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Head of crozier (crosse); known as the Aldobrandini Crozier (Detail)

Head of crozier (crosse); known as the Aldobrandini Crozier (Detail)
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Side

Side

Back

Front

Case

Front

Front

Front

Back

Front

Front

Front

Front

Detail

Back

Front

Side 1

Side 2

Case

Case

Case

Case

Case

Detail, staff

Detail, knop

Bottom

Case

Case

Subject
Religious.

Repository Institution
www.vam.ac.uk

To purchase an image
www.vandaimages.com


London, Victoria and Albert Museum

A.547-1910

Wood (knop core; screw threads);brass (later tip);ivory

Height: 188 mm (including staff)
Width: 123 mm (volute)

Volute
Adoration of the Magi.
Along the outer edge of the volute: Christ in bust between two figures holding scrolls, David (?) and Solomon (the latter is identified by an inscription).
Foliated decoration.
Monster swallowing the base of the volute (dragon head).
Knop
Saint John the Evangelist writing; saint Mark writing; saint Luke writing; saint Matthew writing.
Twisted columns.
Painted inscription along the volute: 'DEVS QVI HODIERNA DIE [unigeni]TEM TVVM GENTIBVS [s]TEL[la d]VCE' on the front and 'REVELASTI CONCEDE PR[opi]TIVS VT QVI IAM TE EX FID[e] COGNO[vimus]' on the back (O God, who on this day by the leading of a star didst manifest thine only-begotten son to the gentiles; mercifully grant that we who know thee now by faith,[...may be brought by contemplation of the beauty of thy majesty).
Painted inscription on the scroll held by the right hand side figure on the outside of the volute: 'SALOMON'.
Painted inscriptions in uncial script in the background of each Evangelist panel, providing their name: 'S. IOANES. EV.', 'S. MARCVS. EV.', 'S. MATEVS', 'S. LVCHAS. EV.'
Case decorated with foliated decoration and on one side: a unicorn and two dragons; on the other: a stag, a hare, a boar, an eagle. On both sides: coat of arms of the Aldobrandini family (a bend counter-embattled between six mullets ranged in orle). On the top of the cover: Aldobrandini coat of arms with a mitre and crozier.


Koechlin Number: 0774A

Molinier 1890: Italy, 14th century.
Griggs 1904-1907: Italy, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France or Italy (?), 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: Italy, 14th century.
Natanson 1951: Italy, 14th century.
Detroit 1997: Italy (Venice), c. 1370.
Williamson and Davies 2014: Italy (Venice), about 1370.


Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive gilding and polychromy (extensive refreshing): blue (background; inside of saint Matthew's cloak, ), gold (inscription, hair, patterns, painted dragon, numerous highlights, stars, etc.).
Painted inscription along the volute: 'DEVS QVI HODIERNA DIE [unigeni]TEM TVVM GENTIBVS [s]TEL[la d]VCE' on the front and 'REVELASTI CONCEDE PR[opi]TIVS VT QVI IAM TE EX FID[e] COGNO[vimus]' on the back (O God, who on this day by the leading of a star didst manifest thine only-begotten son to the gentiles; mercifully grant that we who know thee now by faith,[...may be brought by contemplation of the beauty of thy majesty). This is a portion of the Collect for the Epiphany.
Painted inscription on the scroll held by the right hand side figure on the outside of the volute: 'SALOMON'.
Painted inscriptions in uncial script (probably later, erroneous) in the background of each Evangelist panel, providing their name: 'S. IOANES. EV.' (probably saint Matthew), 'S. MARCVS. EV.', 'S. MATEVS' (actually saint John), 'S. LVCHAS. EV.'
The painted decoration on the staff has partly disappeared but an engraved 'D' is still visible, followed by four dots. Outlines of painted decoration still discernible include a dragon, a cross, birds, foliated scrolls and a crozier.

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Missing: four foliated extensions or prophets along the exterior of the volute (three ivory pegs remain); heads of Christ and Solomon (probably from another crozier but fitted on this one in the 19th century); two foliated extensions (late 19th century replacements).
The knop was turned round 180 degrees between 1880 and 1893 (see Williamson and Davies 2014 for more details).

Comments
The crozier is made of five sections. Each section is identified with gilded dots (from one to four) and letters (A to D), to facilitate assembly. The volute is made of five small sections of ivory glued together (Williamson and Davies 2014).
Case decorated with foliated decoration and on one side: a unicorn and two dragons; on the other: a stag, a hare, a boar, an eagle. On both sides: coat of arms of the Aldobrandini family (a bend counter-embattled between six mullets ranged in orle). On the top of the cover: Aldobrandini coat of arms with a mitre and crozier.

Provenance
Belonged to Giovanni Benci Carrucci Aldobrandini, Florentine bishop of Gubbio (Umbria, Central Italy) between 1370 and 1375 (see coat of arms on the case). Museo Civico, Volterra, until 1880; sale, J. Sambon, 2 December 1880, lot 4; collection of Frédéric Spitzer, Paris, by 1890: his sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April 1893, lot 125 (crozier) and lot 799 (case); bought by George Salting, London; his bequest to the museum in 1910.

Bibliography
J. Sambon, Description des Ivoires de la Ville de Volterra, sale catalogue (Florence, 1880), cat. no. 4, pp. 21-24.
La Collection Spitzer (Paris, 1890), I, no. 90 (E. Molinier).
E. Molinier, Histoire générale des Arts appliqués à l'Industrie. I: Les Ivoires (Paris, 1896), pp. 202-4, pl. 14.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XX.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), pp. 202, 218.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 277, no. 774A; III, pl. CXXX.
W. W. Watts, Catalogue of Pastoral Staves in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (London, 1924), no. 28, pl. 15.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 60-61, pl. LKK.
O. von Falke, in Pantheon XVI (1935), p. 270.
P. Lesley, 'Two triptychs and a Crucifix in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican library', in Art Bulletin XVIII (1936), pp. 477-478, fig. 15.
P. B. Cott, Siculo-Arabic Ivories (Princeton, 1939), no. 179, pl. 66.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 39, fig. 61.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), p. 211.
B. Wolff-Łozínska, 'Grupa Włoskich Pastorałów z Kości Słoniowej i egzemplarz zachowany w Polsce', in Ars Auro Prior, Studia Ioanni Białostocki Sexagenario Dicata (Warsaw, 1981), pp. 143, 144, 146, fig. 8.
P. L. Menichetti, Storia di Gubbio dalle origini all'Unità d'Italia, 2 vols, (Città di Castello, 1987), pp. 75-75.
P. Williamson, 'Avori italiani e avori francesi', in Il Gotico europeo in Italia (Naples, 1994), pp. 293-298 (pp. 293-294, fig. 2).
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 50, pp. 215-216.
D. Thurre, ‘Pastorale,’ in Enciclopedia dell’Arte Medievale, Vol. 4 (1998), p. 246.
M. Tomasi, ‘Contributi allo studio della scultura eburnean trecentesca in Italia: Venezia’, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, series 4, vol. 4, (1999), p. 231-236.
Depth of Field: the Place of Relief in the Time of Donatello, ed. by P. Curtis, exhibition catalogue, Leeds, Henry Moore Institute, 23 September 2004-27 March 2005, cat. nos 21-22.
É. Antoine, Bologne et le pontifical d'Autun. Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu du premier Trecento, 1330-1340, exhibition catalogue, Autun, Musée Rolin, 12 September 2012 - 9 December 2012, cat. nos. 21-22.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 152 and in relation to no. 151.


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