Intended for the private contemplation and devotion of its owner, this palm-size ivory diptych illustrates both the reward of salvation and the consequence of damnation. The left wing represents the Coronation of the Virgin. At the bottom a retinue of the saved souls, including a mendicant friar, a king, a pope, and possibly a deacon, is ushered up a ladder to the celestial paradise by an angel who points the way. In the right wing Christ, accompanied by angels carrying instruments of the Passion, displays the wounds of his Crucifixion. As the dead are called from their graves, the kneeling Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist serve as their intercessors in the Last Judgment. The damned appear in the lower right, pushed headfirst into the mouth of Hell at the order of two grotesque devils. Adapted from representations in contemporary architectural sculpture, these subjects are set within a series of trefoil-cusped arcades and are elegantly carved in exceptionally high relief. The supple carving enlivens the symmetrical representation of the drama of redemption and condemnation.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Diptych with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgment
Date:ca. 1260–70
Geography:Made in probably Paris, France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant ivory, with metal mounts
Dimensions:Overall (opened): 5 x 5 1/8 x 3/4 in. (12.7 x 13 x 1.9 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1970
Object Number:1970.324.7a, b
This diptych is composed of a pair of thick ivory panels. Two modern hinges hold the panels together, allowing them to fold closed like a book and lock by means of a hook and eye latch on their outer rims. The backs of the panels are smooth, revealing the vertical orientation of the ivory grain. The interiors of both panels are carved into two vertical registers. The larger upper register features an elaborate canopy composed of a cusped gothic arch, frieze of roses, and spandrels inhabited by censing angels. The lower, smaller register is surmounted by a trefoil arch.
The left panel features Jesus sharing a throne with his mother Mary. He holds a book and raises his right hand in a gesture of benediction while she, hands raised in a gesture of prayer, receives the crown as Queen of Heaven from a descending angel. The figure of Jesus dominates the right panel and merges two iconographic types. His torso is nude, revealing the wound he received on his side while on the cross, and he raises his hands to display the nail wounds on his palms. Together with the angels that bear the three nails, the cross, and the lance of Longinus, these attributes follow the iconographic type of the Man of Sorrows with the Arma Christi, or the Instruments of the Passion. Seated on his throne and flanked by the crowned Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, he also serves as the King of Heaven and judge of human souls. His downward gaze passes below the trefoil that supports his throne and onto the scene below, where a pair of angels blow trumpets to awaken the dead. They emerge from their coffins, still wrapped in their burial shrouds, to receive judgement. To the right of the resurrected souls is a small niche surrounded by a pointed arch, where a demon herds three damned souls into a hellmouth. The narrative of judgement continues onto the lower register of the left panel. There, an angel leads the blessed souls of a mendicant friar, a high prelate, and a pair of kings up a ladder while another angel emerges from a cloud to welcome them to Heaven.
The diptych’s iconography blends common formulas for the representation of sacred imagery to make a complex visual statement of Christian cosmology and salvation. Jesus is represented as both the sacrificial victim that wipes sin and the triumphant king who judges humanity, while Mary is present both as an intercessor for human beings and as the Queen of Heaven. Mary and Christ are enthroned directly above a scene where angels beckon humans up a ladder. This juxtaposition links the Christian concept of salvation with precedents in the Hebrew Bible, namely Jacob’s dream vision of a ladder by which holy spirits travelled to and from Earth. As Charles Little has noted (1997), theologians including Saint Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux linked Mary with the Ladder to Heaven, and Saint Bernard described her as the ladder, "through the steps (of humility) the angels climb and elevate men who rise up." Little also noted the high social status of those souls entering Heaven, a quality that underscores the elite clientele of this expensive devotional object.
The carving on this diptych is exceptionally skilled and technically daring. The faces, hands, and draperies of the figures are modelled with great refinement. The carver has taken advantage of the particularly thick ivory slabs to fully carve the figures, lending them the monumental presence of sculpture in the round. These scenes in miniature read like large-scale sculptural programs on the facades and choir screens of Gothic churches. The carving preserves traces of paint in the upper canopies, Mary’s crown on the left panel, the wings of the angels in both lower registers, the jaw of the Hellmouth, and the interior folds of the robes of Jesus and Mary. The ivory has suffered extensive cracking from dehydration, and a small area of loss may be seen in the trefoil arch on the left side. The hinges are sunk into a pair of modern ivory insets on the inner seam of each panel. Otherwise, the carving is in excellent condition, with few signs of wear.
A member of the "frieze of roses" group of gothic ivory carvings described by Raymond Koechlin in his 1924 study and catalog of medieval ivory Les Ivoires Gothiques Francais, this panel is one of the earliest gothic diptychs and presages a form that would dominate the production of ivory carving in the succeeding century. It most closely resembles a pair of gabled triptychs that Koechlin documented. The first, whose current location is unknown, is labelled no. 210 and illustrated on page LII in his catalog. The second is in the Bibliothèque Municipal of Amiens and is labelled no. 211 on page LIII of the catalog. The three carvings share several design characteristics, most pronounced and unusual of which is the construction of the figural composition around the silhouette of tri- or multilobe arches. A leaf from an ivory diptych in The Met’s collection (acc. no. 17.190.280) demonstrates a similar approach to organizing space and shares the current diptych’s horizontal frieze of flowers. Koechlin suggested that the thirteenth-century ivory studios created rectangular diptychs with flower friezes as a simplified version of tabernacles and triptychs, whose peaked rooflines and pinnacles were breakable and therefore poorly adapted to the lifestyle of peripatetic elites. The current diptych is a forceful demonstration of the skill that ivory carvers brought to this simplified form as it emerged in the middle of the thirteenth century.
