The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors Architects, Volume 1 | Page 7

of every living creature left it
a prey to the flames, so that for the space of eighteen days not a living
soul could be found there. He utterly destroyed the marvellous statues,
paintings, mosaics and stuccos, so that he left Rome not only stripped
of every trace of her former majesty, but destitute of shape and life. The
ground floors of the palaces and other building had been adorned with
paintings, stuccos and statues, and these were buried under the debris,
so that many good things have come to light in our own day. Those
who came after, judging everything to be ruined, planted vines over
them so that these ruined chambers remained entirely underground, and
the moderns have called them grottos and the paintings found there
grotesques. The Ostrogoths being exterminated by Narses, the ruins of
Rome were inhabited in a wretched fashion when after an interval of a
hundred years there came the Emperor Constans of Constantinople,
who was received in a friendly manner by the Romans. However he
wasted, plundered and carried away everything that had been left in the
wretched city of Rome, abandoned rather by chance than by the
deliberate purpose of those who had laid it waste. It is true that he was
not able to enjoy this booty, for being driven to Sicily by a storm at sea,
he was killed by his followers, a fate he richly deserved, and thus lost
his spoils, his kingdom and his life. But as if the troubles of Rome had
not been sufficient, for the things which had been taken away could
never return, there came an army of Saracens to ravage that island, who
carried away the property of the Sicilians and the spoils of Rome to
Alexandria, to the infinite shame and loss of Italy and of all
Christendom. Thus what the popes had not destroyed, notably St
Gregory, who is said to have put under the ban all that remained of the
statues and of the spoils of the buildings, finally perished through the
instrumentality of this traitorous Greek. Not a trace or a vestige of any
good thing remained, so that the generations which followed being
rough and material, particularly in painting and sculpture, yet feeling
themselves impelled by nature and inspired by the atmosphere of the
place, set themselves to produce things, not indeed according to the
rules of art, for they had none, but as they were instructed by their own
intelligence.
The arts of design having arrived at this pitch, both before and during

the time that the Lombards ruled Italy, they subsequently grew worse
and worse, until at length they reached the lowest depths of baseness.
An instance of their utter tastelessness and crudeness may be seen in
some figures over the door in the portico of S. Peter's at Rome, in
memory of some holy fathers who had disputed for Holy Church in
certain councils. Further evidence is supplied by a number of examples
in the same style in the city and in the whole of the Exarchate of
Ravenna, notably some in S. Maria Rotonda outside that city, which
were made shortly after the Lombards were driven from Italy. But I
will not deny that there is one very notable and marvellous thing in this
church, and that is the vault or cupola which covers it, which is ten
braccia across and serves as the roof of the building, and yet is of a
single piece and so large that it appears impossible that a stone of this
description, weighing more than 200,000 pounds, could be placed so
high up. But to return to our point, the masters of that day produced
nothing but shapeless and clumsy things which may still be seen to-day.
It was the same with architecture, for it was necessary to build, and as
form and good methods were lost by the death of good artists and the
destruction of good buildings, those who devoted themselves to this
profession built erections devoid of order or measure, and totally
deficient in grace, proportion or principle. Then new architects arose
who created that style of building, for their barbarous nations, which
we call German, and produced some works which are ridiculous to our
modern eyes, but appeared admirable to theirs. This lasted until a better
form somewhat similar to the good antique manner was discovered by
better artists, as is shown by the oldest churches in Italy which are not
antique, which were built by them, and by the palaces erected for
Theoderic, King of Italy, at Ravenna, Pavia, and Modena, though the
style is barbarous and rather rich and grand than well conceived or
really good. The same may be said of S. Stefano at Rimini and of S.
Martino at Ravenna, of