Rethinking ‘the oldest surviving amber in the West’ by RACHEL KING SINCE THE RE UNIFICATIO N of Germany, the study of art in amber has flourished.1 To date, however, little new has been said about objects produced before 1525, the year in which Prussia – then essentially the only region in which amber was found – became a Duchy following the conversion to Protestantism of Albrecht of Brandenburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.2 Early examples of worked amber such as the statue of John the Baptist in Charles V’s collection, Jean de Berry’s Virgin and Child and Anne of Brittany’s amber icon in a silver-gilt frame,3 are still the stock examples cited by scholars.4 One might assume that few other objects from this period survive, yet, while such objects from the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are rare, they are not entirely lacking. This article evaluates the evidence for an almost forgotten period of amber sculpture and considers the conditions under which amber art was created and by whom. Alfred Rohde’s work on amber of 1937 still remains an invaluable source, not least because between 1939 and 1945 a considerable number of objects in German collections were lost or displaced. Rohde discussed five pieces (two of which survive) that he dated between 1430 and 1520.5 He had noted the scarc- ity of works from this period in an earlier publication and had argued that ‘throughout the medieval period the amber being found was only just enough to cover the need for rosaries’, thus 11. Enthroned Virgin. Prussia, c.1400. Amber, some traces of suggesting that only very few pieces had ever been produced.6 paint, 11 cm. high. (Kestner For Rohde, the oldest piece in this group was the Enthroned Museum, Hannover). Virgin in the Kestner Museum, Hannover (inv. no.WMXXIa, 43; Fig.11). In 2005 Sabine Haag reiterated this argument, writ- ing that this figure is ‘probably the oldest surviving amber in the ment from left on the lower register of the central panel. West’.7 The Virgin was one of eighty-seven cult objects in the Immediately right of it is a crucifix and a reliquary) seated twenty-two compartments of a reliquary shrine known as the beneath a baldachin, which Ferdinand Stuttman was confident Goldene Tafel in the Benedictine abbey of St Michaelis in Lüne- was made of ivory.8 By 1700 the Virgin had been in the shrine burg. Assembled from around the tenth century onwards, the since at least the 1530s and had survived its plundering in 1644 treasure was placed in the shrine around 1410–20. An engraving and 1698. It remained in the church until 1792, when it was of about 1700 gives us an impression of this enormous retable moved to the Ritterakademie’s natural history collections. In (Fig.12). We see the Virgin (the figure in the second compart- 1851 it was moved to the Chapel of the Leineschloss in I would like to thank Raphael Beuing, Erik Wegerhoff and Matthias Weniger for 3 For example, O. Pelka: Bernstein, Berlin 1920, p.38; G.C. Williamson: The Book having read and discussed the manuscript of this article with me. of Amber, London 1932, pp.151–52; and A. Rohde: Bernstein. Ein deutscher Werk- 1 One exhibition that pre-dated the unification waa Bernstein – Das Gold der Ostsee held stoff. Seine künstlerische Verarbeitung vom Mittelalter bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin in 1979 at the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Cologne. The accompanying book appeared 1937, p.16. Largely lacking footnotes or bibliographical references, these rehearse later; see G. Reineking von Bock: Bernstein. Das Gold der Ostsee, Munich 1981. the same examples as appear in popular publications such as V. Gay: Glossaire 2 Works published since 1989 referring to the period before 1525 include C. Zepp archéologique du Moyen âge et de la Renaissance, Paris 1887, I, p.28; E. von Czihak: et al., eds.: exh. cat. Kunstschätze aus Bernstein. Die Sammlung des Schlossmuseums ‘Der Bernstein als Stoff des Kunstgewerbes’, Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik, Marienburg bei Danzig, Augsburg (Maximilianmuseum) 1996; M. Mierzwinska: Literatur und Kunst (1899), pp.181–82 and p.290; and K. Andrée: Der Bernstein und exh. cat. Bernsteinschätze aus der Marienburg, Lüneburg (Ostpreussisches Landesmu- seine Bedeutung in Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Technik, seum) 2000; W. Seipel, ed.: exh. cat. Bernstein für Thron und Altar. Das Gold des Industrie und Handel, Königsberg 1937, p.126. Meeres in fürstlichen Kunst- und Schatzkammern, Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 4 M. Trusted: Catalogue