Description
The figure of Christ is cut from a length of tusk; its curving form is apparent at the edges of the central plaque but is obscured by the addition of the four pieces of ivory forming the mandorla. Its cavity, visible on the reverse, is hidden within the high relief. Christ's head and raised arm are fully three-dimensional, as are his feet which rest on an elaborate footstool composed of an openwork arcade. A similar deeply cut arcade also supports the nimbus and raises it obliquely from the ground.
The high relief carving of Christ Enthroned was once part of the ark of St. Aemilianus, a reliquary shrine created to house the remains of the Spanish saint. A shepherd-hermit said to have lived for more than one hundred years, Aemilianus died in the sixth century. Nearly five hundred years later his remains were moved to the new monastery church of San Millán de la Cogolla, located on one of the primary pilgrimage routes across northern Spain. The ark (arca in Latin) was created in commemoration of the event.
Though the shrine was dismantled in 1809 during the Napoleonic wars, a written description of it survives; decorated with gold, jewels, and ivories, the ark was shaped like a house or church, with Christ in Majesty affixed to one of its gable-ends. Additional ivory plaques surrounded this panel, depicting the four evangelists as well as several donor portraits: Queen Placentia and King Sancho IV of Navarre (reign 1063 to 1076), and his abbot, Blasius (1070 to 1080). The opposite gable-end also bore ivory images of King Ranimirus I of Aragon (died 1063), and his abbot, Petrus (1061 or 1062 to 1070). The ark must therefore have been created between 1060 and 1080.
Four small pieces of ivory surround the central carved panel, forming a mandorla, an almond-shaped aura indicative of celestial glory. Within this shape, the plaque with Christ incorporates a number of stylistic traditions. He sits enthroned, resting a book upon his left leg and raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing; this posture, the seated Christ in Majesty, is common in Romanesque art. His throne, however, follows a specifically Spanish type; rather than appearing to be made of jewels and gold, the ivory is carved to represent a wooden throne. Also Spanish are his jeweled pallium, a priestly garment, and his inlaid eyes of black agate, which gaze intently forward. Christ’s jeweled cruciform nimbus is of Byzantine origin.
The figure is exceptional for its size, notably, the depth of the plaque. Christ is carved in high relief, his body rendered with substantial volume and his head nearly disengaged from the nimbus behind it. Openwork arcades of arches support the nimbus, as well as Christ’s footstool, ornately bracing elements that project from the panel’s surface. The artist achieved this unusual depth by carving a section of tusk intersecting the pulp cavity, which is visible as a deep hollow on the panel’s reverse – an unusual choice which maximized the thickness of the ivory plaque.
Bibliography
P. d. Sandoval, Primera Parte de las Fundaciones de los Monesterios del Glorioso Padre San Benito, que los Reyes de España Fundaron y Dotaron, desde los Tiempos del Santo, Hasta que los Moros Entraron y Destruyeronla Tierra, (Madrid, 1601), fols. 23v-27v.
D. Mecolaeta, Desagravio de la verdad en la historia de San Millan de la Cogolla, (Madrid, 1724).
F. Spitzer, La collection Spitzer: Antiquité--moyen-âge--renaissance, (Paris, 1890), 38, no. 24, pl. 12.
E. Bonnaffé and E. Molinier, Catalogue des objets d'art et de haute curiosité antiques, du moyen-âge & de la renaissance, composant l'importante et précieuse Collection Spitzer, dont la vente publique aura lieu à Paris ... du ... 17 avril au ... 16 juin, 1893, (Paris, 1893), 13, no. 59, pl. 4.
E. Molinier, Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Français des Origines à 1800, ed. F. Marcou (Paris, 1900) vol. 1, 5.
F. Marcou, "L'Exposition Rétrospective de L'Art Français: Les Ivoires," Gazette des Beaux Arts 23 (1900): 479-94, esp. 485-486.
G. Swarzenski, Die Regensburger Buchmalerei des X. und XI. Jahrhunderts: Studien zur Geschichte der deutschen Malerei des frühen Mittelalters, (Leipzig, 1901), 135.
J. Breck, "Spanish Ivories of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Collection," American Journal of Archaeology 24 (1920): 217-25, esp. 219.
A. K. Porter, Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads, (Boston, 1923) vol. 1, 38.
A. Goldschmidt, Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der romanischen Zeit XI.-XIII. Jahrhundert, 4 (Berlin, 1926), 27, no. 85, pl. 28.
