Casket with Images of Cupids

Description This finely carved ivory casket is decorated with curly-haired "erotes" (cupids) in the guise of warriors, dancers, and musicians. The lid shows two in equestrian combat while the trapezoidal panel in front shows a group of four "erotes" and a centaur dancing and playing musical instruments. The rectangular plaque on the casket's front features an "eros" playing a harp on a stand, a chariot drawn by panthers, and two other "erotes" playing musical instruments.

Exhibitions

• Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1947.
• Ivory: The Sumptuous Art. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1983-1984.
• The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland 1800-1934. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984.

Provenance Bought in Italy; Edward Joseph, London, ca. 1888, by purchase; Sale, Christie's, London, May 6, 1890, no. 1003 and February 1894, no. 357; Isaac Falcke, London, 1894, by purchase; Sale, Christie's, London, April 19, 1910, no. 166; Jacques Seligmann, Paris, 1910, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1910, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1910