File:The ivory workers of the middle ages (1906) (14593449129).jpg

Identifier: ivoryworkersmidage00cust (find matches)
Title: The ivory workers of the middle ages
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Cust, Anna Maria Elizabeth
Subjects: Ivories
Publisher: London, G. Bell and sons
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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lic and private devotion. One of the mostideally noble representations is that in the groupof The Coronation of the Virgin in the Louvre,(Fig. 28) ; it closely resembles the best sculpturein its severe lines, and was probably made about1280. A hundred years later there is an entry inthe Inventory of Charles V. which most probablyrefers to this group ; it reads most quaintly in theold French. Item, ung courronnement de NostreSeigneur a Nostre-Da^ne, dyvire et trois angellotzde 7nes7nesy The earlier ivories were always painted, andmuch of the original colouring is preserved. TheVirgin is dressed in rich robes, semees de France (asmuch in honour of the Royal House as of herattribute the lily), but she is utterly unconsciousof self as she humbly bows her head to receivethe crown. The two little ecstatic angels form apart of every group of the Glorification of theVirgin, either bearing tall candles, or with theirhands raised in adoration. There is hardly fifty years between this purely 136
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2> o IVORY WORKERS idealistic conception and the beautiful, but com-pletely mundane Vierge de la Sainte Chapelle inthe same collection. This magnificent figure iscarved from one huge piece of ivory, and wasprobably the gift of St. Louis to his new chapel,about 1320. The masterly arrangement of thedrapery and the exquisite finish make it one of themost celebrated ivories of the fourteenth century,but the old simplicity is quite gone, and the studiedease of the Virgins pose is chosen to give value toevery line of drapery and figure. There is a feel-ing of movement in all her being, which, with thebeautiful broken folds of the drapery has within itthe germ of that restlessness which, rapidly in-creasing, became a painful fault in later Gothicsculpture. The colouring is very delicate, thepupils of the eyes are dark ; the lips, which are justparting in a rather affected smile, are lightly touchedwith carmine, and a faint gilded border relievesthe edges of the garments. The little seated

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