Title

Apostle

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This ebonized piece represents the image of an apostle that, in the absence of attributes and inscription, is difficult to identify more accurately. Undoubtedly, due to its workmanship, technique and stylistic features, the carving must be related to the same workshop that carved the piece in the Glencairn Museum (Bryn Athyn, Philadelphia), call O4.CR.40, with the effigy of the apostle St. Peter holding the double key.

The history of the object has become known in more detail following recent publications, where it is noted that a register (dated November 15, 1936) of antiquities owned by Raymond Pitcairn (1885-1966) - the American magnate and collector of ancient and medieval art - already cites the entry of a "Christ in Majesty", which is the piece we are dealing with here.

The documentation never clarifies the origin of the piece, but it does indicate that it came from the merchant Demotte (Paris).

The letters and missives kept in the archives of the American museum, dated between October 14 and November 2, 1928, the result of an epistolary exchange between the scholar Walter W. S. Cook and the magnate Pitcairn, show that at that time the work was dated to the 11th century and was always linked to St. Peter's with a double key.

The Museum also conserves a copy of the purchase invoice for the work: dated November 15, 1926, which confirms that Raymond Pitcairn bought it from the Demotte collection, but now this new document dates the piece to the 12th century and specifies that $4,500 was paid for it.

On the other hand, we also know that several letters from the Glencairn Museum archive, dated 1954, mentioned some of the pieces that would be present in an exhibition that was being prepared at The Cloisters on Hispanic medieval art and, in one of those letters, Richard Randall wrote to Raymond Raymond Randall in 1954, Richard Randall addressed Raymond Pitcairn saying that both the ivory at hand and the St. Peter's were magnificent and resembled "another good quality plate in the John Nicholas Brown Collection" (now held at RISD Museum (Rhode Island School of Design), Providence, Providence, 2014 inventory.110).

In conclusion the documentary sources are scarce and do not provide the complete data of the total journey of our presea but they do assure that this ivory apostle was in the Demotte collection in Paris, at least until 1926, when it was purchased by Raymond Pitcairn. All experts and sources insist in considering the carving as a piece produced by the Leonese school of ivories (Álvarez da Silva, 2013).

Description

Research has described in detail this piece, which measures 15.7 centimeters in height, and which does not retain any attribute or distinctive feature, beyond the codex it holds in its hands (Álvarez da Silva, 2013; 2014). This, added to the absence of a titulus or epigraph, makes its identification very difficult. The irregularity of the silhouette, possibly because the ivory was cut, is especially noticeable in the upper left part. Again, it seems possible that the plaque was wider and that it was cut out when the wooden core was removed (the hole for the nail that would allow the work to be attached to the ligneous structure, under the nimbus, is still visible on the right side).

One could surmise that the liturgical object to which this ivory belonged, battered or in poor condition, was cut up for sale. We do not know, of course, if the ebony pieces were larger, if they could have architectures that would shelter the effigies, following the model of the ivories of the chest of San Pelayo, today in the Museum of the Royal Collegiate Church of San Isidoro and dated 1059. Nor can we confirm whether the wooden surface to which this apostle was attached was covered with a gold filigree net, as we do know was the case of the reliquary mentioned above.

It is significant the way the hair was carved, in the form of a cap, whose locks fall on the forehead and curl at the ends. The figure has a beard, which was worked in locks. It is possible that the eyes may have housed inlays that are now lost.

Once again the master reflects his skill and mastery in the treatment of drapery, the hallmark of the Legionese workshop in the first decades of the twelfth century, with a taste for care in the finials and orophreys. He used the zigzag on the edge of the tunic, at the level of the neck, as can be seen in the Saint Peter preserved in this same Glencairn collection. A characteristic feature and hallmark is the use of slings in the textiles on the chest, as well as the exquisitely carved pearling. The fabrics fall to the knees, swirling and ending again in a zigzag, a personal solution of the workshop.

The figure carries the book in the right hand, veiled, a fact that, together with the absence of the cross in the nimbus, has led us to think that it could be an apostle. However, we should not rule out the possibility that the cross was originally painted or outlined with gold leaf applied to the ivory, a technique that we know was frequently used in this workshop.

On the right side of the piece we can still observe the remains of a throne and cushion, worked and ornamented with parallel lines, while the feet rest on a semicircular footstool, a structure that, here very simplified, recalls the solutions of the furniture and the mandorla of Christ on the plate in the Louvre Museum (signature OA 5017). We must remember that the scholars of the early 20th century, contrary to what is thought today, saw in this figure a Maiestas.

Locations

• XII^th c.

  province

  León, León (Spain)

• ca. 1926

  dealer/antiquarian

  Georges Joseph Demotte, Paris (France) *

• ca. 1926

  private collection

  Raymond Pitcairn, Filadelfia (United States) *

• Third quarter of the XX^th c. - present

  museum

  Glencairn Museum, Filadelfia (United States)