Diptych with the Goths coming to Italy

The two reliefs have a low and elongated horizontal format, bordered by a frame on the three upper, right and left sides, inside which a vast repertoire of fruits is carved, expression of a naturalistic taste well documented in Late Antique culture. The upper relief contains, inside a scroll, an inscription that reads "AC TRIUMFATORI † PERPETUO SEMPER AUG (usto)". In the centre of the panel, two winged Victories in flight hold a clipeus in the form of a wreath on which is depicted a crowned female figure. By assonance with other similar representations, this figure may be identified as the symbolic image of Constantinople. The background is densely covered with small, stylised flowers, worked in high relief. The lower relief contains a scene of Barbarians offering gifts, with a similar panoply of fruit on the frame on the three outer sides and two short inscriptions, which complete the one above: “(v)IR ILLUSTR(is) / COM(es) PROTIC(torum)” and “ ET CONSUL / ORDINARI(ius)”. The two panels were respectively the upper and lower part of a so-called five-part diptych, that is of a diptych in which each valve has a central panel and four lateral panels, two with vertical and two with horizontal format. Relatively few five-part diptychs are currently known of, with either profane or religious subjects. Of the former, no complete examples survive, while some with religious subjects are known to exist, which by affinity may suggest how the profane diptychs may have appeared. The most complete valve of a five-part diptych with profane subject, the so-called Barberini diptych (Paris, Museée du Louvre), has as its central image a sovereign on horseback, probably Justinian. This suggests that five-part diptychs, differently from consular ones, were commissioned by an emperor, as the ivory object in Milan confirms by the content of its inscription and the reference to Augustus. In the diptych today in Paris, the upper panel is fairly similar in form and proportional ratios - but not precisely in size - to that in Castello Sforzesco, and shares a similar subject: two winged Victories holding a clipeus. The refined style suggests a workshop located in Constantinople at the beginning of the Justinian era (early 6th century). The panels came into the Castle collections in 1935, along with many other Late Antique ivory pieces, with the purchase of the Trivulzio collection.