{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O88857"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O88857/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GD4280/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GD4280/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GD4280","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD4295","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD4312","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GD4311","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE9182","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB8043","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O88857/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O88857","accessionNumber":"A.67-1925","objectType":"Diptych leaf","titles":[{"title":"The Death of the Virgin and the Adoration of the Magi","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This right leaf of an ivory diptych, made in ca. 1300-1310 in France (probably Paris), depicts the Adoration of the Magi and the Death of the Virgin.\r\nThe narrative reads from left to right in the lower register and from right to left in the upper, and shows the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Magi, the Death of the Virgin and the Coronation of the Virgin. The scenes, on two tiers are separated by bands of rosettes. The carvings are distinguished by dramatic sentiment and tragic grandeur. There are few parallels for the present diptych, although the iconographic choices can be paralleled in other rose diptychs. \r\n\r\nThe devotional diptych is in many ways the object type most associated with the notion of Gothic ivory carving. The earliest examples probably date to the 1240s; these are complex, large and ambitious works that emerged, somewhat surprisingly, with no obvious precursors. The owners of ivory diptychs sometimes appear within their images. Such portraits indicate that they were special requests on the part of their commissioners, and they parallel the similar figures that appear in manuscripts and panel paintings of the period. The iconography of Gothic diptychs oscillated between two poles. The first of which is the desire to present narratives (Life of Christ and Virgin Mary) for envisaging. The second was the use of non-narrative images to form the focus of devotion. ","physicalDescription":"Right leaf of an ivory diptych. In the upper part the body of the Virgin reclines on her bed, surrounded by the twelve apostles, Christs stands above holding her soul which is represented as a child. The lower part, separated by a band of rosettes, shows the Virign with the Child seated on the right. One king kneels on the left and the other two stand in the background.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Elephant ivory","categories":[{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2013GD4280","2013GD4295","2013GD4312","2013GD4311","2006AE9182","2017KB8043"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"020","id":"THES395357"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Diptych leaf","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably Paris "}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1300-1310","earliest":"1295-01-01","latest":"1310-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"521-1893","id":"O88471"},"association":"Part"}],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Mrs G. Cowell","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"18.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"18.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"open","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The right leaf was in the possession of Mary Margaret Elizabeth Hamilton Roe (née Laurie) when exhibited on loan  at the South Kensington Museum in 1887-88; after her husband's death she married George Cowell, and this lead to the mistaken assumption by Longhurst that the Mrs Cowell who bequeathed the  plaque to the Museum in 1925 was a different person.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Diptych leaf, right, ivory, French, first half of the 14th century","bibliographicReferences":[{"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. 17"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Koechlin, R., <font -u>Les Ivoires Gothiques Français.</font> Paris, A. Picard, 1924, vol I. 151"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Koechlin, R., <font -u>Gazette des Beaux Arts.</font> xiv, 1918, p. 238"},{"reference":{"text":"Randall Jr., Richard H. <u>The Golden Age of Ivory. Gothic Carvings in North American Collections</u>, New York, 1993","id":"AUTH334011"},"details":"pp. 66, 70","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. 244, 245","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Catalogue of an exhibition of carvings in ivory</i>, London : Privately printed for the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1923","id":"AUTH357808"},"details":"104","free":""}],"production":"Paris School (?).","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Mary (Virgin Mary)","id":"N480"},{"text":"Jesus Christ","id":"N2525"},{"text":"The Apostles","id":"N1452"},{"text":"Caspar","id":"N1615"},{"text":"Melchior","id":"N1616"},{"text":"Balthazar (King)","id":"N3502"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Adoration of the Magi","id":"V132"},{"text":"the Death of the Virgin","id":"V425"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.67-1925"],"accessionNumberNum":"67","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1925,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LT8444"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-24","recordCreationDate":"2004-01-08","availableToBook":true}}