Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art by Gearhart Heidi C

Author:Gearhart, Heidi C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

FIG. 17

Sacramentary of Wibald of Stavelot, 1150–58. Brussels, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 2034–35, fol. 25v.

FIG. 18

Stavelot Bible, 1097, detail: Prophet Jeremiah. London, British Library Add. MS 28106, fol. 161r.

The closest link between the pattern in the Vienna manuscript and extant objects might be found in a work produced for Theophanu, the granddaughter of Otto II and abbess at Essen (r. 1039–58). A book cover made for Theophanu is composed of a gilded repoussé plaque, into which is set an ivory showing the Crucifixion, the Ascension, and the Nativity (fig. 19). The ivory is surrounded by a border of acanthus leaves, again divided into units, within which is a three- or five-leaf palmette. The units are divided by vines that grow out of the bottom of the leaf and rise up around it, forming a parenthesis-like space. The palmettes are all framed with a band like that in the Vienna manuscript, and the leaves vary—some growing straight up, as on the bottom-most left; others curving up and turning in, as in the second from the bottom on the left; and some growing up and then curving out, as in the fourth from the bottom on the left (fig. 20). Another ivory of the crucifixion, dating to ca. 1050 and now at the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, uses the same composition as the Theophanu ivory, but here the border units are more distinct: the small leaves growing out of the vines at the root of the palmette are smaller, and there is no additional ornamentation or curving leaves at the top of the vine, above the palmette.39 While this change is extremely small, it clarifies the structure of the ornament and the division of the space into units.

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