Physical description
Panel, The Nativity, walrus ivory, carved in high relief. The Virgin lies on a mattress within the towered walls of a city (Bethlehem) with the Child beside her in a manger, the ox and ass behind, and St. Joseph seated to the right; above are the star and a worshipping angel, gesturing towards Christ. Outside the walls four angels announce the Birth to three shepherds below. Surrounded by a border of a repeating anthemion ornament. Panel relief in walrus ivory made up of three slices of tusk plaques fastened together, with traces of purple colouring.
Place of Origin
Köln (city), Germany (made)
Date
ca. 1150-1160 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Walrus ivory, carved in high relief
Dimensions
Height: 20.8 cm at left, Height: 21.3 cm at right, Width: 19.7 cm at top, Width: 19 cm at bottom, Depth: 0.2 cm, Weight: 1.34 kg
Object history note
From the Webb collection; formerly in the Mertens Schaaffhausen collection, Cologne, purchased from Webb, £280.
Historical significance: One of the main features of the style is the use of rows of dots to emphasize curved lines, which has given the group its name: 'gestichelte' or 'pricked'. Another series of plaques, slightly smaller, less well preserved, and with a slightly less imaginitive expression of form, but stylistically and iconographically almost exactly the same as the larger series is now divided between Cologne, Berlin and the V&A (a second Ascension). Other works showing the same style confirm the Cologne provenance suggested by the expressionless oval faces shown in the three-quarter profile and the softly rounded forms, which can be seen in Romanesque sculpture in the Cologne area, and in two contemporary illuminated gospels, made in Cologne, now housed in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt (Exh.cat. 'Die Zeit der Stauffer',
Stuttgart, 1977, no. 620.)
Historical context note
This and the two other plaques in the V&A (Inv.nos: 145-1866, 378-1871) belong to the same ensemble, together with two other reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (showing the Three Maries at the Sepulchre and the Incredulity of St. Thomas);
They are the same size and are carved in an identical style and display the same border designs.
The size and number of the plaques suggest that they probably once formed a large altar frontal or decorated a pulpit, in an ensemble that probably consisted of nine panels.
Descriptive line
Plaque, walrus ivory, The Nativity, carved in high relief, Germany (Cologne), ca. 1150-60
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
P. Williamson (ed.), European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1996, p. 45
Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1866. Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1. London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868., p. 17.
Die Zeit der Staufer : Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur ; Katalog der Ausstellung. n. 620. pl. 430. Catalogue of the exhibition held Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, 1977.
Vogelsang, Rosemarie. Die Elfenbeingruppe mit den Gestichelten Faltenlinien. Cologna: 1961.
Euw, Anton von. [Catalogue entries]. In: Rhein und Maas. 383. Catalogue of the exhibition held Kunsthalle, Cologne and the Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire, Brussels, 1972.
Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1927-1929. Part I. pp. 76-77.
Robinson, J. C., ed. Catalogue of the special exhibition of works of art of the mediaeval, renaissance, and more recent periods : on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862. London: Printed by Geroge E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O, 1863. no. 55.
Forster, Otto H. Kölner Kunstsammler in Alter und Seiner Zeit. Cologne: 1931. pp. 73-74.
Williamson, Paul. Medieval Ivory Carvings. Early Christian to Romanesque. London, V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010, pp. 274-279, cat.no. 72
Exhibition History
Die Zeit der Stauffer. Geschichte, Kunst, Kultur (Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart 01/01/1977-31/12/1977)
Ornamenta Ecclesiae: Kunst und Künstler der Romanik in Köln (Josef-Haubrich Kunsthalle 07/03/1985-09/06/1985)
Materials
Ivory
Techniques
Carving; High relief
Subjects depicted
Jesus Christ; Mary (Virgin Mary); Angels; Sheep; Stars; Saints; Joseph (of Nazareth, Saint); Shepherds; Ox; Towers; The Christ Child; Bethlehem; Infants; Ass; Donkeys; Mothers; Maternity; City walls
Categories
Sculpture; Religion; Christianity; Plaques & Plaquettes
Collection code
SCP
