History of mediæval art . hich is characteris-tic of the previous centuries of artistic decadence. Otherwise thereare no vestiges of monumental sculpture among the Lombards. Reliefs of stone, theage of which is as-sured, like that nowpreserved in the Ca-thedral of Monza,dating to the timeof Queen Theode-linde, or those onthe four sides of theAltar of St. Martinat Cividale in Friu-li,* which was found-ed by the duke Pem-mo about 730{Fig. 123), are extremely rude and provincial; while others, like thefigures in high stucco relief in the chapel of the Nunnery at Civ-idale, are direct imitati
History of mediæval art . hich is characteris-tic of the previous centuries of artistic decadence. Otherwise thereare no vestiges of monumental sculpture among the Lombards. Reliefs of stone, theage of which is as-sured, like that nowpreserved in the Ca-thedral of Monza,dating to the timeof Queen Theode-linde, or those onthe four sides of theAltar of St. Martinat Cividale in Friu-li,* which was found-ed by the duke Pem-mo about 730{Fig. 123), are extremely rude and provincial; while others, like thefigures in high stucco relief in the chapel of the Nunnery at Civ-idale, are direct imitations of Byzantine paintings similar in styleto the figure of St. Agnes in the Church of S. Agnese in is also plain that the carvings of ivory, much in vogue at thetime, followed the traditions of Italy, and especially of Rome, whilethe works of precious metals were more influenced by the artisticmethods of Byzantium. In the former the decadence is moreevident, in great measure because of the difficulty presented by. Fig. 123.—Relief from the Front Side of the Altar of DukePemmo jn the Church of St. Martin in Cividale. * R. Eitelberger, Cividale in Friaul und seine Monumente. Jahrb. der k. k. Central-commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale. II. Wien, 1857. SCULPTURE. 235 the representation of the human figures which continued to beintroduced into the designs of ivory carvings, while the jewelrywas almost entirely restricted to geometrical ornaments and toincrustations of precious stones. In the so-called Pax, in the ar-chive of the Chapter-house at Cividale {Fig. 124), which was madein the eighth century for the duke Ursus of Ceneda, the silverborder is of less interest than the relief. In other specimens ofgoldsmiths work the tasteful and simple designs and the greatdelicacy of execution com-mand our admiration, espe-cially those which are provedby Latin inscriptions not tohave been imported from By-zantium, and not to have beenexecuted by Byzantine i
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