The Murano diptych. An Early Byzantine ivory book cover
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2022-1-29-42
Abstract
The paper is dedicated to the ivory cover, commonly referred to in scholarship as the Murano diptych. The name, alluding to one of the Vene- tian islands, derives from an 18th-century historic record attesting the presence of one of the sides of the cover in a Murano monastery. This part of the diptych was later brought to Ravenna and today is on display at the Ravenna National Museum. The fragments of the other side of the diptych are dispersed among various museum and library collections in Manchester, Paris, Berlin, and Saint Petersburg. Notwithstanding the scattered location of the ivory, it is possible to reconstruct its constituent elements and original decoration. Besides offering a detailed analysis of the surviving fragments, this paper focuses on the overall iconographic program and formal characteristics of the diptych, and studies its reliefs in light of late antique ivory carving and church decoration. It is argued that late antique ivories represent an important source of information concerning the use of apocryphal imagery in monumental art, enabling us to reconstruct the imagery of early Byzantine narrative cycles.
Keywords
The Murano diptych,
Ravenna,
ivory,
ivory carving,
book cover,
iconography of the Virgin,
early Byzantine art,
apocrypha
Supporting agencies: This work was accomplished with financial support of RFBR grant № 21- 012-41005 “Jerusalem and Understudied Apocrypha in Slavonic Translations: Textology, History, and Doctrines”.
About the Author
M. A. Lidova
Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Maria A. Lidova, Cand. of Sci. (Art Studies)
bld. 8, Nikolaeva St., Novosibirsk, Russia, 630090
References
1. Bakaldina, E.V. (2021), “M.P. Botkin’s collection: sources and historiography”, Iskusstvo Evrazii, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 120–141, available at: https://eurasia-art.ru/index.php/art/article/view/199 (Accessed 10 Nov. 2021).
2. Carletti, C. (1975), I tre giovani ebrei di Babilonia nell’arte cristiana antica, Paideia, Brescia, Italy.
3. Cristoferi, E. (1991), “Il restauro del ‘Dittico di Murano’. Studio per la ricomposizione strutturale di un avorio del Museo Nazionale di Ravenna”, Kermes: Arte e tecnica del restauro, nr. 12, pp. 34–39.
4. Downey, G. (1963), Gaza at Early Sixth Century, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, USA.
5. Ivoires 2003 – Gaborit-Chopin, D., Alcouffe, D. and Bardoz, M.-C. (eds.), Ivoires médiévaux, Ve–XVe siècle, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, France.
6. Kuvatova, V.Z. (2019), “Probable origin of the Early Christian Iconography of Jonah under the Gourd Vine scene”, RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. “Literary Theory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, no. 1, pp. 59–69.
7. Lidova, M.A. (2009), “The Oratory of John VII in the St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome”, Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, Seriya 8: Istoriya, no. 5, pp. 62–81.
8. Lidova, M.A. (2015), “Monumental Icons in Early Byzantium. The Virgin Orant from the Oratory of John VII (705–707)”, in Byzantium in the Context of World Cultures. Trudi Gosudarstvennogo Ermitaja [Transactions of the Hermitage Museum], vol. 74, pp. 14–34.
9. Lidova, M.A. (2020), “The Heavenly Guard of the Mother of God. ‘Mary between the Angels’ in Early Byzantine Art”, in Herrin, J. and Consolino, F.E. (eds.), The Early Middle Ages (Bible and Women 6.1), SBL press, Atlanta, USA, pp. 121–166.
10. Lidova, M.A. (2021), “The Murano Diptych. A Late Nineteenth-Century Quest for Early Byzantine Ivory Cover”, in Zakharova, A.V., Maltseva, S.V. and E. Staniukovich-Denisova (eds.), Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art, vol. 10, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 285–295.
11. Lowden, J. (2007), “The Word Made Visible: The Exterior of the Early Christian Books as Visual Argument”, in Klingshirn, W.E. and Safran, L. (eds.), The Early Christian Book, Catholic University of America Press, Washington D.C., USA, pp. 13–47.
12. Rizzardi, C. (1994), “Osservazioni sull’iconografia del dittico di Murano”, Felix Ravenna, nr. 82, pp. 142–151.
13. Rizzardi, C. (1994), “Il ‘Dittico di Murano’ conservato nel museo nazionale di Ravenna: aspetti e problematiche”, in Historian pictura refert. Miscellanea in onoredi padre Alejandro Recio Veganzones, PIAC, Città del Vaticano, pp. 485–496.
14. Thierry, N. (1978), “Identification de deux ivoires paléochrétiens”, Journal des savants, nr. 7–8, pp. 185–188.
15. Van Loon, G.J.M. (2006), “The Virgin and the Midwife Salomé”, Eastern Christian Art, no. 3, pp. 81–104.
16. Volbach, W.F. (1976), Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, Germany.
17. Weitzmann, K. (ed.) (1979), Age of Spirituality. Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N. Y., USA, pp. 531– 532.
18. Wessel, K. (1958), “Il dittico di Murano dalle cinque parti e la sua cerchia”, Corsi di cultura sull’arte ravennate e bizantina, nr. 1, pp. 111–127.
19. Zalesskaya, V.N. (2006), Pamyatniki vizantiyskogo prikladnogo iskusstva IV–VII vekov [Early Byzantine Minor Artworks of the 4th–7th C.], The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Review
For citations:
Lidova M.A. The Murano diptych. An Early Byzantine ivory book cover. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2022;1(1):29-42. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2022-1-29-42
Views:
234
Email this article 