Inkwell in the Form of a Pulpit with a Monk

Carved from a solid block of boxwood. Radiocarbon dating analysis by Re.S.Artes indicated a felling date between c. 1380-c. 1430 for the boxwood tree from which the inkwell was carved. After calibration, the test indicated a dating in the period 1296-1402.

One claw foot, albeit original, has been carved separately and attached, due to a knot in that location; the pitched-roof finials crowning the buttresses have been carved separately and are possibly replacements of older finials in wood or metal. A slight crack can be observed in the monk’s right sleeve. An opening for filling the inkwell can be seen on the underside, which was sealed with a stopper (now missing). Ink residue can be discerned on the inkwell’s interior.

…; purchased at the French art market, by the dealer Matthew Holder, London, date unknown; from whom, purchased by the dealer Sam Fogg Ltd., London, 28 June 2017; purchased for the museum as a gift by H.B. van der Ven, The Hague, November 2017

ObjectNumber: BK-2017-48

Credit line: Gift of H.B. van der Ven, The Hague

The head of a monk with tonsure peers out from a small, pentagonal gothic pulpit that stands on a triad of claw feet. On each of the pulpit’s sides, four moulded bands, consistently 4.5 millimetres in height, separate three horizontal registers. Each register contains a different decorative motif: in the bottom register, a pattern of pointed, four-lobed leaves; in the large middle register, an arcade of intersecting lancet arches with minuscule rosettes in the spandrels; and in the upper register, a quatrefoil motif à orbevoies.¹¹For the quatrefoil à orbevoies, see R.W. Lightbown, Secular Goldsmiths’ Work in Medieval France: A History, London 1978, p. 45. A similar row of quatrefoils adorns the hem and bust termination of Elyas Scerpswert’s reliquary bust of St Frederick from 1363 in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. BK-NM-11450). The same ornament crowns an arcade wall in the top register of a renowned table fountain (Paris?, 14th century) in Cleveland, see S.N. Fliegel and E. Gertsman, Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain, Cleveland/London 2016, p. 38 and figs. 33-37. Also compare the reconstruction of the choir screen in the Sainte-Chapelle in Bourges, see E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, p. 179, fig. 1. A cusped border with fleurons lines the pulpit’s perimeter at the top, with a stepped buttress demarcating each corner where two sides meet from top to bottom. As a whole, each of the sides of the pulpit exemplifies a distinctive gothic arcade composition encountered in all manner of variations in the fourteenth century, ranging from the marginal decoration of illuminated books to furniture, altarpieces and architecture.²²For the framing of a miniature, see M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, London 1992, fig. 69 (illumination in Vie de Saint-Denis, 1317; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 2091, fol. 111r). Also eligible for comparison are decorative elements such as the blind tracery and lancet arches on Jacques de Baerze’s two major altarpieces, built in the last decade of the 14th century for Philip the Bold (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon).

