Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, 2 compartments across (colonnettes) (Wing, left)

Wing, left
Register 1: Ascension; clouds. Pentecost; dove of the Holy Spirit.
Register 2: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; sun and moon. Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body).
Register 3: Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit. Nativity (Virgo lactans); swaddled Christ; curtain.
Wing, right
Register 1: in a diamond shape, Trinity with Christ Child sitting on God the Father's lap; dove of the Holy Spirit issuing from the mouth of God the Father; four Symbols of the Evangelists with scrolls in the spandrels (angel of saint Matthew; eagle of saint John; lion of saint Mark; calf of saint Luke). Last Judgement (Christ in Glory) with Resurrection of the Dead (including a bishop) under a trefoil arch; angels holding Instruments of the Passion (cross; nails; spear). Virgin Mary and saint John the Baptist kneeling.
Register 2: Resurrection; two soldiers asleep; two angels praying. Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene); trees.
Register 3: Adoration of the Magi. Presentation in the Temple; maid holding a candlestick and a basket of doves brought as offerings; Christ standing on the altar between the Virgin and Simeon.

Westwood 1876: France, early 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Morey 1936: Southern Germany, 2nd half of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two hinges.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Chamfered along the inner side.

Object Condition
Broken to the left of the lower hinge.

Provenance
Collection of Francesco Vettori (b. 1692, d. 1770), Prefect and curator of the Sacred Museum of the Vatican Library from 1757; mentioned in the Inventory of Clement XIII, pope from 1758 to 1769 (Inv. Clemente XIII, f. 91v).

Bibliography
F. Gori, Thesaurus Veterum Diptychorum Consularium et Ecclesiasticorum, III volumes (Florence, 1759), III, p. 290, pl. XXXVIII.
X. Barbier de Montault, 'Diptyques en ivoire du Vatican', in Annales archéologiques 27 (1870), pp. 73-87 (pp. 73, 76-77).
E. Didron, 'Les Images ouvrantes', Annales archéologiques, 27 (1870-1872), pp. 107-109 (tab. annex).
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, no. 21, p. 349.
N. Baldoria, 'Un avorio del Museo Sacro Vaticano. Studio iconografico', in Archivio storico dell’Arte, year I, fasc. 4 (April 1888), pp. 119-132.
R. Kanzler, Gli avori dei musei profano e sacro della Biblioteca Vaticana (Rome, 1903), no. 1, pl. XVI.
R. Koechlin, 'Ivoires gothiques connus antérieurement au XIXe siècle', in Revue de l'art chrétien 59 (1911), p. 17 (offprint).
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ivoires gothiques français connus antérieurement au XIXe siècle', in Revue de l'Art Chrétien 41 (1911), pp. 387-402, fig. 16.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 294; II, no. 812; III, pl. CXL.
C. R. Morey, Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del Museo Vaticano (Vatican City, 1936), p. 82, no. A97, pl. XXV.
C. Lega, 'La nascita dei Musei Vaticani: le antichità cristiane e il Museo di Benedetto XIV', in Bollettino dei Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie XXVIII (2010), pp. 95-184.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 67, in relation to no. 7.

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