The Gospel of Luke (24:1-10) describes a group of women, among them Mary Magdalene, coming to the empty tomb of the risen Christ. Here three women stand in the orant, or prayer, pose. Two others, swinging censers, approach from either side of a domed building in which tied-back curtains reveal an altar, which may refer to Christ's tomb. Similar curtains separated the altar from the nave, or public area, in early churches in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Altar under Canopy with Gospel book
Mary swinging censer
Virgin Mary
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdadlene and Mary, mother of James
Mary, mother of James
Cross
Mary swinging censer
top of lid
bottom of lid
interior
bottom
Artwork Details
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Title:Circular Box (Pyxis) with the Women at Jesus' Tomb
Date:500s
Geography:Made in Eastern Mediterranean
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Elephant ivory with metalwork and paint
Dimensions:Overall (with lid): 4 1/4 x 5 x 4 3/4 in. (10.8 x 12.7 x 12.1 cm) Overall (Without lid): 4 1/4 x 5 x 4 3/8 in. (10.8 x 12.7 x 11.1 cm) Top ((Lid)): 1 x 5 x 4 3/4 in. (2.5 x 12.7 x 12.1 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Object Number:17.190.57a, b
Dmitri Schevitch, Paris (sold 1906); his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris (April 4–7, 1906, no. 136); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century," November 19, 1977–February 12, 1978.
Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. "Byzanz: Pracht und Alltag," February 26, 2010–June 13, 2010.
Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. "Byzanz: Pracht und Alltag," February 26–June 13, 2010.
Molinier, Emile, ed. Catalogue des Objets d'Art et de Haute Curiosité de l'Antiquité du Moyen-Age et de la Renaissance: Collection de M. D. Schevitch. Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, April 4–6, 1906. no. 136.
Goldschmidt, Adolph. "Mittelstücke fünfteiliger Elfenbeintafeln des VI.—VII. Jahrhunderts." Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 1 (1923). p. 33, fig. 5.
Capps, Edward, Jr. "An Ivory Pyxis in the Museo Cristiano and a Plaque from the Sancta Sanctorum." The Art Bulletin 9, no. 4 (June 1927). p. 340.
St. Clair, Archer. "The Visit to the Tomb: Narrative and Liturgy on Three Early Christian Pyxides." Gesta 18, no. 1 (1979). pp. 129–130, fig. 7 and 8, ill. p. 130, figs. 7–8.
Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. no. 520, pp. 581–82.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983. no. 9, p. 341.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 7, 41, pl. 32.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 9, p. 375.
Connor, Carolyn L. The Color of Ivory: Polychromy on Byzantine Ivories. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998. p. 84.
Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcomb, and Robert Hallman. "The Arts of Byzantium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 58, no. 4 (Spring 2001). pp. 22–23.
Frings, Jutta, ed. Byzanz: Pracht und Alltag. Bonn: Kunst-und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2010. no. 110, p. 195.
Teteriatnikov, Natalia. "When Art Depicts Ritual: The Salerno Plaque with the Women at the Tomb." In The Salerno Ivories: Objects, Histories, Contexts, edited by Francesca Dell’Acqua, Anthony Cutler, Herbert L. Kessler, Avinoam Shalem, and Dr. Gerhard Wolf. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2016. p. 169.
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