Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/456

Rh 438 MINIATURE style and that of the mosaics is too evident for us to be at a loss to explain the course of development. The figure drawing is delicate, but rather exaggerated in length; the colours are brilliant ; and the whole effect is heightened by glittering backgrounds of gold. In some few instances, however, the Greek artist breaks away from conventionalism, and, especially when pourtraying the divine features of the Saviour or some subject which deeply stirs his feelings, he surprises us with the noble dignity with which he invests his figures. Minuteness also caught the fancy of these Byzantine miniaturists ; and there still remain MSS., such as Psalters and saints lives, adorned throughout with delicate little drawings of great symmetry and beauty. The ornamentation which was employed in Greek MSS. in the period of which we are speaking, either as frames for miniatures or as borders or head-pieces, is designed evidently after Eastern types, and has more than an accidental likeness to the patterns which are seen in the tapestries r.nd prayer-carpets of Persia. After the 13th century decadence sets in, and we need not follow the course of Byzantine art in MSS. farther than to notice that immediately from it sprang such national styles as those of Russia, Bulgaria, and modern Greece. Meanwhile, in the West, under the fostering care of Charlemagne, arose a great school of decoration in MSS., which at the close of the 8th and beginning of the 9th century were multiplied and enriched with all the splendour that colours and gilding could give to them. But the books thus ornamented were almost always copies of the Gospels, or Bibles, or church service books, which afforded little scope for invention. Hence among the miniatures of this period we have an endless repetition of portraits of the evangelists, drawn, for the most part, in a lifeless way after Byzantine traditions, and degenerating, as time passes, into positive ugliness. The few miniatures of other descrip tions, such as Biblical illustrations, show no great merit, and a half-barbaric splendour was generally preferred to artistic effect. But an exception must be made in regard to the style of drawing found in the MS. known, on account of its present resting-place, as the Utrecht Psalter. This volume is filled from beginning to end with delicately drawn pen illustrations, designed and executed with a facility which, compared with the mechanical and clumsy drawing of other Continental MSS. of the period, is astonish ing. And these drawings are of particular interest for us, as they are of the style which was adopted in England and which gives to Anglo-Saxon art its distinctive aspect. Executed about the year 800 or early in the 9th century, and probably in the north of France, the volume was soon brought to England, where, however, MSS. of the same kind, it may be assumed, had long before been intro duced. The light &quot; fluttering &quot; outlines of th e drapery and other details of the drawings seem to suggest that the original models were derived directly from Roman life, and perhaps partly copied from sculpture ; but those models must have gone through many modifications before passing into the style of the drawings of the Psalter. That the MS. was copied from an older one there can be scarcely a doubt ; and it is not impossible that the original archetype may date back some centuries earlier. May not MSS. which St Augustine and his successors brought from Rome have contained drawings of the same kind 1 This style of drawing was, at all events, adopted and became nationalized in England ; but it had there a rival in the Irish school of ornamentation, introduced from the north of the island. The early civilization of Ireland placed her in the van of art development in these islands. The wonderfully intricate interlaced designs which render Irish MSS. of the 7th and 8th centuries such marvels of exact workmanship derive their origin, in all probability, from the metal-work of earlier ages. But, apart from ornamentation, the Irish miniatures of saints and evangelists are extraordinary and grotesque instances of purely mechanical drawing, which cause us to wonder how the same eyes and hands which assisted in the creation of such beautiful specimens of pure ornament could tolerate such caricatures of the human shape. The explanation is perhaps to be found in super stitious regard for tradition. This style of art was carried by the monks to lona and thence to Lindisfarne, where was founded the school which produced, in the 8th and 9th centuries, the richly ornamented codices of Durham. While, then, Byzantine models were copied on the Continent, the free drawing introduced from the south and the intricate ornamentation brought in from the north were practised in England ; but the free drawing, with its accompanying decoration copied from foliage, and gradually developing into beautiful borders harmoniously coloured, gained the day, and lasted down to the time of the Norman Conquest. The one great fault of this latter style of drawing strikes the eye at the first glance. This is the inordinate length of limb with which the human figures are endowed. But this blemish is forgotten when one comes to appreciate the many points of merit in the designs. In Italy, after a long period of inactivity, two very different styles of decoration of MSS. sprang into existence. The first of these was that of the Lombardic school, which is distinguished by intricate patterns and bright colouring. The large initial letters which are found in the MSS. of the llth and 12th centuries, the best period of this style, are often a perfect maze of interlaced bands and animal forms, and are extremely handsome and effective. Figure drawing, however, seems to have been but little practised by the Lombardic artists, but such as there is appears on a broad scale and well executed. In the collections of Monte Cassino are some of the best examples of this school. In the second style which developed in Italy the Byzantine influence is at first most marked. Indeed, among its early specimens of the 13th century are some which might pass for the work of Greek artists. But the genius of the Italians soon assimilated the foreign element, and produced a national school which spread throughout the peninsula and afterwards extended its influence to southern France and Spain. It is, however, remarkable that in a country which produced such fine pictures and wall-paintings at an early date there is com paratively little miniature painting in contemporary MSS. A curious and early instance of this kind of art occurs in a MS. in the British Museum, written and orna mented with a series of miniatures at Winchester, in the 12th century, in which are two paintings which are purely Italian and of more than ordinary excellence. In the majority of the extant Italian miniatures of the 14th century the influence of the great artists of the Florentine school is manifest. The peculiar treatment of flesh tints, painted in body colour over a foundation of olive-green, and the peculiar vermilion and other colours i which need be but once seen to be ever afterwards recog- 1 nized as belonging to this school, are constantly present. The figures are generally rather shortened and the drapery carried in straight folds, very different characteristics from the swaying figures and flowing drapery of the English and French artists of the same period. The ornamentation which accompanied this style of miniature generally consists of heavy scrolls and foliated or feather-like pendants from the initial letters, with spots of gold set here and there in the border. There are also extant some examples of a most beautiful kind of ornamentation which appears to have originated in central Italy, and which seems to partake of the qualities of both the styles of Italian art of which we have been speaking, combining