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Artwork Details
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Title:Circular Box with a Hunting Scene
Date:16th century or earlier
Culture:Italian (?)
Medium:Elephant ivory
Dimensions:Overall: 2 5/8 x 4 3/4 in. (6.7 x 12.1 cm)
Classification:Ivories-Elephant
Credit Line:Bequest of George Blumenthal, 1941
Accession Number:41.190.253
Encircling the lower part of this ivory container, entwined flora and fauna convey the thrill of the "hunt à force." Practiced by noble hunters and their servants throughout medieval Europe, the hunt à force was the highly-ritualized pursuit of a stag or boar that required skill, strategy, and the added strength (la force) of hounds. But no human agents appear on this container. Instead, hunting dogs and their passive prey inhabit repeating units of leafy vines known as rinceaux. Carved in high relief, the leaves cast deep shadows over the composition. Breaking through the vine frame in several instances, the dogs’ directed, intentional actions seem almost human. The dogs turn their noses to the ground and dart behind the foliage in determined pursuit of their prey, often standing passively in clear view within a vine scroll. The scene culminates in capture, with one hound sinking its teeth into the shoulder of a boar as its hind quarters are nipped from behind.
While the carving suggests an awareness of shared courtly values in Europe, it is also important to remember the ivory from which the pyx is fashioned would have been sourced from an African or Asian elephant using entirely different hunting strategies. Though rarely produced during the Middle Ages, ivory circular boxes survive in roughly forty examples from late antiquity and are usually carved with Christian or mythological iconography. Although we may never know what this container once held, its dynamic imagery and materiality reinforced the privileges and pastimes of the European elite for whom it was made.
In its original state, a lid made from ivory or metal would have fit snuggly over the recessed lip of this container. A metal collar probably fit the wide, recessed band near the top. The square and triangular recesses on opposite sides of the container indicate the shape of lost metal plates for hinges or clasps. Holes in the ivory show how these fittings were pinned in place at the corners.
Further Reading:
Susan Crane, "The Noble Hunt as a Ritual Practice," in Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain, Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), pp. 101–19.
Susan Crane, "Ritual Aspects of the Hunt à Force," in Engaging with Nature: Essays on the Natural World in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Barbara Hanawalt and Lisa J. Kiser (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008), pp. 63–84.
Catalogue Entry by Nicole D. Pulichene, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial and Research Collections Specialist, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, 2020–2022
George and Florence Blumenthal, Paris and New York (until 1941)
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