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Cabinet

1650-1675 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Under European patronage, ivory carvers from various parts of coastal South and East Asia began to apply their skills to the production of devotional Christian objects for use in new churches in the East as well as for export to Europe. The exterior faces of this cabinet are carved with scenes of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, very probably copied from contemporary European engravings. The choice of this subject is likely to have been inspired by the presence in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) of a mountain known as Adam's Peak, which local inhabitants believed was the home of Adam and Eve. Conservation work on the cabinet has revealed that, when it was being made, sheets of contemporary Italian paper were applied between the carcase and the ivory veneer, probably to help the adhesion of the ivory to the wood.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 6 parts.

  • Casket
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Key
Materials and techniques
Wood, veneered with panels of carved ivory, with silver mounts
Brief description
Cabinet, wood veneered with panels of carved ivory depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Sri Lanka, 1650-1675.
Physical description
Cabinet, wood veneered with panels of carved ivory depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; with silver mounts.
Dimensions
  • Height: 24cm
  • With doors closed. width: 27cm
  • Depth: 18cm
Measured in Furniture Gallery survey 16/12/2009: 24 x 28 (incl. handles) x 18 cm
Style
Object history
"The exterior and the inner face of the doors of this cabinet are all mounted with carved panels of ivory depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The couple stand beneath the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil', Eve presenting Adam with a piece of fruit from the tree that God had explicitly forbidden them to eat (Genesis 3:1-7). Adam recoils from the offering, with one hand on his breast signifying his determination to keep
his promise to God and the other hand pointing to heaven to remind Eve of God's watchful eyes over them. The pair are surrounded by animals of creation...

Although this depiction of Adam and Eve was probably inspired by a European engraving, it is difficult to establish a precise source. Woodcuts by northern European artists such as Albrecht Diirer and Thielman Kerver were certainly known to ivory carvers in Ceylon and may have been used. Jan Veenendaal suggests that engravings of Adam and Eve by Matthaus Merian (1593-1650) were a possible design source for this cabinet, since they include elephants. The choice of this subject is likely to have been inspired by the presence in Ceylon of a mountain known as Adam's Peak. According to
Linschoten, 'The Indians hold for certane that Paradice was in that place, and that Adam was created therein, saying that yet untill this daye.'

Conservation work on this cabinet has revealed that, when it was being made, sheets of contemporary Italian paper were applied between the carcass and the ivory veneer, probably to help the adhesion of the ivory plates to the timber."
Historical context
"The inhabitants of Ceylon first encountered Christian imagery after the arrival to the island in 1505 of the Portuguese, who used visual devices in their attempts to convert the local population. Sinhalese craftsmen and artisans were directly confronted with Christian iconography, which they interpreted in the building of churches on the island (by 1628 the Franciscans alone had fifty-four churches in Ceylon). Many such craftsmen were prized for their ability to work the island's precious materials into devotional objects."
Amin Jaffer, Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, London : V&A, 2002, pp. 54-55, ill. ISBN: 1 85177 381 9.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Under European patronage, ivory carvers from various parts of coastal South and East Asia began to apply their skills to the production of devotional Christian objects for use in new churches in the East as well as for export to Europe. The exterior faces of this cabinet are carved with scenes of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, very probably copied from contemporary European engravings. The choice of this subject is likely to have been inspired by the presence in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) of a mountain known as Adam's Peak, which local inhabitants believed was the home of Adam and Eve. Conservation work on the cabinet has revealed that, when it was being made, sheets of contemporary Italian paper were applied between the carcase and the ivory veneer, probably to help the adhesion of the ivory to the wood.
Bibliographic references
  • Irwin, John , Art & the East India Trade; Victoria & Albert Museum,, HMSO, London, 1970 No9. 13 L. Prematilleke, 'An Ivory Cabinet in the Archaeological Museum, University of Ceylon', University of Ceylon Review, Vol. XIX, No. 1, April 1961 pp 76-80
  • Luxury goods from India : the art of the Indian cabinet maker / Amin Jaffer. London: V&A Publications, 2002 Number: 1851773819 p.55
  • Ayers, J. Oriental Art in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1983, ISBN 0-85667-120-7 p. 76
Collection
Accession number
1067:1 to 6-1855

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Record createdNovember 27, 2002
Record URL
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