The Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation and the Crucifixion
Panel
1340-1350 (made)
1340-1350 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This Leaf of a Diptych, made in about 1340-1350 in Paris, was formerly in the Pugin Collection (Augustus Welby Pugin).
The right leaf of this diptych, with the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ and St. Mary Megdalene in the Garden, and the Coronation of the Virgin, is in the Museé de Cluny (Du Sommerand, Catalogue, 1881, No. 1077). The left leaf of a diptych almost identical is in the same Museum (Koechlin, II, No.384).
Another similar diptych leaf is in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts (Inv. No. 1961.62), and a complete diptych is in the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (Inv. No. 68.30).
The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an architect, designer and writer whose work became the theoretical and practical inspiration for the Gothic Revival movement. A precocious youth, he designed furniture for Windsor Castle while in his teens. In 1851 his Medieval Court was one of the sensations of the Great Exhibition in London. Following his conversion to Catholicism in 1835, Pugin increasingly identified the Gothic style with Christianity, so that the two became inextricably linked and the style took on a positive moral dimension. Yet his greatest work is a secular building: the Palace of Westminster, designed by Charles Barry, for which Pugin provided the decoration and detail.
The right leaf of this diptych, with the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ and St. Mary Megdalene in the Garden, and the Coronation of the Virgin, is in the Museé de Cluny (Du Sommerand, Catalogue, 1881, No. 1077). The left leaf of a diptych almost identical is in the same Museum (Koechlin, II, No.384).
Another similar diptych leaf is in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts (Inv. No. 1961.62), and a complete diptych is in the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (Inv. No. 68.30).
The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an architect, designer and writer whose work became the theoretical and practical inspiration for the Gothic Revival movement. A precocious youth, he designed furniture for Windsor Castle while in his teens. In 1851 his Medieval Court was one of the sensations of the Great Exhibition in London. Following his conversion to Catholicism in 1835, Pugin increasingly identified the Gothic style with Christianity, so that the two became inextricably linked and the style took on a positive moral dimension. Yet his greatest work is a secular building: the Palace of Westminster, designed by Charles Barry, for which Pugin provided the decoration and detail.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation and the Crucifixion (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Carved elephant ivory |
| Brief description | Diptych, left leaf, ivory, with subjects of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation and the Crucifixion, French (Paris), ca. 1340-1350 |
| Physical description | Leaf of an ivory diptych, in two tiers, each surmounted by trefoil arcades, the subjects separated by slender columns. The borders around each tier are embellished with a series of evenly spaced dots in relief. Along the right edge, this border is twice interrupted by wedge-shaped sections of ivory repairs to the hinge holes. The scenes read from left to right, bottom to top and show the Annunciation and the Visitation, while above is depicted the Presentation and the Crucifixion. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Purchased by John Webb, London, on behalf of the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, at the sale of the Pugin collection in 1853 (Sotheby and Wilkinson, 12 Feb 1853, lot 103, £12); it should be noted however, that the description in the sale catalogue differs slightly from the object here and that the beautiful gilt metal frame' on it does not seem to have entered the Museum's collection. In 1944, Clive Wainwright stated that the leaf had been shown by A.W.N. Pugin at the 1850 exhibition of Ancient and Medieval Art as 'one of a pair of carved bas-reliefs'; these were in fact the diptych leaves later sold as lots 100 and 101 in the Pugin sale, bought by the Rev. J. Fuller Russell, and the present leaf does not appear to have been displayed. |
| Historical context | The right leaf of this diptych, with the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ and St. Mary Megdalene in the Garden, and the Coronation of the Virgin, is in the Museé de Cluny (Du Sommerand, Catalogue, 1881, No. 1077). The left leaf of a diptych almost identical is in the same Museum (Koechlin, II, No.384). Another similar diptych leaf is in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts (Inv. No. 1961.62), and a complete diptych is in the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (Inv. No. 68.30). |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This Leaf of a Diptych, made in about 1340-1350 in Paris, was formerly in the Pugin Collection (Augustus Welby Pugin). The right leaf of this diptych, with the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, Christ and St. Mary Megdalene in the Garden, and the Coronation of the Virgin, is in the Museé de Cluny (Du Sommerand, Catalogue, 1881, No. 1077). The left leaf of a diptych almost identical is in the same Museum (Koechlin, II, No.384). Another similar diptych leaf is in the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts (Inv. No. 1961.62), and a complete diptych is in the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (Inv. No. 68.30). The devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion. Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin was an architect, designer and writer whose work became the theoretical and practical inspiration for the Gothic Revival movement. A precocious youth, he designed furniture for Windsor Castle while in his teens. In 1851 his Medieval Court was one of the sensations of the Great Exhibition in London. Following his conversion to Catholicism in 1835, Pugin increasingly identified the Gothic style with Christianity, so that the two became inextricably linked and the style took on a positive moral dimension. Yet his greatest work is a secular building: the Palace of Westminster, designed by Charles Barry, for which Pugin provided the decoration and detail. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 665-1853 |
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| Record created | August 23, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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