Bodies by Rubens: Reflections of Flemish Painting in the Work of South German Ivory Carvers

Abstract

ness of German relief artists vis-a-vis their graphic sources, Erika Tietze-Conrat revealed how these artists still remained dependent upon two-dimensional compositions.' My purpose in this note is to suggest some heretofore unremarked ways in which the carvers of ivory figures in the round also reflect the influence of such sources and, in particular, the extent to which their art was permeated and transformed by the style of Peter Paul Rubens. In the course of preparing Liechtenstein catalogue entries for two ivory sculptures which have recently been attributed to the Master of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (see Figures 11, 13),2 my attention was drawn to two other carvings (one in Liverpool, the other in Buffalo, N.Y.), which, while not by the same hand, nonetheless appeared to relate to them in certain respects. Both previously published although not widely known, they are of considerable interest not only on their own account but also for the light they shed on the creative processes of their makers and the world of virtuoso ivory carving that flourished in southern Germany and Austria in the later seventeenth century. Of primary interest to the student of imagery is the relation each bears to the work of Rubens. The