Mirror Cover with a Couple Playing Chess

Description This ivory mirror back shows a couple playing chess, a game symbolic of a young man's battle to win his lady's heart. The scene is surrounded by a ten-lobed frame adorned with masks and four crouched dragons fill the four corners.

Exhibitions

• Medieval Games of Love and War. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1995-1996.
• Checkmate! Medieval People at Play. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2010.

Provenance Freiherr von Wambolt, Aschaffenburg, 1847; Jakob von Hefner-Alteneck, Munich; Jakob von Hefner-Alteneck Sale, Munich, June 6-7, 1904, no. 308; Léon Gruel, Paris; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1925, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1925