The Ivory Workers of the Middle Ages

by Anna Maria Elizabeth Cust

II. Byzantine Caskets.

We owe to the series of secular caskets most of our knowledge of this transitional period. They do not appear to have been articles of great luxury and were usually made of bone and sometimes indifferently carved. The fashion continued for several hundred years, and side by side with these secular caskets we have others decorated with scenes from Old Testament history, which, though very few in number at first, become more frequent as time goes on. The religious caskets have many details in common with the secular, but draw their inspiration from a different source.

There is great similarity in the design of the secular caskets, the box itself being made of wood and covered with ivory plaques. The lids are either in the shape of a truncated pyramid, and hinged, or flat and sliding into grooves. The decoration consists of an elaborate border surrounding either long scenic plaques, as in the Veroli casket in the Victoria and Albert Museum ([Fig. 15]), or more often little squares containing a single figure (Bargello, etc.). The borders show strong oriental influence, and invariably consist of ringed rosettes connected by a pointed leaf; these rosettes sometimes alternate with coin-like medallions, and there are occasionally additional bands of varying pattern, as on the Volterra casket (late Spitzer Collection) at the Musée de Cluny.

The subjects are a proof of the still lingering power of classical antiquity, and of the infiltration of oriental designs. They are either taken from ancient myths (often very imperfectly understood by the adaptor), or from scenes in the hippodrome or circus (Volterra); perhaps also from the statues, part of the Grecian loot that Constantine had brought from Rome to decorate his new city.

[VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
15. THE VEROLI CASKET
Byzantine, ninth and tenth centuries

Most of these caskets are composed in the gayest frame of mind; on the beautiful ivory Veroli casket the little loves, on the light fantastic toe, dance to the harping of poor, melancholy, old Polyphemus, who is compelled to cease his solitary lament and play hornpipes and jigs for the benefit of wild Bacchantes, who whirl round and round till their drapery is tossed out like foam. It is amusing to see these same ladies on the casket at Cividale, no longer carved with delicate finish, but angular and rough, the drapery flying out like wire, and the development of the muscles rivalling that of a prima ballerina.

The maker of the Pirano casket in the Vienna Museum imitated the Veroli in many things, as the putti and the panther, and the group of Mars caressing Venus under the chin, in the good old-fashioned Brescia diptych way, also the peculiar treatment of the hair in tiny knobby ringlets, which is found again on the Bologna casket, and on two most interesting plaques in the British Museum. One plaque represents Christ freeing the Souls in Hades, and the other The Nativity. On the first there is a group of little child-souls with polished round muscles and knobby hair, also the hair of the angels in both the scenes is of the same character, the rest of the technique has little to distinguish it from the so-called X-XI century type; but the conception of the subject is not the ordinary stereotyped one of later years, and those few peculiarities of style have such a marked connection with the Veroli casket, that Graeven considers it likely that they both came from the same atelier, and may, perhaps, be dated about the middle of the ninth century.

Before pointing out the various similarities between these secular caskets, and those with religious subjects, it would be well to inquire into the ancestry of the separate styles.

The classical designs on the secular caskets are more completely conventionalized than would be the result of direct imitation of antique originals by later craftsmen; and the coin-like borders give a clue to finding out what were their actual models. They must have been inspired by the repoussé designs on gold and silver plate, it being a very common practice, in all ages, to insert coins round the edges of precious vessels. The peculiar tapering ankles and delicate wrists are another proof of some other technique intervening between the marble sculpture and the ivories. The tendency of marble to crack if exposed to too great a weight, led to a sturdiness in all detached forms, and not even in the bronze statues are such exaggeratedly slender extremities to be found.

Ancient records often tell of large masses of plate being presented to churches in the West. A single gift to St. Germain at Auxerre in the seventh century, consisted of one hundred silver vessels, including two great dishes decorated with reliefs from the Æneid, and a third with the “Rape of Europa,” and having Greek inscriptions. If there was such a mass of plate in the West, the richness of Constantinople in gold and silver vessels must have been simply fabulous. The descriptions of the Byzantine chroniclers, and the figures given of the Venetian share in the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, are astounding.

