First Published in 2005. In this work, the author considers the principles of Chivalry and describes the Chivalric feeing which has emanated from the Middle Ages, tracing its operations on the mind and actions of mankind. The manners and ideas explained here may appear odd to us now, but they were very real to the Medieval people of the time they represent.
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CHIVALRY, AS REPRESENTED BY ARCHÆOLOGY AND IN PICTORIAL ART.
THE famous romances of the Middle Ages supplied endless subjects for sculptors in ivory as well as for the painter, the illuminator, and the enameller. They may be referred, in general, to four classes, of which the first and the fourth seem to have been the favourite sources from which were taken the decorations of caskets and mirror cases. They were: I. Those relating to Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. 2. Those connected with Charlemagne and his Paladins. 3. The Spanish and Portuguese romances, which chiefly contain the adventures of Amadis and Palmerin. 4. What may be termed classical romances, which represent the heroes of antiquity in the guise of romantic fiction: such, for example, as the romance of Virgil, of Jason, or of Alexander. To these may be added one more, the Romance of the Rose, an allegorical poem, which was probably more widely read than any other of the time. From this, realizing an allegory, came the frequent subject of the Siege of the Castle of Love. Many of the romances were written both in prose and verse; three splendid volumes, French manuscripts of the beginning of the fourteenth century, in the British Museum, contain the Saint Graal and Lancelot du Lac. The histories of Merlin, Perceval, Meliadus, Tristan, and Perceforest were also amongst the most popular.
The Romance of the Rose, written about 1300, was a dull and monotonous poem of, perhaps, ten thousand lines, from which, for nearly three hundred years, its readers, if they looked at it with pious and religious eyes, learnt their maxims of morality, of science, and philosophy.
It was frequently moralized: In France by Clement Marot; and in England (perhaps from the French also), long before, by Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln. These made the Rose to be the Virgin Mary, and the towers and the defences of the castle are the four cardinal virtues, and holy chastity, buxomness, and meekness.
The castle itself is thus described:
‘This is the castel of love and lisse,
Of solace, of socour, of joye, and blisse,
Of hope, of hele, of sikernesse,
And ful of alle swetnesse.’
Among the many fictions which were founded on the traditions of King Arthur, none were more common or better known than those which related the love adventures of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere; and of Tristan and Isoude, the queen of Mark, King of Cornwall. Subjects from both these tales are frequent on ivorv caskets and mirror-cases.
On a mirror-case at South Kensington, No. 1617, scenes from the Romance of Lancelot occur, viz.:
‘A real assault upon a castle. Knights place ladders against the wall; the battlements are defended by the garrison; the attack is made with crossbows and a catapult; and men lie dead upon the ground.
Knights tilting, or a tournament, or ladies and gentlemen riding through woods and preceded by attendants with dogs, are also common subjects.—‘Ivories, Ancient and Mediæval,’ by William Maskell.
COFFRETS.
The subjects of sculpture which decorate these caskets are always drawn from fables or the romances of chivalry.
‘Il est à croire les coffrets dont nous nous occupons étaient destinés à l‘usage des dames, que y renfermaient des bijoux des objets de toilette.’—Jules Labarte, ‘Historical Introduction to a Description of Objets d’Art in the Collection of M. Debruge Dumenil.’
‘1494. Sur le couvercle on a représenté une joûte aux plançons. Deux chevaliers, armés de pied en cap, fondent l’un sur l’autre; ils portent le heaume de forme heraldique, orné de lambrequins, l’armure articulée, l’écu suspendu au col, les longs sollerets à poulaine recourbés vers la terre, et les éperons de grandeur demesurée. Les lances courtoises sont garnies d’une rouelle pour protéger la main. Les chevaux couverts de longs caparaçons flottants, sont défendus par le chanfrein et la barde de crinière.
‘Le costume des tournoyants est celui des chevaliers, à la fin du règne de Louis XI, époque à laquelle il faut reporter la confection de ce coffret.’
