Attribution
Giovanni Pisano:b. before 1250, d. after 1317:carver:|Giovanni di Balduccio:b. c. 1290, d. after 1339:carver:|Marco Romano:d. after 1318:carver:

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: red bole as base for gold (hair, beard), red (Christ's side wound).

Reverse
Carved in the round.
Hole at the centre of the back of the loincloth, now plugged with an ivory peg.

Object Condition
Missing: arms (wooden plugs still fill the holes where the arms once were attached), legs below the knees.
The thorns were individual pieces of ivory, but most of them are missing or broken.
The drapery of the loincloth is chipped. On the underside of Christ's jaw, a long section of his beard has been shaved flat.

Comments
Underside: modern circular hole (for mounting?).

Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1862: purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.

Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 107.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 12.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 81, ill.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval (London, 1875), pp. 107-8.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), pp. 257-58, pl. LII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 263; II, no. 737.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 58.
J. Pope-Hennessy, 'An ivory by Giovanni Pisano', in Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, Vol. 1, no. 3 (July 1965), pp. 9-16.
J. White, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250-1400 (Harmondsworth, 1966), p. 88.
M. Ayrton, Giovanni Pisano. Sculptor (London, 1969), pp. 113, 114-15, pls 114-15.
M. Lisner, Holzkruzifixe in Florenz und in der Toskana von der Zeit um 1300 bis zum frühen Cinquecento (Munich, 1970), p. 44, no. 39.
M. Seidel, 'Die Elfenbeinmadonna im Domschatz zu Pisa', in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institut in Florenz 16 (1972), pp. 1-50.
E. Carli, Giovanni Pisano (Pisa, 1977), pp.67-69, pls 73-74.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), pp. 160, 211 and fig. 250, 251.
L. C. Marques, 'Un avorio di Giovanni Pisano', in Antichità viva 19, no 5 (1980), p. 17, fig. 8.
P. Williamson, An Introduction to Medieval Ivory Carvings (London, 1982), p. 46, pl. 30.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Un Christ en bronze doré du Trecento au Musée du Louvre', in Revue de l'art 64 (1984), p. 58, fig. 3.
M. Seidel, ''Opus heburneum': Die Entdeckung einer Elfenbeinskulptur von Giovanni Pisano', in Pantheon 42 (1984), p. 222.
Scultura dipinta. Maestri di legname e pittori a Siena 1250-1450, Pinacoteca Nazionale (Florence, 1987), p.24.
P. Williamson, 'Avori italiani e avori francesi', in Il Gotico europeo in Italia (Naples, 1994), pp. 293-294, pl. 1.
P. Williamson. Gothic Sculpture 1140-1300 (London, 1995), pp. 260-262.
The Medieval Treasury. The Art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by P. Williamson (London, 1996), p. 56
Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, 'Gothic, VII, Ivories', in J. Turner, The Dictionary of Art, London, 1996, XIII, pp. 176, fig. 99.
A Grand Design. The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by M. Baker and B. Richardson, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore et. al. (touring exhibition), 1997-1999, no. 44 (P. Williamson).
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by P. Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 34, pp. 180-181.
A. Baldinotti and M. Vezzosi, 'Il "Crocifisso" Eburneo del Victoria and Albert Museum di Londra: Una Proposta per Marco Romano', in Prospettiva 115/116 (2004), pp. 105-109.
Medieval and Renaissance treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum, éd. by P. Williamson and P. Motture (London, 2007), no. 16.
Medieval and Renaissance treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. by P. Williamson and P. Motture (London, 2010), no. 19.
S. Spannocchi, ‘Il Crocifisso eburneo di Marco Romano nel Victoria and Albert Museum di Londra’ (Cinisello Balsamo, 2010), pp. 140-47.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 26.