Although the number of Knights and Bishops on the chessboard is the same, more medieval chess pieces in the form of Knights survive. This example, perfectly poised on his fine horse, battles a dragon, a symbol of evil. But for the lack of a halo and a princess in need of rescue standing nearby, he might be mistaken for Saint George, who, according to legend, slayed a dragon.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Knight Chess Piece
Date:ca. 1250
Geography:Made in probably London, England
Culture:British
Medium:Walrus ivory
Dimensions:Overall: 3 1/16 x 2 9/16 x 1 3/8 in. (7.8 x 6.5 x 3.5 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Walrus
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.231
Georges Hoentschel (French)(until 1911; sold to Morgan); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1911–1913); Estate of J. Pierpont Morgan(1913–1917)
Brooklyn Museum. "Chess: East and West, Past and Present," April–October 1968.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Chess: East and West, Past and Present," October 1968–January 1969.
National Gallery of Canada. "Art and the Courts: France and England from 1259 to 1328," April 28–July 2, 1972.
Royal Academy of Arts. "Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400," November 6, 1987–March 6, 1988.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age," March 9–May 11, 1997.
Walters Art Museum. "Images in Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age," June 22–August 31, 1997.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Game of Kings: Medieval Ivory Chessmen from the Isle of Lewis," November 15, 2011–April 22, 2012.
Musée National du Moyen Âge - Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny. "Jeux de la Babylone antique á l'Occident Médiéval," November 28, 2012–March 18, 2013.
New York. Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture. "Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 3, 2013–August 11, 2013.
Musée du Louvre Abu Dhabi. "Furusiyya: The art of chivalry. East-West 12th-15th centuries," February 19, 2020–October 18, 2020.
Pératé, André. Collections Georges Hoentschel: Ivoires, orfèvrerie religieuse, pierres. Vol. 2. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1911. no. 18, fig. XV.
Breck, Joseph, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Brief Guide to the Art of the Renaissance, Medieval and Earlier Periods. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1918. p. 12.
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Carvings in Ivory. London, 1923. p. 66.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1257, p. 470.
Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1257, p. 439.
Goldschmidt, Adolph. Die Elfenbeinskulpturen aus der romanischen Zeit, XI.-XIII. Jahrhundert. Vol. 4. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1926. no. 267, pp. 8, 52, pl. LXXII.
Longhurst, Margaret H. English Ivories. London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926. no. XLVIII, pp. 38–40, 100, pl. 41.
Kohlhaussen, Heinrich. "Gotisches Kunstgewerbe." In Geschichte des Kunstgewerbes aller Zeiten und Völker, edited by Helmuth Theodor Bossert. Vol. 5. Berlin: E. Wasmuth, 1932. p. 478.
McNab Dennis, Jessie, and Charles K. Wilkinson. Chess: East and West, Past and Present. A Selection from the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1968. no. 7.
Nickel, Helmut. "Sir Gawayne and the Three White Knights." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 28, no. 4 (December 1969). pp. 174–75, fig. 1.
Verdier, Philippe, Peter Brieger, and Marie Farquhar Montpetit, ed. Art and the Courts: France and England from 1259-1328. Vol. 2. Ottowa: National Gallery of Canada, 1972. no. 68b, pp. 118–19, pl. 92.
Verdier, Philippe, Peter Brieger, and Marie Farquhar Montpetit, ed. Art and the Courts: France and England from 1259-1328. Vol. 1. Ottowa: National Gallery of Canada, 1972. no. 68b, pp. 151–52.
Binski, Paul, and Jonathan J. G. Alexander, ed. Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1987. no. 147, p. 148.
Barnet, Peter, ed. Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 51, pp. 218–19.
Sears, Elizabeth. "Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris." In Images In Ivory: Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, edited by Peter Barnet. Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997. no. 51, p. 24.
Bardiès-Fronty, Isabelle, and Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi, ed. Art du Jeu, Jeu dans l'Art: De Babylone à l’Occident Médiéval. Paris: Musée National du Moyen Âge - Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny, 2012. no. 120, p.121.
Krohn, Deborah L., Ulrich Leben, and Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide, ed. Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 2013. no. 130, p. 166.
Warren, Jeremy. Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum: Volume 2, Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2014. pp. 549–50, fig. 204.
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