Mus. Catalogue of Early Christian and Bys. Ant., Nos. 97-100, and Schlumberger
in Florilegium Melchior de Vogue, 564,
* Only the emperors used gold, and gold seals were only used for rescripts, donations to
monasteries, and letters to great vassals, the weight of gold being proportionate to the dignity
of the recipient of the document. When the appearance only of precious metal was desired
without its cost, a lead seal was covered with a thin foil of gold or silver. For ordinai-y docu-
ments and correspondence the emperors, like the popes in the West, used leaden seals.
^ CaMed^^ovWwrriptov.
* A certain number of lead disks exist, bearing effigies and inscriptions, very like seals,
63!i VAEIOUS OBJECTS

sometimes crumble away if kept in drawers, where there is no free play of

air. The only remedy in this case is to cover them with a fine varnish. The
majority of existing specimens were obtained at Constantinople during the
reconstruction of buildings round the Seraskierat and during the construc-
tion of that part of the Adrianople railway which runs through the city :
the great number found in or near one spot perhaps points to the existence
in this place of the Imperial Archives. But though as yet the metropolis
has yielded the greatest number, numerous specimens have been found
in other cities, notably Smyrna, Beyrut, Salonika, Athens, Naples, Palermo,,
and. Carthage.^
These unassuming lead seals or bullae are of the greatest interest to
the historian : in some ways they are more important than the coins, on
account of the greater variety of the persons and places commemorated by
their legends. These throw light upon almost every phase of Byzantine
society, upon the court, the nobility, the civil and military administration,
upon ecclesiastical organization, and upon the life of private citizens : it
has been remarked with justice that they provide a continuous commentary
to the De Gaeremoniis of the Emperor Constantino Porphyrogenitus and
the De ojjiciis of Codinus. There is hardly a high office in court. Church,
or army which is not commemorated by a seal ; eparchs, generals, proto-
notaries, protospatharii, archbishops, and abbots have all left their titles
inscribed. iipon these disks of lead; as we read the infinitely various styles
and designations, the men who guided the great machine of government
seem to defile before us in their orders and degrees. Nor is the light cast
upon the geography of the empire less important than that which throws
the official hierarchy into strong relief. We learn in their proper form the
names of towns, fortresses, bishoprics, convents, churches, and institutions,
while all the themes of the empire are represented in the list. The names
of great families are given in the accepted orthography of the times in
which they lived. Finally, the figures represented are of considerable
iconographical interest ; for though the portraits of imperial persons are
fewer in number than on the coins, the representations of saints are more
frequent, and the Virgin and Our Lord are seen in a greater variety of
types. All these points lend the large series of Byzantine seals a con-
siderable historical importance, though it must be admitted that in strength
and sculptural beauty, as well as in variety of design, they cannot compare
with the seals of the Western Middle Ages. The noble matrices of England,
France, and Germany in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with

but clearly made for other purposes. Some of these wei-e devotional medallions to be worn
round the neck ; others were tokens entitling poor people to doles. See Sehlumberger, as
above, 78.
1 The bullae from Carthage and neighboui-hood have been treated by R. P. Delattre in his-
(Mte de la Sainte Vierge en Afrique, 88 ff., where a large number are reproduced, all of earlier
date than the eighth century. The frequent occurrence in this series of the cruciform mono-
gram seems to indicate that some at least of M. Schlumberger's examples may be rather earlier
than was formerly supposed. Delattre's seals have also been described by M. P. Monceau in
Bull, de la Soc, d'Anf. do France, 1908, 219 ff. and other pages in the same volume.
 SEALS
633
their presentment of kings and mounted knights, churches and abbeys,
ships and cities, bishops and abbots, and armorial bearings, are the expression
of a more vigorous and accomplished talent than that which stood at the
disposal of the Eastern Empire.
Compared with our finer Western
seals, the best work of the Byzantine
engravers is lacking in power : it
often has neatness and elegance,
never the amplitude and majesty of
an occidental seal of the period of
St. Louis.
In the majority of cases the
types figured upon the obverse of
Byzantine seals are of a religious
character. Upon about half the
examples known we see the Virgin ^
alone or with the Child, or more
rarely accompanied by saints ; next
in order of frequency come figures
of saints, St. Michael being especially
prominent.-
After these the cross is most
often reproduced, in the great ma-
jority of cases the patriarchal cross
with double traverse, standing upon
steps, and rising from divergent
foliage ; next in frequency are
figures of Our Lord, usually busts, 3. Fig. 403. Coins. 1. Justin II ; 2. Tiberus II ;
Maurice Tiberius ; 4. Phocas ; 5. Heraclius ;
dating, like similar representations 6. Constans II ; 7. Constantine IV ; 8. Justinian
II ; 9. Leo III ; 10. Constantine V ; 11. Basil I
on the coins, from the reigns of Nice- and Constantine VII ; 12. Nicephorus Phocas ;
phorus Phocas, Joh n Zimisces, Basil IT, 13. John Zimisces ; 14. Basil II and Constan-
tine VIII. (British Museum.)
and Constantine XL The Virgiij. and
Our Lord together or accompanied by saints ; or two or more saints together;
or religious scenes, are rarer.^ Less common still are figures of an angel, of
the Lamb, or of the emperor or empress. Then come representations of
animals and monsters ; * rarest of all are efiigies of the owners of the seals.
The legends of the vast majority of seals are all in Greek, the chief
exceptions being some examples of the pre-iconoclastic period, where

^ Especially frequent are the types Blachernitissa and Hodegetria (p. 673), though other
titles, derived from the names of convents, or particular aspects and qualities of the Mother
of God, are comparatively frequent.
"■ Other popular saints in order of their frequency are : St. Nicholas of Myra ; the mili-
tary saints George, Demetrius, and the two Theodores ; SS. Basil, John Chi-ysostom, John the
Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter, and Procopius.
' The scenes chiefly found are : the Annunciation, Baptism, Presentation, Transfigura-
tion, Crucifixion, Death and Assumption of the Virgin, Daniel in the Lions' Den, &c.
* Lion, gryphon, wolf, leopard, eagle, hare, peacock, pelican, &c.
634 VAEIOUS OBJECTS

there may be a Latin inscription on one side and a Greek on the other ;
specimens dating from a later period under the Norman princes of Sicily,
and a third class made for oriental subjects of the empire between the ninth
and twelfth centuries, where Greek and Arabic are found together.*
The legends usually surround the figures; but where they occupy the
whole field, as they often do in the Comnenian and iconoclastic periods,
they fill the field in horizontal lines. In iconoclastic seals, on which
sacred subjects were abandoned, the legend upon one side commonly took
the form of a monogram, the letters of which were disposed at the
extremities and centre of a cross (Fig. 404). Most frequently the mono-
gram gives the invocation ©eoroxf (or Kvpie) ^or)6ti, in which case the
supplementary words tuj o-oj SouXu are placed within the angles, the name
and titles of the owner finding a place on the reverse. In later seals
which bear efiigies, the formula is generally written in full as part of the
legend. The space occupied by titles tends to increase with the centuries,
for the simple honours of early days were no longer sufficient in a deca-
dent society greedy of hiei'archical distinctions : under the Palaeologi such
titles as 'navvjTfpirpcoToa-eiSaaTovTiepTaTos were conceived, though nothing quite
so absurd occurs on the legends of seals. It is generally possible to date
seals within comparatively narrow limits, sometimes from the mention
of historical personages, sometimes from their resemblance to coins, some-
times, again, from the mention of places the relation of which to the
empire or Church changed at known times ; a town, for example, may be
mentioned as the seat of a bishopric which at a certain date was raised
to metropolitan rank, so that the use of the word bishopric gives a
terminus ante quern. Cases in which seals remain attached to the docu-
ments which they originally attested are far moi-e rare than in the West,
for the archives of the Byzantine Empire have almost all perished, and
only a few sealed documents remain in the Convent of Patmos, at Naples,
Bari, and La Cava.-
As a rule the name of the signatory is set out in full, whether it is
that of an individual or a corporation. But sometimes it is only indicated
by allusions which are obscure to us. More rarely a seal will be anony-
mous, or the name may be the same as that of the saint represented on
the obverse, who is then invoked for the protection of his namesake.
Very often, as in the West, the seal is personified, and the legend is in
the first person : tyco (T^payiC<>) ras ypa(f)as 'AXe^t'ou (or Trjpw or ^ejSai&j, &c.),
recalling the secreta tego, &c., of the Western Middle Ages. Legends are
frequently difficult to decipher owing to decay of the surface, faulty
striking, or even to careless orthography or lettering of the matrix. From
the eleventh century down to the middle of the thirteenth, legends are
constantly in iambic trimeters of execi'able style, in which the quantities all
appear to be false until we remember that the syllables have the accents of
the spoken language.
1 Sehlumberger, as above, 74. ' Ibid., 90.
 SEALS 635

As m the West, one person might have more than one seal in virtue
of several offices held successively or at the same time ; or again, he
might
have a larger official seal, and a smaller seal for private use, analogous
to the secretum of our own Middle Ages. Women of the upper classesli
ad
their own seals, of which a considerable number have survived.

Fig. 404. Lead seals of the sixth century and later. (Britisli Museum.)

M. Schlumberger has classified Byzantine seals under five main

heads :■—
A. Geographical — seals of officials of themes, cities, monasteries,
&c., and seals of bishops.
B. Naval and 'military.
C. Ecclesiastical (other than those of bishops).
D. Seals of civil functionaries.
E. Seals of private 23crsons, giving family names.
It is not necessary in the present place to recapitulate the territorial
divisions of the empire from Greece and the Balkan Peninsula to the
eastern frontiers ; but as the administration of all themes was organized
636 VAEIOUS OBJECTS

upon a common model, it may be useful to mention the titles of the

principal officers whose seals have survived to illustrate Constantine's
work.^ As the theme was primarily a military unit, its highest official
was the strategos, enjoying the rank, if at the head of a great theme, of
23Totos2Mtliario8, or general : if of a minor theme, of spatharios or spatlia-
riocandidatos, a grade approximately corresponding to that of a lieutenant-
colonel. His principal assistants were the protocancellarios, a chief of the
chancel lary, and protomandator, or chief of the messengers. The principal
civilians of the theme were the chief treasury official, or protonotarios, and
the judge, or krites, whose functions were sometimes performed by a single
person ; the comvierciarii were responsible for the customs and land
revenue. The chief military officers inferior to the strategos were the
turmarchs, ranking as i<pathariocandidati, merarchs, drongarii, counts,
and centarchs ; where the theme was maritime, the fleet also had its
drongarios. The military treasurers were logothetae and chartularii.
Officers outside the usual hierarchy were dukes, commanding forces in
frontier districts, Catalans, commanding fortified places, and archons of the
cities. The ecclesiastical hierarchy is chiefly represented by seals of arch-
bishops, bishops, presbyters (priests), abbots (hegoumenoi) and archi-
imandrites, placed over several monasteries. The archives and treasuries
of churches and abbeys were under the charge of the cJiartophylax,
chartvlanus, cimeliarch, and skenophylax. The officials responsible for
orphanages and hospitals (orphanotrophoi and xenodochoi) were usually
clerics.
The persons attached to the imperial court were naturally very
numerous. There were the officers of the vai-ious troops of guards,
manglavrites, silentiarii, and excubitores, who usually, like most officials of
distinction, bore the honorary title of spatharii, corresponding, in a general
way, to the membership of the Ligion d'honneur or the Order of the Bath.
Then there were a host of civil functionaries from the court marshal, or
curopalaies, to the great falconer, the vediarii in charge of the ward-
robe, and the cursores, or imperial messengers. The empress, in like
manner, had her household,, the members of which had their seals. The
zostae, or women of the bedchamber, and nyviphae, or maids of honour, arei
both represented in the list of impressions. In fine, the sigillography of
the Byzantine Empire illustrates the life of a highly organized and
carefully policed state, where functions were infinitely multiplied and the
official element was very conspicuous. The administration was bureau-
cratic, and we picture to ourselves a society in which almost every one
wore a uniform. But though there was perhaps too much officialism, not
all seals claim for their owners official titles or rank. A number even of
those preserved were used by private persons ; far greater numbers,
especially those of simple design and small size, have undoubtedly perished.
' M. Alfred Eambaud, in his Empire grec aw X' siecle, gives a lucid account of the themes
in the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
 SEALS 637

Seals with family names, which have survived in quantities, bear many-
interesting and familiar surnames, such as Botoniates, Bryennius, Cantacu-
zenus, Comnenus, Lasearis, and Scleros.

Engkaved Gems.

The engraving of gems never attained to such popularity in tlie

Byzantine Empire as the carving of ivory. ^ A great number of Roman
gems were taken from Italy by Constantine upon the foundation of
his new city, and his example was doubtless followed by the patricians
who migrated with him. Some of these stones were preserved in Con-
stantinople until the sack of A.D. 1204, when they were brought back once

Fig. 405. a. Intaglio on crystal, sixth-seventh century. (British Museum.)

b. The Virgin and Child: intaglio on chalcedony. (British Museum.)

more to Western Europe: like other antique gems treasured by the

Middle Ages, their classical subjects had often been made to serve as
representations of Christian persons or scenes. But the art was already
decadent when the new metropolis was built ; though the contemporary
cameos have their attractive qualities, they could not compete for the
favour of connoisseurs with the finer work executed in earlier times.
Nevertheless engravers seem to have been at work in the Eastern Empire
during the whole period of its existence ; for although surviving examples
of their gems are not numerous, they cover a great number of centuries,
from the fourth to the fourteenth. As a rule, the work does not rise
above mediocrity, often falling distinctly below it; in this it resembles
the average gem-cutting of the Sassanian Persians, who were also influenced
by the late Graeco-Eoman art, and while their empire lasted produced
gems diflfering but little from Christian stones except in the purely
oriental nature of their subjects. But the Sassanians at their best pro-
duced gems of considerable merit, like the cameo with the capture of
Valerian by Sapor in the Cabinet des Medailles at Paris,^ and the fragment
of a man with a bull in the same collection. We have no work of equal

1 E. Babelon, Catalogue des camees antiques et modernes de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, lii ff.,
Paris, 1897, and La Qravure sur pierres fines {Bibl. de I'Enseignement des Beaux-Arts), 184 if. ;
A. Furtwangler, Antike Gemmen, vol. iii, 373-5.
* Babelon, Camees, Ivii. 357, and PI. XLII, No. 360 ; also reproduced in Mon. Piot, i, 1884,
PI. XII, Fig. 1.
638 VAEIOUS OBJECTS

vigour from Byzantine artists, and though they occasionally produce results
which are not unpleasing, their gems are poor indeed by the side of those
cut by the ancient Greeks or the craftsmen of the Augustan age. They
worked both in cameo and in intaglio, using the same stones which were
in favour under the Early Roman Empire (carnelian, chalcedony, heliotrope,
haematite, jasper, lapis lazuli, sardonyx) ; they employed the drill in the
same careless manner/ seldom attaining precision or delicacy of line.
The contrast between the average Byzantine work and that of the finer
Roman period is very similar to that observed between Byzantine and
Roman silver plate. In the one case the figures stand out in sharp relief,
finely articulated and full of life ; in the other they are nerveless, producing
an effect which is at once heavy and soft. Compare the figures on the
silver dishes from Cyprus illustrated in Figs. 358, 360 with those upon the
Roman treasures from Hildesheim or Bernay, and you have the distinc-
tion between Roman and Byzantine cameos reproduced in another medium
and upon a larger scale. Before passing to the actual gems, we may recall
the fact that, like their predecessors, Byzantine lapidaries fashioned
numerous chalices, cups, &c., out of agate, chalcedony^ and crystal. The
best-known examples of these are in the Treasury of St. Mark's at Venice,^
to which allusion is made in another section (Figs. 49-54). The onyx
bowl of a chalice in the treasure of the Sacristy of the Patriarchs at
Moscow may be of Byzantine workmanship.^
To the transitional period at the beginning of Byzantine history prob-
ably belong various stones, with inscriptions, usually in cameo, such as
y.vr]y.6ve.v€, Xiyovtrw a di\ova-iv, XiyiTuiirav, oi iJ.(X(e)i jxoi, &C.* A sardonyx
cameo at Munich, representing an emperor, probably a successor of Con-
stantine, is of about the same period." To the period between this time
and the Macedonian revival of the ninth century belong a considerable
number of gems in various large collections. Among these may be noted
some gems in the British Museum : a rock crystal intaglio with a rider
preceded by a winged figure, with a cross above {Catalogue of Early
Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, No. 84); an onyx cameo with a
charioteer (No. 101) ; a cameo with a head resembling Alexander, with
a horn of Amnion above the ear and the inscription r^y Ka\rjs tvxv^
juivrjjuoVeve, &c. (No. 103) ; a cameo with two angels each grasping the
shaft of a cross standing between them (No. 89) (for examples with a similar
subject in the Cabinet des M^dailles at Paris see below) ; three intaglios
1 For technical processes of gem-engraving, which have remained very much the same
from ancient to modern times, see Furtwangler, as above ; Bahelon, as above, p. xxiii ;
Bliimner, Technologie, iii. 279 ff. ; C. W. King, Antique Gems and Rings, pp. 20 ff. ; H. Middleton,
The Engraved Gems of Classical Times, ch. ix, pp. 103 ff. ; L. Claremont, The Gem-cutter's Graft,
London, 1906. ^ See also Babelon, Camees, p. Iv.
3 F. de Mely, Man. Piot, xii, 1905, PI. XV, Fig. 5.
* British Museum, Catalogue of Gems in the Department of Greek and Boman Antiquities,
No. 2154 ff. ; Cat. of Early Christian and Bjizantine Antiquities, Nos. 7, 8 ; Babelon, as above,
Nos. 346 ff.
<> Furtwangler, as above, PI. LXVII, Fig. 4. Baron Gustavo de Rothschild possessed a
cameo of this period with two imperial busts, described by an added inscription of later date
as SS. Sergius and Bacchus.
 ENGEAVED GEMS 639

on nicolo and haematite with angels bearing crosses (Nos. 83-7) ; a jasper
intaglio with the Entry into Jerusalem (No. 90); three jasper intaglios
with monograms (Nos. 93-5) ; a sapphire with a monogram (No. 96),
recalling a carnelian in the Cabinet des Mddailles with a similar type of
monogram (Babelon, Pierres fines, p. 186).
Two sardonyx cameos at Munich^ are assigned by Furtwangler to
this early period; one has the Apostles in two rows on either side of
a disproportionately large cross ; the other, Christ enthroned between the
Apostles.

The following gems in various collections seem to belong to the Third Period,
from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries.
In the British Museum : a chalcedony intaglio with the Virgin and Child
(No. 92) ; a sard cameo with a horse and surrounding inscription : 0 Lord,
help Julianus (No. 102) ; an onyx cameo in two layers, with the Annuncia-
tion, remarkable for the fact that the Angel Gabriel is represented as a small
nude winged figure like a genius or p^itto ; ■' a sardonyx cameo with St. John the
Baptist standing with an inscribed scroll (No. 105).
In the Cabinet des Medailles, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, are the follow-
ing—: A sardonyx cameo of three layers representing two angels holding wands
in their left hands and with their right hands supporting a long cross, at the top
of which is a medallion with a bust of Our Lord : in the exergue a design
resembling a patera flanked by ears of corn ; ^ an amethyst cameo with Our
Lord standing and making the gesture of benediction ; * a sardonyx cameo of
three layers with the Annunciation, and inscription, x"V^ Kexa.piTOfx.h'r] o kc (Kvptos)
/*£Ta a-ov ; ^ another sardonyx cameo with a similar Annunciation ; ° a third
cameo with the same subject, the inscription X'^P^ KaixapiTOfievr], also in relief,
and on the back an intaglio representing the Deesis (p. 664) inscribed Ok^ Po-qOi
rrjv SouXii' a-' Ava (^eoro/cc /SorjOei rrjv SovXriv aov 'Awa), perhaps referring to Anna
Comnena (tHOB);' sardonyx cameo of three layers with SS. George and
Demetrius, above whom is a half-figure of Our Lord in benediction ; ' chalcedony
cameo with a dolphin and a debased inscription beginning Kvpia xaipe,'' a helio-
trope cameo with a bust of Our Lord holding the book and niaking the gesture
of benediction ; '" a jasper cameo with the same subject ; " a heliotrope cameo
with half-figure of the Virgin with the Child ; '^ a green jasper cameo with
St. John the Evangelist seated with the book of his Gospel and his name in
Greek characters ; " a cameo on the same stone, with a half-figure of St. Deme-
trius and inscribed name."
Among intaglio gems in the same collection is a half-figure of the Virgin
issuing from a fountain inscribed MP 0Y H FTHrH in allusion to the Virgin of

' Furtwangler, PI. LXVII, Figs. 6 and 7.

" Proc. Soc. Ant. London, 2nd ser., xviii, p. 365.
' E. Babelon, Catalogue des Camees, PI. XXIX, No. 333. A cameo with the same subject,
inscribed with a prayer for one Leontlos, is in the cathedral at Moscow (Garrucci, Storia, vi,
PI. 479, Fig. 13. Another very similar, now in the Cook Collection, has the inscription
6Z0Y£l€ (((miaiai) (C. H. Smith and A. Hutton, P)-oc. Soc. Ant. London, 2nd ser., vol. xi,
p. 89, No. 3). * Babelon, as above, No. 332, PI. XXXIX.
5 Ibid., PI. XXXIX, No. 836; a. Sehlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 101.
« Babelon, No. 337 ; Garrucci, Storia, vi, PL 478, Fig. 30.
' Babelon, No. 338, PI. XXXIX, .ind Pimres fines, p. 191.
" Babelon, No. 342, PI. XL, and Pierres fines, Fig. 143 ; Sehlumberger, Nicephore Phocas, 91.
" Babelon, No. 340, PI. XXXIX.
1" Ibid., No. 333, PI. XXXIX ; Sehlumberger, Nic. Phocas, 91.
" Babelon, No. 334, PI. XXXIX. i^ Ibid., No. 339. " Ibid., No. 341.
" Ibid., No. 343, PI. XL. Cf. cameo with St. Nicholas at Lyons (A. Blanchet, Mon. Piot,
xvii, p. 75).
640 VARIOUS OBJECTS

the church founded by Justinian and containing a fountain ;^ a red jasper with
the Nativity. -
In the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre there is a cameo on lapis representing
the Virgin as orans between two formal plants inlaid with gold. The letters
MP 0Y are similarly inlaid, as well as the nimbus and the ornament upon the
mantle. In the same place there is another relief of the same subject on helio-
trope.
The Imperial Historical Museum at Vienna possesses the only dated
Byzantine gem, a cameo in green jasper with a bust of the Virgin full face,
with surrounding inscription naming the Emperor Mcephorus Botoniates
(a.d. 1078-81).^
In the treasury of the Sacristy of the Patriarchs at Moscow is an onyx
cameo of fine workmanship, representing the Virgin standing as orans with the
Child in a medallion upon her breast : it seems to belong to the eleventh or
twelfth century.*
The collection of Mr. Maxwell Somerville at Philadelphia contains a few
Byzantine gems, including a jasper (?) cameo with a bust of Our Lord.'*
It is possible that the emerald with the portrait of Our Lord, sent by Bajazet
to the Pope in a.d. 1492, may be identical with that which Anthony of Novgorod
saw, in a.0. 1200, set in the centre of a silver dish presented in the tenth century
to the patriarch of Constantinople by the Grand Duchess Olga of Bussia, who
died in a.d 968. Her gem may have reproduced the Edessa portrait of Our
Lord, which was translated to Constantinople in a.d. 944.°
A green marble paten (?) in the Monastery of Xeropotamou on Mount Athos
has in the centre the Virgin censed by angels, surrounded by angels vested as
priests and bearing liturgical objects, and (in an outer row) by Apostles kneeling
before the Throne (cf. Divine Liturgy). This remarkable work is ascribed to
the twelfth century.'

Amulets.^
Amulets, chiefly prophylactic against disease or magic, were evidently
popular ; they were plaques or medallions worn as pendants or finger- rings.

Fig. 406. WW^M^j4Wili'i?i[

Silver signet worn
with as' Medusa ' head (^British
an amulet. and inscription
Museum.): Lord, preserve the wearer,

The former class were mostly of bronze or copper, though a rare enamelled
medallion is now in the Louvre (p. 499). They bear inscriptions warning
the spirit of the disease to take flight, often in the name of Solomon, who
1 Garrucci, Staria, vi, PI. 478, Fig. 36. 2 Ibid., PI. 478, Fig. 31.
' De M61y, Le Camee bysantin de Nicephore Botoniate, in Mon. Piot, vi, 1900, p 195 if
^ P. de M61y, Mon. Piot, xii, 1905, PI. XV, Fig. 1.
" Maxwell Somerville, Engraved Gems, Tlieir History and Place in Art, Philadelphia, 1889,
Nos. 575, &e.
' G. P. Hill, The Reliquary, July, 1904, 190. See also F. de Mely, Gazette des Beaux-Arts,
1898, 492, and E. von Dobschutz, Christusbilder, 1899, 149 ff.
' Kondakoff, Mon. of Christian Art on Mt. Athos, PI. XXX and p. 225.
« On this subject see G. Schluraberger, Melanges d'archeologie bysantine, 117 ff. ; M. Sieboure,
SoMJier Ja/irftMcAer, Heft 118, pp. ]58ff.
 AMULETS 641

is seen mounted and transfixing a prostrate figure with his lance, or on foot,
menacing a nude figure with a whip. Another type has a Medusa-like head
surrounded with serpents, and in the border : +AriOCAriOCAriOCK£
CABAO)© TTAHPHC OYPANOC (K Al TH) : on the reverse is a denunciation
of a disease — apparently colic. An example made of gold, found at Tchernigoff
in 1821, is now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg.^ The Medusa head is
found upon a ring in the British Museum (Fig. 406), which, however, has on
the hoop the ordinary inscription : Lord, preserve the tuearer. A gold amu-
letic ring is in M. Schlumberger's collection,^ and silver bracelets and other
amulets at the Cairo Museum show the mounted lance-bearer transfix-
ing a figure on the ground.^ The superstitions to which these objects
bear witness probably spread from Alexandria about the beginning of
our era.
' 1 Derivatives of this type are numerous in Kiissia. Cf. La Collection Khanenko (Kieif),
Croix et images, 1899, PI. IX, 1900, PI. XXIX, and i!po([ue slave, 1902, Pi. XIII.
'^ Melanges, Fig. on p. 131.
^ J. Maspiro, Bracelets-amidettes d'epoque byzantine in Annales du Service des Antiquites de I'Mgypte,
ix, 1908, 246 ff.

T t
Fm. 407. Plead-piece with tlie Descent into Hell : from a MS. of the twelfth century in the
Monaster}', Mount Sinai (Sinait. 339). {^Haulcs Mudds : N. Kondakolf.)

CHAPTEE XII

ICONOGRAPHY

It is impossible in a general work like the present to deal with all the
subjects represented in Bj-zantine art. An attempt will, however, be made
to describe those which were most important or most popular, to note the
points in which the Eastern treatment difters from that adopted in the
West, and to suggest the sources from which the types were originally
derived.^
1 Among the most valuable aroounts of Byzantine iconography are Prof. N. Pokrovskys
The Gosijel in the Moymmenis, chief ij Byzantine and Russian, St. Petersburg, 1892, vol. i of The eighth
Arch. Congress, Moscow, 1890, and Sketch of the Monvments of Orthodox Iconographij and Art; but
they are unfortunately wi'itten in Russian, as are the treatises of other Russian writers who
deal incidentally with the subject (^Smirnoff, Ainaloff, Eiedin, &c.). Kondakoff, howevei-,
discusses many iconographical points in his Ilistoire de I'art bij:antin, &c., published in French,
and his work on the Swenigorodskoi enamels, which appeared both in French and German.
0. Wulff's Koimesiskirche in Niciia also contains much valuable information in German.
Strzygowski's many books and pamphlets are also full of iconogiaphical matter, as also
are those of Millet. Eduard Dobbert, in his articles on S, Angelo in Formis in the
Prussian Jahibuch (vol. xv) and on the Last Supper in the Eepertorium fiir Knnstn-isseiischafl,
contributed greatly to our knowledge of the subject, especially to the comparative study of
Eastern and Western types. In this he has been followed by A. Haseloff and W. Viige,
who approach the subject from the Western side, and their studies on the early schools
of German miniature painting abound in iconographical information.
 ICONOaEAPHY 643

It is a commonplace that the Early Christians did not introduce a new

art with a new religion ; they adapted to new ends existing forms and
compositions. The frescoes of the catacombs, the earliest mosaics like those
of Sta Costanza, the Christian sarcophagi, all continue without any violent
rupture the traditions of pagan art. Even where innovation could not be
avoided, as in scenes for which antique art afforded no precedent, individual
figures are copied from earlier models, the representations of sacred persons
are based upon pre-existing types. In religious art the costume of pre-
Christian times was preserved. The tunic and mantle, characteristic of Christ
and the Apostles, are inherited from the pagan Roman period, but they were
the dress of the Greek portion of the empire. It is not the Eoman toga
which we see, but the pallium or himation of the Hellenistic world.
This point, small as it is, suffices to introduce a general statement as to
the iconography of the Christian East. It is not Eoman in origin.
Iconography is concerned not with ornament but with iigure art ; and
this, in Early Christian times, was inspired in much that concerned
the matter, in almost all that concerned the manner, from Hellenistic
sources. Rome made significant additions, perfecting portraiture and
giving a new importance to the historical point of view ; but though
the masculine Roman spirit might impose a direction or suggest a mood,
it could not romanize all execution. A high proportion of the work, was
done by immigrant Greeks, whose models were naturally derived from
the creations of their own race. The ceremonial scene, the representa-
tion of a battle or a triumph, might bear the peculiar Roman quality;
in the genre scene or the mythological figure the artist was free to
follow his own bent, to reproduce the idyllic pastoral of Alexandria or
embody the Hellenistic conception of human beauty. But these painters
and sculptors were not pure Hellenes : they came from centres long pene-
trated by oriental influences. Many of them had Egyptian or Syrian
blood in their veins, and were quick to graft upon the Hellenic stock
much that would have been abhorrent to the spirit of the older Hellas.
To the end Greece controlled the composition and inspired the attitude or
gesture; but at an early period the East imposed aspects, such as the
oriental conception of Christ (p. 671), or introduced scenes and subjects
like the Anastasis (p. 663) or Deesis, which bear no trace of a Hellenic
origin.1 Of subjects adapted from Hellenistic sources we may cite the
episode of the Washing of the Child, so constant in Byzantine Nativities,
probably borrowed from the similar scene as it occurred in pagan life.
Models were not wanting in contemporary art : one is found in a relief
in the Museum of the Capitol at Rome.^ More familiar is the adoption
of Orpheus charming the beasts with his lyre, a common subject in the
art of the Roman Empire ; the legendary musician was connected with
> A theory which has received considerable support derives the type of the Virgin with
the Child from Isis and Horus ; the type of St. George mounted and attacking the dragon has
been associated with Horus (Clermont Ganneau, Horus et Saint-Georges, 1877).
2 Museum CapitoUnum, iv, PI. 60. See also G. Salomon, La Statue de Uilo, ii, PI. XI, Fig. 47.