A. K. Porter, "Leonesque Romanesque and Southern France," The Art Bulletin 8 (1926): 235-50, esp. 237-240, 241.
J. Ferrandis, Marfiles y Azabaches Españoles, (Barcelona and Buenos Aires, 1928), 157-174.
E. Camps Cazorla, Los Marfiles de San Millán de La Cogolla, (Madrid, 1933).
M. E. Gómez-Moreno, Mil Joyas del Arte Español: Piezas Selectas, Monumentos Magistrales, Fotografías Documentales de los Archivos del Instituto Gallach, Antigüedad y Edad Media, (Barcelona, 1947), 165.
W. W. S. Cook and J. G. Ricart, Pintura e Imagineria Románicas, Ars hispaniae, historia universal del arte hispánico 6 (Madrid, 1950), 292.
M. Meiss, Spanish Medieval Art. Loan Exhibition in Honor of Dr. Walter W. S. Cook, exhibition catalogue, The Cloisters, December 15th, 1954-January 30th, 1955, (New York, 1954), no. 20.
J. Gudiol Ricart, "Basic Spanish in the Middle Ages," Art News 53.8 (1954): 16-21; 69, esp. 20, fig. p. 18.
P. d. Palol and M. Hirmer, Early Medieval Art in Spain, ed. M. Hirmer (New York, 1967), 94.
J. E. Uranga Galdiano and F. Iñíguez Almech, Arte Medieval Navarro, Biblioteca Caja de Ahorros de Navarra 1, ed. F. Iñíguez Almech (Pamplona, 1971-3) vol. 2, 82-84, fig. 28.
K. Weitzmann, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, vol. 3, Ivories and Steatites, (Washington, D.C., 1972), 83-85, no. 32, pl. 55-59, fig. f, colorplate 8.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age, (Fribourg, 1978), 116, no. 173-4.
J. Peña, Los Marfiles de San Millan de la Cogolla, (Logroño, 1978).
V. Hermosilla, Monasterio de San Milla?n de la Cogolla: un Siglo de Historia Agustiniana, 1878-1978, (Rome, 1983), 186-196.
M. M. Estella Marcos, La Escultura del Marfil en España Románica y Gótica, (Madrid, 1984).
D. Perrier, "Die spanische Kleinkunst des 11. Jahrhunderts: Zur Klärung ihrer stilistischen Zusammenhänge im Hinblick auf die Frage ihrer Beziehungen zur Monumentalskulptur," Aachener Kunstblätter 52 (1984): 30-150, esp. 107-122, 133-137.
A. Cutler, The Craft of Ivory: Sources, Techniques, and Uses in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 200-1400, Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection Publications 8 (Washington, D.C., 1985), 1, fig. 2,3.
A. Legner, Ornamenta Ecclesiae: Kunst und Künstler der Romanik, exhibition catalogue, Schnütgen-Museums in der Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle Köln, March 7th–June 9th, 1985, (Cologne, 1985) vol. 1, 251.
S. d. Silva y Varástegui, "El Papal de La Rioja en los Origenes Hispaánicos del Retrato del Artista," in Segundo Coloquio sobre Historia de La Rioja, Logroño, 2-4 de octubre de 1985 3 (Logroño, 1987), 27-38, esp. 33-34.
A. Cutler, "Prolegomena to the Craft of Ivory Carving in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages," in Commande et Travail, Artistes, Artisans et Production Artistique au Moyen Age: Colloque International, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Rennes II, Haute-Bretagne, 2-6 mai 1983 2, ed. X. Barral i Altet (Paris, 1987), 431-77, esp. 444, n. 103.
C. Little, William D. Wixom, Timothy Husband, and K. R. Brown, "Medieval Art and the Cloisters," Recent Acuisitions, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1987/87 (1987): 12-18, esp. 15.
S. d. Silva y Varástegui, "Iconografía del Donante en el Navarro Meieval," Príncipe de Viana. Suplemento de ciencias sociales. 49 (1988): 445-56.
J. Harris, "The Arca of San Millan de la Cogolla and its Ivories" (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1989).
J. Harris, "Culto y Narrativo en los Marfiles de San Millán de la Cogolla," Boletín del Museo Arqueológico Nacional 9 (1991): 69-86.
al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, ed. J.D. Dodds, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 1st-September 27th, 1992 (planned), (New York, 1992), 229.
The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 18th, 1993-March 13th, 1994, (New York, 1993), 263-264, no. 125d, fig. 125d.
