Medieval Art and Liturgical Objects at the Musée de Cluny in Paris (Part 5): Ivories

This is the fifth post in our series of Nicola’s photographs of an exhibition recently held at the Musée de Cluny in Paris, titled “The Middle Ages of the 19th Century - Creations and Fakes in the Fine Arts”. In this post we focus on various kinds of objects made of ivory. In ancient times, ivory was often used to make the diptychs from which were read the names of persons to be commemorated at the liturgy, a custom which continued into the early Middle Ages, and a good number of well-preserved high quality examples of these survive.   

A plaque if the Crucifixion, with allegorical figures of the Sun and the Moon above the Cross, the Church and the Synagogue to either side, (with the Virgin Mary and St John behind them), and the Ocean and the Earth beneath it. Made in Metz, France, ca. 860-70 to decorate the cover of a manuscript.

A copy made in the 19th century.

A triptych of the Adoration of the Magi, with scenes of the Baptism of Christ on the right panel, and the Beheading of the Baptist on the left, with portraits of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabelle of Castille, made by a Catalan art restorer and forger named Francisco Pallás y Puig in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Another Adoration of the Magi, made in Paris ca. 1325-50...

and a 19th century imitation.

Another piece of the 19th century, with a scene of the Annunciation.

A diptych assembled by a 20th century restorer out of two very different pieces: the one on the left of the Adoration of the Magi was created the 19th century, the one of the right, of the Crucifixion, was made in Paris in the 14th.

Two panels of an altarpiece made in either Florence or Venice at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century. After various pieces had gone missing, it was restored in the 19th century by the addition of replacements taken in part from other pieces made by the same workshop, which was established by a man named Baldassare Embriachi.

Two statues of the Virgin Mary, the one on the right made in Paris ca. 1400, the one on the left, a 19th century work inspired by it. Likewise, the statues behind them are a medieval work (ca. 1250-60) and a modern one inspired by it.

A statue of the Virgin and Child which can be opened to reveal various scenes of the Passion of Christ inside. Originally believed to be a medieval work when it was acquired by the Louvre in 1836, it is now held to be a modern replica of an authentic work now in the city of Rouen.

Another modern work, a statue of King Clovis I made sometime before 1856, acquired by the Louvre in 1860 as a medieval work of the 12th century, but now attributed to a forger named Dournes. The piece shows clear signs of artificial aging.

A comb decorated with scenes of the Passion of Christ on one side, and His infancy on the other, made in the 19th century, possibly in France.

A box decorated with mythological animals, made in the first half of the 19th century, perhaps in northern Italy, in imitation of medieval models.

A plaque of two court musicians, made in France in the 19th century in imitation of a medieval work. 

In a similar vein, a handle for a mirror, with a scene of a man offering his heart to a woman. Both of these works are pastiches, in the sense that they bring together iconography and stylistic traits of different medieval periods.

A diptych of the 19th century, with allegories of the arts of painting (left) and sculpture (right).

Another work by Pallás y Puig, ca. 1900, possibly as an imitation of various kinds of medieval chess pieces.

Also attributed to him is this holy water bucket. The patina of both objects is heavy enough to raise suspicions that they are deliberate forgeries.

An allegory of one of the beatitudes, made in France or Germany before 1882.