The Ivory King: A popular history of the elephant and its allies

by Charles Frederick Holder

The ivory of elephants has been employed in artistic work since very early times. The British Museum has specimens of ivory plaques of rich design taken from Nineveh, which are supposed to date from 900 B.C. The execution in some is very fine; many figures being in high, and some in low, relief, but all showing that the worker was an expert in the art.

“Traces of gilding,” says Tomes, “remain on many of them; and they were often, furthermore, enriched by being inlaid with fragments of lapis lazuli, or of a colored glass in apparent imitation of this: the edges of the larger heads were generally rendered conspicuous by this means. In one of the panels, the border of the dresses, the thrones on which the figures were seated, the ornaments above the cartouche, and the cymbals upon the cartouche itself, were thus inlaid with color. The largest object is a carved staff, perhaps a sceptre. Amongst the smaller pieces are heads of animals, and entire animals, griffins, human heads, crossed and clasped hands, rings, etc. Like the ivory-carvers of a later period, these early workers seem to have studied the economy of their material. Thus, a beautiful carving in high relief of two griffins, standing upon papyrus flowers, has been worked in the interior segment of a large tusk, the natural curvature of which it follows.” Besides these discovered at Nineveh, some other ivories of great antiquity exist; and ivory-workers are mentioned as a distinct class of artificers at the commencement of the Christian era. Many writing-tablets of ivory, with raised rims inside, where wax was spread over their surfaces, have come down to us. These were often made to fold together, and the exterior richly ornamented with carvings. It was the custom for newly appointed consuls under the empire to send these plaques to persons of importance, and the covers sometimes have portrayed upon them the consul in his robes of office.

These ancient relics are invaluable. In the South Kensington Museum, there is exhibited a beautiful ivory plaque of the third century, for which two thousand dollars were paid. It forms one-half of a diptych, and measures eleven and three-quarters by four and three-quarters inches. The other half is in the Hotel Cluny.

Many of the ancient carvings deal with sacred subjects. One of the most beautiful is a Pieta, representing the Virgin holding the dead Christ in her lap, and dates from the fourteenth century. Schliemann, in his excavations on the supposed site of Troy, has found many ivory objects, as pins, buckles, etc.

The most profligate and, it must be confessed, magnificent use of ivory is seen in the attempts of the early Greeks to add to the splendors of their national religion. During the time of Pericles, 445 B.C., there was a demand for fine statues of the gods; and it was reserved for Phidias, the most famous of all the ancient sculptors, to invent the ivory statue,—not the diminutive creations with which we are familiar, but colossal figures formed of an aggregation of small pieces. The Greeks had figures of wood and stone; but finally the public taste seemed to demand something more refined, and the combination of gold and ivory was the result. ([See Plate XVII.])

The use of ivory in art-work had preceded this many years. From the time of the Trojan war, they had used ivory arms and furniture; and two hundred years later we hear of Solomon introducing it in Judæa. “Once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks;” and being thus supplied with the elephants’ teeth of India, “the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.” One hundred years after Solomon, the sacred historian speaks of “the ivory house of King Ahab” as so wonderful, that it is enumerated in Chronicles with all the cities that he built. “The ivory house of Ahab,” and “the ivory palaces” of the forty-fifth psalm, no doubt referred to buildings profusely ornamented with ivory.

Phidias, then, must have been familiar with ivory-work, having such illustrious examples in history; but none of his predecessors had attempted the stupendous works which rendered him famous. Unfortunately the creations of this celebrated artist were all destroyed, and we have only the descriptions left.

When Greece fell, her oppressors, the Turks, a race of barbarians, destroyed all the grand works in marble they could find. For two or three hundred years, they pounded up the beautiful statues of the Parthenon to obtain lime to make their miserable hovels; and it is probably to them that is due the destruction of the works of chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statuary that were so celebrated, that almost every ancient writer described them. One was so richly ornamented with gold, that Pericles mentions it as one of the resources for carrying on the Peloponnesian war. The gold was stolen, and carried off by Leochares during the siege of Athens by Demetrius.

The masterpiece of Phidias was the Jupiter of Olympia. “The god,” says Pausanias, “made of gold and ivory, is seated upon a throne. On his head is a crown, representing an olive-branch. In his right hand he carries a Victory, also of gold and ivory, holding a wreath, and having a crown upon her head. In the left hand of the god is a sceptre, shining with all sorts of metals. The bird placed upon the summit of the sceptre is an eagle. The sandals of the god are of gold, and his mantle is also golden. The figures of various animals, and of all sorts of flowers, particularly lilies, are painted upon it. The throne is a diversified assemblage of gold, of precious stones, of ivory, and of ebony, in which figures of all kinds are also painted or sculptured.”

Curiously enough, this writer does not give the dimensions of the work, an omission that is supplied by Strabo. “Phidias,” he says, “had made his Jupiter sitting, and touching almost the summit of the roof of the temple: so that it appeared, that, if the god had risen up, he would have lifted off the roof. The interior of the temple is said to have been sixty feet high, and the statue was about forty-eight feet in height.” Equalling if not rivalling Phidias in the estimation of some, was Polycletus, who produced the Juno of Argos. His works were not on so grand a scale as his contemporary Phidias, but excelled them in beauty and execution. Pausanias thus describes his masterpiece: “The statue of Juno is seated on a throne. Her size is extraordinary. She is of gold and ivory. On her head is a crown, whereon are worked the figures of the Hours and Graces. In one hand she holds the sceptre, in the other the fruit of the pomegranate.” Maximus Tyrius says, “Polycletus enabled the Argives to contemplate the queen of the gods in all her majesty. She is seated upon a throne of gold, where we admire the whiteness of her breast and arms of ivory.”