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Polyptych, 4 registers, with ogee arches (tabernacle) (Front, open)

Polyptych, 4 registers, with ogee arches (tabernacle) (Front, open)
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Subject
Religious. Life of the Virgin. Infancy of Christ.

Repository Institution
www.museoduomomonza.it

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Monza, Museo e tesoro del Duomo di Monza

MG0035

Wood (frame);ivory;metal (later hinges)

Height: 540 mm
Width: 310 mm

Wings, left
Register 1: Joachim and Anne bring lambs to be sacrificed, but the High Priest rejects their offerings because they are childless. Meeting at the Golden Gate (Meeting of Joachim and Anna).
Register 2: Annunciation to Joseph of the birth of Christ. Birth of the Virgin; midwife bathing the Virgin.
Register 3: Joachim in the wilderness with his shepherds. Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple; hanging lamp.
Register 4: Annunciation of the birth of the Virgin Mary to Anne by an angel. Virgin praying in the Temple; hanging lamp.
Centre panel
Standing Virgin and Child; crosshatched background with fleur-de-lys pattern.
Wings, right
Register 1: Betrothal of Joseph and the Virgin; hanging lamp. Annunciation to the Shepherds; sheep; dog.
Register 2: Annunciation; dove of the Holy Spirit; vase of lilies. Adoration of the Magi.
Register 3: Visitation; tree. Adoring Magi (part of Adoration of the Magi scene).
Register 4: Adoration of Christ Child (Nativity). Presentation of Christ in the Temple; maid holding a candlestick.
Tiled roof or brickwork in the spandrels. Crosshatched background.
Painted inscription on the base: 'SALVE REGINA MIE'.


Koechlin Number: 0950

Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 15th century.
Egbert 1929: North Italy, late 15th century.
Merati 1963: French, end of the 15th century.
Conti 1966: 15th century.
Vitali 1966: French, beginning of the 15th century.
Karlsruhe 1999: Northern Netherlands, 15th century.
Museum's opinion 2014: French, 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two sets of two hinges on either side.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold (Virgin's crown; fleur de lys; canopy; base inscription) and green (Virgin's clothing).

Object Condition
The order of some of the panels has been changed over time.

Comments
Some of the panels seem to have been later remounted in the wrong order (see Adoration of the Magi).
According to tradition, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584) used to address to it his plea during the Great Plague of Milan in 1630.

Provenance
Gift of Countess Carolina Durini Trotti (b. 1762, d. 1833), Taverna, in 1825.

Bibliography
X. Barbier de Montault, 'Revue de l'art chrétien' (1902), p. 225.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 339; II, no. 950.
D. D. Egbert, 'North Italian Gothic Ivories in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican Library', in Art Studies 7 (1929), pp. 168-207 [p. 194-195, fig. 46].
A. Merati, Il tesoro del Duomo di Monza (Monza, 1963), p. 63, fig. 61.
Il Tesoro del Duomo di Monza, dir. by L. Vitali (Milan, 1966), no. 113, p. 151.
R. Conti, Il Tesoro: guida alla conoscenza del Tesoro del Duomo di Monza (Monza, 1966), no. 49, p. 70.
R. Conti, Il Tesoro, Museo del Duomo (Monza, 1983), no. 49.
G. Morello, 'Gli avori della collezione Durini Trotti', in Monza. Il Duomo e i suoi tesori, dir. by R. Conti (Milan, 1988), pp. 70-71.
Mittelalterliche Elfenbeinarbeiten aus der Sammlung des Badischen Landesmuseums Karlsruhe, ed. by K.-G. Beuckers (Karlsruhe, 1999), pp. 88-89, fig. 61.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 175.


Image

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