Gothic Ivories is a really splendid database Gothic Ivories is a really splendid database organised by the Courtauld Institute the Courtauld Institute…
“Gothic Ivories” is a really amazing project. The aim is to create a truly encompassing database containing all relevant information on every surviving Gothic Ivory from Western Europe 1200 – 1530, accompanied by at least one image. (Not included are non-figurative pieces, pre-1200 figured gaming pieces, so-called Siculo-Arabic non-figurative work and Embriachi-style 15th-century Italian figures.) However, included are forgeries, lost or stolen objects plus neo-gothic pieces from the 18th and 19th century.
Much of this must be characterised as a kind of contemplative art in the form of statuettes, diptychs and triptychs meant for private devotion in private chapels or while travelling. But ivory was also used for secular artefacts like mirror backs, wonderful caskets and knife-handles.
Raymond Koechilin did the last comprehensive survey in 1924. In three volumes he listed 1300 items. When the project with the database was introduced we were promised entries about app. 4000 scattered items in private and public collections. Already last week the database could muster more than 2800 entries accompanied by more than 7800 photos. Newly added collections are the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham, the GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Leipzig, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the Musee de la Chartreuse in Douai, a large part of the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence plus more pieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as well as many more! However, entries from some major as well as minor collections (like for instance the National Museum in Copenhagen) are still lacking, which means that more is to come; the project is not at all completed.
Just to give an example of the new material, there is a fine presentation of an ivory casket (Inv. 1882,608) presently in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin.
The casket with silver fittings, probably from the 1st quarter of the 14th century, measures no more than 4,6 x 12,2 x 6,7 cm. Nevertheless on the lid it shows four tiny scenes of a courting couple, a couple holding hands, a youth kneeling in front of a lady and a lady crowning her kneeling lover. Other scenes show a man (king?) with a hawk on his wrist and a queen holding a flower. On the other side there is a musician playing a portable organ and a couple dancing plus much more. Some figures wear chaplets “pierced with small holes, where gems may have been originally inserted.”
The point here is that the photos make it possible to study all the tiny details. Apart from that the database is searchable, which means that scholars and interested from other disciplines than Art History are able to browse specific themes like for instance the 133 entries picturing “nature” or the 122 entries picturing “costume, jewelry and personal appearance” . You might even join the project and listen in on the debates amongst the specialist in the forums. Enjoy!
Gothic Ivories Project at The Courtauld Institute of Art
Read more about a Gothic Ivory Group in Louvre
Photo: © Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photography: Stefan Büchner.