The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c12.40

c12.40

The fact of the nursing Virgin, so unusual in the west till the XIVth century, the crouching Joseph, the presence of the maid-servant, in short, every part in the exceptional design of this « homely tableau de genre » are so many reasons, adduced by AD. GOLDSCHMIDT (*Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der Zeit der Karolingschen und Sächsischen Kaiser*, Berlin, 1914, pl. XXXII, no. 79 and p. 44), for calling in question the genuineness of the plaque, which he takes to be a forgery dating about 1800. But a curious passage in the Protevangelium of James, xix. 2, to which M. GAB. MILLET has kindly drawn our attention, would perhaps explain the startling peculiarities, if it not completely vindicate the authenticity, of this piece : « And they stood in the place where the cave was, and behold a bright light overshadowed the cave. And the midwife said... And gradually that light withdrew until the babe was seen, and it came and took the breast from mother Mary. And the midwife cried out... » (*The Apocryphal Gospels*, by B. HARRIS COWPER, 4th Ed., London, 1874 : *The Gospel of James*, c. xix, pp. 20-1). The fact that the feminine attendant on the right plays so well the part of the midwife waiting to receive the child renders it highly probable that the ivory-carver had this strange tale in his mind.