Side 1: head of a man (Christ?).
Side 2: head of a woman.
Side 3: skull (Death).
Koechlin 1924: Italy or France, 1st half of the 16th century.
Longhurst 1929: Flanders or France (North), 1st half of the 16th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: probably French (Paris?), 1st half of the 19th century.
Attribution
Attributed to Alessandro Algardi (b. 1598, d. 1654) (according to London 1862)
Reverse
Carved in the round. On the underside, hole drilled to a depth of 25mm, smaller elliptical hole and ink inscription 'Alessandro' (for Algardi, see attribution).
Object Condition
The jaw of the skull broke off and was repaired. Vertical crack on the skull side.
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London (by 1862): purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.
Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 122.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 7.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 82.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), pl. XL, I.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 449; II, no. 1238.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 70, pl. LXVI.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), p. 128.
O. Beigbeder, Ivory (New York, 1965), p. 95, figs 85-86.
The Rival of Nature. Renaissance Painting in its Context, exhibition catalogue, London, National Gallery, 1975, no. 41.
P. Williamson, 'Medieval Ivory Carvings in the Wernher Collection', in Apollo (May 2002), pp. 17-22 (p. 21).
P. Malgouyres, Ivoires de la Renaissance et des Temps Modernes. La Collection du Musée du Louvre (Paris, 2010), p. 301.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 167 (see also no. 166).
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.