The Virgin and Child and St Catherine with the Emperor Maxentius thumbnail 1
The Virgin and Child and St Catherine with the Emperor Maxentius thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery

The Virgin and Child and St Catherine with the Emperor Maxentius

Diptych
1300-1330 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is an ivory diptych, made in Paris, France in about 1300-1330. Plaques such as this were normally arranged in diptychs or triptychs. Diptychs consisted of two tablets hinged together, while triptychs were two tablets hinged on either side of a central tablet. The smaller ones were probably held in the hand and opened like a small book, while the larger ones would have stood open on a table or altar.
This diptych shows on the left leaf the Virgin and Child with a kneeling worshipper and on the right St. Catherine trampling on the Emperor Maxentius. Each subject surmounted by a trefoil arch, in the spandrels of which are gilded circles each enclosing a red cross. St Catherine was a virgin martyr executed by the Roman emperor Maxentius in the 4th century. She is one of the most popular female saints in the later Middle Ages. Although whole diptychs are sometimes devoted to her story, depictions of Catherine trampling Maxentius are rare in surviving ivories, and the composition here, with Catherine kneeling on the Emperor's prone body in order to pin him to the floor, is unusual.

The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Virgin and Child and St Catherine with the Emperor Maxentius (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Elephant ivory, with traces of colour and gilding
Brief description
Diptych, ivory with traces of gilding and colour, the Virgin and Child with St Catherine and the Emperor Maxentius, French (Paris), ca. 1300-1330
Physical description
Ivory diptych, with traces of gilding and colour, in a silver frame of a later date. On the left leaf the Virgin and Child with a kneeling worshipper, on the right St. Catherine trampling on the Emperor Maxentius. Each subject surmounted by a trefoil arch, in the spandrels of which are gilded circles each enclosing a red cross.
The seated Virgin holds the Christ-Child. Jesus raises his right hand towards his mother in a blessing gesture, while holding a small object - probably and apple - in his left. The Virgin holds a flower in her right hand. Kneeling to the left is a male lay devotee. The right leaf shows St. Catherine, crowned, holding a book in her left hand and a sword in her right. She kneels on the supine figure of the Emperor Maxentius, into whose neck she thrusts her sword.

The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion.
Dimensions
  • Height: 6.2cm
  • Width: 6.9cm
Object history
Purchased from John Webb, London, in 1872, for £30. Previously on loan to the Museum from 1867.

Subjects depicted
Summary
This is an ivory diptych, made in Paris, France in about 1300-1330. Plaques such as this were normally arranged in diptychs or triptychs. Diptychs consisted of two tablets hinged together, while triptychs were two tablets hinged on either side of a central tablet. The smaller ones were probably held in the hand and opened like a small book, while the larger ones would have stood open on a table or altar.
This diptych shows on the left leaf the Virgin and Child with a kneeling worshipper and on the right St. Catherine trampling on the Emperor Maxentius. Each subject surmounted by a trefoil arch, in the spandrels of which are gilded circles each enclosing a red cross. St Catherine was a virgin martyr executed by the Roman emperor Maxentius in the 4th century. She is one of the most popular female saints in the later Middle Ages. Although whole diptychs are sometimes devoted to her story, depictions of Catherine trampling Maxentius are rare in surviving ivories, and the composition here, with Catherine kneeling on the Emperor's prone body in order to pin him to the floor, is unusual.

The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion.
Bibliographic references
  • List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington, Acquired During the Year 1872, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., p. 1
  • Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1927-1929, Part II, p. 27
  • Barnet, Peter, ed. Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Ages. Detroit, Mich.: Detroit Institute of Arts; Princeton, N. J.: in association with Princeton University Press, 1997, p. 91
  • Maskell, W. A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum, London, 1872 p. 143
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014 part 1, pp. 256-257
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, part 1, pp. 256-257, cat. no. 81
  • Davies Glyn and Townsend, Eleanor, ed. by, A Reservoir of Ideas: Essays in Honour of Paul Williamson, London, Paul Holberton Publishing in assoc with V&A Publishing, 2017, pp.192-194, fig.5
Collection
Accession number
4-1872

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Record createdJanuary 5, 2004
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