of European Ambers in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2005; J. Kappel: Bernsteinkunst aus dem Grünen Gewölbe, Munich 2005; G. Laue, ed.: 1985, pp.10–11; H. Fraquet: Amber, London 1987, p.34; J. Fajt, ed.: exh. cat. Karl IV. Bernstein. Kostbarkeiten europäischer Kunstkammern, Munich 2006; and C. Coppinger Kaiser von Gottes Gnaden. Kunst und Repräsentation des Hauses Luxemburg 1310–1437, et al.: Ambre, mémoire du temps, Paris 2009. Prague (National Gallery) 2006, no.48; B.D. Boehm et al., eds.: exh. cat. Prague. The 756 no ve mbe r 201 3 • clv • t he bur l ingt on ma gaz ine  OLDEST SURVIVING AMBER IN THE WEST 12. Der goldene Tafel, illustration in M.S. Hosmann: Fürtreffliches Denck-Mahl, Leipzig 1700. Hannover and, following a stay in the Königliches Welfenmus- suggest that the Virgin’s cloak once had a decorative border. A eum (established in 1861), it was transferred in 1954 to the circle of painted flecks on her chest were probably the Christ Kestner Museum, Hannover. Child’s nimbus, and the holes visible above her breast and in her At some point along the way the figure lost its protective lap were probably where he was once attached. canopy, as well as the Virgin’s hands and the Christ Child. These A second, almost identical figure survives in Bratislava’s are likely to have been made of opaque white amber in imitation Mestské Múzeum (inv. no.F355; Fig.14).9 This figure, also miss- of flesh, an effect which can still be seen in the face. The body, ing its hands and with a perforation in the Virgin’s lap, sits on a throne and cloak are carved from a single piece. Traces of paint wooden pedestal sunk into a gilded frame beneath a gilt canopy. Crown of Bohemia, New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2005, no.48, variously cite Michaelsklosters in Lüneburg, Berlin 1937, no.30. as their sources the publications by Gay, Pelka and Rohde cited at note 3 above. 8 Stuttmann, op. cit. (note 7). 5 Rohde, op. cit. (note 3), plates 1–8. To these five I would like to add an unpub- 9 It was discussed by historians of sculpture but does not appear in the literature lished small pax showing the Adoration of the Magi in the treasury of St Gereon, on amber; most recently, see M. Bartlová: ‘Was Queen Sophia of Bavaria Cologne. My thanks to Regina Urbanek from the Cologne Institute for Conser- an art patron?’, in M. Jaroˇsová et al., eds.: Prag und die grossen Kulturzentren Europas in der vation Services for answering my queries on this object. Zeit der Luxemburger 1310–1437, Prague 2008, pp.623–34, esp. p.624; Fajt, op. cit. (note 6 A. Rohde: ‘Königsberger Bernsteinarbeiten des 16. u. 17. Jahrh.’, Zeitschrift des 4), no.167; Boehm, op. cit. (note 4), no.143; E. Wetter: ‘Sakrálne Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft 4 (1934), pp.205–24. poklady v 14. a ranom storoˇci: náˇcrt fragmentárnej tradície na Slovensku’, in 7 S. Haag, in Seipel, op. cit. (note 2), no.7; B. Bänsch: ‘Der Schatz der Goldenen D. Buran, ed.: exh. cat. Gotika. Dˇejeny slovenského v´ytvarného umeni, Bratislava Tafel zu Lüneburg bis 1235’, in J. Luckhardt et al., eds.: exh. cat. Heinrich der Löwe (National Museum) 2003, pp.806–19. For an extended and detailed bibliography, see und seine Zeit, Braunschweig (Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum) 1995, I, pp.313–28; A.C. Glatz et al., eds.: exh. cat. Gotické umenie z bratislavskˇych zbierok, R. Marth: Der Schatz der Goldenen Tafel, Hannover 1994, no.27; Bock, op. cit. (note Bratislava (Mestské Múzeum) 1999, pp.107–09; J. Záry, ˇ ed.: Der Martinsdom 1), p.61, fig.61; exh. cat. Welfenschatz der Goldenen Tafel, Hannover (Kestner Mu- in Bratislava, Bratislava 1990, pp.45–48 and 132–34; J. Vítovsk´y: ‘Lampa z pozostalosti seum) 1956–57, no.82; F. Stuttmann: Der Reliquienschatz der goldenen Tafel des St ˇ královnej Zofie Bavoreskej v Mestdom múzeu v Bratislave’, Ars 1 (1990), pp.45–58. t he b url ingt on magaz ine • cl v • nov ember 201 3 757 OLDEST SURVIVING AMBER IN THE WEST 14. Chandelier with St Catherine. Possibly Königs- 13. Nativity. Possibly Königsberg or Marienburg, c.1400. Amber, 5.5 by 9.5 cm. berg or Marien- (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlungen Schloss Ambras, Vienna/Innsbruck). burg, c.1400. Amber, walrus tusk, silver gilt, wood, figure 12.5 cm. high. The image is mounted on a walrus’s jaw and tusks, suspended (Mestké Muzéum, from two chains made of broad flat links. This ‘kerzstal’, or chan- Bratislava). delier, originally belonged to Sophia of Bavaria, from 1388 the second wife of Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia.10 It is first recorded