Gothic Ivories Project | Box with pitched lid

Lid, top
Original Sin. David flees from Saul; Michal lets him down with the help of a rope. Moses and the Burning Bush. Annunciation. Nativity.
Lid, front
Flight into Egypt. Crossing of the Red Sea; Moses leading the people of Israel. Baptism of Christ. Miriam and Aaron before Moses. Meal at Bethany (at the house of Simon the Leper)(Last Supper).
Lid, back
David's triumph: women of Israel playing musical instruments; David holding the head of Goliath. Entry into Jerusalem. Manna falling to the earth. Last Supper. Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek.
Lid, left end
Betrayal; Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter. Last Judgement with Resurrection of the Dead.
Lid, right end
Judgement of Solomon. Abraham and Isaac leave the servants behind; Isaac carries a bundle of wood.
Body, front
Register 1: Carrying of the Cross. Crucifixion. Deposition. Sacrifice of Isaac. Jonah swallowed by a whale.
Register 2: Job with his wife and children. Job's oxen, asses and camels are stolen by Sabeans and Chaldeans. Lightning strikes Job's sheep and shepherds. Messenger reports to Job.
End, right
Register 1: Entombment. Jonah emerging from the whale. Resurrection.
Register 2: Job's house burns. Messenger reports to Job. Death of Job's children.
Body, back
Register 1: Samson takes away the doors of the city-gate of Gaza. Harrowing of Hell; Mouth of Hell. Daniel in the lion's den; King Cyrus visits the lion's den and finds Daniel alive. Noli me Tangere. Elijah carried up to heaven in a chariot; Elisha kneeling in prayer.
Register 2: Job. Satan scourging Job. Job on the dungheap, visited by friends. Job visited by musicians.
End, left
Register 1: Ascension. God gives the tables of the Law to Moses. Pentecost.
Register 2: Job visited by his wife. Job with his wife and children. God speaks to Job.
Border with roses. Bottom: intarsia forming diamond patterns.

Koechlin 1924: France, end of 15th century.
Museum's opinion 2010: France, 2nd half of 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of gilding and polychromy.

Object Condition
Was probably taken apart and reassembled at a certain period (see notes field).

Comments
A number of scenes are related typologically to each other and are copied from the early printed Biblia Pauperum and Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Grey velvet inside the box. The lid is not attached to the rest of the box, and can be lifted using handles at either end. At one end, the lower strip is a drawer; at the other end, the lower strip forms three drawers. These drawers are made of modern wood and give evidence of the fact that the box is not in its original state (some prefigurations are also missing or placed out of sequence).

Provenance
Baron collection: acquired at his sale in 1846.

Bibliography
E. Du Sommerard, Catalogue et description des antiquités et objets d'art exposés au musée de Cluny (Paris, 1883), no. 1060.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 27, 344; II, no. 959; III, pl. CLXVIII.

© Réunion des musées nationaux - Jean-Gilles Berizzi.
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