Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled wings (fragments of a triptych), 2 registers, with arches (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Annunciation. Visitation.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (part of an Adoration of the Magi which would have continued on the centre panel).
Wing, right
Register 1: Nativity with Joseph holding Christ; ox; ass.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple; Christ standing on the altar between the Virgin and Simeon; Joseph holding a candle and a basket of doves brought as offerings.
Rosette in the gable of each panel.
Note: the photographs have the right wing to the left and the left wing to the right because the two wings have been glued together along their longest side.

Guide 2003: Paris, 1st quarter of the 14th century.
Ribičić-Županić 2007 and 2008: Paris, 1st third of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2013: France (Paris), 1st quarter of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Traces of two hinges on the inner side of each wing.

Reverse
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Surface damage in the Annunciation and Visitation scene.
The upper parts of both gables are made of two different pieces of ivory, the piece crowning the right wing (i.e. on the left in the photograph) seems to be larger than the one on the left wing, though it is difficult to ascertain. The two wings have been glued together along their longest side.
Holes plugged with ivory in the centre of what would have been the outer edges of both wings certainly indicate the original presence of a clasp or closing device.

Comments
These wings would originally have closed on a gabled centre panel featuring the Virgin and Child. This centre panel may have had one or two registers, if it had two, a Crucifixion would probably have featured on the upper register.

Provenance
Collection of Ante Topić Mimara (b. 1898, d. 1987): his sale, 9 November 1954, lot 34 (not sold); donated to the Croatian people in 1973; foundation of the museum in 1980 and opening to the public in 1987.

Bibliography
A. Ribičić-Županić, Vodič, Muzej Mimara, Zagreb (Zagreb, 1998), p. 102.
A. Ribičić-Županić, Poljubac mira, Informatica Museologica 32 (1-2) (Zagreb, 2001), pp. 170-171.
Guide Muzej Mimara, ed. by T. Lukšić (Zagreb, 2003), no. 157.
A. Ribičić-Županić, Odabrani predmeti od bjelokosti u Muzeju Mimara (Zagreb, 2007), pp. 32-35 and no. 9.
Imaginarni svijet zagonetnih predmeta od bjelokosti, kosti i rožina - The Enigmatic Imagery of Ivory, Horn, Antler and Bone Artefacts, ed. by A. Ribičić-Županić (Zagreb, 2008), no. 6.

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