SCULPTURE. There are few works of Byzan tine figured sculpture, on account of both the Oriental incapacity in drawing the figure after the Roman decadence and the iconoclastic preju dice against images. There are a few early works, such as the Ambone at Salonica, some sarcophagi at Ravenna, the wooden doors of Santa Sabina in Rome, which show how closely akin its style was during the Fifth and Sixth centuries to early Christian sculpture, with add ed imagination and Hellenic refinements. One of the latest echoes of this stage is the colossal bronze statue of a Byzantine Emperor from Bar letta, now in Naples, the last of the imperial statues. The stiffer late Byzantine methods which prevailed between the Tenth and Fifteenth centuries are shown in the Madonna of the cathe dral at Ravenna, the reliefs of Christ and angels at the Eski-Diuma Mosque in Constantinople, and a few reliefs at the Mount Athos monas teries. While of rare occurrence, works of sculp ture never lapsed into the state of barbarism current in Europe from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century, but always retained artistic qualities. Decorative sculpture especially was developed on principles of design more Oriental than classic; the stereotyped orders, anthemhm, honeysuckle, egg-and-dart, and pearl motives, be ing superseded by a great variety of floral, geo metric, and animal forms, sometimes free. some
times schematic in arrangement. The technique also differed from that of classic ornament; the relief was usually slight, the surfaces rather flat. and the effectiveness by undercutting or sharp a rrises, with violent rather than delicate transition of surfaces. This was carried to an extreme in the 'basket' capitals and similar works, where the design is almost entirely cut away from the ground, and in the altar and choir screens. where the main outlines are cut throttrdt the slab. The churches of Ilave»na, Parenzo, Venice, Constantinople, and Salonica are rich in such works of the central Ityrantine School, while a corresponding but independent development appears in the numerous churches of central Syria. where the design is freer and less like an adaptation of patterns from stuffs ap plied to sculpture. Byzantine ornament pre vailed throughout Italy (except Lo diary) until the Eleventh Century, and lay at the basis of much of Mohammedan design in Egypt, Spain, and the East. It thus, more or less directly, per meated the Middle Ages. The minor branches of sculpture are described under Minor Arts.