In St. Mark’s at Venice, in the grand old basilica at Torcello, in San Donate at Murano, at Monreale, near Palermo, and in most of the old churches in the East of Europe, we find similar figures, either Byzantine in origin, or in imitation of the Byzantine style.

But about the middle of the thirteenth century, and contemporary with Cimabue, we find the first indication of a departure, even in the mosaics, from the lifeless, formal type of Byzantine art.  The earliest example of a more animated treatment is, perhaps, the figure in the apsis of St. John Lateran. (Rome.) In the centre is an immense cross, emblem of salvation; the four rivers of Paradise (the four Gospels) flow from its base; and the faithful, figured by the hart and the sheep, drink from these streams.  Below the cross is represented, of a small size, the New Jerusalem guarded by an archangel.  On the right stands the Virgin, of colossal dimensions.  She places one hand on the head of a diminutive kneeling figure, Pope Nicholas IV.,[1] by whom the mosaic was dedicated about 1290; the other hand, stretched forth, seems to recommend the votary to the mercy of Christ.

[Footnote 1:  For a minute reduction of the whole composition, see Kugler’s Handbook, p. 113.]

Full-length effigies of the Virgin seated on a throne, or glorified as queen of heaven, or queen of angels, without her divine Infant in her arms, are exceedingly rare in every age; now and then to be met with in the early pictures and illuminations, but never, that I know of, in the later schools of art.  A signal example is the fine enthroned Madonna in the Campo Santo, who receives St. Ranieri when presented by St. Peter and St. Paul.

On the Dalmatica (or Deacon’s robe) preserved in the sacristy of St. Peter’s at Rome (which Lord Lindsay well describes as a perfect example of the highest style of Byzantine art) (Christian Art, i. 136), the embroidery on the front represents Christ in a golden circle or glory, robed in white, with the youthful and beardless face, his eyes looking into yours.  He sits on the rainbow; his left hand holds an open book, inscribed, “Come, ye blessed of my Father!” while the right is raised in benediction.  The Virgin stands on the right entirely within the glory; “she is sweet in feature and graceful in attitude, in her long white robe.”  The Baptist stands on the left outside the glory.

In pictures representing the glory of heaven, Paradise, or the Last Judgment, we have this idea constantly repeated—­of the Virgin on the right hand of her Son, but not on the same throne with him, unless it be a “Coronation,” which is a subject apart.