Lot Essay
The unicorn has always been considered not only the most sacred but also the most appealing of all mythological beasts. From ancient times it was recorded that its horn had magical powers: anyone who drank from the horn was protected from illness, while a contaminated pool of water into which the unicorn dipped its horn would instantly be made pure. The unicorn also came to be seen as a symbol of Christ, and the third century theologian Tertullian recorded that 'Christ is meant by it and the horn denotes Christ's cross'. It was believed that the only way to catch a unicorn was by using a virgin as bait, since the creature, unable to resist her, would invariably come and rest its head in her lap. Two of the most admired series of medieval tapestries, the Dame à la Licorne in the Musée de Cluny in Paris and the Chasse à la Licorne in the Cloisters Museum in New York, take these legendary beliefs as their theme. By the later sixteenth century, some commentators explained the unicorn's elusiveness by its proud refusal to join the other animals on Noah's ark and consequent extinction.
If unicorns were hard to find, their horns were not completely unknown. A small artic whale, the narwhal (Monodon monocerus) has a single horn which was assumed to be that of the fabled unicorn. The horns of adult males can grow to a length of up to nine feet, and double horns do occasionally occur. Such horns were arguably as highly prized as any of the wonders of nature, and were among the principal adornments of secular and especially ecclesiastical treasuries. One in the Musée de Cluny was originally part of the Trésor of Abbot Suger's basilica of Saint-Denis just outside Paris, while another, with runic inscriptions, remains in the Marienkirche at Utrecht. There are two medieval examples at San Marco in Venice, one inscribed in Arabic, the other bearing the name of a Byzantine Emperor, either John V or John VI Paleologus, as well as biblical passages and a Greek text extolling the unicorn's efficacy against poison. As late as the Renaissance, the horns were still tremendously sought after, and Isabella d'Este, the Marchioness of Mantua, who was referred to as 'La prima donna del mondo', had one in her Studiolo alongside paintings by Mantegna and Correggio (Vienna, loc. cit.). Leonardo da Vinci drew the unicorn dipping its horn and resting its head in a virgin's lap, and when François I of France's son, Henri de Valois, married Caterina de' Medici in 1533, Pope Clement VII gave them a decorated unicorn horn. Benvenuto Cellini was involved in the commission, but in the event it was awarded to one of his rivals. In his Autobiography, he records that it was 'the most beautiful one ever seen', and that the horn alone cost seventeen thousand ducats. Although Michelangelo may in the end have received twice as much, he recorded in a letter that he had agreed to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling for three thousand ducats.
Because of the inherent value of narwhal horns, they were only ever carved under exceptional circumstances; a case in point being the now lost Main de Justice of St. Denis (Paris, loc. cit.). The present example is one of a mere two surviving horns of extremely closely comparable design and execution, which appear to have been carved in England in the mid-twelfth century. The other, which is less well preserved, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and has been much studied since its acquisition in 1936. To begin with, even its country of origin was disputed. Fritz Saxl (loc. cit.) thought it was English, while Hans Swarzenski (loc. cit.) was undecided as to whether it came from England or Lorraine. Indeed, as late as 1958, in a letter to the father of the present owner, John Pope-Hennessy, then Keeper of the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, wrote that their narwhal horn was 'generally regarded as Rhenish'. More recently, its insular origin has been widely accepted, and it was included in the exhibition of English Romanesque Art at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1984 (London, Hayward Gallery, loc. cit.), and subsequently in the 1492 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (Washington, loc. cit.). Although the present horn has never previously been illustrated or properly published, it was known to John Beckwith, who mentioned it in passing in his book on English medieval ivories (loc. cit.).
The style of both pieces was associated by Saxl and Beckwith with the decorative vocabulary of one of the columns to the right of the central portal of the west end of Lincoln Cathedral, which is datable to around 1145, but that in its turn depends upon the lateral portals of the façade of St. Denis, and there is no compelling need to believe that the horns were carved in Lincoln or nearby. Other elements in their decoration find parallels in manuscript illuminations produced in St. Alban's and Bury St. Edmund's in the second quarter of the twelfth century. The association of the Cloisters Cross with Bury has recently been reasserted with renewed vigour (Parker and Little, op. cit.), but it has to be admitted that the style of these masterpieces of English romanesque ivory carving has nothing in common, and if they are from the same centre, they must have been executed at different times.
