Gothic Ivories Project | Mirror case, frame of 8 lobes (valve de miroir) (Front)

Tristan and Iseult conversing; Iseult holding a dog; Tristan with a hawk on his wrist; king Mark in the tree; fountain reflecting king Mark's face.
Foliated corner terminals.

Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century.
Paris 2009 and Museum's opinion 2010: France (Paris), 1st half of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.
Traces of metal.

Object Condition
Lower border partly broken.

Provenance
Bach collection: bought from him in 1896.

Bibliography
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 393, 410; II, no. 1059.
A. McLaren Young, 'A French Medieval Ivory Casket at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts', in The Connoisseur, CXX (1947), pp. 16-21 (fig. IX).
Le Roi Arthur. Une Légende en devenir, exhibition catalogue, Rennes, Les Champs Libres, 2008, fig. 148.
La Légende du roi Arthur, dir. by T. Delcourt, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2009, no. 78.
Imagining the Past in France, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010.
L. Lam, 'Les valves de miroir gothiques: sources littéraires et iconographie', in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 74 (2011), pp. 297-310 (esp. pp. 301-302, fig. 2).

© Réunion des musées nationaux - Gérard Blot.
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