Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds; Virgin holding Christ's arm; musician shepherd holding bagpipes; angels holding scrolls; sheep.
Rosette in the gable.
Westwood 1876: England, 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, middle of the 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003: Paris, c. 1300.
Williamson and Davies 2014: French (Paris), c. 1300.
Attribution
Atelier of the Diptych of the Judging Christ (Atelier du diptyque Du Christ Juge)
Hinges
Traces of two hinges on the left side (front) and two hinges on the right side (at the back).
Reverse
Flat and smooth.
Object Condition
Hole in the upper part of the gable, which has caused a piece of ivory to crack and fall off at the back.
A dark line visible towards the right side indicates the panel was taken from next to the nerve canal.
Cracked.
Comments
This panel seems to be part of the same polyptych as one at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (OA 2761), one in Brussels (Inv. 846) and one at the Montpellier Musée archéologique (SAM 857.17.1). See related objects. Davies argues for them coming from two different polyptychs (see Williamson and Davies 2014).
Provenance
In the possession of John Webb (b. 1799, d. 1880), London, by 1862: purchased from him by the Museum in 1867.
Bibliography
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862..., revised edition, exhibition catalogue (London, 1863), no. 85.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged according to the dates of their acquisition (London, 1868), I, p. 9.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), p. 94.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), no. 465 (`73.171).
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 27, pl. XXV.
R. H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, 1985), p. 214.
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory. Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), no. 50.
L'art au temps des rois maudits: Philippe le Bel et ses fils (1285-1328), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1998, no. 91.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), p. 350, figs 126a, 126c.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 76, and p. 234, in relation to no. 73.
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