T t3 ■
644 ICONOGRAPHY

ideas of death and the life to come, and thus by an ahnost natural
transition came to be regarded as a type of Christ.^ The iconographical
debt to classical art apparent in the episode is even clearer if we descend
to the attitude or the gesture. The Christian gestures of benediction^
were originally positions of the iingers indicating that the person repre-
sented was engaged in conversation with another. The so-called Latin
benediction, in which the third and fourth fingers are bent down upon the

Fig. 408. The Pentecost : miniature from the Syriac Gospel of Eabula (a. d. 586) in the
Laurentian Library, Florence. (Hautes Mudes : A. Venturi.) P. 662.

palm, while the first and second are extended, is most commonly found in
pagan art with this general and secular meaning. The Greek benediction,
in which the third (more rarely the second) finger joins the thumb so as
to form a circle, while the other fingers remain extended,^ is rarer as a mere
sign of discourse. The mourning attitude, in which the head of a standing
person is supported upon the hand, characteristic of the Virgin and St. John
in Crucifixion scenes, originated in Greek art. It occurs, for example, on
1 Cf. Heussner, B. Q., iv. 104 ff. ; Zeitschr. des deutschen Paldstina-Va'eins, xxiv. 139 ff.
2 N. P. Kondakoff, Enamels, 292 ; H. von der Gabelentz, Die kircMiche Kunsi im itaUenlschen
Mittdalter, 67. In Early Christian art there is no distinction between the Latin and Greek
gestures (Kraus, Bealencyklopddie, ii. 751).
s So in the Egbert Codex, where it is frequent (GoUingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1890,
pp. 880-1), and in the Alcuin Bible in the British Museum.
 645
ICONOGEAPHY

the well-known sarcophagus of the Mourning Women from Sidon, which

is of the fourth century b. c.^ Another, but less common attitude expres-
sive ofgrief, in which both arms hang at full length before the body while
the hands are joined, is derived from the same Hellenistic source. The
touching of the chin with the hand, as a sign of reflection, is also Greek.^
It is often Peter's attitude at the Last Supper, and appears as early as the

Fia. 409. The Pentecost : miniature of the early twelfth century in the Psalter of Queen
Melisenda in the British Museum. (Egerton 1139.) P. 662.

sixth century in the Cotton Bible. The position of the right hand just
issuing from the fold of the mantle, which almost appears to restrain it,
as in the case of the ' Sophocles ' in the Lateran Museum, is characteristic
of the orator in classical times. The attitude was probably transmitted to
the West by Byzantine art.^ The familiar recumbent position at meals
was retained by the artists of the Christian East, and is always seen in the
case of the front figures in the Last Supper. It was not adopted in the
West, where Christ and the disciples are all seated upright.
' Studnicka, Sev. arch., 1905, PI. XII, XIII. " Baumeister, Benkmdkr, i. 589.
' It is used by Duccio, and occurs in Italian mosaics and early German MSS. influenced
by Byzantine art (Dobbert, Prussian Jahrbuch, xv. 220).
646 ICONOGEAPHY

Down to the fifth century subjects derived from the chase and country
life, animals, fruits, and motives without any obvious religious significance
were employed to decorate sacred buildings. Although religious symbolism
lent many of these a new meamng,i they belonged to the picturesque art
which especially flourished in Alexandria. We see them in the early
mosaics, as well as in the paintings of the Catacombs; they covered
the walls or vaults of churches in the First Period, and their character
is preserved in the paintings of Kuseir 'Amra (p. 382). In the fifth
century, when the desire to. see sacred history openly represented had
triumphed over symbolism, the pagan element declined and scenes from
the Old and New Testament became general. Both in East and West we
read of decoration in this new ' historical ' style,^ which soon brought in
its train the representation of more recent events and the introduction of
secular persons : in this way the portrait became more and more popular.
The mosaics in San Vitale and at Parenzo, where Justinian, Theodore,
Archbishop Maximianus, and Bishop Euphrasius are depicted, illustrate the
growth of this tendency,^ which continued until the last period of Byzantine
art, and is instanced by the figure of Metochites at Kahrid Djami (Fig. 245).
In secular art it was naturally of more frequent occurrence. The repre-
sentation ofthe triumphs of Belisarius in the imperial palace of Chalce at
Constantinople included much portraiture, and in the hall and chambers
of the Kainourgion Basil I was seen enthroned among the generals of his
army or surrounded by the members of the imperial family. The princes
of later dynasties commanded historical frescoes in which portraits were
freely introduced (p. 261).
With the progress of time the symbolism of the earliest period and the
historical treatment which succeeded it were blended in the service of the
liturgical idea, by which the mind and eye of the worshipper were directed
toward the contemplation of the sacred mysteries. The mosaics and paint-
ings upon the church walls are sometimes inspired by the liturgy performed
within them, as in the early case of S. Vitale at Ravenna.* As the idea of
sacrifice was elaborated, the scenes from the Passion, avoided by Early
Christian art, took a conspicuous place in fresco and mosaic. The Cruci-
fixion itself was naturally the last of these scenes to be represented, and
though it was certainly known in the sixth century, it was still with

^ Thus the parable may well have contributed to the popularity of the fishing scenes ;
the vine has an equally obvious application ; the flowery meadows and palm-trees suggest the
joys of Paradise, &c. Animal and bird decoration was still used, though rarely, in the Third
Period. Cf. frescoes of a rock-hewn church in Cappadocia about eleventh-twelfth century
(H. Rett, Kleinasiatische Senkmaler, 232).
^ The Gospel scenes were represented in the church at Blachernae, built by Puloheria
in A.D. 451. In Cyprus, at Patras, &c., we read of the same thing. Cf. G. Millet in
A. Michel's Histoire de Vart, i. 177.
' The destruction of so many early mural paintings has involved. the ruin of many
painted fresco portraits. Here again the mural paintings of Kuseir 'Amra, with their group
of sovereign princes, represent the practice of an earlier art.
* Quoted by Millet in A. Michel, Histoire de Vart, i, Pt. I, 181. It has been observed else-
where (pp. 358 ff.) that the decorations of S. Vitale may have a direct relation to the Monophy-
site controversj-.
 647
ICONOGRAPHY

comparative frequency replaced by such compromises as those seen on the

ampullae of Monza,^ or by the simple cross without the figure of the
Crucified.^ In the series of Gospel pictures in the mosaics of S. ApoUinare
Nuovo at Ravenna, the Crucifixion scene is altogether omitted.^ The
iconoclastic dispute arrested the progress of this development, and reduced
the decoration of churches to simpler forms. Thejconoclasts did not object
to figure subjects, but were determined to prevent whaTllley^ regarded as

Fio. 410. Joseph's Dream, the Flight into Egypt, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the
Baising of Lazarus : mosaics of the twelfth century in the Cappella Palatina, Palermo.
(Eautes Mudes : G. Millet.)

idolatry. Deriving their inspixation-from oriental sentiment, they wished

to restore to Christian^ j/rt_ the characteristics which had marked it at its
birth. The iconoclastic interlude was not an outbreak of Puritanism :
many of the subjBcts-tolerated bythetlestroyers of images would have dis-
pleased the Puritan even more than ikons: it meant a temporary return
upon an abandoned point of view.j It enlarged the range of secular subjects,
and^in" this way compensated for its neglect of those bearing a religious
character.* __^- .
The triumph of the venerators of images under Irene and Theodora
' Where the bust of Christ is, in all cases but one, seen above, and detached from the
cross. This idea was continued in the Roman churches, as at S. Stefano Kotondo.
^ As in the mosaics of St. Irene at Constantinople (Fig. 226).
' It may have been reserved for some other place, though of this there is no evidence.
* Sehnaase, Gesch. der Uldenden Kilnste, 2nd ed., iii. 227 S. The well-known 'Palatine'
MSS. (the Paris Psalter, Homilies of Gregory, &c.) of the tenth and eleventh centuries may have
been influenced by the monumental work of this time, as well as by late Hellenic models of
earlier date. For these MSS. see Kondakoff, Histoire de fart bys., ii. 57-8, 102 ; J. J. Tikkanen,
Die Psalterillustration, &c., 135).
 648 ICONOGRAPHY

restored the union between liturgy and art. From the second half of the
ninth century the concordance between the spoken word and its translation
into visible form becomes more and more precise, until in about a hundred
years the final phase of Byzantine iconography was established in all its
essential features. Most frequent and conspicuous is the group of subjects
illustrating the principal feasts of the liturgical Calendar, while the
apocalyptic figures of earlier symbolism were retained and amplified,
especially those illustrating the Last Judgement. The figure of Christ
becomes predominant, no longer the Christ of the Gospels, but the Panto-
krator or image of the invisible God, the visible expression of that union
in one form of the divine and human natures which the Councils of Ephesus
and Chalcedon had established as an article of belief.^ He looks down from
the top of the principal dome, which represents the celestial Church, while
in the central apse the Virgin stands as representative of the Church on
earth interceding for sinful mankind. For in the Third Period the decora-
tion of churches was regulated according to an elaborate theological system :
the church represented the cosmos, and every corner of it had its appro-
priate ornament.^ By the eleventh century a complete scheme was estab-
lished over which the influence of the liturgy was predominant ; in the
Fourth Period, as at Mistra, that influence had become supreme. Old
Testament subjects yield place to those depicting the life of Christ and the
Virgin. In middle and later Byzantine art the Old Testament is chiefly
represented by the single figures of prophets or priests whose message or
whose function brings them into relation to the story of Christ. In the
mosaics these figures are constantly found, and in the conspicuous positions
which their character requires. They were commonly placed round the
lower zone of the principal dome, in the top of which was throned the
Pantokrator: in the intermediate zone between them and this central
figure stood a line of angels. The commanding place given to St. John
the Baptist, who sometimes occupies the centre of a group even when Our
Lord is also present, may be explained by the fact that he is regarded,
with Zachariah, Simeon, and Anna, as among the last of the prophets,
while at the same time he is the Baptist of the New Messiah.''' On the
front of the chair of Maximianus (Fig. 122) and in the miniature of the
Vatican Cosmas representing the last prophets, St. John occupies the
central position. Even once-popular subjects from the New Testament
were neglected if they had no liturgical significance.* The miracles play
lamb.1 Tlie Council of a.d. 692 forbade the representation of Christ under the image of a
2 The most perfect remaining examples are St. Luke in Phoeis, Daphni, and the Sicilian
churches. Tor the usual ai-rangement of subjects the reader may consult ch. iv of Bk. Ill in
M. Diehl's Manuel (pp. 448 ff.).
' Strzygowski, Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy, li, 1906, 163.
* The New Testament scenes most frequently found are the 'Twelve Teasts' of the
Calendar: The Annunciation, Nativity, Presentation, Baptism, Transfiguration, Raising of
Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, Crucifixion, Anasiasis, Pentecost, Ascension, and Death of the
Virgin. It may be noted that in the rock-cut chapels of Cappadocia (p. 268) the Miracles are
still found, as well as apocryphal subjects equally popular in the art of the First Period. In
this respect these frescoes are curiously conservative.
 649
ICONOGRAPHY

a very small part after the establishment of the new iconography. Although
from the Third Period onwards the tendency to impose a rigid scheme of
composition for all religious scenes increased, it is a mistake to suppose
that the rules were always obeyed. Doubtless painters usually conformed
to precedent, but compulsory uniformity could never be enforced. The
' Painter's Manual ', discovered on Mount Athos, and published in the first
instance by Didron, is now known to be of much later date than was
originally supposed. The writer, Dionysios of Fuma, lived in the early
eighteenth century, and his oldest sources do not go further back than
about two hundred years.* It is not easy to say at what time the
individual subjects composing Byzantine iconography assumed a stereo-
typed form. Some had already become fixed in the sixth century ; of this
the miniatures of the Codex Kossanensis (p. 452) afford important proof.

l-r«>> H"«J Trrt-P I •

Fie. 411. Christ before Pilate ; the Crucifixion : miniature from a twelfth-century Gospel in
the Laurentian Library, Florence. (Hautes Mudes : G-. Millet.)

In that Ms. the Raising of Lazarus, the Entry into Jerusalem, and the Last
Supper already have, with other subjects, the essential features which they
retain in late Byzantine art.^
The influence of East- Christian iconographical types was almost con-
tinually felt in one or the other part of Europe down to the thirteenth
century ; the principal vehicle was the illuminated manuscript. But this
influence was often indirect, and the Western artist shows a constant
tendency to diversify the theme by original traits of his own invention.
The study of early German mediaeval MSS. seems to show that about
A.D. 1200 the Eastern types were more followed than they had been
two hundred years earlier. Byzantium was most influential just at the
moment when she herself was about to enter upon her decline, and Europe
to begin the development of the Gothic style. ^
1 A. Papadopoulos Kerameus, Senys de Fmirna, Manuel d'iconographie chreiienm, &c., St. Peters-
burg, 1900, and the same author's later Aiomaiov tov iic ^ovpvd 'Epiaiveia ttjs ^wypacpiicfl!, &c.,
St. Petersburg, 1909. A principal source drawn upon by Dionysios was an anonymous
painter's book of a.d. 1566.
" Haseloff, Codex purpureus Eossanensis, 127 ff. Heisenberg assigns an equal importance
to the lost mosaics of the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople : this they would certainly
possess were their origin in the sixth century beyond dispute (A. Heisenberg, Graieskirche und
Apostelkirche, ii. 140 ff.).
' A. Haseloff, Jline Thiiringisch-Sachsische Malerschule, pp. 217-18, Strassburg, 1897.
650 ICONOGRAPHY

It may be useful to pass in review a selected number of scenes and

types of habitual occurrence or especial interest. But the following pages
can offer little more than a series of notes, only developed in the case of
certain New Testament subjects.

(a) Compositions and Scenes.

It will be necessary to pass rapidly over scenes from the Old Testament.
The Book of Genesis provided many themes illustrated in Bibles, Octateuchs,

Fig. 412. Abraham entertaining the angels, symbolic of the Trinity : illumination in the
Psalter of a. d. 1066 in the British Museum. (Add. MS. 19352.) P. 652.

Psalters, and other MSS., and in the decoration of churches, as in Sicily and
Venice. Among cycles, the story of Joseph was early popular. It furnishes
numerous illustrations in the Vienna Genesis (p. 445) and covers a large part of
the ivory episcopal throne at Eavenna (pp. 205-6) : it continued to attract during
later periods, for the career of the Jewish hero was considered typical of that
of Christ. The ivory casket of which the scattered parts are in the British and
the Berlin Museum (Fig. 137) shows that it was familiar to the carvers of the
twelfth century. Episodes from the story of Moses, especially the Passage of
the Bed Sea, were continually repeated, but rather to illustrate passages in the
 COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES 651

Psalms than as parts of the original history. A cycle rivalling that of Joseph
depicted the exploits of Joshua. Like the story of Abraham, it had formed
part of the scenes in the nave mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore at Eome ; and
the Joshua Eotulus at the Vatican, whatever its own date, is evidently a copy
of an original perhaps as early as the fourth century. Jonah, so frequently
found in Early Christian art, is rarer after the First Period : he is now
usually clothed instead of naked.' The life and exploits of David, though not
frequent in Early Christian art," are found in the frescoes of Bawit
(p. 284), which are of the First Period. They have been noted abovein on Egypt
the
silver dishes from Cyprus and other works of the minor arts (p. 576). The

Fig. 413. The Arming of David : silver dish of the sixth century from Cyprus.
(Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq.)

David cycle is the most frequent of all those derived from the Old Testament
on account of the popularity of the Psalter.' This book is really a link between
the iconography of the Old and New Testaments, for it incorporates many
scenes from other early books of the Bible, and inserts amongst them, especially
to illustrate the prophetic passages, scenes from the life and Passion of Christ.
Individual scenes from the Old Testament survived in iconography as
possessing a particular liturgical or theological significance. Episodes in the
life of Abraham, for example, were important from this point of view. One
of these is the Sacrifice of Isaac, typical of the Lord's Supper ;* another, the
' For Jonah in Early Christian art see 0. Mitius, Jonas auf den Bmkmalern, &o. , 1897 ; the
story is represented , in frescoes in the oases of the Libyan Desert. See V. de Bock, Uatiriawc
pour seroir a I'archeologie de I'Mgypte chreiienne, PI. X. See also Strzygowski in Senkschriften of the
Vienna Academy, Phil.-hist. Klasse, 1, 1904, 148.
^ David Vfith the sling is found on the roof-frescoes in the cemetery of Calixtus, on the
ivoiy reliquary at Brescia (see p. 192), and on sarcophagi from Gaul (E. Le Blant, Sarcophages,
&c., p. viii, note 8, and p. xx).
^ The Creation cycle is found at Monreale, in the Cappella Palatina at Palei-mo, and
the Baptistery at Florence. It also occurs in Italo-Byzantine art on the ivory paliotto of
Salerno, in the frescoes of Ferentillo and Assisi, &c.
' This scene was a favourite in Early Christian art. Its directly symbolical nature^ is
emphasized in the sixth century, as in the mosaics of S. Vitale at Eavenna (p. """~
J. Wilpert, Das Opfer Abrahams in der altchristlichen Kunst, B. Q., i, 1887, 130 ff.
652 ICONOGEAPHY

Entertainment of the three Angels (Fig. 412), which came to represent the Trinity
in the art of the Eastern Church.'-
Subjects illustrating the lives of Our Lord and the Virgin are of more
frequent occurrence, and a selection from among them may be more particularly
described, attention being called, where possible, to analogies or diiferences
between Eastern and Western modes of treatment.

A nnunciation?
(Cf. Figs. 6, 95, 149, 155, 189, 219, 246, 254, 305, 309, 378, 414.)
The angel advances, usually from the left, carrying a rod or wand in
his left hand. The Virgin is either seated upon a cushioned bench, or has

V Unu-oDT p 1 f x g •s.jiu [y f auTH jj jj-n y our

''^^HTT^trpumj-o'rie'ijrBDgxtoi'TrE '

.:,-^^

Fig. 414. The Annunciation : miniature in a Gospel of the twelfth century in the British
Museum. (Harley 1810.)

just risen from it. She holds the spindle with the red or purple thread, and by
her side is a basket.' Behind are buildings, but the scene passes in the open.
' The so-called 'A7ia Tptas, mentioned in the ' Painter's Manual ' of Mount Athos, but occur-
ring far earlier in Byzantine art and frequent in the frescoes of the Cappadociau churches
(see p. 268).
2 J. Strzygowski, B. D., i. 42-4 and 101 ; G. Millet, B. C. H., xviii, 1895, 453 ff. ; Pokrovsky,
Ooipel, &c., pp. 3ff. ; J. Stuhlfauth, Die Engel in der altchristUchen Kunst, 58-78 ; A. Heisenberg,
Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche, ii, 1908, 221 ff. ; V. de Griineisen, Scritti di storia difllologia e d'arte,
Rome, 1907, 15-37 ; Th. Schmidt, hmestiya of the Eussian Arch. Inst, at Cple., xi, 1906, p. 153.
' The Virgin is supposed to have been occupied in weaving a purple veil for the Temple
when the angel appeared. The basket is not usually found after the eleventh century.
 653
COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES
The rarer type, in which the angel finds the Virgin drawing water from the
well, also based upon the apocryphal Gospels, is not favoured by later Byzantine
artists.
In the later periods the Virgin is commonly seated ; the standing type,
which is found on the early ampullae at Monza (p. 623), and has been specially
associated with Syria-Palestine, was not abandoned. The dove is sometimes
represented above the Virgin's head.
In the West, with the fourteenth centuiy, the angel gradually assumes more

/•.-j>'^..r'2«i»8jg

riG. 415. The Nativity, Washing of the Child, and Annunciation to the Shepherds :
mosaics of the fourteenth century in Kahrie Djami, Constantinople. (Sebah and Joaillier).

animation, and is seen as it were flying forward or kneeling ; ^ the wool and
basket are absent, and the scene is usually enacted under a roof. The lily in
the pot is Western, and becomes common in Italy in the fourteenth century."
Nativity?
(Cf. Pigs. 149, 155, 254, 305, 415.)
In this scene the Virgin usually lies upon a kind of mattress, while the
Child is in a manger of masonry with the ox and ass behind it. In the fore-

' In quite type

the Byzantine early isItalian pictures,
retained. The such
angelas has
Duccio's Annunciation
the collected manner inusually
the National
seen inGallery,
Byzan-
tine Annunciations, from which the example at Kahri6 Djami markedly differs (Fig. 246).
" H. von der Gabelentz, Die kirchliche Kunst im italienischen Mittelalter, 99.
' See Max Schmid, Die Darstellung der Geburt Christi in der bildenden Kunst, Stuttgart, 1890 ;
A. Heisenberg, Grabeskirche und Apostelkirche, ii. 223 ff., Leipaio, 1908 ; Pokrovsky, Gospel, &c.,
48 ff.
654 ICONOGEAPHY

ground Joseph is seated on one side resting his head on his hand/ while on the
other side the nurses are seen preparing a bath for the Child. Behind the
manger is the mouth of a cave ^ in the side of a hill, on the slopes of which are
shepherds with their flocks receiving the message from the angels, who appear
in the sky. A shaft of light often descends from a segment of a circle above.
The episode of the Washing of the Child is a very constant feature in Byzan-
tine Nativities, while in the West this is not the case. It is probably derived
from the apocryphal Gospels,^ but, as already mentioned, the actual models may
have been classical, and connected with the legend of Bacchus.*
The episode of the incredulous midwife Salome extending her withered
hand to touch the Child is also based upon apocryphal and oriental sources. It
has been commonly thought not to occur much before a.d. 800.^ In Western
Nativities some kind of stall is almost invariably shown above the manger.
/

Adoration of the Magi.^

(Cf. Figs. 36, 84, 114, 126, 232, 281, 805, 366.)
In this scene, a favourite in Early Christian art, the Magi are represented in
Persian costume, with tight hose and ' Phrygian ' caps.' By the sixth century
it had become common to introduce an angel, who presents the kings to the Virgin
and Child. Joseph is also introduced, standing in a subordinate position
behind the chair.' The arrangement is in early examples often symmetrical, the
Virgin sitting full face, the angel and the kings grouped on either side : this
appears to be characteristically Syrian." The distinction of the Magi according
to their ages, the first an old man, the second of middle age, the third young,
is adumbrated on the sixth-century ampullae at Monza, where two of the kings
appear bearded and the third beardless.'"
The Persian costume was retained in Carolingian art, which was largely
based upon Early Christian and early Byzantine models. Crowns first appear
in the West in the twelfth century. In the East they seem to be rather earlier,
occurring in the Paris Gregory Codex (No. 510) and the Vatican Menologium.
Baptism.
(Cf. Figs. 95, 111, 155, 254, 305, 410.)
This subject has been well treated by Strzygowski," and more recently
by C. F. Rogers,'^ A. Jacoby," and Heisenberg in the work already cited."
John the Baptist almost always stands upon the left, and, after the eleventh

' The features mentioned thus far occur on the Monza ampullae of the sixth century.
The Washing of the Child is not there found.
2 The cave is mentioned in the apoci-yphal Gospels.
' Dobbert in Prussian Jahrbuch, vi, 1885, 159-60, though the first definite literary mention
appears to be in Symeou Metaphrastes. See also the same writer, Ueber den Styl Niccolb JHsano's,
&c, 81.
* F. Noack, Die GelruH Christi in der Uldenden Kunst, Darmstadt, 1894 ; B.Z., iv, 1895, 601 S. ;
A. KirpiSnikoff, Memoirs of the Imperial Bussian Arch. Soc, vii ; Heisenberg, ii. 227.
5 Schmid, as above, 39 and 125.
° Pokrovsky, Gospel, &c. , 1 13 ff. ; Lehner, Die Mariemerehrung in den ersten Jahrhunderten, Stutt-
gart, 1881 ; Liell, Die Sarstellung der allerheiligsten Junofrau, &c. ; Eohault de Fleury, L'ivangile;
A. Heisenberg, as above, ii. 229 ff. ; H. Kehrer, Die Heiligen Drei Eonige, &c., 1908.
' It will be remembered that when Chosroes captured Jerusalem he is said to have spared
the mosaic upon the Church of the Nativity representing the Adoration because he recognized
the Magi as Persians.
* But there is no angel on the sixth-century Monza ampullae, on which the Adoration is
combined with the Annunciation to the Shepherds. The introduction of Joseph is due to
the influence of the apocryphal Gospels (Ainaloff in V. V., v. 171, note).
9 See Heisenberg, Ft. IT, 231.
1' Garrucci, Storiu, 433, Fig. 9. The sixth- centui-y Gospels of Etchmiadzin show a dis-
tinction ofage (J. Strzygowski, B. D., i, PI. VI, Pig. 1).
11 Ikonographie der Tavfe Christi, 1885. ^^ Baptism and Christian Archaeology, Oxford, 1903.
1' Ein Usher unbeackteter apokrypher Bericht Hber die Tavfe Jesu, Strassburg, 1902.
'♦ Grabeskirclw und Apostelkirche, ii 236.
 COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES 655

centuiy, always on a higher level than Our Lord, on whose head he lays his
hand. Christ stands approximately full face ; he is bearded, and usually makes
the gesture of benediction with his right hand, which, however, is not raised.
On the opposite bank of the river stand angels holding cloths or towels, or
extending the ends of their mantles, to dry the body of Our Lord. In the
eleventh century there are usually two angels ; later three or even more.^ The
dove descends in a shaft of light issuing from a segment of a circle at the top :
in the background to right and left are symmetrical rocks between which the
river flows. St. John and the angels are often represented in a posture suggest-
ing energetic action. Behind the Baptist is often a small tree with the axe
at its root (Matthew iii. 10), which appears as early as the sixth century.'
A personification of Jordan, based on the classical type of river-god, is often
seen in the foreground, recumbent upon his urn. Occasionally a cross is
represented in the water. The personification of Jordan was already common
in the sixth century ; cf. the Orthodox Baptistery at Eavenna.
The points in which the Byzantine scheme influenced European representa-
tions in the twelfth century have been fully discussed by Haseloif.'*

Transfiguration.*
(Cf. Figs. 79, 149, 155, 184, 225, 254, 410, 416.)
Christ stands on the central of three summits ; on the other two stand
Moses (young) and Elias (old) inclining their heads towards him. Usually
Christ is alone in a mandorla, and light radiates from his body : sometimes all
three figures are in one large glory. In the foreground are Peter, James, and
John in attitudes of amazement and fear, sometimes expressed by exaggerated
gesture. A shaft of light descends from a segment above as in the Baptism.
The subject is not certainly represented in Christian art before the sixth
century, when it occurs in the Syrian Gospel of Eabula and in the apse mosaic
of S. Apollinare in Classe at Eavenna. But in neither of these cases is the
composition of the traditional Byzantine type described above, which is first
known to us from the lost mosaics of the Church of the Apostles at Constanti-
nople.'
In the West the Transfiguration, though it is found by exception in earlier
times, is not a common subject until rather late : it only became popular after
A.D. 1457, when the Feast of the Transfiguration was universally observed."
The figures of the Apostles are not in such strained attitudes as in the East.
The rays issuing from Our Lord's body are a Byzantine feature, as also is
the marked difference between the ages of Moses and Elias.^

Raising of Lazarus,^
(Cf. Figs. 80, 149, 254, 284, 410.)
Lazarus is seen swathed as a mummy in a vertical rock-tomb, in which he
stands erect. His form is supported by a man, who, in later representations,
begins to unbind the wrappings : a second man sometimes holds the removed
door of the tomb. Before him are Mary and Martha kneeling, while Christ
advances usually from the left, followed by a crowd. More rarely the personifi-
cation of Hades is introduced.
1 Strzygowski, 22, 24. On the Monza ampullae there is one angel only.
'' Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 447. Ivory panel in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
3 Eine Thuringisch-Sachsische Malerschule des 13. Jahrhunderts, 115 ff., Strassburg, 1897.
' Dobbert in Prussian Jahrbuch, xv, p. 135.
5 As described by Mesarites, see Heisenberg, as above, ii. 181.
6 Augusti, Drnkwiirdigkeiten aus der christlichen Archaologie, iii. 292 ; Pokrovsky, Iconography,
202.
' The relations of the Western and Byzantine types are discussed by Haseloff, Thurmgisch-
Sachsische Malerschule, &c., 124-7.
8 Pokrovsky, Gospel, &c., 249 ff. ; Dobbert, as above, 146; Heisenberg, ii. 241.
656 ICONOGEAPHY

The subject, which occurs in Early Christian art, is frequent in later times.
An interesting early Byzantine example is in the Codex Eossanensis, where the
ampler and more historical treatment first appears.

Entry into Jerustlem?-

(Cf. also Figs. 13, 143, 149.)
Christ usually rides from the left, always sitting sideways.^ People issuing
from the gate of Jerusalem on the right spread garments before him and carry
branches ; others who have mounted trees in the background cast branches

Fig. 416. The Transfiguration : miniature of the early twelfth century in the Psalter of
Queen Melisenda, British Museum. (Egerton 1139.) P. 655.

down. These people are represented as of childish stature, though their pro-
portions and expressions are those of adults : possibly this feature may be due
to the description of the scene in the apocryphal Gospels,^ though, as children are
specially mentioned in Matthew xxi, the explanation does not seem necessary.
The essential details appear early in Christian art, but the sideways position
of Our Lord, and the childish proportions of the persons who greet him, belong
to Eastern Christianity. In the West, Christ frequently rides from the right ; the
1 Dobbert, as above, 149 ; A. Haselofif, Codex Purpureus Eossanensis, 91 ff. ; Ussoff, Srevnosti
(Moscow), ix, p. 43 ; Pokrovsky, Gospel, &c., 258 ff. ; Heisenberg, li. 247.
2 Tischendorf, Apocryphal Gospels, Gesta Pilati, i. 3..
 COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES 657

people who meet him are adult ; and he almost invariably rides astride.^ The
fact that he does so on Early Christian sarcophagi is an argument in favour of
their Western origin.''

FiGi 417. The Entry into Jerusalem : mosaic of the eleventh century in the Monastery
Church of Daphni, Attica. {Hautes iltudes : G. Millet.)

The Washing of the Apostles' Feet?

(Cf. Fig. 229.)
On the left the Apostles are seated on a bench : Peter sits at its left end, one
foot over a vessel of water, above which Christ bends. Peter raises his right
hand to his forehead to express the sense of his unworthiness.
In the Western version this type is often closely followed, though the position
^ Where the sideways position appears in the West, as in the Sacramentary at Bamberg
of the eleventh century (ed. iii. 11), there are other indications of direct oriental influence.
Ohildish figures also occur in certain Western MSS. ; but here again their elderly appearance
suggests a Byzantine influence. There are several Western examples of the thirteenth cen-
tury (Haseloff, Thwringisch-Sckhsische Malerschule, 137).
^ He is seen so riding on the well-known sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, and on a Lateran
sarcophagus (Garrucci, Storia, PI. 313. 4), &c. ' Dobbert, as above, 151.
1204 U U
638 ICONOaEAPHY

of the personages is sometimes reversed, Christ being on the right, the Apostles
on the left.
The Agony in the Garden}
Christ is seen praying on the right ; and by an example of the ' continuous '
narrative method reappears on the left awakening the sleeping disciples. Some-
times an angel appears to the kneeling Christ : sometimes the whole group of
the Apostles is substituted for the three.
The scene is already treated by the continuous method in the Codex.
Eossanensis. ^.^,

The Betrayal."
Here all the essential features are common to East and West, excej^t as
regards particular attitudes and gestures. But in Byzantine art Judas usually
approaches Christ with a hurried and rapid movement. Peter is always
seen cutting off Malchus' ear : the crowd always carry lights ia the background.
Duccio, in his Maesta at Sienna, has given an ideal rendering of the scene.
The Last Supper?
The Byzantine composition shows a semicircular table with the chord
towards the spectator ; round it the Apostles recline. At the end to the
spectator's left Christ reclines * in the antique fashion with St. John near him,
while in the corresponding position on the right is St. Peter. Further back on
the right Judas reaches over the table towards a dish upon which a fish is
commonly seen. This type begins in the First Period (Codex Eossanensis).
In illuminated Psalters the Last Supper frequently occurs as an illustration
to Psalm xl. 10. The Communion of the Apostles (see p. 666) is a symbolic-
version of the Last Supper, and is also found in the Eossano Codex.
The Last Supper in Western mediaeval art is based on John xiii. 21-30.
The participants do not recline, but are seated at the table ; in front of it Judas
is seen receiving the sop from Our Lord, who sits in the middle on the other side.

The Crucifixion.''
(Of. Figs. 140, 149, 1G4, 187, 188, 192, 193, 252, 261, 318, 348, 411, 418.)
The representation of Christ upon the Cross was not tolerated by the senti-
ment of the earliest centuries. The oldest examples known to us, of which the
door of Sta Sabina at Eome and the ivory panel in the British Museum are the
most prominent, show Our Lord as still living : the Virgin and St. John are
already present," though not in the symmetrical positions occupied by them at
a later time. It is with the sixth century that the subject begins to appear
with greater frequency, though in some examples we still meet with a reluctance
to represent Christ actually upon the Cross : ' on the ampullae from the Holy
' Dobbert, 152. ^ Dobbert, 152 ; Heisenberg, as above, ii, p. 249.
" E. Dobbert, Sepertorium, xv, 1892, 357-84 (for Last Suppers in Early Christian -art
see his earlier publication on the subject, printed in 1872). See also Prussian Jahrbuch, xv. 130.
* More rarely Our Lord is seen sitting, a posture in -which St. Peter is more frequently
represented.
^ Dobbert, Prussian Jahrbuch, vol. i p. 41 ff. ; J. Reil, Die fmhchrisUkhe Darstettung der
Kreuzigung, Leipzig, 1904 ; Zestermann, Die Mldliche Darstellung des Kreuses ; Porrer and Miiller,
Kreuz und Kreugigung Christi in ihrer KunstentwicHung ; L. Br^hier, Les Origines du Crucifix dan»
I'art religieux, 1904; Strzygowski in B. Z., xiv, 1905, 363, and xiii, 1904, 6B2.
" As indicated by the version in the Gospel of St. John, which artists evidently
followed.
e. g. on the Monza ampullae (p. 624). Tliis in spite of the fact that Choricius of Gaza
and Gregory of Tours both allude to representations of the Crucifixion publicly shown in
churches. Both of these writers lived in the sixth century, and Choricius in the early part of
it. The ampullae at Monza, which represent types of the same century, show us as a rule the
bust of Christ above the Cross, from which it is quite detached. Perhaps the designs on the
ampullae reproduce those of lost Palestinian mosaics.
 659
COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES

Land at Monza, the thieves are represented upon their crosses ; but the
central cross is merely surmounted by a medallion containing the head of
Christ, or else by a standing figure in long raiment with, the arms extended.'
Of other actors in the drama, the Virgin and St. John stand to right and left.