‘1516. Autre peigne en ivoire orné de deux bas-reliefs—D’un côté, l’attaque du Château d’Amour, défendu par deux femmes; l’un des assiégeants porte le bassinet conique sans ventail et le haubergeon de mailles reçouvert de la cotte d’armes. De l’autre côté, un jeune homme est aux genoux d’une jeune fille, qui Cupidon vient de frapper d’un trait; cinq personnages se tenant par la main assistent à cette scène, dont le sujet est tiré d’un roman de l’époque. Les femmes portent la longue robe trainante serrée à la taille et les cheveux flottants. Ces costumes sont ceux de la fin du XIIIe siècle; ils se trouvent reproduits dans les miniatures de plusieurs manuscrits des XIIIe et XIVe siècle ou des premières années du XVe.’—‘Objets d’Art’ (Debruge Dumenil), par J. Jules Labarte.
From the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediæval, Renaissance, and more Recent Periods, on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June, 1862. Edited by J. C. Robinson, F.S.A., Superintendent of the Art Collections of the South Kensington Museum (Revised Edition), January, 1863:
CARVINGS IN IVORY.
P. 11.—No. 128. Oblong Casket, carved with subjects from romances; on the top the Siege of the Castle of Love; warriors are attacking it with showers of roses thrown from military machines; on the sides are scenes from the ‘Lai d’Aristote,’ the ‘Fountaine de Jouvence,’ the ‘Lady and the Unicorn,’ ‘Tristan’ and ‘Sir Lancelot.’ The same subjects occur on a smaller casket in the British Museum, published in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. v., p. 266. Fourteenth century. Length,
ins., height,
ins.
No. 220. Oblong Casket, with flat top, on which is represented a tournament; round the sides are scenes from the popular romances of ‘Sir Lancelot,’ ‘Sir Tristan,’ ‘Pyramus and Thisbe,’ and the ‘Lai d’Aristote.’ Early fourteenth century. Lent by Mrs. W. St. John Mildmay.
No. 223. Oblong Casket, the top ornamented with scenes from various romances. Early fourteenth century.
Casket.—German; fourteenth century; original in the Bavarian National Museum, Munich. The front, back, and sides are ornamented with subjects of chivalry; a knight and a lady tilting at each other, the knight in full chain armour, with square ailettes at the shoulders. A knight galloping away from a castle, holding a lady in front of him, his hawk seated on the horse’s head, a knight on horseback, with spear set, chasing a flying horseman, who has discharged an arrow from a bow, etc.
The top of a Gothic Casket (Ravenna Public Museum).—Two knights tilting, ladies sitting at the top of arcades in the background. At the ends two ladies are giving helmets to two knights; trumpeters and ladies are standing on the top of the castle walls.
Coffret octogone en ivoire (Roman de Croisades, fin du XIIIe siècle).—Armed knight fighting with a griffin, etc.—Sommerard’s ‘Arts du Moyen Age.’
MEDIÆVAL IVORY CARVINGS.
Mirror-case of Ivory.—The subject represented is the attack on the Castle of Love, a favourite with the artists of the Middle Ages, but here exhibiting some curious variations from the somewhat conventional form of its usual treatment, insomuch as some of the ladies are represented issuing from the gate of the castle, like knights to a tilting-match, heir weapons being branches of flowers. Three ladies, on the battlement, are casting flowers at a soldier below, who is shooting roses at them from a crossbow. Other ladies on each side are treacherously aiding their knights to scale the walls. The grotesque crokets at the corners have been partially destroyed; the dotted lines exhibit their perfect form. This carving appears from the dress and armour to have been executed about the middle of the fourteenth century.—Bernal Collection.
MIRRORS AND COMBS.
Comb, first half of fifteenth century.—On one side is carved a pair of knights tilting; on the other a knight and lady clothed in the most outrageous fashion of the period.—Bamberg, ‘Collections of the Historical Society.’
