EARLY CHRISTIAN SCULPTOR, Italian
(active 4th century in Milan)

The Brescia Lipsanotheca (lid)

late 4th century
Ivory
Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia

Lipsanotheca is a word for a reliquary, or specifically a small box containing the actual relics inside a reliquary.

The Brescia Casket or Lipsanotheca is an ivory box, perhaps a reliquary, from the late 4th century. It is a unique survival of a complete Early Christian ivory box in generally good condition. The 36 subjects depicted on the box represent a wide range of the images found in the evolving Christian art of the period.

The scenes on the lid are as follows.

Upper register: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; Arrest of Christ; Denial of Peter, with crowing cock.

Lower register: Jesus before Annas and Caiaphas; Pontius Pilate "washes his hands".