BYZANTINE MANUSCRIPTS.
_Byzantine style._
The history of the origin, development and decay of the Byzantine style in
manuscripts, as in other branches of art, is a long and strange one[30].
The origin of the Byzantine style dates from the time when Christianity had
become the State religion, and when Constantine transferred the Capital of
the World from Rome to Byzantium.
In Russia and other eastern portions of Europe the Byzantine style still
exists, though in a sad state of decay, not as an antiquarian revival, but
as the latest link in a chain of unbroken tradition, going back without
interruption to the age of Constantine, the early part of the fourth
century after Christ.
_Many strains of influence._
During the early years of the Eastern Empire, Constantinople, or "New Rome"
as it was commonly called, became the chief world's centre for the practice
of all kinds of arts and handicrafts. Owing to its central position, midway
between the East and the West, the styles and technique of both met and
were fused into a new stylistic development of the most remarkable kind.
Western Europe, Asia Minor, Persia and Egypt all contributed elements both
of design and of technical skill, which combined to create the new and for
a while vigorously flourishing school of Byzantine art. The dull lifeless
forms of Roman art in its extreme degradation were again quickened into new
life and beauty in the hands of these Byzantine craftsmen, who became as it
were the heirs and inheritors of the art and the technique of all the chief
countries of antiquity.
_Technical skill._
In architecture, in mosaic work, in metal work of all kinds, in textile
weaving, the craftsmen of New Rome reached the highest level of technical
skill and decorative beauty. So also a new and brilliant school of
manuscript illumination was soon formed, and Constantinople became for
several centuries the chief centre for the production of manuscripts of all
kinds.
The Oriental element in Byzantine art shows itself in a love of extreme
splendour, the most copious use of gold and silver and of the brightest
colours.
_Murex purple._
Manuscripts written in burnished gold, on vellum stained with the brilliant
purple from the _murex_ shell, were largely produced, especially for the
private use of the Byzantine Emperors. This _murex_ purple, produced with
immense expenditure of labour, came to be considered the special mark of
Imperial rank[31]. A golden inkstand containing purple ink was kept by a
special official in waiting, and no one but the Emperor himself might,
under heavy penalties, use for any purpose the purple ink; and the
sumptuous gold and purple manuscripts were for a long time written only for
Imperial use.
_Gold and purple gospels._
The principal class of manuscripts which were written either in part or
wholly in this costly fashion were _Books of the Gospels_; and of these a
good many magnificent examples still exist, dating not only from the early
Byzantine period, but down to the ninth or tenth century. In these
manuscripts the burnished gold and the brilliantly coloured pigments which
are used for the illuminations are still as bright and fresh in appearance
as ever, but the _murex_ purple with which the vellum leaves were, not
painted, but dyed, has usually lost much of its original splendour of
colour.
_Monotony of style._
Before describing the characteristics of Byzantine illuminated manuscripts
it may be well to note that the Byzantine style is unique in the artistic
history of the world from the manner in which it rapidly was crystallized
into rigidly fixed forms, and then continued for century after century with
marvellously little modification or development either in colour, drawing
or composition.
This absence of any real living development was due to the fact that
paintings of all kinds in the Eastern Church, from a colossal mural picture
down to a manuscript miniature, were produced by ecclesiastics and for the
Church, under a strictly applied series of hieratic rules.
_Hieratic rules._
The drawing, the pose, the colours of the drapery of every Saint, and the
scheme of composition of all sacred figure subjects came gradually to be
defined by ecclesiastic rules, which each painter was bound to obey. Thus
it happens that during the many centuries which are covered by the
Byzantine style of art, though there are periods of decay and revival of
artistic skill, yet in style there is the most remarkable monotony. This
makes it specially difficult to judge from internal evidence of the date of
a Byzantine painting. In manuscripts the palaeographic, not the artistic
evidence, is the best guide, aided of course by various small technical
peculiarities, and also by the amount of skill and power of drawing which
is displayed in the paintings.
_Absence of change._
Long after the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the
Byzantine style of painting survived; and even at the present day the monks
of Mt Athos execute large wall paintings, which, as far as their style is
concerned, might appear to be the work of many centuries ago. M. Didron
found the monastic painters in one of the Mount Athos monasteries using a
treatise called the [Greek: Hermêneia tês zôgraphikês], in which directions
are given how every figure and subject is to be treated, and which
describes the old traditional forms without any perceptible
modification[32]. The proportions of the human form are laid down after the
characteristic slender Byzantine models, the complete body, for example,
being nine heads in height.