Extending beyond the top edge of the pulpit barrel, the buttresses are crowned by finials in the form of small pitched roofs. Motifs of this nature, though nowhere encountered on pulpits – which for practical reasons are typically flat along the upper edge – are a fairly common solution applied in gothic church architecture.³³See for example the exterior of the chancel of a church in a miniature in M. Belozerskaya, Luxury Arts of the Renaissance, London 2005, fig. IV-8 (illumination in Betrandon de la Broquère, Advis directif pour faire le passage d’Outremer, Lille 1455; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 9087, fol. 152v). See also the lantern at the crossing in Ely Cathedral (England), of c. 1322-40, in S.N. Fliegel and E. Gertsman, Myth and Mystique: Cleveland’s Gothic Table Fountain, Cleveland/London 2016, fig. 32. A wrought-iron stand for a sacrament house (Bohemia, 15th century) has buttresses terminating in pinnacles recessed within the wall surface, see Gothic Spirit: Medieval Art from Europe, sale cat. London and New York (Sam Fogg Ltd./Luhring Augustine) 2020, no. 19. Also conceivable is that the corners of the miniature pulpit originally had low extensions capped by small pinnacles, for instance, such as seen on the small building in a miniature from a Dutch prayer book of c. 1485, see A.M.W. As-Vijvers and A.S. Korteweg, Zuid-Nederlandse miniatuurkunst: De mooiste verluchte handschriften in Nederlands bezit, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/The Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) 2018, p. 252, fig. V.3.2 (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, Ms. W.182, fol. 25v). In Great Britain and the German-speaking regions, sporadic examples of wood and stone pulpits from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have survived that display a similar form, including the decorative arrangement of quatrefoils and gothic arch patterns on the barrel.⁴⁴J.C. Cox, Pulpits, Lecterns, and Organs in English Churches, London etc. 1915, pp. 9, 46 (Banwell, Somerset, c. 1480), 25, 68 (Southwold, Suffolk, c. 1450), 49, 58 (Halberton, Devon, c. 1420), 73 (Monksilver, Somerset, c. 1500), 76 (North Petherton, Somerset, c. 1413). F. Rademacher, Die Kanzel in ihrer archäologischen und künstlerischen Entwicklung in Deutschland bis zum Ende der Gotik, Düsseldorf 1921, esp. pp. 24, 32 and fig. 4 (Cologne, Schnütgen Museum, 1491), p. 32 and fig. 7 (Nienberge near Münster, c. 1500), p. 39 and fig. 12 (Mainberg, 1486). The pulpit from the monastery of Koudewater, now preserved in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. BK-NM-1218), indeed has the same basic form. The registers on the sides of the barrel, however, contain other decorative motifs. A pulpit in Mellor (Derbyshire), one of the earliest surviving examples in Great Britain, offers an excellent comparison, carved from a single, solid block of oak and originating from circa 1350-60 (fig. a).⁵⁵J.C. Cox, Pulpits, Lecterns, and Organs in English Churches, London etc. 1915, pp. 17, 56. The Rijksmuseum’s miniature pulpit dates from more or less the same period: both the style of the carving and a recent radiocarbon test to determine the wood’s age place this object in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century.⁶⁶See Re.S.Artes Analysis report: R 142928B, 9 August 2017. The felling year of the boxwood tree that provided the material for the inkwell lies in the period c. 1380-c. 1430; after calibration, the test indicated a dating of the inkwell in the period 1296-1402. When combining the results of both tests, the most tenable dating for the inkwell’s manufacture are the final decades of the 14th century. This is the Gründerzeit of the production of autonomous miniature and micro-scale boxwood sculptures in Europe, which at this time was primarily concentrated in and around Paris. The surrounding regions of Picardy, Normandy and Brittany were the most important suppliers of this slow-growing, precious wood (Buxus sempervirens). The fine structure and readily polishable surface of this wood species was ideal for small-scale, portable utilitarian and ornamental objects. A French written source from 1360 makes specific mention of boxwood items such as writing tablets and herbal caskets, but also small sculptures (ymages de buix).⁷⁷V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, vol. 1, Paris 1887, p. 235 (under buis); A. Kosegarten, ‘Inkunabeln der gotischen Kleinplastik in Hartholz’, Pantheon 22 (1964), pp. 302-21, esp. pp. 302-04. In terms of its properties and applications, boxwood is highly comparable to ivory.

The tonsured monk sitting in the barrel of this miniature pulpit has a strikingly naturalistic face, looking up and out at the beholder. Two curious extensions left and right of his head are in fact the up-raised sleeves of his habit. One sees no arms or hands: the sleeves are empty and hollow. The original function of this rather odd and unquestionably amusing woodcarving is in fact betrayed by ink residue on the sleeves’ hollow interior. Few such inkwells have survived to the present day: indeed, this boxwood object is a very rare example of a late medieval inkwell, executed in micro-carving.⁸⁸Although tangible evidence of use and ink residue on the sleeves’ interior can be observed, one cannot rule out the possibility that the miniature inkwell was initially made as a model to be used in the production of an object executed in silver. Boxwood was a material commonly used for carving models and moulds. For wood as a material for inkwells, see C. Maywald-Pitellos, Das Tintenfass: Die Geschichte der Tintenaufbewahrung in Mitteleuropa (Deutschland), 1997 (diss. Freie Universität, Berlin), pp. 106, 202. See also: C. De Hamel, Scribes and Illuminators, London 1992, pp. 29-32; K.L. Scott, ‘Representations of Scribal Activity in English Manuscripts c. 1400-1490: A Mirror of the Craft?’, in M. Gullick (ed.), Pen in Hand: Medieval Scribal Portraits, Colophons and Tools, Walkern 2006, pp. 115-49, esp. pp. 132-33 and figs 13, 20-22; M. Gullick, ‘Self-Referential Portraits of Artists and Scribes in Romanesque Manuscripts’, in M. Gullick (ed.), Pen in Hand: Medieval Scribal Portraits, Colophons and Tools, Walkern 2006, pp. 97-114, esp. pp. 7-8. Luxury inkwells and complete writing sets executed in precious metal or wood with intarsia and dating from the late Middle Ages, are listed, for example, in the inventories of Jean de France, Duc de Berry of 1401, 1413 and 1416. Two silver-gilt writing sets (escriptoires; escriptouères) presented to the duke as gifts by his secretaries are specifically mentioned, as are a number of separate inkwells (ancrier) held in the duke’s possession.⁹⁹J. Guiffrey, Inventaires de Jean Duc de Berry (1401-1416), Paris 1894, vol. 1, pp. LVIII, CXXXV, CXXXVI, and pp. 87 (no. 282), 87 (no. 285), 88 (no. 286), 96 (no. 323), 304 (no. 1140) and idem, vol. 2, p. 75 (no. 627), 234 (no. 440). The accounts of the dukes of Burgundy mention the ordering of inkwells only in a few instances, with one such item destined for Isabella of Bourbon, Charles the Bold’s first wife. This piece was acquired from the Brussels goldsmith Ector van Himsseghem in 1456-57, along with regular purchases of other miscellaneous writing materials, see le Comte de Laborde, Les Ducs de Bourgogne: Études sur les lettres, les arts et l’industrie pendant le XVe siècle, et plus particulièrement dans le Pays-Bas et le Duché de Bourgogne, vol. 1, Paris 1849, pp. 34 (no. 37), 100 (no. 274), 101 (no. 276), 106 (no. 294), 155 (no. 497), 466 (no. 98). See also B. Prost, Inventaires mobiliers et extraits des comptes des ducs de Bourgogne de la maison de Valois (1363-1477), vol. 1, Philippe le Hardi, periode 1363-1371, Paris 1902, pp. 105, 106 (no. 658), 584 (no. 3104). See also V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, vol. 1, Paris 1887, pp. 631, 632 (under encrier), who cites written sources mentioning inkwells in hybenus (ebony), silver-gilt and gilt-brass, pewter, and cypress wood. The inventory of the French king Charles V lists no fewer than seventeen inkwells and/or writing sets, recorded in 1379-1380, with some made of ebony.¹⁰¹⁰See J. Labarte, Inventaire du mobilier de Charles V, roi de France, Paris 1879, nos. 1890, 1987, 2214, 2239, 2252, 2273, 2434, 2442, 2728, 2818, 2821, 2822, 2823, 2828, 3118, 3124, 3126.

