Olifant (instrument): Difference between revisions

[[File:Le_Musée_Paul_Dupuy_-_Olifant_dit_Cor_de_Roland,_XIe_siècle_9.5x52_Inv.18036.jpg|thumb|Olifant from the Le Musée Paul Dupuy of [[Toulouse]].]]

[[File:Olifant, Aachener Domschatz.jpg|thumb|Olifant from the [[Aachen Cathedral Treasury|treasury]] of [[Aachen Cathedral]].]]

[[Image:BattleofRoncevauxWvBibra.jpg|thumb|Roland blows his olifant to summon help in the midst of the [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass|Battle of Roncevaux]].]]

'''Olifant''' (also known as Oliphant'''oliphant''') was the name applied in the [[Middle Ages]] to a type of carved ivory [[hunting horn]] created from [[elephant tuskstusk]]s.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Ebitz |first=David |date=2003 |title=Oliphant |url=https://loginwww.sandiego.idmoxfordartonline.oclc.orgcom/login?qurl=https:groveart/view/www.oxfordartonline.com%2fgroveart%2fview%2f1010.1093%2fgao%2f9781884446054/gao/9781884446054.001.0001%2foao/oao-9781884446054-e-7000063433 |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=Gove Art Online |via=Oxford Art Online |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001article.0001/oaoT063433|isbn=978-97818844460541-e884446-700006343305-4 }}</ref> Olifants were most prominently used in Europe from roughly the tenth to the sixteenth century, although somethere wereare createdlater laterexamples.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |lastlast1=Bassani |firstfirst1=Ezio |title=Africa and the Renaissance: Art in Ivory |last2=Fagg |first2=William B. |publisher=The Center for African Art; Prestel-Verlag |year=1988 |isbn=978-3791308807 |editor-last=Vogel |editor-first=Susan |pages=90-10890–108, 200-201200–201 |language=English |oclc=18715480}}</ref> The surviving inventories of Renaissance treasuries and armories document that Europeans, especially in France, Germany and England, owned trumpets in a variety of media andthat were used to signal, both in war and hunting. They were manufactured primarily in Italy (from either [[African elephant|African]] or [[Indian elephant]] tusk), but towards the end of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, they were also made in Africa for a European market.<ref name=":3" /> Typically, they were made with relief carvings that showed animal and human combat scenes, hunting scenes, fantastic beasts, and European [[heraldry]].<ref name=":3" /> About seventy-five [[ivory]] hunting horns survive and about half can be found in museums and church treasuries, while others are in private collections or their locations remain unknown.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Backa |first=Rachel |url=https://hoaportal.york.ac.uk/hoaportal/yml1414essay.jsp?id=6#:~:text=The%20Horn%20of%20Ulph%20is,a%20medieval%20oliphant%20(1) |title=1414: John Neuton and the Re-Foundation of York Minster Library |yeardate=June 2015 |editor-last=Vorholt |editor-first=Hanna |chapter=A Viking Treasure: The Horn of Ulph |editor-last2=Young |editor-first2=Peter}}</ref>

The word olifant, (or alternatively oliphant), was originally derived from the Latin word for elephant, representing the ivory tusks used to create the instrument. The first documented use of the word ''olifant'' to define an Africana hunting horn appears in the[[Song of Roland|''La Chanson Dede Roland'']] ''(''or ''The Song of Roland),'' a French epic poem from the eleventh century.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 2023 |title=Oliphant, n. |url=https://www-.oed-.com.sandiego.idm.oclc.org/view/Entry/131090?redirectedFrom=oliphant |url-status= |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=OED Online |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> In ''The Song of Roland'', the central character, Roland, carries his olifant while serving on the rearguard of [[Charlemagne]]'s army.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=The Song of Roland: The Oxford Text |publisher=Allen and Unwin |year=1972 |isbn=9780048410023 |series=Unwin Classics |location=London |translator-last=Owen |translator-first=D. D. R.}}</ref> When they are attacked at the [[Battle of Roncevaux]], [[Oliver (paladin)|Oliver]] tells Roland to use it to call for aid, but he refuses.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> Roland finally relents, but the battle is already lost.<ref name=":0" /> He tries to destroy the olifant along with his sword [[Durendal]], lest they fall into enemy hands.<ref name=":0" /> In the end, Roland blows the horn, but the force required bursts his temple, resulting in his death.<ref name=":0" /> Roland's use of the olifant may have popularized it as the quintessential "hero's horn."<ref name=":3" />

Olifants made great hunting devices because they were neither too loud nor as slow as [[Matchlock|matchlock guns]].<ref name=":1" /> [[Saint Roland]] was said to have used this horn for hunting as well as war.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> Additionally, these horns sometimes had a religious function. For example, olifants were suspended over the high altars in churches, as was recorded in a 1315 archival document describing an ivory horn that hung over the high altar of [[Canterbury Cathedral]].<ref name=":4" /> Ivory olifants would be used to call people to prayer on special feastsfeast days, like the three days preceding Good Friday, when monks used ivory "calling" horns instead of the usual metal bells.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Shalem |first=Avinoam |title=The Oliphant: Islamic Objects in Historical Context |publisher=Brill |year=2004 |location=Leiden ; Boston |pages=56, 114, 120-121120–121, 130-131130–131}}</ref> It is believe the Horn of Saint Blaise at the [[Cleveland Museum of Art]] was used in this way.<ref name=":5" />

