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