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DOI Artikel:Cutler, Anthony: Mistaken novelty: problems of ivory carving in the Christian East (12th and 13th centuries) =
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.35032#0281
A. CUTLER, "PROBLEMS OF IVORY CARVING IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST (12TH AND 1 3TH CENTURIES)" 27 1
2. Z7<7 o/' ;7/. 7
The earliest such serious deliberation was offered by Klaus Wessel, more than thirty
years ago, with respect to the well-known box in Stuttgart depicting the Ascension on the
lid and prophets as well as the Anastasis on the long ends of the trough below (ill. l).*o
This object has been much written about but seems to have been examined rarely. For one
thing, it has not been noticed that the trough and the lid, which may slightly postdate the
erased images on the short ends of the trough, were both carved from solid blocks of ivory,
with walls 10mm thick - a prodigality far more characteristic of the end of the 9th and first
half of the 10th century, when the substance was relatively abundant, than of the time
when it was in short supply in the East; i.e., during the 12th and 13th centuries. This
lavishness is equally to be found in the David Casket in the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, made
as a gift for Leo VIJ * and the famous box with mounted emperors, now in Troyes and to be
K. WESSEL, 'Das byzantinische Eifenbeinkästschen in Stuttgart', JaArTurcA
7 (1974), pp. 7-20.
" Anthony CUTLER and N. OIKONOM1DES, 'An Imperial Byzantine Casket and Its Fate at the Humanist's Hands',
TrfB 70 (1988), 77-87.
2. Z7<7 o/' ;7/. 7
The earliest such serious deliberation was offered by Klaus Wessel, more than thirty
years ago, with respect to the well-known box in Stuttgart depicting the Ascension on the
lid and prophets as well as the Anastasis on the long ends of the trough below (ill. l).*o
This object has been much written about but seems to have been examined rarely. For one
thing, it has not been noticed that the trough and the lid, which may slightly postdate the
erased images on the short ends of the trough, were both carved from solid blocks of ivory,
with walls 10mm thick - a prodigality far more characteristic of the end of the 9th and first
half of the 10th century, when the substance was relatively abundant, than of the time
when it was in short supply in the East; i.e., during the 12th and 13th centuries. This
lavishness is equally to be found in the David Casket in the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, made
as a gift for Leo VIJ * and the famous box with mounted emperors, now in Troyes and to be
K. WESSEL, 'Das byzantinische Eifenbeinkästschen in Stuttgart', JaArTurcA
7 (1974), pp. 7-20.
" Anthony CUTLER and N. OIKONOM1DES, 'An Imperial Byzantine Casket and Its Fate at the Humanist's Hands',
TrfB 70 (1988), 77-87.