SCULPTURE. 47 
selves thither. Although here and there in these works, which for the 
most part are the productions of artists of an inferior stamp, we meet occa- 
sional echoes from the better periods of art, as ¢. g. in the reliefs, pl. 7, jig. 2, 
copied from a Christian sarcophagus in the cemetery of the Vatican, which 
represent the restoration of the dead to life according to the vision of the 
prophet Ezekiel; still the great majority of them are weak in invention, 
coarse in execution, and generally faulty in drawing. 
It was not till the year 493, when Theodoric, king of the East-Goths, 
possessed himself of the supreme power in Italy, that bounds were at 
length set in earnest to the rage for destruction ; while Theodoric himself 
expended large sums not only for preserving but for restoring the monu- 
ments of antiquity and the objects of art. When at that period an ancient 
bronze statue was stolen at Como, the strictest search was instituted, and 
the thief when discovered put to death. Many considerable structures 
were reared by Theodoric in Ravenna, Naples, Pavia, &c.; and both during 
his lifetime and in the reign of his daughter, queen Amalasunta, several 
statues were erected to him, in one of which, at Naples, was applied the 
invention of a particular kind of mosaic, the whole statue being composed 
of small colored stones. The cement however did not hold, so that in a 
few years the statue fell to pieces. 
In the year 531, in the reign of Justinian, the church of St. Sophia 
in Constantinople was consumed by fire, when innumerable sculptures 
perished ; and about the same time Belisarius destroyed all the aqueducts 
of Rome. A few years later (a.p. 537), when Rome was again besieged 
by the Goths, at the assault on the Mausoleum of Hadrian (now the 
Castle of St. Angelo), the defenders broke in pieces the statues which. 
adorned it and hurled them at their assailants. Under the dominion of 
the Longobards, which began with Alboin in 568 and ended with Deside- 
rius in 774, as the native rudeness of this people begot in them an utter 
indifference towards the fine arts, a number of the precious relics of ancient 
art were again suffered to perish. Yet new works were produced, and 
queen Theodelinde in particular caused many sculptured works to be 
executed; of these there still remains a bas-relief on the gate of Monza, 
representing the queen with king Agilulph, which however affords a very 
melancholy picture of the then state of art. In Pavia also, in the church 
of St. Michael, sculptures of that period are extant. 
Art sustained irreparable losses through the reign of Pope Gregory L, 
who caused numberless statues to be destroyed, and of Pope Sabinian L., 
under whom any one at pleasure took possession of the existing statues, 
and if he could not carry one off entire, he took at least the head away. 
Pope Honorius I. (4. p. 662) built much and caused a good many works of 
sculpture to be executed. Paltry and destitute of all artistic value as are 
the works of those times, of which a large number have come down to us, 
contemporary writers are lavish in the praises they bestow upon them. 
Nor is this to be wondered at; for in a time of universal ignorance, when 
an acquaintance with the art of writing was a rare accomplishment, the 
production of a painting or a piece of sculpture, however poor its quality, 
431 
