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Ch. 1: Ancient Carved Ivories

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ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 33
Museum, London, where it now reposes. It seems unfortu­nate that the two leaves of this most interesting and valuable memento of the past cannot be reunited.
These beautiful diptych leaves, while probably executed in Rome at the end of the fourth century A. D., have been apparently inspired by Greek sculpture of the fourth cen­tury B.C., perhaps that of some Greek stele set up in Rome, and which could be there seen and studied by the carver of the diptych.*
Among the treasures of the Kunsthistorische Sammlungen in Vienna may be seen a diptych of the fifth century, on either leaf of which appear allegorical figures denoting respectively Rome and Constantinople, the Western and the Eastern Empires. The genius of Rome is helmeted like a Minerva and holds in one hand a sphere surmounted by a Victory; for Constantinople the artist has chosen a figure of Fortune (Tyche), on her head is a mural crown and in her hands she bears palm branch and cornucopia; to her shoulder clings the child Eros.f
In the very earliest Christian age there were ivory diptychs inscribed with the names of those who had been baptized, thus constituting a partial parish register; upon others again were carved the names of the bishops of the churches and of great benefactors. Still others bore the names of the saints and martyrs, and, finally, there was a fourth class devoted exclusively to the registration of the dead who had passed away after due reception of the last sacraments. Of ivory is one of the most precious relics of the church in the sixth century—namely, the throne of Maximian, Archbishop of Ravenna (546-556). This cathedra is high-backed and adorned with a series of ivory plaques carved in relief with
*0. M. Dalton, "Byzantine Art and Archeology," Oxford, 1911, pp. 190, 191. f'Uebersicht der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses," Wien, 1899, p. 118 (Hall XIV, Case XXI).
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