On view
Seated Virgin and Child,
ca. 1300
The elongated incisors of elephants, their tusks, provide one of the most sought-after carving materials—ivory. Composed of a dense calciferous material easy to carve because of its high collagen content, ivory has provided humans an optimal medium for miniature sculptures for millennia. These two exquisite works were fashioned from the tusks of an African elephant. The older work, a damaged Virgin and Child statuette, was carved in Paris in the mid-thirteenth century with ivory transported by sand and sea, halfway across the globe. The more recent work, an intricate spoon carved by an Edo artist of the kingdom of Benin (in present-day Nigeria) for export to Europe, reflects the material exchanges between a powerful African kingdom and the European sea powers encroaching on the West African coastline. During the European Middle Ages, trans-Saharan caravans connected West African economies with the Mediterranean and Europe.
Sarah Guérin, Associate Professor, History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
More About This Object
Information
ca. 1300
Europe, England
- "Recent accessions", Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 6, no. 1/2 (1947): p. 7., p. 7
- E.T. DeWald, "An ivory Madonna and Child", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 8, no. 2 (1949): p. 4-5., pp. 4-5 (illus.)
- Archer St. Clair, Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, The carver's art, Medieval sculpture in ivory, bone, and horn, (New Brunswick: Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 1989)., cat. no. 75
- Richard Randall, The golden age of ivory: Gothic carvings in North American collections, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993)., p. 36; no. 6 (illus.)
