Gothic Ivories Project | Saddle (fragment)(troussequin) (Detail)

Height: 80mm (at centre); 252mm (left side); 270mm (right side)
Width: 470mm; 610mm
Depth: 49mm

Border:
Foliated scrolls.
Left, from outside towards centre: man and centaur fighting a bear; two men swordfighting; two naked men fighting; eagle holding a hare; ox; stag (?); lion; fantastic birds; young girl, crowned, in a long robe and holding two torches (or rattlesnakes) with unicorn.
Right: two fighting bulls; horseman fighting a boar; dog hunting a stag; hunter aiming with a crossbow at a bird feeding its young; fantastic animals; naked man; man armed with a dagger fighting a lion.
Centre: two men blowing a long trumpet; two men wearing a coat of mail and armed with a shield and holding a lance or a mace; two banners with the arms of Aragon and Sicily.
Central part: Eagle holding a hare in its talons. Two charging knights with lance (jousting); hares in thorny undergrowth; shield of the knight on the right bears the coat of arms of Aragon and Sicily.

Molinier 1890: Italian or Spanish, end of 13th or beginning of 14th century.
Molinier 1898 and Barcelona 1991: made for Frederic, King of Sicily from 1296-1337.
Gaborit-Chopin 2003 and Museum's opinion 2010: Southern Italy?, early 14th century?

Attribution
Unknown

Object Condition
Ivory cracked. Chips with pieces missing around the edge, central panel fractures.The sadle is composed of at least 8 large pieces of ivory, the 4 central elements being held together by metal clamps, 2 of which remain in place. The whole is held by a modern metal mount. The saddle is not quite symmetrical.

Comments
Though Molinier (1898) claimed the saddle was made for Frederic, King of Sicily from 1296-1337, Gaborit-Chopin (2003) writes that the work's authenticity cannot be guaranteed, due to questions surrounding the object's usage and style.

Provenance
Collection of Count Girolamo Possenti di Fabriano (according to Molinier, no. 518 in a catalogue of the Possenti collection; does not appear in the sales catalogue of the collection in Florence, 1 April 1880; according to Verő, remains in this collection until 1888). Collection of Frédéric Spitzer, Paris: his sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April 1893, lot 77; acquired at this sale by the Musée du Louvre.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, p. 375.
V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance (Paris, 1887-1928), II, art. 'Selle', fig. p. 339.
E. Munz, 'L'art du Moyen Âge dans la collection Spitzer', in Revue des arts décoratifs, Jan. 1888, pp. 101-102.
E. Molinier, La collection Frédéric Spitzer. Antiquité, Moyen Âge, Renaissance. I. Les ivoires, 1890, no. 42, pl. XVI.
E. Molinier, Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des ivoires (Paris, 1896), no. 52.
G. F. Kunz, Ivory and the Elephant (New York, 1916), fig. p. 60.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 36, 462-463; II, no. 1251A; III, pl. CCVII.
M. Carrà, Gli avori in Occidente (Milan, 1966), fig. 56.
Tirant lo Blanc, exhibition catalogue, Barcelona, La Pia Almoina, 1991, no. 20.
A. Grojean, 'La selle au Moyen Âge', unpublished Master dissertation, Paris I, under the supervision of M. P. Benoit (2003).
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle (Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003), no. 198.
M. Verő, 'Bemerkungen zu den beinsätteln aus der Sigismundzeit', in Sigismundus rex et imperator: Kunst und Kultur zur Zeit Sigismunds von Luxemburg 1387-1437, exhibition catalogue, Budapest and Luxemburg, 2006, pp. 270-278 (p. 278, no. 26.II).

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