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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Medieval & Renaissance, Room 10

The Virign and Child

Polyptych
ca. 1300-1320 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This Tabernacle Polyptych or Shrine is made in France (Paris) in about 1300-1320. It shows in the centre a statuette of the Virgin and Child. The Virgin, is crowned by an angel, on whose wings are scenes of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation. In the base is a relic of St Chrysogonus, the Early Christian martyr.
Despite the somewhat disfiguring later polychromy, this is one of the grandest tabernacle polyptychs, both in scale and in the quality of its carving. Its decorative ambition, manifested for example in the colonnettes to the sides, indicate that it was made for the elite market.
The term tabernacle polyptych has been used here (ref. Williamson and Davies) to describe an object which consists of a deep central chamber with canopy, usually containing the Virgin and Child, and four hinged wings with narrative scenes, which would distinguish them from the smaller category of simpler polyptychs, which are made up of a series of plaques hinged together but with no central tabernacle.
A feature that links most tabernacle polyptychs together is the method of facture: Although the Virgins in the tabernacles appear from the front to be statuettes they are with few exceptions carved integrally with the back and base panels, which is remarkably skilful.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Virign and Child (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved elephant ivory painted and gilded
Brief description
Tabernacle Polyptych, ivory, depicting the Virgin and Child, France (Paris), ca. 1300-1320
Physical description
This Polyptych or Shrine shows in the centre a statuette of the Virgin and Child, beneath a canopy supported on slender columns; the Virgin is standing crowned by a wingless angel emerging from the clouds. In her right hand she once held a flower, now lost, and supports the Christ Child with her left arm. He holds an apple in his left hand and blesses with his right. The crocketed wings are carved with figures in high relief representing events of the infancy of Christ. On the wings are scenes of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation. The lower scenes are set beneath canopies with crocketed pediments and flanking pinnacles; in the gables are quatrefoils, with the exception of that above the Virgin and Christ-Child, which has a trefoil. Rosettes decorate the upper borders of the wings and central canopy, and the thin strips dividing the upper from the lower scenes on the wings. It is attached at its base to a separate plaque of ivory: this allows the wings - which hang below the central section - to close around the core. This ivory plaque is in turn fixed to an ivory-faced pedestal. This displays a relic of the Early Christina martyr St Chrysogonus. There is polychrome decoration.
Dimensions
  • Including base height: 38.9cm
  • Open width: 28.6cm
  • Without base height: 33.5
Object history
Previously in the Humann collection, Paris (sold 8 February 1858, lot 1). Purchased from the Webb Collection, London, in 1858 (£350).
Subjects depicted
Summary
This Tabernacle Polyptych or Shrine is made in France (Paris) in about 1300-1320. It shows in the centre a statuette of the Virgin and Child. The Virgin, is crowned by an angel, on whose wings are scenes of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation. In the base is a relic of St Chrysogonus, the Early Christian martyr.
Despite the somewhat disfiguring later polychromy, this is one of the grandest tabernacle polyptychs, both in scale and in the quality of its carving. Its decorative ambition, manifested for example in the colonnettes to the sides, indicate that it was made for the elite market.
The term tabernacle polyptych has been used here (ref. Williamson and Davies) to describe an object which consists of a deep central chamber with canopy, usually containing the Virgin and Child, and four hinged wings with narrative scenes, which would distinguish them from the smaller category of simpler polyptychs, which are made up of a series of plaques hinged together but with no central tabernacle.
A feature that links most tabernacle polyptychs together is the method of facture: Although the Virgins in the tabernacles appear from the front to be statuettes they are with few exceptions carved integrally with the back and base panels, which is remarkably skilful.
Bibliographic references
  • Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1858. In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 15
  • Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929, p. 13
  • Maskell, W., A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum, London, 1872 pp. 16-18
  • Maskell, A., Ivories, London, 1905 p. 166
  • Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires Médiévaux, V-XV siècle. Paris, 2003 p. 377, fig. 143a
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014 part 1, pp. 140-143
  • Koechlin, R., Les Ivoires gothiques français, 3 vols, Paris, 1924 (reprinted Paris 1968) I, p. 65, II, cat. no. 31
  • Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, part 1, pp. 140-143, cat. no. 43
Collection
Accession number
4686-1858

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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