Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 7 arches across (frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Crucifixion; swooning Virgin supported by Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist and onlookers holding scrolls; Longinus with spear, kneeling in prayer; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Stephaton holding a bucket; sun and moon.
Register 2: Nativity (Virgo Lactans) and Annunciation to the Shepherds; swaddled Christ; dog. Adoration of the Magi.
Wing, right
Register 1: Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's hand; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet; saint John the Evangelist; sun and moon. Entombment. (Anointing of Christ's body by one of the Holy Women or the Virgin); tomb decorated with a quatrefoil.
Register 2: Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene); Coronation of the Virgin; two angels swinging censers.

Griggs 1904-1907: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: French, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (Paris), c. 1360-1380.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two hinges (modern).

Reverse
Flat with perpendicular and diagonal scoring.

Object Condition
Substantial cracks hroughout.

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. 75.
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. 121.
W. Griggs, Portfolio of Ivories [London, 1904-1907], pt. XXXV.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), 162.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 184; II, no. 349.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 20, pl. XVI.
E. K. Gross, Religious relief ivory carving during the regency and reign of Charles V of France (1356 - 1380) (unpublished doctoral thesis, Syracuse University, 1986), pp. 175-176, 252-253, pl. 52.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 103.

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