It seems clear, on the other hand, that the two horns are the products of the same workshop, although not necessarily of the same carver, since the Victoria and Albert piece is markedly more deeply cut. In both, the lower section is carved in the form of an octagon, with bands of decoration alternating with plain surfaces, which were presumably originally covered with strips of copper, probably gilded. Pin-holes and some surviving copper pins, as well as areas of green staining on the Victoria and Albert example support this suggestion. In the upper section of both horns the decoration follows the spiral form of the horn itself, again alternating with plain bands. Between the two sections is another unadorned area, which may well have been the place where the horn was meant to be held. In each case, the decoration consists of figures and foliage below, winged dragons and fantastical beasts with foliage above. The horn in the Victoria and Albert Museum has lost part of its top, but was carved all the way up, whereas the last few inches of the present example are left blank. This suggests that the horn was originally crowned with a metal fitting of some sort. Both horns have been slightly rubbed at their bases, perhaps as a result of the subsequent addition of metal cladding at their feet.
The narwhal horn in the Victoria and Albert Museum has come to be described as a 'ceremonial staff', but it has to be admitted that such a form of words does little to explain its original function, and fails even to clarify whether it is to be imagined in a sacred or a secular context. However, in view of the association of the unicorn with Christ, it seems more likely that these most precious of objects were reserved for religious ceremonies, and one can easily imagine them being carried in some great cathedral procession. One possibility is that they were used for carrying candles, in which case they may have been surmounted by metal drip pans. Both the British Museum and Jesus College, Cambridge, own fourteenth century English wax candlestocks (London, Royal Academy, loc. cit.), which were topped by some sort of collar into which a smaller candle was set. They too are tapered and decorated with a spiral design, and it may well be that those naturally occuring properties of narwhal horns suggested their employment in such a context. There is no shortage of written references to processional candles, or indeed of visual representations of them from the period.
There remains the question of how the same workshop should have come to produce two of these remarkable staffs at much the same date. One possibility is that they were originally designed as a pair.
Although the decorative detail is far from identical, there is one point strongly in favour of such a hypothesis, in addition to the evidence that candles often came in pairs. This is the fact that neither staff represents a complete narwhal horn, and it may well be that they are the top and bottom halves of the same tusk. In view of the paring down that must have been required to achieve flat surfaces for carving, it is hard to judge the original appearance of the horn used, but the Victoria and Albert piece is significantly larger in diameter. The cavity at its base - narwhal horns have hollow cores almost to the apex - is also much wide than is the case with the present staff. However, the cavity at its top is extremely close in diameter to the one at the base of the present staff, as one would expect if they were top and bottom of the same tusk. A more thorough scientific investigation would be required to prove the case, but it remains an intriguing possibility.
If unicorns were hard to find, their horns were not completely unknown. A small artic whale, the narwhal (Monodon monocerus) has a single horn which was assumed to be that of the fabled unicorn. The horns of adult males can grow to a length of up to nine feet, and double horns do occasionally occur. Such horns were arguably as highly prized as any of the wonders of nature, and were among the principal adornments of secular and especially ecclesiastical treasuries. One in the Musée de Cluny was originally part of the Trésor of Abbot Suger's basilica of Saint-Denis just outside Paris, while another, with runic inscriptions, remains in the Marienkirche at Utrecht. There are two medieval examples at San Marco in Venice, one inscribed in Arabic, the other bearing the name of a Byzantine Emperor, either John V or John VI Paleologus, as well as biblical passages and a Greek text extolling the unicorn's efficacy against poison. As late as the Renaissance, the horns were still tremendously sought after, and Isabella d'Este, the Marchioness of Mantua, who was referred to as 'La prima donna del mondo', had one in her Studiolo alongside paintings by Mantegna and Correggio (Vienna, loc. cit.). Leonardo da Vinci drew the unicorn dipping its horn and resting its head in a virgin's lap, and when François I of France's son, Henri de Valois, married Caterina de' Medici in 1533, Pope Clement VII gave them a decorated unicorn horn. Benvenuto Cellini was involved in the commission, but in the event it was awarded to one of his rivals. In his Autobiography, he records that it was 'the most beautiful one ever seen', and that the horn alone cost seventeen thousand ducats. Although Michelangelo may in the end have received twice as much, he recorded in a letter that he had agreed to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling for three thousand ducats.
