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Opening Virgin triptych (Vierge ouvrante; Virgen abridera; colonnettes) (Front, open)

Opening Virgin triptych (Vierge ouvrante; Virgen abridera; colonnettes) (Front, open)
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Front, closed

Subject
Religious. Life of the Virgin. Seven Joys of the Virgin.

Repository Institution
www.catedralsalamanca.org

To purchase an image
www.catedralsalamanca.org


Salamanca, Museo Diocesano de la Catedral Vieja

S/n

Wood;ivory (scenes and head of the Virgin)

Height: 380mm
Width: 190mm (closed)
Depth: 150mm

Closed
Seated Virgin and Child (only head of the Virgin in ivory).
Open
Centre panel
Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin.
Register 2: Pentecost or Ascension (?).
Register 3: Nativity (?).
Wing, right
Register 2: Pentecost or Ascension (?).
Base: Prophets.

Gómez Moreno 1901: France, 2nd half of the 13th century.
Tormo c. 1930 and Estella Marcos 1984: Spain, last third of the 13th century.
León 2000-2001 (Cuadrado): Spain, late 13th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive gilding and polychromy.

Object Condition
Missing: 5 scenes out of 6 in the wings; lower scene in the centre panel; 9 figures out of the 11 featuring on the octagonal base.

Comments
The third register of the centre panel may have featured the Nativity, (judging from the outline left on the background (compare with the Allariz opening Virgin).

Provenance
A 1275 inventory of Salamanca cathedral mentioning 'una maiestad de s[an]c[t]a M[ari]a en su caseta' could refer to this Virgin. Unknown provenance. Salamanca Cathedral (at least from 1892, when was exhibited in Madrid).

Bibliography
Exposición Histórica Europea, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 1892, sala VI, no. 81.
J. Sarrète, Vierges ouvertes, Vierges ouvrantes, et la Vierge ouvrante de Palau-del-Vidre' (Lézignan-Corbières, 1913), pp. 137-138.
Exposición Iberoamericana, catálogo de la Sección de Arte Antiguo, exhibition catalogue, Sevilla, Palacio Mudéjar y Palacio de Bellas Artes, 1929-1930, no. 1.581.
E. Tormo y Monzo, Salamanca. Las Catedrales (sobre estudios inéditos de don Manuel Gómez Moreno) (Madrid, c. 1930), p. 28.
M. Trens, María. Iconografía de la Virgen en el Arte Español (Madrid, 1946), pp. 503ff., fig. 305-306.
M. Gómez Moreno, Provincia de Salamanca (Madrid, 1967, after a 1901 manuscript), p. 203, fig. 178.
M.-M. Estella Marcos, La Escultura de marfil en España románica y gótica (Madrid, 1984), pp. 134-136, fig. 33.
G. Radler, Die Schreinmadonna 'Vierge ouvrante' von den bernhardinischen Anfängen bis zur Frauenmystic im Deutschordensland, Frankfurter Fundamente der Kunstgeschichte, vol. VI (Frankfurt, 1990), pp. 252-255.
I. Bango Torviso, 'Un tipo de imagen heterodoxa? La Virgen abridera de Allariz y su tipología en la Península Ibérica', in Galicia no tempo, exhibition catalogue, Santiago de Compostela, 1991, pp. 131-148.
Vida y peregrinación, exhibition catalogue, La Rioja, Claustro de la Iglesia Catedral de Santo Domingo de La Calzada, 9 July-26 September 1993.
Maravillas de la España medieval. Tesoro sagrado y monarquía, exhibition catalogue, León, Real Colegiata de San Isidro, 2000-2001, pp. 439-442 (M. Cuadrado).
Las edades del hombre: Yo camino,exhibition catalogue, Ponferrada (León), basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Encina, church of san Andrés, 8 May-9 December 2007.
I. Bango Torviso, La Abridera de Allariz. El imaginario de la Virgen en la sociedad hispana del siglo XIII (Murcia, 2010).
I. González Hernando, El Arte bajomedieval y su proyección: Temas, funciones y contexto de la Vírgenes abrideras tríptico (Editorial Académica Española, 2011), esp. pp. 423-425. Fully accessible online through the Editorial Académica Española site: http://www.ucm.es/centros/cont/descargas/documento35755.pdf [accessed December 2012).


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