The Symmachi Panel
< Table of Contents Every time I see this panel of carved elephant ivory, I’m freshly stunned at the quality of the workmanship and I feel the need to remind myself that I’m looking at a piece from the late 4th or early 5th century AD and not a Pre-Raphaelite extravaganza that took a detour through the Arts & Crafts Movement’s basement. The piece, one of the leaves of a diptych, shows a priestess and a young child performing a rite – possibly relating to the god Dionysus. The inscription along the top ‘SYMMACHORUM’ refers to the aristocratic Roman Symmachi family, while the other panel (now in the Musée de la Moyen Age, Paris) mentions the Nicomachi family and depicts a similar priestess. While there are a number of theories as to why this diptych was carved, the most plausible (to me, at least) is that it was commissioned to celebrate and commemorate a wedding (either in 393/4 AD or 401 AD) between members of these two powerful families. Given their ne...