Leather Casket with Scenes of Courtly Love (c. 1350–1400): Art, History and Details

Leather Casket with Scenes of Courtly Love (c. 1350–1400) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the Middle Ages, small boxes like this were produced for the secular market. Used for storing personal items, the boxes typically consisted of a wood core that might be decoratively painted and gilded or covered with another material, such as ivory or leather. Manufactured in small, highly specialized leather workshops, these richly embellished caskets were valued furnishings in the homes of the aristocratic clientele that commissioned them. On the lid of this box, a couple is shown with banderoles inscribed in Old French with expressions of mutual love. "Hold my heart," requests the lady. "But you already have it," replies the man. On the front of the casket, the man, holding a heart, appears again and states, "Have it once more."

Object facts

• Title: Leather Casket with Scenes of Courtly Love
• Date: c. 1350–1400
• Culture: France, Gothic period, 2nd half of the 14th century
• Type: Leather
• Technique: Leather: embossed, incised; iron mounts; wood core
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.5 x 25.2 x 19 cm (4 1/8 x 9 15/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1999.211

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Rare Chinese Paintings, Baroque Porcelain Plaque and Other New Acquisitions Exhibited with Hanging Scrolls,” December 20, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.