Mirror Case with amorous scenes

This circular mirror case once formed one half of a case for a mirror of metal or mercury-lined glass. The exterior has been carved into a figural scene representing two pairs of lovers. To the left, a man wears a tight, button-up jerkin called a pourpoint and a wide belt slung at the hip, a fashion that was at the height of its popularity in the final decade of the fourteenth century. He gestures towards a woman in a flowing dress, or kirtle, with draping sleeves; her hair is woven into two braids and bound at the temple. The woman to the right is similarly dressed but wears a cap with a long, pendulous length of cloth called a liripipe. A man in a flowing robe called a houppelande offers her his heart, which she appears to accept in her outstretched left hand. The trees, stony ground line, and the castle at right suggest an outdoor scene.

The figural scene is surrounded by a quatrefoil with leafy cusps. The spandrels of the frame are beveled into a trefoil. By contrast to the highly adorned exterior, the interior is largely occupied by a smooth recession that once contained the mirror. The rim around this interior contains one half of a bayonet mount. The notch on the top of the rim allowed a matching tab on a matching case to slide in and twist into place, forming a complete protective case for the mirror. The empty recess at the back of the mirror contains one sticker and the remnants of a second. The case is currently a warm caramel brown and has suffered significant mechanical damage. The ivory has cracked in several places, either from dehydration or impact to a hard surface. The ivory has flecked away completely in two areas. Observation of the interior demonstrates that both of these areas of loss occurred on thinly-cut areas immediately beneath the rim, suggesting that the carver cut away too much material when making the bayonet mount.

This mirror case demonstrates the wide dissemination of Parisian fashions across Europe in the later part of the fourteenth century. Many characteristics of this mirror case – its shape, dimensions, mechanical functionality, architectural ornament, and erotic iconography, harken to Parisian mirrors of the first half of the fourteenth century. The blocky figures with vertically pleated clothes, the use of the miniature castle as a framing device, the pinecone-shaped tree, and the unadorned circularity of the silhouette, however, place the current mirror case far from Paris. Instead, it was likely made in the north of Italy, perhaps Lombardy or Milan. Comparable examples may be found in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. A.108-1920); the Walters Museum in Baltimore (inv. no. 71.269), and the British Museum (inv. nos. 1885,0804.6; 1856,0623.106.) A similar carving style may be seen on contemporary combs made in northern Italy, an affinity governed by the custom of selling mirrors and combs in matching box sets. See especially examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. nos. 227-1867; 5607-1859; 229-1867; 151-1879) the British Museum (inv. no. 1894,0518.30), and the Walters Museum (inv. no. 71.78).

In the later fourteenth century, Northern Italian carvers and merchants ventured into the market for luxury articles in bone and ivory, a specialty previously characteristic of artistic centers north of the Alps. Italian carvers could call upon ample sources of ivory. The merchant marine of city states like Genoa, Pisa, and Venice controlled the sea routes that funneled ivory into northern Europe, while other city states like Milan lay close to overland routes. Italian workshops, especially those of the Embriachi family, also raised the humble craft of bone carving into tour-de-force works of bas relief. The carver has arranged the clothing on the current mirror case in a series of vertical pleats, a feature also characteristic of the work of the Embriachi workshop. This shared idiom suggests that the Embriachi called upon a preexisting group of ivory carvers when they established their bone carving workshop in the years around 1370 to 1380.

Further Reading:

Richard H. Randall, Jr. et al, Masterpieces of Ivory from the Walters Art Gallery (New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1985), pp. 178-190; 232-233.


Paul Williamson and Glyn Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings: 1200-1550, Part 2 (London: Victoria and Albert Museum Press, 2014), pp. 561-606.





Catalogue Entry by Scott Miller, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022

J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (until 1917)

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume I, Text. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1112, p. 441.

Koechlin, Raymond. Les Ivoires Gothiques Français: Volume II, Catalogue. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard, 1924. no. 1112, pp. 401–2.

Randall Jr., Richard H. The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Carvings in North American Collections. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993. p. 139.

Williamson, Paul, and Glyn Davies. Medieval Ivory Carvings, 1200–1550. Vol. 2. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014. p. 602.