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Title:Leaf from a Diptych with the Adoration of the Magi
Date:ca. 1300–1325
Geography:Made in Paris, France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant ivory with traces of paint and gold, metal mounts
Dimensions:Overall: 5 1/8 x 3 7/16 x 7/16 in. (13 x 8.7 x 1.1 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Accession Number:32.100.205
This ivory panel is half of a diptych, a Christian devotional object composed of two panels bearing images that fold book-like on a pair of hinges. Like other gothic ivory diptychs, the exterior is smooth and uncarved. The back reveals a vertical orientation of the ivory grain typical of gothic ivory carvers. Elements of the hinges are still embedded on the right side. The hole and notch on the left side is a trace of the mechanism used to keep the booklet closed when not in use. The hole on the top may have been added by a later collector to attach it to a wall. The panel is bowed and bears small cracks and substantial traces of paint.
In the fourteenth century, artisans working in ivory in France, the Netherlands, and Germany made diptychs for private devotion in large numbers, replicating formulas popular among the lay pious. The current diptych fragment represents the adoration of Jesus by Three Magi, who served as models of devotion for the Christian worshipper. This scene was among the more popular for ivory diptychs, and The Met preserves no fewer than five diptychs or diptych fragments representing this scene. Typically for images of this type, the figures stand beneath a canopy of gothic arches, gables, and tracery. Mary is seated and crowned and receives the three kings with Jesus standing on her lap. The eldest king, traditionally named Melchior, has removed his crown in deference to Jesus as he presents his gift. Jesus reaches out to receive it while also touching his mother’s attribute of the flowering stick. Behind him, Balthazar gestures, presumably to the star that guided them to the scene, while Caspar, the youngest, holds a jar. The formulaic nature of devotional diptychs suggests that the missing right panel represented the crucifixion, though an example also in the collection pairs this scene with a representation of the Veronica, a veil with an image of the face of Jesus that was miraculously created as he was led to the crucifixion (acc. no. 17.190.274).
Ivory diptychs representing the Three Kings according to the current formula enjoyed widespread and long-lived popularity. The current example, made in Paris in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, is early, with the basic model remaining unchanged for over a century. Across this period, artists in a region stretching from Paris to the mouth of the Rhine were working in different styles and levels of skill; they consistently reproduced this model for representing the Visitation and other standardized devotional scenes. Scholars have debated the cause of this homogeneity. They have called attention to the mobility of artists and their models to explain their rapid dispersal. This Adoration panel closely replicates a contemporary terracotta panel now in the Musée Curtius in Liège. The art historian Richard Randall has suggested that such terracotta reliefs served as workshop prototypes and has suggested that a practice of copying such prototypes encouraged stylistic and iconographic homogeneity.
Further Reading:
Richard Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1985): pp. 178-188.
Charles T. Little, "Gothic Ivory Carving in Germany," in Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of 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
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