A miniature inkwell of this specific nature appears nowhere in medieval depictions of writers at their work. In their day-to-day labours, writers and copyists generally resorted to ordinary versus luxury writing tools, entailing fairly simple portable ink-holders often constructed from a sawed-off cow’s horn or a small, sealable cylindrical vessel made of leather, metal, glass or wood.¹¹¹¹C. Maywald-Pitellos, Das Tintenfass: Die Geschichte der Tintenaufbewahrung in Mitteleuropa (Deutschland), 1997 (diss. Freie Universität, Berlin), pp. 92-93; B. Dubbe, Huusraet: Het stedelijk woonhuis in de Bourgondische tijd, Hoorn 2012, pp. 221-22. P. Thornton, The Italian Renaissance Interior 1400-1600, London 1991, pls. 68, 232, 242, 262, 292, 294-95. The Duc de Berry’s collection even included a small bluestone box, made in Paris en manière d’un cornet à mectre ancre. See J. Guiffrey, Inventaires de Jean Duc de Berry (1401-1416), Paris 1894, vol. 1, p. 90, no. 298. Other inkwells in medieval representations entail nothing more than a simple, round jar or bottle made of glass or ceramic, which stood on the writing table, as can be seen in a miniature of the canon/writer Jean Miélot (c. 1410-1472) at work in his scriptorium.¹²¹²Cf. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 9198, fol. 19. See also C. Grössinger, ‘Tutivillus’, in E.C. Block et al. (eds.), Profane Images in Marginal Arts of the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the VI Biennial Colloquium Misericordia International, University of Sheffield 18-21 July 2003, Turnhout 2009, pp. 47-62, esp. p. 49 and fig. 3.3 (a crowning element on a choir stall, with the demon Tutivillus and an excessively large inkwell). See also the website of C. Brunon, an independent researcher specialized in historical writing and illumination techniques: www.arhpee.typepad.com/enluminure (consulted 24 December 2017). For Miélot, see A.M.W. As-Vijvers and A.S. Korteweg, Zuid-Nederlandse miniatuurkunst: De mooiste verluchte handschriften in Nederlands bezit, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/The Hague (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) 2018and Korteweg 2018, p. 138. A depiction of St Luke in a Spanish psalter of circa 1440 shows the evangelist inspecting his quill after dipping it in a small inkwell clasped in his left hand.¹³¹³London, British Library, Add Ms. 28962, fol. 34v. My thanks to Matthew Reeves. This is a rare image of an inkwell with multiple openings in the top. A larger ceramic variant can be seen at the side of his writing table, as well as a small jar filled with ink.

