Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances
Unknown Artist
1330
Medium
ivory
Dimensions
9.7 × 25.9 × 0.8 cm
Classification
Ivory
Department
Medieval Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1978.39.c
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. This panel shown here comes from such a casket. This side panel depicts scenes such as 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....