Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled polyptych (tabernacle); also known as the Germiny Polyptych (Front)

Height: 243mm
Width: 85.8mm (closed), 210mm (open)
Depth: 47.6mm (closed), 45mm (open);
Weight: 757g

Wings, left
Register 1: Visitation; Annunciation.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (part of an Adoration of the Magi continued on the centre panel).
Centre panel
Standing Virgin and Child; angel crowning the Virgin; Virgin holding a flower; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand; blessing gesture.
Wings, right
Register 1: Nativity with Joseph holding Christ Child.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple with the Virgin holding Christ.

Koechlin 1924: France, beginning of the 2nd third of the 14th century.
Lowden 2008: Paris, 2nd quarter of 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2008: France (Paris), 2nd quarter of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two sets of two hinges on either side.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy, especially in the trefoil arches.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Remains of a round label with stamped inscription 'Gare de l'est'.

Comments
The centre panel would have been originally surmounted by decorative metalwork.

Provenance
Van der Helle collection, Lille. Planquart collection, Lille: sale, October 1888, lot 226. Collection of Comte Max de Germiny, Paris (in 1924). Thomson collection, Toronto (acquired from Christie's, London, 10 November 2005, lot 147); since 2008 The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 126, 129; II, no. 155; III, pl. XL.
J. Cherry, J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), no. 21.
A. von Hülsen-Esch, D. Täube, 'Luft unter die Flügel...'. Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Kunst (Hildesheim, 2010), p. 179, fig. 6.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 56, in relation to no. 5.

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