ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 35 



employed in the decoration of this remarkable ecclesiastical 

 work, although Mr. Dalton suggests that a single artist 

 might have taken more pains with the more conspicuous 

 panels and have treated the others with less care. The 

 splendid carving of the archangel, probably St. Michael, 

 in the British Museum, has also been referred to Antioch, 

 where the best traditions of Greek art long held sway.* 



In this latter work Strzygowski has seen an influence of 

 the histrionic frescos of Pompeii, in which the short flight 

 of steps by which the actors descended to the stage are 

 flanked by pairs of columns. As such an influence could 

 scarcely be exerted, upon Christian art especially, in any 

 place other than a great centre of population, the conjecture 

 that Antioch was the city where the remarkable carving of 

 the archangel was produced receives additional confirmation.! 



A very interesting carved ivory panel in the Bargello in 

 Florence, representing the figure of an empress, has been 

 variously dated by different authorities, Molinier referring 

 it to the Empress Irene, regent for her son Constantine VI 

 in 780 A. D., but the work was probably executed at an earlier 

 period, and may figure Ariadne, who was successively mar- 

 ried to the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius I, her son by the 

 latter emperor having died in 507 A. D., to which date, 

 approximately, the panel may be attributed. The curious 

 headgear of the empress was used at a later time in repre- 

 sentations of the Virgin Mary.{ 



Of the ivory-adorned book covers in the Bibliotheque 

 Nationale, one of the finest and most interesting is formed 

 from a Roman diptych. On one leaf is carved a repre- 



*0. M. Dalton, "Byzantine Art and Archaeology," Oxford, 1911, pp. 203-206; see Fig. 

 122, 123. 



tOp. cit., pp. 201, 202. 



JO. M. Dalton, "Byzantine Art and Archaeology," Oxford, 1911, pp. 213, 214; see Fig. 

 128. 



