Images of the Koimesis, or the Dormition in the West, show the Virgin lying on a bier, while her soul, represented as a baby, is offered by Christ to attendant angels who will take it to heaven. The apostles, led by Saints Paul and Peter, stand witness.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Icon with the Koimesis
Date:late 900s
Geography:Made in probably Constantinople
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Ivory
Dimensions:Overall: 7 5/16 x 5 13/16 x 7/16 in. (18.6 x 14.8 x 1.1 cm)
Classification:Ivories
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.132
Inscription: Inscribed in Greek: The Koimesis - HKOIMHCIC; "The falling-asleep" (of the Virgin).
[ Arnold Seligmann, Paris (sold 1910)]; J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1910–1913)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Fakes and Forgeries," July 11–September 29, 1973.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Glory of Byzantium," March 11–July 6, 1997.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Consular Diptychs and Christian Ivories." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 13, no. 8 (August 1918). pp. 171–73.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1925. pp. 22, 48, fig. 9, ill. p. 23.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. pp. 22, 48, fig. 9, ill. p. 23.
Goldschmidt, Adolph, and Kurt Weitzmann. Die Byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X.-XIII. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 2. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1934. no. 234, pp. 20–21, 82, fig. 234, pl. LXXV.
Goldschmidt, Adolph. "Elfenbeinfälschungen." Mitteilungen des Museen-Verbandes 55 (February 1935). pp. 25–27, fig. 3.
Bonicatti, Maurizio. "Considerazioni su alcuni affreschi medioevali della Campania." Bollettino d'Arte, 4th ser., 43 (January–March 1958). pp. 19, 23 n. 9, fig. 9.
Fakes and Forgeries. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1973. unpaginated.
Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom, ed. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 101, pp. 114, 146, 153–55, 444.
Connor, Carolyn L. The Color of Ivory: Polychromy on Byzantine Ivories. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998. pp. 21, 76, 84, fig. 11.
Koenen, Ulrike. "Faksimile und Fälschung: Von der Wertschätzung byzantinischer Kleinkunst in Mittelalter und Neuzeit." Mitteilungen zur spätantiken Archäologie und byzantinischen Kunstgeschichte 2 (2000). pp. 112–13, fig. 4.
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). p. 48.
Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires Médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003. pp. 99, 109.
Ní Riordáin, Michelle, ed. Muire na mBard: Móradh na Maighdine. Dublin: Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta, 2016. p. 8.
Squizzato, Alessandra Dr., and Francesca Tasso. Gli avori Trivulzio: arte, studio e collezionismo antiquario a Milano fra XVIII e XX secolo. Trivulziana, Vol. 15. Padua: Il Poligrafo, 2017. no. 15, pp. 203–204, fig. 50.
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