Coronation of the Virgin; two angels holding navettes and swinging censers; female kneeling figure in donor position, holding a book.
Medallions containing quatrefoils in the spandrels.
Natanson 1951: French, c. 1330.
Randall 1993: French (Paris), 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Williamson 2002: Paris, c. 1320-1330.
Museum's opinion 2009: French, c. 1330-1340.
Attribution
Master of the Mège Diptych (Randall); Master of the Death of the Virgin (Natanson)
Hinges
Traces of four missing hinges on the right side.
Reverse
Flat and smooth. White label with ink inscription: '337'; blue and white label with the inscription: 'Collection Wernher no. 262'.
Object Condition
Missing: chain of censer.
Nose of Christ chipped. Central hole at the top of the panel (probably for suspension). Traces of clasps on the outer edge. The mitres of the missing hinges have been filled with a white substance.
Comments
The right wing is now in The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (inv. 51-9).
Provenance
Collection of Sir Julius Wernher (d. 1912), Bath House, London; on loan to English Heritage and displayed at Ranger's House since 2002.
Bibliography
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), pp. 21-22, pl. 30.
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), p. 69, fig. 9.
P. Williamson, 'Medieval Ivory Carvings in the Wernher Collection', in Apollo (May 2002), pp. 17-22, fig. 3.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, in relation to no. 161.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 121.
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