Seated Virgin and Child; Christ seated on the Virgin's left knee; Virgin trampling a monster under her left foot; Christ in long robe.
Back of the throne: seated Herod; Massacre of the Innocents.
Koechlin 1924: France (Paris), mid 14th century.
Lowden 2008 and Museum's opinion: Paris, c. 1320-1330.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding along the hem of the clothing and in Christ's hair. Traces of flesh paint. Eyes of the Virgin painted (probably not original).
Reverse
Carved in the round.Massacre of the Innocents.
Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the Virgin's head (originally with crown), right hand of the Virgin, right hand and left forearm and hand of Christ.
Hole in the Virgin's chest (end of nerve canal).
A hole in the head of Christ and cuttings in his hair suggest he was once (but not originally) crowned, and may have had a metalwork halo.
Provenance
Minart collection, Douai (before 1924). Sale, Paris, 20 June 1961, lot 24. Sotheby's, London, 2 December 1969, lot 14. Thomson collection, Toronto: acquired from Sam Fogg, London, in October 2001; since 2008, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.
Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 231, 240; II, no. 644; III, pl. CVII.
R. H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, 1985), no. 271.
J. Cherry, J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), cat. 14.
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