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

Wing, left
Standing Virgin and Child; Virgin holding a stem of flowers in her right hand; angel crowning the Virgin; saint John the Baptist holding the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); camel hide; saint Christopher carrying Christ across the river; two angels swinging censers; musician angels in the spandrels (psaltery; string instrument).
Wing, right
Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; two angels crying; two angels holding the sun and the moon in the spandrels.

Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2013: late 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two hinges.

Reverse
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Ivory cracked.

Provenance
Collection of abbot Robert Charles, La Ferté-Bernard (Sarthe): acquired in 1873. Collection of Paul R. G. Horst, Paris. Collection of Alexandre Léonce Rosenberg (b. 1877, d. 1947): his sale, Drouot, Paris, 12 June 1924, lot 87. Christie's, London, 28 November 1961, lot 83, pl. XXIV. Drouot, Paris, 23 June 1976, lot 107. Dormeuil collection, Paris: sold, Sotheby's, Paris, 19 November 2007, lot 19; private collection, on extended loan to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Bibliography
Abbé R. Charles, 'Un Diptyque d'ivoire du 14e siècle', in Revue historique et archéologique du Maine, vol. 8 (1880).
Exposition rétrospective du Mans, exhibition catalogue, Le Mans, 1880, no. 331.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 202, 226; II, no. 546; III, pl. XCVII.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 28 (in relation to 277-1867).

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