It was towards the end of the eighth century that stained glass was introduced as an ornament to church windows. Every succeeding pope sought to surpass his predecessor in the decorations of their favourite churches, in the va riety and profusion of brilliantly coloured glass, rich carv ed work, or fresco representations of Scripture subjects, rude enough it must be allowed, but still we owe to this fashion the preservation of the art during a period of com parative barbarism. Of the numerous list of popes who sat on the chair of St. Peter during the ninth and tenth centuries, there is not one in whose praise it is not re corded that he ornamented certain churches with mosaics and pictures. The Abbate Tiraboschi quaintly observes, that as very few of the pontiffs were themselves ornamen tal to the church, they never failed to endeavour to make up for the deficiency, by substituting whatever embellish ment of works of art they could procure.
As to the eleventh century, we derive from the same source, (the chronicles of ancient churches,) abundant evi dence of the practice of painting at least, however small was the merit of the execution ; particularly in the chro nicle of the celebrated convent of Monte Casino, and in the account given of the rebuilding of the Lateran palace in the twelfth century. which is particularly said to have been ornamented with pictures. The practice waipt confined to Rome and its neighbourhood: for it sect have extended to all the different parts of Italy, and even to have constituted a trade of exportation. The demand for pictures created by the newly established churches which daily arose in the different quarters of Europe, as the light of Christianity progressively diffused itself, gave full employment to the Italian and Greek artists, skilled in the hackneyed subjects of Scripture history.
The black Madonnas, and barbarous effigies of holy men, so profusely manufactured for the uses of the de vout Catholics of this early period, were probably copied from the works of these Italian artists, as seem all to have been imitated from one pattern. The incongru ity of representing the Virgin as a negrcss, giving her three arms, and heightening the hideousness of her black countenance by a gilded back-ground, is quite overlooked in the veneration which great antiquity has acquired for these pictures. These extraordinary productions are now chiefly confined to the followers of the Greek church, and are to be found very abundantly in Russia and the Crimea, where they are held in great veneration. There are some few specimens in Italy and the bigoted quarters of Germany ; but even there, they begin to change their character from the revered emblems of worship, to be come simply objects of antiquarian curiosity. Dr. Clarke mentions, from some specimens he saw in the earliest churches of the Holy Land, that these were the paintings which the first Christians worshipped. As carved images were incompatible with the doctrines of the Christian faith, the first propagators of the Greek church, who came into Russia, brought with them pictures of the saints, of the Virgin, and of the Messiah, probably in the tenth cen tury. " To protect these holy symbols of the new faith
from the rude but zealous fingers and lips of its votaries, in a country where the arts of multiplying them by imi tation were then unknown, (Dr. Clarke observes, that) they covered them by plates of the most precious metals, which left the features alone visible. As soon as the messengers of the Gospel died, they became themselves saints, and were worshipped by their followers. The pic tures they had brought were then suspended in the churches, and regarded as the most precious relics. Many of them, preserved now in Russia, are considered as having the power of working miracles. It would then necessarily follow, that, with new preachers, new pictures would be required.
The Russians, characterized at this day by a talent of imitation, though without a spark of inventive genius, fol low not only the style of the original painting, but the manner of laying it on, and the materials on which it was placed. Thus we find, at the end of the eighteenth cen tury, a Russian peasant placing before his Bogh a picture purchased in the markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg, exactly similar to those brought from Greece during the tenth ; the same stiff representation of figures which the Greeks themselves seem to have originally copied from works in mosaic ; the same mode of mixing and laying on the colours on a plain gold surface ; the same custom of painting upon wood; and the same expensive covering of a silver coat of mail ; when, from the multitude and cheap ness of such pictures, the precaution at first used to pre serve them is no longer necessary."—cc Many of these ab surd representations are said to be the work of angels. In the Greek church, they followed the idols of Paganism, and have continued to maintain their place. They are one of the first and most curious sights which attract a traveller's notice ; for it is not only in their churches that such paintings are preserved ; every room throughout the empire has a picture of this nature, large or small, called i the Bogh, or god, stuck up in one corner, to which every person who enters offers adoration, before any salutation is made to the master or mistress of the house." In the myriads of idol paintings dispersed throughout the em pire, the subjects represented are various. Little can be said of their merit, as they are more remarkable for sin gularity than beauty. In the churches are seen the re presentations of monsters with many heads, and such a strange assemblage of imaginary beings, that they might be supposed Pagan, rather than Christian, temples. The Virgin is represented in various ways, and each have their particular votaries. There is the Virgin with the bleed ing cheek, and the Virgin with three hands, both most probably originating in accident or ignorance, although the Russians themselves narrate some foolish legendary miracles on the subject.