in the 1428 post-mortem inventory of her effects, where it is a small wooden frame (‘touffelchin’); images in amber, and an described as a ‘sent Kathrein’ and, indeed, the foot of the canopy amber Vera icon encased in three silver frames; two rosaries; seven bears the repoussé inscription: ‘S[an]c[t]a kath[er]ina ora p[ro] nobis’ rosaries and pendants; a rosary of white amber with a small case (‘Saint Catherine, pray for us’).11 housing a white image; and a small rosary with a Vera icon. In Duˇsan Buran has suggested that the figure, baldachin and spring 1400 he was paid for a further rosary and two amber walrus tusks were first assembled together when the figure images for the shrine in Konrad’s chapel.14 arrived in Prague, perhaps as a gift to Sophia. Buran implies that Johann was clearly producing amber works in a variety of this was when the figure became associated with St Catherine forms and it is conceivable that the ‘bilde’ mentioned in the pay- and argues that it began life as the Virgin or St Anne. Given that ments were reliefs15 as well as more plastic forms. What they the Hannover Madonna is also seated beneath a house-like struc- depicted is unclear. They may have been similar to the objects ture, and because an Enthroned Virgin cradling the Christ Child already discussed, but they could also have represented other beneath a baldachin supported by four columns appears in the subjects; Sophia, for example, owned a silver-gilt St John in a 1416 inventory of Jean, Duc de Berry, I believe it is more likely small frame (‘kistel’) with a baldachin (‘czibori’), and a silver-gilt that the carving had been placed under a baldachin long before St Barbara (together with three other figures), also in a small finding its way to St Martin’s Church, Pressburg (Bratislava).12 frame with a baldachin. Moreover, she had a ‘gilded plaque with According to Jakub Vítovsk´y, Sophia of Bavaria visited Prus- images of amber’,16 and a later inventory of 1472 lists three sia and its ruler, Konrad von Jungingen, Grand Master of the further ‘silver-gilt tabernacles in the form of towers in each of Teutonic Order, in 1399. This date is of some importance. Prus- which is an amber image’.17 A little scene of the Nativity (Kunst- sia was the only region in which Europeans had access to a con- historisches Museum, Vienna; inv. no.PA 811; Fig.13) is siderable quantity of amber, and 139913 is the first year in which believed to be one of a series of figures described as ‘old Frank- payments are recorded from the Teutonic Order to one Johann, ish’ in Ferdinand II of Tyrol’s post-mortem inventory of 1596. It a ‘goltsmyt’ and ‘bornsteynsnyder’ or ‘bornsteynsnyczer’ (‘carver in seems to date from the fourteenth or early fifteenth century, amber’). On 1st May Johann was paid for an amber plaque for since it illustrates the life of the Virgin and the young Christ, Konrad and, a day later, received a retainer to cover his work for which was then increasingly popular as a subject, but does not yet the next six months. Nine months later he was to be paid for his show the influence of St Bridget’s vision.18 Ferdinand can also be work made in the meantime: two round plaques bearing the linked to the Teutonic Order through his distant forebear Ernest, insignia of the Duke of Burgundy (probably Philip the Bold); a Duke of Inner Austria (1377–1424), who married Margaret, large image (‘bilde’) in a silver shrine; a diptych, delivered to the daughter of Bogislaw V, Duke of Pomerania, and subsequently Grand Master Konrad; an image in amber with five angels inside Cymburgis, daughter of Siemovit IV, Duke of Masovia. Both 10 T. Krzenck: ‘Sophie von Wittelsbach – eine Böhmenkönigin im Spätmittelalter’, 15 Such as a slightly later Annunciation in a private collection; see Seipel, op. cit. (note in G. Beyreuther et al., eds.: Fürstinnen und Städterinnen. Frauen im Mittelalter, Freiburg 2), pp.38–39, no.9. 1993, pp.65–87. 16 Inventory transcribed in Vítovsk´ y, op. cit. (note 9), pp.54–57: ‘. . . ain vergolte tafel 11 Munich, Bayerisches Staatsarchiv, Geheimes Hausarchiv, Korrespondenzakt 543; mit pilden von achtstein; [. . .] in ainem clainen kistel sant Johanns pilt von achstain mit published in Vítovsk´y, op. cit. (note 9). silbrein vergolten czibori; [. . .] in ainem clainen kistel sant Barbare pilt mit silbrein vergulten 12 J. Guiffrey, ed.: Inventaires de Jean duc de Berry: 1401–1416, Paris 1894–1896, I, p.42, no.85. czibori; item in derselben kisten andren pilt dreir clainr . . .’. 