{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O166253"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O166253/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FV7636/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2012FV7636/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2012FV7636","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FV7647","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB3321","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O166253/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O166253","accessionNumber":"277-1867","objectType":"Panel","titles":[{"title":"The Virgin and Child","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This is an ivory plaque from a set of writing tablets, made in about 1350-1380 in France (Paris). The panel depicts the Virgin and Child standing between St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Two little angels hold a crown over the Virgin's head. \n\nIvory covers for writing tablets survive in good numbers from the fourteenth century. Wax writing tablets or panels of a hard material filled with layers of wax that could be inscribed with a stylus, were common in Antiquity and continued in use throughout the early Middle Ages. They were particularly useful for note taking, given their portability and the fact that their surfaces could be erased and reused.\r\nThe majority of such tablets would have been made of wood, although other materials such as gold, silver, bone and ivory were also used. In most cases the tablets formed part of a group of up to eight panels, only the covers of which were carved with imagery on their outer faces. The imagery on most surviving tablets and boxes derives primarily from diptychs, with a quality of carving lower than that commonly found on diptychs, at least partly as a result of the thinner ivory material on the tablets. \r\n\r\n","physicalDescription":"The Virgin and Child standing between St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Two little angels hold a crown over the Virgin's head. Above is a cusped arch. The Child holds a fruit in his left hand, while reaching up to touch the Virgin's mantle with his right. Two angels lower an oversized crown onto the Virgin's head. To the left stands St John the Baptist, pointing towards a disc with the Agnus Dei and cross he holds in his left hand, while to the right stands St Catherine of Alexandria, crowned and with martyr's palm, holding a small wheel in her left hand. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"low relief","id":"AAT53623"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved elephant ivory","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2012FV7636","2012FV7647","2017KB3321"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"008","id":"THES395626"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Panel","id":"x47676"}],[{"text":"Plaque","id":"AAT10262"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1350-1380","earliest":"1345-01-01","latest":"1380-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"5.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"In the possession of John Webb, London, by 1862; purchased from Webb in 1867, for £10.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Plaque, ivory, from a set of writing tablets, the Virgin and Child, French (Paris), ca. 1350-1380","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects acquired in the Year 1867. <font -u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1.</font> London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 11"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Longhurst, Margaret H. <font -u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory.</font> London: Published under the Authority of the Board of Education, 1927-1929, Part II, p. 28"},{"reference":{"text":"Maskell, W., <u>A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum</u>, London, 1872","id":"AUTH330219"},"details":"p. 112","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014","id":"AUTH332632"},"details":"part 1, pp. 360-361","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Williamson, Paul and Davies, Glyn, <u>Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550</u>, (in 2 parts), V&A Publishing, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, part 1, pp. 360-361, cat. no. 124"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Virgin and Child","id":"N4691"},{"text":"St. John the Baptist","id":"N827"},{"text":"St. Katharine","id":"N7627"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"fruit","id":"AAT11868"},{"text":"angels","id":"x30526"},{"text":"cross","id":"x31528"},{"text":"wheel","id":"AAT24976"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["277-1867"],"accessionNumberNum":"277","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1867,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-19","recordCreationDate":"2008-08-22","availableToBook":true}}