Gothic Ivories Project | Casket, with ogee arches (colonnettes; coffret)

Brussels, Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire - Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst und Geschiedenis (Musée du Cinquantenaire)

Body, front
Nativity; swaddled Christ. Adoration of the Magi.
End, right
Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit.
Body, back
Assumption (Virgin borne to Heaven by angels). Coronation of the Virgin.
End, left
Death of the Virgin (Dormition) with apostles including saint John the Evangelist holding a martyr's palm; Christ holding the soul of the Virgin.
Crosshatched background. Pointed trefoils in the spandrels. Twisted columns.

Destrée 1902: France, 1st half of the 15th century.
Brussels 1964; France 1st half of the 15th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on all sides. Back of the side panels flat and smooth with some recesses to fit the panels together and a channel to allow the lid to slide.

Object Condition
Missing: sliding lid; bottom panel (replaced with a wooden panel).

Comments
This box probably originally had a sliding lid.

Provenance
Bought in 1848.

Bibliography
J. Destrée, Catalogue des ivoires, des objets en nacre en os gravé et en cire peinte (Brussels, 1902), no. 27 (574).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 329; II, no. 887.
A. Jansen, Christelijke Kunst tot het einde der Middeleeuwen, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis, 1964, p. 25, no. 100.
De Franse Kunst in het Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst und Geschiedenis, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst und Geschiedenis, 1975, no. 60.

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