The great change brought upon the Christian world by
the Emperor Constantine had its natural effect upon ecclesi-
astical painting. From the catacombs the holy artists arose
to decorate the basilicas, and, leaving the allegorical forms,
which persecution had rendered necessary, traced every^
where the images of triumph and beatitude, and delighted
to place above the sanctuary the figure of Christ between
the Apostles St Peter and St Paul. In these paintings, as
well as in those of the Blessed Virgin, executed for the
most part in mosaic, neither beauty of execution nor ac-
cessory details distracted the attention, but the funda-
mental and holy idea shone forth in all its grandeur and
simplicity.
The Christians at Rome were preserved by their horror
of idolatry from the temptation of introducing into their
works any types taken from the masterpieces of pagan
antiquity. Byzantium first fell into this erroneous practice,
and degraded its churches not only with sea-views, land-
scapes, and representations of animals, but even with copies
of the heads of heathen gods, under the vain supposition
that additional majesty and attraction would be thus given
to the features ascribed by tradition to the Christ, the
Virgin, and the saints.
The conquest of Byzantium under Justinian had a per-
nicious effect on Italian art, interrupting for a time the

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THE CATHEDRALS OF CENTRAL ITALY

primitive ideas, and allowing these but slowly and pain-
fully to recover their due influence.
