Byzantine Art. Charles Bayet

and St. Elizabeth are arranged beside each other. The posture of the characters, the religious serenity on their faces, the gold that gleams behind their halos and on their clothing all combine to give this painting an arresting appearance. It seems copied from some mosaic and, furthermore, is not of the same style as the preceding illuminations. These few observations are indicative of how complex the decoration of these manuscripts is. Sometimes they take us further into the past: even in the eighth or ninth century, painters had used ancient manuscripts whose images they repeated. But the artists whose works were being reproduced had by no means themselves created all these compositions: more akin to the third and fourth centuries, they knew those monuments, were inspired by them, so certain illuminations of the more recent edge of the Byzantine Empire can give a sense of the frescos that had decorated the most ancient churches. Previously, the well-known work of a famous artist would become a model that was copied almost exactly; this is why some illuminations appear to be reproductions of mosaics. On this point, one can give clear proof: thus the angel head framed in a medallion located at the Hagia Sophia reappeared many times and is seen again in a manuscript from the twelfth century.

      As for mural painting, though the works themselves have been lost, the texts of contemporary writers make some examples known. The mosaic was a mode of decoration that was too extravagant to use always; so they often had to resort to the fresco. A rhetorician, Choricius, described at length those adorning a church in Gaza from the sixth century.