Gothic Ivories Project | Panels (4) (fragments of a polyptych), 1 register, 1 arch across (tabernacle) (Front)

Height: 300mm
Width: 195mm
Depth: 2mm (ivory only); 8mm (with backing)
Weight: 139.7g (left wing); 152.2 (inner left wing); 66g (inner right wing; missing backing); 142.4g (right wing)

Wings, left
Register 1: Joachim and Anna bring lambs to be sacrificed, but the High Priest rejects their offerings because they are childless; hanging lamp. Meeting at the Golden Gate (Meeting of Joachim and Anna).
Register 2: Joachim in the wilderness with his shepherds; tree; sheep. Birth of the Virgin; midwife bathing the Virgin; bed.
Register 3: annunciation of the birth of the Virgin to Joachim by an angel. Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple; hanging lamp.
Register 4: annunciation of the birth of the Virgin to Anna by an angel. Virgin praying in the Temple.
Wings, right
Register 1: Virgin weaving with angel. Nativity.
Register 2: Betrothal of Joseph and the Virgin. Annunciation to the Shepherds; tree; sheep.
Register 3: Annunciation; dove of the Holy Spirit. Adoration of the Magi (only one Magus).
Register 4: Visitation. Adoring Magi (part of the Adoration of the Magi scene).
Crosshatched background. Foliated decoration in the spandrels.

Westwood 1876: 16th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, late 15th century.
Egbert 1929: Northern Italy, late 15th century.
Morey 1936: Northern Italy, 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges on one side of the outer wings and on both sides of the inner wings.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: hair, halos, some ornamentation, garments.

Reverse
Diamond patterns formed by alternating wood and ivory. The third panel from the left has lost its core and backing.

Object Condition
Missing: centre part.
Each wing is made of several pieces of ivory which are kept together thanks to a common core and backing. The third wing (originally inner right wing) has lost its core and backing, so the four carved panels are now loose.

Comments
These panels once adorned the wings of a tabernacle, closing on a statuette of the Virgin and Child. They seem however to have lost some of their original order as, for instance, the Adoration of the Magi would originally have been placed to the left of the adoring Magi panel.

Provenance
Unknown provenance.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, no. 17, p. 348.
R. Kanzler, Gli avori dei musei profano e sacro della Biblioteca Vaticana (Rome, 1903), II, no. 82, pl. XXII.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 339; II, no. 951.
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].
C. R. Morey, Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del Museo Vaticano (Vatican City, 1936), p. 87, no. A112, pl. XXX.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 175.

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