id: 149379 accession number: 1978.39 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.39 updated: 2021-03-27 12:15:51.495000 Set of Three Panels from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances, c. 1330-50. France, Lorraine?, Gothic period, 14th century. Ivory; overall: 13 x 26.2 x 1 cm (5 1/8 x 10 5/16 x 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1978.39 title: Set of Three Panels from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1330-50 creation date earliest: 1330 creation date latest: 1350 current location: 106C Medieval Treasury creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: France, Lorraine?, Gothic period, 14th century technique: ivory department: Medieval Art collection: MED - Gothic type: Ivory find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 13 x 26.2 x 1 cm (5 1/8 x 10 5/16 x 3/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1978 opening date: 1979-02-13T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979). title: A Cleveland Bestiary opening date: 1981-10-14T04:00:00 A Cleveland Bestiary. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14-December 16, 1981). title: Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages opening date: 1985-01-22T05:00:00 Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985). title: Images of the Mind opening date: 1987-07-07T04:00:00 Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987). title: Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain opening date: 2016-10-09T00:00:00 Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 9, 2016-February 26, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Trivulzio, Milan, Italy date: before 1897 footnotes: citations: Robert von Hirsch, Frankfurt, Germany and Basel, Switzerland date: before 1933 footnotes: citations: (Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, London, 22 June 1978, no. 290) date: 1978 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1978- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: In the center panel 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. digital description: wall 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 panels shown here come from such a casket. The largest panel (center) 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. The two side panels depict other scenes such as the fountain of youth, Sir Gawain and the Lion, and Lancelot crossing the sword bridge. 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1978." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 1 (1979). page number: p. 11, no. 27 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159613 Liverpool Museum (Liverpool, England), and Charles T. Gatty. Catalogue of Mediæval & Later Antiquities Contained in the Mayer Museum, Including the Mather Collection of Miniatures and Medals Relating to the Bonaparte Family. Liverpool: G.G. Walmsley, 1883. page number: p. 23, no. 67, pl. XI url: W. Hugelshofer, "Aus Einer Basler Privatsammlung," DU vol 12 (1951). page number: pp. 53 & 58 url: Kleinbauer, Eugene, "Recent Major Acquisitions of Medieval Art by American Museums" Gesta 19/1 (1977). page number: url: Wixom, William D. "Eleven Additions to the Medieval Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 66, no. 3 (1979). page number: p. 87-151 url: Deutsche Literatur im Mittelalter: Kontakte und Perspektiven. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 1979. page number: abb. 28 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Barbara A. Kathman. A Cleveland Bestiary. 1981. page number: pp. 2 & ad, cat. no. 6 url: Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. page number: p. 60, repr. p. 48 url: Brown University, and David Winton Bell Gallery (Brown University). Survival of the Gods: Classical Mythology in Medieval Art : an Exhibition by the Department of Art, Brown University, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, February 28-March 29, 1987. Providence, R.I.: The Department, 1987. page number: pp. 64-5, cat. no. 20 url: Ivory: An International History and Illustrated Survey. New York: Abrams, 1987. page number: p. 106, fig. B url: Gibson, Margaret T. The Liverpool Ivories: Late Antique and Medieval Ivory and Bone Carving in Liverpool Museum and the Walker Art Gallery. [Liverpool]: National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, 1994. page number: pl. XLIC, p.v98 url: Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998. page number: url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. page number: cat. 67, p. 188 url: Eikelmann, Renate, Holger A. Klein, Stephen N. Fliegel, and Virginia Brilliant. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Meisterwerke von 300 bis 1550. München: Hirmer, 2007. page number: p. 205, no. 75 url: Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. page number: p. 68 url: J. Paul Getty Museum, Elizabeth Morrison, and Larisa Grollemond. Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World. 2019. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 214, cat. 63 url: Mikolic, Amanda. Hunting for a Unicorn Horn: Narwhal Tusks in Medieval Monsters. The Cleveland Museum of Art The Thinker Blog on Medium, September 6, 2019. page number: url: https://medium.com/cma-thinker/hunting-for-a-unicorn-horn-narwhal-tusks-in-medieval-monsters-1455c03fb529 Kopp, V. & E. Lapina, "Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance". Studies in the History of Daily Life (800-1600) Volume 8, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2020. page number: pp. 226-28 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39/1978.39_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39/1978.39_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39/1978.39_full.tif