Title

Christ from the Larcade Collection in Paris

Anonimous

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Object history

This ebony image of the Majesty is traditionally considered as part of the so-called Larcade Collection in Paris and in recent research it has been considered missing, although some experts suspect that the piece may currently be in a private collection in the United States.

As in everything related to the Leonese ivories, the original documentation of the 11th century does not specify where the works were executed, where the workshop was located, where the artists came from, where they were trained and other details unknown today, such as the methods of acquisition of the ivory, the use of polychromes, the stones or vitreous pastes that would be inlaid in the presences, and so on.

The experts are of the opinion that this work must have been part of the chest of the Beatitudes of the Archaeological Museum of Madrid, of which the investigations have offered us in the last years several attempts of reconstruction and, perhaps, following examples like that of the ark of San Millán de la Cogolla, it could present in one of the sides an image of the Majesty.

For his part, A. Franco Mata made his proposal reintegrating the ivories of the Archaeological Museum of Madrid and "another -piece- currently in the United States acquired from the Larcade Collection in Paris" (Franco, 2010). However, we do not know what evidence the author has to indicate that the piece is in America today.

Although it was traditionally thought that the museological path of the object linked León and the Larcade Collection, we have discovered that there was at least an intermediate step.

Knowledge of the piece and its photograph is due to the medieval scholar Adolph Goldschmidt (1863-1944) who published a series of volumes on ivory works in the Middle Ages, still today an unprecedented bibliographical landmark. In his pages he already indicated, when dealing with Hispanic preseas from León and La Rioja, that around 1920 this Christ in Majesty was the property of Edouard Larcade. We know little information about his life, but he was an influential personality, an active member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts de Paris, a syndicate that brought together French professional collectors and art dealers and that eventually merged with the members of the Syndicat National des Antiquaires.

Despite the little news we have, it is possible to reconstruct the taste of Edouard Larcade from the pieces we have today linked to his name. He was a lover of ivory carvings, especially those of early medieval and Romanesque chronology, and to him is linked, for example, the beautiful plate with the theme of the multiplication of the loaves and fishesfrom the workshop of Magdebourg (Louvre, number 0A 6310). We also know that in the 1930s he had a wide network of buyers, as he sold, for example, to New York and Joseph Brummer a marble head attributed to Tino di Camaino, dated around 1300 and now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (inventory: 47.1447).

In the 1920s Larcade owned a gallery in Paris, and opened another at 17 Place Vendôme, collaborating with the Society of Friends of the Louvre, a period in which he decorated some of his villas with medieval elements, such as one he owned in Nice and named Roseland Abbey (Becquet 2021).

In addition to all that has been indicated, we believe that Goldschmidt, the source who had first-hand knowledge of the award, has not been carefully read.

In his text of 1926, in volume IV, he published in his table XXXVI several ivories, among which we can see the Christ of Carrizo from the Museum of León and, in the lower right margin, appears the piece we are studying here, with the number 105 bis. It is very relevant that at that time Goldschmidt indicated that the work was in the Kunstgewerbemuseum of Berlin. The idea was repeated by Raquel Gallego in her doctoral thesis (p. 476-479), although more recently Noemi Álvarez da Silva (p. 3), published that, after contacting the institution, she was informed that "the object is not part of their collection".

For his part, the German author included a card 105 -where he deals with the Larcade piece, which he reproduces in plate XXXVI- and already warned about a printing error where these two cards had been interchanged.

About the ivory that concerns us, he says that it shows the image of an enthroned Christ, which he dated around the year 1100, believing it -without doubt- to be from Spain, as well as other pieces that, he clarified, came from the art trade of the Larcade collection in 1925, a year before the publication of the book.

The piece, measuring 13.1 cm, was later, he says, given two holes for hanging - which we did not manage to see in the only known photo of the ivory.

In addition, Goldschmidt provided a relevant piece of information, reporting that the Majesty came, in turn, from the Sigismund Bardac collection in Paris, a new piece of information that is never mentioned in the publications on this Leonese work.

There are other very juicy data that he contributed and that have passed unnoticed for the historiography, like the fact that he indicates that "originally the eyes contained pearls". The author describes the piece of Christ enthroned and remarks that it has an orb, with the mandorla of "fluted scales", and says that the style is very similar to the panel of the Traditio Legis of the Louvre, and remarks that "vestiges of the wings of the angels that once surrounded the glory of Christ on the sides of the throne are still visible". This point is very important, because it would not be the remains of a double circular mandorla, but the stylized wing tips.

In another card numbered as 105 bis -although it is inverted, as has been pointed out-, Christ enthroned with angels appears and dates it to the 12th century. He also reports that it comes from Spain, but he placed it in the Museum of Decorative Arts of St. Petersburg. It measures 12 cm and again has a hole for hanging the presea. Around the enthroned Christ appear four angels floating in space, among them, with a gesture of adoration. It clarifies that the plaque was removed from a reliquary. We mention it here because of the scarce attention that the researchers paid to the presea, which is hardly known.

In conclusion, it seems that in origin the piece was first owned by Sigismund Bardac (1856-1919), always in Paris, and then passed to Larcade, who finally sold it to the Louvre Museum. Thus we now know of a new episode in the history of the Majesty, in the hands of Bardac, who also collected medieval ivories. An important example of this is shown by the possession of a small ebonized clipeus preserved today in The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, Maryland), perhaps from England or France, and dated to the 12th century (number 71.1419). In relation to this small piece from Baltimore, perhaps sculpted to play, another piece of information that seems important to us emerges. In addition to Bardac, we know that the clipeo was linked to Julius Boehler, from Munich, a personage who, as we have already shown in other publications, appears related to the sale and departure from Europe of the chest of Saints Adrian and Natalia de Boñar (León), thus closing the circle of personalities and medieval works from León.

Bardac liked to collect medieval works of ivory and, in addition, candelabra, bronze staffs and also acquired jewelry from al-Andalus, such as an enameled belt (Gonzàles, 1985), as can be seen in the photographs of the pieces in his possession in 1913.

Description

The ivory piece shows the image of the Maiestas in the mandorla, irregularly cut especially on the right margin. The face is solemn, majestic and possibly accentuated with the pupils of the eyes inlaid with dark material, which according to Goldschmidt would be pearls.

It has a cruciform nimbus, following models very close to the Leonese pieces, both the ark of the San Isidoro ivories and the chest of the Beatitudes of the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid. Perhaps, as in the plaque of the Traditio Legis of the Louvre Museum, the almond-shaped mandorla was folded in the lower part of the piece, with another circular one, whose start is perceived at the height of the knees of the figure. Although for the Germanic researcher it is a question of the final feathers of the wings of two angels.

The entire background of the mystical almond is decorated with a motif common to the Leonese workshop: an articulated scale with two stripes, with a curved top, which expands over the entire surface. While with the right hand it holds the Book, richly ornamented with a tetrapholia with a central fleuron, with the other it holds the mundus, the orb. Unnoticed is the cross that tops the knob, kicked, with a knot or central button carved in detail. The rich throne has a cushion ornamented with reticulation and the arms end in two knobs from which hangs a textile. The lower part of the piece of furniture is carved with two levels of micro-architectures, one semicircular arch on each side and two below. The feet of the Majesty rest on a flat footstool decorated with lines.

Locations

• XI^th c. - XIX^th c.

  province

  León, León (Spain)

• XIX^th c. - First quarter of the XX^th c.

  private collection

  Sigismund Bardac, Paris (France) *

• ca. 1925 - present

  dealer/antiquarian

  Édouard Larcade, Paris (France) *