casket

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Object Type
Museum number: 1856,0623.6
Description: Casket; one of four panels; ivory, carved in relief with the Maries at the Sepulchre: in the middle the sepulchre, a quadrangular building with columns at the corners and surmounted by a cupola with domed roof and round-headed windows; the doors are open showing part of a sarcophagus; the door to the right has a handle in the shape of a lion's head; on its upper panel is carved the scene of the Raising of Lazarus, on the lower, a seated female figure (Mary); on the lower panel of the other door, which is broken, is a similar figure of Martha; to the left and right are seated sleeping soldiers with spears and shields, above them the two Maries with heads on hands in an attitude of grief.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 420-430 (circa)
Production place: Made in: Rome (city)
Materials
Technique: carved; relief
Dimensions: Height: 75 millimetres; Weight: 109 grammes; Width: 99 millimetres
Curator's comments: Part of 1856,0623.4-7
Bibliographic references: Dalton 1901 / Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (291); Dalton 1909 / Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era with Examples of Mohammedan Art and Carvings in Bone in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (7); Buckton 1994 / Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine art and culture from British collections (45); Volbach 1976 / Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters (116); Spier et al. 2007 / Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art (57); Foletti 2017 / The British Museum Casket with Scenes of the Passion: The Easter Liturgy and the Apse f St. John Lateran in Rome; Weitzmann 1979 / Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century (452); Harley-McGowan 2013 / The Maskell Passion Ivories and Greco-Roman Art; Stutzinger 1983 / Spätantike und frühes Christentum (267); Elsner et al 2017 / Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions (40)
Location: On display (G41/dc8/sA)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2011 23 June-9 Oct, London, BM, Treasures of Heaven 2007 18 Nov-2008 30 Mar, USA, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art 2003 7 Dec-2004 2 May, Italy, Milan, Museo Diocesano, Ambrogio e Agostino: le sorgenti dell’Europa 2000 23 Feb-7 May, London, The National Gallery, Seeing Salvation: The Image of Christ 1996 30 Mar-13 Nov, Italy, Rimini, Sala dell’Arengo, Dalla Terra Alle Genti 1995 22 Nov-1996 29 Feb, Germany, Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg, Die Reise nach Jerusalem 1983-1984 15 Dec-11 Mar, Germany, Frankfurt, Städtische Galerie Liebieghaus, Late Antiquity and Early Christianity 1981 27 Feb-4 May, France, Paris, Musee de Luxembourg, A l'Aube de France, la Gaule de Constantin a Childeric 1980 12 Oct-15 Dec, Germany, Mainz, Gallien in der Spatantike 1977-1978 18 Nov-12 Feb, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Christian Art
Condition: One of the doors and the upper parts of soldier's spears are broken.
Subjects: soldier; saint/martyr; three maries at the tomb; coffin/sarcophagus; architecture; arms/armour; raising of lazarus
Associated names: Representation of: Lazarus; Representation of: Virgin Mary; Representation of: St Mary Magdalene; Representation of: Holy Women at the Sepulchre
Acquisition name
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1856
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1856,0623.6
Conservation: Treatment: 17 May 2002; Treatment: 09 Jul 2007; Treatment: 12 Feb 2013; Treatment: 21 Feb 2013

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