Fragments of a Box representing the Quest for the Golden Fleece

This small panel is composed of two long bones of a cow or horse arranged vertically in a modern frame of painted wood. The bones are convex in section and have been carved with scenes in two planes: a foreground with narrative imagery and a background of rugged hills sprinkled with trees. The panel on the left bears a scene of a dragon and a ram, while the right depicts three knights and a dismounted horse. The two are different colors, the one on the left having significantly darkened over time. The two panels also show significant cracks and missing chips, especially to the ground line of the base.

The two panels were not joined in the present combination in their original design, but they were both on a box representing Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. A general interest in classical literature and a pride of place in the dynastic myth of the wealthy and powerful Dukes of Burgundy generated widespread interest in the story of the Golden Fleece in the early years of the fifteenth century. Responding to this popularity, the workshop of Baldassare degli Embriachi and his northern Italian rivals produced numerous rectangular and octagonal boxes whose carved bone veneers represent the story. The left panel of the current composition, with the dragon and the ram, repeats the standard formula for representing the Fleece and its dragon guardian on boxes of this type, (see Victoria and Albert Museum inv. nos. 4304:1-1857; A.18-1952; 3265-1856; 3265-1856; National Archaeological Museum, Madrid, inv. no. 52207; Sotheby’s London, "European Sculpture and Decorative Arts" 12/05/2007, lot 14). The scene on the left represents Jason’s battle with the Spartoi, the warriors raised from dragon’s teeth. Surviving boxes representing the quest for the Golden Fleece are both rectangular and octagonal, but the battle of the Spartoi is only encountered on the short sides of rectangular boxes (Victoria and Albert inv. no. 3265-1856, Sotheby’s London, "European Sculpture and Decorative Arts" 12/05/2007, lot 14). This narrative quirk suggests that the original box from which these fragments derive was rectangular. Fragments of a monumental Embriachi casket in the collection of The Met (acc. no. 17.190.490a, b), now reassembled into a cabinet frontal, also represent the story of Jason. The only fragments to survive in the composition on the cabinet represent Jason’s attack on the dragon and the yoking of the fire-breathing cattle.





Richard H. Randall Jr., The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993), p. 236.

Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550, Part 2 (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014), pp. 751-861.




Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

Mr. and Mrs. Maxime Levy Hermanos, New York; by descent, Robert L. Hermanos and Miriam H. Knapp, New York (until 1993)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Mirror of the Medieval World," March 9–June 1, 1999.

Wixom, William D. "Curatorial Reports and Departmental Accessions." Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 124 (Jul. 1, 1993–Jun. 30, 1994). p. 39.

Wixom, William D., ed. Mirror of the Medieval World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 212, p. 175.