172 BYZANTINE ART
decoration of its churches was the instruction and edification
of the faithful. The wall-paintings and mosaics were intended
to form, as it were, a vast volume open to the view of the
illiterate, like a splendidly illuminated Bible in which they
could learn with their eyes the great events of Christian
history. From the first we find an attempt to illustrate the
Sacred Books, and this illustration shows great differences
of style in the different places of its origin. For the Gospels
there was the version of Alexandria, still entirely under the
spell of Hellenistic feeling and grace, and another version of
Antioch, more dramatic and more faithful to realism. For
the Psalter there was both an 'aristocratic* version, imbued
throughout with classic tradition, and a monastic or theolo-
gical version, remarkable for its realistic style, search for
expression, and close observation of nature. Thus can be
traced side by side the two opposing traditions, which were
by their combination to form Byzantine art.
As instances of the creations of this great artistic move-
ment, we may mention the admirable basilicas still standing
in the dead cities of central Syria, namely those of Rouweiha,
Mchabbak, Tourmanin, Qalb Louze, and the monastery of
St. Simeon Stylites at Kalat Seman, justly called 'the
archaeological gem of Central Syria'; the oldest of the
Armenian churches, the originality and influence of which
must not, however, be exaggerated; those of Asia Minor,
particularly that at Meriamlik in Cilicia, the earliest known
example of a domed basilica, which seems to have played an
essential part in the transformation of Eastern elements in
accordance with the spirit of Greece; at Salonica, the fine
basilica of the Virgin (Eski-Djuma), the domed basilica of
St. Sophia, and that of St. Demetrius, which with its five
naves, lofty columns, and its walls brilliantly decorated with
splendid mosaics and marble facing was, before its destruc-
tion by fire in 1917, one of the wonders of East Christian art;
especially also at Salonica the mosaics of St. George and those
of the chapel of Hosios David; and at Ravenna, the Byzantine
city where Oriental influences were paramount, the mosaics
of the Baptistery of the Orthodox, and, perhaps the most ex-
quisite example that survives of the Christian art of the time,
the wonderful decoration of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.