Luxury for all (?) : ivory diptychs and their use in the baptismal liturgy

A large number of ivory diptychs, most of them dating from the fourth to sixth centuries, have been preserved to the present and today make up an important category of artistic objects. Apart from the famous "consular" diptychs, there emerged another category of ivory diptychs during the early years of the Christianization of the Roman Empire – diptychs with Christian iconography used for Christian purposes. Recent studies have laid the groundwork for assessing whether these Christian ivory diptychs were used as part of the baptismal ritual, especially when we consider how much the grand and elaborate nature of this ritual certainly contributed to the relatively rapid transformation of Roman society from a pagan to a Christian one. Therefore, this article examines the question of what purpose ivory diptychs had in the Early Christian era, a question that has been discussed in the literature for decades. The author will, however, focus specifically on the possible presence and use of these diptychs in the baptismal liturgy during the first three centuries of the Christian Roman Empire, since this has not yet been the subject of any scholarly discussion. Given the absence of any direct evidence to confirm or refute the hypothesis that ivory diptychs were used in the baptismal rite, it is necessary to understand the important role that panels (not just ivory ones), and the material itself, played in Late Antique society in general.