DOI article:
Musialik, Elżbieta: A 14th-century ivory casket with scenes from medieval romances: the newest addition to the so-called coffrets composites group
Citation link:https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/fha2022/0018
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9. Duel ! Tournament, left side of the casket, Paris (?), 1st quarter of the 14th c. (?). Private collection. Phot. Lyon & Turnbull Edinburgh
a prop ordered for the 1348 Christmas play at Otford in
Kent.32 Probably the most famous of these events, due to
its tragic outcome, was the so-called Bal des Ardents (or
Bal des Sauvages) in 1393 which took place in the Hôtel
Saint-Pol, Charles Vis residence in Paris.33 The rising pop-
ularity of two texts - Roman d’Alexandre (after 1177) and
Marvels of the East (ca. 1000) - could also be responsible
for spreading the wild man theme. The first work recount-
ed Alexander the Greats conquest of the East, and the
second described the many fantastic beasts and species
32 R. Hillis Goldsmith, ‘The Wild Man on the English Stage’, The
Modern Language Review, 53,1958, no. 4, p. 481, see also: R. Lima,
Stages of Evil: Occultism in Western Theater and Drama, Lexing-
ton, 2005, p. 55.
33 The event was described in the fourth book of Froissart’s Chroni-
cles. The King of France, Charles VI, and his companions dressed
up in costumes and masks made of linen and foliage soaked in
resin. The material of their clothing caught fire from a torch. Four
of the courtiers were burnt alive as they were bound to each oth-
er by a rope or a chain. The king survived as he was rescued by
his aunt, Joan, Duchess of Berry. For more, see B. Tuchman,
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, New York, 1978,
pp. 503-505; J.R. Veenstra, Magic and Divination at the Courts of
Burgundy and France. Text and Context of Laurens Pignons ‘Con-
tre les devineurs’ (1411), Leiden-New York-Köln 1998, pp. 89-91.
supposedly living in the East.34 In numerous quests, Al-
exander and his companions encountered some wild men
(homines agrestes), and these episodes were often depicted
in the illuminated copies of the Roman d’Alexandre (e.g.,
in the Bodleian Library in Oxford).35
The juxtaposition of knights and wild men on the
‘Baird casket’ was certainly not accidental. Wild men
were considered lustful and unrestrained, as opposed to
knights who lived by the chivalric code, following the
rules imposed by medieval society. Wild men, though
lustful, could not develop love and adoration towards
women - those emotions were shared exclusively between
a lady and a knight.36 However, in the written and oral tra-
dition, there were some cases of knights and heroes be-
coming wild men due to heartbreak or failed courtship,
e.g., Lancelot and Hercules.37 A wild man, once civilised,
could become a great warrior and a knight, and as Rich-
ard Bernheimer has stated, the lines between wildness
34 R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art,
Sentiment and Demonology, Cambridge, 1952, p. 89.
35 Oxford, The Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 66v.
36 R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages, p. 121 (as in
note 34).
37 D. Yamamoto, The Boundaries of the Human in Middle English
Literature, Oxford, 2000, pp. 189-196; R. Bernheimer, Wild Men
in the Middle Ages, Fig. 27 (as in note 34).
9. Duel ! Tournament, left side of the casket, Paris (?), 1st quarter of the 14th c. (?). Private collection. Phot. Lyon & Turnbull Edinburgh
a prop ordered for the 1348 Christmas play at Otford in
Kent.32 Probably the most famous of these events, due to
its tragic outcome, was the so-called Bal des Ardents (or
Bal des Sauvages) in 1393 which took place in the Hôtel
Saint-Pol, Charles Vis residence in Paris.33 The rising pop-
ularity of two texts - Roman d’Alexandre (after 1177) and
Marvels of the East (ca. 1000) - could also be responsible
for spreading the wild man theme. The first work recount-
ed Alexander the Greats conquest of the East, and the
second described the many fantastic beasts and species
32 R. Hillis Goldsmith, ‘The Wild Man on the English Stage’, The
Modern Language Review, 53,1958, no. 4, p. 481, see also: R. Lima,
Stages of Evil: Occultism in Western Theater and Drama, Lexing-
ton, 2005, p. 55.
33 The event was described in the fourth book of Froissart’s Chroni-
cles. The King of France, Charles VI, and his companions dressed
up in costumes and masks made of linen and foliage soaked in
resin. The material of their clothing caught fire from a torch. Four
of the courtiers were burnt alive as they were bound to each oth-
er by a rope or a chain. The king survived as he was rescued by
his aunt, Joan, Duchess of Berry. For more, see B. Tuchman,
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, New York, 1978,
pp. 503-505; J.R. Veenstra, Magic and Divination at the Courts of
Burgundy and France. Text and Context of Laurens Pignons ‘Con-
tre les devineurs’ (1411), Leiden-New York-Köln 1998, pp. 89-91.
supposedly living in the East.34 In numerous quests, Al-
exander and his companions encountered some wild men
(homines agrestes), and these episodes were often depicted
in the illuminated copies of the Roman d’Alexandre (e.g.,
in the Bodleian Library in Oxford).35
The juxtaposition of knights and wild men on the
‘Baird casket’ was certainly not accidental. Wild men
were considered lustful and unrestrained, as opposed to
knights who lived by the chivalric code, following the
rules imposed by medieval society. Wild men, though
lustful, could not develop love and adoration towards
women - those emotions were shared exclusively between
a lady and a knight.36 However, in the written and oral tra-
dition, there were some cases of knights and heroes be-
coming wild men due to heartbreak or failed courtship,
e.g., Lancelot and Hercules.37 A wild man, once civilised,
could become a great warrior and a knight, and as Rich-
ard Bernheimer has stated, the lines between wildness
34 R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art,
Sentiment and Demonology, Cambridge, 1952, p. 89.
35 Oxford, The Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 66v.
36 R. Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages, p. 121 (as in
note 34).
37 D. Yamamoto, The Boundaries of the Human in Middle English
Literature, Oxford, 2000, pp. 189-196; R. Bernheimer, Wild Men
in the Middle Ages, Fig. 27 (as in note 34).