Identifier: historyofmedival00rebe (find matches)
Title: History of mediæval art
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Reber, Franz von, 1834-1919 Clarke, Joseph Thacher, d. 1920
Subjects: Art, Medieval
Publisher: New York : Harper & Bros.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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ic work;S&sL5_g^l^w^*, offered a rich and mon-umental method of in-crustation, the brilliancyand permanency of whichwere effective even whenthe artistic design andexecution were mediocre.This work was not in-tended to be seen invery close proximity ; itwas applied only to theupper part of the wallsof the apse, the triumph-al arch, the nave, andsometimes, also, to thefacade of the basilicas,and to the conches andcupolas of the churchesof concentric plan,—thelower part of the wallsbeing simply revetedwith slabs of coloredmarble. In the time of Con-stantine pictorial mosa-ics must have been rare.In those parts of the Baptistery of the Lateran and of the Mort-uary Chapel of Constantia where the original construction still re-mains, decorations of this kind are limited to golden foliage uponblue ground, with birds, genii, and various Christian symbols in thepanels. The first connected compositions probably made their ap-pearance in the apses. The oldest known example is the mosaic of
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Fig. 46.—Wall - decoration of the Basilica of JuniusBassus. After a drawing by A. da Sangallo, nowin the Barberini Library. APSE OF S. PUDENZIANA. 81 S. Pudenziana in Rome, dating to the end of the fourth century(Fig. 47). It represents Christ enthroned in the middle of a lowexedra, beyond the tiled roof of which are seen the buildings of theHeavenly Jerusalem and a hill surmounted by a cross. At the feetof the Saviour sit ten of the twelve apostles,—the two missing, andthe lower part of the bodies of those remaining, were obliteratedduring the restoration made in the year 1588. The characteristicattitudes and the expression of the faces are still apparent, — therelative importance of St. Peter and St. Paul, who are seen in profile,being indicated by their positions next to the throne. Behind them

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