Over the last three decades, research on Gothic ivories has seen a significant shift from studies concerned with stylistic attribution and classification towards the investigation of their materiality, iconography, function, and – last but not least – patronage. Although we now have a much better understanding of the social, devotional, and cultural contexts in which especially religious ivories were commissioned and produced, overall, we still know comparatively little about the owners of Gothic ivories. This is especially true for the secular sphere, where it has not yet been possible to link any surviving fourteenth-century carving to its first owner.

This conference aims to return to the question of the ownership of Gothic ivories, an area which offers great potential for further discoveries, particularly (but not only) through the combination of art historical object analysis with evaluations of contemporary written sources such as inventories, wills, and other documents. Illuminating the stories of historic owners, be they individuals or institutions, and their Gothic ivories is the first aim of this two-day conference, while the second is to shed light on the later life of these objects, and on their transition into new ownership contexts and uses.

Organised by Manuela Studer-Karlen (University of Bern), Naomi Speakman (British Museum, London) and Michaela Zöschg (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).

This conference is supported by the project “Love and War. Secular images on Gothic ivories”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Venue

• 25th October: The British Museum, Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Great Russell Street, London
• 26th October: Victoria & Albert Museum, Hochhauser Auditorium, Cromwell Road, London

Registration

Please note that attendees will need to book a separate ticket for each day. 

• Registration for day one: British Museum website.
• Registration for day two: V&A website.

If you would like to receive a notification when booking is activated, please email Michaela Zöschg at m.zoschg@vam.ac.uk

Conference Programme

DAY 1: Friday, 25 October 2024, The British Museum

10.00 – 10.30: Registration and coffee

10.30 – 10.40: Welcome

Manuela Studer-Karlen & Naomi Speakman

10.40 – 11.00: The Ivories Study Group

Neil Stratford and Paul Williamson, London

11.00 – 12.30: SESSION 1: Religious Owners 

Chair: Catherine Yvard

• Was There a Franciscan Patronage of Gothic Ivories? (Charles Little, New York)
• Reading Sources on Prelates as Owners of Gothic Ivories (13th-14th centuries) (Michele Tomasi, Lausanne)
• Navigating the Anticlerical Laws Storm: Circulation and Art Market Dynamics of the Certosa di Pavia Ivories between the 18th and 19th Centuries (Flaminia Ferlito, Lucca)

12.00: Discussion

12.30 – 13.30: Break

13.30 – 15.00: SESSION 2: Objects in Focus

Chair: Michaela Zöschg

• Reflecting on Memory: Donors, Owners and Exemplars (Iris Ippel, Leiden)
• The Lives and Afterlives of the Ivory Crozier of Archbishop Walter de Gray (Sophie Kelly, Bristol)
• Write, Pray, Love – Owning an Ivory Booklet Throughout the Centuries (Svea Janzen, Jena)

14.30: Discussion

15.00 – 15.20: Coffee break

15.20 – 16.50: SESSION 3: Networks and Mobility

Chair: Lloyd de Beer

• About Lost Objects: Gothic Ivories at the Court of Savoy According to the ‘Comptes de l’hôtel’ and the Castle Inventories (Simonetta Castronovo, Turin)
• Quest for Ivory in the Kingdom of Bohemia: Imports, Substitutes, and National Historiography (Milan Matejka, Zurich)
• ‘Let them pass freely when they go and come back to us’: The Florentine Merchant Baldassare degli Ubriachi and the Circulation of Gothic Ivories (Joanne Morice, Melbourne)

16.20: Discussion

16.50 – 17.00: Closing Remarks Day 1

DAY 2: Saturday, 26 October 2024, Victoria & Albert Museum

10.00 – 10.30: Registration and coffee

10.30 – 10.40: Welcome

James Robinson & Michaela Zöschg

10.40 – 12.40: SESSION 1: Collectors in Focus

Chair: James Robinson

• The Ivory Collection of Nicole Gilles and Marie Turquam, a Parisian Bourgeois Couple, c. 1500 (Sarah Dyer Magleby, Kansas)
• Collecting Gothic Ivories in the Time of Production: Queen Clémence of Hungary’s Ivories (Paula Mae Carns, Illinois)
• Staging Ivories in 19th-century Paris: the Spitzer Collection (Paola Cordera, Milan)
• Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1828–1894) as a Collector of Gothic Ivories (Elżbieta Musialik, Krakow)

12.00: Discussion

12.30 – 13.30: Break

13.30 – 15.00: SESSION 2: Displaying Gothic Ivories

Chair: Naomi Speakman

• ‘Your ivories attracted a great deal of attention’: Display of the Mayer Collection of Ivories from 1850 to the Present (Nicola Scott, Liverpool)
• Love & Reproduction: The Visual Biography of a Gothic Ivory Mirror Back (Tom Nickson, London)
• From Gothic to ‘Medieval Style’: Perceptions of Fakery in Gothic Ivories, 1915-1930 (Marian Bleeke, Cleveland)

14.30: Discussion

15.00 – 15.20: Coffee Break

15.20 – 16.50: SESSION 3: Later Interpretations

Chair: Manuela Studer-Karlen

• Beyond Late Antique Diptychs. Re-reading the Thesaurus by A. Francesco Gori in Search of Gothic Ivories (Benedetta Chiesi, Milan)
• Gothic Ivories in the Treasures of Saint-Étienne d’Auxerre and Saint-Étienne de Sens: Medieval Artefacts and 19th-20th Century Scholars (Chloé Cazalet, Auxerre)
• The Biography of a Fictile Collection (Jack Hartnell, London)

16.20: Discussion

16.50 – 17.00: Closing Remarks Day 2