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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval - -Author: William Maskell - -Release Date: February 21, 2020 [EBook #61471] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Paul Marshall and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - - Underscores "_" before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_ - in the original text. - Equal signs "=" before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold= - in the original text. - Carat symbol "^" designates a superscript. - Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. - Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. - Antiquated spellings have been preserved. - Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations - in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered. - The "LIST OF FULL PAGE PLATES" was added by the transcriber it is not - part of the original text. - - - SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. - - EDITED BY WILLIAM MASKELL. - - N^{o.} 2.—IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. - -_These Handbooks are reprints of the dissertations prefixed to the -large catalogues of the chief divisions of works of art in the Museum -at South Kensington; arranged and so far abridged as to bring each into -a portable shape. The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education -having determined on the publication of them, the editor trusts that -they will meet the purpose intended; namely, to be useful, not alone -for the collections at South Kensington, but for other collectors by -enabling the public at a trifling cost to understand something of the -history and character of the subjects treated of._ - -_The authorities referred to in each book are given in the large -catalogues; where will also be found detailed descriptions of the very -numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum._ - - W. M. - _August, 1875._ - -[Illustration: PASTORAL STAFF CARVED IVORY WITH FIGURES, COMPOSING -TOGETHER A REPRESENTATION OF THE NATIVITY. GERMAN 12^{TH} CENT^Y S. K. -M. (N^o. 218-65.) - -A. A. BRADBURY. FECIT.] - - - - - IVORIES - ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. - - - BY - WILLIAM MASKELL. - - WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS. - - [Illustration] - - _Published for the Committee of Council on Education_ - - BY - CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. - - _FIFTY COPIES ON LARGE PAPER, WITH ADDITIONAL - ILLUSTRATIONS._ - - - - -LIST OF FULL PAGE PLATES - - - FOLLOWING - PAGE - PASTORAL STAFF CARVED IVORY WITH FIGURES. Frontispiece - IVORY CARVING. ONE LEAF OF THE DIPTYCHON MELERETENSE. 34 - IVORY CARVING. CIRCULAR MIRROR COVER. DATE 1300-1330. 74 - IVORY CARVING, HEAD OF A TAU OR T SHAPED STAFF, IN WALRUS - TUSK, THE COMPARTMENTS CONTAINING THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC. 85 - CROSIER IN CARVED IVORY AND GILT METAL. 86 - TRIPTYCH, SERVING AS A RELIQUARY IN CARVED IVORY ABOUT 1480. 96 - HORN OR OLIPHANT. IVORY. BYZANTINE. 11^{TH} CENT. 114 - PLAQUES OR PANELS OF A CASKET, ONE A FRAGMENT, IVORY, FRENCH. 116 - CARVED IVORY BOX, WITH ARABIC INSCRIPTION. HISPANO-MORESCO. 118 - - - - -LIST OF WOODCUTS. - - - PAGE - Prehistoric carving 9 - Esquimaux carving 9 - Prehistoric carving in relief 10 - ” ” in outline 11 - ” ” of the Mammoth 11 - Angel; end of fourth century 36 - Vase; end of sixth century 46 - Book cover; Carlovingian 49 - Panel of an English casket; eighth century 53 - Another panel of the same 54 - St. Peter’s chair 56 - Spanish Moresque panel 57 - Coffer painted with medallions 59 - Open-work; two small panels 64 - Italian marriage coffer 64 - Part of a Predella, in bone 66 - Cover of a box, with Morris Dancers 68 - English comb; eleventh century 70 - Italian comb; sixteenth century 71 - Mirror case; fourteenth century 74 - Another ” ” 75 - Chessman; twelfth century 80 - ” thirteenth century 81 - Arm of a chair; eleventh century 82 - Two groups of chessmen, found in the island of Lewis 83 - The volute of a pastoral staff; thirteenth century 87 - ” ” ” English; twelfth century 90 - One leaf of a diptych in very high relief; - fourteenth century 100 - Group, a Pietà; late fourteenth century 103 - Painter at work on a statuette 105 - Chaplet and beads; and girdle, with ivory clasps 112 - Horn; fifteenth century 113 - Two panels in open-work; fourteenth century 115 - Panel in minute open-work 115 - Leaf of diptych, executed for bishop Grandison; - fourteenth century 117 - - - - -IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL. - - -CHAPTER I. - - -Every description or account of Carvings in Ivory ought to include -similar carvings in bone, of which last many remarkable examples are -to be found in the South Kensington and other museums. The rarity and -value of ivory frequently obliged workmen to use the commoner and less -costly material. - -In the strictest sense, no substance except the tusk of the elephant -presents the characteristic of true ivory, which, “now, according -to the best anatomists and physiologists, is restricted to that -modification of dentine or tooth substance which, in transverse -sections or fractures, shows lines of different colours or striæ -proceeding in the arc of a circle, and forming by their decussations -minute curvilinear lozenge-shaped spaces.” Upon this subject the reader -should consult a valuable paper, read by professor Owen, before the -Society of Arts, in 1856, and printed in their journal. - -But, besides the elephant, other animals furnish what may also be -not improperly called ivory. Such as the walrus, the narwhal, and -the hippopotamus. The employment of walrus ivory has ceased among -southern European nations for a long time; and carvings in the tusks of -that animal are chiefly to be found among remains of the mediæval and -Carlovingian periods. In those ages it was largely used by nations of -Scandinavian origin and in England and Germany. The people of the north -were then unable to obtain and may not even have heard of the existence -of true elephant ivory. In quality and beauty of appearance walrus -ivory scarcely yields to that of the elephant. - -Sir Frederick Madden tells us, in a communication published in the -Archæologia, that “in the reign of Alfred, about A.D. 890, Ohtere, the -Norwegian, visited England, and gave an account to the king of his -voyage in pursuit of these animals, chiefly on account of their teeth. -The author of the _Kongs-Skugg-sio_, or Speculum Regale (composed in -the 12th century), takes particular notice of the walrus and of its -teeth. Olaus Magnus, in the 15th century, tells us that sword-handles -were made from them; and, somewhat later, Olaus Wormius writes, ‘the -Icelanders are accustomed, during the long nights of winter, to cut out -various articles from these teeth. This is more particularly the case -in regard to chessmen.’” Olaus Wormius speaks in another place of rings -against the cramp, handles of swords, javelins, and knives. - -There is still another kind of real ivory—the fossil ivory—which is -now extensively used in many countries, although it may be difficult -to decide whether it was known to the ancients or to mediæval carvers. -In prehistoric ages a true elephant, says professor Owen, “roamed in -countless herds over the temperate and northern parts of Europe, Asia, -and America.” This was the mammoth, the extinct _Elephas primigenius_. -The tusks of these animals are found in great quantities in the frozen -soil of Siberia, along the banks of the larger rivers. Almost the whole -of the ivory turner’s work in Russia is from Siberian fossil ivory, -and the story of the entire mammoth discovered about half a century -ago embedded in ice is well known to every one. Although commonly -called _fossil_, this ivory has not undergone the change usually -understood in connection with the term fossil, for their substance is -as well adapted for use as the ivory procured from living species. - -With regard to the tusks of elephants, African and Asiatic ivory must -be distinguished. The first, “when recently cut, is of a mellow, warm, -transparent tint, with scarcely any appearance of grain, in which -state it is called _transparent_ or _green_ ivory; but, as the oil -dries up by exposure to the air, it becomes lighter in colour. Asiatic -ivory, when newly cut, appears more like the African, which has been -long exposed to the air, and tends to become yellow by exposure. The -African variety has usually a closer texture, works harder, and takes a -better polish than the Asiatic.” It would be mere guessing to attempt -to decide the original nature of ancient or mediæval ivories. Time has -equally hardened and changed the colour of both kinds, whether African -or Asiatic. - -We cannot easily suggest any way in which the very large slabs or -plaques of ivory used by the early and mediæval artists were obtained. -The leaves of a diptych of the seventh century, in the public library -at Paris, are fifteen inches in length by nearly six inches wide. In -the British museum is a single piece which measures in length sixteen -inches and a quarter by more than five inches and a half in width, -and in depth more than half an inch. By some it is thought that the -ancients knew a method, which has been lost, of bending, softening, -and flattening solid pieces of ivory; others suppose that they were -then able to procure larger tusks than can be got from the degenerate -animal of our own day. Mr. McCulloch, in his dictionary of commerce, -tells us that 60 lbs. is the average weight of an elephant’s tusk; but -Holtzapffel, a practical authority, declares this to be far too high, -and that 15 or 16 lbs. would be nearer the average. Be this as it may, -pieces of the size above mentioned (and larger specimens probably -exist) could not be cut from the biggest of the tusks preserved in -the South Kensington museum; although it weighs 90 lbs., is eight feet -eleven inches long, and sixteen inches and a half in circumference at -the centre. This tusk is the largest of five which were presented to -the Queen by the king of Shoa about the year 1856, and given by Her -Majesty to the museum. The other four weigh, respectively, 76 lbs., -86 lbs., 72 lbs., and 52 lbs. They are all, probably, male tusks. An -enormous pair of tusks, weighing together 325 lbs., was shown in the -Great Exhibition of 1851; but these, heavy as they were, measured only -eight feet six inches in length, and did not exceed twenty-two inches -in circumference at the base. - -An ingenious mode of explaining how the great chryselephantine statues -of Phidias and other Greek sculptors were made, is proposed and -fully explained in detail by Quatremère De Quincy in his work on the -art of antique sculpture. He gives several plates in illustration, -more particularly Plate XXIX.; but none of them meet the difficulty -of the large flat plaques. The natural form of a tusk would adapt -itself easily, so far as regards the application of pieces of very -considerable size, to the round parts of the human figure. - -Mr. Hendrie, in his notes to the third book of the “Schedula diversarum -artium” of Theophilus, says that the ancients had a method of softening -and bending ivory by immersion in different solutions of salts in -acid. “Eraclius has a chapter on this. Take sulphate of potass, fossil -salt, and vitriol; these are ground with very sharp vinegar in a brass -mortar. Into this mixture the ivory is placed for three days and -nights. This being done, you will hollow out a piece of wood as you -please. The ivory being thus placed in the hollow you direct it, and -will bend it to your will.” The same writer gives another recipe from -the Sloane manuscript (of 15th century), no. 416. This directs that the -ingredients above mentioned “are to be distilled in equal parts, which -would yield muriatic acid, with the presence of water. Infused in this -water half a day, ivory can be made so soft that it can be cut like -wax. And when you wish it hardened, place it in white vinegar and it -becomes hard.” - -Sir Digby Wyatt, in a lecture read before the Arundel society, quotes -these methods from Mr. Hendrie and adds another from an English -manuscript of the 12th century: “Place the ivory in the following -mixture. Take two parts of quick lime, one part of pounded tile, one -part of oil, and one part of torn tow. Mix up all these with a lye made -of elm bark.” These various recipes have been tried in modern days, and -the experiments, hitherto, have completely failed. - -Considerable variety of colour will be observed in the various pieces -of any large collection, and much difference in the condition of -them. Some, far from being the most ancient, are greatly discoloured -and brittle in appearance; others retain their colour almost in its -original purity and their perfect firmness of texture, seemingly -unaffected by the long lapse of time. The innumerable possible -accidents to which carved ivories may have been exposed from age to -age will account for this great difference, and a happy forgetfulness, -perhaps owing to a contemptuous neglect at first of their value and -importance, may have been the cause of the comparatively excellent -state and condition of many. Laid aside in treasuries of churches and -monasteries, or put away in the chests and cupboards of great houses, -the memory even of their existence may have passed away for century -after century. - -It does not appear that any good method is known by which a discoloured -ivory can be bleached. All rough usage of course merely injures the -piece itself, and removes the external surface. Exposure to the light -keeps the original whiteness longer, and in a few instances may to some -extent restore it. It need hardly be observed that any other attempt to -alter the existing condition, whatever it may be, as regards the colour -of an antique or mediæval ivory is to be condemned. - -It is quite a different matter to endeavour to preserve works in ivory -which have suffered partial decomposition, and which can be kept from -utter destruction only by some kind of artificial treatment. Almost -all the fragments sent to England by Mr. Layard from Nineveh were in -this state of extreme fragility and decay. Professor Owen suggested -that they should be boiled in a solution of gelatine. The experiment -was tried and found to be sufficiently effectual; and it is to be hoped -that the present success will prove to be lasting. “Since the fragments -have been in England,” says Mr. Layard, “they have been admirably -restored and cleaned. The glutinous matter, by which the particles -forming the ivory are kept together, had, from the decay of centuries, -been completely exhausted. By an ingenious process it has been -restored, and the ornaments, which on their discovery fell to pieces -almost upon mere exposure to the air, have regained the appearance and -consistency of recent ivory, and may be handled without risk of injury.” - -We may think it to be sufficiently strange in tracing the early -history of the art of carving or engraving in ivory, that we should -be able easily to carry it, upon the evidence of extant examples, to -an antiquity long before the Christian era: through the Roman, Greek, -Assyrian, and Jewish people, up to an age anterior to the origin of -those nations by centuries, the number of which it may be difficult -accurately to count. These very ancient examples are of the earliest -Egyptian dynasties: yet, between them and the date of the earliest now -known specimens of works of art incised or carved in ivory there is a -lapse of time so great that it may probably be numbered by thousands of -years. - -We must go back to prehistoric man for the proof of this; to a -period earlier than the age of iron or of bronze; to the first—the -drift—period of the stone age. We must go back, as Sir John Lubbock -writes, “to a time so remote that the reindeer was abundant in the -south of France, and probably even the mammoth had not entirely -disappeared.” Lartet and Christy also (in their valuable publication, -the Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ) make a like remark: “It rests with the -geologist, by indicating the changes which have occurred in the very -land itself, to shadow out the period in the dim distance of that far -antiquity when these implements, the undoubted work of human hands, -were used and left there by primæval man.” - -Within the last few years, in caves at Le Moustier and at La Madelaine -in the Dordogne, numerous fragments have been found of tusks of the -mammoth and of reindeer’s bone and horn, on some of which are incised -drawings of various animals, and upon others similar representations -carved in low relief. These objects have been engraved in several -works by geologists and writers upon the important questions relating -to prehistoric people; and copies of them may be found in Sir John -Lubbock’s book, “The origin of Civilization,” already quoted from. -Among them are drawings and carvings of fish, of a snake, of an ibex, -of a man carrying a spear, of a mammoth, of horses’ heads, and of a -group of reindeer. - -Sir John Lubbock describes these works as showing “really considerable -skill;” as “being very fair drawings;” as the productions of men to -whom we must give “full credit for their love of art, such as it was.” -But to speak of them in words so cold is less than justice. No one can -examine the few fragments which as yet have been discovered without -acknowledging their merit, and attributing them to what may very truly -be called the hand of an artist. There can be no mistake for a moment -as to many of the beasts which are represented. - -Again: the sculptor has given us, in a spirited and natural manner, -more than one characteristic quality of his subject: and we can -recognise the heaviness and sluggishness of the mammoth as easily as -the grace and activity of the reindeer. The results of the workman’s -labour are not like the elephants and camels and lions of a child’s -Noah’s ark—merely bodies with heads and four legs—but they are executed -with the right feeling and in an artistic spirit: the animals are -carefully drawn, and often with much vigour. There is nothing -conventional about them; they are far beyond and utterly different in -style from the ugly attempts of really civilised people, such as the -Peruvians or Mexicans, to say nothing of the works of the savages of -Africa or New Zealand. They are true to nature. - -The aboriginal nations of North and South America must certainly be -spoken of as civilised, though it is curious to remember how great -authorities seem to differ as to what civilisation means. Macaulay, in -his Life of lord Clive, writing with a recklessness of statement not -unusual with him when aiming at some picturesque contrast, describes -the ancient Mexicans as “savages who had no letters, who were ignorant -of the use of metals, who had not broken in a single animal to labour, -and who wielded no better weapons than those which could be made out -of sticks, flints, and fishbones, and who regarded a horse-soldier -as a monster.” But Bernal Diaz, whose report as an eye-witness has -stood the test of years of later investigation and dispute, describes -the appearance of the great cities from without as like the enchanted -castles of romance, and full of great towers and temples. And within, -“every kind of eatable, every form of dress, medicines, perfumes, -unguents, furniture, lead, copper, gold, and silver ornaments wrought -in the form of fruit, adorned the porticoes and allured the passer-by. -Paper, that great material of civilisation, was to be obtained in this -wonderful emporium; also every kind of earthenware, cotton of all -colours in skeins, &c. There were officers who went continually about -the market-place, watching what was sold, and the measures which were -used.” - -If we are to take the judgment of Lord Macaulay as our guide in -determining what may be true civilisation, we must set down the -Greeks in the reign of Alexander, or the Italians in the days of Leo -the tenth, as “savages,” because they were ignorant of the electric -telegraph; or ourselves now, because we cannot guide balloons through -the air. - -The sculptures and works of art in the ruined cities of Yucatan are -also to be thought of. Many engravings of them are given in Stephens’s -central America. - -Nor is it enough to say that the prehistoric carvings are merely true -to nature. Their merit is clearly seen when compared with the plates of -Indian drawings and picture writings in Schoolcraft’s history of the -Indian tribes of the United States: or again, of a different character -altogether, the illuminations in Indian and Persian manuscripts. -In some respects these last are of the highest quality as regards -execution, but the animals are generally drawn in a manner purely -conventional, with scant feeling of truth or beauty, and little power -of expressing it. - -[Illustration] - -In short, the prehistoric carvings are from the hands of men who were -neither beginners nor blunderers in their art. The practised skill of -a modern wood engraver would scarcely exceed in firmness and decision, -nor in evident rapidity of execution, the outline of the animals in the -example which is here engraved. - -[Illustration] - -Other illustrations are given in order that the reader may compare -them, and more especially those also just referred to above, with a -woodcut (on preceding page) of drawings incised upon bone by Esquimaux -of our own days. This has been chosen because there seems to be a -general disposition, in the way of theory, to compare the dwellers in -the caves of Dordogne and the men of the stone age with the Esquimaux, -and to limit, as it were, the unknown amount of civilisation in the one -by what we have learnt from our own experience of the latter. Yet, so -far as the drawings and the sculptures are concerned, there is scarcely -room for comparison. The work of the stone age is that of a people with -whom, if they were in all other respects savages, we have no modern -parallel. The work of the Esquimaux is that of men who imitate with the -hand of a child, and the success or power of whose imitation ranges -exactly with their advance and culture (if culture it may be called) in -other arts. - -[Illustration] - -The first of these illustrations is perhaps the best, as it is -certainly the most delicate and graceful of all the fragments yet -discovered. It represents the profile of the head and shoulder of an -ibex, carved in low relief upon a piece of the palm of a reindeer’s -antler. So exact and well characterised is the sculpture, that -naturalists have no hesitation in deciding the animal to be an ibex of -the Alps, and not of the Pyrenees. - -The next is a group of reindeer drawn upon a piece of slate. - -And lower down the page, incised upon a piece of mammoth ivory, are -outlines of the mammoth itself. The original, rather more than nine -inches in length, is at Paris in the museum of the Jardin des plantes. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -There is no discovery with respect to primæval man—his powers and -capabilities, his possible enjoyments and appreciation of the -beautiful, his certain infinite elevation as a reasonable being above -the beasts of the field, in the most distant age and period to which -his existence has been traced,—so full of interest, so full as yet of -unfathomed mystery, as these wonderful works in ivory and bone. It can -scarcely be supposed that, by a happy accident, we have lighted on the -only specimens which were ever executed of such great merit; or that -there were some two or three men only who for a brief time in the stone -age, by a sort of miracle, were able to produce work so excellent. -Further researches and a few more fortunate “finds” may enable us to -learn much more than we now know of other habits, and the state of -(what we call) the barbarism of those ancient races in other respects. -Nor must we forget that for numberless generations after these men had -passed away their descendants lost all the old power and skill. “Dark -ages” came, similar (although incomparably longer in duration) to those -which followed Greek or Roman civilisation and science from the sixth -to the ninth and tenth centuries after Christ. Again quoting Sir John -Lubbock, we know that “no representation, however rude, of any animal -has yet been found in any of the Danish shell mounds. Even on objects -of the bronze age they are so rare that it is doubtful whether a single -well-authenticated instance could be produced.” “Even curved lines” -upon the rude and coarse pieces of pottery of later ages “are rare.” -Once more: “Very few indeed of the British sepulchral urns, belonging -to ante-Roman times, have upon them any curved lines. Representations -of animals are also almost entirely wanting.” - -Further discussion and speculation upon this subject would here be out -of place. We must leave it, although with great regret. We must pass at -one bound to a later period of time which, however long ago it may seem -to us looking back upon it, is nevertheless, in comparison with the -supposed date of the men who left their ivory and bone carvings in the -caves of Aquitaine, positively modern. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - -Although the narrative of the sacred Scriptures does not, with the -exception of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, reach back so far as -the known history of the kingdom of Egypt, it may be best to mention, -first, some places in the Old Testament in which reference is made to -works in ivory. - -King Solomon, we are told, “made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid -it with the best gold.” “The ivory house which Ahab made,” is -particularly mentioned among his memorable acts. The Psalmist speaks -of garments brought “out of ivory palaces,” or from what may rather be -translated wardrobes. The original text is ﬤﬢﬣיﬤﬥישׁן. In the earlier -Hebrew the word ﬣיﬤﬥ meant a small house or palace; in the later,—and -the 45th Psalm is not of early date, and was moreover written in a -foreign country,—it meant more commonly a wardrobe, or what we now call -a vestry or sacristy. The prophets Ezekiel and Amos tell us of “benches -of ivory brought out of the isles of Chittim,” of “horns of ivory,” and -of “beds of ivory.” There are other evidences in the Bible of the value -and high estimation in which ivory was held by the Jews; and its beauty -of appearance, its brightness, and smoothness are used as poetical -illustrations in the Song of Solomon. From a verse in the fifth chapter -of this last book we also learn that the ivory was sometimes inlaid -with precious stones. - -It is quite evident that in those days works in ivory were regarded in -Judæa as a possession only to be acquired by very great and wealthy -persons; nor may it be too much, perhaps, to say that they were looked -upon as insignia of royalty. We may entirely agree with De Quincy, in -his book upon the statue of Jupiter at Olympia: “L’ivoire constitua -les ornaments distinctifs de la dignité royale chez les plus anciens -peuples. L’antiquité ne parle que de sceptres et de trônes d’ivoire. -Tels étaient selon Denis d’Halicarnasse les attributs de la royauté -chez les Étrusques. A leur exemple, Tarquin eut le trône et le sceptre -d’ivoire, &c.” - -But, as has been already observed, there are specimens and remains of -Egyptian works in ivory still existing which date by many centuries -from an earlier time than the days of Solomon or Ahab. These must be, -of course, of excessive rarity: partly because of their antiquity and -fragile nature; partly because of the smallness of their size, owing -to which they must have been frequently overlooked or thrown aside. -The collection in the British museum includes some examples, a few of -which, particularly two daggers inlaid and ornamented with ivory, are -of the time of Moses, about 1,800 years before Christ. Several chairs, -ornamented in a like manner, may be attributed to the sixteenth century -B.C. Some woodcuts are given of chairs and stools ornamented with -ivory, in Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s account of the ancient Egyptians. - -Among the Egyptian antiquities in the British museum may also be -mentioned the handle of a mirror in hippopotamus ivory; an ivory -palette of about the same period; two ivory boxes, in the shape of -water fowl; and a very remarkable figure or statuette, a woman, of -perhaps the eleventh century B.C.; and, again, a very curious casket of -considerable size but of much later date; probably of the first century -of the Christian æra: Roman work and decoration. This was found at -Memphis, and is made of ivory plaques laid upon a framework of wood. -The plaques are incised with figures and coloured. The shape is oblong, -with a sloping cover; it measures about twelve by ten inches. - -The use of ivory for ornament and the adapting it to works of art must -have been known by the Egyptians from a most remote antiquity. There -is a small ivory box in the Louvre, which is inscribed with a prænomen -attributed to the fifth dynasty. Labarte, quoting De Rougé, mentions -another of the sixth dynasty:—“On voit au musée Égyptien du Louvre -une quantité d’objets d’os et d’ivoire. Ce sont de petits vases, des -objets de toilette, des cuillers dont le manche est formé par une femme -nue, et une boîte ornée d’une belle tête de gazelle. La pièce la plus -curieuse est une autre boîte d’ivoire très-simple, mais d’une excessive -antiquité, puisqu’elle porte la légende royale de Merien-ra, qui est -placé vers la sixième dynastie.” Dr. Birch in a paper printed among the -transactions of the Royal society, on two Egyptian cartouches found at -Nimroud, refers to a tablet of the twelfth dynasty, which describes a -figure whose “arms are to be made of precious stones, silver and gold, -and the two hinder parts of ivory and ebony. In a tomb at Thebes record -is made of a statue composed of ebony and ivory, with a collar of gold.” - -The date of the Egyptian statuette in the British museum and of -numerous smaller objects in that and in the great foreign collections, -such as spoons, bracelets, collars, boxes, &c., most of which are -earlier than the twenty-fourth dynasty and long before the time of -Cambyses, brings us to about the same period as the famous Assyrian -ivories, which were found at Nineveh, and which are also preserved in -the British museum. - -These were chiefly discovered in the north-west palace; and almost all -in two chambers of that building. We cannot do better than listen to -the general description of them given by Mr. Layard himself:—“The most -interesting are the remains of two small tablets, one nearly entire, -the other much injured. Upon them are represented two sitting figures, -holding in one hand the Egyptian sceptre or symbol of power. Between -them is a cartouche containing hieroglyphics, and surmounted by a -plume, such as is found in monuments of the eighteenth and subsequent -dynasties of Egypt. The chairs on which the figures are seated, the -robes of the figures themselves, the hieroglyphics and the feather -above, were enamelled with a blue substance let into the ivory, and the -whole ground of the tablet, as well as the cartouche and part of the -figures, was originally gilded,—remains of the gold leaf still adhering -to them. The forms and style of art have a purely Egyptian character, -although there are certain peculiarities in the execution and mode -of treatment that would seem to mark the work of a foreign, perhaps -an Assyrian, artist. The same peculiarities, the same anomalies, -characterise all the other objects discovered. Several small heads -in frames, supported by pillars or pedestals, most elegant in design -and elaborate in execution, show not only a considerable acquaintance -with art, but an intimate knowledge of the method of working in ivory. -Scattered about were fragments of winged sphinxes, the head of a lion -of singular beauty, human heads, legs and feet, bulls, flowers, and -scroll work. In all these specimens the spirit of the design and the -delicacy of the workmanship are equally to be admired.” - -There are altogether more than fifty of these Assyrian ivories in -the British museum: a detailed account of nearly all is given by Mr. -Layard in the appendix to his first volume. Dr. Birch says they cannot -be later in date than the seventh century B.C.; and thinks it highly -probable that they are much earlier. Mr. Layard believes that about the -year 950 B.C. is the most probable period of their execution. - -There can be no doubt that from the year 1000 B.C. down to the -Christian æra there was a constant succession of artists in ivory in -the western Asiatic countries, in Egypt, in Greece, and in Italy. -Long before ivory was applied in Greece to the making of bas-reliefs -and statues it was employed for a multitude of objects of luxury and -ornament. Inferior to marble in whiteness, and of course greatly -inferior in extent of available surface, ivory exceeds marble in beauty -of polish and is less fragile, being an animal substance and of true -tissue and growth. From the time of Hesiod and Homer numerous allusions -are to be found in classic authors to various works in this material: -such as the decoration of shields, couches, and articles of domestic -use. As to statues, Pausanias tells us that, so far as he could learn, -men first made them of wood only; of ebony, cypress, cedar, or oak. The -passages from the earlier classics have been referred to, over and over -again, by all the later writers on the subject; and it would be not -merely wearying but unnecessary to repeat them here. - -In the sixth century before Christ, ivory statues of the Dioscuri and -other deities were made at Sicyon and Argos. Sir Digby Wyatt, in the -lecture before referred to, speaks of them as having been rude in -character, but there is no evidence left for so disparaging a decision. -Other works were statues of the Hours, of Themis, and of Diana. -The names of some of the sculptors have been preserved: among them -Polycletus, Endoos of Athens, the brothers Medon, and Dorycleides. - -The style in which objects of this kind were executed was called -_Toreutic_: from τορεύω, to bore through, to chase, to work in relief; -signifying chiefly working the material in the round or in relief. -Winckelman, in his history of art, explains the term at first with -insufficient exactness: “Phidias inventa cet art appelé par les anciens -_toreutice_, c’est à dire, l’art de tourner.” In his second edition he -corrects this, and rightly says, “la racine de cette dénomination est -τορός, _clair_, _distinct_, épithète qui s’applique à la voix. C’est -pourquoi on donne ce nomme au travaux en relief, par opposition au -travail en creux des pierres précieuses.” A long disquisition on the -meaning of the word, and its etymology, is given by De Quincy. - -One of the most famous of such _toreutic_ works, and of which Pausanias -has left us a tolerably accurate description, was the coffer which the -Cypselidæ sent as an offering to Olympia, about 600 B.C. It seems to -have been made of cedar wood, of considerable size; the figures ranged -in five rows, one above the other, along the sides which were inlaid -with gold and ivory. The subjects were taken from old heroic stories. -De Quincy has given a large plate with a conjectural restoration of -the chest; which he supposes to have been oblong with a rounded cover. -Others believe it to have been elliptical. - -Pausanias, in his description of Greece, mentions the existence in -his time of numerous ivory statues and of chryselephantine works. In -the first section of the seventeenth chapter of the fifth book he -enumerates ten or fifteen, which he says were all made of ivory and -gold; and a table of ivory. At Megara he saw an ivory statue of Venus, -the work of Praxiteles; at Corinth, many chryselephantine statues; near -Mycenæ, a statue of Hebe, the work of Naucydes; in Altis, the horn of -Amalthea; and in another treasury there, a statue of Endymion entirely -of ivory, except his robe; at Elis, a statue made of ivory and gold, -the work of Phidias; near Tritia, in Achaias, an ivory throne with the -sitting figure of a virgin; at Ægira, a wooden statue of Minerva of -which the face, hands, and feet were ivory. And, to name no more, a -statue of Minerva, the work of Endius, all of ivory, long preserved at -Tegea, but at the time when he wrote placed at the entrance of the new -forum at Rome, having been taken there by Augustus. - -There are two men whose travels and the sights they saw we cannot but -envy; one was Pausanias, the other our own Leland. - -It should be observed that Pausanias believed ivory to be the horn and -not the tooth of the elephant: and he has a long argument about it -in his fifth book, where he refers to and mentions the Celtic stag. -Declaring it to be horn, he says that, like the horns of oxen, ivory -can be softened by fire and changed from a round to a flat shape. - -The famous chryselephantine statues of Phidias and his contemporaries -were somewhat later than the statues of the Dioscuri and the chest at -Olympia. One of the most celebrated was the figure of Minerva in the -Parthenon, which was in height nearly forty English feet. It would be -wrong to omit all notice of the attempt to reproduce this statue which -was made by order of the late Duc de Luynes, and was shown in the Paris -Exhibition of 1855. “M. Simart, qui l’a exécutée, s’est montré le digne -interprète de Phidias, et a su retrouver, par ses études approfondies, -le vrai sentiment de l’art antique. La statue, de trois mètres de -hauteur, est d’ivoire et d’argent: la face, le cou, le bras et les -pieds, la tête de Méduse placée sur son égide, ainsi que le torse de la -Victoire qu’elle tient dans la main droite, sont d’ivoire de l’Inde. La -lance, le bouclier, le casque, et le serpent sont de bronze; la tunique -et l’égide d’argent ont été repoussées et ciselées.” - -Even more colossal than the figure of Minerva was the Jupiter at -Olympia; the god was represented sitting, and reached to the height of -about fifty-eight feet. De Quincy has some conjectural restorations of -this statue engraved in his book. - -We remember the destruction of these and similar works with the utmost -regret; and the more so, because that destruction was owing in many -instances to the mad violence of Christian fanatics; the iconoclasts -of the eighth century. The remains which we possess even of smaller -objects are not only of excessive rarity, but they cannot with any -certainty be attributed to artists working in Greece itself. Ivory and -metal have perished under conditions which have left uninjured fragile -vases. There are some examples of carvings in ivory in the British -museum, and especially in the collection lately purchased from signor -Castellani which have been found in Etruscan tombs. Many of these are -perhaps the work of Greek artists. - -Etruscan sculpture was probably derived at first from Egypt: but -the art of the one was entirely and unchangingly conventional, and -never seems to vary from a certain fixed style. The Etrurian, on the -contrary, soon cleared itself from the bondage of old traditions and, -even when rudest, was free and attempted to imitate nature in the -representation of muscles, hair, and draperies. - -Neither the beauty nor the wonderful spirit of the execution of some of -the ivories in the British museum has been exceeded or perhaps equalled -in any later time. Among them the following ought to be particularly -mentioned:— - -A large bust of a woman, of the Roman republican period, and a small -carving of the head of a horse, scarcely inferior to the work of any -Greek artist of the best time. A very important head of a Gorgon, as -seen on Athenian coins, with eyes inlaid in gold, about two inches in -diameter; probably the button of a woman’s dress. Two lions, the heads -and part only of the bodies, lying across each other, very admirable -and full of character; and another lion’s head, the top perhaps of the -handle of a mirror. These were chiefly discovered, with numerous other -fragments, at Chiusi and Calvi. At Chiusi also were found the panels of -two small caskets which have been put together; both are of early date; -one it may be of the fourth century B.C. and Phœnician in style. There -is also in the same case a fine small ivory statuette, much later, -perhaps of the second century: a boy, still partly embedded in the -mortar or refuse in which it was found. - -The workers in ivory during the first centuries of our æra were, as a -class, sufficiently numerous to be exempted by law from some personal -and municipal obligations. Pancirolus, in his “Notitiæ,” gives a list -of these bodies of artificers. He mentions as exempt, architects, -medical men, painters, and others, with references to the various laws -under which they were excused; and among them are “workmen in ivory, -who make chairs, beds, and other things of that sort.” - -Nevertheless, carvings in ivory of the Roman imperial times before -Constantine are extremely scarce. In the superb collection in the South -Kensington museum there are two only which can safely be so attributed. -One is the fragment, no. 299; the other is the beautiful leaf, no. 212. - -The British museum (not to mention a large number of fragments -chiefly of caskets or decorations of furniture, tesseræ and tickets -of admission to theatres and shows, dice, and the like) possesses -a few pieces, of which one is extremely fine in character and in -good preservation. The subject is Bellerophon, who is represented on -Pegasus, killing the Chimæra; and it is executed in open work. The age -is somewhat doubtful. Professor Westwood places it as early as the -third century, and his judgment must be treated with great deference. -Others, of no slight authority, are indisposed to give it an earlier -date than the fourth century. This admirable ivory has somewhat of the -character of the book-cover in the Barberini collection, engraved by -Gori, in the second volume of his great work on diptychs. That famous -piece is not perfect, nor is there any name upon it. Gori fairly argues -that it represents the emperor Constantius, about the year 357. The -Bellerophon is of finer work. - -The gradual and uninterrupted decline of art from the days of Augustus -is to be traced as distinctly in the ivories which have been preserved -as in ancient buildings. But we can scarcely agree with D’Agincourt -as regards its rapidity. Speaking of sculpture generally, he says: -“On vit celle-ci successivement grande, noble, auguste sous le prince -qui mérita ce nom; licencieuse et obscène sous Tibère; grossièrement -adulatrice sous Caracalla; extravagante sous Néron, qui faisait dorer -les chefs-d’œuvre de Lysippe.” D’Agincourt probably refers to the -barbarism of Caligula, who proposed to put a head of himself upon the -Olympic Zeus by Phidias; or to Claudius, who cut the head of Alexander -out of a picture by Apelles, to replace it with his own. Suetonius -has recorded the first of these atrocities (can we speak of them by a -lighter name?) and Pliny the last. - -In the collection given to the town of Liverpool by Mr. Mayer there are -two very celebrated pieces, possibly of the third century; they were -originally the leaves of a diptych. On one is Æsculapius, on the other -Hygieia. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - -From the middle of the fourth century down to the end of the sixteenth -we have an unbroken chain of examples still existing. Individual pieces -may, perhaps, in many instances be of questionable origin as regards -the country of the artist, and, sometimes, with respect to the exact -date within fifty or even a hundred years. But there is no doubt -whatever that, increasing in number as they come nearer to the middle -ages, we can refer to carved ivories of every century preserved in -museums in England and abroad. Their importance with reference to the -history of art cannot be overrated. There is no such continuous chain -in manuscripts, or mosaics, or gems, or textiles, or porcelain, or -enamels. Perhaps, with the exception of manuscripts, there never was -in any of these classes so large a number executed nor the demand for -them so great. The material itself or the decorations by which other -works were surrounded very probably tempted people to destroy them; and -we may thank the valueless character of many a piece of carved ivory, -except as a work of art, for its preservation to our own days. - -The most important ivories before the seventh century are the consular -diptychs. The earliest which still exists claims to be of the middle -of the third century, the latest belongs to the middle of the sixth. -Anything doubled, or doubly folded, is a diptych: δίπτυχον; but the -term was chiefly applied to the tablets used for writing on with -metallic or ivory styles by the ancients. When these tablets had -three leaves they were called triptychs, and of five or more leaves -pentaptychs or polyptychs. Inside, each leaf was slightly sunk with -a narrow raised margin in order to hold wax; outside, they were -ornamented with carvings. They were not always of ivory; frequently of -citron or of some less costly wood, and for common use were probably of -small size, convenient for the hand and for carrying about. - -Homer, in the sixth book of the Iliad, speaks of such tablets, and -there are frequent references to them in Latin writers; in Juvenal, -Martial, and other authors. Many passages are to be found quoted in -books upon the ancient Roman diptychs. It happens also that two ancient -specimens have been found. Both were discovered in gold mines in -Transylvania, and have been described by Massmann in a volume published -at Leipsic in 1841. Each consists of three leaves, one of fir-wood, the -other of beech, and about the size of a modern octavo book. The outer -part exhibits the plain surface of the wood, the inner part is covered -with wax surrounded by a margin. The edges of one side are pierced -that they might be fastened together by means of a thread or wire -passed through them. The wax is not thick on either set of tablets; -it is thinner on the beechen set, in which the stylus of the writer -has in places cut through the wax into the wood. There is manuscript -still remaining on both of them: the beginning of the beechen tablets -containing some Greek letters. The writing on the other is in Latin, -a copy of a document relating to a collegium. The name of one of the -consuls is given, determining the date to be A.D. 169. An abridged -account of these very curious tablets is given in Smith’s “Dictionary -of antiquities” under the word “tabulæ.” - -The consular diptychs were of much larger size than those made for -everyday use: generally about twelve inches in length by five or six in -breadth. Diptychs of this kind were part of the presents sent by new -consuls on their appointment to very eminent persons; to the senators, -to governors of provinces, and to friends. Each consul probably sent -many such gifts, and duplicates of more than one example have been -preserved. These naturally varied greatly, not only in the workmanship -but in the material. For persons in high station or authority the -diptychs would be carved by the best artists of the time, and if not -made entirely of some metal very costly and valuable the material -would be ivory, perhaps also mounted in gold. As we find in the fifth -book of the letters of Symmachus (consul, A.D. 391), “Domino principi -nostro auro circumdatum diptychon misi, cæteros quoque amicos eburneis -pugillaribus et canistellis argenteis honoravi.” For others of lower -rank or for dependents, they would be roughly finished and of bone or -wood. - -It is to the custom of sending these diptychs to people of rank in the -provinces that we owe the preservation of some still extant, and which -have been kept in the country into which they came by gift or otherwise -in very early times. Generally, in somewhat later days, they were given -or bequeathed to churches; and, having been first used in the public -services, were afterwards laid by in their treasuries. - -Inside these official diptychs the wax may have been inscribed with the -Fasti Consulares or list of names of all preceding consuls, closing -with that of the new magistrate, the donor. As Ausonius, himself consul -in the year 379, says in one of his epigrams: - - “Hactenus adscripsi fastos. Si sors volet, ultra - Adjiciam: si non, qui legis, adjicies. - Scire cupis, qui sim? titulum qui quartus ab imo est - Quære; legis nomen consulis Ausonii.” - -This, however, as a rule, is matter of conjecture. Outside, the -leaves were carved with various ornaments; sometimes with scrolls, or -cornucopiæ, or the bust of the new consul in a medallion. Sometimes—and -as the diptychs which we now possess repeat this style the most -frequently we may conclude it to have been the usual practice at least -for the more important of those presented—the consul was represented -at full length and sitting in the cushioned curule chair: one hand -often being uplifted and holding the _mappa circensis_. He is clothed -in the full ceremonial vestments of his office, as used when he was -inducted into it. The dress itself seems to be a splendid imitation -of that worn by the old generals at the celebration of a triumph; a -richly embroidered cloak (_toga picta_) with ample folds, beneath which -is a tunic striped with purple (_trabea_) or figured with palm leaves -(_tunica palmata_). On his feet are shoes of cloth of gold (_calcei -aurati_), and in one hand the consular staff or sceptre (_scipio_) -surmounted by an eagle or an image of Victory. - -The conspicuous representation of a cushion on the seat of the chair is -probably not to be overlooked as of small signification or importance. -Cushions were permitted only to certain privileged classes during the -games of the circus; and Caligula conceded the use of cushions to -senators as a graceful compliment at the beginning of his reign. - -Some will remember also the advice given by Ovid, in his “Art of Love,” -to the lover in attendance on his mistress in the theatre or at public -games (he had just before been speaking of the ivory statues carried in -the procession): - - “Parva leves capiunt animos. Fuit utile multis - Pulvinum facili composuisse manu. - Profuit et tenui ventum movisse tabella [_flabello_?]; - Et cava sub teneram scamna dedisse pedem.” - -Not unusually in the lower part of each leaf, in a separate -compartment, were representations of the shows which the consul -intended to give, of the manumission of slaves, and of the presents, -money, bread, &c., which were also to be distributed among the people. - -The series of consular diptychs, having each of them in many cases a -known date, is of essential value and importance in the history of art, -whilst the fashion of them lasted. Similar as they are one to another -in certain respects, nevertheless there is a considerable variety of -treatment and undoubtedly various degrees of excellence or inferiority -of style and execution. When so many would be required by the consul -of the year, it was impossible that all could be made by good artists, -and probably one or two of the best kind were roughly copied by common -workmen. It was sufficient if the general character, dress, or special -ornament of the consul were represented. - -Rapidly as art declined during the three centuries after the birth -of Constantine, as shown especially in these consular diptychs, we -may nevertheless trace a certain grandeur in the figures and in the -attitudes which show that earlier and better models of antiquity were -still followed by the sculptors. Labarte further observes that the -diptychs carved at Constantinople were far superior to those which were -made in Italy. - -Many of these diptychs are identified by the name of the consul which -is carved across the top of one leaf; the full legend generally running -across both being equally divided. It has been said that these legends -(as well as portions of the sculpture) were sometimes coloured red. -We know no extant example, but the following passage from Claudian is -important, and not on that particular point alone: - - “Tum virides pardos, et cetera colligit austri - Prodigia, immanesque simul Latonia dentes, - Qui secti ferro in tabulas auroque micantes, - Inscripti rutilum cælato consule nomen, - Per proceres et vulgus eant; stupor omnibus Indis - Plurimus ereptis elephas inglorius errat - Dentibus.” - -We usually find also a profusion of proper names, according to the -fashion and taste of the court of Constantinople and of the last years -of the consulate. Following these names was a formula which expressed -the style and dignities: “Vir illustris, comes domesticorum equitum, et -consul ordinarius.” The “vir illustris” signified that the new consul -had either filled or was of rank great enough to fill high official -positions in the state. The “comes domesticorum equitum” was his title -as commander of the bodyguard of the emperor. The “consul ordinarius” -declared the true consular dignity itself. - -Some of the consular diptychs also add the names of the persons or -communities to whom they were sent. Thus, the diptych of Flavius -Theodorus Philoxenus, A.D. 525, has the following inscription in Greek -iambics, part upon one tablet, part upon the other: “I, Philoxenus the -consul, offer this gift to the wise senate.” - -Another diptych of Flavius Petrus, A.D. 516, has this inscription -within a large circle: “I, the consul, offer these presents, though -small in value, still ample in honours, to my [senatorial] fathers.” -This is given by M. Pulszky, in his essay on antique ivories. The -same writer quotes the often-cited decree of the emperor Theodosius; -by which, because of the honour attached to the receiving of these -diptychs, the presenting of them by anyone but the ordinary consuls -was forbidden. The law ought not to be omitted here: “Lex XV. Codex -Theodosianus, _tit._ xi. De expensis ludorum. Illud etiam constitutione -solidamus, ut exceptis consulibus ordinariis, nulli prorsus alteri -auream sportulam aut diptycha ex ebore dandi facultas sit. Cum publica -celebrantur officia, sit sportulis nummus argenteus, alia materia -diptycha.” - -During the period when these ivory diptychs were in use or fashion, -that is (so far as we know) from the first or second centuries to the -sixth, the office of consul was entirely in the hands of the emperors, -who conferred it on whom they would, and assumed it themselves as often -as they thought fit. Augustus was consul thirteen times; Vitellius -proclaimed himself perpetual consul; Vespasian eight times; and -Domitian seventeen. The consuls, therefore, gradually became mere -ciphers in the state. It is true that they presided in the senate and -on other public occasions with all the ancient forms; and the mere -title, down to the extinction of the western empire, was nominally the -most exalted and honourable of all official positions. - -The most complete list which we have of the existing consular diptychs -is given by professor Westwood in a carefully written paper read before -the Oxford architectural society, and printed in their proceedings for -1862. These are supposed to have been all identified, and, in most -instances, by the inscription on the ivory. Nevertheless, we must still -acknowledge to a grave doubt about more than one:— - - A.D. - 1. M. Julius Philippus Augustus. In the Meyer - collection at Liverpool. One leaf 248 - 2. M. Aurelius Romulus Cæsar. In the British museum. One leaf 308 - 3. Rufius Probianus. At Berlin. Both leaves 322 - 4. Anicius Probus. In the treasury of the cathedral of Aosta. - Both leaves 406 - 5. Flavius Felix. Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris. One leaf 428 - 6. Valentinian III. In the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. - Both leaves 430 - 7. Flavius Areobindus. At Milan, in the Trivulci collection. - Both leaves 434 - 8. Flavius Asturius. At Darmstadt. One leaf 449 - 9. Flavius Aetius. At Halberstadt. One leaf 454 - 10. Narius Manlius Boethius. In the bibl. Quiriniana at - Brescia. Two leaves 487 - 11. Theodorus Valentianus. At Berlin. Both leaves 505 - 12. Flavius Dagalaiphus Ariobindus. At Lucca; both leaves. - At Zurich; both leaves. And in private possession at Dijon; - one leaf 506 - 13. Flavius Taurus Clementinus. In the Meyer collection at - Liverpool. Both leaves 513 - 14. Flavius Petrus Justinianus. Bibliothèque Impériale, at - Paris; one leaf. And at Milan, in the Trivulci collection; - both leaves 516 - 15. Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Pompeius. At Berlin; - one leaf. The other leaf in South Kensington museum. - Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris; both leaves. And Verona; - one leaf 517 - 16. Flavius Paulus Probus Magnus. Two in the Imperial library - at Paris; each one leaf. Another, so attributed, in the - Mayer collection at Liverpool; one leaf 518 - 17. Flavius Anicius Justinus Augustus. At Vienna; one leaf 519 - 18. Flavius Theodorus Philoxenus. Bibliothèque Impériale, - Paris; both leaves. And in the Mayer collection; one leaf; - very doubtful 525 - 19. Flavius Anicius Justinianus Augustus. At Paris 528 - 20. Rufinus Orestes. South Kensington museum. Both leaves 530 - 21. Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius. In the Uffizii, at - Florence; one leaf. The companion leaf is in the Brera, - at Milan 541 - -A few remarks may be of use to the student with reference to some of -these important diptychs. The leaves of no. 3 now form the covers of a -manuscript life of St. Ludgerus. This diptych is erroneously named by -Labarte as the most ancient known to exist. - -Of no. 5, the other leaf was lost or stolen during the French -revolution of 1792. - -Mr. Oldfield, a very high authority, suggests that no. 6 should be -given to Valentinian II., in which case the date would be about A.D. -380. The earlier date is supported by the great beauty and admirable -execution of the diptych. - -No. 7 has no inscription: it bears a monogram which contains all the -letters of the name Areobindus. It is engraved in the Thesaurus of Gori. - -No. 8 was formerly in the church of St. Martin at Liége, and it was -long supposed to be lost. Professor Westwood, however, has found the -greater portion of one leaf, used as the cover of a book of the gospels -in the royal library at Darmstadt. This, probably, is not a fragment of -the Liége diptych, but of another of the same consul. The two leaves -are engraved in Gori. - -A folio volume of more than 200 pages was edited by Hagenbuch in -1738, containing a number of learned essays on the diptych of Manlius -Boethius, no. 10. It has at the beginning engravings of both leaves: -and the consul is represented on one in a standing position; on -the other, sitting and holding the _mappa_ in his right hand. The -inscription is unusually obscure: how much so may be judged from -the fact that the editor of the book has collected more than half a -dozen different interpretations of it. Some of them are amusing. The -inscription on one leaf runs thus: NARMANLBOETHIVSVCETINL, on the -other, EXPPPVSECCONSORDETPATRIC. The members of the Academy at Paris, -to whom the difficulty had been referred, proposed to read “Natales -regios Manlius Boethius vir clarissimus et inlustris ex propria pecunia -voto suscepto edixit celebrandos consul ordinarius et patricius.” But a -more probable reading is, “Narius Manlius Boethius vir clarissimus et -inlustris, expræfectus prætorio, præfectus, et comes, consul ordinarius -et patricius.” Again, against this last some have disputed that the PPP -meant three times prefect, and CC twice consul. - -We must remember that artists in ivory were driven, because of the -narrow limits at their disposal, to use extreme forms of contractions -and symbols, scarcely intelligible even in their own time, instead of -words: far more so, indeed, than were the carvers of inscriptions upon -monumental stones, altars, and sarcophagi. - -Professor Westwood leaves the date of no. 11 doubtful: it is -remarkable, as representing in a medallion, between the busts of the -emperor and empress, the head of Christ with a cruciferous nimbus. - -The Paris diptych of the consul Anastasius was long known as -the diptych of Bourges, under which name it is well engraved in -Montfaucon’s “Antiquities”: and no. 18 as the diptych of Compiegne; -having been given by Charles the Bald in the ninth century to the abbey -church of St. Corneille, where the leaves were preserved until its -destruction in 1790, and were then transferred to Paris. The diptych -is admirably figured in the Trésor de numismatique et de glyptique of -Lenormant, who refers also to previous writers on this diptych. - -Basilius, consul of Constantinople, whose name is attached to no. 21, -was the last of the long and illustrious line of consuls. They had -continued, with a few short interruptions of the tribunes, for more -than a thousand years. After Basilius, the emperors of the East took -the title, until at length it fell into oblivion. The last consul of -Rome was Decimus Theodorus Paulinus, A.D. 536. The second leaf of this -diptych has been identified by professor Westwood: M. Pulszky believed -it to have been lost. It is but a fragment of the right wing of the -diptych, the upper half. Gori gives figures of both leaves: he decides -against their being of the same pair. Mr. Westwood, however, says that -“it is certainly the companion” to the leaf in the Uffizii. - -A detailed description and arguments about many of these diptychs will -be found in the dissertations printed by Gori in his Thesaurus. Other -authorities are Du Cange, Mabillon, and Montfaucon. Their statements -have been ably and briefly summed up in the very interesting paper -already mentioned, read before the architectural society of Oxford, by -professor Westwood; and by M. Pulszky in his essay on antique ivories. - -A Roman diptych, undescribed, is preserved at Tarragona in Spain, and -it is extremely probable that a careful search amongst the treasures -still remaining in the churches of that country would discover others. -The very learned editor of the Thesaurus of Gori (writing more than a -hundred years ago) says: “Suspicio enim invaluit in locupletissimis -Hispaniæ sacrariis, quo totius fere orbis donaria confluxerunt, multa -hujusmodi abscondi, quæ nusquam adhuc comparuere, quia hactenus nec -perquisita nec curata.” - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - -There are several very important Roman diptychs and leaves of -diptychs, not consular, still extant; some also of greater beauty -than any of the examples in the preceding list. Among them is the -diptych (already mentioned) of Æsculapius and Hygieia in the Mayer -collection at Liverpool; and another, but smaller, of the same subject -in a private collection in Switzerland. This last is described by -professor Westwood, who possesses a cast of it, as “in much deeper -relief than the Fejérváry diptych, and full of energy in the design. -Here Æsculapius holds a palm-branch in his right hand, and supports -his club, round which a serpent is twined, with his left; whilst -Hygieia holds a snake in her right hand and, apparently, a large -melon in her left.” Another is the diptych of cardinal Quirini now at -Brescia, having on one leaf, as interpreted by M. Pulszky, Phædra and -Hyppolytus; and on the other Diana and Virbius. This is probably of the -third century. - -Another is the famous diptych, long known as the Tablets of Sens, -but now at Paris in the Imperial library and forming the covers of a -thirteenth century manuscript, containing “The Office of fools,” or, -rather, the Office of the feast of the circumcision. In the thirteenth -and fourteenth centuries some childish and improper jests and plays -were allowed in churches on the first day of the year. This “Office -of fools” seems to have been a complete arrangement for the day; -with mass, matins, and hours. The whole affair was something like -(but without the reverential decorum) the festival of the boy-bishop, -celebrated in more than one of our English cathedrals about the same -period, and was probably a relic of the heathen Saturnalia. - -These tablets, which are somewhat similar in style to the sarcophagi -of the third century, are engraved by Labarte in his album. On one -leaf is represented Bacchus in a car drawn by centaurs; on the other -is Diana in a chariot drawn by two bulls. Both subjects are surrounded -by mythological figures. They are engraved also in Lacroix, Arts of -the middle ages, as an illustration of book-binding: and in the second -volume of the Monumens antiques inédits, by Millin. - -There is a diptych of perhaps the fifth century in the treasury of -the cathedral of Monza; one leaf representing Calliope sounding the -lyre, and the other some unknown philosopher. Mr. Oldfield, in his -excellent catalogue with very valuable notes of the Arundel series -of fictile ivories, supposes the muse to be some Roman lady in an -ideal character. He objects to Gori’s suggestion that the other leaf -represents a poet, taking the characteristics to be those certainly -of a philosopher. Another is in the public library at Paris, the two -leaves having six muses, each of them accompanied by an author. These -last have been guessed at by M. de Witte, who places the diptych in the -fourth century. Neither M. Pulszky nor professor Westwood is inclined -to agree with these guesses, except that one may perhaps be Euripides -grouped with Melpomene. The workmanship is rude and the figures carved -in high relief. Again, another diptych at Vienna in the cabinet of -antiquities, is attributed to the time of Justinian. One leaf has a -figure representing Rome; the other, Constantinople. - -The above are all named in the essay attached to the catalogue of -the Fejérváry collection by M. Pulszky; and professor Westwood very -rightly adds to them one leaf of a diptych in the possession of count -Auguste de Bastard, the diptych of St. Gall, the mythological figure -of Penthea in the museum of the hôtel Cluny, a perfect diptych in the -cathedral of Novara, and another in the basilica of San Gaudenzio at -the same place. - -There is no example among all these which surpasses in beauty of -execution or in the interest of the subject, two ivory tablets which -were formerly the doors of a reliquary in the convent of Moutier in -France, in the diocese of Troyes. When M. Pulszky wrote his essay both -tablets were supposed to be lost; they had been described and engraved -in the Thesaurus of Gori, from whose prints alone they were known. -Happily both since have been recovered. The left tablet, discovered -a few years ago at the bottom of a well, is in the hôtel Cluny, much -injured, and the other is in the collection of the South Kensington -museum. The South Kensington leaf is probably the most beautiful -antique ivory in the world. (See etching.) Each leaf represents a -Bacchante; on both they are standing, and the Bacchante on the leaf in -the English collection is accompanied by an attendant. Clothed from -the shoulders to the feet in a long tunic, she stands near an oak-tree -before an altar, on which a fire is lighted, and she is in the act of -dropping a grain of incense from a small box held in her left hand. -The whole figure is extremely graceful and dignified, the expression -of the face earnest and devotional, and the form of the figure rightly -expressed beneath the drapery; the hands and feet also well and -carefully carved. On the corresponding leaf, preserved at Paris, the -Bacchante has no attendant. Her drapery falls negligently suspended -from her left shoulder, leaving the right arm and breast exposed. -Professor Becker in his “Gallus,” describing the Lycoris of Virgil’s -tenth eclogue, says: “Her light _tunica_, without sleeves, had become -displaced by her movements and slidden down over her arm, disclosing -something more than the dazzling shoulder.” He adds in a note that “the -wide opening for the neck, and the broad holes for the arms, caused -the _tunica_ on every occasion of the person’s stooping to slip down -over the arm. Artists appear to have been particularly fond of this -drapery.” Such an arrangement, or rather disarrangement, of drapery -would equally happen when the tunic was fastened over the shoulder by -a small fibula, as it is represented upon the right arm of the young -attendant in the South Kensington leaf. The Paris Bacchante stands -before an altar on which a fire burns, and holds in each hand a torch -with the flaming end downwards, as if to extinguish them. Her hair is -gracefully bound with a riband decorated with ivy leaves, and falls -down her back. A pine tree, stiff in design, stands close behind the -altar; not to be compared with the oak-tree on the other leaf. - -[Illustration: IVORY CARVING. ONE LEAF OF THE DIPTYCHON MELERETENSE H. -11¾ in. W. 4¾ in. - -S. K. M. (N^o 212’6.5) W. WISE FECIT] - - -This admirable diptych was, perhaps, a gift on the occasion of some -marriage between members of the two patrician families whose names -are on the labels: NICOMACHORVM. SYMMACHORVM; or it may possibly -have formed the cover of the marriage contract itself, the _tabulæ -nuptiales_ of which Juvenal speaks; or perhaps it was a joint offering -to the temple of Bacchus or Cybele. The last supposition would be -confirmed if the omitted word was “religio,” as suggested by Passeri, -who believes that the two families took the opportunity of recording -upon this diptych, on some occasion of importance common to both of -them, their determination to uphold the old heathen worship against the -doctrines and influence of Christianity, at that time widely extending. - -Before we pass to the large series of ivory carvings executed between -the eighth or ninth and the fifteenth centuries, there is one very -celebrated piece about which a few words may be said: a superb leaf of -a diptych, preserved in the British museum. The other leaf is lost and -has probably been destroyed; nor is there any record (it is believed) -from whence that museum obtained the ivory. It has been in the -collection for many years. - -[Illustration] - -The plaque itself is one of the largest known: more than sixteen inches -in length by nearly six in width. The subject is an angel, standing -on the highest of six steps under an arch supported on two Corinthian -columns; he holds a globe with a cross above it in his right hand; -in his left a long staff, to the top of which, as if half resting on -it like a warrior on his lance, the hand is raised above his head. -He is clothed in a tunic and an ample cloak or mantle falling round -him and over the shoulders in graceful folds. His head is bound round -with a fillet, and the feet have sandals. There is no antique ivory -carving which surpasses this in grandeur of design, in power and force -of expression, or in the excellence of its workmanship. Although -some foreign writers are disposed to place the date of it so late -as the time of Justinian, we shall be more correct in attributing -it, with Mr. Oldfield, to the fifth or even to the end of the fourth -century. Nor, looking at it, can we hesitate to claim for the earliest -Christian art, after Christianity was recognised by Constantine, a -place by the side of the best works of pagan times. If we select this, -and the book-covers in the treasury of the cathedral at Milan, and -the well-known book-cover in the public library at Paris, we shall -find no western work in ivory to equal them in quality and beauty of -workmanship from the fifth to the thirteenth century. - -We owe the preservation of many of these consular and mythological -diptychs to the circumstance that when the practice of sending them as -presents had (it may be) for some time been discontinued, another use -was found by adapting them to Christian purposes. In some cases the -subjects or titles of the diptychs were altered; as, for example, in -one of the diptychs preserved at Monza. This was originally a consular -diptych, of late work, coarse in style and manner of execution. The -consul is represented on each wing, raising the _mappa circensis_ in -the usual way: on one, however, he is standing; on the other he is -sitting upon a kind of throne. On one leaf the top of the consul’s -head has been shaved, to show the clerical tonsure; and in the blank -space of two small panels, immediately beneath the arch under which he -stands, the title S[an]C[tu]S GREG^oR[ius] is cut in high relief. On -the other leaf above the sitting consul, on the corresponding panels, -DAVID REX is inscribed in similar letters. Both the wings are engraved -by Gori. It must not be omitted that some late writers have argued that -this diptych is not a palimpsest; that it is merely an imitation of -the preceding consular diptychs, and not earlier than the seventh or -eighth century. But the whole character is unlike mere imitation; and -the shaving of the head, the alteration of the ornamented top of the -sceptre or staff, and the cutting of the inscription on the tablets, -might without difficulty have been made for the required and more -modern purpose. - -It is easy to understand how later possessors of consular diptychs were -induced to make presents of them to their bishops and churches; and -in some instances, probably, in the sixth century, those originally -sent to high ecclesiastical persons were at once transferred to pious -uses. Instead of containing the lists of the consuls, the diptychs -then inclosed the names of martyrs, saints, or bishops who were to be -commemorated in the public service of the Church. These lists were read -at mass: of the saints at that part of the canon which is now known -as the _Communicantes_; and of the dead at the _Memento_, after the -consecration of the Eucharist. Frequent reference to the custom is to -be found in the old ritualists, and full information and a cloud of -authorities on the subject in the learned work of Salig, on diptychs. -The leaves of several such diptychs still exist, and sometimes with the -names not written on wax, but carved or incised upon the ivory itself. - -One very remarkable example is the diptych, now at Liverpool, of -Flavius Clementinus, consul A.D. 513. Upon the back of each leaf a long -Greek inscription has been incised, done, beyond doubt, in the first -year of pope Hadrian, A.D. 772, when the diptych was given to some -church for sacred use. The list of names inscribed, to be prayed for, -includes that of the donor. - -The two inscriptions are to be read across both divisions, and were -engraved probably upon the ivory by some one not well skilled in -the language. There are several faults, both in spelling and in the -letters: for example, we have στομεν sΘεωτωκος; ελεωςd; and ι often -instead of η. - -The inscription is to this effect: “☩Let us stand well. ☩Let us stand -with reverence. ☩Let us stand with fear. Let us attend upon the holy -oblation, that in peace we may make the offering to God. The mercy, -the peace, the sacrifice of praise, the love of God and of the Father -and of our Saviour Jesus Christ be upon us, Amen. In the first year of -Adrian, patriarch of the city. Remember, Lord, thy servant John, the -least priest of the church of St. Agatha. Amen. ☩Remember, Lord, thy -servant Andrew Machera. Holy Mother of God; holy Agatha. ☩Remember, -Lord, thy servant and our pastor Adrian the patriarch. ☩Remember, Lord, -thy servant, the sinner, John the priest.” - -Another example is the diptych of Anastasius, A.D. 517, of which one -leaf, n^{o.} 368, is in the South Kensington collection. Upon this leaf -the portion of a single word “GISI” is now alone to be deciphered; -when Wiltheim saw it, more than a hundred years ago at Liege, he read -“IGISI,” and supposed it to be part of the name of Ebregisus, the -twenty-fourth bishop of Tongres, in the seventh century. But upon -the other leaf, which is now preserved at Berlin, Gori was able to -make out a considerable portion. “Offerentes ... O ... eorum p. pi ... -ecclesia catholica quam eis dominus adsignare dignetur ... facientes -commemorationem beatissimorum apostolorum et martyrum omniumque -sanctorum. Sanctæ Mariæ Virginis, Petri, Pauli, _etc._” But he owns -that some even of these words are conjectural. - -The diptych of Justinianus, in the public library at Paris, is one -more example of the same kind. Inside are written litanies of the -ninth century, with the names of saints inserted who were particularly -revered at Autun. - -Another half of a consular diptych may be mentioned, a single leaf, -in which instance the original carving has not only been removed but -the ivory has been sawn into two pieces. As it happens, both fragments -are in this country—one in the British museum, the other in the -South Kensington collection, n^{o.} 266. The two together have still -sufficient traces left to enable us to recognise the old design: a -consul seated in the usual way, under a round arch. Below, there seem -to have been the two boys or servants emptying their sacks of money and -presents. - -This mutilation occurred about the eighth or ninth century; and the -other side of the leaf was then carved with subjects taken from the -gospels. It was an unnecessary injury to destroy and plane away the -first design. As the new purpose was probably to decorate the panels of -some shrine or book-cover, the old carvings might have been concealed -when the plaques were inlaid, in the same manner as the very curious -pieces were treated, now at South Kensington, n^{os.} 253, 254, and 257. - -It would be a subject far too extensive to attempt to give a history of -the use and purpose of diptychs in the public service of the Christian -Church. Their origin is to be traced to the very earliest times; -perhaps to the apostolic age. Mention is made of them in the liturgy -of St. Mark. Gori (or his author) quotes also the ecclesiastical -hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite. This is certainly not the -writing of the true Dionysius, the contemporary of St. Paul. Yet, -putting the pseudo-Dionysius as late as the fifth century, his evidence -is valuable, and he speaks of the use of diptychs as of things long -known. - -Numerous treaties and dissertations, even long books, have been written -on the subject; and it would be idle work to repeat the names of the -authors who are referred to, over and over again, by most writers on -ivory carvings. In fact, the learning which some of these exhibit might -much better have been shown if their subject had been the primitive -history and practices of the Church. Except to state the mere fact of -their use, the connection of ceremonial ecclesiastical diptychs with -sculpture in ivory requires only a few remarks. - -The common use of such diptychs is well and shortly summed up in a -dissertation printed by Gori in his Thesaurus. The summary may be given -in few words, and, moreover, the dissertation itself is written in -explanation of the diptych of the consul Clementinus just mentioned, -which we are now fortunate enough to possess in England, in the Mayer -collection at Liverpool. Inside the leaves, as has been already -observed, is an inscription in Greek of the eighth century, to be read -during mass, desiring the people to be devout and reverent and to pray -for the persons whose names were to be recited. - -The Christian diptychs were intended for four purposes. First come -those in which the names of all the baptised were entered, a kind of -_Fasti ecclesiæ_, and answering to the registers kept now in every -parish. Second, those in which were recorded the names of bishops and -of all who had made offerings to the church or other benefactions. This -list included the names of many persons still living. Third, those in -which were recorded the names of saints and martyrs; and, naturally, in -various places the names would be particularly of saints who in their -lives had been connected with the locality. Such additions are of the -utmost importance in tracing the history of ancient lists which have -come down to our own time. Diptychs of this class were read aloud at -mass, as a sign of the communion between the Church triumphant and -the Church militant on earth. Fourth, those in which were written the -names of dead members of the particular church or district, who having -died in the true faith and with the rites of the church were to be -remembered at mass. - -As regards the living, the continuance of their names in the diptychs -was of the highest consequence; to be erased was equal to the -denunciation of them as heretics and unworthy of communion. - -In the diptychs also were probably sometimes added the names of people -who were sick or in trouble. - -But besides these four objects for which Christian diptychs were made, -there was another which must certainly have caused the production -of many large sculptured works in ivory from the seventh to the -tenth century: namely, for the purpose of exciting devotion and as -a means also of teaching the ignorant. Ivory tablets or diptychs of -this description are ordered to be exposed to the people in the old -Ambrosian rite for the church of Milan. - -One of the most celebrated relics in ivory was executed about the -middle of the sixth century; the throne or chair made for Maximian, -archbishop of Ravenna from the year 546 to 556. This is now preserved -among the treasures of the cathedral at Ravenna, and is engraved in -the great book of Du Sommerard, and by Labarte in his handbook. The -chair has a high back, round in shape, and is entirely covered with -plaques of ivory, arranged in panels richly carved in high relief -with scenes from the gospels and with figures of saints. The plaques -have borders with foliated ornaments; birds and animals, flowers and -fruits, filling the intermediate spaces. Du Sommerard names amongst -the most remarkable subjects, the annunciation, the adoration of the -wise men, the flight into Egypt, and the baptism of our Lord. Sir -Digby Wyatt (in his lecture before the Arundel society) says that -this chair, having “always been carefully preserved as a holy relic, -has fortunately escaped destruction and desecration; and, but for -the beautiful tint with which time has invested it, would wear an -aspect little different from that which it originally presented in the -lifetime of the illustrious prelate for whom it was made. This valuable -object could hardly have been all wrought at one time, as Dr. Kugler -distinctly traces in it the handling of three different artists, who -could scarcely have all lived at the same period. Some of the plates -resemble diptychs. Thus, the series pourtraying the history of Joseph -in Egypt is quite classical; another, and less able artist in the same -style, provided the plates for the back, and in one set of five single -figures the Greek artificer stands apparent. The simplest explanation -appears to be that the throne was made up by the last-mentioned artist -out of materials provided for him, and that what was wanting to make it -entire was supplied by him.” Probably the different plaques were carved -by several sculptors; but Dr. Kugler’s supposition that the whole -chair was not made by contemporary artists (in short, at one time) is -scarcely probable. - -Speaking of and praising the Ravenna chair, Passeri offers some very -useful remarks by way of caution against the hasty conclusions which -some make, who set down all ancient large plaques of ivory as having -been the leaves of diptychs: “Vidi etiam Ravennæ in chartophilacio -principis ecclesiæ sedem eburneam sancti Maximiani episcopi quinto -seculo operosissime efformatam, cujus ambitum undequaque adornant -tabulæ eburneæ amplitudinis fere sesquipedalis, quam plerumque -ebur patitur anaglypho opere, et scitissima manu elaboratæ, quæ si -disjectæ et singulares occurrent imprudentibus facile imponerent, ut -inter diptycha censerentur. Nec ista nominis quæstio est, nam longe -alia mente explicandæ sunt missiles consulum tabellæ, atque in illis -expressa emblemata, quæ omnia ad consulatum ejusque pompas pertinent, -alia vero sculpturæ omnes, quæ in alium usum parabantur. Hæc observatio -facile prodit errorem illorum, qui diptychis adcensuerunt laterculos, -nullo consule designatos, cum musarum, poetarum, Bacchantum ac deorum -imaginibus, quæ mihi nullam aliam ingerunt speciem, quam quod aliquando -libros contexerint, quibus parerga adluderent. Sunt præterea quædam -imperatorum inferioris ævi simulacra tabellis eburneis incisa, in -quibus nulla cardinum vestigia apparent, ut potius videatur sedes -honorarias decorasse, quam quod diptychorum loco essent, quum præsertim -exterior illorum ornatus superne in acutum desinat; quod a diptychorum -instituto quam maxime abhorret.” - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - -About the time when the chair of Ravenna was made, that is, in the -sixth century, sculpture in ivory again sensibly declined. The -figures in Byzantine work of that period begin to be characterised -by sharpness and meagreness of form, and lengthiness of proportion; -in the heads, however, we yet find a good expression; and especially -in representations of our Lord dignity and resignation. The costume -also gradually became more and more covered with ornaments and jewels; -although the ancient classical robes were still copied, and apostles -were clothed in togas, or the virgin in a chlamys and tunic, or the -magi in Phrygian caps. - -Troubles, moreover, arose, and about the year 750 there sprang up in -the east very bitter theological quarrels, especially having reference -to the lawfulness of the use of images, not only in churches but for -private devotion. The spirit of Mahometanism, strictly and dogmatically -condemning without distinction, whether in sculpture or in paintings, -all representations of the deity and of man, first shown in the near -neighbourhood of the Holy Land, spread rapidly from one country to -another. The Christian iconoclasts of Constantinople, even if they did -not follow the heresy of Mahomet in this matter to its fullest extent, -at least equalled it in hatred of all holy images and sacred sculpture, -and in the severity with which they persecuted the workers and -purchasers of such works. Towards the middle of the eighth century the -power and influence of these fanatics reached their height, and with -Leo the Isaurian on the throne received the fullest support which an -emperor could give. We must attribute to the rage of the iconoclasts, -indiscriminating in its fury, not only the destruction of Christian -monuments and sculpture (and especially those which were said to be -miraculous, ἀχειροποιηταί,) but of many of the most important and most -valuable remains, then still existing, of the best periods of ancient -Greek art. This persecution continued for more than a hundred years, -until the reign of Basil the Macedonian, A.D. 867; who, by permitting -again the right use of images, restored to the arts their free exercise. - -In consequence of these excesses in the east the west of Europe -gained greatly. Not only works of art were brought by fugitives from -Constantinople to France, Germany, and other countries, thus furnishing -models from which copies could be multiplied and a better taste -introduced, but the workmen and artists themselves, driven into exile, -came and were hospitably received and founded everywhere new schools of -art. Charlemagne especially, too wise a prince to overlook the certain -benefits and advantages which were thus offered, liberally patronised -the strangers and gave them his assistance and protection everywhere. - -Some writers of great authority upon paintings have said that the -iconoclast emigration did not much influence art in Rome and Italy. The -Roman artists, as shown in the few mosaics which remain, “trod the path -of decline, independent in their weakness. To the faults which had been -confirmed by centuries of existence, others were superadded. To absence -of composition, of balance in distribution and connection between -figures, were added neglect and emptiness of form, a general sameness -of feature, and the total disappearance of relief by shadow. Still the -reminiscence of antique feeling remained in certain types, in a sort -of dignity of expression and attitude, and in breadth of draperies, -which, though defined by parallel lines, were still massive.” Crowe -and Cavalcaselle, from whom the quotation is taken, may not intend, -however, to include in this statement sculptures in ivory. - -[Illustration] - -There are still remaining, in the collections both at home and abroad, -some examples of carved ivories from the fifth century to the time -of Charlemagne. The woodcut represents one of the most important and -remarkable works known of this period. Although there is a great -similarity of style between this ivory and a silver vase of the sixth -century in the Blacas collection, in the British museum, there is still -difficulty in suggesting even a probable date, which can scarcely be -later than the early part of the seventh century; nor is it more easy -to speculate on the original use of the vase. A loose ring, cut from -the same block of ivory, surrounds the foot; and, if the vase was made -for some very sacred purpose, we may suppose that the ring carried -a thin veil to be thrown over the whole for further security and -reverence. The cover is of later date, and where the ivory has cracked -there is a repair excellently done by some mediæval jeweller with a -small gold chain which extends from the rim downwards about two inches. -This piece is in the British museum. - -Unlike the vase, which is good both in design and workmanship, the -early ivories of western Europe are rude and many of them even -barbarous in manner and workmanship; but about the year 800 a sure -result of the influx of Greek artists is to be seen, and the style -advanced with a very evident progression, subject only to a short -interval of deterioration at the end of the tenth century. After this -brief check there followed a distinct improvement, impressed, however, -with a feeling and type peculiar to the eleventh and first half of the -twelfth century. We find the figures calm and, as it were, collected -in design, but placed in stiff and unnatural positions, the draperies -close and clinging and broken up into numerous little folds, ornamented -also still more largely than before with small jewels or beads. The -school of the lower Rhine kept itself to a certain extent free from -these faults; their figures preserved more movement, their modelling -was better, their draperies more natural and disposed with greater art. - -Christianity spread gradually though slowly over western Europe from -the age of Charlemagne, and, as it spread, ivory was used more and -more for the decoration of ecclesiastical furniture, especially of -books and reliquaries. The adaptation of the large tablets given by -the consuls has been already spoken of: and not only were the old -diptychs still remaining in the seventh or eighth centuries applied -to their new purpose for the public services of the church, but many -new diptychs must also have been provided. Pyxes for the consecrated -and unconsecrated wafers, retables or ornamented screens to be placed -upon altars, holy water buckets, handles for flabella, episcopal combs, -croziers, and pastoral staffs were made in fast increasing numbers. - -There is ample evidence, not only from examples which have been -preserved down to our own times but from contemporary writers, of -the large extent to which the employment of ivory reached in the -Carlovingian period, from the end of the eighth to the middle of the -tenth century. Eginhard, writing to his son, sends him a coffer made by -a contemporary artist, enriched with columns of ivory after the antique -style; Hildoward, bishop of Cambrai, A.D. 790, orders a diptych of -ivory to be made for him in the twelfth year of his pontificate: an -inventory of Louis le Débonnaire, in 823, mentions a diptych of ivory, -a statuette, and a coffer; his son-in-law, count Everard, leaves in -his will writing tablets, a chalice and coffer, an evangelisterium -ornamented with bas-reliefs, and a sword and belt with similar -decorations, all of ivory; Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, in 845, -orders covers to be made for the works of St. Jerome with plaques of -ivory, and also for a sacramentary and lectionary. - -Several of the most important of the existing examples of this famous -Carlovingian school are named in Labarte’s useful book: among them, -especially, the diptych preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of -Milan, and of which a plate is given in the album, _pl._ xiii.; the -two plaques which form the cover of the sacramentary of Metz, now in -the public library at Paris; and a bas-relief of a book of gospels at -Tongres, in the diocese of Liége, remarkable for the simplicity of the -composition, the soberness of its ornamentation and correctness of -design, all of which qualities are frequent characteristics of the work -of the ninth century. - -Georgius says that the very ancient _tabulæ eburneæ_ which he saw in -the church of St. Riquier in Picardy (_Centulensi thesauro_), and those -given to his church by Riculfus, bishop of Elne, in Narbonne, A.D. 915, -were sacred diptychs. - -Mr. Oldfield gives an excellent selection of Carlovingian ivories in -his catalogue of the casts of the Arundel society, classes 4, 5, and 6. - -[Illustration] - -In the same period we must also place, contrary to the judgment of -Du Sommerard, who would suggest an earlier date, a book cover in the -public library at Amiens, carved with the baptism of Clovis and with -two miracles of Remigius. On the next page is an engraving of this -plaque from Lacroix’s book on the arts of the middle ages. In the -scene of the baptism of Clovis, which occupies the lowest of the three -compartments, the dove is seen descending upon the head of the king -with the famous ampulla and sacred oil used in the coronations of the -sovereigns of France. - -It is scarcely necessary perhaps to remark that the holy water buckets -above mentioned, p. 47, are not to be confounded with stoups; the -one was carried by an acolyte in attendance on the priest, the other -fixed against the wall at the entrance of the church. That _situlæ_ or -buckets were made of ivory, and for the especial purpose just named, is -certain from an example preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of -Milan, which is engraved in the appendix to the third volume of Gori’s -Thesaurus. This _situla_ is richly carved with scripture subjects and -round the upper border is incised the legend, - - “Vates Ambrosii Gotfredus dat tibi sancte, - Vas veniente sacram spargendum Cæsare lympham.” - -Gotfred was archbishop of Milan in the year 975. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - -As time went on, crucifixes, statuettes, triptychs, diptychs, and -other portable helps to private devotion were made in ivory in great -quantity; a consequence probably of the repeated travels of men to -the east during the crusades. The term triptych for religious tablets -composed of a centre piece and of one wing on each side, sufficient -in width when folded to cover the centre, is commonly used in the -description of various collections of ivories, because, whether or -not exactly right, it is perfectly well understood and fully explains -itself. Indeed, although triptych or pentaptych or polyptych may, in -strictness and in its first signification, mean only (as it might -happen) three or five or many leaves fastened together on one side by -hinges or threads like the leaves of a book, yet the name triptych may -be fairly applied to tablets, two of which hinge on the outside edges -of the opposite sides of the third, and are intended to fold across and -cover it. Where these wings are made, in order to surround the centre, -of more than two pieces (and in such cases they generally inclose and -protect also some larger carving or a statuette) the name shrine seems -to be more appropriate and better to describe the object. - -Triptychs are spoken of more than once by Anastasius, the author of -the Liber Pontificalis. For example, in his life of pope Hadrian, A.D. -772, he mentions one which had in the centre the face of our Saviour, -and on each wing images of angels. It is greatly to be regretted that -Anastasius is so miserably concise in his description of the marvellous -works of art which he enumerates. We look in vain for any details or -for the name of a single artist. - -The use of ivory in the middle ages, from the eighth to the beginning -of the sixteenth century, was not confined to church and pious -purposes. It was adopted for numberless things of common life. Not for -common people perhaps, because its value and rarity were too great; but -for the daily use of wealthy persons. Caskets and coffers, horns, hilts -of weapons, mirror cases, toilet combs, writing-tablets, book-covers, -chessmen and draughtsmen, were either made entirely of ivory, walrus -and elephant, or were largely inlaid and ornamented with it. Examples -of works of each of these kinds are to be found in the South Kensington -museum; and with regard to some of them it is necessary to make a few -remarks. - -First, to take caskets. The most beautiful of these is no. 146, a -work of the fourteenth century. This is richly decorated on the top -and the four sides with subjects taken from romances, then well known -and commonly read. Other caskets may be noticed, nos. 216 and 2440, -which are of earlier date; and nos. 301 and 10, of Spanish work in a -remarkable style, half Saracenic, carrying down to the eleventh or -twelfth century the peculiar treatment and ornamentation shown in the -small admirably executed round box of the caliph Mostanser Billah, no. -217. There are many plaques in the same collection which probably once -formed portions of coffers or caskets; some of them reaching as far -back as the ninth century; but it is not possible to say with certainty -whether they were made originally for that purpose or not. - -The most curious and perhaps the most valuable old English casket -existing is in the British museum, which it will be well to notice in -this place before we pass to other examples in the South Kensington -collection. Engravings (kindly lent by Mr. Franks) of two portions of -it are also given. - -This casket is of the eighth century, nine inches long, seven and -a half in width, and a trifle more than five inches in height. The -material is not ivory, not even of the walrus, but of the bone of a -whale. Unfortunately it is imperfect and in parts damaged; of the -fourth side only a small piece remains. The cover and the sides are -richly carved in sharp and clear relief with mythical and scripture -subjects; and each panel has a runic inscription within a broad border, -except the top on which one word only is carved, “Ægili.” - -[Illustration] - -The cover has, in a single compartment, men in armour attacking a house -which is defended by a man with a bow and arrow; this panel has been -supposed to refer to some local circumstance, and the name Ægili is -to be read with the two words upon the fourth side, meaning “suffers -deceit” or “treachery.” One side has the myth of Romulus and Remus: -the two infants with the wolf in the middle; on either side shepherds -kneeling, and a legend explaining the subject: “Romulus and Remulus -[Remus] twain brothers outlay [were exposed] close together; a she wolf -fed them in Rome city.” The front of the casket has two compartments; -in one, the giving up the head of St. John the Baptist whose body lies -stretched upon the ground; the other has the offering of the wise men, -with the word “magi” in runes above them. On the back is carved, above, -the storming of Jerusalem and the flight of the Jews, as explained by -the inscription engraved partly in runes, partly in Latin, “Here fight -Titus and the Jews. Here fly from Jerusalem its inhabitants.” Below -are two other subjects; the meaning of them very obscure: to one is -attached the word “doom,” to the other “hostage;” both in runes. Round -the whole casket an inscription is carved, commemorating the taking of -the whale which supplied the bone. This has been translated, - - “The whale’s bones from the fishes flood - I lifted on Fergen Hill: - He was gashed to death in his gambols, - As a-ground he swam in the shallows.” - -[Illustration] - -The name Fergen occurs in a charter of the eleventh century, and has -been identified with the present Ferry-hill, in the county of Durham. - -The history of the casket is very short, and cannot be better stated -than in the words of Mr. Stephens from whose book on Runic monuments, a -work of much interest, the above description is abridged. He says that -it “is one of the costliest treasures of English art now in existence. -As a specimen of Northumbrian work and of Northumbrian folk-speech, -it is doubly precious. But we know nothing of its history. Probably, -as the gift of some English priest or layman, it may have lain for -centuries in the treasury of one of the French churches, whence it came -into the hands of a well-known dealer in antiquities in Paris. There it -was happily seen and purchased, some years ago, by our distinguished -archæologist, Aug. W. Franks, Esq. The price given for it was very -great.” The casket has been most liberally presented by Mr. Franks to -the British museum, and the nation (once more to quote Mr. Stephens) -“is now in possession of one of the greatest rarities in Europe.” - -There are several other coffers or caskets in the South Kensington -collection especially worthy of remark. Among them the Veroli casket, -no. 216, so called from having been long preserved in the treasury of -the cathedral of Veroli, near Rome, from whence it was obtained in -1861. This is the most perfect example known of a peculiar style of -art which prevailed in some parts of Italy from the latter part of the -eleventh to the end of the twelfth century. At first sight works of -this kind might almost be attributed to a time as early as the third -or fourth century, the imitation of the classic mode of treatment, as -well as the nature often of the subjects themselves, favouring such a -supposition. There seems to be little doubt, however, that they must -all be placed at a much later date. - -No one is more entitled to be listened to on any disputed question -about the date of ivory carvings than Mr. Nesbitt. He tells us, in -a very able memoir of St. Peter’s chair at Rome, printed for the -Society of antiquaries (speaking on this very point), that he agrees -with padre Garrucci in the opinion that works like the Veroli casket -date from about the eleventh century. “They are all characterised by -certain peculiarities and mannerisms. Among these are an exaggerated -slenderness of limb, a marked prominence of the knee-joints, and a -way of rendering the hair by a mass of small knobs. The subjects -are generally taken from some mythological story, and some work of -classical art has, in many cases, evidently been copied by the ivory -carver; but the story is often misunderstood and misrepresented, and -the movement of the figures copied with so much exaggeration, as often -to become ridiculous. Animals are generally represented with great -truth and spirit, and in very natural attitudes. The execution is -usually remarkably neat and sharp, and the state of preservation of the -ivory very good.” Caskets of this style and date almost always have the -panels surrounded by the same kind of border filled with rosettes. - -[Illustration: H. CAIENA^{cc}, D.] - -The ivories inserted in the so-called Chair of St. Peter, just referred -to, are of great importance upon this question. The woodcut shows, -in a general way, its present condition and the arrangement of the -carvings, which represent the labours of Hercules: and the student -should read Mr. Nesbitt’s paper, already quoted from. - -There is a very curious plaque in the British museum which is also of -value with regard to the date of such works as the Veroli casket. It -has been perhaps a book-cover, perhaps a panel of a reliquary. The -chief subject is Christ in glory, carved in the stiff Byzantine manner -of the tenth or eleventh century; and in the lower left-hand corner -is a group of boys, having the peculiarities of style just mentioned. -Mr. Nesbitt notices another example which may be found engraved in the -Thesaurus of Gori: “a tablet in the museum at Berlin, on which Christ, -attended by angels, is represented in the usual Byzantine style, while -below are the forty saints in very natural attitudes, and with much -truth and skill.” - -[Illustration] - -The woodcut shows the lid of a small casket of, perhaps, the eleventh -century: Spanish work, during the period of the occupation by the -Moors; and there are frequent references to ivory coffers, caskets, and -boxes, in inventories and other documents of the fourteenth, fifteenth, -and sixteenth centuries. In 1502 the following entry is among the privy -purse expenses of Elizabeth of York: “Item, the same day [the 28th day -of May] to maistres Alianor Johns for money by hir geven in reward to -a servaunt of the lady Lovell for bringing a chest of iverey with the -passion of our Lord thereon: iij _s_ iiij _d_.” This lady Lovell was -probably the wife of Sir Thomas Lovell, treasurer of the household, and -one of the executors of the will of Henry the seventh. - -Six or seven caskets are named among the treasures of Lincoln -cathedral in the year 1536: two “with images round about.” In 1518 -there belonged to the church of St. Mary Outwich, London, “a box of -eivery, garnyshede with silver” according to “the enventorye of all the -howrnaments” of that parish: and, “item, a box of yvory with xj relyks -therein.” In 1534, “a litill box of ivery bound with gymes [gimmals] -of silver” was among the goods of the guild of the blessed Virgin, -at Boston in Lincolnshire. Nearly a hundred years before there was -“a lytill yvory cofyr with relekys” among the goods belonging to the -church of St. Mary Hill, London. - -Going back to earlier times—and not to quote from French or German -documents which have been referred to by foreign writers—we find in -the inventory of the treasures belonging to St. Paul’s cathedral in -1295, “Pixis eburnea fracta in fundo, continens unam parvam pixidem -eburneam vacuam.” “Item, duæ coffræ eburneæ modo vacuæ.” Other caskets -are mentioned; one, small and beautiful, with lock and key and silver -clamps; and several pyxes, containing relics. - -So, again, there were in the treasury at Durham, in 1383, “an ivory -casket, containing a vestment of St. John the Baptist;” “a small coffer -of ivory, containing a robe of St. Cuthbert;” and other “ivory caskets -with divers relics.” - -Caskets and coffers of this period were not uncommonly decorated with -small painted medallions of coats of arms, or of figures, as in the -woodcut on the next page. Two examples are in the South Kensington -museum, nos. 1618 and 369. - -[Illustration] - -There are in many collections ivory boxes of round shape, which are -commonly set down as having been used for preserving the consecrated -host in tabernacles, or for carrying it to the sick. Frequently, -these may have been originally made for that purpose; but it is -not easy always to determine the fact exactly. The word Pyx in its -earliest meaning included any small box or case, and particularly for -holding ointments or spices; and often, when we find the word used in -inventories of the middle ages, it is further explained as containing -relics or other things. Thus, there was in the Durham treasury in the -fourteenth century “item, a tooth of St. Gengulphus, good for the -falling sickness, in a small ivory pyx”; and in St. Paul’s cathedral, -about the same time, two ivory pyxes, one containing relics of St. -Augustine, the other of St. Agnes. Nor is the size a sure guide to -determine the doubt: although by many people all small round boxes -of ivory would seem to be understood as having been certainly used -for preserving the eucharist. Du Cange quotes from Leo Ostiensis, “in -pyxidulis reliquiæ sanctorum reconditæ sunt.” On the other hand, there -can be no question that for many centuries, and more especially in the -earlier ages, round boxes of ivory were in constant and general use for -preserving and carrying the Sacrament. Thus we see included amongst -the property belonging to the church of St. Faith, under St. Paul’s, -“una cupa cuprea deaurata, cum pyxide eburnea sine serura interius -clausa, in qua reponatur eucharistia.” From Waddingham, in Norfolk, the -queen’s commissioners report in 1565 that they have destroyed “one pyx -of yvorie, broken in peces.” The following also may be quoted from the -will of king Henry the seventh, though the material is not specified: -“Forasmuch as we have often to our inwarde displeasure, seen in diverse -churches of oure Reame, the holy Sacrament kept in ful simple and -inhonest pixes, we have commaunded to cause to be made furthwith pixes, -in a greate nombre, after the fashion of a pixe which we have caused to -be delyvered to theym, etc.” - -When, therefore, we find a small round box which is ornamented with -subjects from the Gospel or with divine types and emblems or the like, -we may safely call it a pyx, in its proper ecclesiastical meaning. -When an example is carved with subjects relating to any saint it may -or may not have been made for a sacramental pyx: it may indeed have -been changed from its first use as a reliquary and afterwards employed -for the more sacred use. Of this kind, perhaps, is the very curious -round box of the sixth century with subjects from the life of St. -Mennas, exhibited in 1871 by Mr. Nesbitt at a meeting of the Society of -antiquaries; which is further remarkable as being the earliest known -representation on an ivory box of events in the life of a saint. - -Du Cange gives references to three English provincial synods of the -thirteenth century, as if ivory pyxes were distinctly ordered by their -canons. But it is not so. Order is merely given that the Sacrament -should be reserved and carried to the sick in proper pyxes: “in pyxide -munda et honesta;” again, “circa collum suum in theca honesta, pyxidem -deferat.” But the synod of Exeter in 1287 is more precise and to our -present purpose, which orders the priest to carry the eucharist to the -sick “in pyxide argentea vel eburnea.” - -We find from inventories printed by Dugdale in the Monasticon that in -the fourteenth century, A.D. 1384, there were in the treasury of St. -George’s, Windsor, “una pixis nobilis eburnea, garnita cum luminibus -argenteis deauratis,” etc.: and “una pixis de eburneo gemellato -argenteo, cujus coopertorium frangitur.” In Lincoln cathedral, in 1557, -“A round pix of ivory, having a ring of silver;” and two others, both -of ivory with similar bands. Four other ivory pyxes are named in the -earlier inventory of the same cathedral, before the spoliation in 1536. - -Two other very important and beautiful caskets, at South Kensington, -are no. 176 and no. 263. The subject of the first of these, the life -of the blessed Virgin, is unusual, although that may probably be not -because it was unusual at the time but because very few examples have -been preserved. The panels of the other are most richly carved and in -the best style of the fourteenth century with scenes from the life of -St. Margaret. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - -The famous romances of the middle ages supplied endless subjects for -sculptors in ivory as well as for the painter, the illuminator, and -the enameller. They may be referred, in general, to four classes, of -which the first and the fourth seem to have been the favourite sources -from which were taken the decorations of caskets and mirror cases. They -were— 1. Those relating to Arthur and the knights of the round table. -2. Those connected with Charlemagne and his paladins. 3. The Spanish -and Portuguese romances, which chiefly contain the adventures of Amadis -and Palmerin. 4. What may be termed classical romances, which represent -the heroes of antiquity in the guise of romantic fiction: such, for -example, as the romance of Virgil, of Jason, or of Alexander. To these -may be added one more, the romance of the Rose, an allegorical poem -which was probably more widely read than any other of the time. From -this, realising an allegory, came the frequent subject of the siege of -the castle of Love. Many of the romances were written both in prose -and verse: three splendid volumes, French manuscripts of the beginning -of the fourteenth century, in the British museum, contain the Saint -Graal and Lancelot du Lac. The histories of Merlin, Perceval, Meliadus, -Tristan, and Perceforest were also amongst the most popular. - -The French manuscripts just referred to (_additional_, 10,292) are full -of illuminations, some illustrating in an especial way the carvings on -ivories of the same date. Another, of the same character and of like -interest and value, is in the Bodleian: the romance of Alexander. - -The romance of the Rose was a dull and monotonous poem of perhaps ten -thousand lines, from which for nearly three hundred years its readers, -if they looked at it with pious and religious eyes, learnt their maxims -of morality, of science, and philosophy. Others, again, read it as -men now read Ovid’s Art of love and saw nothing of its mysticism or -scholastic subtleties. It was written somewhere about the year 1300, -and, with the omission of some five thousand lines in the middle, -Chaucer’s translation is very accurate and good. It was frequently -moralised: in France, by Clement Marot; and in England (perhaps from -the French also) long before, by Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. These -made the Rose to be the Virgin Mary, and the towers and the defences -of the castle are the four cardinal virtues, and holy chastity, and -buxomness, and meekness. The castle itself is thus described: - - “This is the castel of love and lisse, - Of solace, of socour, of joye, and blisse, - Of hope, of hele, of sikernesse, - And ful of alle swetnesse.” - -Among the many fictions which were founded on the traditions of king -Arthur none were more common or better known than those which related -the love adventures of Lancelot and queen Guinevre; and of Tristan and -Isoude, the queen of Mark king of Cornwall. Subjects from both these -tales are frequent on ivory caskets and mirror cases. The disgrace -of Aristotle comes from the romance of Alexander; and from that of -Virgil we have the poet in his mediæval character of magician. Both the -poet and the philosopher, in spite of their great age and wisdom, are -made fools of by the ladies of the story. One is induced to carry his -mistress on his back, the other is hauled up in a basket to a window -and left there dangling at sunrise before all the people. - -We must not leave caskets without mention of the very graceful open -work with which the panels of many of them were often decorated, and -which have come down to us (speaking generally) only in parts or -fragments. Two woodcuts are given here, full size, from a series of -small panels, formerly in the Meyrick collection, which is, unhappily, -now dispersed. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -The South Kensington museum is rich also in the marriage coffers, as -they are commonly called, of Italian work of about the fourteenth -century. Coffers of this kind, such, for example, as the small casket -(in the two woodcuts) no. 2563, were seldom executed in ivory: almost -always in bone of fine quality, sometimes nearly equal to ivory in -delicacy of grain and colour. It is probably owing to their general use -in Italy at that time that ivory could not be obtained in sufficient -quantity, except at great cost; for the workmanship is frequently that -of artists who must have been of the highest eminence as sculptors. One -of the most interesting of the marriage caskets in the South Kensington -museum is no. 5624, formerly in the Soulages collection, of which there -is almost a duplicate in the public library at Paris. - -Lenormant, in the Trésor de glyptique, has given three plates of the -Paris casket and says also that another, exactly like it was (when he -wrote) in the possession of M. D’Assy, of Meaux. - -The largest casket of this kind in England is in the possession of Mr. -Julian Goldsmid. It is in excellent preservation and well finished in -every respect. The size is certainly unusual: two feet three inches -in height, two feet and a half long, and two feet broad. The separate -bones which ornament it are filled with shields and armorial bearings; -ten on the front and back, seven on each side. The mouldings at the -top are richly decorated with bold scrolls of foliage and animals. -The top of the coffer and the side mouldings are marquetry, inlaid in -diamond-shaped quarries with large pieces of bone. - -A coffer of the same school and date, not much less in size and of much -higher quality and workmanship, is in private possession at Leamington, -in Warwickshire. The sides are filled with small statuettes admirably -executed, and perhaps giving the history of some poem or romance. This -is, probably, the best example of Italian marriage coffers in this -country. - -M. Lenormant also refers, as of the same school, to the magnificent -Retable de Poissy, in the museum of the Louvre, of which Sir D. Wyatt -has given the following description: “It was made for Jean de Berry -brother of Charles V. and for his second wife, Jeanne, countess of -Auvergne. They are represented on it kneeling, and accompanied by -their patron saints. It is no less than seven feet six inches wide, -and is one mass of carving. It consists of three arcades, surmounted -by canopies, and supported by angle pilasters and a base. The subjects -are taken from the New Testament and from the legends of the saints. -It is believed [there can, rather, be no doubt] that it is of Italian -workmanship, the little figures having much Giottesque character in -their treatment.” This famous retable is, like the marriage caskets, -carved in bone. - -[Illustration] - -There is no finer specimen of this style and work than the beautiful -predella, formerly in the Gigli-Campana collection, now at South -Kensington, no. 7611. It is, unfortunately, not perfect; the centre -panel is a later addition and the original piece has been lost. It is -possible that there were at one time also other smaller panels. The -woodcut shows well the general style of these carvings in bone. - -The French and English caskets of the fourteenth and fifteenth -centuries were frequently ornamented, like the mirror cases, the -combs, and the writing-tablets, with domestic scenes. We have ladies -and gentlemen sometimes represented playing at chess or draughts or -similar games; sometimes riding, or hawking, or hunting; sometimes -in gardens with birds and dogs; sometimes dancing. Subjects of this -character are of great importance and interest, no less valuable than -illuminations in manuscripts, as showing the dress and the armour and, -to a considerable extent, the manners and customs of the day. - -One other class of subjects may be noticed which supplied the -decorations of caskets of the fifteenth century, and which is found -occasionally on panels of cabinets or the larger kind of household -furniture; namely, morris dancers and women playing on musical -instruments. Generally, carvings of this description are found upon -bone: two examples are in the South Kensington museum, no. 4660 and no. -6747. There was also one in the Meyrick collection, of which a woodcut -is given on the next page. - -Domestic subjects are of more common occurrence upon combs and mirror -cases than on caskets; and, upon the former, scenes also from early -legends; occasionally, some circumstance from Scripture. Of Scripture -subjects the message from David to Bathsheba is the most frequent; -probably, because Bathsheba is represented generally in her bath. There -are two examples in the South Kensington museum alone: no. 2143 and no. -468. It is not difficult to understand why scenes from the old story of -the fountain of Youth should have been a favourite subject. - -It may be observed that the garden scenes on ivory combs remind us -often of the beautiful painting of the “Dream of life” by Orcagna, in -the Campo santo, at Pisa. - -[Illustration] - -Combs of ivory and bone are frequently found in tombs of the Roman and -Anglo-saxon period in England; and before that time in British graves. -They are often tinged and coloured green, from lying in contact with -metal objects. A very curious one, in the shape of a hand, was mixed -with the remains buried in a Pict’s house in the north of Scotland; -a double tooth-comb was found on the site of the Roman station at -Chesterford, in Essex; and (to name no more of this kind, for the -specimens are very many) an ivory comb was among the relics in the -tomb said to be of St. Cuthbert, at Durham. Mr. Raine also prints an -inventory (dated 1383) of relics at Durham, among which are the comb of -Malachias the archbishop, the comb of St. Boysil the priest, and the -ivory comb of St. Dunstan. Somewhat later than this date is an entry -in the register of the cathedral of Glasgow, where a precious burse is -mentioned with the combs of St. Kentigern and St. Thomas of Canterbury. - -A very curious comb, but much mutilated, is preserved in the library -of the Society of antiquaries. It was exhibited in 1764 and engraved -in the 8th vol. of the Archæologia. The statement is that it was found -deeply buried under a street in Aberdeen, and supposed to have been -lost there in the time of Edward III. who burnt the city. But the type -of the ornaments upon it is of an earlier character than that date. - -The comb given by queen Theodolinda at the end of the sixth century to -the church of Monza is still kept. - -This last would be a ceremonial comb, used formerly by a bishop -before celebrating high mass or before other great functions, and -included among the vestments and ceremonial ornaments of a bishop of -England down to the reign of Edward the sixth. “Tobalia et pecten ad -pectinandum” were ordered to be provided for the consecration of a -bishop elect, in the Sarum pontifical. One of the earliest of these -combs now known to exist is in the treasury of the cathedral of Sens, -and said to be of the sixth century. Another, English and of the -eleventh century, is in the British museum. It is carved in open work -with men and interlacing scroll ornament. Unhappily, it is not perfect. -A woodcut is given on the next page of this very important ivory. - -Another, richly carved with subjects from the gospels, is said to be -preserved at Hardwick court, in Gloucestershire. Such ceremonial combs -are often mentioned in church inventories and other ecclesiastical -documents of the middle ages. Seven or eight are specified as belonging -to St. Paul’s cathedral in the year 1222: three large, three small; -one “pecten pulchrum” the gift of John de Chishulle; and three others; -all of ivory. There were as many in the treasury of the cathedral of -Canterbury, in 1315. - -[Illustration] - -When the supposed tomb of St. Cuthbert was opened in 1827 it has been -already said that there was found, among other relics deposited with -the body of the saint, an ivory comb. This comb has a double row of -teeth, divided by a broad plain band perforated in the middle with a -round hole for the finger. In size it measures six inches and a quarter -by five inches. The historian of the proceedings on that occasion says -that the comb is probably of the eleventh century, but he gives no -reason; and if the grave were really the grave of St. Cuthbert it is -almost certain that the comb was his and used by him, ceremonially, as -bishop. - -[Illustration] - -The examples in the South Kensington collection were all made for -private use, and the woodcut represents an Italian specimen, no. -2144. English family inventories from the fourteenth to the sixteenth -century, occasionally include combs of that kind. To name one only: -the list of the effects of Roger de Mortimer at Wigmore castle, in the -reign of Edward the second, specifies “j pecten de ebore.” - -One half only of the mirror cases, speaking generally, has been -preserved. It is very rare to find both covers. Originally, the mirror -was fastened to one side, and the other slid over it or was unscrewed. -No example of both parts is in the South Kensington collection, and -only one (it is believed) in the British museum. People, as time went -on, probably thought that an unornamented side was not worth taking -care of. - -We find the subjects sculptured on mirror cases to be almost always -scenes from domestic life, or from some poem or romance. Naturally -it would be so. The only exceptions among all the examples at South -Kensington are two, on one of which is a representation of the Almighty -Father and the dead Christ, on the other the message of David to -Bathsheba. The rest, ten or twelve in number, have hunting and garden -scenes, or players at chess, or assaults on the castle of Love. So it -is also with the large collection of ivory mirror cases in the British -museum. - -The use of small mirrors is to be traced to the earliest historic -period, and to be found among almost every people of the world. In the -most ancient times they were commonly of metal; and it is believed that -none, except of that material, has yet been found in any tomb of Egypt, -or Greece, or Italy. These, unlike the mediæval mirror, had generally -flat and broad handles, and the backs were often incised with various -designs, mythological subjects, gods and goddesses, or from stories of -the poets. - -Many metallic mirrors have been found in Roman burial-places in -England. Several are described in modern archæological publications; -one especially curious, found in 1823 at Coddenham in Suffolk. This -is important as an early example in respect of the smallness of its -size and because it is enclosed in a case. It “is a portable trinket, -consisting of a thin circular bronze case, divided horizontally into -two nearly equal portions, which fit one into the other; and, being -opened, it presents a convex mirror in each face of the interior.” The -diameter is scarcely more than two inches, and on one side is the head -of the emperor Nero. - -Anglo-saxon mirrors have seldom been found. Two, both discovered in a -barrow near Sandwich, are engraved in the _Nenia Britannica_. Mirrors -were nevertheless commonly used by ladies at that time; and there is a -letter preserved in Bede from pope Boniface IV. to Ethelberga, queen of -Edwin of Northumbria in 625, wherein he requests her acceptance of an -ivory comb and a silver mirror. Combs and mirrors are frequent on the -sculptured stones of Scotland; they occur on more than fifty, according -to a table given in the preface to the admirable work published by the -Spalding club; and seven stones have representations of mirror cases. - -Dr. Stuart in a short paper upon these sculptures, read before the -International congress of prehistoric archæology in 1868, assigns to -them a date not later than the seventh, eighth, or ninth century, and -believes that the figures on the rude pillars may be of even an earlier -date, before Christian times. - -It is not known when glass covered at the back with lead was introduced -in place of the earlier metallic mirror. Probably some of the cases -which are in various collections were the covers of the new material. -John Peckham, an Englishman, wrote in the middle of the thirteenth -century a treatise on optics in which he speaks not only of steel -mirrors but often of glass mirrors, and adds that when the lead was -scraped off the back no image was reflected. - -There is, or perhaps was 150 years ago, a curious coat of arms in a -painted window of the fourteenth century, in the chancel of the church -of Thame in Oxfordshire, on which was blazoned a mirror in a case with -a handle attached to it. “He beareth _argent_,” says Guillim in his -Display of heraldry, “a tyger passant, regardant, gazing in a mirror -or looking-glass, all _proper_.... Some report, that those who rob the -tiger of her young, use a policy to detain their dam from following -them, by casting sundry looking-glasses in the way, whereat she useth -long to gaze, etc.” - -Ladies using mirrors at their toilet frequently form a subject for -illustration in fourteenth century manuscripts. These mirrors are -precisely of the usual shape and size of those which have come down to -us in ivory. Several may be seen in the manuscript romance of Lancelot -du Lac in the British museum: in one, a lady lying on a couch holds the -mirror in her hand whilst an attendant dresses her hair with a comb; -in another, she herself uses both mirror and comb. A hundred years -later the same design was engraved on one of a pack of cards, “_la -damoiselle_,” by “the Master of 1466,” now in the national library at -Paris. - -Love scenes, as in the etching, or the siege of the castle of Love -are subjects often found on mirror cases. The woodcut on this page is -copied from an example at South Kensington, no. 1617. Another copy of -the same romance of Lancelot, which has been just referred to, has an -illumination of a real assault upon a castle, treated in a similar -manner. Knights place ladders against the wall; the battlements are -defended by the garrison; the attack is made with cross-bows and a -catapult; and men lie dead upon the ground. Another of much interest is -given as “the twelfth battle” in the manuscript in the British museum -so well known as queen Mary’s psalter, written about the year 1320; -in this, women look at the attack over the battlements of the town or -castle. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: IVORY CARVING. CIRCULAR MIRROR COVER. DATE 1300-1330. -(SOLTIKOFF COLL.) DIAM 5½ in. - -2.K.M (N^o 210.65) D. JONES _FECIT_.] - -[Illustration] - -Knights tilting, or a tournament, or ladies and gentlemen riding -through woods and preceded by attendants with dogs, are also common -subjects. The contemporary manuscripts illustrate the same design. Both -on the mirror cases and in the illuminations the lady is generally -seen riding astride. Women are so represented more than once in the -romance of Lancelot: for example _fol._ 120_a_, and 163_a_. A queen is -riding, _fol._ 181_b_. In queen Mary’s psalter, the treatment on the -mirror cases of people riding is almost exactly repeated, _fol._ 217; -again, 218_b_, and 223_b_. Other examples may be seen in the Bodleian -manuscript of the romance of Alexander, _fol._ 100 and 130. The same -custom lasted in Lithuania until, at least, the year 1800. - -There is one other ornamental design very common on mirror cases; -people playing at chess or draughts. Margaret Paston writes in the -reign of Richard the third to her husband, and says that at the -Christmas following the death of lord Morley his widow would permit no -amusements in her house, “non dysgysyngs ner harpyng ner lutyng—but -pleying at the tabyllys and schesse.” This brings us to an interesting -and important class of carvings in ivory. - -The date of the introduction of the games of chess and draughts into -Europe, and more particularly among the northern nations and our own -ancestors the Anglo-saxons, is a historical question upon which there -has been great dispute. The game of chess was certainly played at a -very early period in the east, and from thence probably passed through -the Arabs into Greece. There are allusions to chess and chessmen -in many writers before the twelfth century, and these incidental -references are of more value than the positive assertions which later -authors, after the manner of their day, did not hesitate to advance. - -For example Caxton, or rather the author of the “Playe of the Chesse.” -“This playe fonde a phylosopher of thoryent whych was named in -caldee Exerces, for which is as moche to say in englissh as he that -louyth Justyce and mesure.” And this decision was not without due -consideration of the matter; for just before we are told: “Trewe it -is that somme men wene that this play was founden in the tyme of the -bataylles and siege of troye. But that is not so.... After that cam -this playe in the tyme of Alixaunder the grete in to egypt, and so unto -alle the parties toward the south.” - -This treatise on chess is said to have been written nearly two hundred -years before Caxton lived by Jacobus de Casulis, a French Dominican -friar, about 1290. A copy is in the British museum, MS. Harl. 1275; and -it was printed at Milan in 1479. - -Chaucer however, in “the Dreame,” names not Exerces but Athalus as the -supposed inventor of the game, in a passage worth quoting: - - “Therewith Fortune saith, check here, - And mate in the mid point of the checkere, - With a pawne errant, alas, - Ful craftier to playe she was - Than Athalus that made the game, - First to the chesse, so was his name.” - -We may, however, put aside the old guesses of early writers, for -evidence still exists which sets at rest all doubt that chess was known -and played in France in Carlovingian times, and we can understand -easily, therefore, why mediæval poets and romance writers so often -introduced stories about the game. Some ivory chessmen, six in number, -were long preserved in the treasury of the abbey of St. Denis, and -the old tradition was that they were given with the chess-table by -Charlemagne himself. The greater number of the pieces and the table -had been lost for many years, as long ago as 1600. The remainder, -transferred at the revolution from St. Denis, are now in the public -library at Paris. Sir Frederic Madden, in a very able and learned paper -in the Archæologia, says of them: “The dresses and ornaments are all -strictly in keeping with the Greek _costume_ of the ninth century; and -it is impossible not to be convinced, from the general character of the -figures, that these chessmen really belong to the period assigned them -by tradition, and were, in all probability, executed at Constantinople -by an Asiatic Greek, and sent as a present to Charlemagne, either by -the empress Irene, or by her successor Nicephorus.... One thing is -certain, that these chessmen, from their size and workmanship, must -have been designed for no ignoble personage: and, from the decided -style of Greek art, it is a more natural inference to suppose them -presented to Charlemagne by a sovereign of the lower empire, than that -they came to him as an offering from the Moorish princes of Spain, or -even from the caliph Haroun al Raschid, who gave many costly gifts to -the emperor of the west.” - -In the East India museum almost a complete set of ivory chessmen is -preserved, perhaps the most ancient examples now known to exist: -older even than the chessmen from St. Denis. These were found about -twenty years ago, mixed with a quantity of broken pottery, human -bones, and other relics, amongst the ruins of some houses excavated -on the site of the city of Brahmunabad in Sind, which was destroyed -by an earthquake in the eighth century. The pieces are turned; plain -in character, without ornament. Several are in a very fragile state, -having perished in the same way as the Assyrian ivories; and an attempt -should be made to restore, if possible, some of the lost substance. -A few fragments of a chessboard were also found, incised with small -circles, not interlacing. The chessmen and the squares of the board are -black and white: ivory and ebony. The kings and queens are about three -inches high; the pawns one inch; and the other pieces are of different -intermediate heights. Coins were also found of the caliphs of Bagdad, -about A.D. 750. - -The mediæval chronicles, poems, and romances are full of references -to the game. The anonymous author of the history of Ramsey monastery, -writing about the year 1100, tells us that bishop Ætheric coming late -one night to king Canute found him still playing chess, “regem adhuc -scaccorum ludo longioris tædia noctis relevantem invenit.” Strutt -quotes this passage in his sports and pastimes; and Sir F. Madden adds -the following translation from a French manuscript of the thirteenth -century. It is much to our present purpose, in illustration of the -legends whence the subjects of mirror decorations were derived:— - - “Orgar was playing at the chess, - A game he had learned of the Danes; - With him played the fair Elstrueth, - A fairer maiden was not under heaven.” - -The story is of a mission from king Edgar to earl Orgar in the tenth -century. - -Chaucer again tells us how - - “They dancen and they play at ches and tables;” - -and in the merchant’s second tale he describes a chessboard:— - - “So when they had ydyned, the cloth was up ytake, - A ches ther was ybrought forth; ... - The ches was all of ivory, the meyne fresh and new, - Ipulshid and ypikid, of white, asure, and blue.” - -A very curious passage occurs in a book originally written in French, -in April 1371, and translated about the reign of Henry the sixth: a -copy is in the British museum; _Harl._ 1764. “There was a gentille -knight’s daughter that wratthed atte the tables with a gentill man that -was riotous and comberous and hadd an evelle hede, and the debate was -on a point that he plaide, that she saide that it was wronge: and so -the wordes and the debate rose so that she saide that he was a lewde -[ignorant] fole, and thane lost the game in chiding.” - -Chess-tables and chessmen are often specified in wills and inventories. -The inventory of the effects of Sir Roger de Mortimer, referred to -more than once, speaks of a coffer containing “j famil’ de ebore pro -scaccario;” and among the jewels in the wardrobe book of Edward the -first occur “una familia de ebore pro ludendo ad scaccarium,” and “una -familia pro scaccario de jaspide et cristallo.” The “familia” in these -entries is the same as the “meyne” in Chaucer’s lines just above; that -is, the retinue, the company, or the set of domestics. - -[Illustration] - -To quote from one will; Sir William Compton in his will, dated 1523 -bequeathed to Henry the eighth “a little chest of ivory whereof one -lock is gilt, with a chessboard under the same, and a pair of tables -upon it, and all such jewels and treasures as are enclosed therein.” - -The most complete set of ancient ivory chessmen now remaining was found -in the isle of Lewis, in Scotland, about the year 1831, and most of -them are now in the British museum. They are all of one character, -similar to the accompanying woodcut, which is engraved from another -walrus-ivory chessman, also in the British museum, and which was -obtained some few years ago from a private collection. - -It would be more proper to speak of the Lewis chess pieces as several -sets, for there are some pieces enough for five or six. They are -sixty-seven in number—six kings, five queens, thirteen bishops, -fourteen knights, nineteen pawns, and ten (so-called) warders, which -took the place of the modern rook or castle. This large collection -was discovered by a labourer digging a sandbank, and every piece is -accurately described in detail by Sir F. Madden in a paper read before -the Society of antiquaries in 1832. They are all carved out of walrus -ivory. - -Upon this material Sir Frederic observes that “the estimation in which -the teeth of the walrus were held by the northern nations rendered -them a present worthy of royalty; and this circumstance is confirmed -by a tradition preserved in the curious saga of Kröka the crafty, who -lived in the tenth century.” [The saga itself is believed to have -been written in the fourteenth century.] “It is there related, that -Gunner, prefect of Greenland, wishing to conciliate the favour of -Harald Hardraad, king of Norway (A.D. 1050), sent him the three most -precious gifts the island could produce. These were, 1, a white bear; -2, a _chess-table_, or set of _chessmen_, exquisitely carved; 3, a -skull of the Rostungr (or _walrus_) with the teeth fastened in it, -and ornamented with gold.” The best Icelandic scholars take the term -_Tan-Tabl_ in the sense of _chessmen made of the teeth of the walrus_. - -[Illustration] - -Chessmen were occasionally made of considerably larger size. There is a -good example of this kind in the South Kensington collection, no. 8987; -and another, of which a woodcut is given, is in the British museum. -This last remarkable piece was presented in 1856, by Sir Henry Cole. - -Scarcely less common than chessmen are small round pieces, generally -of the tusk of the walrus, which were used for a game probably like -the modern game of draughts, and to which frequent allusion is found -in mediæval books under the name of “tables.” The mirror cases give -us several representations of people engaged at this game, usually -a lady and a gentleman. There seem to have been fewer pieces used -than in our own days, and a smaller board or table. These draughtsmen -are almost all of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries; -and the subjects men and animals, with scroll ornament interlacing. -Occasionally a single bird or a dragon fills the centre space. - -Some of the decorations of the old church of Shobdon in Herefordshire -(pulled down about 100 years ago) were similar to the carvings upon -the draughtsmen and other works of that kind. These also were of the -twelfth century. One pillar was ornamented with a series of small -medallions tied together, exactly like the old draughtsmen. They -are engraved, from fragments of three of the principal arches still -preserved, in the first volume of the Archæological journal. - -[Illustration] - -This style of ornament is shown to great advantage upon the arm of -a chair of the eleventh or twelfth century, formerly in the Meyrick -collection; carved from two tusks of the walrus. It is not easy to -decide in what country this very important ivory was worked. One half -of it is given in the accompanying woodcut. The name, arm of a chair, -must be taken as a probable supposition. That it is one of a pair is -apparently certain: for in the centre on one side is an eagle, on the -other a winged lion; two of the four symbols of the Evangelists. These -are deeply sunk and enclosed in ornamental borders, exactly similar -to the draughtsmen of the same period. The sides from the centres to -the ends are richly carved in admirable style and workmanship with an -interlacing scroll ornament, in the midst of which are twined men and -fabulous animals. The ends have, for terminations, the heads of lions -designed with much spirit. On the under side, which is left perfectly -flat, are incised some small crosses, composed of the well-known little -circles called the bone ornament. There are other good examples of the -same style of decoration upon the specimens of the ancient Tau in the -South Kensington museum. In all of these, though the men and animals -are grotesque yet they have life and movement, and the foliage and -branches with which they are twined and intermingled are well executed. -The technical merit of the carving, deep in relief and often cut clear -from the solid substance of the ivory, is very remarkable. - -[Illustration: TWO GROUPS OF THE CHESSMEN FOUND IN THE ISLAND OF -LEWIS.] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - -Although it is impossible to enter in detail into any history of an -object so well known, by name at least, as the pastoral crook of a -bishop, it may yet be not without interest to offer a few remarks upon -it in explanation of the varieties of shape of old ivory croziers still -existing, and as a subject not without interest in our own days to -many people. The Tau, spoken of in the last chapter, is but a form of -the pastoral staff, adopted in more than one country of western Europe -early in the middle ages. - -The most ancient shape of the episcopal staff is found represented in -the catacombs; a short handle, with a plain boss or oval knob bent -aside at the top like the pagan _lituus_. Sometimes in the catacombs we -also find the truer form of a shepherd’s crook, a plain but complete -curve at the extremity. The Tau is commonly seen and given without -apparent distinction to bishops and abbots in manuscripts of the -eighth and ninth centuries, about which period there came in another -fashion, unpleasing and hardly intelligible in its design, where the -crook is but slightly bent and extended almost horizontally from the -staff itself. One more shape, and more rare, was a double plain crook -like horns joined together. After all these came the admirable design, -of which the South Kensington museum possesses one or two splendid -examples, wherein the volute is carried half round again and frequently -contains within the circle other ornaments or groups of figures. - -[Illustration: IVORY CARVING, HEAD OF A TAU OR T SHAPED STAFF, IN -WALRUS TUSK, THE COMPARTMENTS CONTAINING THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC. -12^{th} CENT (SOLTIKOFF COLL) L, 5 IN S. K. M. (N^o 215 ’65) - -F. A. SLOCOMBE FECIT] - -The extremities of the Taus were often hollowed, to receive relics. -The beautiful Tau now at Kensington, engraved in the etching, -shows the old recesses; but the crystal ends are lost. It is of -this Tau that a learned author writes as follows, in the Mélanges -archéologiques:—“Avant de quitter ce beau monument, je ferai observer -la riche ciselure du treillis séparant les signes. Il est à peine -croyable que chaque petite perle d’ivoire le long des entrelacs -enchâsse une pierre précieuse, et que les yeux des animaux sont ainsi -formés.” A very fine ivory of the same admirable kind and style is -preserved in the library at Rouen, probably of earlier date, of the -tenth century; and another is in the Cluny museum, unusually simple in -shape and plain in ornament, which was found at St. Germain-des-Prés in -the tomb of Morard, abbot of that monastery from 990 to 1014. In the -etching is another Tau, also at Kensington. - -Ivory Taus are of great rarity. They were gradually superseded towards -the end of the twelfth century by that form which, with certain -varieties of ornament, has continued down to our own times. The most -common mode of treating the volute itself was to imitate a serpent; and -the termination of the crook was the head of the serpent, sometimes -with widely-expanded jaws. - -It may appear unreasonable that the serpent was so constantly used as a -religious emblem in such a way; but the symbol was certainly adopted in -Christian art and with several pious significations from the first ages -of the Christian faith. As the chief decoration of a bishop’s pastoral -staff it might be regarded as an emblem of prudence, or as a record of -the rod of Moses, which was changed into a serpent and destroyed those -which had been cast down by the magicians; or again, as an emblem of -the subtlety or wisdom required in a ruler over Christ’s flock. When -the serpent is also chained or entangled, then, perhaps, the triumph of -the Church over Satan is symbolised; or the contest itself between the -two, when the head and open jaws seem to be on the point of closing -over the lamb and cross, as in the pastoral staff of the Ashmolean -museum at Oxford. Once more, the triumph would be shown when our Lord -in glory is represented within the sweep of the serpent’s body. It is -also probable that the men twisted and twined with serpents and animals -and branches of trees, in the older examples, were meant to typify the -struggle against the evil influences of the world, the flesh, and the -devil. - -The triumph of Christianity over the world is of a class of ornament -which was largely introduced towards the middle of the thirteenth -century, and which included others of a like character: such as, -especially, the Crucifixion (as in the etching) or the Virgin standing -with the Child in her arms, sometimes attended by angels, or the -adoration of the Magi; and, a little later, the coronation of the -Virgin; or the destruction of the dragon by the archangel Michael. - -The author of the paper in the Mélanges d’archéologie speaks of a -pastoral staff of ivory having “the Coronation” so early as the time -of St. Gautier, abbot of St. Martin de Pontoise about 1070, to whom -it is attributed. An engraving of it is in that publication; and it -is worthy of especial notice because, although of wood, the handle is -not only enriched with decorations like the handle of the fan at South -Kensington, no. 373 and the corresponding piece in the British museum, -but the ornaments are placed within exactly similar small square -compartments. - -Sometimes the volutes of croziers were filled merely with foliage and -twisted branches; but these were more commonly of copper or silver, for -the further purpose of being enamelled. - -We must not fail to observe how cleverly in many of the mediæval ivory -heads of bishops’ staffs the volute is occupied by a double subject, -placed back to back, so that one of the two might face the people as -it was borne along. These are generally, on one side the Crucifixion, -on the other the Virgin and Child. The figures standing upon the one -side on either hand of the cross are carved on the reverse as angels -in attendance on the Virgin. This is well shown in the woodcut, from a -pastoral staff of the thirteenth century, preserved in the cathedral at -Metz. - -[Illustration: CROSIER IN CARVED IVORY AND GILT METAL. - -FRENCH XIV CENT. (7952) W M M^cGILL] - -[Illustration] - -In remote times the pastoral staff of a bishop was usually made of -wood; at least, we may suppose so from the jest of Guy Coquille:— - - “Au temps passé du siècle d’or, - Crosse de bois, évêque d’or; - Maintenant, changeant les lois, - Crosse d’or, évêque de bois.” - -These lines are not, perhaps, all in jest, for the wooden staff of St. -Erhard exists at Ratisbonne: and another is in the church of St. Ursula -at Cologne. The two Benedictines in their famous travels (as recorded -in the “Voyage littéraire”) come to Maurienne, and tell us: “Nous -vîmes aussi dans le trésor une croce d’yvoire: car les anciens évêques -aimoient mieux employer leur argent à soulager les pauvres, qu’en des -ornemens vains et superflus.” They saw other ivory pastoral staffs -before their journeys ended: one at Marseilles, in the abbey of St. -Victor; and one of the eleventh century at St. Savin, in the diocese of -Tarbes; another, worthy of special mention, at Cluny: “La croce de S. -Hugue, qui est de bois couvert de feuilles d’argent, dont le dessus est -d’yvoire.” - -In later days the use of wood was generally limited to the staffs -and croziers which were buried in their graves with archbishops and -bishops, abbots and abbesses. A few of these have been found: one, very -remarkable and in a fair state of preservation, in Westminster abbey -in the tomb of bishop Lyndwood, the great canonist. This is now in -the British museum. A full account of the opening of this tomb, with -engravings, is printed in one of the volumes of the Archæologia. - -Probably the pastoral staff mentioned in the will of Richard Martyn -bishop of St. David’s, who died about the year 1498, was of wood. He -bequeathed to the church of Lyde “the cross-hed that Oliver the joiner -made.” - -Inscriptions are sometimes found upon ivory pastoral staffs. For -example on that of St. Aunon, archbishop of Cologne: “Sterne -resistentes, stantes rege, tolle jacentes;” others on those of St. -Saturnin at Toulouse, and of Otho, bishop of Hildesheim. - -The old Sarum pontificals order, in the first rubric for consecrating a -bishop, that the _baculus pastoralis_ should be provided with the other -necessary episcopal ornaments and vestments; and the staff is delivered -to the new bishop in the course of the office. “_Quum datur baculus -dicat ordinator_, Accipe baculum pastoralis officii,” etc., and the -purpose is further alluded to as the ceremony proceeds. - -The symbolism of the shape and ornaments of the ivory pastoral staffs -is clearly explained by Hugo St. Victor: “Episcopo, dum regimen -ecclesiæ committitur, baculus quasi pastori traditur, in quo tria -notantur, quæ significatione non carent, recurvitas, virga, cuspis; -significatio hoc carmine continetur:— - - “Attraho peccantes, justos rogo, pungo vagantes, - Officio triplici servio pontifici.” - -It remains only to notice that the Pope uses neither pastoral staff -nor crozier, nor is it delivered to him at his consecration, if at -his election he be only a simple priest. It is said, however, that -he should carry one in the diocese of Treves because St. Peter gave -his own to the first bishop of that place, where it is preserved as a -famous relic. This tradition is mentioned by St. Thomas Aquinas: “Et -ideo in diœcesi Treverensi papa baculum portat, et non in aliis.” - -An engraving is given (p. 90) of the head of a pastoral staff, rather -more than five inches in height, not only unusual and remarkable in -style but probably of English work. This was preserved in the Meyrick -collection and is carved from bone. The outside of the upright part and -the volute are decorated with pierced work, now slightly mutilated. -Inside the volute, which terminates with the open mouth of a serpent, -is a man in a grotesque position, his feet within the serpent’s jaws. A -rich interlaced scroll decorates both sides of the head of the staff. - -[Illustration] - -It is perhaps not to be wondered at that a Tau should be, as we -know it is, amongst the most rare of ornaments or utensils in ivory -which have been preserved. The early and total disuse of them would -have naturally led to their destruction and loss, sometimes wilful, -sometimes accidental. But that the pastoral staff (that is, the head of -it) should be of almost equal rarity is less easily to be explained. -Few collections possess a good example; still fewer more than one. -Nevertheless, in England alone pastoral staffs must have been almost -without number at the beginning of the sixteenth century; and although -many were probably of metal, silver or copper enamelled and having -some intrinsic value, yet an equal or perhaps greater number were of -ivory. Not merely bishops but the heads of religious houses, abbots and -abbesses, carried them as official tokens of their rank and dignity. -We find frequent mention of them in the old inventories. For example, -at St. Paul’s, in 1295; “Item, baculus cum cambuca eburnea, continente -agnum.” “Item, baculus de peciis eburneis, et summitate crystallina,” -etc. “Cambuca” is a word often used in the middle ages for the staff -itself; derived, perhaps, from κάμπτω, I bend. - -Yet numerous as they must once have been, the heads of English pastoral -staffs are now among the rarest of ivory carvings. It is true that -no. 298 at South Kensington can, with some kind of probability, be -attributed to an English artist and may have been used in England; -but no other in that collection can be referred to. The almost -complete destruction in England of all ecclesiastical ornaments—books, -vestments, reliquaries, and the like—in the middle of the sixteenth -century will account for the extreme rarity of them in this country. -But it is very difficult to explain the reason why so few should still -be found in France, or Germany, or Italy. The bishop’s pastoral staff, -again, has not dropped out of use like the pax or the flabellum. - -There are examples of the pax in the South Kensington collection, nos. -246 and 247. It was used in the middle ages at high mass and sometimes -at low mass also, for sending the kiss of peace from the celebrant, -first to the deacon and subdeacon or to the acolyte, afterwards to the -people. With regard to the custom in England, provincial and diocesan -statutes repeat again and again the obligation upon parishes to provide -the pax, “osculatorium” or “asser ad pacem,” equally with the proper -vestments or books or other furniture of the altar. The rubrics of the -Sarum missal—the use most largely observed in England before the reign -of queen Elizabeth—direct the priest, immediately after the _Agnus -Dei_, to kiss the outside rim of the chalice in which was the Sacred -Blood, and then to give the pax to the deacon who delivered it in -regular order to the ministers and choristers in the sanctuary. - -Everything connected with the correct text of the plays of Shakespeare -is of the highest interest to every Englishman; and will serve, it is -hoped, as some excuse for a few words by way of remark upon a passage -where he alludes to a pax. The unfortunate Bardolph came to an untimely -end on account of it: - - “Fortune is Bardolph’s foe, and frowns on him: - For he hath stolen a pax: and hang’d must’a be. - ——Exeter hath given the doom of death, - For pax of little price.” - HENRY V., _act_ iii., _sc._ 5. - -Until lately the editors of Shakspeare printed _pyx_ on the emendation -(so-called) of Theobald. Johnson, who approved the new reading, informs -us in his note upon the place that the two words “signified the same -thing.” As far as Bardolph was concerned it mattered not; he had -“conveyed” a sacred thing and, as Holinshed tells us, the king would -not move on till the thief was hanged. - -The quartos of 1600 and 1608 (and also the three folios) read _pax_: -“he hath stolne a packs;” “a packs of pettie price,” in both editions. -Shakspeare very well knew that a pax exposed or left carelessly on -an altar was much more likely to be stolen than a pyx, which would -be taken infinitely greater care of and locked up in the tabernacle. -Even Dr. Johnson was ignorant upon some subjects; and the way in which -editors “emend” their authors is something marvellous. When Shakspeare -lived, and when the quartos were printed, people had not forgotten the -distinction between the pax and the pyx; and many even could still -remember when that now mysterious thing, the pax, had been brought down -to them in the services of the Church from the altar. - -The introduction of the pax instead of the old practice of mutual -salutation was not until about the thirteenth century. The earliest -mention in England occurs in a council held at York, A.D. 1250, under -archbishop Walter Gray, where it is called “osculatorium.” A like order -was made in the province of Canterbury, at the council of Merton, 1305, -directing every parish to provide “tabulas pacis ad osculatorium.” -Several figures of the pax are given in works relating to the subject; -and we find it almost always represented as part of the furniture of -an altar in the woodcut which often precedes the service for advent -sunday, in the printed editions of the Salisbury missal from about 1500 -to 1557. Le Brun has an interesting disquisition on the pax: and he -tells us in a note that in its turn it also fell into disuse, because -of quarrels about precedency which were occasioned among the people. Le -Brun is borne out by Chaucer who, in the Parson’s Tale, speaking of the -proud man explains that “also he awaited to sit, or els to go above him -in the waie, or kisse paxe, or be encenced before his neighbour, _etc._” - -Occasionally, paxes in ivory have inscriptions upon them. One of the -three in the Liverpool museum has the appropriate prayer, “Da pacem -Domine in diebus nostris.” Two exhibited at Norwich in 1847 had -legends. On one, the Annunciation, “Ave Maria;” on the other, the -Nativity with the shepherds, “Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax, -_etc._” - -Notices of the pax are common in monastic and church inventories. In -the Rites of Durham abbey we are told that they possessed “a marvelous -faire booke, which had the epistles and gospels in it, the which booke -had on the outside of the coveringe the picture of our Saviour Christ -all of silver—which booke did serve for the paxe in the masse.” A -book which an abbot of Glastonbury gave to his church there probably -answered the same purpose; and other then existing examples might be -referred to. “Unum textum argenteum et auratum cum crucifixo, Maria, -et Johanne, splendidus emalatum.” A mediæval English pax made of wood -does not now, probably, exist: but there is a curious entry in the -inventory of church goods belonging to the parish of St. Peter Cheap, -in the year 1431; “item iij lyttel pax breds of tre.” Many such wooden -paxes are mentioned as having been burnt in the diocese of Lincoln in -1566 by the royal commissioners: “a paxe of wood” at Baston, another at -Dunsbie, another at Haconbie. - -We have a remarkable illustration of the late use of the pax in England -in one of the injunctions issued by the king’s visitors to the clergy -within the deanery of Doncaster, in the first year of Edward the sixth, -and printed by Burnet in his Records: “The clerk was ordered at the -proper time to bring down the pax, and standing without the church -door to say these words aloud to the people. This is a token of joyful -peace which is betwixt God and men’s conscience, _etc._” The “church -door” here means the door in the screen which in those days divided the -chancel from the body of the church. As in Chaucer, where he says of -the wife of Bath - - “Husbands at the church door had she had five.” - -In England before the change of religion in the fifteenth century the -marriage ceremony was performed outside the chancel, sometimes at the -great door of the church itself; and then all proceeded towards the -sanctuary for mass and communion. - -One of the most beautiful as well as one of the most rare objects -in the South Kensington collection is part of the handle of an -ecclesiastical fan, or flabellum. It is, probably, one half of a -handle; and another half, so nearly alike that it is a question whether -it does or does not belong to the same handle, is in the British -museum. The fan is still used in the Catholic Church in the east, -where the purpose and benefit of it in order to keep off flies from -the sacred vessels, or on account of the heat, are obvious. But in the -west, except perhaps for part of the year in Italy, the fan was a kind -of fashion and, having no symbolism, an unmeaning introduction from -the oriental rite. The various churches of France and England had -dropped the use of it before the sixteenth century; but we have plenty -of evidence that the fan was commonly adopted in the thirteenth and the -twelfth. Illuminations in two of the manuscripts in the public library -at Rouen are very clear in this matter. One represents the deacon -raising the flabellum, a circular fan with a long handle, over the head -of the priest standing at the altar. In the other, the deacon is in the -act of waving the fan, holding it by a short handle, over the head of a -bishop who is elevating the Host. - -A very curious flabellum, supposed to be of the ninth century, is -described by Du Sommerard; it had long been preserved in the abbey of -Tournus, south of Chalons, and was said to be in the possession of M. -Carraud about twenty years ago. The fan of queen Theodolinda, of purple -vellum with ivory handle, given by her to the cathedral of Monza is -still preserved there. Other examples are, perhaps, still existing; two -or three are mentioned by writers of the last century. - -Inventories of churches and monasteries include the fan. In one -of Amiens, about 1300, is “flabellum factum de serico et auro ad -repellendas muscas.” Another, of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, 1363, -gives “Item, duo flabella, vulgariter nuncupata muscalia, ornata -perlis.” Nor ought we to omit some entries of the same kind in English -inventories. In one, of the cathedral of Salisbury, in 1314, are “ij -flabella de serico et pergameno.” The church of St. Faith, in the crypt -of St. Paul’s, possessed among its ornaments in 1298 “unum muscatorium -de pennis pavonum.” Still more to our present purpose was the fan -given to a chantry in the cathedral of Rochester, by bishop Hanno, in -1346; “unum flabellum de serico cum virga eburnea:” or the “flabellum -de serico” named in the inventory of the property of Robert Bilton, -bishop of Exeter, in 1330. John Newton, treasurer of York minster, -gave to that church about the year 1400 a splendid fan, which was -in the treasury there when everything of the kind was destroyed by -the commissioners of Edward the sixth: “Manubrium flabelli argenteum -deauratum, ex dono Joh. Newton, cum ymagine episcopi in fine enameled, -pond’ v. unc.” It is not at all improbable that fans were used in -England at mass even in parochial or country churches until a late -period. The following entry occurs in the accounts of the churchwardens -of Walberswick, in Suffolk: a payment in the year 1493 for “a bessume -of pekok’s fethers, iv. d.” - -Care must be observed, however, not to set down all works in -ivory which are similar to no. 373 as having been the handles of -ecclesiastical fans. Other church ceremonies required utensils of the -same kind; though, probably, they were seldom if ever so profusely -decorated and enriched with carving. For example, holy-water sprinklers -would often have had ivory handles; and one is specified as belonging -to St. Paul’s in 1295, “aspersorium de ebore.” More than this; whip -handles, which we see on mirror cases and in illuminations, and other -like things were made and ornamented for secular purposes. Hearne -gives a copy of a curious inscription on the handle of a whip found in -the ruins of the abbey of St. Alban. It commemorates the gift of four -horses to the monks of that house from Gilbert of Newcastle. Hearne -leaves the date of the handle doubtful, but is disposed to put it about -the end of the fourteenth century. - -The wife of Roger de Mortimer of Wigmore castle in Herefordshire had, -among other valuable things as specified in the inventory taken in -Edward the second’s reign (before quoted) “item, j scourgiam de ebore.” - -The etching represents a very beautiful reliquary, French work of the -sixteenth century, in the Kensington museum. - -[Illustration: TRIPTYCH, SERVING AS A RELIQUARY IN CARVED IVORY ABOUT -1480. ENTIRE WIDTH OPENED 10¼ in. S.K.M. (N^o 4336) - -D. JONES FECIT.] - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - -The South Kensington museum is rich in ivory statuettes: many of them -are very beautiful, although none is equal to a large sitting figure of -the Virgin in the British museum or to two or three of the finest in -the collections at Paris. Almost all of these statuettes represent the -Virgin and Child; naturally, this would be a subject most frequently in -demand for private oratories. Almost always the Virgin bears the tokens -of her spiritual glory and privileges. To adopt the words of a French -writer on another class of ivory carvings, “La Vierge mère et reine -porte glorieuse les trois signes de son incomparable grandeur; la fleur -de sa pureté immaculée, le fruit béni qui, loin de flétrir, a embelli -sa fleur; et la couronne qui a consommé ses privilèges en couronnant -ses vertus.” - -Generally speaking, the statuettes of the latter part of the thirteenth -and throughout the fourteenth century are pure and religious in style, -with an admirable expression of love and reverence in the figures, -perfectly natural. There are two or three examples in the collections -at South Kensington and the British museum, which may well claim all -the praise which M. Labarte gives to a group of the coronation of the -Virgin and to a Virgin and Child, both now preserved in the Louvre. -He speaks of the simplicity of the composition; the refinement and -truthfulness of the forms; the appropriate inflexions of the body and -limbs; the imitation of real life; the just expression given to the -faces; and the natural development and treatment of the draperies. So, -again, we may quote his exact words, and say of more than one statuette -in these great collections: “Quelle pureté dans le dessin, quelle -noblesse dans la pose, quelle finesse dans le modèle, quelle ampleur -et quelle élégance dans la disposition de la draperie! Cette statuette -montré à quel haut degré de perfection était parvenue la sculpture -chrétienne à la fin du [quatorzième] siècle.” - -The seals attached to mediæval deeds are important illustrations of -the mode of treatment of the subject of the Virgin and Child, so -common in the statuettes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. -Take, for instance, some in the Bodleian library. The seal of the -prior and convent of Wyrmeseye (Wormegay) in Norfolk, attached to a -deed of 1347, has a seated Virgin suckling the Child, her right hand -uplifted. Another of the convent of Castle Acre, 1290, a similar -subject. Another, of one of the parties to a deed of the archbishop of -Canterbury, 1376, has the Virgin sitting, facing, and holding the Child -standing on her lap, a sceptre in her right hand; another, showing the -peculiar twist of the figure (presently to be noticed) is on the seal -of the convent of West Acre, in Norfolk. - -There are several also in the British museum: especially a very fine -seal of Southwick Priory, early fourteenth century; the Virgin sitting -and suckling the Infant, under a canopy of a single arch; another, the -same subject, thirteenth century, of Oseney abbey; another, same date, -of Elsing Spittle priory, the Virgin standing with the child under a -rich canopy. - -Sometimes ivory statuettes are still found placed under canopies and -with shutters or wings to fold round them, so as either to make shrines -for an oratory or, portable, to be carried by the owners on their -journeys. More often, examples of this kind are not finished in the -back or are still left attached to the ground of the block of ivory, -carved however in very high relief. The shrine no. 4686, is a good -specimen. When so treated, the shutters are richly decorated on the -inside with scenes from the gospels, usually relating to the Nativity -or to the Passion of our Lord. - -Of this style were the shrines or triptychs at Lincoln, in 1536: -“A tabernacle of two leaves, gemmels [hinges] and lock of silver, -containing the coronation of our Lady;” and “item, a tabernacle of -ivory standing upon four feet with two leaves, with one image of our -Lady in the middle, and the salutation of our Lady in one leaf, and the -nativity of our Lady in the other.” - -There are two remarkable and important illuminations in the manuscript -psalter of queen Mary, which has been more than once referred to (p. -74). In one is a shrine, open, with the decorations usual early in the -fourteenth century. The centre is divided into two compartments. Above -is the Annunciation; the Blessed Virgin and an angel; each under a -pointed arch, cusped and crocketed. Below, is the Visitation; Elizabeth -and the Virgin meet under a gateway and embrace. The wings are filled -with saints, each standing under a pointed arch. This illumination -precedes the psalter, following the calendar, after the Old Testament -history. The other represents a triptych: in the middle is the Virgin -and Child; she is sitting and giving Him the breast; two angels stand -by, swinging censers; in each wing is an angel with a candlestick. - -The mediæval artist may have drawn these with examples now in the South -Kensington museum before him as his models. - -Figures carved in such deep relief as almost to be statuettes -occasionally but very rarely occur in diptychs. A remarkable specimen -was in the Meyrick collection; an illustration is given (p. 100) of one -of the leaves. Probably no diptych exists in any collection equalling -this in the depth to which the figures have been cut in relief. Each is -brought out from the background three quarters of an inch. On the other -leaf is the Virgin and Child. An inscription is incised upon the book -which our Lord holds in His left hand: “Ego su. dns. ds tuus Ic. xpc. -qi. creavi redemi & salvabo te.” Both figures have great grace and -dignity; and the draperies are arranged with unusual simplicity and -breadth. - -[Illustration] - -There was also another very curious mode of carving statuettes of the -Virgin, of which extant specimens are extremely rare, and none (it is -believed) is to be found in England. There is one, well known, in the -gallery of the Louvre, engraved in the useful book of M. Viollet le -Duc, _dictionnaire de mobilier Français_. It is a sitting figure of -our Lady, who is holding the Infant on her knees. The front part is -divided down the middle and two wings fall back on hinges, leaving a -centrepiece and forming a triptych of the usual character. There are -scenes from the Passion on the wings, and the Crucifixion is carved -upon the centre. The date of the ivory is early in the fourteenth -century; but the fashion of this kind of statuette can be traced to a -much earlier time. An entry in an inventory of the church of Notre Dame -at Paris in 1343 mentions one: “quædam alia ymago eburnea valde antiqua -scisa per medium et cum ymaginibus sculptis in appertura, que solebat -poni super magnum altare.” - -Occasionally statuettes are mentioned in English inventories; thus in -the inventory of Roger de Mortimer, a coffer is included, containing -with other things “j parvam imaginem beatæ Virginis de ebore.” Again, -“a lityll longe box of yvery with an ymage of our lady of yvery therein -closyd” is named among the goods belonging in 1534 to the guild of St. -Mary the Virgin at Boston, in Norfolk. - -A very fine statuette of English work, more than nine inches in -height, has been for some years on loan to the South Kensington -museum; it belonged to the late Mr. Hope Scott, and was formerly -Lord Shrewsbury’s. The Virgin is in a sitting position and holds a -large flower in her right hand. She wears a crown under which is the -veil, and her drapery falls over her knees to the feet in heavy and -deeply-carved folds. The face of the Virgin is very beautiful and full -of affectionate expression; the head also of the Child is unusually -good. The ends of the throne are carved in relief, each with a figure -of a female saint sitting under a bold decorated canopy. Many portions -of the original gilding remain upon the hair and on the borders of the -vestments. - -The largest known statuette was in the possession of the late Mr. -Alexander Barker; and this is not only remarkable for its size and -height but is graceful in design, and from the hand of a good artist. -It is French, probably of the Burgundian school, and of the fourteenth -century. The Blessed Virgin is standing, carrying the Child; both hold -in one hand a fruit, perhaps an apple. The figures are vested much in -the same manner as the statuette no. 4685 at South Kensington, and the -draperies have gilded borders with a running scroll; the linings of the -robes of both are painted dark blue. The hair of the Virgin and of the -Infant has been gilded. The perpendicular height of this statuette is -twenty-three inches, and the extreme width at the base six inches. The -figure is hollow as far as the tusk was so, and slopes to the left in -accordance with its natural growth. The height to the girdle is fifteen -inches, and the Infant sitting on His mother’s arm measures seven and -a half inches. From the chin to the top of the head of the Virgin is -three inches. The tusk curves inwards at the waist two inches from -a line falling from the back of the head to the lowest part of the -drapery which covers the feet. - -Every one must have remarked the bend or twist so often given to -statues, carved from stone, of the Virgin and of female saints which -fill the niches of churches and cathedrals built in the thirteenth -and fourteenth centuries. The necessity which obliged the workman in -ivory to follow the natural form of the tusk in all statuettes of such -a size, or of nearly so great a size, as that which has been just -described, certainly did not press upon sculptors whose material was -stone and comparatively unlimited. But the position had perhaps