Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled triptych, 2 registers, with arches (frise d'arcatures) (Front, open)

Wing, left
Register 1: kneeling angel holding a navette and swinging a censer.
Register 2: apostles including a seated apostle holding an open book.
Centre panel
Gable: God the Father; dove of the Holy Spirit.
Register 1: Coronation of the Virgin; angel crowning the Virgin; blessing gesture; two kneeling angels holding candlesticks.
Register 2: Death of the Virgin (Dormition); Christ holding the soul of the Virgin; apostles including saint John the Evangelist holding a martyr's palm.
Wing, right
Register 1: kneeling angel holding a navette and swinging a censer.
Register 2: apostles; open book.
Rosette in the gables.

Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century.
Kube 1925: France, 14th century.
Erbach 1993: Northern France or Netherlands, 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Kryzhanovskaya 2014: Northern France or Netherlands, 2nd half of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two hinges on either side (partially-restored).

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of gilding and polychromy: gold (haloes; trace of dot pattern on the background), shadow of medallions in the spandrels.
Painted tracery on the back of the centre panel (possibly green and red?).

Reverse
On the back of the centre panel, traces of painted tracery: arch with two lancets separated by a colonnette and medallion containing a quintefoil with an inscription of the letter 'r' in Gothic script. Longer edges chamfered and lower edge chamfered and crosshatched. Crosshatching along the right side of the gable when viewed from the back. Incised inscription: 'XIV'.
Back of the wings: flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Missing: upper part of the central gable (later repair including the depiction of God the Father).
Various holes from hinges along the edges (some plugged).
Crosshatching along the lower edge of the centre panel for attachment to a base.

Provenance
Houmon collection, France (?). Collection of E. Laborie, Paris, before 1867. Collection of Vasiliy L'vovich Naryshkin (b. 1841, d. 1906), Saint Petersburg, from 1867; donated in 1871 to the Museum of the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts (Muzei OPKh); transferred to the Hermitage in 1919.

Bibliography
C. Mannheim, Catalogue d'objets d'art et de curiosité... provenant en partie de la collection de M. E. Laborie et appartenant à M. Narischkine (Paris, 1867), no. 105.
Katalog der Sammlung B. Naryschkin (Paris, 1869), no. 107.
Ukazatel' sobraniiu khudozhestvennykh proizvedeniy, pozhalovannomu gosudarem imperatorom Muzeiu Obshchestva pooshchreniia khudozhnikov i podnesennomu gosudariu V. L. Naryshkinym (Saint Petersburg, 1871), no. 124.
Katalog Muzeia Imperatorskogo Obshchestva pooshchreniia khudozhestv (Saint Petersburg, 1904), no. 72, p. 430.
O. Pelka, Elfenbein (Berlin, 1920), p. 190.
Erste Austellung der Eremitage, Reisenführer (St Petersburg, 1920), p. 15.
A. N. Kube, Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Putevoditel' po otdeleniiu srednikh vekov i epokhi Vozrozhdeniia [State Hermitage Museum. Guide to the Medieval and Renaissance sections] (Saint Petersburg, 1921), p. 10.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, p. 140; II, no. 212.
A. N. Kube, Reznaia kost'. Katalog [Ivory Carvings Catalogue Hermitage], (Leningrad [Saint-Petersburg], 1925), no. 83.
Christliche westeuropäische Elfenbeinkunst 13.-18. Jahrhundert aus der Eremitage Sankt Petersburg, exhibition catalogue, Erbach, Deutschen Elfenbeinmuseum, 6 April 1993 -6 January 1994, no. 7.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Peterburg, 2014), no. 114.

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