Olifant

The olifant of the Bargello displays decoration organised longitudinally in narrow bands which occupy the largest part of the objects’ surface. Inside each one, six or seven animals flock in a tight line, both quadrupeds and fowls. This central part is bordered by two bands of pleated gold, surrounded by leafy foliage, where two rings have been attached by which one can hang the olifant. These metal parts, later than the original object[1], have been attached on smooth strips designed to fit plates of metal or other material. A wider strip ornaments the upper part of the object, furnished with six medallions linked one to another which each encircle an animal whose back left leg stretches out onto the frame. This strip, highlighted with a smooth strip, contains hols which doubtless served to attach a metal hoop[2]. The same decoration is repeated at the base, but with only three animals.

The animals, displayed in profile, some looking backwards, stand out on a smooth background. Little incisions form fur and plumage and a dot in the centre of their round eyes make the pupils. Some internal elements of the drawing have been deepened with a trepan.

The preciousness of the material imported from eastern Africa, rich with symbols, large in size (0.50-0.70 m long; 5-13 cm diam. max.), their morphology suggesting that they were used as a musical or call-up instrument and their high quality decoration make these olifants prestigious objects which were probably used during special ceremonies[3].

The mention of the olifan[4] in the Chanson de Roland, which gave it sacred relic status[5], made it a symbol of war in Latin Occident against the Muslim infidels. This could explain the large production of oliphants between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, at the time of the Crusades. At the end of the Middle Ages, they were often given to church treasuries, mainly to server as reliquaries[6].

Seventy-five olifants approximately are preserved in museums, church treasuries and private collections. In the absence of epigraphic elements, researchers based themselves on their decoration to characterise and date them. Recognised as being “oriental” in the ninteenth century, the olifants were classified from the beginning of the next century[7]. After the studies of von Falke[8], it was above all the intuitions of E. Kühnel[9] which gained the approval of modern critics, if we make the exception of the D.M. Ebitz’s Venetian proposal[10], concurring to attribute thirty or so olifants – named “Sarrasin” by Kühnel – including the Bargello one, to southern Italy or Sicily in the eleventh – twelfth centuries[11]. Another group of “Byzantine” olifants is generally attributed to southern Italy in the eleventh century. Ten or so others are considered to be “European” originating from the other side of the Alps; the examples remain unique items.

More recently, A. Shalem, based on unseen pieces and abundant documentary and iconographic sources, put forward a new classification for the “Sarrasin” olifants in three distinct groups. The olifant of the Bargello is placed in group I with eleven others[12] (to which are associated a few caskets[13] and a sheath[14]), in which elements which recall Fatimid Egyptian wood prevail (eleventh century) by the techniques used and the real or fantastical bestiary, and Coptic elements (tenth century) are recalled by the rare figures of knights and hunters. The production of this group is dated eleventh – twelfth centuries and is associated with more than one region. Considered to be emblematic of a complex “international Fatimid style”, widespread throughout the entire eleventh century Mediterranean, it is attributed to Norman patronage.

[2] It is a metal ring around the edge, like those on the olifants in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (7953-1862), from the treasury of Aachen cathedral (s.n.) and the musée du Louvre (OA 152). Such holes appear on the Baltimore (71.294) and Brunswick (MA.107) olifants.

[3] On their function and significance in Latin Occident, cf. Shalem 2004, chap. VI, p. 80-106; for the ceremonial use of horn instruments, including in ivory in the Islamic world, cf. ibid., p. 54-60 et 106.

[4] This term, vulgar derivation of the Latin elephantus (ivory or elephant), could come from Arabic. Cf. Bellamy, J., “Arabic names in the Chanson de Roland: Saracen Gods, Frankish swords, Roland’s horse and the Olifant”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 107, 1987, p. 275-276.

[5] Tradition recounts that after the death of the hero, the olifant, recuperated by Charlemagne, was placed on the altar of the church Saint Seurin in Bordeaux.

[6] For other explanations as to the location of olifants in churches, cf . Shalem, A. 2004, p. 117-124 where the value of these luxury objects is recalled, used as costly reliquaries but also as a symbol of transferral and ownership of the land, above all in the Norman context, which appear as mirabilia due to the exoticism of the elephant.

[7] Dalton, O. M., A paper on Medieval Objects in the Borradaile Collection, in “Proceeding of the Society of Antiquaries of London”, 26, 1913, p. 8-12; Longhurst, M., Catalogue of Carving in Ivory, London, 1927, I.

[8] Von Falke (1929, 1930) identified on technical and stylistic bases, four groups corresponding to four geographical areas: Fatimid Egypt, Italy which imitated this production, Europe (France and Germany) only influenced by Islamic art, and finally Byzance.

[9] Kühnel 1959, p. 33-50 et Kühnel 1971, p. 6-19.

[10] Ebitz, D. M., “Fatimid Style and Byzantine Model in a Venetian Ivory Carving Workshop”, in Goss, V.P.; Bornstein, C.V. (éds), The Meeting of two Worlds. Cultural Exchange between East and West during the Period of the Crusades, Kalamazoo: 1986, p. 309-329.

[11] Salerno or Amalfi but also Puglia or Sicilye.

[12] The list of other olifants in group I is in Shalem 2004, p. 63. Group II, made up of 8 olifants attributed to Fatimid Egypt in the tenth-eleventh centuries and group III, with three pieces attributed to Norman Sicily, (twelfth century) are describted in ibid., p. 64-67.

[13] These are relatively large, rectangular ivory caskets with a truncated pyramid shape cover, such as the one in the Museum für islamische Kunst de Berlin (inv. K3101).

[14] New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 17.190.236), with a Latin inscriptiion “TAVR.FI.MANS” on the small sides.