become, -as it were, a fashion, and the style conventional and pleasing to eyes -accustomed daily to see statues so leaning aside in their own oratories. - -The same slope or twist is to be seen often in the figure of the Virgin -in the centre of the volute of the head of a pastoral staff; where, so -far as abundance of material was concerned, there was not the least -necessity for any deviation from an upright into an unnatural attitude. - -Again, in statuettes in silver or other metal: as, for example, in the -silver Virgin and Child in the South Kensington museum; and in another, -also silver, standing on the cover of an oblong reliquary, and said -to represent Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of France. This last is among the -collections of the Louvre. - -Before we pass on to another question, it is impossible not to make a -few remarks upon one of the most beautiful and affecting of all the -works in ivory which have come down to us from mediæval times. This is -a piece, small in size and carved upon both sides, which has probably -been in the volute of a bishop’s pastoral staff. On one side is a group -of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, praying in His agony, and with -the apostles lying asleep below. On the other is a second group, a -Pietà; the blessed Virgin seated and holding the dead body of our Lord -upon her lap. A woodcut is given of this important sculpture. - -Perhaps there are few works of Michael Angelo which have been more -praised, or which have excited more enthusiasm than his group of the -same subject in St. Peter’s. We will listen for a minute to two or -three writers who have especially drawn attention to his famous Pietà. - -[Illustration] - -One says: “The celebrated Pietà now adorns the first right-hand chapel -on entering the great door of St. Peter’s. It consists of two figures, -the Virgin Mother, seated in a dignified attitude, and supporting -on her knees a dead Christ, Whom she regards with inexpressible -reverence, tenderness, and grief.... Its touching pathos, its dignified -conception, and its masterly execution, are incontestable.” - -A French critic writes: “Cette Pietà fut la première œuvre de Michel -Ange qui l’éleva au premier rang et apprit son nom à tous les échos du -monde civilisé;” and the same author further speaks of the group as -having been “the conception” of the artist, and “a creation” of his -imagination. - -Another writes: “When this group was finished it was universally -admired,” and goes on to state that “one of the great sculptors of the -present day, our fellow-countryman Gibson, expressed himself in terms -of high admiration.” - -Once more; a writer upon the Tuscan school: “In this admirable group -the dead body of our Lord lies upon the lap of the Madonna, while her -left hand is half opened and slightly turned back, with a gesture -which carries out the pitying expression of her face. The Christ shows -a purity of style and deep feeling, combined with a grandeur which -Michel Angelo drew from himself alone.” The same writer tells us a few -pages before: “Michael Angelo, who was an enemy to tradition in art, as -well as to a positive imitation of nature, took a path diametrically -opposed to that followed by the conventionalists, the realists, and the -worshippers of the antique.” - -We entirely dissent from the unmeasured laudation here given to -the famous statue at St. Peter’s. Let the praise of originality of -conception, as well as of merit of execution (so far as the size of -his material would permit) be given where it is due, to the sculptor -of the fourteenth century, who died a hundred years before Michael -Angelo was born. Nay, more than this; an unprejudiced comparison will -show that where the work of the great Italian differs from the earlier -Pietà, it differs for the worse. In the ivory the position of the head -and the cold stiffness of the limbs are more death-like and more solemn -than in the marble. In the ivory also the Mother seems to be thinking -more of the past pains and sufferings of her Divine Son than of her -own sorrows: tenderly she supports the Saviour’s head with her right -hand, and, as it were, still clings to Him and draws Him to her with -the other; not, as in the marble at Rome, stretching out and opening -her hand as if to show _her_ misery and the terrible extent of _her_ -bereavement. The mediæval artist remembered that the sad cry of the -prophet in the book of Lamentations referred not to His mother but to -Christ: “Was there ever any sorrow like unto my sorrow?” - -It was a common practice in the middle ages to colour statuettes and, -indeed, also other things, such as triptychs, diptychs, and the covers -of writing-tablets. Traces of this colouring are still visible on -many examples. The robes and vestments were painted red or blue, with -borders of a different colour and often diapered with patterns in gold. -The interesting illustration (opposite) of a painter at work upon a -statuette, an illumination in a French manuscript of the fifteenth -century, is copied from M. Labarte’s work on the industrial arts. - -[Illustration] - -Modern taste runs generally, with regard to this question, in -opposition to the old; but we are not, therefore, hurriedly to decide -against colour as altogether barbarous or improper. Sculpture, people -thought in former days, gained an improved effect by such additional -help, and certainly the use of colour was an attempt to give a more -real appearance and more true to nature. The carvers in ivory could -moreover (if they had known the fact) have appealed to the best period -of the Greek school; to the works of Phidias and Praxiteles. The -chryselephantine statues in the temples of Athens and Olympia had the -same character of ornament and variety of material. - -Writers on art who hold that the legitimate province of sculpture is -simply to represent by form are inclined to condemn any addition of -colour as interfering with that definition. They say that if sculpture -be painted it is a mixture of two arts: as it is also if a picture -be relieved or raised in any part; after the manner of the Byzantine -pictures by Italian painters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. -But it by no means follows that such a mixture is necessarily false in -taste; rather it must be left to the judgment and decision of the time -and of the country for which the sculptures are made. - -A recent contributor to an art periodical, writing of imitation of -nature in statues by colour, dogmatises without doubt or hesitation and -even goes so far as to say that such statues are “not to be regarded as -sculpture. Nor can those representations of the human form which are -made to counterfeit life itself, and dressed it may be in the actual -attire of the person pourtrayed, be spoken of as sculpture. Regarded -from the sculptor’s point of view, such productions can only be -regarded in the light of tricks, or, at the best, of clever forgeries -of nature.” Criticism such as this seems to want the right quality of -discretion. - -Although it is quite true that the works of the Greek sculptors, -during the two or three hundred years of the greatest perfection to -which the art of sculpture has ever reached, are not to be praised -as the greatest and most successful of all statues because they were -coloured or otherwise made to imitate reality; yet the intention was -good, and in obedience to the universal demand and feeling of a people -wonderfully fitted by nature, education, and experience to come to a -right conclusion on the matter. We are unaccustomed in our own days -to statues except those which, whether draped or undraped, are left -in the original pure whiteness of the ivory or marble; we think that -nothing is to be so much approved as what we call simplicity. We may -be right, not only as to what we hold to be pleasing to ourselves, but -as to what ought to be pleasing to and held to be correct by every one -and in every age. On the other hand, we may not be right after all; -and a little more caution and hesitation might be advisable before we -condemn, merely as a matter of abstract taste, a practice which seems -to have recommended itself to almost every people of the world, as in -some way in accordance with the common sentiment of humanity itself; -which was accepted by highly civilised nations from the days of the -Egyptian and Assyrian kings down to the fifteenth century of the -Christian æra; and which can appeal in its support to artists whose -works have ever been acknowledged to be the masterpieces of the world. - -It has just been said that the great works of Phidias and his pupils -are not to be praised merely because they were coloured nor because no -mode of enrichment, gold or jewels or ivory or enamelling, was grudged -as being too costly in order to adorn them. So, again, the use of -colours is not to be condemned because the statues of some very ancient -nations are coarse and rude, or because the idols of the old Mexicans -or of the savages of Africa and New Zealand are made by it even more -hideous than they would otherwise be. The wide-spread observance of the -practice is the point to be considered; and the fact that it rests upon -some deep-seated and universal feeling in the mind of all men, of all -countries, and of almost every age. - -Regarded as a mode of handing down to future generations the memory of -much which would have been lost for want of it, who can complain of -the careful colouring of mediæval tombs and monuments? We are indebted -to it for exact details of dresses and jewelry and armour: about which -there can therefore be no longer any dispute, and which give the answer -at once to many difficulties and many interesting subjects of inquiry. -Nowadays we should almost shudder at a statue painted and coloured -to imitate the muslins and silks worn in Hyde Park by women, and the -various coats and trowsers of the men. But five hundred years hence -some of our descendants would be grateful if, in spite of our own -prejudices, we had given them even one statue among the many of our -Queen or of the prince Consort, not left in the bare uncoloured silence -of the marble. - -Crucifixes in ivory of the middle ages are extremely rare; they may -remain still in use in some churches abroad, but whether abroad or at -home they are seldom found in the collection of any museum. There is -one, although a fragment yet very beautiful, in the South Kensington -collection: no. 212. The figure is represented after death; but the -still suffering expression of the drooping head, the strained muscles -across the breast showing the ribs, and, as it were, the struggle of -the legs contracted in the last agony, are admirably given. The eyes -are closed, the forehead drawn with pain, the mouth open. The body -is clothed with a garment crossed in white folds over the loins and -falling to the knees. It is greatly to be regretted that this beautiful -figure has been so mutilated. The conception of the artist is full -of true feeling and devotion, and his treatment of the subject an -excellent example of the right union of conventionality with enough of -what is real. As with regard to the heads of pastoral staffs, so also -it is not easy to say why mediæval crucifixes should be so uncommon: -for, although there must have been hundreds wilfully destroyed and -broken in England in the sixteenth century, the same reason does not -apply to other countries, where the demand and the supply both for -the churches and for private use must have been continual and almost -without limit. - -There are numerous records still remaining in our public offices and -in the muniment-rooms of many dioceses, which leave us in no doubt as -to the extent and completeness of the destruction of the furniture -and goods of English churches and cathedrals from the year 1550 to -1570. In the very valuable series of returns made by the commissioners -for the county of Lincoln, the lists of items are generally summed -up, “with the rest of the trash and tromperie wch appertaynid to the -popish service.” Even with respect to objects for which one would have -supposed that some slight reverence would have still been felt, such as -crucifixes and altars, we have entries like the following in one parish -alone: “Item ij altar stones; which is defacid and layd in high waies -and sarveth as bridges for sheepe and cattall to go on;” in another, -“Item, iij altar stones broken and defacid, thone [the one] solde vnto -Thomas Woodcroft, who turned it to a cestron bottom, thother aboute the -mending of the church wall and the thirde sett in a fire herthe.” - -An unusually good and large ivory crucifix is preserved in the Catholic -chapel in Spanish Place, London. It was given to the chapel about -thirty years ago but for some time retained by the late cardinal -Wiseman, by whose permission it was shown in the Great Exhibition of -1851. The date is, perhaps, late in the seventeenth century; Spanish -work; about a foot in height; and the arms of the suspended body are -less extended than in the mediæval times. The figure is coloured with -great care to imitate life; blood flows from the wounds, and the -streams where they meet are jewelled with small rubies. The flesh of -the knees is broken and mangled. - -Excellent as this crucifix is as a mere work of art, it utterly fails -in calling forth expression of pure religious sentiment. The reality of -treatment in the figure of our dying Lord is too near truth, and is at -the same time untrue. So far as it has left the old type it has lost -power to influence devotion. The earlier conventional crucifix, which -left all to the imagination and never aimed at perfectly representing -a man dying on a cross, was immeasurably more fitting and more -reverential. - -The diptychs of the middle ages for public and private devotion have -been already spoken of. But besides these, two leaves occur not -unfrequently which are strictly diptychs and were used for the same -purpose as the _pugillares_ in the old days of imperial Rome. Single -plaques are very common, and not only are they usually small in size -but may almost always be distinguished from diptychs of the religious -class by the form of the reverse or inside page of each leaf. This -has been hollowed out to a slight depth, leaving a narrow raised rim -or border; and wax was spread over the depressed portion, for writing -upon with a pointel or stylus; the other end of which was flattened to -erase with. We thus find brought down through fifteen hundred years the -practice of the days of Ovid: - - “Et meditata manu componit verba trementi; - Dextra tenet ferrum, vacuam tenet altera ceram. - Incipit, et dubitat: scribit, damnatque tabellas: - Et notat, et delet, etc.” - -The subjects sculptured on the outside of diptychs of this kind -generally also give another and a sufficient distinction, being -perhaps some domestic scene or a story from a romance, as upon combs -or mirror cases. But this is not always so: for writing-tablets -occasionally are found with subjects taken from the Holy Scriptures. - -A few examples of these writing-tablets have been preserved which have -several leaves of ivory inside; although in most instances the plain -leaves have been lost and the covers alone remain. A very fine and -complete set, of the fourteenth century, with four inner leaves is -engraved by Montfaucon (in his great work L’Antiquité expliquée) from -his own collection, which had scenes carved on it from the romance of -Alexander. Montfaucon describes them carefully: “Notre cabinet en a de -cette dernière matière (d’ivoire), dont les deux couvertures out des -bas-reliefs d’un goût barbare. Les bords des tabletes sont relevez de -tous les côtez: ces bords relevez laissent un petit creux pour y placer -une cire préparée, laquelle élevant un peu le page rendoit une face -unie et de niveau avec les bords; on appelloit ces tabletes _tabellæ -ceratæ_. On gravoit sur cette cire préparée ce qu’on vouloit écrire, et -l’on effaçoit ce qu’on avoit ecrit, ou en y passant fortement dessus -l’autre côté du style, quand la matière étoit plus gluante. C’est ce -que les anciens appelloient _stylum vertere_, etc.” Judging from the -engraving in Montfaucon’s own book, it would seem that these tablets -were the work of a good artist and of the best time of that particular -style; and that it was hard to speak of them as “d’un goût barbare.” - -Ivory writing-tablets were used in the middle ages in England by people -of all ranks, and are mentioned in inventories and wills. Chaucer tells -us of the preaching friar’s companion: - - “His felaw had a staff tipped with horn, - A pair of tables all of ivory, - And a pointel ypolished fetishly, - And wrote alway the names, as he stood - Of alle folk that gaue hem any good— - —Or geve us of your braun, if ye have any, - A dagon of your blanket, leve dame, - Our suster dere, lo here I write your name.” - -A characteristic illustration occurs in Shakespeare, in the second part -of King Henry the fourth. The archbishop of York says: - - “ ... the king is weary - Of dainty and such picking grievances; - And therefore will he wipe his tables clean, - And keep no tell-tale to his memory.” - -It is to be observed that in these quotations both Chaucer and -Shakespeare call these diptychs by the name “tables,” a word which had -several meanings formerly in England. We have seen already that the -game of draughts was so called, and it was also frequently applied in -the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to carvings in alabaster or -to paintings on boards in churches. In 1458 money was bequeathed to -the church of Dunwich in Suffolk, “ad novam tabulam de alabastro de -historia sanctæ Margaretæ,” and a “table of St. Thomas of Ynde” was -left in 1510 by Robert Clerk to Batfield church, in Norfolk. - -An interesting paper in the Archæologia, read before the Society of -antiquaries in 1843 by Mr. Albert Way, on the famous golden _Tabula_ of -Basle may also be referred to. The writer concludes by expressing his -wish that such a monument, then in private hands, “could be deposited -in a national collection,” and he complains that “England alone, of -all the countries of western Europe, possesses no national collection -which exhibits a series of specimens illustrative of the character and -progress of the arts of the middle ages, and of the taste and usages of -our ancestors.” Happily, this is a complaint which cannot be made now. - -Chaplets of ivory beads for private devotion were very common in the -middle ages, and are often mentioned in letters and other documents. -Some good examples still exist in various collections. The woodcut on -the next page represents a set, and a girdle with ivory clasps, in the -collection of M. Achille Jubinal. - -[Illustration: CARVED IVORY CHAPLET OF BEADS AND GIRDLE OF AN ABBESS: -SIXTEENTH CENTURY.] - -Another class of small works in ivory was to be found in England from -an early period, namely seals. Some have been preserved. One is in the -Ashmolean at Oxford; oval, of the archdeaconry of Merioneth, in the -thirteenth century; another, walrus ivory, of the abbey of St. Alban is -in the British museum. - -Robert Fabyan the chronicler, in his will dated 1511 leaves to one of -his sons “that other signet of gold, with my puncheon of ivory and -silver.” - -[Illustration] - -There are several very fine horns in the South Kensington collection, -more especially no. 7954, engraved in the accompanying woodcut, and -which is unequalled by any other of its kind known. The style and -workmanship are rare; one, probably by the same hand, was lately in -the possession of a noble English family. The horns which we find -frequently mentioned in mediæval wills and inventories are hunting -horns. For example, Sir John de Foxle in 1378 leaves to the king his -great bugle horn, ornamented with gold. “The ivory horn of St. Oswald -the king” was preserved at Durham in the year 1383. Near the end of the -thirteenth century there were two ivory horns kept in the treasury of -St. Paul’s: “Item, cornu eburneum gravatum bestiis et avibus, magnum. -Item, aliud cornu eburneum planum et parvum.” - -A common term anciently in England for these horns was “olifant,” -from the name then usually given to the elephant; for instance, the -amusing story in the old life of St. Clement in Caxton’s Golden Legend: -“When Barnabe came to Rome prechynge y^e fayth of Jesu Christ, the -philosophers mocked hym and despysed hys predicacyon and in scorne put -to hym this questyon sayenge, What is y^e cause y^e culex whyche is a -lytell beest hath vj. feet and two wynges and an olyphaunte whyche ys -a grete beest hath but foure feete and no wynges,” etc. St. Barnabas -replied that it was a foolish question and needed no answer—the -more especially as they knew not the Creator and must necessarily, -therefore, be ignorant about his creatures. - -There is only one horn at South Kensington which can be regarded as -having been a tenure horn. It is possible that no. 7953 (see the -etching) may have been a horn of that kind. Several of these tenure -horns are still preserved in England and were shown in the loan -exhibition of 1862. Among them the most famous are the horn of Ulphus, -in the treasury at York; the horns given by Henry the first to the -cathedral at Carlisle; and the Pusey horn. The ivory hunting horn -(so-called) of Charlemagne is kept at Aix la Chapelle; and another said -to have been Roland’s in the cathedral at Toulouse. - -It will be observed by those who examine the catalogue of the ivories -in the South Kensington museum that more are attributed to the -fourteenth century than to any other, and this would be correct with -regard also to the collection in the British museum, or at Liverpool, -or abroad. Sculpture in ivory was very general and greatly patronised -at that time; and, with the exception of a very few examples of Roman -art under the emperors, there are no carvings existing which equal -those made from about the year 1280 to 1350, either in truth and -gracefulness of design or in excellence of workmanship. - -We find also in carvings of that period the best examples of the very -beautiful open or pierced work which has been already spoken of: and -an illustration has before been given (p. 64) from a series of small -panels in the Meyrick collection. No apology will be required for -adding here two more woodcuts from ivories of the same character. Both -are engraved of the exact size of the originals. - -One of these contains two compartments from the splendid plaque, no. -366, in the South Kensington collection. - -[Illustration: HORN OR OLIPHANT. IVORY. BYZANTINE. 11^{TH} CENT. - -25 IN. DIAM. 5½ IN. (SOLTIKOFF COLL.) S. K. M. (N^o 79^{53.-’62.}) - -A. A. BRADBURY. FECIT.] - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -The other is a complete row from a book cover in the British museum: -divided into thirty compartments, each an inch by three quarters of -an inch. It is impossible in a woodcut to do more than attempt to -give some idea of the marvellous delicacy and excellence of the panel -itself, which is beyond all comparison the very finest ivory existing -of its peculiar school. Small, even minute, as the divisions are, they -plainly tell the story which each is intended to convey; although in -some of them there are as many as seven or eight figures, finished with -admirable distinctness and perfection. The subjects in this row are the -offering of St. Joachim; his departure into the desert; the message of -the angel to St. Joachim; the message to St. Anne; the meeting of St. -Joachim and St. Anne at the gate; and the birth of the Blessed Virgin. -The etching represents some beautiful panels in open work, at South -Kensington. - -Nothing is more difficult than the determination of the particular -country in which many of the ivories of mediæval times were carved. All -acknowledge this, and they the most readily who have had the widest -experience and the best opportunities of examination. It has long -been a custom to set down almost every ivory of the thirteenth and -fourteenth centuries as Flemish or French, leaving but few except the -Italian marriage caskets to the credit of other countries. But (not -to speak of Germany) there can be no question that carvings in ivory -were then much sought after and bought in England, and that there -must have been numerous English artists. Two unquestionable examples -of the English school of the fourteenth century are in the British -museum: a triptych which was carved for Grandison, bishop of Exeter; -and one leaf of a diptych which was also made for the same great -prelate, and still retains slight traces of the painting of his coat -of arms. A woodcut is given (p. 117) of the single leaf. Generally, we -may agree with Sir Digby Wyatt, who says in the very interesting and -able lecture to which reference has been already made (p. 5), that “a -peculiar _nez retroussé_, a dimpled, pouting, and yet smiling mouth, a -general _gentillesse_ of treatment, and a brilliant yet rapid mode of -technical execution, stamp the French work with an almost unmistakable -character. To the English style may be assigned a position midway -between the French and the second Italian manner. It does not exhibit -the gaiety and tenderness of the former, nor has it quite the grandeur -of the latter, but it is marked by a sober earnestness of expression -in serious action which neither of those styles possesses.” We may -further observe that the English school had less of the monotony and -mannerism which are the derogatory features of continental examples of -the same period; in fact, English gothic ivories have both a purity and -a variety of treatment on a par with the admirable characteristics of -contemporary architecture in this country. - -[Illustration: PLAQUES OR PANELS OF A CASKET, ONE A FRAGMENT, IVORY, -FRENCH, 14^{th} CENT. - -S.K.M (N’284’34^2’67) F. A. SLOCOMBE FECIT.] - -[Illustration] - -The names of mediæval artists in ivory are almost entirely unknown. Sir -Digby Wyatt and Labarte say that they have been able to meet with the -name of one only, that of Jean Lebraellier, who was carver to Charles -V. of France, and is mentioned in the inventory of that monarch as -having executed “deux grans tableaux d’yvoire des troys Maries.” We -may venture to add the name of one other, the carver of a pax in the -British museum, Jehan Nicolle; whose work, unlike the “tables” of -Lebraellier, fortunately still exists. His name is incised upon the pax -in capital letters; there is also a shield, bearing a hammer behind two -crossed swords. - -Very few Spanish ivories of the middle ages can be referred to, and -those which we possess have a very distinct Moorish or Arabic character -about them. They are generally caskets or boxes (see the etching), and -some are still to be found in the treasuries of churches in Spain. -Strangely enough, it is said that there are more remaining in the north -and north-west of Spain, where the Moors did not obtain any permanent -footing, than in the south; in Andalusia or Granada. Probably this -is owing not only to the circumstance that when taken to other parts -of the country they were regarded as valuable curiosities, but also -more especially because of the natural prejudice in the south against -keeping works of Moorish art and manufacture as reliquaries or pyxes, -or for any religious use. In the north of Spain there seems to have -been no obstacle in the way of enclosing relics of a Christian saint -in coffers upon which Arabic inscriptions had been carved in honour of -Allah and his prophet. But we must remember that these inscriptions -were in an unknown language. - -Some of the ancient Spanish ivories are as old as the days of the -Cordovan caliphs in the ninth and tenth centuries; a fact which we -are now able to decide from the Arabic inscriptions. But where such -evidence is wanting there is scarcely any guide to direct us in fixing -the date: the ivories may have been carved at almost any time down to -the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella. Moorish art, like -the Egyptian or Chinese, changed but little from age to age; the old -process and the old patterns were handed down, unaltered, from father -to son; and ivory carvings may have been made in various parts of Spain -by Moorish workmen as late even as the end of the sixteenth century. - -It can scarcely be out of place, before we end, to add one word -of warning with regard to forgeries of ivory carvings. These are -sometimes so well done that even experienced persons might be deceived. -Generally, the period chosen for imitations is what is commonly called -the Carlovingian, or a little earlier; for not only are genuine pieces -rare and valuable, but being often coarse and rude in style are more -easily to be executed. Forgeries of consular diptychs have been -frequently made; and with regard to one of these it is well to place on -record the following facts which have been kindly supplied by Mr. A. W. -Franks, of the British museum. - -[Illustration: CARVED IVORY BOX, WITH ARABIC INSCRIPTION. -HISPANO-MORESCO. H 3 DIAM: 4 IN: ABOUT 961. - -S.K.M.(N^o 217:65.) - -M. SULLIVAN FECIT.] - -“The leaf of the diptych of the consul Anastasius, now in the South -Kensington museum, was exhibited to the Society of antiquaries, March -10, 1864, and described by me in the proceedings of the society (2nd -series, _vol._ 2, _p._ 364) as the _diptychon Leodiense_. The other -leaf was known to have been for some years in the museum at Berlin. -It was therefore with considerable surprise that in the course of the -summer of 1864, I found exhibited in the Musée de la Porte de Hal -at Brussels a large ivory diptych purporting to be the _diptychon -Leodiense_. Having been asked by a friend at Brussels my opinion on the -recent acquisition of the Belgian government, I ventured to express -some doubts in the presence of a gentleman who proved to be at the head -of the commission, at whose recommendation the purchase had been made. - -“I advised that the ivories should be taken out of the wooden frames -into which they were fixed, and that the inscriptions known to have -been on the genuine diptych should be sought for. On this being done, -the falsity of the diptych became evident, the ivory at the back being -fresh and not hollowed out for the reception of wax. - -“An action was thereupon brought against the vendor, a dealer at Liége, -and after some delay the amount paid by the Belgian government (£800) -was recovered. The diptych had been copied from the engraving in -Wilthem’s work, and not from the original leaves, and this accounted -for various errors in the details.” - -It seems strange that the Belgian authorities should have bought at so -great a sum ivories fixed in wooden frames, without some suspicion or -at least without examination. The Liége dealer, however, is not the -only one who has attempted impositions of this kind. About ten years -ago there were four or five large ivories, of splendid appearance, -in the hands of some London dealers. One was a triptych; another a -diptych; a third a comb; and a fourth was a huge shrine with folding -shutters and a tall richly decorated canopy, like the spire of a -cathedral, covering a statuette of the Virgin and Child. (The statuette -was probably genuine.) These ivories purported to be of the fourteenth -century but were all new, and out of one shop or manufactory. The -forgery in some respects was successful; but in every piece there was a -distinct character and manner of execution—the same exactly in all of -them—which proved their falseness. Several were traced back to a dealer -at Amiens; and it is not now known what has become of any of them. The -great shrine having been sold to an English collector for £500 was -returned; and not very long ago was still to be seen in a shop window -in the Strand and said to be, as if to make confusion worse confounded, -an ivory carving of the _tenth_ century. This, whilst it would show -perhaps ignorance on the part of the possessor, would be an argument -that he might be innocent of knowledge of the forgery. - -The public institutions in England in which important ivories may be -found are the British museum, the Ashmolean and Bodleian at Oxford, and -the museum given to the town of Liverpool with noble liberality by Mr. -Joseph Mayer. It is worthy of remark that scarcely any addition has -been made to the ivories in the Ashmolean since the time when they were -originally collected by Elias Ashmole nearly two hundred years ago; and -they are of especial interest and value, though not many in number, -because they can reasonably claim with scarcely an exception to be of -English workmanship. A very large proportion of the other three great -collections had also been gathered together before they became the -property of the nation. The Liverpool ivories were chiefly obtained -from the representatives of the late Gabriel Fejérváry; and, in like -manner, the South Kensington museum—begun about the year 1853 and -gradually enriched by the acquisition of some rare Spanish ivories and -some of the best pieces from the Soltikoff collection, selected with -excellent judgment by Mr. J. C. Robinson—has received from time to time -during the last four or five years many large and important additions -from the collection made by John Webb, Esq. More than two-thirds of the -ivories in the British museum, and certainly a large number of the most -valuable, had also been previously collected by a private person. - -THE END. - - - - -INDEX. - - - PAGE - Abbreviations of legends, 30 - Æsculapius and Hygieia, 32 - All large plaques not originally diptychs, 42 - Angel, on leaf of diptych, in British museum, 35 - Arm of chair, 82 - Artists in ivory, in middle ages, 117 - Ashmole collection, 120 - Assyrian ivories, 15 - - Bardolph, hanged for stealing a pax, 92 - Becker’s Lycoris, 34 - Bellerophon, 21 - Book cover of ninth century, 48 - - Casket of Arabic work, 57 - ” from Memphis, 14 - ” Runic, in British museum, 52 - ” from Veroli, 55 - ” in inventories, 60 - Caxton, “playe of the chesse”, 76 - Chair of St. Peter at Rome, 56 - ” at Ravenna, 41 - Chalice, &c., of ninth century, 48 - Charlemagne, his patronage of Greek artists, 45 - Chessmen, in chronicles and poems, 78 - ” earliest date, 78 - ” date of invention, 76 - ” in inventories, 79 - ” found in Lewis, 80 - Chryselephantine statues, 18 - ” of the duc de Luynes, 19 - ” conjectural restoration, 19 - Civilisation of ancient nations, 8 - Coffer, sent by Eginhard, 47 - ” in inventories, 57 - Colour in sculpture, 104 - Combs, domestic, 67 - ” in inventories, 71 - ” pontifical, 69 - Consul, decline of the office, 31 - ” the last, 31 - Consular diptychs, 23, &c. - Costume in early Greek ivories, 44 - Crucifixes, 107 - ” in Spanish Place, 108 - Cup, or vase, in British museum, 46 - Cushions, the meaning in consular diptychs, 25 - - David and Bathsheba on combs, &c., 67 - Decline of art in the first four centuries, 21 - ” after Constantine, 26 - ” after sixth century, 44 - Destruction of religious objects in the sixteenth century, 108 - Diptych of Boethius, 29 - ” at Brescia, 32 - ” of Compiegne, 30 - ” ecclesiastical, 37 - ” ecclesiastical—their purpose, 40 - ” with Greek inscriptions, 38 - ” mutilated and palimpsest, 39 - ” of Justinian, 38 - ” found in Transylvania, 23 - Domestic scenes, 67 - ” works in ivory, 52 - Draughtsmen, 81 - Dress and decorations of consuls on diptychs, 25 - - Ecclesiastical works in ivory, 47 - Egyptian ivories, 14 - English ivories, 116, 120 - Etruscan ivories, 19 - - “Familia” of chessmen, 79 - Feast of Fools, 33 - Fejérváry collection, 121 - Flabellum in inventories, 95 - ” of Theodolinda, 95 - ” its use, 94 - Forgeries in ivory, 118 - Fossil ivory, 2 - - Grecian ivories, 16 - - Handle of fan, 86 - ” of holy water sprinkler, 96 - ” of whip, 96 - Horns, for hunting, 113 - ” tenure, 114 - - Iconoclast fanatics, 44 - Identification of consular diptychs, 26 - Importance of works in ivory, 22 - Improvement in art after seventh century, 45 - Ivory, African and Asiatic, 3 - ” its characteristics, 1 - ” mode of softening, 4 - ” much employed in 14th century, 114 - ” variations of colour, 5 - - Jehan Nicolle, 117 - Jewish ivories, 13 - Jupiter, at Olympia, 19 - - Ladies riding, 75 - Legends on consular diptych, coloured red, 26 - List of consular diptychs, 28 - Lycoris, described, 34 - - Mammoth ivory, 2 - Manumission of slaves, 25 - Marriage caskets, 64 - Meyer collection, 120 - “Meyne,” its meaning, 79 - Minerva, of the Parthenon, 18 - Mirrors, 71 - ” in illuminations, 73 - Moorish ivories, 118 - Morris dancers, 68 - - Nineveh ivories restored, 6 - - Oliphant, explained, 113 - Open-work in ivory, 63 - ” other examples, 115 - - Pastoral staff, with inscription, 88 - ” not used by the Pope, 89 - ” of great rarity, 90 - ” of St. Bernard, ordered in Sarum pontifical, 89 - ” of wood, 87 - - Pausanias, account of Greek statues, 17, 18 - ” believed ivory to be horn, 19 - Pax inscriptions, 93 - ” inventories, 93 - ” late use in England, 94 - ” ordered in Sarum missal, 91 - ” its use, 91 - ” why disused, 93 - ” of wood, 93 - Pietà, of Michael Angelo, 103 - ” in British museum, 102 - Plaques of ivory, large size, 3 - ” not originally diptychs, 42 - Prehistoric ivories, 6 - Pugillares, 109 - Pyx, in inventories, 57 - ” of St. Mennas, 60 - ” various uses, 60 - - Ravenna chair, 41 - Retable of Poissy, 65 - Roman ivories, 21 - ” ivory sculptors exempt from certain obligations, 21 - Romance of the Rose, 63 - ” subjects, 62 - - Seals in British Museum, 111 - ” illustrating statuettes, 98 - Serpent, as an emblem, 85 - Shrine, explained, 51 - ” in illuminations, 99 - Siege of the Castle of Love, 74 - Spanish ivories, 118 - Statuette, coloured, 105 - Statuette in inventories, 100 - ” the largest known, 101 - ” opening on hinges, 100 - ” under canopies, 98 - ” very fine examples, 97 - Style of English art, 116 - “Symmachorvm,” the omitted word, 35 - - Tabernacles, at Lincoln, 99 - Tables explained, 111 - Tablets of Moutier, 34 - ” of Sens, 32 - ” for writing on, 109 - “Tan-tabl,” its meaning, 81 - Tau, explained, 84 - ” rarity, 85 - Toreutic, its meaning, 17 - Triptychs explained, 51 - ” in illuminations, 99 - ” mentioned by Anastasius, 51 - Tusks, size and weight, 4 - - Veroli casket, probable date, 55 - Volute, with double subject, 87 - - Webb collection, 121 - Whip-handles, 96 - -CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, - -CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval, by William Maskell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL *** - -***** This file should be named 61471-0.txt or 61471-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/4/7/61471/ - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Paul Marshall and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval - -Author: William Maskell - -Release Date: February 21, 2020 [EBook #61471] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Paul Marshall and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter covernote"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Book Cover." width="500" height="664" /> -</div> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="f150"><b>SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS.</b></p> - -<p class="center space-above1 space-below1"><b><span class="smcap">Edited by WILLIAM MASKELL.</span></b></p> - -<p class="f150"><b>N<sup>o.</sup> 2.—IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL.</b></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="section"><div class="blockquot"> -<p class="space-above3"><i>These Handbooks are reprints of the -dissertations prefixed to the large catalogues of the chief divisions -of works of art in the Museum at South Kensington; arranged and -so far abridged as to bring each into a portable shape. The Lords -of the Committee of Council on Education having determined on the -publication of them, the editor trusts that they will meet the purpose -intended; namely, to be useful, not alone for the collections at South -Kensington, but for other collectors by enabling the public at a -trifling cost to understand something of the history and character of -the subjects treated of.</i></p> - -<p><i>The authorities referred to in each book are given in the large -catalogues; where will also be found detailed descriptions of the very -numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum.</i></p> - -<p class="author">W. M.</p> -<p><i>August, 1875.</i></p> -</div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> - -<div class="section"> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FRONTIS" id="FRONTIS"></a> - <img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="684" /> - <p class="center">PASTORAL STAFF<br />CARVED IVORY WITH FIGURES,<br />COMPOSING - TOGETHER A REPRESENTATION OF THE NATIVITY.<br />GERMAN 12<sup>TH</sup> - CENT<sup>Y</sup> S. K. M. (N<sup>o</sup>. 218-65.)</p> -</div> - -<p class="author">A. A. BRADBURY. FECIT.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> - -<h1>IVORIES<br /><small>ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL.</small></h1> - -<p class="f90 space-above2">BY</p> -<p class="f150">WILLIAM MASKELL.</p> - -<p class="f90 space-above2 space-below3">WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="242" /> -</div> - -<p class="center space-above3"><i>Published for the Committee of Council on Education</i></p> - -<p class="f90 space-above2">BY</p> - -<p class="center">CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></p> - -<p class="f120"><i>FIFTY COPIES ON LARGE PAPER,<br />WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS.</i></p> -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> - -<div class="section"><h2>LIST OF FULL PAGE PLATES</h2></div> -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Full Page Plates." cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdr"><small>FOLLOWING<br />PAGE  </small></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">PASTORAL STAFF CARVED IVORY WITH FIGURES.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FRONTIS">Frontispiece</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">IVORY CARVING. ONE LEAF OF THE DIPTYCHON MELERETENSE.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP034">34</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">IVORY CARVING. CIRCULAR MIRROR COVER. DATE 1300-1330.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP074">74</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">IVORY CARVING, HEAD OF A TAU OR T SHAPED STAFF, IN WALRUS</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">  TUSK, THE COMPARTMENTS CONTAINING THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP085">85</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">CROSIER IN CARVED IVORY AND GILT METAL.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP086">86</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">TRIPTYCH, SERVING AS A RELIQUARY IN CARVED IVORY ABOUT 1480.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP096">96</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">HORN OR OLIPHANT. IVORY. BYZANTINE. 11<sup><small>TH</small></sup> CENT.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP114">114</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">PLAQUES OR PANELS OF A CASKET, ONE A FRAGMENT, IVORY, FRENCH.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP116">116</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">CARVED IVORY BOX, WITH ARABIC INSCRIPTION. HISPANO-MORESCO.</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#FP118">118</a></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="section"><h2>LIST OF WOODCUTS.</h2></div> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Woodcuts." cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdl"> </td> - <td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Prehistoric carving</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P009A"> 9</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Esquimaux carving</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P009B"> 9</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Prehistoric carving in relief</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P010">10</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws2">”</span><span class="ws4">”</span>  in outline</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P011A">11</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws2">”</span><span class="ws4">”</span>  of the Mammoth</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P011B">11</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Angel; end of fourth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P036">36</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Vase; end of sixth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P046">46</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Book cover; Carlovingian</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P049">49</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Panel of an English casket; eighth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P053">53</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Another panel of the same</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P054">54</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">St. Peter’s chair</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P056">56</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Spanish Moresque panel</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P057">57</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Coffer painted with medallions</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P059">59</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Open-work; two small panels</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P064A">64</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Italian marriage coffer</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P064B">64</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Part of a Predella, in bone</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P066">66</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Cover of a box, with Morris Dancers</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P068">68</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">English comb; eleventh century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P070">70</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Italian comb; sixteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P071">71</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Mirror case; fourteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P074">74</a> - <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Another<span class="ws4">”</span><span class="ws3">”</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P075">75</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Chessman; twelfth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P080">80</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws2">”</span><span class="ws2"> </span>thirteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P081">81</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Arm of a chair; eleventh century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P082">82</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Two groups of chessmen, found in the island of Lewis</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P083">83</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">The volute of a pastoral staff; thirteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P087">87</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl"><span class="ws3">”</span><span class="ws2">”</span><span class="ws2">”</span> -  English; twelfth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P090">90</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">One leaf of a diptych in very high relief; fourteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P100">100</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Group, a Pietà; late fourteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P103">103</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Painter at work on a statuette</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P105">105</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Chaplet and beads; and girdle, with ivory clasps</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P112">112</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Horn; fifteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P113">113</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Two panels in open-work; fourteenth century</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P115A">115</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Panel in minute open-work</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P115B">115</a></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdl">Leaf of diptych, executed for bishop Grandison; fourteenth century  </td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#P117">117</a></td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> -<p class="f200"><b>IVORIES</b><br /><small>ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL</small>.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER I.</h2></div> - -<p>Every description or account of Carvings in Ivory ought to include -similar carvings in bone, of which last many remarkable examples are -to be found in the South Kensington and other museums. The rarity and -value of ivory frequently obliged workmen to use the commoner and less -costly material.</p> - -<p>In the strictest sense, no substance except the tusk of the elephant -presents the characteristic of true ivory, which, “now, according -to the best anatomists and physiologists, is restricted to that -modification of dentine or tooth substance which, in transverse -sections or fractures, shows lines of different colours or striæ -proceeding in the arc of a circle, and forming by their decussations -minute curvilinear lozenge-shaped spaces.” Upon this subject the reader -should consult a valuable paper, read by professor Owen, before the -Society of Arts, in 1856, and printed in their journal.</p> - -<p>But, besides the elephant, other animals furnish what may also be not -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> -improperly called ivory. Such as the walrus, the narwhal, and the -hippopotamus. The employment of walrus ivory has ceased among southern -European nations for a long time; and carvings in the tusks of that -animal are chiefly to be found among remains of the mediæval and -Carlovingian periods. In those ages it was largely used by nations of -Scandinavian origin and in England and Germany. The people of the north -were then unable to obtain and may not even have heard of the existence -of true elephant ivory. In quality and beauty of appearance walrus -ivory scarcely yields to that of the elephant.</p> - -<p>Sir Frederick Madden tells us, in a communication published in the -Archæologia, that “in the reign of Alfred, about <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> -890, Ohtere, the Norwegian, visited England, and gave an account to the -king of his voyage in pursuit of these animals, chiefly on account of -their teeth. The author of the <i>Kongs-Skugg-sio</i>, or Speculum Regale -(composed in the 12th century), takes particular notice of the walrus -and of its teeth. Olaus Magnus, in the 15th century, tells us that -sword-handles were made from them; and, somewhat later, Olaus Wormius -writes, ‘the Icelanders are accustomed, during the long nights of -winter, to cut out various articles from these teeth. This is more -particularly the case in regard to chessmen.’” Olaus Wormius speaks in -another place of rings against the cramp, handles of swords, javelins, -and knives.</p> - -<p>There is still another kind of real ivory—the fossil ivory—which is -now extensively used in many countries, although it may be difficult -to decide whether it was known to the ancients or to mediæval carvers. -In prehistoric ages a true elephant, says professor Owen, “roamed in -countless herds over the temperate and northern parts of Europe, Asia, -and America.” This was the mammoth, the extinct <i>Elephas primigenius</i>. -The tusks of these animals are found in great quantities in the frozen -soil of Siberia, along the banks of the larger rivers. Almost the whole -of the ivory turner’s work in Russia is from Siberian fossil ivory, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> -the story of the entire mammoth discovered about half a century ago -embedded in ice is well known to every one. Although commonly called -<i>fossil</i>, this ivory has not undergone the change usually understood in -connection with the term fossil, for their substance is as well adapted -for use as the ivory procured from living species.</p> - -<p>With regard to the tusks of elephants, African and Asiatic ivory must -be distinguished. The first, “when recently cut, is of a mellow, warm, -transparent tint, with scarcely any appearance of grain, in which -state it is called <i>transparent</i> or <i>green</i> ivory; but, as the oil -dries up by exposure to the air, it becomes lighter in colour. Asiatic -ivory, when newly cut, appears more like the African, which has been -long exposed to the air, and tends to become yellow by exposure. The -African variety has usually a closer texture, works harder, and takes a -better polish than the Asiatic.” It would be mere guessing to attempt -to decide the original nature of ancient or mediæval ivories. Time has -equally hardened and changed the colour of both kinds, whether African -or Asiatic.</p> - -<p>We cannot easily suggest any way in which the very large slabs or -plaques of ivory used by the early and mediæval artists were obtained. -The leaves of a diptych of the seventh century, in the public library -at Paris, are fifteen inches in length by nearly six inches wide. In -the British museum is a single piece which measures in length sixteen -inches and a quarter by more than five inches and a half in width, -and in depth more than half an inch. By some it is thought that the -ancients knew a method, which has been lost, of bending, softening, -and flattening solid pieces of ivory; others suppose that they were -then able to procure larger tusks than can be got from the degenerate -animal of our own day. Mr. McCulloch, in his dictionary of commerce, -tells us that 60 lbs. is the average weight of an elephant’s tusk; but -Holtzapffel, a practical authority, declares this to be far too high, -and that 15 or 16 lbs. would be nearer the average. Be this as it may, -pieces of the size above mentioned (and larger specimens probably exist) -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> -could not be cut from the biggest of the tusks preserved in the South -Kensington museum; although it weighs 90 lbs., is eight feet eleven -inches long, and sixteen inches and a half in circumference at the -centre. This tusk is the largest of five which were presented to the -Queen by the king of Shoa about the year 1856, and given by Her Majesty -to the museum. The other four weigh, respectively, 76 lbs., 86 lbs., 72 -lbs., and 52 lbs. They are all, probably, male tusks. An enormous pair -of tusks, weighing together 325 lbs., was shown in the Great Exhibition -of 1851; but these, heavy as they were, measured only eight feet six -inches in length, and did not exceed twenty-two inches in circumference -at the base.</p> - -<p>An ingenious mode of explaining how the great chryselephantine statues -of Phidias and other Greek sculptors were made, is proposed and -fully explained in detail by Quatremère De Quincy in his work on the -art of antique sculpture. He gives several plates in illustration, -more particularly Plate XXIX.; but none of them meet the difficulty -of the large flat plaques. The natural form of a tusk would adapt -itself easily, so far as regards the application of pieces of very -considerable size, to the round parts of the human figure.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hendrie, in his notes to the third book of the “Schedula diversarum -artium” of Theophilus, says that the ancients had a method of softening -and bending ivory by immersion in different solutions of salts in -acid. “Eraclius has a chapter on this. Take sulphate of potass, fossil -salt, and vitriol; these are ground with very sharp vinegar in a brass -mortar. Into this mixture the ivory is placed for three days and -nights. This being done, you will hollow out a piece of wood as you -please. The ivory being thus placed in the hollow you direct it, and -will bend it to your will.” The same writer gives another recipe from -the Sloane manuscript (of 15th century), no. 416. This directs that the -ingredients above mentioned “are to be distilled in equal parts, which -would yield muriatic acid, with the presence of water. Infused in this -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> -water half a day, ivory can be made so soft that it can be cut like -wax. And when you wish it hardened, place it in white vinegar and it -becomes hard.”</p> - -<p>Sir Digby Wyatt, in a lecture read before the Arundel society, quotes -these methods from Mr. Hendrie and adds another from an English -manuscript of the 12th century: “Place the ivory in the following -mixture. Take two parts of quick lime, one part of pounded tile, one -part of oil, and one part of torn tow. Mix up all these with a lye made -of elm bark.” These various recipes have been tried in modern days, and -the experiments, hitherto, have completely failed.</p> - -<p>Considerable variety of colour will be observed in the various pieces -of any large collection, and much difference in the condition of -them. Some, far from being the most ancient, are greatly discoloured -and brittle in appearance; others retain their colour almost in its -original purity and their perfect firmness of texture, seemingly -unaffected by the long lapse of time. The innumerable possible -accidents to which carved ivories may have been exposed from age to -age will account for this great difference, and a happy forgetfulness, -perhaps owing to a contemptuous neglect at first of their value and -importance, may have been the cause of the comparatively excellent -state and condition of many. Laid aside in treasuries of churches and -monasteries, or put away in the chests and cupboards of great houses, -the memory even of their existence may have passed away for century -after century.