As documented from the fifteenth century onward, many basic medieval inkwells were serially produced: carved or turned from wood, glass-blown or cast in metal. A fifteenth-century inkwell cast in lead excavated near Egmond Castle (Stedelijk Museum, Alkmaar) –octagonal in form and decorated on the sides with a simple, repeating geometric motif – is perhaps one example of this serial production.¹⁴¹⁴J.W.M. de Jong, Thuis in de late middeleeuwen: Het Nederlands burgerinterieur 1400-1535, exh. cat. Zwolle (Provinciaal Overijssels Museum) 1980, no. 301. Another is illustrated in a miniature portrait in the Hausbuch der Landauer Zwölfbrüderstiftung (1565), which shows the Kalamalmacher Peter Schmid using a file to finish a number of small, round inkwells turned from blocks of wood.¹⁵¹⁵Neurenberg, Stadtbibliothek, Hausbuch der Landauerschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung, vol. 1, inv. no. Amb.279.2o, fol. 45v (parchment, 298 x 207 mm). In the German-speaking regions, one applies the term Kalamal for writing supplies, including the inkwell. The term comes from the Latin calamus (reed pen). See also B. Bischoff, Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters (Grundlagen der Germanistik 24), Berlin 1979, pp. 29-33; W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, Graz 1958, pp. 225ff.; see C. Maywald-Pitellos, Das Tintenfass: Die Geschichte der Tintenaufbewahrung in Mitteleuropa (Deutschland), 1997 (diss. Freie Universität, Berlin), pp. 92-93. The Amsterdam inkwell, however, has nothing to do with serial production or an inkwell-maker’s standard manufacture intended for daily use by a monk or cleric. On the contrary, it stands alone as a tailor-made piece crafted by a talented woodcarver with a specific purpose and/or patron clearly in mind.

The Amsterdam inkwell, including the three claw feet, has been carved from a single block of boxwood.¹⁶¹⁶For wood as a material used for inkwells, see C. Maywald-Pitellos, Das Tintenfass: Die Geschichte der Tintenaufbewahrung in Mitteleuropa (Deutschland), 1997 (diss. Freie Universität, Berlin), pp. 106, 202. For somewhat comparable claw feet at the base of a pax from the early 15th century (Domschatz, Aachen), see E.G. Grimme, ‘Die grossen Jahrhunderte der Aachener Goldschmiedekunst’, Aachener Kunstblätter 26 (1962), no. 28. P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, 2 vols., coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2014, vol. 1, no. 49 (tabernacle polyptych, as ‘Cologne or Middle Rhine, c. 1310-20’). Compare the positioning of the three claw feet with the three feet – sitting lions – on the mounting of a miniature boxwood reliquary bust in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which Williamson ascribed to Jacques de Baerze. See P. Williamson, ‘Thoughts on Two Small-Scale Medieval Sculptures’, in A. von Hülsen-Esch and D. Taube (eds.), “Luft unter die Flügel...”: Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Kunst: Festschrift für Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, Hildesheim 2010, pp. 166-72. Its basic form recalls tableware pieces from this period, including a hexagonal salt cast in pewter (England, c. 1320).¹⁷¹⁷A. North, Pewter at the Victoria and Albert Museum, coll. cat. London 1999, p. 40 (no. 1). The wood of the inkwell has been hollowed out to create a reservoir for the ink, with a sizeable opening in the bottom that could be sealed off with a cork or an oil-soaked wooden stopper.¹⁸¹⁸Cork was customarily used as a sealing material or stopper for inkwells, see C. Maywald-Pitellos, Das Tintenfass: Die Geschichte der Tintenaufbewahrung in Mitteleuropa (Deutschland), 1997 (diss. Freie Universität, Berlin), pp. 98, 106, 204. To draw the ink, the quill was dipped in the monk’s handless sleeves. Although the precise meaning of the inkwell is perhaps not immediately evident, its iconography seems to convey the mild jest or amusement typical of the carved scenes adorning choir stalls and misericordiae, or the small, often subversive images that playfully mock members in the margins and bas-des-pages of illuminated manuscripts.¹⁹¹⁹For this phenomenon, see M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, London 1992, esp. pp. 11-55. See also C. Grössinger, ‘Tutivillus’, in E.C. Block et al. (eds.), Profane Images in Marginal Arts of the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the VI Biennial Colloquium Misericordia International, University of Sheffield 18-21 July 2003, Turnhout 2009, pp. 47-62. See also S. Bethmont-Gallerand and Christine Leduc, ‘Le diable, les bavardes et les clercs: Un motif iconographique et ses variations dans la peinture murale, la sculpture, et la gravure médiévales et leurs sources textuelles’, Art sacré 18 (2001), pp. 215-33. The pulpit’s two front claw feet are positioned as if to resemble the physical extension of the monk’s legs, creating a humorous effect – intentional or not – reminiscent of the grylli, i.e. figures with bodiless human heads and two legs – animal or human – that fill the marginalia of countless manuscripts.²⁰²⁰My thanks to Matthew Reeves for this observation. For these grylli, see M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, London 1992, passim. In this ‘upside-down’ world, depictions are indeed known to exist where figures in pulpits – members of the clergy, but also animals – function as the visual manifestation of specific sayings and expressions in a manner conceptually akin to the Amsterdam inkwell.²¹²¹E.C. Block, Corpus of Medieval Misericords in France XIII-XVI Century, Turnhout 2003, pp. 25, 248 (Rodez), 30, 254 (Lisieux), 37, 261 (Chezal-Benoît), 52, 273 (Évreux), 67, 291 (Vertheuil), 83, 308 (Noxeroy), 124, 358 (Lautenbach). C. Grössinger, The World Upside-Down: English Misericords, London 1997, pp. 114-19. C. Theunissen, Koorbanken in Brabant 1425-1550: ‘Van goeden houte gemaekt’: Het werk van laatmiddeleeuwse schrijnwerkers en beeldsnijders, Nijmegen 2017, pp. 188-89. One such theme is the preaching fox on misericords of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,²²²²E.C. Block and K. Varty, ‘Choir-stall Carvings of Reynard and Other Foxes’ in K. Varty (ed.), Reynard the Fox: Social Engagement and Cultural Metamorphoses in the Beast Epic from the Middle Ages to the Present, New York 2000, pp. 125-62, esp. pp. 140-48; P. Hardwick, English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning, Woodbridge 2011, p. 49. with a particularly fine example of the late fifteenth century, originating from the abbey of Saint-Lucien de Beauvais in the city of the same name and today preserved in the Musée Cluny.²³²³Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Âge, inv. no. Cl. 19630. See N.R. Myers (ed.), Art and Nature in the Middle Ages, New Haven/London 2016, no. 63. Examples of English origin include misericords from Ripon, Beverley Minster and Bury Saint Edmunds.²⁴²⁴G.L. Remnant, Catalogue of Misericords in Great Britain, Oxford 1998, pl. 35, fig. c. Also comparable is the scene on a choir stall in the Sint-Janskathedraal in Den Bosch, in which a somewhat disproportionately small schoolboy – his head concealed behind the lectern – reads aloud from a missal while two adults look on.²⁵²⁵M. Coppens, Gothic Choir-Stalls in the Netherlands, Amsterdam/Brussels s.a., nos. 49-50.

