Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled polyptych (tabernacle; colonnettes) (Front)

Wings, left
Register 1: Annunciation; Visitation.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (part of Adoration of the Magi). Centre panel Standing Virgin and Child.
Wings, right
Register 1: Nativity; Joseph holding Christ Child.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple with Joseph holding a candlestick and a basket of doves brought as offerings; Christ standing on the altar between the Virgin and Simeon.

Vöge 1900: French, 14th century.
Volbach 1923: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Koechlin 1924: France, beginning of the 2nd third of the 14th century.
Amsterdam 1994: Paris, c. 1300.
Darmstadt and Munich 1999: Paris, c. 1300.
Museum's opinion 2010: Paris, c. 1270-1280.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two sets of two hinges on either side (modern).

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy and gilding: painted trefoils in the spandrels and gable; green (architectural details); draperies; crown.

Object Condition
Missing: flower stem originally held by the Virgin.

Provenance
Nagler collection, Berlin; acquired for the Kunstkammer in 1835.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, p. 437, no. 864.
W. Vöge, Die Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der christlichen Epochen. Zweite Auflage. Elfenbeinwerke (Berlin, 1900), no. 81, pl. XXVI.
R. Koechlin, 'Quelques ateliers d'ivoiriers français aux XIII et XIVe siècles. II. L'atelier des tabernacles de la Vierge', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 34 (1905), pp. 453-471 (p. 461).
A. Michel, L'histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours, 8 vols, 17 parts (Paris, 1905-1929), II, p. 476.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 189, fig. 124.
W. F. Volbach, Die Bildwerke des Deutschen Museums, Die Elfenbeinbildwerke (Berlin, 1923), pp. 37-38, pl. 46.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 126-129, 137; II, no. 153.
P. Bloch, Madonnenbilder. Vierzig Denkmäler der Skulpturenabteilung (Bilderhefte der Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz Band 14), (Berlin, 1969), pp. 14-15, no. 10.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), p. 150.
H. van Os, The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1994, pp. 76-77, no. and pl. 23.
Meisterwerke aus Elfenbein der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum and Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, 1999, no. 38.
A. von Hülsen-Esch, 'Paris-Köln und zurück. Gedanken zur Madonna von Ochtrup-Langenhorst und der Elfenbeinproduktion im Rheinland', in Luft unter die Flügel... Beiträge zur mitterlalterlichen Kunst: Festschrift für Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, ed. by A. von Hülsen-Esch and D. Täube (Hildesheim, Munich and New York, 2010), p. 177, fig. 4.

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