DOI issue:
No. 4
DOI article:Ratkowska, Paulina: An East Christian diptych with the Heortological Cycle
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17160#0116
12 .Atheniensis 211, fol. 34, detali
(after A. Grabar, Miniatur es...)
13. TŁe Warsaw diptycli, detail of tjie fig.l
on the Warsaw wings the deepcning of the background on thc obvcrses was done at the expense
of the spatiality of the revcrse decoration (both these solutions resulting from the different
function of the objects). Fluent contours and careftilly smoothened relief give the represen-
tations of the Coronation ivory that characteristic roundness, which mafces the comparisons
possible (fig. 25, 26, 27). And even if it is too early for jumping to conclusions before the more
exhaustive study of both these works, the very fact of similarities existing between them must
not be neglected.
The second work on which we have to focus attention in connection with the Warsaw piece is
the well-known diptych in the Treasury of the Chambery Cathedral with the enthroned Hode-
getria, Christological scenes and twenty images of the saints22. The relations between the two-
works are attested by the very juxtaposition of their reverses: their identical composition is
based on the common for both pieces repertory of motif, and the technique is close in both
cases: the ornament of the border — a scroll with half-palmettes — is carved in fiat relief while
the decoration inside is engraved with a double line. The carver of the Chambery diptych only
changed the accents — the medallion witb lilies took the central place of the cross of the War-
saw diptych, and the cross, here shown twice, became the compositional counterpart of the
medallion of the Warsaw diptych. Aceording to the exigcncies of the composition the crosses
on the Chambery reverses are equalarmed. The lack of an inscription and the depriving of
the crosses of a plastic accentuation impoverishes the iconographic contents of the reverses.
The Chambery diptych, dated by Goldschmidt and Weitzmann to the XIIth century23 and by
Wulff2ł and recently by Volbach much earlier, evidently to the Xtli25, is not a stylistically
22. A. Goldschmidt — K. Weitzmann, op. cit., No. 22 a-d, p. 78 — 9, pl LXXII. Recently reproduced in Les Trćsors des
Eglises de France. Musie des Arls Decoratifs, Paris, 1965, No. 699 p. 380 pl. 23 — 24.
23. A. Goldschmidt — K. Weitzmann, op. cit.. p. 78. Thc date is, however, supplied with the question mark.
24. O. Wulff, AUchristliche und Byzańtinische Kunst. II, Die Byzantinische Kunst von der erslen Bliite bis zu ihrem Ausgang.
Berlin, 1914, p. 611, fig. 527 (the author stresses the connections with Early Christian miniatures).
25. W.F. Yolbach, „Les ivoires scnlptes dc l'epoquc carolingiennc au XIIe s". Cahiers de Cirilisalion jnedievale, I, 1958 p. 23.
102
(after A. Grabar, Miniatur es...)
13. TŁe Warsaw diptycli, detail of tjie fig.l
on the Warsaw wings the deepcning of the background on thc obvcrses was done at the expense
of the spatiality of the revcrse decoration (both these solutions resulting from the different
function of the objects). Fluent contours and careftilly smoothened relief give the represen-
tations of the Coronation ivory that characteristic roundness, which mafces the comparisons
possible (fig. 25, 26, 27). And even if it is too early for jumping to conclusions before the more
exhaustive study of both these works, the very fact of similarities existing between them must
not be neglected.
The second work on which we have to focus attention in connection with the Warsaw piece is
the well-known diptych in the Treasury of the Chambery Cathedral with the enthroned Hode-
getria, Christological scenes and twenty images of the saints22. The relations between the two-
works are attested by the very juxtaposition of their reverses: their identical composition is
based on the common for both pieces repertory of motif, and the technique is close in both
cases: the ornament of the border — a scroll with half-palmettes — is carved in fiat relief while
the decoration inside is engraved with a double line. The carver of the Chambery diptych only
changed the accents — the medallion witb lilies took the central place of the cross of the War-
saw diptych, and the cross, here shown twice, became the compositional counterpart of the
medallion of the Warsaw diptych. Aceording to the exigcncies of the composition the crosses
on the Chambery reverses are equalarmed. The lack of an inscription and the depriving of
the crosses of a plastic accentuation impoverishes the iconographic contents of the reverses.
The Chambery diptych, dated by Goldschmidt and Weitzmann to the XIIth century23 and by
Wulff2ł and recently by Volbach much earlier, evidently to the Xtli25, is not a stylistically
22. A. Goldschmidt — K. Weitzmann, op. cit., No. 22 a-d, p. 78 — 9, pl LXXII. Recently reproduced in Les Trćsors des
Eglises de France. Musie des Arls Decoratifs, Paris, 1965, No. 699 p. 380 pl. 23 — 24.
23. A. Goldschmidt — K. Weitzmann, op. cit.. p. 78. Thc date is, however, supplied with the question mark.
24. O. Wulff, AUchristliche und Byzańtinische Kunst. II, Die Byzantinische Kunst von der erslen Bliite bis zu ihrem Ausgang.
Berlin, 1914, p. 611, fig. 527 (the author stresses the connections with Early Christian miniatures).
25. W.F. Yolbach, „Les ivoires scnlptes dc l'epoquc carolingiennc au XIIe s". Cahiers de Cirilisalion jnedievale, I, 1958 p. 23.
102