GERMAN SCHOOL, CIRCA 1860

The popular legend of Faust is thought to have been based on a true character by the name of Dr Johann Faust, or Faustus, born in Wýrttemberg in 1488. Based on rumours that he had possessed supernatural powers and had associated with the devil, the wandering necromancer and astronomer was the subject of the book published in Frankfurt in 1587 by Johann Spies, entitled The History of Doctor Faustus, the Notorious Magician and the Master of the Black Art. He was further immortalised when he became the hero of Christopher Marlowe's play of 1590, The Tragical History of Dr Faustus. The basis of the Faust story is the pact that he made with the devil (or Mephistopheles in later German representations), whereby in return for 24 years of prolonged life, during which time he was to have every pleasure and all knowledge at his command, he would sell his soul to the latter. Various different accounts of the legend were developed, but it was really Goethe in his Dr Faustus (1808-32) who was responsible for adding symbolism to the myth, by transforming the magician into a personification of the struggle between the higher and lower natures in man. Musical compositions on the story were also popular and include Wagner's overture Faust (1840) and Gounod's celebrated opera Faust (1859).

The cathedral to the left of the present ivory group is that of Cologne. Although begun in the mid-13th century, the famous twin spires of the latter were not added and building not finally completed until the 1850s. This large, intricately-carved group probably dates, therefore, from circa 1860, a year after Gounod's opera was premiered, and at a time when the finished cathedral had come to symbolize German pride and patriotism.