</p> - -<p>It does not appear that any good method is known by which a discoloured -ivory can be bleached. All rough usage of course merely injures the -piece itself, and removes the external surface. Exposure to the light -keeps the original whiteness longer, and in a few instances may to some -extent restore it. It need hardly be observed that any other attempt to -alter the existing condition, whatever it may be, as regards the colour -of an antique or mediæval ivory is to be condemned.</p> - -<p>It is quite a different matter to endeavour to preserve works in ivory -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> -which have suffered partial decomposition, and which can be kept from -utter destruction only by some kind of artificial treatment. Almost -all the fragments sent to England by Mr. Layard from Nineveh were in -this state of extreme fragility and decay. Professor Owen suggested -that they should be boiled in a solution of gelatine. The experiment -was tried and found to be sufficiently effectual; and it is to be hoped -that the present success will prove to be lasting. “Since the fragments -have been in England,” says Mr. Layard, “they have been admirably -restored and cleaned. The glutinous matter, by which the particles -forming the ivory are kept together, had, from the decay of centuries, -been completely exhausted. By an ingenious process it has been -restored, and the ornaments, which on their discovery fell to pieces -almost upon mere exposure to the air, have regained the appearance and -consistency of recent ivory, and may be handled without risk of injury.”</p> - -<p>We may think it to be sufficiently strange in tracing the early -history of the art of carving or engraving in ivory, that we should -be able easily to carry it, upon the evidence of extant examples, to -an antiquity long before the Christian era: through the Roman, Greek, -Assyrian, and Jewish people, up to an age anterior to the origin of -those nations by centuries, the number of which it may be difficult -accurately to count. These very ancient examples are of the earliest -Egyptian dynasties: yet, between them and the date of the earliest now -known specimens of works of art incised or carved in ivory there is a -lapse of time so great that it may probably be numbered by thousands of -years.</p> - -<p>We must go back to prehistoric man for the proof of this; to a -period earlier than the age of iron or of bronze; to the first—the -drift—period of the stone age. We must go back, as Sir John Lubbock -writes, “to a time so remote that the reindeer was abundant in the -south of France, and probably even the mammoth had not entirely -disappeared.” Lartet and Christy also (in their valuable publication, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> -the Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ) make a like remark: “It rests with the -geologist, by indicating the changes which have occurred in the very -land itself, to shadow out the period in the dim distance of that far -antiquity when these implements, the undoubted work of human hands, -were used and left there by primæval man.”</p> - -<p>Within the last few years, in caves at Le Moustier and at La Madelaine -in the Dordogne, numerous fragments have been found of tusks of the -mammoth and of reindeer’s bone and horn, on some of which are incised -drawings of various animals, and upon others similar representations -carved in low relief. These objects have been engraved in several -works by geologists and writers upon the important questions relating -to prehistoric people; and copies of them may be found in Sir John -Lubbock’s book, “The origin of Civilization,” already quoted from. -Among them are drawings and carvings of fish, of a snake, of an ibex, -of a man carrying a spear, of a mammoth, of horses’ heads, and of a -group of reindeer.</p> - -<p>Sir John Lubbock describes these works as showing “really considerable -skill;” as “being very fair drawings;” as the productions of men to -whom we must give “full credit for their love of art, such as it was.” -But to speak of them in words so cold is less than justice. No one can -examine the few fragments which as yet have been discovered without -acknowledging their merit, and attributing them to what may very truly -be called the hand of an artist. There can be no mistake for a moment -as to many of the beasts which are represented.</p> - -<p>Again: the sculptor has given us, in a spirited and natural manner, -more than one characteristic quality of his subject: and we can -recognise the heaviness and sluggishness of the mammoth as easily as -the grace and activity of the reindeer. The results of the workman’s -labour are not like the elephants and camels and lions of a child’s -Noah’s ark—merely bodies with heads and four legs—but they are -executed with the right feeling and in an artistic spirit: the animals -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> -are carefully drawn, and often with much vigour. There is nothing -conventional about them; they are far beyond and utterly different in -style from the ugly attempts of really civilised people, such as the -Peruvians or Mexicans, to say nothing of the works of the savages of -Africa or New Zealand. They are true to nature.</p> - -<p>The aboriginal nations of North and South America must certainly be -spoken of as civilised, though it is curious to remember how great -authorities seem to differ as to what civilisation means. Macaulay, in -his Life of lord Clive, writing with a recklessness of statement not -unusual with him when aiming at some picturesque contrast, describes -the ancient Mexicans as “savages who had no letters, who were ignorant -of the use of metals, who had not broken in a single animal to labour, -and who wielded no better weapons than those which could be made out -of sticks, flints, and fishbones, and who regarded a horse-soldier -as a monster.” But Bernal Diaz, whose report as an eye-witness has -stood the test of years of later investigation and dispute, describes -the appearance of the great cities from without as like the enchanted -castles of romance, and full of great towers and temples. And within, -“every kind of eatable, every form of dress, medicines, perfumes, -unguents, furniture, lead, copper, gold, and silver ornaments wrought -in the form of fruit, adorned the porticoes and allured the passer-by. -Paper, that great material of civilisation, was to be obtained in this -wonderful emporium; also every kind of earthenware, cotton of all -colours in skeins, &c. There were officers who went continually about -the market-place, watching what was sold, and the measures which were used.”</p> - -<p>If we are to take the judgment of Lord Macaulay as our guide in -determining what may be true civilisation, we must set down the -Greeks in the reign of Alexander, or the Italians in the days of Leo -the tenth, as “savages,” because they were ignorant of the electric -telegraph; or ourselves now, because we cannot guide balloons through -the air.</p> - -<p>The sculptures and works of art in the ruined cities of Yucatan are also -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> -to be thought of. Many engravings of them are given in Stephens’s -central America.</p> - -<p>Nor is it enough to say that the prehistoric carvings are merely true -to nature. Their merit is clearly seen when compared with the plates of -Indian drawings and picture writings in Schoolcraft’s history of the -Indian tribes of the United States: or again, of a different character -altogether, the illuminations in Indian and Persian manuscripts. -In some respects these last are of the highest quality as regards -execution, but the animals are generally drawn in a manner purely -conventional, with scant feeling of truth or beauty, and little power -of expressing it.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P009A" id="P009A"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_009_a.jpg" alt="Prehistoric carving." width="600" height="279" /> -</div> - -<p>In short, the prehistoric carvings are from the hands of men who were -neither beginners nor blunderers in their art. The practised skill of -a modern wood engraver would scarcely exceed in firmness and decision, -nor in evident rapidity of execution, the outline of the animals in the -example which is here engraved.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P009B" id="P009B"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_009_b.jpg" alt="Prehistoric carving." width="600" height="94" /> -</div> - -<p>Other illustrations are given in order that the reader may compare -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> -them, and more especially those also just referred to above, with a -woodcut (on preceding page) of drawings incised upon bone by Esquimaux -of our own days. This has been chosen because there seems to be a -general disposition, in the way of theory, to compare the dwellers in -the caves of Dordogne and the men of the stone age with the Esquimaux, -and to limit, as it were, the unknown amount of civilisation in the one -by what we have learnt from our own experience of the latter. Yet, so -far as the drawings and the sculptures are concerned, there is scarcely -room for comparison. The work of the stone age is that of a people with -whom, if they were in all other respects savages, we have no modern -parallel. The work of the Esquimaux is that of men who imitate with the -hand of a child, and the success or power of whose imitation ranges -exactly with their advance and culture (if culture it may be called) in -other arts.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P010" id="P010"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_010.jpg" alt="Prehistoric carving." width="600" height="398" /> -</div> - -<p>The first of these illustrations is perhaps the best, as it is -certainly the most delicate and graceful of all the fragments yet -discovered. It represents the profile of the head and shoulder of an -ibex, carved in low relief upon a piece of the palm of a reindeer’s -antler. So exact and well characterised is the sculpture, that -naturalists have no hesitation in deciding the animal to be an ibex of -the Alps, and not of the Pyrenees.</p> - -<p>The next is a group of reindeer drawn upon a piece of slate. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> - -<p>And lower down the page, incised upon a piece of mammoth ivory, are -outlines of the mammoth itself. The original, rather more than nine -inches in length, is at Paris in the museum of the Jardin des plantes.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P011A" id="P011A"> - </a><img src="images/i_p_011_a.jpg" alt="Prehistoric carving." width="600" height="359" /> -</div> -<hr class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P011B" id="P011B"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_011_b.jpg" alt="Prehistoric carving." width="600" height="281" /> -</div> - -<p>There is no discovery with respect to primæval man—his powers and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> -capabilities, his possible enjoyments and appreciation of the -beautiful, his certain infinite elevation as a reasonable being above -the beasts of the field, in the most distant age and period to which -his existence has been traced,—so full of interest, so full as yet of -unfathomed mystery, as these wonderful works in ivory and bone. It can -scarcely be supposed that, by a happy accident, we have lighted on the -only specimens which were ever executed of such great merit; or that -there were some two or three men only who for a brief time in the stone -age, by a sort of miracle, were able to produce work so excellent. -Further researches and a few more fortunate “finds” may enable us to -learn much more than we now know of other habits, and the state of -(what we call) the barbarism of those ancient races in other respects. -Nor must we forget that for numberless generations after these men had -passed away their descendants lost all the old power and skill. “Dark -ages” came, similar (although incomparably longer in duration) to those -which followed Greek or Roman civilisation and science from the sixth -to the ninth and tenth centuries after Christ. Again quoting Sir John -Lubbock, we know that “no representation, however rude, of any animal -has yet been found in any of the Danish shell mounds. Even on objects -of the bronze age they are so rare that it is doubtful whether a single -well-authenticated instance could be produced.” “Even curved lines” -upon the rude and coarse pieces of pottery of later ages “are rare.” -Once more: “Very few indeed of the British sepulchral urns, belonging -to ante-Roman times, have upon them any curved lines. Representations -of animals are also almost entirely wanting.”</p> - -<p>Further discussion and speculation upon this subject would here be out -of place. We must leave it, although with great regret. We must pass at -one bound to a later period of time which, however long ago it may seem -to us looking back upon it, is nevertheless, in comparison with the -supposed date of the men who left their ivory and bone carvings in the -caves of Aquitaine, positively modern.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER II.</h2></div> - -<p>Although the narrative of the sacred Scriptures does not, with the -exception of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, reach back so far as -the known history of the kingdom of Egypt, it may be best to mention, -first, some places in the Old Testament in which reference is made to -works in ivory.</p> - -<p>King Solomon, we are told, “made a great throne of ivory, and -overlaid it with the best gold.” “The ivory house which Ahab made,” is -particularly mentioned among his memorable acts. The Psalmist speaks -of garments brought “out of ivory palaces,” or from what may rather be -translated wardrobes. The original text is <big><b><span lang='iw' xml:lang='iw' dir='rtl'>ﬤﬢﬣיﬤﬥישׁן</span></b></big>. -In the earlier Hebrew the word <big><b><span lang='iw' xml:lang='iw' dir='rtl'>ﬣיﬤﬥ</span></b></big> meant a small -house or palace; in the later,—and the 45th Psalm is not of early date, -and was moreover written in a foreign country,—it meant more commonly -a wardrobe, or what we now call a vestry or sacristy. The prophets -Ezekiel and Amos tell us of “benches of ivory brought out of the -isles of Chittim,” of “horns of ivory,” and of “beds of ivory.” There -are other evidences in the Bible of the value and high estimation in -which ivory was held by the Jews; and its beauty of appearance, its -brightness, and smoothness are used as poetical illustrations in the -Song of Solomon. From a verse in the fifth chapter of this last book we -also learn that the ivory was sometimes inlaid with precious stones.</p> - -<p>It is quite evident that in those days works in ivory were regarded in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> -Judæa as a possession only to be acquired by very great and wealthy -persons; nor may it be too much, perhaps, to say that they were looked -upon as insignia of royalty. We may entirely agree with De Quincy, in -his book upon the statue of Jupiter at Olympia: “L’ivoire constitua -les ornaments distinctifs de la dignité royale chez les plus anciens -peuples. L’antiquité ne parle que de sceptres et de trônes d’ivoire. -Tels étaient selon Denis d’Halicarnasse les attributs de la royauté -chez les Étrusques. A leur exemple, Tarquin eut le trône et le sceptre -d’ivoire, &c.”</p> - -<p>But, as has been already observed, there are specimens and remains of -Egyptian works in ivory still existing which date by many centuries -from an earlier time than the days of Solomon or Ahab. These must be, -of course, of excessive rarity: partly because of their antiquity and -fragile nature; partly because of the smallness of their size, owing -to which they must have been frequently overlooked or thrown aside. -The collection in the British museum includes some examples, a few of -which, particularly two daggers inlaid and ornamented with ivory, are -of the time of Moses, about 1,800 years before Christ. Several chairs, -ornamented in a like manner, may be attributed to the sixteenth century -<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> Some woodcuts are given of chairs and stools ornamented -with ivory, in Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s account of the ancient Egyptians.</p> - -<p>Among the Egyptian antiquities in the British museum may also be -mentioned the handle of a mirror in hippopotamus ivory; an ivory -palette of about the same period; two ivory boxes, in the shape of -water fowl; and a very remarkable figure or statuette, a woman, of -perhaps the eleventh century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; and, again, a very curious -casket of considerable size but of much later date; probably of the -first century of the Christian æra: Roman work and decoration. This was -found at Memphis, and is made of ivory plaques laid upon a framework of -wood. The plaques are incised with figures and coloured. The shape is -oblong, with a sloping cover; it measures about twelve by ten inches. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> - -<p>The use of ivory for ornament and the adapting it to works of art must -have been known by the Egyptians from a most remote antiquity. There -is a small ivory box in the Louvre, which is inscribed with a prænomen -attributed to the fifth dynasty. Labarte, quoting De Rougé, mentions -another of the sixth dynasty:—“On voit au musée Égyptien du Louvre -une quantité d’objets d’os et d’ivoire. Ce sont de petits vases, des -objets de toilette, des cuillers dont le manche est formé par une femme -nue, et une boîte ornée d’une belle tête de gazelle. La pièce la plus -curieuse est une autre boîte d’ivoire très-simple, mais d’une excessive -antiquité, puisqu’elle porte la légende royale de Merien-ra, qui est -placé vers la sixième dynastie.” Dr. Birch in a paper printed among the -transactions of the Royal society, on two Egyptian cartouches found at -Nimroud, refers to a tablet of the twelfth dynasty, which describes a -figure whose “arms are to be made of precious stones, silver and gold, -and the two hinder parts of ivory and ebony. In a tomb at Thebes record -is made of a statue composed of ebony and ivory, with a collar of gold.”</p> - -<p>The date of the Egyptian statuette in the British museum and of -numerous smaller objects in that and in the great foreign collections, -such as spoons, bracelets, collars, boxes, &c., most of which are -earlier than the twenty-fourth dynasty and long before the time of -Cambyses, brings us to about the same period as the famous Assyrian -ivories, which were found at Nineveh, and which are also preserved in -the British museum.</p> - -<p>These were chiefly discovered in the north-west palace; and almost all -in two chambers of that building. We cannot do better than listen to -the general description of them given by Mr. Layard himself:—“The most -interesting are the remains of two small tablets, one nearly entire, -the other much injured. Upon them are represented two sitting figures, -holding in one hand the Egyptian sceptre or symbol of power. Between -them is a cartouche containing hieroglyphics, and surmounted by a -plume, such as is found in monuments of the eighteenth and subsequent -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> -dynasties of Egypt. The chairs on which the figures are seated, the -robes of the figures themselves, the hieroglyphics and the feather -above, were enamelled with a blue substance let into the ivory, and -the whole ground of the tablet, as well as the cartouche and part -of the figures, was originally gilded,—remains of the gold leaf -still adhering to them. The forms and style of art have a purely -Egyptian character, although there are certain peculiarities in the -execution and mode of treatment that would seem to mark the work of -a foreign, perhaps an Assyrian, artist. The same peculiarities, the -same anomalies, characterise all the other objects discovered. Several -small heads in frames, supported by pillars or pedestals, most elegant -in design and elaborate in execution, show not only a considerable -acquaintance with art, but an intimate knowledge of the method of -working in ivory. Scattered about were fragments of winged sphinxes, -the head of a lion of singular beauty, human heads, legs and feet, -bulls, flowers, and scroll work. In all these specimens the spirit -of the design and the delicacy of the workmanship are equally to be admired.”</p> - -<p>There are altogether more than fifty of these Assyrian ivories -in the British museum: a detailed account of nearly all is given -by Mr. Layard in the appendix to his first volume. Dr. Birch -says they cannot be later in date than the seventh century -<span class="smcap">b.c.</span>; and thinks it highly probable that -they are much earlier. Mr. Layard believes that about the year 950 -<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> is the most probable period of their -execution.</p> - -<p>There can be no doubt that from the year 1000 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> down to -the Christian æra there was a constant succession of artists in ivory -in the western Asiatic countries, in Egypt, in Greece, and in Italy. -Long before ivory was applied in Greece to the making of bas-reliefs -and statues it was employed for a multitude of objects of luxury and -ornament. Inferior to marble in whiteness, and of course greatly -inferior in extent of available surface, ivory exceeds marble in beauty -of polish and is less fragile, being an animal substance and of true -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> -tissue and growth. From the time of Hesiod and Homer numerous allusions -are to be found in classic authors to various works in this material: -such as the decoration of shields, couches, and articles of domestic -use. As to statues, Pausanias tells us that, so far as he could learn, -men first made them of wood only; of ebony, cypress, cedar, or oak. The -passages from the earlier classics have been referred to, over and over -again, by all the later writers on the subject; and it would be not -merely wearying but unnecessary to repeat them here.</p> - -<p>In the sixth century before Christ, ivory statues of the Dioscuri and -other deities were made at Sicyon and Argos. Sir Digby Wyatt, in the -lecture before referred to, speaks of them as having been rude in -character, but there is no evidence left for so disparaging a decision. -Other works were statues of the Hours, of Themis, and of Diana. -The names of some of the sculptors have been preserved: among them -Polycletus, Endoos of Athens, the brothers Medon, and Dorycleides.</p> - -<p>The style in which objects of this kind were executed was called -<i>Toreutic</i>: from τορεύω, to bore through, to chase, to work in relief; -signifying chiefly working the material in the round or in relief. -Winckelman, in his history of art, explains the term at first with -insufficient exactness: “Phidias inventa cet art appelé par les anciens -<i>toreutice</i>, c’est à dire, l’art de tourner.” In his second edition he -corrects this, and rightly says, “la racine de cette dénomination est -τορός, <i>clair</i>, <i>distinct</i>, épithète qui s’applique à la voix. C’est -pourquoi on donne ce nomme au travaux en relief, par opposition au -travail en creux des pierres précieuses.” A long disquisition on the -meaning of the word, and its etymology, is given by De Quincy.</p> - -<p>One of the most famous of such <i>toreutic</i> works, and of which Pausanias -has left us a tolerably accurate description, was the coffer which -the Cypselidæ sent as an offering to Olympia, about 600 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> -It seems to have been made of cedar wood, of considerable size; the -figures ranged in five rows, one above the other, along the sides which -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> -were inlaid with gold and ivory. The subjects were taken from old -heroic stories. De Quincy has given a large plate with a conjectural -restoration of the chest; which he supposes to have been oblong with a -rounded cover. Others believe it to have been elliptical.</p> - -<p>Pausanias, in his description of Greece, mentions the existence in -his time of numerous ivory statues and of chryselephantine works. In -the first section of the seventeenth chapter of the fifth book he -enumerates ten or fifteen, which he says were all made of ivory and -gold; and a table of ivory. At Megara he saw an ivory statue of Venus, -the work of Praxiteles; at Corinth, many chryselephantine statues; near -Mycenæ, a statue of Hebe, the work of Naucydes; in Altis, the horn of -Amalthea; and in another treasury there, a statue of Endymion entirely -of ivory, except his robe; at Elis, a statue made of ivory and gold, -the work of Phidias; near Tritia, in Achaias, an ivory throne with the -sitting figure of a virgin; at Ægira, a wooden statue of Minerva of -which the face, hands, and feet were ivory. And, to name no more, a -statue of Minerva, the work of Endius, all of ivory, long preserved at -Tegea, but at the time when he wrote placed at the entrance of the new -forum at Rome, having been taken there by Augustus.</p> - -<p>There are two men whose travels and the sights they saw we cannot but -envy; one was Pausanias, the other our own Leland.</p> - -<p>It should be observed that Pausanias believed ivory to be the horn and -not the tooth of the elephant: and he has a long argument about it -in his fifth book, where he refers to and mentions the Celtic stag. -Declaring it to be horn, he says that, like the horns of oxen, ivory -can be softened by fire and changed from a round to a flat shape.</p> - -<p>The famous chryselephantine statues of Phidias and his contemporaries -were somewhat later than the statues of the Dioscuri and the chest at -Olympia. One of the most celebrated was the figure of Minerva in the -Parthenon, which was in height nearly forty English feet. It would be -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> -wrong to omit all notice of the attempt to reproduce this statue which -was made by order of the late Duc de Luynes, and was shown in the Paris -Exhibition of 1855. “M. Simart, qui l’a exécutée, s’est montré le digne -interprète de Phidias, et a su retrouver, par ses études approfondies, -le vrai sentiment de l’art antique. La statue, de trois mètres de -hauteur, est d’ivoire et d’argent: la face, le cou, le bras et les -pieds, la tête de Méduse placée sur son égide, ainsi que le torse de la -Victoire qu’elle tient dans la main droite, sont d’ivoire de l’Inde. La -lance, le bouclier, le casque, et le serpent sont de bronze; la tunique -et l’égide d’argent ont été repoussées et ciselées.”</p> - -<p>Even more colossal than the figure of Minerva was the Jupiter at -Olympia; the god was represented sitting, and reached to the height of -about fifty-eight feet. De Quincy has some conjectural restorations of -this statue engraved in his book.</p> - -<p>We remember the destruction of these and similar works with the utmost -regret; and the more so, because that destruction was owing in many -instances to the mad violence of Christian fanatics; the iconoclasts -of the eighth century. The remains which we possess even of smaller -objects are not only of excessive rarity, but they cannot with any -certainty be attributed to artists working in Greece itself. Ivory and -metal have perished under conditions which have left uninjured fragile -vases. There are some examples of carvings in ivory in the British -museum, and especially in the collection lately purchased from signor -Castellani which have been found in Etruscan tombs. Many of these are -perhaps the work of Greek artists.</p> - -<p>Etruscan sculpture was probably derived at first from Egypt: but -the art of the one was entirely and unchangingly conventional, and -never seems to vary from a certain fixed style. The Etrurian, on the -contrary, soon cleared itself from the bondage of old traditions and, -even when rudest, was free and attempted to imitate nature in the -representation of muscles, hair, and draperies. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> - -<p>Neither the beauty nor the wonderful spirit of the execution of some of -the ivories in the British museum has been exceeded or perhaps equalled -in any later time. Among them the following ought to be particularly mentioned:—</p> - -<p>A large bust of a woman, of the Roman republican period, and a small -carving of the head of a horse, scarcely inferior to the work of any -Greek artist of the best time. A very important head of a Gorgon, as -seen on Athenian coins, with eyes inlaid in gold, about two inches in -diameter; probably the button of a woman’s dress. Two lions, the heads -and part only of the bodies, lying across each other, very admirable -and full of character; and another lion’s head, the top perhaps of the -handle of a mirror. These were chiefly discovered, with numerous other -fragments, at Chiusi and Calvi. At Chiusi also were found the panels of -two small caskets which have been put together; both are of early date; -one it may be of the fourth century <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> and Phœnician -in style. There is also in the same case a fine small ivory statuette, -much later, perhaps of the second century: a boy, still partly embedded -in the mortar or refuse in which it was found.</p> - -<p>The workers in ivory during the first centuries of our æra were, as a -class, sufficiently numerous to be exempted by law from some personal -and municipal obligations. Pancirolus, in his “Notitiæ,” gives a list -of these bodies of artificers. He mentions as exempt, architects, -medical men, painters, and others, with references to the various laws -under which they were excused; and among them are “workmen in ivory, -who make chairs, beds, and other things of that sort.”</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, carvings in ivory of the Roman imperial times before -Constantine are extremely scarce. In the superb collection in the South -Kensington museum there are two only which can safely be so attributed. -One is the fragment, no. 299; the other is the beautiful leaf, no. 212.</p> - -<p>The British museum (not to mention a large number of fragments chiefly -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> -of caskets or decorations of furniture, tesseræ and tickets of -admission to theatres and shows, dice, and the like) possesses a -few pieces, of which one is extremely fine in character and in good -preservation. The subject is Bellerophon, who is represented on -Pegasus, killing the Chimæra; and it is executed in open work. The age -is somewhat doubtful. Professor Westwood places it as early as the -third century, and his judgment must be treated with great deference. -Others, of no slight authority, are indisposed to give it an earlier -date than the fourth century. This admirable ivory has somewhat of the -character of the book-cover in the Barberini collection, engraved by -Gori, in the second volume of his great work on diptychs. That famous -piece is not perfect, nor is there any name upon it. Gori fairly argues -that it represents the emperor Constantius, about the year 357. The -Bellerophon is of finer work.</p> - -<p>The gradual and uninterrupted decline of art from the days of Augustus -is to be traced as distinctly in the ivories which have been preserved -as in ancient buildings. But we can scarcely agree with D’Agincourt -as regards its rapidity. Speaking of sculpture generally, he says: -“On vit celle-ci successivement grande, noble, auguste sous le prince -qui mérita ce nom; licencieuse et obscène sous Tibère; grossièrement -adulatrice sous Caracalla; extravagante sous Néron, qui faisait dorer -les chefs-d’œuvre de Lysippe.” D’Agincourt probably refers to the -barbarism of Caligula, who proposed to put a head of himself upon the -Olympic Zeus by Phidias; or to Claudius, who cut the head of Alexander -out of a picture by Apelles, to replace it with his own. Suetonius -has recorded the first of these atrocities (can we speak of them by a -lighter name?) and Pliny the last.</p> - -<p>In the collection given to the town of Liverpool by Mr. Mayer there are -two very celebrated pieces, possibly of the third century; they were originally -the leaves of a diptych. On one is Æsculapius, on the other Hygieia.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER III.</h2></div> - -<p>From the middle of the fourth century down to the end of the sixteenth -we have an unbroken chain of examples still existing. Individual pieces -may, perhaps, in many instances be of questionable origin as regards -the country of the artist, and, sometimes, with respect to the exact -date within fifty or even a hundred years. But there is no doubt -whatever that, increasing in number as they come nearer to the middle -ages, we can refer to carved ivories of every century preserved in -museums in England and abroad. Their importance with reference to the -history of art cannot be overrated. There is no such continuous chain -in manuscripts, or mosaics, or gems, or textiles, or porcelain, or -enamels. Perhaps, with the exception of manuscripts, there never was -in any of these classes so large a number executed nor the demand for -them so great. The material itself or the decorations by which other -works were surrounded very probably tempted people to destroy them; and -we may thank the valueless character of many a piece of carved ivory, -except as a work of art, for its preservation to our own days.</p> - -<p>The most important ivories before the seventh century are the consular -diptychs. The earliest which still exists claims to be of the middle -of the third century, the latest belongs to the middle of the sixth. -Anything doubled, or doubly folded, is a diptych: <big><b>δίπτυχον</b></big>; but the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> -term was chiefly applied to the tablets used for writing on with -metallic or ivory styles by the ancients. When these tablets had -three leaves they were called triptychs, and of five or more leaves -pentaptychs or polyptychs. Inside, each leaf was slightly sunk with -a narrow raised margin in order to hold wax; outside, they were -ornamented with carvings. They were not always of ivory; frequently of -citron or of some less costly wood, and for common use were probably of -small size, convenient for the hand and for carrying about.</p> - -<p>Homer, in the sixth book of the Iliad, speaks of such tablets, and -there are frequent references to them in Latin writers; in Juvenal, -Martial, and other authors. Many passages are to be found quoted in -books upon the ancient Roman diptychs. It happens also that two ancient -specimens have been found. Both were discovered in gold mines in -Transylvania, and have been described by Massmann in a volume published -at Leipsic in 1841. Each consists of three leaves, one of fir-wood, the -other of beech, and about the size of a modern octavo book. The outer -part exhibits the plain surface of the wood, the inner part is covered -with wax surrounded by a margin. The edges of one side are pierced -that they might be fastened together by means of a thread or wire -passed through them. The wax is not thick on either set of tablets; -it is thinner on the beechen set, in which the stylus of the writer -has in places cut through the wax into the wood. There is manuscript -still remaining on both of them: the beginning of the beechen tablets -containing some Greek letters. The writing on the other is in Latin, -a copy of a document relating to a collegium. The name of one of the -consuls is given, determining the date to be <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 169. -An abridged account of these very curious tablets is given in Smith’s -“Dictionary of antiquities” under the word “tabulæ.”</p> - -<p>The consular diptychs were of much larger size than those made for -everyday use: generally about twelve inches in length by five or six in -breadth. Diptychs of this kind were part of the presents sent by new -consuls on their appointment to very eminent persons; to the senators, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> -to governors of provinces, and to friends. Each consul probably sent -many such gifts, and duplicates of more than one example have been -preserved. These naturally varied greatly, not only in the workmanship -but in the material. For persons in high station or authority the -diptychs would be carved by the best artists of the time, and if not -made entirely of some metal very costly and valuable the material would -be ivory, perhaps also mounted in gold. As we find in the fifth book of -the letters of Symmachus (consul, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 391), -“Domino principi nostro auro circumdatum diptychon misi, cæteros quoque -amicos eburneis pugillaribus et canistellis argenteis honoravi.” For -others of lower rank or for dependents, they would be roughly finished -and of bone or wood.</p> - -<p>It is to the custom of sending these diptychs to people of rank in the -provinces that we owe the preservation of some still extant, and which -have been kept in the country into which they came by gift or otherwise -in very early times. Generally, in somewhat later days, they were given -or bequeathed to churches; and, having been first used in the public -services, were afterwards laid by in their treasuries.</p> - -<p>Inside these official diptychs the wax may have been inscribed with the -Fasti Consulares or list of names of all preceding consuls, closing -with that of the new magistrate, the donor. As Ausonius, himself consul -in the year 379, says in one of his epigrams:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Hactenus adscripsi fastos. Si sors volet, ultra</span> -<span class="i2">Adjiciam: si non, qui legis, adjicies.</span> -<span class="i0">Scire cupis, qui sim? titulum qui quartus ab imo est</span> -<span class="i2">Quære; legis nomen consulis Ausonii.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>This, however, as a rule, is matter of conjecture. Outside, the -leaves were carved with various ornaments; sometimes with scrolls, -or cornucopiæ, or the bust of the new consul in a medallion. -Sometimes—and as the diptychs which we now possess repeat this style -the most frequently we may conclude it to have been the usual practice -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> -at least for the more important of those presented—the consul was -represented at full length and sitting in the cushioned curule chair: -one hand often being uplifted and holding the <i>mappa circensis</i>. He is -clothed in the full ceremonial vestments of his office, as used when he -was inducted into it. The dress itself seems to be a splendid imitation -of that worn by the old generals at the celebration of a triumph; a -richly embroidered cloak (<i>toga picta</i>) with ample folds, beneath which -is a tunic striped with purple (<i>trabea</i>) or figured with palm leaves -(<i>tunica palmata</i>). On his feet are shoes of cloth of gold (<i>calcei -aurati</i>), and in one hand the consular staff or sceptre (<i>scipio</i>) -surmounted by an eagle or an image of Victory.</p> - -<p>The conspicuous representation of a cushion on the seat of the chair is -probably not to be overlooked as of small signification or importance. -Cushions were permitted only to certain privileged classes during the -games of the circus; and Caligula conceded the use of cushions to -senators as a graceful compliment at the beginning of his reign.</p> - -<p>Some will remember also the advice given by Ovid, in his “Art of Love,” -to the lover in attendance on his mistress in the theatre or at public -games (he had just before been speaking of the ivory statues carried in -the procession):</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Parva leves capiunt animos. Fuit utile multis</span> -<span class="i2">Pulvinum facili composuisse manu.</span> -<span class="i0">Profuit et tenui ventum movisse tabella [<i>flabello</i>?];</span> -<span class="i2">Et cava sub teneram scamna dedisse pedem.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Not unusually in the lower part of each leaf, in a separate -compartment, were representations of the shows which the consul -intended to give, of the manumission of slaves, and of the presents, -money, bread, &c., which were also to be distributed among the people.</p> - -<p>The series of consular diptychs, having each of them in many cases a -known date, is of essential value and importance in the history of art, -whilst the fashion of them lasted. Similar as they are one to another -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> -in certain respects, nevertheless there is a considerable variety of -treatment and undoubtedly various degrees of excellence or inferiority -of style and execution. When so many would be required by the consul -of the year, it was impossible that all could be made by good artists, -and probably one or two of the best kind were roughly copied by common -workmen. It was sufficient if the general character, dress, or special -ornament of the consul were represented.</p> - -<p>Rapidly as art declined during the three centuries after the birth -of Constantine, as shown especially in these consular diptychs, we -may nevertheless trace a certain grandeur in the figures and in the -attitudes which show that earlier and better models of antiquity were -still followed by the sculptors. Labarte further observes that the -diptychs carved at Constantinople were far superior to those which were -made in Italy.</p> - -<p>Many of these diptychs are identified by the name of the consul which -is carved across the top of one leaf; the full legend generally running -across both being equally divided. It has been said that these legends -(as well as portions of the sculpture) were sometimes coloured red. -We know no extant example, but the following passage from Claudian is -important, and not on that particular point alone:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">“Tum virides pardos, et cetera colligit austri</span> -<span class="i0">Prodigia, immanesque simul Latonia dentes,</span> -<span class="i0">Qui secti ferro in tabulas auroque micantes,</span> -<span class="i0">Inscripti rutilum cælato consule nomen,</span> -<span class="i0">Per proceres et vulgus eant; stupor omnibus Indis</span> -<span class="i0">Plurimus ereptis elephas inglorius errat</span> -<span class="i0">Dentibus.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>We usually find also a profusion of proper names, according to the -fashion and taste of the court of Constantinople and of the last years -of the consulate. Following these names was a formula which expressed -the style and dignities: “Vir illustris, comes domesticorum equitum, et -consul ordinarius.” The “vir illustris” signified that the new consul -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> -had either filled or was of rank great enough to fill high official -positions in the state. The “comes domesticorum equitum” was his title -as commander of the bodyguard of the emperor. The “consul ordinarius” -declared the true consular dignity itself.</p> - -<p>Some of the consular diptychs also add the names of the persons or -communities to whom they were sent. Thus, the diptych of Flavius -Theodorus Philoxenus, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 525, has the following -inscription in Greek iambics, part upon one tablet, part upon the other: -“I, Philoxenus the consul, offer this gift to the wise senate.”</p> - -<p>Another diptych of Flavius Petrus, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 516, -has this inscription within a large circle: “I, the consul, offer these -presents, though small in value, still ample in honours, to my -[senatorial] fathers.” This is given by M. Pulszky, in his essay on -antique ivories. The same writer quotes the often-cited decree of the -emperor Theodosius; by which, because of the honour attached to the -receiving of these diptychs, the presenting of them by anyone but the -ordinary consuls was forbidden. The law ought not to be omitted here: -“Lex <span class="smcap">xv</span>. Codex Theodosianus, <i>tit.</i> xi. -De expensis ludorum. Illud etiam constitutione solidamus, ut exceptis -consulibus ordinariis, nulli prorsus alteri auream sportulam aut -diptycha ex ebore dandi facultas sit. Cum publica celebrantur officia, -sit sportulis nummus argenteus, alia materia diptycha.”</p> - -<p>During the period when these ivory diptychs were in use or fashion, -that is (so far as we know) from the first or second centuries to the -sixth, the office of consul was entirely in the hands of the emperors, -who conferred it on whom they would, and assumed it themselves as often -as they thought fit. Augustus was consul thirteen times; Vitellius -proclaimed himself perpetual consul; Vespasian eight times; and -Domitian seventeen. The consuls, therefore, gradually became mere -ciphers in the state. It is true that they presided in the senate and -on other public occasions with all the ancient forms; and the mere -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> -title, down to the extinction of the western empire, was nominally the -most exalted and honourable of all official positions.</p> - -<p>The most complete list which we have of the existing consular diptychs -is given by professor Westwood in a carefully written paper read before -the Oxford architectural society, and printed in their proceedings for -1862. These are supposed to have been all identified, and, in most -instances, by the inscription on the ivory. Nevertheless, we must still -acknowledge to a grave doubt about more than one:—</p> - -<table border="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Consular Diptychs" cellpadding="0" > - <tbody><tr> - <td class="tdr" colspan="3"><small>A.D.</small></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">1.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">M. Julius Philippus Augustus. In the Meyer collection at Liverpool. One leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">248</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">2.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">M. Aurelius Romulus Cæsar. In the British museum. One leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">308</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">3.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Rufius Probianus. At Berlin. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">322</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">4.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Anicius Probus. In the treasury of the cathedral of Aosta. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">406</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">5.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Felix. Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris. One leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">428</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">6.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Valentinian III. In the treasury of the cathedral of Monza. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">430</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">7.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Areobindus. At Milan, in the Trivulci collection. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">434</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">8.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Asturius. At Darmstadt. One leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">449</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">9.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Aetius. At Halberstadt. One leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">454</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">10.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Narius Manlius Boethius. In the bibl. Quiriniana at Brescia. Two leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">487</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">11.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Theodorus Valentianus. At Berlin. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">505</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">12.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Dagalaiphus Ariobindus. At Lucca; both leaves. At Zurich; both leaves.</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">And in private possession at Dijon; one leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">506</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">13.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Taurus Clementinus. In the Meyer collection at Liverpool. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">513</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">14.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Petrus Justinianus. Bibliothèque Impériale, at Paris; one leaf.</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">And at Milan, in the Trivulci collection; both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">516</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">15.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Anastasius Paulus Probus Pompeius. At Berlin; one leaf.</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">The other leaf in South Kensington museum.</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris; both leaves. And Verona; one leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">517</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">16.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Paulus Probus Magnus. Two in the Imperial library at Paris; each one leaf. </td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">Another, so attributed, in the Mayer collection at Liverpool; one leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">518</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">17.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Anicius Justinus Augustus. At Vienna; one leaf</td> - <td class="tdr">519</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">18.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Theodorus Philoxenus. Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris; both leaves.</td> - <td class="tdr"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">And in the Mayer collection; one leaf; very doubtful</td> - <td class="tdr">525</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">19.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Flavius Anicius Justinianus Augustus. At Paris</td> - <td class="tdr">528</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">20.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Rufinus Orestes. South Kensington museum. Both leaves</td> - <td class="tdr">530</td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr">21.</td> - <td class="tdl_ws1">Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius. In the Uffizii, at Florence; one leaf.</td> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - </tr><tr> - <td class="tdr"> </td> - <td class="tdl_ws2">The companion leaf is in the Brera, at Milan</td> - <td class="tdr">541</td> - </tr> - </tbody> -</table> - -<p>A few remarks may be of use to the student with reference to some of -these important diptychs. The leaves of no. 3 now form the covers of a -manuscript life of St. Ludgerus. This diptych is erroneously named by -Labarte as the most ancient known to exist.</p> - -<p>Of no. 5, the other leaf was lost or stolen during the French -revolution of 1792.</p> - -<p>Mr. Oldfield, a very high authority, suggests that no. 6 should be -given to Valentinian II., in which case the date would be about <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> -380. The earlier date is supported by the great beauty and admirable -execution of the diptych.</p> - -<p>No. 7 has no inscription: it bears a monogram which contains all the -letters of the name Areobindus. It is engraved in the Thesaurus of Gori.</p> - -<p>No. 8 was formerly in the church of St. Martin at Liége, and it was -long supposed to be lost. Professor Westwood, however, has found the -greater portion of one leaf, used as the cover of a book of the gospels -in the royal library at Darmstadt. This, probably, is not a fragment of -the Liége diptych, but of another of the same consul. The two leaves -are engraved in Gori.</p> - -<p>A folio volume of more than 200 pages was edited by Hagenbuch in -1738, containing a number of learned essays on the diptych of Manlius -Boethius, no. 10. It has at the beginning engravings of both leaves: -and the consul is represented on one in a standing position; on -the other, sitting and holding the <i>mappa</i> in his right hand. The -inscription is unusually obscure: how much so may be judged from the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> -fact that the editor of the book has collected more than half a -dozen different interpretations of it. Some of them are amusing. The -inscription on one leaf runs thus: <b>NARMANLBOETHIVSVCETINL</b>, on the -other, <b>EXPPPVSECCONSORDETPATRIC</b>. The members of the Academy at Paris, -to whom the difficulty had been referred, proposed to read “Natales -regios Manlius Boethius vir clarissimus et inlustris ex propria pecunia -voto suscepto edixit celebrandos consul ordinarius et patricius.” But a -more probable reading is, “Narius Manlius Boethius vir clarissimus et -inlustris, expræfectus prætorio, præfectus, et comes, consul ordinarius -et patricius.” Again, against this last some have disputed that the PPP -meant three times prefect, and CC twice consul.</p> - -<p>We must remember that artists in ivory were driven, because of the -narrow limits at their disposal, to use extreme forms of contractions -and symbols, scarcely intelligible even in their own time, instead of -words: far more so, indeed, than were the carvers of inscriptions upon -monumental stones, altars, and sarcophagi.</p> - -<p>Professor Westwood leaves the date of no. 11 doubtful: it is -remarkable, as representing in a medallion, between the busts of the -emperor and empress, the head of Christ with a cruciferous nimbus.</p> - -<p>The Paris diptych of the consul Anastasius was long known as -the diptych of Bourges, under which name it is well engraved in -Montfaucon’s “Antiquities”: and no. 18 as the diptych of Compiegne; -having been given by Charles the Bald in the ninth century to the abbey -church of St. Corneille, where the leaves were preserved until its -destruction in 1790, and were then transferred to Paris. The diptych -is admirably figured in the Trésor de numismatique et de glyptique of -Lenormant, who refers also to previous writers on this diptych.</p> - -<p>Basilius, consul of Constantinople, whose name is attached to no. 21, -was the last of the long and illustrious line of consuls. They had -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> -continued, with a few short interruptions of the tribunes, for more -than a thousand years. After Basilius, the emperors of the East took -the title, until at length it fell into oblivion. The last consul of -Rome was Decimus Theodorus Paulinus, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 536. -The second leaf of this diptych has been identified by professor -Westwood: M. Pulszky believed it to have been lost. It is but a -fragment of the right wing of the diptych, the upper half. Gori gives -figures of both leaves: he decides against their being of the same -pair. Mr. Westwood, however, says that “it is certainly the companion” -to the leaf in the Uffizii.</p> - -<p>A detailed description and arguments about many of these diptychs will -be found in the dissertations printed by Gori in his Thesaurus. Other -authorities are Du Cange, Mabillon, and Montfaucon. Their statements -have been ably and briefly summed up in the very interesting paper -already mentioned, read before the architectural society of Oxford, by -professor Westwood; and by M. Pulszky in his essay on antique ivories.</p> - -<p>A Roman diptych, undescribed, is preserved at Tarragona in Spain, and -it is extremely probable that a careful search amongst the treasures -still remaining in the churches of that country would discover others. -The very learned editor of the Thesaurus of Gori (writing more than a -hundred years ago) says: “Suspicio enim invaluit in locupletissimis -Hispaniæ sacrariis, quo totius fere orbis donaria confluxerunt, multa -hujusmodi abscondi, quæ nusquam adhuc comparuere, quia hactenus nec -perquisita nec curata.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2></div> - -<p>There are several very important Roman diptychs and leaves of -diptychs, not consular, still extant; some also of greater beauty -than any of the examples in the preceding list. Among them is the -diptych (already mentioned) of Æsculapius and Hygieia in the Mayer -collection at Liverpool; and another, but smaller, of the same subject -in a private collection in Switzerland. This last is described by -professor Westwood, who possesses a cast of it, as “in much deeper -relief than the Fejérváry diptych, and full of energy in the design. -Here Æsculapius holds a palm-branch in his right hand, and supports -his club, round which a serpent is twined, with his left; whilst -Hygieia holds a snake in her right hand and, apparently, a large -melon in her left.” Another is the diptych of cardinal Quirini now at -Brescia, having on one leaf, as interpreted by M. Pulszky, Phædra and -Hyppolytus; and on the other Diana and Virbius. This is probably of the -third century.</p> - -<p>Another is the famous diptych, long known as the Tablets of Sens, -but now at Paris in the Imperial library and forming the covers of a -thirteenth century manuscript, containing “The Office of fools,” or, -rather, the Office of the feast of the circumcision. In the thirteenth -and fourteenth centuries some childish and improper jests and plays -were allowed in churches on the first day of the year. This “Office -of fools” seems to have been a complete arrangement for the day; with -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> -mass, matins, and hours. The whole affair was something like (but -without the reverential decorum) the festival of the boy-bishop, -celebrated in more than one of our English cathedrals about the same -period, and was probably a relic of the heathen Saturnalia.