Side 1: seated Virgin and Child.
Side 2: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist.
Architecture evoking a church; tiled roof; trefoils.
Griggs 1904-1907: France, 13th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, late 13th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, end of the 13th century.
Giusti 1982: Northern France, c. 1280-1290. Inserted in a 15th-century crozier.
Williamson and Davies 2014: ivory double-sided panel, Northern France, c. 1250-70; ivory knop and volute, probably Sicilian, c. 1200; metal casing, German, 1st half of the 15th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of original and19th-century polychromy and gilding: gold (four and five-dot pattern on the background; architectural details; cross; long the hems, etc), blue (Virgin's robe).
Reverse
Carved on both sides.
Object Condition
The plaque is rubbed in places, with subsequent loss of polychromy, and is chipped, especially in the upper areas.
Side 2: The left forearm and hand of the Virgin in the Crucifixion scene is missing.
Comments
This object is composite: the knop and volute are of the Siculo-Arabic type, the volute has been encaded in metal and the central part probably gone missing was replaced by the two-sided plaque, probably in the early 15th century, although the ivory part dates from the 13th century. The latter was probably from the start intended to be part of a crozier (see Williamson and Davies 2014 for more details).
Provenance
In Germany or Austria by the 15th century, when it was encased in metal (see Comments field). Collection of Martin Heckscher, Vienna; sale, Christie, Manson, & Woods, London, 4-6 May 1898, lot 189; George Salting collection: his bequest to the Museum in 1910.
Bibliography
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XVII.
'Salting Bequest (A. 70 to A. 1029-1910)/Murray Bequest (A. 1030 to A. 1096-1910)', in List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture) (London, 1910), p. 90.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 65, 195, 201, 268; II, no. 32; III, pl. CXXIV.
W. W. Watts, Catalogue of Pastoral Staves, Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1924), no. 27, pl. 16.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), pp. 9-10.
P. B. Cott, Siculo-Arabic Ivories (Princeton, 1939), cat. no. 151, pl. 61.
P. Giusti, 'Une Madonna in avorio nel Museo Duca di Martina. Plastica minore e scultura monumentale nella Francia del XIII secolo', in Bollettino d'Arte, 67 (1982), pp. 77-86 (figs. 13-14).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, E. Antoine, 'Une dation médiévale', in Revue du Louvre, 4 (2007), p. 10.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 145.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, p. 552, in relation to no. 157.
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