Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/344

 926 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. writings and the inspiration of the Christian situation, the West saw no intellectual progress and little human growth. The same conditions limited the Christian revival of art. There had come fresh inspiration with novel and exhaustless topics; but the living forces which make a period one of catholic human advance were either too crude, or too confused and wavering, to unite with the new inspiration and move onward in the whole strength of human faculty to the creation of a clear new style. The new situation of the Church in the fourth century caused a change in the purposes and character of Christian art, which had now to illuminate the triumphant edifices where henceforth the Christians were to worship. Upon the walls of the new-built basilicas the Christian faith was to be set forth pro- phetically, in its Old Testament types, historically, in the miraculous scenes of the life of Christ, and finally, in the victory of the cross and the afar-descried real- ization of the visions of the Apocalypse. The faith was to endure forever, and the most everlasting artistic means should be employed to illustrate it. Mosaics were a well-known mode of decoration. Most common was the use of marble mosaics for pave- ments. This continued in churches. But the grand endeavor of the Christian decorator was to glorify the walls of the churches with monumental compositions in glass and enamel setting forth Christian themes. The Romans had used mosaics of this kind for mural decoration, as Pompeian remains testify; the cata- combs can also show some specimens of the art. But in the Christian revival of art these mosaics were