IVORY CARVINGS 53 



self in despair. In the end poetic justice is to a certain ex- 

 tent satisfied by the death of the wicked duchess at the 

 hands of her husband. The carvings devoted to the scenes 

 of this tale, and a few other works of this type, exemplify 

 the artistic range of some of the medieval French ivory 

 carvers, whom we might suspect of undue one-sidedness in an 

 exclusive devotion to religious themes. 



One of the very best specimens of the French carver's 

 art of the fourteenth century is a triptych in which the ar- 

 tist has successfully utilized the small space at his disposal 

 without unduly crowding it with figures, and has known how 

 to balance his composition perfectly and at the same time 

 treat the separate parts with thorough freedom. The Cru- 

 cifixion occupies the upper half of the central panel, below 

 this, in three Gothic niches, are graven figures of the Virgin 

 and two ministering angels. On the side panels are de- 

 picted the Purification of the Virgin, the Presentation of the 

 Infant Jesus in the Temple, Christ bearing the Cross, and the 

 Deposition from the Cross. Within its somewhat narrow 

 limits this work deserves all praise for the grace and dignity 

 of the designs. 



The elaborate ivory known as the *' Oratory of the Duchess 

 of Burgundy," now in the Musee de Cluny, was originally 

 one of the chief treasures of the Chartreuse de Dijon, and 

 was sold with the other valuables of this foundation pursu- 

 ant to the Revolutionary decree ordering the sale of the 

 ecclesiastical treasures. In the registers of the Chartreuse 

 appears the following interesting entry in the accounts for 

 1392-1393:* 



"Paye 500 liv. a Berthelot Heliot, varlet de chambre du 

 due [Philippe le Hardi}, pour deux grant tableaux d'i voire 

 a ymaiges, dont Tun d'iceulx est la passion de Notre-Seig- 

 neur et I'autre la vie de monsieur saint Jean-Baptiste." 



*E. de Sommerard, "Catalogue du Mus€e de Cluny," Paris, 1881, p. 84. 



