Monday, January 9, 2017

Ivory Relief-Portraits

Michel Mollart
Portrait-relief of Louis XIV
before 1683
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

"In May 1651, in the midst of the devastating series of civil wars threatening the Regency of Anne of Austria and the young king Louis XIV, the French court gathered to witness an entertainment of unprecedented opulence entitled Ballet des fêtes de Bacchus. The prologue, set on a fantastical "Golden Isle," announced the banishment of the allegorical figures of Sobriety, Austerity, and Want. The entries that followed presented a series of noble dancers, dancing masters, and musicians, dressed in magnificent and fanciful costumes, celebrating the hedonism of a young and fashionable court. A climactic entry featured a triumphant Bacchus, garlanded with grapevines, astride a three-headed monster representing the cheeful, furious, and soporific qualities of wine. ... The young king, at thirteen years of age already a virtuoso dancer, portrayed the roles of a diviner, a bacchante, a Muse, an intoxicated pickpocket, an icicle in the temple of dreams, and a Titan. Equating the court and wider realm with the peace and plenty showcased in the ballet, its artists and image-makers offered reassurance to a kingdom in the midst of armed rebellion and to a court aristocracy in the midst of profound social, political, and cultural change."

 from The Triumph of Pleasure : Louis XIV & the Politics of Spectacle by Georgia J. Cowart (University of Chicago Press, 2008)

Anonymous (Netherlands)
Portrait-medallion of an unknown man
ca. 1660-80
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

attributed to Francis van Bossuit
Portrait-medallion of Nicolas Witzen
ca. 1682-85
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Jean Cavalier
Portrait-medallion of Queen Mary II as Princess
1686
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Jean Cavalier
Portrait-medallion of King William III
ca. 1690-91
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

attributed to Gaspar van der Hagen
Portrait-medallion of Sir Isaac Newton
ca. 1740-69
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

attributed to Gaspar van der Hagen
Portrait-medallion of Hamlet Winstanley
1740
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

David Le Marchand
Portrait-relief of Matthew Raper
1720
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

David Le Marchand
Portrait-relief of Thomas Guy
ca. 1700-1724
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

David Le Marchand
Portrait-medallion of Charles Marbury
ca. 1700-1720
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

David Le Marchand
Portrait-medallion of David Melville
ca. 1696-1700
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

David Le Marchand
Portrait-medallion of Mary Voyce
ca. 1712
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Carl August von Lücke
Portrait-medallion of an unknown man
ca. 1730
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

I am grateful to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for the excellent reproductions.

John Kelly
Portrait-relief of Princess Charlotte Augusta
1817
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London