One must
suffice. It is the beautiful Greek Psalter, now at Paris (MS., p. 139),
containing lovely examples of antique design, including remarkable
personifications or allegorical figures. In this MS. is one of the most
graceful personifications ever painted, that of _Night_, with her veil
of gauze studded with stars floating overhead. The seven pictures from
the Life of David are among the best ever put into a MS. But
personification is carried to an extreme. Thus the Red Sea, the Jordan,
Rivers, Mountains, Night, Dawn, etc., are all represented as persons.
The drawings are really beautiful and the illuminated initials and
general ornament in good taste.
For other examples the reader may consult the British Museum Cat. of
Addit. MSS., 1841-5, p. 87; also Du Sommerard, _Les Arts au Moyen-?ge_,
tom. v., 1846, pp. 107, 162-8, and album, 2e s?r. pl. xxix., 8e s?r.
pl. xii.-xvi.
It is noticeable in these Byzantine pictures that while the
figure-painting is often really excellent, the design skilful, and the
pose natural, the landscape, trees, etc., are quite symbolic and
fanciful. The painters seem to have been utterly ignorant of
perspective. Buildings, too, without any regard to relative proportion,
are coloured merely as parts of a colour scheme.
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