casket

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Object Type
Museum number: 1856,0623.166
Description: Casket; ivory. Rectangular plaques carved with scenes relating to courtly life and romance; lid: siege of Castle of Love and tournament; front: medieval legend of Aristotle succumbing to charms of Campaspe or Phyllis while Alexander looks on; Fountain of Youth, group of infirm men and women approach fountain in which four youthful figures bath; back: Lancelot attacks phantom lion and crosses Sword-Bridge; Gawain(?) sleeps on magic bed; left end: hunter transfixes unicorn running to seated lady beneath tree; Tristram and Isolde converse beneath tree in which King Mark is concealed; right end: knight greets hooded figure who advances from gateway holding a key, Parceval receiving his talisman.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 1325-1350
Production place: Made in: Paris (France)
Materials
Technique
Dimensions: Height: 80 millimetres; Length: 210 millimetres; Weight: 1.01 kilograms; Width: 130 millimetres
Bibliographic references: Baron et al 1981 / Les fastes du gothique: le siècle de Charles V (no127); Verdier et al 1972 / Art and the Courts: France and England from 1259 to 1328 (no83); Randall 1969 / The Walters Art Gallery: Medieval Ivories (no18); Dalton 1909 / Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era with Examples of Mohammedan Art and Carvings in Bone in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (368); Koechlin 1924 / Les Ivoires Gothiques Français (1283); Robinson 2008 / Masterpieces of Medieval Art (p. 216)
Location: On display (G40/dc10/sD)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 1981-1982 Oct-Feb, Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Les Fastes du Gothique: le Siècle de Charles V 1980-1981, New York, The Cloisters Museum, The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism 1972, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, L'Art et la Cour: Art and the Courts. France and England from 1259 to 1328
Subjects: castle/fort; knight; mammal; myth/legend; tree/bush
Associated names: Representation of: Love; Representation of: Aristotle; Representation of: Campaspe (?); Representation of: Phyllis (?); Representation of: Alexander the Great; Representation of: Sir Lancelot; Representation of: Sir Gawain; Representation of: Tristan; Representation of: Isolde; Representation of: Mark, King of Cornwall; Representation of: Sir Parceval
Acquisition name
Previous owner
Acquisition date: 1856
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1856,0623.166
Conservation: Treatment: 18 Nov 2008; Treatment: 11 Apr 2007

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