Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances

c. 1330–50 or later

France, Lorraine?, Gothic period, 14th century

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Medium

ivory

Measurements

Overall: 13 x 26.2 x 1 cm (5 1/8 x 10 5/16 x 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund 1978.39.a

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Location

106C Medieval Treasury

Did You Know?

Two knights in mail surcoats and helms joust here with blunted lances "for courtesy," a version of the joust known as the Joust of Peace.

Description

Among the most lavish and deluxe products of French ivory workshops of the 1300s were large caskets carved with elaborate scenes drawn from courtly romances. The panel shown here comes from such a casket. The largest panel (here) once formed the lid and depicts a tournament, the most splendid and romantic of knightly activities. Just to the right is a favorite allegory of chivalric love: knights assaulting the castle of love. These images suggesting chivalry, fertility, virginity, youth, and an idealized courtly love likely derive from manuscripts including the Roman de la Rose and the poems of Chrétien de Troyes. Such texts were often found within the libraries of the aristocracy, so the casket’s symbolic images would have been readily understood. Such caskets may have originally been gifts between a man and a woman. The expense of the material, ivory, suggests they were produced for an elite, aristocratic clientele.