Seated Virgin and Child; musician angels standing on columns (flute; string instruments); saint Dorothy or saint Elizabeth holding a basket with fruits and a stem of flowers; saint Catherine of Alexandria with wheel and sword; architecture; crown.
Molinier 1890: Spanish, 15th century.
Dalton 1912: Spanish, 16th century.
London 1923: Spanish (?), late 15th century-early 16th century, while noting that Koechlin regards it as Westphalian.
Museum's opinion 2011: North European, 2nd half of the 15th century (?).
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved in the round. Elaborate architecture; columns; musician angels.
Comments
Dalton and the 1923 catalogue identified the saint to the left with saint Elizabeth. Two other pieces with similar iconography exist: one in Münster cathedral and one formerly in the Schiff collection.
Provenance
Frédéric Spitzer collection, Paris: his sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April 1893, lot 154. Collection of Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael (b. 1859, d. 1926): his sale, 1902, lot 143. Collection of Frank McClean: his bequest to the Museum in 1904.
Bibliography
La Collection Spitzer (Paris, 1890), I, no. 119 (E. Molinier).
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Mediaeval Ivories, Enamels, Jewellery, Gems and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed to the Museum by Frank McClean, M.A., F.R.S. (Cambridge, 1912), no. 43, pl. XLI.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923, no. 159, pl. XLI.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 351; III, no. 985G.
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