Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 1 arch across, bands of rosettes (décor de roses; colonnettes) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Annunciation; Visitation.
Register 2: Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two standing angels holding candlesticks.
Wing, right
Register 1: Christ in Glory with Resurrection of the Dead under a trefoil arch; angels holding Instruments of the Passion (spear, nails, cross); Virgin Mary and saint John the Baptist kneeling.
Register 2: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; sun and moon.
Medallions with trefoils in the spandrels.

Dalton 1912: French, 1st half of the 14th century.
London 1923: French, 1st half of the 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 1st third of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2011: France, 1st half of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two modern hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: red, blue (medallions), green (flower held by the Virgin), lining of Christ's loincloth, haloes.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Label with inscription 'McClean bequest no. 39'.

Object Condition
Missing: part of the spear, part of the crossand part of Christ's left hand (upper right register), candles.
Parts have been cut to make way for hinges (lower left register).

Provenance
Collection of Frank McClean: his bequest to the Museum in 1904.

Bibliography
O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Mediaeval Ivories, Enamels, Jewellery, Gems and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed to the Museum by Frank McClean, M.A., F.R.S. (Cambridge, 1912), no. 39, pl. IX.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923, no. 106, pl. XXXIV.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 166, 201; II, no. 276; III, pl. LXXII.

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