When in use, however, the substitution of the scribe’s quill for the monk’s hand holds another, perhaps less fanciful significance. Because the pulpit’s function is to proclaim and disseminate God’s word, the scene might also be explained in terms of a more general reference to the labours of the inkwell’s user, who essentially fulfils the same task with his written word: he copies religious texts to be disseminated. The copyist’s writing hand wields his quill, and in doing so, he assumes the role of the preaching monk. Signifying a monk’s work in the literal sense, this then implies the inkwell’s place in a monastic setting, resting on an abbot’s or prior’s writing desk or in a monastery’s scriptorium ¬–where, after all, most of the writing was done in the Middle Ages. References to the writing and pictorial endeavours of those making illuminated manuscripts also commonly appear in the margins of these works, stemming from what comes across as a desire to personalize and manifest oneself in a manner akin to the inkwell’s iconography.²⁶²⁶V.W. Egbert, The Medieval Artist at Work, Princeton 1967, pp. 32-33; M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, London 1992, pp. 147-52, figs. 9, 80, 83; K.L. Scott, ‘Representations of Scribal Activity in English Manuscripts c. 1400-1490: A Mirror of the Craft?’, in M. Gullick (ed.), Pen in Hand: Medieval Scribal Portraits, Colophons and Tools, Walkern 2006, pp. 115-49. One marginal decoration on the bas-de-page of a book of hours dating from the second quarter of the fourteenth century shows a monk whose pose – as if sticking his head and arms through the parchment – is strikingly similar to that of the boxwood monk.²⁷²⁷New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms. M. 754, fol. 16v. See M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, London 1992, fig. 24 (erroneously referring to fol. 65v). See also L.M.C. Randall, Images in the Margins of Gothic Manuscripts, Berkeley/Los Angeles 1966, pl. CXXXV, fig. 645. In the personal possession of someone in the secular world, i.e. a wealthy merchant²⁸²⁸Suggested by Professor Dr Frits van Oostrom (written communication, 16 November 2017). or a university cleric,²⁹²⁹Suggested by Matthew Reeves in his analysis of the object, commissioned by Sam Fogg Ltd (document in Object File). the inkwell’s imagery, with its powerful expression and loaded significance, would only have been diminished.³⁰³⁰The case of a layman ridiculing a monastic scribe does exist, however; see for example M. Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art, London 1992, pp. 25-26 and fig. 9.

