Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 2 compartments across (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Flagellation. Carrying of the Cross; man holding a hammer.
Register 2: Judas receiving the reward. Betrayal (Taking of Christ; Kiss of Judas); Christ restores Malchus' ear, cut by saint Peter.
Wing, right
Register 1: Crucifixion with the Virgin and saint John the Evangelist; Longinus with spear in prayer; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Stephaton holding a bucket. Deposition; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body; man with pincers removing the nail from Christ's feet.
Register 2: Entombment (Anointing of Christ's body). Three Holy Women at the Tomb, with angel seated on the tomb and two soldiers asleep.

Koechlin 1924: France, 1st third of 14th century.
Lowden 2008 and Museum's opinion 2008: France, N., c. 1325-1350. Radiocarbon dating produced a date of 855+- 35 years BP, i.e. a 95% probability of a date for the ivory within the range 1130-1250.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Three hinges.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding, especially in the hair. Traces of polychromy on the clothing.

Reverse
Flat and smooth. Ink inscription: '2607'.

Comments
Close to a diptych in Amiens Bibliothèque Municipale (Koechlin, 1924, no. 240).

Provenance
Collection of Herrmann Sax, Vienna: Sax sale, Vienna, Miethke, 4 December 1893, lot 119, with ill. Heckscher collection, Vienna: his sale, Christie's, 1898, lot 191. Collection of Martine, Comtesse de Béhague (1870-1939); by descent to her nephew and heir Hubert, Marquis de Ganay, Paris; Thomson collection, Toronto (acquired at the Ganay sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, 5 December 1987, lot 176); since 2008, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 152; II, no. 245.
J. Cherry, J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), cat. 32.

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