Seal Matrix with Abbot William of Gross St. Martin and Saint Martin

According to its inscription, this double-sided ivory seal matrix was made for William, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Great St. Martin in Cologne. On one side of the matrix, William holds a book and a crozier, two common attributes of ranking members of the clergy. William’s hair is also tonsured, or shaved, as was customary for male monks and clerics. The other side of the matrix bears a portrait of the monastery’s namesake, the sainted monk and bishop Martin of Tours, who carries the same attributes and sports the same haircut as William. The halo surrounding Martin’s head indicates sainthood. Over his clerical robes, Martin wears a pallium, a white woolen band ornamented with crosses worn by some medieval bishops.

During the Middle Ages and later periods, a wax seal attached to an official document authenticated its contents and identified the author or sender. The inscriptions and images on this seal matrix are carved below the surface of the ivory and appear backwards. The matrix would have been pressed into warm wax that, when cooled and hardened, registered the image and text in the correct, legible orientation. When not in use, this seal matrix could have been worn or hung from a cord passed through a small ring at the top, which is fancifully carved on both sides as the head of a beast.

Sourced from the North Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans, walrus ivory was highly prized and traded across Europe during the Middle Ages. In the eleventh and especially the twelfth century, Cologne was one of the few urban centers on continental Europe with a known industry for walrus ivory carving. In the 13th century, Albertus Magnus described the hides of these "hairy whales" (Latin: "hirsuti ceti") as available for rope making in Cologne’s marketplace (De Animalibus XXVI, see Dectot pp. 163–164).

Walrus-derived materials may have been accessible on the European continent during the Middle Ages, but walrus ivory seal matrices are less common than metal alternatives, whose images and texts remained sharp after repeated use. Although ivory carvings sometimes lose their crispness over time through handling, this matrix still produces a remarkably detailed impression.

Further Reading:

Brigitte Bedos Rezak, "Outcast. Seals of the Medieval West and their Epistemological Frameworks (12th-21st Centuries)," in From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History, edited by Colum Hourihane (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), pp. 122–140.

John Cherry, "Seal Matrices of Ivory and Bone: A Bad Idea?" in A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, edited by Glyn Davies, and Eleanor Townsend (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2017), pp. 102–108.

Xavier Dectot, "When Ivory Came from the Seas. On Some Traits of the Trade of Raw and Carved Sea-Mammal Ivories in the Middle Ages," Anthropozoologica 53, no. 1 (2018): pp. 159–174.



Catalogue Entry by Nicole D. Pulichene, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

Inscription: Obverse (in legend): + WILLEHELMVS . DEI GRA[TIA] . ABB[AS] . S[AN]C[T]I . MARTINI .(image of cross] William, by the grace of God, Abbot of Saint Martin)
Reverse (in legend): + . SANCTVS . MARTINVS . ([image of cross] Saint Martin)

Georges Hoentschel (French)(sold 1911); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1911–1917)

Zoological Gardens, Dusseldorf. "Gewerbe-Ausstellung für Rheinland, Westfalen und Benachbarte Bezirke in Verbindung mit einer Allgemeinen Deutschen Kunstausstellung und einer Ausstellung Kunstgewerblicher Alterthümer in Düsseldorf 1880," May–October 1880.

Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. "The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn," September 9-November 21, 1989.

Ausstellung der kunstgewerblichen Alterthümer in Düsseldorf 1880: Gewerbe-Ausstellung für Rheinland, Westfalen und benachbarte Bezirke in Verbindung mit einer Allgemeinen Deutschen Kunst-Ausstellung und einer Ausstellung kunstgewerblicher Alterthümer. Düsseldorf: s.n., 1880. no. 1030, pp. 257–58.

Pératé, André. Collections Georges Hoentschel: Ivoires, orfèvrerie religieuse, pierres. Vol. 2. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1911. no. 12, fig. XII.

Breck, Joseph. "Pre-Gothic Ivories in the Pierpont Morgan Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 15, no. 1 (January 1920). p. 15.

Goldschmidt, Adolph. Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der romanischen Zeit, XI.-XIII. Jahrhundert. Vol. 4. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1926. no. 58, p. 19, pl. XIV.

St. Clair, Archer, and Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, ed. The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn. New Brunswick, N.J.: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 1989. no. 49, pp. 89–90.

Zuchold, Gerd H. Der 'Klosterhof' des Prinzen Karl von Preussen im Park von Schloss Glienicke in Berlin: Volume 2, Katalog der von Prinz Karl von Preussen im 'Klosterhof' aufbewahrten Kunstwerke. Bauwerke und Kunstdenkmäler von Berlin, Beiheft, Vol. 21. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1993. no. 117, p. 139.

Cherry, John. "Seal Matrices of Ivory and Bone: A Bad Idea?." In A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, edited by Glyn Davies, and Eleanor Townsend. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2017. p. 118, fig. 2.