Diptych with the Glorification of the Virgin and the Crucifixion

This small devotional diptych is composed of two rectangular ivory panels joined with a pair of metal hinges. A pair of metal latches on the outer edges, one missing its hook, allow it to be securely closed. The backs of the panels are smooth, displaying the vertical orientation of the ivory grain. The fronts of the panels are carved with a pair of scenes under a canopy of three crocketed gables and cusped lancet arches that rest on corbels.

The scene on the left panel presents the Glorification of the Virgin. The Virgin Mary is crowned and supports Jesus on her left hip while holding a sprig of foliage in her right hand. The baby Jesus reaches out to touch her chin. Two angels holding candlesticks flank them. Above, a pair of angels with incense boats emerge from clouds to cense Mary and her child. The right scene presents Jesus on the cross. He is flanked by his mourning mother, who clasps her hands and looks away in grief, and Saint John the Evangelist, who holds his book and, turning away, casts his gaze onto the ground. Two angels descend from Heaven on either side of the cross and hold the sun and crescent moon in their hands. The kneeling, praying figure below Mary is depicted in smaller scale and a headdress called a crispinette or a snood that was fashionable among elite women of the later 14th century, identifies the intended user of the diptych as an upper-class laywoman.

The ivory has suffered some damage. Mary’s nose in the left panel has broken, and there is abrasion to the face of Jesus. Part of the lower hinge is missing, and its loss has broken the edge of the right panel. No traces of original paint are visible to the naked eye, and the ivory is an eggshell white. The ivory has cracked from dehydration and from its interaction with metal elements, most noticeable in the canopy on the right panel and on the smooth backs and sides. A pair of holes of unclear origin penetrate the top of both panels. The use of two latches is unusual for a gothic diptych and appear to be later.

While not a portrait in the modern sense of an image carved after a life study, the owner portrait foregrounds the identity of a medieval user, begging questions about their relationships with the ivory’s creation (was this ivory a special commission, and did the intended user especially request the portrait to be included?), about the user’s gendered, class, and religious identities, and the way that this object was enmeshed in the daily lives of a real, but now unknown person. This confrontation with a life lived emerges from an essential function of a donor portrait and its use as a mirror to the interiority of the Christian devotee. Images of Christian devotees interacting with sacred figures or events multiplied in the late Middle Ages, in part due to church reform movements and their focus on contemplating and perfecting the Christian worshipper’s inner self. User portraits served as models for devotion and served as anchors to help users imagine themselves as participants in the scenes central to their meditative practice. After death, the image of the owner could serve as a memorial to their life or new owners could reimagine the identity of the image in relation to themselves and their own spiritual practice.

Further Reading:

Charles T. Little, "The Art of Gothic Ivories, Studies at the Crossroads," in Sculpture Journal 23.1 (2014): pp. 13-29.

Alexa Sand, Vision, Devotion, and Self-Representation in Late Medieval Art (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014): pp. 1-26.

Stephen Perkinson, "Issues of Female Patronage: French Books of Hours, 1220-1320," in Patronage: Power and Agency in Medieval Art, ed. Colum Hourihane (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2013): pp. 233-255.

Aden Kumler, "The Bohun Women & Manuscript Patronage in Fourteenth-Century England," in Patronage: Power and Agency in Medieval Art, ed. Colum Hourihane (University Park: Penn Statue University Press, 2013): pp. 275-298.


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)

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.

Catalogue officiel illustré de l'exposition retrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800. Exposition universelle de 1900. Paris: Lemercier & Cie., 1900. no. 129, p. 265.

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. 77, p. 34.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 566, pp. 198,199,219,220.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 566, p. 217.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume III, Plates. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 566, pl. XCIX.

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. 17, p. 72.

Little, Charles T. "Gothic Ivory Carving in Germany." In Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, edited by Peter Barnet. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. pp. 86–87, fig. VI–11.

Yvard, Catherine. "Gothic Ivories and their Owners: An Overview." In A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, edited by Glyn Davies, and Eleanor Townsend. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2017. pp. 194–95, 201, Appendix no. 19.