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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Christ are barbar-ously distorted, and the gestures of the twenty-four elders of theChurch helpless and wooden. The background of gold, at that timenot common in Rome, and the Byzantine nationality of the Empresswho presented this mosaic to the Church, naturally lead to the sup-position that we have here to deal with the work of designers fromRavenna, who had not been able to profit by the opportunities for TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF S. PAOLO. 83 studying the antique models through which the artists of Romeitself still preserved the slight degree of classic excellence apparentin the decorations of S. Maria Maggiore. The characteristics of the mosaic upon the triumphal arch ofS. Paolo are to be considered rather as due to what may be calledproto-Byzantine influences, than taken as direct evidences of thedebasement of Roman art in the fifth century. On the other hand,the mosaic in the apse of SS. Cosma e Damiano (Fig. 49), which isnearly a hundred years later than the preceding work, is in every
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Fig. 48.—Mosaic on the Triumphal Arch of S. Paolo fuori le mura in Rome. way an example of such debasement, and may perhaps be regardedas the last monument of early Christian art in Rome. The figureof Christ stands in the centre, the right arm uplifted in the atti-tude of teaching, while the patrons of the Church, St. Cosmo andSt. Damian, advance upon either side, preceded by the four chiefapostles. In general composition, as well as in the proportion ofthe figures and the drapery, this work is far superior to that inS. Paolo; but even here a certain senile degeneration may be ob-served in the heads of the saints, and the color and shadows of thegarments display a greater degree of hardness than can be explained 84 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING. and excused by the inherent defects of mosaic work. The diligenceand exactness required by this mode of execution had indeed beenof beneficial effect, and the hasty and careless style of the frescosin the catacombs had been entirely

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