Fig. 418. The Crucifixion : mosaic of the eleventh century in the Monastery of Daphni,
{Hautes J^tudes : G. Millet.)

though two kneeling figures sometimes appear at the foot of the Cross, possibly
representing Adam and Eve. The sun and moon, henceforth regularly present,
are personified as busts, as usually down to the thirteenth century. The most
elaborate of the early Crucifixions is the miniature in the Gospel of Eabula
(p. 448), which, however, is not certainly of the same date as the book (a. d. 586).
' Garrucci, Storia, vi, PI. 434. 2. For the whole figure with extendbd arms, see ibid.,
434. 4 ; Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'arch, chritienne, s.v.
U U Ampoules.
3
660 ICONOGEAPHY

Here not only are the Virgin and St. John, the mourning women, the thieves, and
Longinus present, but the sponge-bearer (Stephaton) is for the first time intro-
duced, as well as the soldiers casting lots (by the game of morra) for the seamless
garment. The sun and moon are a disk and crescent, features being drawn upon
the sun.^
Although the historical, as opposed to the 'liturgical' treatment, is not that
generally adopted in later centuries, it yet occurs long after the early period.^
Symbolic figures recalling those so commonly found in Carolingian Crucifixions
are also found. A figure kneeling at the foot of the Cross, and representing either
Faith or (less probably) the Church, is seen receiving the blood in a chalice in
several illuminated manuscripts.' The church and synagogue, in. like manner
very popular in Carolingian times, also occur in Byzantine Crucifixions, though
very rarely. One example is on an enamel in the Botkin Collection, reproduced by
Kondakoff in his work on the Swenigorodskoi Collection (PI. XIII) ; Kondakoff
sees in these figures Mary Magdalen and Mary, wife of Cleophas.* Another is
in a Syrian MS. of the thirteenth century in the British Museum. = Others are
found in the eleventh-century Gospel in the Bibliothfeque Nationale at Paris (see
note 3, below), and in a Bulgarian MS. in Lord Zouche's Collection. In Byzan-
tine art these figures are introduced by angels, a feature which in Western art
is chiefly found in, Italy, where it may be due to Byzantine influence ; it is so
characteristic of the Eastern versions that these can hardly be derived from
early Western art, as Weber ° was inclined to suppose. Further, the dis-
tribution ofthe MSS. showing these figures is very wide among Eastern nations.
The historical treatment, which from its wealth of detail reminds us of the
Carolingian Crucifixions, is not that which became typical in the art of later
centuries.' As a rule only the Virgin and St. John stand on either side of the
Cross, below which the skull of Adam is commonly seen.* Above the arms
are two half-figures of angels, with the sun and moon represented as a radiate
disk and a crescent, both on a small and inconspicuous scale. The feet of Our
Lord always rest upon a suppedaneum ; his head, which is surrounded by
a cruciferous nimbus, is inclined over his right side, and the arms are only
slightly bent. Though the eyes are closed, and the figure is represented as
dying or dead, there is no suggestion of agony, but rather of final repose. The
long hair falls over the shoulders ; the face is always beaxded ; a loincloth
reaches from the waist to the knee and the body is rather emaciated. The
eolobium, or long sleeveless tunic, is seen in the Kabula miniature, and
frequently occurs in examples of the eighth to tenth centuries (Figs. 188, 302).
But the eolobium is not a proof of early date: it occurs for example in the British
Museum Psalter of a.d. 1066, where there are also other Crucifixions in which
the short loincloth is used. It is only by exception that any of the other
' Features are not so common upon the representation of the two luminaries in Byzantine
art as in the West. They occur in the Eusso-Byzantine Crucifixion miniature of the eleventh
century interpolated in the Psalter of Archbishop Egbert of Trier now in Cividale.
^ e.g. MS. gr. 1156 in the Vatican Library, where the holy women, John, the captain,
and the skull of Adam are all seen (Kohault de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge, i, PI. 48 ; d'Agin-
court, Painting, PI. 57 ; Pokrovsky, The Gospel in the Monuments, &c., 329).
^ Gospels of the eleventh century in the Bibliothfeque Ifationale (MS. grec, 74, f. 59 and
207 : E. de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge, PI. XVI). Also in the eleventh-century Physiologus MS.
at Smyrna (Strzygowski, Her Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus, &c., PI. XXIII), and two
later MSS. connected with it, one in Russian (Pokrovsky, as above, 328), and one (written in
Bulgarian) in Lord Zouche's Collection (R. Curzon, Catalogue, 1849, 33). The earliest known
example of this figure is, however, to be found in an eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon Gospel at
Holkham Hall. On the whole subject, see A. Haseloff, Der Psalter Ersbischof Egberts su Trier,
180-1 and 213. * Against this see Haseloff, as above, 181.
6 Add. MS. 7110. « Geistliches Schauspiel, Ac, 133 f.
' The eleventh-century type is described by Millet, Monastere de Daphni (cf. Fig. 418).
* The tradition that Adam was buried on Golgotha is recorded by the Fathers (cf. S.
Jerome, Letter XLVI, and Commentary on S. Matthew, iv, eh. xxvii). Honorius of Autun, Be
Imagine Mundi, iii (in Migne, Pair, Lat., 172), says In loco Calvariae sepuUus (Adam) aliquamdiu
requiemt.
 661
COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES

figures are represented. Longinus is sometimes seen, not piercing Our Lord's
side, but standing with his right arm raised in admiration. Sometimes a kneel-
ing figure (an adoring emperor or empress) is introduced. More rarely still the
soldiers appear, casting lots. In Western Crucifixions ' after the eighth century
■\ve still meet with complicated historical versions with numerous accessory
figures and personifications. Towards the latter part of the tenth century there
is a tendency to adopt the simple group with the Virgin and St. John, or at the

Fig. 419. The Descent from the Cross : miniature ef the early twelfth century in the Psaltei'
of Queen Melisenda in the British Museum. (Egerton 1139.)

most, Longinus and Stephaton. At this period a long tunic is worn by Our
Lord, but it differs from the colobium in having long sleeves. In the eleventh
century Christ is often beardless and youthful, though not invariably so : his
eyes are almost always closed, though there are examples of opened eyes as late
as the beginning of the thirteenth centurj'.' About a. d. 1200 the West intro-

^ For purposes of comparative study the following references to wor)<s on Western Cruci-
iixions may be useful : Carolingiau Period, Cahier and Martin, Melanges d'archeologir, ii. 39 ft', ;
Rhenish Crucifixions of about a.d. 1000, W. Voge, Fine devtscke Malersclmle urn die Wende des
ersten Jahrtausi-iids, Trier, 1891. 26.5 ; German Crucifisions of the late twelfth and early thir-
English teenth centuries, A. Haseloft',
Crucifixions EinetheThliringisch-S(ichsiscli.e
anterior to thirteenth century, Malersclmle,
Proc. iVoc. Strassburg,
AhI. London, 1897, 143xxii.
N. S., tf. ;
225 ; Italian Crucifixions, H. von der Gabelentz, Ijie kirchliche Kunst im italienischen Millelalter, 7.'i.
- e. s. Haseloff, as above, 148.
662 ICONOGEAPHY

duced the custom of representing the two feet as fastened by a single nail ; this
remains almost universal through the Gothic period. In the fourteenth century
began the realistic treatment of the dead Christ, whose body is emaciated and
contracted with agony. The actions of the Virgin and St. John now become
dramatic : the Virgin yields altogether to her grief, and is supported by the
attendant women (the spasimo or svenimento of Italian aii).

Anastasis.^
(.Cf. Figs. 149, 157, 407, 420.)
This term is used in East- Christian art for the scene which in the West is
described as the Harrowing of Hell. It is symbolic of, and a substitute for, the
Eesurrection, which is a less popular subject in the Easf The Anastasis is
usually connected with the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus ^ (ch. xviii), where
John the Baptist is said to have foretold the descent of Our Lord into hell. But
it is very probable, as Strzygowski has suggested, that early Egyptian legend
and belief affected the typical representation of this subject. One of the
romances of Setne Ehamuas, popular in Eoman Egypt, describes the visit of
Setne to Amenti, the underworld. Ijd the fifth hall of Amenti they see the
wicked rich man, in whose right eye the bolt of the door of the hall is fixed.
Mr. Scott Moncrieff ^ has published the whole passage, as it may affect the type
of the Anastasis, pointing out that the figure 'of the wicked man grovelling in
Amenti with the long door-post fixed in his eye must have been familiar to
Roman Egypt, and as a signal example of retribution may have been adopted in
Christian iconography. At any rate, in Anastasis pictures Christ is sometimes
seen driving his long staff into the eye of Hades, who lies prostrate before him.
The mouth of hell, where shown at all, is indicated by a cavernous entrance,
not by the open jaws of a monster, as in Western mediaeval art. Christ advances
over the broken valves of the door, holding a long cross in one hand. With the
other he raises Adam from a sarcophagus-tomb ; behind Adam appear Eve,
David, Solomon, and other righteous persons of the Old Testament. Near Our
Lord stands John the Baptist ; behind him are grouped figures of the righteous
under the Old Dispensation. In the foreground, below Christ's feet, lies the
figure of Hades as an old bearded man whose hands and feet are chained
(cf. Fig. 420). Sometimes angels are seen fastening the chains. St. John the
Baptist is not found in this scene before the eleventh century. The ivory
carving in the British Museum {Catalogue of Early Christian and Bysantine
Antiquities, No. 299) is noM- held to represent another subject.
The Pentecost.
(Cf. Figs. 149, 243, 296, 408, 409.)
The usual Byzantine scheme shows the Virgin and Apostles seated about
a space in the form of a round-headed arch, in which appear a figure or figures
representing the World which the Apostleswere to evangelize (Fig. 409).^ Another
type is represented by Fig. 408, from the Gospel of Rabula, where the tongues of
flame descend upon a group of Apostles, in the centre of whom is the Virgin.
1 G. Millet, Man. Piot, ii. 209, and Monastere de Vaphni, s.v. Limies ; Ch. Diehl, Uon. Plot. iii.
232 ; H. voii der Gabelentz, Die kirchlkhe Kiinst im italienisohen Mittelalfer, 119. Some authorities
consider that the Anastasis may have originated in the Holy Land (Baumstark, R.Q.. xx,
1906, 125).
' Though occurring in miniatures of the MSS. of the middle Byzantine period and later
(e.g. the Psalter, eleventh century, in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 19352). In the First
Period, the scenes of the Holy Women at the Tomb often indicate the Eesuri-ection. These
also persist in late times, e. g. Servian Psalter at Munich.
3 Tischendorff, 83 ff.
* Church Quarterly Review, Oct., 1909, in the article Gnosticism and Early Christianity in Egypt.
'' In the west cupola at S. Mai-co, Venice, the Descent of the Holy Spirit is accompanied
by figures of sixteen pagan nations.
 663
COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES

The Bormition of the Virgin.

(Cf. Figs. 149, 161, 180, 185, 421.)

Here the body of the Virgin lies on a bier round which the Apostles are
grouped. Behind it, in the middle, Christ stands holding in his arms the soul

Fig. 420. The Anasiasis : mosaic of the eleventh century in the Monastery of Daphni.
{Hauies &udes : (St. Millet.)

of his mother, represented as a diminutive human figure. The subject, which is

based upon the apocryphal Gospels, is more popular in Byzantine than in Western
art, which probably borrowed it in the first instance from Eastern sources.^
' According to If icephcrus Kallistos, the festival viras introduced in the reign of the Em-
peror Maurice (a. d. 582-602). See Nuovo BuUeiiino di arch, crist., iv. 5-3 f. ; Dumont in Bev. arch.,
1871. Examples in art are not known until after iconoclasm. One of the earliest appears to
664 ICONOGEAPHY

The story was known before the time of Gregory of Tours, who transmitted
it in an abridged form to the Church of Gaul. It was subsequently incorporate4
by Vincent de Beauvais and Jacques de Voragine in their encyclopaedic works.
In both East and West we find the episode of the Jewish high-priest who,
stopping the funeral procession and endeavouring to obtain possession of the
coffin, had his arms withered and fixed to its side until he abjured his unbelief.
The Tree of Life.
On account of its oriental origin it may be of interest to include in this list
of selected subjects one of far less frequent occurrence. It is derived from the
(Buddhist) story of Barlaam and Joasaph,^ in which a man, pursued by Death in
the form of a unicorn, takes refuge in a tree, and forgetful of pursuit eagerly seeks
the honey on the branches. Meanwhile the unicorn waits below, and two mice
(one white, the other black, symbolical of day and night) gnaw the roots of the
tree, under which are seen Hades and a dragon. The subject illustrates the
transience of mortal life, and the carelessness of mankind. It is frequently used
in Byzantine Psalters to illustrate Psalm 143. (144.) 4: 'Man is like to vanity;
his days are as a shadow that passeth away.' It so occurs in the Psalter of
A.D. 1066 in the British Museum, the Barberini Psalter in the Vatican,^ &c.
Traditio Leg is/'
(Cf. Fig. 422.)

SS. This
Peter isand the Paul,
scene who
in which Ourright
stand to Lordandas left,
the the
central
book figure gives
or scroll the actually
being Law'to
handed to St. Peter. The Traditio first occurs on sarcophagi,' originally as part of
a fuller scene in which Our Lord appears among the whole group of Apostles in
the New Jerusalem, the latter being indicated by a wall or gateweiy : the version
with the three figures is probably an abridgement of this. Christ is sometimes
represented upon the Holy Mount from which the four rivers issue (Fig. 37), or
else the lamb stands upon the mount, while the twelve lambs issuing from Jeru-
salem and Bethlehem are seen in a space below. Sometimes, as in mosaics, he
points with his right hand to a palm on which is seated the phoenix, emblem of
immortality.^ The Traditio Legis is probably of Syrian origin." On Eavenna
sarcophagi Christ sometimes gives the scroll to Paul and not to Peter, a feature
which suggests to Wulff that these particular monuments depend upon the art
of north-west Asia Minor rather than that of Antioch, Asia Minor being the
scene of St. Paul's missionary activity."

(Cf.Deesis.^
Fig. 342.)
This is a symbolical group of Christ, the Virgin, and St. John the Baptist.
Our Lord is enthroned in the centre ; the two other figures stand turned towards
be the apse fresco in the church at El-Hadia (0. C, 1, 1901, 358 ff.). The type is thought to
have originated in Jerusalem (A. Baumstark, 0. C, 1904, 1-22). There are, however, several
in Western cathedrals and churches. See E. Male, VArf religieux duXIIP Steele, 321 ff.
1 The romance was brought to Jei'usalem from India in the seventh century by a monk
of St. Sava named Johannes. See Krumbacher, Gesch. der by-. Litteratur, 2nd ed., 887. The
Greek version prepared by Johannes soon became popular, and illuminated copies exist (Paris,
Bibl. Nat., gr. 1128). For the similar westward progress of the poem of Sakuntala see B. Z.^
1905, 653. 2 Munoz in VArte, vii, 1904, 139.
^ Duchesne, Origines du culte Chretien ; A. Baumstark, 0. C, iii, 1903, 173 ff. ; 0. Wulff, Die
Koimesiskirche in Niccia, 219. * G-arrucci, Storia, 326 ff.
^ Ainaloff in Journal of Ministry of Public Iiislniction, St. Petersburg, 1895, 262.
" Baumstark, as above ; B. Z., xiii, 1904, 661.
' Repertorium, xxxi, 1908, 282-3.
* Kondakoff, Unamels, German ed., 272 ; A. Kirpicnikoff, Journal of the Ministry of Public
Instruction, St. Petersburg, November, 1893, 1-26. The Seesis was also known as IpurpucmiiTOi
■jrapaffTaffis.
 COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES
665
him, each holding out both hands in an attitude of supplication (Ser/o-is). Kondakoft'
has derived the scene from a court ceremony of the ninth century, in which a

Fig. 421. The Death of the Virgin : mosaic of the twelfth century in the Martorana,
Palermo. (Brogi.) P. 663, and of. Figs. 180, 185.

special hymn of praise was chanted before thejemperor by two officials standing on
either side ; but others have seen in it a development of the Traditio Legis (which
see).^ But whatever the origin, the group ultimately became apocalyptic, and
' Orietit Oder Rom, 100 ff. ; Benhschriftm of the Vienna Academy, Phil.-hisL Klasse, vol. lii,
93; 0. C, iii. 173. Ainaloff dissents from this view {V. V., 1907, p. 616).
666 ICONOGEAPHY

forms the centre of the Last Judgement. The Virgin was held to represent the
Church of the New Dispensation mediating between the Saviour as Judge and
the world : St. John represented the Old Dispensation. Examples of this subject,
which was especially popular from the tenth century onwards, occur in mosaics,
enamels, and ivory carvings.^ The Beesis appears in Western art as a result of
Byzantine influence.^ Christ, the Virgin, and St. John the Baptist in the Deesis
arrangement appear in a few Western Dooms.^

MiTnasia.^
The Mimasia (kroifjLouia) or ' preparation of the throne ' is suggested by passages
in the Psalms (especially ix. 8) , alluding to the coming of Our Lord as Judge. The
sense is apocalyptic. The earlier and simpler allusion, however, is rather to the
exaltation of Christ to the throne of his Father than to the Last Judgement,
though from the eleventh century the throne forms part of Eastern representations
of the Doom.^ In early examples,^ where the throne stands for the invisible but
present Godhead, it has upon it a sacred monogram or a scroll ; then an open
book replaces the scroll ; later a diadem and instruments of the Passion are
added, and so it appears in the Judgement scenes.'
The story-told in the Golden Legend that Chosroes, when in Jerusalem, seated
himself on a throne with a cross, a dove or cock, may point to. the existence of
an actual throne.*

The Communion of the Apostles.^

(Cf. Figs. 233, 423.)
In this symbolical scene, which is unknown to Western art and may be
regarded as the Last Supper in its liturgical aspect. Our Lord is seen ad-
ministering the bread and wine to the Apostles, who advance from either side ;
his figure is twice repeated, in order that the gift of the two elements m.ay be
represented (Figs. 233, 423). The origin of the scene goes back to the First
Period ; it occurs, as well as the Last Supper, in the Codex Kossanensis of the
sixth century (fol. 8). In later periods it appears in its developed form, and is a
favourite subject in the apses of churches, though it is occasionally found in
domes, as in the Monasteries of Vatopedi and Chilandari on Mount Athos.

^ De Linas notes five examples on carved ivories (Ivoires sculptes, Paris, 1885, 5).
^ The example over the portal at Grottaferrata near Rome may be classed as actually
Byzantine {Gazette arch., 1883, 348 f. and PI. 57-8; E. Bertaux, L'Art dans Vltalie meridionale,
143, Paris, 1904).
^ A. Haseloff, Fine TJti'ringisch-Sdcksisc}ie Malerschule, &c., 181 and 195.
* Durand, Etude sur I'etimasia, symhole du Jugement de^-niei\ &c., Paris, 1867; De Kbssi,
Bullettino, 1879, 126 f. ; F. X. Kraus, Eealencyklopddie, i. 432, and Geschichte der christlichen Kunst, ii.
17 and 20; Rev. arch., xxv, 1894, 330; G. Millet, Monastere de Daphni, 84 ff. ; 0. Wulff, Die
Koimesiskirche von Nicaa, 211 f. and 221 ff. ; Kondakcff, Swenigorodskoi Enamels, 129. In addition
to the passages in the Psalms referring directly to the Judgement, cf. Daniel vii. 13, 14 ;
Matthew xxv. 31 ; Mark xiv. 62 ; Luke xxii. 69 ; HebrevfS viii. 1 and x. 12 ; Rev. iv. 2-8, v. 6ff.
^ In early representations of the Judgement the throne is not present ; e.g. MS. of Cosmas
Indicopleustes, Garrucoi, Storia, PI. 153.
* e.g. on gilded glasses, mosaics of Sta Maria Maggiore (additions made here to the
primitive design).
' e. g. at Torcello (p. 404) ; in the Vatican and Paris Psalters of the eleventh century ; in
the Western MS. (now destroyed) known as the Hortus Seliciartim by Ilerrad of Landsperg, a
book in which Byzantine influence was distinct; in the frescoes of theUspenski Cathedral at
Vladimir (fifteenth century), &c. We learn from Arculph (De locis savKtis, ch. ix) that the
instruments were exhibited for veneration at Jerusalem in the seventh century. On the
mosaics of the triumphal arch of S. Michele in Affricisco (p. 364), a work probably of the sixth
century, the two archangels on either side of Our Lord carry the lance and the reed with the
sponge and hyssop.
* Legenda aurea, xiv. 9 ; Wulff, Koimesiskirclie, 225.
° E. Dobbert, Vber die Barstellung des Abendmahls dvrch die hysantinische Kunst, 22, 1872;
A. Munoz, L^Arf hyzaniin a V Exposition de Grottaferrata, 132 ff. ; B.Z., 1896," 599 ; A. Baumstark,
B. Q., 1905, pp. 206-7.
 667
COMPOSITIONS AND SCENES

Well-known examples of the subject are in the cathedrals at Kieff ' and Serres ;
it is also found in frescoes of churches in Cappadocia and Lycia.- In the West
it is seen in Southern Italy, in the frescoes of Sant' Angelo and Monte Eaparo
in the Basilieata,' both within the radius of Byzantine influence. It is rarer in
the minor arts, but is seen on the Vatican dalmatic (see p. 601).

The Divine Liturgy.*

(H ©ei'a AeiTovpyia.)
In this mystical scene, which belongs to the later periods of Byzantine art,
Our Lord is represented standing before the altar, while angels ecclesiastically

• Pig. 422. The Traditio Legis, sarcophagus of the fifth century : S. Apollinare in Classe,
Ravenna. (Alinari.)

vested approach from both sides and bear to him the sacred utensils — vessels, book,
vestments, censers, &c., down to the water and towel for cleansing the hands of
the celebrant. Good examples occur among the frescoes of Mistra.
In the West the Divine Liturgy, treated with an even more extended
symbolism, but not compressed into a single scene, is found in the sculpture of
Eeims Cathedral.

Last Judgement.^
rCf. Figs. 424, 427.)
The Judgement was only known to Early Christian art in the form of the
separation of the sheep from the goats ^ or of a group in which Christ is seated
alone with Apostles or saints.' The first approach to a representation of a Doom
' Eohault de Floury, La Messe, iv, PL CCLX.
'' Chiefly of the eleventh and twelfth centuries (H. Rott, Kleinasiatisclie Venkmaler, 138,
144, 338). ^ E. Bertaux, L'Art dans Vltalie mericUonale, 122.
* Didron, Manuel d'iconographie chretienne, pp. xxxvi and 229.
^ Pokrovsky, The Last Judgement in Byzantine and Bussian Art, in Transactions of the Sixth
(Russian) Archaeological Congress, vol. iii ; 0. Wulff, Die ICoimesiskirclie in Nidia, 240 ; Voss,
bos Jiingsie Gericht in der Kunst des friihen Mittelalters in Beitrdge zur Kunsigeschichte, i 884, vol. viii ;
P. 3 esBBD, Iiie DarsteUung des Weltgerichts in der Kunst des Abendlandes ; Frimmel, Die Bilderhand-
schriften der Apokalypse ; G. Scharf in Archaeologia, xxxvi ; F. X. Kraus, Die Wandgemulde in der
S. Georgskirche su OberzeU, 15 ff. ; A. Baumstark, R. Q., 1905, 204.
* Sarcophagi, Garrucci, Storia, 304. 3 ; mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuovo (cf. Fig. 211).
' Fresco in the Catacombs, Wilpert, Malereien der Katakomben, 403, PI. 75.
668 ICONOGEAPHY

is in the miniature of the Vatican Cosmas (p. 462) '■ which is divided into several
zones ; Christ is enthroned above with the Book of Life ; below are eight angels ;
below these, living men ; at the bottom is the resurrection of mankind. There
is no indication of hell, of the blessed, or of the angels blowing the last trump.

Fig. 423. Figures of Our Lord in tlie mosaic representing the Communion of the
Apostles in the Cathedral of Serres, Macedonia : eleventh century. {Bautes Etudes : Perdrizet-
Chesnay.)
In the typical Byzantine scheme Christ is seated upon a throne, below which
are burning wheels and from which issues a stream of fire (Daniel vii. 9 and 10)
descending to the lower right-hand corner, where the torments of the damned are
depicted. Beneath Our Lord is set the empty throne (see Etimasia), on which lies
the Bible, and round which are instruments of the Passion.^ As assessors appear
1 Garrucci, PI. 153. 2.
^ The preparation of the throne in the Judgement is mentioned by Ephraim Syrus-
(d. A. D. 378). Cf. Matthew xxiv. SO ; Psalm ix. 8. The apologia against Constantino Copro-
 COMPOSITIONS A.ND SCENES 669

the Twelve Apostles on either side of the Judge, while the Virgin and St. John
the Baptist intercede for mankind before him (cf. Beesis). The archangels stand
by in an attitude of repose, while other angels and the company of the blessed

Fig. 424. Details of the twelfth-century mosaic representing the Last Judgement in the
Cathedral of Torcello. (Alinari.)

complete this portion of the scene, prominent among them being those blowing
the trumps. Among the blessed in Paradise the seated figure of Abraham holding
the soul of Lazarus in his bosom is occasionally seen.^ The figure bearing a
cross, which sometimes (as at Torcello) appears before the celestial gate, is that
nymus, which refers to pictures of the Doom, makes no mention of this throne, nor do the
accounts of a. picture painted by a Greek artist for Boris I (d. a. d. 888) of Bulgaria
(Pokrovsky, p. 296). The Etimasia throne does not appear to have been added to the scene
much before the eleventh century. The earliest examples with some of the instruments of
the Passion are in the Paris Gospel (No. 74) and in the Paris and Vatican Psalters of the
eleventh century. The instruments had been represented earlier alone, e.g. mosaics of
S. Michele in Affricisco (q.v.). The relics brought by Heraclius in a. d; 634 may have
suggested their introduction.
' Torcello mosaic (p. 404), Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS. gr. 74, fol. 13 b and 51 b : frescoes in
Cappadocia of eleventh-thirteenth centuries, H. Bott, Kleinasiaiische Denkmaler, 144, 246.
 670 ICONOGRAPHY

of the repentant thief, whose representation in art results from the Gospel of
Nieodemus. In the lower part of the scene the dead rise from their graves/
while the wild beasts of the land and the great monsters of the deep each give
up their dead. The classification of the blessed and the damned according
to their earthly rank or condition, kings, bishops, laymen, &c., is a comparatively
late addition. It may be noted that the retributory angels are sometimes coloured
red, as in the Paris Gospel (No. 74) of the eleventh century ; in Genesis pictures
the angel who expels Adam and Eve from ParadisOj e. g. the Greek Bible of the
Laurentian Library (Plut. v. Cod. 38), is coloured in the same way.
In Western Dooms uninfluenced by Byzantine models the JEtimasia throne
and the fiery stream are not found,^ while the Virgin and St. John usually kneel
as intercessors instead of standing. On the other hand, the binding of the sinners
in chains is peculiar to the art of Western Europe. The weighing of the souls
by the Archangel Michael has also been considered of Western origin, but it
occurs on the walls of churches in Asia Minor,' among the Copts, and in the
Armenian churches of Jerusalem.'
The JEtimasia is not seen in the Utrecht Psalter, though there is an illustra-
tion of the very verse (Psalm ix. 8) in which the word occurs.

(b) Representations of Indiyiddal Figures.

The Alviighty.
The First Person of the Trinity is usually represented by the Dextera Domini,
as constantly in the early Byzantine MSS. (Vienna Genesis, &e.). The 'Ancient
of Days ' (6 iraXatos TuJv fjfi.ipwv) is a conception of the Godhead as an aged man in
which the attributes of Creator and Saviour are united. It may have originated
at the time of iconoclasm, and was established in Byzantine art in the eleventh
century, occurring in MSS. of that date.''' In the Smyrna Octateuch this type is
seen in a circle filled with stars." He holds in his left hand a circle on which are
sun and moon and signs of the zodiac : on his nimbus are the words 6 &v (the
Eternal). In mural decoration the Ancient of Days is seen in the triumphal arch
of the Basilica of St. Paul at Rome, and in the frescoes at Nereditsi in Bussia
(about A. D. 1200), &c.' The Trinity is commonly represented by the scene in
which Abraham entertains the three angels under the oak at Mamre (Fig. 412).
The scene in the Barberini Psalter in the Vatican, where we see the Virgin and
Child in a medallion upon which the dove descends in rays of light from the
hand of the Almighty, is rather the Immaculate Conception than the Trinity.'
Types of Christ?
Apart from symbolic figures, as the Lamb or the Good Shepherd," the repre-
1 A. Springer, Eepertorium, 1884, 387.
2 Evidences of such Byzantine influence are seen in the book of Herrad of Landsperg,
and in a MS. at Wolfenbiittel (Cod. Helmst, 65). For tlie chief distinctions between Byzan-
tine and Western Last Judgements, A. Haseloff, Sine Tliiiringisch-Sachsisehe Malerschule, &c.,
180 ff., may be consulted.
* H. Rott, Kleinasiatisdie Denkmaler, 246 and 270-1. The episode is found in the Karshikilisse
near Arebsun on the Kizil Irmak in Cappadocia, dating from tlie early thirteenth century,
and in the Yilianibilisse at Peristrema, the frescoes of -which are of about the same age.
* A. Baumstark, E. Q., 1906, 170.
* e. g. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, MS. grec 74, fol. 1 (Bordier, Description des peitaures,
&c., 133).
" J. Strzygowski, J)er Bilderkreis des griechischen Physiologus, 114.
' Here the inscription says : Jesus Clirist, ihe Ancient of Days.
hist. 'Klasse,
J. Strzygowski,
p. 90. Denkschriftm der k. Akad. der Wissmschaften, vol. 52, Vienna, 1906, Phil.r
* B.Z., xii, 1903, 669 ; Dobbert, Prussian Jahrbucli, xv, 211, and Christus-Bilder ; N. Konda-
koif, Iconography of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, St. Petersburg, 1905 ; J. Weis-Liebersdorf,
Christus- und ApostelUlder, Freiburg, 1902 ; Th. Schmit, Eahrie-Djami, 170 ff. {Izviestiya, Kussian
Arch. Inst. Cple., xi, 1906). For Christ-types on Byzantine coins see W. Wroth, Imperial
Byzantine Coins (British Museum Catalogue, 1908).
'° The Good Shepherd type dies out in the seventh century, and was forbidden by the
 EEPEESENTATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL FIGURES 671

sentations of Our Lord may be divided into two main tj'pes, the Hellenistic, in
which the Saviour is youthful and beardless,^ and the oriental, in vs^hieh he
appears as a man of about thirty, with a moustache and short beard. In the
latter type the hair is always long, falling over the shoulders ; in the former it
is sometimes long and sometimes short.
The bearded type has often been described as the Nazarene type, and supposed
to have originated in Palestine. There does not, however, appear to be sufficient
ground for confining it to so narrow an area : it may possibly have been affected

Fig. 42.5. Christ Pantokrator : mosaic of the eleventh century in the dome of the Monastery
of Daphni, Attica. {Haides Mudes: G.Millet.)

through Edessa by the art of Sassanian Persia. Early examples are a l)ust in
the Catacombs, and the figure on the Constantine Bowl (Fig. 385). It occurs
throughout in the Codex Eossanensis of the sixth century, which is thought to
have been painted in Asia Minor (p. 452).
The Hellenistic type is common upon the sarcophagi and early ivories ; but
a slight beard is seen on the Berlin sarcophagus from Sulu Monastir (Frontispiece).
Sometimes the beardless and bearded types occur in the same place, for example
in the mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuovo, and of S. Michele in Affricisco. In all
cases the bearded face is typical of the historical Christ ; the beardless adult face
soon came to indicate the celestial being. The beardless type is found in certain
Old Testament scenes where Christ represents the Father ; '' but more often in
Council of A. D. 692. The type seems to belong to Hellenistic Anatolia, and has, so far, not
occurred in Syria or Egypt. See R. Q., iv, 1890, 97 f. ; Ainaloff, Hellenistic Origins, &c., 164;
Strzygowski, Orient Oder Bom, 59, and Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy, Phil.-hist. Klasse, li,
1906, 156. Cf. Fig. 209.
^ H. Diitschke, Ravennatisohe Studien, 99 ff.
' This conception of Christ is based on various Biblical passages (Colossians i. 1-16;
John A.. 30), amplified by passages from the Fathers (St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, &c.). See
H. von der Gabelontz, Die kirchliche Kunst im italienischen MittelaUer, 31-2. Our Lord is thus
673 ICONOGRAPHY

his purely symbolic aspect as Emmanuel, the ideal or pre-existent Godhead

(Isaiah vii. 14). The usual attribute is then a scroll carried in one hand : the
right hand makes the gesture of benediction.^ It is naturally the type employed
when Our Lord is seated upon the globe : one of the oldest examples of this
representation appears to. be that of the Traditio Legis (q.v.) in the cemetery of
S. Priscilla, which is of the middle of the fourth century.^ It is also found in
the early mosaics of Eavenna^ and Eome/ but becomes rare in Byzantine art
after the iconoclastic period. An ivory in the Carrand Collection at Florence
shows it ; * but it is essentially a motive of the earlier centuries.
In early mediaeval Western art of the Carolingian, Anglo-Saxon, and
Eomanesque periods there sometimes appears to be a confusion between the
top of the globe and a segment of a circle regarded as a rainbow." The two
came to be distinct, for they sometimes occur together,' while in rare instances
Christ is seated on the ' rainbow ' with a small globe beneath his feet. The idea
of the rainbow may sometimes have been suggested by the upper part of the
globe, but there is mention of a rainbow in Eev. iv. 3 (' there was a rainbow
round about the throne '), though not in the familiar position. In the Last
Judgement, and as the Pantokrator, Christ is bearded, because in his function
as Judge he is regarded as merely continuing his earthly mission : the severity
of his countenance is then perhaps to be ascribed less to the ascetic tendencies
of Byzantine art than to deliberate intention of suggesting severity.*
Dr. Hans Graeven raised an interesting question when he suggested a rela-
tion between certain types of Buddha in the sculptures of Gandhara, on the
north-west frontier of India, and the Christs of the late Hellenistic sculpture of
Asia Minor," such as that of the Berlin sarcophagus. There is certainly reason
to believe that the sculpture of Gandhara may have been inspired by that
of Asia Minor ; but as it chiefly flourished in the first and second centuries of
our era it is difficult to suppose a Christ-type developed sufiiciently early to
have affected the types of Buddha. Eesemblance may perhaps be more safely
explained by descent from a common Hellenistic pagan type. The type of the
Good Shepherd has analogies in the East."
The subject of Our Lord treading on the lion and dragon, or asp and basilisk,
popular in pre-Gothic times in Western Europe," is found upon Early Christian
lamps '^ and on the Pignatta sarcophagus at Eavenna (p. 137), An early example
seen on Early Christian sarcophagi, and later, e. g. in the Genesis mosaics at S. Marco, Venice
(J. J. Tikkanen, Bie Genesis-Mosaiken, &c., 222). The type also occurs in Carolingian Creation
scenes.
1 0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Niccia, 272 ; E. K. Biedin in Journal of the Ministry of Public
Itistruction, St. Petersburg, 1891, 308 ff. ; N. Kondakoff, iJnameZs, 288 (Gei-man edition). Some-
times along cross is held (Riedin, Proc. Imp. Russian Arch. Soc, N.S., ix, 1897. 240).
2 It recurs on later frescoes representing the same subject in the Basilica of SS. Felix
and Adauctus in the cemetery of Commodilla, assigned by Wilpert to the sixth centuiy
{Nuom Bullettino di arch, crist., 1904, 165).
' Apse of S. Vitale.
* S. Lorenzo and S. Teodoro ; lost mosaics of S. Agatha ; S'. Costanza (Gai-rucoi, Storia,
207). It is rarely found where Christ is represented as miracle-worker ; an example occurs
on the diptych with scenes from the life of Christ in the treasury of Milan Cathedral, thought
by some to be as early as the sixth century. In the frescoes of S. Angelo in Formis (p. 316^
Our Lord is on the globe when he speaks to the woman of Samaria and the woman taken in
adultery.
° Labarte, Sist. des arts induslriels, i, PI. IX.
' Strzygowski, however (JS. Z., x, 1901, 719), holds that the globe and the rainbow are
distinct.
' e. g. in a charter of the foundation of New Minster at Winchester by Edgar, a. d. 996
(Brit. Mus., Cotton MSS. , Vespasian A. viii).
* Dobbert in Prussian Jahriuch, xv. 214.
s 0. C, i. 159. See also B. Z., xi, 1902, 662 ; xiii, 1904, 290.
"> Jacoby in Monaisschriftf&r Oottesdienst und hirchliche Kunst, viii, 1903, 269.
'1 Merovingian stoup or bucket from Miannay near Abbeville ; Carolingian ivory carving
(book-cover in Bodleian Library and panel from Genoels-Elderen, Brussels') ; Northumbrian
sculpture (crosses of Bewcastle and Euthwell). In Gothic art, cf. the Beau-Dieu of Amiens.
'2 Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, No. 721.
 REPRESENTATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL FIGURES 673

«f its occurrence was in the frescoes of the Catacombs at Alexandria, and this
has suggested to M. Emile Male^ that the type originated in the old Egyptian
representations of Horus trampling upon dragons.^
The famous early pictures of Our Lord, such as those of Edessa and Kamulia
(in Cappadocia), were probably first heard of in the sixth century.''

