Gothic Ivories Project | Writing tablets, 1 register, 4 arches across (frise d'arcatures; plaquettes; tablettes à écrire); reused as a diptych (Front)

Wing, left
Death of the Virgin (Dormition); Christ holding the soul of the Virgin; apostles including saint John the Evangelist holding a martyr's palm; cruciform halo.
Wing, right
Crucifixion; Virgin and Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist and onlookers holding scrolls; rugged cross; sun and moon.
Incised trefoils.

Stafski 1965: German (?), last third of the 14th century.
Martini and Rizzardi 1990: Western Germany (?), last third of the 14th century.
Nuremberg 2000: Southern Germany (?), last third of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two modern hinges.

Reverse
Back of the Dormition panel: recessed to receive the wax, with a raised border; scratches. Back of the Crucifixion panel: reverse divided into 5 compartments, the central one being circular.

Object Condition
Missing: part of the background to the right of the Crucifixion. Vertical cracks.
Holes in the upper edges and in the middle of the outer edges (for lost clasp).

Provenance
Collection of Freiherr von Eelking; acquired by the Museum in 1880.

Bibliography
H. Bösch, Katalog der im germanischen Museum befindlichen Originalskulpturen (Nuremberg, 1890), no. 48.
W. Josephi, Kataloge des Germanischen Nationalmuseums Nürnberg. Die Werke plastischer Kunst (Nuremberg, 1910), no. 625.
H. Stafski, Kataloge des Germanischen Nationaslmuseums Nürnberg. Die mittelalterlichen Bildwerke, Pt. 1. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Elfenbein bis um 1450 (Nuremberg 1965), pp. 239-240, no. and fig. 216.
Avori bizantini e medievali nel museo nazionale di Ravenna, ed. by L. Martini and C. Rizzardi (Ravenna, 1990), p. 122, fig. 50.
Spiegel der Seligkeit: Privates Bild und Frömmigkeit im Spätmittelalter, ed. by G. U. Großmann, exhibition catalogue, Nuremberg, 2000, pp. 270-271, no. 96 (A. Curtius).
Im Zeichen des Christkinds. Privates Bild und Frömmigkeit im Spätmittelalter, ed. by F. M. Kammel, exhibition catalogue, Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 2003, pp. 118-119, no. 96.

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