The Coronation of the Virgin Mary and the Last Judgment

Circa 1260-1270
French
Ivory diptych, 5 x 5⅛ x ¾ in. (12.7 x 13 x 1.9 cm.)
The Cloisters, New York City, 1970.324.7ab

The Coronation of the Virgin scene on the left leaf follows the model seen in tympana at Senlis, Chartres, and especially Notre Dame de Paris. One small difference is the displacement of the two angels from within the scene to outside its frame.

On the right leaf, the upper section is a Deësis: Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right plead with Christ for mercy for mankind. As in many Deëses in the West, angels remind him of the sacrifice he made for mankind by presenting some of the instruments of the Passion. The angel on the right holds the cross itself; the one on the left has the spear and the sponge.

In the lower sections are two trefoil shapes with scenes from the Last Judgment. On the left leaf, an angel leads the blessed up the ladder to Heaven. The angel has taken a monk by the hand; behind the monk, a king is greeted by a figure from above (Christ? the Father?). Behind the king, two other figures wait their turn.

On the right leaf the larger scene depicts the "resurrection of the body": at the sound of the angels' trumpets the dead arise from their graves. In the smaller scene, grotesque devils cast the damned into Hell, pictured as the great mouth of a hideous monster.

Read more about images of the Coronation of the Virgin.
Read more about images of the Last Judgment.
Read more about images of the Deësis.

Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City