Gothic Ivories Project | Openwork relief (appliqué; ajouré); reliquary

Saint Catherine of Alexandria trampling emperor Maxentius; broken wheel; musician angel playing a string instrument; throne decorated with tracery.

Koechlin 1924: France, end of 14 century or beginning of 15th century (ivory).
Leeuwenberg 1969: France, last quarter of the 18th century to 1st half of the 19th century
Florence 1989: Master of the Agrafe Forgeries, 19th century.
Chiesi 2011: metalwork: 19th century; enamel roundels: 15th century; ivory: last quarter of the 14th century or 19th century.

Attribution
Master of the Agrafe Forgeries (Leeuwenberg 1969)

Object Condition
Missing: right part of the throne; many fine details. Angel and arches broken away and were glued back into place. Break on the right part of the Virgin.

Comments
Relic visible through the crystal with inscription: 'De la robe de sainte Catherine'.

Provenance
Its frame is said to have been saved at the last minute from being melted by an Angers coppersmith c. 1848 (see Farcy 1898); Mordret collection, Angers: his sale, Mannheim, 20 April 1881. Carrand collection: bequeathed by Louis Carrand (d. 1888) to the Museo del Bargello in 1888.

Bibliography
L. de Farcy, 'Epaves', in Revue d'art chrétien, 4th series, 9 (1898), p. 228.
E. Gerspach, 'La Collection Carrand au musée national de Florence', in Les Arts 32 (August 1904), p. 30, no. 32.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 247, 257; II, no. 713.
E. Herzog and A. Ress, Elfenbein, in 'Reallexikon zur deutschen kunstgeschichte', IV, 1958, col. 1330.
L. Leeuwenberg, 'Early nineteenth Century Gothic Ivories', in Aachener Kunstblätter 39 (1969), p. 120.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, 'Les ivoires gothiques. À propos d'un article récent', in Bulletin monumental 128-2 (1970), pp. 127-133 (p. 133).
Arti del Medioevo e del Rinascimento. Omaggio ai Carrand, 1889-1989, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 1989, pp. 249-250, no. 31 (E. Castelnuovo).
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 497-508.

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