While the olifant's use as an instrument was its primary function, even though it werewas hard to blow, it also had othera multitude of functionsuses.<ref name=":3" /> For instance, some horns were had a plug added to the short end thereby allowing the horn to be used as a drinking vessel.<ref name=":3" /> However, because of their cumbersome size and hefty weight, horns were not the most convenient receptacle for drinking.<ref name=":3" /> During the Middle Ages, at the Cathedral of York Minster, a fourteenth-century chronicle reports that the [https://hoaportal.york.ac.uk/hoaportal/yml1414essay.jsp?id=6#:~:text=The%20Horn%20of%20Ulph%20is,a%20medieval%20oliphant%20(1). ''Oliphant of Ulph''] was filled with wine and then placed on the high altar by Ulph, a [[Vikings|Viking]] nobleman, as a way to transfer lands to the cathedral.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> This event happened around the year 1036, thus offering scholars a clear [[terminus ante quem]].<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":9" />

Among the earliest extant ivory horns carved with bands of low relief have been attributed to the workshops in Salerno, Italy.<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Swarzenski |first=Hanns |year=1962 |title=Two Oliphants in the Museum |journal=Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts |volume=60 |pages=27-4527–45 |via=JSTOR}}</ref> This group is collectively known as "Salerno ivories,", as they all may have been originally housed in the colelctioncollection of the Treasury of [[Salerno Cathedral]].<ref name=":3" /> It is believed that they may have actually been part of the door leading to the chancel of the same cathedral.<ref name=":3" /> However, because of the of the similarities between these ivories and the style of stone sculptures from the eleventh and twelfth centuries that were produced in the regions of [[Apulia]] and [[Campania]], scholars believe that olifants were probably made in [[Amalfi]] during the end of the eleventh century. The city of Amalfi had long-established trade connections with placeplaces like [[Sicily]], [[North Africa]], [[Cairo]], [[Antioch]], and [[Alexandria]].<ref name=":4" /> These ivory horns, therefore, had strong connections to the East (the "Orient"), since they were often crafted by Arab artists that had contacts for procuring ivory.<ref name=":1" /> Moreover, the Islamic motifs that can be found on many of them were likely inspired by exotic clothes that had been imported to Europe as well.<ref name=":4" />

Several survive in various collections, including: the oliphant of the Chartreuse de Portes, (in the Cabinet de Médailles of the e[[Bibliothèque nationalnationale de France]], Paris);<ref name=":7">Conserved in the [[Cabinet des Médailles]], [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|Bibliothèque nationale]], Paris.</ref> two oliphants in the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|Boston Museum of Fine Arts]] (one from Salerno, while the other was possible made in Amalfi); the horn of [[Muri Abbey]] conserved in [[Kunsthistorisches Museum|Kunsthistoriches Museum]] in Vienna;<ref name=":8">Swartzenski (1962:34) supports T.D.Kendrick's assertion (Kendrick, "The Horn of Ulph", ''Antiquity'' '''11'''; (1937:237ff) that the oliphant from Muri was carved in the same workshop as the Horn of Ulph.</ref> the so-called [Horn of Saint Blaise at the Cleveland Museum of Art;<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.740 | title=The So-called Horn of Saint Blaise at the&#124; Cleveland Museum of Art]; }}</ref> as well as other oliphants from the treasuries of the [[Basilica of St. Sernin, Toulouse]], and [[La Seo Cathedral|Saragossa Cathedral]].<ref name=":8" />

The ''Horn'' or ''Oliphant of Ulph'', preserved in the treasury of [[York Minster]], is part of the above group olifants that were carved in either Salerno or Amalfi in the first half of the eleventh century.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":9" /> While various animals like griffons and unicorns, and trees are found in low-relief carving on the ''Oliphant of Ulph'', much of this imagery was likely Islamic in origin, recalling ancient art from Babylonia and Syria.<ref name=":4" />

Some olifants were carved in Africa were exported for European use.<ref name=":1" /> These horns are transverse trumpets[[trumpet]]s including a lateral mouthpiece, often smooth, to be set into the concave part of the tusk.<ref name=":1" /> They were blown singularly and often used at solemn occasions like funerals.<ref name=":3" /> Though olifants, were made by Africans with tusks from African elephants and African carving techniques, the artists incorporated European iconography into the designs.<ref name=":1" /> This mix illustrates the result of intercultural trade that encouraged cross-cultural interactions and exchanges within the medieval period.<ref name=":1" /> The addition of imagery of animals like crocodiles and serpents help identify the instruments as African in origin, as theses arethese motifs are found in traditional African iconography.<ref name=":1" /> Small animals with slim bodies, not yet identified, are also likely indicative of African manufacture.<ref name=":1" />

==== Sapi-Portuguese Olifantsolifants ====

[[File:Oliphant_(horn),_Southern_Italy,_c._1100_AD,_ivory_and_iron_chain_-_Bode-Museum-_DSC02418.JPG|thumb|An apical Sapo-Portuguese Olifantolifant featuring lugs and a chain used for carrying purposes.]]

