Booklet with Scenes of the Passion

Booklet with Scenes of the Passion

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An exceptional ivory object, this diminutive booklet is unusual in that both the exterior covers, depicting scenes of the Passion, and the interior covers, containing representations of the Virgin, are carved. The religious nature of the booklet suggests that it served as an accessory for private devotion. The painted images facing the covers are later additions, since they transform the subjects of the carvings. Except for the two painted leaves, all have raised edges. Wax may have been applied to the surfaces, allowing prayers of intercession or litanies of saints to be inscribed on the tablets with a stylus.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Booklet with Scenes of the PassionBooklet with Scenes of the PassionBooklet with Scenes of the PassionBooklet with Scenes of the PassionBooklet with Scenes of the Passion

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.