(upbeat music)
- [Lady Narrator] We're in the Louve
looking at a small
exquisite Byzantine ivory
that dates from the mid 10th century.
- [Man Narrator] This is
the middle Byzantine period
soon after the iconophiles won
their battle with the iconoclasts.
- [Lady Narrator] From the
700ths through to the mid 800ths
the Byzantine emperor had
instituted a policy of Iconoclasm
that is disallowing images in churches,
disallowing religious imagery.
- [Man Narrator] But
when this was overturned
artwork flourish throughout the Empire.
- [Lady Narrator] And this is
a period that art historians
referred to as the Macedonian revival.
- [Man Narrator] We're
looking at a triptych,
which is to say it is
a three paneled ivory
and you can see that it's
hinged so that the doors
could actually close and
protect the interior scene.
It's carved on both
the front and the back.
- [Lady Narrator] At the top center,
we see a scene that is common
during this middle Byzantine
period called the Deesis.
- [Man Narrator] John the
Baptist and the Virgin Mary,
the bearer of God, come to Christ
and ask for his protection
for his blessing
on behalf of humanity.
- [Lady Narrator] This
triptych then formed a private
devotional object that could be opened
and looking at this top
center panel of the Deesis
one could engage in prayer
and ask John and Mary
for intercession with
Christ on their behalf.
- [Man Narrator] We see Christ seated on
an elaborate throne, his
right hand, his blessing,
his left hand holds the Bible
and we see his feet on
a foot rest that appears
really quite architectural.
- [Lady Narrator] Above
Christ, on either side we see
roundels with figures of angels.
What we noticed throughout
the triptych is that
all the figures have
inscriptions next to them
indicating who they are.
- [Man Narrator] I'm
struck by just how fine
the carving is look, for
instance, on the right side
of Mary's gown, you can
see the fringes clearly
and carefully rendered, as well
as the folds of the drapery.
- [Lady Narrator] And also in the back
of the throne behind Christ.
- [Man Narrator]
Extraordinary craftsmanship.
- [Lady Narrator] Now, there
are five figures below Christ
and they represent five of the apostles,
the center one is St. Peter.
- [Man Narrator] Who we
can see grasping a scroll
with his left hand and
pointing up to Christ
with his right.
- [Lady Narrator] All the figures
stand on little platforms.
- [Man Narrator] The only exception are in
the upper registers of the wings,
where we see warrior saints
who stand on the ground plane
below them are rondels and
then again, standing figures.
Here we see saints and martyrs.
- [Lady Narrator] The
warrior saints seem to have
a classical pose to
them, they seem to stand
in a kind of contrapposto,
although the proportions
of their bodies are a little
bit off, but they do have
that sense of leaning to one
side of having their weight
born on one side of having one knee bent
of their hips a little bit out a sense
of asymmetry to their bodies.
- [Man Narrator] The ease to their stance,
they seem quite relaxed.
In fact, despite the
formality of the Deesis
and of all of the figures,
there's a sense of individuality
to each figure that's being rendered,
which has been achieved only because of
the very fine nature of the carving.
Let's go take a look at the back.
The back is more shallowly carved.
Here we see saints and church fathers.
- [Lady Narrator] We have
a symbolic representation
of the garden of paradise.
- [Man Narrator] It's a
marvelous rendering with lots
of detail and a real sense of the vertical
as if the plants themselves
on the ground plane
are reaching up to heaven.
- [Lady Narrator] Up toward the cross.
- [Man Narrator] Which is long and elegant
and has rosettes not only at the center
but at its four points.
- [Lady Narrator] We have cypress trees,
with vines and circling them and grapes.
- [Man Narrator] Leaning
in as if the cross itself
was almost magnetic.
- [Lady Narrator] A real sense
of the beauty and abundance
of paradise of the promise
of salvation of the
promise of eternal life
and a sense that from
the very cross itself
from Christ's sacrifice, life blooms.
- [Man Narrator] And
look at the orderliness
of the stars in the heavens.
This is a sense of solemnity,
a sense of beauty and a
sense of the spiritual
in the natural world,
which we tend to think of
in more modern terms but here
it is in the 10th century.
(upbeat music)