Book Cover Plaque: Christ between Saints Peter and Paul (Traditio Legis)
Unknown · c. 1060
Carved in León around ten sixty, the ivory plaque once decorated the cover of a precious book. A frieze of small crosses and rods frames the whole and the central field. At the top, the Lamb of God holds a cross of Mozarabic type; the corners hold the evangelist symbols, the angel of Matthew, the eagle of John, the ox of Luke and the lion of Mark, the last partly restored. In the centre Christ sits in a double mandorla on a throne above an arcaded footstool. With his right hand he points to Saint Peter, who holds the keys and is named by a monogram; with his left he offers a book to Saint Paul. The scene is the Traditio Legis, the handing over of the law and the keys, a symbol of the founding of the Roman church.
Beads of almost black glass survive in the eyes, and the ivory has aged to a warm amber. Nothing is known of the plaque before the collection of Frédéric Spitzer, sold in Paris in eighteen ninety three; the Louvre bought it in nineteen hundred from the dealer Brauer in Florence. On the reverse a carver lightly sketched a scroll pattern.
Did You Know? Turn the plaque over in your imagination: on the back an ivory carver left a half-finished sketch of scrollwork.
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