Folding Shrine with Virgin and Child

A standing and crowned Virgin Mary holds Jesus on her left arm at the center of a folding shrine, forming a composition known in academic literature as a tabernacle polyptych. In her right hand she holds a flowering branch. The ends of her mantel also spill out of her right hand into deep, angular folds that mirror the diagonal pleats of her gown. This deeply-carved relief is engaged to the back of the panel and is carved out of the same piece of ivory as the gothic canopy above her head. Interlinked loops join the four wings surrounding the virgin, allowing them to fold around the central panel and form a protective case in the form of a small shrine. The interiors of the wings represent scenes from the pregnancy of Mary and the early childhood of Christ according to a conventionalized iconographic and compositional formula. In this example, the Annunciation stands to the right of the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth, a deviation from the usual order of these scenes governed by the narrowness of the inner wing. Green stain, a remnant of a blue lapis lazuli paint, is visible in the folds of Mary’s dress and the spandrels of the arches over each register. Small areas of red paint can also be seen in the recesses of the cusped architectural elements. The carving has suffered areas of damage. Most notable is the top of the central baldachin, which is missing the summit of the roof. The top of the roof and to the gabled ridges of the wing elements are also heavily scored. A pair of slender colonettes once supported the front of the baldachin. Their loss has damaged the lower part of the arch to the proper left of Mary and both of her feet. The outer wing on the right has suffered damage from the lower hinge, which a previous restorer has repaired by adding a new ivory section. Two ivory plugs on the right-hand wings also demonstrate that the lower hinge was once in a different location. The back of the central panel also preserves a sticker, likely from a previous dealer.

The modern designation of carvings of this type as a "tabernacle polyptych" springs from medieval terms tabernaculum and tabernacle, but the ambiguity of documents makes them difficult to interpret. Paul Williamson has pointed to several that appear to represent the current carving type, and their dates suggest that the form first became popular in the decade leading up to the year 1300. Among these is a wardrobe account of Edward I of England for the year 1299-1300 that lists an ivory image of the Virgin Mary in a tabernacle, "imago beate Marie de eburn cum tabernaculo eburn in uno coffino," (Williamson 1994a, pp. 197, 200). Two decades later, in 1325, Mahaut, Countess of Artois purchased an ivory statue of the Virgin Mary set within tabernacle, "ymaige Notre-Dame d’ivire à tabernacle," (Koechlin, p. 117.) Contemporary inventories of papal and church treasuries also contain descriptions of similar objects (Williamson, p.137). As Williamson notes, however, the word tabernacle was malleable in medieval parlance, making it difficult to imagine the shape of objects that went under this term. Thus, in the 1302 death inventory of Raoul de Nesle, Viscount of Châteaudun, Grand Chamberlain of France and Constable of France, the reader comes across a "closing" ivory statue, "une petite ymage d’yvoire cloans," and another in a "tabernacle" made of whale bone or tooth "item, une ymage d’yvoire a I tabernacle de balene, prisie XXX s.," (Deshaisnes, p. 135). Is the "closing" ivory a winged, upright carving that could fold over a central image like the present example? Was the "tabernacle" backed on whale bone likewise a polyptych like the present one, or was it a folding diptych, triptych, or even an appliqué for an altar frontal like one in The Met’s collection (acc. no. 17.190.199)? Given the late provenance for most medieval ivories, the application of these terms will likely remain ambiguous.

Further Reading:

Chrétien Dehaisnes, Documents et extraits divers concernant l'histoire de l'art dans la Flandre, l'Artois & le Hainaut avant le XVe siècle, Première partie (Paris, 1886).

Joh Lowden and John Cherry, Medieval Ivories and works of Art: The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto: Skylet Publishing/The Art Gallery of Ontario, 2008), pp. 59-61.

Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, Part 1 (Victoria and Albert Museum Publishing, 2014), pp. 137-158.


Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

[ Edouard Larcade, Paris (by 1906)]; Georges Hoentschel (French), Paris (sold 1911); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)

Ville de Tourcoing. "Exposition d'art ancien," 1906.

Exposition d'art ancien. Lille: L. Danel, 1906. no. 228.

Pératé, André. Collections Georges Hoentschel: Ivoires, orfèvrerie religieuse, pierres. Vol. 2. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1911. no. 36, fig. XXIX.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. p. 126 n. 1.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 139, p. 61.

Morey, C.R. "Italian Gothic Ivories." In Medieval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter, edited by Wilhelm R. W. Koehler. Vol. I. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1939. no. XVII, p. 193.