Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, bands of rosettes (décor de roses) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist. Resurrection; two angels standing on the tomb. Ascension.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple; Joseph holding a basket of doves brought as offerings. Christ among the Doctors; Christ led away by the Virgin and Joseph.
Register 3: Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit. Visitation.
Wing, right
Register 1: Pentecost; tongues of fire; apostles. Coronation of the Virgin; angel crowning the Virgin; two angels holding navettes and swinging censers; two standing angels holding candlesticks.
Register 2: Marriage-feast at Cana; servants filling ewers; knife. Last Supper; bread; fish; chalice-like cup.
Register 3: Annunciation to the Shepherds; musician shepherd playing the bagpipes. Nativity. Adoration of the Magi.

Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 1st third of the 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1330-1350.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Three hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy.

Reverse
Labelled: '1215 / Mège'.

Object Condition
Some cracks; crack in the upper part of the left wing, around the hinge. Restoration with new ivory strip below the middle hinge of left wing. Signs of a clasp on thick parts of outer edge, top and bottom.

Provenance
Collection of Charles Mège, Paris, before 1909; collection of Élisabeth Mège, Paris; bequest of Élisabeth Mège, 1958, accepted 1961.

Bibliography
Exposition rétrospective du Trocadéro, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1889, cat. 115.
G. Migeon, 'La Collection Mège', in Les Arts 86 (February 1909), p. 8.
R. Koechlin, Les ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 152; II, no. 251.
F.W. Robinson, 'A French Gothic Ivory Diptych', in The Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 20, no. 8, 1941, p. 77.
H. Landais , 'La donation Mège', in Revue du Louvre, 1961, pp. 109-110.
Les Fastes du Gothique. Le siècle de Charles V, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand-Palais, 1981-1982, no. 115, fig.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 25, pp. 159-160.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 165.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 46, in relation to no. 3.

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