A & A spacer courtauld institute of art
login
quick search advanced search browse temp folder

Casket, with quatrefoils (coffret; quatre-feuilles); also known as the Gort Casket (End, left)

Casket, with quatrefoils (coffret; quatre-feuilles); also known as the Gort Casket (End, left)
enlarge image zoom image

Body, front

Lid

Body, back

Body, front

End, right

Lid

Body, front

End, left

Body, Back

Subject
Secular. Arthurian romance. Courtly love.

Repository Institution
wag.ca

To purchase an image
wag.ca


Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery

G-73-60

Ivory;bronze (fittings);wood (bottom)

Height: 86mm
Width: 250mm
Depth: 131mm

Lid
Tournament scene interspersed with a row of courtly love scenes enclosed in quatrefoils.
Register 1: ladies and youths observing the tournament from a balcony with lozenge patterns; courting couples (meeting of lovers); offering of a chaplet; lady feeding a hawk; couples conversing; youth chucking his lover under the chin.
Register 2 (in quatrefoils): courting couples (meeting of lovers); couple conversing; lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet. Couple playing chess in a tent; youth feeding a hawk. Youth with a hawk on his wrist; couple making a wreath; youth handing a flower to his lover. Youth with a hawk on his wrist; youth chucking his lover under the chin; lady holding a chaplet.
Register 3: Knight kneeling before a lady who places a helm over his head; lady holding a spear (on either side of the central scene). Tournament; jousting knights in armour on horseback; four heralds blowing trumpets.
Body, front
Aristotle studying; Aristotle ridden by Phyllis, observed by Alexander (?); Alexander approaching Phyllis at the loom or Phyllis sitting at window holding a sword; Alexander holding gloves; Aristotle courting Phyllis (?); Virgil ridiculed in the basket, hanging from the battlements; saddled Virgil whipped by Phyllis who holds her heart in her right hand; man feeding a hawk.
End, right
Fountain of Youth; old and young; horse-drawn cart; couples bathing.
Body, back
Army before the gates of a city; kneeling figure holding a spear in a position of surrender; king and eleven knights in armour with swords and shields.
End, left
Knight in armour and wild man fighting over a maiden (Enyas and the Woodhouse?); knight on horseback; sword; dead lion. Gawain on the perilous bed; bed on wheels; lion; swords and spear falling from the sky; the three maidens at the Château Merveil.

Ross 1948: Paris, end of the 1st half of the 14th century.
Museum's opinion 2012: French, 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
Cracked. The bottom of the casket is made of a wood panel, probably replacing an ivory panel. Holes for lost fittings and lock.

Provenance
Collection of Lord Gort, Bunratty Castle (bought in a Brighton junk shop in 1945); gift of Lord and Lady Gort, 1973.

Bibliography
D. J. A. Ross, 'Allegory and Romance on a Mediaeval French Marriage Casket', in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11 (1948), pp. 112-142.
J. Bugslag, 'A "lost" ivory casket in the Gort Collection at the Winnipeg Art Gallery', in Racar XXXII/1-2 (2007), pp. 5-18.
R. A. Leson, 'Chivalry and Alterity: Saladin and The Remembrance of Crusade in a Walters Histoire d'Outremer', in Journal of the Walters Art Museum 68 (2010-2011), pp. 87-96.
P. Mae Carns, 'A curious collection in ivory: the Lord Gort Casket', in Collections in Context: the Organization of Knowledge and Community in Europe, ed. by K. Fresco and A. D. Hedeman (Columbus (Ohio), 2012), pp. 246-174.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 227.


Image

© Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg. Gift of Lord and Lady Gort.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.

spacer
spacer spacer spacer spacer
Please remember to acknowledge any use of the site in publications and lectures as: 'Gothic Ivories Project at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, www.gothicivories.courtauld.ac.uk', followed by the date you accessed the site.