Images: Wikimedia Commons (front); Ziereis Facsimiles (front and back); for appearances in print refer to Beckwith (140), Kateusz (109), and Klingshirn and Safran (fig.10).
Clavis number: ECMA 115
Other descriptors: Five-Part Diptych, Echmiadzin Diptych, Matenadaran MS. 2374 (olim 229)
Location: Matenadaran Library (Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts), Yerevan, Armenia
Accession number: not provided
Category: book covers
Related literature: Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Protevangelium of James
Featured characters and locations: Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, Joseph (of Nazareth), Magi, Mary (Virgin), Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle).
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: ivory.
Size: 36.5 × 230.5 cm.
Images: the panels are five-part diptychs featuring Mary on the front cover and Jesus on the back, surrounded by scenes from their respective lives. The front cover has holes in it indicating that there was once metal or jewels adorning it.
Front: Center: Mary is seated in the center attended by two angels on both sides holding up their hands to her. In her lap is the baby Jesus. Top: Flying angels hold up the cross in the middle of a garland. Bottom: Adoration of the Magi, Mary is seated with the baby Jesus in her lap while Joseph sits behind her and an angel attends to her; the Magi are presented in front of her facing left, and an angel is behind the last Magus. Left: (Top) Annunciation, Mary is seated with something in her right hand and is being addressed by a male-figure carrying a staff. (Bottom) Test of bitter waters, Joseph, Mary, and a priest are depicted with Mary holding a bowl in her right hand. Right: (Top) The nativity, the ox and the ass look at the baby Jesus lying in a crib while Mary is lying down. (Bottom) Journey to Bethlehem, Mary is seated on the ass and is being led by Joseph (Klingshirn & Safran 38).
Back: Center: A beardless young Jesus is seated in the center holding a book in his left hand and has a blessing gesture made with his right hand. Peter stands to his right and Paul to his left. Top: Flying angels hold up a cross in the middle of a garland. Bottom: The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Left: (Top) Jesus healing the dropsiac. (Bottom) Jesus healing the blind man. Right: (Top) Christ heals the palsiac. (Bottom) Christ and two demonics (Klingshirn & Safran 38).
Date: ca. 550–575 CE
Provenance: the gospels themselves date to 989 CE (Klingshirn & Safran 38) and were produced in the Armenian Monastery of Noravank’ (Beckwith 140). The ivory covers are older and date to the sixth century (Beckwith 140); Ally Kateusz (109) suggests between 550–575. Scholarship agrees the work is Byzantine in origin, but Dalton (13) limits its production to either Palestine or Egypt, supporting Palestine because of the similarity of the seated virgin on the front cover to mosaics in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The depiction of the annunciation of the Virgin is related to the Protevangelium of James, particularly the mention of the materials to spin the purple thread for the temple veil:
And she took the water pitcher and went out and filled it with water. And behold, there was a voice saying, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. You are blessed among women.” And Mary looked all around her, to the right and left, to see from where the voice was coming. And she began trembling and went into her house and put the water pitcher down. And taking up the purple (thread) she sat down on her chair and began to spin the purple (thread). And behold, an angel stood before her saying, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor before the Master of all. You will conceive from his Word.” But when she heard this, Mary doubted herself and said, “If I conceive by the Lord, the living God, will I give birth like all other women give birth?” (11:1–6; trans. Vuong; see also Ps.-Mt. 8:32–36)
The depiction of the ox and ass are related to the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew:
Now, on the third day after the birth of the Lord, Mary went out of the cave and into a stable, and she placed the boy in a manger, and an ox and an ass bent their knees and worshiped him. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, who said, “The ox knows his owner and the ass the manger of his Lord.” And these animals, staying by his side, were constantly worshiping him. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Habakkuk, who said, “Between the two animals you will make yourself known.” And so Joseph and Mary remained in the same place with the child for three days. (14; trans. Brandon W. Hawk, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary [Early Christian Apocrypha 8; Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019]).
The water trial is related to the Protevangelium of James:
And the high priest said, “Give back the virgin you received from the temple of the Lord.” And Joseph burst into tears. And the high priest said, “I will have you drink the Lord’s water of conviction,’ and it will reveal your sin before your own eyes.” And the high priest took (the water) and made Joseph drink it and sent him away to the wilderness, but he came back whole. And then he made the child (Mary) drink it and also sent her away into the wilderness, but she too came back whole. And all the people were amazed because their sin was not revealed. And the high priest said, “If the Lord God did not reveal your sin, then neither do I condemn you.” And he let them go. And Joseph took Mary and returned home, rejoicing and praising the God of Israel (Prot. Jas. 16; trans. Lily Vuong, The Protevangelium of James [Early Christian Apocrypha 7; Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019]; see also Ps.-Mt. 12).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beckwith, John, Richard Krautheimer, and Slobodan Ćurčić. Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Vol. 24. Yale University Press, 1986 (pp. 140–41).
Dalton, Ormonde Maddock. Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era with Examples of Mohammedan Art and Carvings in Bone in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1909 (p. 13, 55).
Kateusz, Ally. Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 (pp. 109).
Lowden, John. “The Word Made Visible: The Exterior of the Early Christian Book as Visual Argument.” Pages 13–47 in The Early Christian Book. Edited by William E. Klingshirn and Linda Safran. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 2007 (pp. 38–39).
Kouymjian Dickran. “Armenian Bookbinding from Manuscript to Printed Book (Sixteenth to nineteenth century).” Gazette du livre médiéval 49 (2006):1–14.
Natanson, Joseph. Early Christian Ivories. London: Alec Tirani, 1953.
Nersessian, Sirarpie Der. “The Date of the Initial Miniatures of the Etchmiadzin Gospel.” The Art Bulletin 15.4 (1933): 327–60.
Singelenberg, Pieter. “The Iconography of the Etschmiadzin Diptych and the Healing of the Blind Man at Siloe.” The Art Bulletin 40 (1958): 105–12.
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Echmiadzin Gospels.” Wikipedia.
Entry created by Syed I. M. Jaffer Abbas, under the supervision of Tony Burke, York University, 29 March 2021.