I may here again mention that one purpose of my Russian journey was
to discover whether there were heads of Christ in the possession
of the Russian Church older or nobler than the ivory carvings, the
frescoes, or easel pictures which are found in Italy and other
Southern or Western nations. And I was, I confess, disappointed not
to meet with any data which could materially enlarge or enrich this
most interesting of subjects. As to priority of date, it seems to be
entirely on the side of the Roman catacombs and the Latin Church;
moreover, in Russia, as I before frequently remarked, chronology
is untrustworthy, inasmuch as comparatively modern works assume
and parody the style of the most ancient. The heads of Christ in
Russia, one of which has been just described, are, as already said,
more or less servile reproductions of Byzantine types. Still the
typical form is found under varying phases; the general tendency
in these replicas of anterior originals would appear to be towards
the mitigation of the asperities in the confirmed Byzantine formulas.
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