Gothic Ivories Project | Openwork diptych, 1 register, 1 ogee arch across (plaques ajourées) (Front)

Openwork diptych, 1 register, 1 ogee arch across (plaques ajourées) (Front)

Openwork diptych, 1 register, 1 ogee arch across (plaques ajourées) (Front)

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Subject
Religious.

Repository Institution
www.britishmuseum.org

To purchase an image
www.bmimages.com

London, The British Museum

1856,0623.50 (Dalton 322)

Ivory;metal (modern hinges)

Height: 58mm
Width: 85mm
Depth: 4mm
Weight: 14.3g

Wing, left
Last Supper with saint John the Evangelist leaning on Christ's breast; conflated with Meal at Bethany (at the house of Simon the Leper), with saint Mary Magdalene anointing Christ's feet.
Wing, right
Deposition; Virgin in prayer; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; saint John the Evangelist and onlooker.
Flamboyant tracery and brickwork in the spandrels.

Dalton 1909: Flemish, late 15th century.
Museum's Opinion 2010: Northern French or Flemish, late 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Modern hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Gilding on details of canopy, halos, hair, beards and parts of clothing; green polychromy on floor, hats and sleeves.

Reverse
Inscriptions: 'MCLI' (1551 in Roman numerals), carved into the ivory with traces of black ink; '38', 'WM', '6' (in pencil). Some crosshatching.

Provenance
Collection of William Maskell (b. 1814, d. 1890): bought from him by the Museum in 1856.

Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), no. 322, Pl. LXXII.

Image

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