Gothic Ivories Project | Openwork casket, with arches (coffret; colonnettes) (Back, lid)

Lid
Register 1: Judas receiving the reward. Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas). Christ led away by soldiers (arrest of Christ). Unidentified scene; soldiers in armour; shields; swords.
Register 2: Mocking of Christ. Flagellation. Carrying of the Cross with the Virgin helping Christ. Crucifixion; Longinus piercing Christ's side; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar.
Register 3: Deposition; sun and moon. Entombment with Holy Women. Resurrection; three soldiers asleep. Harrowing of Hell with souls coming out of the Mouth of Hell.
Body, front
Register 1: Doubting Thomas (the incredulity of saint Thomas). Two men with lions on leashes. Pentecost; Christ with twelve apostles.
Register 2: Christ among the Doctors. Presentation in the Temple. Flight into Egypt. Massacre of the Innocents; soldiers in armour.
End, right
Register 1: Christ preaching to apostles. Calling of saint Peter and saint Andrew; Christ and apostles; boat; water.
Register 2: Entry into Jerusalem; Last Supper (?). Baptism of Christ by saint John the Baptist; angel holding Christ's tunic.
Body, back
Register 1: Unidentified scene with Christ and apostles. Unidentified scene with two figures in a building. Christ appearing to the Holy Women. Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene).
Register 2: Annunciation to the Shepherds; sheep. Nativity. Visitation. Annunciation.
End, left
Register 1: Supper at Emmaus. Christ appearing to the pilgrims of Emmaus.
Register 2: seated king Herod holding a sword; attendant with horses (part of adoration to the right). Adoration of the Magi.
Pierced trefoils; tracery in the spandrels.

Leeuwenberg 1969: France?, last quarter of the 18th century or 1st half of the 19th century.
Baltimore 1962: English, 2nd quarter of the 15th century.
Museum's opinion 2014: 19th century.

Attribution
Master of the Bearded Men Forgeries (Leeuwenberg)

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
Holes for missing fittings. Crack down the front panel.

Provenance
Hollingworth Magniac, Colworth, Bedfordshire, before 1862, by purchase; Charles Magniac, Colworth, 1867, by inheritance; sale, Christie's, London, 2 July 1892, lot 259; E. de Valero, Paris, by purchase; sale, Paris, 18 December 1893, lot 52; Marcus Antocolsky, Paris, by purchase; sale, Paris, 10 June 1901, lot 68; Jacques Seligmann, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1910, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Bibliography
The International Style: The Arts of Europe around 1400, ed. by P. Verdier, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, 1962, no. 109, with fig.
J. Leeuwenberg, 'Early Nineteenth-Century Gothic Ivories', in Aachener Kunstblätter 39 (1969), pp. 111-148 (p. 142, fig. 49).

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.