The Virgin.^
Except in the scriptural scenes in which she plays a part, and in the Deesis,
the Virgin is usually seen with the Child. This association of mother and
infant is found in the frescoes of the Catacombs ; but Smirnoff has suggested
that the personification of Pleias Augusta on Roman coins may have influenced
the type." Others believe that it was affected by the Egyptian representations
of Isis and Horus, and certainly the resemblance is so strong as to be almost
convincing.
The place consecrated to the Virgin, in the apse of the church, was already
hers as early as the fifth century.* In the representations of this period the
frontal position is rigidly maintained.'
At a very early date the attitude of the orans (cf. Fig. 426), probably of pagan
Egyptian origin,* and most frequent in representations of women, was given to
the Virgin ; at a later time it was given to her even when the Child was present,
•either by seating her with the Child on her knee, or by representing the Child
conventionally in a circular medallion over her breast (cf. Platytera, below). In
a transitional form she holds the medallion, as in Sta Maria Antiqua at Rome."
The seated orans goes back to the First Period.^"
The famous pictures of the Virgin in various churches and monasteries, often
regarded as miraculous or ' not made with hands ', established certain definite
types which remained popular for centuries in Byzantine art.^^ Among these
the Hodegetria and the Blaclierniotissa are the most widely known. The former,^''
or ' she who points the way ', is a type very probably of Egyptian derivation i
the Virgin either sits or stands, with the Child on her left arm, and holding her
•open right hand before her breast. Of the Blaclierniotissa there appears to have

' Compte rendu du Congres International d'archeologie dassique, Cairo, 1909, 270 ; N^routsos
Bey, Antimne AUxandrie, 46 f.
' In these the subsidiary animals at the sides are seen with the heads downwards, and
the repetition of this feature in the case of the asp and basilisk, which at Alexandria were
similarly placed in the composition, is used by Male to enforce his argument.
= On the subject of the xerae icones of Our Lord see E. Dobbert, Christus-Bilder ; G. F. Hill,
The Reliquary, x, 1904, pp. 173 ff.
* Gr. B. de Kossi, Imagines seleciae Deiparae Virginia, 1863 ; R. de Fleury, La Sainte Vierge,
Paris, 1878 ; V. Schultze, Archiiologisehe Stadien iiber altchristliche Uonurmnie, 1880, 177 ff. ; P. X.
Kraus, RealencyUopadie, ii. 361-5, s.v. MarienMlder ; A. Venturi, La Madonna, Milan, 1900, 1-80 ;
Th. Schmidt, Eahrie Sjami, 125 ff. (Russian) ; J. Sfcrzygowski in A. de Waal's Archaologische
Ehrengabe zum 70. Geburtstag G. B. de Rossi's (Rome, 1892), 394 ff. ; H. von der Gabelentz, Die
kirchliche Kunst im italienischen Mittelaiter, 170 ; A. Muuoz, Iconografla delta Madonna, Florence,
1905 ; A. Baumstark, R. Q., xix. 201, xx. 159. = V. V., iv, 1897, 52.
" 0. Wulff, IHe KoimesisMrche in Nicila, 246. The selection of this position may go back
«ven beyond the Council of Ephesus (a. d. 436).
' J. Strzygowski, Cimabue und Rom, 49.
* J. Strzygowski, Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy, phil.-hist. Klasse, li, 1906, 155 ff. ;
W. E. Crum, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1899, 251 ; 0. Maruechi, Atii delta Pont. Acad. Rom. di Arch.,
1906, 353 ff.
' B. Z., 1905, 582.
^^ R. Q., 1893, 9 ; B. D., i. 65. For the Virgin as (yrans, see also D. Ainaloff and E. Riedin,
The Cathedral of Sta Sophia at Ke# (Russian), 38-44 ; J. Strzygowski, Archaologische Ehrengabe zum
70. Geburtstag G. B. de Rossi's, 1892, 394, and Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy, as above;
J. Wilpert, Bin Zyklus christologischer Gemcilde, 30 ff., &c.
" Strzygowsici, Archaologische Ehrengabe, &c., as above.
12 Baumstark, 0. C, iii, 1903, 235 ; Wulff, as above, 244 ff. ; Strzygowski, Denkschriften, as
above, 158-9 ; Arch. Journal, xxxix, 1882, 131. The picture of the Hodegetria, formerly pre-
served in Kahrig Djami at Constantinople, and destroyed by the Turks in A. D. 1453, is repro-
duced (from a copy) by d'Agincoui-t, Painting, PI. LXXXVII.
1201 X X
674 ICONOGEAPHY
been more than one variety. As a rule the Virgin holds the Child with both
hands ; but sometimes a figure in the attitude of the Deesis (p. 664) is inscribed
Blaclierniotissa} Probably there were several famous ikons in the Monastery
of Blachernae, to all of which the title was given. ^ The orans type holding the
Christ-medallion over the breast (see above)
is sometimes described as Blachernio-
tissa, while that in which the Virgin stands
and the medallion is unsupported is known
as Platytera : this first appears in church
apses in the twelfth century. Anotherwell-
known type was the Eyriotissa, named
from the Kyros Monastery in Constanti-
nople.^ Itrepresents the Virgin standing
with the Child, and may have resembled
the better-known form of the Blachernio-
tissa. The type known as ZojoSoxos IlijyiJ be-
longs tolater Byzantine art. * The VaXaKro-
Tpo4>ova-a is usually late, but cf. Fig. 174.
The ideal Madonna of early Italian art
was suggested by Byzantine types ; and
in many Italian pictures of the thirteenth
century we may still note the absence of
any close and human relation between
mother and child. The infant Christ
makes the gesture of benediction, and
preserves the serious attitude of an adult.
But although the usual Byzantine repre-
sentation isof a somewhat formal hieratic
character, the human aspect of their rela-
tionship wasoccasionally expressed.* Some-
times the Virgin is -identified with the
Divine Wisdom. ('Ayta So<^ta), as at the top
of the triumphal arch at Monreale^ and
in Santa Sophia at Kieff. Some have
suggested the same identification in the
case of the female figure standing before
the seated figure of St. Mark in the Codex
Bossanensis ' (see p. 454).
In middle and later Byzantine times
the descriptive legend placed on either
side of the Virgin's head is MP 0Y (Mijn?/*
Fia. 426. Marble relief of the Virgin :
®iov). But in the early centuries 'H ayia.
S. Marco, Venice. (Alinari.) MapM is found, as in the fifth-century
papyrus History of the World in the
Golenisheff Collection (p. 459), and in the frescoes of the church at El-Hadra
by the Natron Lakes.' It was common in Egypt, where there was a popular

' e. g. an enamel at Maestrlcht (Bock & Willemsen, AntiguHes sacrees de S. Servais, &c., p. 230).
" O. Wulff, Koimesiskirche, p. 263.
^ Ducange, Cinistantinopolis crisliana, Bk. IV, p. 87. < B.Z., xviii, 183.
" J. Strzygowski, Cimabue und Bom, 49 ; A. Haseloff, Eine Thihingisch-Sachsische Malerschule,
&c., 199.
' The accompanying inscription is Sapimtia Dei. Most instances in which the Divine
Wisdom is seen inspiring an Evangelist are late. An Italo-Byzantine relief outside the west
wall personification
the of St. Mark's atis Venice has winged.
sometimes St. John inspired by a female figure. In late Slav Gospels
' A. Muiioz, II Codice purpurea di Rossano, 16.
' Denkschriften, as above, 153 and PI. VII. For El-Hadra, see 0. C, i. 358.
 REPEESENTATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL FiaUEES 675

aobjection
proof ofto early
the description
origin, for M^njp ©eo?.^
it appears The form
to persist as an'H exception
d-yta Mapi'a inis later
not always
times,
occurring on the ivory with the Annunciation in the Trivulzio Collection at
Milan, which is considered by some as late as the eleventh century.^
^^^
t©
In the earliest Christian art angels were
Angels .^ represented as beautiful youths
without wings, draped in the tunic and long mantle or pallium. It is probable
that the wings were added in imitation of the figures of Nike or Victory,'' for among
'■' - -

[.

HHU^ti
^
^§J}
r^ a ■■'■::'/
^P ■i'"*^/ ,*

I'tf^,r>
^
-
. . v,v ; ; ^;

|Hi|g|:|f*i
k\^/
1
■ t

Tl^'^ -»;;'=»
Mf-
^HH
l&l^ •'
''"'
..... \ .A
l,f ^1 SiU w\

M
'<
, '"v'TiTfi,"?!
1
■'■:•
.■." K.'
-'k
m ft^
'•;*§.■,«
■4 III ll'&f-

• ■■MIfK--'

m WmuH^JWB| fei^S^^^i
WJ-fllfl
',r'C ^IqIoU Ih^^^^^^Pj
ell's-

.ir 0^rMi^..'
~%r^/g:.
> !ii ^K -^H'■:^-^^, V?, .
Fia. 427. The Descent into Hell and Last Judgement : mosaic of the eleventh century in
the Cathedral of Toreello. (Alinari.)

'
f^;®:./^'
the early representations of winged angels are those holding a medallion or wreath
in the same manner as the confronted Victories on antique monuments (cf.
Figs. 124-5). Winged angels were general in the fourth century and universal
from the sixth. As early as the latter century we find the archangels occasionally
distinguished by imperial costume,' consisting of the long chlamys with the
' Sharpe, mst. of Egypt, 262, 264, 267 ; Smirnoff in T. Y., iv, 1897, 39 f. The form was
naturally preferred by Monophysites.
2 Venturj, Storia, ii. 611 and Fig. 43.
' F. J. Turmel, L' Angelologie depuis le faux Bmys VAreopagile, in Bev. d'histoire et de UUerature
religimse, iv, 1899, 289 ff. ; J. Stuhlfauth, Die Engel in der alichristlichen Kunst ; J. Strzygowski,
Orient Oder Bom, 1901, 28. V. de Gruneisen, in Scritti di storia difilologia e d'arie, Naples, 1908,
25 ff., draws attention to the marked Hellenistic character of an angel (?) painted on part of a
mmumy-cover found at Antinoe.
* This theory is more probable than that of Stuhlfauth, which derives the wings from
those of the symbol of St. Matthew {Die Engel, &c., 244). The staff given to the angel, as
messenger recalls the fact that the original function of Nik6 was to bring news of victory.
In the Vienna Genesis, the angel who appears to Abraham in the sky resembles a figure of
Niks (Hartel and Wickhoff, Die Wiener Genesis, PI. XI).
' e. g. the five-part diptych leaf at Bavenna (p. 210) and the mosaics of S. ApoUinare in
Classe.
X X 3
676 ICONOGEAPHY
rectangular patch known as the tablion ; in later centuries, when this kind of
distinction became usual, they wear the embroidered imperial costume (Fig. 427).
The archangels hold the orbs perhaps as early as the fourth century ; ^ in later
periods they sometimes carry the labarum as well. Unlike emperors, however,
they keep their feet bare, as almost invariably do sacred persons and Apostles
throughout Christian art. The Archangel Gabriel, when, as in the Annunciation,
he acts as the heavenly messenger, carries a long wand or staff. Sometimes,
however, Michael also carries it when in repose, as for instance in mosaics of
S. Michele in Affricisco or the British Museum ivory diptych-leaf. The Divine
Wisdom (Ayia 2o(/>ia) appears to have been at times personified as an archangel,
occasionally with the crucigerous nimbus indicating identity with Our Lord.''
Michael and Gabriel are most commonly represented, Raphael and Uriel
are infrequent ; the latter occurs at Bawit.^ The cult of the Archangel
Michael received a new stimulus under Justinian, who buUt numerous churches
in his honour, and encouraged their erection by others.*
The seraphs, thrones, principalities, and all the hierarchy of heaven entered
into the scheme of Byzantine iconography. The cherubim are especially con-
spicuous:° they are found in the Gospel of Rabula and the ninth-century
Vatican MS. of Cosmas (p. 456). On coins they first appear in the reign of
Andronicus II.'' The tetramorph, or composite winged figure formed of the lion,
ox, Aeagle,
mostandexceptionalman, of Ezekiel's
treatmentvision
of anis angel
rarer."as a small nude figure resembling
a genius orputto is found on a remarkable cameo in the British Museum.'
Devils.

Devils are dusky human figures with wings : they are most frequently seen
in the Temptation of Our Lord, and appear as early as the ninth-century Paris
MS. of Gregory, No. 510" (see p. 477 ; cf. Fig. 428).

Apostles, Evangelists, Saints, Ecclesiastics,^"

The principal Apostles are distinguished by varying age, or by the colour
and arrangement of the hair. Thus St. Paul is bald upon the top of the head
and has a rather long pointed beard ; St. Peter has thick hair clustering over
the forehead and a short round beard. The same person may be differently
represented under different aspects. Thus St. John when regarded as Apostle
is young and beardless ; when as Evangelist, as an elderly bearded man. St. John
the Baptist. is sometimes given wings in late representations of the Beesis,
especially in Palestine ; but most examples are too late for our periods." The
Greek picture of St. John in the Wilderness in the Accademia at Florence,
' e. g. the ivory diptych in the British Museum (Cat. of E. C. and Byz. Antiquities, No. 295).
^ Cf. p. 392 above. N. Kondakoff, Enamel, 189, Byzantine Churches of Constantinople, 115-16,
124, and Histoire de Vart bye., ii. 135. 'H ayia ^o^la in the fourteenth-century frescoes of
S. Stefano, Soleto (Otranto), is represented as an angel with a cruciferous nimbus (Ch. Diehl,
L'Art dans I'ltalie meridionale, 96).
' Clfidat, article Baouit in Cabrol's Did. d'arch. chret., 234.
* Procopius, De aed., i. 3, 8, 9 ; ii, 10 ; v. 3, 9 ; Ch. Biehl, Mudee sur Vadministraiion byaan-
tine dans Vexarchat de Ravenna, 266.
° Didron, Annates anheologiques, vii. 152.
" W. Wroth, Imperial Byzantine Coins, pp. xcviii and 628.
' e. g. frescoes of the rock-hewn Church of St. Barbara in the Soandere Valley, Cappa-
docia, dated a. b. 976-1028 (H. Rott, Kleinasiafische Denkmaler, 1908, 147-8).
* Proc. Sac. Antiq, Lond., 2nd ser., xviil, 365 ; Cat. of Early Christian and Byz. Antiq,, No. 104.
" Cf. also Paris MS. of Gregoi-y of Naziauzus, fol. 165, reproduced by H. Omont, Fac-simi!4s
des MSS., &c., PI. XXXV. See further Th. Schmidt, KahrU Djami, 191-2 ; N. Pokrovsky, The
Gospels, &o., 192-3.
1" J. Picker, Darstellung der Apostel in der altchristlichen Kunst • Weis-Liebersdorf, Christus- und
Aposielbilder ; Heisenberg, Qrabeskirche und Apostelkirche, ii. 208 ff. ; A. Munoz, Codice purpureo di
Rossano, 115 S.
" Examples were shown at the Grottaferrata Exhibition. See A. Baumstark, R. Q.,
1905, 205.
 677
EEPEESENTATIOKS OF INDIVIDUAL FIGUEES

where the Baptist is shown with wings, is assigned to the sixteenth century.^
Wings are given to St. John on account of the prophecy of Malachi."
The frequent representation of the Evangelists seated at desks writing at the
beginning of their Gospels is derived from the custonr of placing the author's
portrait in this attitude at the beginning of his work. The idea was derived

Fig. 428. The Temptation : miniature of tiie early twelfth century in the P,salter of Queen
Melisenda. (British Museum : Egerton 1139.)

from Hellenistic bas-reliefs, and is found in the early Virgil in the Vatican
Library.' Among the earlier Christian MSS. in which it occurs are the Vienna
Dioscorides and the Codex Eossanensis (pp. 4-52, 4-56).
The saints of the Eastern Church are exceedingly numerous, and the calendars
recording their feast-days were volumes of considerable size.* It is usual to
' A. Mufioz in IHvista d'arfe, 1909. 119 and Fig.
^ iii. 1 ; repeated in Matthew, xi. 10 : 'I will send my messenger,' &c.
' E. Diez in B.D., iii. 38 ; A. Munoz, II Coelicepurpvreo, &c., 15.
' The most famous is the Menologium of Basil in the Vatican Library fp. 479). For Byzan-
tine hagiology see H. Delehaye, Les Legendes ha.giorjraphiques, Brussels, 190.5. The great Byzan-
tine compiler of 'Acts of the Saints' was Simeon Metaphrastes, who lived in the second half
of the tenth century, and is first mentioned in an epitaph composed by Nicephorus Uranos in
the reign of Basil II {B. Z., vii, 1898, 473). See also H. Delehaye, Analecla BoUandiuna, xvi,
1897, pp. 311 tt, and A. Ehrhardt, B. Q., 1897, 537 f.
678 ICONOGEAPHY

find the saints of the same profession grouped together : thus the great Fathers
of the Church often occur together, as do episcopal and ecclesiastical saints. The
military saints in like manner form pairs or groups, among the most popular
being the two Theodores (Tyron and Stratelates), George, Demetrius, Procopius,
and Sergius and Bacchus, the officers of the imperial guard. Cosmas and Damian,
the Anargyri, or doctors who healed without fee, are also invariably associated
and universally popular. As in the West, local saints were chiefly honoured

Fig. 429. St. Matthew writing his Gospel : miniature in Gospel of the eleventh century in
the British Museum. (Burney 19.)
in the cities or countries where they were born, worked, or died. Sometimes
a saintly type owed its origin to a particular region. The type of the equestrian
saint, of which St. George is the most conspicuous example, appears to have
spread from Egypt, and to have typified the triumph of faith over infidelity.'
The vestments of ecclesiastics are essentially similar to those of the Orthodox
Greek Church.''
Perso n ifications.
The personification of rivers, mountains, and other natural features, of
cities, or of abstractions such as Prudence, Melody, &c., was inherited by Byzantine
from Hellenistic art. The most familiar of these personifications are those of
the Jordan in the scene of the Baptism, where the river is seen leaning upon
' J. Strzygowski, Zeitschrift fiir Sgyptiscke Sprache, xl, 1903, 49-60 ; B. Z., xii, 1903, 699 ;
Maierials for Russian Archaeology, viii. 29 (St. Petersburg, 1892, in Russian). There does not
seem to be sufficient reason to derive St. George from the Egyptian figures of Horus, as
Clermont Ganueau (Horns et Saint-Georges, Paris, 1877) was disposed to do. He might equally
well originate from a late Hellenistic type. The Barberini diptych, with its mounted
emperor (p. 199), is associated by Strzygowski with the idea of Christian triumph.
2 Cf. Figs. 287, 345. See J. Braun, Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, 1900, pp. 167 ff. ; P. Ber-
nardakis, ^ckos d'Orient, v, 1901, pp. 129 ff.
 EEPEESENTATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL FIGUEES 679

his urn," and of Hades in the Anastasis, the city of the dead being represented
by a grey-haired and grey-bearded man.''
Life (Bios) and Opportunity (JTairos) are personified as youths' (Figs. 65, 91).
The Year is represented by a female figure in a thirteenth-century commentary
on Job in the National Library at Paris (MS. gr. 134) : she is red, as is the Day
in the contemporary Vatican Job Codex (No. 1231), the colour being symbolic
of light. The corresponding personifications of Night in these manuscripts are
similarly blue.*

Fig. 430.. Personifications of Humility and Truth : enamels on gold from the crown of
Constantino Monomachos in the museum at Budapest.

In the fine tenth- and eleventh-century Psalters in Paris and elsewhere Night
and Dawn, Melody, Wisdom, &c., are depicted as female figures (see p. 468).
In the early mural paintings at Bawit (p. 284) we find Faith and Hope
personified.
As in Western mediaeval art, the soul is represented by a diminutive human
form." The soul of the Virgin held by Our Lord in the Dormition is always
thus treated, but is there commonly swathed (Fig. 421).
The Months and Seasons " were represented by busts or complete figures with
' e. g. mosaics of the Orthodox Baptisteiy at Ravenna ; ivory carving in the British
Museum (Pig. 11]), &c. The rivers of Paradise are personified in the Genesis mosaics in
S. Marco at Venice. The horn -like projections on the head of Jordan in the Baptistery are
crab's claws ; they are found on the head of the personification of the Sea in the Vienna Dios-
corides (p. 460), occur upon a sarcophagus at Rome (Tilskanen, Vie Oenesismosaiken, &c., p. 224,
note), on Carolingian ivory carvings (Cahier and Martin, Melanges cVarcheologie, vol. ii), and in
the Anglo-Saxon Benedictibnal of St. Ethelwold, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire.
^ J. Strzygowaki, Koptische Kunst, p. xviiiff. ; B. Z., xiii, 1904, 291. The Nymph of the
Well from which Rebekah draws is twice repeated in the Vienna Genesis leaning iipon her
urn. 3 A. Munoz. VArie, 1904, 130. ■• Tikkanen, as above, 235.
like '-Psyche.
Ibid., 236. In the S. Marco Creation of Adam, the soul of the first parent has wings
* J. Strzygowski, Das Calenderlnld des Chronographen, in Ergcimungsheft I des k. deulschen arch.
680 ICONOGEAPHY

suitable attributes. At an early period a scene of rural or domestic life suitable

to each month was introduced into illustrated calendars. So in the Calendar of
Filoealus (p. 484).
In some examples, as for instance the mosaic discovered by Eenan in 1861
near Tyre, busts of indistinguishable type do duty for the months. The sun
and moon are often represented by busts, the one with a radiate crown, the-
other with a crescent upon the head. They so appear within disks in the starry
segment representing the heaven in the miniature of the Vienna Genesis in
which Joseph explains his dream to his father and brothers.' But sometimes
the sun is realistically treated, as in the same MS., where Jacob watches the
luminary rise after wrestling with the Unknown.^
The symbols of the Evangelists seem to be a Western feature, and do not
appear with any frequency in Byzantine art until a late period, when Western
influence had made itself felt.' They are found in very early monuments in
Italy* and Gaul,'' in some of which oriental influence is possible, though not
necessarily affecting this particular feature.
They occur in the earliest Western MSS., for example in the Lindisfarne
Gospels (about a.d. 700) in the British Museum (Cotton MS., Nero D. 4), and
were afterwards continuously employed in all Western countries, whereas in the
East they are infrequent down to about a. d. 1300." It may be noted, however,
that Our Lord is seen enthroned between the four beasts in the mural painting in
the twenty-sixth funerary chapel at Bawit, which is probably not later than the
seventh century,' and that in the apse painting in the White Monastery at Sohag^
(p. 287), a painting considered to date from the eleventh century, the same
beasts flank the mandorla in which the figure of Our Lord is enclosed.* They
are found in the Ascension-miniature in the Gospel of Eabula (p. 450), also in the
frescoes of the rock-cut Church of St. Barbara in the Soandere Valley in
Cappadocia, dated a. d. 976-1028, and in other rock churches at Susam Bayry
and Gereme in the same province." They are further found in Italo-Byzantine
wall-paintings in South Italy."

(c) Symbols, &c.

The Sacred Monogram and Cross.
In the first four centuries of our era the various forms of the sacred mono-
gram were generally used for the cross, which was not universally employed as
a symbol of the Crucifixion before the sixth century.^'
Inst., xiii, 1890, 241 if. (on a fourteenth-century MS. with calendar, from Trebizond), Denk-
schriften der k. Akad. der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1, 1904, 144, and R.Q., xii. 6 ; Davis,
Archaeologia, xxxviii (1860), 224 f. and PI. IX-XII (mosaics at Carthage, the types correspond-
ing to those of Filoealus) ; A. Eiegl, Mittlieihmgen des Inst, fiir osiefn-eichische Gesclmhtuforschung, x,
1889. See also Gasette arch. , 1879, xxii ; Monuments Plot, iii, 1896, 202 (mosaics in North Africa).
1 Hartel and Wickhoff, Die Wiener Genesis, PI. XXIX. ^ Ibid., PI. XXIV.
' J. A. Herbert, Burlington Magazine, xiii, .Tune, 1908, p. 162. It is believed, however,
that the symbols may have originated in the liturgical cycle of Egypt {B. Z., xv. 702).
* Mosaics of St. Restituta, Naples (p. 369), ivory in the Trivulzio Collection (p. 191); in
both eases the symbols have each six wings, as on the cipoUino chair in the Treasury of
S. Marco at Venice, believed to be that given by Heraclius to Gi'ado.
^ Stone relief from Aquitaine (Le Blant, Noureau Eecueil des insmptions cliretiennes de la Gaule,
1892, 269).
* A. Munoz, Miscellanea Ceriani, 1910, p. 173 (Gospel of late eleventh or early twelfth cen-
tury at Brescia) ; N. Kondakoff, Geschichte und Denkmaler des Byzantinischen Emails, 177. They
are found on the embossed silver frame of a fourteenth-century ikon in the Church of
St. Clement at Ochrida ; the frame appears to be contemporary (Kondakoff, Macedonia, 260
and PI. X).
' J. ClSdat, Memoires de V Institut fran(;ais d'arch. orientale du Claire, 136 and PI. XC-XCI.
" V. de Bock, Materiaux pour seriir, &c., 58. De Bock mentions the apocalyptic beasts,
though they are not very visible on his Plate XXI. The beasts also occur in similar
positions at Esneh (Bock, as above, PI. XXX).
' H. Eott, Kleinasiatische Denkmaler, 1908, 147, 207, 232.
'" Diehl, L'art byz. dans I'ltalie meridionale, 154.
'' See British Museum, Guide to Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, p. 19.
 SYMBOLS, ETC. 681
In Egypt the old Egyptian symbol of life, the anlch (■?■), frequently stood for
the cross upon textiles discovered in cemeteries ; ' on similar textiles, as also on
Early Christian reliefs in Asia Minor,^ the swastika is found, evidently with a
religious significance (cf. also p. 687). This figure persisted later, and is found
in the ornament of Sta Sophia, Constantinople (cf. pp. 696, 713).
The sacred monogram of the Constantinian form persisted in Byzantine art
until the seventh century : it is found on coins of Heraclius.' The cross itself
had appeared as early as the fourth century, and it may here be noted that the
Byzantine cross is not always equal-armed, but constantly has the lower limb
longest like the so-called Latin cross* (cf. Figs. 226, 339, &c.). The expanding
extremities of the top and arms, very characteristic throughout the whole period,

Fio. 431. Sarcophagus of St. Felix : S. Apollinare in Claase, Eavenna. (Alinari.)

are of quite early introduction : they are seen in the apse mosaic of StaPudenziana
at Eome, where the large cross is thought to represent that erected by Constantino
at Jerusalem (p. 385).^ The cross covered with jewels is of equally early date ;
and that emitting rays, or displayed in a field of stars (Fig. 343), comes in about
the same time. This mode of representation has been associated with the vision
of a radiant cross in the sky between Jerusalem and Golgotha reported in the
fourth century." The cr9ss raised upon steps, or rising from two acanthus leaves,
also appears in the First Period. The cross with double traverse, often called
the patriarchal cross, is also early. It is found on the reliquary at Poitiers
' Akhmim and elsewhere. See P. Scott-Moncrieff in Church Quarterly Review, October, 1909.
2 On textiles at Antinoe see Annales du Musee Guimet, 1902, PI. I and II (after p. 152).
For the swastika on Early Christian tombs in Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Isauria, see A. Margaret
Kamsay in Sir W. M. Eamsay's Studies in the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire.
' W. Wroth, Imperial Bysantine Coins in the British Museum, i. 253. The form with limbs at
right angles, commonest in the fifth century, occurs on the sculptured slab in the roof of one
of the chambers in the base of the Column of Arcadius at Constantinople (Ath. Mitth.,
1893, 233-4;. Here the P has the loop open, a feature which may be peculiarly Eastern, as it
occurs not only on the Golden Gate at Constantinople (a. n. 388-91), but also at Hierapolis,
Thebes (in Boeotia, &c.). De Rossi {Bullettino, 1880, 144) also considered the open loop
Eastern. Cf. Figs. 349, 456.
* The long cross is found from the fifth century {CBayet, Be titulis Atticae crist., 57 S. ;
De Vogii^, Syrie Centrale, 51 and 66). After the sixth century its use is continuous.
' See also H. Grisar, Analecta Romana, 468. Disks at the ends of the arms may represent
globes and signify dominion (G. de Nicola, Bull. d'Arte, iii, p. 29, 1909). Cf. Figs. 86, 339.
' 0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Niccia, 243. The cross amidst stars is seen in the mosaics
of S. Apollinare in Classe and of S. Gennaro at Naples.
682 ICONOGEAPHY

said to have been presented by Justin II and Sophia to St. Eadegund (p. 548).
It appears on Byzantine coins in the reign of Theophilus {a. d. 829-42).
The elevation of the cross in presence of Helena and Macarius is found in the
Vatican Menologium of Basil (tenth century). It probably goes back to an earlier
time.^ The labarum is the name given to the standard on which the sacred
monogram
heedless to is
do represented (Fig. 432).
more than mention It has Anbeen
it here. so often comparison
interesting described" that it is
has been
made by F. Sarre between this Christian standard and those of the Parthians."
Cruciform monograms, in which letters are disposed about the extremities of
a cross (e. g. Figs. 321, 355 a), apparently begin in the sixth century, and con-
tinue to the Fourth Period. The rectangular type of monogram (e. g. Figs. 321,
355 d) begins earlier, and falls into disuse after the sixth century. In the
West it lasted longer, having been adopted by the Franks and handed down by
them to their successors. The European examples are, however, clumsier and
larger than their Byzantine prototypes.

The Nivibus.
This distinctive mark of pre-eminence was probably adopted in Christian art
from the representation of emperors.* Although even the cruciferous form given
to Our Lord occurs as early as the beginning of the
fourth century,^ it continued to be assigned or
withheld with some irregularity down to the sixth
century : thus the angels in the Vienna Genesis
(p. 444) are not nimbed. In the First Period the
nimbus was often of a blue or a bluish-green
colour,'^ as we sometimes see it in Western minia-
tures of Eomanesque times. But from the eighth
century it was usually golden. It would seem that
the nimbus first became general in the Syro-
Egyptian area.
The square nimbus, though it appears to occur in
Fig. 432. Medallion of Valens. the mosaics of St. Demetrius, Salonika, is not charac-
illustrating the labarum. teristic of East-Christian iconography.' It was in-
troduced bythe popes to meet iconoclastic criticism,
which objected to the use of the circular nimbus in representations of living
persons.
The mandorla,* or ' glory' surrounding the whole body, encloses the figure of
1 D. Ainaloff, V. V., v, 1899, 71.
^ Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, s.v. laharum ; F. X. Kraus,
Kealencyklopadie, &c.
* Beitrage zur alten Geschiohte, iii, 1903, 333-71. Tlie article is illustrated by twenty-five
figures.
* A. Ki'ucke, Ber Nimbus und verwancUe Attribute in derfriihchristlichen Kunst, and the review in
B.Z., XV. 694; N. Miiller, Realencyklopiidie filr protestantische Theologie und ICirche, 3rd ed., 559-66 ;
B.Z., ix, 1900, 599. Cf. the imperial coinage, the figures of Constantius II and Constantius
Gallus in the Calendar of Filocalus (p. 484), &c.
° On the sarcophagus from Sulu Monastir at Berlin (p. 128) and on the Constantino Bowl
in the British Museum (Fig. 385) {Cat. of Early Christian and Byz. Antiquities, No. 916) ; and see
A. Muiioz, Nuovo BulMtino di arch, crist, xiii. 301 ff. '
° So in the niche-mosaics of Sta Costanza, and in SS. Cosmas and Damian at Rome ;
S. Apollinare Nuovo, S. Vitale, Archiepiscopal Chapel, and S. Apollinare in Classe at
Ravenna. The late mosaics of various Roman churches also retained the coloured nimbus ;
an example occurs in the mosaics of S. Venanzio (J. Smirnoff, V. V., iv, 1897, pp. 48-9).
' For the square nimbus, see V. de Grrvineisen, Tabula circa verticem, in Archivio della B. Soc.
rom. di Storia Patria, xxix, xxx ; Sauerland and Haseloff, Ber Psalter Ersbischof Egberts son
Trier, 52 ff. ; and Ph. Lauer, Mem. Soc. Ant. de France, Ixxvii, 1907, 55-71. Its use is most
common between the eighth and thirteenth centuries.
' C16dat in Mem. de V Inst, fran^ais d'arch. orientate dti Caire, xii, 1904, PI. XCVI. The paint-
ing in the twenty-sixth chapel at Bawit (Cl^dat, PI. XC and XCI) shows Our Lord enthroned
and surrounded by a bluish mandorla.
 SYMBOLS, ETC. 683

the infant Christ in his~mother's arms in the Gospels of Etchmiadzin and in

frescoes at Bawit ;^ the Virgin herself is thus distinguished in the apse mosaic
of Panagia Kanakaria in Cyprus (p. 384). It is thus at any rate as early as the
sixth centur}'.

Secular Iconography.

Important work in this province has been done by M. Lambros, who has
collected material from monuments of art illustrative of the types of the various
emperors." In preceding chapters imperial portraits in mosaic have been noted
(cf. Figs. 5, 218, &c.), and a greater number of imperial personages are represented
in illuminated MSS.' (cf. Fig. 290). Exigencies of space make it impossible to
do more in the piresent chapter than add a few short notes on costume.

V H/7'//a/A///»i;A/'r:

Fig. 4.33. The Emperor Julian : miniature of ninth-century MS. of the Homilies of Gregory
in the Amhrosian Library, Milan. {Haates-^tiides : G. Millet.)

The dress of the Byzantine lower classes did not differ essentially from that
of similar classes in the West : a girded tunic reaching to the knees, with occa-
sional y a mantle, and boots with leg coverings, are its essential features.
In the dress of the wealthy classes and court officials, tlie cJdami/s played an
important part, and different forms with various distinguishing ornaments were
worn by different ranks. Our principal authority for court costume, apart from
the evidence of such monuments as the mosaics in S. Vitale at Eavenna (p. 356),
various miniatures and ivories, &c., is the book of the Emp)eror Constantino

' See note 8 on previous page.

- An international committee was appointed to undertake this work at the first Congress
of Classical Archaeology. At the Cairo Congress M. Lambros read an account of the progress
made ; the work seems to have chiefly devolved upon }nm{Cmiipte rendu da Congrts International
d'arch. classique, Cairo, 1909, p. 267 i.
" M. Diehl cites some of the more important MSS. (Manuci, .590) : Bibl. Nat., .510, much
damaged figures ; Psalter in the Marciana, with Basil II (Pig. 290) ; eleventh-century Exidfei
roll of Bari^ with Basil II and Constantino VIII ; Bibl. Nat., gr. 922, with Constantino Dueas
and Eudoxia crowned by the Virgin ; Vatican, gr. 666, with Alexis Comnenus (Manuel,
Fig. 184) ; MS. of St. .John Chrysostom in the Bibl. Nat., with Nicephorus Botoniates {Manuel,
Fig. 183) ; Vatican, Urb. 2, with .John Comnenus. The Vatican Barbcrini Psalter shows an
imperial family of three persons {Manuel, Fig. 185).
684 ICONOaEAPHY

Porphyrogenitus/ The dress both of patricians and great ladies'' was of the
most sumptuous description, and was often composed of figured silks (p. 584).
The imperial robes,' adopted from Persia, were thickly embroidered with
pearls and precious stones : none but rulers might wear boots of the imperial
red. In the period from the fifth to the seventh century the long chlamys with
rectangular patch of a different colour [tablion) (Figs. 118, 224) was worn by both
emperors and empresses, as we see it in the S. Vitale mosaics, in the representa-
tion of David in the Vatican Cosmas (fol. 63 b), &c. Kings in the biblical
narrative are shown in early MSS., like the Vienna Genesis, in the chlamys. In
these MSS. a gold diadem with an aigrette of stones or pearls in the centre
completes the royal costume (cf. also Figs. 128, 138-40, 213, 216, 262_, 290, 356).
A few words may be added on military equipment. The soldiers of the
Byzantine army were protected for the most part by scale armour, though, if we
may judge from quite early monuments, ring or chain mail was sometimes used.*
Helmets'' have crests or spikes, either with or without plumes. Shields are
either oval, or pointed at the bottom, resembling the kite-shaped shield of
Western Europe. Weapons of offence were straight swords with guards only
slightly projecting on either side, and long spears^ (cf. Figs. 10, 11, 42. 59, 93,
144, 230, 279, 306).
The bow, apparently of the ' composite ' oriental type, was in general use
(Figs. 145, 372).

