Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

by J. H. Middleton

Value of late copies.Many other examples might be given to show that a truer notion of classical illuminated manuscripts of the best Graeco-Roman style can be gained from a study of the works of mediaeval copyists than from manuscripts which, though older, are of late and debased style like the famous illuminated Virgil of the Vatican[^[28]].

After Rome had ceased to be the seat of government, Constantinople became the chief centre for the production of illuminated manuscripts[^[29]], but nevertheless the older classical style of drawing to some extent did survive in Italy, though in a very debased form, down to the thirteenth century, when Cimabue and his pupil Giotto inaugurated the brilliant Renaissance of Italian painting.

Classical survival.

Classical survival.The Gospels, for example, which St Augustine is said to have brought with him to Britain in 597 A.D., have paintings, enthroned figures of the Evangelists, which in design and colour are purely of late Roman style, unchanged by the then wide-spread influence of Byzantine art.

CHAPTER IV.

Byzantine Manuscripts.

Byzantine style.

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.