Because of the inherent value of narwhal horns, they were only ever carved under exceptional circumstances; a case in point being the now lost Main de Justice of St. Denis (Paris, loc. cit.). The present example is one of a mere two surviving horns of extremely closely comparable design and execution, which appear to have been carved in England in the mid-twelfth century. The other, which is less well preserved, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and has been much studied since its acquisition in 1936. To begin with, even its country of origin was disputed. Fritz Saxl (loc. cit.) thought it was English, while Hans Swarzenski (loc. cit.) was undecided as to whether it came from England or Lorraine. Indeed, as late as 1958, in a letter to the father of the present owner, John Pope-Hennessy, then Keeper of the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, wrote that their narwhal horn was 'generally regarded as Rhenish'. More recently, its insular origin has been widely accepted, and it was included in the exhibition of English Romanesque Art at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1984 (London, Hayward Gallery, loc. cit.), and subsequently in the 1492 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (Washington, loc. cit.). Although the present horn has never previously been illustrated or properly published, it was known to John Beckwith, who mentioned it in passing in his book on English medieval ivories (loc. cit.).
The style of both pieces was associated by Saxl and Beckwith with the decorative vocabulary of one of the columns to the right of the central portal of the west end of Lincoln Cathedral, which is datable to around 1145, but that in its turn depends upon the lateral portals of the façade of St. Denis, and there is no compelling need to believe that the horns were carved in Lincoln or nearby. Other elements in their decoration find parallels in manuscript illuminations produced in St. Alban's and Bury St. Edmund's in the second quarter of the twelfth century. The association of the Cloisters Cross with Bury has recently been reasserted with renewed vigour (Parker and Little, op. cit.), but it has to be admitted that the style of these masterpieces of English romanesque ivory carving has nothing in common, and if they are from the same centre, they must have been executed at different times.
It seems clear, on the other hand, that the two horns are the products of the same workshop, although not necessarily of the same carver, since the Victoria and Albert piece is markedly more deeply cut. In both, the lower section is carved in the form of an octagon, with bands of decoration alternating with plain surfaces, which were presumably originally covered with strips of copper, probably gilded. Pin-holes and some surviving copper pins, as well as areas of green staining on the Victoria and Albert example support this suggestion. In the upper section of both horns the decoration follows the spiral form of the horn itself, again alternating with plain bands. Between the two sections is another unadorned area, which may well have been the place where the horn was meant to be held. In each case, the decoration consists of figures and foliage below, winged dragons and fantastical beasts with foliage above. The horn in the Victoria and Albert Museum has lost part of its top, but was carved all the way up, whereas the last few inches of the present example are left blank. This suggests that the horn was originally crowned with a metal fitting of some sort. Both horns have been slightly rubbed at their bases, perhaps as a result of the subsequent addition of metal cladding at their feet.
The narwhal horn in the Victoria and Albert Museum has come to be described as a 'ceremonial staff', but it has to be admitted that such a form of words does little to explain its original function, and fails even to clarify whether it is to be imagined in a sacred or a secular context. However, in view of the association of the unicorn with Christ, it seems more likely that these most precious of objects were reserved for religious ceremonies, and one can easily imagine them being carried in some great cathedral procession. One possibility is that they were used for carrying candles, in which case they may have been surmounted by metal drip pans. Both the British Museum and Jesus College, Cambridge, own fourteenth century English wax candlestocks (London, Royal Academy, loc. cit.), which were topped by some sort of collar into which a smaller candle was set. They too are tapered and decorated with a spiral design, and it may well be that those naturally occuring properties of narwhal horns suggested their employment in such a context. There is no shortage of written references to processional candles, or indeed of visual representations of them from the period.
There remains the question of how the same workshop should have come to produce two of these remarkable staffs at much the same date. One possibility is that they were originally designed as a pair.
Although the decorative detail is far from identical, there is one point strongly in favour of such a hypothesis, in addition to the evidence that candles often came in pairs. This is the fact that neither staff represents a complete narwhal horn, and it may well be that they are the top and bottom halves of the same tusk. In view of the paring down that must have been required to achieve flat surfaces for carving, it is hard to judge the original appearance of the horn used, but the Victoria and Albert piece is significantly larger in diameter. The cavity at its base - narwhal horns have hollow cores almost to the apex - is also much wide than is the case with the present staff. However, the cavity at its top is extremely close in diameter to the one at the base of the present staff, as one would expect if they were top and bottom of the same tusk. A more thorough scientific investigation would be required to prove the case, but it remains an intriguing possibility.