Diptych with Scenes from the Life of Christ

This diptych is composed of two rectangular ivory panels bound with a pair of ivory hinges. The backs of the panels are uncarved, revealing the vertical orientation of the ivory grain. The interior faces are carved with scenes from the life of Christ in two registers. Each register is surmounted with an elaborate canopy composed of corbels, four cusped and crocketed gothic arches, spandrels filled with blind trefoils, and a beaded frieze.

The narrative is broken into two parts, the Infancy and the Passion, but the division between the two stories does not fully concur with the division between the two registers. The infancy cycle begins on the lower left corner with the Annunciation, where the archangel Gabriel greets Mary and announces her upcoming pregnancy as the dove descends from the arch above. The Nativity is on the right side of the same lower left panel. Mary rests after giving birth to Jesus, who lies next to her in a crib made of wicker. Joseph watches over her while an angel reads news of the birth of the messiah off a scroll to the shepherd in the rugged terrain above. The infancy narrative continues with on the lower register of the right panel with the Adoration of the Magi. The eldest Magi kneels before the seated Mary and her infant son. Jesus receives a gift whose shape, a disk with an inscribed cross, suggests a Eucharistic wafer. The other two Magi stand behind, one of them pointing to the star behind Mary’s head.

The next scene, on the right side of the lower register, begins the Passion cycle. Jesus is seen entering Jerusalem, represented by a towered doorway, on a donkey. He is followed by a disciple, recognizable from his book and palm leaf, while the citizens lay cloaks on the ground and watch from a tree. The rest of the Passion cycle narrative is on the upper register of both panels. Its episodes do not occur here in a left to right sequence as in the Infancy story on the lower register. Instead, it begins on the left side of the right panel with Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, an event that happened during the Last Supper. The action then moves to the left side of the upper left panel for the Agony in the Garden. In this scene, Jesus prays in a rocky and forested landscape and receives a blessing from God, who descends as a bust from the arcade. The right half of the upper register of the left panel shows the arrest of Christ, most easily identified by Peter cutting off the ear of the soldier. The final scene, on the right side of the upper right panel, is the "Noli me Tangere" or "touch me not," when Mary Magdalene confronts the resurrected Jesus, now Christ, after he returned from the dead.

The iconography is unusual. It represents a Passion cycle without the climactic scene of the Crucifixion itself, suggesting that the diptych was assembled from two fragments and that it is missing elements that would have represented the crucial scene. The carving on the panels is rudimentary but in relatively good condition, with few signs of rough wear or breakage. Extensive craquelure (network of cracks) due to dehydration is visible in the backgrounds of the figural scenes, and there is one particularly dense patch in the outer rim of the left panel. The ivory retains extensive traces of blue and red paint, especially in the foliage and the trefoils in the canopy. There are several differences in the handling of the left from the right panel that suggest, along with the peculiar iconography, that the diptych may be composed of two fragments that were joined in the modern period. The hole that penetrates the upper left panel from the top edge is consistent with the anchors of medieval tongue-in-eye latches, but a matching one is not visible on the other panel. The back of the left panel also features horizontal lines composed of scratches and discolored patches. Their symmetry is clear, and they may be traces of former closures or a preliminary division of the surface for carving, before it was decided to use the other side of the panel. The handling of the incised rim differs between the panels in the area of the hinges, suggesting that they were originally made to incorporate hardware of different sizes.

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.

Paul Williamson and Glynn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550 (Part 1) (London: V&A Publishing, 2014):pp. 288-290.


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

Georges Hoentschel (French); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)

Pératé, André. Collections Georges Hoentschel: Ivoires, orfèvrerie religieuse, pierres. Vol. 2. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1911. no. 42, fig. XXXV.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 352, pp. 184, 294.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 352, p. 150.