4 Carving in limestone. Coptic. Sixth century. This exuberant
style, suggestive almost of Indian art, was especially popular
in Egypt from the fifth century until the Islamic conquest
around 640

Outside Alexandria the classical elegance tended to give way to a
markedly voluptuous rendering, suggestive almost of Indian art.
It distinguished the ivories of Lower Egypt, and was present also in
the textiles, but it was perhaps nowhere as marked as in the limestone
carving which was developed almost as a national art in the region
of the Delta between the fifth and seventh century ( Ill. 4 ). The fat,
luscious nudes were wholly distinct from the severe, almost stylized
figures favoured at Constantinople at the same period.

These things are unmistakable, but the Egyptian provenance is
less easy to establish in the case of ivories bearing religious themes,
for work done at Antioch and in the more cultured centres in Syria
would seem to have been very closely akin to the Alexandrine, and

-15-