Gothic Ivories Project | Box (boîte) (Body, back)

Fabric (inner lining);wood (core and decoration on the bottom);metal (hinges and fittings)

Lid
Register 1: male dancer; male musician with drum and pipe; male dancer.
Register 2: male dancer; female dancer; dancing jester holding a bauble.
Body, front
Dog. Hunter with a spear; tree; sun.
End, right
Boar running; hares running into their holes (?); trees; sun.
Body, back
Dogs running; trees; sun.
End, left
Hunter blowing a horn; running dog; hare running into its hole; trees; sun.
Crosshatched background. Foliated border.
Bottom: chequered pattern.

Tomasi 2006: Flemish (?), 2nd third of the 15th century; handle and lock: 16th century.
Institution's opinion 2014: North Italian, 2nd half of the 15th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Extensive polychromy and gilding: gold (border, sun, hair), green (tree, ground, border), brown (ground, border), red (lips; dog collar; line used as a frame), blue (clothing).

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
Traces of adhesive on the bottom. Missing some plaques on the bottom and at the front.

Comments
Possibly used as a reliquary during the 16th century.
The lock and handle were decorated with grotesques (see Turin 2006).

Bibliography
La cattedrale di Fossano, ed. by G. Romano (Fossano, 1993), pp. 54-56, n. 80.
Corti e città. Arte del Quattrocento delle Alpi occidentali, ed. by E. Pagella, E. Rossetti Brezzi, E. Castelnuovo, exhibition catalogue, Turin, Palazzo Madama, 2006, no. 53, pp. 97-98 (M. Tomasi).

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