28 THE FINE ARTS. 
previous to Hadrian, as the execution is not always of particular merit. At 
the same time art was employed to embody the ideas introduced by the 
invasion of Oriental culture, its services being now laid under contribution 
for the worship of Mithras, as they had been at a former period for that of 
the Egyptians. The Abraxas gems too, with the pantheistic figure of Jao 
Abraxas and other kindred forms, owe their origin to this period. But gra- 
dually the excess of elaboration gave place to meagreness and poverty; on 
the coins, which still afford the best clues to the then state of art, the heads 
are made constantly smaller in order to bring in also a part of the figure and 
accessories. At the close of the third century the busts lose all their relief, 
the drawing becomes incorrect, and the entire composition flat, character 
less, and ie distinguishable lay the accompanying legend. 
The works of the sculptors also become rude and awkward, as is seen in 
the reliefs on the Arch of Constantine and on the Column Pe Theodosius ; 
the reliefs on the sarcophagi after the turgid, overloaded style of the figures 
of the Roman period, are subjected in the Christian monuments to an 
architectural arrangement, and in their execution are rude and meagre. 
The Christian worship favors painting more than sculpture; and it was 
only now and then that so called honorary statues continued to be executed, 
especially in Byzantium; but in these the character and individuality of 
the persons is entirely disregarded. The making of splendid vases of the 
precious metals and adorned with gems is the only branch of art that 
seemed to hold its ground still for a considerable time, and even here mere 
workmanship took the place of truly artistic composition. 
The removal of the imperial residence to Byzantium, together with the 
introduction of Christianity, whose simple symbols and unostentatious 
worship furnished the artists of that transition period with no special 
incentive to the creation of new works, rendered the utter downfall of 
ancient art properly so called inevitable ; while the inroads of the Germanic 
tribes into Italy, the wars, famine, pestilence, and all kinds of suffering 
which afflicted Rome in the sixth and seventh centuries, caused the 
destruction both of artists and in a great measure of their works. Still it 
was not the force of these outward events, to which art was long subjected 
-in a constantly increasing degree, that mainly effected its downfall; it was 
rather the inward exhaustion and enfeeblement of the human mind, the 
loss of the elevated feeling that formerly inspired it, which caused the utter 
prostration of the fabric of ancient art. 
3. Or THE SupsEects oF THE Prastic Art In ANTIQUITY. 
As the design of the formative arts in general is the imitation of actual 
nature, so the plastic art must choose the subjects of its representations 
from the circle of positive existences. It can only idealize, ennoble, or 
modify, according as it has to deal with historical personages or with 
those of religion and mythology. Subjects of the latter kind are always 
favorite ones among a people gifted with a genius for art; because in 
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