^ De Caerimoniis aulae bysantinae (Bonn edition), vol. i. See also N. Kondakoff, Enamel,
299 ff. discolor
pallium J. "Wilpert,
of theBessarime, x, 382.
law of a. d. 1905, fasc. 86, argues that the chlamys with tablion is the
^ See A. von Premerstein, Austrian Jahrbuch, 1903. M. Molinier discusses modes of
dressing the hair in J^tudes d'histoire du Moyen Age dediees a O. Monod, Paris, 1896, 61-70 : ' La
coiffure des femmes dans quelques monuments byzantins.' Shoes of pierced and gilded
leather were worn, numerous examples of which have been found in Egypt.
' Pokrovsky, ia Materials for Bwssian Archaeology, viii, 1892, 18 (Publ. of the Imperial Russian
Academy), discusses the imperial chlamys and tunic of the sixth century. Cf. also Sfcrzy-
gowski on the silver shield from Kertch (p. 569).
* Strzygowski, Orient Oder Bom, 67.
5 Cf. the Joshua Eotulua (Figs. 265, 271), silver plate (Fig. 59), &c.
^ On the Byzantine army see Diehl, L'AJrique bysantine; H. Gelzer, Genesis der bys. Themen-
verfassung ; C. W. Oman, The Byzantine Empire. On the navy, C. Neumann, Die bys. Marine, in
Hist. Zeftschrift, 1898, pp. 1 ff. ; C. de La Roncifere, in Le Moyen Age, 1897, pp. 201 ff. ; Cecil Torr,
Ancient Ships, pp. 16 ff. ; J . B. Bury, in his edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Appendix to
vol. vi, in which Greek fire is discussed. For ships in battle, cf. Fig. 288.
 .r^ ineMOKC-frOpA UllNAOKH-^j^eA
Tf IVIf1KAT^<^>fO
AnvirjKATor^ifi

Fig. 434. Illuminated head-piece from a Gospel of the eleventh century in the British
Museum.

CHAPTEE XIII
ORNAMENT

It has been well remarked that when higher forms of artistic expression
decline or die ont, ornament, which is the possession not merely of the
cultured but of the average population, shows a superior power of resistance ;
it is handed on from generation to generation, when the figure-art which
may have originally accompanied it has been long forgotten. It thus
possesses an ethnological value, and the analysis of its elements will
often throw unexpected light upon phases in the history of nations.
That the Byzantine Empire stood in some relation to Greece, Egypt,
Syria, and Persia, might be deduced from a study of its ornament
alone, if all written historical documents had been destroyed. It is
rather under an historical than an artistic aspect that Byzantine
ornament will be discussed within the short limits of the present chapter.
To deal effectively with so wide a subject from the purely artistic point
of view would require not only very special qualifications, but also a
wealth of detailed illustration beyond the possibilities of this volume.
The oricrin, development, and distribution of certain selected motives
686 ORNAMENT

will Vie brieflj" stated, while a few remarks of a more general application
will be prefixed by way of introduction.
Of Byzantine ornament in general it may be said that even when
executed in relief it almost always aims at a colouristic eftect, or imitates
a model executed in colour ; and that it shows a predilection, first for
covering void spaces with continuous ornament disposed on geometrical
principles, secondly for framing designs in formal borders. These charac-

Fig. 4,35. Carved ornament of the sixth century, Sta Sophia, Constantinople.
(^After Salzenberg.)

teristics are oriental ; for the Greek, and the Roman while still under
Greek influence, did not seek so much a contrast of colour as beauty of
line and form, and where any considerable space was to be decorated,
insisted upon a central figure-subject standing out upon a background
free from ornament distracting to the eye. Classical feeling did not suffer
the secondary element, i, e. tlie geometrical or floral design, to encroach
upon or monopolize any such important space ; and although, as Riegl
has shown, the oriental style began to creep in during the late Roman
period, it was not until al.iout the time of Justinian that it achieved
a permanent victorj-. Such a treatment of a considerable space as that
of the spandrels in Sta Sophia (Fig, 435) might have shocked a Greek even
of the Hellenistic period : it marks the triumph of these purely Eastern
 OENAMENT 687

methods which find their late development in Mohammedan art. We

find ' repeating ' or continuous ornament extending its sphere in the
centuries immediately preceding. The covering of columns with a network
of continuous pattern, forming lozenges, imbrications, and connected
sivastikas, appears in the columns of the mosque fafade of Diarbekr
(Amida), which are probably not later than the fifth century. One column
has the combination of hexagons and crosses round a central octagon
which has always been popular in the East for the arrangement of glazed
tiles and inlaid carving in wood,i and appears both in the Early Christian
art of Egypt, as in the tympanum of the Djami Ali at Dashlut,^ and in
the mosaics of Sta Costanza at Kome (p. 333). A similar treatment of
columns is found in the remains of the Coptic monasteries of S. Apollo
at Bawit^ and S. Jeremias at Saqqara* (of. Fig. 267).
The framing of ornamental subjects in formal borders is first introduced

Fig. 436. Nielloed ornament on a silver

Britishdish of the sixth century, from Cyprus, in the
Museum.

in the ancient art of Mesopotamia, and may have become extensively

known through its adoption by the textile art. It spread rapidly west-
ward under the Roman Empire, being largely used in those mosaic
pavements which were in their origin carpets translated in terms of
stone. The sculptured slabs in low rehef which themselves imitated
textiles (p. 165) adopted borders very generally (Figs. 99, 439), as did ivory
carvings (Figs. 8, 9, 1212-5, 132, &c.) ; while the fresco-painter, the illumi-
nator, and the worker in mosaic employed them to define the spaces which
they had to decorate. Their utility was so generally recognized that they
established a firm footing in the Western art of the Middle Ages, were
taken over by the Carolingians, and never afterwards fell completely
out of favour.
To those unfamiliar with the conservatism of design, there are few
things more remarkable than the persistence of ornamental motives
throughout the centuries. Once well planted, they appear almost
ineradicable; they survive political changes, and are handed on from

^ Van Berchem and Strzygowski, Amida, 153 ff.

'^ Originally part of the decoration of the monastery at Bawit.
' Possibly as early as the fifth century. Bepresented in the Pavilion de la Tr^mouille at
the Louvre. See J. CWdat's accounts of the excavations. Other forms of continuous geometric
ornament are common to Egypt and the ruined cities of Syria (Amida, 157).
' See J. Quibell, Service des antiquites de Vtlgypte, Saqqara, Pt. II.
688 ORNAMENT

one empire to another until their origin is forgotten by those who employ
them. They may indeed be so modified that at first sight they are hard
to recognize; they may suflFer a process analogous to that which in
comparative mythology is known as contamination,^ but, in spite of all
changes, they persist, and a patient investigation will discover their true
descent. The classical example of such persistence is the lotus, with its
principal development, the palmette: the acanthus and vine are later
than these, and to a certain extent grafted on them ; but all have enjoj'ed

Fie. 437. Nielloed ornament in the centre of a silver dish of the sixth century from
Kyrenia. (Nicosia Museum, Cyprus.)

a popularity which has lasted with a few breaks from antiquity to the
present day. A decided geographical barrier, or the rise of a strong
indigenous artistic movement, may indeed divert the influence of these
hereditary motives. For instance India, though a borrower from Persian
art, developed a naturalistic ornament derived from her own flora as
early as the second century before Christ, and the ornamental motives
of Bharhiit and Sanchi are for the most part purely Hindu. The mediaeval
artists of the thirteenth century in like manner cast themselves free from
the designs which Komanesque art inherited from the antique, and repro-
duced their own plants and foliage from nature. In these ways the old
designs are superseded ; but sooner or later some revival or other will often
bring a rejected ornament once more into consideration, and after a long
exile it may find the gates no longer barred against it. This conservatism,
with the contamination of one ornamental motive by another, often led
to curious results. The acanthus developed out of the palmette, the
1 When figures or episodes from one story are bodily removed to another to suit the
purposes of the artist.
 OENAMENT 689

palmette being first ' acanthized ' and the complete acanthus following
later. Not far from the beginning of our era, the vine coming from
Hither Asia established itself in Roman art, though its principal develop-
ment was in Syria and Egypt. But after a time a new contamination
arose; the palmette annexed the vine. The vine, in short, was 'palmettized' ;
and out of the resulting hybrid arose not only the typical Byzantine floral
designs of the Third Period (Figs. 64, 160), but also the foliate arabesques
of Saracenic art. Palmettes and acanthus-leaves of comparatively un-

FiG. 438. a. Nielloed ornament in the centre of a silver dish of the sixth century found at
Kyrenia. (Nicosia Museum, Cyprus.)
6. Small silver dish of the sixth century with monogram and ornament in niello.

modified form survived to a late date side by side with the hybrids ; but,
contrary to the rule which obtains in nature, it was the hybrid which
proved the most prolific.

The ornamental designs used in the Christian East fall into two main
classes : those received through Hellenistic sources, and those introduced from
the East. The latter group includes a number of designs originally borrowed
from the Hellenic area and returned with or without modification during the
earlier Christian centuries.

Motives adopted from Hellenistic Sources.

The Acanthus.

In the second half of the fifth century B.C. the lotus- palmette ^ began to
receive ' acantbizing ' modifications which ultimately led to the birth of the
■" For the palmette, in addition to Goodyear, The Grammar of the Lotus, see Riegl, Stilfragen,
1893 ; Furtwangler, Sabouroff Collection, introduction to the sculpture, 6 ff. ; Bruckner, Orruimeni
und Form der atiischen Grabstelen, i S.
1204 Y y
690 OENAMENT

acanthus as an independent motive. For there is reason to believe that the

masters of ornament did not, as Vitruvius relates/ copy the plant from nature.
Insensibly their experiments with the leaves of the palmette assumed a form
resembling the acanthus-leaf; the resemblance was observed and consciously
improved, until at all
need not mention lastthethestages
plant initself was deliberately
the development of thetaken as a model.
acanthus. After "We
the
sixth century it lost in relief and character, and the work of the ninth century
and later is mostly without the strong effects of light and shade which the
undercutting of earlier times had produced. A more im.portant point is the habit
of dismembering the plant, a custom which was foreshadowed when the Greeks
split the Eastern
and the palmette Greeks
into twohadhalves.'^
carried By
this the fifth century thefurther
dismemberment Sassanian
; theyPersians
cut off
leaves and parts of leaves to be employed as new units ; they associated these
units in combinations inconceivable in nature, produced such impossibilities as
a continuous band or scroll of acanthus (Pig. 439),' and finally, as in the spandrels
of Sta Sophia, made scroll-work of this kind range all over considerable spaces.
Treatment of this kind recalls the liberties taken with figures of animals by the
early Teutonic craftsmen, who so dismembered and compounded beast-forms
that at last only a practised eye can discern an animal at all. The acanthus
remained popular even in the Fourth Period, being found in considerable variety
in the sculptured ornament at Mistra ; but in the Third Period it found a rival
in the palmettized vine, which was especially popular with illuminators and
workers in metal (Figs. 64, 339).*
In the early centuries it was used for borders, framing geometrical panels
with a continuous band of leaves: so on the marble doors in the gallery
in Sta Sophia'' (Fig. 8) and on the diptych of the Consul Boethius in the
museum at Brescia (Fig. 8). This fashion was adopted by Carolingian artists,
who constantly employed it as a border for miniatures and ivory carvings.

The Ivy-leaf.

The ivy-leaf and ivy-scroll, like the acanthus, probably assumed a natural-
istic form very gradually : there seems reason to believe that it began as a lotus-
leaf." It appears independently in Mycenaean and Greek art, but was perhaps
not finally identified with the ivy until the naturalizing Hellenistic period. In
Byzantine art it is chiefly characteristic of the First and Second Periods,
becoming rare with the ninth century ; an example is seen on the silver dish
from Cyprus (Fig. 438, a). The heart-shaped form which a conventional leaf may
readily assume is not always connected with the ivy, even as derivative of the
lotus-leaf. The ' hearts ' which are so common on Sassanian and Italo-Byzantine
sculpture, and on textiles (Fig. 440), are probably derived from the palmette-top
(see p. 692) ; while the leaves which appear when the Icmnisci of wreaths were

1 Vitruvius, iv, c. 1 . The sculptor Callimachus is said to have been so struck by the effect
of a basket lying upon an acanthus plant that the idea of the Corinthian capital arose in his
mind. The story has all the marks of a fiction invented to explain a forgotten genesis. As a
matter of fact the acanthus appears on acroteria at a date when Corinthian capitals were
either non-existent or at any rate exceedingly rare. Another explanation suggests that the
acanthus, which appears upon palmettos of the Athenian gravestones of the fourth century,
was placed there because it grew in the rocky ground where cemeteries were situated. But
the earlier stele discovered by M. Place at Khorsabad negatives this view also. See
P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs of Hellas, 121. '^ A. Eiegl, Siilfragen, 211.
' As at St. John of the Studium at Constantinople. The Copts early made long bands of
acanthus interlace, and produced many hybrid forms, examples of which are to be seen in
the Cairo and other museums, coming from various early sites.
* Strzygowski has maintained against Biegl that the familiar leaves of Mohammedan
arabesques are debased vine forms and not acanthus.
6 Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, 75 ff.
" Goodyear, Grammar of the Lotus ; Eiegl, Stilfragen, 117, 126, 177 ; 0. Wulff, Die Koimesis-
kircke von Nicda, 200.
 MOTIVES ADOPTED FEOM HELLENISTIC SOUECES 691

converted into tendrils, are perhaps very generalized vine-leaves (cf. Fig. 81).
It may be conveniently mentioned here that all the four suits of our
playing-cards, three of which must be derived from leaves (one, the spade,
somewhat resembling a conventional ivy-leaf), occur in Byzantine ornament,
usually upon textiles.' In the ceremonial book of Constantino Porphyrogenitus
the ' spades ' upon garments are called K(.a-a6cl>vX\a.''
The Palmette.

This motive was inherited by Byzantine art in various forms, some of which
are of quite an early type. Ornament in which the anthemion alternates with

Fig. 439. Transenna, S. Vitale : showing various treatment of acanthus and its use as a scroll.

the lotus occurs carved in stone at Kaisariani in Attica, before the cave at
Athens containing the spring known as the Clepsydra, and on various fragments
of uncertain provenance discovered on the Acropolis. The association of these
sculptures with crosses of peculiar form has led Strzygowski to date them about
the beginning of the fifth century.^ On the back of the Limburg reliquary,
which is of the tenth century, there is an embossed border of debased palmettes
alternating with three-pointed lotus, clearly derived from a Greek original.''
In ornamental borders of the Daphni mosaics (eleventh century) the palmette
or anthemion is still unmistakable, although treated in a careless arid schematic
fashion." But like other designs of the earlier tradition it was no longer a very
1 The heart is especially common upon the mantles of saints in enamels ; hearts and
clubs occur together on the garments of the Emperor Nicephorus Botouiates in the MS. in the
Bibliothfeque Nationale, Paris ; they occur in juxtaposition on the silk textile of Bishop Gun-
ther (p. 596). The spade is seen on the costumes of the guards in the Justinian mosaic in
S. Vitale at Ravenna, and on the hangings of St. Anne's bed in the mosaics of Daphni
(Millet, PI. XVIII). Cf. Figs. 199, 304, 314, 440.
2 Eiedin in Trans, of Imp. Buss. Arch. Soc, N.S., ix, Pt. II, 205, St. Petersburg, 1897.
s 'E<l>.'Apx., 1902, 82-90.
* E. Aus'm Weerth, Das Siegeskreus, &c., PI. III.
" Millet, Daphni, 107, Fig. 49. Here, as on the abacus of the columns on the north portal
of the Church of St. Godehard at Hildesheim, we find a type of palmette scroll with alter-
nating anthemion and trefoiled bud which recalls Greek types. For the Hildesheim example
Ty2
692 OENAMENT

conspicuous motive, nor did it enjoy the position which it once held in the arts
of Egypt, of Hither Asia, and Greece. Its importance in Byzantine art lies rather
in the transmission of its characteristics to forms of a quite different origin, in
the ' palmettizing ' to which it gave rise at a comparatively early date, and in
the dismemberment and recomposition of its several parts. This hybridization
was carried out both upon the acanthus and the vine-leaf. Examples of acanthus-
leaves recompounded into palmette-like forms are found upon the facade of the

Fio. UO. Silk textile of the sixth-seventh century found in the Sancta Sanctorum, now in
the Vatican Libraiy, showing palmettos and heart-shaped leaves.

Mshatta, which no one would date later than the seventh century and some assign
to the fourth. It is difficult to see in what quarter except Mesopotamia this
characteristic hydrid can have originated. Acanthus ornament showing similar
tendencies is found upon capitals of Sassanian origin ; and it seems not unlikely,
as Strzygowski has suggested, that the Sassanians derived the classical motives
with which they took such liberties, not from the Mediterranean cities, but
from the Greek colony at Seleucia. Probably the similar ornament upon the
Tulunid gravestones in Egypt reached the Nile via Mesopotamia and Syria, and
had a like Persian origin.^
As an example of detached fragments of the palmetto independently used,
we may notice the hearts which singly, or in long bands forming borders, occur
upon Sassanian textiles of the fifth to seventh centuries (Pig. 440). These are
originally nothing more than the two upmost incurving leaves of the palmette,
see A. Zeller, Die romanischen Baudenkmaler mn Mildesheim, Berlin, 1907. Something of the
same sort survives in the fourteenth century in the mosaics of KahriS Djarai (Th. Schmidt,
PI. XXXI). For a fine Greek example see the stele from Aegina of the time of Pheidias
(P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs of Hellas, PI. XIVI.
> J. Strzygowski, Mshatta (Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904), 280 ff.
 MOTIVES ADOPTED FEOM HELLENISTIC SOURCES 693

with the space which they enclose, detached and filled with a solid colour.'
They either form continuous bands, as upon the Persian textiles,'' or are dis-
persed among other ornamental motives.^
The large leaf with curved sides, and almost pear-shaped in contour,
which is such a familiar feature in later oriental, especially Persian, art is in

Fig. 441. The Virgin and Cliild(?) : silk textile of the sixth-seventh century; the border shows
degraded palmettes. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

like manner a palmette derivative.' It also occurs on the slab at Torcello

already mentioned. A somewhat similar form, though less flamboyant, had been
in use in Mycenaean times.
But perhaps the most interesting, as it was certainly the most widespread
form of the palmette, is that which is known as the ' enclosed palmette '.° This
1 Strzygowski, in Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 158. The derivation is clear because the
detached ornaments and the complete palmettos sometimes occur on the same piece of stuff,
and the upper parts of the latter are identical with the former.
' B. Cattaneo, L' Architettura in Italia, Sec, Fig. 102 and p. 157. Carved slabs of the ninth
century at S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi and Torcello Cathedral. A similar treatment on a
carved sarcophagus at Nicaea (0. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Nicaa, 184).
' As in the mosaics of Sta Sophia, Constantinople (Salzenberg, PI. XXIV). It is not,
however, certain whether in cases like this the form may not derive from the ' ivy-leaf.
* Jahrbuch, as above, 157. = Cf. Fig. 94 above.
694 ORNAMENT

ornament, which was of Greek origin, has an almost continuous history in the
East ; but though adopted by the Celts ^ was never a Boman motive, a fact which
is of some importance to the question of artistic influences in mediaeval Europe.
It is found in the Syrian area at At-Tuba,^ on capitals of the fifth to sixth
century at Daphni,^ as well as in mosaic borders of the eleventh century at the
same place ■* and frequently at Mistra.' It occurs on Sassanian capitals, on
ninth-century stone reliefs on the larger door of S. Marco dei Partecipazi at
Venice," and on sculpture of the- Visigothic period at Toledo.' Such examples
explain how it became such a very common ornament all over Europe in
Eomanesque times.*
The Laurel.
The laurel-wreath, commonly used for the wreaths which enclose sacred
monograms or busts upon sculptured slabs or ivories, became less common in
the middle and later periods. It did not, however, fall into disuse. It is found
as a border for illuminated miniatures, e.g. in a Vatican Psalter of the twelfth
to thirteenth century. =■ Cf. Figs. 76, 77, 81, 121, 204, 456.
Scrolls.
The narrow floral scroll, consisting of a continuous undulating line from the
upper and lower sides of which single leaves issue alternately but always in the
same direction, is a motive which persisted through all centuries. It occurs on
capitals and transennae at San Vitale,^" in the stone sculpture at Nicaea,'^ and
the Monastery of Lavra on Athos : " in the Fourth Period we find it again at
Kahrie Djami and Mistra. The motive passed into the Italo-Byzantine art of
the dark ages " and also into France." It is frequently found in later Western
mediaeval art. The type of leaf employed is not always the same ; sometimes
it seems to approximate to the acanthus, at others to the vine (Figs. 25, 86, 88,
106, 125, 438, 442).
Gornuacopiae.
The cornucopiae, which perhaps first became common in the time of the
Diadochi, is an ornament frequently used in the First Period. It occurs on
the fajade of Mshatta,'^ and is especially conspicuous in the mosaics of
S. Vitale " at Eavenna, where it is arranged in pairs. It is also found on consular
diptychs (e.g. that of Areobindus, c. a. d. 506, at Lucca), and on capitals at
Ravenna, Parenzo, and Philippi," in the ruined towns of Syria," and in Egypt. ^^
It was early introduced into Frankish art.™
^ British Museum, Quide to the Iron Age, p. 17.
2 A. Mosil and others, Kusejr 'Antra, Fig. 130, p. 207, Vienna, 1907.
s G. Millet, Baphni, Fig. 2, p. 8. * Ibid., Fig. 38, p. 66.
•i Millet, Monuments byz. de Mistra, PI. XL, XLV, XL VI, &c.
" Cattaneo, as above. Fig. 139, p. 245.
' A. F. Calvert, Toledo, PI. 438, Fig. 2 (1907).
" A few examples are : the front of the sareopliagus of St. Agricola in S. Stefano, Bologna
(Cattaneo, Fig. 54, p. 112); the large Kronleuehter at Hildesheim (A. Zeller, Romanische
Saudenkmdler von Hildesheim) ; the early rood in Stepney Church {Proo. Soc. Ant. of London, xxii.
226) ; the Norman font at Bishopsteignton (J. C. Cox and A. Harvey, English Church Furniture,
196), &o.
" Cod. Vat. Palat. Gr., 381. Reproduced in Collezione paleografica Vaticana, Fasc. 1, Milan
(Hoepli), 1905.
10 Venturi, Storia, i. 93, 99.
1' O. Wulff, Die Koimesiskirche in Nicaa, Pig. 36, p. 185.
12 Brockhaus, Die Kunst auf den Athos-Klostem, PI. VII and VIII.
" Slab at Cividale (Venturi, Storia, ii. 131).
" Gospels of Godescalc (eighth century) (Venturi, ii. 131).
1'' Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904, 310. For other examples see 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, i.
" Diehl, Ravenne, 80. " B. Z., 1902, 487, PI. III.
1' Lintel of church at Chirbet Tezin in North Syria (Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904, Fig. 82,
p. 250). 1' Architrave at Deir er Eife neai- Assiut (ibid.. Fig. 87).-
2» Gospel of St. Medard. See p. 488.
 MOTIVES ADOPTED FEOM HELLENISTIC SOURCES 695
The Fret.

The fret is also an ornament chiefly dating fi-om the early period. It is seen
in many varieties at Bawit, some of them representing the ' ribbon fret ' ' (as if

Fig. 442. Pierced marble trausenna, S. ApoUinare Nuovo, Ravenna ; sixth century ; fret-
like border producing swastikas. (Kioci.)

made of a stiff ribbon set up on edge) so popular in early mediaeval Western

art from Carolingian to Gothic times. Sometimes it is broken up after a fashion
found in early Frankish and Christian Celtic art. A tendency to treat the
' J. Cl<5dat, Mim. de VInst. /rang, d'arch. orientate du Caire, PI. XIII and XIV. This kind of
fret is at least as early as the third century, as it occurs in the mural paintings (Fig. 168) at
Palmyra of that date (Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, p. 11). It is also found on the ivory vase
in the British Museum (p. 214). A border of undulating ribbon found in the sixth-century
Gospel of Babula and the Vienna Gospel of about the same date was copied in much later
times, as in the twelfth-century Vatican MS. of the Prophets (No. 1153). See A. Muiioz,
Codici . . delle minori biblioteche di Soma, PI. VIII.
696 OENAMENT

fret as an independent ornament, qualified to fill principal spaces instead of

merely surrounding them, is seen in the frieze of the great temple at Palmyra,
which is of the third century.' The resemblance of this early example of fret
diaper to that employed by Saracenic artists in Mesopotamia in the thirteenth
century is remarkable, and it is probable that we have here the inheritance of
an ancient motive which had never completely died out. The fret does not
disappear in the Third and Fourth Periods. It is found, for example, on the
exterior of Greek churches,- in the decoration of Kahrie Djami,' &c. In some cases
fret-like designs have lines crossing each other at right angles, producing series

Fig. 443. Marble ambo of the sixth century in S. Apollinare Nuovo at Kavenna : showing
dentils, astragalus, and other mouldings. (Ricci.)

of connected swastiltas as at Eavenna (Fig. 442), Amida (p. 713), and Saqqara
(Quibell, i, PI. XXXI). A tendency to incline the angles of the fret is observed
in the First Period (Fig. 449).
The Step-pattern.
If not connected with the fret, this motive, very frequent in the borders
of Byzantine illuminated MSS. and mosaics of the tenth century and later,
may possibly be derived from the mural crenellations of Hither Asia.* Such
battlements are reproduced in the background of a miniature in the early
fragment of the Gospels from Sinope now in Paris, though there they are
1 Proc. Soc. Ant. London, xxii, p. 216.
^ A. Struck, Ath. Mitth., 1909, 226 ; G. Lampakis, Mem. ffur les aniiguitis chreliennes de la
Grece^ 44.
s Th. Schmidt, PI. XXIII, XXVIII.
* The step-pattern occurs in the mosaics of Sta Sophia, Constantinople (Salzenberg,
PI. XXIV, XXVI), and at Nicaea (Wulff, Koimesiskirche, 200).
 MOTIVES ADOPTED FEOM HELLENISTIC SOUECES 697

in their proper place upon a building.^ The fact that step-patterns occur on
the Hindu sculptures at Sanchi (third century b. c.) may perhaps be regarded
as an argument in favour of the architectural origin : similar designs occur
in the art of ancient Peru. More important, perhaps, is the use of the motive
in an ornamental band on the Parthian Palace of Hatra, where it may very
well be regarded as brought down from the cresting of a crenellated wall.^
Step-patterns occur in the borders of the eighth-century Prankish Gospel of
Godescalc,' which betrays oriental influences, as well as on the English
eighth-century Grospels of St. Augustine's Abbey in the British Museum.*
Mouldings.

Familiar types (oves, astragalus, dentils, &c.), though commoner in the

First Period,^ survived to much later times: examples occur in the string-
courses of St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis, on sculptured reliefs (Torcello, &c.),
and on ivories (caskets, triptychs), &c., all of the Third Period ; but at this
time they are no longer motives of primary importance. Cf. Figs. 119, 123,
124, 128, 140, 443, 450.

Fig. iii. Animals embossed in the bowls of silver spoons of the sixth century from Cyprus.
(British Museum.")
Animals and Monsters.

Quadruped monsters with human heads, recalling the ancient Mesopotamian

sphinx, are found at Mshatta, where the creature wears a pointed cap."
The sphinx continued to be reproduced in the mediaeval period, appearing
on the reliefs upon the Gorgopico Church at Athens,' at St. Luke of Stiris,
in Aegina, &c. Mshatta can also show the centaur, who stands opposite
a gryphon at the base of one of the great sculptured triangles. The appearance

' A. MuSoz, Codice purpurea di Rossano e ilframmento Sinopense, Plate B, Eome, 1907. In later
MSS., such as the Menologium of Basil in the Vatican Library, bands of stepped ornament
traverse the architectural background at levels where they would be structurally out of place.
^ Dieulafoy, L'Art antique de la Perse, v. 20.
' Comte A. de Bastard, Peintures des manuscrits, Sec, Pt. Ill ; A. Venturi, Storia, ii. 285.
■* G. F. Warner, Reproductions of MSS. in the British Museum, Series III, PI. III. The crenel-
lations upon the Franks casket of whale's bone in the British Museum (eighth century) may
actually represent crenellations on a wall. But if so the idea may well have been suggested
by an oriental model.
" Mshatta (Prussian-JMriMc/i, 1904,276) ; plaster string-courses of St. Luke's (Schultz and
Barnsley, PI. XXVIII) ; cf. ^so examples in the ninth-century church at Skripu {B.Z., iii,
1894, 11).
« Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904, 809.
' Eivoira, Origini della architettura lombarda, 205-6. A sphinx in the claws of a gryphon is
seen on a capital of the Church of Kutais in Georgia (begun a. d. 1008) {Jahrbuch, as above,
Fig. 86).
698 OENAMENT

of this figure seems to indicate classical influence. Strzygowski has noted that
in representations of Orpheus produced in the Syro-Egyptian region^ the
musician is usually accompanied by a centaur.^ The dolphin, though not
frequent, is found in Byzantine ornament.^ Byzantine animal-ornament is
for the most part of oriental origin (p. 706) ; even in the above cases the
Hellenistic source may only be secondary.

Fig. 445. Carved slab from a well-head of the eleventh century from Italy : showing whorls,
rosettes, &c., in interconnected circles. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)

Oriental Motives.

The various motives composing Courajod's Grammaire orientale " passed into
the ornament of Europe after the fifth century, and were especially popular
throughout the period (seventh-tenth centuries) when sculpture was at its
lowest. They are most frequently found on the ambon, the ciborium, the
closure slab, and the sarcophagus of this time, more particularly in Italy, so
much so that they used to be regarded as characteristically Lombardic. But

' Jahrbuch, 313, and Zeitschr. des deuischen Palastina-Vereins, xxiv. 143 S.
- e.g. on the marble revetment of Sta Sophia at Constantinople (Lethaby and Swaiuson,
244-5).
' The substance of M. Courajod's lectures at the Louvre is given by A. Marignan, Un His-
torien de I'artfranfais : Louis Courajod, Paris, 1899.
 ORIENTAL MOTIVES 699

our knowledge of the art of Hither Asia in the first five centuries of the
Christian era now enables us to trace them for the most part to Syria, the
ruined cities of which were first made familiar to archaeologists through the
researches of de Vogiie.' The Jewish art of the beginning of the Christian
era as exemplified on the ossuaries is expressed in a similar grammar.'' The
most conspicuous elements are the whorl, the rosette, the interlaced band, and
the series of interconnected circles. This Neo-Greek or Graeco-Asiatic style
is cosmopolitan in the First and Second Periods, spreading not only in Greece
and Italy, but also in North Africa ^ and the South of France : to the influence
of this style may be ascribed the adoption of a new and purely ornamental
style of sarcophagus at Aries, in which the human figure is abandoned.''
The Goths and Lombards became acquainted with its elements perhaps even
before they entered Italy, for it doubtless penetrated far inland from the
Adriatic coasts. Details appear in early Frankish MSS. Though commonest
in the earlier centuries, designs of the ' oriental grammar ' continued in use in
the two later periods.^

The Sacred Tree.

