But Byzantine art was not destined to have a great history. Too self-contained and, under ecclesiastical influence, too much secluded from the contact with other ideas and other influences which are vitally necessary for healthy growth and expansion, it fell into stereotyped and formal convention and ran in narrow grooves. A general tendency was set up to paint the flesh tints in swarthy hues, to elongate and emaciate the limbs, to stiffen the gait, and generally to employ sombre colours in the miniatures, the depressing effect of which the artist seems to have felt himself compelled to relieve by rather startling contrasts of bright vermilion and lavish employment of gold. Still the initials and head-pieces continued to retain their brilliancy, of which they could scarcely be deprived without losing their _raison d'être_ as decorative adjuncts. But, with all faults, fine and delicate drawing, with technical finish in the applied colours, is still characteristic of the best Greek miniatures of the 10th to 12th centuries, and the fine type of head and features of the older time remains a tradition. For example, in the Gospel lectionary, Harleian MS. 1810, in the British Museum, of the 12th century, there is a series of scenes from the life of Christ which are more than usually free from the contemporary conventionalism and which contain many figures of noble design. After the 12th century there is little in the art of Greek MSS. to detain us. The later examples, as far as they exist, are decadent and are generally lifeless copies of the earlier MSS. Byzantine art, as seen in Greek MSS., stands apart as a thing of itself. But we shall have to consider how far and in what manner it had an influence on western art. Its reaction and influence on Italian art have been mentioned. That that influence was direct is manifest both in the style of such works as the mosaics of Italy and in the character of the paintings of the early Italian masters, and eventually in the earliest examples of the illuminated MSS. of central and southern Italy. But it is not so obvious how the influence which the eastern art of the Greek school undoubtedly exercised on the illuminated MSS. of the Frankish empire was conveyed. All things considered, however, it seems more probable that it passed westward through the medium of Italian art rather than by actual contact, except perhaps in accidental instances. Franco-Lombardic.