13 Vítovsk´ y, op. cit. (note 9), note 25, citing E. Joachim, ed.: Das Marienburger Tressler- 17 Ibid., no.14: ‘. . . drey silbrein vergolten tabernakel gemacht als türn und in yedem ain buch der Jahre 1399–1409, Königsberg 1896, p.157. agsteineins pild . . .’. 14 Joachim, op. cit. (note 13), pp.16, 18, 38–40, 67, 82 and 191. 18 Seipel, op. cit. (note 2), p.40, no.11. The Virgin does not adore the child while 758 no ve mbe r 201 3 • clv • t he bur l ingt on ma gaz ine  OLDEST SURVIVING AMBER IN THE WEST 15. Front and back of mounted Vera icon. Bruges or Königsberg, 1380–1400. Amber, silver gilt, enamel, with hanging ring, 8.3 by 5.1 by 2.5 cm. (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich). territories bordered the Order’s lands, but no firm conclusions dated early on account of the surviving painted detail – a feature can be reached as to how each of these objects came into the also seen on the Hannover Virgin discussed above. The fact that possession of their respective owners. Yet it seems clear that a traces of paint are found on the New York face seems to confirm much larger number of such mounted figures once existed to that amber’s transparency was not considered important at this which those in Ambras, Bratislava and Hannover also belong. time. Writing on the Munich piece, Charles Little was remind- These figures are not the only pieces that appear to correspond ed of the lines from St Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians – to the payments made to Johann. Three early amber Vera icons ‘We now see through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to are also known. Two, in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, face’ (I Cor. 13:12)24 – yet it is not possible to look through the Munich (inv. no.MA 2478; Fig.15),19 and in the Wallace Col- amber to see what is beneath; indeed, the mount does not appear lection, London (inv. no.III G 295; Fig.16),20 have enamelled to have been decorated on the inner side with this in mind. Cer- silver mounts; the third, an unframed medallion with the face of tainly, in the case of the objects in Munich and London the play Christ, was acquired in 2011 by the Metropolitan Museum of of light through the amber was not taken into consideration by Art, New York (inv. no.2011-503; Fig.17). Unlike the example the maker of the mount, who depended on the translucency of in Munich, which has been published on a number of occasions, the enamels to create special effects. chiefly in connection with Charles IV, the other pieces have Each of the three faces is set on a nimbus in the shape of a four- received little attention.21 leaved clover. In the case of the Munich example, the two lower Martin Büchsel argues that the motif of the Vera icon first leaves are only implied, disappearing beneath the hair and the appeared in the West in the thirteenth century, becoming firmly mount, perhaps suggesting that the mount and amber were not established at the time of the Fourth Crusade.22 All three of the made at the same time. In the New York piece the lower leaves amber icons discussed here are likenesses of Christ of the so- are complete and Christ’s hair meets them, joining their con- called Mandylion type, characterised by Christ’s lack of a neck tours. The upper leaves of this piece are not fully rounded and and a bifurcated pointed beard.23 The New York head can be have two curious indents in the upper lobes. Their significance kneeling but while resting on a padded couch-like form. April 1868. My thanks to Carmen Holdsworth Delgado for responding to my queries. 19 Acquired in 1863 from the Munich-based dealer Aaron Drey. For the most recent 21 This piece has never been published at length, but see Williamson, op. cit. (note 3), bibliography, see R. Eikelmann, ed.: Das Bayerische Nationalmuseum, 1855–2005: 150 p.159; I. Baker: ‘Old Amber’, The Connoisseur 387–91 (December 1932), p.391, fig.7, Jahre Sammeln, Forschen, Ausstellen, Munich 2006, pp.219, 222 and 384. The object has with reproduction; Fraquet, op. cit. (note 4), p.33, fig.3.1, with reproduction; and also been published in E. von Philippovich: Kuriositäten, Antiquitäten. Ein Handbuch für Trusted, op. cit. (note 4), p.27, note 4. Sammler und Liebhaber, Braunschweig 1966, pp.91–120, esp. pp.96 and 97, fig.61. Fur- 22 M. Büchsel: Die Entstehung des Christusporträts. Bildarchäologie statt Bildhypnose, 3rd ther information is held in the archive of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich. ed., Mainz 2007, p.145. 