Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Missing: the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist probably originally featured on either side of the crucified Christ, scoring remains where they would have been affixed.

Comments
The tabernacle is made of four pieces of ivory: the architectural framework, the Virgin and Child, the crucified Christ, the arms of Christ and the horizontal beam of the cross.

Provenance
Collection of Placido de Sangro, Duke of Martina (b. 1829, d. 1891) (collection assembled in the 2nd half of the 19th century): given by his heirs to the city of Naples in 1911; housed at the Villa Floridiana since 1931.

Bibliography
A. O. Quintavalle, 'Medioevo ignorato. Avori gotici nelle pubbliche collezioni napoletane', in Crisopoli (1934), pp. 111-125, 286-302.
P. Giusti, 'Une Madonna in avorio nel Museo Duca di Martina. Plastica minore e scultura monumentale nella Francia del XIII secolo', in Bollettino d'Arte 67 (1982), pp. 77-86 (with ill.).
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, pp. 552-553, in relation to no. 157.