Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of gilding and polychromy (gold, blue, red).

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Missing: chalice held by Ecclesia; part of her face and her right forearm; left forearm of Christ; right arm of Christ altered; neck and hem of the veil of the Virgin restored.

Comments
It was once thought that the Ecclesia figure did not belong with the rest of the group (see Koechlin 1924). This statuette is part of a Deposition group which includes a kneeling figure holding a scroll (possibly Nicodemus; Louvre, OA 9443), and statuettes of Synagoga and of saint John recently acquired by the Louvre (OA 12516 and OA 12517). They would originally have been contained in an architectural framework (see Gaborit-Chopin 2003, p. 302 and fig. 103a).

Provenance
Charles Manneim collection, Paris (two parts acquired separately in Italy, according to Molinier 1896); acquired by Musée du Louvre, 1896.

Bibliography
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires (Paris, 1896), no. 244.
E. Molinier, 'La Descente de croix. Groupe en ivoire du XIIIe siècle', in Monuments et Mémoires. Fondation Eugène Piot, III, 1896, pp. 121-135.
Maskell, Ivories, London, 1905, pl. hors texte.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), fig. 113.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 59-60, 144; II, no. 19, 19 bis; III, pl. VIII.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), p. 84.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), pp. 15, 32, fig. 6-10.
L'Europe gothique, XIIe-XIVe siècle, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1968, no. 353.
M. Seidel, 'Die Elfenbeinmadonna im Domschatz zu Piza', in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Insitutes in Florenz, XVI, 1972, pp.1-50.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Âge occidental (Fribourg, 1978), pp. 139-141, fig. 205-207.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Nicodème travesti. La Descente de croix d'ivoire du Louvre', in Revue de l'art, 81, 1988, pp. 31-44.
A. Cascio and J. Levy, 'Nicodème travesti... Étude de la polychromie', in Revue de l'art, 81, 1988, pp. 45-46.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Acquisitions', in Revue de l'Art, 1993-1, p. 37, fig 2, 3.
P. Williamson, Gothic Sculpture, 1140-1300, (London, 1995), pp. 144, 150, fig. 209.
B. Guineau, 'Études des couleurs dans la polychromie des ivoires médiévaux', in Bulletin de la société nationale des antiquaires de France, 1996, pp. 194, 198, 199, 205.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 15, pp. 138-140.
L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils (1285-1328), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1998, no. 83.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 103.
E. Antoine König and J. Levy-Hinstin, La Descente de Croix (Paris, 2013).