Presented here are scenes from Gospel accounts of Jesus’ meetings with his followers after the Resurrection. Each plaque is composed of multiple pieces of walrus ivory carved in high relief. These plaques, along with others in Cologne, London, and Berlin, decorated the front of an altar or pulpit. They were originally set into a wood or metal framework and painted.
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Title:Plaque with Doubting Thomas
Date:ca. 1140–60
Geography:Made in Cologne, Germany
Culture:German
Medium:Walrus ivory
Dimensions:Overall (with mount): 8 3/8 x 7 9/16 x 1 1/8 in. (21.2 x 19.2 x 2.9 cm) Overall (without mount): 8 3/8 x 7 9/16 x 3/8 in. (21.2 x 19.2 x 0.9 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Walrus
Credit Line:Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941
Object Number:41.100.202
Count Grégoire Stroganoff, Rome; Private Collection, England; George and Florence Blumenthal, Paris and New York (by 1913-1941)
Hôtel de Sagan, Paris. "Exposition d'objets d'art du moyen age et de la renaissance: tirés des collections particulières de la France et de l'étranger," May–June 1913.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition," February 17–March 24, 1940.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces from the George Blumenthal Collection," December 8, 1943–?
Museum Schnütgen. "Ornamenta Ecclesiae: Kunst und Künstler der Romanik," March 7–June 9, 1985.
Ricci, Seymour de, ed. Exposition d'objets d'art du Moyen âge et de la Renaissance, organisée par la Marquise de Ganay, Chez M. Jacques Séligmann (Ancien Hôtel de Sagan). Catalogue officiel. Paris: Typographie Philippe Renouard, 1913. no. 105, p. 54.
Ricci, Seymour de, ed. Exposition d'objets d'art du moyen âge et de la renaissance, tirés des collections particulières de la France et de l'étranger, organisée par la marquise de Ganay à l'ancien Hôtel de Sagan (mai–juin 1913). Paris: E. Levy, 1914. pl. XXXVIII.
Volbach, W. F. Mittelalterliche Elfenbeinarbeiten. Berlin: E. Wasmuth, 1922. p. 8, pl. 42.
Goldschmidt, Adolph. Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der romanischen Zeit, XI.-XIII. Jahrhundert. Vol. 3. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1923. no. 4, pp. 2, 11, pl. II.
Volbach, Wolfgang Fritz. Les Ivoires du Moyen-Âge. Paris: Éditions G. Crès et Cie, 1923. p. 8, pl. 42.
Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, New York: Volume 3, Works of Art, Mediaeval and Renaissance. Paris: A. Lévy, 1926. pl. II.
Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1927. pp. 76–77.
Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940. no. 126, pp. 42–43.
Forsyth, William H. "The Easter Sepulchre." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 3, no. 7 (March 1945). p. 165.
Forsyth, William H. A Brief Guide to the Mediaeval Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1947. p. 19.
Vogelsang, Rosemarie. "Die Elfenbeingruppe mit den gestichelten Faltenlinien." PhD diss., Universität zu Köln, 1961. pp. 63–65.
Schiller, Gertrud. Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst. Vol. 3. Gütersloh, Germany: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1971. pp. 110–11, 288, fig. 358, ill. p. 451.
Beeson, Nora B., ed. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972. no. 53, p. 222.
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. 1st ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972. p. 179.
Legner, Anton, ed. Ornamenta Ecclesiae: Kunst und Künstler der Romanik. Vol. 2. Cologne: Museum Schnütgen, 1985. no. F72, pp. 434–35.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. p. 380.
Lasko, Peter. Ars Sacra, 800-1200. 2nd ed. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994. p. 187.
Smith, Elizabeth Bradford, ed. Medieval Art in America: Patterns of Collecting, 1800–1940. University Park, Pa.: Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, 1996. p. 104.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at the Metropolitan: 800 to 1400." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 62, no. 4 (2005). pp. 3, 15.
Williamson, Paul. Medieval Ivory Carvings: Early Christian to Romanesque. London: V & A Publications, 2010. pp. 275, 278, fig. 2.
Täube, Dagmar, and Miriam Verena Fleck, ed. Glanz und Größe des Mittelalters: Kölner Meisterwerke aus den großen Sammlungen der Welt. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2011. pp. 258–59.
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