Ivory: Crozier, 12th century, Florence,
Bargello. Photograph by Alinari/ Art
Resources.
From the Carolingian period, ivories that have survived were produced mainly as
liturgical objects. They fall into the same stylistic categories as other art, such as
manuscript illumination, that can be associated with either the court or with important
abbeys. Many of the ivories were relief plaques used as book covers. As was typical of
arts during the Carolingian renaissance, they were modeled on late-classical ivory
diptychs and other objects. In ivories associated with Charlemagne’s palace school,
figures have a plastic monumentality despite their smaller scale. By contrast, the smaller,
more animated figures from the Reims school are comparable with manuscript
illumination from this center.
In the Gothic period, ivory carving was extremely popular in France. Paris was
probably the leading French center producing Gothic ivories. Increased contacts with the
East made the valued elephant ivory available in quan tity. A book of occupations, the
Livre des métiers (1260), lists four categories of ivory carvers: painters and carvers of
images, sculptors and crucifix carvers, comb and lantern makers, and those who made
knife handles and writing tablets. Other areas in France also were active in the production
of ivories, but their portability makes ivory carvings difficult to localize. At the same
time, this characteristic made ivories one of the main artistic vehicles in spreading the
French Gothic style throughout Europe.
French Gothic ivories can be divided into two basic categories, religious and secular.
In both, stylistic characteristics were consistent with other arts, especially sculpture, with
which ivory carving has so much in common. Religious ivories included statuettes,
especially of the Virgin and Child, portable altars, and liturgical objects, such as pyxes
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