The inside of this coffret's lid depicts Frau Minne, the German goddess of love, aiming and arrow at a young man. At right, he gives her his heart. The inscriptions have been interpreted as: "Gracious lady, I have surrendered," and "Lady send me solace, my heart has been wounded." The coffret embodies the notions of courtly love, a concept that developed during the feudal period and imagined romance as playful warfare between the suitor and beloved. The arms on the box may be those of the Berstett family of Alsace, Baden, and Austria.
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Exterior
Artwork Details
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Title:Coffret (Minnekästchen)
Date:ca. 1325–50
Geography:Made in Upper Rhineland, Germany
Culture:German
Medium:Oak, inlay, and tempera; wrought-iron mounts
Dimensions:Overall: 4 3/4 x 10 3/4 x 6 1/2in. (12.1 x 27.3 x 16.5cm)
Classification:Woodwork-Furniture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund and The Cloisters Collection, by exchange, 1950
Accession Number:50.141
Inscription: Inside cover, around figures in left archway: Genad Frou ich hed mich ergeban (trans.: Gracious lady, I would have surrendered)
Around figures in right archway: Sent m-r(?) Frou Min Drtv Min Herz Ist W[u]nt (trans.: Send me, Lady, my solace and (?) my heart is sore)
Lorenz Gedon, Munich ; his sale, J. M. Heberle, Cologne (June 17–21, 1884, no. 1088, to Figdor) ; Dr. Albert Figdor, Vienna (until d. 1927) ; his posthumous sale, Paul Cassirer at Hotel Esplanade, Berlin (Sept. 29-30, 1930, vol. 5, n. 305) ; Oscar Bondy, Vienna (1930–collection confiscated by Nazi officials in 1938) ; restituted to his widow, Elisabeth Bondy, New York (by 1950) ; [ Blumka Gallery, New York (sold 1950)]
Osterreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie. "Mittelalterliches Holzmobiliar," 1984.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 18, 1970–March 29, 1970.
Chicago. Art Institute of Chicago. "The Middle Ages: Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 16, 1970–July 5, 1970.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages," March 28–June 15, 1975.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffin Collection," May 1–October 18, 2015.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters. "The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy," July 22, 2019–January 12, 2020.
Falke, Jakob von, ed. Mittelalterliches Holzmobiliar. Vienna: Osterreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie, 1894. no. 132, p. 10, pl. XXVII, no. 1.
Kohlhaussen, Heinrich. "Rheinische Minnekästchen des Mittelalters." Jahrbuch der Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 46 (1925). pp. 227 n. 3, 247, fig. 27.
Falke, Otto von, and Max J. Friedländer, ed. Die Sammlung Dr. Albert Figdor, Wien. Vol. 5. Berlin: Paul Cassirer Verlag, 1930. no. 305, pl. CXX.
Rosenberg, Jakob. "Die Berliner Versteigerung Figdor." Kunst und Künstler 29, no. 2 (1931). p. 87.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eighty-First Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1950." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 10, no. 1 (Summer 1951). p. 26.
Ostoia, Vera K. The Middle Ages: Treasures from the Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969. no. 51, pp. 114–5, 256.
Husband, Timothy B., and Jane Hayward, ed. The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. no. 8, p. 25.
Himmelheber, Georg. "Mittelalterliche Holzmosaikarbeiten." Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 36 (1994). no. 17, pp. 66, 79, 90, fig. 17.
Galán y Galindo, Ángel. "Las arquetas de 'trovadores'." Boletín del Museo Arqueológico Nacional 27–28 (2009–10). p. 36, fig. 2, ill. interior detail (fig. misidentified as detail of coffret in Regensburg).
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 98.
Boehm, Barbara Drake. The Colmar Treasure: A Medieval Jewish Legacy. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019. no. 28, pp. 30, 75, 77, fig. 31, pl. 28.
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