Diptych with the Glorification of the Virgin and Crucifixion

This diptych is composed of two panels of ivory joined with two hinges. The backs of the panels are smooth, revealing the vertical grain of the ivory. Their fronts are carved with figural scenes under a canopy composed of a cusped lancet arch and a crocketed gable. The left scene presents Mary and the infant Jesus between a pair of taper-bearing angels, a formula called the Glorification of the Virgin. An additional pair of angels occupy the spandrels above the arch. They emerge from clouds and bear incense boats and the ropes of censers, which dangle behind the arch. The right scene presents the Crucifixion. Christ’s lifeless body hangs from the cross. He is flanked by Mary, who turns toward him with her hands raised, and Saint John the Evangelist, who holds a book and, turning away from the scene, raises his hand in grief. The sun and crescent moon emerge from clouds behind the cross. In the upper corners of the panel, a pair of mourning angels descend from clouds into the spandrels.

The carved surface is an even off-white, and no paint is visible to the unaided eye. The features of the figures are slightly worn, and Mary’s nose in the Crucifixion scene is slightly damaged. There are discolored scratches on the angels in the spandrels and on the cheek of Jesus in the Glorification.

Further Reading:

Nina Rowe, "Pocket Crucifixions: Jesus, Jews, and Ownership in Fourteenth-Century Ivories," Studies in Iconography 32 (2011): pp. 81-120.

Sarah M. Guérin, "Meaningful Spectacles: Gothic Ivories Staging the Divine," The Art Bulletin 95, (March 2013): pp. 53-77.


Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)