Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 1 register, 1 arch across (plaquettes); so-called 'Mège Diptych' (Front)

Wing, left
Standing Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two angels holding candlesticks; angel crowning the Virgin.
Wing, right
Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; angels holding the Sun and the Moon.
Medallions enclosing quatrefoils with protruding cones in the spandrels.

Koechlin 1924: France, mid-14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1330-1350.

Attribution
Atelier of the Master of the Mège Diptych (Gaborit-Chopin)

Hinges
Two restored hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy (see report by A. Cascio and J. Levy).

Object Condition
Ivory cracked, brown patina. Open crack with small chips and restoration attempt behind and to the left of the Coronation of the Virgin. Restoration behind crucified Christ.
Missing: candles held by the angels.

Provenance
Collection of Charles Mège, Paris; collection of Élisabeth Mège, Paris; bequest of Élisabeth Mège, 1958, accepted by the Musée du Louvre in 1961.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 218, II, no. 537, III, pl. XCV.
H. Landais, 'La donation Mège', in Revue du Louvre, 1961, pp. 108-112, fig. 4.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), no. and fig. 235.
R.H. Randall, 'A Parisian Ivory Carver', The Journal of The Walters Art Gallery, 38, 1980, fig. 3.
Les Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, ed. by F. Baron, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1981, no. 152.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 162.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 70, in relation to no. 8.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 148.

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