Carved in relief. The reverse of the writing tablet is flat, with all four sides lined with a narrow, raised border along the edge, integrally carved (the border at the top is missing).

The top side has been sawn off. In the right-hand arch, a small crack due to dehydration can be discerned. A hole has been made in the cross above Christ’s head for securing purposes.

…; collection Frederik Christiaan (‘Frits’) and Josephina Catharina Gabriella (‘Phine’) Verhaaff-Hofslag (1919-2011), Amsterdam, before 2011; by whom, bequeathed to the museum, 2012

Object number: BK-2012-26

Credit line: J.C.G. Verhaaff-Hofslag Bequest, Amsterdam

This ivory relief depiction of Christ’s crucifixion is set beneath three gothic arches surmounted by a crenelated, bricked wall. Standing on either side of the cross are Mary and an unidentified female figure on the left, with John accompanied by a bearded old man on the right. The latter figure, judging by his headgear, is meant to convey a Jew. The relief’s reverse side is unfinished. Three of its four edges – the top has been sawn off – are lined with a narrow, raised strip, indicating that the back of the relief functioned as a small writing tablet. In such cases, a layer of wax was applied to the surface bounded by these four strips on which one could subsequently write. A similar writing tablet, also with the Crucifixion, is preserved in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht.¹¹Gotische ivoren, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 1987, no. 20 (as ‘third quarter 14th century, possibly Flemish’, but described here as German).

The fairly sharp and somewhat primitive style, chiefly notable for the scarcely defined hands and feet, and the masonry wall surmounting the arches are aspects that point to an origin in the Southern Netherlands or the Franco-Flemish border region circa 1400, in imitation of French fourteenth-century ivories. Brickwork also appears, for instance, on other comparable panels bearing the Crucifixion or on the ivory or bone panels, likely of a later date, of courtship caskets and small house retables, typically presumed to be examples of Flemish production.²²Cf. R.H. Randall, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery, coll. cat. Baltimore 1985, nos. 359, 360; R.H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections, New York 1993, nos. 164, 165, 168, 169; R.H. Randall, ‘Dutch Ivories of the Fifteenth Century’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 45 (1994), pp. 126-39, esp. figs. 2, 7; S. Vandenberghe, Ivoor in Brugge: Schatten uit musea, kerken en kloosters (Museum Bulletin 2) Brugge 2010, pp. 20-23 (Marian Retable, Southern Netherlands, c. 1440. Bruges, Sint Janshospitaal, inv. no. O.SJ0221.VIII).

Another characteristic encountered in Flemish Crucifixion scenes belonging to this group is the attention to detail bestowed on Christ’s cross, such as the addition of small striations in the wood, sometimes in imitation of a rutty tree trunk. Such minuscule striations can be discerned on the cross of the present ivory, but also on other examples such as an ivory Crucifixion preserved in the Rijksmuseum (BK-NM-7342), an ivory panel mounted as a pax in the Catharijneconvent,³³Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bi764, see R. Koekkoek, Gotische ivoren in het Catharijneconvent, coll. cat. Utrecht 1987, no. 14. and a third piece in Washington.⁴⁴R.H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections, New York 1993, no. 162. On most of the French ivories, the cross is flat and perpendicular.

Frits Scholten, 2024

Unpublished.

F. Scholten, 2024, 'anonymous, Writing Tablet with the Crucifixion with the Virgin, St John, a Jew and a Woman, Southern Netherlands, c. 1400', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20078570