Gothic Ivories Project | Opening Virgin (Vierge ouvrante) (Front, open)

Closed
Standing Virgin holding a sceptre and a book; crown.
Open
Wing, left
Register 1: Carrying of the Cross; soldier with whip.
Register 2: Adoring Magi (continued on the centre panel to form the Adoration of the Magi).
Centre panel
Register 1: Crucifixion; Longinus piercing Christ's side; Stephaton giving Christ vinegar; Virgin and saint John the Evangelist (?).
Register 2: standing Virgin and Child (Vierge glorieuse); two angels holding candlesticks.
Wing, right
Register 1: Deposition; Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ's body.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple; Christ standing on the altar (Simeon missing).
PInnacles; pointed trefoils in the spandrels.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: blue, green and violet (architectural details and clothes).

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Object Condition
Minor cracks and damages in places.
Missing: candles held by the angels in the centre panel.

Comments
The base is made of a different piece of ivory.

Provenance
Transferred from the Gosudarstvennii Muzeinii Fond (GMF - State Museum Collection) to the Hermitage in 1951.

Bibliography
Srednevekovoe prikladnoe iskusstvo Zapadnoi Evropy iz sobraniia Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha v g. Sankt-Peterburge: kratkii katalog vystavki, exhibition catalogue, Vyborg, Vyborg Historico-architectural and Fine Arts Museum, 1993, no. 47.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Petersburg, 2014), no. 206.

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