Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, 7 arches across (frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Raising of Lazarus; Entry into Jerusalem.
Register 2: Last Supper with saint John the Evangelist leaning on Christ's breast; Christ feeding Judas across the table.
Register 3: Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter; Death of Judas (Judas hanging).
Wing, right
Register 1: Christ washing the feet of the apostles.
Register 2: Agony in the Garden (Christ at Gethsemane).
Register 3: Crucifixion; swooning Virgin supported by Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist and onlookers holding scrolls; Longinus with spear kneeling in prayer; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar.
Border of dentils.

Vöge 1900 and Volbach 1923: France, 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century.
Natanson 1951: France, c. 1350-1360.
Darmstadt and Munich 1999 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1330-1340.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two hinges.

Object Condition
Broken around the hinges.

Provenance
Documented in the inventory of the Kunstkammer as early as 1694.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, p. 437, no. 874.
W. Vöge, Die Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der christlichen Epochen. Zweite Auflage. Elfenbeinwerke (Berlin, 1900), no. 108 and no. 109, pl. CXXXV.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ateliers d'ivoiriers français aux XIII et XIVe siècles. III. L'atelier des diptyques de la Passion', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 35 (1906), pp. 49-62 (p. 52).
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 194.
W. F. Volbach, Die Bildwerke des Deutschen Museums, Die Elfenbeinbildwerke (Berlin, 1923), pp. 43-44, pl. 54.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 285, 286, 290; II, no. 788; III, pl. CXXXV.
J. Natanson, Gothic Ivories of the 13th and 14th Centuries (London, 1951), p. 38, fig. 49.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, fig. 31-33a.
Meisterwerke aus Elfenbein der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum and Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1999, no. 44.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, pp. 579, in relation to no. 170.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 101.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.