Olifants that are classified as "Sapi-Portuguese" are so identified in fifteenth-century Portuguese documents by the blanket term "Sapi" or "Sape" to describe production by West African [[Temne people|Temne]] or [[Bullom languages|Bullom]] artists, as well as people originating from [[Sierra Leone]] who have common language and cultural similarities.<ref name=":1" /> These olifants were part of a larger group of other carved ivory pieces by the Sapi like [[Saltsalt cellar|salt cellars]]s, spoons, hunting horns, and other objects made from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.<ref name=":1" /> The olifants made for the European market differed from those made for African use in the placement of the mouth piecesmouthpieces: those for the Europeans have apical mouthpieces, producing sound through a mouthpiece on the tip of the tusk; by contrast, olifants made for African use had a laterally-oriented mouthpiece.<ref name=":1" /> The placement of this mouthpiece is decorated with the jaws of an animal with markedly big teeth and small, pointed ears.<ref name=":1" /> Moreover, the olifants made for the Europeans also include lugs, or hinges, for the purpose of attaching a strap, cord, chain or belt so that the horn could be suspended, allowing to worn over one's shoulder.<ref name=":1" /> These lugs were derived from European weapons such as the rings to raise a cannon, known as "dolphins".<ref name=":1" /> They were given the name most likely because the form of these lugs often resembled a fish whose back was arched, or more rarely they were shaped as an [[wyvern]], a distinct European motif.<ref name=":1" /> All these components show that such objects were made for European consumption.<ref name=":1" /> The cross-cultural characteristics of these objects indicate African craftsmanship with European imagery that remains captivating to specialists.<ref name=":1" />

[[File:Oliphant_(Hunting_Horn)_MET_sf04-3-178d3.jpg|thumb|Detailing of an olifant with bas relief carvings of various animals.]]

[[File:DeliveryService-2.jpg|left|thumb|Sapi-Portuguese style hunting horn, late 15th century -– [https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmafa_2005-6-9?q=hunting+horn&fq=data_source%3A%22National+Museum+of+African+Art%22&fq=online_media_type%3A%22Images%22&fq=online_visual_material%3Atrue&record=5&hlterm=hunting%2Bhorn&inline=true National Museum of African Art Collection, Smithsonian Institution]]]

=== European Heraldryheraldry ===

Some Olifantsolifants also include coats of arms from European different rulers. For instance, one olifant formerly in the collection of Drummond Castle (purchased in 1979 by the [[National Museum of Australia]], in Canberra inv. no.79.2148) features the coat of arms of [[Manuel I of Portugal]], as well as those of King [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] and [[Isabella I of Castile]] of Spain.<ref name=":122">{{Cite book |last=Costa-Gomes |first=Rita |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.cttn338f |title=Contact and Exchange in Later Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Malcolm Vale |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-84383-738-1 |editor-last=Skoda |editor-first=Hannah |location=Suffolk, UK |language=En |chapter=In and Out of Africa: Iberian Courts and the Afro-Portuguese Olifant of the Late 1400s |doijstor=10.7722/j.cttn338f.17 |editor-last2=Lantschner |editor-first2=Patrick |editor-last3=Shaw |editor-first3=R. L. J.}}</ref><ref name=":2">Vogel, Susan M. “African"African Ivories.”" ''African Arts'', vol. 12, no. 1, 1978, pp. 96–98. ''JSTOR'', [[doi:10.2307/3335396.|https://doi.org/10.2307/3335396.]]</ref> The olifant, made by Sapi artists, was commissioned by a European patron to commemorate the marriage of Manuel I to [[Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal|Maria of Aragon]] (the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella) on October 30, 1500, thereby allowing scholars to more accurately date this particular object.<ref name=":2" /> This horn, along with two others that have the same heraldry, may well be the earliest dated works by an African artist.<ref name=":2" /> Extremely decorated, its mouthpiece is placed at the end (unlike horns made for African use, which places the mouthpiece on the side) emerges from the mouth of the remarkable animal head.<ref name=":2" /> Three miniature figures in high relief are placed along the outer curve of the horn.<ref name=":2" /> Seven registers separated by bands of braid and geometric relief decoration including hunting scenes were based on European sources.<ref name=":2" /> At the bottom lies a register decorated with "Ave Maria" in Gothic lettering, while above is a broader register that contain the arms and mottos of both families joined in marriage.<ref name=":2" />

== Olifants listed inIn European inventories and collections ==

== Depictions in Fictionfiction ==

The Horn of Gondor, held by [[Boromir]], from Tolkien's ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Lord of the Rings]]'' seems to have been based on the Medievalmedieval Olifantolifant. There is a connection to the ''Song of Roland'' in the novels and movies, when Boromir blows the horn at the battle of Amon Hen to try to summon help from the other members of the Fellowship of the Ring. For Boromir, like Roland, this action comes too late, as he is mortally wounded with several arrows shot by an [[Orc]] [[archer]] by the time [[Aragorn]] and the others reach him.