Further Reading:
Henk van Os, The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1994. no. 6: pp. 25–26, 176.
Charles T. Little, "Diptych with the Last Judgement and Coronation of the Virgin," in Peter Barnet, ed., Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997): pp. 130-131.
Paul Williamson and Glynn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1400 (London: Victoria & Albert Publishing, 2014): pp. 210-211.
Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022
Ernst and Marthe Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne (sold 1970)
Museum Schnütgen. "Grosse Kunst des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz," April 23–June 6, 1960.
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, Zürich," June 7–August 2, 1964.
Kunsthalle Köln. "Weltkunst au Privatbesitz," May 18–August 4, 1968.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965–1975," December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976.
Rijksmuseum. "The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe 1300-1500," November 26, 1994–February 26, 1995.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age," March 9–May 11, 1997.
Walters Art Museum. "Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age," June 22–August 31, 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350," October 13, 2024–January 26, 2025.
Schnitzler, Hermann, ed. Große Kunst des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz. Cologne: Museum Schnütgen, 1960. no. 23, pp. 20–21, pl. 16.
Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Ausstellung. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1964. no. 720, p. 77, pl. 67.
Lasko, Peter. "A Notable Private Collection." Apollo 79, no. 28 (June 1964). p. 464, fig. 19, ill. p. 471.
Schnitzler, Hermann, Peter Bloch, and W. F. Volbach. Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Skulpturen – Elfenbein, Perlmutter, Stein, Holz; europäisches Mittelalter. Vol. 1. Lucerne: Verlag Räber & Cie, 1964. no. 57, p. 21.
Bloch, Peter, Hermann Schnitzler, Charles Ratton, and W. F. Volbach. "Mittelalterliche Kunst der Sammlung Kofler-Truniger, Luzern." Aachener Kunstblätter 31 (1965). p. 20.
Kunsthalle Köln. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz. Cologne: Museen der Stadt Köln, 1968. no. D 10, fig. 7, (unpaginated).
"Departmental Accessions
." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 101 (July 1, 1970–June 30, 1971). p. 21.
Raggio, Olga, ed. "Medieval Art and the Cloisters." Notable Acquisitions (Metropolitan Museum of Art) no. 1965/1975 (1975). p. 155.
Raggio, Olga, ed. Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965-1975; Explanatory Texts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. p. 17.
Little, Charles T. "Ivoires et art gothique." Revue de l'art 46 (1979). pp. 64–65, fig. 20.
Verdier, Philippe. Le Couronnement de la Vierge: Les Origines et les Premiers Développements d'un Thème Iconographique. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1980. p. 10, pl. 88.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983. no. 15, p. 366.
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. 13, 92, pl. 83.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 46, no. 3 (Winter 1988-1989). p. 60.
Young, Bonnie. A Walk Through The Cloisters. 5th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. p. 107.
Hamburger, Jeffrey F. The Rothschild Canticles: Art and Mysticism in Flanders and the Rhineland circa 1300. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. p. 49, fig. 126.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 15, p. 400.
van Os, Henk. The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1994. no. 6, pp. 25–26, 176.
Strehlke, Carl Brandon. "Exhibition Review: Amsterdam, The Art of Devotion." Burlington Magazine 137, no. 1104 (March 1995). p. 197.
van Os, Henk. Een engel in de koffer: Willem Neutelings en zijn verzameling. Maastricht: Bonnefanten Museum, 1996. p. 26, fig. 31.
Barnet, Peter, ed. Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 9, pp. 130–31.
Rawlings, Irene. "Private Lives: Gothic ivories reveal the faith and romantic fancies of medieval Europeans." Art & Antiques 20, no. 3 (March 1997). pp. 114–15.
Sears, Elizabeth. "Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris." In Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, edited by Peter Barnet. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 9, p. 24.
Stahl, Harvey. "Narrative Structure and Content in Some Gothic Ivories of the Life of Christ." In Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, edited by Peter Barnet. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 9, p. 101.
Williamson, Paul. "Symbiosis across Scale: Gothic Ivories and Sculpture in Stone and Wood in the Thirteenth Century." In Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, edited by Peter Barnet. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 9, pp. 43–44.
Williamson, Paul. "Gothic Ivories in Detroit and Baltimore." Apollo 145, no. 421 (March 1997). pp. 48–50, fig. 2.
Tomasi, Michele. "Contributi allo studio della scultura eburnean trecentesca in Italia: Venezia." Annali della Scuola normale superiore di Pisa: Classe di lettere e filosofia, 4th ser., 4, no. 1 (1999). pp. 230–31.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 47, pp. 82, 195.
Baldelli, Francesca. Tino di Camaino. Morbio Inferiore: Selective Art Edizioni, 2007. p. 73, fig. 59, (ill. only).
Manzari, Francesca. "Un trittico eburneo con l’Incoronazione della Vergine e i Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista." Arte Medievale, n.s., 7, no. 2 (2008). pp. 116–17, fig. 2.
Guerin, Sarah Margaret. "'Tears of Compunction': French Gothic Ivories in Devotional Practice." PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2009. p. 254 n. 25, fig. 5–2.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 80.
Hourihane, Colum P., ed. The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Vol. 3. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. p. 209.
Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. pp. 186, 225.
Stein, Wendy A. How to Read Medieval Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. no. 7, pp. 42–43.
Little, Charles T. "Saint for All Seasons: A Gothic Ivory Statuette of Francis of Assisi." In A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, edited by Glyn Davies, and Eleanor Townsend. ohLondon: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2017. pp. 142–43, fig. 4.
Ciseri, Ilaria, ed. Gli avori del Museo nazionale del Bargello. Milan: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 2018. p. 238.
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