The John Grandisson Triptych is an ivory

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

carved in England around 1330 AD. Since 1861, it has been part of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

's collection.triptych / religious/ritual equipment
British Museum, retrieved 7 December 2013

Description

One of the best preserved English ivories, the John Grandisson Triptych was made between 1330 and 1340. It measures high by wide. The triptych is made from three rectangular panels of elephant ivory and folds closed along two sets of three silver hinges. The central panel is divided into two scenes, with the Coronation of the Virgin above and the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

below. The left and right leaves are similarly split into two scenes, with

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

and his church and

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

with his stones on the left leaf, and

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

and his sword and

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...

with mitre and crozier on the right leaf. The outer wings are also engraved with

John Grandisson The '' British Museum">John Grandisson Triptych'', displaying on two small escutcheons the arms of Bishop Grandisson. British Museum John de Grandisson (1292 – 16 July 1369), also spelt Grandison, was Bishop of Exeter, in Devon, England, f ...

's coat of arms. Grandisson regarded Beckett as a hero and had written a biography of him.

Original ownership

John Grandisson,

bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The current bishop is Mike Harrison (bishop), Mike Harrison, since 2024. From the first bishop until the sixteent ...

from 1327 to 1369,Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 246 was a man of education, culture, and capital. This example of medieval English ivory carving is unusual because it is carved with the bishop's emblems. Grandisson changed his family's coat of arms by substituting a

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

for the normal central eaglet, making the arms unique to him. His arms appear within an image of

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The presen ...

, in the psalter of which he was the second owner, now in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

as Add MS 21926. The coat of arms almost certainly means that this work of art was commissioned by Bishop Grandisson during his tenure. There is a second ivory triptych in the British Museum and two leaves divided between the British Museum and

the Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. They are carved with the same arms.Ivory triptych by Medieval
ArtFund, retrieved 7 December 2013. The Grandisson ivories in the Louvre and British Museum demonstrate iconographic features that suggest Italian influence and the style of paintings from the

province of Siena The province of Siena (, ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena. It has 259,826 inhabitants. Geography The province is divided into seven historical areas: * Alta Val d'Elsa * Chian ...

in Tuscany. Prior to John Webb buying it on behalf of the British Museum in 1861, the triptych was in the possession of the Russian Prince Aleksey Saltykov.A. W. Franks,
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London
', 2nd Series, no.1, pages 376–377. Saltykov bought the artefact in Paris from Louis Fidel Debruge-Duménil.
Gothic Ivories, Courtauld Institute, retrieved 7 December 2012

References

{{reflist Triptychs Ivory works of art Medieval European objects in the British Museum Gothic sculptures 1330s works