Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/856

* BYZANTINE AKT. r54 BYZANTINE ABT. Painting. The methods of fresco or wall painting, of mosaic, and of panel painting were all practiced by the Byzantine School. The less durable wall paintings and panels of the early period have disai)peared throughout the East, and it is only from the mosaics that any idea of the history "of Byzantine jiainting before the Twelfth Century can be gained. Its inlluenee was even more universal than that of Byzantine architecture or sculpture, and dominated ]irac- tieally all schools of Christian art until the Kenaissance. It was felt even in the later fres- coes of the Roman catacombs. The destruction of examples in the East itself, first by the persecu- tion of the Iconoclasts (see IcoNOCLASM), then by the vandalism of the Mohammedans, has obliged historians to rely largely on examples preserved in the West. The earliest stage ap- pears at Kavenna in the mosaics of the two bap- tisteries and especially in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, an exquisite scheme of color and decoration typifying the classic stage of the Fifth Century. "The second period (of Justin- ian) is shown in mosaics at Saint Sophia in Con- stantinople and at Salonica, and especially in those of San Vitale and Sant' Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna, in which the mosaics form substan- tially the entire sclieme of internal decoration both figured and ornamental, with scenes from )oth the Old and New Testaments. Ordinarily, it was only in the apse, the dome, and the tri- umphal arch that so expensive a form of orna- ment was employed. There was a period of decadence during the Seventh and Eighth cen- turies, of which some examples remain in Ra- venna (Sanf Apollinare in Classe) and Rome (Sanf Agnese and San Venanzio), though hard- ly anything remains of this time outside of Italy. During the revival under the ilaeedonian dynasty (Ninth to the Eleventh Century), the cycle of subjects represented by Byzantine paint- ing was enlarged and systematized into a com- plete iconographie cycle, which furnished themes and their melluid of treatment to later art in the West. The most superb single group of monu- ments in which the niosaicists showed their .skill was the imperial palace and chapel at Constanti- nople. To the close of this period belong the mosaics of Nicaea. of Saint Luke on Mount Heli- con, of Chios (monastery of Basilians), of Daphne, and of Saint Sophia at Kiev in Russia ; while its earlier years may well be re])resented by the great series in Santa Prassede at Rome. in Saint Irene at Constantinople, and Saint George at Salonica. With the middle of the Eleventh Century a new stage of activity opens for Byzantine painting. In reality its decadence has commenced. Imt the revival of art in Europe at that very time gives it a far broader scope beyond the" now much-narrowed limits of the Ea.stern Empire. The Italian States, such as Venice (mosaics of Torcello, Saint Mark's, and Murano) and the Norman kingdom in the south (Cefahl, Martorana, and Capella Palatina at Palermo), employed Byzantine niosaicists; who trained local imitators. The Roman School was newly founded in this manner (Grottaferrata, Santa Maria in Trastevere) ; so was the great Benedictine School of Monte Cassino under Desidcrius. These three centuries (Eleventh to the Thirteenth) furnish for the first time numcr- ous extant frescoes, from the scattered examples in the Greek monastic chapels of Calabria to the large coordinated series in the monastic churches of Mount Athos and Campania (Sanf Angelo in Forniis, Sessa, and San Niccoh") near Monte Cassino). Besides these and other centres of Byzantine influence in Italy, the Russian, Bul- garian, Ai-menian, Georgian, and other schools of painting are founded on Byzantine models. The rules for painting, both as to technical method and treatment and arrangement of sub- jects, are embodied in manuals, such as that attributed to Panselinos and used for centuries by the painters of ^Macedonia and Jlount Athos (Didron and Durand, Manuel d'lconogntiiliie Vhretietinc, translated from the Greek, Paris, 1845). These carefully detailed directions, writ- ten and arranged in the form of a book, were circulated everj'^vhere, and while facilitating quick execution, called for little exertion of artistic imagination or taste, and hastened the decadence of true art in the Byzantine school. When Italian fresco painting, as well as mosaic painting, was revived in the Thirteenth Century from one end to the other of the peninsula, the native artists went to the Byzantines to be taught. Such leaders as Giunta at Pisa, Mar- garitone at Arezzo, Guido and Duccio at Siena, Cimabue at Florence, Cavallini at Rome, ado]ited Byzantine methods wholly or in part. The Four- teenth Century witnessed the complete emanci- pation of the West, as well as the complete de- cadence of painting in the East. Sucli mosaics as those of Bethlehem (Church of the Nativity) and of the Kachriye Djanii at Constantinople sliow the approaches of this decadence, which becomes plain in the mass of frescoes at Jlonnt Athos and Meteora in Thessaly, at Mistra and Trebizond. Since then there has been nothing but lifeless repetition in the monimients of the Greek and Russian churches. iMiNOR Arts. The medisval artists of the Byzantine Empire excelled in the arts of luxury, decoration, and industr}'; in the illuminating of manuscripts; the carving of ivory book-cov(>rs, boxes, and diptychs; the weaving of tapestries, hangings, and rugs ; the making of superb vest- ments for the priesthood and nobility; the carv- ing of cameos and precious stones, glassware, and faience : the easting, embossing, chasing, and enameling of works in gold, silver, and bronze. Churcli treasuries and palaces were ecpially filled with a multitude of such works. The description of the ceremonial of the imperial palace by the Emperor ConstantinePorphyrogenitus. the tcxta relating to Saint Sophia, the report of the em- bassy of the Lombard Luitprand, and many other texts are confirmed by the surviving examples ex- ported to the West. The superb collection of church vessels in the treasury of Saint JIark's in Venice is mainly part of the loot of 1201 from Saint Sophia. The imperial dalmatica at Saint I'eU^r's in Rome is the most beautiful of Byzantine fig- ured stnlTs, which were among the most valuable exports from the East. The enameled rclic|uary at Limburg (!)48-.5n) and the crown of Saint Stephen (1071-78) at Budapest also stand at the head of their class, being surpassed only by the famous Pala d'Oro at Saint Mark's. That the artists of Constantinople often received orders from the West is shown by the bronze doors deco- rated with designs in niello executed for Italian cluirches in the Eleventh Century, such as tho.se of .malfi, Monte Cassino, Sanf Angelo, At rani, and Saint Paul's at Rome. The ivory carvings I