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拍品專文
As Koechlin noted in Les Ivoires Gothiques Français (op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 124-125) the popularity of the ivory triptych, with a central image of the Virgin and Child, often flanked by candle-bearing angels, soon developed into a more fully sculptural form. In the new format, the central group was carved almost fully in the round, and the arch beneath which it had been placed projected forward to form a canopy with free-standing colonettes. To enclose this architectural volume, the wings were divided into two panels each, thus transforming the format from a triptych into a polyptych.
The polyptych was particularly suited for devotional use in a small chapel or domestic environment, and several examples are extant (see especially Koechlin, op. cit., nos. 134, 140, 150 and 154-156, pls. XXXVII-XL). The most relevant comparisons for the present ivory are examples in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Louvre (Koechlin, ibid, nos. 134, 154 and 156) and all dated to circa 1330. Although the arrangement of the scenes depicted on the wings varies in all four cases, the Virgin and Child in each piece display similar poses and proportions, ultimately harking back to prototypes such as the magnificent Virgin and Child group created for the Sainte Chapelle in the mid-thirteenth century (illustrated in Randall, op. cit., fig. 43). It is also conceivable that the present lot, the Victoria and Albert museum (no. 154) and the Louvre's (no. 156) examples derive from the same workshop and possibly from the same master craftsman; aside from the clear parallels between the figures of the Virgin and Child, consider, for example, the virtually identical compositional and stylistic similarities between the lower and top right registers of the wings and the inversion of the scenes in the top left.
The polyptych was particularly suited for devotional use in a small chapel or domestic environment, and several examples are extant (see especially Koechlin, op. cit., nos. 134, 140, 150 and 154-156, pls. XXXVII-XL). The most relevant comparisons for the present ivory are examples in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Louvre (Koechlin, ibid, nos. 134, 154 and 156) and all dated to circa 1330. Although the arrangement of the scenes depicted on the wings varies in all four cases, the Virgin and Child in each piece display similar poses and proportions, ultimately harking back to prototypes such as the magnificent Virgin and Child group created for the Sainte Chapelle in the mid-thirteenth century (illustrated in Randall, op. cit., fig. 43). It is also conceivable that the present lot, the Victoria and Albert museum (no. 154) and the Louvre's (no. 156) examples derive from the same workshop and possibly from the same master craftsman; aside from the clear parallels between the figures of the Virgin and Child, consider, for example, the virtually identical compositional and stylistic similarities between the lower and top right registers of the wings and the inversion of the scenes in the top left.