Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 1 register, 1 arch across (plaquettes) (Front)

Wing, left
Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two standing angels holding candlesticks; Virgin holding a bird.
Wing, right
Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; sun and moon.
Medallions enclosing trefoils with protruding cones in the spandrels.

Molinier 1896: 2nd half of 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, beginning of 2nd half of 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, 2nd quarter of 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two missing hinges (repaired).

Polychromy - Gilding
Very small traces of polychromy: gold, blue and red (see A. Cascio and J. Levy, Rapports de nettoyage et de restauration des ivoires médiévaux du département des Objets d'art du Louvre (unpublished reports), 2002).

Reverse
Label with illegible inscription, and ink inscription '88'.

Object Condition
Missing: candles. Breakages and repairs to the hinges areas. 2 modern holes at the top in the centre. Ivory cracked. Scratches around the Virgin in the left wing. Chips and restorations around the hinges.

Comments
Iconography similar to that of the Mège Diptych (OA 9960; see Gaborit-Chopin, 2003).

Provenance
Louis-Charles Timbal collection, Paris, no. 50; acquired from him in 1882 by the Musée du Louvre.

Bibliography
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires (Paris, 1896), no. 88.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 216, 239; II, no. 536; III, pl. XCV.
R. Randall, 'A Parisian Ivory Carver', in The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 38 (1980), pp. 60-69 (fig. 6).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 166.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 70, in relation to no. 8.

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