Altarpiece with the Lives of Jesus, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint John the Evangelist

This altarpiece is composed of overlays of organic materials glued to a poplar carcass. It rests on a base composed of carved cow bone, a frieze of hazel leaves carved in bone, and strips of marquetry in bone, horn, and wood assembled in the tarsia a toppo technique. Pinnacled buttresses adorned with marquetry and low-relief carvings of angels carrying banderoles divide the main section into three parts, and a crest of bone leaves backed with dyed cow horn crowns the steep triangular pediment above each of the three central panels. Each panel is subdivided into thirteen recessed coffers surrounded by strips of marquetry and bone; the square ones are subdivided into three bone panels, and the triangular into two or three. The carved scenes on the left-hand main section present scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist, those in the center the life of Jesus, and those on the right the life Saint John the Evangelist. The back of the whole assemblage is painted with scagliola or imitation marble.

Along with the altarpiece made for the abbey of Poissy now in the Louvre (MR 379), and the altarpiece of the Certosa di Pavia, this altarpiece is one of the few large-scale religious works to survive from the Embriachi workshop. The workshop was founded by the entrepreneur Baldassare degli Ubriachi and catered to well-heeled mercantile elites and aristocrats in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, spawning numerous imitators who worked in their style through the fifteenth century. Based initially in Florence before moving to Venice, the Embriachi workshop specialized in deluxe works in carved bone and marquetry, mainly tabletop shrines and small boxes depicting scenes from popular literature, but occasionally produced works on a monumental scale as in the present example. Comparison to the altarpieces in the collections of the Louvre and Certosa di Pavia demonstrate that the current shrine has been the subject of alterations in the modern period. On both the Certosa di Pavia and the Louvre altarpieces, the main panels rest upon a row of niches with standing images of saints. The current altarpiece likely had a similar element when first made, but it was removed before 1890, when the altarpiece was photographed for the first time. The altarpiece also lost its original pinnacles, with the current replacements made between 1890 and 1917. Some of the elements of the floral crest are replacements. Several of the narrative panels are also replacements and can be distinguished from the original carvings from their distinctive greenish hue, as well as differences in the rendering of hair, drapery, and water. In 1920, the narrative panels were rearranged to place the stories in a more legible order. The marquetry is in excellent condition and, the decoration of the pinnacles excepted, appears to be largely original. The friezes with angels retain traces of gilding, a remnant of a painted decoration that would have included inscriptions on the banderoles borne by the angels in the recessed panels at the base of the narrative scenes. The wood core retains traces of blue pigment, which can be seen between the openwork trees and behind the open windows of the architectural backdrops of each narrative panel. A small sticker with an inventory number can be seen on the bottom of the altar’s right side.

Because little is known about the early provenance of the altarpiece, the other, better-documented works by the Embriachi workshop provide the grounds for hypothesizing the date and circumstances of its original commission. Stylistic affinities suggest that it is among the works of the workshop of the Embriachi rather than its competitors and imitators, and that it was likely made between 1390 and 1400. The preference for profile faces, the long figures with wavy hair and slightly bended knees, and backgrounds in the form of forested hills or city skylines strongly resemble the fragments of two boxes now in The Met’s collection (acc. no. 17.190.490), which have documented provenance in the form of a receipt for expenses paid to the workshop of Baldassare degli Ubriachi. Also typical of early Embriachi work is the honeytone of the toppo marquetry, which deploys a limited palette composed of yew, spindlewood, bone, and cow horn. Marquetry with similar color palettes and similar running interlace motifs can be seen on the Saint-Chapelle Casket in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Fiesole Altarpiece in the collection of Hildesheim Cathedral. To judge from other surviving altarpieces made by the Embriachi, this example was made for a religious community. It is possible that the community bought it for their own use like the monks of the Certosa di Pavia. It may have also been a gift to the community like the altarpiece from Poissy, which Jean, duke of Berry presented to the abbey as a gift. While the identity and location of the community is unknown, the presence of Franciscan friars at the scene of the crucifixion at the top center suggests that a Franciscan community was the altarpiece’s intended recipient.

Further Reading:

Randall Jr., Richard H. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press: 1993.: p. 141.

Paul Williamson and Glynn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carving, Part II (London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2014): pp. 750-783.


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

Giovanni Battista Cagnola, Milan (sold 1912); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1912–1913)

Jeannez, Edouard. Inventaire descriptif et raisonné des principaux objets d'art: ayant figuré a l'exposition rétrospective forézienne de Roanne 1890. Roanne: Imprimerie du Roannais Illustré, 1890. p. 9, pl. 4–5.

Exposition rétrospective forézienne: beaux-arts – arts décoratifs, 5–29 juin 1890. Catalogue. Roanne: Imprimerie Chorgnon et Bardiot, 1890. no. 58, p. 15, ill.

Travers, Emile. "L’exposition rétrospective forézienne." Bulletin Monumental 56 (1890). pp. 139–40.

Leriche, Ernest. L'exposition rétrospective forézienne de Roanne en 1890. Extract of 'Roannais illustré'. Roanne: Imprimerie Chorgnon et Bardiot, 1891. pp. 30–31.

Molinier, Emile. Les Ivoires. Histoire générale des arts appliqués à l'industrie, Vol. 1. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1896. p. 206 n. 1.

Molinier, Emile. Catalogue des Ivoires. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1896. p. 227.

Schlosser, Julius von. "Die Werkstatt der Embriachi in Venedig." Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 20 (1899). p. 241.

Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'arte italiana: Volume 4, La scultura del Trecento e le sue origini. Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1906. p. 891.

Ditchfield, Peter Hempson. "Art in Ivory." Christian Art: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine 2, no. 3 (December 1907). pp. 146–48.

Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory. London, 1923. p. 93.

Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. p. 119.

Toesca, Pietro. Il Trecento. Storia dell'arte italiana, Vol. 2. Turin: Unione Tipografico–Editrice Torinese, 1951. p. 924.

Rodney, Nanette B. "Salome." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 11, no. 7 (March 1953). ill. p. 192.

Dell'Acqua, Gian Alberto, ed. Embriachi, il trittico di Pavia. Milan: Franco Maria Ricci, 1982. p. 12.

Merlini, Elena. "I trittici portatili della Bottega degli Embriachi." Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 33 (1991). p. 50.

Randall Jr., Richard H. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993. p. 141.

Tomasi, Michele. "Baldassarre Ubriachi, le maître, le public." Revue de l'Art 134 (2001). p. 52.

Tomasi, Michele. "Gli Embriachi: l'«avorio» per il mercato." In Artifex bonus: Il mondo dell'artista medievale, edited by Enrico Castelnuovo. Grandi opere. Rome: Editori Laterza, 2004. p. 208.

Tomasi, Michele. "Le retable des Embriachi du musée du Louvre: datation, fonction, destination, iconographie." Revue des Musées de France: Revue du Louvre 55, no. 3 (2005). p. 53, fig. 10.

Tomasi, Michele. Monumenti d'avorio: I dossali degli Embriachi e i loro committenti. Studi, Vol. 16. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2010. pp. 9, 12, 47–52, 126, 146–47, 146–47, 149, 155–56, 158 n. 194, 159–60, 179, 183 n. 39, 188–90, 200–204, 210–11, 231, 245–49, 250–51, 254, 262, 341, 354, 356–57, 358, 365; fig. 3, 20, 40, 63, 66–67, 75, 77.

Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 2. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. pp. 755–58.