Ivory statue, height: 12.7cm (1/12)
THESIS
Magi (Pilgrims) adoring the Virgin destined for the Abbey of Nasbinals.
DESCRIPTION OF THE STATUE
The Virgin with a serious face, hair dressed with a maphorion (veil) is clothed with a claves with a pearl embedded collar and a pleated tunic falling to the feet revealed by pointed shoes which is unusual. The mother holds the child seated towards the Magi (Pilgrims) on her knees with her left hand, a classic posture of the theotokos (God carrying) Virgin. The Christ is dressed with an antic style tunic firmly holding the Scriptures against his chest in the form of a codex, a typical representation of the Pilgrims adoring the Virgin.
The dorsal of the statue shows the throne on which the Virgin is seated. The ornamentation of this throne is rich in enigmatic symbols. Under the veiled neck of the Virgin there is a rounded back piece that evokes a shield ornated with two birds with haloes, lined with a pearled strip that calls for a first question : a profane cult connected to a protective power associated to the powers of the Virgin herself.
The seat of the throne comprises two roman arches ornated with broken rods and pearls resting on three grooved columns with Corinthian capitals, arranged in a rotunda. This circular pattern of the rotunda may refer to the tomb of the Virgin in Jerusalem (Vth century) (see photo) as foundations of the Church. At the spandrel of the two arches, a starred anthemion (fleuron) symbolises the route to Saint Jacques de Compostelle. On the back of the throne, two Black Kites (Milvus Migrans) with haloed heads are shown opposite each other.
EXAMINATION AND COMPARISON OF THE RESTORATION
Reversible re-assemblies with vinyl coatings and ivory dust were applied on the statue. The restoration of the base used lime, plaster and skin glue is of a much more remoter date. Also, a fracture at the base of the neck can be seen along with slight areas of missing ivory of which one is located at the ankle under its base is due to an analysis sampling.
ESTHETICAL ANALYSIS
Two interpretations of the upper part of the throne are possible.
The first would associate the back with the triple shield of the scapular of the Virgin (Panégyrique du scapulaire de la Vierge », p. 314-315), whose rosary represented by the pearled lining which protects against evil, the wings of the birds which preserve against human weaknesses and error, and the haloes which guarantee against the evident anger of God.
In its making and in its structure, the statue reveals a strong link with two sculptures in pink sandstone of the Magi (Pilgrims) adoring the Virgin of the Perse church at Espalion (priory under the abbey of Conques), built at the end of the XIth century no doubt with the remains of the church of Nasbinals dependent on the abbey of Saint Victor of Marseilles (XIth century) destroyed in the same period.
It is possible that these two Virgins originate from Nasbinals, stop-over (old priory) between Puy en Velay and Conques, that was built under the metronymic name of Saint Mary of Nasbinals in 1064, as testified by the Bernardine monks of Saint Victor de Marseilles [Abbaye Saint-Martin de Ligugé. Revue Mabillon : archives de la France monastique. 1906/05-1907/02, p. 177 et sq.].
As a unique historical remain of this abbey there exists a church built at the beginning of the XIIth century that is remarkable through the existence of an artesian spring originated in the Alps (400km approx.), still materialised by two basalt blocks representing bird heads one of which is still visible.
These birds remind us of the un-edited (to our knowledge) drawings engraved in the back of the Virgin in ivory. The bird is associated with the vigilance over water, cult that already existed locally (ref. Gregoire de Tours).
The second reading of this shield is syncretic. It would mix a contextual cult of water linked to two artesian springs coming from the Alps, today de-routed in the trough contiguous to the church of Nasbinals. The two birds located in the back of the Virgin could be compared to two figurative stones located inside the church of Nasbinals under the two pillars of the marial rotunda, where one of the stones suggests quite clearly two bird heads (see photo). This is unique. An interpretation of the latin root of the Nasbinals’ toponym (place name) decomposed into three associated words (nases-bini-alitis : two bird beaks), after contraction of the morphemes illustrates this point. This leads to the thesis of a water cult pre-existing in Nasbinals before the XIth century, a cult which Gregoire of Tours mentions already in his ‘Gloria Martyrum’.
STRUCTURAL AND ORGANIC ANALYSIS
The structural and organic analysis of the statue is based on the double observation of the network of cracks appearing on its surface, and on the coloured traces of yellow resulting from the diffusion of sulphur on the dentine which are more marked on the base of the block of ivory.
Analysis of the network of cracks
The network of cracks on the front is characterised by a high degree of exposure to thermal shocks and to light. The cracks are in the form of parallel and offset segments.
The cracks of the back, which are very few, suggest that there existed a protective screen (at the bottom of a niche) absorbing the thermal shocks and exposing the dentine to a clear reflected light.
The network of cracks at the base of the statue suggest a thermal shock caused by the operation needed to fix under weld the object to a base by means of a wax putty (wax + sulphur) of which some traces remain at the surface of the base.
Analysis of the colour
The observation of the colour variations on the front, the back and the base of the statue serves to compare some convergent ageing markers with the analysis of the cracks.
The front of the Virgin is of a very clear general tint with a few traces of yellow created by the way it was exposed due to a light coming from the right, the stains of the clamps no doubt stemming from two paws.
The surface of the back, exposed to a low indirect light, has a generally more yellowish tint ; the head and the shoulders having no doubt being exposed to additional light diffused by the reflection of the background.
The base of the block of ivory encloses a tint located on its periphery giving the impression of a thickness of colour at the back of the base. This thickness enables us to date the age of the dentine in correlation with the white part that is adjacent. This phenomenon, which corresponds to the migration of sulphur ions of the dentine in the absence of the energy of light (Fick’s Law), serves to date the dentine in the absence of light : the sulphur ions migrating from the interior to the exterior of the dentine towards its peripheral tangential section in the shaded areas only. This migration also creates a lacuna of sulphur towards the interior.
The observation of this ageing phenomenon of the ivory on parts that are precisely dated leads to a migration time of the sulphur ions to a tenth of a millimetre per century in the dentine that is not exposed to light; hence the statue is of the eleventh century.
As a conclusion to this structural and organic analysis of the Virgin, a coherence exists between the types of cracks found on the three sides of the sculpture and the nature of the ageing colours.
Lastly,as the other roman objects are of the same type of design as others in the Massif Central (for example Sainte Foy de Conques or Marie du Puys en Velay where two abbeys are also under the name of Perse), this leads us to think that a parallel with Aramean origins is patent.
Therefore, it is not surprising to observe the morphological resemblance with the inhabitants of Maaloula (town located in north-east Damascus) and the Kadisha (Holy Valley) with the Magi (Pilgrims) adoring the Virgin.
This initiatory quest is far from being completed. Further work is currently under way regarding:
alcohol brewing, cheese making, construction work and pastoral techniques.
Author: Philippe Ragault who carried out this and future studies after a recent journey through the Aubrac plateau.
Director of the proof-reading committee: Ghislain Dibie
Translator: William Frank Sidgwick : tel : +33 235 060 873