Containing the Uncontainable: Kinaesthetic Analogies and an Early Christian Box

Abstract A box has the potential to be opened and closed and to contain something; as such, it is a form uniquely suited to conveying ideas of concealment, revelation, and the containment of the sacred in matter. This was especially true of a small, fifth-century ivory box in the form of a casket, carved in relief with scenes of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. As an object, it incorporated kinaesthetic analogies—through the way it was moved and manipulated and through the agency of its material—in order to convey the mystery of the Incarnation.