art of an anodyne secular character has survived. Only after the final defeat of iconoclasm in 843 was the large-scale production of religious art resumed. In the second half of the ninth century a lavish programme of redecorating churches such as St Sophia with mosaics was undertaken, which was soon followed by an upsurge in the production of manuscripts and such objects as ivories along classical lines. With the onset of this Macedonian Renaissance Byzantine art had finally developed a set of decorative schemes, artistic formulae, and iconographic theories which had their roots in Late Roman art and which were to remain the corner-stone of an increasingly static Byzantine art.

Signs of recovery also appeared in the western Mediterranean. Eastern influences served as a catalyst in such areas as Rome, where the work of Greek craftsmen was visible in the art commissioned by Pope John VII ( 705-7). A particularly impressive example of oriental influence occurs in the frescos of Santa Maria 'Outside the Walls' at Castelseprio north of Milan; their dating is uncertain, but in the view of many scholars the iconography of certain scenes suggests that they were painted by eastern artists perhaps sent to the Lombard kingdom after its conversion to Catholicism.

More often the dominant influences were home-grown, stemming from enduring local traditions visible, for example, in the continued production of subantique sarcophagi in northern Italy and southern Gaul and the survival of commonplace Roman building techniques. In the Lombard kingdoms the close artistic links with the Byzantine territories found expression in the considerable activity under kings from Liutprand onwards. Masterpieces of this period include the monumental church of San Salvatore in Brescia and the 'tempietto' of Santa Maria in Valle in Cividale with its exquisite stucco figures. The foundation of great monasteries such as Monte Cassino and Nonantola served as a further stimulus to the patronage of art, and especially manuscripts. The persistence of Roman traditions and the number of rich monastic and episcopal patrons restricted the impact of the impulses associated with the Carolingian Renaissance in Italy, although attractive frescos survive in remote Carolingian churches of the Tyrol, such as St Proculus in Naturns. In the case of Rome Carolingian

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