Diptych with the Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Crucifixion and the Last Judgement

Entry

In the eighteenth century, this ivory diptych was in the possession of a Carthusian monk residing in the city of Trier: written in ink on the reverse of the right-hand wing (fig. a) is a Latin inscription that reads: verus Possessor Albergatus Ehlen Prior Cartusiae Trevirensis. 1781. ([the] rightful owner [is] Albergatus Ehlen, prior of the Carthusians in Trier). Inscribed on the reverse of the left-hand wing (fig. b), we find the following text: Quator eburnea Imagines, dicuntur opera Seculi 800mi (Four ivory images [of which] it is said [that they are] works from the 8th century). Inscriptions of this kind are not only rare, but also of particular importance when attempting to establish the history of the use and reception of such diptychs.⁶ Ehlen refers to himself as the ‘true owner’, possibly implying that the diptych was his own personal possession as opposed to belonging to the Carthusian monastery itself. The diptych would then have been used for private devotion, the very same purpose for which it was originally commissioned centuries before. Equally telling is the prior’s perception that the ivory might have been carved in the eighth century. He was therefore very well aware of the object’s significant antiquity, albeit purportedly six centuries too early. In reality, the diptych was produced around the third quarter of the fourteenth century, most likely in the Mosan region or north-eastern France.⁷

The iconography of this small work concerns the life of Christ, essentially forming a highly condensed narrative depiction of Christian Salvation history. The diptych bears four traditional scenes (reading from the left-hand to the right-hand panel): in the lower registers, the Nativity (left wing) and the Adoration of the Magi (right wing); in the upper registers, the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment. Among fourteenth-century diptychs of this sort, only the scene of the Last Judgment signals a relatively new element, possibly betraying a northern influence.⁸ The Nativity is the moment of the incarnation, when Christ became flesh – in effect, the starting point of God’s plan for the world’s salvation. The three kings precede the worshipper in prayer and adoration – a scene formally echoed in the scene appearing above it, in which Mary and John the Evangelist intercede before Christ. These figures of adoration and intercession were presented to the diptych’s medieval user – in all probability, the member of a monastic community – as exempla, implicitly offering him the prospective reward of a place in heaven.⁹ In the scene of the Adoration of the Magi, Mary’s coronation by an angel likewise refers to this heavenly reward. By reading and meditating on these scenes in this manner, and above all by living a life in accordance with the message they conveyed, the worshipper was reminded of Christ’s role as saviour.

A sequence of these four scenes was by no means uncommon among examples of fourteenth-century ivory-carving in north-western Europe. A diptych in the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne displays exactly the same scenes, even if some details of the iconography have been omitted.¹⁰ Missing in the background of the Nativity, for instance, is the small figure of Joseph, to whom the angel behind the arch – still present, though now without purpose – proclaims the birth of his son. In terms of style and iconography, a diptych in the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum in Aachen bears a far greater similarity to the Amsterdam ivory.¹¹ Three of the four scenes are in fact exactly alike; with the exception of the Last Judgment, which has been replaced by the Coronation of the Virgin. There is no doubt that both ivories came from the same (Mosan?) workshop, where any one of these scenes could apparently be combined in accordance with the patron’s wish.

Frits Scholten, 2024