Gothic Ivories Project | Comb (fragment; peigne double) (Side 1)

Side 1: bishop holding a crozier with the volute in the shape of a snake head; seated bishop (partially visible).
Side 2: man brandishing a sword above a figure kneeling in prayer (only hands visible); kneeling figure holding a dish (only arms and knee visible)(possibly part of the decollation of saint John the Baptist).

Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: North French, 2nd half of the 13th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on both sides.

Object Condition
Ivory very decayed (buried and found in an excavation?). Only part of the comb and its double-edged teeth remain (teeth broken and reattached, some partly broken).
Ambering of the ivory due to modern preservation.(See unpublished Cascio and Levy report, 2001).

Comments
The iconography is impossible to identify with certainty due to the fragmentary nature of the piece.

Provenance
Gift of Guy Ladrière to the Museum in 1989.

Bibliography
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Nouvelles acquisitions du département des objets d'art, 1985-1989 (Paris, 1990), no. 17.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 116.

© Réunion des musées nationaux (RMN) - Daniel Arnaudet.
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