CHAPTER II 



MEDIEVAL AND MODERN IVORY 

 CARVINGS 



The ideals that animated classic art gradually lost their 

 vigour in the course of the early Christian centuries, giving 

 place to new artistic aspirations animated by purely Chris- 

 tian ideals. Some of the works noted in the preceding 

 chapter were already produced under these influences, which 

 so dominated medieval plastic art that only in comparatively 

 few instances did the artist — painter, sculptor, or carver — 

 seek his inspiration elsewhere. 



The leading schools of Carolingian ivory carving were 

 those of Rheims and Metz, the former having the priority, 

 while the latter was never so much localized, indeed, it may 

 be regarded rather as a type of the art owing its origin to the 

 influence of the Rheims carvers than as a separate and de- 

 fined school. One of the best specimens of the early work 

 done at Rheims is in the Staatsbibliothek in Munich. This 

 is a book cover and depicts the Crucifixion. It is character- 

 ized by the very lively gestures of the figures, and by their 

 fluttering garments, this vivacity being a quality of the 

 school of Rheims. More sobriety and seriousness is shown 

 in the carvings grouped under the designation of the Metz 

 School, of which an excellent example is in the Bibliotheque 

 Nationale in Paris. This carving, from the time of Ludwig 

 der Fromme, is also the cover of an evangelium. It is di- 

 vided into three fields, the upper one offering a representation 



