DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1755#0112
72
ART UNDER COXSTANTINE.
Our last subject .shows an elaborately-decorated sarcophagus, -with a
reclining statue introduced
lying upon it. The multitude
of subjects corresponds with the
overloaded images in the Latin
poetry of the period. There
is a violent contrast in the size
of the figures; large and small
are brought into immediate
juxta-position; and not unfre-
quently small figures are placed
in front, or at the feet of larger
ones. Exuberant architectural
decoration, curiously perfo-
rated, mixes the back-ground
and accessories with the figures, producing only confusion. In this, and also
in the portrait of Venus and Cupid (Plate XII., Fig. 159), we may, indeed,
trace the imitation of previous works of excellent conception and composition;
but marked by the most ignorant execution and barbarous forms.
The age of Constantine affords so many examples of utter barbarism, that
the eye can with difficulty be brought to dwell upon them. Indeed the condi-
tion of the arts has now reached the extremity of neglect and worthlessness;
and the reader will turn with satisfaction from this subject to the descriptions of
nature, and freshness of thought, which will be met with in the succeeding pages.
Fig. 179.—Monumental Sarcophagus.
ART UNDER COXSTANTINE.
Our last subject .shows an elaborately-decorated sarcophagus, -with a
reclining statue introduced
lying upon it. The multitude
of subjects corresponds with the
overloaded images in the Latin
poetry of the period. There
is a violent contrast in the size
of the figures; large and small
are brought into immediate
juxta-position; and not unfre-
quently small figures are placed
in front, or at the feet of larger
ones. Exuberant architectural
decoration, curiously perfo-
rated, mixes the back-ground
and accessories with the figures, producing only confusion. In this, and also
in the portrait of Venus and Cupid (Plate XII., Fig. 159), we may, indeed,
trace the imitation of previous works of excellent conception and composition;
but marked by the most ignorant execution and barbarous forms.
The age of Constantine affords so many examples of utter barbarism, that
the eye can with difficulty be brought to dwell upon them. Indeed the condi-
tion of the arts has now reached the extremity of neglect and worthlessness;
and the reader will turn with satisfaction from this subject to the descriptions of
nature, and freshness of thought, which will be met with in the succeeding pages.
Fig. 179.—Monumental Sarcophagus.