Ivory casket with scenes from the
Romances
Medieval, about AD
1325-50
From Paris,
France
A numbers of caskets with Romance scenes were
made in the workshops of medieval Paris. They either show a
continuous narrative taken from one tale, or a composite series of
scenes from different sources, like here. Closely comparable
examples exist in several different collections, indicating the
popularity of such caskets, which were used for jewellery or
documents.
The lid of this
casket portrays a joust. The joust is flanked by an episode known
as the Assault on the Castle of Love, where knights attempt to lay
siege to a castle occupied by maidens.
On the front the Greek
philosopher Aristotle teaches the young Alexander the Great to
beware of women and to concentrate on his studies. However,
Aristotle meets Phyllis, the object of Alexander's
affections, and falls in love with her himself. She rejects him but
asks to ride around the court on his back, like a horse. He
complies and Alexander witnesses the humiliation. The other scene
on the front is known as the Fountain of Youth. An oriental legend
in origin, it tells of bearded ancients who have their youth
restored by bathing in the fountain. They are shown, before and
after the
transformation.
At one end
of the casket, two further scenes are portrayed. Tristram and
Isolde are spied upon by Isolde's husband, King Mark.
Seeing his face reflected in the fountain, they change their
conversation and escape detection. This is combined with the story
of the unicorn and the maiden. The unicorn was believed to
surrender to virgins, allowing hunters to trap
them.
The other end of the
casket depicts Galahad receiving the key to the castle of the
maidens.
On the back, the
casket is decorated with tales of Gawain and Lancelot. Gawain
fights the lion; Lancelot crosses the sword bridge; Gawain is shown
on the magic bed, witnessed by the ladies of the castle of
Merveille.
The casket is
made from elephant ivory, the silver mounts are
modern.
J. Robinson, Masterpieces: Medieval Art (London, British Museum Press, 2008)
D. Hassig, 'Sex in the Bestiaries' in The mark of the beast-1 (New York and London, Routledge, 1999), pp. 72-98
J. Cherry, Mythical beasts-3 (London, The British Museum Press, 1995)
P. Barnet (ed.), Images in ivory: precious obje (Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997)