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Statuette; inserted in a winged tabernacle (Back)

Statuette; inserted in a winged tabernacle (Back)
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Subject
Religious.

Repository Institution
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Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum

Inv. W 37

Ivory;cast and embossed gilt silver (tabernacle);silver (foot)

Height: 34mm (ivory only); 163mm (total)
Width: 20mm (ivory only); 101mm (total)
Depth: 12mm (ivory only); 70m (total)

Seated Virgin and Child; Christ seated on the Virgin's right knee; Virgin holding a fruit in her left hand; Christ pulling the back of the Virgin's veil; bench.
Wings: angels and saints or apostles in prayer.
Pinnacle. Tracery. Pointed trefoils.

Neumann 1891: France, end of the 13th century (ivory) and beginning of the 14th century (tabernacle) and later (?) (silver base).
Falke, Schmidt, Swarzenski 1930: Germany, 14th century.
Frankfurt 1930: Germany, 14th century.
Berlin 1935: Germany, 14th century.
Schönberger 1967: Mosan, mid 13th century (ivory and tabernacle without wings) and 2nd half of the 13th century (wings of tabernacle and silver base).
Kötzsche 1973: Germany, mid 13th century (ivory and tabernacle) and Brunswick (?), 1st half of the 14th century (silver base).
De Winter 1985: Germany, end of 13th century (ivory and tabernacle) and Brunswick, 1st half of the 14th century (silver base).
De Winter 1986: Germany, end of 13th century (ivory and tabernacle) and Brunswick, 1st half of the 14th century (silver base).
Boockmann 1993: no location, mid 13th century (ivory and tabernacle without wings) and 2nd half of the 13th century (wings of tabernacle and silver base) (?).
Brunswick 1995: Germany, mid 13th century (ivory and tabernacle) and Brunswick (?), 1st half of the 14th century (silver base).
Museum's opinion 2012: Germany, 3rd quarter of the 13th century (ivory and tabernacle) and Brunswick (?), 1st half of the 14th century (silver base).


Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: blue (Virgin's robe), red (Virgin's cloak, Christ's robe, fruit, lips), green (pupils), gold (hair; along the hems).

Reverse
Ivory carved in the round. Inscriptions on the back of the outer wings: 'AN/DR/EE./APO(OSTO)/LI./MA/VR/IC/II./BL/AS/II./GE/OR/GI/I.C/LA/RE./VI/RG/IN/IS.

Object Condition
Triangular indent at the top of the Virgin's head.

Provenance
From the Treasury of the church of Saint Blasius in Braunschweig (Brunswick); collection of the Dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Treasure of the Guelphs, 'Welfenschatz'); acquired by the Museum on 14 June 1935 from a consortium of art dealers.

Bibliography
W. A. Neuman, Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Vienna, 1891), pp. 291- 293, no. 63.
O. von Falke, R. Schmidt, G. Swarzenski, Der Welfenschatz. Der Reliquienschatz des Braunschweiger Domes aus dem Besitz des Herzoglichen Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Frankfurt am Main, 1930), pp. 90, 188, no. 55.
Der Welfenschatz, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt am Main, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, 1930, pp. 59ff., no. 55.
Der Welfenschatz. Einführung und beschreibendes Verzeichnis, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, Schlossmuseum, 1935, p. 53, no. 37.
M. Frinta, 'The Closing Tabernacle: A Fanciful Innovation of Medieval Design', in Art Quarterly 30 (1967), pp. 103-117, fig. 2.
A. Schönberger, 'Ein Klappaltärchen des Welfenschatzes', in Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft 21 (1967), pp. 135- 140.
D. Kötzsche, Der Welfenschatz in Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseum (Bilderheft der Staatlichen Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin, 20/21) (Berlin, 1973), pp. 55ff. and 79ff., no. 40.
P. M. de Winter, 'The Sacral Treasure of the Guelphs', in The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72 (1985), pp. 2-160 (p. 141, no. 49).
P. M. de Winter, Der Welfenschatz. Zeugnis sakraler Kunst des Deutschen Mittelalters (Hannover, 1986), p. 173, no. 49.
A. Boockmann, Die Inschriften der Stadt Braunschweig bis 1528 (Wiesbaden, 1993), p. 48, no. 26.
Heinrich der Löwe und seine Zeit. Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125-1235, exhibition catalogue, Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, 1995, pp. 240ff, no. D55 (J. Luckhardt).
A. Boockmann, Die verlorenen Teile des 'Welfenschatzes'. Eine Übersicht anhand des Reliquienverzeichnisses von 1482 der Stiftskirche St. Blasius in Braunschweig (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, phil.-hist. Klasse, 3rd series, 226) (Göttingen, 1997), p. 146, Anm. 87.


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