Page 131 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

the hand without coming to any harm by an adder Laccadive and Maldive islands, while other sources been intended to harmonize stylistically with the
which he then threw onto the fire. The Maltese mention North Africa, Afghanistan, Yemen, and vase. The largest section of the neck is decorated
name for sharks' tongues is indeed Ilsien San Paul the Red Sea as well. Of the 170 medieval works in with foliate scrolls populated by two men fighting
(Saint Paul's tongues), and legend has it that rock crystal from the Islamic world that are still dragons, while the foot of the cruet has scrolls
because of the saint no venomous serpent is now preserved, by far the largest number come from enriched in two cases with lions and in a third
found on the island. The notion that the teeth Fatimid Egypt. This is the case with the cruet now with a dragon. Most impressive, however, are the
have apotropaic power is rooted in sympathetic in the Treasury of San Marco, which was mounted handle, formed of an elegant dragon, and the
magic, though in the legend the idea has been as a ewer in the thirteenth century. The rock spout, which ends in a dragon's head. The closest
given a religious rationale (see Oakley 1975, 15- crystal receptacle, which has lost its handle, has a parallels to the mount are found in French works
21; Zammit-Maempel 1975; Oakley 1985, 63-65). symmetrical decoration of two rams facing each of the late twelfth and the first half of the thir-
In the thirteenth century, Arnald of Villanova other and separated by palmettes, which fill most teenth centuries; a Venetian origin, however, is
wrote in his Breviarium that "certain nobles and of the remaining space. The style is close to that not impossible. J.M.M.
barons, when they eat, keep on the table the horn of another crystal vase, also in the Treasury of San
or else the tongue of a serpent in a vessel on a Marco, which bears a Kufic inscription "Blessing
piece of bread, and it is said that if any poison is from Allah for the Imam al-Aziz billah," refer-
set before it on the table, it at once begins to ring to the Fatimid caliph al-Aziz who ruled from
sweat" (Lightbown 1978, 29). Chinese porcelain 975 to 996. The Fatimid treasure must have been
and narwhal horns served a similar function on of fabulous wealth: Various sources mention *4
the medieval table (cats. 16, 7). between 18,000 and 36,000 items. It is not known ROCK-CRYSTAL ELEPHANT
The oldest reference to languiers is in the when this vase reached Venice, but it was prob-
inventory of goods made at the death of Odo, ably one of the three pieces mentioned in an late 15th century
count of Nevers, in 1266. Under Pope Boniface inventory of 1325 ("Ampulletas tres de cristallo, Indian, Deccan Sultanate
vin in 1295 the Holy See had fifteen "branches or varnitas argento"). It was probably mounted rock crystal, with 16th-century European mounts in
trees with serpents' tongues/' In the fourteenth as a ewer in the thirteenth century, although for gold and enamel 3
7
and fifteenth centuries they appear in many decorative purposes only, as the silver spout is not height 7.3 (2 /s); length 9.4 (3 /4J Lack 1970, 27,
1936, 275, pi. IID;
Born
references:
inventories; for example, in 1318 Pope John xxn functional. The general effect of the mount has pi. 9; Welch 1985, 132-133; Jordan 1991
received from Philip the Long one that was been described as orientalizing, and it must have
described as "a beautiful languier of gold, covered Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Sammlung fur
with rubies and emeralds and fine pearls, with six Plastik und Kunstgewerbe
serpents' tongues" (for the history of languiers,
see mainly Pogatscher 1898; Tescione 1965, 224- This recumbent rock-crystal elephant is difficult
225; Lightbown 1978, 29-30; Schiedlausky 1989). to date, because of its uniqueness and the fact that
Natterzungenbaiime are extremely rare today. rock crystal takes on no signs of age. It is clearly
Only two other medieval specimens are extant, Indian in style and workmanship. The carving
one in the Schatzkammer des deutschen Ordens could only have been done by a lapidary aware of
in Vienna and another in the Griines Gewolbe the way Indian elephants look and move. After
in Dresden (Kohlhaussen 1968,163, no. 253, studying the animal's exceptional — and very
fig. 277). To these examples, which have been obliging —pose, he abstracted it, echoing the
preserved intact, can be added a few individually pleasing roundness of head and trunk in the
mounted teeth which, if not originally hanging almost circular space between trunk and chest.
on a languier, must have been worn as amulets As there are no signs of the naturalism that is
to protect against poison, plague, and epilepsy characteristic of Mughal Indian style, which would
(Hansmann and Kriss-Rettenbeck 1977, have lent the piece more individuality, suggestions
figS. 252-257). J.M.M. of texture, and greater accuracy of proportion, it
is almost certainly of Sultanate manufacture. The
gold and enamel mounts were added in Europe
during the sixteenth century, when the elephant
*3 was fashioned into a saltcellar.
the literature on this piece suggests
Although
CRUET MOUNTED AS A EWER that it once formed part of the famous Kunstkam-
mer of Archduke Ferdinand of the Tyrol (1520-
loth century (rock crystal), ijth century (mount) 1595), in fact it belonged to Catherine of Austria
Fatimid, mount possibly Venetian (1507-1578), the younger sister of Charles v, who
rock crystal silver gilt, and niello was queen of Portugal. Her collection of oriental
height 28 (11) and other exotic objects was one of the largest of
references: Hahnloser 1971, 113-115 no. 125, pis.
c-ci; New York 1984, 222-227, no. 32; Berlin 1989, the sixteenth century, next to that of Philip n of
544, no. 4/1, fig. 218 Spain. The mount for the Elephant was commis-
sioned in 1552 (Jordon 1991 and forthcoming
Tesoro di San Marco, Venice article). A splendid example of European enthu-
siasm for Asia during this period, the piece may
According to the Arab scholar Biruni, who wrote have come through Goa, which enjoyed close rela-
at the turn of the first millennium, rock crystal tions with the Deccani sultans. This plump, be-
was imported from Kashmir, Madagascar, and the nevolent pachyderm bears stylistic affinities to

130 CIRCA 1492