Ivory Plaque of Mark (Milan)

Images: Met Museum

Clavis number: ECMA 125

Other descriptors: none

Location: Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Applicata, Castello Sforzesco, Milan

Accession number: Avori 3

Category: ivories

Related literature: Martyrdom of Mark

Featured characters and locations: Anianos, Mark (evangelist), Alexandria.

1. DESCRIPTION

Material: ivory

Size: 19 × 8.3 × 0.7 cm

Image: Mark heals the hand of a shoemaker (cobbler). The architectural motifs behind Mark represent the city of Alexandria. Mark holds a book with a cross on its cover in his left hand.

Date: ca. 7th/8th cent.

Provenance: Syria-Palestine. Discovered in the eighth century in Castello Sforzesco, Milan, Civiche raccolte d’arte applicata ed incisioni, Ivory 3. Photograph: Civiche raccolte d’arte applicata ed incisioni, Castello Sforzesco, Milan. The image was made in Eastern Mediterranean or Egypt. The plaque is one of five closely related St. Mark plaques in the Castello Sforzesco—a subset of a group of fourteen ivories whose origin is in dispute.  Graeven (1899) associated the whole group with a cathedra of Mark supposedly made in Alexandria (about 600) and presented by Heraclius to the cathedral of Grado. Weitzman (1972) suggested instead a link to Syria-Palestine in the 7th/8th century.

2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE

The story of the healing of Anianos is found in the Martyrdom of Mark:

On the second day, the blessed Mark reached Alexandria and came, after he had left the ship, to a certain place called Bennidion. He entered the city gate and immediately his sandal broke. The blessed apostle saw a cobbler and gave him the sandal to repair. When the sandal-cobbler sewed, he injured his left hand greatly and said , “God is One.” When the blessed Mark heard (the words) “God is One” he smiled and said, “The Lord has made my way prosperous.” And he spat on the ground, made a dough of the spittle, anointed the man’s hand (and said), “In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternally living God!” And immediately the man’s hand was healed. And the cobbler, who had recognized the man’s power, the potency of the speech and his asceticism, said to him, “I beg you, man of God, make a stop today in the house of your servant and let us eat a bit of bread together, as you had mercy with me today.” The blessed Mark, however, said full of joy, “The Lord will give you bread of life from heaven.” The man urged the apostle and they joyfully reached his house. (3:4–9; the cobbler is named in 4:6; trans. Tobias Nicklas, “The Martyrdom of Mark,” New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 3 [ed. Tony Burke; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming])

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Graeven, Hans. “Der heilige Markus in Rom und in der Pentapolis.” Römische Quartalschrift 13 (1899): 109–26.

Goldschmidt, Adolph. Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus römischen Zeit XI–XIII Jahrhundert. Berlin: B. Cassirer, 1914–1926 (vol. 4, no. 113, pl. xxxix).

Hopwood-Philips, Henry. “The St Mark Ivories: The Grado Chair That Never Was.” The Byzantine Ambassador. Posted 4 April 2020. Online: https://www.byzantineambassador.com/post/the-st-mark-ivories-the-grado-chair-that-never-was.

Volbach, Wolfgang Fritz. Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters. 1952. 3rd ed. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1976 (no. 239).

__________. “Gli avori della ‘Cattedra si S. marco.’” Pages 134–38 in Arte del primo millennio: Atti del II^e convegno per lo studio dell’ arte dell’ alto medioevo, Pavia. Edited by Edoardo Arslan. Turin: Viglongo, 1950.

4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

“Castello Sforzesco.” Wikipedia.

“The Beautiful Coptic Ivories of the So-Called Grado Chair.” Coptic Nationalism. Posted 24 November 2017.

Entry created by Iasha Stephens, under the supervision of Tony Burke, York University, 6 April 2021.