The silver casket at Anagni forms a connecting link; it is the same shape and style as the ivory caskets, and the little silver reliefs are mounted in the same manner with border strips.

The caskets with religious subjects are derived from the miniatures in ancient and contemporary manuscripts, as has been abundantly proved by the complete correspondence of existing plaques and miniatures. The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses an excellent example in the strip of ivory, with Joshua receiving envoys from the people of Gibeon, which is taken almost line for line from two miniatures in the famous Joshua Roll in the Vatican Library; except that in the translation of the painting into sculpture, certain details had to be simplified, and the serried ranks of Joshua’s soldiers were reduced to a faithful copy of the forward group.

A tiny plaque in the Grüne Gewölbe at Dresden is another instance of this connection with the manuscripts. It is one of two surviving portions of a casket decorated with the life of Joseph, and is directly inspired by the wonderful Genesis codex at Vienna. This codex is especially interesting as showing the artist’s delight in scenes of domestic affection; the picture, which coincides with the ivory carving, illustrates the departure of Joseph to get news of his brethren. His father with a stately gesture bids him go, and as he goes he turns to kiss his little brother Benjamin, who follows him a little way. The sculptor has taken the moment of the kiss, and the gentleness of the action is like the little domestic scene on the casket in the Museo Kircheriano at Rome ([Fig. 16]).

DR. H. GRAEVEN PHOTO.][MUSEO KIRCHERIANO, ROME
16. FRONT OF A CASKET. SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF DAVID
Byzantine, ninth century

The carvings on this casket give a graphic account of the early life and adventures of David, and are most probably derived from some lost manuscript of the Book of Samuel. The active little figures are exceedingly droll, and it is difficult not to think that a little of the gay secular spirit had crept into these more sober scenes. The lamb which sits up and begs while David pipes is particularly engaging. The front side of the sloping lid is given up to most tragic scenes. The Massacre of the Innocents, and the Murder of Zachariah, the High Priest, “killed between the temple and the altar.” The inscription tells us that the casket was intended as a marriage gift to a Basileus and Basilissa from another wedded pair, the portraits all being on the top.

The various details which the two series of caskets have in common, prove they belong to the same period. On the Veroli casket ([Fig. 15]), the group of men stoning the bull which bears away Europa corresponds with a miniature in the Joshua Roll, which depicts the stoning of the captive people of Achan. The rosette border is also found on a twelfth century casket with half-length figures of saints in the Bargello. On some of these caskets the plaques are decorated with designs taken bodily from Oriental textiles and carvings; the smaller Volterra casket in the Musée de Cluny is a case in point, and it has the additional charm of an openwork border of maple leaves on a gilt background.

Some writers call these caskets Italo-Byzantine because a large number have been found in the treasuries of Italian cathedrals, but their ancestry is thoroughly Byzantine. It is not impossible that some few examples were made in the West, as several stone reliefs have been found in Venetia, clearly dating from the first decade of the eleventh century, and ornamented with the same classical subjects, confused in the same way with foreign elements, and surrounded by the customary rosette border, and which are most probably copies of these Byzantine fancy goods.

The Throne of St. Peter in the apse of his church in Rome, is made up in the same way with little plaques representing the Labours of Hercules and other purely pagan subjects. The ivory carvings belong to two periods, one, admittedly, of the ninth century when the Throne was restored, and the others are traditionally supposed to date from the lifetime of the apostle. It was inclosed 200 years ago in a hideous casing, and no close examination is permitted. If this chair is really of great antiquity, even if not so early as the first century, it would be a great support to Venturi’s assumption that all these secular caskets belong really to classical antiquity, and are of late Roman origin. There is a beautiful casket in the Cathedral of Troyes, of the tenth or eleventh century, which was sent back by Garnier de Traisnel, Bishop of Troyes, and Almoner to the Crusaders. Garnier died in the East, but sent home his share of the spoil from Constantinople. It is stained a rich purple and evidently belonged to the Basileus, who is depicted on horseback.