  About the Artwork
  
  
  The owner of this small shrine with foldable wings made of ivory and bone would have used it to focus their religious devotions, whether at home or when traveling. The central figure of the Virgin Mary holds the infant Jesus; her graceful sway echoes the shape of the elephant tusk from which she was carved. She stands beneath a miniature Gothic canopy complete with an X-shaped groin vault painted to resemble a starry sky, echoing the soaring painted ceilings of medieval churches and — ultimately — the vault of heaven. The hinged wings that enclose the Virgin and Child also retain traces of once-rich paint and gilding. They contain sixteen vignettes with episodes from the Life of the Virgin, as well as musical angels playing instruments like recorders, harps, and a tiny pipe organ. The carver derived these scenes of the Virgin’s life from illustrations in early printed books published in the mid-1400s.
  
  
  Title
  Shrine
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1430/1460
  
  Artist
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  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Flemish
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Elephant ivory, bone, wood, pigment, gold leaf
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall (shrine): 19 inches × 13 3/8 inches × 4 1/4 inches (48.3 × 34 × 10.8 cm)
  Overall (statuette): 8 1/2 × 2 3/4 × 2 1/8 inches (21.6 × 7 × 5.4 cm)
  Overall (sockel): 3 inches × 2 5/16 inches × 1 1/16 inches (7.6 × 5.8 × 2.7 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  European Sculpture and Dec Arts
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  23.149
  
  
  Copyright
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