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May 14, 2008

Ivory Plaque with Enthroned Mother of God ("The Stroganoff Ivory")

950–1025

Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period

Ivory

Overall: 25.3 x 17.2 x 1.8 cm (9 15/16 x 6 3/4 x 11/16 in.)

Gift of J. H. Wade 1925.1293

Location

105 Byzantine

Did you know?

This ivory is also known as the Stroganoff Ivory because it was once in the collection of Sergei Grigoryevich Stroganoff, a Russian statesman and art historian.

Description

The Mother of God is seated on a lavishly carved, high-backed throne. Two angels hover above, drawing attention to the Christ child poised in her lap. Representations of the enthroned Virgin and Child have a long tradition in Byzantine art, stretching back as far as the 6th century. With one hand raised in blessing, the other holding a scroll, Christ is portrayed here as an emotionless and supernatural child, visualizing for the pious beholder the mystery of his incarnation.

Provenance

Bastard Collection, Paris, France

?-1834

Francis Douce, London (d. 1834)

June 1836

Douce and Meyrick Collection

Collection of Count Stroganoff (1794-1882), Rome, Italy

?-1913

Malcolm Collection, sold at Christie's May 1, 1913, No. 20

?-1925

Tartaglia & Co. Sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1925-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

"Catalogue of the Douceau Museum" Gentleman's Magazine (June 1836) No. 39

Trésor de numismatique et de glyptique ou recueil général de médailles, monnaies, pierres gravées, bas-reliefs, etc ... Choix historique des médailles des Papes, depuis les milieu du XVe siècle jusqu' à nos jours. Paris: Rittner et Goupil, 1839. pl. 51

Didron, A.N. Annales Archéologiques vol XVII (1857) p. 362

Labarte, J. Les Arts Industriels vol. 1 (1864). p. 88

Westwood, J. O. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum: With an Account of the Continental Collections of Classical and Mediæval Ivories. 1876. p. 79, no. 55.26

Bayet, Ch. L'art Byzantin. Paris: Ancienne maison quantin, Librairies-imprimeries réunies, May & Motteroz, 1883. p. 192

Molinier, Emile. Les ivoires. Paris: Librairie centrale des beaux-arts, 1896. p. 102, 103

Hermanin, F. l'Arte vol. 1 (1898) p. 9

Graeven, Hans. Frühchristliche und mittelalterliche Elfenbeinwerke in photographischer Nachbildung. Rom: Instituto archeol. germanico, 1898. p. 36, no. 67

Kraus, Franz Xaver, and Joseph Sauer. Geschichte der christlichen Kunst. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, 1896.

Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'arte italiana. Milano: U. Hoepli, 1901. p. 598, fig. 426

Les Arts I (1902) p. 40

Muñoz, A. Ausonia vol. II (Rome, 1907). p. 109

Pollak, Ludwig, and Antonio Muñoz. Pieces de choix de la collection du comte Gregoire Stroganoff a Rome. Rome: Imprimerie de l'Union editrice, 1911. plate CXVI, p. 161

Dalton, O. M. Byzantine Art and Archaeology. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1911. p. 230

Pollak, Ludwig, and Antonio Muñoz. Pieces de choix de la collection du comte Gregoire Stroganoff a Rome. Rome: Imprimerie de l'Union editrice, 1911. p. 161, pl CXVI

Christie's, May 1, 1913 Lot. No. 20

Volbach, Wolfgang Fritz. Mittelalterliche elfenbeinarbeiten. Berlin: E. Wasmuth a. g, 1922. p. 26

Pelka, Otto. Elfenbein. Berlin: R.C. Schmidt & Co, 1923. p. 77, fig. 44

Glück, Heinrich. Die christliche Kunst des Ostens. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1923. p. 44, pl. 64

W. M. M. "The Stroganoff Ivory." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 13, no. 2 (1926) pp. 27-29 www.jstor.org

The Art News (January 9, 1926). p. 11

The Art News (February 27, 1926). p. 6

The Wade Memorial Bulletin (April 1926).

The Graphic London (December 25, 1926).

