Diptych with Scenes from the Passion

This diptych is composed of two ivory panels joined with modern hinges. When the panels are closed, a tongue-in-eye joint allows the two sides to lock together. The backs of the panels are smooth, revealing the vertical grain of the ivory and the outlines of two strips of ivory used in a modern repair. The interiors of the panels are carved with four scenes, each surmounted by a beaded frieze and three cusped and crocketed gothic arches that rest on corbels. The narrative represents the final days leading up to the death of Jesus on the cross, commonly called the Passion Cycle. The narrative reads from left to right and upper to lower register. Beginning on the upper left with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, it passes onto the Last Supper, the Betrayal in the Garden, and the Crucifixion. The scenes may also be read as thematic vertical pairs. The theme of encounters with Jesus animates the left panel, and the precedents for the sacraments of the Eucharist the right.
The diptych has been extensively repaired, probably in the nineteenth century. The pair of ivory strips on the inner edge probably replace damaged elements of the panels, but the new hinges appear to have caused further damage to the ivory. Holes were drilled entirely through the panel to fix them in place, and modern ivory plugs are visible in the canopies of the upper registers in both panels, on the feet of Judas and the man laying his cloak before Jesus during his entry into Jerusalem, on the knees of the soldiers who arrest Christ in the Garden, and on the female figures gathered at the Crucifixion. In other places the modern restorer sought to fill holes with modern ivory inserts, most notably between Jesus and the soldier who apprehends him, and above the heads of the gathered apostles on the upper right panel. Two modern ivory plugs are visible on the knees of the women gathered to witness the crucifixion of Jesus on the bottom right. The carvings themselves are largely in excellent condition, with no areas of visible loss or wear. The ivory is an unpatinated white, with no trace of paint. The back preserves an inventory sticker and several scratches.

Composed as it is of ivory, this diptych calls attention to t late medieval France’s engagement in larger geopolitical networks of exchange. This is one of the numerous, highly regularized diptychs that the art historian Raymond Koechlin called the "Frieze of Arcades" group that flourished during the so-called Golden Age of medieval ivory carving. The Met preserves over thirty diptychs of the "frieze of arcades" group, and their highly-regularized form, compositions, and sheer numbers attest to the high productivity and professionalization of French ivory carving ateliers, especially those located in Paris. That said, they count for only a fraction of a diverse material culture that craftspeople made using ivory in fourteenth-century France. The thirteenth-century civil code of Paris’s craft guilds entitled The Bylaws of the Guilds of Paris (Li establissement des Mestiers de Paris), divides workers who worked with ivory into six groups; ymagiers tailleurs who made sculptures, enmancheeurs who made knife handles, pigniers-lanterniers who made lanterns, tabletiers who made writing tablets, patenostriers who made beads, and diciers who made dice. This specialization in fourteenth-century Paris and the abundant production of ivory carving that it supported, depended on a dramatic increase in the volume of ivory in France thanks to intensifying connections between European merchants, Islamic states of the Mediterranean, and sub-Saharan societies such as Mali and the mercantile communities of East Africa’s Swahili Coast.

Further Reading:

Elizabeth Sears, "Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris," in Images in Ivory: Precious Objects from the Gothic Age, ed. Peter Barnet (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), pp. 18-37.

Sarah M. Guérin, "Exchange of Sacrifices: West Africa in the Medieval World of Goods, c. 1300," The Medieval Globe, special issue on A World within Worlds? Reassessing the "Global Turn" in Medieval Art History, eds. Christina Normore 3.2 (2017), pp. 97–124.

Sarah M. Guérin, “Forgotten Routes: Italy, Ifrīqiya, and the trans-Saharan Ivory Trade,” Al-Masāq, Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean, eds. Mariam Rosser-Owen and Alex Metcalfe 25.1 (April 2013), pp. 71–92.


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

Georges Hoentschel (French); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)

New York. Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. "Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 3, 2013–August 11, 2013.

Pératé, André. Collections Georges Hoentschel: Ivoires, orfèvrerie religieuse, pierres. Vol. 2. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1911. no. 39, fig. XXII.

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

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 798, p. 292 n. 1.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 798, p. 289.

Krohn, Deborah L., Ulrich Leben, and Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide, ed. Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 2013. no. 132, p. 168.

Warren, Jeremy. Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum: Volume 2, Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2014. p. 579.

Fajt, Jiri, and Markus Hörsch, ed. Kaiser Karl IV., 1316–2016: Erste Bayerisch-Tschechische Landesausstellung. Ausstellungskatalog. K*700. Prague: Národní Galerie v Praze, 2016. p. 599.