Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, bands of rosettes (décor de roses) (Wing, left)

Wing, left
Register 1: Three Holy Women at the tomb, with angel seated on the tomb and three soldiers asleep. Noli me tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene); tree; cross.
Register 2: Carrying of the Cross with the Virgin helping Christ; soldier holding a hammer. Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; Virgin with hands in prayer.
Register 3: Christ before Pilate; Pilate washing his hands. Death of Judas (Judas hanging).
Wing, right
Register 1: Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's arm; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; saint John the Evangelist; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet. Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body).
Register 2: Buffeting of Christ; head of Christ covered by a cloth. Flagellation; whips.
Register 3: Temptation of Judas; Judas receiving the reward; hanging purse. Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter.

Darcel and Basilewski 1874: France, 13th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, 1st third of the 14th century.
Kube 1925: France, 14th century.
Kryzhanovskaya 2014: France, 1st third of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy in the recesses.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Ink (?) dots.

Object Condition
Remains of a wooden frame glued on the sides.
Missing: pincers in the Deposition scene.

Comments
The right wing should be the left wing and vice-versa, in order for the narrative to unfold in a logical manner (Koechlin 1924).

Provenance
Collection of Count James-Alexandre de Pourtalès (b. 1776, d. 1855), Switzerland: Pourtalès-Gorgier sale, Paris, 6 February 1865, lot 1514; collection of Alexander Petrovich Basilewski (b. 1829, d. 1899), Paris, from 1865; acquired by the Museum in 1885.

Bibliography
Exposition de 1865 au Palais de l'industrie, Union centrale des beaux-arts appliqués à l'industrie (Paris, 1866), no. 317.
Exposition universelle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1867, no. 1762.
A. Darcel, A. P. Basilewski, Collection Basilewski. Catalogue raisonné (Paris, 1874), no. 95.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), p. 409.
N. Kondakov, Императорский Эрмитажъ. Указатель отделенія среднихъ вековъ и эпохи возрожденія [Guide to the Department of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance of the Imperial Hermitage] (Saint Petersburg, 1891), no. 35, p. 154.
A. N. Kube, Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Putevoditel' po otdeleniiu srednikh vekov i epokhi Vozrozhdeniia [State Hermitage Museum. Guide to the Medieval and Renaissance sections] (Saint Petersburg, 1921), p. 9.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 151, 154; II, no. 241.
A. N. Kube, Reznaia kost'. Katalog [Ivory Carvings Catalogue Hermitage], (Leningrad [Saint-Petersburg], 1925), no. 72.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Les Ivoires' in Les Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, ed. by F. Baron, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1981, no. 146.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 83.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Peterburg, 2014), no. 75.

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