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The Hermitage possesses an ivory diptych (fig. 1), hitherto unpublished which, as many other ivories, was once in the Basilewsky collection. It represents in abbreviated form Christ’s Presentation in the Temple, being confined to Simeon and the Virgin with Child. Iconographically and stylistically (cf. fig. 2) it belongs to the so-called Romanos group (Goldschmidt–Weitzmann. Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, Bd. II, 1934, S. 14 ff., 33ff. und Taf. X-XXIX) and dates in the second half of the 10th century.