Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 5 arches across (frise d’arcatures; colonnettes) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit; pulpit with open book.
Register 2: Napoleon Orsini falls down from his horse; saint Dominic resurrects young Napoleon Orsini, who was killed by a fall from his horse miracle; chapel; blessing gesture.
Wing, right
Register 1: Crucifixion; swooning Virgin supported by Holy Women; rugged cross; saint John the Evangelist and onlookers holding scrolls; saint John the Evangelist crying.
Register 2: executioner hits a kneeling tonsured figure; two more tonsured figures to the right witness the scene (possibly martyrdom of saint Peter Martyr, aka saint Peter of Verona).

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold (hair and beards, along the hems, decoration on the throne), blue (background), brown (hair).

Reverse
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Damaged around the hinges.

Provenance
Acquired in Vienna by the Stieglitz Museum of Applied Arts, Saint Petersburg, in 1886; transferred to the Hermitage in 1925.

Bibliography
M. Kryzhanovskaya, 'Neopublikovannyi diptikh reznoi kosti' in Rossiiskaia Akademiia khudozhestv. Problemy razvitiia zarubezhnogo iskusstva: materialy deviatoi konferentsii v pamiat' M. V. Dobroklonskogo (Saint Petersburg, 1996), pp. 24-26.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Peterburg, 2014), no. 91.

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