stroyed, and the iconoclasts
continued their devastations until the death of Theophilus in 842.
Fortunately this wave of zeal was checked before the destruction of
the mosaics in Ravenna and Rome, but very few specimens survived
in France.

In the ninth century a great many important monuments were added,
and a majority of the mosaics which may still be seen, date from
that time: they are not first in quality, however, although they
are more numerous. After this, there was a period of inanition,
in this art as in all others, while the pseudo-prophets awaited
the ending of the world. After the year 1000 had passed, and the
astonished people found that they were still alive, and that the
world appeared as stable as formerly, interest began to revive,
and the new birth of art produced some significant examples in the
field of mosaic. There was some activity in Germany, for a time,
the versatile Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim adding this craft to
his numerous accomplishments, although it is probable that his
works resembled the graffiti and inlaid work rather than the
mosaics composed of cubes of smalt.

At the Monastery of Monte Cassino in the eleventh century was an
interesting personality,--the Abbe Didier, its Superior. About
1066 he brought workers from Constantinople, who decorated the apse
and walls of the basilica under his direction. At the same time,
he established a school at the monastery, and the young members
were instructed in the arts and crafts of mosaic and inlay, and
the illumination of books. Greek influence was thus carried into
Italy through Monte Cassino.

In the twelfth century the celebrated Suger of St. Denis decorated
one of the porches of his church with mosaic, in smalt, marbles,
and gold; animal and human forms were introduced in the ornament.
But this may not have been work actually executed on the spot,
for another narrator tells us that Suger brought home from Italy,
on one of his journeys, a mosaic, which was placed over the door
at St. Denis; as it is no longer in its position, it is not easy
to determine which account is correct.

The mosaics at St. Mark's in Venice were chiefly the work of two
centuries and a half. Greek artists were employed in the main,
bringing their own tesserae and marbles. In 1204 there was special
activity in this line, at the time when the Venetians took
Constantinople. After this, an establishment for making the smalts
and gold glass was set up at Murano,