Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 3 registers, 4 arches across (frise d'arcatures); known as the Vich Diptych (Diptyque de Vich) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Entry into Jerusalem.
Register 2: Agony in the Garden (Christ at Gethsemane); Christ led away by soldiers (Arrest of Christ).
Register 3: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; Deposition with the Virgin holding Christ's hand; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; saint John the Evangelist.
Wing, right
Register 1: Christ washing the feet of the apostles; Last Supper with saint John the Evangelist leaning on Christ's breast.
Register 2: Death of Judas (Judas hanging); Flagellation; Carrying of the Cross with the Virgin helping Christ.
Register 3: Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body); Noli me Tangere (Christ appearing to saint Mary Magdalene); Harrowing of Hell with Adam and Eve coming out of the Mouth of Hell.

Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century.
Randall 1985: France, 1350-1365. Stylistically related to Koechlin 286 (now Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum), Liverpool, World Museum, M 8057. Mistakenly describes Noli me Tangere as 'Christ's Appearance to his Mother'.
Detroit 1997 and Museum's opinion 2010: France, 1350-1365. Attributed to the Passion Atelier.

Attribution
Atelier of the Master of the Great Passion Diptychs

Hinges
Two modern hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive traces of polychromy and gilding: red and blue (arches), green (crockets and trefoils), green and gold (trees), brown and gold (hair), etc.

Provenance
Treasury of the Cathedral of Vic (or Vich), Catalonia, Spain (inventory of 1430); Museo Episcopal de Vic (Inv. MEV 2180); stolen on 27 June 1903. Collection of Martin le Roy (Paris). Bought before 1931 by Henry Walters; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Bibliography
Catálogo del Museo Arqueológico-Artístico Episcopal de Vich (Vic, 1893), no. 2180, pp. 176-177.
J. Gudiol i Cunill, 'El furt del Museu Episcopal de Vich', in Ilustració Catalana, 9, 2-VIII (1903), pp. 139-140, fig. p. 129.
E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, Deux monuments du Musée de Vich, Centenaire de la Société des antiquaires de France (Nogent-le-Rotrou, 1904), pl. XIV.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 295; II, no. 814; III, pl. CXLI.
The International Style: The Arts of Europe around 1400, ed. by P. Verdier, exhibition catalogue, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, 1962, no. 116.
P. Verdier, 'Les Ivoires de Walters Art Gallery', in Art International 7, no. 4 (1963), pp. 28-36 (p. 30, fig. 4).
M. Estella, 'La Talla del marfil', in Historia de las Artes Aplicadas e Industriales en España (Madrid, 1982), pp. 435-462 (p. 453).
M.-M. Estella Marcos, La Escultura de marfil en España románica y gótica (Madrid, 1984), pp. 193-194, fig. 44.
R. H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, 1985), no. 299.
M. Gibson, The Liverpool Ivories: late antique and medieval ivory and bone carving in Liverpool Museum and the Walker Art Gallery (London, 1994), p. 83, pl. XXXIIb.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, no. 31, pp. 174-179.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.