{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O92687"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O92687/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CA7129/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CA7129/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CA7129","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CR2811","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CR2809","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CA7130","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BN4093","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2007BN4094","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BF0328","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JT6805","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JT7525","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JT7612","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KV2731","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019ME7273","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O92687/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O92687","accessionNumber":"142-1866","objectType":"Relief","titles":[{"title":"The Adoration of the Magi","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is a relief made in ca. 1120-1150 century Nothern Spain. This relief in whalebone represents the Adoration of the Magi. This relief is one of the most exotic images in Romanesque art. Its function, date and place of origin have been widely debated. The argument for a Spanish origin is partly based upon stylistic parallels with a bone Virgin and Child that was found in Spain and is now in the Musee du Louvre, Paris. But also for example the unusual but very distinctive gauffered coil of the Virgin seems only to be found in sculptures in Northern Spain in the Romanesque period. \r\nThe quality of the carving - its sharply defined and abundant decorative clements creating a horror vacui effect - has more connections with Spanish art than with the art of nothern Europe. The precise function of this panel has not been ascertained. It is too bulky for a book cover, and its irregular shape would make it unsuitable for most purposes; it was perhaps a portable votive image.\r\nDespite the oddness, the sculpture is the work of a truly gifted if ideosyncratic craftsman, who has created a work of art of great majesty and striking power. The scene of the Adoration of the Magi, with the kings represented as pilgrims is said to have been very popular along the road to Santiago de Compostela. The liminal iconography of the plaque, with the beasts fighting at the feet of the Virgin below, and an owl, a symbol of darkness, above, might  be interpreted as reflecting the circumstances of 'reconquista' in which the object was produced.","physicalDescription":"Panel, relief in whale's bone tapering towards the top, The Adoration of the Magi. The Virgin dominates the relief. She is shown haloed, seated beneath a round arch from which hangs a short curtain which is looped round columns at the sides; Covering her head is a distinctive pleated head dress, the so-called gauffered coif. This is topped by a jewelled diadem. She is seated on a throne entirely hidden by her body. She holds a flower in her right hand and with her left supports the Child, who is seated on her left knee, his right hand raised in benediction and holding a book in his left. To the left the three Kings, crowned and carrying long staves, stand offering gifts. At the feet of the Virgin are foliage scrolls and a small date-palm. On the roof of the rather fantastic building above the Virgin's head are figures of a man blowing a horn (now broken away) and an owl. In a panel at the bottom is a centaur with a bow and arrows and two lionesses fighting with a bear and a boar. The elaborately pleated robes are decorated with lines of dots and edged with foliate and geometrical designs. On the back, near the lower right-hand corner, are three concentric inscribed circles. Relief in whale's bone tapering towards the top.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"AUTH317916"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"bone","id":"AAT11798"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"whalebone; carved from the jaw bone of a sperm whale (<i>Physeter macrocephalus</i>). ","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Plaques & Plaquettes","id":"THES49031"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2009CA7129","2009CR2811","2009CR2809","2009CA7130","2007BN4093","2007BN4094","2006BF0328","2017JT6805","2017JT7525","2017JT7612","2018KV2731","2019ME7273"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SHLN","id":"THES49063"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"relief","id":"AAT53622"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Spain","id":"x29170"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Northern"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1120 - 1150","earliest":"1115-01-01","latest":"1150-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"NCOL.412:1-2011","id":"O1226680"},"association":"Duplicate"},{"object":{"text":"NCOL.412:2-2011","id":"O1226680"},"association":"Duplicate"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"36.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at left","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"35.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at right","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"16","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at bottom","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"at top","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"3.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"0.84","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From the Webb collection, £218. Formerly in the collection of Prince Soltykoff.\n\nHistorical significance: This relief is one of the strangest surviving representations of the Adoration of the Magi and the largest surviving medieval carving in bone. The artist's love of decoration can be seen in the elaborately pleated drapery edged with geometric designs; even the area around the Virgins feet is filled by foliate scrolls and a small tree. \r\nDespite the oddness, the sculpture is the work of a truly gifted if ideosyncratic craftsman, who has created a work of art of great majesty and striking power. The scene of the Adoration of the Magi, with the kings represented as pilgrims is said to have been very popular along the road to Santiago de Compostela. The liminal iconography of the plaque, with the beasts fighting at the feet of the Virgin below, and an owl, a symbol of darkness, above, might  be interpreted as reflecting the circumstances of 'reconquista' in which the object was produced.","historicalContext":"The present relief was thought to be of English origin but it is now established that it was made in Northern Spain. It is stylistically closely related to the figure of the Virgin and Child in bone which was found in Spain, now preserved in the Louvre and the production of ivories in Leon. Iconographically closest is a tympanum on the twelfth-century church of Sta. Maria at Uncastillo: there is a similar disposition of elements, and the details are the same, even down to the capital of the arch. The unusual but very distinctive gauffered coil of the Virgin seems only to be found in sculptures in Northern Spain in the Romanesque period. \r\nThe precise function of the plaque has not been ascertained. It is too bulky for a bookcover, and its irregular shape would make it unsuitable for most purposes; it was perhaps a portable vortive image.","briefDescription":"Relief, The Adoration of the Magi, carved whalebone; Northern Spain, ca. 1120-50.