A & A spacer courtauld institute of art
login
quick search advanced search browse temp folder

Wing, right (part of a diptych), 1 register, with quatrefoil enclosed in a diamond (plaquette; quatre-feuilles); later reused as a pax (baiser de paix) (Back)

Wing, right (part of a diptych), 1 register, with quatrefoil enclosed in a diamond (plaquette; quatre-feuilles); later reused as a pax (baiser de paix) (Back)
enlarge image zoom image

Front

Subject
Religious.

Repository Institution
americanart.si.edu

To purchase an image
americanart.si.edu


Washington, D.C., Smithsonian American Art Museum

1929.8.240.12

Ivory

Height: 96mm
Width: 72mm

Trinity; God the Father holding Christ on the cross; Gnadenstuhl (Throne of Mercy); Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; Adam collecting Christ's blood in a chalice at the foot of the cross.
Four Symbols of the Evangelists with scrolls in the spandrels: angel of saint Matthew, eagle of saint John the Evangelist; ox of saint Luke and lion of saint Mark.
In a quatrefoil enclosed in a diamond. Pointed trefoils.

Randall 1993: English, 2nd quarter of the 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges on the left side.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. A slot in the back, added later (where a handle would have been fitted) shows that this piece was reused as a pax.

Object Condition
Deterioration on the Christ figure and in the centre of the scene, possibly due to burial in the ground (Randall 1993). Broken around the upper hinge. Later hole drilled at the top centre.

Comments
The left wing of this diptych is now in Cambridge at the Fitzwilliam Museum, M. 21.1917. See related object.

Provenance
Collection of Princess Borghese: Borghese sale, Rome, 24 March 1892, lot 114. Gift of John Gellatly in 1929.

Bibliography
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), no. 62.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), pp. 64-67, fig. 37, in relation to no. 7.


Image

© Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.

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

spacer
spacer spacer spacer spacer
Please remember to acknowledge any use of the site in publications and lectures as: 'Gothic Ivories Project at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, www.gothicivories.courtauld.ac.uk', followed by the date you accessed the site.