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54 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. II. the Roman productions of the seventh or eighth cen turies, 1 than that of later mosaics in the capital of Italy. Had art continued at Ravenna, it would probably have assumed the form which characterized S. Ambrogio in the ninth century. It would have presented to the spectator the same costumes and attitudes, the same gazing eyes, the same vehemence of action and richness of ornament. 2 Of the manuscripts of the period illustrated in this chapter, it might be unnecessary to speak, were it not that they confirm the historian in his judgment of the gene ral character of art at Rome during the time of its de generacy and fall. The independence of Roman painters and the persistence with which they clung to the tradi tions of the antique, are indeed curiously exemplified in their miniatures, of which here is a sketch for the more curious. In a Terence MS. of the eighth or ninth century, now preserved at the Vatican, 3 one figure at least and a pseudo portrait of the dramatist, in a medallion carried by two masks, characterize the period completely. The figure in scribed “Prologus” was depicted by the miniaturist with the grotesque face of an antique mask, in a violet Roman tunic and a light red mantle, and holding a bow in his left hand. This is the only figure which has not been altered by restoring. Its proportions are fair, though the hands are coarse and large. The outlines are of a dark red and the colours of the flesh of a light warm yellow. The portrait of Terence is likewise characteristic and reminiscent of the antique. Feebler and apparently the effort of a childish imitator of classic forms are the miniatures of an MS. Virgil at the Vatican executed apparently in the ninth century and much 1 For instance S.S. Teodoro, Agnes, Venanzio, Pietro in Vincu- lis, where the impress of Raven- nese art at Rome has been noticed. 2 The mosaics of S. Ambrogio are said to have been executed in 832 by order of Gaudentius a monk. They have been much restored at various times and probably as early as the 12 lh and 13 th centuries, the form of the Saviour being evidently too fee ble and lank to be of the same period as the head which seems well preserved. The inscriptions of these mosaics are Greek. Above the archangels are the words O.P. MIXAHA and O/P. rABPIHA. Yet the cubes of these mosaics are large and rude. 3 MSS. No. 3868 of the Vatican library.
