Mirror Case with the Castle of Love

Description Within a frame of eight lobes, two couples appear below the Castle of Love, from which the god of Love, winged and crowned, throws arrows down upon them. The youth on the left is crowned by his lady while the right-hand pair embrace. Kneeling figures are shown on the battlements on either side of the god of Love. The men wear capes and hoods over the cotehardies; the cotehardies of the women have liripipes at the elbows. The circular format is brought to a square with triangles of leaves at the corners, incised with veins. The carving is very rough in quality.

Exhibitions

• Medieval Games of Love and War. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1995-1996.
• Romance of the Rose: Visions of Love in Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2009.

Provenance Viollet-le-Duc (?) [a text glued to the reverse records an 1858 description of the object by Viollet-le-Duc]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1926, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1926