This we may, with confidence, assert, that the encou ragement of the rich and powerful is indispensable to vi vify and sustain the latent sparks of genius. Adverse circumstances may, as we often see, defeat its fostering power; but without its aid, other causes, both moral and physical, however favourable, are likely to exert their in fluence in vain. A taste for the fine arts is no plant of the desert, that will shoot forth unheeded, and spread its blos soms where there are none to enjoy their fragrance ; nor a sturdy weed, that can struggle into vigour through rub b' and neglect : it is a plant whose seeds will remain inc until called into life by culture, and will spread into luxuriance exactly in proportion to the care taken of it. \Ve require no other reason to account for its languor or disappearance than the withdrawing of this culture by the cessation of encouragement. Where honour or reward fail to attend any pursuit, there will be few found to fol low it.
The retrograde progress of the arts had already far ad vanced, notwithstanding the magnificence and splendour of the Augustan age ; the dissoiute and effeminate man ners, joined to the degrading despotism of the successors of that emperor, helped it on in its course, when the ex pulsion of idolatry, which a few centuries brought about, dragged in its train those arts which had so long minis tered to its support At this crisis, moral, as well as ac cidental, causes seem to have combined to bear down the arts and sciences. Painting had nearly reached its low est ebb, and was fast sinking into neglect, when, as a death-blow, the torrent of warriors issuing from the bar barous north spread devastation over the fair kingdom of Italy. They themselves, in the utter ignorance and pride of a savage state, lorded over the effeminate inhabitants of this civilized portion of Europe. Acknowledging no me rit beyond the ferocity and courage of a hardy warrior, they despised the acquirements which had failed to pro tect the possessors from their conquering swords. It was natural to the simple manners of these bold Nordmen, to trample on and spurn that boasted superiority of know ledge, which had proved of so little avail in the hour of need. The arts and sciences were in the hands of the destroyer, and accordingly passed into oblivion along with the wrecks of the governments that had afforded them sup port. The Iconoclasts, moreover, instigated by mistaken notions of religion, co-operated in this blind zeal for de struction; and it is singular to reflect, that this great mo ral revolution, brought about by the Christian religion, which seemed to work so powerfully towards the destruc tion of painting, was destined, after a few centuries of darkness and neglect, to become the means of its revival.
We are not, however, to suppose, as many authors as sert, that there existed a total eclipse of the liberal arts during the dark ages. Tiraboschi has collected evidence sufficient to prove, that at no period of its history was Italy totally destitute of painters, and even painters of native birth. There is every reason to suppose the curious pic tures of the ancient Vatican Virgil to have been a work of the 4th century. They are executed quite in the an cient taste, are far from inelegant, and are exceedingly in teresting, as explanatory of ancient manners. Most of the remarkable incidents of the .Eneid, Bucolics, and Geor gics, are there depicted according to the existing ideas. Two ancient illuminated copies of Terence are supposed to have been executed in the time of Constantine, who, in removing the seat of empire from Rome, did more to wards the destruction of the arts than any of his prede cessors. He was led to this measure by the opposition of the senate and people to the reception of the Christian re ligion. He resolved, in revenge, to transfer the seat of government to a situation in the neighbourhood of ancient Troy, reversing the seeming course of nature, which ap pears to have a tendency westward in the march of domi nion. In the progress of this determination, he was led, by the advantageous situation of Byzantium, to fix his em pire in preference there. He proceeded forthwith to re move from Rome and Italy, not only whatever of sculp ture, statuary, and painting, was valuable; but even trans ferred the artists to his new capital, where they were to realize all the extravagant ideas he had conceived of its future grandeur. The finest buildings of Rome were pulled down, and the materials transferred to Byzantium, trusting that they would re-appear in equal splendour on their new site ; but though the materials were fine, the workmen were deficient ; and such was the chaos of sculp tured work, that they fell into inextricable confusion, sub stituting the materials of one building for those of another. They tried to hide the defects by surcharging with orna producing a species of patchwork, of which soine specimens still remain in Constantinople. St. Sophia's church was originally of this ?era, though it was afterwards rebuilt by Justinian in 537. The rage for building had so seized this extravagant monarch, that he erected splen did edifices, not only in Rome, Constantinople, Capua, and Naples, but likewise itethe Holy Land, Egypt. and in France, as at Aries. where the remains of his palace are still visible, along with a greater number of magnificent monuments of Roman architecture than any town on this side the Alps can boast.