This casket is one of six depicting La Châtelaine de Vergi, a story of love and death reportedly based on a scandal at the Burgundian court. It concerns the secret affair of a knight and a lady (la châtelaine) that is ended by the jealous duchess of Burgundy.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Box with scenes from the Romance, "The Chatelaine of Vergy"
Date:ca. 1320–40
Geography:Made in Paris, France
Culture:French
Medium:Elephant ivory with gilded Silver mounts
Dimensions:Overall: 4 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 5 7/8 in. (12.1 x 24.1 x 14.9 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.180
This ivory box demonstrates the widespread popularity of contemporary literature and the centrality of narrative imagery to the adornment of courtly space. The current box is composed of six panels of ivory bound in a silver-gilt armature. The underside of the top is chamfered to fit snuggly into the sides, and four ivory panels that compose the sides fit together with rabbet joints. A modern restorer has applied white putty to disguise holes left by now-lost elements. The smooth, raised square in the middle of the front panel was covered with a lock plate. The restorer has filled the keyhole in its center with putty. Likewise, the two holes for the former handle on the top of the box are filled. Besides these losses, alterations, and minor cracking from changes in humidity, the box is in excellent condition.
The exteriors of the box depict the Romance of the Chatelaine of Vergy, a popular thirteenth-century story of forbidden love. The tale begins in the eight quatrefoil medallions on the lid, continuing on the sides and back of the box before reaching its conclusion on the front. On the top’s upper left, an unnamed knight declares his love to the Chatelaine, or mistress of the castle, of Vergy in Burgundy. The carver has represented the declaration of love through a gift of a heart. In the second medallion, the Chatelaine accepts his love on the condition that he will never tell anyone about their illicit affair. The knight’s vow occupies the next medallion. The two medallions that follow on the upper register and the two on the bottom right demonstrate the arrangements for their rendezvous. When it was time for the lovers to meet, the lady would release her little white dog into the garden. It would run up to the lover, who would take it as a sign that the lady was free. While their affair continued for a while without a hitch, their happiness was not meant to endure. The knight was widely admired for his looks and valor, and he caught the eye of his lord’s wife, the Duchess of Burgundy. She made a pass at him, as seen on the third medallion from the bottom right. Rebuffed, the humiliated duchess told the Duke that the knight had thrown himself at her, as seen in the bottom right medallion.
The sides of the box pick up the narrative. On the right, short side of the box, the duke swears to banish the knight from Burgundy unless the knight can prove he has a lover and is therefore uninterested in his wife. Around the box’s back, the knight shows the duke his tryst with the Chatelaine, putting an end to his legal jeopardy. The story continues with a dance held on Pentecost. In the third scene, the crowned duchess raises her hand in speech as another woman clasps her breast in surprise. She has confronted the Chatelaine for her affair, and the mortified Chatelaine wrings her hands as she flees the room. On the short left-hand side of the box, the knight has noticed her absence from the party. Led into an inner chamber by a lady-in-waiting, she finds the Chatelaine dead of shock at his betrayal. He promptly slays himself with his sword. The grisly conclusion of the story occupies the entire front of the box. The duke now enters the room to find two corpses. He pulls the sword out of his dead friend and kills his duplicitous wife with it in front of his horrified guests.
The carver has taken pains to ensure that the dreadful story of forbidden love, vengeful gossip, and its tragic consequences occupies all the surfaces of the current box. Ornamental patterns, when used, largely serve to divide individual scenes into registers, helping the viewer follow the story. This approach to carving could thus be characterized as a form of visual storytelling more than a method of adorning surface. This approach, while typical of Gothic ivory boxes of the fourteenth century, and indeed fourteenth-century courtly ivory carving more broadly, likely draws from new approaches to manuscript painting. The genre of the Bible moralisée, in which a painted vignette accompanied every line in the Vulgate Bible, compelled French manuscript painters to break up narratives into many scenes and invent new ways of organizing the page to make it legible to readers. From manuscript painting, the carver of the current box borrowed the technique of breaking a continuous narrative into multiple scenes circumscribed by framed compartments. With their quatrefoil frames, the scenes on the lid make an especially apt comparison to bibles moralisées, such as an example painted by the Limbourg Brothers and now in the collection of the National Library of France (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. Fr. 166).
The present story appears to have struck a chord with fourteenth century audiences, leading to abundant survivals of ivory boxes adorned with the narrative. In addition to the current box, another in the collection depicts the scene (acc. no. 17.190.163). Ivory boxes with the story are also found in the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas (1966.0005), the British Museum (1892,0801.47), the Louvre (MRR 77), the Museum of Metz, and the Civiche Raccolte d'Arte Applicata in Milan (Avori 34). The composition of the current box’s lid is especially similar to the lid fragment in the collection of the British Museum, but the latter’s far deeper carving suggests it is the work of a different hand, perhaps working from the same model.
