Battle Scene with Turks
Ignaz Elhafen (1658–1715)
c. 1688/95
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Ignaz Elhafen often drew inspiration both for individual figures and for entire compositions from print sources. The ‘Roman Battle Scene’ (SK 568) reveals the sculptor’s ingenious appropriation of the work of Antonio Tempesta. It represents an artful combination of the single figure of Aemilius from one of his engravings (B. XVII, 156, 853) with the overall cavalry charge from another (B. XVII, 156, 830). Conversely, no graphic sources for the ‘Battle Scene with Turks’ (SK 558) have been identified, which is however no guarantee that no such source exists.
The two scenes may have been commissioned by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein. That they were designed as a pair is clear not only because they are identical in size and appear to be carved from pieces of markedly striated ivory from the same elephant tusk, nor even because they are populated by similar figure types, but above all because of the way their compositions are organized. In both, the background consists of artfully directional lances and flags with an amorphous mass of soldiery in front of them and in the foreground a select number of resplendently three-dimensional protagonists.
Neither relief gives any indication that it is meant to portray a specific battle, and the pairing of an episode from classical history with a modern narrative is uncommon. The imperial wars against the Ottomans lasted from 1683 to 1699, so this piece was almost certainly carved before their conclusion, though very possibly after the decisive Battle of Zenta (1697), which marked the beginning of the end of the Turkish threat.
- Material/technique
- ivory
- Measurements
- 14.1 × 23.1 cm
- Acquisition
- presumably acquired in Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein
- Artists/makers/authors
- Ignaz Elhafen
- Inventory number
- SK 558
- Signature/inscriptions content only available in German
- in der rechten unteren Ecke bez.: I.E.
- Provenance
- probably mentioned in the collection catalogue of Vincenzio Fanti 1767
- Place of origin
- Vienna
- Iconography
- Battle , Turkish Wars
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