harply defined spaces of shadow, all about the same size. Often the
background was so deeply excavated that it ceased to be a plane supporting
the relieved parts, but passed wholly into darkness. Strzygowski has given
to this process the name of the "deep-dark" ground. A further step was to
relieve the upper fretwork of carving from the ground altogether in certain
places by cutting away the sustaining portions.

[v.04 p.0910] The simplicity, the definition and crisp sharpness of some of
the results are entirely delightful. The bluntness and weariness of many of
the later modelled Roman forms disappear in the new energy of workmanship
which was engaged in exploring a fresh field of beauty. These brightly
illuminated lattices of carved ornament seem to hold within them masses of
cold shadow. Beautiful as was this method of architectural adornment, it
must be allowed that it was, in essence, much more elementary than the
school of modelled form. All such carvings were usually brightly coloured
and gilt, and it seems probable that the whole was considered rather as a
colour arrangement than as sculpture proper.

Plaster work, again, an art on which wonderful skill was lavished in Rome,
became under the Byzantines extremely rude. Many good examples of this work
exist at San Vitale and Sant' Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, also at
Parenzo, and at St Sophia, Constantinople. Later examples of plaster work
of Byzantine tradition are to be found at Cividale, and at Sant' Ambrogio,
Milan, where the tympana of the well-known baldachin are of this material,
and contain modelled figures.

Coins and medallions of even the best period of Byzantine art prove what a
deep abyss separates them from the power over modelled relief shown in
classical examples. The sculptural art is best displayed by ivory carvings,
although this is more to be attributed to their pictorial quality than to a
feeling for modelling.

_Metal Work, Ivories and Textiles._--One of the greatest of Byzantine arts
is the goldsmith's. This absorbed so much from Persian and Oriental schools
as to become semi-barbaric. Under Justinian the transformation from
Classical art was almost complete. Some few examples, like a silver dish
from Cyprus in the British Museum, show refined restraint; on the other
hand, the mosaic portraits of the emperor and Theodora show crowns and
jewels of full Oriental style, and the description of the splendid fittings
of St Sophia read like a