601 - Ignaz Elhafen, Nachfolge

Ignaz Elhafen, Nachfolge A carved ivory relief with dancing Maenads Relief carved in one piece with the box-like frame, with certain areas worked fully in the round. Eight figures in total, some dancing and playing music in celebration of the central infant Bacchus. Height 13 cm, width 21.1 cm. Ignaz Elhafen (1658 - before 1715), follower of. This exceptionally finely carved multi-figure relief belongs to a group of similar works, mostly carved from a single ivory plaque of comparable dimensions, for which Ignaz Elhafen, who was born in Innsbruck, was renowned. Two reliefs depicting the same subjects entered the collection of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich from the Düsseldorf art collection of Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate. The “Orgiactic Scene with Dancing Satyr and his Retinue” (c. 1707/08, inv. no. R 4666.1) and a “Merry Bacchanal with Music and Dance” (dated 1710, inv. no. R 4665) each depict a striking scene which has been combined here into a new compositional context: The right-hand section of R 4666.1 and Bacchus pressing grapes with the two children from R 4665. Photographic reproductions of the relief R 4666.1 dating from 1869-87 are preserved (see Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, RP-F-00-2435). According to Jens Ludwig Burk, Chief Curator at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, the objects had been publicly displayed in Munich since 1812 (Royal Art Cabinet in the former Theatinerkloster), and from the 1870s the modeller Kreittmayr produced plaster casts of various works of art from the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, which may also have included the two reliefs. In view of this history of reproduction, the present relief cannot be dated with certainty. The quality of the carving, however, is far superior to that of the 19th-century copies known to date. Further interpretations of the Ovidian subject can be found in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunstkammer, Vienna (described as the “Childhood of Bacchus”, inv. no. KK 4188) and in the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt (Reiner Winkler Collection, inv. no. St.P 850). Thomas Kuster also mentions a version in the collection of the Counts of Schönborn. Christian Theuerkauff and, later, Thomas Kuster traced the few archival records that have survived concerning Ignaz Elhafen. Following the record of his baptism on 1 August 1658 at St James’s Church in Innsbruck, the already trained Elhafen next appears around or before 1685 as the carver of two cedar-wood reliefs at Kremsmünster Abbey, where a receipt for his work has survived. The Dutch artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken lists him in his 1721 publication of artists as “een Duitser” (a German) who had lived in Rome. Ignaz Elhafen is next documented in Vienna between 1697 and 1703. From 1704 onwards, he worked for Jan Wellem in Düsseldorf. It was during this period that the conception of those box-like ivory reliefs is dated, their raised frames further emphasising the preciousness of the works of art. Elhafen’s latest and probably final work was created in 1710; thereafter, no further archival records or works can be securely associated with him. He is thought to have died before 1715. Marketing authorisation 2026/BE02421/CE for the EU internal market has been obtained. Certificate Marketing authorisation for the EU internal market has been obtained. Provenance Private collection, Belgium. Literature Cf. Bückling/Haag (eds.), Elfenbein. Barocke Pracht am Wiener Hof, Frankfurt–Vienna, 2011, cat. nos. 33 f. Cf. Bückling (ed.), White Wedding. Die Elfenbein-Sammlung Reiner Winkler jetzt im Liebieghaus. Für immer., Frankfurt–Munich, 2019, cat. 17. See also Theuerkauff, Studien zur Elfenbeinplastik des Barock, Matthias Rauchmiller und Ignaz Elhafen, Freiburg, 1964 (doctoral dissertation). See also Kuster, “Ignaz Elhafen (1658–before 1715) ‘Tyrolensis Sculptor’”, in: Bückling/Haag (eds.), Elfenbein. Barocke Pracht am Wiener Hof, Frankfurt–Vienna, 2011, pp. 183 ff.