</p> - -<p>These tablets, which are somewhat similar in style to the sarcophagi -of the third century, are engraved by Labarte in his album. On one -leaf is represented Bacchus in a car drawn by centaurs; on the other -is Diana in a chariot drawn by two bulls. Both subjects are surrounded -by mythological figures. They are engraved also in Lacroix, Arts of -the middle ages, as an illustration of book-binding: and in the second -volume of the Monumens antiques inédits, by Millin.</p> - -<p>There is a diptych of perhaps the fifth century in the treasury of -the cathedral of Monza; one leaf representing Calliope sounding the -lyre, and the other some unknown philosopher. Mr. Oldfield, in his -excellent catalogue with very valuable notes of the Arundel series -of fictile ivories, supposes the muse to be some Roman lady in an -ideal character. He objects to Gori’s suggestion that the other leaf -represents a poet, taking the characteristics to be those certainly -of a philosopher. Another is in the public library at Paris, the two -leaves having six muses, each of them accompanied by an author. These -last have been guessed at by M. de Witte, who places the diptych in the -fourth century. Neither M. Pulszky nor professor Westwood is inclined -to agree with these guesses, except that one may perhaps be Euripides -grouped with Melpomene. The workmanship is rude and the figures carved -in high relief. Again, another diptych at Vienna in the cabinet of -antiquities, is attributed to the time of Justinian. One leaf has a -figure representing Rome; the other, Constantinople.</p> - -<p>The above are all named in the essay attached to the catalogue of the -Fejérváry collection by M. Pulszky; and professor Westwood very rightly -adds to them one leaf of a diptych in the possession of count Auguste -de Bastard, the diptych of St. Gall, the mythological figure of Penthea -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> -in the museum of the hôtel Cluny, a perfect diptych in the cathedral of -Novara, and another in the basilica of San Gaudenzio at the same place.</p> - -<p>There is no example among all these which surpasses in beauty of -execution or in the interest of the subject, two ivory tablets which -were formerly the doors of a reliquary in the convent of Moutier in -France, in the diocese of Troyes. When M. Pulszky wrote his essay both -tablets were supposed to be lost; they had been described and engraved -in the Thesaurus of Gori, from whose prints alone they were known. -Happily both since have been recovered. The left tablet, discovered -a few years ago at the bottom of a well, is in the hôtel Cluny, much -injured, and the other is in the collection of the South Kensington -museum. The South Kensington leaf is probably the most beautiful -antique ivory in the world. (See etching.) Each leaf represents a -Bacchante; on both they are standing, and the Bacchante on the leaf in -the English collection is accompanied by an attendant. Clothed from -the shoulders to the feet in a long tunic, she stands near an oak-tree -before an altar, on which a fire is lighted, and she is in the act of -dropping a grain of incense from a small box held in her left hand. -The whole figure is extremely graceful and dignified, the expression -of the face earnest and devotional, and the form of the figure rightly -expressed beneath the drapery; the hands and feet also well and -carefully carved. On the corresponding leaf, preserved at Paris, the -Bacchante has no attendant. Her drapery falls negligently suspended -from her left shoulder, leaving the right arm and breast exposed. -Professor Becker in his “Gallus,” describing the Lycoris of Virgil’s -tenth eclogue, says: “Her light <i>tunica</i>, without sleeves, had become -displaced by her movements and slidden down over her arm, disclosing -something more than the dazzling shoulder.” He adds in a note that “the -wide opening for the neck, and the broad holes for the arms, caused -the <i>tunica</i> on every occasion of the person’s stooping to slip down -over the arm. Artists appear to have been particularly fond of this -drapery.” Such an arrangement, or rather disarrangement, of drapery -would equally happen when the tunic was fastened over the shoulder by -a small fibula, as it is represented upon the right arm of the young -attendant in the South Kensington leaf. The Paris Bacchante stands -before an altar on which a fire burns, and holds in each hand a torch -with the flaming end downwards, as if to extinguish them. Her hair is -gracefully bound with a riband decorated with ivy leaves, and falls -down her back. A pine tree, stiff in design, stands close behind the -altar; not to be compared with the oak-tree on the other leaf.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP034" id="FP034"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_034.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="484" /> - <p class="center">IVORY CARVING. ONE LEAF OF THE DIPTYCHON MELERETENSE<br /> - H. 11 in. W. 4¾ in.</p> - <p class="author">S. K. M. (N<sup>o</sup> 212’6.5) W. WISE FECIT</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -This admirable diptych was, perhaps, a gift on the occasion of some -marriage between members of the two patrician families whose names -are on the labels: <b>NICOMACHORVM. SYMMACHORVM</b>; or it may possibly -have formed the cover of the marriage contract itself, the <i>tabulæ -nuptiales</i> of which Juvenal speaks; or perhaps it was a joint offering -to the temple of Bacchus or Cybele. The last supposition would be -confirmed if the omitted word was “religio,” as suggested by Passeri, -who believes that the two families took the opportunity of recording -upon this diptych, on some occasion of importance common to both of -them, their determination to uphold the old heathen worship against the -doctrines and influence of Christianity, at that time widely extending.</p> - -<p>Before we pass to the large series of ivory carvings executed between -the eighth or ninth and the fifteenth centuries, there is one very -celebrated piece about which a few words may be said: a superb leaf of -a diptych, preserved in the British museum. The other leaf is lost and -has probably been destroyed; nor is there any record (it is believed) -from whence that museum obtained the ivory. It has been in the -collection for many years. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figleft"> - <a name="P036" id="P036"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_036.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="545" /> -</div> - -<p>The plaque itself is one of the largest known: more than sixteen inches -in length by nearly six in width. The subject is an angel, standing -on the highest of six steps under an arch supported on two Corinthian -columns; he holds a globe with a cross above it in his right hand; -in his left a long staff, to the top of which, as if half resting on -it like a warrior on his lance, the hand is raised above his head. -He is clothed in a tunic and an ample cloak or mantle falling round -him and over the shoulders in graceful folds. His head is bound round -with a fillet, and the feet have sandals. There is no antique ivory -carving which surpasses this in grandeur of design, in power and force -of expression, or in the excellence of its workmanship. Although -some foreign writers are disposed to place the date of it so late -as the time of Justinian, we shall be more correct in attributing -it, with Mr. Oldfield, to the fifth or even to the end of the fourth -century. Nor, looking at it, can we hesitate to claim for the earliest -Christian art, after Christianity was recognised by Constantine, a -place by the side of the best works of pagan times. If we select this, -and the book-covers in the treasury of the cathedral at Milan, and -the well-known book-cover in the public library at Paris, we shall -find no western work in ivory to equal them in quality and beauty of -workmanship from the fifth to the thirteenth century. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> - -<p>We owe the preservation of many of these consular and mythological -diptychs to the circumstance that when the practice of sending them as -presents had (it may be) for some time been discontinued, another use -was found by adapting them to Christian purposes. In some cases the -subjects or titles of the diptychs were altered; as, for example, in -one of the diptychs preserved at Monza. This was originally a consular -diptych, of late work, coarse in style and manner of execution. The -consul is represented on each wing, raising the <i>mappa circensis</i> in -the usual way: on one, however, he is standing; on the other he is -sitting upon a kind of throne. On one leaf the top of the consul’s -head has been shaved, to show the clerical tonsure; and in the blank -space of two small panels, immediately beneath the arch under which he -stands, the title <b>S[an]C[tu]S GREG<sup>o</sup>R[ius]</b> is cut in high relief. -On the other leaf above the sitting consul, on the corresponding panels, -<b>DAVID REX</b> is inscribed in similar letters. Both the wings are engraved -by Gori. It must not be omitted that some late writers have argued that -this diptych is not a palimpsest; that it is merely an imitation of -the preceding consular diptychs, and not earlier than the seventh or -eighth century. But the whole character is unlike mere imitation; and -the shaving of the head, the alteration of the ornamented top of the -sceptre or staff, and the cutting of the inscription on the tablets, -might without difficulty have been made for the required and more -modern purpose.</p> - -<p>It is easy to understand how later possessors of consular diptychs were -induced to make presents of them to their bishops and churches; and -in some instances, probably, in the sixth century, those originally -sent to high ecclesiastical persons were at once transferred to pious -uses. Instead of containing the lists of the consuls, the diptychs -then inclosed the names of martyrs, saints, or bishops who were to be -commemorated in the public service of the Church. These lists were read -at mass: of the saints at that part of the canon which is now known -as the <i>Communicantes</i>; and of the dead at the <i>Memento</i>, after the -consecration of the Eucharist. Frequent reference to the custom is to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> -be found in the old ritualists, and full information and a cloud of authorities -on the subject in the learned work of Salig, on diptychs. The leaves of -several such diptychs still exist, and sometimes with the names not -written on wax, but carved or incised upon the ivory itself.</p> - -<p>One very remarkable example is the diptych, now at Liverpool, of -Flavius Clementinus, consul <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 513. Upon the back of each -leaf a long Greek inscription has been incised, done, beyond doubt, in -the first year of pope Hadrian, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 772, when the diptych was -given to some church for sacred use. The list of names inscribed, to be -prayed for, includes that of the donor.</p> - -<p>The two inscriptions are to be read across both divisions, and were -engraved probably upon the ivory by some one not well skilled in -the language. There are several faults, both in spelling and in the -letters: for example, we have στομεν sΘεωτωκος; ελεωςd; and ι often -instead of η.</p> - -<p>The inscription is to this effect: “<big><b>✠</b></big> Let us stand well. <big><b>✠</b></big> Let us stand -with reverence. <big><b>✠</b></big>Let us stand with fear. Let us attend upon the holy -oblation, that in peace we may make the offering to God. The mercy, -the peace, the sacrifice of praise, the love of God and of the Father -and of our Saviour Jesus Christ be upon us, Amen. In the first year of -Adrian, patriarch of the city. Remember, Lord, thy servant John, the -least priest of the church of St. Agatha. Amen. <big><b>✠</b></big> Remember, Lord, thy -servant Andrew Machera. Holy Mother of God; holy Agatha. <big><b>✠</b></big> Remember, -Lord, thy servant and our pastor Adrian the patriarch. <big><b>✠</b></big> Remember, Lord, -thy servant, the sinner, John the priest.”</p> - -<p>Another example is the diptych of Anastasius, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 517, of -which one leaf, n<sup>o.</sup> 368, is in the South Kensington collection. -Upon this leaf the portion of a single word “GISI” is now alone to -be deciphered; when Wiltheim saw it, more than a hundred years ago -at Liege, he read “<b>IGISI</b>,” and supposed it to be part of the name of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> -Ebregisus, the twenty-fourth bishop of Tongres, in the seventh -century. But upon the other leaf, which is now preserved at Berlin, -Gori was able to make out a considerable portion. “Offerentes ... O ... -eorum p. pi ... ecclesia catholica quam eis dominus adsignare dignetur -... facientes commemorationem beatissimorum apostolorum et martyrum -omniumque sanctorum. Sanctæ Mariæ Virginis, Petri, Pauli, <i>etc.</i>” But -he owns that some even of these words are conjectural.</p> - -<p>The diptych of Justinianus, in the public library at Paris, is one -more example of the same kind. Inside are written litanies of the -ninth century, with the names of saints inserted who were particularly -revered at Autun.</p> - -<p>Another half of a consular diptych may be mentioned, a single leaf, -in which instance the original carving has not only been removed but -the ivory has been sawn into two pieces. As it happens, both fragments -are in this country—one in the British museum, the other in the -South Kensington collection, n<sup>o.</sup> 266. The two together have still -sufficient traces left to enable us to recognise the old design: a -consul seated in the usual way, under a round arch. Below, there seem -to have been the two boys or servants emptying their sacks of money and -presents.</p> - -<p>This mutilation occurred about the eighth or ninth century; and the -other side of the leaf was then carved with subjects taken from the -gospels. It was an unnecessary injury to destroy and plane away the -first design. As the new purpose was probably to decorate the panels of -some shrine or book-cover, the old carvings might have been concealed -when the plaques were inlaid, in the same manner as the very curious -pieces were treated, now at South Kensington, n<sup>os.</sup> 253, 254, and 257.</p> - -<p>It would be a subject far too extensive to attempt to give a history of -the use and purpose of diptychs in the public service of the Christian -Church. Their origin is to be traced to the very earliest times; -perhaps to the apostolic age. Mention is made of them in the liturgy of -St. Mark. Gori (or his author) quotes also the ecclesiastical hierarchy -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> -of Dionysius the Areopagite. This is certainly not the writing of -the true Dionysius, the contemporary of St. Paul. Yet, putting the -pseudo-Dionysius as late as the fifth century, his evidence is -valuable, and he speaks of the use of diptychs as of things long known.</p> - -<p>Numerous treaties and dissertations, even long books, have been written -on the subject; and it would be idle work to repeat the names of the -authors who are referred to, over and over again, by most writers on -ivory carvings. In fact, the learning which some of these exhibit might -much better have been shown if their subject had been the primitive -history and practices of the Church. Except to state the mere fact of -their use, the connection of ceremonial ecclesiastical diptychs with -sculpture in ivory requires only a few remarks.</p> - -<p>The common use of such diptychs is well and shortly summed up in a -dissertation printed by Gori in his Thesaurus. The summary may be given -in few words, and, moreover, the dissertation itself is written in -explanation of the diptych of the consul Clementinus just mentioned, -which we are now fortunate enough to possess in England, in the Mayer -collection at Liverpool. Inside the leaves, as has been already -observed, is an inscription in Greek of the eighth century, to be read -during mass, desiring the people to be devout and reverent and to pray -for the persons whose names were to be recited.</p> - -<p>The Christian diptychs were intended for four purposes. First come -those in which the names of all the baptised were entered, a kind of -<i>Fasti ecclesiæ</i>, and answering to the registers kept now in every -parish. Second, those in which were recorded the names of bishops and -of all who had made offerings to the church or other benefactions. This -list included the names of many persons still living. Third, those in -which were recorded the names of saints and martyrs; and, naturally, in -various places the names would be particularly of saints who in their -lives had been connected with the locality. Such additions are of the -utmost importance in tracing the history of ancient lists which have -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> -come down to our own time. Diptychs of this class were read aloud at -mass, as a sign of the communion between the Church triumphant and -the Church militant on earth. Fourth, those in which were written the -names of dead members of the particular church or district, who having -died in the true faith and with the rites of the church were to be -remembered at mass.</p> - -<p>As regards the living, the continuance of their names in the diptychs -was of the highest consequence; to be erased was equal to the -denunciation of them as heretics and unworthy of communion.</p> - -<p>In the diptychs also were probably sometimes added the names of people -who were sick or in trouble.</p> - -<p>But besides these four objects for which Christian diptychs were made, -there was another which must certainly have caused the production -of many large sculptured works in ivory from the seventh to the -tenth century: namely, for the purpose of exciting devotion and as -a means also of teaching the ignorant. Ivory tablets or diptychs of -this description are ordered to be exposed to the people in the old -Ambrosian rite for the church of Milan.</p> - -<p>One of the most celebrated relics in ivory was executed about the -middle of the sixth century; the throne or chair made for Maximian, -archbishop of Ravenna from the year 546 to 556. This is now preserved -among the treasures of the cathedral at Ravenna, and is engraved in the -great book of Du Sommerard, and by Labarte in his handbook. The chair -has a high back, round in shape, and is entirely covered with plaques -of ivory, arranged in panels richly carved in high relief with scenes -from the gospels and with figures of saints. The plaques have borders -with foliated ornaments; birds and animals, flowers and fruits, filling -the intermediate spaces. Du Sommerard names amongst the most remarkable -subjects, the annunciation, the adoration of the wise men, the flight -into Egypt, and the baptism of our Lord. Sir Digby Wyatt (in his -lecture before the Arundel society) says that this chair, having “always -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> -been carefully preserved as a holy relic, has fortunately escaped -destruction and desecration; and, but for the beautiful tint with -which time has invested it, would wear an aspect little different from -that which it originally presented in the lifetime of the illustrious -prelate for whom it was made. This valuable object could hardly have -been all wrought at one time, as Dr. Kugler distinctly traces in it the -handling of three different artists, who could scarcely have all lived -at the same period. Some of the plates resemble diptychs. Thus, the -series pourtraying the history of Joseph in Egypt is quite classical; -another, and less able artist in the same style, provided the plates -for the back, and in one set of five single figures the Greek artificer -stands apparent. The simplest explanation appears to be that the throne -was made up by the last-mentioned artist out of materials provided -for him, and that what was wanting to make it entire was supplied by -him.” Probably the different plaques were carved by several sculptors; -but Dr. Kugler’s supposition that the whole chair was not made by -contemporary artists (in short, at one time) is scarcely probable.</p> - -<p>Speaking of and praising the Ravenna chair, Passeri offers some very -useful remarks by way of caution against the hasty conclusions which -some make, who set down all ancient large plaques of ivory as having -been the leaves of diptychs: “Vidi etiam Ravennæ in chartophilacio -principis ecclesiæ sedem eburneam sancti Maximiani episcopi quinto -seculo operosissime efformatam, cujus ambitum undequaque adornant -tabulæ eburneæ amplitudinis fere sesquipedalis, quam plerumque -ebur patitur anaglypho opere, et scitissima manu elaboratæ, quæ si -disjectæ et singulares occurrent imprudentibus facile imponerent, ut -inter diptycha censerentur. Nec ista nominis quæstio est, nam longe -alia mente explicandæ sunt missiles consulum tabellæ, atque in illis -expressa emblemata, quæ omnia ad consulatum ejusque pompas pertinent, -alia vero sculpturæ omnes, quæ in alium usum parabantur. Hæc observatio -facile prodit errorem illorum, qui diptychis adcensuerunt laterculos, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> -nullo consule designatos, cum musarum, poetarum, Bacchantum ac deorum -imaginibus, quæ mihi nullam aliam ingerunt speciem, quam quod aliquando -libros contexerint, quibus parerga adluderent. Sunt præterea quædam -imperatorum inferioris ævi simulacra tabellis eburneis incisa, in -quibus nulla cardinum vestigia apparent, ut potius videatur sedes -honorarias decorasse, quam quod diptychorum loco essent, quum præsertim -exterior illorum ornatus superne in acutum desinat; quod a diptychorum -instituto quam maxime abhorret.”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER V.</h2></div> - -<p>About the time when the chair of Ravenna was made, that is, in the -sixth century, sculpture in ivory again sensibly declined. The -figures in Byzantine work of that period begin to be characterised -by sharpness and meagreness of form, and lengthiness of proportion; -in the heads, however, we yet find a good expression; and especially -in representations of our Lord dignity and resignation. The costume -also gradually became more and more covered with ornaments and jewels; -although the ancient classical robes were still copied, and apostles -were clothed in togas, or the virgin in a chlamys and tunic, or the -magi in Phrygian caps.</p> - -<p>Troubles, moreover, arose, and about the year 750 there sprang up in -the east very bitter theological quarrels, especially having reference -to the lawfulness of the use of images, not only in churches but for -private devotion. The spirit of Mahometanism, strictly and dogmatically -condemning without distinction, whether in sculpture or in paintings, -all representations of the deity and of man, first shown in the near -neighbourhood of the Holy Land, spread rapidly from one country to -another. The Christian iconoclasts of Constantinople, even if they did -not follow the heresy of Mahomet in this matter to its fullest extent, -at least equalled it in hatred of all holy images and sacred sculpture, -and in the severity with which they persecuted the workers and -purchasers of such works. Towards the middle of the eighth century the -power and influence of these fanatics reached their height, and with Leo -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> -the Isaurian on the throne received the fullest support which an -emperor could give. We must attribute to the rage of the iconoclasts, -indiscriminating in its fury, not only the destruction of Christian -monuments and sculpture (and especially those which were said to be -miraculous, ἀχειροποιηταί,) but of many of the most important -and most valuable remains, then still existing, of the best periods of -ancient Greek art. This persecution continued for more than a hundred -years, until the reign of Basil the Macedonian, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 867; who, -by permitting again the right use of images, restored to the arts their -free exercise.</p> - -<p>In consequence of these excesses in the east the west of Europe -gained greatly. Not only works of art were brought by fugitives from -Constantinople to France, Germany, and other countries, thus furnishing -models from which copies could be multiplied and a better taste -introduced, but the workmen and artists themselves, driven into exile, -came and were hospitably received and founded everywhere new schools of -art. Charlemagne especially, too wise a prince to overlook the certain -benefits and advantages which were thus offered, liberally patronised -the strangers and gave them his assistance and protection everywhere.</p> - -<p>Some writers of great authority upon paintings have said that the -iconoclast emigration did not much influence art in Rome and Italy. The -Roman artists, as shown in the few mosaics which remain, “trod the path -of decline, independent in their weakness. To the faults which had been -confirmed by centuries of existence, others were superadded. To absence -of composition, of balance in distribution and connection between -figures, were added neglect and emptiness of form, a general sameness -of feature, and the total disappearance of relief by shadow. Still the -reminiscence of antique feeling remained in certain types, in a sort -of dignity of expression and attitude, and in breadth of draperies, -which, though defined by parallel lines, were still massive.” Crowe -and Cavalcaselle, from whom the quotation is taken, may not intend, -however, to include in this statement sculptures in ivory. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figleft"> - <a name="P046" id="P046"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_046.jpg" alt="Ivory Vase." width="200" height="489" /> -</div> - -<p>There are still remaining, in the collections both at home and abroad, -some examples of carved ivories from the fifth century to the time -of Charlemagne. The woodcut represents one of the most important and -remarkable works known of this period. Although there is a great -similarity of style between this ivory and a silver vase of the sixth -century in the Blacas collection, in the British museum, there is still -difficulty in suggesting even a probable date, which can scarcely be -later than the early part of the seventh century; nor is it more easy -to speculate on the original use of the vase. A loose ring, cut from -the same block of ivory, surrounds the foot; and, if the vase was made -for some very sacred purpose, we may suppose that the ring carried -a thin veil to be thrown over the whole for further security and -reverence. The cover is of later date, and where the ivory has cracked -there is a repair excellently done by some mediæval jeweller with a -small gold chain which extends from the rim downwards about two inches. -This piece is in the British museum.</p> - -<p>Unlike the vase, which is good both in design and workmanship, the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> -early ivories of western Europe are rude and many of them even -barbarous in manner and workmanship; but about the year 800 a sure -result of the influx of Greek artists is to be seen, and the style -advanced with a very evident progression, subject only to a short -interval of deterioration at the end of the tenth century. After this -brief check there followed a distinct improvement, impressed, however, -with a feeling and type peculiar to the eleventh and first half of the -twelfth century. We find the figures calm and, as it were, collected -in design, but placed in stiff and unnatural positions, the draperies -close and clinging and broken up into numerous little folds, ornamented -also still more largely than before with small jewels or beads. The -school of the lower Rhine kept itself to a certain extent free from -these faults; their figures preserved more movement, their modelling -was better, their draperies more natural and disposed with greater art.</p> - -<p>Christianity spread gradually though slowly over western Europe from -the age of Charlemagne, and, as it spread, ivory was used more and -more for the decoration of ecclesiastical furniture, especially of -books and reliquaries. The adaptation of the large tablets given by -the consuls has been already spoken of: and not only were the old -diptychs still remaining in the seventh or eighth centuries applied -to their new purpose for the public services of the church, but many -new diptychs must also have been provided. Pyxes for the consecrated -and unconsecrated wafers, retables or ornamented screens to be placed -upon altars, holy water buckets, handles for flabella, episcopal combs, -croziers, and pastoral staffs were made in fast increasing numbers.</p> - -<p>There is ample evidence, not only from examples which have been -preserved down to our own times but from contemporary writers, of -the large extent to which the employment of ivory reached in the -Carlovingian period, from the end of the eighth to the middle of the -tenth century. Eginhard, writing to his son, sends him a coffer made -by a contemporary artist, enriched with columns of ivory after the -antique style; Hildoward, bishop of Cambrai, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 790, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> -orders a diptych of ivory to be made for him in the twelfth year of his -pontificate: an inventory of Louis le Débonnaire, in 823, mentions a -diptych of ivory, a statuette, and a coffer; his son-in-law, count -Everard, leaves in his will writing tablets, a chalice and coffer, an -evangelisterium ornamented with bas-reliefs, and a sword and belt with -similar decorations, all of ivory; Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, in -845, orders covers to be made for the works of St. Jerome with plaques -of ivory, and also for a sacramentary and lectionary.</p> - -<p>Several of the most important of the existing examples of this famous -Carlovingian school are named in Labarte’s useful book: among them, -especially, the diptych preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of -Milan, and of which a plate is given in the album, <i>pl.</i> xiii.; the -two plaques which form the cover of the sacramentary of Metz, now in -the public library at Paris; and a bas-relief of a book of gospels at -Tongres, in the diocese of Liége, remarkable for the simplicity of the -composition, the soberness of its ornamentation and correctness of -design, all of which qualities are frequent characteristics of the work -of the ninth century.</p> - -<p>Georgius says that the very ancient <i>tabulæ eburneæ</i> which he saw in -the church of St. Riquier in Picardy (<i>Centulensi thesauro</i>), and -those given to his church by Riculfus, bishop of Elne, in Narbonne, -<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 915, were sacred diptychs.</p> - -<p>Mr. Oldfield gives an excellent selection of Carlovingian ivories in -his catalogue of the casts of the Arundel society, classes 4, 5, and 6. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P049" id="P049"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_049_a.jpg" alt="Three-panel Book Cover." width="600" height="326" /> - <img src="images/i_p_049_b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="320" /> - <img src="images/i_p_049_c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="340" /> -</div> - -<p>In the same period we must also place, contrary to the judgment of -Du Sommerard, who would suggest an earlier date, a book cover in the -public library at Amiens, carved with the baptism of Clovis and with -two miracles of Remigius. On the next page is an engraving of this -plaque from Lacroix’s book on the arts of the middle ages. In the -scene of the baptism of Clovis, which occupies the lowest of the three -compartments, the dove is seen descending upon the head of the king -with the famous ampulla and sacred oil used in the coronations of the -sovereigns of France.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> -It is scarcely necessary perhaps to remark that the holy water buckets -above mentioned, <a href="#Page_47">p. 47</a>, are not to be confounded with -stoups; the one was carried by an acolyte in attendance on the priest, the other -fixed against the wall at the entrance of the church. That <i>situlæ</i> or -buckets were made of ivory, and for the especial purpose just named, is -certain from an example preserved in the treasury of the cathedral of -Milan, which is engraved in the appendix to the third volume of Gori’s -Thesaurus. This <i>situla</i> is richly carved with scripture subjects and -round the upper border is incised the legend,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Vates Ambrosii Gotfredus dat tibi sancte,</span> -<span class="i2">Vas veniente sacram spargendum Cæsare lympham.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Gotfred was archbishop of Milan in the year 975.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2></div> - -<p>As time went on, crucifixes, statuettes, triptychs, diptychs, and -other portable helps to private devotion were made in ivory in great -quantity; a consequence probably of the repeated travels of men to -the east during the crusades. The term triptych for religious tablets -composed of a centre piece and of one wing on each side, sufficient -in width when folded to cover the centre, is commonly used in the -description of various collections of ivories, because, whether or -not exactly right, it is perfectly well understood and fully explains -itself. Indeed, although triptych or pentaptych or polyptych may, in -strictness and in its first signification, mean only (as it might -happen) three or five or many leaves fastened together on one side by -hinges or threads like the leaves of a book, yet the name triptych may -be fairly applied to tablets, two of which hinge on the outside edges -of the opposite sides of the third, and are intended to fold across and -cover it. Where these wings are made, in order to surround the centre, -of more than two pieces (and in such cases they generally inclose and -protect also some larger carving or a statuette) the name shrine seems -to be more appropriate and better to describe the object.</p> - -<p>Triptychs are spoken of more than once by Anastasius, the author of -the Liber Pontificalis. For example, in his life of pope Hadrian, -<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 772, he mentions one which had in the centre the face of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> -our Saviour, and on each wing images of angels. It is greatly to be -regretted that Anastasius is so miserably concise in his description of -the marvellous works of art which he enumerates. We look in vain for -any details or for the name of a single artist.</p> - -<p>The use of ivory in the middle ages, from the eighth to the beginning -of the sixteenth century, was not confined to church and pious -purposes. It was adopted for numberless things of common life. Not for -common people perhaps, because its value and rarity were too great; but -for the daily use of wealthy persons. Caskets and coffers, horns, hilts -of weapons, mirror cases, toilet combs, writing-tablets, book-covers, -chessmen and draughtsmen, were either made entirely of ivory, walrus -and elephant, or were largely inlaid and ornamented with it. Examples -of works of each of these kinds are to be found in the South Kensington -museum; and with regard to some of them it is necessary to make a few -remarks.</p> - -<p>First, to take caskets. The most beautiful of these is no. 146, a -work of the fourteenth century. This is richly decorated on the top -and the four sides with subjects taken from romances, then well known -and commonly read. Other caskets may be noticed, nos. 216 and 2440, -which are of earlier date; and nos. 301 and 10, of Spanish work in a -remarkable style, half Saracenic, carrying down to the eleventh or -twelfth century the peculiar treatment and ornamentation shown in the -small admirably executed round box of the caliph Mostanser Billah, no. -217. There are many plaques in the same collection which probably once -formed portions of coffers or caskets; some of them reaching as far -back as the ninth century; but it is not possible to say with certainty -whether they were made originally for that purpose or not.</p> - -<p>The most curious and perhaps the most valuable old English casket -existing is in the British museum, which it will be well to notice in -this place before we pass to other examples in the South Kensington -collection. Engravings (kindly lent by Mr. Franks) of two portions of -it are also given.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> -This casket is of the eighth century, nine inches long, seven and -a half in width, and a trifle more than five inches in height. The -material is not ivory, not even of the walrus, but of the bone of a -whale. Unfortunately it is imperfect and in parts damaged; of the -fourth side only a small piece remains. The cover and the sides are -richly carved in sharp and clear relief with mythical and scripture -subjects; and each panel has a runic inscription within a broad border, -except the top on which one word only is carved, “Ægili.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P053" id="P053"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_053.jpg" alt="Men in Armor." width="600" height="237" /> -</div> - -<p>The cover has, in a single compartment, men in armour attacking a house -which is defended by a man with a bow and arrow; this panel has been -supposed to refer to some local circumstance, and the name Ægili is -to be read with the two words upon the fourth side, meaning “suffers -deceit” or “treachery.” One side has the myth of Romulus and Remus: -the two infants with the wolf in the middle; on either side shepherds -kneeling, and a legend explaining the subject: “Romulus and Remulus -[Remus] twain brothers outlay [were exposed] close together; a she wolf -fed them in Rome city.” The front of the casket has two compartments; -in one, the giving up the head of St. John the Baptist whose body lies -stretched upon the ground; the other has the offering of the wise men, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> -with the word “magi” in runes above them. On the back is carved, -above, the storming of Jerusalem and the flight of the Jews, as -explained by the inscription engraved partly in runes, partly in -Latin, “Here fight Titus and the Jews. Here fly from Jerusalem -its inhabitants.” Below are two other subjects; the meaning of -them very obscure: to one is attached the word “doom,” to the -other “hostage;” both in runes. Round the whole casket an -inscription is carved, commemorating the taking of the whale -which supplied the bone. This has been translated,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">“The whale’s bones from the fishes flood</span> -<span class="i4">I lifted on Fergen Hill:</span> -<span class="i4">He was gashed to death in his gambols,</span> -<span class="i4">As a-ground he swam in the shallows.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P054" id="P054"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_054.jpg" alt="Offering of the Magi." width="600" height="276" /> -</div> - -<p>The name Fergen occurs in a charter of the eleventh century, and has -been identified with the present Ferry-hill, in the county of Durham.</p> - -<p>The history of the casket is very short, and cannot be better stated -than in the words of Mr. Stephens from whose book on Runic monuments, a -work of much interest, the above description is abridged. He says that -it “is one of the costliest treasures of English art now in existence. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> -As a specimen of Northumbrian work and of Northumbrian folk-speech, -it is doubly precious. But we know nothing of its history. Probably, -as the gift of some English priest or layman, it may have lain for -centuries in the treasury of one of the French churches, whence it came -into the hands of a well-known dealer in antiquities in Paris. There it -was happily seen and purchased, some years ago, by our distinguished -archæologist, Aug. W. Franks, Esq. The price given for it was very -great.” The casket has been most liberally presented by Mr. Franks to -the British museum, and the nation (once more to quote Mr. Stephens) -“is now in possession of one of the greatest rarities in Europe.”</p> - -<p>There are several other coffers or caskets in the South Kensington -collection especially worthy of remark. Among them the Veroli casket, -no. 216, so called from having been long preserved in the treasury of -the cathedral of Veroli, near Rome, from whence it was obtained in -1861. This is the most perfect example known of a peculiar style of -art which prevailed in some parts of Italy from the latter part of the -eleventh to the end of the twelfth century. At first sight works of -this kind might almost be attributed to a time as early as the third -or fourth century, the imitation of the classic mode of treatment, as -well as the nature often of the subjects themselves, favouring such a -supposition. There seems to be little doubt, however, that they must -all be placed at a much later date.</p> - -<p>No one is more entitled to be listened to on any disputed question -about the date of ivory carvings than Mr. Nesbitt. He tells us, in -a very able memoir of St. Peter’s chair at Rome, printed for the -Society of antiquaries (speaking on this very point), that he agrees -with padre Garrucci in the opinion that works like the Veroli casket -date from about the eleventh century. “They are all characterised by -certain peculiarities and mannerisms. Among these are an exaggerated -slenderness of limb, a marked prominence of the knee-joints, and a -way of rendering the hair by a mass of small knobs. The subjects -are generally taken from some mythological story, and some work of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> -classical art has, in many cases, evidently been copied by the ivory -carver; but the story is often misunderstood and misrepresented, and -the movement of the figures copied with so much exaggeration, as often -to become ridiculous. Animals are generally represented with great -truth and spirit, and in very natural attitudes. The execution is -usually remarkably neat and sharp, and the state of preservation of the -ivory very good.” Caskets of this style and date almost always have the -panels surrounded by the same kind of border filled with rosettes.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P056" id="P056"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_056.jpg" alt="Ivory Casket." width="500" height="511" /> -</div> - -<p>The ivories inserted in the so-called Chair of St. Peter, just referred -to, are of great importance upon this question. The woodcut shows, in a -general way, its present condition and the arrangement of the carvings, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> -which represent the labours of Hercules: and the student should read -Mr. Nesbitt’s paper, already quoted from.</p> - -<p>There is a very curious plaque in the British museum which is also of -value with regard to the date of such works as the Veroli casket. It -has been perhaps a book-cover, perhaps a panel of a reliquary. The -chief subject is Christ in glory, carved in the stiff Byzantine manner -of the tenth or eleventh century; and in the lower left-hand corner -is a group of boys, having the peculiarities of style just mentioned. -Mr. Nesbitt notices another example which may be found engraved in the -Thesaurus of Gori: “a tablet in the museum at Berlin, on which Christ, -attended by angels, is represented in the usual Byzantine style, while -below are the forty saints in very natural attitudes, and with much -truth and skill.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P057" id="P057"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_057.jpg" alt="Lid of Small Casket." width="400" height="267" /> -</div> - -<p>The woodcut shows the lid of a small casket of, perhaps, the eleventh -century: Spanish work, during the period of the occupation by the -Moors; and there are frequent references to ivory coffers, caskets, and -boxes, in inventories and other documents of the fourteenth, fifteenth, -and sixteenth centuries. In 1502 the following entry is among the privy -purse expenses of Elizabeth of York: “Item, the same day [the 28th day -of May] to maistres Alianor Johns for money by hir geven in reward to -a servaunt of the lady Lovell for bringing a chest of iverey with the -passion of our Lord thereon: iij <i>s</i> iiij <i>d</i>.” This lady Lovell was -probably the wife of Sir Thomas Lovell, treasurer of the household, and -one of the executors of the will of Henry the seventh.</p> - -<p>Six or seven caskets are named among the treasures of Lincoln cathedral -in the year 1536: two “with images round about.” In 1518 there belonged -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> -to the church of St. Mary Outwich, London, “a box of eivery, garnyshede -with silver” according to “the enventorye of all the howrnaments” of -that parish: and, “item, a box of yvory with xj relyks therein.” In -1534, “a litill box of ivery bound with gymes [gimmals] of silver” -was among the goods of the guild of the blessed Virgin, at Boston in -Lincolnshire. Nearly a hundred years before there was “a lytill yvory -cofyr with relekys” among the goods belonging to the church of St. Mary -Hill, London.</p> - -<p>Going back to earlier times—and not to quote from French or German -documents which have been referred to by foreign writers—we find in -the inventory of the treasures belonging to St. Paul’s cathedral in -1295, “Pixis eburnea fracta in fundo, continens unam parvam pixidem -eburneam vacuam.” “Item, duæ coffræ eburneæ modo vacuæ.” Other caskets -are mentioned; one, small and beautiful, with lock and key and silver -clamps; and several pyxes, containing relics.</p> - -<p>So, again, there were in the treasury at Durham, in 1383, “an ivory -casket, containing a vestment of St. John the Baptist;” “a small coffer -of ivory, containing a robe of St. Cuthbert;” and other “ivory caskets -with divers relics.”</p> - -<p>Caskets and coffers of this period were not uncommonly decorated with -small painted medallions of coats of arms, or of figures, as in the -woodcut on the next page. Two examples are in the South Kensington -museum, nos. 1618 and 369.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P059" id="P059"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_059.jpg" alt="Small Ivory Pyx (case)." width="500" height="390" /> -</div> - -<p>There are in many collections ivory boxes of round shape, which are -commonly set down as having been used for preserving the consecrated -host in tabernacles, or for carrying it to the sick. Frequently, -these may have been originally made for that purpose; but it is -not easy always to determine the fact exactly. The word Pyx in its -earliest meaning included any small box or case, and particularly for -holding ointments or spices; and often, when we find the word used in -inventories of the middle ages, it is further explained as containing -relics or other things. Thus, there was in the Durham treasury in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> -fourteenth century “item, a tooth of St. Gengulphus, good for the -falling sickness, in a small ivory pyx”; and in St. Paul’s cathedral, -about the same time, two ivory pyxes, one containing relics of St. -Augustine, the other of St. Agnes. Nor is the size a sure guide to -determine the doubt: although by many people all small round boxes -of ivory would seem to be understood as having been certainly used -for preserving the eucharist. Du Cange quotes from Leo Ostiensis, “in -pyxidulis reliquiæ sanctorum reconditæ sunt.” On the other hand, there -can be no question that for many centuries, and more especially in the -earlier ages, round boxes of ivory were in constant and general use for -preserving and carrying the Sacrament. Thus we see included amongst the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> -property belonging to the church of St. Faith, under St. Paul’s, “una -cupa cuprea deaurata, cum pyxide eburnea sine serura interius clausa, -in qua reponatur eucharistia.” From Waddingham, in Norfolk, the queen’s -commissioners report in 1565 that they have destroyed “one pyx of -yvorie, broken in peces.” The following also may be quoted from the -will of king Henry the seventh, though the material is not specified: -“Forasmuch as we have often to our inwarde displeasure, seen in diverse -churches of oure Reame, the holy Sacrament kept in ful simple and -inhonest pixes, we have commaunded to cause to be made furthwith pixes, -in a greate nombre, after the fashion of a pixe which we have caused to -be delyvered to theym, etc.”</p> - -<p>When, therefore, we find a small round box which is ornamented with -subjects from the Gospel or with divine types and emblems or the like, -we may safely call it a pyx, in its proper ecclesiastical meaning. -When an example is carved with subjects relating to any saint it may -or may not have been made for a sacramental pyx: it may indeed have -been changed from its first use as a reliquary and afterwards employed -for the more sacred use. Of this kind, perhaps, is the very curious -round box of the sixth century with subjects from the life of St. -Mennas, exhibited in 1871 by Mr. Nesbitt at a meeting of the Society of -antiquaries; which is further remarkable as being the earliest known -representation on an ivory box of events in the life of a saint.</p> - -<p>Du Cange gives references to three English provincial synods of the -thirteenth century, as if ivory pyxes were distinctly ordered by their -canons. But it is not so. Order is merely given that the Sacrament -should be reserved and carried to the sick in proper pyxes: “in pyxide -munda et honesta;” again, “circa collum suum in theca honesta, pyxidem -deferat.” But the synod of Exeter in 1287 is more precise and to our -present purpose, which orders the priest to carry the eucharist to the -sick “in pyxide argentea vel eburnea.”</p> - -<p>We find from inventories printed by Dugdale in the Monasticon that in -the fourteenth century, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1384, there were in the treasury -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> -of St. George’s, Windsor, “una pixis nobilis eburnea, garnita cum -luminibus argenteis deauratis,” etc.: and “una pixis de eburneo -gemellato argenteo, cujus coopertorium frangitur.” In Lincoln -cathedral, in 1557, “A round pix of ivory, having a ring of silver;” -and two others, both of ivory with similar bands. Four other ivory -pyxes are named in the earlier inventory of the same cathedral, before -the spoliation in 1536.</p> - -<p>Two other very important and beautiful caskets, at South Kensington, -are no. 176 and no. 263. The subject of the first of these, the life -of the blessed Virgin, is unusual, although that may probably be not -because it was unusual at the time but because very few examples have -been preserved. The panels of the other are most richly carved and in -the best style of the fourteenth century with scenes from the life of -St. Margaret.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2></div> - -<p>The famous romances of the middle ages supplied endless subjects for -sculptors in ivory as well as for the painter, the illuminator, and -the enameller. They may be referred, in general, to four classes, of -which the first and the fourth seem to have been the favourite sources -from which were taken the decorations of caskets and mirror cases. They -were— 1. Those relating to Arthur and the knights of the round table. -2. Those connected with Charlemagne and his paladins. 3. The Spanish -and Portuguese romances, which chiefly contain the adventures of Amadis -and Palmerin. 4. What may be termed classical romances, which represent -the heroes of antiquity in the guise of romantic fiction: such, for -example, as the romance of Virgil, of Jason, or of Alexander. To these -may be added one more, the romance of the Rose, an allegorical poem -which was probably more widely read than any other of the time. From -this, realising an allegory, came the frequent subject of the siege of -the castle of Love. Many of the romances were written both in prose -and verse: three splendid volumes, French manuscripts of the beginning -of the fourteenth century, in the British museum, contain the Saint -Graal and Lancelot du Lac. The histories of Merlin, Perceval, Meliadus, -Tristan, and Perceforest were also amongst the most popular.</p> - -<p>The French manuscripts just referred to (<i>additional</i>, 10,292) are -full of illuminations, some illustrating in an especial way the carvings on -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> -ivories of the same date. Another, of the same character and of like -interest and value, is in the Bodleian: the romance of Alexander.</p> - -<p>The romance of the Rose was a dull and monotonous poem of perhaps -ten thousand lines, from which for nearly three hundred years its -readers, if they looked at it with pious and religious eyes, learnt -their maxims of morality, of science, and philosophy. Others, again, -read it as men now read Ovid’s Art of love and saw nothing of its -mysticism or scholastic subtleties. It was written somewhere about -the year 1300, and, with the omission of some five thousand lines in -the middle, Chaucer’s translation is very accurate and good. It was -frequently moralised: in France, by Clement Marot; and in England -(perhaps from the French also) long before, by Grosseteste, bishop -of Lincoln. These made the Rose to be the Virgin Mary, and the towers -and the defences of the castle are the four cardinal virtues, and -holy chastity, and buxomness, and meekness. The castle itself is thus -described:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“This is the castel of love and lisse,</span> -<span class="i4">Of solace, of socour, of joye, and blisse,</span> -<span class="i4">Of hope, of hele, of sikernesse,</span> -<span class="i4">And ful of alle swetnesse.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Among the many fictions which were founded on the traditions of king -Arthur none were more common or better known than those which related -the love adventures of Lancelot and queen Guinevre; and of Tristan and -Isoude, the queen of Mark king of Cornwall. Subjects from both these -tales are frequent on ivory caskets and mirror cases. The disgrace -of Aristotle comes from the romance of Alexander; and from that of -Virgil we have the poet in his mediæval character of magician. Both the -poet and the philosopher, in spite of their great age and wisdom, are -made fools of by the ladies of the story. One is induced to carry his -mistress on his back, the other is hauled up in a basket to a window -and left there dangling at sunrise before all the people.</p> - -<p>We must not leave caskets without mention of the very graceful open -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> -work with which the panels of many of them were often decorated, and -which have come down to us (speaking generally) only in parts or -fragments. Two woodcuts are given here, full size, from a series of -small panels, formerly in the Meyrick collection, which is, unhappily, -now dispersed.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P064A" id="P064A"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_064_a.jpg" alt="Ivory Panels From Caskets." width="600" height="338" /> -</div> -<hr class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P064B" id="P064B"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_064_b.jpg" alt="Ivory Panels From Caskets." width="600" height="277" /> -</div> - -<p>The South Kensington museum is rich also in the marriage coffers, as -they are commonly called, of Italian work of about the fourteenth -century. Coffers of this kind, such, for example, as the small casket -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> -(in the two woodcuts) no. 2563, were seldom executed in ivory: almost -always in bone of fine quality, sometimes nearly equal to ivory in -delicacy of grain and colour. It is probably owing to their general use -in Italy at that time that ivory could not be obtained in sufficient -quantity, except at great cost; for the workmanship is frequently that -of artists who must have been of the highest eminence as sculptors. One -of the most interesting of the marriage caskets in the South Kensington -museum is no. 5624, formerly in the Soulages collection, of which there -is almost a duplicate in the public library at Paris.</p> - -<p>Lenormant, in the Trésor de glyptique, has given three plates of the -Paris casket and says also that another, exactly like it was (when he -wrote) in the possession of M. D’Assy, of Meaux.</p> - -<p>The largest casket of this kind in England is in the possession of Mr. -Julian Goldsmid. It is in excellent preservation and well finished in -every respect. The size is certainly unusual: two feet three inches -in height, two feet and a half long, and two feet broad. The separate -bones which ornament it are filled with shields and armorial bearings; -ten on the front and back, seven on each side. The mouldings at the -top are richly decorated with bold scrolls of foliage and animals. -The top of the coffer and the side mouldings are marquetry, inlaid in -diamond-shaped quarries with large pieces of bone.</p> - -<p>A coffer of the same school and date, not much less in size and of much -higher quality and workmanship, is in private possession at Leamington, -in Warwickshire. The sides are filled with small statuettes admirably -executed, and perhaps giving the history of some poem or romance. This -is, probably, the best example of Italian marriage coffers in this country.</p> - -<p>M. Lenormant also refers, as of the same school, to the magnificent -Retable de Poissy, in the museum of the Louvre, of which Sir D. Wyatt -has given the following description: “It was made for Jean de Berry -brother of Charles V. and for his second wife, Jeanne, countess of -Auvergne. They are represented on it kneeling, and accompanied by their -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> -patron saints. It is no less than seven feet six inches wide, and -is one mass of carving. It consists of three arcades, surmounted by -canopies, and supported by angle pilasters and a base. The subjects -are taken from the New Testament and from the legends of the saints. -It is believed [there can, rather, be no doubt] that it is of Italian -workmanship, the little figures having much Giottesque character in -their treatment.” This famous retable is, like the marriage caskets, -carved in bone.