92 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART Chap. II. the catacombs. A reminiscense of the antique might be traced in the broad forms of the prophets about the me dallion of the lamb, in the movement and massive draperies of the apostles in the archivolt. 1 The Virgin and S. John, though not exempt from the defects of form and design noticeable in the apsis of S. Maria in Trastevere and S. Clemente — from angularity of contours and coarseness of extremities, were still fairly proportioned. This tribune mosaic was in fact Italian in its types, and, in its general character, far less Byzantine than the works of Cimabue. Here was no superabundance of gilt ornament, no con fused arrangement such as that which detracts from the beauty of some productions of Rome; relief was given by a judicious mass of grey shadow in the flesh tints; and soberness every where prevailed. The name of Jacobus the mosaist of Florence now forces attention back to Rome and to a series of works in S. Giovanni Laterano and S. Maria Maggiore. The mosaic of the semidome in S. Giovanni Laterano appears from its arrangement, which resembles that of S. Stefano Rotondo, to have been an old one, altered and renewed in the pontificate of Nicolas the Fourth AD. 1290. Beneath a bust of the Saviour, surrounded by a glory of angels, a large cross, surmoun ted by the dove and guarded at the base by a seraph between two towers, separates two lines of saints. To the left the Virgin presents the miniature figure of Pope Nicolas the Fourth, by whose side is a small S. Francis and taller figures of S.S. Peter and Paul. To the right are S. John the Baptist, a small S. Anthony, S. John Evangelist and S. Andrew. Deer and other animals sur round the base of the cross, under which the four streams well out into a river filled with figures of cupids in boats. This mosaic is inscribed on the lower border to the left “Jacobus Torrit.. pict. ohc op. fecit.” A critical exami nation of it may possibly clear some disputed points. 1 The head of S. John the Bap- j and type are not Byzantine as tist ip the archivolt is lean, the | in Cimabue. hair frizzled. Yet the character j
