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.