It is probable that this leaf from a writing tablet, as with many extant writing tablets, was intended for letter writing. The decoration of the exterior of many of these ivory tablets, carved with scenes of courtship and chivalric romances, suggests that they were used by noble men and women for love poems or secret letters. Though this particular tablet is its fragmentary state, complete tablets are known. A similar, complete writing box was designed to hold not only the leaves, but also the stylus and a sunken receptacle for wax. Writing tablets of wood, metal, or ivory, which had been in use from the days of ancient Egypt, were not medieval inventions. They were, however, important writing implements in a period when paper and parchment were both scarce and expensive. The value of the writing tablets lay in their reusable character. A brief message or account could be inscribed with a stylus on a thin layer of wax spread on the back of the tablet. After the recipient had read it, it could be erased so that an answer could be written in the wax and sent back to the owner. Though this medium did not lend itself to permanent records, it is probable that scribes used writing tablets for dictation of information which was to be transcribed later on parchment or paper; students, too, may have used writing tablets for practice exercises, and housewives, for inventories or accounts. These writing tablets were often equipped, as were many medieval objects, with leather cases to protect them both in storage and when carried on the person or during travel.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Leaf of a Writing Tablet
Date:14th century
Geography:Made in Paris, France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant ivory
Dimensions:Overall: 4 9/16 x 3 1/16 x 3/16 in. (11.7 x 7.8 x 0.6 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:Gift of Ann Payne Blumenthal, 1938
Object Number:38.108
On the back of this rectangular ivory panel, a raised rim surrounds a smooth, recessed compartment, displaying the vertical orientation of the ivory grain. The recessed field provided an area for the panel to receive a thin sheet of wax that could be used as an erasable writing surface. A single hole on the upper middle of the indentation is a remnant of the panel’s original hardware. When first made, a pin passed through this hole, attaching it to one or more sheets of ivory to form a small booklet of ivory writing tablets, of which this was a cover. The ivory panels rotated on the pin, allowing the booklet to slide open like a fan like the intact example in the collection of the Louvre (inv. no. MRR 429).
On the front of the panel, a frieze of four-petaled flowers divides the figural carving into two registers. A gothic arcade with trefoil arches, crockets, and traceried spandrels subdivides both registers into two niches inhabited by a young male and female couple. On the upper left, a man makes an unwanted advance on a woman, who shoves him and gestures to escape as he grasps at her breast. The couple on the upper right sit on a bench, the man chucking the woman’s chin while she holds a small dog on her lap. On the lower left, a couple plays chess. The woman displays the many pieces she has captured, but her right hand, raised in surprise, suggests that she realizes that the man’s current move will snatch victory from her. On the right, a man kneels with hands raised in a gesture of vow-taking drawn from contemporary the rituals of knighthood.
The carving on the panel’s front is worn. Wear and rounding of features are most notable on the faces, especially the nose. The central columns in the arcade are modern replacements in ivory of a whiter cast than the original, and a replacement is also visible on the panel’s upper right edge. The four scenes that adorn this writing tablet are drawn from the stock scenes of courtly love typical on secular fourteenth-century French artifacts made of ivory and represent sexuality as a power play in which a man and a woman face off for dominion. The theme of domination is most explicit on the upper left corner, where the man attacks a struggling woman who clearly does not consent to his advances. This scene forms a sharp contrast to the tender, apparently consensual caress of the seated couple in the right-hand niche, and calls attention to the shadow of violence that hovers over the concept of courtly love. Authors of romance literature and erotic poetry focused on the lives of shepherdesses represented rape among the common forms of sexual activity pursued by young knights. Modern scholars have interpreted these scenes as a tacit acceptance of violence against women, as a form of warning and antirape education, and as critiques of male cruelty. Indeed, all these interpretations of scenes of rape in romance literature likely occurred historically, depending on the background and viewpoints of the people who read the texts or saw these themes represented in visual art. On this panel, the representation of rape draws attention to a larger theme of power in romance, but its pairing with the representation of a tender, apparently consensual touch in the niche on the right suggests that these two scenes serve as an antimodel and model for appropriate behavior for a male lover.
The theme of love as a struggle for dominance also animates the lower register. In the left niche, the man moving his chess piece appears to have overcome a poor early-game performance to checkmate the woman, who raises her hand in shock and annoyance. Chess was a socially accepted opportunity for men and woman to pass time together. The competitive aspect of the game and the equal playing field it offered people of all genders recommended it as a visual metaphor for love in a society that imagined a struggle for dominance as a part of the process of courtship. The scene is frequently found in ivory carvings, especially mirror-backs, with examples in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. no. 1940.1200), the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. 803-1891), and the Louvre (inv. no. OA 117). The game’s tussle for dominance is paired to its right with an image of oath-taking that places the man in an obviously subordinate role and serves as one of the major leitmotifs of chivalric love stories. How are we to understand the pairing of these two scenes? Could they serve, as above, as an antitype and type, with the man achieving last minute victory over his lady placed to the sinister left side and a man placing himself at the mercy of a woman on the honorable right? Perhaps the well-laid trap in the game of chess reveals the oath as a duplicitous stratagem, a trap that leads the woman to believe she is in control of a romantic dalliance that will inevitably end in a revelation of masculine authority? Like the chivalric romances from which these stock-scenes are excerpted, the interpretation must depend on the perspectives and agendas of viewers past and present.
