Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/181

 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 93 and though from other and more imperative professional pursuits, it is necessarily only, "of his life a thing apart,"' and his notice, therefore, has but supplied a frame-work, on which other more laborious and accomplished students may hang chapter on chapter of dissertation ; "we still meet in his pages with a more concise, methodical, comprehensive, and compre- hensible statement of the true stmcture of the art of mosaic, than has yet, we believe, been given to the public. On some points the speculations indulged in by the author, differ in several respects from those of any other writer, and it is but fair to allow him to state his own case in his own words. At page 10 he remarks : — " Byzantium, Asia Minor, and the Holy Land, once, doubtless, pos- sessed many noble specimens of Greek Christian art ; but the elements, wars, fires, and Mahometan whitewash have deprived us of almost all those sources whence modern oriental art probably derived much of its inspiration and most of the peculiar features of its character. It is in connection with this branch of the subject that the interesting question arises, respecting the influence that the early decorative processes may have had in deter- uuning the subsequent characters of conventional ornament in all stj-les. Thus, the Arabs having at first adopted the general scheme of Byzantine architecture, and among its processes that of mosaic, the style, from want of drawings, of detail, and of Greek architects, declined in its integi-ity ; ■while the mechanical processes, being retained traditionally among the workmen, this very mosaic work, at first only a subordinate means of decoration, would become a leading element in the minds of the Mahometan designers. From experiments and combinations with small geometrical cubes of glass mosaic, they would be led, not unnaturally, to that elaborate and intricate style of pattern which, when they emerged at length from the influence of Byzantine tradition, became an essential characteristic of their compositions. Thus, also, no doubt, did the ancient predilection for mosaic modify most materially not only the plan and whole structure of the churches erected in Italy down to the year l'2Q0, but even the minor details that characterise and constitute the style of those monuments. "The view I have ventured to express concerning the influence exerted by mosaic on Arab art, receives a cm-ious corroboration from a fact quoted by Mr. Hendrie, in one of the notes to his learned and most valuable work on Theophilus. He tells us, " that it appears, from the chronicle of the patriarch, Eutichius, that when the Musselmen invaded Palestine for the first time, they found the church of Bethlehem, built by Saint Helena, ornamented with "psefosis" (a word derived by the Arabs from the Greeks, and signifying an arrangement of small stones). According to Ebn Sayd, one of the conditions of the peace concluded between the Caliph Valid and the Greek Emperor, was, that the latter should furnish a certain quan- tity of " psefysa," for the decoration of the mosque of Damascus, which the Caliph was then constmcting.' These ' fsefj'sa,' M. Didron (the greatest authority on such a point) clearly identifies with the }/y](f)ois Xpvcr^OLS (golden mosaics) of the Greeks. 'These,' he says, 'are the mosaics which cover the vaults, cupolas, and part of the walls of Santa Sophia, at Constantinople ; of Vatopedi, and of Santa Laura ; of mount Athos ; of Daphne, near Athens ; of Saint Luke, in Livadia ; of the round