Diptych with Scenes from the Lives of Jesus and Mary

This rectangular diptych is composed of two panels of ivory joined by a pair of hinges, allowing it to open and close like a book. When first made, a hook and eye latch passed through the small holes on the outer rim and allowed the two sides to be secured together. The backs of the panels are smooth, revealing the vertical orientation of the grain. The interior of each leaf is divided into two equal registers of figural carving beneath an arcade of three crocketed gothic arches on corbels. The narrative follows the lives of Mary and Jesus and moves in chronological order across the panels from left to right before moving up. It begins with the Nativity before passing to the Adoration of the Magi, the Crucifixion, and the Coronation of the Virgin. The carvings are finely executed and in excellent condition. The ivory is an even off-white tone with no visible stains and traces of paint. Minor craquelure is visible on the smooth backgrounds of the panels. The backs of both panels are covered with numerous scratches and blotches of discoloration. The hole on the top of each panel dates to the nineteenth century, when it was customary for collectors to hang ivory diptychs from walls. The back also preserves a pair of collection stickers.

The composition of the individual scenes closely mirrors a large group of contemporary diptychs from fourteenth-century Paris and Cologne, demonstrating the widespread use of workshop models that carvers could add, subtract, and rearrange to make devotional narratives of varying scale and complexity. In the present version of the Coronation of the Virgin, the two angels that flank the enthroned Mary and Jesus swing their thuribles horizontally, so that they pass behind the arcade, replicating a composition encountered in another fragment of a diptych in The Met (acc. no. 32.100.202). The scenes of the Nativity and the Crucifixion also closely match the compositional devices used in a two-scene diptych also in the collection (acc. no. 11.203), while the scene of the Annunciation to the Shepherds (in the background of the Nativity) likewise resembles another two-scene diptych attributed to a Paris-trained atelier in Cologne (acc. no. 17.190.287).

With its individual compositions that faithfully replicate standardized workshop patterns, the current diptych appears to encapsulate the observation by early twentieth-century connoisseur and cataloguer of this material, Raymond Koechlin (d. 1931), that the carvers of gothic ivories lacked a strong creative impulse or drive to develop innovative forms. This modernist critique, however, places emphasis on modern constructions of artistic value and effaces contemporary desires for a readable devotional tool that could support a dense cluster of contemplative exercises. Indeed, for contemporaries the replication of tried-and-true iconographies and compositional devices could be read as a positive characteristic that ensured the familiarity of each individual scene to its intended users. And while it is possible to read all the scenes on the current diptych as a narrative that begins with the birth of Jesus and ends after the Last Judgement, the organization of scenes into rows and columns encourages their grouping as thematic pairs that can support their own devotional exercises. A devotee could, for instance, read the upper two scenes as a thematic unity that meditates on the significance of the cross as the throne of God. The vertical pairing of the Adoration of the Magi and the Coronation of the Virgin on the right side could be read as an opportunity to consider Jesus’s identity as king, while those interested in contemplating the joys and sufferings of Mary could focus on the two vertically arranged scenes to the left. An alteration in the iconography could lead to alternative interpretations of the scenes. A similar devotional diptych in The Met’s collection for instance (acc. no. 30.95.123) shifts the scenes around, keeping the image of the Crucifixion at the upper left but placing the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple at right. This pairing suggests a devotional reading emphasizing the significance of the cross as an altar of blood sacrifice rather than as a throne. Given the frequent variability in the arrangement of scenes, it appears that gothic ivory carvers saw this as an appropriate way to create innovative compositions and to craft active reading experiences for users

Further Reading:

Harvey Stahl, "Narrative Structure and Content in Some Gothic Ivories of the Life of Christ," in ed. Peter Barnet, Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), pp. 95-114.

Nina Rowe, "Pocket Crucifixions: Jesus, Jews, and Ownership in Fourteenth-Century Ivories," Studies in Iconography 32 (2011), pp. 81-120.

Sarah M. Guérin, "Meaningful Spectacles: Gothic Ivories Staging the Divine," The Art Bulletin 95, (March 2013), pp. 53-77.


Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022.

J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)

Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 1. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. p. 279.