Ivory carving is the art of carving ivory for ornamental or useful purposes, practised from prehistoric to modern times. The ivory most frequently used is obtained from elephant tusks, but other types of ivory or substitute materials include the tusks, teeth, horns, and bones of the narwhal, walrus, and other animals, as well as vegetableivory and synthetic ivories. The earliest ivory carvings known were made in the Old Stone Age. The inhabitants of Europe in the Perigoridan period more than 20,000 years ago produced great numbers of ivory, bone, and horn carvings, with nude female figures being the most common subject. Representations of animals occur most often in the subsequent Magdalenian period. In Egypt the art of ivory and bone carving was developed in predynastic times, before 3000 BC . Large numbers of carved figures of men and women, as well as carved combs, hairpins, and handles, have been found in Egyptian tombs dating from predynastic and early dynastic periods. Objects found in Egyptian tombs of later date include carved ivory weapon hilts and furniture and caskets inlaid with ivory carvings.
Mesopotamian ivories frequently show strong Egyptian influence. They include a series of tablets carved with figures in low relief, made at the ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh. The Minoans in Crete, and later the ancient Greeks, were noted for their ivory carvings. The Minoans carved small acrobats and snake goddesses.
The Greeks were famous especially in the 5th century BC for their chryselephantine statues, often of heroic size, in which the flesh was represented in carved ivory and the hair and garments in sculptured gold. Among the Romans, in late imperial times, consular diptychs of carved ivory were much in demand. A consular diptych was a two-leafed tablet decorated with portraits and scenes commemorating the inauguration of a consul. It contained a sheet of wax for writing and was given to friends. Ivory carving flourished under the Byzantine Empire, particularly in the 5th and 6th centuries and from the 10th to the 13th century. Christian figures, symbols, and scenes were the subjects most commonly depicted on ivory book covers, icons, boxes, shrines, crosiers, crucifixes, door panels, and thrones. A masterpiece of Byzantine ivory is the Throne of Maximilian. Most Byzantine carvings, however, were in the form of a diptych. In Europe during the reigns of Charlemagne and his successors in the 9th and 10th centuries, elaborately carved ivory book covers, reliquaries, and altarpieces were produced.
Relatively little ivory carving was undertaken in Romanesque Europe, but it reached great heights in the Gothic period. Gothic ivories from the 13th to the 15th century were chiefly religious, as in earlier periods, but were more for private devotions than ecclesiastical use. Popular objects included diptychs with deeply carved figures and elaborate architectural decoration. Especially fine work was produced in Paris. During the 15th and 16th centuries, ivory carving was not popular, but in the baroque and rococo periods in the 17th and 18th centuries it again came into vogue, especially in Germany and the Netherlands. German craftsmen were known for richly ornamented ivories; Flemish craftsmen produced statuettes and other sculpture- inspired ivory carvings. France again became an important ivory- carving centre. The chief centres of the industry were the French cities of Dieppe and Paris, where large numbers of crucifixes and other religious objects were produced.
During the 18th century, however, the demand for ivories diminished. Ivory recovered its popularity in decorative arts in the Art Nouveau style at the end of the 19th century. Old ivory carvings are especially valued by 20th-century collectors of ivory, but very little ivory work is now produced in the western hemisphere. Muslim craftsmen in the Middle East created ivory inlay in intricate arabesque patterns on furniture and other woodwork. In the Far East the best-known ivories are those of India, Japan, and particularly China. Indians carved figures of their gods and ornate caskets, often imitating Italian styles. Japanese netsukes, small carved purse toggles, are often made of ivory. The Chinese have traditionally esteemed ivory and encouraged their artists to work in it. The art still flourishes today; objects created include statuettes, chess pieces, fans, screens, toilet articles, chopsticks, and models of buildings and boats. The Chinese are world famous for their ivory curiosities, particularly the concentric ivory balls carved one inside the other by Cantonese craftsmen. In Inuit, African, and American Indian cultures, carving in ivory, horn, and bone has been practised from the earliest times to the present day. Research Ivory Carving
Johann Balthasar Neumann was a German rococo architect. He was born in 1687 and died in 1753. His masterpiece is the church of Vierzehnheiligen in Bavaria. Research Johann Neumann
Georgian is a period of English architecture, furniture making, and decorative art between 1714 and 1830. The architecture is mainly Classical in style, although external details and interiors were often rich in Rococo carving. Furniture at this time was often made of mahogany and satinwood, and mass production became increasingly common; designers included Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite, and Thomas Sheraton. The silver of this period is particularly fine, and ranges from the earlier, simple forms to the ornate, and from the Neo-Classical style of Robert Adam to the later, more decorated pre-Victorian taste. Georgian architecture features columns inspired by Classical designs, and using the Doric Order, Ionic Order and Corinthian Order. Front doors are typically panelled, large, with columns or decorations either side and a semi-circular window above. Windows were typically sash windows, tall and well proportioned, with wooden glazing bars and equal sized glass panes. Research Georgian
Louis Quinze (Louis the Fifteenth) is a style of French classical, rococo and early neoclassical architecture from the reign of Louis XV in the 18th century. The Louis Quinze style is characterised by its charm, lightness and elegance. An example of the Louis Quinze style is the palace-fronted buildings of the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Research Louis Quinze
Rococo is a style of decoration which originated in France and Italy in the 17th century. It is a debased variety of the Louis-Quatorze style of ornament, preceding from it through the degeneracy of the Louis-Quinze. Rococo is generally a meaningless assemblage of scrolls and crimped conventional shell-work, wrought into all sorts of irregular and indescribable forms, without individuality and without expression. Research Rococo
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Abbreviations
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