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Ch. 2: Modern Ivory Carvings

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IVORY CARVINGS
53
self in despair. In the end poetic justice is to a certain ex­tent satisfied by the death of the wicked duchess at the hands of her husband. The carvings devoted to the scenes of this tale, and a few other works of this type, exemplify the artistic range of some of the medieval French ivory carvers, whom we might suspect of undue one-sidedness in an exclusive devotion to religious themes.
One of the very best specimens of the French carver's art of the fourteenth century is a triptych in which the ar­tist has successfully utilized the small space at his disposal without unduly crowding it with figures, and has known how to balance his composition perfectly and at the same time treat the separate parts with thorough freedom. The Cru­cifixion occupies the upper half of the central panel, below this, in three Gothic niches, are graven figures of the Virgin and two ministering angels. On the side panels are de­picted the Purification of the Virgin, the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, Christ bearing the Cross, and the Deposition from the Cross. Within its somewhat narrow limits this work deserves all praise for the grace and dignity of the designs.
The elaborate ivory known as the " Oratory of the Duchess of Burgundy," now in the Musée de Cluny, was originally one of the chief treasures of the Chartreuse de Dijon, and was sold with the other valuables of this foundation pursu­ant to the Revolutionary decree ordering the sale of the ecclesiastical treasures. In the registers of the Chartreuse appears the following interesting entry in the accounts for 1392-1393:*
"Payé 500 liv. à Berthelot Héliot, varlet de chambre du duc [Philippe le Hardi], pour deux grant tableaux d'ivoire a ymaiges, dont l'un d'iceulx est la passion de Notre-Seig-neur et l'autre la vie de monsieur saint Jean-Baptiste."
*E. de Sommerard, "Catalogue du Musée de Cluny," Paris, 1881, p. 84.
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