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Pax (baiser de paix) (Back)

Pax (baiser de paix) (Back)
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Front

Front

Front

Front

Subject
Religious.

Repository Institution
www.abbaye-stmaurice.ch

To purchase an image
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Saint Maurice d'Agaune (Switzerland), Abbey treasury

Inv. 17

Ivory;copper and rock crystal (frame)

Height: 110mm
Width: 75mm
Depth: 25mm
Weight: 49.5g

Four angels holding saint Veronica's veil; Holy Face of Christ (Sancta Facies).

Rome 2000: 14th century (ivory), early 16th century (frame).
Trento 2002: French (Paris), c. 1400 (ivory and frame) with 18th-century additions (foliated copper decoration and handle).
Richter 2003: French (Paris), c. 1430.


Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive gilding and polychromy (some modern): gold (hair, beard, along the hem of the veil, wings), flesh colour, white (robes, veil), red (cloaks of two angels).

Reverse
Copper handle. Back stamped on either side of the handle with a crowned fleur-de-lys, which could confirm a Parisian origin (Trento 2000). Back of the ivory: slightly curved, traces of glue.

Comments
Morello recognises the stamp on the back of the frame as one used in Paris c. 1520-1525 (Rome 2000) while, according to Elsig, the handle at the back and the foliated decoration in the upper part of the frame are 18th-century additions, but the rest of the frame is contemporary with the ivory relief (see Trento 2002).

Provenance
Entered the Treasury sometime between 1872 and 1951.

Bibliography
Le Grand Siècle des Ducs de Bourgogne, exhibition catalogue, Dijon, Musée de Dijon, Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne, 1951, p. 77.
P. Bouffard, Saint-Maurice d'Agaune. Trésor de l'abbaye (Geneva, 1975), pp. 42, 188.
H. Hahnloser, S. Brugger-Koch, Corpus der Hartsteinschliffe des 12.-15. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1985), pp. 39f., 83, no. 15, fig. 14.
Il Volto di Cristo, cur. by G. Morello and G. Wolf, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 9 December 2000 - 16 April 2001, pp. 192-193, no. IV.33 (G. Morello), ill. on p. 143.
Il Gotico nelle Alpi, 1350-1450, cur. by E. Castelnuovo, F. de Gramatica, exhibition catalogue, Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio, July-October 2002, no. 153 (F. Elsig).
T. Richter, Paxtafeln und Pacificalia, Studien zu Form, Ikonographie und liturgischem Gebrauch (Weimar, 2003), no. 198.
Gesù : Il corpo, il volto nell'arte, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Scuderie Juvarriane della Reggia, Venaria Reale, 1st April-1st August 2010, no. 7.30, pp. 315-6 (L. Marino).


Image

Photo DW. Photo © Abbaye de Saint-Maurice.

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