lements in Russian art, whether they come from
the north or south, belong to Asia. Iranians or Persians, Indians,
Turanians, or Mongols have furnished tribute, though in unequal
quantities, to this art.

It may also be said that if Russia has borrowed much from Byzantium,
the art elements among her population have not been without influence
upon the formation of Byzantine art. We think even that the influence
of Byzantine upon Russian art has been greatly exaggerated, and
that Persia may have had at least as much effect upon the course
of art in Russia.

However, we must except everything pertaining to images. But even
here Asiatic influence makes itself felt, not in the form, but in
the preservation of the types. The imagery of the Greek school
has never gone out of favour in Russia, and it still holds its
place there in the representation of holy personages. In this,
Russia shows her attachment to tradition, as all the Asiatic races
do, and shows how little her intimate sentiments have suffered
modification.

The Russians avoided the influence of the Iconoclasts which was
felt so violently in the Western Empire in the Eighth Century, and
later still in various parts of Western Europe; among the Vaudois
and Albigenses in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century, the Hussites
in the Fifteenth, and the Reformers in the Sixteenth.

But if Russian architecture and ornamentation show marked originality,
this does not seem to be the case with the representation of holy
personages. These remain Byzantine. It was the school of Mount
Athos that supplied Russia with the types, as it did to almost all
the Greek Christians of the Orient.

In these representations, we have difficulty in finding a tendency
towards realism, which, morever, does not appear till quite late,
and does not come to full bloom.

In Russian art, it is possible to find a few Scandinavian traces,
or, to be more exact, in the arts of Scandinavia we find some elements
borrowed from the same sources whence the Russians took theirs.

Russia has been one of the laboratories in which the arts, brought
from all parts of Asia, have been united to adopt an intermediate
form between the Eastern and the Western world.

Geographically, she was favourably placed to gather together these
influences; and, ethnologically, she was entirely prepared to assimilate
these arts and develop them. If she has stopped short in this work,
it was only at a very recent period, and wh