The English were also profoundly influenced by the French Gothic art, but gradually worked out a style of their own. There was less monotony of design and a considerable modification of types, the figures becoming thinner and the faces graver, more earnest and sweeter in expression, though, at the same time, more realistic; also there is a variation in certain details of the costumes. Two pierced plaques with scenes from _The Life of St. Agnes_ which were in the Meyrick and Spitzer Collections, and a plaque representing Christ with the apostles, the group being surrounded by rich architecture, and two other pierced plaques with scenes of the Passion, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, seem to be English work. In the Salting Collection, now in the same museum, is a deeply cut diptych of a strongly characteristic type representing the _Virgin and Child_, and _Christ teaching_; the figures are framed in architecture of an English type decorated with small heraldic roses. This diptych formed part of both the Soltykoff and Spitzer Collections. The triptych in the British Museum (Fig. 36) is closely connected with it, and is said to have been carved for Bishop Grandison of Exeter (1327-1369), but Molinier thinks that the style is far nearer that of the early fifteenth century. In the British Museum there is also the wing of a diptych, in two divisions, with _The Annunciation_, and below, _John Baptist_; the other wing is in the Louvre and represents the _Coronation_, with _John the Evangelist_ in the lower compartment. Before closing this short survey, one small statuette in the Victoria and Albert Museum should be mentioned, as the sweet and affectionate earnestness of the Virgin’s face is typical of the English ivories, for if far inferior to the French in actual technique, they have a depth of reverent feeling which is too often entirely wanting in the latter. The Italian ivory workers continued long under the spell of the Byzantines, and when aroused to the fresh ideas of Gothic art, their work at first showed few features that could distinguish it from the French models. Gradually the designs became less concentrated and many differences crept in, especially in the treatment of the conventional foliage. The gorgeously coloured crozier in the Salting Collection is an example of this period; it belonged to Benci Aldobrandini, Bishop of Volterra in 1331. On the top is a half-length figure of Christ between two men; _The Adoration of the Magi_ is figured within the crook, which emerges from the throat of a dragon, and just below, in four highly-painted shrines, sit the Evangelists. [Illustration: MANSELL PHOTO.] [BRITISH MUSEUM 36. TRIPTYCH OF BISHOP GRANDISON OF EXETER English, fourteenth century]