_5th century MS. of Genesis._
_Weak drawing._
The earliest Byzantine manuscript which is now known to exist is a fragment
of the _Book of Genesis_, now in the Imperial library of Vienna, which
dates from the latter part of the fifth century. This fragment consists of
twenty-four leaves of purple-dyed vellum, illuminated with miniatures on
both sides. In the main the designs are feeble in composition and weak in
drawing, belonging rather to the latest decadence of Roman classical art
than to the yet undeveloped Byzantine style, which was soon to grow into
great artistic spirit and strong decorative power, a completely new birth
of aesthetic conceptions, the brilliance of which is the more striking from
its following so closely on the degraded, lifeless, worn-out art of the
Western Empire. In this manuscript of _Genesis_ there is but little promise
of the Renaissance that was so near at hand. The drawing of each figure,
though sometimes graceful in pose, is rather weak, and the painter has
hardly aimed at anything like real composition; his figures merely stand in
long rows, with little or nothing to group them together. Fig. 6 shows
examples of two of the best miniatures, representing the story of the
accusation of Joseph by Potiphar's wife. In every way this _Genesis_
manuscript forms a striking contrast to the delicate beauty and strongly
decorative feeling which are to be seen in a work of but a few years later,
the famous _Dioscorides_ of the Princess Juliana.
_The Dioscorides of c. 500_ A.D.
Among all the existing Byzantine manuscripts perhaps the most important for
its remarkable beauty as well as its early date is this Greek _codex_[33]
of Dioscorides' work on _Botany_, which is now in the Imperial library in
Vienna[34], No. 5 in the Catalogue. The date of this manuscript can be
fixed to about the year 500 A.D. by the record which it contains of its
having been written and illuminated for the Princess Juliana Anicia, the
daughter of Flavius Anicius Olybrius who was Emperor for part of the year
472, and his wife Galla Placidia: Juliana Anicia died in 527.
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Miniature from the Vienna manuscript of _Genesis_.]
This beautiful manuscript, which was executed in Constantinople, contains
five large and elaborate miniatures, and a great number of vignettes
representing varieties of plants. The fifth of the large miniatures
consists of a central group framed by two squares interlaced within a
circle. The plait pattern on the bands which form the framework, and the
whole design closely resemble a fine mosaic pavement of the second century
A.D. The resemblance is far too close to be accidental; and indeed this
manuscript is not the only example we have of miniature painters copying
patterns and motives from mosaic floors of earlier date.
_Portrait figure._
The central group in this beautiful full page painting represents Juliana
Anicia, for whom the manuscript was written, enthroned between standing
allegorical female figures. Minutely painted figures of Cupids, engaged in
a variety of handicrafts and arts, fill up the small spaces in the
framework.
_Inferior paintings._
In these paintings we have a curious combination of different styles; the
enthroned figure of the Princess is of the stiff Byzantine style, while the
attendant figures and the little Cupids are almost purely classical in
drawing. This manuscript forms a link between the classical or Graeco-Roman
and the Christian or Byzantine style. Other paintings in the same
manuscript are very inferior in design, partaking of the late Roman
decadence, rather than of the better and earlier art of the above mentioned
picture. Fig. 7 shows one of these. It represents Dioscorides seated on a
sort of throne; in front is a female figure _Euresis_ (_Discovery_)
presenting to him the magic plant _mandragora_ (mandrake). The dying dog
refers to the popular belief, given by Josephus, as to the manner in which
the mandrake was gathered. When plucked from the ground the mandrake
uttered a scream which caused the death of any living creature that heard
it; it was therefore usual to tie a dog to the plant and retire to a safe
distance before calling it, and so causing the dog to drag the plant out of
the ground. On hearing the scream the dog dropped down dead. Cf. Shaks.,
_Romeo and Juliet_, IV. iii.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Miniature from the manuscript of the work on
_Botany_ by Dioscorides, executed in Constantinople about 500 A.D.]
_Colours and gold._
The colours used in the _Dioscorides_ of Juliana are very brilliant,
especially the gorgeous ultramarine blue, and are glossy in surface owing
to the copious use of a gum medium. Gold is very largely and skilfully
used, especially to light up and emphasize the chief folds of the drapery,
a method which is very widely used in Byzantine art, both in the colossal
pictures of the wall-mosaics, and also in most of the finest class of
illuminated manuscripts.