20 Sir Richard Wallace bought his in 1871 as part of the collection of the Comte de 23 Ibid., pp.8, 60, 111–20 and 164. Nieuwerkerke, who had acquired it three years previously from Louis Carrand in 24 In Boehm, op. cit. (note 4), no.64. t he b url ingt on magaz ine • cl v • nov ember 201 3 759 OLDEST SURVIVING AMBER IN THE WEST is unclear; a mount would presumably have hidden them. The Munich example, equipped with a loop, is usually described as a double-sided pectoral, but it also has much in common with late Gothic reliquary pendants that combine engraved precious metal mounts with glass or mother-of-pearl.25 The rear has been engraved with a Throne of Mercy and the symbols of the Evangel- ists. The text on the band reads: ‘Miserere.mei.deus.secundum. magnam.misericordiam.tuam’ (‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness’; Psalm 51). The Evangelists are named on banners beneath their respective symbols. The Lon- don example, on the other hand, has been placed in a square mount, suggesting that it was a pax. The inscription running around the frame reads: ‘Ego sum via veritas et vita qui sequitur / me non ambulant in / tenebris et pacem eterna[m]’ (‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ [from John 14:6]; ‘He who follows me walks not in darkness’ [perhaps John 8:12]; ‘[and he will have] eternal peace’). Two of the angels in the bottom corners of the mount carry illegible banners. It has been dated to the late fourteenth century. There is no reason to doubt that both mount and amber image were produced at about the same time, although it cannot be confirmed that they were made as a unit. Like the Vera icon form, the so-called basse-taille technique, in which the metal is chased and engraved and then coated with translucent enamels, became established at the end of the thir- teenth century.26 Johann appears to have been a skilful worker of both silver and amber. It is worth noting, however, that in the Munich icon the faces of God the Father and Christ bear no 16. Mounted Vera icon. Bruges or Königsberg, 1380–1400. Amber, silver, gold, resemblance to the amber face of Christ on its reverse. It seems enamel, in frame, 14.3 by 12.4 cm. (Wallace Collection, London). likely that in these examples different craftsmen were responsible for the amber and the engraved metalwork mounts, while stylis- tic comparison does not suggest that the heads or the mounts of Albertus had always known as ‘succinum’, but which most people the three pieces under discussion were made by the same hand. then called ‘ambrum’.29 In the 1250s the Order had conquered the Even if Johann was the only amber craftsman to be employed promontory of Samland in East Prussia, where amber was found. by the Order, it is clear that more than just one person was skilled Just as the Duke of Pomerelia, their western neighbour, had in working amber in this period, and indeed Johann himself must done before them, the Order imposed a seigneurial prerogative have learnt this skill somewhere. But what do we know about which was sub-contracted first to the Bishop of Samland (1264), sculpture in amber before 1399 and the craftsmen working it? then to fishermen from the town of Danzig (1312), and later to In 1394 the Teutonic Order introduced fines for the posses- the Cistercians at Oliwa (1342).30 By the end of the thirteenth sion of unworked amber in Königsberg.27 It can be safely century amber had reached the Italian peninsula, where the assumed that such laws are only required where something is earliest examples of the medieval Latin noun ‘ambrum’ and the taking place, and Alfred Rohde understood the fines to signify vernacular ‘ambro’ or ‘ambra’ have been dated to 1283 and 1300 the deliberate discouragement of a Prussian industry of working respectively.31 By the 1340s, it had become sufficiently wide- amber.28 The Order sought to restrict, indeed prevent, the spread to be subject to sumptuary legislation,32 and could also be working of a material because they profited from exporting it to found in France: the 1353 inventory of the papal treasury in Avi- the south. gnon, the year in which Innocent VI was elected pope, records The Teutonic Order had been summoned to Prussia in 1226 amber-handled cutlery and an amber salt.33 Although no amber by Konrad I of Masovia to help him subjugate neighbouring appears in the 1363 inventory of the dauphin Charles,34 by the pagan Prussia. According to Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280) time of his death in 1380 Charles, now king of France, owned their progress coincided with greater availability of amber, which a figure of St John the Baptist, a round Vera icon with the four 25 J.M. Fritz: Gestochene Bilder. Gravierungen auf deutschen Goldschmiedearbeiten der Spät- Herrn Medizinal- und Regierungsrath Hagen. Erster Abschnitt. Von der Zeit des gotik, Cologne 1966, p.362. See also S. Husemann: Pretiosen persönlicher Andacht. Bild- Ordens bis zur Regierung König Friedrich I’, Beiträge zur Kunde Preussens 6/1 (1824), und Materialsprache spätmittelalterlicher Reliquienkapseln (Agnus Dei) unter besonderer pp.1–41, esp. p.8; W. Tesdorpf: Gewinnung, Verarbeitung und Handel des Bernsteins in Berücksichtigung des Materials Perlmutter, Weimar 1999. Preussen von der Ordenszeit bis zur Gegenwart, Jena 1887, p.8; M. Bogucka: Das alte 26 R.W. Lightbown: Secular Goldsmiths’ Work in Medieval France. A History, London Danzig. Alltagsleben vom 15. bis 17. Jh., Leipzig 1980, pp.7–8. 