Ivories by Kern, Steinl, Hurdter, and Furienmeister (Vienna)

Leonhard Kern
Pomona as Personification of Abundance
ca. 1635-45
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Leonhard Kern
Galloping Horse
ca. 1630
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Leonhard Kern
Spellbound Youth
ca. 1635-40
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Song from Abdelazar

Love in fantastic triumph sate
   Whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed,
For whom fresh pains he did create
   And strange tyrannic power he showed;
From thy bright eyes he took his fire
   Which round about in sport he hurled,
But 'twas from mine he took desire
   Enough t' undo the amorous world.

From me he took his sighs and tears,
   From thee his pride and cruelty,
From me his languishments and fears,
   And every killing dart from thee;
Thus thou and I the God have armed
   And set him up a Deity,
But my poor heart alone is harmed
   Whilst thine the victor is, and free.

– Aphra Behn (1677)

Leonhard Kern
Apollo
ca. 1635-40
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Leonhard Kern
Soldier with Captive Woman
ca. 1656-59
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Matthias Steinl
Emperor Leopold I triumphing over the Personification of the Ottomans
ca. 1690-93
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Matthias Steinl
Emperor Joseph I triumphing over the Personification of Chaos
1693
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Matthias Steinl
Allegory of the Elements of Water and Air
ca. 1688
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Johann Ulrich Hurdter
Wrestling Nymphs
ca. 1650-75
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Furienmeister
Hercules Battling a Centaur
ca. 1600-1625
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Furienmeister
Ladon the Dragon
guarding the Tree in the Garden of the Hesperides
ca. 1600-1625
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Furienmeister
Ladon the Dragon
guarding the Tree in the Garden of the Hesperides
ca. 1600-1625
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Furienmeister
Woman waving a Banner
ca. 1600-1625
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Furienmeister
Personification of Fury
ca. 1610-20
ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Relief-Work in Ivory, Marble and Amber (Vienna)

Leonhard Kern
Christ Child and St John the Baptist
ca. 1614-20
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ignaz Bendl
Bacchanal
1684
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ignaz Bendl
Apollo and the Muses (Judgment of Midas)
1684
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ignaz Elhafen
Herzog Karl V von Lothringen
ca. 1687-91
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Dominikus Stainhart
The Flagellation
before 1721
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Dominikus Stainhart
Lamentation
before 1721
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Epitaph on Himself

             To the Countess of Bedford

Madam,
That I might make your cabinet my tomb,
And for my fame, which I love next my soul,
Next to my soul provide the happiest room,
   Admit to that place this last funeral scroll.
      Others by testament give legacies, but I
      Dying, of you do beg a legacy.

My fortune and my choice this custom break,
When we are speechless grown to make stones speak,
Though no stone tell thee what I was, yet thou
In my grave's inside seest what thou art now,
Yet thou 'rt not yet so good; till death us lay
To ripe and mellow here, we're stubborn clay.
Parents make us earth, and souls dignify
Us to be glass; here to grow gold we lie.
Whilst in our souls sin bred and pampered is,
Our souls become worm-eaten carcases,
So we ourselves miraculously destroy.
Here bodies with less miracle enjoy
Such privileges, enabled here to scale
Heaven, when the trumpet's air shall them exhale.
Hear this, and mend thyself, and thou mend'st me,
By making me, being dead, do good for thee;
      And think me well composed, that I could now
      A last sick hour to syllables allow.

– John Donne (1631)

Ancient Rome
Lioness with Cubs
25 BC
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Ewe with Lamb
25 BC
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Rome
Heads of Sacrificial Bulls with Garlands
ca. AD 150
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Tullio Lombardo
Bacchus and Ariadne
ca. 1505-1510
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Maucher
Throne of Emperor Leopold I 
(fragment with Alexander the Great)
1677
amber relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Maucher
Throne of Emperor Leopold I 
(fragment with Julius Caesar)
1677
amber relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Maucher
Throne of Emperor Leopold I 
(fragment with King Cyrus)
1677
amber relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Maucher
Throne of Emperor Leopold I 
(fragment with King Nimrod)
1677
amber relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Expensively-Produced Objects of Devotion (Vienna)

Anonymous Artist working in Germany
Rosary (ten-bead)
ca. 1500-1525
agate, gold, silver, ivory
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1600-1620
agate cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Madonna and Child in Clouds
ca. 1590
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Entombment
ca.1600-1620
agate cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alessandro Masnago
Noah's Ark
ca. 1590-1600
agate cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

A Hymn to Christ, at the Author's Last Going into Germany

In what torn ship soever I embark,
That ship shall be my emblem of thy ark.
What sea soever swallow me, that flood
Shall be to me an emblem of thy blood.
Though thou with clouds of anger do disguise
Thy face, yet through that mask I know those eyes,
   Which, though they turn away sometimes
      They never will despise.

