Ivory

Slices of the dentin of animal tusk, or ivory, have held special attraction to carvers since antiquity. The smooth glowing surface of finished ivory reflects light in a warm, captivating way that no other material can. In antiquity, the ivory of male and female African elephants, or of male Indian elephants were most commonly used for carving, though tusks of male narwhals and male and female walruses provided ivory as well. Imperial Roman carvers used a significant amount ivory for luxury furniture, game pieces, combs, works of art, and political propaganda, such as diptychs proclaiming the change of office of a leader. The frequency of its use, as well as Emperor Diocletian's Edit of Maximum Prices (301 A.D.), which specified that ivory was one-fortieth the cost of silver and one twenty-fourth the cost of pure silk, suggest its ready
availability under the Empire. However, as Imperial colonization of Africa decreased after the fall of the Empire, and subsequently trade with inner Africa declined, elephant ivory from Africa became extremely scarce. The Second Persian War (540) greatly diminished the trade of Indian elephant ivory.

In the ninth century, Moslem controlled trade routes opened the doors to renewed trade between Europe and Eastern Africa, between the ports of Italy and the Eastern coast of Africa, down from Egypt along the coasts of what are now Somalia and Kenya, as far south as Mozambique. However perhaps because of diminished elephant populations, or perhaps because of prohibitive trade costs, elephant ivory never again was as available or as frequently used as in antiquity. Walrus and narwhal ivory came to be a popular substitute from the tenth to thirteenth centuries, perhaps because of trade between northern Europe, England, and Scandinavia, but the much smaller size of those tusks limited their use in carving. Sometimes, Roman or Egyptian ivories were re-carved to provide the ivory for new works.

Ivory acquired a tremendous preciousness in the middle ages, both for its inherent material qualities and its economic value. Theologians associated ivory with purity, and the turris eburnia in the Song of Solomon (7:4), the neck of the lover as an ivory tower, has been understood as a metaphor for both the Virgin Mary and the Church.

FOR FUTHER READING:
Barnet, Peter, ed. Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Cutler, Anthony. The Craft of Ivory. Sources, Techniques, and Uses in the Mediterranean World. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1985.

St. Clair, Archer, and Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, eds. The Carver's Art. Medeval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn. New Brunswick: Rutgers University, 1989.