NARRATOR: Charles Little is a curator of Medieval Art at the Museum.

CHARLES LITTLE: We now are looking at a wonderful small ivory panel depicting an episode, taken from the Book of Genesis, of God creating the animals. Looking at the layered composition of these multitude of animals, we see lions, griffins at the bottom, lizards, snakes, roosters, ox, deer, and bear above.

This particular panel, in its wonderful presentation, is part of a much larger ensemble of ivory panels coming from the Cathedral of Salerno, not far from Naples. We’re not sure exactly what this object was. Some think it was part of an altar, others think it was part of a pulpit, or it might’ve been part of a door decoration.

NARRATOR: This example of ivory carving was made in the eleventh century in the Amalfi Coast region of Southern Italy.

The culture of the Amalfi Coast, especially the thriving cosmopolitan center of Amalfi itself which was a melting pot of Byzantine, Italian, and Islamic influences is revealed in this particular image, especially say for example the little griffin in the lower right hand corner seems to be directly imitating a bronze griffin from the Islamic world.