Late medieval Europeans habitually stored writing tablets, like other small personal effects, in rigid, form-fitting leather cases that contemporary French speakers called estuyz. Medieval writing tablets occasionally retain their original cases. The Royal Library of Belgium (ms. IV 1278) and the Musée provincial des Arts anciens du Namurois-Trésor d'Oignies in Namur preserve examples in ivory (Coll. Fondation Roi Baudouin. Dépôt à la Société archéologique de Namur, Inv. 29), while an intact set of boxwood writing tablets in a leather case emerged from archaeological digs in Swinegate, York in 1989 (Yorkshire Archaeological Trust, inv. no. YORYM 1989.28, SF 257).
Further Reading:
Michelle Brown, "The Role of the Wax Tablet in Medieval Literacy: a Reconsideration in Light of a Find from York" The British Library Journal Vol. 20, No. 1 (1994): pp. 1-16.
Michael Camille: The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of Desire, 1998.
Stephen Allen, "Wooden Writing Tablets from 12-18 Swinegate, York (YORYM: 1989.28)," York Archaeological Trust, 2016.
Sarah Baechle, Carissa M. Harris, and Elizaveta Strakhov, eds. Rape Culture and Female Resistance in Late Medieval Literature, With an Edition of Middle English and Middle Scots Pastourelles (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022).
Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022
Edward Barry, Toulouse (until d. 1879); his posthumous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris (June 2-4, 1880, no. 31); Charles Léon Cardon, Brussels (?); Lucien Cottreau, Paris (by 1900–1910); his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris (April 28-29, 1910, no. 34); Paul Casimir Garnier, Paris (1910–16); his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris (December 18-23, 1916, no. 49); George and Florence BlumenthalParis and New York (by 1926); Ann Payne Blumenthal, New York (until 1938)
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Exposition universelle de 1900. L'exposition retrospective de l'art francais," April 14–November 12, 1900.
Brooklyn Museum. "Chess: East and West, Past and Present," April–October 1968.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chess: East and West, Past and Present," October 1968–January 1969.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages," March 28–June 15, 1975.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. "Writing and Reading," September 15, 1981-January 3, 1982.
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. "The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn," September 9-November 21, 1989.
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. "Memory and The Middle Ages," February 17–May 21, 1995.
Katonah Museum of Art. "Love and Courtship in the Middle Ages," October 2, 2005–January 1, 2006.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis," November 15, 2011–April 22, 2012.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffin Collection," May 1–October 18, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters. "The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy," July 22, 2019–January 12, 2020.
Catalogue des sculptures en ivoire, en bois, en marbre et en terre cuite... composant la collection de feu M. Edward Barry, de Toulouse. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, June 2-4, 1880. no. 31, p. 8.
Catalogue officiel illustré de l'exposition retrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800. Exposition universelle de 1900. Paris: Lemercier & Cie., 1900. no. 140, p. 265.
Migeon, Gaston. Exposition rétrospective de l'art français en 1900. Paris: Exposition universelle de 1900, 1900. p. 17.
Migeon, Gaston. "L'exposition rétrospective de l'art français: Les ivoires." La Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne 7, no. 4 (June 1900). p. 458, ill.
Hamel, Maurice. "La Collection Cottreau." Les Arts 9, no. 100 (April 1910). p. 5.
Collection Paul Garnier: Objets d'art & de haute curiosité du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance, des XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles et autres. Paris: Hôtel Drouot, December 18-23, 1916. no. 49, p. 13.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1219, pp. 428–29.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume III, Plates. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1219, pl. CXCIX.
Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, New York: Volume 3, Works of Art, Mediaeval and Renaissance. Paris: A. Lévy, 1926. pl. V.
Rorimer, James J. "Reports of the Departments." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 69 (1938). p. 22.
Grodecki, Louis. Ivoires français. Arts, styles et techniques. Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1947. p. 118.
Husband, Timothy B., and Jane Hayward, ed. The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. no. 191, p. 172.
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. 66, p. 105.
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. "Reconstructing Arthurian History: Lancelot and the Vulgate Cycle." In Memory and the Middle Ages, edited by Nancy Netzer, and Virginia Reinburg. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. no. 52, p. 65, ill. p. 60.
Netzer, Nancy, and Virginia Reinburg, ed. Memory and the Middle Ages. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. no. 52, p. 104.
Constable, Olivia Remie. "Chess and Courtly Culture in Medieval Castile: The 'Libro de ajedrez' of Alfonso X, el Sabio." Speculum 82, no. 2 (April 2007). p. 326 n. 76.
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