Apotheosis diptych of the Symmachi: replica after British Museum 1857,1013.1
In brief
This replica translates the Apotheosis leaf of the Symmachi (British Museum 1857,1013.1, AD 402) into alabaster plaster and completes the originally paired diptych as a display object suitable for hanging. The panel shows the late Roman senatorial aristocracy at the height of its pagan culture of representation and is regarded as one of the most important ivory reliefs of late antiquity. The piece is intended solely for collection and wall display, not as a functional wax tablet.
Apotheosis diptych of the Symmachi at a glance
-
Authenticity level: Display and entry-level model (level 2) - alabaster plaster instead of ivory, slightly reduced dimensions, display object without wax-tablet function
-
Material: alabaster plaster, lightly patinated, made for hanging
-
Dimensions and weight: 28 x 11 x 2 cm, approx. 600 g (original: 30.1 x 11.4 x 1.0 cm, 288 g ivory)
-
Date of the original: AD 402, workshop in Rome, late antique senatorial aristocracy
-
Best-known model: Apotheosis leaf of the Symmachi, also known as the Gherardesca Diptych, British Museum London
-
Ancient source: Symmachus, Relatio III (petition for the preservation of the Altar of Victory, AD 384)
-
Suitable collection focus: late antique themed collection, with emphasis on Roman senatorial aristocracy and pagan representation culture of the 4th to early 5th century
What does the Symmachi Apotheosis show, and what occasion did the original mark?
The original was created in AD 402 in a Roman ivory workshop and belongs among the last major commissions of the pagan aristocracy before Christianity became definitively dominant in Rome. The original is held in the British Museum under inventory number 1857,1013.1 and has also been known since the 19th century as the Gherardesca Diptych after its former Florentine owner.
The panel most probably commemorates Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, the senator, urban prefect and consul who died in AD 402 and appeared as one of the last great spokesmen of the pagan senatorial aristocracy. There is no epigraphic confirmation of the person depicted; the attribution rests on the scroll monogram SYMMACHORUM in the upper picture field and on stylistic links with the workshop of the Symmachi-Nicomachi diptych.
Who were the Symmachi, and why did they use apotheosis imagery?
The Symmachi belonged to the front rank of the Roman senatorial aristocracy and maintained close marriage ties with the Nicomachi and Albini. Q. Aurelius Symmachus himself, as urban prefect in AD 384, had addressed the famous Relatio III to Emperor Valentinian II, arguing against the removal of the Altar of Victory from the Curia. The Apotheosis panel translates that stance into visual language: a deceased member of the gens is received into the divine heaven in the traditional rite of consecratio. The piece therefore responds to the losses of traditional religion not primarily in political terms, but in liturgical imagery.
Apotheosis in the composition: three scenes, an eagle, a chariot
The panel is divided vertically into three picture zones. In the lower field, a team of four elephants draws a chariot in which the deceased sits enthroned beneath an aedicula with a pedimented roof. In the central zone, an eagle personification rises upward and is interpreted as the bearer of the soul from the funeral pyre. In the upper field, the apotheosised figure is received by personifications. Between the zones, the scroll monogram SYMMACHORUM acts as a mediator and identifies the panel as a family commission. The Roman antiquarian Richard Delbrueck (1929) was the first to describe this visual grammar of the apotheosis scheme systematically; the detailed images on Google Arts and Culture make the layering easy to follow.
One common confusion should be cleared up here: the Apotheosis leaf in the British Museum does not belong to the famous Symmachi-Nicomachi double diptych, whose halves are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum (212-1865) and in the Musée de Cluny in Paris (Cl. 17048). Both works were made around the same time and within the circle of the same family alliance, but they are separate objects.
