Gothic Ivories Project | Fragment of an openwork panel (plaque ajourée; probably fragment from a diptych; wing, left) (Back)

Saint John the Baptist holding the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); camel hide; standing Virgin and Child (Virgo lactans); bishop saint wearing a robe with knotted belt and holding a crown and a crozier (saint Louis of Toulouse); Franciscan nun kneeling in donor position.

Westwood 1876: France, late 15th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 15th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, 1st half of the 15th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (probably Paris), early 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Parchment repair patch. Label: Department of Science and Art Museum.

Object Condition
The Virgin's halo is chipped.
The sides and upper border have broken away, the break at the bottom right having been trimmed and rubbed smooth.
Vertical crack running through Saint Louis, repaired with glue and parchment patch.
Missing: ivory border including slender column on either side (see the base of one to the left).

Comments
This relief probably once formed part of an openwork panel (Longhurst 1929).

Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1862: purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.

Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 92.
Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1867. Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 7.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 116-117.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), p. 218, no. 523 (73.198).
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 319; II, no. 849; III, pl. CLIII.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 36, pl. XXXIV.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 111.

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