Betrothal Casket

c. 1390-1410
The Embriachi Workshop, which relocated from Florence to Venice in 1395, produced large numbers of these betrothal caskets. High cost items due to the value of the ivory and the craftsmanship, the bride who received such a luxurious betrothal gift likely came from an elite background.
Art Institute of Chicago

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: The scenes depicted on the casket derive from popular romances, such as The Golden Eagle. These romances feature chivalric stories in which a male hero comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress. These cultural tropes would provide entertainment for the bride but also reinforce the agency of the men in her life.

Community Social Norms: Various boxes as gifts for a bride responded to the practical necessities involved in her moving from her birth family’s house to the household of her husband. That, as well as the great many gifts she would receive on the occasion of her marriage, would require new containers. Community social norms encouraged a view of the bride becoming absorbed into the groom’s family.

Church and State: The casket’s lid features two shields that could have been painted with heraldic symbols of the bride’s and groom’s families. Heraldry, and specifically the authorization of a family’s blazon, derived from the power of the State.

What is Love: The chivalric romance narrative depicted on the panels of this casket recall the most common tropes of love stories in literary representations. The particular scenes on this casket offer a more eclectic set of images, including a stag hunt. If the groom gave this casket to the bride, then one could imagine it as a token of affection. However, nothing about this object necessarily implies a love-match.