Byzantine art was sternly controlled by the Eastern Church which turned in perhaps not unnatural reaction from the pagan love of form, as shown in the sculptures of Greece and Rome, and employed art instead in a decorative manner only, as an expounder of dogma, and an expression of East Christian ideas. In this way it forms an interesting contrast to Gothic art, the product of the Western Church some centuries later, which mirrored faithfully every joy and sorrow of the human heart. Our knowledge of the earliest decorations other than mosaic is very slight. It is gathered from painted manuscripts, book bindings often of metal and ornamented with precious stones, a few enamels, and some glassware, and a very few paintings on wood, forming parts of the iconostasis or choir screen of this or that church of the Greek form of Christianity. The mosaics arethe most important decorations of the earlier art, so far as we have any knowledge of it, and these are more familiar to Europe as found in the churches of Ravenna than in any building farther East. The fact that Moslem rule requires the covering up as with white wash of these representations when a church is taken over for a mosque makes it •probable that at some future time many fine early mo saics will be uncovered.
The characteristic of Byzantine art is rich decorative effects almost to the exclusion of accurate drawing or modeling of the human figure or faithful representation of nature in any form. Early or late, the attitudes of per sonages represented are formal and conven tional, but the robes are splendid, the back grounds are rich and the effect is that of a splendid colored pattern with but slight repre sentative or expressional meaning. • Sculpture has never risen to excellence; it is almost lim ited to decorative carvings, of book covers and sacred objects, reliefs in ivory and casting of small figures in bronzz. The earlier statues of emperors and the like are chiefly remarkable for the lingering Roman traditions.
Mosaics and Painting.— In the second Council of Nicea (787 A.D.) the following statement, from its Acts, shows the attitude of the Church at the time toward painting: "It is not the invention of the painter which creates pictures but an inviolable law, a tradi tion of the Church. It is not the painters but the Holy Fathers who have to invent and dic tate. To them manifestly belongs the compo sition, to the painter only the execution." This paragraph is interesting in connection with both Byzantine mosaics and painting. It shows us once more how tradition took the place of nature, and led to both the greatness and the weakness of Byzantine art.
The weakness of Byzantine drawing and painting became apparent after the Restoration. Byzantine art had never been dramatic, and had never been filled with the warmth of human joys and sorrows, an when the artistic creeds became outworn and lifeless, the artists had lost their imaginative power, and were con tent to copy drawings which were often in themselves copies, and to accept such guidance as has been preserved to us in the 'Guide to Painting,) a collection of artistic precepts col lected by the monk Dionysius, in the 16th or early 17th century, from the works of an earlier and famous Byzantine painter, Manuel Panse linos of Thessalonica, who may have lived as early as the 13th century. In this guide, exact
directions are laid down for the execution of all well-known scenes from Bible history.
Byzantine painting was generally executed in tempera upon plaster or a wooden panel, the outlines of the design being often drawn in with gold. Some of the frescoes are still exist ing, and the paintings, which were exported by the merchants, have been spread far and wide. Numberless minatures were also produced in the monasteries, and these and the panel pic tures exerted an immense influence on the art of other countries,particularly upon Italian art which was brought into such close touch with that of Byzantium. Even at the present day the Byzantine tradition is the chief force in the painting of many parts of Greece, Rus sia and Asia Minor.
Mosaics were the most splendid expression of Byzantine decorative art. The art, which was an ancient one, had probably been derived from the East, and was raised to a position of importance in Egypt in Ptolemaic times. From there it spread both to the East again and to the West, where in Rome it grew to be very popu lar. The Byzantines preferred, however, glass tesserce of various colors to the small cubes of colored marbles commonly employed by the Romans.
Gold and silver tessera were made by lay ing gold and silver leaf upon the back of the glass and then covering the leaf by a second thin film of glass to protect it. The mosaics were placed in position by means of cement, and the glowing richness of the solemn figures against their golden backgrounds formed a sumptuous and splendid decoration to dome or wall.
In the 5th and 6th centuries Ravenna, then the artistic centre of Italy, was the most famous centre of the mosaic industry, and was renowned for the magnificent mosaic decora tions of its churches. In the early days Venice was under artistic allegiance to Constantinople, and among later mosaics those in the churches of San Marco and the cathedral of Torcello, dat ing from the 11th century, may be mentioned. Fine mosaics were also produced in the Sicilian churches in the 12th century, although in Sicily the Byzantine craftsmen were probably helped by their western pupils.