Plaque from a Portable Altar: Christ and the Apostles

This intricately carved ivory panel once decorated the side of a portable altar. One of three it depicts Christ in Majesty and his apostles, and was the first major acquisition of William M. Milliken, the museum's first curator of decorative arts and later director (1930–1958). As Milliken later recalled, the pieces "were immensely intriguing, monumental in scale, even if tiny in size, the Christ in the mandorla could have been enlarged and would have graced the tympanum of a great cathedral."