Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled triptych, 3 registers (frise d'arcatures; colonnettes) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene).
Register 2: Carrying of the Cross.
Register 3: Judas receiving the reward; purse.
Centre panel
Register 1: Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body).
Register 2: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Longinus with spear kneeling in prayer.
Register 3: Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Death of Judas (Judas hanging); Pilate washing his hands.
Wing, right
Register 1: Harrowing of Hell with Adam and Eve coming out of the Mouth of Hell.
Register 2: Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's arm; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet.
Register 3: Flagellation.

Molinier 1890: French, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 1st third of the 14th century.
Schnitzler, Volbach, Bloch 1964: France, c. 1330.
Williamson 1987: French (Paris), c. 1330.

Attribution
Atelier of the Master of the Death of the Virgin (Koechlin 1924)

Hinges
Two hinges on either side.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding (haloes; trefoils) and polychromy: green (trees; architectural details), red (architectural details).

Reverse
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Missing: pinnacles on either side of the centre panel; central cresting.Hole at the top of the centre panel, probably for hanging.The underside of the centre panel has some crosshatching and a hole for fixing to a separate base.

Provenance
Collection of Frédéric Spitzer, Paris: his sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April 1893, lot 122. Collection of Professor W. Weisbach, Berlin (at least 1898 until after 1924). Collection of Ernst and Martha Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne (by 1964). Collection of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (b. 1921, d. 2002), Castagnola-Lugano (bought on 26 April 1971); thence by descent to the present owner.

Bibliography
La Collection Spitzer (Paris, 1890), I, no. 87 (E. Molinier).
Ausstellung von Kunstwerken des Mittelalters und der Renaissance aus berliner Privatbesitz, veranstaltet von der kunstgeschichtlichen Gesellschaft, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, 20 May-3 July 1898, pl. XIV, no. 5.
R. Koechlin, 'Les retables français en ivoire du commencement du XIVe', in Monuments Piot, 13 (1906), fig. 3.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 141, 143; II, no. 220; III, pl. LVI.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), p. 96.
Grosse Kunst des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz, exhibition catalogue, Cologne, Schnütgen Museum, 1960, no. 24.
H. Schnitzler, F. Volbach, P. Bloch, Skulpturen, Elfenbein, Perlmutter, Stein, Holz Europäisches Mittelalter, Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, 2 vols (Lucerne, 1964), no. S.68.
P. Williamson, Medieval Sculpture and Works of Art. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (London, 1987), no. 23.

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