The densely packed scenes on this large diptych depict an unusually rich array of New Testament events, apocryphal legends, and the lives of the saints. The sequence of events shown on the left panel beginning with the lower left row is: the Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation in the Temple, Resurrection, Descent into Hell, and Coronation of the Virgin. On the right panel, beginning with the lower row is: Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint John the Baptist, the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, Crucifixion, Ascension, Holy Trinity, and Virgin nursing.
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Title:Diptych with Scenes of the Life of Christ and the Virgin, Saint Michael, John the Baptist, Thomas Becket, and the Trinity
Date:ca. 1350
Geography:Made in Cologne, Germany
Culture:German
Medium:Elephant ivory
Dimensions:Overall (open): 10 x 8 5/16 x 3/8 in. (25.5 x 21.1 x 0.9 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1970
Accession Number:1970.324.8a, b
This diptych is composed of two rectangular panels of ivory held together with four hinges, allowing it to close like a book. The smooth backs or exteriors reveals the vertical orientation of the ivory grain typical of medieval ivory carving, with the distal end of the ivory tusk facing downward. The panels taper slightly toward the bottom, conforming to the curve of the elephant tusk. Small bands of cementum, the outer layer of the tusk, are visible on the outer corners.
The interior faces of the panels are carved with religious images in four registers. The imagery can be grouped thematically and spatially into three separate categories: the lives of Mary and Jesus, mystical contemplative images, and images of saints. Most of the imagery belongs to the first category. The narrative imagery begins on the left panel’s lowest register with the Annunciation and the Nativity. It then goes up one register, still on the left panel, with the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation of the infant Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem. The narrative then jumps to the same register on the right panel with the Crucifixion before going up again on the left panel, which from left to right depicts the Resurrection and the Harrowing of Hell. The final narrative scene, which occupies the same register of the right panel, represents the Ascension. The images occupy the top register of both panels show, from left to right, the Coronation of the Virgin, the Trinity surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists, and the breastfeeding Virgin Mary. Images of saints are found in the lowest register of the right panel and represent Michael’s defeat of the dragon, Saint John the Baptist, and the death of Thomas Becket. The carvings are all in excellent condition, with no areas of loss or visible damage. The ivory is a pale milky white, with no visible traces of paint or gilding.
The floral decoration on the borders demonstrates a kinship to the so-called "décor aux roses" group of ivory diptychs, but scholars have called attention to stylistic and compositional qualities that align it more closely with large-scale sculpture in marble and ivory carvings made in fourteenth-century Cologne. The imagery demonstrates an especially strong consonance with a diptych now in the Vatican Museum (inv. no. 64657), which represents the Pentecost, the Trinity, and Christ in Judgement in addition to scenes from the childhood of Jesus, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. The thematic diversity encountered on these two diptychs suggest the continued flexibility of ivory carvers in the fourteenth century, especially their willingness to reinvent old formats to capture the thematic complexity and variety of devotional images carved on altarpieces and painted in books of hours. On the current diptych, the assembly of the images does not follow a strict narrative progression, suggesting that the carvers sought to assemble images into contemplative groupings such as the canonical hours of the Virgin and the passions of the saints.
Further Reading:
Charles Rufus Morey, Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del Museo Sacro Vaticano. Catalogo del Museo sacro della Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Vol. 4. (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1936): p. 38, fig. 36.
Peter Bloch, "Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Ausstellung im Kunsthaus Zürich vom 7. Juni bis 1. September." Kunstchronik 17 (October 1964): pp. 264–65, 280.
Peter Barnet, ed. Images in Ivory: Precious Objects from the Gothic Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997): pp. 200-201.
Charles T. Little, "Gothic Ivory Carving in Germany," in Images in Ivory: Precious Objects from the Gothic Age, ed. Peter Barnet (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997): pp. 80-93.
Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022
[ Demotte Inc., Paris and New York] ; [ Brimo de Laroussilhe, Paris] ; [ L. Daguerre, Paris ] ; [ Paula de Koenigsberg ] ; Ernst and Marthe Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne (sold 1970)
Salon Nacional de Bellas Artes, Montevideo. "Exposición de obras de arte europeo (siglo XII al XIX) Pertenecientes a la colección Paula de Koenigsberg.," June 1945.
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires. "Exposición de Obras Maestras. Colección Paula de Koenigsberg," October 1945.
Museo Municipal de Arte Hispano Americano. "Exposicion de arte gotico : coleccion Paula de Koenigsberg," 1947.