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P066" id="P066"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_066.jpg" alt="Jean de Berry and his Patron Saints." width="500" height="414" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> -There is no finer specimen of this style and work than the beautiful -predella, formerly in the Gigli-Campana collection, now at South -Kensington, no. 7611. It is, unfortunately, not perfect; the centre -panel is a later addition and the original piece has been lost. It is -possible that there were at one time also other smaller panels. The -woodcut shows well the general style of these carvings in bone.</p> - -<p>The French and English caskets of the fourteenth and fifteenth -centuries were frequently ornamented, like the mirror cases, the -combs, and the writing-tablets, with domestic scenes. We have ladies -and gentlemen sometimes represented playing at chess or draughts or -similar games; sometimes riding, or hawking, or hunting; sometimes -in gardens with birds and dogs; sometimes dancing. Subjects of this -character are of great importance and interest, no less valuable than -illuminations in manuscripts, as showing the dress and the armour and, -to a considerable extent, the manners and customs of the day.</p> - -<p>One other class of subjects may be noticed which supplied the -decorations of caskets of the fifteenth century, and which is found -occasionally on panels of cabinets or the larger kind of household -furniture; namely, morris dancers and women playing on musical -instruments. Generally, carvings of this description are found upon -bone: two examples are in the South Kensington museum, no. 4660 and no. -6747. There was also one in the Meyrick collection, of which a woodcut -is given on the next page.</p> - -<p>Domestic subjects are of more common occurrence upon combs and mirror -cases than on caskets; and, upon the former, scenes also from early -legends; occasionally, some circumstance from Scripture. Of Scripture -subjects the message from David to Bathsheba is the most frequent; -probably, because Bathsheba is represented generally in her bath. There -are two examples in the South Kensington museum alone: no. 2143 and no. -468. It is not difficult to understand why scenes from the old story of -the fountain of Youth should have been a favourite subject. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> - -<p>It may be observed that the garden scenes on ivory combs remind us -often of the beautiful painting of the “Dream of life” by Orcagna, in -the Campo santo, at Pisa.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P068" id="P068"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_068.jpg" alt="Cover of Mirror Case." width="500" height="564" /> -</div> - -<p>Combs of ivory and bone are frequently found in tombs of the Roman and -Anglo-saxon period in England; and before that time in British graves. -They are often tinged and coloured green, from lying in contact with -metal objects. A very curious one, in the shape of a hand, was mixed -with the remains buried in a Pict’s house in the north of Scotland; -a double tooth-comb was found on the site of the Roman station at -Chesterford, in Essex; and (to name no more of this kind, for the -specimens are very many) an ivory comb was among the relics in the tomb -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> -said to be of St. Cuthbert, at Durham. Mr. Raine also prints an -inventory (dated 1383) of relics at Durham, among which are the comb of -Malachias the archbishop, the comb of St. Boysil the priest, and the -ivory comb of St. Dunstan. Somewhat later than this date is an entry -in the register of the cathedral of Glasgow, where a precious burse is -mentioned with the combs of St. Kentigern and St. Thomas of Canterbury.</p> - -<p>A very curious comb, but much mutilated, is preserved in the library -of the Society of antiquaries. It was exhibited in 1764 and engraved -in the 8th vol. of the Archæologia. The statement is that it was found -deeply buried under a street in Aberdeen, and supposed to have been -lost there in the time of Edward III. who burnt the city. But the type -of the ornaments upon it is of an earlier character than that date.</p> - -<p>The comb given by queen Theodolinda at the end of the sixth century to -the church of Monza is still kept.</p> - -<p>This last would be a ceremonial comb, used formerly by a bishop -before celebrating high mass or before other great functions, and -included among the vestments and ceremonial ornaments of a bishop of -England down to the reign of Edward the sixth. “Tobalia et pecten ad -pectinandum” were ordered to be provided for the consecration of a -bishop elect, in the Sarum pontifical. One of the earliest of these -combs now known to exist is in the treasury of the cathedral of Sens, -and said to be of the sixth century. Another, English and of the -eleventh century, is in the British museum. It is carved in open work -with men and interlacing scroll ornament. Unhappily, it is not perfect. -A woodcut is given on the next page of this very important ivory.</p> - -<p>Another, richly carved with subjects from the gospels, is said to be -preserved at Hardwick court, in Gloucestershire. Such ceremonial combs -are often mentioned in church inventories and other ecclesiastical -documents of the middle ages. Seven or eight are specified as belonging -to St. Paul’s cathedral in the year 1222: three large, three small; one -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> -“pecten pulchrum” the gift of John de Chishulle; and three others; -all of ivory. There were as many in the treasury of the cathedral of -Canterbury, in 1315.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P070" id="P070"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_070.jpg" alt="Ivory Comb." width="350" height="486" /> -</div> - -<p>When the supposed tomb of St. Cuthbert was opened in 1827 it has been -already said that there was found, among other relics deposited with -the body of the saint, an ivory comb. This comb has a double row of -teeth, divided by a broad plain band perforated in the middle with a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> -round hole for the finger. In size it measures six inches and a quarter -by five inches. The historian of the proceedings on that occasion says -that the comb is probably of the eleventh century, but he gives no -reason; and if the grave were really the grave of St. Cuthbert it is -almost certain that the comb was his and used by him, ceremonially, as -bishop.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P071" id="P071"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_071.jpg" alt="Ivory Comb." width="600" height="357" /> -</div> - -<p>The examples in the South Kensington collection were all made for -private use, and the woodcut represents an Italian specimen, no. -2144. English family inventories from the fourteenth to the sixteenth -century, occasionally include combs of that kind. To name one only: -the list of the effects of Roger de Mortimer at Wigmore castle, in the -reign of Edward the second, specifies “j pecten de ebore.”</p> - -<p>One half only of the mirror cases, speaking generally, has been -preserved. It is very rare to find both covers. Originally, the mirror -was fastened to one side, and the other slid over it or was unscrewed. -No example of both parts is in the South Kensington collection, and -only one (it is believed) in the British museum. People, as time went -on, probably thought that an unornamented side was not worth taking -care of.</p> - -<p>We find the subjects sculptured on mirror cases to be almost always -scenes from domestic life, or from some poem or romance. Naturally it -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> -would be so. The only exceptions among all the examples at South -Kensington are two, on one of which is a representation of the Almighty -Father and the dead Christ, on the other the message of David to -Bathsheba. The rest, ten or twelve in number, have hunting and garden -scenes, or players at chess, or assaults on the castle of Love. So it -is also with the large collection of ivory mirror cases in the British -museum.</p> - -<p>The use of small mirrors is to be traced to the earliest historic -period, and to be found among almost every people of the world. In the -most ancient times they were commonly of metal; and it is believed that -none, except of that material, has yet been found in any tomb of Egypt, -or Greece, or Italy. These, unlike the mediæval mirror, had generally -flat and broad handles, and the backs were often incised with various -designs, mythological subjects, gods and goddesses, or from stories of -the poets.</p> - -<p>Many metallic mirrors have been found in Roman burial-places in -England. Several are described in modern archæological publications; -one especially curious, found in 1823 at Coddenham in Suffolk. This -is important as an early example in respect of the smallness of its -size and because it is enclosed in a case. It “is a portable trinket, -consisting of a thin circular bronze case, divided horizontally into -two nearly equal portions, which fit one into the other; and, being -opened, it presents a convex mirror in each face of the interior.” The -diameter is scarcely more than two inches, and on one side is the head -of the emperor Nero.</p> - -<p>Anglo-saxon mirrors have seldom been found. Two, both discovered in a -barrow near Sandwich, are engraved in the <i>Nenia Britannica</i>. Mirrors -were nevertheless commonly used by ladies at that time; and there is a -letter preserved in Bede from pope Boniface IV. to Ethelberga, queen of -Edwin of Northumbria in 625, wherein he requests her acceptance of an -ivory comb and a silver mirror. Combs and mirrors are frequent on the -sculptured stones of Scotland; they occur on more than fifty, according -to a table given in the preface to the admirable work published by the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> -Spalding club; and seven stones have representations of mirror cases.</p> - -<p>Dr. Stuart in a short paper upon these sculptures, read before the -International congress of prehistoric archæology in 1868, assigns to -them a date not later than the seventh, eighth, or ninth century, and -believes that the figures on the rude pillars may be of even an earlier -date, before Christian times.</p> - -<p>It is not known when glass covered at the back with lead was introduced -in place of the earlier metallic mirror. Probably some of the cases -which are in various collections were the covers of the new material. -John Peckham, an Englishman, wrote in the middle of the thirteenth -century a treatise on optics in which he speaks not only of steel -mirrors but often of glass mirrors, and adds that when the lead was -scraped off the back no image was reflected.</p> - -<p>There is, or perhaps was 150 years ago, a curious coat of arms in a -painted window of the fourteenth century, in the chancel of the church -of Thame in Oxfordshire, on which was blazoned a mirror in a case with -a handle attached to it. “He beareth <i>argent</i>,” says Guillim in his -Display of heraldry, “a tyger passant, regardant, gazing in a mirror -or looking-glass, all <i>proper</i>.... Some report, that those who rob the -tiger of her young, use a policy to detain their dam from following -them, by casting sundry looking-glasses in the way, whereat she useth -long to gaze, etc.”</p> - -<p>Ladies using mirrors at their toilet frequently form a subject for -illustration in fourteenth century manuscripts. These mirrors are -precisely of the usual shape and size of those which have come down to -us in ivory. Several may be seen in the manuscript romance of Lancelot -du Lac in the British museum: in one, a lady lying on a couch holds the -mirror in her hand whilst an attendant dresses her hair with a comb; -in another, she herself uses both mirror and comb. A hundred years -later the same design was engraved on one of a pack of cards, “<i>la -damoiselle</i>,” by “the Master of 1466,” now in the national library at Paris. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> - -<p>Love scenes, as in the etching, or the siege of the castle of Love -are subjects often found on mirror cases. The woodcut on this page is -copied from an example at South Kensington, no. 1617. Another copy of -the same romance of Lancelot, which has been just referred to, has an -illumination of a real assault upon a castle, treated in a similar -manner. Knights place ladders against the wall; the battlements are -defended by the garrison; the attack is made with cross-bows and a -catapult; and men lie dead upon the ground. Another of much interest is -given as “the twelfth battle” in the manuscript in the British museum -so well known as queen Mary’s psalter, written about the year 1320; -in this, women look at the attack over the battlements of the town or -castle.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P074" id="P074"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_074.jpg" alt="Mirror Case: Romance of Lancelot." width="500" height="425" /> -</div> -<hr class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP074" id="FP074"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_074.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="621" /> - <p class="center">IVORY CARVING. CIRCULAR MIRROR COVER.<br /> - DATE 1300-1330. (SOLTIKOFF COLL.) DIAM 5½ in.<br /> - 2.K.M (N<sup>o</sup> 210.65)<span class="ws7">D. JONES <i>FECIT</i>.</span></p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> -<hr class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P075" id="P075"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_075.jpg" alt="Mirror Case: Romance of Lancelot." width="500" height="507" /> -</div> - -<p>Knights tilting, or a tournament, or ladies and gentlemen riding -through woods and preceded by attendants with dogs, are also common -subjects. The contemporary manuscripts illustrate the same design. Both -on the mirror cases and in the illuminations the lady is generally seen -riding astride. Women are so represented more than once in the romance -of Lancelot: for example <i>fol.</i> 120<i>a</i>, and 163<i>a</i>. A queen is riding, -<i>fol.</i> 181<i>b</i>. In queen Mary’s psalter, the treatment on the mirror -cases of people riding is almost exactly repeated, <i>fol.</i> 217; again, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -218<i>b</i>, and 223<i>b</i>. Other examples may be seen in the Bodleian -manuscript of the romance of Alexander, <i>fol.</i> 100 and 130. The same -custom lasted in Lithuania until, at least, the year 1800.</p> - -<p>There is one other ornamental design very common on mirror cases; -people playing at chess or draughts. Margaret Paston writes in the -reign of Richard the third to her husband, and says that at the -Christmas following the death of lord Morley his widow would permit no -amusements in her house, “non dysgysyngs ner harpyng ner lutyng—but -pleying at the tabyllys and schesse.” This brings us to an interesting -and important class of carvings in ivory.</p> - -<p>The date of the introduction of the games of chess and draughts into -Europe, and more particularly among the northern nations and our own -ancestors the Anglo-saxons, is a historical question upon which there -has been great dispute. The game of chess was certainly played at a -very early period in the east, and from thence probably passed through -the Arabs into Greece. There are allusions to chess and chessmen -in many writers before the twelfth century, and these incidental -references are of more value than the positive assertions which later -authors, after the manner of their day, did not hesitate to advance.</p> - -<p>For example Caxton, or rather the author of the “Playe of the Chesse.” -“This playe fonde a phylosopher of thoryent whych was named in -caldee Exerces, for which is as moche to say in englissh as he that -louyth Justyce and mesure.” And this decision was not without due -consideration of the matter; for just before we are told: “Trewe it -is that somme men wene that this play was founden in the tyme of the -bataylles and siege of troye. But that is not so.... After that cam -this playe in the tyme of Alixaunder the grete in to egypt, and so unto -alle the parties toward the south.”</p> - -<p>This treatise on chess is said to have been written nearly two hundred -years before Caxton lived by Jacobus de Casulis, a French Dominican -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> -friar, about 1290. A copy is in the British museum, MS. Harl. 1275; and -it was printed at Milan in 1479.</p> - -<p>Chaucer however, in “the Dreame,” names not Exerces but Athalus as the -supposed inventor of the game, in a passage worth quoting:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“Therewith Fortune saith, check here,</span> -<span class="i4">And mate in the mid point of the checkere,</span> -<span class="i4">With a pawne errant, alas,</span> -<span class="i4">Ful craftier to playe she was</span> -<span class="i4">Than Athalus that made the game,</span> -<span class="i4">First to the chesse, so was his name.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>We may, however, put aside the old guesses of early writers, for -evidence still exists which sets at rest all doubt that chess was known -and played in France in Carlovingian times, and we can understand -easily, therefore, why mediæval poets and romance writers so often -introduced stories about the game. Some ivory chessmen, six in number, -were long preserved in the treasury of the abbey of St. Denis, and -the old tradition was that they were given with the chess-table by -Charlemagne himself. The greater number of the pieces and the table -had been lost for many years, as long ago as 1600. The remainder, -transferred at the revolution from St. Denis, are now in the public -library at Paris. Sir Frederic Madden, in a very able and learned paper -in the Archæologia, says of them: “The dresses and ornaments are all -strictly in keeping with the Greek <i>costume</i> of the ninth century; and -it is impossible not to be convinced, from the general character of the -figures, that these chessmen really belong to the period assigned them -by tradition, and were, in all probability, executed at Constantinople -by an Asiatic Greek, and sent as a present to Charlemagne, either by -the empress Irene, or by her successor Nicephorus.... One thing is -certain, that these chessmen, from their size and workmanship, must -have been designed for no ignoble personage: and, from the decided -style of Greek art, it is a more natural inference to suppose them -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> -presented to Charlemagne by a sovereign of the lower empire, than that -they came to him as an offering from the Moorish princes of Spain, or -even from the caliph Haroun al Raschid, who gave many costly gifts to -the emperor of the west.”</p> - -<p>In the East India museum almost a complete set of ivory chessmen is -preserved, perhaps the most ancient examples now known to exist: -older even than the chessmen from St. Denis. These were found about -twenty years ago, mixed with a quantity of broken pottery, human -bones, and other relics, amongst the ruins of some houses excavated -on the site of the city of Brahmunabad in Sind, which was destroyed -by an earthquake in the eighth century. The pieces are turned; plain -in character, without ornament. Several are in a very fragile state, -having perished in the same way as the Assyrian ivories; and an attempt -should be made to restore, if possible, some of the lost substance. -A few fragments of a chessboard were also found, incised with small -circles, not interlacing. The chessmen and the squares of the board are -black and white: ivory and ebony. The kings and queens are about three -inches high; the pawns one inch; and the other pieces are of different -intermediate heights. Coins were also found of the caliphs of Bagdad, -about <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 750.</p> - -<p>The mediæval chronicles, poems, and romances are full of references -to the game. The anonymous author of the history of Ramsey monastery, -writing about the year 1100, tells us that bishop Ætheric coming late -one night to king Canute found him still playing chess, “regem adhuc -scaccorum ludo longioris tædia noctis relevantem invenit.” Strutt -quotes this passage in his sports and pastimes; and Sir F. Madden adds -the following translation from a French manuscript of the thirteenth -century. It is much to our present purpose, in illustration of the -legends whence the subjects of mirror decorations were derived:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“Orgar was playing at the chess,</span> -<span class="i4">A game he had learned of the Danes;</span> -<span class="i4">With him played the fair Elstrueth,</span> -<span class="i4">A fairer maiden was not under heaven.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> -The story is of a mission from king Edgar to earl Orgar in the tenth century.</p> - -<p>Chaucer again tells us how</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“They dancen and they play at ches and tables;”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p class="no-indent">and in the merchant’s second tale he describes a chessboard:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“So when they had ydyned, the cloth was up ytake,</span> -<span class="i4">A ches ther was ybrought forth; ...</span> -<span class="i4">The ches was all of ivory, the meyne fresh and new,</span> -<span class="i4">Ipulshid and ypikid, of white, asure, and blue.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>A very curious passage occurs in a book originally written in French, -in April 1371, and translated about the reign of Henry the sixth: a -copy is in the British museum; <i>Harl.</i> 1764. “There was a gentille -knight’s daughter that wratthed atte the tables with a gentill man that -was riotous and comberous and hadd an evelle hede, and the debate was -on a point that he plaide, that she saide that it was wronge: and so -the wordes and the debate rose so that she saide that he was a lewde -[ignorant] fole, and thane lost the game in chiding.”</p> - -<p>Chess-tables and chessmen are often specified in wills and inventories. -The inventory of the effects of Sir Roger de Mortimer, referred to -more than once, speaks of a coffer containing “j famil’ de ebore pro -scaccario;” and among the jewels in the wardrobe book of Edward the -first occur “una familia de ebore pro ludendo ad scaccarium,” and “una -familia pro scaccario de jaspide et cristallo.” The “familia” in these -entries is the same as the “meyne” in Chaucer’s lines just above; that -is, the retinue, the company, or the set of domestics.</p> - -<div class="figleft"> - <a name="P080" id="P080"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_080.jpg" alt="Walrus-ivory Chessman." width="200" height="304" /> -</div> - -<p>To quote from one will; Sir William Compton in his will, dated 1523 -bequeathed to Henry the eighth “a little chest of ivory whereof one -lock is gilt, with a chessboard under the same, and a pair of tables -upon it, and all such jewels and treasures as are enclosed therein.” -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> - -<p>The most complete set of ancient ivory chessmen now remaining was found -in the isle of Lewis, in Scotland, about the year 1831, and most of -them are now in the British museum. They are all of one character, -similar to the accompanying woodcut, which is engraved from another -walrus-ivory chessman, also in the British museum, and which was -obtained some few years ago from a private collection.</p> - -<p>It would be more proper to speak of the Lewis chess pieces as several -sets, for there are some pieces enough for five or six. They are -sixty-seven in number—six kings, five queens, thirteen bishops, -fourteen knights, nineteen pawns, and ten (so-called) warders, which -took the place of the modern rook or castle. This large collection -was discovered by a labourer digging a sandbank, and every piece is -accurately described in detail by Sir F. Madden in a paper read before -the Society of antiquaries in 1832. They are all carved out of walrus ivory.</p> - -<p>Upon this material Sir Frederic observes that “the estimation in which -the teeth of the walrus were held by the northern nations rendered -them a present worthy of royalty; and this circumstance is confirmed -by a tradition preserved in the curious saga of Kröka the crafty, who -lived in the tenth century.” [The saga itself is believed to have been -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> -written in the fourteenth century.] “It is there related, that Gunner, -prefect of Greenland, wishing to conciliate the favour of Harald -Hardraad, king of Norway (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1050), sent him the -three most precious gifts the island could produce. These were, 1, a white bear; -2, a <i>chess-table</i>, or set of <i>chessmen</i>, exquisitely carved; 3, a -skull of the Rostungr (or <i>walrus</i>) with the teeth fastened in it, -and ornamented with gold.” The best Icelandic scholars take the term -<i>Tan-Tabl</i> in the sense of <i>chessmen made of the teeth of the walrus</i>.</p> - -<div class="figright"> - <a name="P081" id="P081"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_081.jpg" alt="Chessmen." width="200" height="290" /> -</div> - -<p>Chessmen were occasionally made of considerably larger size. There is a -good example of this kind in the South Kensington collection, no. 8987; -and another, of which a woodcut is given, is in the British museum. -This last remarkable piece was presented in 1856, by Sir Henry Cole.</p> - -<p>Scarcely less common than chessmen are small round pieces, generally -of the tusk of the walrus, which were used for a game probably like -the modern game of draughts, and to which frequent allusion is found -in mediæval books under the name of “tables.” The mirror cases give us -several representations of people engaged at this game, usually a lady -and a gentleman. There seem to have been fewer pieces used than in our -own days, and a smaller board or table. These draughtsmen are almost -all of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and the subjects -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> -men and animals, with scroll ornament interlacing. Occasionally a -single bird or a dragon fills the centre space.</p> - -<p>Some of the decorations of the old church of Shobdon in Herefordshire -(pulled down about 100 years ago) were similar to the carvings upon -the draughtsmen and other works of that kind. These also were of the -twelfth century. One pillar was ornamented with a series of small -medallions tied together, exactly like the old draughtsmen. They -are engraved, from fragments of three of the principal arches still -preserved, in the first volume of the Archæological journal.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P082" id="P082"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_082.jpg" alt="Arm of a Chair." width="600" height="120" /> -</div> - -<p>This style of ornament is shown to great advantage upon the arm of -a chair of the eleventh or twelfth century, formerly in the Meyrick -collection; carved from two tusks of the walrus. It is not easy to -decide in what country this very important ivory was worked. One half -of it is given in the accompanying woodcut. The name, arm of a chair, -must be taken as a probable supposition. That it is one of a pair is -apparently certain: for in the centre on one side is an eagle, on the -other a winged lion; two of the four symbols of the Evangelists. These -are deeply sunk and enclosed in ornamental borders, exactly similar -to the draughtsmen of the same period. The sides from the centres to -the ends are richly carved in admirable style and workmanship with an -interlacing scroll ornament, in the midst of which are twined men and -fabulous animals. The ends have, for terminations, the heads of lions -designed with much spirit. On the under side, which is left perfectly -flat, are incised some small crosses, composed of the well-known little -circles called the bone ornament. There are other good examples of the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> -same style of decoration upon the specimens of the ancient Tau in the -South Kensington museum. In all of these, though the men and -animals are grotesque yet they have life and movement, and the -foliage and branches with which they are twined and intermingled -are well executed. The technical merit of the carving, deep in -relief and often cut clear from the solid substance of the ivory, is -very remarkable.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P083" id="P083"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_083_a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="291" /> - <img src="images/i_p_083_b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="356" /> - <p class="center">TWO GROUPS OF THE CHESSMEN FOUND IN THE ISLAND OF LEWIS.</p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2></div> - -<p>Although it is impossible to enter in detail into any history of an -object so well known, by name at least, as the pastoral crook of a -bishop, it may yet be not without interest to offer a few remarks upon -it in explanation of the varieties of shape of old ivory croziers still -existing, and as a subject not without interest in our own days to -many people. The Tau, spoken of in the last chapter, is but a form of -the pastoral staff, adopted in more than one country of western Europe -early in the middle ages.</p> - -<p>The most ancient shape of the episcopal staff is found represented in -the catacombs; a short handle, with a plain boss or oval knob bent -aside at the top like the pagan <i>lituus</i>. Sometimes in the catacombs -we also find the truer form of a shepherd’s crook, a plain but complete -curve at the extremity. The Tau is commonly seen and given without -apparent distinction to bishops and abbots in manuscripts of the -eighth and ninth centuries, about which period there came in another -fashion, unpleasing and hardly intelligible in its design, where the -crook is but slightly bent and extended almost horizontally from the -staff itself. One more shape, and more rare, was a double plain crook -like horns joined together. After all these came the admirable design, -of which the South Kensington museum possesses one or two splendid -examples, wherein the volute is carried half round again and frequently -contains within the circle other ornaments or groups of figures. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP085" id="FP085"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_085_a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="343" /> - <img src="images/i_fp_085_b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="269" /> - <img src="images/i_fp_085_c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="216" /> -<p class="center">IVORY CARVING, HEAD OF A TAU OR T SHAPED STAFF, IN WALRUS TUSK,<br /> -THE COMPARTMENTS CONTAINING THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.<br /> -12<sup>th</sup> CENT (SOLTIKOFF COLL) L, 5 IN S. K. M. (N<sup>o</sup> 215 ’65)<br /> -<span class="ws24">F. A. SLOCOMBE FECIT</span></p> -</div> - -<p>The extremities of the Taus were often hollowed, to receive relics. -The beautiful Tau now at Kensington, engraved in the etching, -shows the old recesses; but the crystal ends are lost. It is of -this Tau that a learned author writes as follows, in the Mélanges -archéologiques:—“Avant de quitter ce beau monument, je ferai observer -la riche ciselure du treillis séparant les signes. Il est à peine -croyable que chaque petite perle d’ivoire le long des entrelacs -enchâsse une pierre précieuse, et que les yeux des animaux sont ainsi -formés.” A very fine ivory of the same admirable kind and style is -preserved in the library at Rouen, probably of earlier date, of the -tenth century; and another is in the Cluny museum, unusually simple in -shape and plain in ornament, which was found at St. Germain-des-Prés in -the tomb of Morard, abbot of that monastery from 990 to 1014. In the -etching is another Tau, also at Kensington.</p> - -<p>Ivory Taus are of great rarity. They were gradually superseded towards -the end of the twelfth century by that form which, with certain -varieties of ornament, has continued down to our own times. The most -common mode of treating the volute itself was to imitate a serpent; and -the termination of the crook was the head of the serpent, sometimes -with widely-expanded jaws.</p> - -<p>It may appear unreasonable that the serpent was so constantly used as a -religious emblem in such a way; but the symbol was certainly adopted in -Christian art and with several pious significations from the first ages -of the Christian faith. As the chief decoration of a bishop’s pastoral -staff it might be regarded as an emblem of prudence, or as a record of -the rod of Moses, which was changed into a serpent and destroyed those -which had been cast down by the magicians; or again, as an emblem of -the subtlety or wisdom required in a ruler over Christ’s flock. When -the serpent is also chained or entangled, then, perhaps, the triumph -of the Church over Satan is symbolised; or the contest itself between -the two, when the head and open jaws seem to be on the point of closing -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> -over the lamb and cross, as in the pastoral staff of the Ashmolean -museum at Oxford. Once more, the triumph would be shown when our Lord -in glory is represented within the sweep of the serpent’s body. It is -also probable that the men twisted and twined with serpents and animals -and branches of trees, in the older examples, were meant to typify the -struggle against the evil influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil.</p> - -<p>The triumph of Christianity over the world is of a class of ornament -which was largely introduced towards the middle of the thirteenth -century, and which included others of a like character: such as, -especially, the Crucifixion (as in the etching) or the Virgin standing -with the Child in her arms, sometimes attended by angels, or the -adoration of the Magi; and, a little later, the coronation of the -Virgin; or the destruction of the dragon by the archangel Michael.</p> - -<p>The author of the paper in the Mélanges d’archéologie speaks of a -pastoral staff of ivory having “the Coronation” so early as the time -of St. Gautier, abbot of St. Martin de Pontoise about 1070, to whom -it is attributed. An engraving of it is in that publication; and it -is worthy of especial notice because, although of wood, the handle is -not only enriched with decorations like the handle of the fan at South -Kensington, no. 373 and the corresponding piece in the British museum, -but the ornaments are placed within exactly similar small square -compartments.</p> - -<p>Sometimes the volutes of croziers were filled merely with foliage and -twisted branches; but these were more commonly of copper or silver, for -the further purpose of being enamelled.</p> - -<p>We must not fail to observe how cleverly in many of the mediæval ivory -heads of bishops’ staffs the volute is occupied by a double subject, -placed back to back, so that one of the two might face the people as -it was borne along. These are generally, on one side the Crucifixion, -on the other the Virgin and Child. The figures standing upon the one -side on either hand of the cross are carved on the reverse as angels -in attendance on the Virgin. This is well shown in the woodcut, from a -pastoral staff of the thirteenth century, preserved in the cathedral at Metz.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP086" id="FP086"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_086.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="608" /> - <p class="center">CROSIER IN CARVED IVORY AND GILT METAL.<br /> - FRENCH XIV CENT. (7952) W M M<sup>c</sup>GILL</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> -<hr class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P087" id="P087"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_087.jpg" alt="Pastoral Staff." width="300" height="561" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> -In remote times the pastoral staff of a bishop was usually made of -wood; at least, we may suppose so from the jest of Guy Coquille:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“Au temps passé du siècle d’or,</span> -<span class="i4">Crosse de bois, évêque d’or;</span> -<span class="i4">Maintenant, changeant les lois,</span> -<span class="i4">Crosse d’or, évêque de bois.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>These lines are not, perhaps, all in jest, for the wooden staff of St. -Erhard exists at Ratisbonne: and another is in the church of St. Ursula -at Cologne. The two Benedictines in their famous travels (as recorded -in the “Voyage littéraire”) come to Maurienne, and tell us: “Nous -vîmes aussi dans le trésor une croce d’yvoire: car les anciens évêques -aimoient mieux employer leur argent à soulager les pauvres, qu’en des -ornemens vains et superflus.” They saw other ivory pastoral staffs -before their journeys ended: one at Marseilles, in the abbey of St. -Victor; and one of the eleventh century at St. Savin, in the diocese of -Tarbes; another, worthy of special mention, at Cluny: “La croce de S. -Hugue, qui est de bois couvert de feuilles d’argent, dont le dessus est -d’yvoire.”</p> - -<p>In later days the use of wood was generally limited to the staffs -and croziers which were buried in their graves with archbishops and -bishops, abbots and abbesses. A few of these have been found: one, very -remarkable and in a fair state of preservation, in Westminster abbey -in the tomb of bishop Lyndwood, the great canonist. This is now in -the British museum. A full account of the opening of this tomb, with -engravings, is printed in one of the volumes of the Archæologia.</p> - -<p>Probably the pastoral staff mentioned in the will of Richard Martyn -bishop of St. David’s, who died about the year 1498, was of wood. He -bequeathed to the church of Lyde “the cross-hed that Oliver the joiner made.”</p> - -<p>Inscriptions are sometimes found upon ivory pastoral staffs. For example -on that of St. Aunon, archbishop of Cologne: “Sterne resistentes, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> -stantes rege, tolle jacentes;” others on those of St. -Saturnin at Toulouse, and of Otho, bishop of Hildesheim.</p> - -<p>The old Sarum pontificals order, in the first rubric for consecrating a -bishop, that the <i>baculus pastoralis</i> should be provided with the other -necessary episcopal ornaments and vestments; and the staff is delivered -to the new bishop in the course of the office. “<i>Quum datur baculus -dicat ordinator</i>, Accipe baculum pastoralis officii,” etc., and the -purpose is further alluded to as the ceremony proceeds.</p> - -<p>The symbolism of the shape and ornaments of the ivory pastoral staffs -is clearly explained by Hugo St. Victor: “Episcopo, dum regimen -ecclesiæ committitur, baculus quasi pastori traditur, in quo tria -notantur, quæ significatione non carent, recurvitas, virga, cuspis; -significatio hoc carmine continetur:—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“Attraho peccantes, justos rogo, pungo vagantes,</span> -<span class="i4">Officio triplici servio pontifici.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>It remains only to notice that the Pope uses neither pastoral staff -nor crozier, nor is it delivered to him at his consecration, if at -his election he be only a simple priest. It is said, however, that -he should carry one in the diocese of Treves because St. Peter gave -his own to the first bishop of that place, where it is preserved as a -famous relic. This tradition is mentioned by St. Thomas Aquinas: “Et -ideo in diœcesi Treverensi papa baculum portat, et non in aliis.”</p> - -<p>An engraving is given (<a href="#P090">p. 90</a>) of the head of a pastoral -staff, rather more than five inches in height, not only unusual and remarkable in -style but probably of English work. This was preserved in the Meyrick -collection and is carved from bone. The outside of the upright part and -the volute are decorated with pierced work, now slightly mutilated. -Inside the volute, which terminates with the open mouth of a serpent, -is a man in a grotesque position, his feet within the serpent’s jaws. A -rich interlaced scroll decorates both sides of the head of the staff. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P090" id="P090"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_090.jpg" alt="Pastoral Staff." width="350" height="592" /> -</div> - -<p>It is perhaps not to be wondered at that a Tau should be, as we -know it is, amongst the most rare of ornaments or utensils in ivory -which have been preserved. The early and total disuse of them would -have naturally led to their destruction and loss, sometimes wilful, -sometimes accidental. But that the pastoral staff (that is, the head of -it) should be of almost equal rarity is less easily to be explained. -Few collections possess a good example; still fewer more than one. -Nevertheless, in England alone pastoral staffs must have been almost -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> -without number at the beginning of the sixteenth century; and although -many were probably of metal, silver or copper enamelled and having -some intrinsic value, yet an equal or perhaps greater number were of -ivory. Not merely bishops but the heads of religious houses, abbots and -abbesses, carried them as official tokens of their rank and dignity. -We find frequent mention of them in the old inventories. For example, -at St. Paul’s, in 1295; “Item, baculus cum cambuca eburnea, continente -agnum.” “Item, baculus de peciis eburneis, et summitate crystallina,” -etc. “Cambuca” is a word often used in the middle ages for the staff -itself; derived, perhaps, from <big><b>κάμπτω</b></big>, I bend.</p> - -<p>Yet numerous as they must once have been, the heads of English pastoral -staffs are now among the rarest of ivory carvings. It is true that -no. 298 at South Kensington can, with some kind of probability, be -attributed to an English artist and may have been used in England; but -no other in that collection can be referred to. The almost complete -destruction in England of all ecclesiastical ornaments—books, -vestments, reliquaries, and the like—in the middle of the sixteenth -century will account for the extreme rarity of them in this country. -But it is very difficult to explain the reason why so few should still -be found in France, or Germany, or Italy. The bishop’s pastoral staff, -again, has not dropped out of use like the pax or the flabellum.</p> - -<p>There are examples of the pax in the South Kensington collection, nos. -246 and 247. It was used in the middle ages at high mass and sometimes -at low mass also, for sending the kiss of peace from the celebrant, -first to the deacon and subdeacon or to the acolyte, afterwards to the -people. With regard to the custom in England, provincial and diocesan -statutes repeat again and again the obligation upon parishes to provide -the pax, “osculatorium” or “asser ad pacem,” equally with the proper -vestments or books or other furniture of the altar. The rubrics of the -Sarum missal—the use most largely observed in England before the reign -of queen Elizabeth—direct the priest, immediately after the <i>Agnus Dei</i>, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> -to kiss the outside rim of the chalice in which was the Sacred Blood, -and then to give the pax to the deacon who delivered it in regular -order to the ministers and choristers in the sanctuary.</p> - -<p>Everything connected with the correct text of the plays of Shakespeare -is of the highest interest to every Englishman; and will serve, it is -hoped, as some excuse for a few words by way of remark upon a passage -where he alludes to a pax. The unfortunate Bardolph came to an untimely -end on account of it:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“Fortune is Bardolph’s foe, and frowns on him:</span> -<span class="i4">For he hath stolen a pax: and hang’d must’a be.</span> -<span class="i4">——Exeter hath given the doom of death,</span> -<span class="i4">For pax of little price.”</span> -<span class="i28"><span class="smcap">Henry V.</span>, <i>act</i> iii., <i>sc.</i> 5.</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Until lately the editors of Shakspeare printed <i>pyx</i> on the emendation -(so-called) of Theobald. Johnson, who approved the new reading, informs -us in his note upon the place that the two words “signified the same -thing.” As far as Bardolph was concerned it mattered not; he had -“conveyed” a sacred thing and, as Holinshed tells us, the king would -not move on till the thief was hanged.</p> - -<p>The quartos of 1600 and 1608 (and also the three folios) read <i>pax</i>: -“he hath stolne a packs;” “a packs of pettie price,” in both editions. -Shakspeare very well knew that a pax exposed or left carelessly on -an altar was much more likely to be stolen than a pyx, which would -be taken infinitely greater care of and locked up in the tabernacle. -Even Dr. Johnson was ignorant upon some subjects; and the way in which -editors “emend” their authors is something marvellous. When Shakspeare -lived, and when the quartos were printed, people had not forgotten the -distinction between the pax and the pyx; and many even could still -remember when that now mysterious thing, the pax, had been brought down -to them in the services of the Church from the altar.</p> - -<p>The introduction of the pax instead of the old practice of mutual -salutation was not until about the thirteenth century. The earliest -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> -mention in England occurs in a council held at York, <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> -1250, under archbishop Walter Gray, where it is called “osculatorium.” -A like order was made in the province of Canterbury, at the council -of Merton, 1305, directing every parish to provide “tabulas pacis ad -osculatorium.” Several figures of the pax are given in works relating -to the subject; and we find it almost always represented as part of the -furniture of an altar in the woodcut which often precedes the service -for advent sunday, in the printed editions of the Salisbury missal from -about 1500 to 1557. Le Brun has an interesting disquisition on the pax: -and he tells us in a note that in its turn it also fell into disuse, -because of quarrels about precedency which were occasioned among the -people. Le Brun is borne out by Chaucer who, in the Parson’s Tale, -speaking of the proud man explains that “also he awaited to sit, or els -to go above him in the waie, or kisse paxe, or be encenced before his -neighbour, <i>etc.</i>”</p> - -<p>Occasionally, paxes in ivory have inscriptions upon them. One of the -three in the Liverpool museum has the appropriate prayer, “Da pacem -Domine in diebus nostris.” Two exhibited at Norwich in 1847 had -legends. On one, the Annunciation, “Ave Maria;” on the other, the -Nativity with the shepherds, “Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax, <i>etc.</i>”</p> - -<p>Notices of the pax are common in monastic and church inventories. In -the Rites of Durham abbey we are told that they possessed “a marvelous -faire booke, which had the epistles and gospels in it, the which booke -had on the outside of the coveringe the picture of our Saviour Christ -all of silver—which booke did serve for the paxe in the masse.” A -book which an abbot of Glastonbury gave to his church there probably -answered the same purpose; and other then existing examples might be -referred to. “Unum textum argenteum et auratum cum crucifixo, Maria, et -Johanne, splendidus emalatum.” A mediæval English pax made of wood does -not now, probably, exist: but there is a curious entry in the inventory -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> -of church goods belonging to the parish of St. Peter Cheap, in the year -1431; “item iij lyttel pax breds of tre.” Many such wooden paxes are -mentioned as having been burnt in the diocese of Lincoln in 1566 by the -royal commissioners: “a paxe of wood” at Baston, another at Dunsbie, -another at Haconbie.</p> - -<p>We have a remarkable illustration of the late use of the pax in England -in one of the injunctions issued by the king’s visitors to the clergy -within the deanery of Doncaster, in the first year of Edward the sixth, -and printed by Burnet in his Records: “The clerk was ordered at the -proper time to bring down the pax, and standing without the church -door to say these words aloud to the people. This is a token of joyful -peace which is betwixt God and men’s conscience, <i>etc.</i>” The “church -door” here means the door in the screen which in those days divided the -chancel from the body of the church. As in Chaucer, where he says of -the wife of Bath</p> - -<p class="center">“Husbands at the church door had she had five.”</p> - -<p>In England before the change of religion in the fifteenth century the -marriage ceremony was performed outside the chancel, sometimes at the -great door of the church itself; and then all proceeded towards the -sanctuary for mass and communion.</p> - -<p>One of the most beautiful as well as one of the most rare objects -in the South Kensington collection is part of the handle of an -ecclesiastical fan, or flabellum. It is, probably, one half of a -handle; and another half, so nearly alike that it is a question whether -it does or does not belong to the same handle, is in the British -museum. The fan is still used in the Catholic Church in the east, -where the purpose and benefit of it in order to keep off flies from -the sacred vessels, or on account of the heat, are obvious. But in the -west, except perhaps for part of the year in Italy, the fan was a kind -of fashion and, having no symbolism, an unmeaning introduction from the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> -oriental rite. The various churches of France and England had dropped -the use of it before the sixteenth century; but we have plenty of -evidence that the fan was commonly adopted in the thirteenth and the -twelfth. Illuminations in two of the manuscripts in the public library -at Rouen are very clear in this matter. One represents the deacon -raising the flabellum, a circular fan with a long handle, over the head -of the priest standing at the altar. In the other, the deacon is in the -act of waving the fan, holding it by a short handle, over the head of a -bishop who is elevating the Host.</p> - -<p>A very curious flabellum, supposed to be of the ninth century, is -described by Du Sommerard; it had long been preserved in the abbey of -Tournus, south of Chalons, and was said to be in the possession of M. -Carraud about twenty years ago. The fan of queen Theodolinda, of purple -vellum with ivory handle, given by her to the cathedral of Monza is -still preserved there. Other examples are, perhaps, still existing; two -or three are mentioned by writers of the last century.</p> - -<p>Inventories of churches and monasteries include the fan. In one -of Amiens, about 1300, is “flabellum factum de serico et auro ad -repellendas muscas.” Another, of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, 1363, -gives “Item, duo flabella, vulgariter nuncupata muscalia, ornata -perlis.” Nor ought we to omit some entries of the same kind in English -inventories. In one, of the cathedral of Salisbury, in 1314, are “ij -flabella de serico et pergameno.” The church of St. Faith, in the crypt -of St. Paul’s, possessed among its ornaments in 1298 “unum muscatorium -de pennis pavonum.” Still more to our present purpose was the fan -given to a chantry in the cathedral of Rochester, by bishop Hanno, in -1346; “unum flabellum de serico cum virga eburnea:” or the “flabellum -de serico” named in the inventory of the property of Robert Bilton, -bishop of Exeter, in 1330. John Newton, treasurer of York minster, -gave to that church about the year 1400 a splendid fan, which was in -the treasury there when everything of the kind was destroyed by the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> -commissioners of Edward the sixth: “Manubrium flabelli argenteum -deauratum, ex dono Joh. Newton, cum ymagine episcopi in fine enameled, -pond’ v. unc.” It is not at all improbable that fans were used in -England at mass even in parochial or country churches until a late -period. The following entry occurs in the accounts of the churchwardens -of Walberswick, in Suffolk: a payment in the year 1493 for “a bessume -of pekok’s fethers, iv. d.”</p> - -<p>Care must be observed, however, not to set down all works in -ivory which are similar to no. 373 as having been the handles of -ecclesiastical fans. Other church ceremonies required utensils of the -same kind; though, probably, they were seldom if ever so profusely -decorated and enriched with carving. For example, holy-water sprinklers -would often have had ivory handles; and one is specified as belonging -to St. Paul’s in 1295, “aspersorium de ebore.” More than this; whip -handles, which we see on mirror cases and in illuminations, and other -like things were made and ornamented for secular purposes. Hearne -gives a copy of a curious inscription on the handle of a whip found in -the ruins of the abbey of St. Alban. It commemorates the gift of four -horses to the monks of that house from Gilbert of Newcastle. Hearne -leaves the date of the handle doubtful, but is disposed to put it about -the end of the fourteenth century.</p> - -<p>The wife of Roger de Mortimer of Wigmore castle in Herefordshire had, -among other valuable things as specified in the inventory taken in -Edward the second’s reign (before quoted) “item, j scourgiam de ebore.”</p> - -<p>The etching represents a very beautiful reliquary, French work of the -sixteenth century, in the Kensington museum.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP096" id="FP096"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_096.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="410" /> - <p class="center">TRIPTYCH, SERVING AS A RELIQUARY IN CARVED IVORY<br /> - ABOUT 1480. ENTIRE WIDTH OPENED 10¼ in. S.K.M. (N<sup>o</sup> 4336)<br /> - <span class="ws22">D. JONES FECIT.</span></p> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> -<div class="chapter"><h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2></div> - -<p>The South Kensington museum is rich in ivory statuettes: many of them -are very beautiful, although none is equal to a large sitting figure of -the Virgin in the British museum or to two or three of the finest in -the collections at Paris. Almost all of these statuettes represent the -Virgin and Child; naturally, this would be a subject most frequently in -demand for private oratories. Almost always the Virgin bears the tokens -of her spiritual glory and privileges. To adopt the words of a French -writer on another class of ivory carvings, “La Vierge mère et reine -porte glorieuse les trois signes de son incomparable grandeur; la fleur -de sa pureté immaculée, le fruit béni qui, loin de flétrir, a embelli -sa fleur; et la couronne qui a consommé ses privilèges en couronnant ses vertus.”</p> - -<p>Generally speaking, the statuettes of the latter part of the thirteenth -and throughout the fourteenth century are pure and religious in style, -with an admirable expression of love and reverence in the figures, -perfectly natural. There are two or three examples in the collections -at South Kensington and the British museum, which may well claim all -the praise which M. Labarte gives to a group of the coronation of the -Virgin and to a Virgin and Child, both now preserved in the Louvre. -He speaks of the simplicity of the composition; the refinement and -truthfulness of the forms; the appropriate inflexions of the body and -limbs; the imitation of real life; the just expression given to the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> -faces; and the natural development and treatment of the draperies. So, -again, we may quote his exact words, and say of more than one statuette -in these great collections: “Quelle pureté dans le dessin, quelle -noblesse dans la pose, quelle finesse dans le modèle, quelle ampleur -et quelle élégance dans la disposition de la draperie! Cette statuette -montré à quel haut degré de perfection était parvenue la sculpture -chrétienne à la fin du [quatorzième] siècle.”</p> - -<p>The seals attached to mediæval deeds are important illustrations -of the mode of treatment of the subject of the Virgin and Child, so -common in the statuettes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. -Take, for instance, some in the Bodleian library. The seal of the -prior and convent of Wyrmeseye (Wormegay) in Norfolk, attached to a -deed of 1347, has a seated Virgin suckling the Child, her right hand -uplifted. Another of the convent of Castle Acre, 1290, a similar -subject. Another, of one of the parties to a deed of the archbishop of -Canterbury, 1376, has the Virgin sitting, facing, and holding the Child -standing on her lap, a sceptre in her right hand; another, showing the -peculiar twist of the figure (presently to be noticed) is on the seal -of the convent of West Acre, in Norfolk.</p> - -<p>There are several also in the British museum: especially a very fine -seal of Southwick Priory, early fourteenth century; the Virgin sitting -and suckling the Infant, under a canopy of a single arch; another, the -same subject, thirteenth century, of Oseney abbey; another, same date, -of Elsing Spittle priory, the Virgin standing with the child under a -rich canopy.</p> - -<p>Sometimes ivory statuettes are still found placed under canopies and -with shutters or wings to fold round them, so as either to make shrines -for an oratory or, portable, to be carried by the owners on their -journeys. More often, examples of this kind are not finished in the -back or are still left attached to the ground of the block of ivory, -carved however in very high relief. The shrine no. 4686, is a good -specimen. When so treated, the shutters are richly decorated on the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> -inside with scenes from the gospels, usually relating to the Nativity -or to the Passion of our Lord.