Wedding Casket

c. 1435-1470
This small box, likely presented to the bride on her wedding day, depicts a late medieval interpretation of dance in the Muslim tradition.
Louvre

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: Courtly love plays a large role in the representations on this casket. The addition of culturally Muslim features, such as costume and dance style, add to the intended ornamentation of the box. As scholars such as Olivia Remie Cosntable have shown, the late fifteenth century saw a fashion trend for ‘Moorish’ cultural representations, especially in dress and performances.¹ Expensive gifts like this box would likely reflect the wealth and status of the bride and groom. The prominence of falconry on the box includes a woman’s participation in the hunt.

Community Social Norms: This object operates within a larger social context of brides moving into the groom’s household following the marriage. Gifts such as chests and caskets reinforced the notion that the bride would soon set up her chambers, requiring storage space and displays.

Church and State: Courtly love and the carnivalesque receive the most focus on this object. The power of the Church and State feel remote. A jester on one of the panels provides a reminder of court life within the context of royal splendor.

What is Love: The object page on the website of the Louvre cites the analysis of the scholar, Paula Nuttall, regarding the symbolic meanings of the images on this casket.² Nuttall argues that the box represented the games of love and operated at the level of symbolism for the culture of courtship. As part of that argument, Nuttall points out that the chess board on the bottom of the box was too small for actual gameplay.