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拍品专文
This casket belongs to a group produced in 12th century Sicily by Arab craftsmen. It is particularly impressive when one considers the length and width of the ivory sheets. To have a casket of this size constructed from single sheets of ivory is rare, it would have required considerable wealth to acquire multiple tusks of adequate size and further skill to render these into fine panels and assemble them without breakages.
The strongest argument for why these caskets were produced in Sicily is linked to the art and designs of the Cappella Palatina, Palermo. The chapel was one of the first buildings to emerge under Norman rule and can be dated around 1130 (Perry B. Cott, “Siculo-Arabic Ivories in the Museum Cristiano”, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1930, p. 140). Pavlovskij demonstrates many of the motifs have strong roots in Islamic art, not least the use of circular designs (A. Pavlovskij, “Décoration des plafonds de la Chapelle Palatine”, Byzantisnsche Zeitschrift, 1893, pp. 361-412). There are strong similarities between the ivory caskets at the Cappella Palatina (illustrated, Cott, op.cit. p. 141) and the painted ceiling. Davi compares the mosaics at Cappella Palatina to “the engravings in Islamic style on ivory caskets” (Giulia Davi, “Art of Mosaic”, Siculo-Norman Art: Islamic Culture in Medieval Sicily, Palermo, 2003, p.174). Likewise, the ‘Morgan’ Casket in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (17.190.241) and another in the Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (K3101) share similar designs to those found in the Cappella Palatina, furthering the suggestion that these patterns were localised. Naturally, the ceiling and mosaic were finished in situ which leads us to the conclusion that if the caskets are also likely to have been produced in Sicily itself, rather than imported. The similarities also imply that this type of casket is attributed to a period from 1130 to 1200. It is after this point that Sicily began to decline as an artistic centre. Although unpainted, a further ivory casket in the Palatine Chapel, Treasury, Palermo, is almost identical to ours (175(1908)). It seems likely that, while varying in style, all of these caskets were produced around the same period, albeit with using varying levels of painted elaboration.
Cott suggests that the designs found on Siculo-Arabic ivory pieces (whether these are pyxes, croziers or caskets) can be divided into three categories. Ours presumably falls into the first “whose ornamentation consists of abstract designs and arabesques only” (Cott, op.cit., p. 135), eschewing the more figural and animalistic features. Though lacking the arabesques, Cott includes the Palatine Chapel example in this first category, commenting on the cross designs constructed from the "circle and dot motif" (Cott, op.cit., p. 136). Ours shares these cross designs, with remnants of bituminous red and black paste in the incised concentric circles still apparent. Another similar casket was exhibited as no. 174 in The Unity of Islamic Art, Riyadh, 1985 and another in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (71.310).
Cott has suggested that these caskets were typically used by women either as trousseaus or for jewellery. This is in part due to the fact that many of the most notable examples have Arabic inscriptions which wish the owner luck such as the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (603-1902).
The sticker on the base of our casket suggests that it was once in the collection of a comte de Forbin. It is likely that this refers to Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste, comte de Forbin (1777– 1841) who is known to have travelled widely throughout the Middle East. In 1816, he was appointed Director-General of Royal Museums at the Louvre but this did not prevent him from continuing to travel. In 1818, he returned from his travels having purchased a number of antiquities, perhaps his artistic taste picqued by his new role in the museum. Many of these were donated to the Louvre but it is entirely possible that his love of collecting continued when he visited Sicily in 1820, a trip that he records in detail in Souvenirs de La Sicile, Paris, 1823.
This lot has an Ivory Exemption Certificate (cert. no. 1C69PJQL)
The strongest argument for why these caskets were produced in Sicily is linked to the art and designs of the Cappella Palatina, Palermo. The chapel was one of the first buildings to emerge under Norman rule and can be dated around 1130 (Perry B. Cott, “Siculo-Arabic Ivories in the Museum Cristiano”, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1930, p. 140). Pavlovskij demonstrates many of the motifs have strong roots in Islamic art, not least the use of circular designs (A. Pavlovskij, “Décoration des plafonds de la Chapelle Palatine”, Byzantisnsche Zeitschrift, 1893, pp. 361-412). There are strong similarities between the ivory caskets at the Cappella Palatina (illustrated, Cott, op.cit. p. 141) and the painted ceiling. Davi compares the mosaics at Cappella Palatina to “the engravings in Islamic style on ivory caskets” (Giulia Davi, “Art of Mosaic”, Siculo-Norman Art: Islamic Culture in Medieval Sicily, Palermo, 2003, p.174). Likewise, the ‘Morgan’ Casket in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (17.190.241) and another in the Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (K3101) share similar designs to those found in the Cappella Palatina, furthering the suggestion that these patterns were localised. Naturally, the ceiling and mosaic were finished in situ which leads us to the conclusion that if the caskets are also likely to have been produced in Sicily itself, rather than imported. The similarities also imply that this type of casket is attributed to a period from 1130 to 1200. It is after this point that Sicily began to decline as an artistic centre. Although unpainted, a further ivory casket in the Palatine Chapel, Treasury, Palermo, is almost identical to ours (175(1908)). It seems likely that, while varying in style, all of these caskets were produced around the same period, albeit with using varying levels of painted elaboration.
Cott suggests that the designs found on Siculo-Arabic ivory pieces (whether these are pyxes, croziers or caskets) can be divided into three categories. Ours presumably falls into the first “whose ornamentation consists of abstract designs and arabesques only” (Cott, op.cit., p. 135), eschewing the more figural and animalistic features. Though lacking the arabesques, Cott includes the Palatine Chapel example in this first category, commenting on the cross designs constructed from the "circle and dot motif" (Cott, op.cit., p. 136). Ours shares these cross designs, with remnants of bituminous red and black paste in the incised concentric circles still apparent. Another similar casket was exhibited as no. 174 in The Unity of Islamic Art, Riyadh, 1985 and another in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (71.310).
Cott has suggested that these caskets were typically used by women either as trousseaus or for jewellery. This is in part due to the fact that many of the most notable examples have Arabic inscriptions which wish the owner luck such as the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (603-1902).
The sticker on the base of our casket suggests that it was once in the collection of a comte de Forbin. It is likely that this refers to Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste, comte de Forbin (1777– 1841) who is known to have travelled widely throughout the Middle East. In 1816, he was appointed Director-General of Royal Museums at the Louvre but this did not prevent him from continuing to travel. In 1818, he returned from his travels having purchased a number of antiquities, perhaps his artistic taste picqued by his new role in the museum. Many of these were donated to the Louvre but it is entirely possible that his love of collecting continued when he visited Sicily in 1820, a trip that he records in detail in Souvenirs de La Sicile, Paris, 1823.
This lot has an Ivory Exemption Certificate (cert. no. 1C69PJQL)