Diptych with Scenes from the Passion of Jesus

This diptych, or pair of folding panels, is formed of two slabs of ivory connected with metal hinges, allowing them to fold together to protect the carvings on the interior. It was once possible to lock the panels by means of a now missing sliding hook that locked into the iron mount on the top of the right panel. The exterior sides of the panels are smooth, revealing the vertical orientation of the ivory grain typical of medieval French ivory carving, and the inner edges of the ivory slabs are rounded to aid the process of opening and closing. The panels are in pristine condition, without any discoloration or traces of former polychromy. The ivory is a warm, milky white, and there are no substantial cracks or losses.

The interior faces of the two panels are minutely detailed, admirably displaying the opportunities that elephant ivory offered medieval carvers as an artistic medium. The calcified cellular material beneath the enamel layer of a tusk (known as dentine) is dense, hard, and even in texture. the consistent texture created by the network of microscopic tubercules that supplied blood to the tooth allows a carver to apply pressure to a gouge or chisel without slipping. This makes it a favored medium for miniature carving and precision cutting. In the case of this diptych, the carver has trusted the hardness of the ivory to safeguard the detailed work from breakage and using the massive half-inch slab to its fullest, has carved the figures nearly in the round.

The artist has divided the surface of the panel into three registers depicting scenes from the final days of Jesus. The narrative is bracketed by a concave frieze adorned with rose flowers and travels horizontally across the two panels before moving downward. It opens at the top left with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to the adulation of the city’s inhabitants and proceeds to the washing of his feet on the right. It then continues to the second register, where Jesus shares his last supper with his disciples before praying in the Garden of Gethsemane in the company of his sleeping disciples. In the lowest register, the henchmen of Pontius Pilate arrest Jesus with the help of Judas, who is shown a second time after his suicide. The final scene shows Jesus on the cross, surrounded with a crowd of mourning disciples, Roman soldiers, and grandees of Jerusalem, who gather on the right-hand side and gesture to one another as if arguing over the significance of the events that unfold before them. Further pressing ivory’s capacity for fine detail, all the figures sport elegantly curled hair and elegant drapery. The multiplication of scenes on so small a scale calls to mind contemporary trends in manuscript painting, especially the multi-scene pages of moralized bibles and books of hours. This cross-medium continuity plays off the diptych’s book-like quality and its use like devotional manuscript as an aid in private devotion.

Further Reading:

Benjamin Burack, Ivory and its Uses. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle, 1984.

Anthony Cutler, The Craft of Ivory: Sources, Techniques, and Uses in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 200-1400. Washington DC.: Dumbarton Oaks Press, 1985.

Sarah Guérin, French Gothic Ivories: Material Theologies and the Sculptor’s Craft, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.


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)

Kunz, George F. Ivory and the Elephant in Art, in Archaeology, and in Science. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1916. p. 50.