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 Christian 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 defined 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 characterized 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
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. This carving, from the time of Ludwig
der Fromme, is also the cover of an evangelium. It is divided into
three fields, the upper one offering a representation
38