-
Dimensions of the original: 30.1 cm high, 11.4 cm wide, 1.0 cm thick, 288 g elephant ivory
-
Date: AD 402, shortly after the death of Q. Aurelius Symmachus
-
Provenance: Conte della Gherardesca collection (Florence), M. Signol collection (Paris), acquired by the British Museum in 1857
-
State of research: Cameron (Journal of Roman Studies 2013) confirms a date around 402, but continues to discuss the identity of the apotheosised person with caution
Which late antique diptychs can be compared with the Symmachi Apotheosis?
| Object |
Date |
Motif and structure |
Repository |
Collector's classification |
| Apotheosis leaf of the Symmachi (core entity) |
AD 402 |
Apotheosis in three zones, four-elephant chariot, eagle, monogram SYMMACHORUM |
British Museum 1857,1013.1 |
late pagan family commission, linked to consecratio iconography |
| Symmachi leaf of the double diptych |
c. AD 388-394 |
Priestess at an altar in the cult of Bacchus, single field |
Victoria and Albert Museum 212-1865 |
pagan cult scene, family alliance of the Symmachi and Nicomachi |
| Nicomachi leaf of the double diptych |
c. AD 388-394 |
Priestess at an altar in a Ceres/Cybele context |
Musée de Cluny Cl. 17048 |
counterpart to the V&A piece, same workshop circle |
| Probianus Diptych |
c. AD 400 |
Vicarius urbis Romae on a sella curulis, two leaves |
Berlin State Library |
consular diptych with official iconography rather than religion |
| Halberstadt Diptych |
AD 406 |
Consular diptych of Probus, imperial visual programme |
Halberstadt Cathedral Treasury |
earliest dated consular diptych in the German-speaking world |
Apotheosis diptych in collections and display cases
At 28 cm high and weighing 600 g, the piece sits in a size range that claims its own sightline in a standard-depth display case without dominating it. The lightly patinated plaster surface breaks the light more softly than ivory and, under raking light, takes on a calm, matt depth that makes the layered relief of the three picture zones readable. From a distance of one metre, the outlines of the four-elephant team and the scroll monogram SYMMACHORUM remain clearly visible.
Suitable form of display: late antique themed collection, senatorial aristocracy and pagan representation culture of the 4th to 5th century AD.
Field of use: display-case presentation and wall hanging in a collection or exhibition room. Not suitable for active demonstration use, writing tests or touch stations, as alabaster plaster is vulnerable at the edges under knocks and impacts.
Lighting and display-case behaviour: lightly patinated plaster surface, neutral reflectance, no sharp highlight behaviour as with polished ivory; warm-white LED lighting brings out the relief zones more clearly than cool-white light.
- as the central anchor piece in a themed display case on late antiquity, combined with coins of the Theodosian dynasty or replicas of contemporary writing implements
- as a wall object in a collection room that addresses the pagan-Christian transition period, for example beside a replica of early Christian iconography as an iconographic contrast
- as a comparison piece in a themed wall display on late antique diptychs, alongside visual evidence for the Symmachi-Nicomachi diptych and the Probianus piece
-
Known limitations of the reconstruction: The original is a single leaf; the right half of the original diptych is considered lost and is associated in scholarship with the apotheosis of another family member, possibly Flavianus Nicomachus. The replica completes the missing half compositionally into a diptych format, which is a deviation when read in strictly object-based terms. Added to this are the reduction in size from 30.1 to 28 cm, the change of material from ivory to alabaster plaster and the absence of an epigraphic identification of the apotheosised person.
Which collection focuses suit this piece?
- Collectors focused closely on the Theodosian period and the Ambrose-Symmachus dispute (382 to 394) can integrate the Apotheosis leaf as a central visual testimony to the defeated pagan side
- Collectors with a broader interest in late antique visual culture and consular diptychs can use the piece as an apotheosis variant alongside official and family diptychs
- Collectors who curate strictly by archaeological object evidence and only accept replicas with material identity should treat the piece as a level 1 interpretation object and add a written note referring to the original ivory material
For reenactors and history enthusiasts, the piece offers a rare tactile approach to the imagery of the late antique senatorial aristocracy, which is otherwise hardly tangible in active historical presentation.
