Gothic Ivories Project | Wing, left (fragment of a diptych), 1 register, 1 arch across (plaquette) (Front)

Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); Virgin holding a flower in her right hand; angel crowning the Virgin; two standing angels holding candlesticks; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand.
Man and woman in bust in the spandrels.

Koechlin 1924: France (Paris), 2nd third of 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1320-1340

Attribution
Atelier of the Cracow casket (Gaborit-Chopin 2003)

Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges on the right side.

Object Condition
Missing: left hand of the crowning angel.Ivory cracked.
Holes added in the spandrels (later).

Comments
The presence of the two busts is unusual and they could be allegorical representations of the Sun and the Moon (Gaborit-Chopin, 2003). Attributed to the atelier of the Cracow casket after a casket in the museum of Cracow cathedral (Koechlin no. 1285).

Provenance
Collection of Octave Homberg (b. 1876, d. 1941), Paris: sold, Paris, 11-16 May 1908, lot 488 (with ill.)(purchased by Mannheim). Mme Homberg collection: sold, Drouot, Paris, 26 November 1925, lot 117. Drouot, Paris, 27 May 1937, lot 55. Blois sale, March 1988. Collection of Dr R. Alex Brunet, Angers. Acquired in 1996 by the Musée du Louvre.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 201, n. 5; II, no. 413; III, pl. LXXXV.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Acquisitions', in Revue du Louvre (1996), p. 102.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 160.

© Réunion des musées nationaux (RMN) - Daniel Arnaudet.
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