Both sides of this ivory reveal scenes of courtship taking place under trefoil arches. On one side (not shown), a man holding a bird of prey- a symbol of his status- has received a coronet from a woman and reciprocates by crowning her, thus signifying her victory in winning his love. On the other side (below, left) the lovers kneel in adoration before the god of love, who throws darts to seal their devotion. Inspired by numerous contemporary love poems, these scenes are part of the stages of love as defined in courtly literature such as the influential Roman de la Rose (ca. 1230-75).
Intended to cover writing tablets, such plaques were among the deluxe products of Paris during the fourteenth century and were possibly made on the rue de la Tabletterie, a name indicating their special use. Poems or messages would have been written on smooth sheets of ivory that had recessed areas filled with wax for the text. Perfect economy of technique and purity of style are clearly evident in these amorous images. In their elegance of form and gesture the courtly couples seem also to convey a moral and spiritual life that appears both mannered and artificial but is infused with joie de vivre.
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Title:Cover of a Writing Tablet
Date:ca. 1325–50
Geography:Made in Paris, Île-de-France, France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant ivory
Dimensions:Overall: 3 11/16 x 2 5/16 x 5/16 in. (9.3 x 5.9 x 0.8 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 2003
Object Number:2003.131.3a, b
This rectangular ivory panel once formed the cover of a writing tablet. On one side of the panel, a young woman and a man with a hawk kneel before the winged god Cupid (usually called Amor or The God of Love in contemporary texts). On the other, a standing man, holding a hawk in his right hand, places a crown on the head a young woman. She gathers her gown with her left hand and points to the man with her right. The god sits cross-legged in the crown of an oak tree and aims a pair of bolts at the hearts of his supplicants. Both scenes take place within an architectural framework composed of a pair of columns rising into a trefoil arch, and a pointed gable with floral crockets and finials. The spandrels above the canopy are filled with blind trefoil tracery. With its high relief, monumental figures, and commanding negative space, this carving is among the finest fourteenth century ivories in The Met’s collection, demonstrating the high skill and refinement achieved by Parisian ivory carvers. The ivory is in excellent condition, wear to the faces and the small area of damage to the left-hand side of the crowning notwithstanding, and the smooth backgrounds reveal the vertical orientation of the grain.
The two figural groups in the carving deploy stock characters, activities, and props to evoke the erotic atmosphere of contemporary romance literature without expressly pointing to specific narratives. The scene of crowning is a variation on a standard motif for representing lovers, seen for example on the back of a contemporary mirror in the Museum’s collection (acc. no. 1979.521.1). It emerged from customs of gift-giving between lovers, with the twelfth-century commentator Andreas Capellanus pointing in his treatise De Amore to hair bands and wreaths of gold and silver as appropriate gifts for exchange between lovers. Wreaths of live plant material were also part of seasonal costume in royal courts, with rose crowns were worn when locally available in early summer and crowns of greenery during erotically charged May Day celebrations. The motif of Cupid seated in the tree originates in literature. The scene is encountered in Guillaume de Machaut’s Dit du Vergier, and the immense popularity of the poem encouraged artists to depict Cupid in a tree when illustrating other texts. A copy of the Roman de la Rose now in the Morgan Library (MS G.32 fol. 13v) also shows Cupid emerging from the boughs of a tree to strike the Lover, and a marginal image in the Maastricht Hours (British Library Stowe MS 17, f. 273r) shows Cupid holding his court in a tree. The scene is frequently encountered in ivories, especially ivory mirror cases (see Met acc. no. 17.190.248) the Walters Art Museum (inv. no. 71.193), the Victoria &Albert Museum (inv. no. 221-1867) Cluny (inv. no. CL 9191), and The Louvre (inv. no. MRR 195). In these circumstances, the representation is at a remove from the explicit narrative described by Machaut and more akin to the generalized scenes of lovemaking couples typical of Parisian ivory carving.
