Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled triptych (tabernacle) (Front)

Wings, left and right
Two angels holding candlesticks.
Centre panel
Seated Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); angel crowning the Virgin.

Frankfurt 1875: French, 1st half of the 14th century.
Vöge 1900: French, 14th century.
Volbach 1923: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd third of the 14th century.
Natanson 1951: French, c. 1350.
Schrader 1972: 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 1978: Middle Rhineland (?), last quarter of the 14th century.
Darmstadt and Munich 1999: Paris, c. 1310-1320.
Museum's opinion 2010: Rhineland (Cologne?), c. 1350-1375 (Berlin Master).

Attribution
Master of the Berlin Triptych (Berlin Master) (Natanson; Gaborit-Chopin, etc.)

Hinges
Two hinges on either side (probably original).

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy.

Object Condition
Vertical crack in the centre panel.

Comments
This triptych is the eponymous work of the Master of the Berlin Triptych of the Virgin in Glory. The ivory latch is original.

Provenance
Collection of Anton Josef Essingh (b. 1787, d. 1864), Cologne: his sale, Heberle, 18 September 1865, lot 863. Collection of Carl Anton Milani (b. 1820, d. 1882), Frankfurt (in 1875). Collection of Consul Carl Becker, Frankfurt: sold, Cologne, 23 May 1898, lot 62. Collection of Eugen Felix: sale, Cologne, 25 October 1886, lot 314; acquired in 1887 in Cologne by the Museum.

Bibliography
Historische Ausstellung kunstgewerblicher Erzeugnisse zu Frankfurt am Main, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt am Main, 1875, pl. XVIII.
W. Vöge, Die Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der christlichen Epochen. Zweite Auflage. Elfenbeinwerke (Berlin, 1900), no. 106.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ateliers d'ivoiriers français aux XIII et XIVe siècles. II. L'atelier des tabernacles de la Vierge', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 34 (1905), pp. 453-471 (p. 457).
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 187, fig. 123.
W. F. Volbach, Die Bildwerke des Deutschen Museums, Die Elfenbeinbildwerke (Berlin, 1923), no. 628, p. 37, pl. 45.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 122, 199, 213, 217; II, no. 120; III, pl. XXXV.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), pp. 100-101.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 36, fig. 34.
P. Metz, Bildwerke der christlichen Epochen von der Spätantike bis zum Klassizismus (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin-Dahlem) (Munich, 1966), no. 271.
J. L. Schrader, 'Recent Acquisitions. An Ivory Plaque with the Virgin and Child in Glory', in Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. Houston (May 1972), pp. 30-37.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), no. and fig. 257.
Meisterwerke aus Elfenbein der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum and Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1999, no. 40.
H. Krohm, 'Die mittelalterliche Elfenbeine' in KulturStiftung der Länder, Patrimonia 193 (2001), pp. 6-35, fig. 9.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), p. 191, fig. 1, in relation to no. 60.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, pp. 574-5, in relation to no. 168 and no. 172.

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