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1866. <font -u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1.</font> London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 17"},{"reference":{"text":"Prior, E. S. and Gardner, A. An Account of Medieval Figure-sculpture in England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912..","id":"AUTH409846"},"details":"pp.140-141, fig. 124","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Goldschmidt, Adolph. <i>Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der romanischen Zeit: XI. bis XIII. Jahrhundert</i> (Elfenbeinskulpturen IV). Berlin: Cassirer, 1926, cat. 14, pl. IV."},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H. <i>English Ivories</i>, London, 1926","id":"AUTH333162"},"details":"pp.23-24, pp.83-85","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret. H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part I. London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1927.","id":"AUTH409856"},"details":"pp.87-88, pl.67","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Exhibition of English Mediaeval Art, 1930.</i>, London : V&A, Published by authority of the Board of Education, 1930","id":"AUTH357071"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schapiro, Meyer. 'From Mozarabic to Romanesque in Silos,' <i>Art Bulletin</i> 21 (1939): 313-74, here p. 342."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Grodecki, Louis. <i>Ivoires français</i>. Paris: Larousse, 1947, p. 59-60."},{"reference":{"text":"Kendrick, T.D. Late Saxon and Viking Art. London: Methuen, 1949.","id":"AUTH409847"},"details":"p.147","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Gardner, A. English Medieval Sculpture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951.","id":"AUTH409848"},"details":"p.50, fig.79","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Molesworth, H.D. Sculpture in England: Renaissance to early XIX century. London: Longmans for British Council, 1951.","id":"AUTH409849"},"details":"p.13, plates XII-XIII","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Talbot Rice, D. English Art, 871-1100. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.","id":"AUTH409850"},"details":"pp.172-173","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hunt, John. 'The Adoration of the Magi,' <i>Connoisseur </i>133 (1954):156-61."},{"reference":{"text":"Swarzenski, H. Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe. London: Faber and Faber, 1954.","id":"AUTH409851"},"details":"p.60, fig. 286","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Stone, L. Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955.","id":"AUTH409855"},"details":"p.64, pl.41","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bernis, Carmen. 'La \"Adoración de los Reyes\" del siglo XII, del Museo Victoria y Alberto, es de escuela española,' <i>Archivo español de arte </i>33 (1960): 82-84."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beckwith, John. <i>The Adoration of the Magi in Whalebone. </i>London: H. M. S. O., 1966."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beckwith, John. <i>Ivory Carvings in early medieval England.</i> London: Harvey Miller and Medcalf Ltd, 1972, pp. 61-62, cat. no. 63, figs 121-23."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. <i>Ivoires du Moyen Age</i>. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1978, p. 119."},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul. <u>An Introduction to Medieval Ivory Carvings</u>, London, 1982","id":"AUTH334015"},"details":"pp.16, 35, pl.17","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Avril, François, Barral i Altet, Xavier and Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. <i>Le Monde Roman 1060-1220: Les Royaumes d'Occident</i>. Paris: Gallimard, 1983. pp. 313-314., fig. 279."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Estella Marcos, Margarita-Mercedes. <i>La escultura del marfil en España, románica y gótica</i>. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1984, pp. 77-78, 95-96, 313-14, fig. 18."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>English Romanesque Art 1066-1200</i>. Exhibition Catalogue, London, Hayward Gallery. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1984, p. 210 (Peter Lasko)."},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul (ed.), <u>The Medieval Treasury: the art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1986","id":"AUTH334016"},"details":"p.126","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ayres, Larry M. 'The Illustration of the Codex Calixtinus: A Norman Dimension,' in <i>The Codex Calixtinus and the Shrine of St. James,</i>ed. John W. Williams and Alison Stones. Tübingen: Narr, 1992, pp. 245-54, here p. 250, fig. 10."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>The Art of Medieval Spain A.D. 500-1200</i>. Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (exhibition not held, but catalogue published). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, cat. no 141 (Charles. T. Little)."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Lasko, Peter. <i>Ars Sacra 800-1200</i>. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994 (2nd ed.), pp. 178-79, pl. 246."},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul, ed., <u>European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996","id":"AUTH320316"},"details":"p.41","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. <i>Ivoires médiévaux V<sup>e</sup>-XV<sup>e</sup> siecle (Musée du Louvre, Département des Objets d'Art)</i>. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2003, pp. 201-2, fig. 56a."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>The Grand Atelier: Pathways of Art in Europe, 5th-18th Centuries. </i>Exhibition Catalogue, Brussels, Palais des beaux-arts. Brussels: Europalia International and Mercatorfonds, 2007, cat. no VI.2 (Roland Recht)."},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul. <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings. Early Christian to Romanesque</u>. London, V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2010","id":"AUTH337755"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beer, Manuela, Metje, Iris, Straub, Karen, Werth, Saskia and Woelk, Moritz (eds). <i>The Magi: Legend, Art and Cult</i>. Exhibition Catalogue, Cologne, Museum Schnütgen. Munich: Hirmer, 2015, pp 58-59."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Mary (Virgin Mary)","id":"N480"},{"text":"The Christ Child","id":"N1185"},{"text":"Jesus Christ","id":"N1515"},{"text":"Wise Men","id":"N1412"},{"text":"Magi","id":"N4697"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Adoration of the Magi","id":"V132"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"star","id":"AAT9811"},{"text":"owl","id":"x30399"},{"text":"lions","id":"x30150"},{"text":"diadem","id":"AAT46021"},{"text":"palm tree","id":"x31894"},{"text":"book","id":"AAT28051"},{"text":"curtain","id":"AAT37564"},{"text":"nimbus","id":"x43060"},{"text":"centaur","id":"x34701"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["142-1866"],"accessionNumberNum":"142","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1866,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2026PM8033","2019LM9965","2019LN6083","2019LT6297","2019LV8330"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-23","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-11","availableToBook":false}}