EARLY CHRISTIAN IVORY DIPTIC PANEL PRO

For the aid here acknowledged and for that which no words can acknowledge, the author now voices his gratitude to these two friends. From the day when the present work was commenced, through the years of compilation and writing, Professor Morey has done all in his power to make it of scholarly value, and in the last stage of preparation, the author’s absence from the University has increased his obligation to his colleagues, for Professors Marquand and Morey have read all the proof and attended to every detail of the publication. No archaeological investigation is begun or successfully terminated in Princeton University which has not been inspired and made possible by the wisdom and kindness of Professor Allan Marquand. The rather schematic handling of these architectural backgrounds led to view the diptych as a ninth-century copy of an Early Christian ivory.

EARLY CHRISTIAN IVORY DIPTIC PANEL PRO

From the day when the present work was commenced, through the years of compilation and writing, Pro - A Classic - Includes Active Table of Contents - Includes Religious Illustrations Just as the majority of the Roman world had rejected polytheism in favor of Christianity, so too it left behind the techniques of proportion and perspective that characterised the art of its forebears.- A Classic - Includes Active Table of Contents - Includes Religious Illustrations No archaeological investigation is begun or successfully terminated in Princeton University which has not been inspired and made possible by the wisdom and kindness of Professor Allan Marquand. The work as a whole has been interpreted as a study in nostalgia. The diptych form, at least originally, served as a pair of covers for wax writing tablets. Diptychs were often commissioned by leading Roman families to celebrate important events, most often the attainment of the consulship. Fabius Memmius Symmachus with the granddaughter of the aforementioned colleague. The so-called iconoclasts (literally, breakers of images) opposed icons, arguing that God was transcendent and could not be depicted in art. The most likely candidates are the daughter of Senator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus and Nicomachus Flavianus, the son of his colleague Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, although it has also been suggested that the panels may instead commemorate the marriage of Symmachus' son, Q. By the eighth and ninth centuries, icons were increasingly popular, and arguments about religious images boiled over in what is called the Iconoclastic Controversy.

Carved about 390-400 - probably on the occasion of a wedding between 2 aristocratic Roman families (Nicomachi & Symmachi). The panels are believed to celebrate the alliance through marriage of two senatorial families, the Symmachi and Nicomachi. SCULPTURE: PRIESTESS OF BACCHUS - Leaf (right half) of a hinged diptych (altarpiece) - Ivory panel - 11 3/4 x 5 1/2 - Designed for private ownership - meant to be enjoyed at close range. The female figures have been variously interpreted as priestesses and as goddesses. The oak garlands and overhead oak tree suggest the worship of Jupiter, while the ivy leaves recall the god Dionysus. She is attended by a small figure holding a kantharos and a bowl of fruit. The Symmachi leaf in the London diptych has an ivy-crowned woman sprinkling incense over the flames of a square altar, garlanded with oak wreaths. Cymbals hang from a pine tree overhead both the tree and its hangings are attributes of the goddess Cybele and her consort Attis. This figure stands before a round altar, holding two lit torches now partially missing. The ivory is fractured in several places, with some sections missing completely, together with high-relief areas such as the female figure's face, left hand and right arm. The Nicomachi tablet in Paris is the less well preserved of the pair, having been damaged in a fire. Both wings depict female figures engaged in religious ritual before sacrificial altars. The diptych was produced in Rome sometime between 388 and 401. They were subsequently acquired by the Musée de Cluny and the Victoria and Albert Museum respectively. The Nicomachi wing was recovered in 1860 from a well, heavily damaged by fire, and the mostly intact Symmachi panel resurfaced in the hands of a collector not long after. When the events of the French Revolution forced the closure of the monastery in 1790, the reliquary and its panels were temporarily lost. Adso wrote that his predecessor 'visited Jerusalem and obtained very many sacred relics, and he brought back with him excellent tablets of ivory.' Art historian Richard Delbrueck uncovered a mention of the panels in the abbot Adso's tenth century biography of Bercharius, who founded the monastery ca. The earliest description of the leaves dates to 1717, when an inventory of the monastery of Montier-en-Der records them as doors on an early thirteenth century reliquary. The diptych remained intact until the nineteenth century.

Early christian ivory diptic panel