Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, bands of rosettes (plaquettes; décor de roses) (Wing, left, back)

Wing, left
Register 1: Three Holy Women at the Tomb, with angel seated on the tomb and two soldiers asleep; Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene); tree.
Register 2: Carrying of the Cross; Crucifixion with thieves.
Register 3: Judas receiving the reward; Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); axe.
Wing, right
Register 1: Harrowing of Hell with Adam and Eve coming out of the Mouth of Hell; souls of the damned thrown into the Mouth of Hell.
Register 2: Deposition with saint John the Evangelist holding Christ's arm; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet; Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body).
Register 3: Death of Judas (Judas hanging); soldiers coming to arrest Christ (Arrest of Christ); soldier with winged hat; saint Peter cuts Malchus' ear; Pilate washing his hands.

Koechlin 1924: France, 1st third of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: French, 1st half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), c. 1280-1310.

Attribution
Rose group (Koechlin 1924)

Hinges
Traces of four missing hinges.

Reverse
Flat and smooth.
Left leaf: label with inscription '6,' inscription 'G B 21.'
Right leaf: label with inscription '5,' faint inscription 'G B 21.'

Object Condition
Ivory cracked.
Pierced on the upper border once on each leaf, just off centre.
Missing: left forearm of one of the figures in the Betrayal; Christ's right hand in Noli me tangere; the hand of Caiphas in the scene of Judas and the thirty pieces of silver; the tip of Peter's sword as he cuts off Malchus's ear; the sword or club once held in right hand of lantern-holding figure in the Betrayal scene.

Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1867; on loan to the Museum from 1867: purchased from him by the Museum in 1871.

Bibliography
List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington, Acquired During the Year 1870, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition (London, [c. 1870]), p. 30.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 130.
A. Michel, L'histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, 8 vols, 17 parts (Paris, 1905-1929), II, p. 502.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London), 1905, pp. 158-59, pl. XXIX.
E. S. Prior, A. Gardner, Mediaeval Figure-Sculpture in England (Cambridge, 1912), p. 58.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 152; II, no. 247.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 16, pl. XI.
The Decorated page: eight hundred years of illuminated manuscripts and books, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, May-October 1971, no. 252.
R. H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, 1985), p. 210.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 72.

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