The painting and ivory diptych in this room were designed to deepen faith through private study and contemplation. Their scale and intricacy encouraged the beholder to meditate upon Christ’s suffering.

How can we relate to these works of art today? The atmosphere of this small room encourages us to engage more intimately with these works, and in turn to consider their original function as objects of devotion. Like Adam Chodzko’s Secretors, these tangible objects are indicators of a world beyond our own.

 

Follower of Dieric Bouts
Christ Crowned with Thorns
c. 1475
Oil on panel
32.3 x 23.8 cm
The Courtauld Collection

This image, Christ Crowned with Thorns, from the Circle of Bouts represents the sixth station of the cross (the representation of Christ’s final hours). Both the subject and size of this work are indicative of the viewer’s devotion. In part, the intensity of this image results from our reaction to the blood and tears emanating from the figure, which is further emphasized by Christ’s penetrating gaze, engaging the empathy of the viewer.

 

Workshop of Visages Characterises
Ivory diptych with the Virgin and Child with Angels and The Crucifixion
15th century
Carved ivory and ebony
18.1 x 22.2 cm (open)
The Courtauld Gallery

The intricately carved scenes of Mary rejoicing in the Christ child’s birth and lamenting his death would have helped the often illiterate medieval viewer to understand these stories through sight and touch.

This ivory was principally a devotional object which would have originally been held in the palm of one’s hand like a prayer book. However, its power lay in the visual, not textual, description of Christ’s bodily anguish and the Virgin’s compassion.

When it is partly closed, the Virgin looks both at the Christ child and into the dead Christ’s face, as if to foresee his later suffering