12022-06-16T12:46:37-07:00Who made this?13plain2023-01-22T17:15:50-08:00Many ivory objects that were traded within the southern Mediterranean were created in workshops in Spain and Italy. It is possible that this pen box was created by a Muslim artisan, or at least someone familiar with Islamic ivory carving traditions, in a workshop in Italy.
Ivory was relatively soft to carve but also challenging due to its structure. Ivory tusks are the elongated upper incisors of elephants and are composed of a collagen-infused material called dentine. The ivory used during the Middle Ages was typically from the African Savannah elephant. Artisans aimed to maximize the use of high-quality dentine on the interior while avoiding both the hollow pulp cavity and the drier material on the exterior, called cementum. These natural features, along with the tapering cone-like shape of the tusk, limited the possible shapes an artist was able to fashion from a tusk.
