Box with the Parable Prodigal Son and Scenes of Lovers

The methods of construction for this small box are typical for Gothic ivory boxes made in northern France in the first third of the fourteenth century. The edges of the four side panels are beveled into rabbet joints. Low relief decoration occupies the sunken fields on the faces of each plaque and raised, smooth bars capped fleurs de lys divide it into bands of narrative scenes. Bands of silver or copper alloy once covered these bands, forming a rigid armature that held it together, lending it an original appearance similar to another example in The Met’s collection (acc. no. 17.190.180). The greenish discoloring to the lower left of the front panel suggest that these overlay armatures may have been copper alloy. The lines of holes in these areas attest to the pins that fixed these metal elements to the ivory. Further remnants of former hardware include the raised, smooth rectangle bordered with fleurs de lys on the box’s front panel, the remains of a former lockplate. When complete, the raised ivory area was sandwiched between a metal sheet with a keyhole on the exterior and the lock mechanism on the interior. On the top, the two raised circles once supported the box’s handle. Besides minor shrinkage cracks, all the panels are in excellent condition.

The carving on the four sides represents the parable of the Prodigal Son from the biblical book of Luke. On the front panel, the son receives his inheritance from his parents on bended knee and rides off with a hawk in hand to enjoy the pleasures of the world. His journey continues along the side panel to the right. On the back panel, the prodigal son enjoys a luxurious meal in the company of two women and a pair of servants, and he is seen having sex with one of the women in the scene on the proper right. On the left side panel, his courtship and carousing come to an abrupt end. On the left, he shares a tent-covered bathtub with a woman while playing chess and, having lost his fortune through gambling, the woman drives him out of the house with a baking peel.

Missing from the story is the reconciliation of the Prodigal Son with his parents. Instead, the current lid represents four pairs of lovers under crocketed gothic gables. This composition, a type that the early specialist Raymond Koechlin called the "arcades decorative schema," (à décor d’arcades) does not match the sides. Given its incongruous iconography and composition, the top’s association with the rest of the panels is of unclear origin and date. The arcades suggest it may be an element of another box added to this one at a later date. That said, the elongated proportions, drapery folds composed of three converging gouges in the ivory, and the upturned hairnet or crispin worn by the ladies closely matches the hairstyles on the sides. These motifs suggest that a later restorer may have joined elements deriving from the same workshop, or that the carving on the lid was made or altered in order to match the base.


The biblical parable recounted in the iconography of the current box is unusual for ivory boxes of early fourteenth-century northern France. More common for Gothic boxes are stories of of popular romance such as The Chatelaine of Vergy, Phyllis and Aristotle, Pyramus and Thisbe, Tristan and Isolde, and the Knights of the Round Table. That said, the current box shares many thematic elements with the iconography of more familiar gothic boxes. Like courtly romance, the Parable of the Prodigal Son considers the ethics of a life devoted to pleasure and asks readers and listeners to beware of the dangers that those choices present while calling attention to the power of love to overthrow reason to tragic ends even as it offers the opportunity for moral growth.

Further Reading:

C. Jean Campbell, "Courting, Harlotry and the Art of Gothic Ivory Carving," Gesta 34, no. 1 (1995), pp. 11-19.

Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200-1550, Part II (London: Victoria & Albert Publishing, 2014), pp. 653-706.

Henrike Manuwald, "Carving the Folie Tristan: Ivory Caskets as Material Evidence of Textual History," in Medieval Romance and Material Culture, edited by Nicholas Perkins (Rochester: D. S. Brewer, 2015), pp. 215-232.


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

George and Florence Blumenthal, Paris and New York (from at least 1926–1941)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition," February 17–March 24, 1940.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces from the George Blumenthal Collection," December 8, 1943–?

The Katonah Gallery. "Medieval Images: a glimpse into the symbolism and reality of the Middle ages," May 12–May 21, 1978.

Reno. Sierra Nevada Museum of Art. "Culture of the Middle Ages: a festival of the medieval arts," December 8–31, 1978.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art. "Songs of Glory: Medieval Art from 900–1500," January 22–April 29, 1985.

State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," June–December 1989.

Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. "The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn," September 9-November 21, 1989.

State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," February–July 1990.

Katonah Museum of Art. "Love and Courtship in the Middle Ages," October 2, 2005–January 1, 2006.

New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis," November 15, 2011–April 22, 2012.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Metropolitan Vanities: The History of the Dressing Table," December 17, 2013–April 13, 2014.

Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of the Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, New York: Volume 3, Works of Art, Mediaeval and Renaissance. Paris: A. Lévy, 1926. pl. VI–VII.

Arts of the Middle Ages: A Loan Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1940. no. 138, p. 45.

Verdier, Philippe. "The Tapestry of the Prodigal Son." The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 18 (1955). p. 53 n. 59.

Gómez-Moreno, Carmen, ed. Medieval Images: A Glimpse into the Symbolism and Reality of the Middle Ages. Katonah: Katonah Museum of Art, 1978. no. 16, pp. 7, 18–19.

Boardman, Phillip C., Marcia Cohn Growdon, and Francis X. Hartigan, ed. Culture of the Middle Ages: A Festival of the Medieval Arts. . Reno, Nev.: Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, 1978. no. 21.

Songs of Glory: Medieval Art from 900 to 1500. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Museum of Art, 1985. no. 79, pp. 229–31.

St. Clair, Archer, and Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, ed. The Carver's Art: Medieval Sculpture in Ivory, Bone, and Horn. New Brunswick, N.J.: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 1989. no. 23, p. 59.

Pushkin Museum and State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki: Kratkii Katalog Vystavki. Moscow: Pushkin Museum, 1990. no. 45, p. 12.

State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum, 1990. no. 45, pp. 96–97.

Campbell, C. Jean. "Courting, Harlotry and the Art of Gothic Ivory Carving." Gesta 34, no. 1 (1995). pp. 11–19, fig. 1–4.

Constable, Olivia Remie. "Chess and Courtly Culture in Medieval Castile: The 'Libro de ajedrez' of Alfonso X, el Sabio." Speculum 82, no. 2 (April 2007). p. 329 n. 77.

Campbell, C. Jean. The Commonwealth of Nature: Art and Poetic Community in the Age of Dante. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. p. 113, fig. 51.

Manuwald, Henrike. "Carving the Folie Tristan: Ivory Caskets as Material Evidence of Textual History." In Medieval Romance and Material Culture, edited by Nicholas Perkins. Studies in Medieval Romance. Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 2015. p. 222 n. 35.