Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled triptych, 3 registers, arches (colonnettes) (Front)

Height: 246mm (centre); 246 and 245mm (wings)
Width: 92mm (centre); 45mm (wings)
Depth: 7mm (min); 8mm (max)

Wing, left
Register 1: Saint Peter holding a key; angel holding a candlestick.
Register 2: apostles (part of the central Dormition scene).
Register 3: Annunciation; angel holding a scroll. Standing Virgin and Child (part of the Presentation in the temple scene).
Centre panel
Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin; angel crowning the Virgin; two kneeling angels swinging censers; Christ making a blessing gesture.
Register 2: Death of the Virgin (Dormition); Christ holding the soul of the Virgin; Christ making a blessing gesture.
Register 3: Simeon (part of the Presentation in the temple scene). Adoration of the Magi.
Wing, right
Register 1: Saint Paul holding a sword; angel holding a candlestick.
Register 2: apostles (part of the central Dormition scene).
Register 3: Nativity; Joseph holding Christ Child.

Koechlin 1924: France, beginning of the 2nd third of the 14th century. Master of the Death of the Virgin.
Natanson 1951: French, c. 1320-1330. Master of the Death of the Virgin.
Detroit 1997: French (Paris), c. 1320-1330.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1315-1335.

Attribution
Master of the Death of the Virgin (Koechlin)

Hinges
Two ring hinges on either side (modern?).

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: patterned background, hair, trefoils in the spandrels, etc. (original: blue, gold, red. See report by A. Cascio and J. Levy, 1985).

Reverse
Engraved circle on the back of the central part.
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Ivory cracked.
In lower part: 2 columns restored.Hole for a tenon and evidence of scratches, for the attachment of a base (lost).

Comments
Like two other objects (Koechlin 210, 211), this object depicts the death of the Virgin according to La Légende dorée by Jacques de Voragine. Here, though, the depiction is relatively simple.

Provenance
Bouvier collection, Amiens (according to Koechlin, though absent from the Bouvier sale in 1873). Foulcq collection (according to Koechlin). Marquise Arconati Visconti collection, Paris; gift of the marquise Arconati Visconti to the Musée du Louvre, 1916.

Bibliography
J. Marquet de Vasselot, 'La collection de Madame la marquise Arconati Visconti', in Les Arts, April 1903, pp. 6-7, fig. p. 13.
R. Koechlin, La Collection Martin Le Roy. II. Ivoires et sculptures (Paris, 1906).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 141-142, 214; II, no. 218, III, pl. LV.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 35, fig. 28.
L'Art décoratif d'Europe occidentale, IXe-XVIe siècles, d'après les collections du musée du Louvre et de Cluny, Leningrad and Moscow, 1980-1981, no. 8 (with ill.).
P. Williamson, Medieval Sculpture and Works of Art. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (London, 1987), no. 23 (cited).
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. 26, pp. 161-162.
The Image of Time. European Manuscript Books, exhibition catalogue, Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, 2000 pp. 456-457 (cited).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 152.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 56, in relation to no. 5.

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