Register 1: Figure of the Church (Ecclesia) holding a chalice. Crucifixion; Longinus with spear standing in prayer; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Stephaton holding a bucket; sun and moon. Figure of Synagogue (Synagoga), blindfolded, holding the tables of the Law.
Register 2: saint Peter holding a key. Seated Virgin and Child; curtains; bench. Saint Paul holding a sword.In the spandrels: angels swinging censers; angels holding the sun and the moon.
Pinnacles. Rounded trefoils.
Koechlin 1924: France, 14th century.
Schnitzler, Volbach, Bloch 1964: France, end of the 13th century.
Attribution
Inspired by the Soissons group (Atelier du Diptyque de Soissons), but the style of the figures and their solidity suggest the carver was not trained at Soissons (Koechlin 1924)
Object Condition
Ivory tinted purple (Koechlin 1924).
Missing: left edge, upper and lower right corners; upper part of the pinnacles.
Provenance
Collection of Gaston Le Breton, Rouen: sold, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 6 December 1921, lot 195, plate 19. Giraud collection, Lyon. Collection of Pierre Peytel, Paris. Collection of Ernst and Martha Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne (in 1964).
Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 87; II, no. 59.
H. Schnitzler, F. Volbach, P. Bloch, Skulpturen, Elfenbein, Perlmutter, Stein, Holz Europäisches Mittelalter, Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, 2 vols (Lucerne, 1964), no. S.100, p. 30.
All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.