Plaque with Enthroned Virgin and Child

Unknown

850–875 · Ivory · Medieval Art

This carving showing the Virgin and the Infant Jesus reuses an ivory plaque that might have once served as a furniture mount. The plaque, originally carved in Egypt one hundred years earlier, depicts on its back a tree flanked by birds. The recarving of pagan ivories with Christian subjects, probably to adorn a Gospel book, occurred in a workshop associated with the emperor Charles the Bald (r. 840–77), the grandson of Charlemagne. The reuse of ancient ivory plaques, not unusual in the 800s, was due to the rarity of African elephant ivory in Europe.

Artist

Unknown

Date

850–875

Medium

Ivory

Culture

Carolingian

Department

Medieval Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917