Seated Christ holding a chalice; two apostles; chalice (part of a Last Supper scene).
Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 14th century.
Longhurst 1929: France, end of the 14th century.
Leeuwenberg 1969: France (?), last quarter of the 18th century to 1st half of the 19th century.
Williamson and Davies 2014: Northern French or Mosan, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Radiocarbon dating 2014: 95.4% probability that the elephant died between 1298 and 1408.
Attribution
Master of the Agrafe Forgeries (Leeuwenberg 1969)
Reverse
Slightly curved, with some scoring. Underside with crosshatching.
Object Condition
Missing: Christ's right hand and the top of his chalice, right hand of the apostle on the left (later replaced) and his nose; head and left hand of apostle on the right, holding a book (replaced in the 19th century).
The bottom, including the figures' feet has broken or has been filed. Christ's forehead is chipped.
Carved ivory addition to the figures' lap where the table would have been,
Comments
Koechlin discusses this ivory in the context of a large group he believes to be forgeries however he concludes that some, including this relief, are genuine (See Koechlin 1924, I, pp. 307-8).
This relief is certainly part of the same Last Supper scene as two seated apostles formerly in the Musée Boucher-de-Perthes in Abbeville (now unlocated). It would have been made of five reliefs with two or three apostles per panel (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. 108.
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. 7.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), no. 211-67, p. 80.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 307-308; II, no. 846ter.
M. Longhurst, Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory, Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols (London, 1927 and 1929), II (1929), p. 33, pl. XXXI.
The International Style: The Arts of Europe around 1400, ed. by P. Verdier, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, 1962, pp. 114-115.
J. Leeuwenberg, 'Early Nineteenth-Century Gothic Ivories', in Aachener Kunstblätter, 39 (1969), pp. 111-148, particularly p. 116, fig. 12.
C. T. Little, ‘The Art of Gothic Ivories: Studies at the Crossroads,’ in The Sculpture Journal 23.1 (2014), p. 23.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), no. 39.
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