Adam Lenckhart, German, 1610-1661
Neptune, mid-17th century
Adam Lenckhart was a German ivory carver an official sculptor of the royal court in Vienna. In this piece Neptune is shown calming the stormy sea, represented by the wild-eyed dolphin. Lenckhart was practicing during the first century of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. European envoys looted and stole people for enslavement but also resources such as sugar, rum, and ivory. Lenckhart was presumably receiving his material that he sculpted hundreds of pieces with on boats that also carried enslaved people. Ivory is the bone of an elephant’s tusk and was harvested in the masses for its malleability and superior carving texture. This put a high demand on the bone of an already diminishing species, and created a market where many people and animals were exploited for artistic gain. Label by Isabel Schreur