Show byzantine art not kot only hundreds of admirable syri in churches but st sophia idolf had been completed before tho the early christian basilica at wits was begun when wo think thin what this must hale hi 0 been with it iwen idin coiling ceiling and scant barbaric attempts at ornament and what st sophia i is with the most beautiful dumo dome that no lias ver yet been constructed ted and a richness of finc finely ay de demised ased md dmd perfectly wrought adornment that has rien iw cr yet leon equaled can call wo mirrel marrel that any kind or degree of contact with byzantine art deeply impressed wistern eyes and often guided hands can wo we wonder that the lie churches of df constantinople beio copied at raven kavon ca or that charlemagne copied ravenna lit bt aix ais la chapelle chapello and sedulously encouraged cou rou raged the immigration of byr antidio artists or is it that in tho the tenth century tho the venetians perpetually y in commercial contact ni with ith every eastern poi t imitated a church amid their own olvil lag lagoons bolls between the sixth and thee vc western art roni aesque art was not even sure what it wanted to try to do I 1 while in the sixth century eastern art I 1 byzantine art had alicade conceived and perfected some of the most in marvelous a arvel monuments of human intelligence find and taste 11 G van rensselaer in century |