_Cloisonné enamel._
In this use of gold, in thin delicate lines which strengthen the drawing,
we have a very distinct copyism of another quite different art, that of the
worker in enamelled gold, an art which was practised in Constantinople with
wonderful taste and skill. The kind of enamel which was so often imitated
by the manuscript illuminator is now called cloisonné enamel from the thin
slips of gold or _cloisons_ which separate one colour from another, and
mark out the chief lines of the design. So closely did many of the
illuminators copy designs in this cloisonné that very often one sees
manuscript miniatures which look at first sight as if they were actual
pieces of enamel. In other ways too the art of the goldsmith had
considerable influence on Byzantine illuminations; and the designs of the
mosaic-worker and the miniaturist acted and reacted upon each other, so
that we sometimes see an elaborate painting in a book which looks like a
design for a wall-mosaic; or again the gorgeous glass mosaics with gold
grounds on the vaults and walls of Byzantine churches frequently look like
magnified leaves cut out of some gorgeously illuminated manuscript.
_The pure Byzantine style._
It was only for a short period that manuscripts were executed at
Constantinople which, in their miniatures, were links between the classical
and the Byzantine style. Thus we find that the famous Greek manuscript of
_Cosmas Indopleustes_ in the Vatican library (No. 699) is of the pure and
fully developed Byzantine style, with its formal attitudes, its rigid
drapery, its lengthy proportions of figure, and stiff monotonous schemes of
composition, such as grew to be accepted as the one sacred style, and as
such has been preserved by the Eastern Church down to the present century.
This manuscript of Cosmas is certainly a work of Justinian's time, the
first half of the sixth century A.D., though it has usually been attributed
to the ninth century; it really is but little later than the Dioscorides of
Juliana, and yet it has but little trace of the older classical style,
either in drawing, composition or colour[35].
The Laurentian library in Florence possesses a manuscript of the _Gospels_
which, though poor as a work of art, has several points of special
interest. A contemporary note in the _codex_ records that it was written in
the year 586 by the Priest Rabula in the Monastery of St John at Zagba in
Mesopotamia.
_Early crucifixion._
Its illuminations are weak in drawing, coarse in execution and harsh in
colouring, but one of them, representing the Crucifixion of our Lord
between the two thieves, is noticeable as being the earliest known example
of this subject. The primitive Christian Church avoided scenes representing
Christ's Death and Passion, preferring to suggest them only by means of
types and symbols taken from Old Testament History.
This and other subsequent paintings of the Crucifixion treat the subject in
a very conventional way, and it is not till about the thirteenth century
that we find the Death of Christ represented with anything like realism.
In the _Gospels_ of the Priest Rabula, Christ is represented crowned with
gold, not with thorns; He wears a long tunic of Imperial purple reaching to
the feet. The arms are stretched out horizontally, an impossible attitude
for a crucified person, and four nails are represented piercing the hands
and both feet separately.
_Oriental influence._
It appears to have been the gloomy Oriental influence that gradually
introduced scenes of martyrdom, with horrors of every description into
Christian art, which originally had been imbued with a far healthier and
more cheerful spirit, a survival from the wholesome classical treatment of
death and the grave. Hell with its revolting horrors and hideous demons was
an invention of a still later and intellectually more degraded period.
_MSS. of the Gospels._
_Evangeliaria or manuscripts of the Gospels._ One of the most important
classes of Byzantine manuscripts, and the one of which the most magnificent
examples now exist are the _Books of the Gospels_ already mentioned at page
46 as being occasionally, either wholly or in part, written in letters of
gold on leaves of purple-dyed vellum.
_The four Evangelists._
These Imperially magnificent manuscripts are usually decorated with five
full page paintings, placed at the beginning of the codex. These five
pictures represent the four Evangelists, each enthroned like a Byzantine
Emperor under an arched canopy supported on Corinthian columns of marble or
porphyry. Each Evangelist sits holding in his hand the manuscript of his
_Gospel_; or, in some cases, he is represented writing it. In the earlier
manuscripts, St John is correctly represented as an aged white-bearded man,
but in later times St John was always depicted as a beardless youth, even
in illuminations which represent him writing his Gospel in the Island of
Patmos, as at the beginning of the fifteenth century _Books of Hours_. Next
comes the fifth miniature representing "Christ in Majesty," usually
enthroned within an oval or vesica-shaped aureole; He sits on a rainbow,
and at His feet is a globe to represent the earth, or in some cases a small
figure of _Tellus_ or Atlas with the same symbolical meaning.
