DR. H. GRAEVEN PHOTO.][BARGELLO, FLORENCE
18. ASCENSION
Byzantine, eleventh century
There are a large number of triptychs[15] all more or less of the Harbaville school. A fine one at the Louvre of Christ and St. Theodore has lost the second wing, and of another still finer one, only the splendidly carved wings remain, widely separated now, one being in Vienna and the other in the Doge’s Palace at Venice. Several of these little shrines inclose a group of the Virgin and Child, the two most beautiful being in the Episcopal Museums of Utrecht and Liège. Count Strogonoff in his interesting collection at Rome has a particularly fine seated Virgin and Child. The whole pose is most pleasing and the Infant Christ on her knee has a far more childish face than usual, the Holy Child being more often like a little man, raising his hand to bless with exaggerated dignity. But the ineradicable love of ostentation and luxury leads the artist to diminish the importance of a really dignified figure by adding a mass of gigantic and over-decorated accessories, and the legs of the throne are wrought with more exactitude than he bestows on the robe of the central figure.
G. ROSSI PHOTO.][TRIVULZIO COLLECTION, MILAN
19. CHRIST ENTHRONED
Byzantine, eleventh century
There are many other interesting ivories in this fine collection, which even contains one of the lost plaques from the Throne of Maximian. Among them is a noble figure of Christ Teaching which might well correspond to the John Baptist at Liverpool, one of the gems of the Mayer Collection. John bears a roll with the text commencing, “Behold the Lamb of God,” which would refer to the Christ on the opposite leaf of a diptych. The Liverpool Museum also possesses a fine triptych, with Christ on the Cross, the Virgin and St. John. This is a type which seized the imagination of the German people, who constantly repeated it, losing, perhaps, in technique, but gaining in vigour and expression, as will be seen on referring to [Fig. 24].
The plaque in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris ([Fig. 20]), is a fitting end to an account of the ivories of the Byzantine Renaissance. It represents the Emperor Romanus IV. and the Empress Eudoxia being crowned by Christ. It is doubly interesting, as through its certain date (the Emperor’s reign only lasting four years 1067-1071), we can compare it with earlier work, as the Cortona Reliquary or the Harbaville triptych ([Fig. 17]), and see that after more than a hundred years the art had not changed for better or worse. This plaque is also interesting from its artistic value, which is very high, the figure of Christ being one of the finest in the whole range of Byzantine ivory carving. We can see that the artist was perfectly capable of rendering drapery in a soft and pliant manner, yet the tyranny of the court etiquette compelled him to envelope the Basileus and Basilissa in the stiffest of sheaths, covered with a regular mosaic of jewels; and to pay honour to the Saviour he was obliged to place under His feet that triple platform of hideous device.