Chryselephantine Sculpture - Modern Examples

Modern Examples

The term "chryselephantine" is also used for a style of sculpture fairly common in European Nineteenth Century art, especially Art Nouveau. In this context, it describes statuettes, the skin represented in ivory, with clothing and other detail made of other materials, such as gold, bronze, marble, silver or onyx. For instance the sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart produced a copy of the Athena Parthenos of Phidias for patron Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes, circa 1840, in ivory and gold, based on ancient descriptions. The result was somewhat disappointing: "it cost Luynes a hundred thousand francs to prove that Simart was not Phidias". Another version of this figure, by American sculptor Alan LeQuire, stands as the center of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee.

After the 1890s, its meaning was extended to include any statue fashioned in a combination of ivory with other materials.