"If perchance you wish to exempt certain pagans from punishment, my Christ,/ May you spare for my sake Plato and Plutarch,/ For both were very close to your laws in both teaching and way of life./ Even if they were unaware that you as God reign over all,/ In this matter only your charity is needed,/ Through which you are willing to save all me while asking nothing in return." —John Mauropous (ca. 1000–1081)
Classical literature and classical images were preserved throughout the Byzantine period. The erotes who dance and wage mock battles on the sides of this casket and tame a female panther on the lid recall imagery associated with the ancient pagan cult of the god Dionysos.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Casket with Warriors and Dancers
Date:11th century
Geography:Made in Constantinople
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Ivory and bone; gilded copper mounts
Dimensions:8 x 11 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (20.3 x 28.9 x 19.1 cm)
Classifications:Ivories, Bone
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.239
Georges Hoentschel (French)(sold 1911); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1911–until 1917)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 12–May 10, 1970.
Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University. "Survival of the Gods: Classical Mythology in Medieval Art," February 28–March 29, 1987.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Glory of Byzantium," March 11–July 6, 1997.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Africa & Byzantium," November 13, 2023–March 3, 2024.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Africa & Byzantium," April 14–July 21, 2024.
Nye, Phila Calder. "The Oblong Caskets of the Byzantine Period." American Journal of Archaeology 23, no. 4 (October–December 1919). pp. 404, 407–8, fig. 6.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1925. p. 22, fig. 23, ill. p. 46.
Harrington, John Walker. "Antique Caskets and Coffers." International Studio 86 (April 1927). p. 43, ill.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. p. 22, fig. 23, ill. p. 46.
Goldschmidt, Adolph, and Kurt Weitzmann. Die Byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X.-XIII. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1930. no. 49a–e, pp. 17, 42, fig. 49a–e, pl. XXIX–XXX.
Wagner de Kertesz, Margarita. Historia Universal de las Joyas. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Centurion, 1947. p. 254.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Guide to the Collections: Medieval Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962. fig. 14.
Hoffmann, Konrad, ed. The Year 1200: A Centennial Exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1970. no. 77, pp. 69–70.
Cutler, Anthony. "On Byzantine Boxes." The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 42/43 (1984–85). pp. 41, 44–46, fig. 17, 21.
Herman, Kerry B. "Exemplum Virtutis: The Noble Heroes and Heroines of the Middle Ages." In Survival of the Gods: Classical Mythology in Medieval Art. Providence, R.I.: Brown University, 1987. pp. 21–22, fig. 15.
Connor, Carolyn L. "New Perspectives on Byzantine Ivories." Gesta 30, no. 2 (1991). pp. 102–03, fig. 5.
Evans, Helen C., and William D. Wixom, ed. The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997. no. 156, pp. 44, 233, 256, 443.
Connor, Carolyn L. The Color of Ivory: Polychromy on Byzantine Ivories. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998. p. 84.
Cutler, Anthony. "On Byzantine Boxes." In Late Antique and Byzantine Ivory Carving. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. pp. 41, 45, fig. 17, 21, [reprint of Cutler 1984–85].
Hanson, John. "The Stuttgart Casket and the Permeability of the Byzantine Artistic Tradition." Gesta 37, no. 1 (1998). pp. 13, 16, fig. 7.
Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcomb, and Robert Hallman. "The Arts of Byzantium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 58, no. 4 (Spring 2001). p. 53.
Papanikola-Bakirtzi, Demetra, ed. Everyday Life in Byzantium. Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Directorate of Byzantine and Post Byzantine Monuments, 2002. no. 628, pp. 459–60.
Stein, Wendy A. How to Read Medieval Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. no. 34, pp. 16, 120–21.
Ciseri, Ilaria, ed. Gli avori del Museo nazionale del Bargello. Milan: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 2018. p. 80.
Achi, Andrea. Africa and Byzantium. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023. fig. 81, pp. 122–123.
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