78 THE FINE ARTS. 
but mosaics have come down to us. Thus in the reign of Justinian, 
John, bishop of Naples, caused a mosaic representing the Zransfigura- 
tion of Christ to be executed for the Basilica Stefania; and even still 
earlier, Paulinus bishop of Nola (431) had the portico of the Basilica of St. 
Felix adorned with paintings, in which instead of encaustic (cera liquens) 
mosaic was employed. About the year 441, in the reign of Sixtus IIL, 
were begun the mosaics in the Basilica of St: Paul on the road leading to 
Ostia; and in 462, under Pope Hilarius, those of the church of St. John in 
the Lateran; and under Simplicius, those of Santa Maria Maggiore. The 
mosaic fragment representing the head of the apostle Paul, which we have 
copied (pl. 14, jig. 7), is from St John’s in the Lateran. It is preserved in 
the Triclinium of Pope Leo. 
In like manner the succeeding popes proceeded to adorn the churches 
partly with mosaic and partly with fresco paintings, although of the latter 
we have gradually fewer and fewer. Thus art is greatly indebted to the 
popes, who alone prevented its utter extinction in those barbarous centuries, 
and encouraged the other clergy to imitate their example. It is on this 
account that all the artistic productions of those times are to be sought 
either in the catacombs or in the churches. That art notwithstanding made 
no considerable ‘advance, is easily conceived ; and if the reliefs on Trajan’s 
Column, one of which, vz. Trajan receiving the submission of a vanquished 
king, we have copied in jig. 8, be compared with the mosaics of the 8th 
century, ¢. g. that of Christ sending forth the Apostles (jig. 10), now to be 
found on the Triclinium of Leo IV. in St. John’s in the Lateran, the 
beholder cannot but remark a considerable decline as respects both compo- 
sition and drawing. With what rapid strides this decline must have 
proceeded is shown by a comparison of the above mentioned mosaic of 
about the year 797 with the mosaic executed in 705 for the Basilica of St. 
Peter and now preserved in the church of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin (jig. 9), 
which represents the Adoration of the Magi, and in which many beautiful 
points can still be observed that characterize the work of Greek artists, in 
whose hands the practice of art then almost exclusively lay. 
Art remained at the same point down to the 10th century; the mosaic 
eopied in fig. 12 will give an idea of the skill of that period. It was executed 
at the close of the 10th century; for it formerly adorned the tomb of the 
emperor Otto IT. (d. 983), which stood under the portico of the old St. Peter’s 
church, and is one of the few works of art that were saved when that church 
was hastily pulled down. It is now preserved in the crypt of the present 
St. Peter’s. The picture represents Christ between the apostles Peter and 
Paul; and singularly enough Peter appears with three keys, of which the 
learned have never yet given asatisfactory explanation, although they regard 
it as a symbol of the closer union of celestial, terrestrial, and spiritual power. 
After this period fresco-paintings begin again to occur in greater numbers, 
while traces of easel-paintings likewise make their appearance once more. 
Thus Pope Calixtus, when in 1120 he took prisoner the anti-pope Bordino,com- 
memorated the event by a painting in the chambers of the Vatican ; and Cle- 
ment III. caused the Lateran palace to be repaired and adorned with pictures. 
462 
