Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 4 arches across (frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Flagellation; whips. Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist.
Register 2: Deposition; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet. Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body).
Incised inscription on the tomb: '1590' (later).
Wing, right
Register 1: Annunciation; vase of lilies. Visitation. Nativity (Virgo lactans); swaddled Christ).
Register 2: Adoration of the Magi; angel crowning the Virgin. Presentation in the temple; Christ standing on the altar between the Virgin and Simeon.

Koechlin 1924: French, mid 14th century.
Liebgott 1985 and Museum's opinion 2013: Paris, mid 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two broken hinges

Polychromy - Gilding
Faint traces of gilding.
The cross in the Crucifixion and the Deposition scenes was certainly painted. Painted trefoils in the spandrels.

Reverse
Inscribed: 'HENRICVS RANZOVIVS / VICARIVS REGIVS / AB ORBIS PRINCIPIO 5552 / A CHRISTO NATO 1590 / AETATIS ANNO 65'. Incised coat of arms with helm and lambrequins of Henrik Rantzau (b. 1526, d. 1599); initials: 'HR VR F F'.

Object Condition
Left wing broken around the upper hinge. Holes in the upper and lower inner corners of both wings.

Provenance
Collection of Henrik Rantzau (b. 1526, d. 1599), governor of Schleswig and Holstein (in 1590; see inscriptions on the back and front of the diptych). Registered in the inventories of the Gottorf Kunstkammer of 1710, 1725 and 1743, wherefrom it was obtained by the Royal Kunstkammer in 1775; registered in the inventory of Det kgl. Kunstmuseum (the Royal Danish Art Museum, 1825-1867) of 1825, in the inventory of Museet for Nordiske Oldsager (Museum of Northern Antiquities, 1819-1892) of 1848.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 280, 282, 355; II, no. 781.
M. Blindheim, 'Scandinavian Art and its Relations to European Art around 1200', in The Year 1200: A Symposium, exhibition catalogue, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975, pp. 432, 445.
N. K. Liebgott, Elfenben - fra Danmarks Middelalder (Copenhagen, 1985), pp. 65-68, fig. 63.
Gottorf im Glanz des Barock: Die Gottorfer Kunstkammer, ed. by H. Spielmann, J. Drees, M. Bencard, F. Lühning (Schleswig, 1997), p. 345.

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