Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, bands of rosettes (décor de roses) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Adoration of the Magi.
Register 2: Annunciation; vase of lilies. Visitation.
Wing, right
Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin; Christ crowning the Virgin; two angels holding navettes and swinging censers; orb.
Register 2: Nativity; Virgin holding the left hand of Christ; curtain.

Griggs 1904-1907: England (?), 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, middle of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, middle of the 14th century.
Natanson 1951: France, c. 1340-1360.
Paris 1998: Paris, c. 1300.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French (Paris), c. 1300.

Attribution
Groupe du 'Diptyque du Christ Juge' (Gaborit-Chopin 1978)

Hinges
Two hinges.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Three of the longer edges chamfered.

Object Condition
A few cracks.
Missing: cross on the orb held by Christ in Coronation scene. Lily in the Annunciation scene and flower held by the Virgin in the Adoration scene damaged.
Holes and partial remains of a pin from a clasp, possibly linked with the black wooden frame that was associated with the diptych in 1858.
Along the upper edge, two large holes have been plugged with ivory.

Comments
This diptych, according to Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, stylistically belongs to the group of the Christ-Judge Diptych (Louvre, OA 2755) (see Gaborit-Chopin 1978 and Paris 1998).

Provenance
Roger collection, Lyons (before 1841). Daugny collection, Paris: his sale, Paris, 8 March 1858, lot 12; bought by John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London and resold immediately to the Museum in 1858.

Bibliography
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), no.
H. Semper, 'Über eine besondere Gruppe elfenbeinerner Klappaltärchen des XIV Jahrhunderts', in Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst 11 (1898), cols. 179, pp. 182 and 184.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXXV.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), pp. 161-62.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 280, 282, II, no. 782, III, pl. CXXXIV.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 17-18
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 37, fig. 48.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), p. 207 (in relation to Louvre, OA 2755).
L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils (1285-1328), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1998, no. 92.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 75.

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