Duthuit, Georges. Byzance et l'art du XIIe siècle. Paris: Stock, 1926. p. 33

Schmitz, Hermann. The Encyclopedia of Furniture, An Outline History of Furniture Design in Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Scandinavia, Spain, Russia and in the Near and Far East Up to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. New York: McBride, 1926. p. 22

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 13 archive.org

Bossert, Helmuth Theodor. Geschichte des Kunstgewerbes aller Zeiten und Völker, in Verbindung mit zahlreichen Fachgelehrten herausgegeben von Dr. H. Th. Bossert. Berlin: E. Wasmuth, a.g, 1928. p. 174

Goldschmidt, Adolph and Kurt Weitzmann. Die Byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulptures des X-XXXII (Berlin, B. Cassirer 1934). no. 79, pl. XXXII

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition : June Twenty-Sixth to October Fourth 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: [Cleveland Museum of Art], 1936. No. 10

Roos, Frank J. An Illustrated Handbook of Art History. New York: Macmillan, 1954. pl. A, p. 73

Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.), and Dorothy Eugenia Miner. Early Christian and Byzantine Art, An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, April 25-June 22 [1947]. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1947. Cat. No. 126

Milliken, William M. "Early Christian and Byzantine Art in America." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 5, no. 4 (1947). fig. 1 www.jstor.org

"Arts" Beaux-Arts (May 18, 1947). p. 3

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 85 archive.org

Ilaria Toesca, "La Madonna di S. Maria della Valle a Subiaco" Bollettino d'Arte Anno XLIX (Fascicolo III, Serie IV, 1964). p. 223, repr. fig. 9, p. 222

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 41 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. p. 3

Volbach, Wolfgang Fritz, and Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne. Byzanz und der christliche Osten. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1968. p. 197 Pl. 98

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 41 archive.org

Frere-Cook, Gervis. Art and Architecture of Christianity. Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1972. Dust jacket

Rademacher, Franz. Die Regina Angelorum in der Kunst des frühen Mittelalters. Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1972. p. 256, fig. 1 or p. 55, No. 46

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 43 archive.org

Musée du Louvre, Réunion des musées nationaux (France), and Bibliothèque nationale (France). Byzance: l'art byzantin dans les collections publiques françaises : Musée du Louvre, 3 novembre 1992-1er février 1993. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992. Cat. No. 159, p. 246-247

Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. cat. no. 87, p. 14

Speyer, Festschr W. "Byzantinische Elfenbeine aus Westlichen Wekstatten und ihre Rezeption Im 19. Jahrhundert" Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum. 28 (June 1998) pp. 199-227

Vasilakē, Maria. Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art. Milano: Skira, 2000. Cat. No. 19, p. 302-03

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. p. 116

Fisher, Susannah. "The Tabernacle of the Most High: The Florentine Santa Maria Maggiore Madonna". Arte Medievale / Istituto Della Enciclopedia Italiana. 07/2 (2007) pp. 75-85

Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. p. 76-77, no. 22

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. p. 74, cat. no. 19

Schroeder, Rossitza. "Revelations in Relief: An Italo-Byzantine Panel with the Virgin and Child." The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 68/69 (2010) p. 112, fig. 4 www.jstor.org

Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 80-81

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 259

Eliot W Rowlands, ‘An indefatigable intermediary’: Harold Woodbury Parsons (1882–1967) and the formation of the European collections at the Cleveland Museum of Art: part 1, Journal of the History of Collections. p. 2 academic.oup.com

Rowlands, Eliot W. "An indefatigable intermediary: Harold Woodbury Parsons (1882-1967) and the formation of the European collections at the Cleveland Museum of Art: part 2." Journal of the History of Collections 33, no.1 (2021): 93-109. Reproduced p.94, mentioned p. 93-95, 103

Exhibition history

Malcolm Collection, The Burlington Club, London (1879)

Early Christian and Byzantine Art, The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland (April 25 - June 22, 1947.

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

The Madonna in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 9, 1947-February 9, 1948).

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

The Glory of Byzantium. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3-July 6, 1997).

The Mother of God: Representations of the Virgin in Byzantine Art. Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (organizer) (October 11, 2000-January 14, 2001).

Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. National Museum of Bavaria, Munich, Germany (May 10-September 16, 2007); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 13-June 7, 2009).

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{{cite web|title=Ivory Plaque with Enthroned Mother of God ("The Stroganoff Ivory")|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1925.1293|year=950–1025|access-date=08 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Ivory Plaque with Enthroned Mother of God ("The Stroganoff Ivory")

Ivory Plaque with Enthroned Mother of God ("The Stroganoff Ivory")

Byzantium, Constantinople, Byzantine period

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