Boxwood Diptych in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2008

Boxwood Diptych with the Mass of Saint Gregory, the Crucifixion, the Annunciation, and the Nativity
Carved in the South Lowlands, about 1490-1510

Accession # 17.190.476

While celebrating Communion, Saint Gregory beheld Christ as the Man of Sorrows, surrounded by the instruments with which he was tortured before his death on the cross. The saint's vision and Communion itself demonstrate the personal connection between Christ and the faithful that is the aim of many medieval private devotional practices. This diptych has the very rare feature of inscriptions drawn from the writings of the Church fathers rather than the Bible.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.