Gothic Ivories Project | Triptych, 2 registers, 3 and 4 arches across (frise d'arcatures) (Centre panel)

Wing, left
Register 1: Christ appearing to one of the Holy Women.
Register 2: three seated kings, ancestors of the Virgin.
Centre panel
Register 1: two seated kings (misreading of the Coronation of the Virgin in the Notre-Dame portal); two kneeling angels holding candlesticks.
Register 2: Assumption (Virgin borne to Heaven by angels); shrouded body of the Virgin; Christ and apostles.
Wing, right
Register 1: Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene); Christ as a gardener; spade.
Register 2: three seated prophets.

Museum's opinion 2012: 19th century (following the unpublished opinion of Dr. Rudolph Berliner, 1952).

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two hinges on either side.

Reverse
Flat and smooth.
Chamfered longer edges. Pencil inscription: 'Rocs du Ciel'.

Comments
Fern Helen Rusk (1918) has shown that the scenes in this diptych are copied after the sculptures of the Virgin portal and of choir reliefs of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. This triptych is in a wooden frame with 18.089, also in Providence.

Provenance
Collection of George A. Hearn (at least 1908-1918): his sale, 1918, lot 1002; gift of Edward J. Lownes to the Museum in 1918.

Bibliography
G. A Hearn and W. Staton Howard, The George A. Hearn Collection of Carved Ivories (New York, 1908), no. 15.
Fern Helen Rusk [Mrs John Shapley], 'A Copy after Sculptures of Notre-Dame-de-Paris', in American Journal of Archaeology, XXII, no. 4 (1918), pp. 428-433.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.