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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#0286
276 A. CUTLER, "PROBLEMS OF IVORY CARVING IN THE CHRISTIAN EAST ( 1ŻTH AND 1 3TH CENTURIES)"
7. Crttct/tx/ot? p/rt<yttc, <7cta// (TVcw A7cfro/7o//t<v/t Aftt.scttn?)
them as products of Akko (Acre) or Jerusalem.'^ Their association is justified by their
relatively large size (including their thickness), their overall form, occasional shared ico-
nography, and wealth of inscription. 1 shall do little more than refer in passing to the
diptych in Paris for I prefer not to comment on an ivory that I have not held in my hand.
The other two are familiar to specialists: one in Chambéry (ill. 3), known since it was first
exhibited in 1878 and again fifteen years ago at the Louvre - where it received extensive
treatment at the hands of Jannic Durand who tentatively proposed that it was a Venetian
creation;'^ the second in Warsaw (ill. 4), first published in 1965 by Paulina Ratkowska
who regarded it as an East Christian 'monastic' work of the 11 th or 12th century.-^ That no
monastery is known to have been the source (as against the recipient) of ivory plaques is
less important for our purposes than the girth of the diptychs in question. The leaves of the
Chambéry diptych are 1.5cm (Annunciation) and 1.6cm (Nativity) thick; those at Warsaw
are 9mm (Annunciation) and 10mm (Nativity) respectively. Some sense of the amount of
material involved may be gleaned from the fact that the 10th-century Romanos and
Eukokia ivory in the Cabinet des Médailles is 1.2cm thick. The area of the latter measures
24.6cm x 15.5cm, only slightly larger than either of the two diptychs under considera-
tion.-' In all three cases, then, we are dealing with large sections of African tusks--and,
implicitly, a client or clients willing to countenance the expenditure entailed.
Like the Romanos ivory, the Chambéry diptych is largely translucent, the carver achiev-
ing this result by removing all but 3mm of his material, and thereby allowing the figures to
rise at least 1.2cm in relief. The aesthetic impact of this technique is the chiaroscuro vis-
ible in the Annunciation lobe of Warsaw (ill. 5), but no less important is the means by
which this shadow-play is obtained. Close inspection of the Annunciation rcven/y that
deeply undercut, projecting portions of ivory - in this case the three columns and the
entablature of the building behind which Mary stands - have broken off as, apparently,
have two standing forms in the Crucifixion lobe of Chambéry (ill. 6). Yet the even more
C. JOLIVET-LÉVY, "Un diptyque inédit, les ivories apparentés et l'art de la Mediterranée orientale à l'époque des
Croisades , in Autour & / 'icône.* or/g/ne, evo/nt/on et rayonnement r/e /'/cône r/n V/e an X/Xe v/èc/e, ed. T. Velmans,
Ca/n'er^ ôa//:an/^ne^, 34 (2006), pp. 31-35; /ôem, 'A New Ivory Diptych and Two Related Pieces', in /nteract/oiM.'
ArtNt/c Riterc/iange Retween t/ie Eastern an<7 Western MAr/r/,s' /n t/ie A7er/Zeva/ Per/or/, ed. C. HOURIHANE, Princeton
2007, pp. 106-19.
' ^ Ryzance: / art ôyzant/n r/an^ /ev co//ect/on^puô//<^nej, Paris 1992, pp. 266-67, no. 174. Here the object is assigned to
the end of the 12th or the 13th century.
An East Christian Diptych with the Heortological Cycle', Rn//et/n r/n Mn^ee /Vat/ona/ r/e Vhrjov/e 6 (1965), pp. 91-
115.
' The new Paris diptych is reported by JOLIVET-LÉVY, op. c/t., as measuring 29 x 10.8 x 11-12 cm thick.
-- CUTLER, Z/anr/ o/T/ie Master, p. 57.
7. Crttct/tx/ot? p/rt<yttc, <7cta// (TVcw A7cfro/7o//t<v/t Aftt.scttn?)
them as products of Akko (Acre) or Jerusalem.'^ Their association is justified by their
relatively large size (including their thickness), their overall form, occasional shared ico-
nography, and wealth of inscription. 1 shall do little more than refer in passing to the
diptych in Paris for I prefer not to comment on an ivory that I have not held in my hand.
The other two are familiar to specialists: one in Chambéry (ill. 3), known since it was first
exhibited in 1878 and again fifteen years ago at the Louvre - where it received extensive
treatment at the hands of Jannic Durand who tentatively proposed that it was a Venetian
creation;'^ the second in Warsaw (ill. 4), first published in 1965 by Paulina Ratkowska
who regarded it as an East Christian 'monastic' work of the 11 th or 12th century.-^ That no
monastery is known to have been the source (as against the recipient) of ivory plaques is
less important for our purposes than the girth of the diptychs in question. The leaves of the
Chambéry diptych are 1.5cm (Annunciation) and 1.6cm (Nativity) thick; those at Warsaw
are 9mm (Annunciation) and 10mm (Nativity) respectively. Some sense of the amount of
material involved may be gleaned from the fact that the 10th-century Romanos and
Eukokia ivory in the Cabinet des Médailles is 1.2cm thick. The area of the latter measures
24.6cm x 15.5cm, only slightly larger than either of the two diptychs under considera-
tion.-' In all three cases, then, we are dealing with large sections of African tusks--and,
implicitly, a client or clients willing to countenance the expenditure entailed.
Like the Romanos ivory, the Chambéry diptych is largely translucent, the carver achiev-
ing this result by removing all but 3mm of his material, and thereby allowing the figures to
rise at least 1.2cm in relief. The aesthetic impact of this technique is the chiaroscuro vis-
ible in the Annunciation lobe of Warsaw (ill. 5), but no less important is the means by
which this shadow-play is obtained. Close inspection of the Annunciation rcven/y that
deeply undercut, projecting portions of ivory - in this case the three columns and the
entablature of the building behind which Mary stands - have broken off as, apparently,
have two standing forms in the Crucifixion lobe of Chambéry (ill. 6). Yet the even more
C. JOLIVET-LÉVY, "Un diptyque inédit, les ivories apparentés et l'art de la Mediterranée orientale à l'époque des
Croisades , in Autour & / 'icône.* or/g/ne, evo/nt/on et rayonnement r/e /'/cône r/n V/e an X/Xe v/èc/e, ed. T. Velmans,
Ca/n'er^ ôa//:an/^ne^, 34 (2006), pp. 31-35; /ôem, 'A New Ivory Diptych and Two Related Pieces', in /nteract/oiM.'
ArtNt/c Riterc/iange Retween t/ie Eastern an<7 Western MAr/r/,s' /n t/ie A7er/Zeva/ Per/or/, ed. C. HOURIHANE, Princeton
2007, pp. 106-19.
' ^ Ryzance: / art ôyzant/n r/an^ /ev co//ect/on^puô//<^nej, Paris 1992, pp. 266-67, no. 174. Here the object is assigned to
the end of the 12th or the 13th century.
An East Christian Diptych with the Heortological Cycle', Rn//et/n r/n Mn^ee /Vat/ona/ r/e Vhrjov/e 6 (1965), pp. 91-
115.
' The new Paris diptych is reported by JOLIVET-LÉVY, op. c/t., as measuring 29 x 10.8 x 11-12 cm thick.
-- CUTLER, Z/anr/ o/T/ie Master, p. 57.