One interpretation of the inkwell’s scene, related to the rule of the Carthusian Order, nevertheless belies the picture of a monk at work in his scriptorium. In the Middle Ages, the Carthusians played a key role in the copying and dissemination of religious texts. Contrary to most other monastic orders, the Carthusians lived in exile, removed from the civilized world and inhabiting places in isolation. Its members were subject to an explicit speaking ban, with exception granted for no more than a few hours each week.³¹³¹For the history and life of the Carthusians, see also J.P. Gumbert, Die Utrechter Kartäuser und ihre Bücher im frühen fünfzehnten Jahrhundert, Leiden 1974; M. Zadnikar (ed.), Die Kartäuser: Der Orden der schweigenden Mönche, Cologne 1983; K. Pansters (ed.), The Carthusians in the Low Countries: Studies in Monastic History and Heritage, Leuven 2014; T. Gaens and J. De Grauwe, De kracht van de stilte: Geest en geschiedenis van de kartuizerorde, Leuven 2006; B. Barber and C. Thomas, The London Charterhouse, London 2002. In the quiet of their monasteries, the Carthusians’ efforts were devoted chiefly to writing. Such activity occurred, however, in the solitary confinement of each monk’s private cell as opposed to the community scriptorium elsewhere.³²³²For the writing supplies of a Carthusian monk, see J.P. Gumbert, Die Utrechter Kartäuser und ihre Bücher im frühen fünfzehnten Jahrhundert, Leiden 1974, pp. 308ff. In the first codification of the Carthusian monastic rules, entitled the Consuetudines Cartusiae, the fifth prior-general and prior of the Grande-Chartreuse near Grenoble, Guigo, outlined this silent task in the most explicit terms: ‘Through them [= books], we may proclaim God’s word with our hands, where we are unable to do so with our mouth.’³³³³Guigo de Karthuizer, Gewoonten, een leefregel voor kluizenaars in gemeenschap, (transl. and ed T. Peeters and G. Aerden), Budel 2011 (original 12th century), p. 92 (section 28.3): Via hen (=boeken) kunnen wij Gods woord door onze handen verkondigen, waar we het niet kunnen met onze mond. Also see Guiges I, Prieur de Chartreuse, Coutumes de Chartreuse: Introduction, texte critique, traduction et notes par un chartreux, Paris 1984. Guigo’s words precisely reflect what that the inkwell ostensibly aims to convey: sitting helpless and hunkered down in the barrel of the pulpit – his mouth sealed – the monk is incapable of preaching. Instead, he ‘lends’ his hands to the scribe: perhaps a Carthusian monk writing in the confinement of his own cell, who through his humble labours manages as yet to disseminate God’s word. If indeed this interpretation is correct, then the inkwell is certain to have belonged to a monk from an affluent background, residing in one of the numerous charterhouses established throughout Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.³⁴³⁴For the growth of the order in the 13th and 14th centuries, see J. Hogg, Die Ausbreitung der Kartäuser, Salzburg 1987, esp. pp. 8ff.

Fourteen Carthusian monasteries were founded in the Low Countries alone, eight of which were located in the Southern Netherlands.³⁵³⁵See J.P. Gumbert, Die Utrechter Kartäuser und ihre Bücher im frühen fünfzehnten Jahrhundert, Leiden 1974, p. 10; F. van Oostrom, Nobel streven, Amsterdam 2017, p. 47 (map). Many of these houses were established under noble patronage with members of the nobility regularly entering this highly regimented order, thus ensuring close ties with the aristocracy.³⁶³⁶D. Martin, ‘“The Honeymoon was over”: Carthusians between Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie’, in Die Kartäuser und ihre Welt: Kontakte und gegenseitige Einflüsse, vol. 1, Salzburg 1993, pp. 66-99, esp. p. 69. See also V. Tabbagh, ‘The Pious Foundations of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless, 1360-1420’, E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, pp. 166-68 (including Bourgfontaine, a Carthusian double abbey founded by Charles of Valois in 1325). This in turn facilitated a monastery’s acquisition of artistic works, despite traditional Carthusian rules of austerity.³⁷³⁷A. Girard, ‘Le décor en Chartreuse: La place de la chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon dans le développement de l’image’, in Le décor des églises en France méridionale, Toulouse 1993, pp. 363-84; A. Girard and D. Le Blévec (eds.), Les Chartreux et l’art, XIVe-XVIIIe siècles: Actes du colloque international d’histoire et de spiritualité cartusiennes de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon 1988, Paris 1989; R. van Luttervelt, ‘Schilderijen met karthuizers uit de late 15de en vroege 16de eeuw’, Oud-Holland 66 (1951), pp. 75-92; F. Scholten, ‘A Prayer-Nut for François du Puy’, The Burlington Magazine 153 (2011), pp. 447-51.

The Chartreuse de Champmol near Dijon, the charterhouse of greatest renown in the late Middle Ages, was founded by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in the years 1377-1410.³⁸³⁸R. Prochno, Die Kartause von Champmol: Grablege der burgundischen Herzöge, 1364-1477, Berlin 2002; see also E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, pp. 169-74. As the Carthusian order’s most richly furnished and embellished charterhouse in the Middle Ages, Champmol was alone in having monumental sculpture.³⁹³⁹R. Prochno, Die Kartause von Champmol: Grablege der burgundischen Herzöge, 1364-1477, Berlin 2002, p. 6. With twenty-four individual monk’s cells, it boasted twice the number of the typical Carthusian monastery. In the monastery’s annual accounts, purchases of writing sets (escriptoires) and inkwells (encriers, cornettes in horn and pewter), together with other miscellaneous writing supplies and objects acquired for the outfitting of the cells and the scriptorium, are recorded from 1384 on. Nothing in these records, however, suggests a direct parallel to the Amsterdam inkwell.⁴⁰⁴⁰C. Monget, La Chartreuse de Dijon d’après les documents des archives de Bourgogne, Montrieul-sur-Mer 1898, vol. 1, pp. 190, 409-19 (no. 31), and esp. pp. 415-18. See also M.F. Damongeot-Bourdat, ‘The Manuscripts of the Chartreuse de Champmol’, in E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, pp. 208-11. Entries in the monastery’s bookkeeping pertain exclusively to regular purchases associated with its standard upkeep; personal commissions or gifts in the category to be expected of the Rijksmuseum inkwell are non-existent.

