Immaculate Conception; Virgin praying; God the Father with papal tiara making a blessing gesture; orb.
Symbols of the Immaculate Conception accompanied by inscriptions: the sun ('ELECTA VT SOL'), the moon ('PULC[H]RA VT LUN[A]'), the star ('STELLA MARIS'), the Heavenly Gate ('PORTA C[O]ELI'), the lily ('SICVT LILIVM IN[TER SPINAS]', the roses ('PLANTACIO R[OSAE]'), the tower of David ('TVRRIS DAVID CU[M] P[RO]PUGNA[CULIS]'), the cedar tree ('CEDRVS EXSALTATA'), the olive tree ['OLIVA SPECIO[S]A'), the well of living water ('PVTEV[S] AQVARV[M] VIV[ENTIVM]'), the blossoming branch of the Tree of Jesse ('V[IR]GA IESSE FLORUIT'), the mirror ('SPEC[VLUM] SINE MACULA), the fountain ('FONS [H]ORTO[RVM]'), the enclosed garden ( '[H]ORTVS CO[N]CLVS[US]'), and the City of God ('CIVITAS DEI'). Inscription at the top: 'TOTA PVLCHRA E(s) AMICA MEA ET M(a)CLVA (non) EST IN TE'.
Crosshatched background. Roped border.
Scholten 2010: Northern Netherlands, c. 1500.
Museum's opinion 2011: Northern Netherlands, c. 1480-1500
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy or gilding: yellow-brown (trees, clouds, etc.).
Reverse
Flat and smooth. Incised inscription: 'Barthelemy Prinet 1758'. Lempertz sale labels.
Object Condition
Chipped top border.
Central hole in the upper part and in the lower part of the panel.
Comments
Scholten (2010) notes that the panel is a copy of a Parisian woodcut from a book of hours published by Antoine Vérard in 1503 (see Scholten (2010), fig. 3). Most inscriptions come from the Song of Songs.
Provenance
Possibly owned by Barthélémy Prinet in 1758, Northern France (see inscription). Bought by the Museum from Lempertz, Cologne, 17 May 2008, lot 1188, with the support of the Frits and Phine Verhaaff Fond.
Bibliography
F. Scholten, 'Keuze uit de aanwinsten', in Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 56 (2008), no. 4, pp. 474-475.
F. Scholten, 'A late medieval ivory of the Immaculate Conception from the Low Countries' 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), pp. 186-192 (figs. 1-2).
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