This plaque of ivory served as half the protective cover for a convex mirror of silvered glass that was once cemented to the lathe-turned recess on its interior. When first made, the interior’s grooved rim formed one half of a bayonet mount which allowed it to lock into another side to form a complete protective case for the mirror. The carved exterior of the mirror depicts four scenes of courting couples separated by the branches of a tree. The eight cusps that surround the scenes are inhabited by foliate heads. The rim of the mirror depicts four prowling, equidistant lions, lending the whole object a square silhouette. For its size, the delicacy of the carving, and its excellent preservation, this mirror-back is among the most outstanding survivals of fourteenth-century Parisian ivory carving.
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Four scenes of courting couples - from left to right: standing male lover approaches woman holding a small dog, male lover kneels before his seated beloved with a gesture of submission and she responds by caressing his wrist, male lover holds a falcon and gestures with a chin chuck to a lady, who reacts with surprise, and kneeling lover offers his heart to a seated lady who holds a dog in her lap
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Four scenes of courting couples - from left to right: standing male lover approaches woman holding a small dog, male lover kneels before his seated beloved with a gesture of submission and she responds by caressing his wrist, male lover holds a falcon and gestures with a chin chuck to a lady, who reacts with surprise, and kneeling lover offers his heart to a seated lady who holds a dog in her lap
Back: eight sided label with bown border and number 359 in ink
Artwork Details
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Title:Mirror Case with scenes of paired lovers
Date:1350–75
Geography:Made in Paris, France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant Ivory
Dimensions:Overall: 4 5/16 x 4 1/2 x 5/16 in. (10.9 x 11.4 x 0.8 cm)
Classification:Lacquer
Credit Line:Gift of Bernard Descheemaeker, in honor of Sir Paul Ruddock, 2021
Accession Number:2021.36
The central panel of this large, circular mirror back depicts four scenes of courting couples divided by the branches of a tree and surrounded by a cusped frame adorned with faces. In the upper left scene, a man kneels before his beloved and swears an oath of love in a gesture borrowed from ceremonies of enfeoffment, the ceremony in which knights promised service to their lords. The male lover on the lower right takes a similar stance as he offers his heart to a woman on bended knee. The lower left and upper right scene show the joys of intimate touch and embraces that result from a successful courtship. Four lions circle the perimeter of the circle, one of which retains traces of red paint in its mane. These lions and the two falcons, one roosting on the uppermost branches of the central tree and the other held by the man on the lower left, call attention to fourteenth-century poetic traditions that equate love and the hunt. In his influential 1184 treatise De Amore ("On Love"), Andreas Capellanus (1150 to 1220) claims that it was appropriate for lovers to exchange mirrors as love tokens, a custom that governed the choice of erotic imagery and of the precious material of ivory for this mirror back.
The current mirror-cases associated with another in the collection (acc. no. 41.100.160). The two share the same dimensions, a cusped frame adorned with faces, a decorative perimeter of equidistant lions, and an iconographic focus on lovers and hunting. Together, these features suggest that they come from the same Parisian ivory-carving workshop active in the third quarter of the fourteenth century. These two works were once believed to be two sides of the same mirror case, a theory that accords with the fourteenth-century practice of sheathing a mirror of silvered glass between a pair of interlocking ivory plaques. A pair of mirror backs in the collection (acc. nos. 17.190.246 and 17.190.247) forms such a complete case, the two pins projecting from the interior of the top sliding into and locking with a pair of slots carved into the rim of its mate. While the other two mirror backs in the collection clearly function together as a complete mirror case, the current example and its mate have a more complex history of association. The interior of the present mirror back once featured two radial pins, one of which is partially damaged. Its purported mate has only one slot, meaning that they could not lock together when made and do not easily engage today. Drill holes on the outer rim of the present mirror case and its mate, however, suggest that a now-missing metal hinge once united them.
It is unclear when the two cases were first associated with one another and joined by a hinge. In the late nineteenth century both were in the collection of the Franco-Austrian art dealer Frédéric Spitzer. It is now known that Spitzer engaged in dubious business practices that included altering medieval artworks to make them more desirable for the art market. It is therefore possible that he joined the present mirror back to another made by the same carver to create the semblance of a complete mirror case. Indeed, the damage to the radial pin on the interior of the present example may have been inflicted purposefully to produce the illusion of a smooth fit with its mate. While alterations to the interior of this mirror back and the addition of a hinge may have occurred in the late nineteenth century, wills and inventories from the fourteenth century also refer to ivory mirror cases bound in precious-metal hinges, additions made at the time of production to amplify the luxury of these already-prestigious articles.
Further Reading:
Raymond Koechlin, Les Ivoires Gothiques Français. (Paris: Auguste Picard, 1924).
Amdreas Capellanus, trans. John Jay Parry, The Art of Courtly Love. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941).
Charles T. Little, Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).
Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval English Ivory Carvings, Part 2. (London: Victoria and Albert Publishing, 2014), pp. 561-606.
Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022
[ Frédéric Spitzer (Austrian), Paris (sold 1893)]; his posthumous sale, Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April-16 June, 1893 (no. 103); [ Godefroy Brauer, Paris (in 1893, as agent for Kann); Maurice Kann, (1893–1910); his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1910 (no. 221); Georges Dormeuil (French)(from at least 1924); by descent, Pierre Dormeuiland family (sold 2007); Sotheby's, Paris,19 November 2007 (no. 3); [ Bernard Descheemaeker, Antwerp (2007–2021)]
La Collection Spitzer: Antiquité, Moyen-Age, Renaissance. Vol. I. Mâcon: Imprimerie Protat Frères, 1890–1891. no. 67.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. p. 382, n. 2.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. p. 373, pl. CLXXVII.
Randall Jr., Richard H. Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery. Walters Art Gallery, 1985. p. 224.
Barnet, Peter, ed. Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. p. 236.
Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires Médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003. p. 356.
Collection Dormeuil: Ivoires et Emaux du Moyen Âge. Paris: Sotheby's, Paris, November 19, 2007. no. 3.
"Als ic can": 10 years of masterpieces from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: a selection from my current collection. Antwerp: Bernard Descheemaeker, 2010. no. 5.
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