The Murano Diptych

This image is discussed in Erich Dinkler’s introduction to  “The Christian Realm: Abbreviated Representations,” Weitzmann p. 403.

The ivory presents themes popular in Christian art of the late classical period, mostly themes related to resurrection and the baptism that prefigures it.  In the center Christ sits enthroned under a canopy, as in images of the emperor, surrounded by his "court" of evangelists.  On the left, he heals the blind man in the upper panel and the Gadarene demoniac in chains¹  in the lower one.  On the right, the upper image has the raising of Lazarus² while in the lower one the crippled man picks up his bed and walks.³  The bottom tells the story of Jonah: On the right he is thrown into the sea, where the great fish awaits with open mouth.  On the left the fish has deposited him and he is sleeping under the ivy⁴ at the command of God, who is represented by an angel.  Beneath the central panel of Christ we also see the three men in the fiery furnace with the angel.⁵

More of Christ in Majesty
More of Lazarus
More of Christ's miracles
More of Jonah
More of the Fiery Furnace

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1 Mark 5:1-15, cached
2 John 11:1-45, cached
3 Mark 2:1-12, cached; Luke 5:18-25, cached; and Matthew 9:2-7, cached)
4 Jonah 4:6-12, cached
5 Daniel 3, cached