Altarpiece of Poissy
Embriachi workshop · c. 1400
Nearly three metres high, the altarpiece is a forest of gables, pinnacles and spires made not of stone but of carved bone plaques set into marquetry-inlaid wood, the speciality of the Embriachi workshop in Venice. The triptych shows the Life of Christ in the centre, the life of Saint John the Baptist on the left and that of Saint John the Evangelist on the right. Along the base twelve niches hold applied figures of apostles. At the two ends kneel the donors: on the left Jean, duke of Berry, with an angel and Saints Andrew and John the Baptist; on the right his second wife, Jeanne de Boulogne, preceded by an angel and followed by Saint John and Saint Catherine. Each saint's scenes sit on the side of the donor who shared his name. Processions of angels on the projecting end pilasters stiffen the structure.
The duke of Berry, the great collector and patron of the Très Riches Heures, gave the altarpiece to the royal priory of Poissy, probably in thirteen ninety seven. It was seized there during the Revolution on the twenty seventh of January seventeen ninety four and has been in the museum ever since.
Did You Know? The altarpiece looks like ivory, but nearly all of it is carved from animal bone, a cheaper material the Embriachi workshop used on an industrial scale.
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