Allusion has already been made to the connexion between the ' heart ' and
Sassanian modifications of the palmette. More important, because far more
general, are the various types of conventional plant or tree commonly represented
between the pairs of confronted beasts. Such types are all comprehended under
the generic term 'sacred tree',' because they all ultimately descend from a well-
known feature of ancient Mesopotamian art. But as the original sacred trees
were never real trees of any known species, but artificial compounds of lotus
elements, so its descendants in later centuries are always composite. Their
elements may ultimately be derived from the lotus-palmette, but are modified
by additions derived from the acanthus and the vine, so that in late examples
there remains nothing of the Mesopotamian sacred tree except its formal
symmetry and its central position between the confronted animals or monsters.
The most curious examples occur in Sassanian and Coptic art, the stem often
presenting the appearance of a candelabrum from which stems with leaves issue
in symmetrical pairs. At the top there are often upturned stems recalling the
upmost leaves of the anthemion, or sometimes there will be a debased representa-
tion of the whole palmette as a crown or finial. The Sassanian examples some-
times terminate in the eagles' wings found on the head-dresses of kings of the
house of Sassan ; and this type occurs on Mshatta.' Through Syria it reached

1 La Syrie cenirale. The American Expedition of 1899-1900 covered part of the same
ground as M. de Vogu6. Its numerous photographs are published in the archaeological
volume of the expedition by Mr. Hovirard Crosby Butler.
2 See Clermont Ganneau, Bev. arch., 1873, 398 ff. ; 1878, 320, &c. ; De Saulcy in Gazette
arch., 1879, PI. XXXV, p. 261 (^Fragments d'artjudaigue).
' Mai-ignan, 135 (references to Annates de la Socieie arch, de la province de Gmstantine, 1870,
PI. Ill) ; Bulletin de V Academic d'Hippone, xviii, PI. 36, p. 72 ; xvii. 16 and 17, PI. IV and PI. VII ;
Annuaire de la Sac. arch, de la province de Constantine, 1870, 61 ; Recueil de la Soc. arch, de Constantine,
1878 ; Bulletin des Antiquaires de France, 1880, p. 270 ; Kohault de Pleury, La Messe, iv, PI. 275,
290, &c.
* E. leblant, Sarcophages Chretiens de la Qaule, PI. 33, 36, 46. For the Eegio Gothica in the
South of France and its sculpture, see Marignan, 148. Marignan's list of pre-Eomanesque
sculptured fragments in France (pp. 163-87) is valuable. Among the motives may be noticed
gryphons, peacocks, whorls, rosettes, &c. A lead coffin at Nimes lias winged lions ; a lead
sarcophagus at Lyons (Museum) from Sidon is covered with a variety of Neo-Greek designs.
The Merovingian sarcophagi in the Musee Oarnavalet at Paris have 'toute la grammaire
n^o-grecque '.
^ e.g. at Nieaea (Wulflf, Koimesiskirche, 200), at Kahri^ Djami, &c.
6 On the development of the sacred tree see Riegl, Siilfragen, 99 ff. ; W. H. Goodyear, The
Orammar of the Lotus, 179 ff.
' Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904, 314.
roo ORNAMENT

Palestine,^ Egypt, and North Africa.^ Sacred trees of purely vegetable type,
without the wings, but still having something of the stiff candelabrum form,
passed from Syria and Egypt to Italy, Merovingian and Carolingian France,^
Visigothic Spain, and Anglo-Saxon England, while they naturally held their
ground in Mohammedan art. One interesting example in our own country
is the design qn the back of the Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford."
Another interesting example occurs on the horn of Ulphus in York Cathedral,
where the ' tree ' has upon it the pine-cones characteristic of Mesopotamian art **
(cf. p. 705).
The Vine.
This is among the most important of all motives, for not only does it pervade
the reliefs, mosaics, frescoes, manuscripts, and minor works of art of the Christian
East, but by transmission from early Byzantine sources exerted a powerful in-
fluence upon the decorative art of Western Europe in Carolingian and Eomanesque

Fig. 446. Mosaics of the twelfth century in the nave of the Church of the Nativity at
Bethlehem, showing fantastic forms of the ' sacred tree ', with wings, vases, &c. (From a
drawing by W. Harvey : Byzantine Research and Publication Fund.)

periods. It will therefore be necessary to follow its history in rather greater

detail.
The vine and its schematized forms do not belong to classical ornament ; they,
lie outside the stock motives employed by the Greek and early Eoman artist.
The plant is represented upon Assyrian sculptures sometimes as appropriate to
the scene, sometimes decoratively." Its popularity as decoration probably
originated in Mesopotamia ; it extended to the Mediterranean by the fourth
century b. c. It was from the provinces of Iran that in the second century b. c.
the Chinese first imported both the vine itself and its use in ornament. This
was the result of the expedition conducted by General Chang Kien in the reign
'Curious combinations of vases, foliage, wings, &c., in the general form of the sacred
tree are found in the nave mosaics of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (twelfth
century) (Fig. 446) ; in those of the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem (De Vogiie, Le. Temple de
Jerusalem, p. 87) of the late seventh and eleventh centuries, and of the Mosque of El-Aksa at
Jerusalem (ibid.). ^ Jahrbuch, S22.
' Cf. Sacramentary of Drogo, Comte de Bastard, Peinhtres des Manuscrits, Pt. V, and
Gospels of Gaigniferes, ibid., Pt. VIII. * Proc. Soc. Ant. of London, xx. 76.
^ Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xlviii, p. 251. The pomegranate or pine-cone as terminal orna-
ment is found on symmetrical vines of the early eleventh century, e.g. on a pluteus of the
Cathedral of Torcello (a.d. 1008),
' Relief from Koyounjik in the British Museum.
 ORIENTAL MOTIVES 701

of the Emperor Wu-ti, of which we have historical record.' Material evidence

is afforded by the appearance of the vine-scroll, sometimes with birds and

Fig. 447. Part of the fa9ade of the Palace of Mshatta : Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin,
showing elaborate vine-scrolls, birds, &c., with large band of zigzag, rosettes, &c. P. 704.

animals in its convolutions, upon the small bronze mirrors of the period.
Chinese documents tell us that the region from which the vine came was the
land of Ta Yuan, which can only have been a province of Iran and is probably
' F. Hirth, Ueberfremde Minfliisse in der chinesischen Kimst, 12 ff.
702 OENAMENT
 703
OEIENTAL MOTIVES

to be identified with Fergana. The same region must also have given the vine
to India. If, therefore, the vine as ornament was not used either east or west

Fio. 449. Ornament on one of the ' Pilastri Acritani ' in the Piazzetta, Venice : Syrian work;
of the sixth century, showing vine and acanthus motives, inclined fret, &o. (Alinari.)

of Hither Asia before a period well within Hellenistic times, while within that
region it certainly occurs at a far earlier date, it may be regarded as an Asiatic
motive, probably of Mesopotamian origin.
The most characteristic and one of the earliest types of vine-scroll is that in
which the convolutions enclose animals and birds. The idea of inserting human
 704 ORNAMENT

and animal figures in iioral scrolls was not new : it occurs in early Greek vases.
But where it thus occurs, the foliage is composed of palmettes, and descends
from the lotus, not the vine.^ Examples of the vine enclosing animals begin to
be numerous from about the fourth century a.d. Some of them are fairly true
to nature in the treatment of leaves and stems; others are more openly con-
ventional, and set out on a geometrical plan. To the fiist class belong the relief
in the Lateran Museum at Eome,^ the two drums of ^liimns in the Ott-oman
Museum mentioned elsewhere (p. 154), a part of a wooden architrave from Egypt
now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin,' the ivory-covered ihjrone at
Eavenna (Fig. 122). To the second class belong the fajade of Mshatta (Fig. 447),
the Pilastri Acritani (Fig. 449 and p. 170), an ivory panel from Egypt at Berlin,*
another ivory panel in the Cairo Museum,^ and two of the curious ivory panels now
set
havein obvious
the sidesaffinities of the pulpit
to thein foregoing.
the choir of the
The Cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle,'''
ivory vases which
in the British Museum
(see p. 214), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Beuth-Schinkel Museum at
Berlin, and the collection of the Comtesse de Bearn at Paris ^ all show various
degrees of conventionalization, and are not very- easy to date. Perhaps the
whole group should be assigned to the Mesopotamian area, for the popularity of
the vine-scroll in early Mohammedan art is probably to be traced to that part
of Mesopotamia which was once under Sassanian rule : we may suppose that the
motive came into both Christian and Arab art from this province of Persia.
The vine was a favourite ornamental motive in the early Third Period,
occurring on the capitals of the Bible House cistern at Constantinople, assigned
to the reign of Basil I,' but it becomes debased in the eleventh century : ' its
later destinies in ornament are not without interest. The ' Byzantine ' floral
scrolls illustrated in the head-piece, Fig. 64, typical of the decoration in vogue
between the tenth and the thirteenth centuries, are really composed of con-
ventional vine-leaves ; " their structure proves this origin, though the fact that
they are constantly parti-coloured is apt to mislead the eye. The small red dots
in the centres are perhaps descendants of the dots placed at the junction of stem
and stalk in .the earlier carved representations of the plant. Conventional vine-
scrolls and leaves based upon Byzantine originals appear in West-European MSS.
from the eleventh century, and are a feature, in the background of Limoges
enamels in the thirteenth.^^ The artists of Islam treated the vine with the
utmost freedom, sometimes adopting the principle of^ contamination, by means
of which the vine-leaf becomes a curious composite, 'palmettized,' and built up
out of old Persian palmette elements such as the heart and the pear-shaped leaf ; "
at others, showing a half-naturalistic vine-leaf issuing from palmette volutes.
\ Riegl, Stilfragen, 205-8. For animals in foliage cf. Figs. 24-5, 122. Early examples occur
at Spalato.
'^ Wiokhoff,
Ungarn, 71. Die Wiener Genesis, Fig. 11 ; Riegl, Die spdtromische Kmistindusiide in Oesterreich-
' Strzygowski, Hellenistische und koptische Kunst, Fig. 56, p. 63 ; 0. Wulff, Berlin Catalogue,
i, No. 263.
* Strzygowski, Hell, und kopt. Kunst, Fig. 51, p. 6i ; Wulff, Berlin Catalogue, No. 619.. The
bone carvings with vine designs so common among Coptic antiquities are offshoots of the
same group.
^ Strzygowski, as above, Figs. 52 and 53, p. 65, and Koptische Kunst, No. 7116.
' Hell, und kopt. Kunst, 50.
' Brit. Mus., Catalogue of Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era, No. 15 and refei-ences there given.
' .T. Strzygowski, B. D., ii. 100, 228.
' In Italy (Cattaneo, Architettura, &c., 76, 154) ; on sarcophagus of Yaroslav at Kieff
(Ainaloff and Biedin, Anc. Man. ofK., 52).
1° Prussian Jahrbuch, as above, 333 (illustration from the Codex Vaticanus Urb. 2, painted
in A.D. 1128, under John Comnenus). Designs of the same character were repeated in repoussfi
metal-work, e.g. on the triptych from Chakhuli, now at Gelat (Kondakoff, Enamels, German
ed., 133-4).
" Cf. J. Marquet de Vasselot in A. Michel's Histoire de I'art, ii. 952
'^ e.g. the Fatimid frieze at Cairo, reproduced in the same place. Fig. 101, p. 332. Cf. also
the inscribed rosettes on the fapade of the Mosque of Muayyad (el-Ahmar), also at Cairo, figured
by Van Berchem, Corpus, &c., PI. XXI, No. 2, p. 71 ; the sculptured slabs at Torcello, a.d. 1008.
 ORIENTAL MOTIVES
705
The vine and not the acanthus forms the staple of the ' arabesque ' : the story
of Mohammedan floral ornament is, as Strzygowski has shown, the story of the
palmettizing of the vine.

Fie. 450. Sculptured ornament of the eleventh century on the ambo in the Cathedral of
Torcello : mouldings, late ' sacred-tree ' design with cone at top. (Alinari. )

The Pine-cone.
The pine-cone (cf. p. 700), derived from ancient Assyrian art, is used in
building up the centres of the great rosettes in high relief on the Mshatta fajade."
1 Prussian Jahrbuch, 1904, 295, Fig. 75.
1204 Z Z
706 OENAMENT

It is not an important feature in later art, though there are examples of deriva-
tive forms, e. g. in the mosaics of Sta Sophia,' and it is used as a top or finial to
' sacred-tree ' types of the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Fig. 450). It was
most popular cast in bronze in the round, when it served upon fountains as
the base from which the central jet of water issued. The bronze cone in the
Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle is an example of this.^
Natuealistio Forms.

The naturalistic or only half-conventionalized flower is to be found in

Byzantine ornament of various periods, but is especially prominent in the
Syrian MSS. of the sixth century (p. 448). In the Fourth Period appear new
and interesting forms, such as the bell-shaped flowers of Kahrie Djami' and
the blossoms arranged in a vase of Mistra.*
Ornaonent of Animals and Monsters.
' Heraldic ' and confronted animals, or animals in procession, are an inheri-
tance of Mesopotamian art which passed into the Byzantine culture-area, first in
the Sassanian period, and by a second wave in the time of Mohammedan
dominion from about the tenth century.^ Examples of the First and Second
Periods are common both on sculptured slabs and in textiles (pp. 165 fi^., 593).
Examples of the Third are especially frequent in Mesopotamia, the old home
of this style, in Greece, and in the Balkan area," the beasts being often
disposed within interconnected circles. Such beasts, as well as monsters
with human heads, occur equally in Armenian MSS.
Thanks to the occurrence of a very early Cufic inscription on the Kharput gate
of Amida (a. d. 909-10),' Strzygowski's derivation of this animal ornament from
Mesopotamia is confirmed. This may be compared with one on a slab from the
Acropolis Church in the National Museum at Athens, in which confronted lions are
contained within a border of Cufic letters ' combined with split palmettos of early
Islamic style ; and with the Cufic ornament on the sarcophagus of ' Eomanus II '
(a.d. 959-63) in the lower church of St. Luke of Stiris. Beasts, birds, and
monsters are all treated in this symmetrical fashion, and it would be tedious to
enumerate examples. We may, however, in passing, note that the gryphon,
which was always popular, was a creation of ancient Mesopotamian fancy, and
in early Greek art had more than one variety. After the Christian era such
eccentric types as the lion-gryphon " dropped out ; and both in Persia and among
the later Greeks the variety with the eagle's head is universal (Fig. 452). As it is
common upon silk stuffs of Persian origin or aifinity, it may have owed some
of its renewed popularity to the influence of textiles. This winged monster
penetrated into barbaric Europe, the principal entrance being perhaps through
Cherson in the south of Eussia.'"

^ Salzenberg, AUchristliche Baudenkmdler, xxiii, PI. XXIV.

^ Strzygowski, Der Dom eu Aachen und seine Entstellung,
= Th. Schmidt, PI. XXIV.
'' G. Millet, Mon. hyz. de Mistra, PI. LX. This design has an almost Indian appearance.
' The earliest Mohammedan ornament, as e.g. that on the Mosque of Tulun, is devoid of
animal motives.
' Well-known examples are on the fa9ade of the Metropolitan Church at Athens, Mount
Athos (Lavra),and the Church of Skripu ; there are Hither- Asiatic examples from Miafarkin
near Diarbekr (Strzygowski, Amida, 366), Konia (Prussian Jahrbuch, xxvi. 79), Myra (Rett,
Kleinasiatische Denkmdler, 341), &c.
' Amida, 870. 8 ibid._ 371.
' On this type of gryphon see The Treasure of the Oxus, British Museum, 1905, 87. The
gryphon occurs on more than one iconostasis, e.g. in St. Luke of Stiris in Phoeis (Schultz and
Barnsley, PI. XXII). Here he has the nimbus (Archaeologia, LV, PI. XXXIV).
"• Hampel has collected much evidence for the influence of the East upon early Hun-
garian industrial art. See New Researches upon Monuments of the Time of the Hungarian Conquest.
Budapest Acad, of Sciences, 1907 (Magyar), and the review in B. Z., xvii. 650.
 NATURALISTIC EOEMS 707
The eagle also deserves special mention. It is a common feature in the
ornamental sculpture of the sixth century,' and was perpetuated both in Greece
and in Italy,'' becoming a very favourite feature in Italian Eomanesque churches :
in later times (eleventh to fourteenth century) it is also common, being fre-
quent in Macedonia and (Old) Servia.^ The two-headed variety does not seem
to have been adopted in the Byzantine Empire before the tenth century:*
it occurs especially in connexion with the Emperor Theodore Lascaris, and is
found both on textiles and on coins. It was common in Trebizond, and is seen
carved in relief at Mistra (Millet, Mon. hyg. de Mistra, PI. XLVII). It appears to
have been originally the symbol of the Babylonian town of Lagash, and was
later adopted by the Hittites, being found upon ' Hittite ' monuments of Cappa-

FiG. 451. End of tbo ivory casket in Troyes Cathedral. (From an electrotype.) P. 708.

docia.' It may have become Byzantine through the fact that Theodore Lascaris
was despot of Nicomedia, in which province Bogaz Keui and other Hittite cities
were situated. It appears in Saracenic art,'' and passed into Eussia. Perhaps
the crusaders brought it into Central Europe, for the German double-headed

' Ambo of Salonika (p. 147) ; numerous capitals of columns (cf. Fig. 20) ; stone ' doors '
at Constantinople (Prussian Jahrbuch, xiv, 1893, 76, Fig. 4).
' Between crosses on carved slabs at St. Luke of Stiris (Schultz and Barnsley, PI. XIII,
Fig. B) ; door of S. Ambrogio, Milan (ninth century) (Cattaneo, Architettura in Italia, &c..
Fig. 117, p. 196). For South Italian examples see E. Bertaux, L'Art dans I'ltalie mmdionaU.
'e.g. sculptured slabs at Sta Sophia, Oehrida (Miliukoff, Izviestiya, Kuss. Arch. Inst. Cple. ,
iv, 1899, PI. XXVI).
* S. P. Lambros in Proceedings of the Cairo Archaeological Congress, pub. 1910 ; Lethaby and
Swainson, Church, of Sancta Sophia, 68. The two-headed eagle also occurs on a carved stone
fragment at Daphni (Millet, Daphni, 69), &c.
^ Perrot and Chipiez, ffisioire de Vart, &c., Sardinia, Judaea, &c., ii. Fig. 343, p. 176, and
PI. VIII. It lias often been remarked that the custom of supporting columns on the backs of
animals (lions) is also found among the Hittites.
° Seljuk sculpture at Konia, &c. (Max van Berchem, Amida, 99), and on the incense-
burner of the Emir Baisari (fourteenth century) in the British Museum.
Z z 2
708 ORNAMENT

eagle does not appear before 1345.^ But it occurs in illuminated MSS. of
earlier date.^
The birds represented in early Coptic art with medallions round their necks
(Fig. 86) are in some cases eagles. An example painted on the wall of one of the
at Bawit has the word dcro's painted immediately above it.'
A bird onchapels
funerary one end of the ivory casket at Troyes bears a resemblance to the
Chinese phoenix (Fig. dSl).
In the Early Christian centuries, as is well known, many animals, confronted

Fig. 452. Marble relief with gryphons, of the eleventh century : S. Marco, Venice.
(Alinari.)

or disposed singly, had a symbolic meaning in ornament (harts, peacocks,,

doves, &c.). In some cases this meaning survived late, but as a rule after
the First Period the animal becomes simply decorative, and has no more
mystical significance than the majority of the beasts and birds which ornament
such early Syrian MSS. as the Gospel of Eabula'' (p. 448). The symbolic
beasts of the Physiologus (p. 482) were not so popular with the Eastern
designer as they were in the West. We do not find, for example, the pelican
in her piety or the unicorn with the same frequency. The stylization of animal
forms, and their confusion with floral designs, as in Eomanesque times, is not
common in Byzantine art ; as a rule each retains its individuality. Whether
East-Christian illuminators originated the fashion of forming initial letters
from combinations of fish, birds, and human limbs we cannot say with certainty.
The curious fact that such capitals occur both in early Lombard and Merovin-
' F. Sarre in Prussian Jahrhuch, xxv, 1904, 64 ff.
' e.g. the Bible of St. Martial in the Bihliothfeque Nationale, Paris; Conite de Bastard,
Peintures des manuscriis, &c.. Part IX, British Museum copy.
' J. CMdat, Mem. de VInsi.franf. d'arch. orientate du Caire, PI. XCIII.
* The same remark applies perhaps to most of the animals represented even within the
First Period. Apart from the MSS. mentioned, we may note such examples as the beasts ot
the mosaic pavements, silver-work (Fig. 444), &c.
 NATURALISTIC FORMS
709
gian MSS. , and in Coptic and Armenian, Bulgarian and Russian MSS. of the
eleventh century and later, seems to point to a common model originating in
some central region before the eighth century.^ They may belong to an early
Graeco-oriental art and have been probably disseminated by Syrian maritime
trade. Their persistence at so late a period as the eleventh century may

Fig. 453. Inscription and ornament in mosaic, of the eighth-ninth century : Church of
St. Irene, Constantinople, showing leaves in band of zigzag. (Byzantine Research and Pub-
lication Fund.)

possibly be explained by the fact that they belong to a popular art unaffected
by newer styles. M. Bordier has suggested that beast-capitals were the earliest
illuminated initials of the Christian East,'' For animals, cf. also Figs. 104, 151,
162, 266, 275, 384, 456.

Geometrical Ornament.
The varieties of this ornament are too numerous to be severally discussed,
but the following may be noted. The network of interconnected circles found
in early mosaics, carved transennae, &c., is a motive conceived in the oriental
spirit, the circles being frequentl}' filled by animal or floral motives. This method
of covering an extended surface was already very common by the sixth century,
1 N. Kondakoff, Zoomorphic Initials in Greek and GlagoUtic MSS. of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries
in the Library of the Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai (Russian) ; the same, Macedonia, 1909, 57 ff. ;
S. D., i. 92 ff.
^ Description des ornements des mss. grecs de la BiUiothique Rationale, 24.
710 OENAMENT

and is found in carved reliefs,^ mosaics,^ and textiles.' It may have originated with
the textile art, as also may the similar device of covering the field with a diaper
of lozenges, each lozenge also filled with an animal, plant, or human figure.
The motive exists both in textiles and in frescoes, doubtless inspired by woven
fabrics.*
The band of lozenges, which may be resolved into two bands of zigzag, though
of early introduction (Figs. 32, 454), is more frequent in the two later periods;

Fio. 45i. Carved impost capital of the sixth century : Cathedral of Parenzo, showing
acanthus within double zigzag. (Alinari.)

each lozenge sometimes enclosing a leaf or flower, as at Mistra." The single zigzag,
which forms so striking a feature in the frieze of Mshatta (Fig. 447), is used in
the middle Byzantine period to form borders (cf. Fig. 453), frequently sur-
^ Especially on transennae or closure slabs.
^ Pavements both of the First Period (e. g. that in the Louvre from Tyre) and of the
Third and Fourth Periods (St. Luke (Fig. 251), S. Marco, Mistra, &c.).
' Especially figured silks of Persian affinities (Ch. X).
' Prussian Jahrbuch, xxiv, 1903, 173 ff. Frescoes in one of the smaller chambers at
Kuseir 'Amra (Fig. 170) ; frescoes, funerary chapels at Bawit (J. Cledat in Mem. de I'Inst.
fran^ais d'arch. orimtale, xii, 1904, PI. XXII, XXIII, XXIV). A lozenge-diaper on a smaller
scale, the lozenges being merely filled witli dots, is frequent In the frescoes of Cappadoeian
churches, dating from the Third Period (H. Bott, Kleinasiatische SenkmcUer).
' A lozenge band enclosing rosettes, on a wooden seat of the third century found by Dr.
Stein in Turkestan and now in the British Museum, is almost identical with that seen in
Fig. 32. The resemblance may be perhaps explained as the result of Hither-Asiatic influence
working in two directions.
 GEOMETRICAL OENAMENT
711
rounding medallions, &c., on carved ivories. It also occurs in brick on the
exterior of churches in Greece.^
At an earlier date we find it similarly employed, as in the frescoes of Kuseir
"Amra, and on the shafts of columns in Egypt, as in those of the portal of the
south church at Bawit.^ In painting and mosaic it will often run through or
divide a band of floral ornament or of chequers (Kahrie Djami).
Large single lozenges are often used as the central feature of a carved
closure slab or ambo panel both in the Tirst and later periods (Fig. 443),
but especially between the ninth and twelfth centuries.' On such slabs
a large figure, lozenge, circle, &c., may be combined with smaller figures, or
else contain them.

Fig. 455.
Carved mai-ble slabs of the eleventh century on the fountain in the Monastery of
Lavra, Mount Athos. {Hautes Etudes : d. Millet.)

Interlacings, double or multiple, are so continuous a feature that they can

only receive a general notice. The double interlaced band began early and
lasted late. Of ancient Mesopotamian origin, it was common in the First Period,
but equally found in the Third (brick ornament on the exterior of Greek
churches, &c.),* and after. Interlacings of many varieties, including the loose-
knot type, are found in the frescoes of Bawlt.'' Combined with foliate ornament,
they remained a feature of Armenian art through the Middle Ages until
modern times. The interlaced band is equally persistent in Syrian, Mesopo-
tamian, and .Jewish ornament." Cf. Figs. 18, 68, 91, 97, 176, 348.
' G. Lampakis, Mem. sur les antiquiUs chreliennes de la Grece, Athens, 1 902, 44, &c.
'^ J. Clgdat in Cabrol's
the ornamentation Diet,in d'arch.
of columns clireiienne, s.v.
the Komanesque Baon'it, 215-16. This treatment recalls
period.
' Schultz and Barnsley, Mon. of St. Luke of Stiris, PI. XXII and XXV ; Archaeologia, 1897,
PI. XXXIV ; Wulff, Bii Koimesiskirche, 164 ff.
^ G. Lampakis, Memoires sur les antiquites chretiennes de la Grece, pp, 44 ff.
° CWdat in Mem. de I'Insiitut franf. d'arch. orientate, xii, Cairo, 1904, PI. XI, LIX-LXI,
LXXVIff.
^ A. Baumstark, E. Q., 1906, 178, 180. For interlacings in Europe in the early centuries
of the Middle Ages see J. Romilly Allen, Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times, ch. viii.
712 OENAMENT

Decorative Script.
Though Greek inscriptions were often placed in prominent places in
association with ornament, the actual letters were regarded as more than decora-
tion. But it was different with Arabic characters when they became known.
Byzantine artists seem to have been impressed, like the Italians at a later
date, with the decorative qualities of the Cufic script,' and used it for bands
of ornament on the exterior of their churches.^ In Italy such designs are
familiar to us on the borders of robes in the paintings of the earlier Renaissance ;
but they had been used from the twelfth century in mosaic pavements and
in the south of the peninsula.^ Floriated Cufic appears to have come in
towards the end of the first millennium, possibly introduced by Moslem artists
who followed the Bulgarian armies into Greece. It is noteworthy that the

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Fie. 456. Sarcophagus of Archbishop Theodore in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.

(Ricci.)

decorative use of Cufic script only occurs on Byzantine monuments in Greece,

and is apparently not represented in Constantinople.*
The Cross and Stvastilca.
The cross, though used from the fourth century, was not common in
ornament before the sixth century. Previous to this its place was taken by
the various forms of the sacred monogram or Chi-Ro (Fig. 456), which in the
Eastern Empire did not disappear so early as in the "West, but survived on
coins of Phocas and of Heraclius, and in sculpture, to a late period.'^ (Cf p. 681.)
1 For decorative Cufic ornament see A. de Longp^rier, (Emres, ed. Schlumberger, i. 381 ff. ;
Van Berchem and Strzygowski, Amida, 20 ff., 370ff.
2 e.g. St. Luke of Stiris in Phocis (Schultz and Barnsley, Monastei-y
Daphni (G. Millet, Le mon. de Saphni, p. 66, Fig. 36 ; Prussian Jahrbtich, 1904, ofFig.
St. Luke, PI. XI);
104. See also
Q. Lampakis, Memoire sur les antiqtiUes chretiennes de la Grice, pp. 27, 42).
s e. g. pavements of St. Nicholas at Bari (a. d. 1105-23) and Sta Maria del Patir near
Rossano (E.Bertaux, L'Art dans I'ltalie meridionale). For the employment of oriental characters
as decoration in Western churches see de Longperier, Rev. arch., 1846, Pt. II, p. 700.
* Strzygowski, Amida.
^ Flanked by A and tO in carved ornament of the Metropolitan Church at Mistra (Millet,
Mm. lyz. de Mistra, PI. XLVI). The complex form without the loop occurs in the fourteenth-
century mosaics of Kahri6 Djami (Pulgher, Ancienms eglises, &c., PI. XXX).
 GEOMETEICAL ORNAMENT 713

The cross issuing from a pair of acanthus-leaves does not appear to

begin before the seventh century, after which it was continually employed
<rigs. 343, 445), and was of very wide distribution.'
The floriated cross with equal arms, especially enclosed within a circle,
is common in the Third Period. The cross rising from a globe appears on
■coins, and on marble reliefs of the First Period ^ (see also p. 681).
The swastika as ornament is found independently, as in the mosaics of
Sta Sophia, Constantinople; it is also formed by the intersection of lines at
right angles in continuous fret-like designs, as on fifth-century columns at
Amida,' a transenna in S. Vitale (Fig. 442), &c.
I B. Z., iii, 1894, 12 ; B. D., i. 121. It is frequent in the interesting mediaeval sculpture
of Armenia.
^ e.g. in the gallery of Sta Sophia (Lethaby and Swainson, Fig. 61).
^ Strzygowski, Amida, 1910.
 INDEX I. GENERAL

