France, Paris

This beautiful medieval shrine features the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ with angels holding long tapers on either side. Another angel swoops down to crown Mary. On the hinged wings, or shutters, scenes associated with the life of the Virgin Mary include her meeting with her pregnant cousin Elizabeth and the birth of Jesus.

The Shrine with Virgin Mary perfectly reflects the Gothic era’s elegant sophistication and international scope. Less than a foot wide, the polyptych (a term designating a work with multiple panels) was carved out of elephant ivory, probably in a Parisian workshop, during the late 1200s. It was intended for private Christian devotion in the home, rather than for public worship in a church. The moveable wings were designed to close over the central shrine, whose structure mimics the slender forms of a Gothic cathedral. Traces of paint and gilding show that the shrine originally was brightly colored.

Ivory with paint and gilding, 1280-90
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1950.304