CHAPTER III.
IVORY CARVINGS.
In the former part of this work we have noticed the ivory carvings of the ancient world, and it is proposed in the following pages to give an outline of ivory carvings of the Middle Ages and of the comparatively modern periods.
One of the oldest and most important works in ivory carving of the sixth century is the celebrated Chair of St. Maximinian, now preserved in the metropolitan church of Ravenna. It is entirely overlaid with plates of ivory, and has five upright panels in the front and below the seat which are carved with figure subjects. The legs and back are overlaid with ivory plates, carved with animals, foliage, and figures, and on the rail in front of the seat is carved the Archbishop’s monogram. It is altogether a very fine and rich piece of Romanesque work.
Very important works in ivory were executed in the time of the Roman Empire, in the nature of “Consulare” diptychs and triptychs. These Consular diptychs were originally made of wood or ivory, and were hinged tablets that folded over each other, the outside surfaces being carved elaborately, with a portrait or figure of the Consul or chief magistrate of the province in the centre, the inside surfaces being used for writing purposes. These consulares were also called “pugillares” from being portable objects that could be carried conveniently in the hand or fist. They were usually made as presents to be given to important people of distant provinces, or to very intimate friends of the Consuls. After the adoption of the Christian religion by the Roman Empire it was the custom of the Consuls to send these consulares in the form of a diptych or triptych, as a present to the bishop of a church in his province, to show his patronage and goodwill, and they were usually placed on the altar of the church, in order that the congregation should see them and remember the giver in their prayers. This custom led to the making of the diptychs (two-leaved) and the triptychs (three-leaved), for the purpose of the altar decorations, and usually on the plain inner leaves were inscribed the names of the newly baptized (neophytes) Christians, benefactors to the church, dignitaries of the same, and Christian martyrs. The use of these led to the later magnificent painted and carved altars of the triptych order in Christian churches. During the persecution by the iconoclastic Emperors of the Eastern Empire a great number of these triptychs were made in wood and in ivory of Greek workmanship, carved or painted on the interior faces with representations of saints and sacred personages. These were used as portable altars, and were carried about the person of those who used to pray before them in secret. Many of them were also of a good size, and became later important objects that were placed above or near the “prie-dieus” in private rooms or chapels. The smaller pugillares, and larger ecclesiastical diptychs were used in later times to form the coverings of costly illuminated books, and it is owing to this use of them that so many have been preserved to our day.
Byzantine sculpture and ivory carvings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were invested with the same severe and solemn character that was the distinguishing feature of the ceiling and wall mosaics of the same period. The figures were long and attenuated, the draperies very stiff and angular and arranged in parallel folds, which, with the German phase of Christian art, developed later into a still more angular and rocky character. In France, on the other hand, in the thirteenth century there arose a splendid and original school of sculpture, entirely native, whose richest efforts culminated in such masterly achievements as the figure sculpture of the cathedrals of Rheims, Chartres, and Amiens.
Fig. 111.—Coronation of the Virgin; Ivory Carving relieved with Colours and Gold; Thirteenth-Century French. (Jacquemart.)
Small statuettes in ivory were made in great quantities in the Middle Ages, and as an example of the French school of ivory carving of this period there is an exceedingly fine representation of the “Coronation of the Virgin” (Fig. 111) in the Louvre. In this work the figure of Christ has the dress and lineaments of Philip III. (the Bold), the son of St. Louis, and that of the Virgin is personified as Mary, his Queen, daughter of Henry III. (the Debonnaire), Duke of Lorraine and Brabant. This example dates from about 1274, and is certainly one of the most perfectly finished works of French sculpture of that time.
Fig. 112.—Image Painter; Fifteenth Century.