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| Matthias Steinl (Austria) Triton statuette on pedestal ca. 1685-95 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is home to many small ivory statues. This type of European table-top sculpture does not display to particular advantage in modern museums. The small scale of these representations – and their inevitable sequestration behind reflective Plexiglas – combine to create conditions that obscure their potential impact and render them visually insignificant. The tactile element that played such a large part in the enjoyment of early owners is wholly absent from any contemporary presentation. Yet photography, oddly enough, operates also in a contrary direction, isolating each object, highlighting details, and encouraging contemplation.
"The immediate instruments are two: the motionless camera and the printed word. The governing instrument – which is also one of the centers of the subject – is individual, anti-authoritative human consciousness."
– from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans, 1941
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| Anonymous (Genoa) Venus and Cupid ca. 1700-1750 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Johann Leonhard Bauer (Germany) Statuette of Standing youth 1710 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Leonhard Kern (Germany) Cain and Abel ca. 1620-45 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| David Le Marchand (France) Time and Opportunity with Penitence ca. 1700-1720 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous (France) Knife and Fork ca. 1750 ivory mythological figures as handles copper-alloy bodies Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous (Germany) St Martin and the Beggar ca. 1320 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Master of the Furies (Austria) Statuette of Adam ca. 1610 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous (France) Statuette of a Pope ca. 1230-50 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| attributed to Joachim Henne (Germany) Death as a Drummer ca. 1670-80 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Simon Troger (Germany) The Judgment of Solomon ca. 1741 ivory, walnut, metal Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous (France) Virgin supported by three Marys & St John from lost Crucifixion group ca. 1450-70 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous (France) Two Marys at the Sepulchre ca. 1320 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| attributed to Giovanni Pisano (Pisa) Crucified Christ ca. 1290-1310 ivory Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
I am grateful to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for the excellent reproductions.