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 disappeared throughout the East, and it is only from the mosaics that any idea of the history of Byzantine painting before the Twelfth Century can be gained. Its influence was even more universal than that of Byzantine architecture or Aculpture, and dominated prac tically all schools of Christian art until the Renaissance. 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 IcoNom..tsm), 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 Ravenna in the mosaics of the two bap tisteries and especially in the mausoleum of Calla 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' ApoIlinare Nuovo at Ravenna, in which the mosaics form substan tially the entire scheme of internal decoration both figured and ornamental, with scenes from pith the Old and New Testaments. Ordinarily, 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 (Sant' Apollinare in Glasse) and Rome (Sant' Agnese and San Venanzio), though hard ly anything remains of this time outside of Italy. During the revival under the Macedonian dynasty (Ninth to the Eleventh Century) , the cycle of subjects represented by Byzantine paint ing was enlarged and systematized into a com plete iconographic cycle, which furnished themes and their method of treatment to later art in the West. The most superb single group of monu ments in which the mosaivists showed their skill was the imperial palate and chapel at Constanti nople. To the close of this period belong the mosaics of Nie:ea. of Saint Luke on 31ount Heli con, of Chios (monastery of Basilians). of Daphne, and of Saint Sophia at Kiev in Russia: while its earlier years may well be represented by the great series in Santa Prassede at Rome. in Saint Trent at Constantinople. and Saint George at Salonica. With the middle of the Eh•enth Century a new stage of activity opens for Byzantine painting. In reality its decadence
has commeneed, but the revival of art in Europe at that Wry time gives it a far broader scope beyond the now lima-narrowed limits of the Eastern Empire. The Italian Stales, such :13 Veil tee (mosaics of To••ello, Saint Alark's, and Murano) and the No•mau kingdom in the south (Cefaln. Mart orana. and Capella Painting at Palermo). employed Byzantine mosaicists; who trained local imitators. The Roman School was newly founded in tills manner (Grottaferrata, Santa .Maria iu Trastevere) ; so was the great Benedictine School of Monte Cassino under Desiderius. These three centuries (Eleventh to the Thirteenth) furnish for the first time uunereus extant frescoes. from the scattered examples in the Creek monastic chapels of Calabria to the large colirdinated series in the monastic churches of Mount Athos and Campania ( Sant' Angelo in Pormis, Sessa, and San Nic•olii near Monte Cassino). Besides these and other centres of Byzantine influence in Italy, the Russian. Bul garian, Armenian, 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 .1acedonia and Mount Athos (I)idron and Durand, Manuel crleunographie Chretienne, translated from the Greek. Paris. 1845). These carefully detailed directions, writ ten and arranged in the form of a book, were circulated everywhere, and while facilitating quick execution, called for little exertion of artistic imagination or taste, and hastened the decadence of true art in the ByzantMe 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 Duceio at Siena. Cimabue at Florence, Cavallini at Rome. adopted 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. Such mosaics as those of Bethlehem (Church of the Nativity) and of the Kachriye Djami at Constantinople show the approaches of this decadence, which becomes plain in the mass of frescoes at Mount Athos and Meteora in Thessaly, at Mistral and Trebizond. Since then there has been nothing hut lifeless repetition in the monuments of the Greek and Russian churches.