The Boethius Diptych, an Ivory Admired by Religious figures and Collectors

The Boethius diptych, preserved in the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia, was commissioned on the occasion of the consulship of Nar. Manlius Boethius in 487 C.E. This diptych is one of several examples of late antique diptychs whose interior surfaces were inscribed during the Middle Ages for Christian liturgical use, but it is unique within this corpus because its interior also contains paintings. The examination carried out by an international team of conservators, art historians and historians in 2019 and 2020 clarified questions concerning the material evidence of the Boethius diptych, regarding the making of the diptych in Late Antiquity, the internal chronology of the interventions in the Middle Ages and the painting technique. Digital reconstructions facilitate the understanding of the original appearance of the paintings and their iconography. The examination resulted in a new interpretation of the inscribed texts and allowed the dating of the paintings and the first phase of inscriptions to the early 7th century and the second phase of inscriptions to the 8th century.