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A Late-Antique Ivory Pyxis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

O. M. Dalton
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Extract

The cylindrical box (pyxis) illustrated in the plates, now in private possession, belongs to a small class carved with pagan subjects; the majority of pyxides are Christian. When Graeven issued his series of photographs of antique carvings in ivory and bone about twenty years ago, the number of pagan examples only amounted to a dozen, with a few fragments, and two among them, those with Orpheus and the beasts, at Bobbio and Florence respectively (see below), are claimed by some authorities as Christian. Since that time the remains of another pagan box with Bacchic scenes have come to light, discovered in the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran in 1903, and now preserved in the Vatican. There may have been further discoveries not brought to general notice; otherwise the present example is the first addition to the list since the third year of the present century.

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Type
Research Article
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The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1923, pp. 215 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1923

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References

page 215 note 1 The box belongs to Mr. A. W. F. Fuller, who has kindly permitted its publication. As it now is, without cover or bottom, it is 2·8 in. high; the diameter is 4·6 in. It originally had a flat bottom fixed by small clamps probably of bronze, and a flat lid, perhaps with a horizontally channelled edge, working on hinges and secured at the front by a lock, the space for which is now empty. The box is split right down the back, and is rudely mended with wire. A large number of holes are scattered in seeming confusion over the sides, as is the case with other boxes, e.g. that with Dionysos and Ariadne at Vienna (Mittheilungen der K. K. Central Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und historischen Denimak, New Series II, 1870, pp. 43 ff. and plate); but in the present case the holes frequently pierce the bodies of the figures, and most of them are plugged with ivory. On the ground are frequent traces of colour, chiefly red, with a little blue; there are also remains of gilding. This colour and gilding may be of later addition; on the other hand it may be original, since ivories were thus enriched, and in a few instances the colour and gilding have survived in a remarkable state of preservation. This is the case with three ivory medallions carved with half-figures of Victories (?) rich with purple and gold, now in the British Museum; they presumably date from the fourth century A. D., but may be somewhat earlier than our box. These figures owe their present attribution to their feminine appearance; but they might almost pass as archangelsGoogle Scholar.

page 215 note 2 Graeven, H., Antike Schnitzereien aus Elfenbein und Knochen in photographischer Nachbildung, Series I, 1903.Google Scholar

page 215 note 3 Lauer, P., in Monuments Piot, xv, 1906, pl. xiii.Google Scholar

page 215 note 4 Graeven's no. 11 with the Judgement of Paris would appear to be identical with the box sold in London in February 1921 at the sale of Mr. D. M. Currie's collection at Christie's.

page 216 note 1 Chartraire, E., Inventaire du Trésor de l'église primatiale et métropolitaine de sens, 1897, p. 52;Google ScholarCahier, C., Nouveaux Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, p. 13Google ScholarWestwood, , Fictile Ivories, p. 271. Cast in the Victoria and Albert MuseumGoogle Scholar.

page 216 note 2 Catalogue of Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, no. 289; Cat. of Ivory Carvings, no. 3.

page 216 note 3 Nuovo Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, iii, 1897, pl. I;Google ScholarVenturi, , Storia dell' arte cristiana, i, figs. 404-5 and p. 535.Google ScholarGraeven, , as above, p. 30, andGoogle ScholarWulff, , Altchristliche und byzantinische Kunst, p. 186, give no illustrationGoogle Scholar.

page 216 note 4 Graeven, photos 15–19 and pp. 27-9. Those who accept the Christian origin of the Orpheus pyxides explain the hunting scenes by supposing that the beasts pursued by men find refuge and solace with the divine musician; in the same way they associate the pastoral scenes round the top of the Bobbio pyxis with the symbolic language of the Gospels. Graeven's opinion that they are pagan is based mainly on the opening at the bottom for incense grains, suggesting that they were acerrae, used in pagan sacrifice.

page 216 note 5 Here the pastoral element predominates. On pagan sarcophagi the Endymion series may be especially cited (cf. Robert, C., Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs, iii, 1897, pl. xviii–xx)Google Scholar.

page 217 note 1 Catalogue, as above, nos. 356, 357.

page 217 note 2 Especially in Syria-Palestine and North Africa.

page 217 note 3 Strzygowski, J., Hellenisthche und Koptische Kunst, pp. 3 ff., andGoogle ScholarKoplische Kunst (Catalogue of the Cairo Museum), 1904, nos. 7089 ff.Google ScholarWulff, O., Altchristliche Bildiverke (Catalogue of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin), 1909, nos. 356 ff.;Google ScholarGraeven, , as above, p. 106Google Scholar.

page 217 note 4 Cod. Vat. lat. 3867; see Codices e Vaticanis Selecti, ii, ff. 1, 6, 11, 16, 44b. Cf. Herbert, J. A., Illuminated Manuscripts, 1911, p. 10. The wattled shelters of the Codex Romanus occur, with slight difference of form, both in the Museum pyxis and upon Mr. Fuller'sGoogle Scholar.

page 218 note 1 The above-mentioned pyxis at Sens, with its hunting scenes, was used as a reliquary, and in 1768 contained several episcopal rings (Chartraire, , as above, p. 52)Google Scholar.