n
it as this or that painter's description of what had actually taken
place. And in the Greek Church all painting is, to this day,
strictly a branch of tradition. See M. Dideron's admirably written
introduction to his Iconographie Chretienne, p. 7:--"Un de mes
compagnons s'etonnait de retrouver a la Panagia de St. Luc, le saint
Jean Chrysostome qu'il avait dessine dans le baptistere de St. Marc,
a Venise. Le costume des personnages est partout et en tout temps le
meme, non-seulement pour la forme, mais pour la couleur, mais pour
le dessin, mais jusque pour le nombre et l'epaisseur des plis."

[36] All the effects of Byzantine art to represent violent action
are inadequate, most of them ludicrously so, even when the
sculptural art is in other respects far advanced. The early Gothic
sculptors, on the other hand, fail in all points of refinement, but
hardly ever in expression of action. This distinction is of course
one of the necessary consequences of the difference in all respects
between the repose of the Eastern, and activity of the Western,
mind, which we shall have to trace out completely in the inquiry
into the nature of Gothic.

[37] Appendix 10, "Proper Sense of the word Idolatry."

[38] It is also of inferior workmanship, and perhaps later than the
rest. Vide Lord Lindsay, vol. i. p. 124, note.

[39] The old mosaics from the Revelation have perished, and have been
replaced by miserable work of the seventeenth century.

[40] Rev. xxi. 18.

CHAPTER V.

BYZANTINE PALACES.

Sec. I. The account of the architecture of St. Mark's given in the
previous chapter has, I trust, acquainted the reader sufficiently with the
spirit of the Byzantine style: but he has probably, as yet, no clear idea
of its generic forms. Nor would it be safe to define these after an
examination of St. Mark's alone, built as it was upon various models,
and at various periods. But if we pass through the city, looking for
buildings which resemble St. Mark's--first, in the most important
feature of incrustation; secondly, in the character of the
mouldings,--we shall find a considerable number, not indeed very
attractive in their first address to the eye, but agreeing perfectly,
both with each other, and with the earliest portions of St. Mark's, in
every important detail; and to be regarded, therefore, with profound
interest, as indeed the remains of