DIPTYCH
### I. ART
From the 8th century = *due volte* ("two leaves") and *ntòsseiv* = "to fold." Two tablets or leaves were called by this name when they were joined on one side by a hinge, a cord, or rings so that one could fold over the other. They were used for writing: the inner faces were therefore smooth and coated with wax, while the outer faces often bore carved, sculpted, or embossed decorations, depending on whether the tablets were made of ivory, wood, or metal.
In a later period, the inner faces of diptychs, which had become objects of devotion, bore relief or painted representations of sacred images.
During the late imperial age, it was customary to give diptychs on joyous occasions, particularly to celebrate the election of an emperor and the assumption of office by consuls. In such cases, the diptychs were made of precious materials, almost always ivory (v.), and adorned as finely as possible.
The widespread use of diptychs intended for consuls, in addition to a restrictive decree of the year 384, is attested by the large number of surviving examples. The consul to whom the diptych was given, dressed in the garments proper to his dignity, generally appears in the center of the main face, depicted either standing or seated on the *sella curulis*, holding a scepter in the left hand and the *mappa circensis* in the right, raised as if giving the signal to begin the games. On either side, especially in diptychs of the 6th century, are personifications of Rome and Constantinople; above, usually in a tabula often shaped like a handle (*ansata*), is the name of the consul; below, generally, a scene of various subjects. It seems that this type of diptych had Alexandria in Egypt as its original center of production.
Many consular diptychs belonging to cathedral churches owe their preservation to the fact that, beginning in the 5th century, magistrates gave them to bishops, who used them either as covers for gospel books or to record series of names for liturgical purposes.
Among the oldest ivory diptychs is that of the Nicomachi and Symmachi, perhaps executed in Rome between 376 and 394 in a technique reflecting the traditional modes of Hellenistic sculpture; its leaves are now divided between the Musée de Cluny in Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Stylistically connected to it, though perhaps somewhat later, is the diptych of Rufus Probianus, vicar of Rome, preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin. Still reflecting the modes of Hellenistic sculpture is the diptych of Anicius Probus, consul in 406, preserved in the cathedral of Aosta; the one with the Women at the Sepulchre in the Trivulzio collection in Milan; and another with Scenes from the Life of St. Paul in the Bargello in Florence, all from the 5th century. The diptych of Felix, consul in 420 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale), however, shows in its execution some pictorial intentions characteristic of the more advanced Roman sculpture of that period. In the diptych of Asturius, consul in 449 (Darmstadt), the same stylistic intentions pursued in the diptych of Rufus Probianus are evident. While the diptych of Boethius, consul in 487, preserved in the Museo Cristiano in Brescia, shows a more decisive departure from ancient formal decorum in a desire for new expressiveness, though not fully achieved.
The diptychs just mentioned were all produced in Italian workshops and clearly show the evolution of sculpture of that time in our region.
Almost certainly of Eastern production is the diptych preserved in the cathedral of Monza, which is to be dated to the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century and is said to depict Galla Placidia, Aetius, and the young Valentinian. All the consular diptychs of the 6th century, except that of Orestes (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), belong to Eastern workshops and reflect the modes of late Eastern sculptural tradition: thus those of Arelindus (506), Clementinus (513), and Anastasius (517), consuls in Constantinople at the beginning of the 6th century.
The ivory diptych of Rambona, made in Italy and dating to the end of the 9th century (Museo Cristiano Vaticano), with its uncertain carving and labored composition, clearly reflects the modes of sculpture of that period.
At this time, as has been said, diptychs became above all objects of devotion, and thus it is not surprising that the figures on some consular diptychs were transformed into Christian iconography. For example, in the cathedral of Monza is preserved a diptych (6th century) in which it is clear that one of the two figures represented has been altered (probably in the 9th century) by replacing the scepter with a staff surmounted by a cross; above is the inscription *SCS Gregor(ius)*; the right hand, however, still holds the *mappa*. The figure on the other leaf has not undergone such adaptations but is identified by the words *DAVID REX*.
Highly carved diptychs were also used in the 12th and 13th centuries in the Byzantine East and later took the form of icons, eventually being regarded as true objects of devotion—a practice that was continued in Europe by Gothic sculptors.
During the Romanesque period and thus into the 15th century, the use of sacred images, and thus also of painted portraits on hinged tablets, was common in Europe. Numerous examples have been left to us by Flemish art, but they were also frequent in the painting school of eastern Italy (Marche-Rimini-Venice) and in that of Siena (Simone Martini: diptych of the Madonna and Child and the Pietà, Museo Horne, Florence).
### II. LITURGY
The inner leaves of diptychs were used in liturgical practice to record the names of saints, bishops, and benefactors of the Church, both living and dead, who were to be recited in the Mementos for the living or the dead.