The Ivory Workers of the Middle AgesCust, Anna Maria Elizabeth
History
The Ivory Workers of the Middle Ages
Cust, Anna Maria Elizabeth
Ivories -- History; Ivories, Medieval
The Romanesque style was transitional, and turned for re-inspiration to
the Gallo-Roman monuments, but it is deeply influenced by that northern
spirit which later on triumphed in the full perfection of the Gothic
Art.
There was a great revival of monumental sculpture with the growth of
the Romanesque spirit, and sculptured figures, from being introduced
tentatively in the capitals and other parts connected with the
structure, later, entirely filled the great _tympana_ or arches
surmounting the doors of the churches, and from thence spread to every
nook and cranny till in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they
were numbered by thousands.
Carved ivories are not so numerous in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries as in the years before, and when they became popular again,
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the division between the
sculptors in stone and the ivory workers had taken place, beautiful and
clever imitations of the sculptures were turned out by the dozen, but
it is exceedingly rare to find the work of a real artist.
The sculptures of the eleventh and early twelfth centuries have many
details in common with the book cover at St. Gall (Fig. 23); but
gradually the folds of the drapery grew vertical and the figures more
drawn out, and with a peculiar tendency to arrange the hair in set
curled locks. One of the most important transitional ivories is the
diptych of St. Nicasius, Bishop of Rheims, which is preserved in the
Cathedral of Tournai, and is still strongly Carlovingian, as will be
seen in the typical representation of the Crucifixion. Each leaf has
a central medallion, that on the first leaf containing the _Agnus
Dei_ supported by angels, whose movements can be closely paralleled
in the St. Gall plaque. Above, Christ is throned in a mandorla and
accompanied by the symbols of the four evangelists. On the second leaf,
in addition to the medallion containing the figure of St. Nicasius are
some pierced vine scrolls rather like those on Fig. 23, and by far the
best part of a very poor work. The drapery is, perhaps, better designed
than in the Carlovingian sculptures, but the folds are only engraved,
and though there is a certain change in the type of the faces, in
the matter of beauty it is entirely for the worse. A plaque in the
British Museum seems also to belong to this period, it is bordered
by a flowered scroll and has representations of _The Nativity_, _The
Announcement to the Shepherds_ and _The Baptism_, the latter being very
strange; the figure of Christ being immersed to the waist in a large
vase.
[Illustration: [VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
27. CROZIER
French, fourteenth century]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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