_The Canons of Eusebius._
_Sasanian style._
Other highly decorated pages in these Byzantine _Gospels_ are those which
contain the "Canons" of Bishop Eusebius, a set of ten tables giving lists
of parallel passages in the four Gospels. These tables are usually framed
by columns supporting a semicircular arch, richly decorated with
architectural and floral ornaments in gold and colours. Frequently birds,
especially doves and peacocks, are introduced in the spandrels over the
arches; they are often arranged in pairs drinking out of a central vase or
chalice--a motive which occurs very often among the reliefs on the
sarcophagi and marble screens of early Byzantine Churches both in Italy and
in the East[36]. These birds appear to be purely ornamental, in spite of
the many attempts that have been made to discover symbolic meanings in
them. Other birds, such as cocks, quails and partridges, are commonly used
in these decorative illuminations, and this class of ornament was probably
derived from Persia, under the Sasanian Dynasty, when decorative art and
skilful handicrafts flourished to a very remarkable extent[37].
Among the most sumptuous and beautiful illuminations which occur in these
Byzantine _Gospels_ are the headings and beginnings of books written in
very large golden capitals, so that six or seven letters frequently occupy
the whole page. These letters are painted over a richly decorated
background covered with floreated ornament, and the whole is framed in an
elaborate border, all glowing with the most brilliant colours, and lighted
up by burnished gold of the highest decorative beauty[38].
_Textus for the High Altar._
These sumptuous _Evangeliaria_, or _Textus_ as they were often called, soon
came to be something more than merely a magnificent book. They developed
into one of the most important pieces of furniture belonging to the High
Altar in all important Cathedral and Abbey churches[39]. Throughout the
whole mediaeval period every rich church possessed one of these
magnificently written _Textus_ or _Books of the Gospels_ bound in costly
covers of gold or silver thickly studded with jewels. This _Textus_ was
placed on the High Altar before the celebration of Mass, during which it
was used for the reading of the Gospel.
_Textus used as a Pax._
The jewel-studded covers had on one side a representation of Christ's
crucifixion, executed in enamel or else in gold relief, and the book was
used to serve the purpose of a _Pax_, being handed round among the
ministers of the Altar for the ceremonial kiss of peace, which in primitive
times had been exchanged among the members of the congregation themselves.
One of the most magnificent examples of these _Textus_ is the one now in
the possession of Lord Ashburnham, the covers of which are among the most
important and beautiful examples of the early English goldsmith's and
jeweller's art which now exist[40].
_The Textus at Durham._
An interesting description of the _Textus_ which, till the Reformation,
belonged to the High Altar of Durham Cathedral, is given in the _Rites and
Monuments of Durham_ written in 1593 by a survivor from the suppressed and
plundered Abbey[41], who in his old age wrote down his recollections of the
former glories of the Church. He writes, "the Gospeller[42] did carrye a
marvelous FAIRE BOOKE, which had the Epistles and Gospels in it, and did
lay it on the Altar, the which booke had on the outside of the coveringe
the picture of our Saviour Christ, all of silver, of goldsmith's worke, all
parcell gilt, verye fine to behould; which booke did serve for the PAX in
the Masse."
These _Textus_ were not unfrequently written wholly in gold on purple
stained vellum, not only during the earliest and best period of Byzantine
art but also occasionally by the illuminators of the age of Charles the
Great.
_Weak drawing of the figure._
Returning now to the general question of the style of Byzantine art, it
should be observed that, though little knowledge of the human form is shown
by the miniaturists, yet they were able to produce highly dignified
compositions, very strong in decorative effect. Study of the nude form was
strictly prohibited by the Church; and the beauty of the human figure was
regarded as a snare and a danger to minds which should be fixed upon the
imaginary glories of another world. What grace and dignity there is in
Byzantine figure painting depends chiefly on the skilful treatment of the
drapery with simple folds modelled in gracefully curving lines.
_Livid flesh colour._
The utmost splendour of gold and colour is lavished on this drapery, and on
the backgrounds, border-frames and other accessories, while the colouring
of the flesh, in faces, hands and feet, is commonly unpleasant; with, in
many cases, an excessive use of green in the shadows, which gives an
unhealthy look to the faces. This copious use of green in flesh tints is
especially apparent in the later Byzantine paintings, and again in the
Italian imitations of Byzantine art. Even paintings by Cimabue and some of
his followers, in the second half of the thirteenth century, are disfigured
by the flesh in shadow being largely painted with _terra verde_[43].
