The Child Christ on a rock

Ivory was used all over Europe for religious works of art. It was often combined with precious metals and usually took the form of relief panels, for book covers, portable altars and caskets. An almost unbroken tradition of ivory carving extends from the Roman and Byzantine empires until the end of the 14th century. From about 1250, Paris became the centre of production for figures and reliefs intended for private devotion. Other workshops emerged in Italy and Germany. Venice was one of the centres of ivory carving in Italy. Much of the work was based on French models. Some of the craftsmen may have been trained in Paris as their work often combines French and local styles. Amsterdam was the principal European port, and much ivory arrived there from Africa from the sixteenth century onwards.

Many devotional ivories, whose authorship was unrecorded, were produced in the Netherlands during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly crucifix figures and statuettes of the Christ Child. During the seventeenth century, leading artists such as Francois Du Quesnoy, and later Francis van Bossuit, carved or inspired numerous small-scale ivory reliefs and figures, and it is relevant that both these artists, as well as other Netherlandish sculptors, spent significant periods of time in Italy. Other Netherlandish icory carvers emigrated to Britain in the eighteenth century.