History of art . Ravenna (vi Century). The Magi, mosaic, detail. (Sanf Apollinare Nuovo.) The inner spirit of the time makes its true appearanceas these strange beings look down from their walls andtry, in the prodigious fermentation that is taking placein mans consciousness, to reconcentrate the energyscattered piecemeal over all the pathways of the mindby the decadence of Hellas. The Byzantine idols haveregained the immobility of the statues which, beforethe time of Myron and Phidias, characterized the con-centration of all Hellenic effort as it prepared its con-quest of an imposing and fugi
History of art . Ravenna (vi Century). The Magi, mosaic, detail. (Sanf Apollinare Nuovo.) The inner spirit of the time makes its true appearanceas these strange beings look down from their walls andtry, in the prodigious fermentation that is taking placein mans consciousness, to reconcentrate the energyscattered piecemeal over all the pathways of the mindby the decadence of Hellas. The Byzantine idols haveregained the immobility of the statues which, beforethe time of Myron and Phidias, characterized the con-centration of all Hellenic effort as it prepared its con-quest of an imposing and fugitive equilibrium. But w > ^^^ ^ Cl fî ^ V t3 ^ r+ s c g, â ^ ? f*-^ ^ r^ o ^. B ç^ fC ^ s ^ g P 5 frs ^—^ o 33 rD -S B cr<3 M B o Cfl 2. o*. 218 MEDIAEVAL ART the calm of the Dorians and the smile of the lonianshave left them. A dread anxiety dwells in their fixedeyes and around them; instead of the great daylightand the limpid space, there accumulates, in the dark-ness of the chapels, those magic phosphorescences thatsteal over heaps of waste and over poisoned world of Greece, despoiled of the rhythm whichhad risen so quickly from the depths of its desires to thesummit of its will, returns to its origins, to demand ofan intoxication, in barbarous harmonies, the meaningof its new presentiments. In the penumbra, inflamedby the heavy glow that falls from the mosaics, one seesbut vaguely the motionless processions that carry one—as across a long forgetfulness—^back to Panathenaicfriezes, and one would imagine oneself in the heart of aHindu temple all covered with peacock tails petrifiedin the light. Never did the heavens or the waters havethese blue, concentrated, opaque depths, knowing noother limits than the
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