_Monastic bigotry._
The monastic bigotry, which prohibited study either of the living model or
of the beauties of classical sculpture, tended to foster a strongly
conventional element in Art, which for certain decorative purposes was of
the highest possible value. Anything like realism is quite unsuited both
for colossal mural frescoes or mosaics and for miniature paintings in an
illuminated manuscript.
_Fine early mosaics._
Thus, for example, the existing mosaics on the west front of St Mark's
Basilica in Venice[44], which were copied from noble paintings by Titian
and Tintoretto, are immeasurably inferior to the earlier mosaics with
stiff, hieratic forms designed after Byzantine models, as for example the
mosaics in the Apse of SS. Cosmas and Damian in Rome, executed for Pope
Felix IV. 526 to 530; see fig. 8.
So, again, the skilfully drawn and modelled figures in a manuscript
executed by Giulio Clovio in the sixteenth century are not worthy to be
compared, for true decorative beauty and fitness, with the flat, rigid
forms, full of dignity and simple, rhythmical beauty which we find in any
Byzantine manuscript of a good period[45].
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Mosaic of the sixth century in the apse of the
church of SS. Cosmas and Damian in Rome.]
_Limitations of Byzantine Art._
It should, however, be remarked that in Byzantine art this conventional
treatment of the human form is carried too far, and therefore, splendid as
a fine Byzantine manuscript usually is, it falls far short of the almost
perfect beauty that may be seen in Anglo-Norman and French illuminated
manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such marvels of
beauty, for example, as French manuscripts of the _Apocalypse_ executed in
the first half of the fourteenth century in Northern France; see below,
page 118.
_Edict against statues._
Till the eighth century, Byzantine art, both in manuscripts and in other
branches of art, continued to advance in technical skill, though little
change or development of style took place. In the eighth century the
iconoclast schism, fostered by the Emperor Leo III. the Isaurian, an
uncultured and ignorant soldier who began by issuing an edict against
image-worship in the year 726 A.D., gave a blow to Byzantine art which
brought about a very serious decadence during the ninth and tenth
centuries, more especially in Constantinople, which up to that time had
been one of the chief literary and artistic centres of the Christian world.
Pictures of all kinds, as well as statues, were destroyed by the iconoclast
fanatics, and the cause of learning suffered almost as much as did the arts
of painting and sculpture.
_Frankish MSS._
One result of this schismatic outbreak was that Constantinople ceased to be
one of the chief centres for the production of beautiful illuminated
manuscripts, and various Frankish cities, such as Aix-la-Chapelle and
Tours, took its place under the enlightened patronage of Charles the Great
the Emperor of the West, who, in the second half of the ninth century, by
the aid of the famous Northumbrian scholar and scribe Alcuin of York,
brought about a wonderful revival of literature and of the illuminator's
art in various cities and monasteries within the Western Empire.
_Byzantine decadence._
At the end of the eleventh century Byzantine art, practised in its original
home, had reached the lowest possible level. Thus, for example, a
manuscript of some of the works of St Chrysostom (Paris, _Bibl. Nat.
Coislin._, 79) contains miniatures the figures in which are mere sack-like
bundles with little or no suggestion of the human form. The whole skill of
the artist has been expended on the painting of the elaborate patterns on
the dresses; drawing and composition he has not even attempted.
Fig. 9 shows a miniature from this manuscript, representing the Greek
Emperor enthroned between four courtiers, and two allegorical figures of
_Truth_ and _Justice_. The Emperor is Nicephoros Botaniates, who reigned
from 1078 to 1081. An equally striking example of the degradation of
Byzantine art in Germany is illustrated on page 78.
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Miniature from a Byzantine manuscript of the
eleventh century; a remarkable example of artistic decadence.]
_Want of life in Byzantine Art._
After this period of decay during the tenth and eleventh centuries,
Byzantine art began to revive, largely under the influence of the West; the
original life and spirit had, however, passed away, and the subsequent
history of Byzantine art is one of dull monotony and growing feebleness,
the inevitable result of a continuing copying and recopying of older
models.
It is rather as a modifying influence on the art of the West that Byzantine
painting continued to possess real importance. As a distinct and isolated
school, Constantinople fell into the background at the time of the
iconoclasts and never again came to the front as an artistic centre of real
importance[46].