Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances
Unknown Artist
c. 1330–50 or later
Medium
ivory
Dimensions
13 × 26.2 × 1 cm
Classification
Ivory
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1978.39.a
About this artwork
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 ...