1978, p.64. 31 M. Cortelazzo et al.: Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, Bologna 1979, I, 27 F.S. Bock: Versuch einer kurzen Naturgeschichte des Preussischen Bernsteins und einer p.46; G. Colussi, ed.: Glossario degli antichi volgari italiani, Foligno 2002, III, neuen wahrscheinlichen Erklärung seines Ursprunges, Königsberg 1767, p.13, and Pelka, pp.145–47. op. cit. (note 3), p.15. 32 M.G. Nico Ottaviani, ed.: La legislazione suntuaria, secoli XIII–XVI. Umbria, Rome 28 Rohde, op. cit. (note 3), p.13. 2005, p.50. Earlier references are less reliable, for example the ban on the use of strings 29 Albertus Magnus: Book of Minerals, transl. D. Wyckoff, Oxford 1967, p.121. of amber beads by the 1261 General Chapter of the Dominican Order at Orvieto. 30 K.G. Hagen: ‘Geschichte der Verwaltung des Börnsteins in Preussen. Von dem This is discussed in G. Ritz: ‘Der Rosenkranz’, in exh. cat. 500 Jahre Rosenkranz: 1475 760 no ve mbe r 201 3 • clv • t he bur l ingt on ma gaz ine  OLDEST SURVIVING AMBER IN THE WEST 17. Vera icon. Bruges or Königsberg, 1380–1400. Amber, 8.3 by 3.2 cm. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Evangelists in ivory, a knife with an amber and enamel handle,35 bon.42 Shortly afterwards, on 2nd November, money was sent to and a Holy Family with the Magi and St Anastasius.36 His residence, a fourth Bruges merchant, Jacques Thobin, for four pairs of the Louvre Palace, housed a jet cross with a crucified Christ white amber paternosters, two more plus a white amber image made of amber on an enamelled Golgotha;37 he also owned enclosed in a case of yellow amber (perhaps a pendant), a second several amber rosaries.38 similar object, and five little white amber boxes.43 Three days Who was making these objects, where were they based, and later, Thobin sent the bill for yet more purchases, including at how did they obtain amber? Just over forty per cent of the least sixty-three pairs of white amber paternosters, twenty-one Order’s exports to Flanders in the 1390s were of amber, and pieces of amber, five paternosters with images in amber, five records of payments made by members of the French court point knife handles, thirteen small boxes, an amber ring, a Virgin, an to Bruges as the centre of amber craftsmanship.39 In 1371 Philip amber image set in jet, a red amber lion, a crucifix and a the Bold acquired from Christian Le Roux in Bruges a small bowl. Philip once again presented many of these objects to the amber image of the Virgin.40 In 1377 payment was made to a cer- dukes of Berry and Bourbon, to the Count of Nevers, and to tain Jehan Dicon, a merchant from Bruges, for two images in their wives.44 white amber.41 In 1386 Philip paid the merchant Willaume le Some of Philip’s purchases may be the pieces in the inven- Fromaige, also in Bruges, for two pairs of white amber paternos- tories of Jean de Berry’s possessions made in 1413/16. He owned ters, which he sent to his brothers, the dukes of Berry and Bour- an amber image of the Virgin, with hands, face and Christ Child Köln 1975, Cologne (Erzbischöfliches Diözesan-Museum) 1975, pp.51–101 and 38 Ibid., nos.2073 and 2176. 62–64, and D.A. Grimaldi: Amber. Window to the Past, New York 1996, repr. 2003, 39 J. Sarnowsky: Die Wirtschaftsführung des Deutschen Ordens in Preussen (1382–1454), p.164. Neither gives the source of this information. Cologne 1993, pp.105, 107, 283, 292, 295 and 297. From 1391 to 1399, amber 33 H. Hobert, ed.: Die Inventare des Päpstlichen Schatzes in Avignon, Città del Vaticano amounts to 42.2 per cent of the Order’s sales to Flanders; wax amounts to 28.1 per 1944, pp.197 and 257. cent, and furs to 20 per cent. From 1415 to 30, amber amounts to 43.5 per cent of the 34 D. Gaborit-Chopin: L’inventaire du trésor du dauphin futur Charles V, 1363. Les débuts sales to Flanders and Lübeck; in 1430 it is 58.5 per cent. d’un grand collectionneur, Nogent-le-Roi 1996. 