History of mediæval art . all human sen-timent is entirely absent. The study of earlier works of art, whichhad long taken the place of a direct observation of nature, wasneglected. In order to convey to the observer any conception ofthe scene depicted, the chief attention was devoted to the merelyexterior accessories; the lifeless forms were imitated from conven-tional types, which, in course of time, had been empirically deter- MOSAICS OF RAVENNA. 89 mined. These types, far removed from any ideal perfection of thehuman body, these figures of saints without physical and withoutpsychical charac
History of mediæval art . all human sen-timent is entirely absent. The study of earlier works of art, whichhad long taken the place of a direct observation of nature, wasneglected. In order to convey to the observer any conception ofthe scene depicted, the chief attention was devoted to the merelyexterior accessories; the lifeless forms were imitated from conven-tional types, which, in course of time, had been empirically deter- MOSAICS OF RAVENNA. 89 mined. These types, far removed from any ideal perfection of thehuman body, these figures of saints without physical and withoutpsychical character, were at last to be distinguished only by thenames inscribed at their sides. The value of the mosaics was re-duced to the general effect of their colors as seen in the dim in-terior of the Byzantine churches, the richness of this decorationbeing dependent chiefly upon the harmonious tones of the pat-terned stuffs and jewelled borders of the draperies, the designs ofwhich were generally borrowed from Oriental Fig. 51.—The Empress Theodora with the Ladies of her Court in S. Vitale. Mosaic in that Church. In Ravenna the difference between the mosaics of S. Vitale andthe others of this debased style is so slight that it is difficult toclass them chronologically. The incrusted decorations in the Basil-ica of S. Apollinare in Classe are even harder and stiffer than thoseof the before-mentioned church, but this may perhaps be explainedby the fact that few of these works are contemporaneous with theoriginal building of the Basilica, which was dedicated in the year549, while those in the lower part, representing the ceremonialgrant of privileges to Bishop Reparatus (?) by Constantine IV., 90 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING. Heraclius, and Tiberius, may be as recent as the years between 672and 6yj. Moreover, the restorations of these mosaics have been sonumerous that the conclusions arrived at from their present appear-ance are perhaps deceptive. In Rome, also, af
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