Page 127 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

7 dated circa 1145. This date must be close to that of
the ivory staff, even though it may have a quite
CEREMONIAL STAFF different provenance. That tusks should be used
as ceremonial staffs seems natural, given that
c. 1125-1150 Christians saw the unicorn as a symbol of Christ.
English For the theologian Tertullian, writing in the third
narwhal horn century A.D., "Christ is meant by it and the horn
l
length 117 (^6 /s)
references: Schonberger 1935-1936, 164-247; Saxl denotes Christ's cross." This idea was elaborated
1954, 7371.24, fig. 25; Beckwith 1972, 135, no. 82, by later theologians and mystically expressed in
ill. 198; London 1974, 67, no. 43; Einhorn 1976; the image of the unicorn hunt, which ends with
Freeman 1976, 29, fig. 9; London 1984, 223, no. 204 the animal tamed in the lap of a virgin (for the
symbolism of the unicorn, see Einhorn 1976 and
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Freeman 1976). J.M.M.

In medieval times, horns of the narwhal (Mono-
don monoceros I.), a small whale inhabiting the 8 <**,
Arctic seas, were of great rarity and accordingly Salzburg or Nuremberg craftsman
commanded high prices, for they were thought to
be from unicorns. The Greek physician Ctesias DRINKING HORN (Greifenklaue)
was the first to describe this mythical creature;
writing in around 398 B.C. he characterized it as c. 1400
a wild Indian donkey, larger than a horse, white, gilt silver, champleve enamel, and horn
5
and with a single horn one and a half ells (about 28 x 32 (11 x i2 /s)
122, no.
18, pi. 8;
Rossacher 1966,
five and a half feet) long. He added that "those references: 1967, 55, no. 23, pi. in; Kohlhaussen 1968,
Salzburg
who drink from these horns, made into drinking 150, no. 229, fig. 243; Cologne 1978-1980, 3:166;
vessels, are not subject, they say, either to convul- fritz 1982, 257-258, no. 512, fig. 512; Wagner 1986,
sions or to the falling sickness. Indeed they are 66-67
immune even to poisons if, either before or after,
they drink wine, water, or anything else from Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
these 'beakers'/' Such an idea was widespread in
classical antiquity and throughout the Middle Like the shell cup and the ostrich egg jug in the
Ages, when the horns were often seen as symbols Museo degli Argenti (cats. 9, 10), this drinking
of Christ. Many narwhal horns are found in trea- horn comes from the silver chamber (Silberkam-
suries, especially, but not exclusively, in those of mer] of the prince-archbishops of Salzburg. Both
churches: A horn in the Musee de Cluny, Paris, Salzburg and Nuremberg have been proposed as
can be traced to the famous abbey church of Saint- its place of manufacture. In Germany, drinking
Denis, while another, with runic inscriptions, is horns, usually made of the horn of an ox or an
still in the Marienkirche in Utrecht. Narwhal aurochs, were called Greifenklauen, or griffin
horns in medieval mounts are found in the Trea- claws. Our specimen is mentioned in an inventory
sury of San Marco in Venice. One of them has of 1586 as having the coat of arms of Gregor
inscriptions in Arabic, while another must have Schenck von Osterwitz, who was archbishop of
come from Constantinople, as its mount carries Salzburg from 1396 to 1403 ("Ain Greiffen Claw
the name of a Byzantine emperor, either John v innwendig mit Silber ausgefiittert und mit ainem
(1341-1391) or John vi Paleologus (1425-1448). silbern Vogl und Khlaider eingefasst, mit den
On the second piece, in addition to biblical Schenggen von Osterwitz wappen"). In a later
passages and words in praise of Christ and the inventory compiled in 1612, it is simply described
Virgin, there is a text in Greek on how the uni- as a drinking horn with silver mounts, partly gilt
corn offers protection against poison (for the cul- and with a pelican ("Ain Greiffenklau mit silbern
tural history of narwhal horns, see Schonberger und verguldten beschlecht, darauf ein Pelican").
1935-^936, 167-247). In Europe large horns were rare in the Middle
This narwhal horn is splendidly carved into a Ages and were often mounted with the most pre-
ceremonial staff. The lower portion has straight cious materials. Diirer acquired a number of them
bands, some of them plain, others with grotesque while traveling in the Netherlands in 1520-1521.
animals or naked figures intertwined with scrolls, A medieval legend records how Saint Cornelius
while the long, spiraling end alternates straight once cured a griffin of epilepsy; in gratitude, the
plain bands with bands of leaf scrolls and scrolls fabulous animal gave him one of its claws. The
with birds and animals. Another, unpublished, origin of this story is probably related to the fact
staff, which is said to be "similarly carved" and that the saint was invoked as protector from epi-
"probably from the same workshop and of the lepsy and was often depicted with a mounted horn
same date," is recorded in a private collection in as his attribute. The griffin, a mythical animal
England. Fritz Saxl compared the decoration of with the body of a lion and the wings and head of
the present tusk to that of one of the columns an eagle, was sometimes depicted, appropriately,
from the central portal of Lincoln Cathedral, now as part of the mount of such horns.

126 CIRCA 1492