Panel from a Diptych

This panel forms the right side of a diptych representing the life of Jesus. The lower register represents the Adoration of the Magi and Jesus' Entry into Jerusalem. The upper register shows Jesus on the cross with Mary and Saint John the Evangelist and the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to Mary Magdalene. The figures, especially those of Jesus in the upper register, exhibit a distinct gauntness that contrasts with the majority of French ivory carving of the fourteenth century. The back of the panel features two horizontal gouges of semicircular section. The surface is scored and features a sticker from a previous owner. The panel is in excellent condition, with no visible cracks or areas of loss.

Ivory carvers in Europe in the early and middle fourteenth century normally carved religious diptychs in high relief and painted the backgrounds with bright colors. At some point in the later part of the fourteenth century, carvers began excising negative space entirely to create openwork ivories, a technique that contemporary Middle French documents call "wholly pierced" (tout piercé) and "letting sunlight through," (à jour). These openwork ivories could be enjoyed for their diaphanous, cage-like quality or laid over painted and gilded parchment to create contrasts in color and texture.

The current panel is related to a French ivory in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. 241-1867). Like the present example, the ivory at the Victoria and Albert Museum represents biblical scenes underneath an arcade of crocketed gables with pierced trefoils. This faithfulness to fourteenth-century compositional formulae suggests an early date of between 1370 and 1390. Other aspects of the carving suggest an experimental quality that is likewise suited to an early date near the beginning of the production of pierced ivories. Also like the Victoria and Albert panel, the present ivory is carved in low relief with little undercutting. The abandonment of undercutting is most visible on inspection of the back, where the silhouettes of the figures project as fields of smooth ivory. At 3/8 of an inch thick, the slab of ivory is unusually massive for an openwork gothic diptych of the fourteenth century. Like the Victoria and Albert piece, the carver attempted to produce a sense of diaphanous lightness in this thick piece of ivory by beveling the edges of the architectural frame, creating openings that are significantly wider in the back than the front. The carver also carved two horizontal gouges into the back of the panel at the level of the openwork trefoils to allow these miniscule perforations to pierce a thinner section of ivory and therefore appear more diaphanous.

The relationship of this panel to that in the Victoria and Albert Museum is open to debate. Technical and stylistic qualities, including the fidelity to fourteenth-century compositions and the experimental quality of the carving suggest that it dates to the late fourteenth century. However, Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies have called attention to the crudeness of the figures in the present example to suggest that it may be a forgery based on a work similar to the one in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Suggestively, the current panel sports two grooves for hinges on its left side, which are missing on the Victoria and Albert panel. While earlier fourteenth-century diptychs are conventionally joined by hinges, pierced ivories typically do not show traces of this type of hardware. This suggests the current panel either stands at the beginning of the tradition of pierced ivories or is the work of a forger more familiar with the mechanics of earlier Gothic ivories than the later tradition of pierced ivories.

Further Reading:

Jaap Leeuwenberg, "Early nineteenth-century Gothic Ivoires," Aachener Künstblatter XXXIX (1969), pp. 111-48.

Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, Part I (London: Victoria and Albert Museum Publishing, 2014), pp. 312-13.

Paul Williamson, The Wyvern Collection: Medieval and Later Ivory Carvings and Small Sculpture (London: Thames and Hudson, 2019).


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

Baron Albert Oppenheim, Cologne(sold 1906); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1906–1917)

Molinier, Emile. Collection du Baron Albert Oppenheim: Tableaux et objets d'art, catalogue précédé d'une introduction. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1904. no. 73, p. 32.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 889, p. 187.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 377, p. 160.

Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. p. 313.