Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled polyptych, 2 registers, 1 arch across (frise d'arcatures; colonnettes) (Front)

Height: 239mm
Width: 322mm (open); 80mm (closed)
Depth: 10mm (open); 42mm (closed)

Wing 1
Register 1: Flagellation.
Register 2: Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); purse; lantern.
Wing 2
Register 1: Carrying of the Cross with the Virgin helping Christ; man holding a hammer.
Register 2: Christ before Pilate.
Wing 3
Register 1: Crucifixion (Nailing to the Cross); Virgin crying, seated on the ground; saint John the Evangelist; two angels supporting the crucified Christ.
Register 2: Death of Judas (Judas hanging); Pilate washing his hands; ewer. Wing 4
Register 1: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; Raising of the Cross.
Register 2: Buffeting of Christ; head of Christ covered by a cloth. Christ disrobed.

Molinier 1904: France, late 13th century or early 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd third of the 14th century.
Petzel 2007: France, 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: France or Germany (Rhenish), c. 1350.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Three sets of four hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Painted quatrefoils in the gables and trefoils in the spandrels. Extensive traces of polychromy (restored) and gilding: red, green, gold (along the hems, hair, shoes, clothes, haloes).

Reverse
Flat with some scoring.
Orange and white label with inscription: 'E. U. 1900 Catalogue M. Oppenheim'. Blue and white label with inscription: '68 Polyptique ivoire'.

Provenance
Collection of Baron Albert Oppenheim, Cologne (by 1900): sale, 1906; collection of J. Pierpont Morgan (d. 1913), London and New York; estate of J. Pierpont Morgan (1913-1917); gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.

Bibliography
Exposition Universelle de 1900, Catalogue illustré Officiel de l'Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Français (Paris, 1900), no. 112.
Collection du Baron Oppenheim. Tableaux et objets d'art. Catalogue précédé d'une introduction par Émile Molinier (Paris, 1904), no. 68, p. 30, pl. LI.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 155, 167, 186, 292; II, no. 282; III, pl. LXXIII.
The Life of Christ, exhibition catalogue, Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, 1948, no. 202.
R. H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, 1985), p. 216.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, p. 89.
K. K. Petzel, Elfenbein Diptychon mit Passions- und Erscheinungsszenen (Cologne, 2007), p. 10, fig. 3.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 83.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.