Gothic Ivories Project | Box, ogee arches, with sliding lid

Lid
Register 1: Joachim and Anna bring lambs to be sacrificed, but the High Priest rejects their offerings because they are childless; hanging lamp. Joachim in the wilderness with his shepherds; trees. Annunciation of the birth of the Virgin to Joachim by an angel. Annunciation of the birth of the Virgin Mary to Anna by an angel.
Register 2: Meeting at the Golden Gate (Meeting of Joachim and Anna). Birth of the Virgin; midwife bathing the Virgin. Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple. The Virgin and her parents are received by the high priest.
Body, front
Virgin praying in the Temple. Virgin weaving; Virgin fed by an angel. Betrothal of Joseph and the Virgin.
End, right
The Virgin enters her house with Anna. Joseph enters his house, holding the flowering stem.
Body, back
Annunciation; vase of lilies; dove of the Holy Spirit. Visitation. Nativity. Annunciation to the Shepherds.
End, left
Adoration of the Magi.
Crosshatched background. Tiled roof or brickwork. Pinnacles.
Bottom: chequered pattern.

Museum files 2010: North Italian (Tyrol or Piedmont), 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive polychromy and gilding: gold, red and green.

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
Missing: border strips on the back, left end and bottom; lock.
Some dividing strips seem to be later replacements.

Comments
The The interior is decorated with a chequered pattern alternating ebony and bone. The iconographical cycle is inspired by the Biblia pauperum.
Inscription on the underside: '19073' and '69'.

Provenance
Collection of Olegario Junyent, Catalan painter, stage designer and illustrator (b. 1856, d. 1956); collection of Bartolomé March Servera (b. 1917, d. 1998), Palma de Mallorca; Christie's London, 12 December 2000, lot 18; acquired by the museum on the Spanish antiques market.

Bibliography
P. Tachard, 'Les Grandes collections d'objets d'art ancien en Espagne. Les coffrets de la collection Junyent', in Vell i nou. Epoca II : revista mensual d'art 3 (1921), pp. 17-21.
Exposición Oleguer Junyent, exhibition catalogue, Barcelona, Palacio de la Virreina, 1961, p. 47, no. 215.
H. Appuhn, 'Kleinodientruhen-private Denkmäler', in Weltkunst (15 February 1980), p. 404, pl. 6.
M.-M. Estella Marcos, La Escultura de marfil en España románica y gótica (Madrid, 1984), fig. 63.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 175.

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