A dictionary of architecture and building : biographical, historical, and descriptive . the drajieries especially showingthe influence of the antique. True, the anat-omy is characterized by ignorance, the figuresare stitt, conventional, and lacking in dramaticforce. On the other hand, they are wonderfully958 MOSAIC calm, solemn, and iiiiiiressive, .and their scalewell (ilculated. The \iry limitation of mosaiclends them dignity. Had not S. Sophia beenmutilated by the Turks, it -would have aflbriledus tiie best exanijile of Byzantine mosaic duringthe reign of Justinian. As it is, we must turnto
A dictionary of architecture and building : biographical, historical, and descriptive . the drajieries especially showingthe influence of the antique. True, the anat-omy is characterized by ignorance, the figuresare stitt, conventional, and lacking in dramaticforce. On the other hand, they are wonderfully958 MOSAIC calm, solemn, and iiiiiiressive, .and their scalewell (ilculated. The \iry limitation of mosaiclends them dignity. Had not S. Sophia beenmutilated by the Turks, it -would have aflbriledus tiie best exanijile of Byzantine mosaic duringthe reign of Justinian. As it is, we must turnto the almost synchronous church of S. Vitaleat Kivenna, whicli affords an admirable Byzantine mosaics of the epoch, though theyare slightly atiected by Italian influence. Goldis more freely used than in the earlier time ofG-alla Placidia, and altogether the effect wasmore sumptuous. After a gradual decline,there was a revival of Byzantine art underthe Macedonian dynasty (867-1057), whichlasted till the thirteenth century. To thisrevival belong the mosaics of S. Lukes in. Mosaic Floor: Monastery Church at Arn-STEiN, Rhenish Prussia. Phocis, S. Marks in Venice, and the Sicilianchurches. Tliose of S. Lukes (eleventh cen-tury) offer a splendid decorative whole. Thefigures are less majestic than those of the at Ravenna, but the attitudes andcompositions are good, and there is still dis-cernible a flavour of ancient Greek decorative methods in the disposition ofthe tesserse are still in vogue, a tendency touse smaller cubes is noticeable, thus approxi-mating tlie execution to tluit of painting, wliich,as we know, ultimately replaced mosaic. Thereare many points of contact between tlie decora-tion of S. Lukes and that of the ByzantineS. Blarks at Venice, wiiich oflers beautifulexamples of mosaics on gold grounds. TheSicilian churches of the twelfth century, suchas the Capella Palatina at Palermo, the cathe-drals of Monreale and Cefalu, while
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