Scenes are taken from the _Lai d’Aristote_ and the other so-called classical romances of _Jason_, _Alexander_ and _Virgil_, the latter being described as a mediæval enchanter. Both he and poor Aristotle were most cruelly treated by their mistresses, the dignified Virgil being compelled to crawl on all fours while the lady rides on his back, and Aristotle fared even worse, being suspended in mid-air in a basket. The cycle of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are ever popular themes, especially the scene of _Tristan and Iseult_ surprised by the reflection of King Mark in the fountain. _The Assault of the Castle of Love_ was taken from an allegory in the _Romaunt de la Rose_. The knights ride up to force the gate or scale the battlements and are met with a shower of posies, but the fair garrison makes but a faint show of resistance, and the enemy is soon within. Four lions or basilisks crawl along the outer edge of these mirrors for convenience in opening the circular cover. There are examples in all collections of these civil ivories, some of a perfectly marvellous delicacy and minuteness, and it is unnecessary to name any special examples, except, perhaps, a fine but broken mirror cover in the Musée de Cluny which is splendidly carved with the figures of a king and queen. [Illustration: [MAYER COLLECTION, LIVERPOOL MUSEUM 34. THE ELOPEMENT OF GUINIVERE French, fourteenth century] The art of Southern France had a peculiar local style, the figures being heavier and flabbier with little thought of the modelling of forms, which were thickly covered with brilliant paint; there is perhaps a greater freedom in the grouping of the figures. By the end of the fourteenth century the Franco-Flemish influence appears, and art rapidly lost its delicacy in the attempts at realism. A magnificent chess-board in the Bargello of the closely allied Burgundian school, is carved with a tourney and other festivities, and gives a good picture of the costumes of the fifteenth century. The beautiful ivory harp in the Louvre, and the prettily carved wand of the Lord High Falconer of England in the Liverpool Museum are some of the latest Gothic efforts before the advent of the Renaissance. There is little to distinguish German ivories in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries from the French; perhaps there is a tendency to greater elaboration in the architecture, and on rare occasions the figures betray the German type; but in the fifteenth century the love of realism gained ground, and the ivory carvers more closely imitated the painters and the rapidly increasing school of wood carving. [Illustration: ALINARI PHOTO.] [BARGELLO, FLORENCE 35. PANEL FROM A CASKET French, fourteenth century]