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Source Description
This little carved triptych appears to be of a type that was popular in the Netherlands in the first four decades of the 1500s and carved in the same workshops that were responsible for the far more numerous boxwood paternoster beads in the shape of prayer nuts such as Walters 61.132. The roundel at the bottom features the Sorrows of the Virgin, a particularly popular theme in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the carving is quite stiff and the dark wood may not be boxwood (not tested). The triptych was in the Paris collection of Frederic Spitzer (1815-1890), who is well known to have both improved medieval and Renaissance objects in his collection and to have commissioned new ones. The piece (Spitzer 1893 sale, sculpture in wood, 2025) has not been adequately studied.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
18876
label
Triptych with the Adoration of Magi with Virgin and Donors
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
4
Source metadata
id
18876
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Triptych with the Adoration of Magi with Virgin and Donors
description
This little carved triptych appears to be of a type that was popular in the Netherlands in the first four decades of the 1500s and carved in the same workshops that were responsible for the far more numerous boxwood paternoster beads in the shape of prayer nuts such as Walters 61.132. The roundel at the bottom features the Sorrows of the Virgin, a particularly popular theme in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the carving is quite stiff and the dark wood may not be boxwood (not tested). The triptych was in the Paris collection of Frederic Spitzer (1815-1890), who is well known to have both improved medieval and Renaissance objects in his collection and to have commissioned new ones. The piece (Spitzer 1893 sale, sculpture in wood, 2025) has not been adequately studied.
provenance
Frédéric Spitzer, Paris, by purchase; Sale, Paul Chevallier and Charles Mannheim, April 17, 1893; Caspar Bourgeois and Stephen Bourgeois, Cologne [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Sale, Cologne, October 19, 1904, no. 1101; Jacques Seligmann, Paris [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1910, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
16th or 19th century
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
triptychs
imageCount
4
pageCount
4
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
23.3
height
8.7
depth
3.5
dimensionsRaw
Closed, H: 9 3/16 × W: 3 7/16 × D: 1 3/8 in. (23.3 × 8.7 × 3.5 cm); Open, H: 9 3/16 × W: 5 3/8 × D: 1 3/8 in. (23.3 × 13.6 × 3.5 cm); Central panel, W: 2 9/16 in. (6.5 cm); Left and right panels, W: 1 3/8 in. (3.5 cm)
Source extras
med
boxwood (?)
creator_ids
6505
6229
collection_ids
none
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
08e2ddbf8769e6c0
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
fabac0d7fb4818e9
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
5ff44884b964f2aa
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
4
type
photo
mediaId
0dbcf2e2ed87dbc9
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no