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The Plague of Locusts

Panel
ca. 1390-1410 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is one of five panels (A76 to A80-1919) from a casket or an altarpiece made at the workshop of Baldassare Embriachi (Ubriachi) in about 1390-1410 in North Italy, Florence or Venice. This panel depicts the plague of locusts (Exodus, X, 4-19). The remaining plaques illustrate another three of the ten biblical plagues of Egypt and the fifth depicts a shepherd in a landscape.
Embriachi plaques depicting the Old Testament are rare, and only one casket with Old Testament scenes is known.

The Embriachi workshop was a north Italian family of entrepreneurs and carvers. The precise location of the workshop is unknown, except that it originated in Florence in around probably the 1370s.
Baldassare Embriachi, a member of a Florentine noble family, and the Florentine literary circles, during his career acted as both merchant and diplomat. He was therefore rather the financial means behind the bone-carving workshop that bears his name, rather than its leading artist. By 1395, political and financial circumstances had forced him to transfer to Venice. The suggested time range of activity for the workshop differs, from the tightest being 1390-1405, to a wider span of 1370s until at least 1416, but certainly no later than 1433.

They employed local workers specialising in 'certosina' (inlay of stained woods, bone and horn), and the workshop produced items carved in bone (usually horse or ox) with wood and bone marquetry.
As well as altarpieces, the workshop also made caskets as bridal gifts to hold jewels or documents, and these were often decorated with scenes from mythology.



Object details

Category
Object type
TitleThe Plague of Locusts (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved bone
Brief description
Plaque, bone, the Plague of Locusts, by the workshop of Baldassare Ubriachi, Northern Italian (Florence or Venice), ca. 1390-1410
Physical description
Bone panel from a casket depicting the Plague of Locusts (Exodus, X, 4-19)
Dimensions
  • Height: 10cm
  • Width: 3.5cm
Object history
In the collection of the architect Bernard H. Webb, Gosmore, ear Hitchin in Hertfordshire, before 1919; Webb had most likely acquired the panels in Italy, as other pieces in his collection were certainly bought from dealers in Florence and Siena (correspondence in Museum records); bequeathed by Webb in 1919. This plaque is one of five plaques that now form a whole and are set in a modern wooden frame. According to a note on the departmental record card, this was made in the Art Work Room of the Museum shortly after the plaques' acquisition.
Subject depicted
Summary
This is one of five panels (A76 to A80-1919) from a casket or an altarpiece made at the workshop of Baldassare Embriachi (Ubriachi) in about 1390-1410 in North Italy, Florence or Venice. This panel depicts the plague of locusts (Exodus, X, 4-19). The remaining plaques illustrate another three of the ten biblical plagues of Egypt and the fifth depicts a shepherd in a landscape.
Embriachi plaques depicting the Old Testament are rare, and only one casket with Old Testament scenes is known.

The Embriachi workshop was a north Italian family of entrepreneurs and carvers. The precise location of the workshop is unknown, except that it originated in Florence in around probably the 1370s.
Baldassare Embriachi, a member of a Florentine noble family, and the Florentine literary circles, during his career acted as both merchant and diplomat. He was therefore rather the financial means behind the bone-carving workshop that bears his name, rather than its leading artist. By 1395, political and financial circumstances had forced him to transfer to Venice. The suggested time range of activity for the workshop differs, from the tightest being 1390-1405, to a wider span of 1370s until at least 1416, but certainly no later than 1433.

They employed local workers specialising in 'certosina' (inlay of stained woods, bone and horn), and the workshop produced items carved in bone (usually horse or ox) with wood and bone marquetry.
As well as altarpieces, the workshop also made caskets as bridal gifts to hold jewels or documents, and these were often decorated with scenes from mythology.

Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Longhurst, Margaret H., Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929 pp. 66-67, pl. LXII
  • Tomasi, M. Monumenti d’Avorio. I dossali degli Embriachi e I loro committenti, Pisa, 2010, p. 273
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014 part II, pp. 760-1
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, part II, pp. 760-1, cat. no. 245
Collection
Accession number
A.79-1919

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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