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Despite the series of social, climate, military, and pandemic crises that marked 13th and 14th century Europe, ivory carvings experienced a boom in this period. This apparent contradiction raises questions about the value and significance of these luxury goods in elite society. Analysis of the secular iconographies wrought in ivory on household items offers insight into the lives, tastes, and literary knowledge of courtly owners, as well as into related social structures. Variously engaging with the concept of crisis, the volume's contributors resituate the reception of such objects within the contexts of politics, warfare, and the machinations of the court. This recontextualization yields compelling new perspectives on Gothic ivories, in some cases challenging long-standing assumptions.
About the author
Manuela Studer-Karlen is a Swiss National Science Foundation Professor in Art History at the University of Bern. Her research centres on visual-cultural processes in late antiquity; interactions among text, image, and space in Byzantine churches; medieval Georgian art; and Gothic ivories.
Summary
Despite the series of social, climate, military, and pandemic crises that marked 13th and 14th century Europe, ivory carvings experienced a boom in this period. This apparent contradiction raises questions about the value and significance of these luxury goods in elite society. Analysis of the secular iconographies wrought in ivory on household items offers insight into the lives, tastes, and literary knowledge of courtly owners, as well as into related social structures. Variously engaging with the concept of crisis, the volume’s contributors resituate the reception of such objects within the contexts of politics, warfare, and the machinations of the court. This recontextualization yields compelling new perspectives on Gothic ivories, in some cases challenging long-standing assumptions.
Foreword
Ivory carvings and the crises of Gothic Europe