No. 228. Circular Mirror-case.—The Betrayal of the Castle of Love. Date, circa 1420. Engraved in ‘Miscellanea Graphica,’ pl. xviii. 2.
No. 138. A lady crowning her lover with a garland, while a groom holds their horses.
No. 141. Another, representing a tournament under the walls of a castle, in which ladies are armed with roses. Fourteenth century.
No. 146. Comb.—Siege of the Castle of Love. Italian work of the fourteenth century.
Top of a Circular Mirror-case.—French. Fourteenth century. Original in the Féjerváry Collection, Mayer Museum, Liverpool. The elopement of Queen Guinever and Sir Lancelot. A number of knights crossing a bridge in front of a castle, from the upper window of which a lady is leaping into the arms of a knight, who stands upright in the pommel of his saddle. Another knight rides off with the damsel, who embraces him tenderly; under the bridge is seen a boat, rowed off by an attendant, containing a pair of lovers, and a second attendant, playing on a lyre. Two other females gaze on the group from the windows of a round tower. The knights are in chain armour, with sleeveless surcoats, some having the simple coif de mailles, Whilst others wear the closed bascinet. Three of them have heater-shields, and it may be remarked that the knight standing on his saddle has a pryck-spur on each heel.
Couverture de Miroir métallique du XIII. Siècle.—Siège du Château d’Amour. At the bottom, two knights, armed and on horseback, fighting with swords, etc.—Sommerard’s ‘Arts du Moyen Age.’
167. Mirror-case.—A lady crowning her lover. Fourteenth century.
Cover of a Mirror-case.—French. Fourteenth century. Original in South Kensington Museum. Four knights on horseback, armed cap-à-pie, with closed vizors, combatting with swords in front of a castle, on the battlements of which are three ladies, who are pelting them and their horses with roses, which are seen lying on the shields and other parts of the design. Four dragons at the corners of the circular rim.
Circular Cover of a Mirror-case.—Late fourteenth century. Original in the collection of M. Carrand, Lyons. A number of knights on horseback, with trees in the background; some preparing for the tournament, whilst others, in the background, are engaged in the melée. To the right an unarmed attendant stands on his horse’s saddle, putting on the helmet of a knight already on horseback, whilst another attendant, to the left, fastens a ribbon on the shield of another knight. The helmet of one knight is surmounted with a crane’s head and neck, another with the mast and flag of a ship, another with a bull’s head and neck, and another with a rose-bush. Four large Gothic leaves at the outer angles.
Top of a Circular Mirror-case.—French. Fourteenth century. Original in the Kunst Kammer, Berlin. Two knights on horseback, armed cap-à-pie, tilting; two attendants behind them sounding their trumpets. Above, seated in a balcony, are two pairs of lovers and an attendant holding a hawk on his wrist.
Top and Bottom of a very fine Mirror-case.—French. Fifteenth century. Original in the collection of A. Fountaine, Esq. Top: A tournament between two knights on horse-back, armed cap-à-pie, the horses covered with long cloths, marked with the designs, formed of oblique or angulated bars, also seen on the shields of the knights, on the bannerets of the trumpeters, and the hangings of the balcony. Above are two trumpeters blowing very long horns. Seated above, at a draped balcony, are five personages nobly dressed, one of the ladies holding her lap-dog on the top of the balcony; another lady is receiving a flower from a gentleman. Bottom: From beneath the gateway of a castle, flanked by circular towers and conical turrets, a lady and her attendants mounted on horseback (evidently not seated sideways), advance to meet a knight returning victorious from the tournament, who holds out his right hand to receive a flower offered by the lady. His shield is emblazoned with three roses. The scene is witnessed from the battlements by three ladies, whilst two others, at the sides of the towers, assist two knights in mounting to the top, one by holding the end of a rope ladder, whilst the other scrambles up from the top of a tree. Below, to the left, another knight discharges a crossbow loaded with flowers at the ladies above, etc.
