Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin. Virgin brought to Heaven by angels.
Register 2: Assumption (Virgin brought to Heaven by angels). Death of the Virgin (Dormition); musician angels (portable organ; string instruments; psaltery).
Handwritten inscription in Latin: 'Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae'.
Lost painted wings:
Wing, left
Nativity; Adoration of the Shepherds; angel; inscription: 'NATVS EX MARIA VIRGINE'.
Wing, right
Adoration of the Magi; inscription: 'MAGI VENERVNT AB ORIENTE'.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Swarzenski 1929: France, 2nd half of the 14th century; wings: c. 1600.
Attribution
Unknown
Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges on either side.
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of later polychromy (16th or 17th century); handwritten inscription in Latin on the edges: 'Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae'. Remains of the original polychromy can be seen under magnification under the later overpainting.
Comments
In 1865, this diptych had wings featuring the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi painted on parchment in an Italian 16th-century style (described in the 1865 catalogue and the 1929 publication). The wings were framed in a horn frame and the hinges and lock were made of silver (see historical photograph from the Collection Maciet, Bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, Paris) on this page.
Provenance
Collection of Anton Josef Essingh (b. 1787, d. 1864), Cologne: his sale, Heberle, Cologne, 18 September 1865, lot 864. Passavant-Gontard collection, Frankfurt am Main (at least 1924-1929): sale, Berlin, 5 December 1929. Robert von Hirsch collection: sold Sotheby's, London, 22 June 1978, lot 282; private collection, Stuttgart (in 2011).
Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 140; II, no. 216.
G. Swarzenski, Sammlung R. von Passavant-Gontard (Frankfurt, 1929), no. 72.
Mittelalterliche Elfenbeinarbeiten aus der Sammlung des Badischen Landesmuseums Karlsruhe, ed. by K.-G. Beuckers (Karlsruhe, 1999), p. 18, fig. 6.
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