Byzantine art was a composite picture, for it had come into a varied inheritance. It derived in tense love of color from the Orient, power to idealize from the Greeks, ability in architectural composition from the Romans. Its use as an im pressive part of the pomp of imperial power iu palace. processions. and ceremonials was thor oughly Oriental. Its exquisite treatment of every oetail, where Roman art was so careless. was thor oughly Hellenic: its development of interior ef fects, its centralization and use for a systematic propaganda, of ideas was thoroughly Roman. But in none of this was Byzantine art a plagiar ist it simply utilized these various dements in the service of a perfectly original scheme. Its most important additions to the genera] fund of the art assets of the world were: the donne on pendent ires. which made it possible to sus pend one or more domes over any kind of a ground-plan, thus securing superb interiors; figured mosaic irall-paint in gs, the most harmo nious surface decoration for architecture, the most impressive expression of dogmatic religious art: a system of christ ion corre sponding to the system of elas:ieal mythology and embodying in art the same idea: that were expressed in creeds, dogmas, proceedings of the councils, and writings of the Father-. and so serving, as an important vehicle of religious instruction; the prcwrrat ion of classic t rad s. which would otherwise have been broken, and the imparting of them in modified form to the Mohammedan: and Europeans of the Middle Ages: the dt ceiopment of the minor arts to a higher pitch of perfection than ever before. giv ing models to all branches of art elsewhere. It is well known how Byzantine ivories, miniatures, and enamels were the inspiration of mediaeval sculptors and painter. in Europe, their minute figures being enlarged in monumental copies.
When Byzantium W a s transformed into Con stantinople by Constantine, the enlargement of the old city was made by the work of a large number of artists and imported by stantine from all parts of the Empire. but espe cially from 'tome. A sound pillaging of the artistic treasures of the ancient world took place for its benefit. Its forums. basilicas. baths, thea tres, circus. were tilled with works of Greek sculp ture. While even then there was undinibtedly at considerable Hellenic element, the transformation of Christianity from a Itoman to a Byzantine cult was gradual during the Fifth Century, and is sym bolized by comparing the basilica of Saint John (e.450), still in the Latin style, slightly modi fied. with tl'e 'little Saint Selihia,* or Church of Saints Sergius and Itavehas, in which, the elements of the Byzantine style were largely embodied. Probably these element. had liven tirst worked out in more purely Hellenic soil and then brought into Constantimmle: as, for in stance. was the case with the scheme of Saint Sophia. brought in by architects from Asia Minor. The ‘arious stages in the school of Con stantinople before and after the time of Justin ian are illustrated by the many magnificent cis terns with their forests of columns ( Fourth to the Tenth Century), the scanty remains of some of the old palaces (Boucoleon) and monasteries, the churches of Saint John (Fifth), Saints Ser gins and Bacchns (Sixth), Saint Irene (Eighth), Thcotokos (Tenth), Mone-tes-Khoras (Eleventh to the Thirteenth), Pantokrator (Twelfth). It
is this central school which developed mosaic painting, a form of decoration that is seldom found in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, or other parts of the Empire. It is difficult to fol low the geogaphical intricacies of Byzantine art, for to the division into schools are added the territorial fluctuations. The official and central school at Constantinople was followed more or less strictly throughout the Greek provinces: almost as closely in parts of Asia Minor; still less closely in Syria. Certain large territories which were wrested from the Empire by the Arabs in the Seventh Century were at' that time beginning to feel the strength of the influence of Constantinople, thought they had not yet lost their artistic independence. Such were the prov inces of Northern Africa and Egypt, of Mesopo tamia, and part of Syria. The Coptic in Egypt had some of its roots in ancient Egyptian art, but the churches of Old Cairo and the monas teries of the desert show that especially in deeora thin Byzantine art had obtained a strong foothold and that the Byzantine reminiscences found in the later Mohammedan art of Egypt are largely attributable to this source. Other regions of the East which remained nuconquered by the Mo hammedans mingled local traits with prevalent Byzantine characteristics. This was especially the case in Armenia, Georgia, and the neighbor ing region: of the Caucasus. where the central dome, or pendentive and high drum. and the Greek-cross plan got ern nearly all churches from the Seventh to the Fifteenth Century. as at Diedaur and Pitzounda, while their surface deco ration is peenlia• and akin to what we know as Celtic and northern ornament. Of all Eastern churches, those of Asia Minor—such as those of Cassaba, Myra. and :Cie:ea—are almost alone the exact echoes of the school of Constantinople. ex cept for the productions of Greece itself and the present provinces I it European Turkey. one of the most important functions of Byzantine art was its influence outside of its sphere. It is quite certain that if, when the northern tribes wiped out Human culture in the \ \ e,t , Byzantine infinenve had not been actively exert•d in Italy: if Itavenna and then Venice had not been preserved as Byzantine outposts, and !tome resuscitated. by Ityzantilw and immigrants: if Greek colonies had not been thrown into southern Italy, if Sicily nattier the Normans had not subjected herself to Byzantine influence, and if the great maritime republics that held the trade of the world in their haunts from the Ninth to the Thir teenth Century—Amalti, Venice, Pisa, Genoa had not brought to the West all portable works of Byzantine art and themselves become impreg nated with the artistic atmosphere of the East; and finally, if the Crusades had not opened up before the barbarous West superb vistas of the artistic civilizations of Byzantines and Moham medans—if all this had not happened as it did, the torch of progress would not have been handed on and the great Gothic and Renaissance eras would not have been what they were.