</p> - -<p>Of this style were the shrines or triptychs at Lincoln, in 1536: -“A tabernacle of two leaves, gemmels [hinges] and lock of silver, -containing the coronation of our Lady;” and “item, a tabernacle of -ivory standing upon four feet with two leaves, with one image of our -Lady in the middle, and the salutation of our Lady in one leaf, and the -nativity of our Lady in the other.”</p> - -<p>There are two remarkable and important illuminations in the manuscript -psalter of queen Mary, which has been more than once referred to (<a href="#Page_74">p. 74</a>). -In one is a shrine, open, with the decorations usual early in the -fourteenth century. The centre is divided into two compartments. Above -is the Annunciation; the Blessed Virgin and an angel; each under a -pointed arch, cusped and crocketed. Below, is the Visitation; Elizabeth -and the Virgin meet under a gateway and embrace. The wings are filled -with saints, each standing under a pointed arch. This illumination -precedes the psalter, following the calendar, after the Old Testament -history. The other represents a triptych: in the middle is the Virgin -and Child; she is sitting and giving Him the breast; two angels stand -by, swinging censers; in each wing is an angel with a candlestick.</p> - -<p>The mediæval artist may have drawn these with examples now in the South -Kensington museum before him as his models.</p> - -<p>Figures carved in such deep relief as almost to be statuettes -occasionally but very rarely occur in diptychs. A remarkable specimen -was in the Meyrick collection; an illustration is given (<a href="#P100">p. 100</a>) -of one of the leaves. Probably no diptych exists in any collection equalling -this in the depth to which the figures have been cut in relief. Each is -brought out from the background three quarters of an inch. On the other -leaf is the Virgin and Child. An inscription is incised upon the book -which our Lord holds in His left hand: “Ego su. dns. ds tuus Ic. xpc. -qi. creavi redemi & salvabo te.” Both figures have great grace and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> -dignity; and the draperies are arranged with unusual simplicity -and breadth.</p> - -<div class="figleft"> - <a name="P100" id="P100"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_100.jpg" alt="Deeply Engraved Statuette." width="150" height="385" /> -</div> - -<p>There was also another very curious mode of carving statuettes of the -Virgin, of which extant specimens are extremely rare, and none (it is -believed) is to be found in England. There is one, well known, in the -gallery of the Louvre, engraved in the useful book of M. Viollet le -Duc, <i>dictionnaire de mobilier Français</i>. It is a sitting figure of -our Lady, who is holding the Infant on her knees. The front part is -divided down the middle and two wings fall back on hinges, leaving a -centrepiece and forming a triptych of the usual character. There are -scenes from the Passion on the wings, and the Crucifixion is carved -upon the centre. The date of the ivory is early in the fourteenth -century; but the fashion of this kind of statuette can be traced to a -much earlier time. An entry in an inventory of the church of Notre Dame -at Paris in 1343 mentions one: “quædam alia ymago eburnea valde antiqua -scisa per medium et cum ymaginibus sculptis in appertura, que solebat -poni super magnum altare.”</p> - -<p>Occasionally statuettes are mentioned in English inventories; thus in -the inventory of Roger de Mortimer, a coffer is included, containing -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> -with other things “j parvam imaginem beatæ Virginis de ebore.” Again, -“a lityll longe box of yvery with an ymage of our lady of yvery therein -closyd” is named among the goods belonging in 1534 to the guild of St. -Mary the Virgin at Boston, in Norfolk.</p> - -<p>A very fine statuette of English work, more than nine inches in -height, has been for some years on loan to the South Kensington -museum; it belonged to the late Mr. Hope Scott, and was formerly -Lord Shrewsbury’s. The Virgin is in a sitting position and holds a -large flower in her right hand. She wears a crown under which is the -veil, and her drapery falls over her knees to the feet in heavy and -deeply-carved folds. The face of the Virgin is very beautiful and full -of affectionate expression; the head also of the Child is unusually -good. The ends of the throne are carved in relief, each with a figure -of a female saint sitting under a bold decorated canopy. Many portions -of the original gilding remain upon the hair and on the borders of the -vestments.</p> - -<p>The largest known statuette was in the possession of the late Mr. -Alexander Barker; and this is not only remarkable for its size and -height but is graceful in design, and from the hand of a good artist. -It is French, probably of the Burgundian school, and of the fourteenth -century. The Blessed Virgin is standing, carrying the Child; both hold -in one hand a fruit, perhaps an apple. The figures are vested much in -the same manner as the statuette no. 4685 at South Kensington, and the -draperies have gilded borders with a running scroll; the linings of the -robes of both are painted dark blue. The hair of the Virgin and of the -Infant has been gilded. The perpendicular height of this statuette is -twenty-three inches, and the extreme width at the base six inches. The -figure is hollow as far as the tusk was so, and slopes to the left in -accordance with its natural growth. The height to the girdle is fifteen -inches, and the Infant sitting on His mother’s arm measures seven and -a half inches. From the chin to the top of the head of the Virgin is -three inches. The tusk curves inwards at the waist two inches from a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> -line falling from the back of the head to the lowest part of the -drapery which covers the feet.</p> - -<p>Every one must have remarked the bend or twist so often given to -statues, carved from stone, of the Virgin and of female saints which -fill the niches of churches and cathedrals built in the thirteenth -and fourteenth centuries. The necessity which obliged the workman in -ivory to follow the natural form of the tusk in all statuettes of such -a size, or of nearly so great a size, as that which has been just -described, certainly did not press upon sculptors whose material was -stone and comparatively unlimited. But the position had perhaps become, -as it were, a fashion, and the style conventional and pleasing to eyes -accustomed daily to see statues so leaning aside in their own oratories.</p> - -<p>The same slope or twist is to be seen often in the figure of the Virgin -in the centre of the volute of the head of a pastoral staff; where, so -far as abundance of material was concerned, there was not the least -necessity for any deviation from an upright into an unnatural attitude.</p> - -<p>Again, in statuettes in silver or other metal: as, for example, in the -silver Virgin and Child in the South Kensington museum; and in another, -also silver, standing on the cover of an oblong reliquary, and said -to represent Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of France. This last is among the -collections of the Louvre.</p> - -<p>Before we pass on to another question, it is impossible not to make a -few remarks upon one of the most beautiful and affecting of all the -works in ivory which have come down to us from mediæval times. This is -a piece, small in size and carved upon both sides, which has probably -been in the volute of a bishop’s pastoral staff. On one side is a group -of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, praying in His agony, and with -the apostles lying asleep below. On the other is a second group, a -Pietà; the blessed Virgin seated and holding the dead body of our Lord -upon her lap. A woodcut is given of this important sculpture. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> - -<p>Perhaps there are few works of Michael Angelo which have been more -praised, or which have excited more enthusiasm than his group of the -same subject in St. Peter’s. We will listen for a minute to two or -three writers who have especially drawn attention to his famous Pietà.</p> - -<div class="figright"> - <a name="P103" id="P103"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_103.jpg" alt="The Pietà: Madonna and Corpus Christi." width="200" height="224" /> -</div> - -<p>One says: “The celebrated Pietà now adorns the first right-hand chapel -on entering the great door of St. Peter’s. It consists of two figures, -the Virgin Mother, seated in a dignified attitude, and supporting -on her knees a dead Christ, Whom she regards with inexpressible -reverence, tenderness, and grief.... Its touching pathos, its dignified -conception, and its masterly execution, are incontestable.”</p> - -<p>A French critic writes: “Cette Pietà fut la première œuvre de Michel -Ange qui l’éleva au premier rang et apprit son nom à tous les échos du -monde civilisé;” and the same author further speaks of the group as -having been “the conception” of the artist, and “a creation” of his -imagination.</p> - -<p>Another writes: “When this group was finished it was universally -admired,” and goes on to state that “one of the great sculptors of the -present day, our fellow-countryman Gibson, expressed himself in terms -of high admiration.”</p> - -<p>Once more; a writer upon the Tuscan school: “In this admirable group -the dead body of our Lord lies upon the lap of the Madonna, while her -left hand is half opened and slightly turned back, with a gesture which -carries out the pitying expression of her face. The Christ shows a -purity of style and deep feeling, combined with a grandeur which Michel -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -Angelo drew from himself alone.” The same writer tells us a few pages -before: “Michael Angelo, who was an enemy to tradition in art, as -well as to a positive imitation of nature, took a path diametrically -opposed to that followed by the conventionalists, the realists, and the -worshippers of the antique.”</p> - -<p>We entirely dissent from the unmeasured laudation here given to -the famous statue at St. Peter’s. Let the praise of originality of -conception, as well as of merit of execution (so far as the size of -his material would permit) be given where it is due, to the sculptor -of the fourteenth century, who died a hundred years before Michael -Angelo was born. Nay, more than this; an unprejudiced comparison will -show that where the work of the great Italian differs from the earlier -Pietà, it differs for the worse. In the ivory the position of the head -and the cold stiffness of the limbs are more death-like and more solemn -than in the marble. In the ivory also the Mother seems to be thinking -more of the past pains and sufferings of her Divine Son than of her -own sorrows: tenderly she supports the Saviour’s head with her right -hand, and, as it were, still clings to Him and draws Him to her with -the other; not, as in the marble at Rome, stretching out and opening -her hand as if to show <i>her</i> misery and the terrible extent of <i>her</i> -bereavement. The mediæval artist remembered that the sad cry of the -prophet in the book of Lamentations referred not to His mother but to -Christ: “Was there ever any sorrow like unto my sorrow?”</p> - -<p>It was a common practice in the middle ages to colour statuettes and, -indeed, also other things, such as triptychs, diptychs, and the covers -of writing-tablets. Traces of this colouring are still visible on -many examples. The robes and vestments were painted red or blue, with -borders of a different colour and often diapered with patterns in gold. -The interesting illustration (opposite) of a painter at work upon a -statuette, an illumination in a French manuscript of the fifteenth -century, is copied from M. Labarte’s work on the industrial arts. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figright"> - <a name="P105" id="P105"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_105.jpg" alt="Painter at Work on a Statuette." width="200" height="219" /> -</div> - -<p>Modern taste runs generally, with regard to this question, in -opposition to the old; but we are not, therefore, hurriedly to decide -against colour as altogether barbarous or improper. Sculpture, people -thought in former days, gained an improved effect by such additional -help, and certainly the use of colour was an attempt to give a more -real appearance and more true to nature. The carvers in ivory could -moreover (if they had known the fact) have appealed to the best period -of the Greek school; to the works of Phidias and Praxiteles. The -chryselephantine statues in the temples of Athens and Olympia had the -same character of ornament and variety of material.</p> - -<p>Writers on art who hold that the legitimate province of sculpture is -simply to represent by form are inclined to condemn any addition of -colour as interfering with that definition. They say that if sculpture -be painted it is a mixture of two arts: as it is also if a picture -be relieved or raised in any part; after the manner of the Byzantine -pictures by Italian painters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. -But it by no means follows that such a mixture is necessarily false in -taste; rather it must be left to the judgment and decision of the time -and of the country for which the sculptures are made.</p> - -<p>A recent contributor to an art periodical, writing of imitation of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> -nature in statues by colour, dogmatises without doubt or hesitation and -even goes so far as to say that such statues are “not to be regarded as -sculpture. Nor can those representations of the human form which are -made to counterfeit life itself, and dressed it may be in the actual -attire of the person pourtrayed, be spoken of as sculpture. Regarded -from the sculptor’s point of view, such productions can only be -regarded in the light of tricks, or, at the best, of clever forgeries -of nature.” Criticism such as this seems to want the right quality of -discretion.</p> - -<p>Although it is quite true that the works of the Greek sculptors, -during the two or three hundred years of the greatest perfection to -which the art of sculpture has ever reached, are not to be praised -as the greatest and most successful of all statues because they were -coloured or otherwise made to imitate reality; yet the intention was -good, and in obedience to the universal demand and feeling of a people -wonderfully fitted by nature, education, and experience to come to a -right conclusion on the matter. We are unaccustomed in our own days -to statues except those which, whether draped or undraped, are left -in the original pure whiteness of the ivory or marble; we think that -nothing is to be so much approved as what we call simplicity. We may -be right, not only as to what we hold to be pleasing to ourselves, but -as to what ought to be pleasing to and held to be correct by every one -and in every age. On the other hand, we may not be right after all; -and a little more caution and hesitation might be advisable before we -condemn, merely as a matter of abstract taste, a practice which seems -to have recommended itself to almost every people of the world, as in -some way in accordance with the common sentiment of humanity itself; -which was accepted by highly civilised nations from the days of the -Egyptian and Assyrian kings down to the fifteenth century of the -Christian æra; and which can appeal in its support to artists whose -works have ever been acknowledged to be the masterpieces of the world.</p> - -<p>It has just been said that the great works of Phidias and his pupils are -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> -not to be praised merely because they were coloured nor because no -mode of enrichment, gold or jewels or ivory or enamelling, was grudged -as being too costly in order to adorn them. So, again, the use of -colours is not to be condemned because the statues of some very ancient -nations are coarse and rude, or because the idols of the old Mexicans -or of the savages of Africa and New Zealand are made by it even more -hideous than they would otherwise be. The wide-spread observance of the -practice is the point to be considered; and the fact that it rests upon -some deep-seated and universal feeling in the mind of all men, of all -countries, and of almost every age.</p> - -<p>Regarded as a mode of handing down to future generations the memory of -much which would have been lost for want of it, who can complain of -the careful colouring of mediæval tombs and monuments? We are indebted -to it for exact details of dresses and jewelry and armour: about which -there can therefore be no longer any dispute, and which give the answer -at once to many difficulties and many interesting subjects of inquiry. -Nowadays we should almost shudder at a statue painted and coloured -to imitate the muslins and silks worn in Hyde Park by women, and the -various coats and trowsers of the men. But five hundred years hence -some of our descendants would be grateful if, in spite of our own -prejudices, we had given them even one statue among the many of our -Queen or of the prince Consort, not left in the bare uncoloured silence -of the marble.</p> - -<p>Crucifixes in ivory of the middle ages are extremely rare; they may -remain still in use in some churches abroad, but whether abroad or at -home they are seldom found in the collection of any museum. There is -one, although a fragment yet very beautiful, in the South Kensington -collection: no. 212. The figure is represented after death; but the -still suffering expression of the drooping head, the strained muscles -across the breast showing the ribs, and, as it were, the struggle of -the legs contracted in the last agony, are admirably given. The eyes -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> -are closed, the forehead drawn with pain, the mouth open. The body -is clothed with a garment crossed in white folds over the loins and -falling to the knees. It is greatly to be regretted that this beautiful -figure has been so mutilated. The conception of the artist is full -of true feeling and devotion, and his treatment of the subject an -excellent example of the right union of conventionality with enough of -what is real. As with regard to the heads of pastoral staffs, so also -it is not easy to say why mediæval crucifixes should be so uncommon: -for, although there must have been hundreds wilfully destroyed and -broken in England in the sixteenth century, the same reason does not -apply to other countries, where the demand and the supply both for -the churches and for private use must have been continual and almost -without limit.</p> - -<p>There are numerous records still remaining in our public offices and -in the muniment-rooms of many dioceses, which leave us in no doubt as -to the extent and completeness of the destruction of the furniture -and goods of English churches and cathedrals from the year 1550 to -1570. In the very valuable series of returns made by the commissioners -for the county of Lincoln, the lists of items are generally summed -up, “with the rest of the trash and tromperie wch appertaynid to the -popish service.” Even with respect to objects for which one would have -supposed that some slight reverence would have still been felt, such as -crucifixes and altars, we have entries like the following in one parish -alone: “Item ij altar stones; which is defacid and layd in high waies -and sarveth as bridges for sheepe and cattall to go on;” in another, -“Item, iij altar stones broken and defacid, thone [the one] solde vnto -Thomas Woodcroft, who turned it to a cestron bottom, thother aboute the -mending of the church wall and the thirde sett in a fire herthe.”</p> - -<p>An unusually good and large ivory crucifix is preserved in the Catholic -chapel in Spanish Place, London. It was given to the chapel about -thirty years ago but for some time retained by the late cardinal -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> -Wiseman, by whose permission it was shown in the Great Exhibition of -1851. The date is, perhaps, late in the seventeenth century; Spanish -work; about a foot in height; and the arms of the suspended body are -less extended than in the mediæval times. The figure is coloured with -great care to imitate life; blood flows from the wounds, and the -streams where they meet are jewelled with small rubies. The flesh of -the knees is broken and mangled.</p> - -<p>Excellent as this crucifix is as a mere work of art, it utterly fails -in calling forth expression of pure religious sentiment. The reality of -treatment in the figure of our dying Lord is too near truth, and is at -the same time untrue. So far as it has left the old type it has lost -power to influence devotion. The earlier conventional crucifix, which -left all to the imagination and never aimed at perfectly representing -a man dying on a cross, was immeasurably more fitting and more -reverential.</p> - -<p>The diptychs of the middle ages for public and private devotion have -been already spoken of. But besides these, two leaves occur not -unfrequently which are strictly diptychs and were used for the same -purpose as the <i>pugillares</i> in the old days of imperial Rome. Single -plaques are very common, and not only are they usually small in size -but may almost always be distinguished from diptychs of the religious -class by the form of the reverse or inside page of each leaf. This -has been hollowed out to a slight depth, leaving a narrow raised rim -or border; and wax was spread over the depressed portion, for writing -upon with a pointel or stylus; the other end of which was flattened to -erase with. We thus find brought down through fifteen hundred years the -practice of the days of Ovid:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“Et meditata manu componit verba trementi;</span> -<span class="i4">Dextra tenet ferrum, vacuam tenet altera ceram.</span> -<span class="i4">Incipit, et dubitat: scribit, damnatque tabellas:</span> -<span class="i4">Et notat, et delet, etc.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The subjects sculptured on the outside of diptychs of this kind -generally also give another and a sufficient distinction, being perhaps -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> -some domestic scene or a story from a romance, as upon combs or mirror -cases. But this is not always so: for writing-tablets occasionally are -found with subjects taken from the Holy Scriptures.</p> - -<p>A few examples of these writing-tablets have been preserved which have -several leaves of ivory inside; although in most instances the plain -leaves have been lost and the covers alone remain. A very fine and -complete set, of the fourteenth century, with four inner leaves is -engraved by Montfaucon (in his great work L’Antiquité expliquée) from -his own collection, which had scenes carved on it from the romance of -Alexander. Montfaucon describes them carefully: “Notre cabinet en a de -cette dernière matière (d’ivoire), dont les deux couvertures out des -bas-reliefs d’un goût barbare. Les bords des tabletes sont relevez de -tous les côtez: ces bords relevez laissent un petit creux pour y placer -une cire préparée, laquelle élevant un peu le page rendoit une face -unie et de niveau avec les bords; on appelloit ces tabletes <i>tabellæ -ceratæ</i>. On gravoit sur cette cire préparée ce qu’on vouloit écrire, et -l’on effaçoit ce qu’on avoit ecrit, ou en y passant fortement dessus -l’autre côté du style, quand la matière étoit plus gluante. C’est ce -que les anciens appelloient <i>stylum vertere</i>, etc.” Judging from the -engraving in Montfaucon’s own book, it would seem that these tablets -were the work of a good artist and of the best time of that particular -style; and that it was hard to speak of them as “d’un goût barbare.”</p> - -<p>Ivory writing-tablets were used in the middle ages in England by people -of all ranks, and are mentioned in inventories and wills. Chaucer tells -us of the preaching friar’s companion:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i3">“His felaw had a staff tipped with horn,</span> -<span class="i4">A pair of tables all of ivory,</span> -<span class="i4">And a pointel ypolished fetishly,</span> -<span class="i4">And wrote alway the names, as he stood</span> -<span class="i4">Of alle folk that gaue hem any good—</span> -<span class="i4">—Or geve us of your braun, if ye have any,</span> -<span class="i4">A dagon of your blanket, leve dame,</span> -<span class="i4">Our suster dere, lo here I write your name.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> -A characteristic illustration occurs in Shakespeare, in the second part -of King Henry the fourth. The archbishop of York says:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i14">“ ... the king is weary</span> -<span class="i0">Of dainty and such picking grievances;</span> -<span class="i0">And therefore will he wipe his tables clean,</span> -<span class="i0">And keep no tell-tale to his memory.”</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p>It is to be observed that in these quotations both Chaucer and -Shakespeare call these diptychs by the name “tables,” a word which had -several meanings formerly in England. We have seen already that the -game of draughts was so called, and it was also frequently applied in -the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to carvings in alabaster or -to paintings on boards in churches. In 1458 money was bequeathed to -the church of Dunwich in Suffolk, “ad novam tabulam de alabastro de -historia sanctæ Margaretæ,” and a “table of St. Thomas of Ynde” was -left in 1510 by Robert Clerk to Batfield church, in Norfolk.</p> - -<p>An interesting paper in the Archæologia, read before the Society of -antiquaries in 1843 by Mr. Albert Way, on the famous golden <i>Tabula</i> -of Basle may also be referred to. The writer concludes by expressing his -wish that such a monument, then in private hands, “could be deposited -in a national collection,” and he complains that “England alone, of -all the countries of western Europe, possesses no national collection -which exhibits a series of specimens illustrative of the character and -progress of the arts of the middle ages, and of the taste and usages of -our ancestors.” Happily, this is a complaint which cannot be made now.</p> - -<p>Chaplets of ivory beads for private devotion were very common in the -middle ages, and are often mentioned in letters and other documents. -Some good examples still exist in various collections. The woodcut on -the next page represents a set, and a girdle with ivory clasps, in the -collection of M. Achille Jubinal. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P112" id="P112"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_112.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="594" /> - <p class="center">CARVED IVORY CHAPLET OF BEADS AND GIRDLE OF AN ABBESS:<br />SIXTEENTH CENTURY.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> -Another class of small works in ivory was to be found in England from -an early period, namely seals. Some have been preserved. One is in the -Ashmolean at Oxford; oval, of the archdeaconry of Merioneth, in the -thirteenth century; another, walrus ivory, of the abbey of St. Alban is -in the British museum.</p> - -<p>Robert Fabyan the chronicler, in his will dated 1511 leaves to one of -his sons “that other signet of gold, with my puncheon of ivory and silver.”</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P113" id="P113"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_113.jpg" alt="Ivory Hunting Horn." width="600" height="171" /> -</div> - -<p>There are several very fine horns in the South Kensington collection, -more especially no. 7954, engraved in the accompanying woodcut, and -which is unequalled by any other of its kind known. The style and -workmanship are rare; one, probably by the same hand, was lately in -the possession of a noble English family. The horns which we find -frequently mentioned in mediæval wills and inventories are hunting -horns. For example, Sir John de Foxle in 1378 leaves to the king his -great bugle horn, ornamented with gold. “The ivory horn of St. Oswald -the king” was preserved at Durham in the year 1383. Near the end of the -thirteenth century there were two ivory horns kept in the treasury of -St. Paul’s: “Item, cornu eburneum gravatum bestiis et avibus, magnum. -Item, aliud cornu eburneum planum et parvum.”</p> - -<p>A common term anciently in England for these horns was “olifant,” -from the name then usually given to the elephant; for instance, the -amusing story in the old life of St. Clement in Caxton’s Golden Legend: -“When Barnabe came to Rome prechynge y<sup>e</sup> fayth of Jesu Christ, -the philosophers mocked hym and despysed hys predicacyon and in scorne put -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> -to hym this questyon sayenge, What is y<sup>e</sup> cause y<sup>e</sup> -culex whyche is a lytell beest hath vj. feet and two wynges and an -olyphaunte whyche ys a grete beest hath but foure feete and no wynges,” -etc. St. Barnabas replied that it was a foolish question and needed -no answer—the more especially as they knew not the Creator and must -necessarily, therefore, be ignorant about his creatures.</p> - -<p>There is only one horn at South Kensington which can be regarded as -having been a tenure horn. It is possible that no. 7953 (see the -etching) may have been a horn of that kind. Several of these tenure -horns are still preserved in England and were shown in the loan -exhibition of 1862. Among them the most famous are the horn of Ulphus, -in the treasury at York; the horns given by Henry the first to the -cathedral at Carlisle; and the Pusey horn. The ivory hunting horn -(so-called) of Charlemagne is kept at Aix la Chapelle; and another said -to have been Roland’s in the cathedral at Toulouse.</p> - -<p>It will be observed by those who examine the catalogue of the ivories -in the South Kensington museum that more are attributed to the -fourteenth century than to any other, and this would be correct with -regard also to the collection in the British museum, or at Liverpool, -or abroad. Sculpture in ivory was very general and greatly patronised -at that time; and, with the exception of a very few examples of Roman -art under the emperors, there are no carvings existing which equal -those made from about the year 1280 to 1350, either in truth and -gracefulness of design or in excellence of workmanship.</p> - -<p>We find also in carvings of that period the best examples of the very -beautiful open or pierced work which has been already spoken of: and -an illustration has before been given (<a href="#P064A">p. 64</a>) from a series -of small panels in the Meyrick collection. No apology will be required for -adding here two more woodcuts from ivories of the same character. -Both are engraved of the exact size of the originals.</p> - -<p>One of these contains two compartments from the splendid plaque, no. -366, in the South Kensington collection.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP114" id="FP114"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_114.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="542" /> - <p class="center">HORN OR OLIPHANT. IVORY. BYZANTINE.   11<sup>TH</sup> CENT.<br /> - 25 IN. DIAM. 5½ IN. (SOLTIKOFF COLL.) S. K. M. (N<sup>o</sup> 79<sup>53.-’62.</sup>)<br /> - <span class="ws20">A. A. BRADBURY. FECIT.</span></p> -</div> -<hr class="r25" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P115A" id="P115A"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_115_a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="375" /> -</div> -<hr class="r25" /> -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="P115B" id="P115B"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_115_b.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="238" /> -</div> - -<p>The other is a complete row from a book cover in the British museum: -divided into thirty compartments, each an inch by three quarters of -an inch. It is impossible in a woodcut to do more than attempt to -give some idea of the marvellous delicacy and excellence of the panel -itself, which is beyond all comparison the very finest ivory existing -of its peculiar school. Small, even minute, as the divisions are, they -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> -plainly tell the story which each is intended to convey; although in -some of them there are as many as seven or eight figures, finished with -admirable distinctness and perfection. The subjects in this row are the -offering of St. Joachim; his departure into the desert; the message of -the angel to St. Joachim; the message to St. Anne; the meeting of St. -Joachim and St. Anne at the gate; and the birth of the Blessed Virgin. -The etching represents some beautiful panels in open work, at South -Kensington.</p> - -<p>Nothing is more difficult than the determination of the particular -country in which many of the ivories of mediæval times were carved. All -acknowledge this, and they the most readily who have had the widest -experience and the best opportunities of examination. It has long -been a custom to set down almost every ivory of the thirteenth and -fourteenth centuries as Flemish or French, leaving but few except the -Italian marriage caskets to the credit of other countries. But (not -to speak of Germany) there can be no question that carvings in ivory -were then much sought after and bought in England, and that there must -have been numerous English artists. Two unquestionable examples of the -English school of the fourteenth century are in the British museum: -a triptych which was carved for Grandison, bishop of Exeter; and one -leaf of a diptych which was also made for the same great prelate, and -still retains slight traces of the painting of his coat of arms. A -woodcut is given (<a href="#P117">p. 117</a>) of the single leaf. Generally, we -may agree with Sir Digby Wyatt, who says in the very interesting and able lecture -to which reference has been already made (<a href="#Page_5">p. 5</a>), that “a peculiar -<i>nez retroussé</i>, a dimpled, pouting, and yet smiling mouth, a general -<i>gentillesse</i> of treatment, and a brilliant yet rapid mode of technical -execution, stamp the French work with an almost unmistakable character. -To the English style may be assigned a position midway between the -French and the second Italian manner. It does not exhibit the gaiety -and tenderness of the former, nor has it quite the grandeur of the -latter, but it is marked by a sober earnestness of expression in -serious action which neither of those styles possesses.” We may further -observe that the English school had less of the monotony and mannerism -which are the derogatory features of continental examples of the same -period; in fact, English gothic ivories have both a purity and a -variety of treatment on a par with the admirable characteristics of -contemporary architecture in this country.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP116" id="FP116"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_116.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="291" /> - <p class="center">PLAQUES OR PANELS OF A CASKET, ONE A FRAGMENT, IVORY, FRENCH, 14<sup>th</sup> CENT.<br /> - S.K.M (N’284’34<sup>2</sup>’67)<span class="ws16">F. A. SLOCOMBE FECIT.</span></p> -</div> - -<div class="figright"> - <a name="P117" id="P117"></a> - <img src="images/i_p_117.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="306" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> -The names of mediæval artists in ivory are almost entirely unknown. -Sir Digby Wyatt and Labarte say that they have been able to meet with -the name of one only, that of Jean Lebraellier, who was carver to -Charles V. of France, and is mentioned in the inventory of that monarch -as having executed “deux grans tableaux d’yvoire des troys Maries.” -We may venture to add the name of one other, the carver of a pax in -the British museum, Jehan Nicolle; whose work, unlike the “tables” of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> -Lebraellier, fortunately still exists. His name is incised upon the pax -in capital letters; there is also a shield, bearing a hammer behind two -crossed swords.</p> - -<p>Very few Spanish ivories of the middle ages can be referred to, and -those which we possess have a very distinct Moorish or Arabic character -about them. They are generally caskets or boxes (see the etching), and -some are still to be found in the treasuries of churches in Spain. -Strangely enough, it is said that there are more remaining in the north -and north-west of Spain, where the Moors did not obtain any permanent -footing, than in the south; in Andalusia or Granada. Probably this -is owing not only to the circumstance that when taken to other parts -of the country they were regarded as valuable curiosities, but also -more especially because of the natural prejudice in the south against -keeping works of Moorish art and manufacture as reliquaries or pyxes, -or for any religious use. In the north of Spain there seems to have -been no obstacle in the way of enclosing relics of a Christian saint -in coffers upon which Arabic inscriptions had been carved in honour of -Allah and his prophet. But we must remember that these inscriptions -were in an unknown language.</p> - -<p>Some of the ancient Spanish ivories are as old as the days of the -Cordovan caliphs in the ninth and tenth centuries; a fact which we -are now able to decide from the Arabic inscriptions. But where such -evidence is wanting there is scarcely any guide to direct us in fixing -the date: the ivories may have been carved at almost any time down to -the conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella. Moorish art, like -the Egyptian or Chinese, changed but little from age to age; the old -process and the old patterns were handed down, unaltered, from father -to son; and ivory carvings may have been made in various parts of Spain -by Moorish workmen as late even as the end of the sixteenth century.</p> - -<p>It can scarcely be out of place, before we end, to add one word -of warning with regard to forgeries of ivory carvings. These are -sometimes so well done that even experienced persons might be deceived. -Generally, the period chosen for imitations is what is commonly called -the Carlovingian, or a little earlier; for not only are genuine pieces -rare and valuable, but being often coarse and rude in style are more -easily to be executed. Forgeries of consular diptychs have been -frequently made; and with regard to one of these it is well to place on -record the following facts which have been kindly supplied by Mr. A. W. -Franks, of the British museum.</p> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <a name="FP118" id="FP118"></a> - <img src="images/i_fp_118.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="329" /> - <p class="center">CARVED IVORY BOX, WITH ARABIC INSCRIPTION.<br />HISPANO-MORESCO. H 3 DIAM: 4 IN: ABOUT 961.<br /> - S.K.M.(N<sup>o</sup> 217:65.)<span class="ws4">M. SULLIVAN FECIT.</span></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> -“The leaf of the diptych of the consul Anastasius, now in the South -Kensington museum, was exhibited to the Society of antiquaries, March -10, 1864, and described by me in the proceedings of the society (2nd -series, <i>vol.</i> 2, <i>p.</i> 364) as the <i>diptychon Leodiense</i>. The -other leaf was known to have been for some years in the museum at Berlin. -It was therefore with considerable surprise that in the course of the -summer of 1864, I found exhibited in the Musée de la Porte de Hal -at Brussels a large ivory diptych purporting to be the <i>diptychon -Leodiense</i>. Having been asked by a friend at Brussels my opinion on the -recent acquisition of the Belgian government, I ventured to express -some doubts in the presence of a gentleman who proved to be at the head -of the commission, at whose recommendation the purchase had been made.</p> - -<p>“I advised that the ivories should be taken out of the wooden frames -into which they were fixed, and that the inscriptions known to have -been on the genuine diptych should be sought for. On this being done, -the falsity of the diptych became evident, the ivory at the back being -fresh and not hollowed out for the reception of wax.</p> - -<p>“An action was thereupon brought against the vendor, a dealer at Liége, -and after some delay the amount paid by the Belgian government (£800) -was recovered. The diptych had been copied from the engraving in -Wilthem’s work, and not from the original leaves, and this accounted -for various errors in the details.” -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> - -<p>It seems strange that the Belgian authorities should have bought at so -great a sum ivories fixed in wooden frames, without some suspicion or -at least without examination. The Liége dealer, however, is not the -only one who has attempted impositions of this kind. About ten years -ago there were four or five large ivories, of splendid appearance, -in the hands of some London dealers. One was a triptych; another a -diptych; a third a comb; and a fourth was a huge shrine with folding -shutters and a tall richly decorated canopy, like the spire of a -cathedral, covering a statuette of the Virgin and Child. (The statuette -was probably genuine.) These ivories purported to be of the fourteenth -century but were all new, and out of one shop or manufactory. The -forgery in some respects was successful; but in every piece there was -a distinct character and manner of execution—the same exactly in all -of them—which proved their falseness. Several were traced back to a -dealer at Amiens; and it is not now known what has become of any of -them. The great shrine having been sold to an English collector for -£500 was returned; and not very long ago was still to be seen in a shop -window in the Strand and said to be, as if to make confusion worse -confounded, an ivory carving of the <i>tenth</i> century. This, whilst it -would show perhaps ignorance on the part of the possessor, would be an -argument that he might be innocent of knowledge of the forgery.</p> - -<p>The public institutions in England in which important ivories may be -found are the British museum, the Ashmolean and Bodleian at Oxford, and -the museum given to the town of Liverpool with noble liberality by Mr. -Joseph Mayer. It is worthy of remark that scarcely any addition has -been made to the ivories in the Ashmolean since the time when they were -originally collected by Elias Ashmole nearly two hundred years ago; and -they are of especial interest and value, though not many in number, -because they can reasonably claim with scarcely an exception to be of -English workmanship. A very large proportion of the other three great -collections had also been gathered together before they became the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> -property of the nation. The Liverpool ivories were chiefly obtained -from the representatives of the late Gabriel Fejérváry; and, in like -manner, the South Kensington museum—begun about the year 1853 and -gradually enriched by the acquisition of some rare Spanish ivories -and some of the best pieces from the Soltikoff collection, selected -with excellent judgment by Mr. J. C. Robinson—has received from time -to time during the last four or five years many large and important -additions from the collection made by John Webb, Esq. More than -two-thirds of the ivories in the British museum, and certainly a large -number of the most valuable, had also been previously collected by a -private person.</p> - -<p class="f120 space-above2"><b>THE END.</b></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> -<div class="section"><h2>INDEX.</h2></div> - -<ul class="index"> -<li class="isub12"><small>PAGE</small></li> -<li class="ifrst">Abbreviations of legends, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Æsculapius and Hygieia, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li class="isub1">All large plaques not originally diptychs, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Angel, on leaf of diptych, in British museum, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Arm of chair, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Artists in ivory, in middle ages, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Ashmole collection, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Assyrian ivories, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Bardolph, hanged for stealing a pax, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Becker’s Lycoris, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Bellerophon, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Book cover of ninth century, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Casket of Arabic work, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  from Memphis, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  Runic, in British museum, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  from Veroli, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  in inventories, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Caxton, “playe of the chesse”, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Chair of St. Peter at Rome, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  at Ravenna, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Chalice, &c., of ninth century, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Charlemagne, his patronage of Greek artists, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Chessmen, in chronicles and poems, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”  earliest date, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”  date of invention, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”  in inventories, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”  found in Lewis, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Chryselephantine statues, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> -<li class="isub4">”    of the duc de Luynes, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> -<li class="isub4">”    conjectural restoration, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Civilisation of ancient nations, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Coffer, sent by Eginhard, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” in inventories, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Colour in sculpture, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Combs, domestic, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  in inventories, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  pontifical, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Consul, decline of the office, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  the last, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Consular diptychs, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, &c.</li> -<li class="isub1">Costume in early Greek ivories, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Crucifixes, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   in Spanish Place, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Cup, or vase, in British museum, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Cushions, the meaning in consular diptychs, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">David and Bathsheba on combs, &c., <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Decline of art in the first four centuries, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” after Constantine, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” after sixth century, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Destruction of religious objects in the sixteenth century, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Diptych of Boethius, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   at Brescia, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   of Compiegne, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></li> -<li class="isub2">”   ecclesiastical, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   ecclesiastical—their purpose, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   with Greek inscriptions, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   mutilated and palimpsest, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   of Justinian, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   found in Transylvania, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Domestic scenes, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” works in ivory, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Draughtsmen, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Dress and decorations of consuls on diptychs, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Ecclesiastical works in ivory, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Egyptian ivories, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> -<li class="isub1">English ivories, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Etruscan ivories, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">“Familia” of chessmen, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Feast of Fools, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Fejérváry collection, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Flabellum in inventories, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   of Theodolinda, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   its use, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Forgeries in ivory, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Fossil ivory, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Grecian ivories, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Handle of fan, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  of holy water sprinkler, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  of whip, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Horns, for hunting, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  tenure, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Iconoclast fanatics, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Identification of consular diptychs, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Importance of works in ivory, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Improvement in art after seventh century, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Ivory, African and Asiatic, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  its characteristics, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  mode of softening, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  much employed in 14th century, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  variations of colour, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Jehan Nicolle, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Jewish ivories, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Jupiter, at Olympia, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Ladies riding, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Legends on consular diptych, coloured red, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> -<li class="isub1">List of consular diptychs, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Lycoris, described, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Mammoth ivory, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Manumission of slaves, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Marriage caskets, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Meyer collection, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> -<li class="isub1">“Meyne,” its meaning, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Minerva, of the Parthenon, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Mirrors, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” in illuminations, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Moorish ivories, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Morris dancers, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Nineveh ivories restored, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Oliphant, explained, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Open-work in ivory, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   other examples, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Pastoral staff, with inscription, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” not used by the Pope, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” of great rarity, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” of St. Bernard, ordered in Sarum pontifical, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” of wood, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Pausanias, account of Greek statues, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> -<li class="isub5">” believed ivory to be horn, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Pax inscriptions, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” inventories, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” late use in England, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” ordered in Sarum missal, <a href="#Page_91">91</a> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></li> -<li class="isub2">” its use, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” why disused, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” of wood, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Pietà, of Michael Angelo, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   in British museum, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Plaques of ivory, large size, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> -<li class="isub3">” not originally diptychs, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Prehistoric ivories, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Pugillares, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Pyx, in inventories, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” of St. Mennas, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” various uses, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Ravenna chair, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Retable of Poissy, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Roman ivories, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  ivory sculptors exempt from certain obligations, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Romance of the Rose, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   subjects, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Seals in British Museum, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”  illustrating statuettes, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Serpent, as an emblem, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Shrine, explained, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   in illuminations, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Siege of the Castle of Love, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Spanish ivories, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Statuette, coloured, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Statuette in inventories, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   the largest known, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   opening on hinges, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   under canopies, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   very fine examples, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Style of English art, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> -<li class="isub1">“Symmachorvm,” the omitted word, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Tabernacles, at Lincoln, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Tables explained, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Tablets of Moutier, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   of Sens, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> -<li class="isub2">”   for writing on, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> -<li class="isub1">“Tan-tabl,” its meaning, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Tau, explained, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> -<li class="isub2">” rarity, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Toreutic, its meaning, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Triptychs explained, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   in illuminations, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> -<li class="isub3">”   mentioned by Anastasius, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Tusks, size and weight, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Veroli casket, probable date, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Volute, with double subject, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Webb collection, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> -<li class="isub1">Whip-handles, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> -</ul> - -<p class="f120 space-above2"><b>CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,</b><br /> -CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS.</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="transnote bbox"> -<p class="f120 space-above1">Transcriber's Notes:</p> -<hr class="r5" /> -<p class="indent">The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is in the public domain.</p> -<p class="indent">Antiquated spellings or ancient words were not corrected.</p> -<p class="indent">The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up - paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate.</p> -<p class="indent">Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations - in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered.</p> -<p class="indent">The "LIST OF FULL PAGE PLATES" was added by the transcriber it is not - part of the original text.</p> -</div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval, by William Maskell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IVORIES ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL *** - -***** This file should be named 61471-h.htm or 61471-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/4/7/61471/ - -Produced by Susan Skinner, Paul Marshall and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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