344 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. had become fixed by the time of that Emperor's death ; ^ and between the sixth and the ninth century artistic precedent, ecclesiastical precept, and the decrees of councils * had combined to render sacred painting im- mutable.* At length all sacred compositions were arranged and embodied in manuals from the injunc- tions of which the artists ceased to have the will or power to depart.* These remarks suggest the modes in which Byzan- tine art declined after the eleventh century. Its orig- inative power decayed; its technique and decorative qualities survived for a period; then they also de- clined. Decline became irretrievable ruin when the 1 For example, the painting of the Arian baptistry in Ravenna (S. Maria in Cosmedin) of Theodoric's time copies that of the orthodox baptistry (S. Giovanni in Fonti). 2 The second Nicene council, held under the auspices of the Empress Irene in 787, decreed the adoration of images. It recog- nized the eighty-second canon of the council of TruJlo (692 a.d) , directing that Christ should be represented under his human form rather than by a symbol (see Labbe, Concilia, ed. by Coletus (Venice, 1729), Vol. VIII, col. 813, 814, 881, 882). The second Ni- cene council also recognized that these sacred images should not be regarded as the design of the artist, but as embodying the authoritative tradition of the Church. Of course, if images were to be adored, — as they were through the Middle Ages in the East and West, — their fashioning could not be left to the caprice of the artist.
- Miniatures naturally preserved more freedom than church
mosaics; see Kondakoff, op. cit.. Chap. VI.
- The reference is to the famous manuscript discovered by Didron
at Mt. Athos, and frequently described and referred to in works upon Byzantine painting. It may be as late as the sixteenth cen- tury, and may describe compositions unknown to the earlier art. But on the whole its directions correspond to the remains of Byzan- tine painting, and probably embody traditions from the times when typical compositions first became recognized conventions.
