Apulian Italy, by unknown artist(s)
Oriental (stylised) Decorative Ivory Plaque (depicting reclining bathing women in conversation)
circa 600s or 500s B.C.
In order to understand a bit of the character of this little plaque, it is important to question what its original purpose might have been. Certain clues of its function lie on its very skin, plainly visible, while the discovery of others rely on intuition and reasoning, like reading between the lines of a story book.
One might begin with the subjects themselves: each seems to wear only a striated headdress over their hair (notice the opposing textures) and a lower body garment. It is unclear as to whether these are truly robes, however - as easily as it is to assume that the figures are actually male, it is equally possible to assume that their ‘clothing’ is actually water, stylised into three undulated waves to indicate the act of bathing. It is also interesting to consider that the figures are as animated as they are rigid. Notice that while their hand gestures and reposing postures denote close interaction with one another (are they arguing? singing?), their bodies nevertheless fall into a pattern that could easily be repeated onto consecutive plaques. The central subject separates its two companions on its left and right sides, each of whom are surely meant to appear identical, despite minor deficiencies in the artist(’s)’ handiwork and in the quality of the ivory. Perhaps this implies that this plaque was once part of a larger collection, one that bordered the brilliantly-coloured tiled walls of a lost city’s private baths? Its material, ivory, and its figures’ genderless though refined, delicate countenances point towards the plaque’s usage within Apulian society’s upper classes - places in which the everyday, common people would not likely set foot, whether it be for their lack of money or pure blood, or for their supposed crude understanding of what separates art from mere craft. Though only a matter of guesswork, this also reveals the irony that riddled the relationships between people of such societies, past and present, and how it is only a question of perspective that discerns one thing from another.