Further Reading:
Miss A. Kemp Welch, The La Chatelaine de Vergy, a romance of the 13th century (London: Chatto and Windus, 1907).
Richard H. Randall Jr., "Popular Romances Carved in Ivory." In Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, edited by Peter Barnet (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997), pp. 62-79.
Laila Gross, "'La Chastelaine de Vergi' Carved in Ivory," Viator 10 (1979), pp. 311-321.
Paula Me Carns, "Remembering 'Floire et Blancheflor': Gothic Secular Ivories and the Arts of Memory," Studies in Iconography 32 (2011), pp. 121-154.
Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, Part II (London: V&A Publishing, 2014), pp. 653-706.
Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020-2022.
Inscription: RECIPE ET / RETINE (take and keep)
Rev. Dr. Henry Wellesley, Oxford (until d. 1866); his posthumous sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London (June 25–July 10, 1866, no. 2448, to Bohn); Henry G. Bohn, North End House, Twickenham (1866–75); his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London (June 16, 1875, no. 46); Rev. Walter Sneyd, Keele Hall, Staffordshire (until d. 1888); Keele Hall Heirlooms sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London (July 7, 1902, no. 58); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York
Art Treasures Palace. "Art treasures of the United Kingdom from the Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester," May 5–October 17, 1857.
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. "Memory and The Middle Ages," February 17–May 21, 1995.
Waring, J. B., and J. R. Planché. A Handbook to the Museum of Ornamental Art in the Art Treasures Exhibition. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1857. p. 35.
Robinson, J. C., ed. Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediæval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods, on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862. London: South Kensington Museum, 1862. no. 223, p. 19.
Robinson, J. C., ed. Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediæval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods, on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862. Revised ed. London: South Kensington Museum, 1863. no. 223, p. 19.
Catalogue of the memorable cabinet of drawings by the old masters, and collection of engravings, formed with profound taste and judgment by the late Rev. Dr. Wellesley. London: Sotheby's, Wilkinson & Hodge, June 25–July 10, 1866. no. 2448, p. 161.
Catalogue of the Second Portion of the Celebrated Collection Formed by Henry G. Bohn, Esq.. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, June 16, 1875. no. 46, p. 9.
Catalogue of a Portion of the Keele Hall Heirlooms from Keele Hall, Staffordshire. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, July 7, 1902. no. 58, p. 10.
Dalton, O. M. Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era with Examples of Mohammedan Art and Carvings in Bone in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1909. p. 124.
Loomis, Roger Sherman. "A Medieval Ivory Casket." Art in America 5, no. 1 (December 1916). p. 19.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1309, pp. 509, 512.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1309, p. 463.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1925. pp. 90, 111–12, fig. 62.
Bombe, Walter. "La 'Châtelaine de Vergy' en Italie." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 5th ser., 15, no. 3 (March 1927). p. 186.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. pp. 90, 111–12, fig. 62.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Guide to the Collections: Medieval Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962. fig. 34.
Locey, Michael. "La Chastelaine de Vergi." The Register of the Spencer Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1970). pp. 17–19, fig. L–P.
Gross, Laila. "'La Chastelaine de Vergi' Carved in Ivory." Viator 10 (1979). pp. 311, 312 n. 7, 313.
Randall Jr., Richard H. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993. p. 122.
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. "Reconstructing Arthurian History: Lancelot and the Vulgate Cycle." In Memory and the Middle Ages, edited by Nancy Netzer, and Virginia Reinburg. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. no. 54, pp. 60–61, 65.
Netzer, Nancy, and Virginia Reinburg, ed. Memory and the Middle Ages. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. no. 54, p. 104.
Carns, Paula Mae. "Compilatio in Ivory: The Composite Casket in the Metropolitan Museum." Gesta 45, no. 2 (2005). pp. 80–81, fig. 8.
Carns, Paula Mae. "Cutting a Fine Figure: Costume on French Gothic Ivories." Medieval Clothing and Textiles 5 (2009). pp. 58 n. 9, 77–80, 80 n. 82, 90, fig. 4.9.
Carns, Paula Mae. "Remembering 'Floire et Blancheflor': Gothic Secular Ivories and the Arts of Memory." Studies in Iconography 32 (2011). pp. 139, 144, 153 n. 54, fig. 9.
Ciseri, Ilaria, ed. Gli avori del Museo nazionale del Bargello. Milan: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 2018. p. 288.
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