Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of polychromy (red in lips, blue in folds of drapery) and gilding (in hair).

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Head broken, reattached.
Right arm, left forearm, and scroll are restorations.

Comments
This statuette is part of a Deposition group which includes Christ being taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea and the Virgin holding his hand, with Ecclesia standing by (Louvre, OA 3935) and statuettes of Synagoga and 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
Costa de Beauregard collection, Savoy and Turin (in 1867). Gustave de Rothschild collection. Robert de Rothschild collection; gift of the children of the Baron and Baronne R. de Rothschild to the Museum, 12 March 1947.

Bibliography
Exposition universelle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1867, no. 1745.
A. Darcel, 'Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance au Trocadéro', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, II, 1878, p. 287.
E. Molinier, 'Un groupe en ivoire du musée du Louvre. Le Couronnement de la Vierge', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, November 1895, pp. 397-400.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 58, II, no. 18, III, pl. VII.
P. Verlet, 'Le Prophète d'ivoire Rothschild', in Bulletin des Musées de France, April 1947, pp. 8-10.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), pp. 15, 32, figs. 8, 10.
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).