File:History of mediæval art (1893) (14593201158).jpg

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

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
reater freedom permitted in the choice of subjects was favor-able to the development of these minor branches of art. TheByzantine Court, especially during the sway of the Macedoniandynasty, did much to promote scientific culture, whereby the pro-duction of illustrated manuscripts was increased. Still, it is notpossible to recognize any important advance in illuminations duringthe last half of the ninth and the first half of the tenth centuries,notwithstanding the fact that several important examples of theart date to this period. Among these may be mentioned the Codexof Gregory of Nazianzos, now in the National Library of Paris,written between the years 867 and 886, and adorned with minia-tures representing a great variety of subjects; also the Topogra- ILLUMINATIONS OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 97 phy of Cosmos, in the Vatican, a work directly imitated from oldermodels, and displaying an antique perfection of form very remark-able in this age. And, finally, a Psalter of the beginning of the
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig- 55-—Miniature from the Syrian Gospel of Zagba, now in the Laurentiana in Florence tenth century, and a Gospel of not much later date, both in theNational Library of Paris, which are distinguished by a free treat-ment, combined with antique conceptions and methods of design.Compared with these earlier works, a great decline of the art is 7 98 EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE PAINTING. evident in manuscripts dating to the end of the tenth century, evenin those executed by order of the emperors. In the before-men-tioned Psalter the design of the illustrations has an almost antiquebeauty, very similar to the wall-paintings of Pompeii; but beforethe termination of the eleventh century the figures represented are little better than puppets.All attempt to convey anidea of the proportions andforms of the human bodyis given up, the images areranged side by side with-out mutual relations, and,as had been the case twothousand years before inAssyria, all the character-istics of drapery were i

Note About Images