Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 1 register, 3 arches across (frise d'arcatures; plaquettes) (Front)

Wing, left
Standing Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two standing angels holding navettes and swinging censers; angel crowning the Virgin.
Wing, right
Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; cruciform halo; angels holding the sun and the moon.
Pinnacles. Brickwork or tiled roof.

Bologna 1959: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Vitali 1976: France, 2nd half of the 14th century.
Bologna 2010-2011: Eastern France, beginning of the 2nd quarter of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two modern hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding.

Object Condition
Broken around the lower hinge (repaired).

Provenance
Collection of count Ludovico Savioli: donated by him to the Collezioni Universitarie (no. 334) in 1776; acquired by the Museo Civico di Bologna in 1881.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, p. 362.
P. Ducati, Guida del Museo civico di Bologna (Bologna, 1923), pp. 181ff.
Lavori in osso e avorio dalla Preistoria al Rococò, dir. by R. Pincelli, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Museo Civico, 20 September-11 October 1959, no. 103, pl. 18.
L. Vitali, Avori gotici francesi, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Museo Poldi-Pezzoli, 1976, no. 33.
A. Marciano, 'Ludovico Savioli e gli avori dei bassi tempi', in Arte a Bologna 2 (1992), pp. 187-202 (p. 188, pl. 7; mistakenly designated as Inv. 740).
A. Marciano, Avori gotici - entry no. 4 (Museo Civico Medievale), Catalogo dei Musei Civici d'Arte Antica di Bologna (unpublished; [c. 1992-1994]).
Le Madonne di Vitale: Pittura e devozione a Bologna nel Trecento, dir. M. Medica, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Museo Civico Medievale, 2010-2011, no. 12, p. 64.
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols (Oxford, 2014), Vol. 2: Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, pp. 580-2, in relation to no. 171.

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