Diptych with the Entry into Jerusalem, Crucifixion, Entombment, and Resurrection

This diptych is composed of two panels of ivory bound with a pair of hinges so that it can open and close like a book. It also has a metal latch on each of its exterior edges to allow it to be locked closed. The vertical orientation of the ivory grain is visible on the smooth backs of the panels. The interiors of the panels are carved with figural scenes in two registers beneath a canopy of trefoil tracery and cusped, crocketed arches. The narrative moves from the upper left to right across the panels before moving down. It begins with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the city represented as an open gatehouse. Five apostles follow Jesus on foot. Christ is welcomed into the city by a man who lays his cloak before his donkey, a figure perched at the top of a tree, and others who peep over the crenelated roof of the gatehouse. A further figure, identified as a Jew by his pointed hat, holds a scroll and gestures in amazement at the scene.

In the second scene, on the right in the upper register, Jesus hangs on the cross, flanked on his right by his mother, who faints into the arms of her female attendants, and Saint John the Evangelist, who holds his identifying book and looks away, holding his face in anguish. Behind him, two Jews with hats witness the Crucifixion. The one bearing the scroll looks away and down at his scroll, a visual formula suggesting the rejection of Christ as the Messiah. A pair of disks representing the sun and the moon peep out from behind the canopy above, and a pair of mourning angels swoop down from the heavens on either side of the cross.

Below on the left, four of Jesus’s followers place him in a tomb as Nicodemus anoints him with aromatic oils. In the final scene in the lower right, Jesus arises from the tomb, half-clad in his burial shroud and bearing the cross as a sign of victory. He is flanked by kneeling angels. Three mail-clad soldiers with shields lie before the tomb, and one awakens and raises his hand in astonishment at the Resurrection

The panels are in excellent condition, with few visible losses and signs of wear to the carvings except for a large scratch down the torso of Jesus in the Entombment. The ivory on the interior is an even white with little cracking due to dehydration. No painted decoration is visible to the naked eye. The backs of the panels are heavily abraded and preserve several stickers, including two from the 1857 Manchester Art Exhibition and one annotating its entry in William Maskell’s 1872 volume, A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum.

Further Reading:

Sarah Lipton, Images of Intolerance: The Representation of Jews and Judaism in the Bible Moralisée (Berkley: University of California Press, 1999): pp. 62-65.

Nina Rowe. "Pocket Crucifixions: Jesus, Jews, and Ownership in Fourteenth-Century Ivories." Studies in Iconography 32 (2011): pp. 84-85, fig. 3

Pamela A. Patton, Art of Estrangement: Redefining Jews in Reconquest Spain (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012).


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

Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, Goodrich Court, Herefordshire; J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)

Yokohama Museum of Art. "Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: French Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century," March 25–June 4, 1989.

South Kensington Museum. A Description of the Ivories, Ancient & Mediaeval, in the South Kensington Museum, edited by William Maskell. London: Chapman & Hall, 1872. no. 1, p. 176.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 800bis, p. 292 n. 1.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 800bis, p. 290.

McCarthy Irgens, Laurie. "Medieval Arts: Special Loans." Bulletin of the Krannert Art Museum 2, no. 1 (1976). p. 6, ill.

Sutton, Denys, ed. Treasures from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: French Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. Yokohama: Yokohama Museum of Art, 1989. no. 15, p. 71.

Randall Jr., Richard H. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993. p. 86.