Arts and crafts in the Middle Ages : $b a description of mediaeval workmanship in several of the departments of applied art, together with some account of special artisans in the early RenaissanceAddison, Julia de Wolf
History
Arts and crafts in the Middle Ages : $b a description of mediaeval workmanship in several of the departments of applied art, together with some account of special artisans in the early Renaissance
Addison, Julia de Wolf
Arts and crafts movement; Decoration and ornament, Medieval; Decorative arts -- History; Illumination of books and manuscripts
After the triptychs came sets of five leaves, hinged together;
sometimes these were arranged in groups of four around a central
plaque. Often they were intended to be used as book covers.
Occasionally the five leaves were made up of classical ivories
which had been altered in such a way that they now had Christian
significance. The beautiful diptych in the Bargello, representing
Adam in the Earthly Paradise, may easily have been originally
intended for Orpheus, especially since Eve is absent! The treatment
is rather classical, and was probably adapted to its later name.
Some diptychs which were used afterwards for ecclesiastical
purposes, show signs of having had the Consular inscription erased,
and the wax removed, while Christian sentiments were written or
incised within the book itself. Parts of the service were also
occasionally transcribed on diptychs. In Milan the Rites contain
these passages: "The lesson ended, a scholar, vested in a surplice,
takes the ivory tablets from the altar or ambo, and ascends the
pulpit;" and in another place a similar allusion occurs: "When the
Deacon chants the Alleluia, the key bearer for the week hands the
ivory tablets to him at the exit of the choir."
Anastatius, in his Life of Pope Agatho, tells of a form of posthumous
excommunication which was sometimes practised: "They took away from
the diptychs... wherever it could be done, the names and figures
of these patriarchs, Cyrus, Sergius, Paul, Pyrrhus, and Peter,
through whom error had been brought among the orthodox."
Among ivory carvings in Carlovingian times may be
cited a casket with ornamental colonettes sent by Eginhard to his
son. In 823, Louis le Debonaire owned a statuette, a diptych, and
a coffer, while in 845 the Archbishop of Rheims placed an order
for ivory book covers, for the works of St. Jerome, a Lectionary,
and other works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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