Frequently asked questions about the Apotheosis diptych of the Symmachi
How does the plaster replica differ from the ivory original in the British Museum?
The original measures 30.1 x 11.4 x 1.0 cm and weighs 288 g in elephant ivory, while the replica measures 28 x 11 x 2 cm and weighs around 600 g in alabaster plaster. The height is reduced by about seven per cent and the depth is doubled, because plaster requires greater structural thickness than grown ivory. The relief ridges appear more softly modelled in plaster than in the micro-fine carved edges of the original.
What climate and light conditions does the piece need over the long term?
Alabaster plaster is not UV-sensitive like plant pigments and is stable in daylight, but it should not hang directly by a window, because strong day-night temperature changes can cause microscopic stress cracks. A relative humidity between 40 and 60 per cent is unproblematic; damp exterior walls and unheated rooms with a risk of condensation are unsuitable. A low-dust display case significantly prolongs the effect of the light patina.
What find context does the original come from, and how did it enter the British Museum?
The panel has no recorded excavation context and belongs to the small group of late antique ivory works transmitted through medieval church treasuries and private collections. The collection of the Florentine Conte della Gherardesca is documented, followed by the Paris collection of M. Signol; in 1857 the panel entered the British Museum. This is also the source of the name Gherardesca Diptych.
How can the piece be classified for a collection without making any price statement?
Late antique visual media are much rarer in the replica market than troop and everyday objects from the High Empire. An Apotheosis leaf in the Symmachi line therefore occupies a curatorial niche between replicas of consular diptychs and pictorial reliefs of the imperial Church. In comparison with the authenticity level classification for replicas, the piece belongs to level 1 because its material differs from the original; its high iconographic fidelity is unaffected by this.
Why has the second half of the original diptych not survived?
The survival pattern for late antique ivory diptychs is almost always fragmentary, because the leaves were dismantled over the centuries, reused as book covers or melted down. In the case of the Symmachi piece, the right half is missing; scholarship suspects that the lost panel showed the apotheosis of another family member from the circle of the Nicomachi, although no surviving comparison piece confirms this.
Can the panel be hung without the hanging system interfering with the relief image?
The piece is made with a rear hanging system that leaves the frontal view of the relief unobstructed. A solid wall screw with a plug in a load-bearing surface is sufficient for the weight of around 600 g; displayed freestanding in a case, a non-reflective acrylic stand is recommended, positioned so that it does not overlap the lower picture zone with the elephant team.
External sources and literature on the Apotheosis diptych of the Symmachi
-
Wikipedia: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. Overview article on the biography and political-religious activity of the probable commissioning milieu of the panel.
-
British Museum: Carved ivory leaf from a diptych, 1857,1013.1. Official data sheet for the original panel with dimensions, date and provenance.
-
Google Arts and Culture: Apotheosis leaf of the Symmachi, high-resolution image documentation. Detail images that make the layering of the three picture zones easy to follow.
-
Victoria and Albert Museum: Symmachi leaf of the Symmachi-Nicomachi diptych, 212-1865. Important comparison piece from the same family alliance.
-
Delbrueck, Richard (1929): Die Consulardiptychen und verwandte Denkmäler (Studien zur spätantiken Kunstgeschichte 2), Berlin and Leipzig. Standard work on the typology of late antique ivory panels, listed in zenon.dainst.org.
-
Volbach, Wolfgang Fritz (1976): Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters, 3rd edition, Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum. Catalogue with an entry on the Apotheosis leaf.
-
Cameron, Alan (2013): The Origin, Context and Function of Consular Diptychs, Journal of Roman Studies 103, pp. 174 to 207. Current state of research on the dating and function of late antique diptychs.
-
Ancient primary source: Symmachus, Relationes. Latin full text of the official petitions, including Relatio III of AD 384 on the preservation of the Altar of Victory in the Senate.
Forum Traiani ® | Der Römer Shop - Making history tangible!
Updated on: 15.05.2026
