Reliquary Diptych
Unknown Artist
late 14th century
Medium
Verre églomisé, polychromy, wood, and metal
Dimensions
Overall (open): 8 3/8 x 12 1/2 x 9/16 in. (21.3 x 31.7 x 1.4 cm) Overall (closed): 8 3/8 x 6 1/8 x 1 1/8 in. (21.3 x 15.6 x 2.9 cm) each image (approx.): 2 13/16 x 1 5/8 in. (7.2 x 4.2 cm)
Classification
Glass-Verre églomisé
Culture
Central Italian
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number
17.190.922
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the devotional world of the *Reliquary Dipt*, a gem from late 14th Central Italy now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Medieval Art department. This intimate, folding artwork—measuring just 8 3/8 x 12 1/2 inches when open—served as a personal reliquary, safeguarding holy relics within its wooden panels framed in metal. Adorned with luminous scenes of the Madonna and Child, Crucifixion, and saints, it captures the era's fervent piety amid Italy's Gothic artistic flowering, where faith and artistry intertwined for elite devotees. The diptych's standout medium, *verre églomisé*, ...