Museo Municipal de Arte Hispano Americano. "Exposición de Obras Maestras Siglos XII al XVII Coleccion Paula de Koenigsberg," May–July 1951.
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.
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux. "Profil de Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York - de Ramses á Picasso," May 15–September 1, 1981.
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.
Cologne, Germany. Museum Schnütgen. "Glanz und Größe des Mittelalters: Kölner Meisterwerke aus den großen Sammlungen der Welt," November 4, 2011–February 26, 2012.
"Fourteenth Century Diptych in Ivory." Art News vol. 24 (May 1, 1926). p. 1, ill. only.
Seventh Loan Exhibition: French Gothic Art of the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Century. Detroit: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1928. no. 57, ill.
"A Loan Exhibition of Gothic Art." The Bulletin of the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York 2, no. 2 (November–December 1929). pp. 5–6.
Loan Exhibition of Gothic Art. Rochester, N.Y.: Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, 1929. no. 25, ill. (unpaginated).
Morey, Charles Rufus. Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del Museo Sacro Vaticano. Catalogo del Museo sacro della Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Vol. 4. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1936. p. 38, fig. 36.
Exposición de obras maestras colección Paula de Koenigsberg. Buenos Aires: Museo Municipal de Arte Hispano Americano, 1945. no. 273, p. 38, pl. CXLVI.
Exposición de Obras de Arte Europeo (Siglo XII al XIX), Pertenecientes a la Colección Paula de Koenigsberg. Montevideo: Museo Nacional de Artes Visuale, 1945. no. 97, p. 29, pl. LXXVIII.
Exposición de arte gotico: Coleccion Paula de Koenigsberg. Buenos Aires: Museo Municipal de Arte Hispano Americano, 1947. no. 69, pl. XXXV.
Exposición de obras maestras siglos XII al XVII: Coleccion Paula de Koenigsberg. Buenos Aires: Museo Municipal de Arte Hispano Americano, 1951. no. 104, p. 24, pl. LVI.
Schnitzler, Hermann, ed. Große Kunst des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz. Cologne: Museum Schnütgen, 1960. no. 28, pp. 23–24, pl. 18.
Bloch, Peter. "Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Ausstellung im Kunsthaus Zürich vom 7. Juni bis 1. September." Kunstchronik 17 (October 1964). pp. 264–65, 280, fig. 6a.
Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Ausstellung. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1964. no. 725, p. 78, pl. 71.
Lasko, Peter. "A Notable Private Collection." Apollo 79, no. 28 (June 1964). ill. on cover.
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. 62, p. 22.
Bloch, Peter, Hermann Schnitzler, Charles Ratton, and W. F. Volbach. "Mittelalterliche Kunst der Sammlung Kofler-Truniger, Luzern." Aachener Kunstblätter 31 (1965). pp. 21–22.
Kunsthalle Köln. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz. Cologne: Museen der Stadt Köln, 1968. no. D 11, (unpaginated).
"Departmental Accessions
." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 101 (July 1, 1970–June 30, 1971). p. 21.
The New York Times. "Metropolitan Museum Acquires 13 Outstanding Medieval Ivories." The New York Times (December 1, 1972). p. 41.
Raggio, Olga, ed. Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965-1975; Explanatory Texts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. p. 17.
Profil du Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York, de Ramsès à Picasso. Paris: Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, 1981. no. 63, pp. 64–65.
Barnet, Peter, ed. Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 42, pp. 200–1.
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. no. 42, p. 83, detail ill. p. 80.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 55, pp. 92, 196.
Little, Charles T. "Kölner Elfenbeinschnitzereien der Gotik: viele offene Fragen." In Glanz und Größe des Mittelatters: Kölner Meisterwerke aus den großen Sammlungen der Welt, edited by Dagmar Täube, and Miriam Verena Fleck. München: Hirmer Verlag, 2011. pp. 83–85, fig. 1, 3, 4, 6.
Täube, Dagmar, and Miriam Verena Fleck, ed. Glanz und Größe des Mittelalters: Kölner Meisterwerke aus den großen Sammlungen der Welt. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2011. no. 27, pp. 272–73.
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. 94.
Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. pp. 301, 349.
Ciseri, Ilaria, ed. Gli avori del Museo nazionale del Bargello. Milan: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 2018. p. 247.
Musée du Louvre Antoine-Köning, Élisabeth. "Quatre Ivoires Gothiques de L'Ancienne Collection Kofler-Truniger." La Revue des Musées de France: Revue du Louvre 3 (2019). p. 11, fig. 1.
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