CHAPTER VI. THE ART OF THE SIXTH CENTURY. THE sixth century is the great age of the new Byzantine art. From the time of Constantine, and still more clearly from that of Theodosius, art, unlinked from the traditions of the old culture, had found a new life. It now claimed a universal extension. As the barbarian races confirmed their sway in the West, they replaced it, between the eighth and the tenth centuries, by their own system of ornament; but in the East it held, and still holds, the field. A word must be said as to the origin of this style, so impressive and permanent, whose grandest memorials are associated with the Church of the sixth century. The beginnings of Christian art coexisted with the remains of the art of the ancient world. They were marked by the general characteristic of a simple and childlike symbolism. All over the Christian world the same ideas were worked out in decoration, with an obvious similarity, but some local distinctions.1 The art thus produced was distinctively Christian, but it was not vigorous or enduring. After the fourth century it begins to fade, and finally disappears, lingering only, as art critics tell us, in the medieval Coptic art. Byzantine art is a new development. It takes up and continues the ideas of the great artists, and assimilates with them the earliest Christian tone and sympathy.2 1 See Evans, Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Archi tecture. 2 Strygovski calls this new Byzantine art "historischdogmatisches," Byzant. Zeitschrift, i. (1892), 65. It is from this article that much of this introduction is taken. The It began with the founding of Constantinople; it reached its highest point when the world under Justinian looked to Constantinople as the centre of Christendom. The great city, the home of law and government, commerce, and the Orthodox Faith, had become the rallying-point of the new Christian world. Far more important than Alexandria in Hellenistic times, than Rome in the fourth century, Constantinople since Theodosius had stood without a rival as the leader of the new movement in art. Since the fourth century the new Rome was the universal heir of all ancient and early Christian art. Romans, Greeks, Alexandrines, men of Syria and of Asia Minor, congregated at the seat of empire, and contributed their intellectual powers and their artistic traditions. Not only this, but it has been pointed out that chief points, however, were anticipated by Mr. Freeman as early as 1849 (History of Architecture, p. 166 sqq.). the material, coming in abundance from the marble quarries of Proconnesus, gave the possibility of an independent future at least for architecture and for sculpture. The plenty and the nearness of material gave freedom to the work. The first emperors at new Rome were also great builders, and their work was carried out under the impetus of a new religion. The new religion is the mother of a new art. At Constantinople, again, there was no tradition, as at Rome; the new settlers brought each their different traditions, and a new style resulted from the convergence. The new style took up the latent powers of the ancient art and developed them; and having so done, it spread over the whole extent of Justinian's empire. The art of the sixth century was decisively the art of Constantinople. The characteristic features are found all along the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea--in Asia Minor, the Crimea, Syria, Palestine, at Alexandria and Tunis, as well as in Greece and Italy. If the Constantinople of Justinian gave laws and religion to the world, no less certainly did it give art. In a brief examination of the art of this period, it is thus clear that the chief illustrations must be taken from Constantinople; and this is so, not only because it was the mother-city, but also because there still remain there more memorials of that age than anywhere else. And what Constantinople is for the East, Ravenna is for the West. As the capital of the Gothic kingdom, and then of the Imperial Exarchate, it was the centre of the influence which the imperial restoration exercised in Italy. Rome, in art as in everything else, with its great memories, must stand apart. All ages have passed over it, and none has left an overmastering impression. The same is true |