Diptych with Virgin and Angels and Crucifixion

This roughly carved diptych presents its subjects beneath large single trefoil arches with crockets and heavy pinnacles. The Virgin and Child of the left leaf are flanked by candle-bearing angels. The crucified Christ, the wound in his side conspicuously carved and painted, is shown between Mary and John.

Considerable traces of polychromy, perhaps a retouching of the original scheme, include four painted roundels containing trefoils above the gables. The reverse sides of the panels are recessed, filled with gesso, and painted with two scenes on a gilt ground. On the right is a Byzantine-type Nativity before the cave, a somewhat later version of the Giottesque Nativity in the Lower Church at Assisi; on the left is an Ascension with Saint Francis and Saint Clare amont the witnesses (much repainted). The paintings were apparently part of the diptych's original design.

One corner and two small breaks in the bottom edges are filled with gesso and the silver hinges are applied to the surfaces of the ivory, rather than inset in the usual manner.

The unusual architectural details, the emphasis on painted details, and the non-French manner of hinging suggest that this is a French-inspired copy made in Italy. The paintings indicate the area of Assisi and a strong connection with the Franciscan order.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

F. Ongania, Venice [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.