Gothic Ivories Project | Reliefs (appliqués; fragments); used in an altarpiece known as the Oratory of the Duchesses of Burgundy (Oratoire des Duchesses de Bourgogne) (Detail, register 1)

Register 1: Ascension; angels; apostles; goats or rams.
Register 2: musician angel (string instrument); standing unidentified female figure (Virgin?); musician angel (psaltery). satnding angel; Man of Sorrows (Ecce Homo); Christ displaying his wounds; crown of thorns; standing figure; foliated decoration.
Register 3: Courting couple (meeting of lovers); trees; bust-length saint James the Greater with a pilgrim's staff, book and satchel; satchel decorated with a scallop shell. Figure holding a scroll; unidentified bust-length male saint (apostle?) holding a book; standing lady. Courting couple (meeting of lovers); trees; unidentified bust-length male saint or apostle holding a book.
Register 4: standing male figure; tree; bust-length saint Paul (?) holding a sword and a book; figure holding a scroll. Courting couple (meeting of lovers); trees; bust-length saint Laurence holding a book and a gridiron; courting couple (meeting of lovers). Figures with swaddled child; seated evangelist writing; pulpit; courting couple (meeting of lovers).
Register 5: unidentified bust-length male saint (apostle?) holding a book. Courting couple (meeting of lovers); trees; bust-length saint Paul (?) holding a sword and a book; courting couple (meeting of lovers); city. Courting couple (meeting of lovers); trees; unidentified bust-length male saint (apostle?) holding a book; courting couple (meeting of lovers); city.
Register 6: Standing female figure; tree; seated evangelist; pulpit; scroll; figure holding a scroll. Saint Andrew with a saltire cross and a book; courting couple (meeting of lovers); city walls. Standing female figure; tree; seated evangelist; scroll; pulpit; two standing ladies..
Border of dentils; twisted columns; foliated decoration; foliated borders; blank shield; putti; inhabited scrolls (rinceaux)

Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 15th century (ivory figures); Italy (Venice), late 14th century or early 15th century (Embriachi work), and 2nd quarter of the 19th century (assemblage).
Gaborit-Chopin 1970: attributes the added reliefs to the so-called Master of the Agrafe Forgeries.
Museum's opinion 2015: 1392-1393 and 19th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Hidden by the frame.

Object Condition
Missing: many parts of the border and numerous reliefs. This work has been much altered and is very composite.

Comments
Most of the Embriachi reliefs seem to have come from different objects.

Provenance
From the Carthusian monastery of Champmol, in Dijon. Numerous reliefs were removed, rearranged, and replaced with modern reliefs before the piece entered the collection of Alexandre du Sommerard (see Gaborit-Chopin 1970). Collection of Alexandre Du Sommerard (acquired in 1841): acquired for the museum in 1843.

Bibliography
E. Du Sommerard, Catalogue et description des antiquités et objets d'art exposés au musée de Cluny (Paris, 1883), no. 1080.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 320, 323, 329, II, no. 853, III, Pl. CLIV.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Les ivoires gothiques. À propos d'un article récent', in Bulletin monumental 128-2 (1970), pp. 127-133 (pp. 128-129, fig. 2).

© RMN-Grand Palais (musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen-Âge) / Droits réservés.
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