Abyssinia, 74 ; Negus of, 281. in, 496 ; zoomorphie capitals Batik, 604.
Accents, use of in inscriptions, of,
711.709 ; interlaced ornament, Battle, naval. Fig. 288.
389. Bawit, sculptures from, 158 ;
Acre, pilasters from, 170. Armour and arms, 684, Figs. capitals at, 176 ; frescoes at,
Acrobats, 224, 301. 10, 11, 74, 76, 93, 113, 136, 257, 283-5; ornament, 687.
Adaloald, cross of, 548-9. 144-5. 695, 710.
Africa, N.W., 75 ; mosaics in, Arta, mosaics at, 420. Beasts, apocalyptic, 680.
424, 425. Artists, names of, 263. See also Belgium, enamels in, 520. See
Agathias, 255, 260. Basilius, Ephraim, Staura- afao Index of Museums, Libra-
Ajatzam, relief from, 153. kios.
ries, Treasuries, and Collec-
Akathistic hymn, 481. Artophorion, 554. tions, under Brussels, &c.
Akhmim, 580. Ashburnham Pentateuch, 488. Benediction, gestures of, 644.
Albano, catacombs, frescoes Assuan, mural paintings at, Berlin. See Index of Museums,
in, 804. 288. Libraries, &e.
Albenga, mosaics at, 372. Asterius, Bishop, 153, 260, Bernay, silver treasure of, 216.
Alexandria, influence of, 14, 317, 578. Bethlehem, Church of the
70, 120, 183, 440, 448, 459, Asturius, Consul, diptych of, Nativity, capitals in, 172,
402, 464, 646 ; sculpture of, 197. Fig. 169; mosaics of, 182,
133, 147, 195; catacombs, Athena, statue of, 121. 384, 414-15 ; paintings on
frescoes of, 282-3. Athens, carved slabs at, 166-7, columns, 277 ; Persian orna-
Alfred Jewel, 700. 1 70 ; mural paintings at, 292, ment in, 700, Fig. 446.
Amalasuntha, 213. Figs. 177 ff. ; exagia at, 621 ; Bewcastle, cross of, 236, 672.
Amalfi, doors at, 618. animal ornament, 706. Biagio, S., crypt of, 263.
Ambrogio, S., doors of, see Bibles, illuminated, 464.
Milan. Athos, Mount, 39 ; ' Painter's Boethius, Consul, diptych of,
Manual ' of, 250, 649; mural
Amida, 64, 687, 706. paintings, 302-3 ; modern 197, 322, Fig. 8.
Ampullae, earthenware, 606 ; wall-painting at, 257 ; mo- Bonannus, 220.
metal, 623-4. saics, 415-16. See also Lavrn, Book-covers, ivory, 188, 202,
Amulets, 506, 640. Vatopedi, Xenophon; and In- 207, Figa.124, 125 ; enamelled,
518 ff.
Anatolia, 46-50, 121, 480; dex of Museums, Libraries,
&c., s.v. Mount Athos. 216.
Boscoreale, silver treasure of,
sculpture from, 128-30 ; mu-
ralpaintings, 267 ff. ; mosaic Austria-Hungary, mosaics in,
pavements, 425 ; illuminated 372 ; enamels in, 525. See Bows, 684, Figs. 145, 288.
MSS., 456. also Index of Museums, Libra- Bracelets, 539, Figs. 325, 326.
Bricks, 608.
Anglo-Saxon seulptui-e, 104-5, ries, Treasuries, and Collec-
236 ; MSS., 491. tions, under Vienna, Buda- British Isles, 97 ff., 236, 491 ;
Anicia, Juliana, 460. pest, Gran, &c. importation of textiles into,
588.
Animals, symbolic, 708. Authors, portraits of, 441-2,
Antinoe, comb from, 211 ; 455, 461, 476. Buddha, type of, 672.
wall-paintings, 289 ; portrait, Buddhist art, 60, 130, 482 ;
317 ; textiles, 593. Bajazet, emerald of, 640. legend, 664.
Antioch, 50-3, 183. Balkan Peninsula, 38. Bulgaria, 40, 712 ; relief in,
Apocryphal Gospels, subjects 163 ; MSS,
Barbaric art of Europe, 23-7. Bullae, 631. of, 492.
from, 156, 190, 208, 268, 271, Barbatianus, sarcophagus of,
801, 420, 479, 648, 654, 662, 140. Byzantine art. Periods of, 4-5 ;
670. Barberini diptych, 199, 211. features of, 28-37, 248 ff.,
Apulia, 82. Barberini library, see Index of 438 ff.
Arabesques, 704-5. Museums, Libraries, Trea-
Arcadius, column of, 144. suries, and Collections. Cairo, doors
Architecture, representations Bari, sculpture at, 162. 149, 156, 163,ofFig.
Al 95;
Mu'allaka,
mosque
of, 244. Barlaam and Joasaph, 664. ofTulun, stucco in, 151. See
Areobindus, diptyohs of, 195, Barletta, colossal statue at, also Index of Museums, &c.
197. 125. Calabria, 82 ; mural paintings
Ariadne, Empress, 213. Basilian monks, art of, 309 ff. in, 309ff.
Aries, sarcophagi at, 135. Basilius, Consul, diptych of, Cameo gems, 638.
Armenia, 56-9, 450 ; painters 197 ; painter or mosaicist, Capitals, 171 ff., Figs. 15, 18-
from, 276, 287 ; enamelling 415 ; illuminator, 472.
20, 100-5.
716 INDEX I. GENEEAL
Cappadocia, rock-cut churches Constantinople (continiKd) : Desidei'ius, Abbot, 315.
of, 257, 268 ff. 162, Fig. 94 ; mosaics, 416- Diarbekr, see Aniida.
Capua, mosaics at, 370, 406. 20, Pigs. 201, 244-6. Dionysius of Furna, 250, 649.
Caricature, 261. Kainourgion, 261 ; mosaics Dioscorides, MSS. of, 460, 461.
Carthage, sculpture at, 143. of, 393, 429.
Casaranello, mosaics at, 372. Kalender Djami, sculpture Diptychs, ivory, 185;. 'com-
posite,' 197; consular, 196 ff.,
Caskets, ivory, 184-5, 215 ff. in, 148, 162; capitals in, Figs. 7, 8, 118-20 ; of private
Cassiodorus, 442. 174.
persons, 193.
Castello di Brivio, silver box Kilisse-Djami, carved slabs Doors, bronze, 616 ff. ; at
from, 564. at, 170. Amalfi, 618 ; &t Atrani, 619 ;
Catacombs, paintings in, 303- Palace, the Great, 533. at Canosa, 620 ; at Constan-
4 ; mosaics in, 331-2. Pantokrator, Church of, tinople, 618, Fig. 391 ; at
Cefalu, mosaics of, 410. pavement in, 427. Dome of the Eock, 616 ; at
Censers, 284, 621, Pigs. 351-2, S. Irene, mosaics, 387-8, Monreale, 220 ; at Monte
393. 647, Figs. 227, 453. Cassino, 618 ; at Monte Gar-
Ceramics, ch. xi. S. John of the Studium gano, 618 ; at Novgorod, 620 ;
Chair, episcopal, 185, 190 ; of (Mir-Achor-Djami), capi- at Pisa, 220 ; at Rome, 618 ;
St. Peter, 223. tals in, 173, 174. at Salerno, 619 ; at Troja,
Chalcis, i-elief from, 159. S. Sergius (Kutchuk Aya 620 ; at Venice, 619.
Chalices, 514, 552, 562, 567, Sophia), capitals in, 174, Drill, use of, 129, 172.
Figs. 49, 50-2, 340, 346, 350. Pigs. 4, 177. DucciodiBuoninsegna, Byzan-
Chalke, the, frescoes in, 261. Sta Sophia, marble doors in, tine influence on, 246, 266,
Charlemagne, textiles from 147 ; carved slabs in, 167, 322, 645, 653, 658.
tomb 169 ; capitals, 177, Figs. 2
600. of, 594-5 ; ' dalmatic of,' and 3 ; mosaics, 391-2 ; Eagle, two-headed, 707.
China, 23, 32, 60-3, 116; goldsmith's work, 537 ; Ear-rings, 539, Pigs. 327-8.
enamelling in, 495 ; silk tex- bronze doors, 618, Fig. 435. East, the, 59 ff.
tiles of, 584, 585-6 ; imitates Theodosius, obelisk of sculp- Eclogues, verses from the, 567.
Sassanian textiles, 591, 592 ; ture, 144, Fig. 83 ; column Edessa, 65, 442 ; Vera icon of,
early glazed ware of, 608 ; 678.
of, 144, 175.
imports vine, 700, 701. Walls, relief from, 156. Egypt, 70 ff., 89, 183, 190, 209,
Chios, mosaics in, 396. Coptic art, 72-4 ; sculpture, 212, 826, 440, 459, 539, 648,
Chlamys, 578, 684, Figs. 7, 151-2 ; textiles, 580-3, 604 ; 662, 678 ; sarcophagi from,
117, 118. ceramics, 606 ff., 609, 610. 181 ff. ; capitals from, 171 ;
Chorieius of Gaza, 260. Cortona, reliquary of, 227.
Chrysologus, Bishop, 360. mural paintings, 282 fl'. ;
Cosmas Indicopleustes, topo- jewellery from, 539, 544 ; tex-
Ciborium, see Artophorion. graphy of, 462 ff., Figs. 268, tiles from, 578 ; pottery, 606 ;
269.
Cividale, stucco reliefs at, 151.
glass, 612.the, 125, 255.
'Excppaffis,
Clay sealings of wine-jars, 608. Costume, 683-4 ; consular,
Climax, John, MSS. of, 480. 578, Figs. 8, 119, 120; eccle- El-Aksa, see Jerusalem.
siastical. Figs. 14, 140, 193, Sl-Azam, 590.
Closure-slabs, 165 ff., Figs.
96-9. 287, 291, 345 : imperial, 684, El-Bagawat, see El-Khargeh.
Codex, the, 441. 589, 540, 578, 596, 675-6, Figs. El-Hadra, church at, stucco
Coins, 625 ff. 5, 139, 213, 262, 290, 356 ; of reliefs in, 151 ; frescoes, 286.
Colobium, 449, 506, 515, 529, apostles, 643, Fig. 117. El-Khargeh, mural paintings
557, 660. Cremona, mosaic at, 161. at, 286.
Colonna, Villa, sarcophagus at, Crete, 44 ; Bvzantine artists Embroidery,
129. Emesa, silver 598
vaseft". from, 565.
in, 264. Enamel, ch. viii.
Column, of Constantino, 123 ; Crossbow, Fig. 288.
of Theodosius, 123 ; of Mar- Crosses, pectoral, 544-5, Figs. Encaustic painting, 256, 316-
cian, 144; of Arcadius, 144. 330, 331 ; reliquary, 623 ; 17.
Constantia, sarcophagus of, votive, 548-9. Ephraim, painter, 263 ; mo-
saicist, 415.
132. Crowns, votive, 537.
Constantine, arch of, sculpture Crusaders, spoils of, 538. Episcopal chair, at Ravenna,
on, 142; column of, 123; Cufic inscriptions, 218, 615. 201, 203, Figs. 122, 123;
portraits of, 199 ; bowl with Cyclades, 44. formerly at Grade, 205.
name of, 609. Epitaphioi, 602.
Cyprus, 44 ; mosaics in, 384- Eshmunein, wood carving
Constantinople and East- 7 ; jewellery from, 541-2 ; from, 149.
Christian art, 9, 21, 183. silver treasure from, 541-2,
Constantinople : 572 ff. Esneh, mural paintings at, 288.
Apostles, Church of the, lost Esquiline Hill, treasure from.
mosaics of, 392-3. Dagmar, cross of, 527. 563.
Chalk(5th, 261. Dalmatia,
542. 80 ; treasui-e from, Etchmiadzin, ivory book-
Cisterns, columns of, 177, covers
450. at, 208 ; Gospels of,
704. Damascening, 616.
Fetiye-Djami, mosaics, 420. Daniel, Marmorarius, 141. Eugenikos, 255.
Golden Gate, pilasters of, Daphni, cai-ved slabs at, 167, Eusebian Canons, 474, 476.
176; wall-paintings on , 289. 169 ; mosaics, 396-8. Exagia, 621.
Kahrie Djami, marble doors, Dashlug, lunette at, 211. Exultet roll, 486.
148-9 ; mural paintings, Delphi, carved slabsfrom, 167, Exuperantius,
140. sarcophagus of,
289 ; sculptured reliefs. 168 ; capitals from, 175, 177.
 INDEX I. GENERAL 717
Fathers, MSS. of the, 476-7. Hagiology, 677. textiles in, 588 ; bronze doors
Filigree, 552. Halberstadt, ivory diptych, in, 618 ; oriental oi-nament
Filocalus, calendar of, 484, 161. 197 ; sculpture at, 238 ; re- in, 699.
Finger rings, 540, 544-6, Figs. liquary at, 558 ; paten at, Ivory carvings, ch. iv ; in-
321-4, 329. 553-4. fluence of, 118, 179 ff., 236-
Fish capitals, 708-9. ' Hall-marks,' 567, 568-9, Figs. 7 ; colouring and gilding
231.
Flabella, see Rhipidia. 353-5, 361. of, 189, 209; Mohammedan,
Florence, see Index of Mu- Hamidich, relief at, 160.
&e. seums, Libraries, Treasuries, Hangings, 577-8, 582, 584, 588,
604. Japan, oil painting in, 258 ;
Florence, baptistery, mosaics Treasure of Horiuji Temple,
Harbaville, triptych of, 227-8. 591.
of, 412. Hauran, cities of the, 52-3.
Fostat, mounds of, 609, 610. Helena, sarcophagus of, 181. Jasz-Beri5ny, horn of, 223.
France, 85-91 ; sarcophagi in, Hellenistic art, influence of, Jerusalem, mural paintings at,
134-5 ; enamels in, 519, 28-7, 48, 68, 98, 138-4, 136, 276; mural mosaics at (Dome
520. See also Index of Mu- 181, 191, 244-5, 279, 437, 448, of the Eock and El-Aksa), 412,
seums, Libraries, Treasuries, 461, 465-6. 474, 583, 598, 643. 414, 415, 700 ; pavement mo-
&c., under Paris, &c. Helmets, 684, Figs. 59, 271. saics, 422; MSS., 467, 478;
Frankish art, influenced by- Henchir Zirada, silver box enamelling in (?), 510.
Christian East, 238-4, 239, from, 563-4. Jewellery, ch. ix.
450, 484, 487, 578, 654, 687, Heraclius, capital with name Job, Book of, 474, Fig. 282.
699, Figs. 146, 148, 697. Joshua rotulus, or roll, 218,
of, 172.
Franks, import textiles, 589. Herakles, reliefs with labours 447, Figs. 265, 271.
Franks casket, the, 697. of, 217, 222. Justin II, cross of, 548, Figs.
Fresco, ch. v. Herakles, statue of, 122. 836-7.
Fresco, method of, 257. Hildesheim, sculpture at, 238 ; Justinian I, statue of, 124 ;
Funerary tunics, 577-8, 582, palmette at, 691. portraits of, 199, Fig. 5.
Fig. 365. Hippodrome, scenes from, 144,
Furca, the, 149, 448. 223, 301-2, 468, 489, Figs. 82, Kabr Hiram, mosaic of, 421.
112, 293. Kahrie Djami, 19, 254. See
Galla Placidia, 344, 367. tine. Land, the, see Pales- also under Constantinople.
Holy
Gandhara, sculpture of, 49, Kairos, see Iconographical In-
60, 115, 130, 672. Bom, see Ornament,saered tree. dex, Personifications.
Gems, engraved, 687 ff. Honorius, sarcophagus of, 141. Kairuan, capitals at, 171.
Gems, setting of, 534-5, 547, Horns, ivory, 214. Kaisariani, 167 ; mural paint-
552, Figs. 316, 337 ; sewn on Horses, bronze, 125.
garments, 578. Hunting scenes, 261, 282, 285, Khotan,ings, 293.
586.
Genesis, the Cotton, 447 ; the 286, 328, 412, 483, 512, 590 ff., Kieff, 45, 46.
Vienna, 444 ff. Figs. 145, 289. Kieff:
Genre-scenes, 155, 281, 282, Cathedral, frescoes in, 161,
285, 328, 369, 646. leonoclasm. 13.214. ft^l, .^8« . 300-2 ; tomb of Yaro-
482, slaff, 167 ; carved slab at,
George, Mr. W. S., quoted. 634. 647 ; seals made during,
289, 387. 168 ; mosaics in, 394-6.
Georgia, enamels in, 530 ; Church of St. Michael,
Iconoclasts, Fif>. 291. mosaics in, 396.
glass in, 615. Iconography, ch. xii. See also
Germany, 91-7 ; Byzantine in- Iconographical Index. Kiti, mosaics at, 182, 385.
Iconostasis, 165, 202.
fluence in, 490, 505. See also Kokonaya,
167. dated lintel at,
Index of Museums, Libraries, Iliad, MS. of, at Milan, 459.
'&c.
Treasuries, &c., under Berlin. Kolt (ear-rings), 531.
' Illusionism,' 247.
Impost block, 372, 174; capi- Kuseir 'Amra, 69, 257, 260,
Gilded glass, 613-14. 278 ff., 646.
Gilding, application of, 258. India,tal, 175-6.
63 ; early sculptured Kyrenia, treasure from, 541-2,
Glass, 612 ff. ; enamelled cup reliefs of, 147 (see also Gand-
at Venice, 218, 614 ; money hara); indigenous ornament
weights, 614 ; in windows, Laharum, 682, 149, 477, 596,
of, 688.
616 ; cameos, 616 ; glazed Indians, 199. 676, Fig. 482.
wares, 608 ff. Indrioraeni, Marco, painter, 572 ft'.
Lamp-stands, 567.
Globe, the, 672. 263, 399. Lamps, 607, 615, 622.
Goldsmith's work, eh. ix. Initials, zoomorphic, 708-9. Lampsacus, treasure from, 567.
Gospels, MSS. of, 474 ff. Intaglio gems, 687 ff. Landscape, 32, 244, 246, 322,
Grammaire orieniale, 698. Ireland, 97 ff. 381, 479, Fig. 286; Chinese,
Greece, 420; mural paintings Isaac, Exarch, sarcophagus of 246.
in, 221 ff.; mosaics in, 893, the, 188. Lavra, monastery of, carved
396 ; silk weaving in, 586-7. Isis and Horus, 643, 673. slabs at, 166, 169, 170, 706 ;
Gregory the Great, diptych Italy, 76-85 ; Byzantine in- capital at. Fig. 103. See also
of, 200. fluence in, 266, 304, 309, 315, Index of Museums, Libraries,
Gregory of Nazianzus, homi- 316, 822, 486 ; mural paintings &c., under Mount Athos.
lies, 476-7. in, 303 ff. ; mural mosaics, Lead, objects of, 623-5.
Grottaferrata, mosaics at, 412. 33 ff. , 399 ff. ; mosaic pave- Liberius, sarcophagus of, 137.
Gryphons, 195, 235. ments, 426 ; enamelling in, Literature, relation of to art,
Guards, imperial, 198. 504 ; enamels in, 508 ff. ; silk 255.
718 INDEX I. GENERAL
Liturgy, influence of on art, 170 ; ornament at, 165, 694, Oil, painting in, 258, see also
646, 648. 706, 707 ; capitals at, 172. Japan.
Lots, machine for casting, 1 ii, Mohammedan industrial arts : Old Testament, scenes from,
Fig. 82. textiles, 589, 590, 597 ; cera- 648, 650-2.
Luitprand, embassy of, 538, mic art, 609, 610, 612 ; metal- Oliphants, see Horns.
587. vpork, 618, 620 ; coinage, 630 ; Omar, Mosque of (Dome of the
Luxor, silver treasure from, fret design, 696. Eock), see Doors, bronze ; Je-
rusalem.
565. Mohammedan ornament, 704-
Lycia, mural paintings in, 267. 5. Oppian, Cynegetica of. 483,
Lysippus, statue of Herakles Monasticism, influence of, 71, Figs. 158, 288-9.
by, 181, 216. 73, 78, 83, 88, 393-4, 456, Opus sectile, 427.
466. Opus vermicvZatum, 426.
Money-weights, glass, 614 ; Orbs, held by archangels, 386,
Macedonia, mural paintings metal, 621. 388, 395, 676, Figs. 121 , 165,
in, 294 ff. ; enamels in, 531. Monogram, Sacred, see leono- Orfiwerie 236, 403.
Madaba, mosaic map at, 422- graphical Index. cloisonnee, 202, 515,
4, Figs. 248, 249. Monograms, 682, 608, 629, 516, 520, 522, 535, 547.
Mail, 684. 713, Figs. 44, 55-6, 67, 122, Ornament, ch. xiii.
Manuscripts, illuminated, ch. &c. Acanthus, 165, 172-3, 175,
vii ; influence on ivory carv- Monomachos, Constantino, 176, 235, 341, 346, 850,
ings, 181, 227, 280, 448, 450 ; crown of, 525, Fig. 430. 688-90.
influence on Western MSS., Monreale, bronze doors at, 220. Animal, 706-7,168-9, 170,
486 ff. ; influence on mosaics, Monreale, cathedral, mosaics, 218, 223-4, 235, 274. 281-2.
493 ; influence on sculpture, 410-12. 285, 291, 346, 357, 374, 422,
S36, 493 ; influence on silver- Monte Cassino, 83-4, 266, 315. 448, 573, Figs. 103, 170,
smith's vyork, 493 ; influence Morra, game of, 449, 660. 326, &c. See also eagles,
on iconography, 649. Mosaic, ell. vi ; pavements,
Map, mosaic, see Madaba. 336, 420 ff. ; miniature, 430 ff. gryphons, peacocks.
Cornucopiae, 694, 172, Fig.
Mappa circensis, 197. Mosaics, influence of on ivories, 103.
182. Cufic script, 711.
Marcian, column of, 144-5.
Marriage, represented, 576 ; Mother-of-pearl, used in mo- Diaper, 710.
Figs. 858, 402. saic, 358, 415. Eagles, 176, 427, 429, 588,
Marriage rings, 544-6. Mouldings, 165. 593, 633, 707, Fig. 122.
Mar Saba monastery, inural Mourning, attitudes of, 644-5. Eagles' wings, 414, 699.
paintings of, 277. Mshatta, 54, 67, 170, 202, 206, Elephants, 588, 594, 595-6,
Martorana, see Palermo. 278-9,692, 694, 697, Fig. 447. Figs. 47, 375.
Martyrdom, representationsof, Mural painting, 267 ff. Floral, 170. 382, 414, 448,
270, 273-4, 286, 480, Fig. Murano, mosaic at, 404. 451, 689, 699, &c. See also
113. Mythology, subjects from, see ivy, laurel, palmetto, &e.
Masks, animal, 302. Iconographical Index.
Matrices, 631. Fret, 695-6. 709, 169, 583.
Geometrical,
Maximianus, Archbishop, 185, See also lozenge, zigzag.
203, 355, 357. Naples : Grvphons, 706. 170, 366,
Melisenda, Psalter of, 471-3, Lost mosaics of, 370. 573, 588, 593, 633, Figs. 47,
Figs. 409, 416, 428; ivory S. Giovanni in Fonte, mo- 368, 452.
cover of, 233. saics, 369. 440.
Hearts, 690-1, 692, Figs. 32,
Menas, S., shrine of, 606, 608. Narona, treasure from, 542.
Mcnologia, MSS. of, 479. Naxos, relief at, 160.
Ivy, 154, 690, 691.
Mesopotamia, 63-5, 130, 165, Nea Moni, Chios, mural paint- Laurel, 694, Figs. 76-7.
170,448,458, 500; influences ings, 294 ; mosaics, 396. Lozenge,
454. 710, Figs. 32, 217,
Nemanja dynasty, 40.
from, 279, 441-2, 692, 696, Neon, triclinium of, 259.
699, 700, 704, 706. Palmette, 691-4, 592, 594,
Messina, mosaics of, 406. Nicaea.Church of the Assump-
Metal-work, 616 ff. tion, carved slabs in, 167, 596, 693-4.138, 142, 165, 170,
Peacocks,
Metaphrastes, Simeon, 479, 169 ; mosaics, 388-90. 276, 346, 357, 374, 429,
677. Nieander, Theriaca of, 482-3. 460, 513, 578, 588, 593, 633,
Methodius, S., as painter, 263, Niche, scalloped, 129, 130, 146. Figs.
456. 1, 18, 90, 104, 122,
318. Niello, 533,549, 567, 571, 573-
Metochites, Theodore, 162, 416, 4, Figs. 329, 330, 332, 436-8. Pine cone, 705-6, 700.
Nilotic scenes, 328, 597.
Fig. 245. Nilus, St., 258. Rams' heads. Figs. 103, 176.
Milan : Eosettes,216, 281, Figs. 121,
S. Ambrogio, doors of, 149 ; Nisibis, 65, 442. 130-3, &c.
mosaic in, 372. Nola, church at, 259. ' Sacred Tree,' 699, 414,585,
Northumbria, 102, 236. 605.
S. Lorenzo, mosaics in, 370.
See also Index of Museums, Scrolls, 694, 704, Figs. 86,
Libraries, Treasuries, &c. Obelisk of Theodosius, 144. 122, 437-8, 446, &c.
Mimes, 161. Ochrida, carved doors at, 163 ; Step-pattern, 696-7.
Mingrelia, enamels in, 528-30. carved
296. slabs, 170 ; frescoes, Vine, 700-5, 142, 154, 165,
Miniature mosaics, 430 ff. 170, 172, 214, 220, 276, 281,
Mistra, 44 ; frescoes of, 20, Octateuchs, 464. 333,347,414, 475,558,689.
254, 293 ff. ; reliefs at, 162-3, Odes, the, 467. Zigzag, 710.
 INDEX I. GENERAL
719
Otranto, mural paintings in, at, 167 ; silver relic-boxes Rome {continued) :
310 Hf. from, 564. S. Maria Maggiore, mosaics
Otto II, Emperor, 227. Polycandelon, 567, 622, Figs. of, 151, 157, 338 ff.
St. Paul without the Walls,
40, 41, 395.
' Painter's Manual,' 649. Porphyry, sculpture in, 125-8. 341,Pudenziana.
Sta 618-19. 336 ff., Fig.
Painting, eh. v; processes of, Portraiture, 249, 262, 355, 356,
247, 256-8. 478, 481, 627, 646, Figs. 5, 203.
213, 214, 216, 245, 290. S. Saba, 304.
Pala d'oro, 512-13, Pig. 297. S. Sabina, 146, 341. See
Palaeologus, Manuel, chalice Pottery, cli. xi ; painted, 607 ;
of, 562, Fig. 346. also Index of Museums,
glazed, 608 ff. Libraries, Treasuries, and
Palermo, Gappella Palatina, Printed textiles, 602.
mosaics, 406-9 ; Martorana Probianus, diptych of, 180, Collections.
191. Rothbury, sculpture at, 236.
(S. Maria dell' Ammiraglio), Russia, 45; mural paintings
409, 410; Zisa, 412; silk Probus, diptych of, 180, 192.
weaving at, 586. See also Proconnesus, marble of, 49, in, 802 ; panel paintings in,
Index of Museums, Libraries, 130, 132, 133, 178. 319 ; enamels in, 528 ; silver
&c. Prophets, MSS. of the, 473-4. treasure from, 567 ff. ; cera-
mics from, 611.
Palestine, 11, 55-6; artistic Prudentius,
231. Psychomachia of,
influence of, 450, 671 ; panel Ruthwell, cross of, 236, 672,
paintings in, 321 ; mosaics Psalters,
465 ff.
illuminated, 217, Fig. 147.
in, 384, 386, 412, 414-15;
pottery, 608 ; ampullae, Pyxides, 184-5, 195, 209, 210, S. Angeloin Formis, 316, Figs.
623-4. 211. 191, 192.
Pamphylia, mural painting in, Saints, 677-8. See also Icono-
268. Rabula, Gospel of, 448-9. graphicalCathedral,
Salerno Index. 401, 406,
Panel, painting on, 316 S. Rainbow, the, 672. 619.
Panel paintings, 258. Ravenna, 80 ; sarcophagi at,
Panselinos, Manuel, 303. 135-142 ; carved slabs at, 165, Salome, midwife, 654.
Parchment, first use of, 460. 167; capitals at, 172-3, 175, Salona, capital from. Fig. 105 ;
Parenzo Cathedral, stucco 176, 177, Figs. 67, 101, 102 ; mosaic pavement, 426.
reliefs, 151 ; carved slabs in, mosaics of, 342-68; lost Salonika, 38 ; carved ambos
167 ; capitals in, 176 ; mural mosaics, 364-5. from, 145, 146, 156, Fig. 84.
Arian Baptistery, 350. 389. Djuma, 170, 175, 289,
Eski
mosaics of, 372-3, Figs.
207, Archiepiscopal Chapel, 360.
426. 219 ; mosaic pavements, Galla Placidia, mausoleum S. Demetrius, 170, 175-6,
Paris, see Index of Museums, of, 141, 347. 177, 378.
Libraries, &c. Orthodox Baptistery, 151, S. George, 170, 374.
Patens, 514, 552-4, 615, Figs. 344, 346. S. Sophia, 177, 289, 374-8.
54, 318, 350. S. ApoUinare in Classe, 142, Saqqara, mural paintings, 283 ;
Pavements, mosaic, 420 ff. ornament at, 687.
169, 263, 361-4.
P^rigueux, relief at, 157. S. ApoUinare Nuovo, 350 ff. Sarcophagi, 128-42.
Persia, artistic influence of, S.365.Giovanni Evangelista, Sator Arepo, &c., 274.
43, 54, 56, 67, 136, 165, 170, Scalloped niche, 129, 130, 146,
214, 224, 414, 463, 512, 572, S. Maria in Porto, 159. 156, 206, Pig. 147.
584, 605, 609, 671, 684, 692, S. Michele in Affricisco, Sculpture, ch. iii ; colour on,
699, 700, 706; figured textiles 364-5. 121 ; in wood, 125 ; lost, 121-
of, 578-9, 584; engraved S. Vitale, 355 ff.
gems of, 637. Ursus, triclinium of, 366 ; 5 ; portrait,
Seals, 630 ff. 122-4.
Peter, chair of S., 223. basilica of, 365. Secular art, 248, 260, 279, 285,
Philadelphis, 126. Reliquaries, 522-5, 544, 550, 301-2, 481 ff.
Phlles, Manuel, 255. 554, 558, Figs. 310, 311, Sens, see Index of Museums,
Philoxenus, diptych of, 148. Libraries, Treasuries, &c.
332, 336-8, 347-8. Serinda, 586.
Phocis, St. Luke, church of, Rhipidia, 531, 602.
stucco in, 151, 169 ; carved Rinaldus, sarcophagus of, 138. Serres, Metropolitan Church,
slabs in, 166, 169; mural Rings, see Finger rings. Mar- 398, Fig. 423. See also Index
riage rings. of Museums,
painting in, 293 ; wall suries, &c. Libraries, Trea-
mosaics, 393-4 ; mosaic pave- Risano, enamel from, 507.
ment, 427, Fig. 251. Rome and East-Christian ait, Servia, 40 ; mural paintings
Phrygian caps, 654. in, 294 ; illuminated MSS.,
6, 76-7. sarcophagi
Physioloffus, the, 481-2 ; sub- Rome, at, 132 ; 473, 492.
jects from, 366, 708. carved slabs at, 167 ; capitals Shields, 684, Pigs. 10, 42, 93,
Pignatta, sarcophagus of the, at, 175 ; mural paintings, 136 ; votive, 569.
137. 303 ff. ; mosaics at, 331-42. Ships, Fig. 288.
Pine-cone, bronze, 123, 706. Catacombs, 203-4, 331-2. Siberia, silver dish from, 571.
See also under Ornament. Laterau Baptistery, 341. Sicily, 84, 85; painters in,
Pisa, bronze doors at, 220. S. Clemente, 166, 263, 308. 263 ; mosaics in, 404-12 ;
Pisano, Niccolb, 178. SS. Cosmas and Damian, enamels from, 519, 526 ;
Pisidia, mural paintings in, 341-2. jewellery from, 542-3 ; silk
268. Sta Coatanza, 332 ff. weaving in, 586, 590 ; glass
Pola, sculptured columns S. Maria Antiqua, 258,
in, 614. 128.
Sidamara,
from, 155, 156 ; carved slabs 304 ff.. Pigs. 152, 187, 188.
720 INDEX I. GENEEAL
Sidon, mosaic from, 422. Tablmi, 676, 684. Unicorn, the, 470, 664.
Sienese art, 266. Tapestry, 579 ff. Utrecht Psalter, 468, 488.
Silk, 43, 44, 62, 583 fp. Tempera painting, 253, 257,
Sinai, Mount, Monastery of St. 317.
Catherine ; carved doors, 149 ; Terracina,
164. carved chest at, Valentinian, votive shield of^
mosaics of, 883 ; encaustic 571.
panels from, 256, 317-18. Textiles, ch. x ; influence of, Vatopedi,
415. monastery of, 164,
Siuope, 47 ; MS. fragment on sculpture, 168, 182, 235,
from", 458. 604-5 ; on painting and Venice, 81-2, 93 ; Byzantine
Skripu, reliefs at, 161, 706. mosaic, 604. artists in, 264.
Skylltzes, John, ' History ' of, Thasog, relief from, 158. Campo Angaran, relief at,
486. Theodoric, 344 ; palace of, 354. 159.
Sohag, White Monastery, 286- Theodosius, code of, 196 ; Pilastri
449. Aaitani, 170, Fig.
7 ; Ked Monastery, 288. votive shield of, 571. See
Soul, representations of, 286, also Constantinople. S. Marco, 125 ; carved cibo-
668, 679, Figs. 149, 150, 180, Theophanu, Empress, 93, 227, rium columns in, 155, Pig.
236.
185, 421. 89 ; figure-reliefs in walls
Souls, weighing of, 670. Theophilus, author, 263, 500, of, 157, 159, 217; figure-
Spain, 91 ; sarcophagi from, 612, 614. reliefs within, 159 ; closure-
135. Thessaly, relief in, 163. slabs within, 166-7, Fig.
Spears, Figs. 11, 42, 76, 93, Tiles, stamped, 608. 96 ; capitals in, 172, 176 ;
144. Timanthes,
195. picture by, 181, wall-mosaics, 399-401 ;
Spoons, silver, 567, 573, Fig. mosaic pavement, 428 >
359. Titles of imperial officers, 636. bronze doors, 619.
Staurakios, 619. Tombstones, Coptic, 153, Fig. Veroli, ivoiy casket from, 215,
Steatite, carvings in, 239 ff . 86. Figs. 9, 10, 132, &c.
Stephen, S., crown of, 526. Torcello, reliefs at, 158, 216; Victory, type of, 675.
Stilicho, diptych of, 194. Vienna, see Index of Museums,
mosaics at, 401-4, Figs. 285- Libraries, &c.
Stirrups, use of, 218.
Stucco, reliefs in, 151, 169, 6, 424. Michael, monument Virgil, MS. of, in Vatican, 459.
Tornikes,
346 ; ornament of, 286. of, 162.
Studeaitza, frescoes of, 296. Trebizond, 47 ; relief at, 162 ; Walid II, Khalif, 279.
Sulu Monastir, sarcophagus capital at, 176 ; remains of
from, 128. mural mosaic, 420 ; mosaic Weights, 614, 621.
Sun and moon, representation Werden, casket from, 202.
pavement, 427.
of, 660, 680. Trieste, mural mosaics at, 372, Westminster
once in, 508.
Abbey, enamel
Swastika, 392, 681, 696, 713. 404 ; pavement mosaics, 426. Windows, glass in, 616.
Swords, 684, Figs. 10, 74, 98, Triptychs, 187,188, 190, 227-8. World, chronicle of history of,
118, 806. Trivulzio Collection, see Index
Symbolism, 646, 708. of Museums, &o., Milan. MS., 459, 460.
Symmachi and Nicomachi, Writing-tablets, 185.
Troyes, ivory casket at, 182. Wiirzburg, ivory carving at,
diptych of, 181, 185, 190. Turkestan, 28. 235.
Syria, 50 ff., 156; sculptured Tusla,
92. relief from, 160, Fig.
ornament, 167, 168; wall-
paintings, 276 ff. ; silk weav- Tychae, 208, see Iconographical Xanten, casket at, 216.
ing in, 586. Index, under Personifica- Xenophon, monastery of, 416.
Syria, artistic influence of, 11, tions.
21, 57, 87, 91, 136, 172, 175, Tyre,
168. pavements, mosaic, from,
183, 190, 201, 209, 237, 340, Zara, carved slabs at, 167.
367, 438, 450, 451, 466, 478, Zeus, statue of, 122.
474,
099. 487-8, 564, 614, 654, 664, Zeuxippus, the, 502, 586, 595.
Ulphus, horn of, 700. Zodiac, signs of, 282, 298, 462.
 731

