Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/180

168 are described by Pausanias. The most celebrated were the colossal statue of Athene at Athens, nearly 40 tout, and that of Jupiter at Olympia, about 58 feet high. They were the largest and most precious works ever executed in the material under discussion. It has been stated by writers of various dates, from Pliny downwards, that the ancients had methods of flattening and joining ivory so as to make it cover large surfaces, but modern experiments of the recipes given have not verified these statements. A few remains of ivory carvings found in Etruscan tombs in Italy are preserved in the British Museum ; others have been collected by Signor Castellaui. Roman ivories earlier than the 4th century are very rare. There are, however, in various collections in England and on tiie Continent carved ivory tablets, called consular diptychs, meant to fold up and to contain writing on the inside. They were used by the Roman consuls, and sometimes sent by them as presents to great personages. Half of one of the most beautiful of these works is preserved in the Kensington Museum (No. 21 2 65), the other half is in the Hotel de Cluny in Paris this piece is of the 3d century. The chair of St Maximiau, covered with ivory panels elabo rately carved (6th century), is still in good preservation at Ravenna. Ivory carving was carried on at Constantinople during the early Middle Ages. Charlemagne did much to en courage and establish the arts in Northern Europe. Ivory book-covers carved with Gospel subjects, pyxes, or small boxes for church use, caskets, horns, and other valuable objects were carved in ivory during his reign, and those of his immediate successors. They were set in gold or silver, and sometimes with precious stones. An example of Anglo-Saxon workmanship (10th century) is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Gallery in Cambridge. Combs both of ivory and bone of the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods are not untrequently found in tombs in England. Carved folding tnptychs, shrines, and altar-pieces con taining sacred subjects in bas-relief, or figures of saints, with rich and elaborate architectural details according to the style of the day, often decorated with gold and colour, were made in great numbers from the 10th to the IGth century, in most countries of Europe. Crucifixes and images of the Virgin and the saints, made during these ages, are often graceful and beautiful examples of small sculpture. To these should be added the pastoral staves carried by bishops and abbots, and numbers of objects for secular use, such as horns, combs, caskets, hilts of arms, and the like, carved in ivory for persons of wealth, through out the Middle Ages. They reached their highest perfec tion during the 13th and 14th centuries. The religious subjects carved in ivory by Spanish artists were of great excellence before the 16tla century. The great sculptors of the Renaissance are credited, though often without sufficient authority, with many works in ivory still preserved in public galleries. The scholars of Cellini and Raphael certainly carved with great skill in this material. Examples attributed to the masters them selves are shown in the galleries of Munich and Vienna. German), Flanders, Holland, and Spain were distinguished for ivory carvers during the 16th century. Augsburg and Nuremberg were especially renowned in this respect. The carved drums of vases and tankards, bas-relief plaques or panels set in silver gilt and gold are to be seen in the galleries of Munich, Vienna, and Merlin. Dagger and knife hilts a:ul sheaths, powder-flasks, and statuettes of admirable execution, continued to be made in ivory down to the middle of the 17th century. There are good examples in the Green Vaults in Dresden and in many other collections. Several German princes, as well as Peter the Great, carved and turned ivory in the lathe, and remark able specimens of their work may be seen in the Green Vaults. Among the best Italian ivory carvers of the 16th century may be reckoned the pupils of Valerio Vicentino and Bernardo of Caste! Bolognese. A fine bas-relief by Alessandro Algardi, of the 17th century, is preserved in the Basilica of St Peter in Rome. Other well-known artists were Cope and Frai^ois Du Quesnoy, called the Fleming (1594-1644), the latter of great eminence ; Jacob Zeller, a Dutchman ; Leo Pronner of Nuremberg ; Van Obstal of Antwerp, settled in France ; Leonard Kern and Angermann of Nuremberg (17th century); Barthel (died at Dresden 1694), who excelled in carving animals; Leonard Zick of Nuremberg (1 7th and 18th centuries), who carved puzzle balls, like those of the Chinese ; Stephan Zick, who carved eyes and ears, examples of which rn.iy be seen in the Green Vaults ; Belthasar Permoser, a Bava rian settled in Dresden (1650-1732); and Simon Troger (18th century), a carver of great skill in ivory who added fanciful details in brown wood ; examples of his composi tions are preserved in the Kensington Museum, the Royal Museum of Turin, and the Green Vaults of Dresden. Ivory carving has long been cultivated in the East. In many parts of India, Bombay especially, ivory is carved, pierced, and inlaid with great skill. The Bombay carvers borrowed this art from the Persians. The Chinese carve slabs of ivory and entire tusks with elaborate compositions of figures and landscape. They carve and pierce puzzle balls, cut one inside another out of single pieces of ivory. The skill of the Japanese is still greater. Their groups of small figures, animals, shells, insects &c., show a power of representing animal life, and a dexterity in inlaying ivory with metals and other substances probably never surpassed. If the art of both nations is somewhat grotesque, their power of hand has had but few equals in ancient or in modern times. A modern school of ivory carving, that has become a small trade, is established at Dieppe in France. Many crucifixes and religious images are produced there of con siderable merit.

Implements and furniture have been carved in wood from very ancient times. The perishable nature of the material forbids the hope of iiuding remains of such remote antiquity as we have in ivory, bone, and horn. It cannot be doubted, however, that the weapons and utensils of the stone nge were fitted to handles of wood and bound on with thongs of hide or animal sinews. Most ethnographical collections possess paddles and weapons made by more recent races in a primitive state of knowledge and cultiva tion. Often these utensils are diapered over in patterns of much elegance, those, for instance, of Mexico, New Zealand, and Polynesia. The figure-head of a New Zealand canoe of brown wood carved in graceful convolutions, resembling the designs of the Scandinavian artists, was exhibited amongst the collections of the duke of Edin burgh. Pausanias states that all the most ancient races carved statues out of wood, and mentions specially those of Egypt. According to Sir G. Wilkinson wooden statues continued to be erected in Egyptian temples till the times of the later Pharaohs. Sycamore was the wood in general use for furniture, and cedar for mummy cases, which are carved into the shape of the mummy, painted and gilt. Timber was imported into Egypt, and rare woods were inlaid both in furniture and statues (see Birch, Trans, liny. Soc., iii. p. 172). A bas-relief in hard wood, attributed to the 6th, 7th, or 8th dynasty (above 2000 years B.C.), is preserved in the Louvre. The Hebrews of the age of Moses seem to have been more skilful as metallurgists than as wood carvers, but 