Circular Box (Pyxis) with Scenes from the Infancy of Jesus

Elephant ivory was in no short supply in fourteenth-century France, but only a small number of circular boxes survive from this period. In comparison to the dozens of extant pieces from Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine periods, the relative scarcity of Gothic examples might be explained by a preference for precious metal reliquaries and liturgical boxes. Earlier circular boxes usually feature a single scene composed in the round. Similar to fourteenth-century circular boxes in Lübeck (St.-Annen-Museum, inv. no. 85), Reims (Musée Saint-Rémi, inv. no. 978.28387) and Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. CA 1462), this French example utilizes a compartmentalized compositional strategy, with scenes from Jesus’ birth and infancy set within an arcade of trilobed Gothic arches decorated with rosettes.

Turning the box clockwise, the Infancy cycle unfolds as a series of related but compartmentalized vignettes, each distilled into its essential iconography. Raymond Koechlin associated this container with a group of French ivories that he referred to as the Atelier of the Tabernacles of the Virgin, but its comparatively rough carving instead suggests a less skilled workshop that was nevertheless familiar with popular, and sometimes highly specific, imagery of Jesus’ early life.

In the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel raises a hand of benediction toward Mary. The Visitation follows, with Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, reaching toward her cousin Mary. The Nativity is condensed into a small family portrait, with Mary seated on the ground with the swaddled infant Jesus and her husband Joseph raising one hand to his face in contemplation. The fourth scene depicts a dream, in which an angel, standing upon a rock, warns Joseph to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus. The dream is realized in the following scene, with Mary riding side-saddle on a donkey and Jesus swaddled in her arms. The ivory carver struggled to fit the donkey’s long body into the space delineated by the arcade: its neck is contracted, and its nose is flush with the colonette, at right. The donkey follows Joseph’s lead, which continues behind the pillar at right and leads into the next sequence. The face and body of Joseph were probably damaged at the same time that the box suffered a vertical break.

The Dream of Joseph is an unusual subject for French Gothic ivories, appearing, for example, on a diptych from Lille (Palais des Beaux-Arts, acc. no. A 102). The image to the right of Joseph in the Flight to Egypt sequence, known as the Fall of the Idols, is similarly uncommon (compare Lisbon, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, and London, Wallace Collection, inv. no. S250). Standing naked on a draped altar with buckling knees, the crowned idol’s diminutive proportions and elevated position is formally related to that of its antitype: the angel from Joseph’s dream. Recounted in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (Chapters 22–23), the Fall of the Idols has no biblical precedent but is sometimes depicted adjacent to the traveling Holy Family, for example, in a quatrefoil from the south portal of Notre-Dame in Amiens and on the choir screen at Notre-Dame in Paris (Harvard 1975).

The box’s image sequence varies from the narrative sequence of the Gospel of Matthew. Here, the Adoration of the Magi follows the Flight to Egypt. The Adoration also extends across the remaining four compartments, prompting the viewer to contemplate four different exemplars of faithful kingship. Three of these spaces contain crowned magi, or wise men, bearing gifts in hand-held vessels. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the magi follow a star from the East toward Bethlehem in order to pay homage to the Messiah and, according to later interpretations, were also identified as three kings. In the leftmost image, one magus turns to the right, away from the tall, domed structure with an open door at left. This structure differs from the architecture of fourteenth-century France, and therefore signifies the start of the magi’s journey in a distant kingdom. In the adjacent scene, the second magus turns back to the first with one hand pointed to the heavens in acknowledgement of the star directing their journey. The third magus has arrived at the destination. Stooped on bended knee with his crown in one hand, he offers a gift in the shape of an orb to Mary and Jesus, who are enthroned separately under the last of the box’s ten archways. Mary is crowned and veiled, and offers a flower to Jesus, who stands on her left knee with a hand raised in blessing toward the magi. The magi sequences on the circular ivory boxes in Reims and Dijon are similarly divided under several Gothic arches, and the kings adopt related postures to those on The Met’s box.

The provenance of this box is unknown, as are the conditions under which it was used and appreciated. The container’s low relief carving retains traces of red paint (possibly also green and blue) which could either be medieval or modern. The stepped rims at the top and bottom were stained green by a corrosive metal, indicating that the body of the container was fitted with a metal lip and base. Large holes on either side of the box, at the top, probably indicate the position of the hinge and a clasp that attached to the lid. Based on comparative examples, the lid was probably fashioned from a thin disk of turned ivory with a thin ivory collar. The holes near the bottom of the container would have held a second ivory disk in place as a base.

Related Reading:

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, trans. Alexander Walker. From Ante-Nicene Fathers,vol. 8, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co.,1886). Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.

Eucharistic Vessels of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, 1975), no. 8, pp. 73-74, p. 122, fig. 8.



Catalogue Entry by Nicole D. Pulichene, 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)

Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums. "Eucharistic vessels of the Middle Ages: Busch-Reisinger Museum," March 14–April 26, 1975.

Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. "The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn," September 9-November 21, 1989.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 233, p. 138.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 233, p. 99.

Morey, C.R. "Italian Gothic Ivories." In Medieval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter, edited by Wilhelm R. W. Koehler. Vol. I. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1939. no. 14, p. 188.

Eucharistic Vessels of the Middle Ages. Cambridge, Mass.: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, 1975. no. 8, pp. 73–74, 122.

St. Clair, Archer, and Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, ed. The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn. New Brunswick, N.J.: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 1989. no. 20, pp. 56–57.

Randall Jr., Richard H. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993. p. 58.