INDEX II. ICONOGRAPHY

a. Religious. 350, 396, 397, 472, 476, 509, 476, 477, 512, 599, Figs. 13,
599, 688, Figs. 95, 111, 149, 143, 149, 150, 417.
Abraham and the Angels, 272, 155, 305. Etimasia, 666, 162, 241, 296,
273, 301, 358, 470, 652, Fig. Betrayal, 658, 268, 269, 273, 888, 391, 397, 407, 512, 518,
412. 274, 293, 299, 301, 397, 472, 520, 529, 530, 668-9.
Adam, 195, Fig. 116. Fig. 177. Evangelists, the, 677, 272, 273,
Adam, skull of, 660. 287, 357, 858, 390, 395, 410,
Adam and Eve, 220, 270, 286, Communion of the Apostles, 449, 450, 475, 476, 518, 522,
624, 659, 662, Fig. 138. 666, 297, 299, 395, 396, 453, 524, 529, Fig. 429.
Adoration of the Magi, 654, 601-2, 658, Figs. 283, 423. Evangelists, symbols of, 680,
138, 146, 208, 209, 268, 271, Creation, scenes, 259, 470, 651, 310, 336, 347. 857, 860, 862,
272, 278, 286, 807, 838, 884, Fig. 276. 367, 369, 370, 393, 895, 442,
397, 408, 486, 509, 564, 578, Cross, the, 681, 712, 228, 888, 475, 582, 557, 602, Fig. 203.
624, Figs. 36, 84, 114, 126, 282, 638, Figs. 35, 09, 339, &c. ; of
281. Golgotha, 337, 681 ; jewelled, Feasts, the Twelve, 648, 242,
Agony in the Garden, the, 681, Fig. 81 : patriarchal, 626, 400, 409, 482, 512, Figs. 149,
146, 298. 633, 681, Figs. 96, 140, 157, 150, 254 l^sei also Annuncia-
Almighty, the, 670. 287, 420. tion, Nativity, Presentation,
Almighty, the, hand of, see Crucifixion, 658, 192, 269, 270, Baptism, Transfiguration,
. Hand. 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 299, Raising of Lazarus, Entry
Anastasis, 662, 270, 272, 273, 801, 807, 308, 313, 318, 396, into Jerusalem, Crucifixion,
274, 275, 276, 299, 801, 396, 397, 404, 438, 449, 472, 476, Anastasis, Pentecost, Ascen-
397, 404, 472, 512, 518, 530, 477, 507, 510, 512, 513, 524, sion, Death of the Virgin).
Figs. 149,. 150, 157, 407, 420, 549, 554, 557, 561, 562, 633, Flight into Egypt, 270, 271,
427. 647. Figs. 140, 149, 150, 164, 273, 274, 298, 309, 338.
Ancient of Days, 311, 670. 188; 192, 193, 252, 201, 848,
Angels, 675, 208, 224, 227, 241, 411, 418. Genesis, scenes from, 400,
242, 268, 269, 278, 274, 284, 444 if. See also Joseph, story
288, 289, 298, 812, 818, 352, Daniel and the Lions, 138, 151, of.
362, 364, 372, 383, 388, 398, 274, 276, 280, 307, 424, 470, Good Shepherd, the, 670;
396, 897, 402, 406, 407, 410, 477, 598, 604, 638, Figs. 72, statues of, 123, 128 ; mosaic
414, 420, 470, 477, 512, 513, 113, 286. of, 348, 369, Pig. 209.
528, 529, 571-2, 639, 654, David, Story of, 149, 221, 285, Hand of the Almighty, 156,
Pigs. 113, 121, 134, 165, 173, 284, 463, 464, 477, 574, 576, 863, 869, 433, 475, 529, 624.
176, 191, 211, 236, 237, 280, 651, Figs. 57-9, 62, 154, 275, Hai-rowing of Hell, see Ana-
306, 310, 362. 277, 279, 280, 413. stasis.
Ankh, the, as cross, 286, 583, Seesis, 664, 276, 277, 298, 312,
681, Fig. 28. 395, 404, 412, 415, 472, 510, Isaac, Sacrifice of, 139, 195,
Annunciation, 652, 137, 149, 515, 639, Figs. 162, 272, 522, 268, 269, 801, 858, 363,450,
208, 209, 268, 270, 271, 272, 529. 463, 477, 651, Fig. 115.
278, 274, 284, 286, 299, 801, Descent into Hell, see Ana-
310, 311, 313, 388, 373, 395, stasis, Jonah, Storv of, 151, 209, 286,
396, 415, 432, 472, 476, 486, Descent from the Cross, 268, 424, 463, 651, Fig. 125.
524, 598-9, 604,633, 689, Figs. 273, 396, 472, 476, 477, 526, Joseph, Story of, 206, 209, 280,
69. 95, 149, 155, 189, 219, 246, Fig. 419. 235, 307, 445, 583, 598, 604,
309, 378, 414. Devils, 404, 676, Fig, 428. 650 Figs. 112, 187.
Apostles, 676, 224, 268, 274, Bextera Domini, see Hand of Joshua, Story of, 338, 651.
307, gl5, 346, 350, 360, 370, the Almighty.
372, 378, 383, 387, 395, 396, Divine
270. Liturgy, 667, 267, 268, Lamb, the, 141, 157, 873, 403,
402, 404, 410, 420, 448, 529, 548, 664.
of.
624, Figs. 70, 71, 148, 285, Dormition, see Virgin, Death Last Judgement, 667, 270, 275,
&e. See also SS. Peter and 298, 299, 311, 352, 404, Figs.
Paul, Communion. Dry Bones, Valley of, 222, Fig. 424, 427.
Ascension, 149, 156, 191, 234, 135.
Last Supper, 658, 269, 278,
268, 272, 273, 275, 286, 376, 274, 275, 276, 299, 801, 313,
396, 400, 415, 450, 476, 486, Entombment, 273, 274, 275, 816,
167. 353, 397, 453, 472, Fig.
518, 600, 624, Figs. 95, 149, 472, 476.
150, 182, 222, 273. Entry into Jerusalem, 656, Lazarus, Raising of, 655, 139,
149, 208, 230, 271, 272, 273, 154, 208, 284, 272, 273, 274,
Baptism, 654, 155, 272, 273, 275, 276, 299, 310, 313, 316, 275, 276, 316, 332, 333, 352,
274, 275, 284, 298, 317, 345, 396, 397, 409, 415, 452, 472, 396, 452, 472, 476, 564, Figs.
3 A
722 INDEX II. ICONOGEAPHY
80, 124, 149, 150, 284. See Jordan, 679, 272, 273, 345, Saints (continued) :
also Feasts, the Twelve. 462, 655. Sergius and Bacchus, 283,
Longinus, 269, 272, 301, 450, Prayer, Righteousness, 286. 317,
360. 397, 573, Figs. 230,
524, G60. Peter, Denial of, 146, 274, 301 ;
keys of, 347. Theodores, the two, 162, 241,
Mandorla, 682, 270, 272, 287, Presentation in Temple, 268, 242, 268, 432, 433, 513, 522,
288, 298, 386-7, 404, 450. 270, 271, 274, 313, 396, 397, .528, 529, Figs. 93, 304, 616.
Maries at the Tomb, 270, 299, 509, 633, Fig. 149. Salutation, 137, 208, 268, 269,
449, 472, 560, 624, Fig. 39. 270, 271, 273, 274, 284, 298,
Miracles of Christ, 146, 208, Resurrection, 273, 274. 373, 472, 624, Pigs. 79, 220.
209, 259, 271, 273, 282, 283, Samaria, Woman of, 208, 209,
297, 352, 369, 400, 420, 449, Saints : 271, 279, 369, Fig. 123.
454, 458, 477, 563, 648, Figs. Constanti ne and Helena, 227, Sepulchre, Maries at the, see
124-5. 268, 270, 275, 299,301,524, Maries.
Monogram, Sacred (Chi Bho), 529, 550, 558, Fig. 310. Stephaton,
660. 269, 272, 301, 450,
680, 141, 142, 167, 175, 276, Cosmas and Damian, 297,
369, 390, 629, 713, Figs. 81, 364, 514, 515, 526, 544.
86, 456. Demetrius, 241, 242, 268, Temptation, the, 162, 273, 472,
Moses, and the Almighty, 156, 299, 307, 310, 312, 379 ff.,
Fig. 90 ; receiving the Law, 416,432, 513,516,517,524, Fig. 428.
Tetramorph, 270, 676.
192, 289. 526, 529, 551, 558, 616, 633, Thomas, Incredulity of, 301,
639, Figs. 299, 310, 338. 394,
217. 397, 415, 472, 624, Fig.
Nativity, 653, 203, 209, 222, Equestrian Saint, type of
241, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, the, 211, 678, Fig. 26. Three Children of Babylon,
273, 274, 275, 298, 313, 317, Eustathius (Hubert), 274, 154, 209, 272, 273, 286, 289,
319, 397, 408, 472, 509, 599, 313, 513. 307, 470, 477, 503-4, Pig. 278.
624, Figs. 114, 149, 155, 305, Forty Martyrs, the, 230, 260, Traditio Legis, 664, 136 ff., 333,
415. 307 395
Nimbus, the, 682 ; blue, 886 ; George, 241, 242, 268, 273, 369, 604.
Transfiguration, the, 655, 146,
square, 307, 682. 276, 299,301, 310,811,313, 273, 275, 319, 362, 383, 396,
Noli me iangere, 230, 449. 416,432,516,522,526,529, 397, 415, 432, 477, 599, 601,
633, 639, 678, Figs. 304, 633, Figs. 45, 149, 155, 184.
Oath, Water of, 209, 268, 269, 314.
225, 410, 416.
270, 271,273,274. Joachim and Anna, 156, 301, Trinity, the, 151, 652, 670.
Orans, attitude of, 673, 286, 397. See also Abraham and the
463, 480, Figs. 72, 286, 338, John the Evangelist, 676,
426. See also Virgin. 227, 229, 406, 472-3, 513, Angels.
Our Lord, 648, 670, 135-40, 514-15, 520, 633, 639, Fig.
149, 151, 180, 195, 199, 208, 159. See abo Crucifixion. Virgin, 673, 159, 227, 273,
209, 221, 224, 227, 241, 242, John the Baptist, 648, 676, 286, 287, 289, 297, 299, 300.
268, 269, 272, 273, 274, 276, 227. 242, 270. 271, 273, 274, 304, 307, 338, 311, 312, 313,
284, 287, 288, 292, 304, 307, 276; 287, 313; 390, 393, 397, 314, 319, 361, 376, 381, 388-9,
309, 312, 313, 317, 332, -354, 407, 408, 513, 515, 529, 396, 397, 404, 406, 407, 420,
360, 362, 370, 391, 392, 395, 557, 561, 633, 639, Figs. 448, 450, 515, 516, 517, 544,
397, 402, 403, 406, 411, 420, 122, 142, 344. See also 551, 626-7, 632, 639, 666, 673,
Seesis. Figs. 138, 239, 303.
433, 450,510, 515-17, 551, 557,
626-7, 639, Figs. 73, 110, 138, Laurence, 348, 355. Virgin, types of, Blacliernio-
139, 175, 188, 203, 218, 228, Mark, 153, 212, 234, 400, 454. iissa, 673-4, 391, 633 ;
231, 240, 245, 256, 270, 280, 476, 512, 513, 520, 522, 529,
604. Hodegetria, 673, 242, 318,
302, 308, 351, 385; before 319, 385-6 ; Kyriotissa, 529,
277.
Pilate, 146, 156, 273, 274, 307, Menas, 209, 513, 606. 633, 674; Platyfera, 674.
313, 352, 454, Fig. 212 ; Em- Michael, 301, 312, 313, 404,
manuel, 672, 361, 364, 395, 513, 516, 518, 522, 526, 529, Virgin, scenes from life of,
400, 451, 532, 601; Panto- 554, 561. 608, 633, 670, 676, 296, 301, 410, 416, 418, 478-9,
krator, 672, Fig. 425 ; tread- Figs. 12i, 134, 306. 598 ; death of, 663, 273, 274-
ing on lion and dragon, asp Paul, 676, 137, 138, 140, 5, 276, 286, 299, 300, 397,
and basilisk, 672, 346, 372. 163, 208, 209, 224, 229, 410, 472, 600, 633, Pigs. 149,
270, 286, 304, 318, 333, 342, 159, 180, 185, 199.
Passion, Instruments of the, 347, 350, 372, 392, 395, 408, Virgin and Child, 143, 153,
669. 411, 510-17, 520, 522, 565, 208, 224, 241, 242, 268, 272,
Pentecost, 662, 234, 242, 274, Figs. 129, 138, 390. 274, 275, 276, 277, 284, 288,
301, 391, 396, 400, 412, 450, Peter, 676, 137, 138, 140. 292, 309, 311, 314, 317, 318,
472, 476, 477, 512, 600, Figs. 146, 153-4, 163, 208, 209; 319, 354, 372, 376, 379, 385,
149, 150, 243, 408, 409. 224, 229, 259, 270,271,273, 386, 391, 393, 402, 411. 450,
Pei'sonifications : 282, 283, 288, 301, 304, 308, 560, 563, 604, 627. Figs. 163,
Divine Wisdom, 200, 301, 309,311,318,333,342,347, 174, 235, 344, 345.
392, 454-5, 512, 674, 676. 350, 372, 392, 404, 407, 408, Washing of the Diaciplea'Feet,
Faith, Hope, 284, 301, 660. 411, 513, 515, 516-17, 520, 657, 230, 268, 274, 316, 393,
IJades, 470, 655, 662, 664. 522, 526, 529, 557, 565, 604. 396, 397, 453, 476, Fig. 229 ;
Humility, Truth, 526, Fig. 633, Figs. 88, 129, 138, 312; of the infant Jesus, 643, 654,
430. See also Traditio Legis. Figs. 149, 155, 305, 415.
 INDEX II. ICONOGRAPHY
b. Secular. Emperors {continued) : Nimbus,
596. given to Emperor,723
Maurice, 261.
Alexander, Ascension of, 500, Michael Ducas, 526, 529.
528, Fig. 34 ; Pursuit of Darius, Nicephorus Botoniates, 478. Orpheus, 422, 546, 643. 698,
483.
Nicephorus Phocas (?), 227. Figs. 87, 153, 285, 247, 335,
363.
Ares, 554. Phocas (?), 162.
Romanus, 227, Fig. 139.
Belisarius, Exploits of, 261. Empresses
128. : 221, 227, 478, Fig. Personifications :
Bellerophon, 483, Fig. 158.
Ages of man, 282.
Eudocia, 227, Pig. 139. Cities : Alexandria, 484, 563 ;
Centaur, 161, 195, 697-8. Irene, 512. Constantinople, 197-8,212,
Cynocephali, 160-1, Pig. 92. Theodora, 262, 356, Fig. 213. 484, 563, 626 ; Jerusalem,
Theophauo, 93, 227. 208 ; Rome, 212, 484, 563 ;
Dioscuri (?), 598. Zee, 512. Treves, 484, 563.
Emperors and Empresses of Dawn, 470, 474, 679, Fig.
Emperors : 159, 221, 231, 302, the West : 294.
391, 596, 626-7, 633, 683, Frederick II, 410. Discovery, Magnanimity,
Figs. 7, 83. Otto II, 227.
Alexius III, 276. Constance, 410. &c., 460. Poetry, 282.
History,
Andronicus Comnenus, 261. Eves, 554. Melody, 468.
Basil I, 262, 477.
Basil II, Fig. 290. Genii,Figs.29, 77, 108, 130, 132. Might,
Months &c.,and468.Seasons, 143,
Constantius II, 485. 261, 422, 679, 680.
Constantine I, 211, 260. Herakles, 122, 558 ; Labours
Constantine Monomachos, Night, the deep, &c., 469, 679.
of, 159, 222, 427. Sun and Moon, 274, 470,
525.
Constantine Pogonatus, 262, Ixion, relief with, 159. 489.
364, Fig. 216. World, 662.
' Constantine,' 229. liairos, 679, 158, Figs. 65, 91. Year, 679.
John Palaeologus, 391. Kings : of Abyssinia, 281 ; of
Justinian I, 211, 262, 355, the Visigoths, 281 ; of Persia, Silenus, 558.
569, Fig. 5. 281; of Servia, 296, 297, 298, Siren, 161, 195.
Leo, 514. 300; of Sicily, 410,411. Sphinx, 697.
Leo VI, 224, 392, Fig. 138.
Manuel Comnenus, 261. Nike, see Victory. Victory, 19.5.

INDEX III
MUSEUMS, LIBEAEIES, TEEASUEIES, AND COLLECTIONS

Agaune, St. Maurice d', 496. Berlin, Beuth-Schinkei Mu- Budapest, National Museum,
Aix-la-Chapelie. Cathedral, seum, 704. 525-6.
212, 225, 554, 594, 704. Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich
Alba Fucense, Church of, 554. Museum, 128, 144, 149, 152,
Anagni, Cathedral, 556, 557-8. 153, 156, 160, 195, 203, 208, Cairo, Museum, 125, 151-2,
Angers, Museum, 241. 211, 213, 214, 221, 224, 225, 153, 158, 563, 567, 622, 704.
Anzano, Church of, 242. 230, 234, 242, 317, 364, 611, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam, 208,
Athens, Museum, 161 622, 704. 210, 218; Corpus Christi
Auxerre, S. Eusfebe, 593. Berlin, Kunstgewerbe - Mu- College Library, 486.
Athos, Mount : 604. seum, 581, 590, 591, 592, 593, Oasteir
601. Arquato, Church of,
, Chilaudari, 319, 433.
Esphigmenou, 433. Berlin, Library, 471. Chimay,
432. SS. Peter and Paul,
Iviron, 530. Bern, Library, 484.
Lavra, 319. Bologna,
234. Museum, 195, 210, Chopi, Church of, 530.
Pantokrator, 470, Fig. 277. Cividale, Museum, 218.
Vatopedi, 242,433,434, 464, Bonn, Museum, 211. Cologne, Archbishop's Palace,
562. Brescia, Museum, 153 ; Biblio- 558 ; S. Kunibert, 590.
teca Queriniana, 486. Constantinople, Museum, 128,
Bale, Museum, 198. Brussels, Museum, 208, 672 ; 129, 145, 153, 154, 157, 158,
Bamberg, Cathedral, 596. Library, 484. 704 ; Seraglio Library, 464.
Bari, Cathedral, 486. Burtscheid, Abbey of, 433. Copenhagen, Museum, 527.
3 A 2
724 INDEX III. MUSEUMS, LIBEARIES, ETC.
Cortona, Franciscan Church, 40, 697, Figs, 63-4, 135, Padua, Cathedral, 554.
227. 137, 151,155,156,157,159. Palermo, Cathedral, 192, 519 ;
Cosenza, Cathedral, 518. 160, 161, 260, 261, 263-4, Museum, 543, 545.
272-4, 280, 281, 292, 295, Paris :
Darmstadt, Museum, 211, 220, 301, 304, 319-26, 328-35, B6arn, C'tesse de. Collection,
225. 350-3, 359, 360, 367, 382-5, 241, 704.
Dresden, Green Vaults, 225, 387-90, 392 ff., 414, 416, Bibliothfeque Nationale, 192,
230. 419, 441, 448. 207, 230, 458, 465, 468, 474,
Durham, Chapter Library, Vietoriaand Albert Museum, 475, 476, 477, 478, 482, 488.
597. 185,203,213,214,215,221, Cabinet des Medailles, 638-
Diisseldorf, Kunstgewerbe- 225, 230, 234, 235. 432, 506,
Museum, 594. 40.
Chmy Museum, 185, 2C8,
560,
598-9,580,604, 583,611,
590,'704,
592, Figs.
593, 227, 234, 235.
Eichstadt, Nunnery of, 598. 129-32, 136, 141, 300, 302- Guimet, Musee, 316, 581,
Essen, Munsterkirche, 505. 3. 344-5, 362-6, 368, 371-2, 590, 593.
381, 441, 445. Louvre, 149, 168, 198, 209,
Florence : Lyons, Musile des tissus, 591-2. 211,212,227,228,241,432,
Laurentian Library, 448, 499, 503, 506, 520, 560,
462, 464, 473. Madrid, Library, 486 ; Mu- 564-5, 640, 687, 710.
Museo Nazionale=Bargello, seum, 569. Martin Le Boy Collection,
195, 213, 220, 221, 225, 230. Maestricht,
598. S. Servaas, 590,
Museo Sta Maria del Fiore, 210, 561.
432. Schlumberger, G., Collec-
Manchester, John Eylands tion, 241.
Sta Maria Novella, 319. Library, 209. Pesaro, Museo Olivieri, 206,
Uffizi Gallery, 264, 319. Martwili, Monastery of, 530, 211, 220, 221, 234.
.561.
Pisa, Museum, 218.
Gaeta, Cathedral, 518. Milan : Poitiers, Monastery of Ste
Gelat, Monastery of, 528-9. Ambrosian Library, 459, Croix, 520.
GeueTa, Museum, 569. 477, 486. Prague, Cathedral of, 223.
Gmunden, Castle of, 526. Brera, 264.
Goluchow, Castle of, 549. Cathedral, 504, 519. 524.
Quedlinburg, Cathedral, 225,
Grade, Cathedral, 564. Museum, 206, 213, 234.
Gran, Cathedral, 525. S. Nazaro, 562.
Grottaferrata, Monastery, 599. Trivulzio Collection, 191, Eagusa, Cathedral, 527.
198, 225, 336, 675. Kavenna, Museum, 206, 209 ;
Halberstadt, Cathedral, 225, Monte Cassino, Monastery of, Cathedral, 548.
554, 558. 486. Reichenau, Monastery of, 558.
Hanau, Walz Collection, 524. Monza, Cathedral Treasury, Rome :
Hanover, Museum, 225, 230. 193, 194, 225, 519, 533, 548, Barberini Collection, 199,
Hildesheim, Cathedral, 593. 607, 623. 225, 234, 484.
Morgan, J. P., Collection, 221, Biblioteca
486. Casanatense, 228,
Innsbmck, Ferdinandeum, 597, 524, 576.
224, 500. Moscow : Chigi Library, 461, 473.
Cathedral, 528. Museo Kircheriano, 221 , 510.
Jaucourt, Church of, 538. Monastery of S. Nicholas, Saint Peter's, 510, 548, 550,
Jerusalem, Church of Holv 466. 600.
Sepulchre, 467, 532-3; Li- Sacristy of Patriarchs, 638, Sterbini Collpction, 319, 322.
brary of Greek Patriarchate, 640. Stroganoff Collection, 206,
492. Synodal Library, 480, 481. 208, 209, 225, 230, 234, 510,
Uvaroif Collection, 210. 518, 571.
Kieff : Khanenko Collection, Munich : Vatican, 131, 132, 211, 221,
239, 242, 528, 531 ; Museum, Bavarian National Museum, 225, 228, 241, 255, 264, 317,
433. 432, 447, 459, 462, 464, 470,
Kieff, Ecclesiastical Academy, 191, 638-9.
Library, 195, 198, 473, 524. 474, 479, 480, 508-9, 510,
316. Reiche Capelle, 524. 556-7, 564, 591, 593, 598.
Rossano, Cathedral of, 452.
Limburg on the Lahn, Cathe- Naples, Museum, 474. Rouen, Cathedral, 194.
dral, 522. Namur, Cathedral, 520 ; Sceurs
Livadia, Palace Church, 528. de Notre-Dame, 520. St. Petersburg :
Liverpool, Free Public Mu- Nicosia, Museum, 542, 576. Botkine Collection, 209.
seum, 193, 225, 302-3. Nuremberg, German. -Nat. Mu- Golenisheff Collection, 317,
Livorno, 211. seum, 607. 459.
London : Hermitage, 209, 210. 225,
British Museum, 161, 163, Ochrida, S. Clement, 242, 318- 242, 433, 528, 581, 641.
191, 200, 209, 210, 214, 218, 19, 486, 532, 561-2, 602. Museum Alexander III, 318,
220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 230, Oxford : 319.
234, 241, 302, 319, 446, 451, Ashmolean Museum, 700. 611.
Stieglitz Museum, 225, 581,
470, 475, 476, 480, 492, 495, Bodleian
672. Library, 230, 234,
498, 519, 533, 540-2, 544, Salerno, Cathedral, 234.
567, 573, 580, 590,592, 607, Evans Collection, 507, 545. Sens, Cathedral, 598; Museum,
609, 614, 621, 622, 624, 638- Lincoln College, 481. 193, 221, 235.
 INDEX III. MUSEUMS, LIBRAEIES, ETC.
725
Serres, Cathedral, 531. Tongres, Cathedral, Venice (continued) :
194, 208,
235.
Siegburg, Katholisolie Pfarr- S. Marco, 319, 512, 514-15.
kirche, 594. Trfeves, Cathedral, 211, 225, S. Marco, Treasury of, 218,
Sienna, Library, 516-17. Pig. 127 ; Museum, 208. 432, 513-14, 552, 602, 614,
Sigmai-ingen, Museum, 524. Troyes, Cathedral, 231, 708. 638.
Sinai, Monastery Library, 462, S. Maria della Salute, 432.
474, 478, 480, 486. Utrecht, Archiepiscopal Mu- Vich, Episcopal Library, 434.
seum, 230. Vienna :
Smyrna, Evangelical School,
Library, 464, 482. Velletri, Cathedral, 518. Imperial Museum, 212, 213,
Stuttgart, Kunstkammer, 230. Venice : 225, 229, 564, 640.
Syracuse, Museum, 542. Marcian Library, 262, 470, Library, 444, 452, 460, 461,
484.
474, 483, 515-16, 551.
Toledo, Cathedral, 242. Museum, 229. Sohatzkammer, 526.

INDEX IV. AUTHORITIES

Ainaloir, D., 27, 70, 135, 146, Brown, G. Baldwin, 492. Diez, E., 461, 677.
147, 166, 167, 195, 206, 208, Budge, E. A. W., 75, 606. Dillon, E., 495, 612, 614.
209, 300 ff., 817, 828, 332 ff., Bulic, F., 542. Dobbert, E., 146, 155, 316,
367, 370, 374, 394-7, 424, 444, Bury, J. B., 4, 61, 97, 584. 344, 347, 853, 867, 442, 471,
449, 450, 460, 462, 464, 474, Bute, Marquis of, 292. 492, 600, 642, 654 ff., 666,
673.
578, 602, 654, 664, 673, 682, Butler, H. C, 53, 120, 165,
704. 276, 699. Dobschiilz, E. von, 218.
Alishan, P., 438, 492. Dreger, M., 579 ff., 597 ff.
Antoniades, E. M., 391 ff. Cabrol, P., 289. Durham, M. E., 300.
Candida, A. Filangieri di, 370. Diitschke, H., 135 ff., 206, 671.
Cattaneo, E., 166, 176,693, 694.
Balcarres, Lord, 321. Chesnav, L., 166, 398, 531. Ebers, G., 383.
Barnsley, H., 151, 166, 167. Clausse^ G., 332, 370, 399 ff., Ebersolt, J., 145, 162, 174, 302,
Bauer, A. , 459. 405 ff. 420, 437, 533, 536.
Baumstark, A., 65, 165, 276, Cledat, J., 153, 165, 176, 257, Errard, C, 176, 373, 399, 426.
277, 322, 884, 412, 414, 466, 288, 285, 286, 607, 676, 680, Evans, A. J., 297, 507.
467, 473, 492. 601, 662, 664, 682, 695, 708, 711.
670, 672-3, 676, 711. Clemen, P., 594. Filimonoff, G., 525, 528.
Bayet, C, 135, 143, 145, 256, Clermont Ganneau, A,, 412, Fischbach, P., 583, 598.
258, 282, 302, 303, 344, 374, 643, 678, 699. Forrer,
658. R., 579, 583, 599, 604,
376, 386, 392, 415, 422, 447, Colasanti, A., 600.
548, 600. Courajod, L., 56, 86, 135, 698. Frauberger, H., 594.
Beissel, S., 342, 859, 399, 475, Crostarosa, G., 337. Freshfield, E., 48, 162, 174.
554, .588, 598. Crum, W. E., 74, 151, 284, Prohner, W., 241, 549.
Bell, Miss a. L., 47, 64. 678. Frothingham, A. L., 77, 166,
Berchem, M. Van, 500, 616, 263, 264, 304, 342, 412, 589.
687, 704, 707. Dalton, 0. M., 489, 567, 574. Pyffe, T., 44.
Berger, E., 256. Uelattre, J., 148, 632.
Bertaux, E., 82, 88,84, 151, 167, Delehaye, H., 677. Gabelentz, H. von der, 156,
234, 315, 316, 869, 370, 426-8, De Linas, C, 227-8. 653, 661, 662, 670.
486, 504, 519, 554, 620, 666-7, Deperis, • 832 ff., Gardner, A., 286.
De Eossi,P.,J.378.B., 288,
707, 712. Gardner, E., 159.
Beylie, J. de, 144, 430. .564, 623, 678. Gardner, P., 690.
Bielyayeff, D., 198, 356, 887, Destr^e, J., 208, 215, 218. Gauckler, P , 825.
536. De Waal, A., 838, 548. Gayet, A., 288, 373, 399, 426,
Binyon, L., 258. Didron, M., 247, 250, 257. 579, 580.
Blochet. E., 492. Diehl, Ch., 3, 13, 16, 70, 73, Gebhardt, 0. von, 452, 488.
Bock, ¥., 438, 496 ff., 519,540, 124, 151, 159, 162, 170, 171, Gerola, G., 264.
548, 549, 550. 594-5. 191, 199, 206, 227, 249, 263, Gerspach, M., 579.
Bock, V. de, 286 ff., 547, 580, 265, 267, 289, 304, 309 ff,, Gibbon, E., 28, 583, 586.
611, 651, 680. 316, 344, 867, 874 ff., 888, Goldmann, K., 135 ff.
Boisser^e, S., 600. 398, 896, 397, 400, 405, 416, Goldschmidt, A., 96, 149, 238,
Bordier, H., 709. 418, 428, 442, 449, 470, 583, 470, 487, 488.
Brehier, L., 87, 88, 658. 584, 595, 620, 648, 662, 683, Golenisheff, V., 282.
Broekhaus, H., 302. 694. Gori, A. P., 199, &c.
726 INDEX IV. AUTHORITIES
Graeven, H., 130, 144, 156, Laurie, A. P., 257. Papageorgiou, P. N., 378, 621.
185, 195, 197, 202, 212, 225 ff., Lavoix, H., 630. Paribeni, E,, 630.
447, 458, 464, 488, 557, 563, LeBlant, E., 141, 348, 699. Pasini, A.. 218, 512 ff., 547,
605. Lessing, J., 583 ff., 594 ff. 550 ff., 615.
Gravina, D., 410, 411. Lethaby, W. E., 53, 87, 169, Pavlovsky, A.. 406.
Grtgoire, H., 269 ff. 171, 175, 233, 346, 391, 502, Pelka, 0., HOi.
Grisar, H., 318, 337, 508, 510, 537,578, 615. 713. Perat6, A., 600.
536, 564, 591, 599. Likhatcheff, N. P., 319, 433. Petkovic, W., 294.
Gruneisen, V. de, 304, 318, Linas, Oh. de, 194, 504, 505, Petrie, W. M. P., 608.
580, 675. 530, 549, 666. Pokrovsky, N., 250, 301, 302,
Lowrie, W. 579, 605. 374, 377, 391, 399, 403, 442,
Hampel, J., 223, 706. Liidtke, W., 444, 456. 567, 642, 652, 667, 676, 684.
Harnack, A., 452. Pokryshkin, P., 294.
Hartel, Freiherr von, 444. Male, E.,673. Poppelreuter, J., 247.
Haseloff, A., 156, 190, 195, 203, Marignan, A., 698, 699. Premerstein,
684. A. von. 440, 4b0,
211, 234, 352, 362, 372, 451, Marshall, F. H., 495.
452, 488, 490, 493, 642, 649, Martin, P. R., 609. Prior, E. S., 236.
655, 657, 661, 666, 670. Maruechi, O., 373.
Heisenberg, A., 206, 337, 352, Maskell, A., 214. Quibell, J. E., 73, 283, 687.
392-3, 449, 649, 654, 676. Maskell.W., 190 ff., 224. Eambaud, A., 686.
Helbig, W., 243, 328. Masp(5ro, G. 289, 641. Eamsay, A. M., 681.
Herbert, J. A., 680. Mavrogiannes, G. , 261. Eamsay, Sir W., 47, 167, 681.
Herringham, Mrs., 257. Mely, P. de, 640. Eeil, J., 258, 658.
Hill, 6. F., 640. Mendel, G., 129, 180. Eenan, A., 422.
Hirth, P., 584, 701. Meyer, W. 190 ff. Eenan, Ary, 402.
Hiilsen, C, 804. Michel, A., 239. Ricci, C, 203, 348 ff.
Humann, G., 93, 94, 505. Michel, P., 583 ff. Ricci, S. de, 614.
Michel, K., 267. Richter, J. P., 317, 338, 344 ff.,
Jackson, P. H., 80, 125, 319, Migeon, G., 580, 582, 583, 590. 391 393
372, 426, 430. Miliukoff, G., 167. Eied'in, E. K., 166, 167, 198,
Jackson, T. G., 372 ff. Miliukoff,
707. P. N., 296 ff., 602, 206, 259, 300 ff., 344, 347 ff.,
Jacoby, A., 420, 422, 654, 861, 377, 394-6, 452, 691.
672. Miller, W., 586. Eiegl, A., 113, 114, 132, 137,
Jessen, P., 667. Millet, G., 19, 22, 146, 162, 563, 579, 690, 693, 699, 704.
Jones, H. Stuart, 122, 257, 317. 167, 169, 170, 171, 172, 261, Rivoira, G., 53, 86, 157, 170,
276, 293, 374, 387, 391, 396, 176, 236, 374, 697.
Kallab, W., 244. 427, 438, 444, 460, 462, 464, Eodenwaldt, W., 248, 247, 328.
Kanzler, E., 221. 473, 474, 477, 478 ff., 483, Rogers, C. P., 654.
Karabacek, J., 281, 630. 531, 620, 642, 652, 662, 691, Rosenberg, M., 528, 533, 568.
Kaufraann, K. M., 606. 694, 706, 713. Rott, H., 267 ff., 646, 669, 670.
Kerameus, Papadopoulos, 621, Modigliani, E., 218, 284. Roulin, E., 434.
649. Molinier, E., 185, 190 ff., 209, Rushforth, G. N.,304.
Kirpicnikoff,A.,654, 664. 213, 214, 223, 499, 504 ff.,
Kondakoff, N., 15, 39, 145, 146, 516 ff., 527 ff., 538, 547, 548, Sabatier, J., 626.
149, 161, 163, 164, 167, 170, 550 ff., 558, 614-15. Saccardo, P., 159, 399 ff.
200, 242, 294, 296, 299, 300, Molmenti, P., 401. Salazaro, G., 315, 316.
302, 317, 818, 319, 359, 364, Moneeau, P., 632. Salinas, A., 548, 546.
374, 383, 387, 391, 392, 397, Montault,Barbierde, 520,608. Sangiorgi, G,, 591.
412, 415, 416, 420, 433, 447, Mordtmann, A., 680. Sarre, P., 708.
456, 458, 460, 462, 464, 467, Munoz, A., 125, 164, 242, 250, Schiaparelli, E., 580.
474, 477, 484, 493, 495, 496 ff,, 255, 260, 265, -304. 316, 817, Schlosser,
590. J. von, 259, 578,
516 ff., 527 ff., 533, 542, 561, 319, 821-2, 369, 432, 434, 447,
562, 599, 602, 620, 623, 640, 448, 452 fl-., 461, 462, 473, Sohlumberger, G., 162, 166,
642, 644, 664 ff., 672, 676, 684, 474, 486, 510, 516, 518, 541, 199, 212, 221, 224, 229, 241,
704, 709. 564, 571, 599, 601, 664, 666, 606, 510, 518, 545-6, 558, 621,
Konstantopoulos, K. M., 680. 673, 676-7, 680, 695, 697. 630 ff. , 640.
Kraus, P. X., 260, 316, 336, Miintz, E., 263, 332, 884, 341, Schmid, M., 653.
365, Schmidt, Th., 162, 247, 416 ff,,
344, 359, 447, 623, 666-7. 587. 369, 426, 428, 430 ff.,
Kruoke, A., 682. 670, 676.
Krumbaoher, K., 3, 5, 159,255, Murray, M. A., 606. Schneider, E. von, 213, 215.
260, 481, 545-6, 664. Musil, A., 278, 279, 694. Schreiber, Th., 245.
Kurth, J., 345, 348 ff., 374 ff. Sohultz, E. W., 151, 166, 167,
Nerutsos Bey, 282. 169, 298, 893, 427, 711.
Labarto, J., 192. Noack, P., 654. Schultze, v., 151, 282, 339,
Lambros, S., 167, 293, 688, 348, 628, 678.
707. Odobesco, A., 567, 569. Schulz, H. W., 316.
Lampakis, G., 292, 396, 710. Omont, H., 437, 446, 458, 462, Scott-Monorieff, P. D., 662,
Lauer, P., 818, 508, 510, 536, 477. 681.
564, 588, 591, 598, 682. Orsi, P., 542, 614. Smirnoff, J. J., 124, 270, 339,
Laurent, J, 167, 168, 173-5, 374, 376, 384 ff., 543, 568, 585,
176, 177,377. Pancenko, B., 680. 595, 673, 675.
 INDEX IV. AUTHOEITIES 727
Sorlin Dorigny, A., 630. Thomson, W. G.,579. Vopel, H., 614.
Springer, A. , 404. Tikkanen. .T., 358, 399 ff., 442,
Stassoff, v., 572. 462, 465, 467, 488, 614, 647.
Sfcornaiuolo, C, 369, 462. Toesca, P., 554, 557. Wace, A. J., 142,
Strong, E., 6, 114, 133, 142, Turmel, F. J., 675. "Wallis, H., 611, 612.
199, 201. Ward, J., 257.
Struck. A., 291, 612. Warner, G. F., 470, 480, 697.
Strzygowski, J., 6, 11, 21, 41 Unger, F., 263.
TJspensky, T., 378, 464. Weerth, E. Aus'm, 522, 558.
56, 58, 64, 86, 93, 122, 123, Ussoff, C, 452. Weis-Liebersdorf, J., 670, 676.
130, 1 3-5. 144, 146, 149, 151, Wessely, C, 460.
152, 153, 156, 159, 164, 165, Westlake, N. H. J., 288, 289,
170, 175, 176, 177, 192, 195, Vailh(5, S., 383. 291, 292, 293.
199, 201, 209, 211, 212, 213, Van Millingen, W., 289. Westwood. J., 190 ff., 223, 234,
221, 239, 260, 279, 317, 340, Vasselot, J. J. Marquet de, &c., 446, 486.
S50, 367, 378, 396, 397, 414, 524, 561, 704. Wickhoff, F., 6, 133, 247, 259,
416, 419, 420, 422, 438, 440 ff,, Veludo, A., 512. 347, 444, 452, 704.
450, 452, 458, 460, 464, 467, Venturi, A., 135, 138, 156, 190, Wilpert, J., 197, 304,317, 3.38,
473, 484, 487, 493, 496. 500, 192, 199, 212, 215, 217, 223, 651, 667, 672, 682.
539, 567, 569, 578, 583. 585, 235, 334, 340, 348, 369, 399, Wroth, W., 122, 392. 542,625,
598, 603-4, 609, 622-3, 642, 406, 412, 510, 512, 564, 601, 628 ff., 670, 676, 681.
651, 652. 654, 665, 670, 672-4, 620, 673, 694. Wulff,0.,49, 128,144,149, 151,
678-9, 690 ff., 705, 706. ViUefosse, H. de, 239, 565. 152, 153, 156, ]57, 165, 167,
Stuhlfauth, G., 146. 191 ff., V8ge, W., 90, 96, 195, 208, 224, 169, 171, 172, 173, 197, 317,
623, 675. 236, 490, 642, 661. 337, 342, 364, 374, 388 ff.,
Swoboda, H., 580. Vogu6, Marquis de, 53, 86. 165, 391, 396, 451, 464, 539, 606,
Sybel, L. von, 126, 132, 135, 167, 168, 175, 277,346,412ff., 608, 614, 622, 623, 642, 664,
146, 191, 196, 199. 672-3,681,690,694, 711.
 OXPOED : HORACE HAET
PEINTEE TO THE UNIVEESITY