Искусства и ремесла Средневековья

314 Arts and Crafts in tl1e Middle Ages

,vay, with а fine running pattern of vines, interspersed with figures on а small scale. The Liber Pontificalis tells how Constantine built the Basilica of St. Agnese at the request of liis daнghter, апd also а baptistery in tЬе samc place, where Constance was baptized, Ьу Bishop Sylvester. Aшong the most interesting early mosaics is the apse of tЬе CЬurcl1 of St. Pudentiana in Rome. ВагЬеt de Jouy, ,vho Ьаs wгitteв extensively on tl1is шosaic, considers it to Ье an eighth centшy acl1ievement. But а later archaюlogist, :М. Rossi, believes it to have Ьееа шаdе in the foшtl1 centuгy, in whicl1 thcory he is upheld Ьу М. Vitet. The design is tlшt of а company of saints gatheгed about the ТЬгоае on which Gocl the Father sits to pass jнdgmeвt. Iп ceгtain restoratioпs and alterations made iн 1588 two of thcse figшes were снt a,vay, and tl1c lo,ver Ьalves of tlюsc remaining wеге also 1·eшoved, so tlшt the figures are now only half length. Tl1e faces and figшes а1·е di·a,va in а ver-y st1·ikiпg manпe1·, Ьеiпg realist.ic ашl fнll of gгacefнl actioп, vегу differe11t fгош the mosaics of а latel' peгiod, ,Yhich wеге dominated Ьу Byzantine t1·adition. Iп Fгance ,ve1·e шаnу specimeпs of tl1e mosaics of tlle fiftl1 century. But liteгaгy descriptions аге all that havc survived of these ,voгks, vvhich шight once haYc been seen at Nantes, Tours, and Cle1·шont. Ravenпa is tl1e sЬгine of tЬе craft in tЬе fifth and sixth centuries. It is useless in so small а space to attempt to descгibe or do jнstice to these incompai-aЫe ,valls,