(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)