Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/254

 224 Early Christian Sculpture. subtlety, combined with an aversion to change in all matters connected with religion, and consequently in religious sculpture, which was necessarily fatal to pro- gress ; and although, under the earliest Eastern emperors, an attempt was made to adorn the new capital with the sculptures carried away from Rome by Constantine, and statues of Constantine himself and, later, of Justinian were erected, it was not until long afterwards, when the freedom-loving Teutonic races had gained an ascendancy in Europe, that sculpture, once more breaking loose from the trammels of Eastern conventionalism, became again an ideal art capable of producing works which might justly be styled high art. In minor works of sculpture, however, such as the carving of ivory, the casting of bronze vessels, etc., Byzan- tine artists always excelled. The principal ivory work belonging to this period which has been preserved is the episcopal chair of Maximianus (A.D. 546 — 552), now in the Cathedral of Ravenna. It consists entirely of plates of ivory covered with exquisitely-carved arabesques and figures of men and animals in low relief. The early Christians adopted the use of the ivory consular diptychs (i. e. double folding tablets), the outsides of which were covered with low-reliefs. Many fine speci- mens of Christian and Roman works of the kind may be seen in the South Kensington Museum and elsewhere. As a characteristic work of the ninth century we must name the high altar of St. Ambrogio in Milan, which is covered with plates of gold or silver gilt, adorned with embossed reliefs representing scenes from the life of Christ.