diptych
- Museum number
- 1857,1013.1
- Title
- Object: The Gherardesca Diptych
- Description
-
Leaf of a diptych; ivory; the panel is carved with the apotheosis of a pagan figure in three scenes: at bottom: four elephants draw a carriage carrying a dignitary, who sits beneath an aedicula with a gabled roof. He wears a toga and carries a staff and laurel branch. Beyond the carriage, a funeral pyre surmounted by a quadriga bearing a god. From this pyre fly two eagles. Above, a man borne by personifications of two winds into heaven, where he is welcomed by five male figures. He passes an arc with six zodiacal signs, and is watched by the sun god Helios. At the top of the panel, an openwork scroll with monogram.
- Production date
- 402
- Dimensions
-
Height: 301 millimetres
-
Weight: 288 grammes
-
Thickness: 10 millimetres
-
Width: 114 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Brad Hostetler, “Reading and Displaying Monograms on Byzantine Signet Rings”, The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 75 (2021), fig. 2. https://journal.thewalters.org/volume/75/note/reading-and-displaying-monograms-on-byzantine-signet-rings/
- Location
- On display (G41/dc8/sB)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2013-2014 Dec-Feb, Italy, Rome, Castel Sant'Angelo, Hadrian's Mausoleum and the Apotheosis of the Emperor
2012-2013 11 Nov-25 Aug, USA, Art Institute of Chicago, Tradition Transformed: Late Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the British Museum
2003 7 Dec-2004 2 May, Italy, Milan, Museo Diocesano, Ambrogio e Agostino: le sorgenti dell’Europa
2000 21 Dec-2001 20 Apr, Italy, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Aurea Roma. Dalla Citta pagana alla citte Cristiana
1983-1984 15 Dec-11 Mar, Germany, Frankfurt, Städtische Galerie Liebieghaus, Late Antiquity and Early Christianity
1977-1978 18 Nov-12 Feb, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Early Christian Art
- Acquisition date
- 1857
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1857,1013.1
