The pax, meaning "peace," was a tablet that the priest and faithful kissed before taking Communion. This example depicts the Crucifixion with the Virgin, St. John, Longinus, and Stephaton. A sword, placed like a stream of blood flowing from Christ's wound, pierces Mary's breast. This iconographic motif developed out of meditations of Rhenish Dominican mystics on the sorrow of the Virgin at the death of her son. The copper-gilt frame was probably added in the late 15th century.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Pax with the Crucifixion
Date:ca. 1360–70
Culture:South German
Medium:Ivory and copper gilt
Dimensions:Overall: 3 3/4 x 3 1/8 x 15/16 in. (9.5 x 7.9 x 2.4 cm)
Classification:Ivories
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1970
Accession Number:1970.324.9
Emile Baboin, Lyons ; Ernst and Marthe Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne (sold 1970)
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, Zürich," June 7–August 2, 1964.
Koechlin, Raymond. Ivoires Gothiques: Collection Émile Baboin. Lyons: A. Rey, 1912. no. 3, pp. 6–7, pl. III.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 613, pp. 221 n. 1, 223 n. 9, 332.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 613, p. 230.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume III, Plates. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 613, pl. CII.
Morey, Charles Rufus. "A Group of Gothic Ivories in the Walters Art Gallery." The Art Bulletin 18, no. 2 (June 1936). p. 204, (on list as no. XXV).
Bloch, Peter. "Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Ausstellung im Kunsthaus Zürich vom 7. Juni bis 1. September." Kunstchronik 17 (October 1964). p. 265.
Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern: Ausstellung. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1964. no. 747, pp. 81–82.
Lasko, Peter. "A Notable Private Collection." Apollo 79, no. 28 (June 1964). fig. 22, ill. p. 472.
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. 84, p. 27.
Bloch, Peter, Hermann Schnitzler, Charles Ratton, and W. F. Volbach. "Mittelalterliche Kunst der Sammlung Kofler-Truniger, Luzern." Aachener Kunstblätter 31 (1965). p. 26.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "One Hundred First Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year July 1, 1970 through June 30, 1971." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 101 (1971). p. 21.
Raggio, Olga, ed. Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965-1975; Explanatory Texts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. p. 17.
Frazer, Margaret English. "Medieval Church Treasuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 43, no. 3 (Winter 1985-1986). pp. 27–28, fig. 26.
McLachlan, Elizabeth Parker. "Liturgical Vessels and Implements." In The Liturgy of the Medieval Church, edited by Thomas J. Heffernan, and E. Ann Matter. Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Western Michigan University, 2005. pp. 420, 422, fig. 18.
Lowden, John. Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery: Complete Catalogue. London: Courtauld Gallery, 2013. p. 64.
Couzin, Robert. Right and Left in Early Christian and Medieval Art. Boston: Brill, 2021. pp. 94–95, Fig. 30.
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