Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/356

 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. historical series from the Old Testament in the nave of S. Maria Maggiore at Rome ; and they show some slight tendency toward the formal symmetry which was to characterize Byzantine art. This is more pro- nounced in the procession of saints and angels which moves along the architraves above the columns of the nave to meet in the triumph of the tribuna. In this grave and stately composition appears moreover the ceremonialism which also was to be characteristic of Byzantine art. Yet a third stage is represented by the mosaics of S. Vitale, the work of the first years of the Exarchate (cir. 550) in Justinian's time. These magnificent decorations develop certain Byzantine types, as, for instance, of angels ; in the choir the sacrifice of the eucharist is represented in the Old Testament incidents prefiguring it. A ceremonial and dogmatic symbolism appears, while ceremonialism of another kind is shown in the representation of the Emperor Justinian and the Empress Theodora. These characteristics — dogmatic symbolism, ceremonialism, formal symmetry — stiffen and become monotonous, while the figures lose their beauty, in the incipient decadence of the mosaics in S. Apollinaris in Classe.^ At Rome, also, certain mosaics of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries show traces of the style which is becoming Byzantine, though this evolution is less clearly marked than at Ravenna. Possibly the mosaics on the triumphal arch of S. Maria Maggiore of the first part of the fifth century show a Byzantinismo incipiente,^ 1 The church was built soon after S. Vitale ; but the extant mosaics referred to in the text date from the seventh century. 2 De Rossi.