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How did Byzantine ivory carving styles change between the 10th and 12th centuries?
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ivory carving
Kinugumiut Inupiat incised walrus ivory shaman's figure, c. 1890; in the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York City.
Byzantine ivory carving underwent a notable stylistic evolution between the 10th and 12th centuries. During the 10th and 11th centuries, ivory reliefs were characterized by a strongly classicizing, monumental, and frozen style.1
By the late 11th and 12th centuries, however, the aesthetic shifted toward a more relaxed and fluid treatment of draperies, and the figures began to feature more elongated forms. This transition reflects a broader movement in Byzantine art toward greater refinement and elegance, which is also observed in other media of the period, such as the mosaics produced under the Comnenian dynasty.12