Gothic Ivories Project | Opening Virgin (Vierge ouvrante) (Side, left)

Closed
Standing Virgin holding a sceptre and a book; crown.
Open
Wing, left
Register 1: Carrying of the Cross; soldier with whip.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (continued on the centre panel to form the Adoration of the Magi).
Centre panel
Register 1: Crucifixion; Longinus piercing Christ's side; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Virgin and saint John the Evangelist (?).
Register 2: standing Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two angels holding candlesticks.
Wing, right
Register 1: Deposition; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple; Christ standing on the altar (Simeon missing).
PInnacles; pointed trefoils in the spandrels.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: blue, green and violet (architectural details and clothes).

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Minor cracks and damages in places.
Missing: candles held by the angels in the centre panel.

Comments
The base is made of a different piece of ivory.

Provenance
Transferred from the Gosudarstvennii Muzeinii Fond (GMF - State Museum Collection) to the Hermitage in 1951.

Bibliography
Srednevekovoe prikladnoe iskusstvo Zapadnoi Evropy iz sobraniia Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha v g. Sankt-Peterburge: kratkii katalog vystavki, exhibition catalogue, Vyborg, Vyborg Historico-architectural and Fine Arts Museum, 1993, no. 47.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Petersburg, 2014), no. 206.

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