Bone caskets, used by the Byzantines in their homes, were often decorated with themes from classical antiquity. In the Middle Ages many such caskets reached western Europe, where despite their non-Christian decoration they were used in churches as containers for relics.
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Title:Casket with Warriors and Mythological Figures
Date:10th–11th century
Geography:Made in Constantinople
Culture:Byzantine
Medium:Bone plaques and ornamental strips over wood; silver lock plate
Dimensions:Overall: 4 5/8 x 17 1/4 x 7 1/8in. (11.7 x 43.8 x 18.1cm)
Classification:Bone
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.237
[ Georges B. Brauer, Paris (sold to Morgan)]; J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Glory of Byzantium," March 11–July 6, 1997.
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Weerth, Ernst Aus'm. Kunstdenkmäler des christlichen Mittelalters in den Rheinlanden: Part I, Bildnerei. Vol. plates. Leipzig: Max Cohen & Sohn, 1868. pl. VI, fig. 8, 8a–c.
Westwood, J. O., ed. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum, with an Account of the Continental Collection of Classical and Medieval Ivories. London: South Kensington Museum, 1876. p. 444.
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Otte, Heinrich. Handbuch der kirchlichen Kunst-Archäologie des Deutschen Mittelalters, edited by Ernst Wernicke. Vol. 1. 5th ed. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1883. pp. 192, 196–97.
Clemen, Paul. Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Kleve. Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, Vol. 1, pt. 4. Düsseldorf: L. Schwann, 1892. pp. 130–31, fig. 78.
Clemen, Paul. Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Moers. Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, Vol. 1, pt. 3. Düsseldorf: L. Schwann, 1892. p. 131.
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Graeven, Hans. "Antike Vorlagen byzantinischer Elfenbeinreliefs." Jahrbuch der königlich preussischen Kunstsammlungen 18 (1900). p. 11 n. 1.
Stephani, Karl Gustav. Der älteste deutsche Wohnbau und seine Einrichtung. Vol. 2. Leipzig: Baumgärtner's Buchhandlung, 1903. pp. 364–65, fig. 182.
Schumacher, Karl. Verzeichnis der abgüsse und wichtigeren Photographien mit Germanen-darstellungen. Mainz, 1910. no. 49, p. 59.
Weerth, Ernst Aus'm. Fundgruben der Kunst und Ikonographie in den Elfenbein-Arbeiten des christlichen Altertums und Mittelalters in 35 Tafeln, edited by Fritz Witte. Bonn: Peter Hanstein Verlag, 1912. p. 1, pl. IX.
Volbach, Wolfgang Fritz. Elfenbeinartbeiten der spätantike und des frühen Mittelalters. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Vol. 7. Mainz: Leonie von Wilckens, 1916. no. 86, pp. 70–71, pl. 8.
Nye, Phila Calder. "The Oblong Caskets of the Byzantine Period." American Journal of Archaeology 23, no. 4 (October–December 1919). pp. 402, 404–5, fig. 1.
Breck, Joseph. "Pre-Gothic Ivories in the Pierpont Morgan Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 15, no. 1 (January 1920). p. 14.
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Goldschmidt, Adolph, and Kurt Weitzmann. Die Byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X.-XIII. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1930. no. 12a–e, pp. 11, 13–14, 17–18, 27–28, fig. 12a–e, pl. VI.
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Weitzmann, Kurt. Greek Mythology in Byzantine Art. 1st ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951. pp. 155, 180–82, figs. 170, 236, 242–44.
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Cutler, Anthony. "On Byzantine Boxes." The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 42/43 (1984–85). pp. 37–39, 41–42, 46, fig. 6–8, 16.
Weitzmann, Kurt. Greek Mythology in Byzantine Art. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. pp. 156, 180–82, figs. 170, 236, 242–44.
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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. 37–39, fig. 6–8, [reprint of Cutler 1984–85].
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Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. Ivoires Médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2003. pp. 123–24.
Maguire, Henry. "Other Icons: The Classical Nude in Byzantine Bone and Ivory Carvings." The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 62 (2004). pp. 15, 18, fig. 8.
Evans, Helen C. "Digenis Akritis and a Middle Byzantine Rosette Casket in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Spätantike und Byzantinische Elfenbeinbildwerke Im Diskurs, edited by Gudrun Bühl, Anthony Cutler, and Arne Effenberger. Spätantike – Frühes Christentum – Byzanz. Reihe B: Studien und Perspektiven, Vol. 24. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2008. pp. 97–107, fig. 1–6.
Williamson, Paul. Medieval Ivory Carvings: Early Christian to Romanesque. London: V & A Publications, 2010. p. 87.
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