Gothic Ivories Project | Panels (fragments of a casket) with quatrefoils (coffret; quatre-feuilles) (Front, back panel)

Height: 83 mm (front, back and side panels)
Width: 191 mm (lid)
Depth: 6 mm (thickness of each panel)

Lid
Tristan and Iseult conversing; Iseult holding a dog; king Mark in the tree; fountain reflecting king Mark's face. King Mark discovers Tristan and Iseult asleep in the forest, fully clothed and with a sword between them to guarantee their chastity; king Mark holding a pair of gloves.
Body, front
Tristan offers the cup with the magic potion to Iseult during the journey from Ireland to Wales; Iseult holding a dog; boat; lady holding a cask; man holding a cup and the oar. Tristan carrying Iseult to disembark. Tristan and Iseult arrive at the court of king Mark; king Mark welcomes his bride.
End, right
King Mark lying in bed with Brangene whom Iseult has substituted; embracing couple; Tristan and Iseult leave the room.
Body, back
Tristan and Iseult lying naked in bed; curtains. Iseult carried across the waters of the Mal Pas by Tristan disguised as a pilgrim. Iseult kneeling before a bishop and swearing that no man has ever held her in his arms apart from he who carried her and her husband the king.
End, left
Hawking party; Iseult and youth on horseback; youth with hawk on his wrist; Iseult gives a dole to Tristan, disguised as a pilgrim with satchel, staff and begging bowl.

Koechlin 1924: France, mid 14th century or 19th century.
Falke 1928: France, mid 14th century and c. 1875 (lid only).
Kryzhanovskaya 2014: France, 1st half of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Carved on all sides. Back of each side panel flat and smooth, with three edges chamfered with crosshatching (all but the top edge). Back of the lid flat and smooth.

Object Condition
Missing: lower left corner of the front panel and back panel. Several cracks. Holes for the missing fittings.
Neat oblong piece cut out in the lid.
According to Falke, the original lid is missing and a new lid was commissioned by Spitzer between 1871 and 1878 (see provenance). Kryzhanovskaya has rejected this interpretation.

Comments
The narrative starts on the front of the casket and ends on the lid.

Provenance
In the collection of Francis Douce, Goodrich Court, Hereford (4 side panels, no lid) before 1831; collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick, Worcester (4 side panels, no lid) before 1871 in England; collection of Frédéric Spitzer, Paris. Castellani collection (in 1878, with lid; does not appear in the catalogue of his sale). Collection of Alexander Petrovich Basilewski (b. 1829, d. 1899), Paris; acquired by the Museum in 1885.

Bibliography
F. Michel, Tristan (Paris, 1835-1839), pl. LXXII.
S. R. Meyrick, 'The Doucean Museum', in Gentlemen's Magazine (April 1836), no. 8, p. 382.
W. Maskell, Ivories Ancient and Mediaeval in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1872), appendix, no. 21, p. 180.
A. Darcel, A. P. Basilewski, Collection Basilewski. Catalogue raisonné (Paris, 1874), no. 641.
J. O. Westwood, Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), p. 100.
A. Darcel, 'Le Moyen Âge et la Renaissance au Trocadéro', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1878), II, p. 290.
N. Kondakov, Imperatorskii Ermitazh. Ukazatel' otdeleniia srednikh vekov i epokhi vozrozhdeniia [Guide to the Department of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance of the Imperial Hermitage] (Saint Petersburg, 1891), no. 78, p. 158.
R. S. Loomis, 'The Tristan and Perceval Caskets', in Romanic Review, VIII, no. 2 (1917), figs. 1-5, p. 196.
R. S. Loomis, 'Notes on the Tristan of Thomas', in Modern Language Review, XIV, no. 1311, p. 10.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 283, 497, 518; II, no. 1311, III, pl. CCXXIV, CCXXV.
O. von Falke, Das Tristankästchen der Eremitage, in Pantheon (February 1928), pp. 75-80, figs. 1-5.
R. Loomis, Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art (New York, 1933), pp. 55-56.
Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Kratkii spravochnik s planom i 19 tablitsami (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1934), I, p. 96.
Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Obshchii putevoditel' (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1940), 2nd ed., p. 91.
E. A. Lapkovskaia, Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Prikladnoe iskusstvo Zapadnoi Evropy V-XV vv. (State Hermitage Museum. Applied Arts of Western Europe from the 5th to the 15th century) (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1956), p. 29.
O. Beigbeder, 'Les héros romanesques des ivoires médiévaux français', in Connaissance des Arts 84 (February 1959), p. 30.
E. von Philippowich, Elfenbein (Braunschweig, 1962), p. 326.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Puteshestvie v proshloe po zalam Ermitazha. Iskusstvo zapadnogo srednevekov'ia [Journey into the Past in the Hermitage Rooms. Medieval Art in Western Europe] (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1963), pp. 65-66.
V. Darkevich, Proizvedeniia zapadnogo khudozhestvennogo remesla v Vostochnoi Evrope (Moscow, 1966),p. 160.
D. Fouquet, 'Das Elfenbeinkästchen der Sammlung Monheim, Aachen', in Aachener Kunstblätter 40 (1971), pp. 23-24.
L. I. Faenson, M. Y. Kryzhanovskaya, E. A. Lapkovskaya, Zapadnoevropeiskaia reznaia kost' IX-XIX vekov iz sobraniia Ermitazha: katalog vystavki, exhibition catalogue, Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], The State Hermitage Museum, 1973, no. 15.
N. Biriukova, Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. Zapadnoevropeiskoe prikladnoe iskusstvo XII-XVIII vekov (Leningrad [Saint Petersburg], 1974), no. 26, p. 160.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, 'Kostianoi larets XIV veka i rodstvennye emu pamiatniki v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha', in Kul'tura i iskusstvo zapadnoevropeiskogo srednevekov'ia: materialy nauchnoi konferentsii (Moscow, 1981), pp. 277-288.
E. Nekrasova, Proizvedeniia frantsuzskoi reznoi kosti XIV veka kak pamiatniki srednevekovoi kurtuaznoi kul'tury, PhD thesis (Academy of Arts, Saint Petersburg, 2002), pp. 50-56.
M. Kryzhanovskaya, Western European Medieval Ivories. Catalogue of the Collection (Зaпaднoeврoпeйскaя рeзнaя кoстъ Срeдних вeкoв. Кataлoг кoллeкции), (Saint Peterburg, 2014), no. 100.

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