Gothic Ivories Project | Diptych, 2 registers, 3 arches across (frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Wing, left
Register 1: Crucifixion; swooning Virgin supported by Holy Women; saint John the Evangelist and onlookers holding scrolls; Sun and Moon.
Register 2: Nativity (Virgo lactans) and Annunciation to the Shepherds.
Wing, right
Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin; angel crowning the Virgin; two angels holding navettes and swinging censers, kneeling on corbels.
Register 2: Adoration of the Magi.
Pointed trefoils in the spandrels.

Cherry and Lowden 2008: French (Paris), c. 1350.
Museum's opinion 2008: French, late 14th century

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Flat and smooth.
Mid 14th-century incised inscription in Latin on the back of the left wing: 'Istas tabulas emit Petrus Garsie de Gom[ara] canonicus Oxomensis pro altari Beati Petri de Gomara' ('Pedro de Gomara, canon of Osma [Cathedral, in Spain], bought these tablets for the altar of Blessed Pedro [de Osma?] at Gomara'). Label on the back of the right wing: 'Art Treasures Exhibition, Wrexham, 1876. henry Clarke Esq. Proprietor'.

Object Condition
Repairs around the hinges.

Provenance
Bought soon after it was made by Pedro García of Gomara, canon of Osma Cathedral in Spain for the altar of Blessed Peter [de Osma?] at Gomara (see inscription on the back). Collection of Henry Clarke (exhibited in 1876 at Wrexham, see label with monogram and no. 15 on the reverse). Christie's, London, 15 July 1986, lot 5. Cyril Humphris Collection; Thomson Collection, Toronto: acquired at the Cyril Humphris sale, Sotheby's, New York, 10 January 1995, lot 3; since 2008, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto.

Bibliography
J. Cherry and J. Lowden, Medieval Ivories and Works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 2008), p. 39.

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