Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 3 arches across (frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Crucifixion; Virgin supported by Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist and onlookers holding scrolls; sun and moon.
Register 2: Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds; musician shepherd holding a shawm; sheep; swaddled Christ.
Wing, right
Register 1: Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body), with Holy Women.
Register 2: Adoration of the Magi.
Incised trefoils in the spandrels.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Traces of two missing hinges.

Reverse
Flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Chipped borders.

Provenance
In Vilnius Cathedral in the last quarter of the 19th century; transferred to the Lithuanian Art Museum in 1949 (after the nationalisation of church property); transferred to the Church Heritage Museum in 2013 (in the context of the the restitution of church property).

Bibliography
P. Ksawery, 'Dyptyk z kości sloniowej w Wileńszczyźnie', in Arkady 10 (1937), pp. 542-543.
R. Budrys, V. Dolinskas, Vilniaus katedros lobynas (Vilnius, 2002), pp. 235, 263-264.
Krikščionybė Lietuvos mene, ed. by D. Tarandaitė, exhibition catalogue, Vilnius, Church Heritage Museum, 2003, I: Tapyba, skulptūra, grafika, p. 99.
V. Dolinskas, 'Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės kultūrinių ryšių atspindžiai Vilniaus katedros lobyne', in R. Janonienė, LDK sakralinė dailė: atodangos ir naujieji kontekstai, Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis 51 (2008), pp. 47, 54.
D. Vasiliūnienė, Jėga ir grožis jo šventovėje… (Ps 96, 6). Vilniaus arkivyskupijos sakralinės vertybės Bažnytinio paveldo muziejuje (Vilnius, 2013), p. 287.

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