1 72 Dissertation on the Paintings of the middle Ag&. 



Greek School of Constantinople, 



When Byzantium became the residence of Constantuie, 

 his favourite city was enriched not only with beautiful 

 inonuments brought from Rome, but there were also col- 

 lected at the same place such objects of the greatest rarity 

 as still exi>ted in ancient Greece. The number of famous 

 statues and pictures, according to historians, was iiDmense; 

 and it is truly astonishing that so many fine models had 

 not perpetuated a race of good artists even in spite of every 

 obstacle. To say nevertheless that there no longer remains 

 any thing of the ancient simplicity, or of the grandeur and 

 dignity so essential to the majesty of the art, would betray 

 an ignorance of the progress of the human niind ; and, we 

 iTiay even conjecture, that in the same way as certain em- 

 perors at Rome caused either from taste or caprice, the an- 

 cient style of theGrcek sculpture to be imitated, so also we see 

 certain artists of the present dav, from motives which we 

 cannot exactly divine, assume the ancient characters of the 

 schools, and reproduce recollections of the beautiful, in such 

 a way that observers, inore than once in this school, nmst; 

 have met with figures full of elegance and simplicitv*. In 

 general the characters of the Greek school of Constantinople 

 are gravity, dignity, and even beauty, although indicated by 

 feeble means f. 



Florentine School of the middle Age. 

 I should be inclined to believe that the zeal and enthu- 

 siasm which were manifested at Florence for ancient litera- 

 ture, at a period probably anterior to that of the Medici, 

 produced among the artists of that period an inventive 

 and poetical taste, and that it was iu this school that the 



t'lons of thp ancient mythologfy. In the same way there is reason to be- 

 lieve that ihe style of portable pictures painted upon wood, and which have 

 been destro', ed by time, was a continuation of the style of the preceding 

 . painting^. The Catacombs exhibit proofs of this. 



* Witness, for example, the statue of Julian the apostate in the Napoleou 

 Museum, No. 6. 



f Those who have not seen the grand Mosaics of the most ancient 

 churches in Rome m.iy consult, inUr alia, the enjjravings of Ciampini, and 

 particularly that which represents the Mosaic of Saint Agatha of Ravenna, 

 torn. i. tab. xlv. as well as the engraving tab. liv. and several others in the 

 same work, which v/ill show the noble simplicity of the Greek style of Con- 

 etantinople. It is worthy of remark, that the artists which Italy attracted 

 from this city "were rather Mosaic daubers, than painters properly so 

 called. It is a pity that they should have so frequently repeated the ideas 

 of each other: nevertheless, upon considering thtir works with attention, 

 ■we discover more variety than is at first imagined; .iiid they possess this in 

 comman with all the ancients, who arc very diflerent from each other, when 

 they are co.^sidcr•d vvith care and without prejudice. 



qualities 



