{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O312917"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O312917/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GK3479/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GK3479/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GK3479","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3476","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3477","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3480","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3481","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3482","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3483","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3484","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GK3485","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GP5768","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA5706","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O312917/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O312917","accessionNumber":"7611-1861","objectType":"Predella","titles":[{"title":"Scenes from the Life of Christ and the Virgin","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"These panels are portions of an altarpiece by the school of the Workhop of the Embriachi (Ubriachi), made in North Italy, Venice or Florence, in about 1390-1410. The inset pax is from about 1425-1450.\r\nThese panels are evidently part of an altarpiece similar to V&amp;A. Mus. no. A11-1928 or to the example in the Certosa di Pavia referred to in connection with it.\nThe ensemble has also been associated with a larger set of plaques (117) once owned by the Earls of Crawford. A further set of 89 plaques survive in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and the similarity in size and layout as well as iconography, probably suggest that all three sets of plaques are from the same ensemble, which can only have been a large altarpiece. Along with another suggested group of plaques being part of the whole, this altarpiece would have been the largest known in terms of the number of scenes represented. \r\n\r\nThe Embriachi workshop was a north Italian family of entrepreneurs and carvers. The precise location of the workshop is unknown, except that it originated in Florence in around probably the 1370s. \nBaldassare Embrichi, a member of a Florentine noble family, and the Florentine literary circles, during his career acted as both merchant and diplomat. He was therefore rather the financial means behind the bone-carving workshop that bears his name, rather than its leading artist. By 1395, political and financial circumstances had forced him to transfer to Venice. The suggested time range of activity for the workshop differs, from the tightest being 1390-1405, to a wider span of 1370s until at least 1416, but certainly no later than 1433.\r\n\r\nThey employed local workers specialising in 'certosina' (inlay of stained woods, bone and horn), and the workshop produced items carved in bone (usually horse or ox) with wood and bone marquetry.\r\nAs well as altarpieces, the workshop also made caskets as bridal gifts to hold jewels or documents, and these were often decorated with scenes from mythology.","physicalDescription":"This predella of an altarpiece is composed of nine compartments with nine scenes divided by figures of saints and angels under Gothic niches, and a single plaque of the Dream of Joseph in the middle. \r\nThe subjects represent incidents in the history of Christ and the Virgin. The scenes represent from left to right, top downwards: The Annunciation (an angel appearing top the seated Virgin, whose features and distinctive head-dress are those of an older woman, suggesting that this is the Annunciation to the Virgin of her Death), the first Dream of Joseph and the Journey to Bethlehem; Christ among the Doctors; The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes; the Last Supper; Christ in the Sepulchre; the Ascension; the Assumption of the Virgin with St. Thomas receiving her girdle; the Man of Sorrows emerging from the tomb flanked by the Virgin and St John the Evangelist (with strips of intarsia above and below); and a group of five seated women, the central figure resembling the elderly Virgin from the first scene. At the sides of the narrative scenes are gabled baldachins in high relief, beneath which appear figures of angels and prophets holding scrolls; some of the windows carved into the architectural portions have the heads of figures peering out.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Embriachi, Baldassare","id":"AUTH336347"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x30791"},"note":"workshop of, stricly speaking called Ubriachi "}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"bone","id":"AAT11798"},{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"},{"text":"paint","id":"AAT15029"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"inlay","id":"AAT53850"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved bone, ivory and intarsia with limited traces of red paint and a core of soft wood","categories":[{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2013GK3479","2013GK3476","2013GK3477","2013GK3480","2013GK3481","2013GK3482","2013GK3483","2013GK3484","2013GK3485","2013GP5768","2017KA5706"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"TOP","id":"THES395466"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Predella","id":"AAT3745"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"North, Florence or Venice"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1390-1410","earliest":"1385-01-01","latest":"1410-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"64.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"46.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"14.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"of main narrative plaques","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"In the possession of Ottavio Gigli, Florence, by 1855 (Migliarini 1855, cat. no. 3); Acquired as part of the Gigli-Campagna Collection in 1861, for £50.","historicalContext":"These panels are evidently part of an altarpiece similar to A11-1928 or to the example in the Certosa di Pavia referred to in connection with it.","briefDescription":"Panel pieces of the predella of an altarpiece, bone, ivory and intarsia, 'Scenes from the Life of Christ and the Virgin', workshop of Baldassare Ubriachi (Embriachi), North Italy (Florence or Venice), ca. 1390-1410, the inset pax is from about 1425-1450.\r\n","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1861. <u>In</u>: <u>Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I</u>. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 20"},{"reference":{"text":"Longhurst, Margaret H., <u>Catalogue of Carvings in Ivory</u>. Part II. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1929","id":"AUTH329986"},"details":"pp.63-64","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Mallé, Luigi (ed.).<u>Smalti Avori del Museo D'Arte Antica</u>, Torino, 1969, p. 301-303"},{"reference":{"text":"Maskell, W., <u>A Description of the Ivories Ancient and Medieval in the South Kensington Museum</u>, London, 1872","id":"AUTH330219"},"details":"pp. 30-32","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 II, pp. 754-759","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Christ","id":"N4624"},{"text":"Virgin Mary","id":"N480"},{"text":"Joseph","id":"N3590"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"The Annunciation","id":"V449"},{"text":"Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes","id":"V323"},{"text":"First Dream of St. Joseph and Journey to Bethlehem","id":"V813"},{"text":"Christ among the Doctors","id":"V203"},{"text":"The Last Supper","id":"V135"},{"text":"Christ in the Sepulchre","id":"V814"},{"text":"The Ascension","id":"V112"},{"text":"The Foolish Virgins","id":"V815"},{"text":"Assumption of the Virgin","id":"V88"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"angels","id":"x30526"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["7611-1861"],"accessionNumberNum":"7611","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1861,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-19","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}