Chap. II. GREEK MINIATURES. 77 metrical and well distributed compositions may be found, and that of the birth of the Virgin is marked by the well- known classical attitude of S. Anna on the bed, whilst females are busy preparing the bath for the infant. An ado ration of the shepherds is likewise remarkable for the typical form and arrangement repeated by the painters of the upper church of Assisi, by Cavallini at S. Maria in Trastevere of Rome, and the school of Sienna, so remarkable for the tenacity with which it maintained the habits of earlier times. In some overweight of head, square sculptural character of drapery, and defective extremities, the Greek miniaturists here shared the peculiarities of their countrymen the mo- saists; and even the occasional violence of action remarkable at times in the latter can be noticed in the martyrdom of a saint torn by a lion. In the crucifixion of S. Peter and another saint, 1 the nude is rendered with a certain vigour if not without conventionalism. In the Baptism of Christ, S. John places his hand on the head of the Saviour, whilst three angels attend on the opposite side. Precise outlines and accurately defined forms, — a lively, clear and tolerably fused colour of some impasto, the technical mode of pain ting flesh tints over a general tone of verde, mark the whole of the miniatures. 2 In continuation of these, the miniatures of the Climacchus of the eleventh or twelfth century, also in the Vatican li brary, 3 exhibit the same technical execution, careful and minute drawing together with slenderness of shape. But a weaker art may be noticed in the loose attitude, the affrighted glance and the confused drapery. The first miniature of the series representing the elect advancing under the guard of angels up the steps of Paradise, on the top of which the Saviour sits in glory, gives a fair idea of the manner of the artist. In the meanwhile art at Rome, unmoved by the By zantine influence on each side of it, maintained its old individuality; and whilst in painting it produced works of which few examples remain to our time, it resumed the practise of mosaics which had been interrupted during the very darkest age. Amongst the wall paintings whose value can hardly be discerned because of age and repairs, 1 p.p. 296 and 427. | and lips tinged with red. 2 On gold ground; the cheeks [ 8 No. 394.