Lending additional weight to the theory that the Amsterdam inkwell’s origin is best situated in the context of a Carthusian monastery the likes of Champmol is the style of the carving. Striking stylistic parallels between the inkwell and other more monumental, major works of sculpture from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, particularly evident in the rendering of the monk’s face, narrow the range of its artistic provenance. Despite the small scale, the figure’s face conveys an extraordinary naturalism, with touching, almost portrait-like features. The effect is achieved via specific physiognomic traits: the wide, almond-shaped eyes, a slightly bent nose, the frown of the forehead, the sharp lines around the mouth intended to highlight the cheeks, and the pointed chin. Specifically in the Southern Netherlands and France, realistic depictions of specific people first emerges as a prominent aspect of sculpture during the second half of the fourteenth century. This development culminates in the work of the leading sculptors who were active at the French royal court in Paris, including Jean de Liège, André Beauneveu, Jean de Marville, Jacques de Baerze and Claes Sluter,⁴¹⁴¹U. Heinrichs-Schreiber, Vincennes und die höfische Skulptur: Die Bildhauerkunst in Paris 1360-1420, Berlin 1997, pp. 86-106. but also artists commissioned by King Charles V (reign 1364-80) and his successor, Charles VI (reign 1380-1422), as well as other members of the French high nobility belonging to or having ties with the Valois dynasty, such as Jean, Duc de Berry, and Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.⁴²⁴²Cf. S. Nash et al., André Beauneveu: “No Equal in any Land”: Artist to the Courts of France and Flanders, exh. cat. Bruges (Groeningemuseum) 2007-08, figs. 1, 2, 3-11, 65; E. Taburet-Delahaye et al., Paris 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2004, fig. 8 and nos. 1 (statues of Charles VI, Isabella of Bavaria, and Jeanne de Boulogne, c. 1389-93), 16 (bust of Marie de France, c. 1380-1381), 19 (gisant of Thomas le Tourneur, Paris, 1350-1375), 29D (gisant of Renaud de Dormans, Paris, late 14th century). Similar facial features are also encountered on the pleurants adorning the tombs of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless in Dijon (e.g. fig. b),⁴³⁴³Compare for example S. Jugie, The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy, New Haven/London 2010, no. 63 and no. 79; U. Heinrichs-Schreiber, Vincennes und die höfische Skulptur: Die Bildhauerkunst in Paris 1360-1420, Berlin 1997, figs. 59, 61, 64, 67, 70, 84, 95, 98, 99. and two kneeling Carthusian monks in Cleveland.⁴⁴⁴⁴Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. no. 1966.113, see E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, no. 96. Even prior to this, however, early traces of naturalism are found, for instance, on the face of the Utrecht bishop St Frederic, as portrayed on his reliquary bust of 1362 by the local goldsmith Elias Scerpswert (BK-NM-11450),⁴⁵⁴⁵See L.E. van den Bergh-Hoogterp, Goud- en zilversmeden te Utrecht in de late Middeleeuwen, vol. 2, The Hague/Maarssen 1990, pp. 462-93, esp. pp. 476-87. Scerpswert worked for prominent patrons and is to be seen as one of the leading goldsmiths in the Low Countries. From 1391 on, Elyas’s son, William, worked in Paris as a goldsmith for patrons such as the Philip the Bold. and contemporaneous ivory-carvings made in Paris, works that clearly convey the artistic ambience of the French and Burgundian courts. Examples include a standing angel in New York,⁴⁶⁴⁶P. Barnet (ed.), Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, exh. cat. Detroit (Detroit Institute of Arts)/Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery) 1997, no. 29. an Annunciation group from Langres associated with the patronage of Philip the Bold, and the minuscule portrait of John the Fearless encrusted in a cameo ring.⁴⁷⁴⁷E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, nos. 55-56. The features on this latter piece are very similar to the inkwell’s monk, with almond-shaped eyes, heavy-set eyelids and an angular jawline, ending in a prominent mouth and chin.

