Mirror Case with the Virgin and Saints

Description The figures stand within a trefoil of tracery with rose terminals. The crowned Virgin, in voluminous drapery, holds the naked Christ Child between Mary Magdalen and Saint James Major. The background is plain, and the circular form is brought to a square with four corner leaves, carved in relief and incised with veins. Mirror cases with religious subjects are rare. There is a hole at the lower edge from a flaw in the ivory and a drilled hole in the upper left leaf.

Provenance Frédéric Spitzer, Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Sale, Paul Chevallier and Charles Mannheim, April 17, 1893, lot 123; Léon Gruel, Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1922, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1922