Inv. 130 C
Attack on the Castle of Love; knights in armour; knights on horseback; crossbows; spears; drawbridge and portcullis; lady on the battlements; wild men defending the castle; trees.
Masks in the spandrels. Foliated corner terminals.
Koechlin 1924: France, 2nd half of 14th century (?).
Chiesi 2011: France, last quarter of the 14th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Reverse
Back turned with a depression for (missing) mirror.
Ink inscription: '61' or '6j'.
Object Condition
Vertical cracks. Fragile background with small parts missing.
Six holes along the edges.
Comments
This piece seems to form a pair with Inv. 131 C, also in the Bargello collection, though it is uncertain how they were articulated together, as the back of both pieces is unlike that of most mirror cases.
Provenance
Collection of Prince Petr Soltykoff (b. c. 1801, d. 1889): sold, Paris, Drouot, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24, 29 April and 1 May 1861, lot 353; purchased by Evans (according to the annotated sale catalogue kept at the BnF, accessible on Gallica). Carrand collection: bequeathed by Louis Carrand (d. 1888) to the Museo del Bargello in 1888.
Bibliography
I. B. Supino, Catalogo del Regio Museo Nazionale di Firenze (Florence, 1898), no. 130, p. 239.
E. Gerspach, 'La Collection Carrand au musée national de Florence', in Les Arts, 32 (August 1904), p. 26, fig. 92.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 394, 410, 443, 506; II, no. 1064; III, pl. CLXXXII.
L. G. Boccia, 'Costumi guerreschi negli avori Carrand', in Antichità Viva, II (1963), p. 45, ill. 11.
L. Vitali, Avori gotici francesi (Milan, 1976), no. 44.
R. H. Randall, 'Medieval Ivories in the Romance tradition', in Gesta, 28 (1989), pp. 30-40 (p. 33).
B. Chiesi, Catalogo degli avori gotici del Museo Nazionale del Bargello (unpublished PhD thesis - Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2011), pp. 417-422.
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