Gothic Ivories Project | Casket with arches (coffret; frise d'arcatures); known as Casket of Saint Ursula (End, right)

Lid
Courting couples (meeting of lovers); youth on horseback chucking his lover under the chin. Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet; tree. Couple holding hands; lady holding a flower. Courting couple.
Rounded trefoils.
Body, front
Courting couple (meeting of lovers); lady rejecting the advances of a youth. Standing couple holding the lock; seated monkey eating a fruit; dog. Youth chucking his lover under the chin; lady holding a dog; trees.
End, right
Courting couple lying in the branches of a tree; youth chucking his lover under the chin; youth with a hawk on his wrist; lady holding a dog; dog pursuing a hare.
Body, back
Lady crowning her kneeling lover with a chaplet. Couple holding hands; lady holding a dog. Winged God of Love in a tree throwing arrows at lovers. Youth chucking his lover under the chin; couple holding a belt and a purse (possibly gift of a belt and a purse); tree.
End, left
Couple playing chess; lady holding two chess pieces in her left hand; youth holding one chess piece in his right hand; trees.
Figures wearing chaplets pierced with small holes.

Koechlin 1924: France, 1st half of the 14th century.
Gaborit-Chopin 1978: Cologne (?), early 14th century.
Detroit 1997: German (Cologne), 14th century.
Czymmek 20080: France (?), 1st half of the 14th century.

Attribution
Master of the Cologne Casket of saint Ursula, also known as Atelier aux bandeaux gemmés (Gaborit-Chopin 1978)

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Comments
In all pieces attributed to this atelier, figures wear chaplets pierced with small holes, where gems must have been originally inserted.

Bibliography
Illustrierte Geschichte des Kunstgewerbes (Berlin, s.d.), I, p. 357.
F. Bock, Das Heilige Koeln (Leipzig, 1858), pp. 7ff, no. 27; French transl. Les Trésors sacrés de Cologne (Paris, 1862), no. 27.
E. Förster, Monuments d'architecture, de sculpture et de peinture de l'Allemagne [...] depuis l'établissement du christianisme jusqu'aux temps modernes (Paris, 1859-1867), II, p. 54.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 34, 366, 388, 474, 479-482, 484; II, p. 443, no. 1266; III, pl. CCXV and CCXVI.
L. Grodecki, Ivoires français (Paris, 1947), p. 104.
D. Gaborit-Chopin, Ivoires du Moyen Age (Freiburg, 1978), no. and fig. 239, 240.
Images in Ivory. Precious Objects of the Gothic Age, ed. by Peter Barnet, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery, 1997, p. 84, fig. VI-7.
S. Czymmek, Colonia Romanica. Jahrbuch des Fördervereins Romanische Kirchen Köln (Die Kölner Romanischen Kirchen Schatzkunst, vol. II), XXIII (2008), p. 271.
P. M. Carns, 'Floire et Blancheflor: Gothic Secular Ivories and the Arts of Memory', in Studies in Iconography, 32 (2011), pp. 121-154, n. 6.
P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings 1200-1550 (London, 2014), in relation to no. 201.

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