40 B. and H. Prost, eds.: Inventaires mobiliers et extraits des comptes des ducs de Bourgogne 35 J. Labarte, ed.: Inventaire du mobilier de Charles V, Roi de France, Paris 1879, nos.1891, de la Maison de Valois (1363–1477), Paris 1902–04, I, no.263. 1922, 1964, 2061, 2073, 2076 and 2176; Gay, op. cit. (note 3), also cites nos.2648, 2671 41 Ibid., nos.578 and 594. and 2858. 42 For example, Prost, eds.: op.cit. (note 40), II, no.1460. 36 Ibid. 43 Ibid., II, no.1471. 37 Labarte, op. cit. (note 35), no.2374. 44 Ibid., I, nos.237, 238–39 and 240. t he b url ingt on magaz ine • cl v • nov ember 201 3 761 OLDEST SURVIVING AMBER IN THE WEST made of narwhal ivory, flanked by two angels made of enamelled from each side to meet in the middle.60 If the bead was to be gold on a socle of musk bone.45 He also owned four small images spherical, it had to be turned on a lathe before being polished. As in red and white amber;46 the aforementioned Enthroned Virgin and broken beads excavated in London confirm, piercing the beads Child;47 two more images of the Virgin and Child (one with white was no simple matter. This is reflected in the different amounts hands, white face and white Child);48 a figure of Christ at the col- craftsmen were expected to produce.61 Craftsmen were required umn;49 a portrait of a king in a jet frame;50 an amber fleur de lis;51 to understand and respond to amber’s material characteristics – it a ring;52 a goblet; and a series of small scenes mounted in a silver- is brittle and splinters easily, feels warm and becomes statically gilt shrine on four feet (perhaps a baldachin).53 He also owned charged. The knife handles, boxes, figures, images and bowls that beads and loose pieces of rough and worked amber.54 Amber was were included in Thobin’s delivery to the prince in 1386 were also in the possession of other relations of Philip, such as the small surely the products of craftsmen of some experience. image of St Margaret of Antioch leaping from a dragon on a gild- Who were the masters who worked in this material? The ed amber cornice and three knife handles owned by Valentina Vis- much-mentioned Johann was listed in the Marienburger Tressler- conti, Duchess of Touraine, in 1389.55 Smaller objects in amber of buch as both a goldsmith and a worker of amber, and we may this sort seem to have travelled large distances: the 1407–08 registry want to consider that members of the goldsmiths’ profession of the royal chancellery in Palermo records a small capsule con- could also work amber. The fact that Johann was adept at enam- taining an amber Virgin with the Christ Child in her arms.56 elling en basse taille, one of the newest techniques then being It is clear from these payments in the 1370s and 1380s that practised in France, suggests that he probably came from the amber was being worked into relatively sophisticated forms at south, perhaps from Bruges.62 Vítovsk´y has proposed that Johann least two decades earlier than has been assumed. It is also clear may be Jehan de la Matte (also known as Johann von der Mat- that there must have been more than one specialist working in ten), a sculptor employed by Phillip in Bruges between 1385 and this material. By the 1370s, when Philip is first recorded buying 1387 and linked with the Johann ‘bildinsnyder awz Flandern’ amber in Bruges, the town had been home to at least two gen- working in Danzig between 1402 and 1405.63 This identification erations of craftsmen with the appropriate skills to work amber. is problematic, not least because the Marienburger Tresslerbuch In price lists and inventories of the time, amber beads are fre- mentions more than one Master Johann as producing art for the quently listed as ‘from Bruges’. As was the case in Lübeck,57 since Order.64 It is also unlikely that such a famous craftsman would at least 1302 a guild of paternostermacher had been established in depart for the provinces. Bruges employed in cutting, turning and boring a variety of Yet linking Johann with Jehan acknowledges the quality of materials to make beads for prayer strings.58 Transforming gob- the figures of the Virgin and St Catherine, as well as the three bets of raw amber into amber beads that were popular in late icons discussed here. Their quality remained unsurpassed even in medieval and Renaissance Europe – resembling hazelnuts or cut the sixteenth century with the advent of the amber portrait to be ‘small [or] large, spherical, facetted, [or] like bulbs of gar- medallion.65 But that is not surprising for, as the sources and sur- lic’59 – required neither imagination nor complex technology, viving objects make clear, the St Michaelis Virgin was probably but certainly time and skill. This started with the removal of the preceded by earlier works in amber; nor is it the unique object crust of amber by cutting or sawing or using a wide rasp. The that scholars have made it out to be. Indeed a series of roughly bead was then roughed out into a suitable shape (cubes for contemporaneous surviving objects can equally lay claim to spheres, for example) and pierced, using a conical bit drilled in being ‘probably the oldest surviving amber in the West’. 