Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Christ holding the soul of the Virgin; angels swinging censers; angels in prayer.
Register 2: Death of the Virgin (Dormition); shrouded body of the Virgin; apostles surrounding the Virgin.
Wing, right
Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin; angel crowning the Virgin; angels swinging censers.
Register 2: Crowned Virgin in a mandorla borne by angels.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two missing hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding.

Object Condition
Relief worn. Wrenching around hinges. Ivory cracked.
Missing (left wing): hands of the two standing angels, head of the soul of the Virgin.
Missing (right wing): left angel and hands of the angel in the upper register, part of the crown, hands of the Virgin.

Comments
Scenes inspired by Jacques de Voragine's Golden Legend.

Provenance
Left wing: Sotheby's, London, 10 April 1975, lot 6. Kenneth Clark collection, New York. Guy Ladrière collection, Paris.
Right wing: Sotheby's, London, 3-5 July 1984, lot 126. Guy Ladrière collection, Paris.
Two wings together: Gift of G. Ladrière to the Musée du Louvre in 1986.

Bibliography
Connaissance des arts, March 1976, no. 289, p. 108, fig. 1.
Connaissance des arts, June 1989, p. 100, fig.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Nouvelles acquisitions du département des objets d'art, 1985-1989 (Paris, 1990), no. 18.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 110.

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