Side 1: Bathsheba receives a letter from David; David, from a window of his palace, sees Bathsheba bathing; fountain with Cupid holding a bow and arrow.Candelabras. Putti.
Side 2: Judgement of Paris (Mercury present); the three goddesses Venus, Juno and Minerva stand before Paris asleep; Venus holding a casket; Juno holding a sword; Minerva holding arrows; Mercury brings Paris the golden apple.
Medallions with head of man and woman in profile; bucrania; monster heads; cherubs; dolphins.
Crosshatched background.
Sauzay 1863: End of the 15th century.
Molinier 1896: French (?), 16th century.
Koechlin 1924: French, 1st quarter of the 14th century.
Dieppe 2005 and Malgouyres 2010: North French, 1st third of the 16th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French or South Netherlandish, c. 1520-1530.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Carved on both sides.
Object Condition
Missing: lower right corner (replaced with a piece of ivory).
Provenance
Acquired by Charles Sauvageot in 1828 ('846. un peigne en ivoire du XVIe siècle. Jugement de Pâris vente de Mr Petit Radel 130 [fr.]'; Malgouyres points out that there was no Petit-Radel sale, though a certain Louis-François Petit-Radel owned a renowned cabinet of curiosities, and concludes that this mistaken provenance was probably provided by the person who sold this piece to Sauvageot); donation to the Museum by Sauvageot in 1856.
Bibliography
A. Sauzay, Musée impérial du Louvre. Catalogue du musée Sauvageot (Paris, 1861), no. 266, p. 64.
A. Sauzay, Musée de la Renaissance [Musée du Louvre]. Série A., Notice des ivoires (Paris, 1863), no. A.109, p. 38.
E. Lièvre, A. Sauzay, Musée Impérial du Louvre. Collection Sauvageot (Paris, 1863), pl. CXII.
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires (Paris, 1896), no. 157, pp. 301-302.
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era in the British Museum (London, 1909), p.158.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 430, 456; II, no. 1160A; III, pl. CXCIV.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, (London, 1929) II, p.87.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Nouvelles acquisitions du département des Objets d'art (1990-1994) (Paris,1995), p. 21.
Ivoires du Musée du Louvre 1480-1850: une collection inédite, exhibition catalogue, Dieppe, Château-Musée de Dieppe, 2005, no. 5.
Women of Distinction. Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria, exhibition catalogue, Mâlines, 2005, no. 60a, pp. 186-187 (mistakenly designated as 'OA 134').
P. Malgouyres, Ivoires de la Renaissance et des Temps Modernes. La Collection du Musée du Louvre (Paris, 2010), no. 125.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 218
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