The deployment of carving on both sides of this panel suggests that the complete writing tablet was an up-market luxury object like another well-preserved example in the Museum’s collection (acc. no. 1982.60.399). The covers on the complete writing tablet are carved on both sides and protect several pieces of thinner ivory. The indented thinner panels served as ground for a layer of wax, allowing the user to write and erase notes with a stylus. A flexible spine of animal hide may have attached this cover to the leaves, and the current panel may have been attached to the rest of the tablet in a similar way, perhaps explaining the damage to the left edge of the scene with the crowning. That said, the hole at the upper center of the panel suggests that a pin connected all the elements, allowing them to swivel open like a fan rather than open like a booklet. Similarly fan-like constructed writing tablets are preserved in the Louvre (inv. no. MRR 429) and the Musée provincial des Arts anciens du Namurois-Trésor d'Oignies in Namur (Coll. Fondation Roi Baudouin. Dépôt à la Société archéologique de Namur, Inv. 29). When first made, the writing tablet was likely stored in a rigid, form-fitting leather case that contemporary French speakers called estuyz. Medieval writing tablets occasionally retain their original cases. The writing tablet in Namur, along with another in the Royal Library of Belgium (ms. IV 1278), retain their original cases, while an intact set of boxwood writing tablets in a leather case emerged from archaeological excavations 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
Graf Ludwig zu Oettingen-Wallerstein (probably before 1824) ; Princes of Oettingen-Wallerstein (by descent, until 2003)
Hagen, Frederik. "Bilder aus dem Ritterleben und aus der Ritterdichtung: nach Elfenbeingebilden und Gedichten des Mittelalters." Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Jahre 1855 (1856). pp. 499–500, pl. IV.V, nos. 1–2.
Eye, August von, and Jacob Falke. Kunst und Leben der Vorzeit von Beginn des Mittelalters bis zu Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts in Skizzen nach Original-Denkmälern. Vol. 1. Nuremberg: Verlag von Bauer & Raspe, 1858. pl. XLVII.
Essenwein, August Ottmar. "Über einige mittelalterliche Elfenbeinschnitzwerke und besonders über ein Spiegelgehäuse im Cistercienser-Stifte Reun in Steiermark." Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit: Organ des Germanischen Museums, n.s., 13, no. 6 (June 1866). col. 203.
Schricker, A. "Regensburg: Noch einmal die Wandmalereien im von Hösslin'schen Hause (Bierl'sche Apotheke zum 'Elefanten')." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 7 (1884). p. 192.
Grupp, Georg. Kulturgeschichte des Mittelalters. Vol. 2. Stuttgart: Jos. Roth'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1895. p. 402, fig. 31.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1221 and 1221 bis, pp. 433, 435, 436.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1221 and 1221 bis, p. 429.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume III, Plates. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1221 and 1221 bis, pl. CC.
Grodecki, Louis. Ivoires français. Arts, styles et techniques. Paris: Librairie Larousse, 1947. p. 117.
Müller, Markus. Minnebilder: französische Minnedarstellungen des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1994. pp. 41, 199–200, fig. 29, 119.
"Departmental Accessions." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 133 (Jul. 1, 2002–Jun. 30, 2003). p. 24.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 2002-2003." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 61, no. 2 (Fall 2003). p. 13.
Vogel, Carol. "Inside Art: Cloisters to Get Medieval Ivories." The New York Times (April 18, 2003). p. E30, ill.
Cruse, Mark. "Intimate Performance: An Ivory Writing Tablet Cover at The Cloisters." In Cultural Performances in Medieval France: Essays in Honor of Nancy Freeman Regalado, edited by Eglal Doss-Quinby, Roberta L. Krueger, and E. Jane Burns. Gallica, Vol. 5. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2007. pp. 57–69, fig. 1–2.
Vandenberghe, Stephane, ed. Ivory in Bruges: Treasures from Museums, Churches and Monasteries. Museumbulletin, Vol. 2. Bruges: Stedelijk Museum, 2010. p. 12.
Lyon, Christopher. Couples in Art: Artworks from The Metropolitan Museum of Art selected by Colin Eisler in collaboration with Caroline Kelly. Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2011. pp. 118–19.
Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014.
Dillon, Emma. "Sensing Sound." In A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe, edited by Martina Bagnoli. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum, 2016. pp. 103, 104, 108, fig. 7.7.
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