The number of examples of carved ivory during the tenth and eleventh centuries is so great that it is most difficult to make a selection. The Reliquary of the True Cross in the Franciscan Church at Cortona is valuable for comparison with other carvings of the tenth century, for it is dated by an inscription mentioning the Basileus Nicephorus, Conqueror of the Barbarians, who can be no other than Nicephorus Phocas (963-969). The reliquary is divided in the usual manner into four compartments by the arms of the great central crucifix, and owing to the shallowness of the space the figures are not so disproportionately tall as was mostly the case. In the research for dignity and reverence the figures became less and less earthly, the shoulders sloping away to nothing, and a growing tendency crept in to exaggerate the height out of all proportion; also the calm expression on the delicate oval faces grew more and more solemn, till on some of the later ivories it is positively lugubrious. Yet the quiet grace and exquisite dignity of a figure like that of the Virgin on the Harbaville Triptych (Fig. 17), is hardly to be found in the finest Italian art. The pose of this figure and that of John the Forerunner, Πρόδρομος, are almost identical with those on the Cortona Reliquary; the Virgin’s gesture of adoration is simple and spontaneous, and it is only when it is repeated by St. John that the balance of the pattern becomes too exact and pains the eye. The figure of Christ, grandly posed on the highbacked throne, is the type of nearly every other representation of the Saviour throughout the whole period (cf. Fig. 19) and traces back directly to the Roman official diptychs. The drapery is elegant and well considered, though the folds have a hard flatness in spite of the soft finish of the technique. The features inherit much from the antique, the well-cut brow and deeply set eyes, but the noses have increased in length and have that slight curve at the tip which is so characteristic, and becomes so pronounced, in later Byzantine Art. The fine heads, framed in their rugged mane of hair, are very picturesque, but there is such a strong family likeness among them, that it is quite refreshing to meet a bald forehead like that of St. Paul or St. John Theologus, here represented as an aged man and not as the beardless stripling of Western art. Above all, it is the hands and the well-proportioned muscular feet, which show the power of the real artist escaping from the conventionality of his subject. On the back of the panel he has freed himself entirely from the spell of classical antiquity and drunk deeply of new oriental ideas, creating a most decorative design, illustrating the “Triumph of the Cross,” which rises, ornamented with roses, above the flowering earth, stretching up to the skies, which are thickly covered with stars, and bear the Greek inscription _Jesus Christ Victorious_. Two tall cypresses, tightly bound by the symbolical