Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of polychromy and gilding: gold (hair; belt; patterns along the hems: pseudo-Kufic characters and fleur-de-lys), green (belt), red (inside of the Virgin's veil; Christ's garment); green and red (tracery on the back of the throne); unidentified colour (lining of the Virgin's cloak).

Reverse
Carved in the round. Back of the throne rounded and smooth, except for some crosshatched areas to attache parts now missing.

Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the Virgin's head (replaced with an unidentified material); right forearm of the Virgin (replaced); feet of the Virgin partly broken; part of the Virgin's cloak; parts of the throne.
Crosshatching along the sides of the throne and at the back indicate that some pieces are missing.
Christ's head broke and has been glued back into place.

Comments
Koechlin (1924) stresses that the bare-chested Christ is unusual as this feature only becomes common in the second half of the 14th century.

Provenance
Collection of Alexander Petrovich Basilewski (b. 1829, d. 1899), acquired between 1865 and 1867; acquired by the Museum in 1885.

Bibliography
Exposition universelle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1867, no. 1752.
A. Darcel, A. P. Basilewski, Collection Basilewski. Catalogue raisonné (Paris, 1874), no. 91, pl. XV.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), p. 409.
N. Kondakov, Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Ukazatel' otdeleniia srednikh vekov i epokhi vozrozhdeniia [Guide to the Department of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance of the Imperial Hermitage] (Saint Petersburg, 1891), no. 36, p. 154.
D. Ivanov, Ob'iasnitel'nyi putevoditel' po khudozhestvennym sobraniiam Peterburga (Saint Petersburg, 1904), p. 36.
N. Makarenko, Khudozhestvennye sokrovishcha Imperatorskogo Ermitazha: kratkii putevoditel' (Saint Petersburg, 1916), p. 188.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 103; II, no. 89.
A. N. Kube, Reznaia kost'. Katalog [Ivory Carvings Catalogue Hermitage], (Leningrad [Saint-Petersburg], 1925), no. 66.
Выставка французского искусства XII-XX вв. Путеводитель (Leningrad, 1956), no. 36, p. 155.
E. A. Lapkovskaia, Prikladnoe iskusstvo srednevekovoi Evropy in Vglub' vekov. Kniga o Gosudarstvennom Ermitazhe (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1961), p. 221.
L. I. Faenson, M. Y. Kryzhanovskaya, E. A. Lapkovskaya, Zapadnoevropeiskaia reznaia kost' IX-XIX vekov iz sobraniia Ermitazha: katalog vystavki, exhibition catalogue, Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], The State Hermitage Museum, 1973, no. 171.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Peterburg, 2014), no. 89.