Chap. II. DECLINE OF ART IN MOSAISTS. 45 and. child, secondly in a wall painting in the crypt of S. Clemente at Rome where, amongst other figures, the Vir gin, crowned and dressed in jewel-decked apparel of close fit, holds the infant Saviour on her knee. 1 That the mosaists followed the same course as the painters is not doubtful. They confined themselves to the reproduction of the simplest subjects, such as the glori fication of the Saviour, the Virgin and saints, and seemed either unwilling or unable to trust themselves to any effort of composition. Amongst the relics of mosaics executed at the close of the sixth and during the seventh centuries the mixture of Roman and Neo-Greek types and forms prevailed with more or less intensity and per sistence, yet this, as may be seen, was but a passing im pression. In the mosaics of the inner side on the tri umphal arch of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, the Saviour glorified had a poor aspect; the gazing eyes and de pressed noses, the long outlines of the attendant saints re vealed the rapidity with which artistic power was disap pearing, yet at the same time the persistence of the classic feeling. 2 In S. Theodoro the Saviour was again glorified in the apsis exactly as he was on the triumphal arch in S. Lo renzo; and some of the heads revealed a style approaching to that noticed in the mosaics of S.S. Cosmo e Damiano mingled with that of the later decline, 3 betraying already the impress of the Neo-Greek mosaists. 1 This fresco is also painted with much body of colour on a rough surface, the outlines broad and marked. 2 The Saviour sits on the orb, a cross in his left, S.S. Peter and Paul respectively present S.S. Lawrence, Pelagius, Stephen and Hypollitus, Lawrence and Pela gius still reminiscent of the forms of the 6 th century. Round the head of the Saviour is a cruci form nimbus. His draperies are dark. — On the lower sides of the arch are Jerusalem and Beth lehem. The church seems to have been built by Pope Pelagius; cer tainly his presence in the mosaic with a model of the edifice indi cates the period of the work i. e. 570—590. With the exceptions noted above, the mosaic has the character of the 9 th and 10 th cen turies, and this owing merely to repairs and restoration. 3 S.S. Peter and Paul, severally introducing S. Theodore and an other saint, the former slippered, with a long pointed beard, holding a cross. The heads of Peter
