Gothic Ivories Project | Panel with gables, 4 registers, 4 arches across (frise d'arcatures); also known as the Salting leaf (Back)

Wing, left
Register 1: Judas and the high priest (?); Judas receiving the reward (thirty pieces of silver); Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter.
Register 2: Flagellation; Carrying of the Cross.
Register 3: standing figure of the Church (Ecclesia); Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's hand, and saint John the Evangelist; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet; standing figure of Synagogue (Synagoga), holding a broken spear; tables of the Law and crown falling.
Register 4: Three Holy Women at the Tomb, with angel seated on the tomb and three soldiers asleep; saint John the Baptist.
Rose windows.

Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 13th century.
Longhurst 1929: French, end of the 13th century.
Natanson 1951: French, c. 1270-1290.
Williamson and Davies 2014: France (possibly Picardy), c. 1240-60.

Attribution
Soissons group (Atelier du Diptyque de Soissons) (Koechlin 1924)

Hinges
Traces of three missing hinges on the right side.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy (later): green, red, blue, black.

Reverse
Flat and smooth, with some scoring.

Object Condition
The outer long edge of the leaf is pierced with two small holes towards the top and bottom.
Missing: tall gabled towers between each of of the projecting gables; part of the pincers in the Deposition scene.
Upper right-hand side of the leaf roughened in order to attach its tower as a separate ivory piece.

Provenance
Unlikely to have been part of the collection of Sir Andrew Fountaine (b. 1676, d. 1753): not mentioned in the inventory drawn after his death; probably acquired by a later member of the family. Fountaine collection, Narford Hall, Norfolk, England: Fountaine sale, Christie's, London, 16-19 June 1884, lot 529; Prof. Compars Herrmann, Vienna: sale, Cologne, 28-29 May 1888, lot 249 (with ill.). Collection of George Salting, London: his bequest to the Museum in 1910 (no. 2198).

Bibliography
A. Schnütgen, 'Italienische Diptychon-Tafel von Elfenbein, Anfang XIV. Jahrhundert', in Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, vol. 1 (1888), pp. 321-322, pl. XVI.
A. Michel, L'histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, 8 vols, 17 parts (Paris, 1905-1929), II, p. 469.
A. Maskell, Ivories (Connoisseurs Library), (London, 1905), p. 159.
'Salting Bequest (A. 70 to A. 1029-1910)/Murray Bequest (A. 1030 to A. 1096-1910)', in List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Department of Architecture and Sculpture) (London, 1910), p. 89.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 177.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 75-91, II, no. 36, III, pl. XIV.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 10, pl. V.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), pp. 90-91 pl. XXVIII.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 17-18, 33, Pl. 15.
L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils (1285-1328), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1998, p. 141.
C. T. Little, 1300, l'Art au temps de Philippe le Bel: actes du colloque international, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 24 et 25 juin 1998 (Paris, 2001), p. 82.
The Making of Sculpture. The Materials and Techniques of European Sculpture, ed. by M. Trusted (London, 2007), p. 119, pl. 215.
S. M. Guérin, 'Tears of Compunction': French Gothic Ivories in Devotional Practice (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, 2009), passim, but esp. pp. 238-43 and 353-54, pl.2.
S. Guérin, ‘Meaningful Spectacles: Gothic Ivories Staging the Divine’, Art Bulletin, XCV, (2013), pp. 238-43 and 353-54, pl. 2.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 67, and pp. 167-169, in relation to no. 51.

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