Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, 4 arches across (plaquettes; frise d'arcature); used as part of the binding of a book (Back cover)

Front cover
Register 1: Entry into Jerusalem.
Register 2: Agony in the Garden (Christ at Gethsemane). Flagellation.
Register 3: Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's hand; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; Nicodemus with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet. Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body).
Back cover
Register 1: Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter. Death of Judas (Judas hanging).
Register 2: Crucifixion; swooning Virgin supported by Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist; onlookers; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Longinus with spear kneeling in prayer.
Register 3: Resurrection; three Holy Women at the Tomb, with angel seated on the tomb and three soldiers asleep. Noli me tangere.

Koechlin 1924: France, early 15th century.
Grodecki 1947: c. 1408.
Randall 1991: after 1380.
Paris 1991: Paris, c. 1360-1380; late 14th century or c. 1400, with rearrangement in the 17th century (binding); Constantinople, between 1403 and 1405 (manuscript).
Gibson 1994: c. 1403-1405 (manuscript).
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, last 3rd of the 14th century (ivory), late 14th century or c. 1400, with rearrangement in the 17th century (binding).

Attribution
Follower of the Atelier of the Master of the Great Passion Diptychs (Gaborit-Chopin)

Hinges
Traces of three hinges.

Comments
This diptych is inserted in the binding of a manuscript containing works by Denis the Areopagite made in Constantinople between 1403 and 1405.

Provenance
Treasury of Saint-Denis: binding mentioned in 1505, described in 1534 and 1634, when it enclosed a manuscript of the Epistles; restored in 1634; rearranged between 1645 and 1655 (since when it has been bound to a greek manuscript of Dionysius the Areopagite, which had been given to Saint-Denis by Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos in 1408, via Manuel Chrysoloras). At the Musée du Louvre since 5 December 1793 (Montesquiou-Fezensac, 1973-1977, I and II, no. 99, 154, 349).

Bibliography
Father M. Félibien, Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Denys en France (Paris, 1706), pl. III, V.
Dom B. de Montfaucon, L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, 5 tomes in 10 vols. (Paris, 1719), I, pp. 56, 76.
M. de Laborde, Notice des émaux, bijoux et objets divers exposés dans les galeries du musée du Louvre (Paris, 1857), no. 883-884.
A. Sauzay, Musée de la Renaissance [Musée du Louvre]. Notice des ivoires (Paris, 1863), no. 53.
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires (Paris, 1896), no. 100.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ivoires gothiques français', in Revue de l'art chrétien (1911), pp. 4-5, (p. 3, fig. 1).
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ivoires gothiques français connus antérieurement au XIXe siècle', in Revue de l'Art Chrétien 41 (1911), pp. 281-292, fig. 1.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, 36, 297, 310; II, no. 823; III, pl. CXLV.
Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1932, no. 5764.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), p. 107.
Byzance et la France médiévale; manuscrits à peintures du IIe au XVIe siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 1958, no. 51.
Cent chefs-d'oeuvre, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, 1964, no. 351.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, B. de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Le Trésor de Saint-Denis (Paris, 1973 and 1977), I and II no. 99, 154, 349; III, pp. 68-69, pl. 53.
Les Fastes du Gothique: le siècle de Charles V, ed. by F. Baron, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais, 1981, no. 210.
R. H. Randall, 'An Ivory Diptych', in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 5, no. 66 (1991), p. 6, fig. 3.
Le Trésor de Saint-Denis, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1991, pp. 278-281, no. 60.
M. Gibson, The Liverpool Ivories: late antique and medieval ivory and bone carving in Liverpool Museum and the Walker Art Gallery (London, 1994), pp. 74-75 (with ill.).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 205.
Paris 1400. Les Arts sous Charles VI, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2004, no. 108.

© Réunion des musées nationaux (RMN) - Jean-Gilles Berizzi.
This photograph is copyright protected. Any reproduction or representation of this image is strictly limited to private use. Any other use requires the prior authorisation of the Rmn. Cette photographie est protégée par le droit d'auteur. Sa reproduction ou représentation est strictement réservée à votre usage privé. Toute autre utilisation devra faire l'objet d'une autorisation préalable auprès de la Rmn.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.