I sacrifice this island unto thee
And all whom I loved there, and who loved me;
When I have put our seas 'twixt them and me,
Put thou thy seas betwixt my sins and thee.
As the tree's sap doth seek the root below
In winter, in my winter now I go
   Where none but thee, th' eternal root
      Of true love I may know.

Nor thou nor thy religion dost control
The amorousness of an harmonious soul,
But thou would'st have that love thyself. As thou
Art jealous, Lord, so I am jealous now.
Thou lov'st not, till from loving more, thou free
My soul. Who ever gives, takes liberty.
   O, if thou car'st not whom I love
      Alas, thou lov'st not me.

Seal then this bill of my divorce to all,
On whom those fainter beams of love did fall.
Marry those loves, which in youth scattered be
On Fame, Wit, Hopes (false mistresses) to thee.
Churches are best for prayer that have least light:
To see God only, I go out of sight,
   And to 'scape stormy days, I choose
      An everlasting night.

– John Donne (1619)

Anonymous Artist working in France
Archangel Michael defeating Lucifer
ca. 1575-1600
onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Artist working in the Netherlands
Expulsion from Paradise
ca. 1550
onyx cameo with silver-gilt mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Angermair
Tempietto with Man of Sorrows
ca. 1613-20
ivory and ebony
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Louis Siriès
Crucifix
ca. 1746
lapis lazuli with gold mount
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Adriaen de Vries
Christ at the Column
ca. 1613-15
bronze statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

attributed to Ferdinand Murmann
St Sebastian
ca. 1630
ivory statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Christoph Fesenmair the Younger
Clock with St Sebastian
1622-26
ebony, silver, coral, gold, enamel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Krumper
Reliquary of St Valerianus
before 1634
wax figures on ebony and glass casket
ornamented with silver and gold
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Krumper
Reliquary of St Tiburtius
before 1634
wax figures on ebony and glass casket
ornamented with silver and gold
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Paganism in Relief (Vienna)

Ignaz Elhafen
Diana and her Nymphs
ca. 1695
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ignaz Bendl
Apollo and Diana slaying the Children of Niobe
1684
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Maucher
Hercules battling the Hydra
(fragments from the throne of Emperor Leopold I)
1677
amber relief-plaques
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Daniel Neuberger
Neptune
ca. 1666
wax relief on agate
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Sonnet VII

Whither is gone the wisdom and the power
That ancient sages scattered with the notes
Of thought-suggesting lyres? The music floats
In the void air; e'en at this breathing hour,
In every cell and every blooming bower
The sweetness of old lays is hovering still:
But the strong soul, the self-constraining will,
The rugged root that bare the winsome flower
Is weak and withered. Were we like the Fays
That sweetly nestle in the fox-glove bells,
Or lurk and murmur in the rose-lipped shells
Which Neptune to the earth for quit-rent pays,
Then might our pretty modern Philomels
Sustain our spirits with their roundelays.

– Hartley Coleridge (1833)

Gérard van Opstal
Putti playing with a Goat
ca. 1650-65
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Georg Schweigger
Sleeping Diana
1650
limestone relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Ceres
ca. 1602-1605
cameo in commesso relief
(agate, jasper, chalcedony, with enameled-gold mount)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hendrik Goltzius
Bacchus, Venus, Ceres and Cupid
1595
silver printing plate
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Antonio Abondio
Toilette of Venus
ca. 1587
bronze plaquette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Maria Mosca
Artemis, Protectress of Wild Animals
ca. 1525
bronze plaquette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Daucher
Judgment of Paris
1522
limestone relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Galeazzo Mondella (called Moderno)
Hercules and the Nemean Lion
ca. 1488-89
bronze plaquette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Empire
Abduction of Persephone
3rd century AD
marble sarcophagus
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Empire
Apollo at the Omphalos
2nd century AD
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna