SECOND HALF 14TH CENTURY

French gothic ivory diptychs have been, since the 13th century, a portable devotional companion for the pious. Commonly seen as the close relative of the illuminated manuscript, they facilitated, in three dimensions, private devotion away from church, and represented an innovation in the artistic dramatisation of the lives of Christ and the Virgin. The availability of ivory and the growing number of production centers in France during the 13th and 14th centuries suggests that craftsmen were catering to a large demand for such devotional objects. They varied in size and quality, with diptychs being made for hand-held contemplation or to be placed on a table as a visual and tangible aid to prayer.