Ask the Scholar

Page 1 of 1
I can add historical knowledge about this page.

Page image

Page 1

Document source 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 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 idealized courtly love likely derive from manuscripts including the <em>Roman de la Rose</em> 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.

Page data

Page
1
Source index
0
Type
photo
Media ID
7b42a77582fec46a
Size
unknown

Document data

ID
149380
Core
obj
Type
object
DTO data
{
    "id": "149380",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances",
    "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 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 idealized courtly love likely derive from manuscripts including the <em>Roman de la Rose</em> 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.",
    "date": "c. 1330–50 or later",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.39.a",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60779154"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Ivory"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 13 x 26.2 x 1 cm (5 1/8 x 10 5/16 x 3/8 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "France, Lorraine?, Gothic period, 14th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1978.39.a"
}

Context sent to Scholar

Document identity
{
    "localId": "149380",
    "label": "Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}
Document source metadata
{
    "id": "149380",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances",
    "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 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 idealized courtly love likely derive from manuscripts including the <em>Roman de la Rose</em> 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.",
    "date": "c. 1330–50 or later",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.39.a",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60779154"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Ivory"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 13 x 26.2 x 1 cm (5 1/8 x 10 5/16 x 3/8 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "France, Lorraine?, Gothic period, 14th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1978.39.a"
}
Document source extras
{
    "tec": "ivory",
    "tombstone": "Panel from a Casket with Scenes from Courtly Romances, c. 1330–50 or later. 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.a",
    "collection": "MED - Gothic",
    "didYouKnow": "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.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Wixom, William D. \"Eleven Additions to the Medieval Collection.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 66, no. 3 (1979).",
            "page_number": "p. 87-151",
            "url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25159622"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Barbara A. Kathman. <em>A Cleveland Bestiary</em>. 1981.",
            "page_number": "pp. 2 & ad, cat. no. 6"
        },
        {
            "citation": "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"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Brown University, and David Winton Bell Gallery (Brown University).<em> Survival of the Gods: Classical Mythology in Medieval Art</em> : 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"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Wixom, William. \"A Glimpse at the Fountains of the Middle Ages.\" <em>Cleveland Studies in the History of Art </em>8 (2003): 6-23.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 17",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/20079727"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein.<em> Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 188-189, no. 67"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Kopp, V. &amp; E. Lapina, \"Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance\". <em>Studies in the History of Daily Life (800-1600) V</em>olume 8, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2020.",
            "page_number": "pp. 226-28"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.39.a",
    "creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 07:41:18.935000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 149380,
    "dept": "Medieval Art",
    "coll": "MED - Gothic",
    "med": "ivory",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}
Page context
{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.39.a/1978.39.a_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "7b42a77582fec46a"
}