Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled polyptych, with arches (tabernacle; frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Wings, left
Register 1: Annunciation; vase of lilies. Visitation.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (part of the Adoration of the Magi scene).
Centre panel
Standing Virgin and Child; Virgin holding a book in her right hand; Christ holding a fruit in his left hand.
Later copper additions: angel crowning the Virgin; musician angels (portable organ; unidentified string instrument)
Wings, right
Register 1: Nativity; Virgin holding the swaddled child.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple; Virgin holding Christ.

Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Berliner 1926: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Thinesse 1977: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2013: France, 2nd half of the 14th century; base: probably mid 15th century; copper angels: mid 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two sets of two ring hinges on either side (early modern replacements).

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy (Koechlin 1924).

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Blue and white label with inscription: 'no. 1343'.

Object Condition
Missing: canopy over the Virgin.
Crown and angels date from the 15th century, the piece was probably rearranged then and the ivory base may have been added then.
Two holes at the back of the base.

Provenance
Acquired in 1857 on the Munich art market.

Bibliography
Das Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Munich, 1868), p. 7
Das Mittelalter. II, Gotische Alterthümer der Baukunst und Bildnerei, by H. Graf, G. Hager and J. A. Mayer (Munich, 1896), VI, no. 1377.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 126, 129; II, no. 157.
R. Berliner, Die Bildwerke des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, IV. Die Bildwerke in Elfenbein, Knochen, Hirsch- und Steinbockhorn, mit einem Anhange: Elfenbeinarbeiten der Staatlichen Schlossmuseen in Bayern (Augsburg, 1926), no. 36.
J. Thinesse, Appendix zum Elfenbeinkatalog Rudolf Berliners, unpublished MA dissertation, Munich, 1977 (Typescript), p. 27.

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