Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy.

Reverse
Upper part of the piece carved in the round. Curved and hollow in its lower part.

Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the Virgin's head, crown (replaced); toes on Christ's left foot and his right foot; fingers on the Virgin's right hand.
Holes in the sides of the bench.
Green stains on the sides of the bench caused by a later metal throne which has now been removed.

Comments
This piece was probably part of a tabernacle.

Provenance
Charles Stein collection, Paris: sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1886, lot 22, pl. I. Ernest Odiot collection: sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 26-27 April 1889, lot 24. Martin Heckscher collection, Vienna: his sale, 1898, lot 190; Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc., Paris and New York (from 1898). Leopold Goldschmidt. Collection of Georges Hoentschel (b. 1855, d. 1915), Paris. Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan (d. 1913), London and New York; estate of J. Pierpont Morgan (1913-1917); gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.

Bibliography
A. Pératé, Collections Georges Hoentschel. Ivoires, orfèvrerie religieuse, pierres (Paris, 1911), no. 22, pl. XIX.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 22, 101; II, no. 76; III, pl. XXVII.
The Pierpont Morgan wing: a handbook by Joseph Breck and Meyric Rogers (New York, 1929), 2nd ed., p. 113, fig. 63.
V. K. Ostoia, The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Chicago, The Art Institute, 1970, no. 52.
C. Blair and M. Campbell, Louis Marcy: Oggetti d'arte della Galleria Parmeggiani di Reggio Emilia (Turin: Umberto Allemandi, 2008), p. 142.