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Casket with arches (coffret; frise d'arcatures) (Front)

Casket with arches (coffret; frise d'arcatures) (Front)
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Lid

Body, front

End, right

Body, back

End, left

Inside

Bottom

Subject
Secular. Courtly love. Religious. Lives of saints.

Repository Institution
www.loire-atlantique.fr

To purchase an image
musee.dobree@loire-atlantique.fr


Nantes, Musée Thomas Dobrée

Inv. 989.13.1

Ivory;silver (later fittings);velvet

Height: 54mm
Width: 125mm
Depth: 88mm

Lid
Meeting of lovers (courting couples); couple conversing; youth chucking his lover under the chin; couple embracing; couple conversing; liripipes; tree.
Body, frontMeeting of lovers (courting couples); lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet; couple conversing (on either side of the missing lock); couple embracing.
End, right
Martyrdom of saint Catherine of Alexandria; the wheel is destroyed by a thunderbolt from heaven; soldier with a sword leading saint Catherine.
Body, back
Meeting of lovers (courting couples); youth chucking his lover under the chin; couple conversing; offering of the heart; couple embracing.
End, left
The fifty philosophers are burned alive (with whom saint Catherine disputed). Saint Catherine of Alexandria and emperor Maxentius (?).
Incised trefoils.


Koechlin Number: 1270bis

Museum's opinion 2013: France (Paris), 2nd half of the 14th century.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Object Condition
Holes for missing fittings and lock.
Lid cracked on the right side. Upper corners of the back panel chipped. Right hand side panel broken in two pieces (repaired). Nineteenth-century restorations removed in 2004.

Comments
The fittings date from the late 19th century. The bottom is lined with red fabric and the lid is lined with worn red velvet.

Provenance
Collection of F. Watelin: his sale, Paris, Drouot, 17 November 1919, lot 227. Collection of Mr. Ladrière, Mr. Bresset and Mrs. Boccador; acquired by the museum at auction at Drouot, Paris, in 1989 with the help of FRAM.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 479, 483, 514; II, no. 1270bis.


Image

© Cliché Chantal Hémon, Musée Dobrée, Conseil général de Loire-Atlantique, Nantes.

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