45 Guiffrey, op. cit. (note 12), I, p.23, no.56. 59 This excerpt is from a brief early sixteenth-century treatise by the Dominican 46 Ibid., I. p.41, no.83. Simon Grunau from Tolkemit near Elbing: S. Grunau: Simonis Grunovii, Monachi 47 Ibid., I, p.42, no.85. Ordinis Praedicatorum Tolkemitani Chronici, in: Succini Prussici physica & civilis histo- 48 Ibid., I, p.42, no.87, and p.43, Ibid., II, p.273, no.1048. ria: cum demonstratione ex autopsia & intimiori rerum experientia deducta, Frankfurt 49 Guiffrey, op. cit. (note 12), p.43, no.91. 1677, pp.154–64, esp. pp.156–57. See also A. Aurifaber: Svccini Historia Ein kurtzer: 50 Ibid., p.83, no.264. gründlicher Bericht woher der Agtstein oder Börnstein vrsprünglich komme das er kein 51 Ibid., p.154, no.565. Baumhartz sey Sonder ein geschlecht des Bergwachs Vnd wie man jnen manigfaltiglich in 52 Ibid., p.155, no.574. artzneien möge gebrauchen, Königsberg 1551, unpaginated, chapter 9. 53 Ibid., II, p.273, no.1063. What these were is unclear; see N. Pons: ‘La dévotion du 60 For the processes, see Mead, op. cit. (note 58). duc Jean de Berry d’après ses inventaires mobiliers’, Revue historique du Centre-Ouest 61 Tesdorpf, op. cit. (note 30), pp.28 and 109. 2 (2006), pp.273–89, esp. p.282, note 57. 62 Lightbown, op. cit. (note 26), p.75; D. Gaborit-Chopin: ‘Les collections d’or- 54 Idem., op. cit. (note 12), 1, p.65, no.181; p.149, no.537; p.155, nos.573 and 574; II, fèvrerie des princes français au milieu du XIVe siècle d’après les comptes et inven- p.254, no.767, and p.273, no.1047. taires’, in Art, objets d’art, collections, études sur l’art du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance sur 55 Gay, op. cit. (note 3), p.28. l’histoire du goût et des collections. Hommage à Hubert Landais, Paris 1987, pp.46–52, esp. 56 P. Lanza di Scalea: Donne e gioielli in Sicilia nel Medio Evo e nel Rinascimento, p.50. Palermo 1892, p.323, note 25. 63 K.H. Clasen: Die mittelalterliche Bildhauerkunst im Deutschordensland Preussen. Die 57 The development of a contemporary industry in Lübeck is suggested by the Bildwerke bis zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1939, I, p.232. On this artist, see increasing appearance of the profession as a family name in civic documents from also U. Thieme and F. Becker, eds.: Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von 1317 onwards; see W. Stieda: ‘Lübische Bernsteindreher oder Paternostermacher’, der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXIV, Leipzig 1930, pp.251 and 254; C.C.A. Mitteilungen des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Alterthumskunde 2/7 (1885), Dehaisnes: Documents et extraits divers concernant l’histoire de l’art dans la Flandre, l’Ar- pp.97–112. See also C. Wehrmann: Die älteren Lübeckischen Zunftrollen, 2nd ed., tois & le Hainaut avant le XVe siècle, Lille 1886, II, pp.639 and 648; B. Schmid: ‘Maler Lübeck 1872; Tesdorpf, op. cit. (note 30), pp.31–33; O. Pelka: Die Meister der Bern- und Bildhauer in Preussen zur Ordenszeit’, Altpreussische Forschungen 1 (1925), steinkunst, Leipzig 1918, pp.8–12; J. Warnke: ‘Bernstein und Paternostermaker in pp.39–51, esp. pp.48–49; L. de Laborde: Les ducs de Bourgogne. Etudes sur les lettres, Lübeck’, Nordelbingen 10 (1934), pp.428–64; and Andrée, op. cit. (note 3), pp.154 and les arts et l’industrie pendant le XVe siècle, et plus particulièrement dans les Pays-Bas et le 178. There have been no recent studies of this group. duché de Bourgogne, Paris 1849, I, no.30.49. 58 These are the three tasks outlined for members of the Lübeck guild in the amen- 64 Clasen, op. cit. (note 63), notes 12, 19 and 228. ded guild regulations of 1365 as discussed in Tesdorpf, op. cit. (note 30), p.109. See 65 See Rohde, op. cit. (note 3), pp.18–21, for the medallions inscribed ‘Scherma [. . also V. Mead: ‘Evidence for the Manufacture of Amber Beads in London, 14th–15th .] Aetatis suae XXXII Ano’ and the date ‘1555’ left and right of the head, another Century’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 28 (1977), inscribed ‘Sebastian Elps’ and two more showing Erasmus of Rotterdam. pp.211–14 and 212. 762 no ve mbe r 201 3 • clv • t he bur l ingt on ma gaz ine