Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers (Front, open)

Brussels, Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire - Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst und Geschiedenis (Musée du Cinquantenaire)

Wing, right
Register 1: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; sun and moon.
Register 2: Standing Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two angels holding candlesticks; kneeling male figure in donor position (possibly tonsured).
Wing, right
Register 1: Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's hand; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet; saint John the Evangelist.
Register 2: Three Holy Women at the Tomb, with angel seated on the tomb and soldiers asleep (painted).

Destrée 1902: France, 13th-14th century.
Koechlin 1924 and Brussels 1964: France, 2nd third of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Three hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive polychromy and gilding (the soldiers are painted rather than carved): silver (coats of mail), green (lining of clothes), gold (hems, hair, beards, ointment pots, haloes, etc.), red: lips, clothes, books), blue (Virgin's cloak).

Reverse
Flat and smooth.Circular stain on the back of the right wing.

Provenance
Acquired from M. Hanicq in 1860.

Bibliography
J. Destrée, Catalogue des ivoires, des objets en nacre en os gravé et en cire peinte (Brussels, 1902), no. 19 (1220).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 166; II, no. 274.
A. Jansen, Christelijke Kunst tot het einde der Middeleeuwen - Art chrétien jusqu'à la fin du Moyen Age, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis-Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, 1964, no. 273.
KIK/IRPA database: http://www.kikirpa.be/www2/wwwopac/en/object.html [accessed October 2009].

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