[13] This coat is said to be the one “without seam,” for which the soldiers cast lots, and which has an undoubted history from the time of the Empress Helena, in the fourth century. [14] From εἰκὼν, a likeness, and κλάω, I break in pieces. [15] Full list given by Molinier, _Les Arts appliqués_, vol. i. CHAPTER III LOMBARDIC, ANGLO-SAXON, CARLOVINGIAN AND GERMAN IVORIES I. LOMBARD IVORY CARVINGS We have seen how Constantinople, or the “New Rome,” became the centre of the new Christian World as Alexandria had been of the Hellenistic; and for many centuries the riches and splendour of this most luxurious city shone out on the barbarian nations, as a lodestar for their imagination and a pattern for all civilization and culture. Byzantine, being an intrusive art in these countries, did not entirely crush out native effort, but modified the design and vastly improved the technique. Each imitator introduced more of himself and got further from the Greek original, so there arose a composite style, strongly influenced by the Byzantines, yet bearing in it the seeds of a national art. Leaving aside the large number of Syro-Byzantine and other Eastern ivories, we must pass on to Italy, where the remains of the old Latin art still lingered, though terribly debased and mingled with that of the barbarian Lungobards. By the seventh century sculpture was reduced to a deplorable state, and as Cattaneo says,[16] it is most unlikely that the Ravenna carved sarcophagi were really made at this period; they more probably belonged to ancient burials, with the new name carved on the lid. Even in ivory carving, which is always behind the age, we find an almost ludicrous barbarity. An ivory tablet of the eighth century in the Bologna Museum is a fair example of this mixed style; it has three tiers of scenes from the _Nativity_, and shows strong Byzantine influence, yet there is something in the treatment of the drapery, barbaric as it is, which seems to lead on to the later Italian style of the eleventh century, which definitely connects with the earliest Gothic art in France.[17] An example of this may be seen in a plaque in the Bargello, representing Christ in glory surrounded by angels.