The Dormeuil Diptych
The Dormeuil Diptych is a passion diptych and is the largest one to be recorded and belongs to the second half of the 14th century where a large number of ivory diptychs were produced in Paris. In 1924, these were attributed to the Parisian workshop of the ‘Passion Master’ by Koechlin and subsequently in 2003, by Gaborit-Chopin to the workshop of the Passion diptychs. This diptych was made around 1350 to 1375. The front surface has three registers with ‘each crowned by a cusped arcade with five hanging capitals and six arcuated apertures’ which ‘means that the center of each composition is aligns with a capital’.
The first direct visual impression left on a beholder is that the diptych is a representation of an ordered chaos. It is ordered because it is systematically divided into three registers on each wing with each register having six arcuated apertures equidistant from each other and symmetric. On the contrary, it seems chaotic because unlike some other passion diptychs, each individual registers are not bordered inside (or split according to the number of apertures) to explicitly show different scenes. Instead, in most registers in this diptych, …show more content…
Interestingly, the scale of Jesus and his disciples, and the other half- the people and the wall of Jerusalem- are different. Jesus on the colt and his disciples are scaled larger than the people hailing his entry. Noticeably, Jesus head is held high, just as a king nobly receives the respect he is due while he also greets them and accepts their joyous praise. However, this is a sharp contrast from the previous scene – The raising of Lazarus - which is relatively melancholy and calm, suddenly turning to erupting praise which provides an interesting twist in the prayer of the
The first direct visual impression left on a beholder is that the diptych is a representation of an ordered chaos. It is ordered because it is systematically divided into three registers on each wing with each register having six arcuated apertures equidistant from each other and symmetric. On the contrary, it seems chaotic because unlike some other passion diptychs, each individual registers are not bordered inside (or split according to the number of apertures) to explicitly show different scenes. Instead, in most registers in this diptych, …show more content…
Interestingly, the scale of Jesus and his disciples, and the other half- the people and the wall of Jerusalem- are different. Jesus on the colt and his disciples are scaled larger than the people hailing his entry. Noticeably, Jesus head is held high, just as a king nobly receives the respect he is due while he also greets them and accepts their joyous praise. However, this is a sharp contrast from the previous scene – The raising of Lazarus - which is relatively melancholy and calm, suddenly turning to erupting praise which provides an interesting twist in the prayer of the