Archival evidence confirms that important sculptors in this Parisian/Flemish artistic environment also engaged in creating small-scale works of sculpture carved in ivory and boxwood.⁴⁸⁴⁸For attributions of several surviving pieces in the artistic circle of André Beauneveu and Jacques de Baerze, see P. Williamson, ‘Thoughts on Two Small-Scale Medieval Sculptures’, in A. von Hülsen-Esch and D. Taube (eds.), “Luft unter die Flügel...”: Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Kunst: Festschrift für Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, Hildesheim 2010, pp. 166-72; F. Scholten, ‘Statuettes, “Taillee en bois bien fecte”’, in F. Scholten (ed.), Small Wonders: Late-Gothic Boxwood Micro-Carvings from the Low Countries, exh. cat. Toronto (Art Gallery of Ontario)/New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2016-17, pp. 428-74, esp. p. 431; D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux V-XVe siècle: Catalogue Musée du Louvre, Département des Ojbects d’Art, coll. cat. Paris 2003, pp. 452, 457, 458 (no. 199) and 499, 500 (no. 230); L. Lambacher (ed.), Schätze des Glaubens: Meisterwerke aus dem Dom-Museum Hildesheim und dem Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, coll. cat. Berlin 2012, no. 56. One documented example involves Philip the Bold’s court sculptor, Jean de Marville, who in 1377 received 26 pounds of ivory to be used for carvings destined for the duke.⁴⁹⁴⁹See B. Prost, Inventaires mobiliers et extraits des comptes des ducs de Bourgogne de la maison de Valois (1363-1477), vol. 1, Philippe le Hardi, periode 1363-1371, Paris 1902, p. 568 (no. 3035): Le 27 janvier, 26 fr. dus ‘à Jehan Girart, tabletier, de Paris...., pour 26 l. d’ivoire que Mgr fit pranre et acherer de lui, et icelli fit baillier à Mainreville (= Jean de Marville) , son tailleur de menus euvres pour faire certines besoignes que Mgr lui avoit enchargiées. See also E. Sears, ‘Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris’, in P. Barnet (ed.), Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, exh. cat. Detroit (Detroit Institute of Arts)/Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery) 1997, pp. 18-37, esp. p. 25; S.M. Guérin, ‘Synergy Across Media: Gothic Sculptors of Wood and Ivory’ in G. Davies and E. Townsend (eds.), A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, London 2017, pp. 123-36, esp. p. 125. Noteworthy is the explicit wording that accompanies his name – son tailleur de menus euvres (his sculptor of small works) – a title likewise accorded Jehan de Liège, a woodcarver also employed by the duke.⁵⁰⁵⁰Jehan de Liège worked and lived in Dijon as a tailleur de menues euvres en pierre et en bois; see C. Monget, La Chartreuse de Dijon d’après les documents des archives de Bourgogne, Montrieul-sur-Mer 1898, vol. 1, p. 144. He is not to be confused with the more renowned sculptor of the same name, responsible for works such as the tomb of Jeanne de Bretagne in Orleans, see E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, p. 182. Small-scale sculpture was apparently De Marville’s main specialty. All the more surprising, as today he is known first and foremost as the artist responsible for the first version of Philip the Bold’s monumental burial tomb. To switch from one medium to another was by no means uncommon: from the thirteenth century on, sculptors in Paris accepted commissions for works to be executed in wood, ivory or stone.⁵¹⁵¹S.M. Guérin, ‘Synergy across Media: Gothic Sculptors of Wood and Ivory’ in G. Davies and E. Townsend (eds.), A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, London 2017, pp. 123-36.

The origin of the present inkwell must be interpreted in this context – not as a product of a specialized artisan in Paris, such as a tabletier (a maker of luxury writing tablets, chess boards, combs and boxes), or even the work of a professional inkwell-maker.⁵²⁵²In the early 15th century, most of the tabletier workshops in Paris were located on the rue de la Tableterie, where combs, oeilles, writing tablets and other utilitarian ivory objects were made and sold, see E. Sears, ‘Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris’, in P. Barnet (ed.), Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, exh. cat. Detroit (Detroit Institute of Arts)/Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery) 1997, pp. 18-37, esp. p. 30 and note 71. Quite the contrary, when considering the exceptional, sculptural concept and the skilful and naturally rendered face of the monk, this miniature pulpit in carved boxwood is to be seen as an original work by a sculptor-woodcarver, an ymagier tailleur, accustomed to working and thinking both on a monumental and a micro scale.⁵³⁵³This practice was also in line with the then applicable rules of the Parisian guilds, in which the ymagier had received a wide working territory that encompassed any kind of carvable material, including bone, ivory and wood, see E. Sears, ‘Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris’, in P. Barnet (ed.), Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, exh. cat. Detroit (Detroit Institute of Arts)/Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery) 1997, pp. 18-37, esp. p. 23; also S.M. Guérin, ‘An Ivory Virgin at The Metropolitan Museum, New York, in a Gothic Sculptor’s Oeuvre’, The Burlington Magazine 154 (2012), pp. 394-402. He should therefore likely be sought among artists working for the royal court or one affiliated, like that of the duke of Burgundy.

Frits Scholten, 2024

F. Scholten, ‘Different Hands: On a late Fourteenth-Century Carthusian Inkwell’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 67 (2019), pp. 100-21

F. Scholten, 2024, 'anonymous, Inkwell in the Form of a Pulpit with a Monk, Southern Netherlands, c. 1380 - c. 1400', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.689640