This mosaic, with others of
Greek work, was brought from the old tribune of the cathedral, when
it was altered and repaired, and the ancient decorations removed or
destroyed.

Another instance, also, at Ravenna, is the basso-relievo in
Greek marble, and evidently of Greek workmanship, which is said
to have existed from the earliest ages, in the church of S.
Maria-in-Porto-Fuori, and is now preserved in the S. Maria-in-Porto,
where I saw it in 1847. It is probably as old as the sixth or seventh
century.

In St. Mark's at Venice, in the grand old basilica at Torcello, in
San Donate at Murano, at Monreale, near Palermo, and in most of the
old churches in the East of Europe, we find similar figures, either
Byzantine in origin, or in imitation of the Byzantine style.

But about the middle of the thirteenth century, and contemporary with
Cimabue, we find the first indication of a departure, even in the
mosaics, from the lifeless, formal type of Byzantine art. The earliest
example of a more animated treatment is, perhaps, the figure in the
apsis of St. John Lateran. (Rome.) In the centre is an immense cross,
emblem of salvation; the four rivers of Paradise (the four Gospels)
flow from its base; and the faithful, figured by the hart and the
sheep, drink from these streams. Below the cross is represented, of
a small size, the New Jerusalem guarded by an archangel. On the right
stands the Virgin, of colossal dimensions. She places one hand on the
head of a diminutive kneeling figure, Pope Nicholas IV.,[1] by whom
the mosaic was dedicated about 1290; the other hand, stretched forth,
seems to recommend the votary to the mercy of Christ.

[Footnote 1: For a minute reduction of the whole composition, see
Kugler's Handbook, p. 113.]

Full-length effigies of the Virgin seated on a throne, or glorified as
queen of heaven, or queen of angels, without her divine Infant in her
arms, are exceedingly rare in every age; now and then to be met with
in the early pictures and illuminations, but never, that I know of,
in the later schools of art. A signal example is the fine enthroned
Madonna in the Campo Santo, who receives St. Ranieri when presented
by St. Peter and St. Paul.

On the Dalmatica (or Deacon's robe) preserved in the sacristy of
St. Peter's at Rome (which Lord Lindsay well describes as a perfect
example of the highest style of Byzantine art) (Christian Art, i.
136), the embroidery on the front represents Christ in a golden